Even with a possibly broken arm and a messed-up knee, I slept through the night much better than the three nights before. For one, I’d not realized how exhausted I was after spending the three whole days trying to survive alone. And two… Obviously, I could sleep better now with my brother by my side, knowing he didn’t hate me. But man, that arm did keep waking me up, so in the morning, I didn’t want to even consider getting out of bed.

The others had used strong metal sticks and a large number of bandages to create some kind of cast around my arm, and it actually did help with the pain along with the painkillers I was given. In the morning, it was still clear it was broken, or at least fractured, but maybe… maybe I didn’t need to see a doctor. I’d be fine… My body would heal in a few weeks, and since it didn’t look like a big break… I mean… I just really didn’t want to see a doctor. I just didn’t trust them. They broke families apart, and Alex and I… They’d take my brother away, and I couldn’t survive that. I’d barely survived three days alone without him. I couldn’t do that again, not even for a day, but they would take him away for good. I at least wanted to give my body a day or two to see if my arm would start healing on its own before taking any risks.

I had to explain that first to Alex, then to Simon and everyone else who came to see me while we ate breakfast. They all looked uncertain and told me about the dangers of leaving it untreated, but I refused to listen. I just wanted to rest for a few days before making any decisions. I just wanted to be happy to be back home with Alex.

They eventually gave up trying to convince me to go see a doctor, and left me to rest. Simon still stayed with us to make sure I wasn’t developing fever and to help Alex with his wounds. I felt so horrible for not being able to treat his wounds, which clearly had grown much worse while I was away.

“I was looking for you,” Alex said quietly when I asked how his wounds had grown deeper again.

“The entire time?” I asked, my heart breaking.

“Yeah… I thought… I thought something bad happened to you when you didn’t come back home,” he murmured, his posture growing smaller.

I breathed out, trying not to start crying on the spot. “I’m sorry. I wanted to come back right away… And I nearly did, but… I was afraid.”

“Of what?”

His look was so innocent when he waited for my answer…

I smiled a little. “I feared you hated me, and didn’t want to see me ever–”

“No! I would never hate you! And I’m so sorry I told you to leave… I didn’t mean it… I wanted to take it back immediately, but you were already gone,” he explained, sniffing, his eyes gleaming.

I hugged him with one arm. “Next time, I know you don’t mean it,” I told him soothingly.

“There won’t be next time,” he murmured against my shoulder, and fighting back my tears became a little bit harder.

I could almost see him wandering the streets, his feet hurt and bleeding, looking for me…

“Good,” I whispered as I held him. “Because I need you by my side. You’re my little brother.”

“I need you too,” he said and hugged me tighter. “I’m sorry I said those things…”

“We’re all right now, right?” I asked gently.

“Yeah. We’re all right now,” he agreed, sniffing harder.

“Good,” I mumbled, sniffing as well.

“Damn kids making me cry first thing in the morning…” Simon mumbled as he wrapped up Alex’s feet, making us both laugh a little. He gave us both a smile, tied Alex’s bandage, then sat down. He hesitated for a moment, then looked at me, his smile fading. “I uh… If you ever want to talk about… stuff… about life… about what’s going on in the world… I wish you’ll come to me. I’m smarter than I look, I swear.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I looked away from him.

“There’s nothing to talk about. Not anymore. I’m… I don’t care anymore,” I told him.

“I see,” Simon said after a moment of silence. “Well, my offer stands, and I don’t mean just about… them… I can give you great gardening tips, too.”

I turned back to him, frowning. “Gardening tips?”

He shrugged and smiled. “Yeah. Gardening tips. You know. Carrots, potatoes, stuff like that. One of the older gals back at my old shelter taught me how to grow our own food.”

I stared at him for a moment, then snorted in amusement. “You’re so weird.”

“Thanks,” he said, smirking.

Weird or not… Simon made me feel safe. He’d always made me feel safe from the very first day we’d met. And maybe… Maybe if I ever wanted to talk about True Oder… Maybe I could go to him. But right now, I just wanted to forget all about them. True Order got me into this mess with a broken arm and a heartbroken brother, after all. I didn’t care about them right now, maybe never.

I just wanted to protect my brother and leave saving the world to someone else, whatever was the right side to save us.

Alex and I spent hours just napping on our new spare mattress outside our hut in a quiet corner where we didn’t have the best privacy, but at least some kind of privacy since Simon, Patric, and Cornell brought us a wooden pallet at the end of the mattress and covered it with an old carpet, so people who walked past us couldn’t see us right away. I wouldn’t have really cared, but some people brought their friends to visit, so we always had a lot of strangers around, which made me and especially my alpha uncomfortable. Now that my arm ached so badly, I really appreciated peace and privacy.

Simon stayed with us the entire time, either taking care of us or napping with us. Apparently, Simon had helped Alex to look for me from sunrise to sunset, barely sleeping or eating or taking care of himself, so he was tired as well. He didn’t even stop there, even though I was back. He brought us food and water, took care of our injuries, then told us stories if we were awake, and honestly… I was so grateful to him. Not only had he taken care of Alex after I ran away, but also… I don’t know… I just… I just really appreciated him for everything he was doing for us. I could just sleep the whole day while he watched over us… I couldn’t even imagine getting support like that from… them.

I was so grateful we had someone like him in our lives now… It had always been just Alex and me, so… It was nice to have someone to turn to.

He even asked his friends to bring us breadsticks from Lorenzo.

“Is Lorenzo… mad at me?” I asked Simon when Patric and Cornell returned and we all sat down to eat.

“Nah,” Simon said reassuringly. “He was just as worried as the rest of us. He asked his runners to search for you as well.”

