Soul Bound

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Trees. Lots of trees. I think they're the first things I ever saw. Actually, I'm sure of it. The woods. I feel like I was born of the woods. Not just in them.

When I was little Finn would say that all things natural and wild in the world were pulled into one seed, which sprouted from the ground with a little girl wrapped inside, and that little girl was me. 

I dream of those trees sometimes. I'm dreaming of them now. Ignoring the dull pain that wants me to wake up.

The tint of green is bright and vivid. It must be summer. A soft breeze cools my wet body. I remember. I'm not alone. The trees are there with me. And someone else.

There's a scream, the faces of a woman, a man, the silhouette of another baby.

It startles me awake and I grasp my head. Then the dull pain from before doubles in my knee and side.

I'm in Finn's office, in the Bank, lying on the brown sofa. The concrete ceiling twists and pulsates as the veins behind my temples throb.

We're alive, I say to Wolf, searching for her presence.

But she's silent. She should be fine. She heals when she's back inside me. I start to panic. Why is she so quiet?

Where are you? I ask into the darkness of my mind.

There's no answer.

Wolf, where are you? Are you okay? A sense of dread fills my stomach. She made it right? We switched before she was hurt too bad didn't we?

My fingers twist in the blanket that covers me.

Wolf, please. Are you okay?

...Okay, she finally answers.

I release the breath I'd been holding and with it come tears upon tears. 

No cry.

Screw you, "no cry!" I thought I lost you. Damn right I'm gonna cry, you ass.

"Steady, love," a voice says from the corner of the room.

Of course I didn't smell him.

"Finn," I whisper. My chin quivers as he rises from the chair in the corner. If I weren't already crying, I would be now.

"Quite the scare you gave us, love," Finn says, sitting next to me. Cringing with pain, I move myself into his arms and he holds my head against his cold chest. "You've been taking a long time to heal. Almost considered taking ya to the hospital. That was a first. And what the bloody hell would they do with you?" He laughs.

He rubs my back, encouraging me to get it all out. The tears fall in streams, big blobs landing on his shirt.

"Ten minutes later, Falon... What would we have found on that beach? And even now, you're not healing like you should be. You've never taken this long to heal. If your wounds don't change, I might have to contact—"

This is so unlike him, blabbering on like this, a worried mother hen. I look up at his face and he averts his eyes, staring up at the ceiling.

"Christ, what a bloody mess," he whispers.

I try to sit up, to comfort him, but gasp in pain. His eyes snap back to me.

"Your new friend was a pain in the arse," he says, distracting himself. "A right beast, that one. I haven't seen a werewolf in a long damn time. Usually keep to themselves. Especially don't go trespassing on our territory."