Pathways

A soft beeping filled my ears, awaking me from the blackness that I had been dragged into. I could feel the stiffness of my left arm, it ached from burns. Memories of last night soared through my head. The fire, the pain, the panic. What had caused that fire? It couldn’t have been the fire place that I was sleeping in front of…could it? Groaning quietly to myself I felt my head shake a little bit, trying to filter through all of the images. Darren had save me…Oh my god! Darren! Is he okay?! Was he hurt to!? My eyes wrenched open. Bright light temporally blinded me, stinging my eyes terribly. Wincing at it I impatiently waited for my eye sight to adjust.

The room that greeted me was stark white, almost more blinding then the original light. Forcing my eyes to wonder around I found that my left are was held straight with a brace and it had a shiny clear liquid over the bright red, leathery skin. The memory of the feeling of the beam crashing down on me flooded into my head. I remembered screaming out in pain, all of the tears. God, how in the hell did Darren get me out of there? I was pinned! Turning my stiff neck to my right I found a beautiful sight. Darren’s hand was resting heavily in mine, and his head resting at my side. He was sleeping restlessly, heavy black bags underneath his eyes and his blonde hair wild. It was almost like he hadn’t taken care of himself in days. He still smelled like smoke and his fingers still had black soot on them. Very carefully I moved my fingers out of his, trying not to wake him up. Surprisingly he didn’t want up, he must have been so tired that he was completely out of it right now. Slowly I moved my hand to the back of his head, stroking it carefully. As I did that I took in the rest of my surroundings. On the top of my hand I had an IV feed into my vein, which had a tube leading to a bag which I assumed held pain killers. It also felt like there was a tube connected to my nose, which was very uncomfortable and seemed to pinch my skin.

I sucked in some breath into my dry throat and then I cleared it a little. “Darren?” I whispered hoarsely, petting his hair softly.

He groaned a little, turning his head into my hip and snuggling close to it for a second, almost nuzzling it. “Hmm Rose, its oka-” His head shot up then, looking at me with wide beautiful hazel eyes. A huge smile shot onto his face and before I knew was what happening he was holding my face between his hands and placing kisses all over it. Tears began seeping out of those heartbreaking eyes and I swear I almost freaked out, Ryder NEVER cries. What was happening. He hugged me then, burring his face in the crook of my neck against his claiming scar. “I thought I had lost you!!” He wailed in sobs.

Carefully I stroked his hair back over and over again, doing all I could to calm him down. “Why would you think that, sweetheart.” I said as loudly as I could, it was clear that my throat had been damage by all my screaming and all the smoke. Why would he think that though? Have I been unconscious for more then a night?

He lifted his head and littered my face with kisses once more. “Darling you have been asleep for a long time, I was worried about you.” He demanded, pushing some dirty hair off from my forehead.

I cracked a smile and looked up at him with a joking expression. Darren always overworked things, he was probably just being worried like a normal mate would. “How long, Darren.”

Darren actually blushed then, looking down at the floor and laughing off a little of his embarrassed. He was adorable, I would probably do the same thing if I had been in his situation. “Like…ten hours…The worst ten hours of my life!”

I rolled my eyes and laughed at him, which sent a fit of painful coughs through my chest. It felt like I was coughing up ash my throat was so dry. Not to mention every time I moved it felt like I was ripping off parts of my arm. It was clear that my skin was burnt to a crisp. Darren frowned and leaned forward to kiss my forehead lightly. As I looked over him I was surprised to find him in perfect condition, not even a single bruise. Thank god, I would feel terrible if he got hurt while trying to save me.

“Arg.” I groaned, clearing my throat a little bit. “Is everyone okay?” I rasped, trying to speak louder then I could. My throat felt like I was inhaling sandpaper, like every breath was a struggle to draw into my lungs. The smoke that I had inhaled during the fire had clearly done the most damage to my lungs at this point. Without a doubt I would either be wheezing with coughs for the next couple weeks, or I would be stuck with speaking as if I couldn’t speak at all.

Darren nodded a little and took my good hand into his own, bringing it up carefully to kiss each scraped knuckle. “Yes, Jay got Ryder out of there. I’m really pissed off that he didn’t go for you first though, if I hadn’t seen the fire from that hill when I did…”

I sucked in a rough breath and tried to clear my throat a little more. “They’re mates.”

