Chapter 53: She’s strong!
Dax woke later Monday morning unable to move. She blinked a few times trying to bring the room into focus, but she could only clearly see the bed sheets, the pillow she wasn’t sleeping on and their hands. She was lying on her stomach with Kane’s heavy weight on top of her. His one arm was wrapped around her and she could feel his hand pressing into her abdomen while his other hand rested beside hers. Their legs were tangled together and she could feel his hot breath down her back. How did this happen? Usually she was lying on top of him, not the other way around. Then it all came back, they barely made it to the room before he took her on the floor, then again on the couch, and up against the bed till finally they landed on the bed. This is what happens when you deny a werewolf what he wants, he claims it over and over again, he told her repeatedly last night to never make that bet again, he never not wants to be able to touch her. A smile crossed her face. It was a good night, but now she needed to figure out how she was going to get out from underneath him so she could go to the bathroom. She tried to pull herself out, but that caused a little bit of pain to shoot through her back. She let that subside before she tried to wiggle her way out, but his grip on her tightened.
“Stop wiggling little mouse,” he grumbled into her shoulder blade.
“I have to pee, and you’re lying on top of me,” she said. He lifted his head up blinking a few times not fully registering what she said. But when he felt her moving beneath him, he gently rolled onto his side.
“Sorry, are you ok?” He was a little concerned that she took the full amount of his weight.
“Yes, I just really need to pee” he chuckled, as she scurried out of the bed and into the bathroom, her wolf tail swinging behind her causing a smile to cross his face, the girls had clipped it to a belly chain and he wouldn’t let her take it off. He claimed every inch of her last night, over and over again. It was a good night, looking at the state of their room, one that is worth repeating. Then he remembered the trail of clothes they left down the hallway starting at the top of the stairs where he caught her and his smile got bigger. Oh yes, one that is definitely worth repeating. He stretched out, thinking of what they really had to do today, the idea of taking her back to bed after the doctor’s appointment and staying there with her all day sounded tantalizing. When he heard the shower turn on in the bathroom, another idea popped into his head, no reason not to start the morning off right he thought. They would straighten the room out later. He got out of the bed and joined her in the bathroom, saving time he told himself.
45 minutes later, not sure how much time they saved in the bathroom, but it definitely started the morning off on a high note. He came out of the bathroom to her standing wearing a black bra and a pair of leggings with a skull and blue floral pattern going up one leg going through the bags of clothes she purchased from SAVAGE trying to find a shirt. Seeing her do this made him happy, she wasn’t avoiding her purchases this time, she just hadn’t gotten around to putting them away. She would get that chance today.
“What are you doing?” He asked, smiling, enjoying the view. Then he noticed the little purple marks all over her back.
“Trying to find a shirt,” she said with her back to him. This scene has played out before, the morning after he stumbled to her loft and drunkenly declared he wanted her and only her.
“Why?” He laughed, when she turned to face him, he saw more purple marks all over her body.
“Because I look like a flippin cheetah,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Maybe I got a little carried away,” he said laughing.
“A little carried away, you got a little carried away. You call this a little carried away? You marked me everywhere, thank goodness I have to wear pants. I have them on my ass and between my thighs.” This only made him laugh harder.
“I’m not sorry” he eyed the trail of them that led down to the hidden treasure under her pants.
“Don’t look at me like that” she huffed at him, he crossed over to her and pulled her into his arms, letting his hands caress her bottom.
“I’ll look at you however I want. You’re mine to look at. Now hurry up and find a shirt before I add a few more spots,” he squeezed her bottom firmly with both hands, releasing a low sensual growl. Her body shivered in his arms, making his smile grow bigger. He ran his hands up her sides to her neck, cradling her head in his hands, he started to massage the back of her neck. She melted into his touch, purring at the movements of his hands.
“That’s cheating!” She moaned when he hit a good spot lower on her neck.
“Playing an advantage, you’re less likely to throw things at me if you’re relaxed” he wished he could do her full back, he had a feeling she could use it.
“Mmmm” was all she could say to respond, enjoying the feeling of her muscles relaxing under his touch.
“As much as I would love to continue this little mouse, we have some place to be. We will pick this back up later” she whimpered when he stopped, and buried her face in his chest. He reached into the bag of clothes and pulled out a shirt he hadn’t seen.
“Desmond said he added a few things, maybe this one will hide your cheetah spots.” Kane said, giving it to her. It was a midnight blue button up shirt with a small collar, white stitching in the seams, two small breast pockets and a howling wolf on the back. Slipping it on he quickly did up the buttons then she stepped into the closet to grab her sneakers. When she came back out he was about to open the door.
“Did you forget something?” She asked, stopping him.
“No, don’t think so,” he said.
