A Tale of Two Opposites (Stryders #3)

Chapter 37- WEST

Thanks everyone for your support- votes/comments! 

Seriously makes my day and motivates me! We authors need some validation and your comments are hilarious too.

.

.

.

I was dying.

My throat was killing me, like there was some type of fire burning around it. My back hurt, and I wondered where I was. What happened...

The distant memories flooded me, and I opened my eyes, gasping for breath, not able to move because everything just hurt.

Confused as to why I was back in my dorm room, when I saw him, I instantly tensed up as much as my broken body would let me.

The same eyes I had stared back at me. He even gave me a relieved smile.

"Hey you're finally awake."

That's when I tried to get up, everything came back to me. I demanded, "Where's Edith?!" I needed to see her. It hurt more than the collar if anything happened to her, I'd never forgive myself. "Is she alright?! Where is she? Wyatt-"

"She's fine, she's fine," he cut me off, assuring me, but I needed to see her.

"Where is she, Wyatt?" I persisted, annoyed. In a second I'll get to why he's here, but the last time I saw Edith...

"She's currently at work," Wyatt replied to me slowly, coming to sit next on the beanbag chair that he placed next to my bed. I exhaled, finally relaxing except for the pain that was just numb at this point.

Wyatt kept looking at me in a way I felt like he was pitying me.

"I put a salve on your back and neck. Hopefully it'll heal on it's own time. I was wondering if you could shift into Salvatore to make the healing go faster."

Salvatore was dormant which meant that it hurt him too much to even shift. That killed me a lot more.

"I don't know if I can shift," I told him after a few moments, trying to feel my magic coursing through my blood, but I didn't have any energy. The ability. The willpower. I couldn't feel anything.

Both of us wanted to talk. I don't know how we got out of from the rogues, but we did. I suspected it might have to do something with Wyatt's sudden appearance in all of this. If I wasn't so weak...

Wyatt interrupted my self loathing party.

"West I'm sorry. For everything. For shutting you out like that. It was for your own good." I didn't say anything. I didn't want Wyatt to see me like this. It was nothing but humiliating that I could barely move, and Wyatt has to help me with almost everything because I can barely get up. "I really was just trying to protect you. And look, it failed. I did this to you. You're always the one saving me. It was time that I did the saving, but it still happened to you."

It. The collar and the whipping. This whole entire mess. Wyatt's own guilt ate away at me too. I felt his emotions like a tornado. For whatever strange reason, I could sense through the mate bond Edith's emotions which were a web I couldn't discern. Mentally, I couldn't handle it.

"Wyatt," I took a deep breath as he got up, obviously winded up about it. As much as I was pissed off at him for the months of not talking to me, I loved him and I felt his genuine regret.  "None of this is your fault."