“He was happy to hear you’re safe and back home,” Patric told me, and handed me a huge basket of breadsticks. “He told us to let you know he’s expecting you back to work once you’re recovered. And he knows a doctor if you want to–”

“No! No… I mean… Let’s just give it a few days. Maybe I’ll be fine after a few days of sleep,” I muttered, feeling their eyes on me.

“You don’t like doctors?” Cornell asked.

I shrugged. “I just don’t trust them.”

I could feel the glances they exchanged, but they all chose not to push me. I also felt Alex nudging me gently with his elbow. I turned to him, and he smiled at me.

“Maybe we should take the risk this time,” he said carefully.

“No,” I said sternly. “You know what happens.”

They’d separate us. I knew they would. Any government official and everyone who worked as their snitches would try to separate us. It had happened before, it would happen again, and the past three days had taught me I could not survive without my brother. Just… No way.

“How is your arm, anyway?” Simon asked.

Hurt like hell, but… “Maybe it does feel a little better,” I said. “I can’t move it at all, but I think it doesn’t ache so much.”

“Alphas do heal pretty fast,” Simon said. “And, while I’m not a doctor, I feel like it’s a small fracture. I don’t think you’d be conscious if it was a bad break.”

“Could be a bone bruise, too,” Cornell offered. “Or it’s just the swelling and a sore muscle since you hit it so hard.”

“What’s a bone bruise?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know,” Cornell said, shrugging. “I heard it somewhere.”

“Right,” I said, chuckling a little. “Let’s agree it’s a bone bruise.”

“See? Who needs medical professionals?” Patric said, grinning. “We are more than capable of making our own diagnosis.”

“Shut up,” Simon said, but laughed as well.

I snorted in amusement, then peered at my arm. It was… I knew it was bad. I really wanted to lie down already, but it wasn’t as bad as last night when I was walking through the streets, trying to get back home. The painkillers seemed to work pretty fine, and the cast made sure it wasn’t moving and getting worse, but it still hurt and ached and throbbed so badly I wasn’t sure if I could take it if it got even a little bit worse. But… Two more days, then… Then I’d consider seeing a doctor.

Thankfully, we finished eating soon, and Patric and Cornell left. Simon made himself comfortable in his lounge chair, preparing to take a good long nap, while Alex curled up against my side, my shoulder as his pillow, and pulled extra blankets over me on the mattress behind the watchful older alpha. Even through my pain, I had to smile at Alex and hold him with my uninjured arm. I was just so happy I was still allowed to be his big brother.

And I couldn’t believe how close I got to ruining everything… First by going with Zach, then by being too afraid to come back home. I’d been too terrified of Alex’s reaction to come back sooner, but now I couldn’t understand why I’d been so afraid. I mean, I guess I did understand it, but… Alex was the sweetest angel… Of course we could’ve worked things out.

Oh well, I was back home now, and I wasn’t leaving him ever again. I would never lie to him ever again. And I definitely was never going to let anything or anyone distract me from what was actually important: protecting my brother.

*****

Again, we just slept for the rest of the day and through the night. I mean, I slept as much as I could with the arm aching so badly I even had nightmares about it, and if I moved even a little, the pain woke me up sweating and feeling nauseated. I was already so tired of the pain, but… I just had to suck it up. Just a day or two more to see if it would start healing…

In the morning, Simon asked Patric and Cornell to go get us breakfast from the nearest store and gave them the money for it. I tried to object, but I guess he’d gone momentarily deaf because he refused to acknowledge me in any way until his friends had left. Then he turned to us, smiling.

“Oh! You guys are already awake! Good morning,” he said cheerily, while I grumpily squinted my eyes at him. He chuckled a little, then leaned closer, his smile soft and eyes more serious now. “How is your arm?”

I took a deep breath. “Better.”

“Better?” he repeated.

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“How much better are we talking about?”

“It’s so much better that I think it’ll be just fine,” I said, though I was maybe lying a little.

Simon clearly knew that, but chose to say nothing. “How’s your knee?”

“It’s way better now,” I said and lifted my injured leg a little, then bent it carefully. “I don’t think anything is broken. I just hit it really hard.”

“At least there’s that,” Simon said, smiling again. “You just get more rest, okay? I’ll let you know when breakfast is ready.”

I nodded and rested back down, trying to close my eyes, but now it wasn’t just my arm that bothered me. Me and my clothes were starting to smell really bad, and my skin was getting itchy from dirt. I hadn’t showered in ages, after all… And I was sure neither had Alex, and his wounds required it. I’d noticed his hair had more blood in it now, too, which meant he had started scratching his scalp. That would only get worse if we didn’t wash his hair soon.

But my arm… The gym was pretty close, maybe ten minutes away… Could I make it there, wash myself, and get back without fainting?

“What is it?” Simon asked, clearly still watching us.

I breathed out. “I kind of wish I could go take a shower…”

“Maybe not today. I can go get some wet wipes for you if that helps. I think I can find a clean towel too, or I can just go buy one and more water.”

I huffed. I really didn’t want to get out of bed today, but Alex’s hair… And I could smell old pee on me after sleeping in such random places…

“I guess I can wait until tomorrow,” I finally said. “I just smell really bad…”

“Don’t we all,” Simon said, chuckling. “I’ll get you wet wipes soon.”

“We have clean clothes,” Alex said and sat up, but I grabbed his hand and wouldn’t let him leave.

“They’ll just get dirty right away if I put them on now. I’ll change my clothes after I’ve showered.”

“Okay…” he mumbled, playfully wrinkling his nose at me, but he said nothing.