Braden
Warm. I feel so warm.
This must be a dream.
I don't want to wake up on that cold, rocky ground again, to feel the rogue's bite re-opening wound after wound. Right now, it doesn't seem to hurt as much.
Even in this dream, my eyes feel heavy and I can't see anything. There's the sound of voices far away, too hushed to hear them, but they don't cause me any alarm, they're seem comfortingly familiar.
Soft fabric brushes against me, tugging at and irritating the healing wounds. Ah! I can't even dream that I'm healed.
"-ke up. Braden. Braden, can you wake up?" The voice makes me want to respond, to acknowledge. The Beta? Why am I dreaming about Beta Reed?
Using a lot of force, my eyes open slowly. This is a weird dream. I'm in a big car, maybe an SUV, laying down in the back, the seat beneath me gently rumbles with steady motion. Sunlight filters in from outside through the heavily tinted windows.
So weird.
I'm still in my wolf form, spread out along the seat with my head raised up on something firm. Shifting a little bit, the heavy blanket wrapped tightly around me tugs and pulls at the puckered, semi-healed bite marks, as well as the dried, blood-matted fur. Pain glances through me, a whimper escaping through my dry muzzle.
"You're up?" The Beta's hand enters my view, gently brushing my nose affectionately. I realize that the surface my head is raised up on is the Beta's lap, as he's also crammed in the back seat with me.
I lift my head up only to weakly slump back down. My entire body feels equally weak. Beta Reed leans over me, allowing me to meet his eyes better. "It's okay. We're almost to the Luna's clinic. He'll treat you there until you're well enough to shift back."
Wait, isn't this a dream?
Groggily, my mind flickers over what I can remember. The scenes of the ambush in the woods flash through my mind, crystal clear up to the end, where I lost to the rogues. After that, I'm less sure. I'm not sure how long I was kept by the rogues, nor how I could have been saved.
I remember calling out for help, to my pack, uselessly. Was I really saved?
Oh, no! What if I'm dead? I'll never see Jae again!
"Hey, hey! It's okay, hush little omega. Shhhhh." The gentle weight of the Beta's hand brushes the dirtied fur of my face. Shrill whines continue to leave my throat unbidden.
Jae! I want Jae! I don't want to be dead!
"What dead? Braden, you're not dead." I ignore the Dream Beta, I'm dead, I know it.
Jaaeeee!
"Jeez, hush, you'll see him in a few seconds. Stop wailing at me and just call to him." Is there a Dream Jae, too? I take a few huffing breaths, trying to calm down.
J-Jae?
BRADEN! You're awake! Jae's beautiful voice reverberates through my mind, soothing me instantly. Tears choke me up, I want to keep hearing his voice.
Jae! I want to see you!
I'm waiting for you, Braden.
"We're here," Beta Reed interjects, "just hold on a moment, he'll get you out."
The movement of the SUV comes to a stop. Almost immediately, the door nearest me is ripped open. Bright sunlight floods in, along with the sweet and unmistakable fragrance of our pack's lands. Then, easily trumped by my mate's glorious aroma.
"Braden! Braden!"
It's official, I am dead, because this is heaven to have Jae here with me, crouching into the vehicle and wrapping his arms around me. I don't have the strength to throw myself at him and can only chuff happily as his long arms wrap around me, tenderly pulling me up off the seat and outside.
The movement makes my head spin, so I close my eyes and simply enjoy being cradled against Jae's chest. His face is buried just above the edge of the blankets, against my throat. I want to protest, that I'm too filthy, but I can't bring myself to tell him away.
Jae. I blissfully sigh.
Voices buzz around me but I tune them out, listening only to the sound of my mate's heartbeat. Jae carrying me is making my hollow stomach protest a little and the bright sunlight against my closed eyelids changes to the dimmer lights of the clinic. The scents of animal dander and disinfectant invade my nose.
The feel of the cold, stainless steel examination table never comes. I remain safely encased in Jae's arms, even as other hands pull aside the blanket and start to feel along my wounded body. Tentatively, I open my eyes, my mate's beautiful face the first thing that I see.
I can't pull my eyes away and am only briefly aware that the Luna, assisted by Dr. Crane, are cleaning my some of the still unhealed parts of my body and checking for anything that would be too broken to heal correctly. Jae's eyes won't meet mine though, I watch as they scan my body, looking over everywhere that the doctors treat.
A tear rapidly swells and falls along his cheek, quickly followed by another and another. Taken aback, I watch as they rain unchecked down his face. A new pain hits my chest, it isn't right for him to cry.
Shakily, I manage to scoot my head closer up his shoulder and weakly lap a few of the drops from his skin. This is my dream, you shouldn't be crying.
A noise escapes Jae at my words, but I can't tell if it's a sob or laughter. It doesn't matter because then he's looking at me and I don't care about anything else. Even if this isn't real, I could drown in those depths.
"It's not a dream, Braden. You're home."
Don't cry then.
"I won't then, I won't cry anymore." Keeping me close with one arm, Jae uses the back of his other hand to wipe off the remaining tears.
Good. You can't cry in my dreams, I recite again. Letting out a sigh, I let my head fully relax once again against Jae. Unwillingly, my eyes start to drift close and the fuzziness of sleep starts to fall over me again. Only be happy.
I just want you to be happy.
A/N: Hello, hello. So, I started my new job and have been working a lot and I am going to apologize for how long this update took. Thanks for staying with me. This one took really long, because I wasn't sure the best way to bring Braden home, so I landed on Braden thinking he was dead/dreaming. I thought about having it from Jae's perspective, but that was a little boring. I'm saving his POV for next chapter (most likely Mature Content Warning).
I think I will bring this to a close soon (chapter-wise and not necessarily time-wise). Probably about seven more chapters or so. Then I will focus on A Vet for the Alpha, with slow updates for a while.
