Cherish Me, Daddy
Six days since Luke dragged a coughing, smoke-choked Eli out of the wreckage of Elric's cabin, and six days since Luke had simply… appeared in my penthouse, claiming he needed a break from his own pack.
I stood in the doorway of my bedroom, the one Eli still hadn’t been permitted to leave. He was curled on his side, the rise and fall of his chest shallow, his face pale against the dark sheets. The doctors’ words echoed: lung damage, scarring from particulate inhalation, recovery will be slow. Every time he coughed... a wet, ragged sound that seemed to tear him from the inside... my fists would clench so tight the bones in my knuckles threatened to splinter.