Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter

Sophia’s mind briefly flitted to Scott, but her major concern was Neil. Neil was why her heart was thudding outside of her chest and she was gripped with a fear stronger than she had ever known when her own life was at risk. She knew at that moment that he was the most important thing to her in the world, other than Leo.

Even though Neil was unconscious, his pulse felt strong and steady. Sophia could feel it thumping against her feeling fingers against his throat. She tried to calm her breathing and steady her hands while she searched for bullet wounds again, just to make sure she hadn’t missed any under the dim lights when she’d checked earlier.

Not finding any, she did realize that Neil was still freaking armed! Why hadn’t she thought of taking his weapons off him earlier? It certainly would have made dragging and carrying him a hell of a lot easier before. Mentally giving herself a flat palm to her forehead, Sophia started to disarm him, one military-grade weapon at a time. She was careful when she took them, and even more careful when she lay them off to the side with her trembling hand.

Okay, what was she going to do again before he passed out right on top of her?

Oh right! Need to get his clothes off. How was she going to do that now? Scissors. All that was left for her to do now was to cut his clothes off.

Without thinking, and faster than she thought she was able to, Sophia ran to the kitchen for scissors; there was no way she’d be able to get his shirt over his head now, and much less get his pants off him. Plucking the scissors from the top drawer, where she knew the scissors were kept, she was making her way back to the bathroom in no time at all. She skidded back to Neil, still lying there exactly the way she had left him, and almost jabbed her own eye out when she made herself stop before she plowed right into him.

She started cutting his shirt off from the bottom to the top and immediately flung it open. Oh, oh my goddess, she thought. He had scratch wounds so deep that there was nothing left between the air and whatever organ, or bone would have been beneath it!

Gulping down a surge of bile that was rising to her throat, Sophia shifted her attention down to his pants. She cut it open straight up the legs of each. She was having a hard time keeping the total hysteria she felt at bay. She needed to pull her shit together. Now!

With a strength she didn’t even know she had, she pulled him into the bathroom, leaving a trail of blood where his body had dragged on the floor and carpets.

Neil moaned then, but as her eyes shot up to his face in hope that he’d regained consciousness, she felt her heart drop again when she saw that he didn’t. Think. Think. Think, Sophia.

She know that she still had to get him cleaned up, whether he was unconscious or not. So she instantly made her way to the shower and turned the water on. With a strength she didn’t know she still had. She quickly returned to Neil and found she was able to half lift and half drag him into the shower. He flopped on top of her and she grunted at the impact from his weight, but luckily she had a wall to support her at her back this time around.

The water sprayed down on both of them as she scurried out from under him and slowly sit him down there against the wall so she could at least clean the blood off him. The steady stream washed it away and she could see the wounds more clearly now. Please, please don’t let him die…

“Please!” she begged out loud. She looked at him and her tears mixed with the water and blood. How could he survive? she thought.

“Don’t you die on me, Neil. Don’t you fucking Die. I need you,” Sophia cried.

When most of the blood had been washed away, she turned the water off. She hopped out of the shower, feeling her back protest after carrying, dragging, and then hovering over him. Ignoring it, she grabbed the beach towel that was kept in the closet and tore it in half lengthwise, thankful that it ripped easily. She used the strips to bind the wounds on his chest. Blood seeped through the cotton, and she prayed with everything in her that the bleeding would stop. She tightened it a bit more.

Neil groaned and forced his eyes open. The pain he was in reflected in his eyes and her heart bled for him. She’d take this. She’d take all these wounds on herself if he would just be okay. “Where’s the fucking accelerated healing now?” she whispered under her breath.

“My leg,” he said so quietly she had to strain to hear him.

She glanced down and saw torn muscle flung outside of the gaping wound that ran the length of his thigh. Her eyes wide, she looked at him. There was no way in hell she could help, she thought.

“What do I do?”

“Kit–Scott’s bathroom.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sophia ran out not even a hundred percent sure what she was looking for. She entered Scott’s room at a dead run and slid into the bathroom. She flung Scotts cabinets open, one after the other until she saw an industrial first aid kit, grabbed it, and ran back to Neil.

She held it tightly against her chest as she sprinted, her lungs burning as they strained for air that wouldn’t come. Please make him still be alive, she thought.

Sophia could tell that her hands were shaking like a bobblehead stuck to the dash of a car speeding down a corrugated dirt road, and she was officially out of breath this time, from both exertion and hysterics. Adrenaline pumped through her veins so loud she could hear it resounding in her ear like the beat of a drum.

She noticed more blood pooled on the floor and seeped out from the sides of his leg. She choked back a cry.

Keep your shit together, she admonished herself.

“Soph,” Neil whispered.

She leaned forward so she could hear him better. She could tell he was struggling to stay conscious. She also knew sleep would be a reprieve from the pain, but a reprieve he may not wake up from.

