Untamable Resolve: The Witheridge Witches

Ch. 9 - Restraints

Author's note: this chapter needs serious work. Bear with me. Currently, I am editing the first 20 chapters but holy shit this chapter has issues.

Groggily, as I began to regain consciousness, I grimace. I shift slightly due to an intense stinging sensation I feel from the tug of a needle, probably attached to the IV on the top of my hand. Lying on the hard plastic mattress, nothing about my body feels right. My arms radiate heat through the confines of their tightly wound bandages. The ice cut deeply into my arms, and I can feel the metallic thread from the stitches underneath a layer of gauze embedded in my flesh.

I'm tired. It's the kind of tired I can only compare to what I experienced as a child after coming down with a bad case of the flu. Despite all this, I clamp my eyes shut and refuse to open them again, praying for sleep to retake me, when I hear some commotion coming from directly outside the room that alarms me.

My heart races as the sound of a door creaking open, followed by two sets of feet walking in, reaches my ears. One, who I assume is a nurse, takes my vitals as I keep my eyes shut to try to avoid my reality. The other remains silent. I hear the nurse type into a computer, documenting her findings.

"Will that be all, Beta Lucas?" she asks.

There is no verbal response. I groan as I try to turn over to my side but find I am restrained to the hospital bed. Instantly, anger permeates throughout me. Everything that has occurred in the last few days comes rushing back.

I go from groggy to wide awake in milliseconds and quickly attempt to sit up in the bed, pulling on the restraints. My eyes land on my captor. He has dark features just like all of them, as he towers over most of the room. He runs a hand through the curls of his brown hair as he looks at me. He approaches me like one approaches a feral animal, painfully slow, making sure not to spook me any more than he already has.

"Stop," I demand.

However, he ignores me as he continues and pulls a chair close to the side of my bed before sitting down in it. We sit in silence for a long while. All that can be heard are my pants, until my anger and panic begin to simmer down. I quickly glance up and catch his eye.

"I am very upset at you," he says.

I go to speak when he puts a hand up to stop me.

"Why? Why would you risk drowning to get away from me? You could have died."

The anger simmering in me bubbles up once again as I spit out, "That's a stupid fucking question."

I see a flicker of compassion on his face before it's replaced with a hardened glare. He flexes his jawline. After processing what has just been said, he reaches for my knee, squeezing it, before exhaling, deeply determined.

"I'm sorry you were scared, but you need to understand, I'd never hurt you. When werewolves first meet their mates, everything is heightened, and we are more wolf than human. We're in this together now. You can't run from this. I won't lose you." Leaning back in his chair with a proud look on his face, he says, "I will say, you sure did get my Alpha's attention. You're a natural leader and you're brave."

I stare back at him with disdain and then look away, choosing to stare at the pivoting fan in the corner of the room instead. I'm acting childish, and he knows it. But honestly, what did he expect? He starts talking some more, but I decide to escape into my thoughts trying to block him out.

"Come on. Stop being like that." He growls as he stands up, leaning over the bed. My eyes widen at seeing his pitch-black ones. "After all you put me through, I cannot stand to have you look at me like that, and now you're ignoring me? I'm not myself. The animal inside me is itching to mark you right here and now where you sit. I only have so much self-control."

"You'd never hurt me, huh?" Internally, I wonder what he means by that. 

"Putting you girls in the arena was necessary for the survival of all werewolves in the long term. We lost so many of our own during the War, and our numbers have been dwindling, especially after we lost 10,000 while taking New York. It may not have been executed in the way I would have liked, but we needed to try something."

A brave part of me spits back at him, "Well, I find it disgusting. None of us agreed to this. Am I supposed to just open my legs now? It's never going to happen."

Suddenly, the beast jumps up out of the chair and hovers over me with his teeth bared. I pull on my restraints, trying to pull away from him, when one of his hands firmly grabs my neck, bringing me closer to him. He lowers his head and puts it into the crook of my neck, deeply inhaling. I try to squirm away, but I can't move out of his iron hold when, like the animal he is, he begins licking me before abruptly pushing himself away. Breathing heavily, I can see the turmoil happening in his head. He glances at me for another moment.

"I'm sorry. I need to calm down. I'll see you later when I'm more in control.," he says before leaving the room without saying anything.

I am seriously in trouble.