“Are you sure?” She asked again.
“Yes,” he said, double checking his pockets to make sure he had everything. She walked over to the couch and held up the ears and the tail.
“You’re not really going to make me wear those are you?” Kane said, eyeing them.
“If the roles were reversed I wouldn’t have gotten out of the bathroom without them on and you know that.” She walked over to him, turning him around so she could clip his tail on.
“Next time, we’re betting on something I can win and I’ll make you wear them for a month” he grumbled as she told him to get on his knees so she could pin the ears in his hair. He could hear Ky howling in his head. Shut up! Not a word from you!
“Aww puppy! You look so cute, if you’re a good boy maybe I’ll give you a tummy rub later” she teased. Not one fucking word! Sure thing….puppy! Fuck you, asshole!
They headed out of the bedroom, but stopped short when they saw the state of the hallway. Not only were clothes leading to the stairs, but they had knocked over both the tables that lined either side of the hallway breaking one and took a few of the pictures off the walls shattering a couple of the frames.
“Oops!” Was all he could say.
“I think we broke one of the doors,” she said,
“Johnny will be thrilled!” Kane replied,
“Do we have to tell him?” She asked, a small blush starting at the bridge of her nose. She started picking up the clothes as they passed them, her skirt, his vest, the collar he wore, her shirt, his pants. While she was doing that he fixed the furniture and cleaned up the broken frames and glass. When that was done they headed to the medical ward. He got looks from some of his pack members, but none dared to even chuckle at him let alone say anything when they passed by. A few even walked into doors they were so busy staring in their direction. That might have caused him to grin a bit. That’s a bit sadistic! Ky mused. Then they should watch where they’re walking! Cause a 7 foot man wearing wolf ears and a tail wouldn’t draw your attention! Not enough to walk into a door! What if it was a 5 foot goddess? That would probably make me walk into a door or two! What about if we dressed her up like a bunny? It would give puppy something to hunt! What about a kitty? Settle down Ky! Ok puppy! Cause you weren’t already thinking about it! Fuck!
Dax sat on the hospital bed in the exam room waiting for the doctor to show up. She was ready to be done with all this now. It had only been a few days, but she was ready to be done.
“Soon baby! Soon” he wrapped his arms around her. He knew she was done.
“I want….I would….I would like to go back to work Wednesday,” she said softly. He nodded his head, he also knew she was eager to start pulling her weight again and pitching in.
“We’ll see what the doctor says. If he gives you the all clear then I will take you, for a few hours. I don’t want you pushing yourself. Besides, we need to pick both a shower and a bath for the loft” he said. “And we’ll see when you can have a bath” she looked up at him.
“How di-“ she started to ask the question.
“I saw you look at the tub this morning, and I remember how excited you were the first time you had one in it. And maybe I want to rescue you out of it, or join you in it” he brushed the hair from her face.
“Or both?” She asked with a smile playing on her lips, he pressed his lips to hers.
“Or both!” He agreed with a smile.
The doctor entered the room flipping through her chart going over all his notes he had taken from the previous visit.
“Ok shal-“ his words stopped dead, when he saw the wolf ears on Kane. He closed his mouth and turned away for a couple of minutes to collect himself. She was trying to fight back a grin, but was epically failing.
“Ok let’s take a look” he said when he felt more collected. He examined the back of her hand and her palm.
“Good, the stitches will be ready to come out tomorrow in the back of your hand and the end of the week in the palm.” Not wanting to look at Kane for fear he’d break out laughing he spoke directly to her. Next he examined her cheek and her forehead, saying the stitches in her cheek would come out Friday as well. He also said he would take X-rays of her face, wrist and ribs on Friday. He checked her left eye, he wasn’t happy that the swelling hadn’t gone down as much as he would like and that he would schedule an eye appointment for Friday too. She removed her shirt while he was turned around and used it to cover herself so he could check the incision on her side and her back. Happy with how both were looking he said the stitches could come out the following Friday. He put on new dressings and turned around so she could redress.
“You are doing well, you’re healing exceptionally well and I don’t have any major concerns, aside from your left eye, how is the vision in it?” He asked.
“Not as dark, but still blurry” she said. He made a note of that in her file.
“Could be because the swelling hasn’t gone down much, we will know more on Friday” he assured her.
“Friday sounds like a busy day,” she said,
“Unfortunately yes, please eat first!” She smiled and nodded, he didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time she came to see him hungry, even Kane laughed.
“Any questions?” The doctor asked,
“When can she have a bath?” Kane asked.
“After the stitches in her back come out next Friday, she’ll be able to have one on Sunday,” the doctor answered.
“She also wants to go back to work on Wednesday,” Kane said. This seemed to alarm him a bit, he hesitated in answering, though she was physically fine and healing well, he couldn’t speak for her mentally.
