“Babe… You okay?” Karliah whispered it as if she were speaking to a sleepwalker.

“Yeah.” Her breathless reply worried Karliah but she let the sub stare at the photo for a little while longer before trying to rip her out of her thoughts again,

“Do you… Want me to get you anything?” She leant in, gracing her fingers up her arm gently; she wanted so badly to touch her face but restrained herself: not only was she worried she might aggravate the cuts and bruises littering her beautiful face, she didn’t want to push her too hard too quickly. Cassie remained silent, staring at the photo. Karliah pulled in even more, studying the smaller girl’s face intently. “Baby?” She whispered. Cassie blinked and turned to her slowly, her expression dazed.

“N…No...”

“You don’t look sure, sweetness.” Karliah gave her a sad smile, “Why don’t we get you some food? Or at least something to drink?” Cassie blinked and grabbed the hand on her shoulder.

“D-Don’t go!” She whined, Karliah felt bad for feeling so attracted to the sound. She ran her hand up to the back of Cassie’s neck and rubbed at it,

“Of course not, baby.” She reassured, “I’ll have someone bring it to us.” Cassie tilted her head, her eyes heavy-lidded at the feeling of the hand massaging her neck. She seemed to relax a great deal at the knowledge that Karliah would stay by her side, the alpha tried not to enjoy it too much. “So I’m thinking… Some juice?”

“Mmm.” Karliah had no idea if that was affirmative or not but she continued anyway,

“And maybe some Lucozade to get your sugar levels up…” She continued to stroke at the soft skin.

”Mmm.” Cassie’s eyes were almost fully closed now, she reminded Karliah of a cat without the purring.

“And some fruit? Chocolate? I’ll have someone raid the pantry and bring anything that looks good.” This time she didn’t get an answer as her mate’s eyes slid shut. She sighed and pressed the call button, a few minutes later a nurse appeared at the door, “Could you bring some snacks and juice, please?” the nurse smiled and nodded, closing the door behind her. With Cassie asleep again, Karliah felt herself getting worked up again, without someone to be strong for she felt her anxiety rising again. If she couldn’t talk to Cassie, she wanted the next best thing: Sam. She wished they had at least let him in the room with them, as far as she was concerned, he was the hero of the hour, and yet he was still treated as though he were in the way by both Markus and his dad. He was waiting back at the Scarlett Moon pack house, where Markus had promised he would pass any news on, but Karliah didn’t trust Markus as far as Sam could throw him and had slipped the omega her own phone to call him if anything happened.

Karliah picked up the infirmary phone on the bedside table and pressed 9 to allow her to enter a non-ward number, she dialled her own. After barely two rings a soft voice answered,

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.” She wondered if he was safe to talk, “Are you alone?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m in the laundry room, no one ever comes in here.” He whispered anyway and Karliah was glad, she didn’t want to get him in any more trouble, apparently his absence from class was being counted as truanting, while hers was being wiped, she had already made a note in her phone to speak to the head about that as soon as possible.

“Good, I don’t want you getting in trouble.” She took a deep breath, “She woke up.”

“Really?!” Sam’s voice became choked. “When?!”

“Just now, she was awake for maybe fifteen minutes, although she spent most of it fighting to keep her eyes open.” Karliah’s eyes flitted to Cassie’s own closed ones, the only area of her face that didn’t have some shade of bruising painted across it.

“Did she say anything?”

“Yeah, she was asking questions about what happened,” She sighed, playing with her baby hairs with her free hand. “her voice is all cracked up and strained though, I don’t know if it’s from screaming, dehydration or being choked but it barely sounds like her.”

“Oh god.” Sam breathed.

“I told her everything… she wanted to know…” She sighed again, “I was hoping she wouldn’t remember or at least wouldn’t ask…” She grumbled much more quietly, “I know that’s selfish.” under her breath.

“It’s normal, Karliah.” She could tell he still felt nervous saying her name but she was so happy he had made the switch, she didn’t think she would be as reassured by his words if he called her ‘m’am’ or ‘alpha’.

“Thanks, Sam, for everything.” She wanted to cry again and had to take a harsh breath to hold herself together. “You are my hero, without you I would have lost everything.”

“It-it’s not a b-big deal, what kind of person wouldn’t have done the same thing?” He sounded flustered and embarrassed at the praise, he clearly wasn’t used to it coming from anyone but Cassie and even then Karliah knew he usually blushed and hid his face.

“Still, I owe you one.” She sniffed quietly. “Any time you need a favour, no matter how big or small, let me know.”

“Thanks.”

“That includes kicking Markus’ butt, anything you want.” She teased. Sam laughed,

“Hmm… I’ll definitely consider that.”

