Chapter 23: Chapter 23

Soren was spiralling. The lack of sleep and lack of things to do were sending her down a hole she wasn’t sure she could pull herself out of. James was no better; the cabin was silent virtually all the time. Other than asking her if she was hungry, or helping her change her bandages, their communication was almost non-existent, until eventually it ceased all together.

The bond that had been so strong between them from the start had begun to crumble, leaving James and his wolf with an incomplete almost empty feeling where there had once been extreme joy. It took Matt coming over to check on the status of Soren and to ask for some help with some paper work, for things to start to turn around.

Matt was appalled at the sight of the house that had once been full of James’ happy atmosphere. From the outside the little cabin looked uninhabited, no lights were on and no movement could be seen from within. When he knocked on the door there was no sound of shuffling feet or any movement at all. Knowing both James and Soren were home, he grabbed the handle of the house, surprised when the door opened with zero resistance, it had been unlocked.

Stepping into the house was like walking into a whole new home, only it wasn’t a positive change. It smelt like mothballs, and when he walked in to the living room, the smell of whiskey assaulted his nose.

James was on the couch facing the fire, drink in hand. Matt swore under his breath, James wasn’t big on drinking, he had never liked the feeling of not being in control of his senses, and yet here he was with a glass in hand. The bottle of the amber liquid sat on the table in front of him, and yet again Matt swore as he noted its almost empty state. That didn’t bode well for the wellbeing of either of the members of the household.

Ignoring James for the moment, he took the stairs two at a time. In the bedroom sat Soren still in her chair, only she was by the window, and it didn’t look like she had left the spot in a long time. Matt couldn’t tell whether she was ignoring him, or if she genuinely didn’t know he was in the room, it didn’t take him long to figure out that the latter was probably the case. Standing next to her, he could see the way her eyes glazed over, staring at the sky but at the same time, staring at nothing.

Pulling out his phone Matt did the only thing he could think of, he called Margot,

“I need you to get over here as fast as you can, its worse than we thought.” His mate swore, and Matt had to contain his amusement at the imaginative expletives that filtered their way through the phone. He knew she would come as soon as she could, she loved Soren like more than a friend, they were sisters in Margot’s eyes, and that meant she would drop anything to help her. Matt could hear as his mate rushed around the house, demanding to know where he had put his car keys. Soon enough he could he the rumble of the truck as it started, and he hung up, relieved to know that his mate was on her way to help regulate the situation.

Descending the stairs, he hauled James to his feet, despite the low murmur of complaint that slurred through his lips. Pulling him out of the house Matt through him on the front lawn,

“Get up you piece of shit!” He yelled at the pile of limbs that was his best friend.

James didn’t move. Pinching his nose between two fingers, Matt let out a long breath, he was Alpha of a large and busy pack, he didn’t have time to be babysitting his best friend and beta. Yet he would, because Matt loved James like a brother, and when family needed help, there was no excuse not to be there for them.

Running inside, he resorted to drastic measures. Filling the pot with freezing cold water and throwing in a few ice cubes for good luck, he returned to James’ depressing form and didn’t hesitate to dump it on him. It did the trick, at the first touch of water to his curled-up body, James was sitting bolt upright, curses flying from his mouth.

“Oh, so now you’re up. Good. Get up, now.” Matt wasn’t taking any of his shit. He was Alpha, he was in charge, and it was time for James to suck it up and listen. James got up and sat on the front steps, head dangling, eyes glued to the step below.

“Look at me.”

James had a hard time maintaining eye contact. There was a reason Matt was Alpha, it was in his blood, and at that moment it was oozing out of every pore, the authority he possessed practically tangible as he prepared to lecture his lifelong partner.

“Listen closely because I’m only going to say this once. Suck it up James. I know you blame yourself for what happened, don’t you think I do too? I’m the one that spoke with Grace, I’m the one that believed her when she said she wasn’t going to challenge Soren. All in all, I’m the reason she ended up in that hospital bed, not you. Everybody knows you couldn’t have changed anything. You can’t interfere with a challenge, if you had you would have broken pack law, and you know what would have happened then.”

“But Matt-”

“No, shut your mouth. Have you seen your mate lately? Have you? Because I have, and it’s not a pretty sight let me tell you. She’s in hell, she went through something she never expected to have to go through, yet she came out the other side, and what have you been doing? Not helping her I’ll tell you that much. Instead you’re drinking and moping and she’s dealing with it all by herself.”

James looked surprised at the outburst, he hadn’t put much thought into what Soren was going through emotionally, only her injuries. She wasn’t one that seemed to share emotions freely, but she hadn’t seemed affected when they had talked at the hospital or even when they first got home. He had been too focused on his own feelings of guilt to notice the tendrils of her pain that mixed in with his own.

“I didn’t think about that.”

His head went back to its downwards position, only this time his hands were clutching both sides of his scalp, wanting to pull his hair or inflict some sort of pain on himself.

“I know you didn’t, but now I’m telling you, and now it’s time to fix it. Do you even know if she’s eaten today? When’s the last time she came downstairs? Hell, when’s the last time she’s left that spot on the couch?”

The shame began to claw its way up James’ throat,

“What day is it?”

A strangled groan of both anger and sadness left Matt.

“What day did you start drinking James?”

“I think it was Sunday maybe? A couple days after we went to Pop’s.”

Matt yanked James to his feet and let loose a punch, holding nothing back as his fist connected with the left side of James’ jaw. James hit the stairs with a groan, cupping his jaw in his hand but not making a move to retaliate, he knew he wasn’t going to like what Matt said next.

“It’s Wednesday you son of a bitch. That means your mate, the woman you swore to protect, hasn’t eaten or left that room, in three days.”

James felt like he had been punched in the gut. All the air left him and while his mouth moved as if to say something, no words came out. He had been a terrible mate, actually, he hadn’t been a mate at all, he had been a good for nothing waste of space, and it made him want to retreat back inside and finish off the last of the whiskey.

The sound of a truck pulled James’ attention away from Matt’s scowling face. It was a silver pick-up and sat behind the wheel was a determined Margot. Jumping out of the truck, she made her way over.

“Margot,” Matt called, “go get Soren and bring her out, she’s coming home with us.”

She nodded and walked into the house, ignoring James on her way by. She sprinted up the stairs and Matt could feel the pangs of sorrow that shot through the bond as she entered the bedroom. His mate had finally laid eyes on Soren’s state, and he knew it broke her heart.

“What are you doing, Matt? You can’t just take her.” James’ voice rang out in complaint and defiance.

“Watch me.”

He walked into the house and helped Margot carry Soren down the stairs. Noting the scuff marks the chair had made on the ground beside the window, he hadn’t been wrong in assuming she had spent a lot of time in that very spot. Placing her in the back seat of the pick-up’s cab as gently as possible, her eyes were still as glazed over as they had been by the window, and he wondered if she even knew where she was. He waited with his eyes on James as Margot went back for the chair.

She loaded it into the back of the truck, making sure to do so aggressively. His mate was angry, and she wanted it known. Rounding the truck to get in on the passenger side, she sent her most menacing glare James’ way, even going as far as to spit at the ground by his feet. James may have been Beta, but he hadn’t been acting like it, and so she felt no need to treat him with the respect the title deserved.

“Until you can prove that you’re fit to be her mate, she’s going to live with us, where we can make sure she’s getting the care she needs, and more importantly, deserves.”

With that Matt and his mate hopped into the truck and reversed out of sight, and all James could do was watch as the truck that held his heart got further and further away.