Everything was fuzzy as I slowly woke up. Even my thoughts were taking time to form as I simply lay there and enjoyed the comfort that comes from a slow wake up after a good sleep.
However, no one can stay in that comfortable half asleep state forever, so after a while I decided that I really should get up and get on with my day.
I lazily yawned and stretched out like I do every morning. Except unlike other mornings, I was greeted with a large amount of pain as my body moved. It woke me from my bemused state immediately and my eyes flew open.
I stilled and waited for the pain to subside before I focused on the world around me. As I took in my location, I saw that I was in Doctor Rory's medical ward on one of the beds set up there.
Grace and Detsy were cuddled up asleep on the couch, which was over the other side of the room.
I could vaguely hear Doctor Rory talking to Saffron and Derrick from all the way inside the doctor's office.
After a few seconds of observation, my mind finally caught up to the fact that I was now awake and I remembered the events of the hunting trip and how it ended.
I accidentally moved a bit and the ensuring pain caused a whimper to escape my mouth.
Grace and Detsy instantly woke up to the sound as if they were on high alert while they were asleep and the three in the doctor's office came out.
"Eva, how are you feeling?" Detsy asked me as she quickly disentangled herself from her mate and rushed over to me.
"I'm ok, but I can't move without it hurting." I replied to the concerned Princess.
Grace was by my side a few seconds later and very gently put her hand on the top of my uninjured head so she could give me comforting pats. "Then try not to move too much." She told me with a voice laced with concern.
"I remember fighting those wolves and you two coming to save me, but not much else. What happened?" I asked of the mates hovering above me.
"You were airlifted back here." Doctor Rory answered as he got to my bed and shooed Detsy out of the way so he could look over me.
"Alpha Leyton called in some favors to have a rescue helicopter come and take you back to the pack house. If he hadn't then you would have been in some trouble as we couldn't get you back over the river in your condition." Doctor Rory said as he continued to look over my wounds.
"You got banged up pretty bad but Cody is safe thanks to you. I'm going to keep you here in the medical ward for a few days to make sure you're healing. After that I'm going to excuse you from all duties until at least the lunar festival. You got hurt pretty badly and we need to make sure you heal well and don't get any of your wounds infected." Doctor Rory informed me.
He was being gentle but it still hurts every time he examined one of my wounds. I hadn't realized how badly I had been injured until the Doctor had to examine all of the wounds. They were everywhere.
I turned to look at Saffron and Derrick. Unlike Grace and Detsy who had concerned and pained looks on their faces, Saffron's eyes were red and she still had the tear marks running down her face from crying. Derrick looked a bit better but that's expected from an Alpha to be.
"Don't cry for me. I'll be alright I promise." I said to Saffron as she started to cry again. Grace moved from her position a bit, although still not breaking physical contact with me, so Saffron could come up and gently hug my head.
"I thought you were dead when I heard what had happened." Saffron cried into my fur.
"Far from it." I told her. "You're going to be stuck with me for a long time yet." I attempted to say in a humorous tone, but in the end it just came out weak and exhausted.
"I can live with that." Saffron laughed lightly while still crying into my fur.
"So why did those wolves try and take Cody?" I asked everyone around me.
"They didn't just try and take Cody." Derrick answered as his face showed his anger at the attacking wolves.
"Was anyone else taken?" I asked as dread settled in the pit of my stomach.
"No." Derrick replied. "However they attempted to take five pups under two years old. They may have gotten away with it too, if they weren't interrupted and decided to try and sneak away with just Cody, instead of having to fight their way out of the middle of werewolf territory."
"The bastards used the blood and guts of a pig to disguise their scent so we didn't realize that Cody was gone until a little after he was actually taken. That's when Grace and Detsy left you to come back to the pack house." Derrick was holding his fist closed in anger. "If you hadn't of caught up to them when you did then the river would have masked their scent and made us unable to track them."
"We would have lost one of our own pups. The wolf we took prisoner is refusing to say anything at all. It's like he's a bloody robot." Derrick suddenly turned around in anger and started punched the pillows on the bed opposite. Needless to say the poor pillows didn't survive the assault.
