•~Chapter 4~•

The sound of ringing filled my ears as I slowly rouse awake. I blink, a bit disoriented just as different sounds popped back into my ears. I moved to stand but the searing pain that shot through my body caused me to yelp. Memories of what happened filtered quickly into my head.

'Dylan and his band of pachyderms.'

I groaned and made another attempt to stand by holding on to the armrest of the couch and succeeded after my third try. I sighed, blinking away the dark spots scattered in my vision and upon glancing down, I saw something, dark red on the carpet. 

It was blood. My blood.

Grunting, I limped all the way to my room, taking a bit longer as I gently trudge down the stairs, taking extra care on my right angle, 'I think one of them deliberately stepped on it.'

I pushed the door open and close it behind me, silent Lee grateful that Theo and the others were sent to a nearby town to purchase something alpha ordered him to. 

I limped towards my bathroom, using the sink as my leverage to balance myself before looking up. I growled, furious upon seeing what they had done.

'They really did a number on me this time.'

Bruises littered my face, my lip busted back open and I could feel my ribs healing already, which was a good sign. Added to that, I was sporting and massive headache and try to take off my shirt. 

Key word: tried.

After almost 10 agonizing minutes, I was able to rid myself of all my clothes and what I saw made me grimace. New blue-purplish contusions joined my old ones. 

I snorted, you'd think I'm a Dalmatian because of these spots. There was so much during blood or the side of my cheek that I can barely move for even twitch my lip. I winced as I stepped into the shower, flinching at the first contact of the water but relaxed later on.

I took my time cleaning up, being gentle and light with my wounds and wrapped a towel around my waist when I finished and moved to the sink to brush my teeth. Of course, I hissed when the toothpaste came in contact with the cut.

"Zannicus?" Axar hesitantly called out just as I rinsed my toothbrush.

"Hey, are you okay?" I replied.

"Are you serious?" I paused, seeing the look of disbelief and exasperation on his face.

"You're the one in pain yet you are asking me if I'm okay?"

"I just wanted to check on you," I chuckled softly, setting my brush down.

Axar sighed, "I tried healing you as much as I could but I got tired. If only you'd seen yourself before you woke up. You were way worse yhan you are now."

"Really?"

He nodded as I leaned against the sink, "It's okay. I can your exhaustion. That's why I asked if you were fine and don't worry about healing me. Don't push yourself. I'm sure by tomorrow all the pain will subside."

He nods again, "Alright. Now go in and get dressed then rest. It's a good thing Alpha isn't here as it is mid-afternoon now."

I snorted softly in agreement, "Yeah, good thing."

I finished my business and tiredly walked back into my bedroom, grateful that my ankle was on its way of healing completely.

I flicked the lights on and my heart almost out of my throat upon seeing a figure looking like the Grinch sitting on my bed, "SWEET MOTHER OF NATURE! VERONICA!!!"

She smiled apologetically, "Sorry Z."

She was sat at very edge of my bed with my blood stained shirt in her hand, "You scared me."

I glanced to my left only to scream, and I swear, this time I think my soul left me for a minutes, "D*mn it Nicholai!"

Nic smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his neck, "Sorry."

"Why are you guys suddenly appearing out of nowhere? How do you do that? Do you want me to die of a heart attack?"

Nic chuckled as Nica fake gasped, a hand to her chest, "We would never kill our best friend. At least not that simple. If we wanted to, we would've kidnapped you, sneak you into the woods and bury you alive."

Nic and I blinked owlishly at her before bursting into laughter, 'Im glad they're here.'

"What brought you guys here?"

"Well, we were about to ask you something when we smelled blood upstairs and followed it fown here only to find this," She held up my shirt.

I looked away, "Oh."

"Oh?" She echoed, "That's it?" She cocked a brow as I sighed tiredly.

"What happened?" Nic asked as he scanned my bruises, his eyes narrowing slightly at my right ankle. I was about to ask how they knew about my bruises whenever member that I was still in my towel. 

They stared at the me, waiting and I moved to speak but, "And don't you dare tryto tell us tgat you ran into a pole or burned yourself with a curling iron- because you don't even use one -or something!" She pointed a finger at me, "You're terrible at lying." I pouted, grumbling about how they knew and sat beside her.

Before I could even begin my story, Nica interrupted with a 'Wait!' before grabbing her bag and threw a large bag of kisses my way and a bag of Hershey's to Nic whose eyes sparkled while drooled and hug Nica happily.

She grabbed her own bag of sweets then gestured me to begin. 

When I was done, I munched on my 12th piece of chocolate and looked up to find blank expressions adorning their faces as silence reigned in for a minute.

'3...2...1.'

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" I flinched away and watched in horror as she squeezed her hands, crushing the sweets in the process and I pulled my kisses to my chest. Her face was red, green eyes alight with anger while Nic was seething beside her.

"If he wasn't my Alpha, I would've strangled him to death!"

My eyes widened at Nic's remark, hastily listening around if there was anyone nearby who might've heard lest we'd be punished for it.

