Title: Restitution
Author: Ame13
Spoilers: Scarlet, Cress, Winter
Author's Note: I just couldn't handle that Wolf had to stay the way he was at the end of Winter. I definitely admire Marissa Meyer's ability as a writer to go that far but my heart still aches for him and Scarlet. So I wrote this little alternative ending for them. Also, I'm pretending that it wouldn't be too dangerous to revert the surgery.
He felt himself surfacing from under the heavy sedatives. Clawing his way through the mental fog. Nightmares had haunted him again and he awoke with a fury of emotions. Betrayal. Sorrow. Regret. He had gone under the knife again and he wanted to scream. What more could they do to him? What other hideous alterations could they make to his body? He tried to yank his arm free but the now all too familiar feeling of needles under his skin held him back. He wanted to weep and tear someone's throat out all at the same time. His jaw ached, worse than before, his whole body felt like it had been hit by a train. The smell of antiseptics and the sticky goo of the suspension tanks made him want to retch. Tears were in his eyes as he struggled to remember what had happened and wonder over what more tortures they had in store for him.
"Wolf. It's okay. I'm here." A voice he recognized but couldn't quite place filtered through his mental fog.
In his minds eye he saw a flash of red hair and tasted tomatoes.
A pair of soft hands touched his arm gently, gathering his large hand up between them.
That was different from the other times he'd woken up like this. He tried to force his mind to remember what was happening. How we got here.
He fought the natural urge to thrash against the medical devices he was hooked up to, letting that sweet voice soothe his raw nerves. He tried to focus his eyes but it everything was a blur.
"I wouldn't get so close." Another familiar voice crashed into his foggy mind, damaging his calm. He growled instinctively. Every time he heard that voice he woke up a monster.
"Last time he woke up he nearly killed one of my assistants that got too close."
"Good." The other voice spit back.
He felt an odd sense of pride. Was this a new thermauturge? No. It couldn't be, he didn't feel compelled to tear her heart out and eat it.
Why couldn't he place this voice? She was important to him, he knew that. If only he could shake off the drugs and let himself think.
He had to give up trying to puzzle the mystery out when a new wave of pain in his jaw seared his brain, rendering him incapable of any further thoughts for the moment.
When the pain subsided a little he tried to reach his hand to his face, afraid of what new hell he would find himself in. The sharp needles tugged at his flesh and he winced. The strength in his limbs drained completely out of them.
The hands on his arms moved to gingerly sweep hair off his face.
"It's okay. They fixed you. They took back everything they did to you."
Her voice was reassuring but he scowled, he didn't understand what she was saying.
"You're all better now. Back to normal."
Better, he thought. That's what they did. Make him better. A better animal. A better monster. A better killing machine. A better…
He reached towards his face again, imagining even more sharp teeth jutting out of his mouth. Like a shark, with rows and rows of them. Tears sprang to his eyes again, when will they stop? When will this nightmare of a life end for him.
He braced himself for the sharp pull of needles in his flesh, he had to know what they did, but before the pain came, his vision filled with red. He blinked. Red? He was angry but the rage had been dragged out of him, cut away with another terrible surgery and the depressing knowledge that he was at their mercy for whatever incomprehensible cruelty they had in store. Now all he felt was defeat, sorrow, pain.
The red come closer and a face appeared out of the blurry fog in front of him. A face he knew. A face he loved.
He felt a light brush of lips against his own. A tender kiss, careful not to inflict more pain to his sorely abused face.
Memories of all their kisses flooded his mind and he remembered. Red. Scarlet. His Scarlet. His Alpha. She pulled back to meet his eyes again and frowned.
"His pupils look wrong. Maybe you should ease off the sedatives." Scarlet said
The voice he despised answered back but he could't make out what it said.
He growled at the sound and he heard the doctor shuffle back a few more steps.
Scarlet shushed him lovingly.
He tried to imagine what his face looked like. It seemed like she had kissed him on lips that belonged to his former self. Not the frightening muzzle they had sculpted out his bones.
He needed to be sure. He tried to open his mouth to talk but his jaw hurt too badly.
Relenting in his pursuit of figuring out his new face he lifted his fingers to the beautiful face hovering in front of him, careful not to lift his arm past the slack of the tubes attached. He pressed his fingers to her cheek and guided her face back down to his.
He ignored the gasp he heard from the accursed doctor. Scarlet understood and brought her lips back down to his. This time he returned the kiss as best as his could. Barely moving his lips, just a slight return of pressure. It was all he needed to know the nightmare he had woken up to before was over. He understood now what Scarlet had been saying. They had operated on him again but this time they had reverted the changes. Somehow they had molded his face back down and his fingers against Scarlett's check were human fingers, not the claws of a mad scientist's creation.
Another gentle press of his fingers brought Scarlet's lips back to his. Another slight press. Another soft kiss. And another. Another reassurance that he was human again. That he hadn't lost everything. That he still had his Scarlet.
He felt the heaviness of sleep settle over him again but he didn't fight it. He let himself go peacefully to sleep.
When we awoke again, he was on a bed. He remembered feeling a vague sense of weightlessness when they must have lifted him out of the tank. He had been too exhausted to care before he fell back under the sedatives. This time his head felt clearer. His eyesight was less blurry. He still ached all over but the fear and dismay he had before was gone. Then suddenly he realized there was a strange weight against one side and he reached with his hand touching the form of another body beside him. He looked down and saw a hand was on his chest and a mess of red curls draped over his shoulder. He weakly moved his head to the side to bury his nose in her hair. He took a deep breath, ignoring the throbbing pain, and let her scent drown out the offensive smells of the hospital. She stirred against him, pulling herself tighter against his side.
"Scarlet." He tested his voice on her name, it came out in a raspy whisper.
The doctor nearby froze, still fearful of the lupine soldier she had made and then unmade.
"I love the way you smell." His voice still a hoarse whisper.
Neither of them noticed the way the doctor's eyes widen or how she backed further away from the hospital bed.
Instead Scarlet sighed with contentment and Wolf took another deep breath.