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Pain was the first thing that Carla noticed, followed by something cold and wet around her hips. She had been in worse pain in her life, but waking up to it wasn't pleasant. She tried to open her eyes and sit up when a hand gently pushed her down. The hand was much larger than her own, warm, and was somehow comforting to her, but she had no idea who it belonged to.
"You shouldn't move." The voice came as a surprise to her, and as she tried to gain control of her blurry vision she searched for his face. Everything was slowly coming together and she squinted her eyes as she tried to see more.
Around her hips was a couple bags of frozen vegetables, they were slowly melting so that explained to her why her hips felt like they were in melting snow. The bed moved beside her and her eyes flickered up to see Alcide. He was wearing a pair of sweat pants, which was a lot more than what she was wearing.
Suddenly she felt panic rush to her chest; she could feel the collection of tears in her eyes and her face heat up. She didn't understand what was going on, and it scared her. It wasn't normal for someone to wake up naked, with frozen peas around their waste and their neighbor half naked in their room.
"Alcide what's going on?" Watching Carla cry made him feel like a horrible person. Partly because she didn't understand what was going on and explaining it to her would be hard. There were many things she didn't understand about their culture that he now had to explain. But first his desire and need to comfort her was overwhelming.
With a careful hand he ran his hand along her jaw line and pushed the messy curls away from her face. She instantly started to calm down, and that feeling he had before of being a horrible person resurfaced.
"You need to rest more; I'll tell you what's going on later. I promise." Normally a person would have fought him, and demanded that he told them what was going on at that moment. But Carla was still under the effects of what happened days prior, and she would be for a little longer.
Both parties usually came out of mating rituals perfectly okay, but the females always took a little longer to come around. Especially if they had mated with an Alpha male, which Carla had the even more misfortune. Too tired to argue Carla nodded her head and laid back down in her bed.
Alcide had done his job and taken care of her, good care and if this were a normal mating ritual she would have happily bragged to other members of the pack about how well he had taken care of her. He had covered her hips with frozen bags to keep the swelling and bruising down. He had also changed the bed sheets which required him to carefully move her body. He then grabbed a few wash cloths and gently cleaned every inch of her body.
But knowing she wouldn't understand what kind of bond they had created for a long time made him feel dirty, and like a bastard.
He silently watched her sleep, her breaths even and calm, much unlike himself. Running his hand through his hair he took a final look at her before walking out of the bedroom and firmly closing the door behind him.
He knew he should have stayed with Carla but he knew she would be asleep for a few hours and it gave him enough time to run out for a little while. She wouldn't wake up, he was surprised she had at all. Slipping on a shirt he rested over the arm of her couch, he checked everything in the house. He had cleaned just about everything and put everything where it belonged.
Then snatching her house keys he locked the door behind him and walked across the road to his truck. It took him about 20 minutes to get where he wanted to go, and the only reason it had taken him that much time was because he sped down the back roads. His bottom was a little sore when he pulled up in the small trailer park from going over pot holes so fast.
A few people peered out of their windows and when they saw who it was went back to their business. If Alcide were a stranger they would have all eyed him carefully. People around these parts didn't trust anyone new, because they usually brought trouble and trouble was what these people wanted to avoid.
Stepping up to the trailer he wanted, he swung the door open. The smell of sweat and dirty dishes flooded his nostrils. The only thing that registered through his mind was that the air conditioning system was broken and he would have to fix it before leaving.
Like always his father was laying on a small bed near the back of the trailer a beer in his hand, and the TV blasting some sports channel. His father had no need to look at his son; he knew who it was as the truck pulled into the front yard.
Like his normal ritual he yanked open the fridge and pulled out a beer. In one swift movement he had the bottle open and was drinking from the bottle casually. Silence hung over the room, as they both waited for the other to start a conversation.
"I picked a mate." Alcide finally broke the silence between the two. His father took a swig of beer as the words settled in his brain. Alcide had remembered having a similar conversation with his father about Debbie. Except that he had asked Debbie to marry him, not that they had mated.
Using his tongue to clean between his cheek and gums his father sat up on the bed to look at his son. He figured this day wouldn't come, and now that it had he was a bit speechless. If anything he would have expected his daughter to show up first with this news and not his son. Alcide was after all having a lot of women trouble.
"Debbie?" His father asked after the short silence. Alcide shook his head harshly, he wasn't that stupid. But he and Debbie had been on and off so often that he wasn't surprised that anyone would think that.
"Her name is Carla." He watched his father's face twist in thought as he tried to think of pack member's names or to even see if he remembered if she had been mentioned before. His mind came up with nothing so he simply turned his attention to the television.
"She's a lone wolf." Alcide announced, he knew his father didn't show he cared but somewhere deep down he was happy for his son. It was something all parents wanted for their child, and now his son was going to get what he deserved.
"She a nice girl?" he asked, Alcide nodded his head. He wasn't here to discuss what Carla was like, and when his father muttered 'good'. Then leaned back on his bed he knew the conversation wasn't going where he wanted it to.
