POV - Kyas
The hospital doors opened and Papa came in, looked around and spotted me in a different room than usual. He approached the doorway.
"Why do I keep finding you covered in blood, son? This is seriously becoming a bad habit." He said softly.
Surprised, I took a look at myself. I had blood from my head wound all down one side of my shirt, and separate places where I had held Ember to me. I… hadn't noticed. I'd been focused on her.
I gave Papa a small smile. "Does it help that most of it isn't mine, and I didn't beat anybody up this time?"
He returned the smile. "There is that." He indicated my cut. "You ok?"
I nodded. I knew he wanted an explanation. "She was being hurt, he was beating her again. He was killing her this time. I talked him down, but when I picked her up to come here, he got mad and threw his bourbon bottle at me. He was about to take her from me, but he tripped and fell, and hit his head on the table. I took her and left, told the doctors about him to get him help."
Talking about him, I asked Papa if Roy had been brought in yet. Papa shook his head. "He didn't survive the fall, Kyas. He was too drunk, and his wolf was almost dead itself, so he couldn'theal him."
"Kyas, what do you mean about him beating her again? You knew he had done this before?" Papa asked.
I nodded. "Elias, Chaos, and I have known Ember since I got here, since she was six, but I have actually never met her. Her father has always done that." I said.
He looked confused. "Why didn't you say something? Do something? If you knew he was hurting his daughter."
"He said "daughter", he meant pack slave. I learned the hard way not to get between a master and his slaves." I said.
Papa opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it and then stopped.
"We made it better for her though, Chaos and me." I said, watching her as she slept. "We took her lunch every day for school, and walked her to and from home. We stopped other kids at school from bullying her, she didn't need that on top of everything else. When we found her hurt, we did what we could to ease it. I didn't have anyone when it was me, so I made sure that she had us. I made sure she knew she wasn't alone."
I kept tracing the hand I held, and kept watching her face, waiting to see when she woke up. I moved a strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
"You took her lunch every day? Is that why Chaos kept stealing Elias' lunch until he got his own?" he asked.
I nodded. "We never ate a single one - they were all for her. Masters like to starve pack slaves, to keep them weak. We helped her stay strong. He beat her once for keeping a bit for dinner, but he couldn't stop us from doing it."
It finally registered what he had said. I pulled my eyes from her face and looked at him. "Her father's dead?" I asked.
Papa nodded.
"What happens to her now?" I asked, concerned.
"First we have to track down any relatives that may be able or willing to take her on. If we don't find any, we'll see if any family in the pack will take her in, and if there's no one willing to do that, she'll live in the packhouse." Papa said.
"I don't know if she has any other family, but I know her mother and grandma are gone. If there are any other family, we need to make sure she won't stay a pack slave to them." I said.
Again, Papa started to say something, but stopped.
"How did you know to go to her tonight?" Papa asked.
I touched my chest, where her bond pierced my heart. "Her bond changed, and suddenly I could feel that she was being hurt, that her life was in danger. I've never felt a bond this strong, especially since I never physically met her."
Papa nodded. "You gonna stay with her then?"
I nodded. "Until she wakes up or the sun rises."
A few hours before sunrise, she stirred, cautiously flexing her limbs. Assessing the damage. She raised her hands, and I let go of the one I held. The heartbond pain had eased quite a bit, the longer I held her hand. It still increased a little bit, but not nearly as bad as it had been.
I sat back so I didn't freak her out by being too close. She opened her eyes and looked around panicking a bit about being in an unfamiliar place. Her eyes met mine… and my world shifted. Chaos shouted 'MATE!' from my mind and the heart bond snapped, locked into place, an official personal bond, straight through my heart.
I gasped. Oh. Matebond. I turned seventeen today.
"Elias?" she asked.
"Uh, no, I'm Kyas. Elias is my brother." I said.
"I didn't know Elias had a brother."
"Well, you know my wolf, Chaos. I have to stay inside him when it's not a full moon." I explained.
"How come?" she asked.
"I was a pack slave too, when I was small. The masters experimented on us and they did a binding on me - to stop my wolf from coming out, but Chaos got out before they finished and we're stuck like that." I explained.
"Oh." she said.