OLIVIA’S P. O. V.
All I feel is pain. I am so ready to have everything end. The one who was supposed to be my mate and love me did this to me. I can hear beeps of the machines around me. I don’t want to open my eyes but I manage to pull them open. I need to see how fucked up I am. As I open my eyes and look around I see three men sleeping in chairs around me. I look around and see Peter, Victor and Benjamin sleeping and as close to my bed as they can get. I smile seeing them all huddled around me like that. I know I will have to choose which one I want to be with, but right now we are all together.
I look down at myself. I am covered in a blanket so I can’t see the extent of my wounds. I see I have an IV with fluids and a heart and O2 sensor. They don’t seem to have me on anything else. I slowly peel back the blanket so I can take a look at my wounds. I know I am a wolf and I will heal quickly but the wolfs-bane is going to make it harder for me. A large section of my stomach is wrapped in gauze. I pull it back to take a peek and am surprised by what I see. The long cuts that he gave me have healed, but they left gross scars. However, where he stabbed me is still trying to heal, it is better than I thought it would be though. I am beginning to wonder how long it has been since I was put in here.
Benjamin is the first to notice that I have woken up. “How are you feeling?” He leans forward so that he can grab my hand.
“I think I feel alright. Still in a bit of pain though. How long have I been here?” I am trying to downplay the pain right now to him. I don’t need him freaking out.
“A week. We were starting to wonder if you were ever going to wake up.”
“A week.” It comes out as almost a squeak.
“Yep.” He grins at my response.
“Well I am going to kill the son of a bitch.” I throw my hands up in the air, in the I give up motion.
“Too late, me and Peter beat you to it.”
“Well damn.” He laughs.
“Olivia, how are you really doing?” He holds my hand and rubs his thumb along my palm. He looks into my eyes trying to discern my amount of pain just from them.
“I still feel aching and burning from the wolfs-bane. This thing still feels a bit like death.” I point to the stab wound. “But other than that I feel fine.” I figured telling him the truth would be best. “Why are you all here?”
“Do you honestly think that we could let our mate sit in a hospital all by herself?” Peter smiles as he stretches awake.
“What the hell are you talking about? You sound like a crazy person.” I stare at him in shock.
“Don’t worry about it, we will clear it up later.” Benjamin glares at Peter. “This isn’t something that we should be going over right now. You just woke up.”
“I can handle it. What are you talking about? You don’t sound like you’re joking.” I look at Peter knowing that he is more likely to answer me.
“An Elder came by and explained the whole situation. It would seem that this situation is happening all over the pack lands. Something about first mates not working out. The point is we all need to sit down and talk about the options that we have here. They really are interesting.” Peter almost grumbles out that last part.
“What is so interesting about the options?” I narrowed my eyes on him. Suspicion is going rampant.
“Are you sure you’re ready to hear this now? We could wait.” Peter sounds almost hopeful at revealing the options.
“Well, I think it might be like that whole ripping the band aid off thing. It is just best to get it over with.” I sign as I wait for the proverbial band aid ripping.
Peter looks at me and then shrugs. “Well, it seems that we need to decide if we are going to share you or if you are going to pick one of us.”
“So, it would seem that we do need to talk about this. I am not so sure that Alphas sharing a mate is a good idea.” I look away knowing that they don’t really want to hear any of the answers that we can talk about. I don’t really want to hear what I have to say. I keep thinking about all of this and I can’t even think of a way to make a choice. But like I said, sharing doesn’t seem a viable option.
“We have had a week to sit here and talk about it, endlessly in fact.” Victor opens his eyes and yawns. “It would seem that we are at a point where we would be willing to share you. Especially if it made things easier for you.” He nods towards me and sits up straight.
“I don’t want to make things easier for me. I also can’t sort out all these feelings. I don’t feel any different with each of you. My feelings are the same for all of you. Having to pick just seems like it would be impossible. I guess maybe it would be best if we don’t make a choice at all.”
“That would probably be the best for the moment.” Benjamin keeps rubbing my hand.
I lean back and try to relax. I just want to be done with all of this crap. Wolves are not supposed to have this problem. They are supposed to have one mate and that’s that. There is no three mate system. Goddess always wanted to have us monogamous. Why all of the sudden is it like this?
“Who was this Elder who said that this was what we were supposed to do?”
“Elder Amelia.” Benjamin answers.
“Do you think she would be willing to talk to me about all of this?”
“I am sure she seemed to think that all of this was very amusing.” Peter grumbled.
“Well, I would like to talk to her alone when I can, if one of you guys could get her.” I looked to them all to see if they would.
Benjamin stood. “I will. I’ll be back in a flash.”
