Eternal Chains

EC 13: Being Fussy

The pack doctor once again visited the pack house to take a look at Xander. As she had suspected, the wound was torn open. "I'll need to redo the stitches. Once he wakes up, please make sure that he won't be moving around or using his left hand."

"I understand," she answered. Her eyes never left the doctor's hands until she had finished with her job. The bandage was expertly wrapped around the wound.

"I'll leave Misa here to help you if anything happens." The doctor stood up to face the alpha. "Human healing abilities are behind ours and with that kind of wound he won't be recovering in a short period of time. He's lucky already that he was able to survive, so we need to watch him carefully before he does anything reckless especially because he is in an unfamiliar place."

Amber's gaze landed once again on his sleeping mate with the doctor's words ringing on her mind. Her mate was human and he needs extra attention. She had dealt with it already but it was only then that the realization had settled in.

"I also think that he got a trauma after the attack." Zael appeared on the door and he walked towards them. He gave them a nod and without them asking he continued, "When he woke up, the alpha accidentally growled and after I returned, he asked me about that. I saw and felt fear from him while he was asking about the sound so I made up an excuse to make him calm down but I think that was not enough. He doesn't feel safe here."

"That's common since he had had gone through a near-death experience," the doctor sighed, "once the physical injury is healed, we need to deal with the trauma but for now, we need to be careful and don't do anything that would trigger his trauma or we will be dealing with a difficult situation."

She finished her instructions then emphasized again on the things that they shouldn't do and things they should watch for before Dr. Silver finally left. Amber was left on the room with a complicated look on her face. She sat down to watch her mate with all sort of thought on her mind. Sigh. It seems that this situation had become more complicated that she had previously anticipated.

When Xander woke up again, the sky had already darkened and only the soft glow of the bedside lamp gave his side of the room light. He reached for his injured arm and felt that a new bandage was wrapped around it and there was not much pain from the wound. 'They might have treated his injury again while I was asleep.'

"You shouldn't be moving in your condition. The doctor stitched the wound because it reopened when you forced yourself to stand. She said that you should not make any large movements or use that arm of yours or the wound won't be healing anytime soon." Xander could hear the ruffling of paper now that his attention was not on his wound. He moved his head to the side to look at the person who was with him and saw Zael sitting on a chair with a book on his hand.

"I'll take note of that," he croaked. He felt embarrassed for a moment when a glass of water was placed on the bedside drawer.

The man placed his hand behind Xander's head to help him angle his body upward so that he can drink the water. After his fill, Zael returned to where he was sitting down. "You should get some rest," he heard him say but he had just woken up.

Xander's thought strayed because of the sudden silence inside the room. Zael did not talk and was only focused on the book or whatever he was reading. He also didn't mind the slight darkness on his side of the room compared to where the other was. There were many things around him right now that he did not gave attention to. His mind was busy with guessing of where he was or who were these people who had saved him.

He closed his eyes in a bit of frustration before he finally gave up. Thinking about it would not answer his questions, he needed to ask them outright in order to get the answer he wanted. After settling with this option, he looked at Zael again with his gaze lingering for a moment. 'He, at least, could tell him that information, right?' He hoped so.

"Can I ask a question?" he hesitated in voicing the question while looking at the man. Xander had been nervous before he was able to ask that question.

He saw the man close the book he was holding and placed it on the table in front of him before giving him his attention. "Yes, you can. I'll answer as much as I can."

Xander took a deep breathe, "Is it possible for you to tell me where I am? I mean, am I still in Madlaw?"

The Beta fell silent while debating if he should tell the man or let the Alpha tell him but she was still in a bad mood. Xander felt apprehension when he saw the man going silent at his question, it feels like they don't want him to know anything.

"Yes, you are still in Madlaw but I cannot tell you the exact location because of some reasons. You see our circumstances is a little bit special so I cannot divulge any information to you without asking our leader," he answered.

Xander's unease spiked up and for some reason he felt danger but before he could do anything, the man was already beside his bed and placed his hand on his shoulder to slowly push him back on the bed. "Relax, you don't have to worry. Our circumstance is not what you are thinking about, we are only a group of people living in seclusion because of our traditional beliefs. Uhm, we are like those ethnic groups out there and if we are killers we would not have treated and saved you."

Xander took a deep breath before nodding to the man although he was yet to be fully convinced. "Thank you for answering my question."

"It's no big deal. For now, I'll leave you be and I will come back tomorrow. By the way, the doctor assigned one of her assistants to assist you, so if you need something you can ask her. She'll be here tomorrow too. Rest for now so that you can heal faster." He lingered for a while but when he noticed that the man had nothing to ask any longer, he decided to leave.

While the room was silent, a foreign feeling slowly crept in which suddenly made him uncomfortable for no reason. He tried to ignore it but it kept coming back no matter how he ignored it. To relieve him from that feeling he tried to push himself up but a pang of pain made him cringe and held his breath. It was really painful nothing like the wounds he got in the past. He almost blacked out so he finally gave up in the end.

On the other room, Amber could hear her wolf's growl before it spoke. 'Our mate is in pain!'

Both of them felt it even though the mate bond was not yet officially established, they could still feel that their mate felt pain. It must have come from the wound on his shoulder. "We need to calm down. If we go there right now, he might get the bad impression. We already talked about this and in order to create a good impression with him we need to think through our actions first."

Her wolf was a bit reluctant but Amber had a point, she did not want to ruin their chance with their mate especially because he had gotten a trauma from the wolf attack. 'I understand then let the Beta take a look at him.'

"Don't be fussy, the doctor had already taken a look at him. I'm sure that he'll be fine and besides I don't hear any movements that he had gone out of bed." She shook her head. She walked away from the door leading to her room and went to the other room connected to her study. It was better for the both of them to stay at a certain distance from Xander for now.

She walked to the bathroom to cool herself first but immediately cringed at how haggard she looked. She rubbed her forehead and could only shrug her shoulders. Her appearance doesn't matter right now but in order to impress her mate, she needed to look presentable at least.