All or Nothing

Mya groaned, resisting opening her eyes for as long as she could. Even with them closed, the light from beside her was burning into them. Her throat felt raw, head pounding, but she realized it felt nothing compared to the way her leg felt. Her limbs were heavy, and she could do little else but open her eyes, looking around.

Harley sat in the high back chair in the corner of her room, reading and occasionally glancing at the bedroom door. It took her a moment to look over and see that Mya was awake. She jumped to her feet, moving so quickly her loose, purple skirt ended up tangled around her feet.

She caught herself, sliding onto the bed next to Mya and offering her a glass of water, a jumble of pills in her other hand. Much as she wanted to resist, Mya knew she would feel better after she took them.

“How do you feel?” Harley asked, once Mya had finished with them. She ran a finger through the alpha’s hair, toying with the strands.

“Like death,” Mya admitted. “Everything hurts, and my leg…”

“Yeah, you’re leg,” Harley said, wincing. “You’re pretty ok,” she added quickly when Mya’s eyes widened, “but you’re not walking for at least another day.”

“Another? What? How long was I asleep?” she demanded, furious. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“Mya, stop,” Harley told her, eyes narrowed. “Raven saw everything, she was screaming at you two to stop but neither of you were listening. You started it.”

“Yeah, well I’ll finish it too,” she snapped, shoving Harley away from her and kicking her legs over the side of the bed. Everything hurt as it was, she figured she might as well just have one healing to get over, instead of a few if she tried to do this fight in stages.

“Mya- shit,” Harley cursed, sliding over the bed to help catch her when her knees buckled, a gasp of pain ripping out of her.

“Ow,” she whimpered when Harley pulled her legs back into bed.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” she told her, annoyed. Mya glared at her, not appreciating the tone, but figured she had little choice but to listen. “Luka bit you, he got all the way into your muscle. Raven already cleaned it, and it’s healing well. You’ve been asleep for about four hours, its about ten at night. Raven had something she put in you, said it would knock you out for a little while.”

“Great.”

“Mya,” Harley spoke up again, and she could tell by her tone of voice that a lecture was coming. “You attacked him. I understand you were angry, but you’ve been doing so much better. You haven’t gone off like that in months.”

“Haven’t had a reason,” Mya grumbled, thinking back to the last time. Poor wolf hadn’t stood a chance, but Mya had still broken her hand proving that to him. “How’s Luka,” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“Not that you actually care,” Harley said, laughing, “but he’s ok. I don’t know how you got hurt so bad, when he was the one who was almost choked out from what Raven said, but he’s bruised up, and sore. Looks like someone tried to hang him the way his neck looks, and he’s scratched up.”

“I was winning,” Mya said, confused. She knew she was. Why was she in such worse shape?

“Yeah, well I guess you two fight different. You’re a stealthy little thing, and he’s brute force.”

“I’ll do better next time,” Mya grumbled, throwing her head back onto the pillow. The motion made her groan as it reignited her headache, dizzying her for a moment.

“There shouldn’t be a next time,” Harley pointed out. “Luka asked us to tell him when you wake up. He doesn’t know how bad you’re hurt; figured we’d give you a little dignity.”

Mya glared at her, managing enough of an angle to slam a punch into her arm. Harley only laughed at her, ruffling her hair again and standing up.

“I’m going to let Luka know, and he’s going to come in. Please, please talk to him?” Harley pleaded. “Things have been going well. We need each other, and he is your chance to have James’ head on a pike.” Mya nodded, knowing she was right. They had to make this work. She had been doing well, had been moving past the flashbacks and burning anger, but one reminder of the pack and it was as if the past few months had never happened. She was an alpha, and she was stronger than this.

Just as promised, it was only minutes after Harley left that there was a knock on her door. Luka walked in before she could invite him. Mya wondered just how bad she looked, because the moment Luka saw her he winced, glancing away.

“Harley said you were awake,” Luka told her, shrugging. “She didn’t mention all that though,” he waved his hand at her, still not quite meeting her eyes. “I’m sorry Mya. I shouldn’t have pushed you. Whatever happened between you and that pack is on you.”

“But?” Mya asked, hearing the hesitation in his tone.

“But I’m worried for my pack. I am genuinely concerned about what would happen if you were to be face to face with them. It’s not just my pack either,” he admitted. “We’ve, I’ve,” he corrected, “have grown fond of you, and your girls. I’m not looking for any of us to get hurt.”

“You realize that’s an impossible goal, don’t you?” she asked, letting her head rest on the pillow, eyes on the ceiling. Holding her neck up was too much at the moment.

“I know it will be hard but-“

“No, Luka,” she corrected him. “We are getting hurt attacking him. There’s no way around it. We’ll be lucky if we all survive it.”

“We can keep training. I’m not willing to accept that Mya.”

“Then you’re with the wrong pack,” she said, shrugging and pulling her blankets up farther around her. “Luka, you don’t know how their pack works. You can’t possibly understand. What you do need to understand, however, is that when we go in, I am not leaving until either he or I is dead.”

Luka frowned, sitting on the very edge of the bed. He didn’t answer, instead watching Mya, head tilted ever so slightly to the side. She tried to hold eye contact but gave up when it became to much effort, rolling onto her side so that she could still see him. Moving her leg made her gasp, but she tried to quiet herself.

The way his eyebrows pulled together made her think he noticed though. He pulled in a slow breath, amber eyes watching every move she made. It made Mya nervous, feeling so vulnerable with him still half a wolf. He had more than a slight advantage over her.

“I’m not looking to attack,” Luka assured her, giving her a crooked. She wondered, looking at him, when he had been turned. He was strong, powerful, and he gave no indication of there having ever been a time when he was human. But then, there were these moments, when his eyes softened and his smile light up his entire being. He looked almost as young as Micah then.

Mya nodded, letting him scoot higher up the bed so that he was sitting by her torso. He kept his eyes on her as he moved his hands up to her comforter, gripping onto it to pull it down. She waited, too curious to stop him as he shifted until her comforter was by her feet.

His fingertips were rough as he ran a finger over her thigh, and when his sleeve pulled up slightly she could see bruises encircling his wrist. She couldn’t help the satisfaction, looking more closely and seeing another on his cheek, just hidden by his hair.

She let out a hiss as his hand touched farther in, and she realized just where he must have bitten her. Mya forced herself to take a deep breath, trying not to react to the pain as he traced the wound with his finger. She looked down and winced, seeing how red the flesh still was.

“Trust me?” Luka pleaded, tilting his eyes up to meet her own just enough to see her nod. He brought his own wrist to his hand and ran it along his teeth, opening a small cut there. He brought his other hand up to squeeze at his forearm, drawing more blood until there was enough hat it was dripping off onto her leg.

Luka brought his fingers on either side of the bite, pulling it farther open with a quiet apology, before tilting her arm. Mya watched, speechless, as he let the blood drip into her wound, immediately feeling relief spread through her. It felt as though he had number it completely.

He swiped a finger across the cut as it stopped bleeding, cleaning the remaining bits of wet blood, and brushed it across the edges of the bite. It felt so good, for the pain to no longer be noticeable and she let her eyes drift closed, ready to go back to sleep.

When the bed shifted, she expected that was leaving instead but instead he pulled the comforter back up, wrapping it around her. The bed squeaked again as he sat down, running his fingers through her hair. Later, Mya told herself. Later would be the time to be annoyed about the liberties he had taken just now, and continued to take by toying with her hair. But right now, it felt just as good as when Harley did it. And right now, all she wanted was sleep.