New Blood

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BLUE

Jake was acting strangely around me for two weeks after the pervious memory came back. Currently, I was using him as my pillow while we watched a movie. He was in his wolf form. I ran my fingers through the soft fur on his sides. I thought about Rex and Adam, the hardships they had gone through. Rex had been on a date with Alex a town over when a group of people had come up and jumped them, beating them until they were both unconscious, simply because they were gay. These weren’t people either of them knew. They hadn’t done anything to provoke the attack. Rex and Adam were currently under the care of the pack doctor, both in awful condition.

Jake yelped. I realized I had twisted his fur between my fingers and clenched my fist, bruising his side.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered, avoiding his eyes. He shifted and held me to his chest. The tears flowed. I didn’t want this, I didn’t chose to have amnesia, or to be an orphan, or any of it. I pushed Jake away and ran through the house until I reached the steps to the basement. I took them two at a time and ran through the corridors until, out of breath, I reached Rex and Adam’s room. Panting, I opened the door and glanced up. Jake had followed me to the room. He lowered his gaze and sat down against the wall on the other side of the hall. I walked into the room alone. Rex had a black eye and a broken nose. His lip and forehead were gashed open. He had handprint bruises on his neck, and his right arm was in a sling, his left wrist in a cast. I saw the bulge in the blanket where the full leg cast started on his leg. Adam looked worse. He had protected my brother, or tried to at least. His entire face was bruised. One eye was swollen shut. His chest was bandaged, and both legs were broken along with four ribs and his right arm. He broke the left side of his collarbone. All of the people who had jumped the pair were wolves, and had used wolfs bane to prevent either of them healing quickly. They now had to suffer through healing as a human would, for at least two months. Both were asleep at the moment. I slipped out of the room and closed the door lightly behind me. With my hand still on the doorknob, I bowed my head. Jake came up and wrapped his arms around me. I let myself fall into his embrace. My head rested against his collarbone as my fingers slipped off the doorknob, my arm coming to rest at me side. I sniffled. And then the tears flowed like water.

Jake picked me up and carried me upstairs. He let me down on the bed and climbed up next to me. I went limp, falling against his side, still crying. I could remember a few things now, like why my name was Blue, and that I had fallen in love with someone, but I still couldn’t remember who. I felt like I had to start over my life, without my memories.

Jake had told me about the mate bond before. It finally clicked, the sparks and warmth I had felt between us. Jake was my mate. I snuggled closer to his side, and pushing away the feeling that something was off and that I was using him, I let him hold me and rock me to sleep, whispering sweet nothings into my ear.

ALEX

The four off white walls were becoming my personal hell.

Even though I was now able to get up and move around on my own, I was still hooked up to various machines, one of which kept an antidote running through my body. Every day, I wondered if I would ever recover, if a life was really worth living connected to machinery to keep me alive, and every day I would remind myself of Blue, of the possibility that she won’t miscarry, of the chance I have at living with the love of my life. For now, though, it seemed unreasonable and unattainable. Blue was halfway across the world.

The other half of me was halfway across the world.

SNOW

I stared blankly out at the barren, Russian landscape from the safety of the hospital cafeteria. The wind shifted and blew snow across the deep valley that the hospital rested in, built into the side of the mountains. I mindlessly played with the stirring rod of my hot chocolate, deep in thought. I hated feeling Alex in such a deep depression. He had done everything these past few weeks with very little emotion, only perking up for a second when someone mentioned Blue, but then his smile would slip and his eyes would lose focus once again. It was like he had given up on himself.