"The Thundering Falls pack was also raided except the wolves actually got away with two pups. Needless to say Alpha William has gone back to his own pack and is trying to hunt the wolves down." Grace informed me.
"Well I can tell you where they were when I came to this pack." I said and watched everyone in the room stiffen at my words.
"How would you know that?" Detsy asked me carefully.
"Well that wolf you captured is Beta Nathan of my old pack that got overtaken by Alpha Tim. However something must have happened to him because I remember Beta Nathan as being a strict but fun wolf. He was nothing like the monster that calmly ordered his subordinate to murder a pup last night." I said. "Also, why are they trying to kidnap pups?"
"We don't know either, it's still a mystery to us." Grace admitted. "But if you give us the last known location of the wolves we'll raid it immediately."
I wasted no time explaining where the Shallow Rivers pack's territory was located in relation to the Roaring Hills pack and where the pack den is located.
"If you find John can you please bring him back with you." I begged Grace as she headed to the door in a hurry to inform Alpha Leyton.
"Of course." Grace told me as she flashed Detsy and I a smile before disappearing through the door.
'I have to go to." Derrick informed us. "No doubt my father is going to let Alpha William know where they were so he can try and recover his pups. This is going to turn into a massive, messy operation."
Saffron left a few minutes later after getting a mind link from Derrick telling her she was needed in the Alpha's study. Which just left Detsy and Doctor Rory, who had gone back to his office, in the medical ward.
"Are you feeling ok?" Detsy asked me. "I know I'd find it extremely hard to betray my old packs whereabouts, even if it was justly deserved."
"I don't feel bad in the slightest." I told Detsy. "If those bastards want to kidnap pups then they forfeit any loyalty I felt towards them."
"I'm sorry they put you through that." Detsy said to me. "I can't imagine how a pack could possibly become so corrupt."
"It's quite simple really." I told Detsy. "A new Alpha came along and changed things.
Detsy simply look at me for a few more moments before she stood up from her sitting position on the bed and proceeded to lie down next to me.
"What are you doing?" I asked, nervous because Detsy was now mere centimeters from me.
"I'm lying down." Detsy replied matter of factually. "It's been a long night and I haven't had more than 30 minutes sleep. So I'm using you as a hot water bottle and closing my eyes."
It was nerve wracking because instead of being at Grace or Detsy's feet like I normally was when I slept, I was side by side with her. However this also comforted me and we both fell asleep pretty quickly.
It turns out that getting to sleep wasn't the issue. It was staying asleep as a steady stream of visitors arrived, normally just after I'd fallen asleep again, to see me.
Everyone in the pack from Alpha Leyton and Luna May down to the pack pups wanted to see how I was doing.
Detsy eventually snapped at all the interruptions to our sleep and despite my insistence that she goes up to her room to sleep, she stayed right beside me the whole time.
The only time she relaxed and actually allowed someone to stay in the medical ward to see me was when Lydia came to see how I was doing. Detsy knew what had happened with Lydia's first shift and therefore allowed her to see me.
The next time I was woken up it was to see Grace bending over her mate and gently giving her a tender kiss on her forehead to wake her up. She then proceeded to do the same with me, much to my surprise. I honestly thought she'd kill me for being next to her mate.
"We're going with the Thundering Falls pack to see if the Shallow Rivers pack is still where Eva said they were and to find the missing pups." Grace informed us. "A large group of warriors from each pack is going as well as myself. We'll be gone for a few days at most, so can I count on you two to take care of each other while I'm gone?"
"Of course you can." Detsy replied before pulling her mate in for a kiss. "Don't be gone too long ok."
"I won't I promise." Grace confirmed.
"I will always look out for both of you." I told Grace truthfully. She didn't have to ask. I would trade my life for either of theirs in an instant if it was required.
"Thank you." Grace replied before pulling us both in for a big hug. Her eyes went distant for a second as someone mind linked her and she pulled away from the both of us.