Clearing his throat Alcide thought carefully about what he was going to say. "Carla knows nothing about what happened. Hell she didn't even know we ran in packs until I told her a few weeks ago." His father turned to look at him a look of irritation on his face. It would be his son to leave a drug addict then mate with a woman who knew next to nothing about being a werewolf.
"Well then, it's now your responsibility to teach her." His father snapped, slamming his empty beer on the table. Anger flared up in Alcide's chest, that was not the answer he was looking for. It was the best answer his father could give him, but he wanted another answer. A way out, or a way to make it better for Carla. Even though deep down, he didn't want to accept the fact that they were going to be stuck together for a long time.
"What, you don't like that answer? The only way to fix this problem, is step up and take responsibility." Alcide didn't speak and quietly finished his beer, the conversation was over and he knew what he had to do, but how he was going to do it was something totally different. He didn't know why he expected his father to be sympathetic with him, and give him the answers he wanted. He would have been better off going to his mother, but she was a longer distance away and he couldn't leave Carla alone for that long.
"So I guess this means you want me to meet her." His father wasn't at all interested in meeting Carla, and it was moments like this that the anger in his chest boiled so strongly that he wanted to lash out at his father. Watching his father toss a few sunflower seeds in his mouth, Alcide shook his head. He could have stood there and fight with his father but in the end it wouldn't change anything.
"At some point you're going to have to." Alcide said, His father spit his sunflower shells in a garbage can beside his bed. Although the sight was normal for him he couldn't help but stop thinking about what would Carla think of his father. It also made him wonder what her family was like.
"Well, you bring her over when she is ready." His father grunted, taking a final sip of his beer Alcide placed the empty glass container on the counter before walking out of the trailer.
It was dark when he returned to Carla's house, and when he unlocked the front door the dogs danced around his feet whimpering. He had forgotten to let them out when he left so the first thing he did was open the back door for them. They both happily ran out the door and onto the grass where they both did their business. When they both were finished they started to play with a couple of deflated balls in the yard so he figured it was safe to leave them alone.
He walked into the kitchen resting his arms on the counter tops. Carla's kitchen wasn't the best, and he could tell by the few magazines that she had laying around that she was looking into getting it redone. The counter was scratched up from previous owners and the tiles on the ground were permanently stained. Her cupboards were also cheap, and chipped, but for now it all worked until she decided to tear it all out.
His mind was now back on Carla who was still up stairs sleeping. She hadn't eaten in a couple of days, he slowly started to search her cupboards and fridge for something to feed her. He settled on chicken and rice his stomach suddenly craving the combination. Although the combination itself was boring, it tasted a million times better when he threw it together like his mother did. It always took a little bit longer but it was worth it.
By the time he was finished the dogs were at the screen door looking in with big sad eyes, both begging to have a share of the meal that wafted through the house. He had seen this coming so he was prepared with a small bowl for each of them.
He quickly ate his share of them meal before slowly making his way up stairs the dish firmly clasped in his hand. When he reached the master bedroom he quickly closed the door behind him to make sure the dogs couldn't follow. The last thing he wanted was them jumping on the bed with Carla's hips.
He was surprised to see her awake and the bags of pees on the floor. They would have completely thawed by now and rendered useless. She tiredly turned to look at him her blue eyes no longer blood shot like they were earlier. He gave her a soft smile before sitting down on the bed beside her, placing her plate on the nightstand.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, his hand pushed a few curls away from her cheek and instinctively she fluttered her eyes closed. It was nice to have some human contact after laying her bed for god knows how long.
"A lot better." She said after he pulled his hand away from her face. It made him feel a lot better about the situation and he silently checked her hips. He had seen worse, but the sight of his hands bruised into her hips disturbed him. At first they were a horrid black, and were swollen but the frozen peas had kept the swelling down. Her hips had changed from the black, to purple and a few other mismatched colours and the skin was no longer swollen.
He figured that in 48 hours her skin would be back to normal, and that she would be fully functioning. Werewolves were strangely very good healers, nothing compared to vampires but still very good. When he was finished he covered her hips back up with the light blanket she had used to cover herself, and then helped her sit up. He tried to ignore her cries in pain, failing at it horridly.
Then with a single hand he passed her the still hot dish and a fork and watched her eat. She had once told him that she was an incredibly picky eater, but he couldn't see it. She had eaten everything on the plate and when she was done placed the empty plate on her bedside table.
"Can you explain to me what happened now?" she asked, looking at him firmly. If anything he wanted to push the conversation away, and save it for another day, but she needed to know. If he waited things could only get worse, and then things would be even more complicated then they needed to be.
Running his hand through his hair, he carefully thought about what he was going to say. There was no way that he could prepare for this moment, and even if he could it still wouldn't be enough to explain to Carla. She waited silently for him to continue her blue eyes distracting him from what she needed to be told.
Please review! You have to understand that I'm nursing student! I spend a lot of time studying, and in class so reviewing makes me feel more obligated to write more. I will actually write if i feel people are reading/reviewing.