The clinger
“Sabrina.”
“Well Sabrina, my name is Lucas De’ Clan, I am the alpha of the dawn pack, and this is my mate, Ava Maynard. You have my sympathy for all you’ve been through these past few days and I want to reassure you that no harm will come to you, we will take you home to the dawn pack with us.”
Sabrina smiled at him lightly, and just as he was about to let her go, she suddenly dropped, nearly passing out.
“She’s injured!” Lucas noticed then that she was bleeding by the side of her stomach from a wound, the rogue who whipped her must have ripped her skin while flogging her.
“Oh goddess!” Ava quivered. “We have to stop the bleeding and take her back to the packhouse on time, I’m sure the healer will take over from there.”
“I agree with you, can you find some Matir leaves? They do grow somewhere around this forest, I’m not sure where but Nani uses it to administer first aid to the wounded when the healer is not around, I’m sure it will help her stop the bleeding now, it shouldn’t be too far from here.”
“Ok,” Ava nodded. “I’ll go and find it; you just stay here and make sure she’s ok.”
“I will.”
Ava took her wolf form again and ran off, in search of the leaves. Soon after, Layla returned with the big green leaves in her mouth, like Lucas said, they were in abundance in the drawl forest.
Lucas took the leaves from her and administered it on Sabrina’s wound, it didn’t stop the bleeding entirely, but reduced it to a great extent, giving them just enough time to take her home. Because of her tiredness and injuries, Sabrina could not walk nor change into her wolf form, she was too weak to do so, Lucas had to carry her home in his arms, Ava then followed behind watching Sabrina closely.
**********
The dawn guards at the back entrance rushed out as soon as they saw their alpha carrying the strange girl in, they knew she must be a refugee, and they also knew that their alpha would be tired now from carrying that girl for such a long distance, one of the guards then rushed out to take the girl from Lucas’s hands.
“Welcome back master, let me take her,” he bowed, before attempting to take Sabrina from Lucas.
As soon as Sabrina noticed that someone was trying to carry her away from Lucas, she began screaming very loudly, while burying her face into Lucas’s chest and shifting her body closer towards him, her screams made the guard back off, and Lucas just shook his head.
“Don’t worry, I guess I will have to take her inside myself,” he said, dismissing the guard who bowed at him and Ava in response.
Lucas took her to the healers’ quarters, while Ava still followed closely behind, she was tired, but she wanted to make sure Sabrina was ok before she would leave her alone.
“Welcome home master,” Nani stood from where she was attending to some patients to go and greet the alpha.
“Thank you, Nani, where is Kozi?”
“He left not too long ago with Cian and Kiara to one of the camps, the rogues attacked and injured a handful of dawn soldiers.” Her eyes then gestured towards the lady he was carrying in his arms. “Who is she?”
“She’s a refugee, I saved her from some rogues in the forest. Where can I place her?”
Nani quickly ran to remove some cloths and bandages that occupied one of the small beds, “bring her here,” she said.
Lucas wanted to place her down, at least his muscles would rest now, but as soon as Sabrina noticed he wanted to lay her on the bed, she continued with the screams, shifting her body, her reactions shocked Nani.
“What is wrong with her?”
Ava cut in. “She won’t let anyone apart from Lucas touch her, she won’t even let him go.”
Nani was shocked, feeling pity for Ava as well as the girl, she then turned a worried gaze towards Lucas. “And you’ve been allowing this? Is she your mate or something? Why does she feel so attracted to you?”
“I didn’t have a choice Nani, I’m guessing its because she feels safer with me than with anyone else, we met her in a very traumatizing condition.”
“I’m sorry, but I won’t allow that here. You can’t keep carrying her around forever, and look at you, you look tired… Tell you what, I will move her to a private room so she won’t disturb the other patients with her screams, you’ll leave her there until Kozi comes, she can scream there all she wants, her screams won’t bother anyone when she’s alone.”
Lucas creased his brow, his reaction showed that he didn’t like Nani’s idea at all, Nani noticed this and decided to let him see some sense. “If she wants to heal properly, she has to let go of that fear and doubt that can only make her feel safe around you. I know you’re worried about her, but trust me, you’re not doing her any good by letting her cling to you like shit to a shovel.”
Ava didn’t know why she felt so much gratitude at that point to Nani, “thank you Nani.”
“No problem, dear, you also look tired too, I’ll take her off your hands, don’t worry, the both of you can rest now.”
“Fine…” Lucas stated with tiny bits of anger laced in his voice, “but I want you to place her in a room close to the alpha’s chambers, I don’t want her to be too far from me, that’s the only way I’ll agree to your conditions.”
His words shocked Ava and she didn’t hide it at all, why was her mate so bothered about this girl? He doesn’t want her to be too far from him, when did all that closeness between them start? And why was her mate suddenly allowing this girl have her way?