“Okay, but make that decision soon because I won’t be this full of raw rage forever, it’ll probably start to subside once Cassie gets out of here, and once that starts to go it won’t be a guaranteed win for me.” He laughed again, shaking his head to himself. “I’ll still fight him for you, I just might not win.” She added, smiling slightly despite herself.

“I’ll let you know.” Sam whispered, “Thanks for keeping me updated about Cassie.” she could hear the sound of a washing machine beeping to life on his end.

“Of course, I’ll call again the moment anything happens.” The alpha smiled despite herself, she was a mess and yet he was still getting his chores done, if the general public ever realised how strong omegas really were, they’d be screwed.

“Thank you, take care.”

“You too, bye.”

“Bye.”

~

Hands. Dirty, grubby hands pulling and scraping at her skin. No, she wanted to say, no. They pulled at her, nails cutting at her, fighting to pull her legs open. Her clothing morphed over body, different scraps disappearing and reappearing. Suddenly, she was fully naked, dirty, rough hands forcing her down, one clamping round her throat, choking the air out of her. She fought and fought but her oxygen depleted so quickly, her vision blacking around the edges.

Cassie awoke with a violent gasp, her body struggling against the heavy hospital blankets. Karliah , who had been fast asleep, slumped in the hard plastic chair beside her, leapt a foot in the air, throwing her body forward to grab at the offending material and messily pulling it from Cassie’s body, tossing it off the end of the bed. Both froze, blinking and taking in their surroundings slowly, Cassie’s heavy, panting breaths ringing through the room.

“Sweetness.” Karliah whispered, still leant over the bed.

“Yes?” Cassie breathed, allowing her body to slowly lower back into the mattress. Her voice was still hoarse but she ignored it.

“Are you… Okay?” The alpha stood straight stiffly, still struggling to clear her head fully.

“Ye-yeah.” Cassie murmured, “I…” she tried to pull herself up a little but gave up quickly when pain shot through her limbs, she hissed through her teeth and clamped her eyes closed. In barely a second, Karliah was at her side, clasping one of her hands firmly.

“Baby, tell me where it hurts.”

“Ugh, everywhere.” Cassie grunted before sighing and dragging her eyes open. She suddenly retched, her hands snapping up to her mouth until the feeling passed. Karliah had another cardboard bowl in her hand in an instant. Cassie took a slow breath, “Please…Can you pull me up so I can sit properly?” she whispered.

“Of course.” Strong, muscled arms wrapped around her torso with incredible tenderness, lifting her carefully so that her back rested against the pillows comfortably. She fluffed the pillows carefully behind her and tucked a curl round her ear.

“I think my head is about to explode…” Cassie groaned, reaching out to clasp Karliah’s hand in her own and squeeze it.

“I’m sorry, baby.” Karliah whispered.

“Don’t.” Cassie mumbled, “I’ve said it already but it’s not your fault.” she pressed the hand to her cheek softly, enjoying the warmth but fighting a wince at the pain that pinched at the bruise there. “Goddess, my head is pounding…”

“Your vitals were looking much better this morning.” Karliah offered, although she sounded almost embarrassed offering such a measly consolation. She sighed tiredly. “I know I’m not the one who needs comforting right now, but fuck did you scare me yesterday.” She watched Cassie carefully as her free hand massaged at her temple. Cassie simply gave her a sad look in reply. “First they thought you might have internal bleeding but just as you were cleared for that they began to worry abut why you weren’t waking back up, then they found that lump on the back of your head and they said you might have slipped into a coma and then they scanned you and then we had to wait so long for them to look over the scan and then they said you had a concussion but they didn’t know how severe and they were reeling off all these different things that could occur and what I should do and what to look out for-”

“Karliah.” The three syllables cut off the alpha’s ramble instantly and she turned to Cassie, her eyes wide and worried. “You did well, everything’s fine.” Cassie croaked in her best attempt at a soothing tone, she didn’t know if she believed it, but it looked like Karliah needed to hear it as she took a deep breath and relaxed into her seat, her expression much more like her old self. “You saved me.” Apparently though, that was the wrong thing to say as Karliah’s already sharp eyes hardened into knife-like slits.

“From what?” She huffed. “There wasn’t much he hadn’t already done when I got there…”

“Don’t say that,” Cassie whispered, “he was going go further, I remember him telling me he was going to mark me,” Karliah winced and looked away angrily. “he said he was going to mate me and make me carry his children…” She scrunched up her face. “But, I think he would have killed me first.” Cassie admitted.

“Maybe.” Karliah conceded.

“Definitely.” Said Cassie.