Packless Monsters

Chapter 14

You jolted awake at the sound of your extra loud alarm. You had set it to the loudest possible annoying noise you could find for the morning after the full moon. You tended to oversleep from passing out after the full moon. Unfortunately, you had a test in your 9am class or you'd just skip today. Sure you would. You were on a scholarship, you wouldn't skip unless you absolutely had to. Instead, you slapped the alarm to make it shut up and growled about the whole hour of sleep you'd gotten that night. It wasn't nearly enough sleep.

It took a moment to remember last night and briefly wondered how you'd gotten to your bed in your room. The last you remembered, Loki was carrying you through the woods. The woods were quite far away from your bed. Granted, it was a safe assumption that he'd carried you to bed too.

The alarm sounded again and you snarled at it. You'd set quite a few alarms for this morning to make sure you didn't miss the test. If you didn't hurry, though, you weren't going to get breakfast and that wasn't acceptable. So you detangled yourself from the blankets and blushed when you sat up and realized that you were still wearing Loki's cape as your only article of 'clothing'. You knew that between it and the blankets, you had remained perfectly covered. Loki wouldn't have allowed anything else. He was too much of a gentleman.

So you swung your legs out of the bed and stood to go find some real clothes quickly, your mind more focused on finding breakfast than anything else. You hadn't eaten enough over the last two days and needed to make up for it now that the full moon was over. So you ended up cursing very loudly and creatively when you took a step and your ankle buckled and threatened to dump you on your face instead of holding your weight. You clutched onto the nightstand to keep your balance until you could convince your stupid ankle that it was going to hold your weight.

You cursed again, but with a little work and care, you managed to get the ankle to support you. You also noticed it had been expertly wrapped and bandaged. You smiled at the thoughtfulness of whoever had done it, again most likely Loki. You dressed quickly in jeans, a t-shirt, and a too-big hoodie. You had to swap your normal gym shoes for combat boots. For now, though, you carried the combat boots with you. You hated wearing shoes inside unless you absolutely had to. At least the combat boots were tall enough to offer some extra support to the injured ankle. You'd still be limping all day.

You left your room, glad Cap couldn't hear you curse, and made your way toward the elevator, your school bag on one shoulder and combat boots in hand. A door opened down the hall and you turned to see who else could possibly be awake after only an hour of sleep. Unsurprisingly, it was Loki. You waited for him to catch up with you. It only took a moment for him to rush over. "Why are you out of bed?" he demanded, looking like he was going to throw you over his shoulder and carry you back to bed if he didn't get a good enough explanation.

"I have class and work. I can't miss another day of work and I have a test today, so I really can't miss class," you reminded him. He didn't look appeased. "I have responsibilities and a life outside of the Avengers," you reminded him. "I can't just skip out on those responsibilities,"

"You're injured," he protested softly. He looked upset, bruised by your injuries.

You nodded, softening and trying to be patient with him, though you didn't have time this morning. "I am, but I will heal. Yes, I'll limp today and curse Jareth's name for being an abusive asshole, but I won't risk my scholarship or my job just because of a little pain. I'm a werewolf, I can handle a little pain. I need to be able to be self-sufficient, so the pack can't try to force me to come home as easily. I need a degree and a job for that," you reminded him as the last emergency alarm went off on your phone. You dug the annoying thing out of your pocket and shut off the alarm, while you sighed over your dwindling time for breakfast.