Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Ch 10 Take Care of Her
The triplets took Thea to Dr. Boman, the pack doctor, in the west wing of the pack house. He was a kind but serious middle-aged wolf with short brown hair and brown eyes. He relocated her shoulder and put her arm ina sling.
“You’ll need to wear this for a few days to immobilize the area so it can heal,” Dr. Boman said. “Stay close to ther. You’ll heal faster.” Being close to your mate helped you heal faster. Did everyone think they were mates?
“You’ll heal faster once you shift, but since that’s still a few months away, you have to take it easy. You have a concussion. Head injuries are serious. No training until I say so. No strenuous activity.” He looked at the triplets. “Future Alphas, did you hear that? No strenuous activity. That means no hanky- panky. She needs rest.” 4
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Come back tomorrow so I can check on you. I need to monitor the concussion. If you vomit, have difficulty speaking, see stars, or have amnesia, come to me immediately.” He turned to the triplets again. “You’ll need to watch out for the symptoms. She may not know she’s having them.”
The triplets all looked concerned as they nodded. They left and headed toward Thea’s room.
“i want to shower,” Thea said. “I feel dirty. His scent is all over me.”
“Whatever you want,” Alaric said.
As they made their way up to the top floor of the pack house, Thea got a dizzy spell and started to fall. Kai caught her, picked her up bridal style, and continued up the stairs.
When they passed by the Alpha’s office on the fifth floor, the door opened, and Alpha Ulric walked out.
“What are you doing home?” Alpha Ulric said. He ran a hand through his black hair. He could barely reach his head because his biceps and shoulder muscles were so enormous. ‘
“Set me down,” Thea said. Kai put her down but kept a hold of her in case she had another dizzy spell.
The Alpha looked Thea up and down with his crystal blue eyes, concern overtaking his face. “What happened?”
“There was an incident at school, sir. Nothing important,” Thea said.
“It’s important enough that you’re skipping school. Your arm is ina sling, your face is swollen, lip split, you’re holding an ice pack to the back of your head, and I smell dried blood. What’s that on your wrists?”
The triplets looked at her, letting her be in control of what she wanted him to know.
“Come inside,” the Alpha ordered.
The group walked into the Alpha’s office. All their parents were in the office. Thea’s mother gasped when she saw Thea’s state, her turquoise eyes wide in her pretty face. She tucked her dark blonde hair behind her ear. The parents all stared at their children as they stood in front of the Alpha’s desk. Kai stood a little behind Thea to catch her if she fell.
“What happened to make you leave school?” Alpha Ulric said, sitting behind his desk.
“It’s not a big deal. I don’t want anyone to overreact,” Thea said.
“We won’t,” Beta Walter said, his green eyes stern. He didn’t look happy.
“I got ina fight with a shifted wolf,” Thea said. “That isn’t like you,” Alpha Ulric said. “What was so important you punched out of your weight class?”
“J didn’t start it, sir.”
“What happened to provoke the fght ? Why would anyone do this much damage to you?” Alpha Ulric said.
“She didn’t do anything, Dad,” Conri said. “The jerk tried to rape her.”
“Con,” Thea said. She closed her eyes and hung her head in shame. Another reason she shouldn’t be the next Beta. She didn’t see all the parents’ faces fall when they processed what he said.
“No, Thea,” Conri said, emotion in his voice. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.” “Who did this to you?” Alpha Ulric said.
“He’s from Moonlit pack,” Thea said.
Alpha Ulric growled, angry he wouldn’t be able to punish the kid himself.
“What did he do?” he said.
“The triplets found me before he could do anything.”
“What did he do, Thea? I have to know what to talk to his Alpha about so he can be properly disciplined.”
Thea took a deep breath. “I was stupid. He said he needed to show me something, so I followed him into an empty classroom. He pulled it out, and I tried to walk out. He grabbed me. I elbowed him in the face. He dragged me over to the wall, pinned me. I punched him, headbutted him, kept hitting him, but
nothing had any effect. He’s stronger than me, and I didn’t have leverage. He shoved his hand down my pants—”
“We should’ve broken every bone in his hands,” Kai said, voice low and menacing.
“I bit him,” Thea continued. “Almost tore a chunk out of him. That got him to stop fora second so he could hit me a few times. I don’t think it would’ve been so bad, but I was against a brick wall, and my head hit that too. That’s where the concussion happened. I was dazed fora moment. When I got my bearings, he had tied my wrists together behind my back.”
The triplets clenched their fists.
“I kneed him in the groin and ran. He threw me into a desk, pulled my pants down—”
“Oh, my goddess,” Naomi and Luna Ada whispered in unison. Thea glanced over and saw they were crying. Her father was seething, his chestnut hair shaking on his head. She turned back to Alpha Ulric.
“I wedged my foot in between us and kicked him off. The force pushed the desk over. I landed on my shoulder and dislocated it. That’s when the triplets came in. I’m sorry I failed all of you.” “You did no such thing,” Alpha Ulric said. “Conri is right. You did nothing wrong.”
