Warriors

Chapter Eighteen: Fear

I can't see or move, but I can hear voices again. One voice. Fergus' beautiful voice.

"Wake up, Mal. Please... wake up. Why won't she wake up?"

"She lost a lot of blood. I didn't have time to map out a plan, I had to get it closed, and I didn't have any fucking time. She would have died in your arms before I got here if she had been human. I don't understand how she didn't."

"Will she wake up?"

"I don't know. I've been working on wolves for quite some time and have never seen anyone with a wound like that still be alive five minutes later."

"Get up, you son of a bitch!"

"Can we move her now?"

"Yeah, there's nothing else I can do. From this point on, it's up to her body to decide if the damage is repairable."

"Grimes, give me a hand. Be fucking gentle."

Didn't I order him to leave? I feel two sets of hands lift and carry me for a bit before slowly setting me on a couch. I hear Reid yell again, then a slap and a thud.

"Why did you slap him?"

"Why does it matter? If she dies, I'll do more than fucking slap him."

"He isn't responding. The lights are on, but no one's home. I slapped him to try to snap him out of it."

"He tried to rape her and almost killed her. She might still die! He can go fuck himself!"

"Enough! If you wolves could stop trying to one-up one another for one second and handle things like civilized people, this wouldn't happen! I am tired of war after war; every time I manage to patch one of you up, someone else is starting a fight! I'm done performing autopsies on the kids I delivered, and I am not doing it on Mallory, God damn it!"

"With all due respect, we're wolves. We're bred for war."

"Shut the fuck up."

The door opens, and I hear Drev's voice.

"Woah, what happened?"

"What the fuck took you so long? You live two houses down!"

"I was in the shower! What's wrong with Mal and Onyx?"

"He snapped and nearly killed her."

"There's no way he did that. That's a throat shot; he was going for the kill."

Fergus gently strokes my cheek and speaks with regret.

"He was fighting me. I jumped out of the way. I didn't know she was there, or I wouldn't have moved."

I try to talk, but I can't even get my eyes to open. I feel like I'm locked in my own body. In a last-ditch effort, I think of him as hard as I can.

"What?"

"No one said anything."

"Someone said my name."

"No one talked."

I try again, but this time I think what I used to think all those years ago.

"Mallory?"

"What is it?"

"She's talking to me the way she used to. She's still here. She's still with me."

I hear a few footsteps and then Drev and Grimes.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Me either."

"You can focus on a single person. You guys have been in a pack for how long?"