Carys' POV
After telling mum and dad about Segolia coming, I make my way to our tent to say goodnight to Jana, Rhydian and I are staying with Bryn tonight
"Jana?" I poke my head through the tent making sure they're not asleep yet. Maddy and Jana are both sat up talking. Jana sees me and give me a tight hug.
"I don't want to let you go." I've barely paid any attention to her feelings this whole time, she must be so scared. I stroke her hair and kiss her head.
"Everything's going to get better now, I'm here, I'm here." It feels like the roles have reversed. "I love you."
"I love you too." We kiss, passionately. Until Maddy mocks a gagging sound and we laugh out of our kiss.
"If I wasn't full before I am now." She says.
"I'll see you in the morning, hopefully we can finally go home." Jana says. I give her one last little kiss goodnight and head back to Bryn.
Mum, dad and Alric are sat a few feet away from the tent, probably talking about the pack and it's future, mum and dad are doing everything they can to make sure Alric doesn't go off the rails again. It's like they've got another kid.
Inside the tent Rhydian and Bryn are already asleep, Bryn doesn't look any better, but he doesn't look worse, which hopefully is a good sign. I curl up next to Bryn and shut my eyes. Within minutes I'm asleep.
I wake up to what sounds like a giant chainsaw and the pack freaking out. Rhydian isn't next to me. Bryn's still asleep. I rush out of the tent and immediately I look up to the sky to see a jet black helicopter with something long hanging off of it, there's a man on the long rope. Alric is supposed to be keeping the pack calm but even he's freaking out. Mum tries to shut everyone up, it takes some time but it works. Jana runs to my side.
"Is that Segolia?" I ask. I have to shout because it's so loud.
"I think so."
We hear a loud thundering voice come from the man on the rope. "We're looking for Bryn." He's using a megaphone.
"He's in here!" I shout. The man gives a thumbs up to the person in the helicopter.
The long rope begins to lower and we realise there is some kind of bed on the bottom of the rope. I thought this only happened in movies. The man climbs down and the helicopter hovers.
"Where is he?" The man ask, he's not phased by the pack one bit. My family and I lead him to Bryn. He brings a stretcher with him. "Take that side of him." He says to dad who complies. They gently move him from his make-do bed onto the stretcher. Bryn winces, causing the rest of us to flinch. Mum and I walk with him at his had, still using the cloth to bring his temperature down. Aran and Alric come to help them lift Bryn on to the slightly high up air bed. They get him in place and the man secures him. "We can take one person up with us." He says.
"Mum, you should go." Rhydian says. She just sort of nods and lets the man secure her in place too. He secures himself and give another thumbs up to the man in the helicopter and they begin to rise. The pack growl as their former Alpha and one of her successors are being taken away. Everyone watches as they are pulled into the helicopter and the door shuts, the fly higher and higher and then off in the general direction of home.
"What do we do now?" I ask dad.
"We can go, if we run for a little while, we can make it make by lunchtime." He says.
We all pretty much leave then and there, only Jana takes a short moment to say goodbye to her dad and Aran.
We run for a little while and I'm I'm the first one to admit I need a break, we've been running for half an hour. Jana hangs back with me and the others decide to keep running.
"He will be okay won't he? To humans, this is just a minor injury with all the medicine they have lying around."
"Yeah, he'll be back to normal in no time. Although, I don't think he'll be okay to go back to school tomorrow." Jana says.
"School, right. I completely forgot about that."
"At least you didn't forget the reading assignment." My eyes widen. "You forgot about the reading assignment didn't you." I face palm. "Maybe Jeffries will let you off if you explain what happened?"
"Jana, you know I hate special treatment, I'll just have to do it all tonight, I read half of the book before we went to Norway for that full moon, I guess I just forgot because we had such an amazing time. I'm surprised Shannon didn't remind me about it."
"That's because you told her to stop reminding you, because you promised you'd have it done."
"Damn, I guess I forgot about that too."
After about 10 minutes of walking some more, we pick up our pace and run back. We arrive in the village and manage to just about make the only bus that comes through this village, which dad, Rhydian and Maddy are on too. I sit down next to dad. He's been so weird this trip.
"Did you go home and get your phone?" I ask him.
"Yeah, I just got off the phone with Ava, she was worried anyway so she's almost in the city, she's going to meet us at Segolia." He just seems sad.
"What's wrong?" I take his hand.
"Oh nothing, love, you know how it is."
"Tell me?" I look at him, forcing him to look at me too.
He sighs. "I'm a rubbish father to you and your brothers. I don't know how to help."
