Bessa

Am I Alright?

Gasping lungs, burning throat.

"Bessa, wake up."

It's light outside?

The Savage is sitting at the edge of the bed holding my hand and holding Elska with his other one. Odin and Ryeson are standing outside the bedroom door.

...watching.

Odin has his arm around Ryeson. As if to protect his brother from something inside this house.

It's too hard to look at the Savage. Too hard to see his eyes, those eyes that looked at her the same way they have looked at me.

"My parents are here. They brought lunch."

"Why are they here?" Pulling my hand away from him.

Cold. I feel cold. Covering up in the blanket more. Closing my eyes, the picture is not kind behind the lids. He loves the way she has the sheet draped over her shoulders; he can't stop thinking how beautiful she is. Her giggle always makes the edges of his mouth lift, no matter what kind of day he's having. He can picture her mouth, her head thrown back laughing at something he said. When her neck extends like that all he can think about is sinking his teeth into her throat. Marking her as his. Soon he thinks to himself. Soon.

"They wanted to see you; it's been months since you've been seen."

"I'm tired." Turning over with my back facing him. Everyone.

"You've been lying in bed for months. It's time to get up." The Savage's voice is low, pleading.

"I can't." Clutching the sheets.

"Mom." Odin runs inside, jumping on the bed.

Green eyes are crying.

"I'll be good; I won't go hunting with Ryeson anymore. I'll be good." Odin's hand is on my cheek. His head is on his father's pillow that only holds his faint scent now.

"You are good, Odin. I'm just tired right now. Mom needs to sleep for a little longer." He starts to cry, "but all you do is sleep." Trying to rub away the tears from his eyes. Odin gets into the covers as if he wants to take a nap with me like when he was still in diapers.

Ryeson climbs up; he's out of diapers now. Potty trained by a father who has to be mother and father of the house.

Nails start to run along his back, soothing his cries down.

His mother's voice is hard on my ears, too loud for the quiet that the shell of this households now.

"She looks like a maggot with legs and arms." Odin head lifts, Ryeson follows his brother.

There is no stopping the rise of my body, for the first time in months I feel like standing up, I feel like killing something that isn't myself.

...absolute silence.

Barefeet find the cool wood floor.

"Get the fuck out of my house." It's not my throat that makes the sound. It's the Savage who is holding Elska close to his heart. As if trying to shield her ears from a grandmother's voice.

A slap across the face, the Savage doesn't even flinch. "Don't you talk to me that way." Her voice gets further away because the Savage is walking forward making his mother step back, towards the door.

"Father, take your mate out of my house. Now." Through teeth, he speaks.

Violence shakes out of the Cocoon of skin, and I fear he might drop Elska.

"She is my Female. Not a maggot. Her name is Elska. That's her name. If you can't say it, if you can't love her the way I do, then you have no place in this house anymore. Mother." A tremor of skin is trying to contain the Wild within. The violence of his Nature starts to shuffle the structure of his bones.