Darren dropped my hand then and looked at me like I was insane. He knew that Ryder had the unfortunate experience of being mated to his sister. Gwen had been lucky enough to have two mates One whom she rejected as soon as she seen his disability, and then one mate whom she found to be worthy enough for her. It was clear to me that Darren never expected Ryder to have another mate, let alone someone who would actually accept him. Who cares if Jay was a guy, hell I wouldn’t have cared if Jay was human. Any one willing to accept and protect Ryder deserved to have him, and I would welcome them with open arms.

Darren brought his hand up to his hair so he could ruffle it through his fingers. “I’ve never seen two males mate in my pack. There have been woman who have been mates, but I have never had two men. It will be interesting to see how my best fighter will treat my best friend.”

I smiled at him then, glad that he seen what I had seen. He isn’t going to give Jay and Ryder hell for being mates, he is going to accept him. I’m proud to call Darren my mate, I half expected him to throw a fit about this. One thing I knew he would through a fit about was Ryder telling that man where Darren and I lived. That information I would need to protect until I found out more about the situation. At the moment though I just wanted for forget about my problems and curl up with my mate. Sadly I knew that if I even tried to move my singed arm I would be laying on the floor crying before I was laying in Darren’s arms.

“That does make me understand why he went for Ryder before you though, although it does piss me off that his decision could’ve killed you.” Darren growled a little, locking his beautiful eyes with mine. There were still filled with worry, but I could tell that he was ecstatic that I was alive at least. I can’t imagine what that would’ve been like, I don’t know if I would’ve been strong enough to save my love if he had been the one in the fire.

I smiled back at him, this time pulling his own hand to my lips. I pressed my dry lips to his soft, warm knuckles. “How did you find me?” I whispered against his soothing skin.

Darren winced then, pulling his hand back and looking at the floor. If I hadn’t known better I would’ve sworn I saw a couple tears escape his tear ducts. That just about broke my heart, I wanted to drag him back to me and press my lips to his. I wanted to do anything I could to make him feel loved again. I wanted to do anything I could to thank him for saving me, if I ever had any doubt of Darren ever loving me it was gone now. He risked his life to get me out of there.

“I was running the outskirts of the village when I seen a fire out of the corner of my eye. At first I didn’t think anything of it, I just assumed something had happened to one of the homes in the town, I have wolves assigned to take care of emergencies like that. So, I had decided to walk back into town to see what was happening.” He sucked in a breath and laid his head down on the side of my cot again, I felt his body shake a little bit and then I could clearly see the tears begin to seep out of his eyes. “I got to the outskirts of town and I seen it was our house, there were so many flames Rose! I couldn’t even tell it was our house any more, all I could see were the orange and red flames. Then I-…” He sniffled then. His tears coming out faster and heavier. “I heard you scream, no one had even attempted to get you out yet. They couldn’t find a way in. It took me all of a minute to burst into the house, I wasn’t going to let you die like that Rose. Nothing was going to stop me, I thought I was going to loose you for good.”

The rest of the day he spend every waking moment with me. He laughed when he told me some jokes and sometimes he would curl up into my side and fall asleep. We watched a few cartoon movies, something by the creator of Disney. We watched Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. At one point the doctor had come back in and checked on me. Because of werewolves having advanced healing my arm was starting to get to the point to were I could feel my fingers again. She told Darren that I could probably go home tomorrow, but that she wanted me to spend the night at the hospital just in case something else happened. Which didn’t really matter anyway, because we had no place to go even if I wanted to leave. All we have left now is the pack, which seemed like it would be enough to both Darren and myself. That night around six pm I asked Darren to go somewhere to get a shower. He needed one considering he was still covered in the charcoal from the fire. I also asked him to bring me something to eat, preferable something sweet. In all honesty I just wanted him to go see his aunt again, I knew she would be worried about the whole fire issue. Not to mention I believed that she would help Darren get over the national shock of loosing everything he owned.

After he left I found Ryder sneaking his way into my little white room. He had a brace on his wrist, and a couple burns on his face but other then that he looked unharmed. I welcomed him with open arms, hugged him and placed a kiss on his cheek. He bumped my arm at one point on accident but after I had cried out in pain he didn’t do it again. He nestled himself in Darren’s chair. I fell asleep with him there, mostly because Ryder didn’t say anything. He apologized for getting me into this position, but I didn’t blame him. He was already to guilty for it, I just told him that it wasn’t his fault. Then I waited, waited for me mate to return