"Hey, don't say that, you're a great dad. You've barely left Bryn's side. You helped me on the mountain, you've always been there for me."
"Not always, I missed most of your life, and both of your brothers."
"That's not your fault, it's no one's fault, that's all in the past. What matters now is the future, okay?"
"Oh Carys, you and the boys mean the world to me." He puts his arm around me and kisses me head. I love how close we've become. It does make me reminisce back to old time with Geraint, but those memories seem tainted now. Like I said, what matters now is the future, I can make new memories.
We get off the bus by Segolia and run to the doors where Ava is waiting for us. She hugs Rhydian and I and shakes dad's hand. We make our way inside, but Segolia has a new security team so they don't recognise us.
"We need to get to the medical wing, our little brother is in there."
"Names." The security guard is big and quite intimidating, but I get fed up with waiting and push past him to the reception desk and beg the lady to let us in.
"Family only." The rest of my family push past the guard and we head to the lift, I look back at Maddy and Jana. I watch as they try to get past the guard, saying they know Shannon. We get in the lift and go up to see Bryn.
Dr. Whitewood is there as we reach the doors.
"He's a very resilient young lad." She leads us to the room.
I realise that this is the room I spent months in. The room I battled my demons in. I stop outside the room as the others go in, they don't notice I don't follow. I stand for a moment. Analysing everything. The metal on the door, which is cleaner, and shinier since I last saw it. I look to the floor on my left. There used to be a tiny blood stain on the floor, I used to look at it every time I left my room for an appointment and every time I went back in. I felt that if it was there it meant that I wasn't losing myself, I wasn't changing, I wasn't disappearing, like that little blood stain. It's gone now. Symbolism much? This past week I haven't felt more like I'm losing myself since I left hospital.
I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see Shannon.
"Shan!" I hug her. "I missed you."
"I missed you too Carys, why aren't you going in? He's doing fine." She says, then she sees my face when I look down at the stain. "Oh, it's the same room."
"Yep."
"You know, it's just a room. It only means something if you let it, so don't." I nod. "I have to get back up to the lab, did Maddy come back with you?"
"Uh yeah, her and Jana are downstairs trying to get in, what's with the new security?"
"Oh it's the new boss, she's a bit, cautious." Shan gives me a look and heads off to get Maddy and Jana into the building.
I can hear my family talking on the other side of the door, I try to decipher whether Bryn sounds okay or not. He's definitely awake. Knowing he's alive and well, and my family are happy now makes me feel sort of complete, I have my pack and in this moment, I feel like I'm finding myself again.
"Where's Carys?" He says. I hear footsteps come towards the door, I take a few steps back as it swings open. Mum stands there.
"Come in Cariad, he's doing well." She takes my hands and slowly leads me into the room. I look at my family stand at the foot of the bed. I can't help but bring my eyes to the very faded patch of dried blood on the floor, that was my blood. I look at it for a second.
"Carys?" Bryn says. I look over to the bed. He's sat up.
"Hi Bryn." I go to give him a hug, avoiding his injury. He really does look well. "I'm sorry this happened to you."
"It's not your fault Carys, how many times do we have to tell you?" He says.
"Yeah, it's not always about you." Rhydian smiles and we laugh. Everything feels a bit more normal, now that we can laugh together again. Dr. Whitewood smiles at us. "So what's the deal? Is he okay now? Did you get the thorn and the poison out?"
"Yes, the thorn and poison are both gone now, but he has an wound infection which is easily manageable. I'd like to keep him in tonight and you can bring him home in the morning, but I suggest he doesn't go to school for at least a week and I would like to see him every other day for the next few weeks just to check on the wound. For now I'll put him on Tazobactam." She hands mum a packet of anti-biotics.
"Thank you Dr. Whitewood, you've helped this family a lot. We are in your debt." She says.
"You don't owe me anything, I'm here to help," She smiles again, "Plus it's my job." Mum hugs her, she's so... human these days. I like her this way.
"I'll leave you to it." She gives us one last smile before leaving the room, a few seconds later, Maddy, Jana, Shannon and Tom come in. I give Tom a big ol' hug. Feels like years since I saw him and Shan last.
We try to catch him and Shannon up on everything that's been going on, all they knew was that a cub had been hurt and they knew it could only be Bryn, so they weren't surprised to see us. We fill them in on all the stuff with Ingrid, they're very kind and supportive towards me, normally this would make me feel uncomfortable, because I never feel like I deserve support, but I do. And I deserve this pack. We belong together, we might be a bunch of misfits but that's what keeps us close. I've never felt more like I belong somewhere in my entire life, and I never want it to end.