As I watched Benjamin leave, his place was taken by Peter. Then Victor came to my other hand. Really is this how things are going to be. I feel like a tug-a-war rope. Time to change the subject.
“What is going on with the Rogues?”
“Always the warrior.” Victor chuckles. “Well, we have increased our sentries and we are training who we can. Everyone is on high alert and the pack members who don’t fight are pulled back to safe houses. I don’t know how long we can hold this up but we are doing what we can.”
“It seems an all out war is on the horizon.” I can’t help but think of all the lives that could be lost this time. “I think we should start a new training regime. In my opinion everyone should be trained. Even those that are weak. They need to learn at least self defense. There have been too many deaths over the years and the majority of them are those that didn’t fight.”
Peter has taken my hand and is gliding his fingers over mine. “I couldn’t agree more. That is probably why we are in this predicament that we are in now. I mean not enough females to go around. We are going to die out at this rate. We are going to start fighting one another for mates. All those under twelve should be excluded from training. Also those that are pregnant. We are going to need you to heal up, we are going to need you for the training.”
“I don’t know how long it will take to heal. You shouldn’t wait for me to train.” I can’t believe the tingles that I feel from both of them going up my arms. “You guys should be in charge of the training now.”
“I don’t think we could leave you.” Victor grumbles.
“Fine then watch me in shifts if that helps. The wolves need to be ready. I will be really pissed if they don’t get trained because you guys are sitting around staring at me in this bed.” I grumble back at Victor.
He puts his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. We will take turns watching you and start the training. I will need to get Aaron on the same page as me so that he can train while I am here. Peter, Benjamin and I will work on a schedule. I wish we could just train all the packs together. That would really help us all be on the same page.”
“Who says that we can’t?” Victor shares a look with Peter. “We could get with all of the Alphas and make the college a central training area. With everyone on high alert there aren’t many classes going on. There are the fields and the weight rooms for sports. I can imagine that there is plenty of room for training there. Then we would all be training together.”
“You may be right. We just have to convince the other Alphas that it is in the best interest for them to train with us. We can make arrangements with the Elders to use the college.” Peter was liking the idea more and more. “We can bring it up to Elder Amelia when she gets here. I at least know we’re on the same page and we can train our packs together. Two packs is better than none.”
“I agree but Olivia is right it would be best if we had them all.”
“Hello, guys I am right here. I am glad for all the camaraderie but don’t talk about me like I’m not here. I can help from here too. I can outline a training plan that worked for me that you would be able to use on the Omegas, the others too if you would like.” I looked back and forth at them. I could tell they were excited but we needed to start and setting up the meeting was only going to be problem number one.
“OK, guys, your next problem is going to get all the pack members to cooperate long enough to get through the training. You know that they will resist the training. Those that are too lazy and those that choose not to train with the lower ranks. There are also humans in the packs that should be trained. How are you guys going to handle that?”
“Alpha Voice.” They both answer.
“You can’t just force them to get along. Plus that doesn’t work on humans. You know that they are going to fight and that means you are going to have to deal with it. We don’t need to fight among ourselves.” I look at the two as if they must be crazy. Alpha voice really? You can tell them what to do but that doesn’t mean that they will work together to do it.
“Maybe we will have Benjamin to give them a chat.” Peter suggested.
“Benjamin, you really think he can make them all get along.” Victor looks at him questioningly.
“First of all he is really persuasive. Second he has a good speech ready for everyone to train. He would be the perfect one to get them to see reason.” Peter answered. He sounded almost offended that Victor would doubt Benjamin.
“I have to agree, he may be gentle but he is really persuasive.” I added.
“Please don’t tell me he got you first.” Victor stated.
“What do you mean got me?” I look offended at him.
“I mean that he got you to bed first.” Victor stated bluntly.
“First of all, that is none of your business. Second, since you really are so hot about my sexual experience the only one that I have ever slept with was Hector and I am not really ready to repeat that mistake. And just to get your goat he was the first to kiss me of you three so there.” I smirked at that last part. Take that and eat it.
Victor grumbled. “Figures.”
“What are you grumbling about, I was last?” Peter growls.
“I am second to a Beta.”
“I am second to you.”
“Both of you knock it off. Seriously you wonder why you can’t share”
“Sorry.” They both mutter.
“Don’t be sorry, just don’t do it. How about we curb this discussion until after the war. I don’t think we are going to be able to reach any understanding. I need time to pick the one.”
“Are you sure we couldn’t just share?” Peter grins.
“Really and if I slept with Benjamin first, how much would you all complain. I would never hear the end of it.”
“Then don’t sleep with Benjamin first.” Victor continued grumbling.
“Like I said Benjamin is very persuasive.” I smile.