"I have to go now." Grace said with disappointment evident in her voice. "We'll make those bastards pay and find out what they want our pups for." The look of longing for her mate was replaced with anger as Grace finished her sentence.
"Be safe." I said as Grace got up to leave and go hunt a corrupt pack.
"Come back to us safely." Was all Detsy said as Grace slipped out of the room.
"Alright, that does it." Doctor Rory suddenly said as he appeared angrily from his office.
"How is Eva going to recover when she's woken up every ten damn minutes." Doctor Rory fumed to no one in particular. "Detsy, I want you to take Eva to your room and just keep an eye on her. You both need sleep anyway and I'm just a mind link away if you need me."
Detsy smile sleepily at the doctor before getting up to follow his instructions.
Detsy reached out to carefully pick me up but instead of letting her I braced myself against the pain and hopped off the bed to stand on my own feet.
The wave of pain that greeted me was already significantly less than when I woke up.
"Are you sure you're ok to walk." Detsy asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm sure." I replied while trying to place confidence into my voice, when in truth, I wasn't sure at all. But I didn't want to be even closer to someone else's mate.
"Well if you're sure." Detsy told me, not buying my act and standing just behind me so she could catch me at a moments notice.
"I'll see you tomorrow if nothing changes." Doctor Rory told me as Detsy and I walked out of the medical ward and towards the wolf door to gain access to the pack house. I'm not sure why the medical ward is completely cut off from the rest of the pack house and the only access to it is from outside, but it is.
Detsy and I walked into the pack house and straight up to the room that the three of us were sharing. "Thank the Moon Goddess the bed is huge." I thought to myself as I remembered Detsy informing me that I was to still sleep on the bed even though she was now here and reunited with her mate.
I jumped up on the soft bed, ignoring the wounds on my back complaining at the sudden movement. Detsy quickly changed into some pajamas and lay down on the opposite side from where Grace normally lie's.
"You're up here next to me where I can keep an eye on you until I've deemed that you're getting better." Detsy informed me as I went to curl up on the end of the bed like I usually do.
I sighed, not having the energy to fight with the princess so I just did as she wished. We ended up falling asleep in the same position as when we were in the medical wards bed.
Both of us were tired enough to sleep through the rest of the day and all of that evening. We woke up the next morning as the sun's rays eagerly greeted us.
"I hate mornings." Detsy grumbled as she got up to go have a shower and prepare for the day.
I also got up and thankfully most of the pain had already left me, now I was just plain hungry. I hadn't really eaten anything since before the hunt with Grace and Detsy started.
Detsy came over to me in a state of half undress as she suddenly remembered to inspect my wounds.
It didn't take long before she pulled back with a satisfied smile on her face.
"Your wounds have all closed over." Detsy informed me. "I'd say Doctor Rory will want to remove the stitches tomorrow and you should be back to moving around pain free a couple of days after that. You got lucky that your body heals so well."
I wagged my tail at the news, thankful that there was no pain to accompany the movement.
"So what happens now?" I asked Detsy through mind link as she'd gone into the bathroom to shower.
"Well wolves from the palace should be showing up soon to help set up for the lunar festival which will take place five days after the next full moon. We will also have to see what will happen when Grace and the warriors come back. I'm not sure what they'll find and what it'll mean for us." Detsy replied back through the mind link as she hummed to herself in the shower.
"But your only duty is to rest and recover. You're already the hero that saved not only Cody but also Lydia as well." she continued through the mind link. "I think you'll find that everyone in the pack won't let you do anything to help even if you tried."
I groaned. Detsy was right, but I hated to sit around and do nothing. It was so boring.
"Don't worry too much, Grace or I will be with you the whole time." Detsy told me.
"Thank you." I replied to Detsy. "I honestly have no idea what I did to deserve friends like Grace, Saffron, Derrick and yourself."
"You were yourself." Detsy replied out loud through the door as she stepped out of the shower and began drying herself. "You didn't need to do anything else. However if you want to make me even more fond of you then let's both go down to breakfast. I'm starving."
I just laughed as I agreed with her. Not two minutes later, Detsy was dressed and we were heading down to mouth watering food.