My Firefly

LAKE

~“Alpha!” a voice shouts. “She’s over here!”~

~

~My body feels heavy as someone holds me up to their chest. I can hear their heart beating rampantly, and their breath is uneven. Their warmth helps my body to relax.~

~

~“Who did this?” A growl radiates through the ground and even through me. I whimper in pain. I guess my wounds have reopened from the amount of time I’ve been out here.~

~

~“Firefly…” I can feel cold tears land on my cheek. “I’m so sorry…”~

~

DERRICK

I sit at the side of her bed with my hands over hers. Her sleeping form is enough to make me go on a rampage.

All her wounds were opened, and the freezing of the blood that flowed from them was the only thing keeping her alive.

“Derrick…” Lucy comes through the tent’s entrance with a cup of hot chocolate. “Sitting here staring at her won’t help you.”

I scoff at her slightly and refuse to take my eyes off my Firefly. All I see is the tubes connected to her mouth and the IV sticking out of her wrist. Whoever did this meant to send a message to me.

“Lake is in no condition to travel back to camp.” Lucy sits on the other side of the bed. She places the cup on a small table beside Lake’s head. “Why don’t you—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I growl through my teeth. It’s a three-hour run from here to the camp.

It would be simple to just scoop my Firefly up and take her back, but given her comatose state, that’s not an option.

“It took us three damn days to find her, Lucy.”

Three agonizing days. Knowing that Lake was so close, and yet I couldn’t find her until the very last second. Any longer and she would’ve died.

“I know this is hard for you, Derrick,” Lucy sighs. “The group needs you. She’s perfectly safe here. If you would just—”

“I said, no!” I stand. Rage runs through me. My entire body is as stiff as a rock. “Now leave before you make me angry.”

My sister sighs, takes her cup, and leaves me alone.

I remember the first time I saw my Firefly. It was in the fall. I was on a normal scouting run with the men. We got too close to a territory, and I got separated.

Coming along a trail, there she was. The sun shining through the tree line above made her green eyes shine like emeralds.

Her hair fell perfectly and framed her face. Her luscious lips parted ever so slightly as she looked my wolf in his eyes.

It was then that I knew what having a mate was. I would’ve scooped Lake up then and there if it hadn’t been for my status as a rogue.

My wolf kept shifting and going back to the southern border of that pack’s territory. It’s where her scent was most prominent.

The way she made me chase her in the forest days ago. Her fighting spirit of a firecracker. The light coming from her resembles a firefly.

Lake’s sleeping form takes a deep breath, and it snaps me out of thought. All the freckles that dot her cheeks and forehead are darkening. Her lips and cheeks look pinker.

I reach over and brush the hair from Lake’s face. She instinctively leans slightly into my touch. I smile slightly.

My Firefly.

LAKE

“Lake…”

My hands reach out as far as they can. This darkness has been around me for a long while now.

“My Moonlight…” A hand wraps around my mouth, and another wraps around my waist. “How could you treat me like that? Hmm?”

I start to struggle as hot breath travels down my neck. My eyes shut tightly with tears rushing out of them.

“You know you belong to me…,” the voice whispers huskily. “You’re mine. Not his!”

“Get off me!” I cry. I sit straight up, and a pair of familiar black eyes peer down at me.

“Lake… It’s okay.” Derrick lets go of my hand. I guess he’s been holding it this entire time. “Did you have a nightmare?”

It’s now that I realize I’m crying. The tears are hot down my cheeks. My body is trembling. I cup my hands over my eyes and begin to hyperventilate.

What was that?

“Hey…Firefly, I’m here…” Derrick slowly slides into bed with me. He makes sure to avoid the tubes and wires attached to me.

This man…

Derrick wraps me up in his arms. The sound of his heartbeat and the warmth of his skin are enough to lull me back to sleep.