“I can not stress this enough, take it extremely easy, three to four hours max, a few days a week and absolutely nothing strenuous, both physically or….mentally” the doctor asserted. That didn’t sit right with Kane, what was he not saying.
“Stay here baby, I need to talk to the doctor for a second” Kane motioned for the doctor to step into the hallway, he wanted to know what the doctor was holding back.
Closing the door behind them, Kane turned towards the doctor
“Mentally as in emotionally, nothing strenuous on an emotional level?” Kane more asked,
“Nothing at all!” He confirmed,
“Is there a problem? You said her scan came back fine” Kane asked, starting to get upset.
“From what we could see her scan did come back clean for disease or injury. But after what I witnessed on Saturday, it took its toll on her. It’s in my opinion she doesn’t have it in her mentally or physically to go through another attack like that. It assaulted every aspect of her body and how she’s still standing and functioning is beyond me, I have not come up with one explanation of how or why. Alpha Kane with all due respect, she should have died, a normal human would have died, as exceptional as she is, they are not built for that kind of total body assault.” Kane could see the doctor struggling with trying to explain what happened.
“She’s strong!” Kane said,
“Stronger than she should be, but everyone has their breaking point” The doctor said. “I would like to perform another PET scan on Friday, some time has passed. I want to gauge her emotional responses to certain situations. It would help if you could find something that is connected to her on emotional levels.” He added.
“She has no control over her memories, what if you trigger one?” Kane asked, this upset him, he was just told to keep her emotionally stable and now the doctor wants to set her off.
“That is not my intention, I want to see how she processes emotion, from the scan we’ll be able to see if we trigger something, and I will shut it down immediately. If she goes through another attack like that I don’t know if she’ll come back from it.” The doctor said, Kane didn’t like this, but the doctor was right, it would help, he nodded his head. The doctor bowed and walked away. Fuck! The day started off on a high note.
When Kane walked back into the room, Dax looked up at him. His shoulders were tense and she saw something pass over his face when he looked at her.
“Is everything ok?” She asked,
“It’s fine” he hesitated before answering her, he didn’t think it was in her best interest to know what the doctor said.
“Ok, but that’s not your fine face,” she said, watching him.
“No?” He arched his eyebrow at her.
“No, it’s your slightly mad and upset face” he moved across the room and stood in front of her.
“I have faces?” He asked,
“Yes! Many faces” she answered, tracing the features of his face with the tips of her fingers, visibly relaxing at her touch and leaning into her, he pressed his forehead to hers.
“He said I’m broken, didn’t he?” She said, trailing her fingers down the sides of his face. He took her hands in his and kissed her finger tips.
“He doesn’t understand. Humans aren’t built to go through what you do when a memory comes back. You are stronger than you should be, but he’s concerned that it’s taking a toll on you, both mentally and physically. Everyone has a breaking point.” He saw confusion cross her face. Dax didn’t understand, she felt fine.
“But, I feel ok!” He gathered her in his arms and held her tight to him.
“I know baby! Let’s keep it that way, we’ll take it easy and listen to the doctor, nothing strenuous.” He kissed her head,
“So no more crashing sexcapades down the hallway?” She asked, earning her a laugh.
“He said take it easy, but let’s not go crazy. And that was not entirely my fault, some little temptation tested the limits of my control.” He lifted her chin and brushed his lips across hers.
“Who did that?” She asked as a smile spread across her lips.
“She’s a 4 foot 11….” Kane started to say before she corrected him.
“4 foot 11 and a half” Dax reminded him. Every little bit counted.
“Right, 4 foot 11 and a half little firecracker with a sexy little mouth, and I’m the lucky bastard that gets to call her mine” the blush started at the bridge of her nose, he pressed his lips to hers, gently at first, but became more demanding as the kiss went on. When it broke, her face was redder.
“If we don’t get out of here, I’m going to be tempted to see how red I can make you go, and I still have to meet up with Johnny and Damon for an hour in the office. Why don’t you go back to the room and start putting away some of your new clothes and I will bring us up some breakfast and I won’t forget the pancakes” she smiled up at him and nodded her head, spending the day in bed sounded good to her.
Walking into the office, Kane couldn’t help but grin, in both the chairs across from his desk sat Johnny and Damon. They were both wearing the ears and he knew they had the tails on as well.
“You’re fucking lucky you’re wearing them. I would have been pissed if you weren’t” Johnny said when he looked at him.
“Someone wouldn’t let me forget,” Kane replied, sitting in his office chair.