“Put my muscle back–”

“What?” She said, sure that she had not heard him correctly.

“They’ll re-knit. But they have to be in there.”

She didn’t move. She didn’t even know how to do such a thing. She shook her head. Sophia was sure she had heard him wrong, but was too afraid to ask.

“Just put them in.”

He was growing weaker. She could hear it in his voice, but worse, she could see it in the pulse on his neck. It went from a slow but steady pulse to slow and erratic, and that scared the hell out of her. His skin was so pale, and the sockets under his eyes were dark.

“Now–Please–”

The desperation in his voice propelled her into action. She started pushing the outside stuff back inside where it belonged. Blood coated her hands and dripped from her fingertips. She wished her sense of smell wasn’t so strong. She could almost taste the metallic thickness of it and she gagged, not for the first time. Forcing herself to continue, she tried to be easy. She didn’t want to cause him more pain. When it was all shoved back inside, he weakly gripped her wrist.

“Stitch me closed. In the kit.”

“But–” she hesitated as she felt pure dread at the very thought of what he was asking her to do now. Surely a medical professional would be the best way! But at the same time, Sophia knew that she was all he got right now, so was just going to have to do what she could.

She flung the kit open to see what there was that she could use. She then spotted and pulled out that thing they use to hold the needle when it’s getting pushed through the skin, a pair of forceps, scissors, and packages that held sterilized needles and thread.

“Clean hands and legs.”

She tore open a sterilizing pad and grabbed his hand.

“Not mine. Yours.”

His eyes rolled back in his head and she thought for sure he was going to pass out again.

“Not now,” she begged.

She leaned over him, “Stay with me, Neil. I can’t do this without you. Stay with me.”

Annoyed with herself for wanting to clean his hands instead of her own, she forced herself to focus. She used every mental technique Scott had taught her to use to stay in the moment. It was for when she had found herself drifting off in class, but it was all she could think of to do to help her focus her mind now too.

She scrubbed her hands with a pink-red disinfectant solution in a bottle and then not thinking anything of it, she poured it directly on his leg.

He yelled and jerked his body against the pain. But moving at all caused additional pain and he breathed heavily trying to get through it. She could hear his teeth chatter and wondered if shock was kicking in. She watched him carefully, but for what signs, she wasn’t exactly sure. When he was able to speak again, she exhaled relief. He was still with her, she thought. He gave her the next step.

“Gloves.”

She put the gloves on.

“Use a driver to grab the needle–” Neil swallowed loudly, holding back a groan of pain most likely, before he was able to continue. “–and lock the clamp in place.”

She hoped like hell that she had been doing it right. She tried to remember what she knew from emergency first aid in Health class and things she saw on television when she was younger. She thought it was right, while at the same time wishing she had paid more attention in class where she knew they had shown them this before.

“Line up the edges– push the needle through the knot– do it until it’s closed,” he struggled to speak, but he made it clear enough.

She wasn’t doing it right. She knew she wasn’t doing it right. She winced when she forced it through his skin and out the other side. The first couple were hard because they kept trying to pull apart. She moved quicker, not concerned if it was neat or not.

Stitch after stitch she winced, while Neil just lay there with his eyes closed and his jaw clenched and she knew she was making it worse. But she was trying, and she was closing the wound so she hoped that would be enough.

“It’s closed… I think.”

Sweat had beaded on his head and temples. Sophia wiped it away.

“Clean again. Wrap tight,” he said through gritted teeth.

She used a sterile cloth and wiped the wound clean then got a bandage from the kit. She wrapped it around his thigh, trying to be careful she didn’t hurt him.

“Tighter.”

She pulled it tighter, and he held his breath. Her hands still trembled, and she was scared as shit, but she tried to listen.

“Up–”

“Up?”

“Bed.”

He couldn’t seem to get more than one syllable word out at a time now, and she worried, but she did notice the bleeding was slowing at least.

She got behind him and used her body and the support of the wall to wedge him up. She gasped for breath. He certainly wasn’t a small shifter. And she was most definitely not a strong female. But somehow, they did it together.

With everything she could put into it, she guided him to his feet taking most of his weight. She ducked under his arm and wrapped an arm around his waist. She knew every step they took was agonizing for him and she wanted to tell him to let it out, but she also knew that he would not, and he grit his teeth tighter.

When they got to the bed, she helped him down onto the mattress. When she stepped back, he grabbed her wrist and didn’t let go. Exhausted and emotionally drained, she curled up next to him on the bed, careful not to brush up against any wounds. He immediately fell asleep, at least she hoped it was sleep, but he didn’t let go of her arm.

She watched the rise and fall of his chest, trying not to think. Scott...she thought, nonetheless. Please make him be okay too...