Helenium

9. Max

When I open the door to the store, I find the lights still off and Snow standing in the center of the store with his back to me. The heavy scent of blood and apple both of which are coming from my mate, drift in the air before drifting through the open door. 'Perhaps I should invest in a large supply of bubble wrap.' A growl rumbles up my throat, as he makes no move to turn around or move at all.

I walk inside, letting the door close behind me. As I move closer I can see him tightening his hold on his wrist, while drops of blood start running down over his fingers. 'Fuck.' I stare down at his hand, to see his fingers wrapped over where I can only assume the wound is. "Let me see it." I do my best to keep from growling in worry.

"It's not that bad." Luca moves his hand so that it's resting the side of it against his chest.

"I believe you. I just want to see if you need to go to the hospital or not." I slip my hands into the pockets of my jacket, to keep myself from reaching out and grabbing his hand. 'Patients. I don't want to harm him.'

My mate turns to me, a mix of surprise and disbelief and possibly anger appearing on his face all at the same time. "You think that I don't know the difference between what's considered more severe and what's merely a scratch?"

"I'm sure you do Snow." I take one of my hands out of my pockets, before reaching out and holding it out to him. "Show me your hand and once I've looked, I'll leave you alone." I stare at him, watching as his gaze moves away from me and a moment later his fingers open up revealing the cut underneath. I growl at the sight of blood that's pooling in the palm of his hand.

"What are you growling about now Max?"

I stand there in confusion for a moment, before catching my mother's scent. "What are you doing here mom?"

"Morning Kara." My mate goes to close his hand, only stopping when I reach out and hold his fingers back. He stares at me in shock, the corner of my lip lifts at the sight and my chest rumbles in excitement knowing that I managed to surprise him.

"Morning Luca, to answer your question, Max, I brought cookies for the two of you.' i can hear her moving around behind us. "Now what are the two of you doing? Why haven't either of you turned the lights on? You should have opened five minutes ago."

A moment later the fluorescent lights are turned. I start turning Snow's hand slightly and doing my best not to hurt him while trying to get a closer look. "Shit." I can see something large sticking out of the cut. "There's a large piece of glass in the wound."

"What?" I turn to see my mom walking towards us, a look of panic on her face. "What in the world happened?"

I move out of the way, releasing his hand so that I'm not pulling him with me. "Easy mother, there's no reason to panic."

She glares at me and suddenly I feel like a child again. "Be silent Max." She turns back to my mate, carefully taking his hand in hers. "What happened Luca? Did my idiot son do something?"

'Wait, how is this my fault?' I stare at my mother in confusion, before walking into the small bathroom at the back of the store. I grab a bunch of paper towels before returning to them.

"I just put my hand in the box." From the look on my mate's face, I can see the shame in what he had done. "I should have paid more attention especially after seeing the ones cracked."

"Well let's get you to the hospital, so we can get that nasty piece of glass removed." Mother grabs the towels from my hand, before placing them gently over the piece of glass. "Hold that carefully so that it doesn't come off, but not too hard that it gets pushed in farther."