“Are you okay, Thea?” Luna Ada said. Her hand rested on Naomi’s, comforting Thea’s mother. She looked at Thea with her trademark concern for the people in her pack. With dark hair and soft, dark eyes, Luna Ada was very nurturing. She was like a second mother to Thea.
“The doctor wants to monitor the concussion,” Thea said.
“I don’t mean physically,” Luna Ada said. “Are you okay?”
“I just want to shift so I’ll be stronger, even the playing field,” Thea said.
“You should never have to protect yourself from something like that,” Luna Ada said.
“What was the boy’s name? I’m going to talk to his Alpha,” Alpha Ulric said.
“ I don’t want to be the girl who cried rape. You know how gossip can be.”
“If he’s not disciplined, he’l] think he can do it again.”
She sighed. “Xavier Knight, the Alpha’s son. He,” she hesitated. She had left out the things Xavier said. “He used his Alpha tone to get me to—” Another pause. “Comply.”
The mothers gasped, the males growled. Her father’s claws extended.
“It didn’t work on me.”
“Thank you, Thea,” the Alpha said. “Take the day. Rest. Don’t worry about anything. We’ll take care of training this afternoon. Sons, take care of her.”
The triplets followed Thea out of the office and to her room. Kai and Conri sat on her bed, shaken from hearing the play-by-play.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Thea?” Alaric said. He faced her, slid his hands gently up and down her arms. She wrapped her good arm around his waist and leaned against his chest. Kai and Conri jumped up and joined the hug.
“I am now. Thank you all for rescuing me. How did you find me?”
“You were taking too long to get to us. We headed toward your last class, then we felt your fear and heard your scream,” Kai said.
“You felt my fear?”
“We told you, we’re mates. The bond is growing stronger,” Conri said.
Thea was silent.
“Are you ready for a shower?” Kai said.
She nodded.
“You want to shower alone, or do you want us with you?” Alaric said.
“Will you keep it PG?”
“Whatever you want, my love.”
She looked up at him. “With me.”
They all walked into her bathroom, and the triplets took their shirts off. They saw Thea trying to get her arm out of the sling and went to her. They helped her out of her sling, then carefully took her shirt off, being gentle with her shoulder. They took off her bra, slid down her pants, and helped her step out of them.
“Do you want to leave your underwear on?”
Alaric said.
She shook her head. “I want to throw it away. All these clothes. He’s touched them.”
Alaric hooked his thumbs in her panties and pushed them down, kneeling to let her step out of them. He grabbed them and the rest of her clothes and threw them in the trash can.
“We’ll take it out after.”
“Thank you.”
The triplets finished stripping and helped her into the shower. They stood around her as she let the water pour over her. She tilted a bit when a dizzy spell hit her, and Alaric steadied her.
“Here, lean against me. I got you,” Alaric said. Thea leaned back against his chest. He held her gently in place. He gave his brothers the signal to wash her. Conri and Kai applied soap gently all over her body and rinsed it off with the handheld sprayer. Once she was clean, they found her body oil and rubbed it into her skin.
“We need to start keeping clothes in here,” Alaric said. “We shower then have nothing to change into.”
“You could wear some of my pink pajama shorts,” Thea said. “Mmm. I just got a little wet thinking about that.” +
“As much as I love making you wet, we’re not allowed to get you worked up right now,” Alaric said. “Kai, will you put something on, go get us all some clothes, and then we can go to the common room and chill?”
Kai nodded, pulled on his jeans from earlier, and left the room. He came back with an armful of clothes.
“We’ll bring more in later.”
The triplets got dressed in fresh clothes and put their dirty ones in Thea’s hamper.
Conri looked through Thea’s drawers and found another pair of full-length flannel pajamas. He pulled out a pair of fuzzy wool socks, a bralette, and matching panties. They helped her get dressed, got her arm back in the sling. Conri brushed her wet hair while Alaric took out her trash with the clothes, and Kai rubbed her feet. Conri carried her downstairs and set her down in the middle of a giant bean bag. Alaric brought her an ice cream sundae.
“My favorite,” she said.
“Caramel, hot fudge, and vanilla ice cream.” “Thank you.” She smiled. “All of you. You’re perfect.”
They joined her on the bean bag. Alaric and Kai lay on either side of her, Conri between her legs with his head on her stomach. They watched movies, snuggled, played with her hair, caressed her, made sure she felt good. They fell asleep like that.
Their parents looked in on them after they’d fallen asleep. «
“I think they might be starting to realize they’re mates,” Luna Ada said. z
“Their birthday is two months away. I think they’re feeling the pull,” Thea’s mother said. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.
“I can’t wait until they shift, and we can have the mating ceremony and make it all official. We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Luna Ada said. “I wonder what gifts from the goddess Thea is going to have,” Alpha Ulric said.
“We don’t know that she’ll have any,” Beta Walter said. “Let’s not set our expectations too high.”
Naomi rubbed her husband’s back. “We’ve always known they were special, dear.”
“Every parent feels that way about their children,” he said.
“Then our children are extra special,” Luna Ada said. Alpha Ulric pulled her close and kissed her cheek.
“It won’t be long before we see just how special they are,” Alpha Ulric said.