An Alpha's Duty

Chapter 9

"Will she be alright?" Ryan paced the floor behind the seer never taking his eyes off the woman laid out on the settee. He watched the seer cut through the blue blouse that clung to the woman like a second skin. It was now stained red with her blood with claw marks slashed through it.

Once the lower part of the blouse was removed it became clear where the source of the blood was coming from. Along her stomach and back were large puncture wounds where the wolf's teeth had torn through her flesh. Across her right arm were deep gouges from where she'd tried to protect herself whilst tackling the wolf off Ryan.

She looked so small just lying there, her hair fanned out around her and her chest gently rising and falling. Ryan found himself grateful every time he saw her take a breath. Although convinced she was not human, he didn't know how well she would recover from such an injury.

"My bag, Ryan." The seer's short clipped sentences betrayed how worried she was about Lenah as she started cleaning out the wound with a towel.

Ryan ordered another wolf to fetch the bag. There was no way he was leaving his mate even for a few seconds.

He watched as the Elaina meticulously dapped at the wounds. Careful not to make them any more angry than they already were.

Once the wounds were cleaned along her stomach and arm they realised they would have to turn her so that they could reach the wounds on her back. The seer backed away as Ryan gently turned his mate on her uninjured side and placed cushions around her so she'd be comfortable in that position.

"I'll have to remove the shirt completely now, are you going to be okay with that?" The seer looked into his face as he straightened up. Somehow he had a suspicion that the seer already knew just what Lenah meant to him.

He was ashamed to admit it but he didn't like the idea of her shirt being removed, especially with other wolves in the room.

"Your wolves must be needed elsewhere, we won't need protecting with you here. If you need to relocate them somewhere else I understand." He smiled gratefully towards the seer whilst her bag was passed to her. She'd given him a very effective way to dispense with all the other wolves in the room.

"I appreciate that seer." Turning to his men he sent them to check in with various other people leaving just the three of them in the room together.

She began pulling a number of bottles and bandages from her bag. Using an empty bowl, she started mixing together different ingredients.

Ryan had no idea how she knew which ones to put in. There were too many unlabeled bottles for him to understand. Coupled with the fact that they all looked the same and Ryan knew he was already lost. He was surprised how many things the small bag seemed to hold.

"Do you need me to do anything?" He felt the need to offer himself. He wanted to help heal his mate, he just didn't know how.

The seer smiled at him with genuine warmth as he crouched down beside her.

"I'd like that Ryan. You can also call me Elaina, all this seer business does my head in truthfully." She continued to mix everything together whilst he knelt down next to the settee with her.

From this angle he could really see the damage the wolf had inflicted on his mate. The wounds were deep and angry and as a biology student, he was worried about infection more than anything else.

"Now I need you to cut up this bandage into small strips about so big." Elaina indicated how long she needed the strips before pouring in a few tablespoons of yellow powder to the mixture in the bowl.

Ryan busied himself with precisely cutting the bandages to exactly the right length. He knew it was the biologist in him that had to make them so perfect. It was also a way to take his mind off the guilt he felt. His mate had been hurt because he hadn't been paying enough attention. He felt the shame burn through him and his wolf whine in agitation.