“You need to stop playing games with that girl.” Johnny huffed, “Or at least win some. Lacey’s been ridiculing me all morning”
“How was the doc’s?” Damon asked laughing,
“She’s healing fine, more stitches can come out tomorrow, and he said she can return to work on Wednesday.” Kane replied. Both Johnny and Damon looked at each other and then at him. Neither thought that was a good idea, considering what she just went through.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Johnny asked,
“She is to be on modified duties, a few hours a day, a couple days a week. Nothing strenuous at all, in any capacity!” Kane replied emphasizing nothing and judging by the look on Kane’s face they were wondering what else the doctor said.
“What else did the doctor say?” Damon asked, Kane thought about the best way to answer that question.
“She should be dead!” He decided the direct approach was the best one.
“Whoa! What?” Both Johnny and Damon looked at each other then at him.
“Humans aren’t built to go through what she does when she has an incident. After what he witnessed on Saturday he doesn’t understand how she’s still functioning. He called it a total body assault, and he doesn’t believe she could survive another one. So no strenuous activity of any kind mentally, emotionally or physically.” Kane explained,
“But she’s strong!” Johnny said, looking at him.
“But even the strongest of us has a breaking point. He thinks her incidents are pushing her towards it, he wants to perform another scan to gauge her emotional responses to certain situations” Kane replied,
“But she doesn’t have control over them, what if he sets one off?” Damon asked, concern started growing in him, maybe he caused this when he let her go that night.
“I don’t know, but she’ll have to take it easy for the time being.” Kane said,
“Did I….did I do this?” It would kill him if he was the reason, that was his sister he would never do anything to hurt her.
“No, I think you doing what you did is the reason she’s still here.”
“What did she say?” Damon asked, his voice a little gruff as he fought to control his emotions.
“She says she feels fine, but I didn’t tell her all of what the doctor said, just that he was concerned.” Kane answered,
“You didn’t tell her?” Damon asked wide eyed,
“What’s he supposed to say, Damon? I’m sorry darling but your crazy little brain is trying to kill you, can we maybe dial it back a bit and tune in some normal” Johnny looked at him, he was upset it was written all over his face.
“Well maybe not call her crazy, maybe say her freaky little brain” Damon suggested,
“There has to be a way to figure out what triggers her memories.” Johnny said. Kane thought about that, Johnny was right, there had to be a way.
“Speaking of freaky, did you hear about what happened in the office while you were getting freaky in the woods?” Damon asked Johnny, when he shook his head Damon proceeded to tell him about her, her trance-like state, the ballerina on the folder and sending Kenneth to the ballet.
“She didn’t even know she drew it?” Johnny asked,
“Nope, no recollection of it at all, both Kane and I watched her draw it” Damon said, Kane could only nod he had no explanation for what happened the other night.
“And she sent Kenneth to the ballet after drawing it?” Johnny looked at him.
“Yup, when I asked her why she did that, she had no clue, just that it was important” Damon answered,
“Well Kenneth does like dancers,” Johnny said, shrugging his shoulders.
“You don’t think she sent him to find his mate do you?” Damon looked at Johnny.
“Why not? Second chance or not she’s the reason you found yours!” Johnny said, shrugging again.
“Well yeah, but that was weird enough. She stood there then said if I didn’t go into the store with her she was gonna walk right out the back door” Damon said,
“She wouldn’t have done it” Kane said, he was quiet up till that point listening to them converse.
“She wouldn’t have done anything that would interfere with you getting the third in command position, it was important to you, so she made it important to her. She would have just found a different way to get you in the store. But it was paramount that you go in there so she said the one thing that she knew would get you in there the first time, just like it was important that Kenneth go to the ballet and he went because she asked him too.” Kane said. Are we done yet? I want our mate, and she wants her pancakes! Ky whined in his head. Little bit longer! No, now! Patience! I have none! You’re telling me! Fuck you! You’re a fine one to talk. You damn near had her naked in the limo! The ride home played over in his mind, he damn near did take her in the limo, and if she hadn’t gotten away from him he would have had her on the second floor as well.
“She could have asked me,” Damon said,
“And when you asked why and she didn’t have an answer?” Kane looked at him.
“We would have gotten into an argument on the sidewalk like children and she would have gone in alone” Damon replied,
“And you could have missed your chance,” Kane remarked.
“Where is she now?” Johnny asked,
“Upstairs putting away all her new clothes and probably wondering where I am with her pancakes.” Kane smiled at that, he got up from his seat and started to move out of the office.
“What about tomorrow?” Damon asked, though Kane didn’t think she should go with them, just in case but he doubted she would stay behind, especially after he said she could.
“You talk her into staying behind, I don’t want anything thrown at me” Kane replied, causing Johnny to laugh. The rest of Monday they spent in their room, either in the bed or on the couch watching movies. Though she tried not to talk through them, it didn’t work out well.