"They bully you at every chance get huh? Especially Dylan and his pack of skunk-smelling, deformed tits, bleached assholes of mutts- you know what? I'M GOING TO THEIR ROOMS RIGHT NOW, RIP THEIR LIMBS OFF AND MAKE THEM CHOOSE THEIR OWN FUNERAL SONG BECAUSE I'LL BE MAULING THEM TO DEATH!!"

Nic and I scrambled up from our positions and held her back which was a bit difficult since she's as strong as Nic and both of them are amongst the top warriors. I hugged her to me, rocking her while Nic patted her hands.

We managed to coerce her to sit back down as she took the time to calm herself. I waited a few beats, "You good my mama bear?"

She sighed loudly, "Yeah, all good. It's just-...I wish you'd fight back. Throw a punch, burn their asses off or something!"

"Yeah Z," Nic spoke, "We hate seeing you like this. Not only it hurts you, it hurts us too. And knowing we could something to help but unabke to because of Alpha's walking CCTV cameras," He rolled his eyes, puffing out a breath, "I'm almost at my limit. I mean, just a little more and I'll commit murder!"

"I know, and I'm sorry. I don't mean to worry you but you two know the consequences if I ever so much as lift a finger. I'm also terrified at the prospect of accidentally revealing Axar and my powers. That's why I'm not taking any risk. I didn't get to run last night nor was I able to practice due to my condition."

"Why don't you run now?" Nic asked but before I could answer, Nica slapped him upside the head eliciting a yelp, "Ow!"

"St*pid! Can't you see he's hurt?! How is he supposed to run in this state?!" She pointed at me as Nic pouted.

I chuckled, "Maybe tomorrow. Axar and I are exhausted."

"Okay," They nodded and a comfortable silence stretched over us before back but I was still in my towel.

I stood up to grab some clothes and quickly changed in, I don't mind if they're here, nudity is not an issue amongst us werewolves, "By the way, what were you going to ask me about?"

"Oh!" Nica looked up from her pouting at her crushed sweets, "Well, will you be staying tomorrow? Or stay here in your room?" She asked cautiously and I knew what she was referring to.

I discarded my towel, "Yeah, I'm staying."

"Are you sure?" Nic asked in a no-nonsense tone.

"Yes. Besides, I've been waiting for it for far too long and I just want to get it over with. I've long grown accustomed to the pain whenever he beds someone who isn't me. And I'd rather spend the eternity alone but free rather than be with someone who's supposed to 'take care of me' when he's actually the one who's s been hurting me."

They were silent so I turned to dinner to find her staring at me with sympathy. I sighed and shrugged at them, "Oh come on you too. You know I can handle it. I've been preparing for it since the moment I realized he's my mate."

"It's just-" Nica fiddled with her nails, "Of all the wolves in the world, Ronan's the one you've beeb paired with. Your own bully! The one who started it all!" I just smiled sadly at her.

"Well," Nic rolled the empty pack of his Hershey's and dumped it in Nica's bag who glared at him, "If he rejects you, we'll be there. He is no idea how incredibly lucky he is to have you as his intended. It'll be his loss and someone else's gain."

"Yeah. Heck, if you were my mate, I would take you. No hesitation!"

I smiled, eternally grateful to the moon goddess for gifting me with such good friends who were adorably protective of me. They have wild imagination and are wild themselves, if they're around the people that they are comfortable with, and they care for me as I do for them.

They always know what tp say and do and I would protect him with my life. 

"Thanks you two. I'm so happy to have you in my life," I pulled them in for a hug.

"Yes, cause without us, your life would be boring and empty~" Nic said, nuzzling into my neck as we laughed, "Zannie, three days from now, you'll be eighteen. I was thinking, can we run with you? Please? It's been a while since we last ran together."

"Do you guys have to ask?" Nica squealed while Nic clapped rapidly resembling to that of a seal, "I can't exactly spend my birthday alone and you two must be tired from your training so why don't we curl up in my bed?"

"Yes!" Nica exclaimed before jumping on my bed.

"And we know you're tired too. We'll spend the night with you and the three of us will hang out all day tomorrow," Nic suddenly picked me up bridal style, making me laugh, and then threw me ontop of Nica who squealed.

"Let's eat these sweets until we're pooping rainbows and watch Smallville, yeah?" Nica pulled out her laptop as Nic and I screamed 'Yes!'.

"Tom Welling is such an eye candy," I said and laughed as Nic jumped on me.

"I'm more attracted to Mark Rosenbaum, he's the best Lex Luthor and sexy as f*ck!" Nica and I laughed in surprise while Nic waggled his eyebrows, biting his lip.

We'll enjoy the rest of this day and night before facing tomorrow. As soon as we all got comfortable, after Nic dashed upstairs to grab a jug of water and three glasses, Nica started the movie.

'I have to brace myself tomorrow.'

"I'll be right there with you Zannie," Axar whispered, making me smile.

Yes. We can do this, we'll get through this together.