Raven’s POV
I was visiting with Cheryl this morning when I got a mindlink that we have visitors at the gate. I already suspected who it was, but Cheryl is still on fluids, and cannot get out of bed to go to the gate. Her son was out with my sons, running the course, and having fun. Kevin was needing this, he was consumed with fighting and training. More so than even my children who had been raised from a young age to spar and train. Cheryl had told me that he only started to train at 10, and for him to be where he is 4 years later shows how focused this young man really was. The gate guard had messaged both me and Brandon advising of the visitor and I stood up from my chair. I needed to let her know that I believed her mate was here, and that I was going to go have a talk with him. He needed to know what he did to her, and I was going to make sure he understood what he had put her through.
“We have visitors at the gate. I have not confirmed it yet, but it seems like your mate, and children are at the gate wanting to speak with you. I will go to talk to him. Do not worry, he will not get in here, we will protect you and Kevin” I said to her and turned to walk away.
“No, wait, I need to go, Raven” Cheryl told me.
“No, you are too weak, you cannot walk, or stand right now. Just stay here, I will make sure he leaves. If we need to I will call your cell phone so you can speak to your children” I told her. I knew as a mother myself, we love our babies. No matter how old they get, we still love them with our whole hearts.
“No, you don’t understand. I have to reject him, face to face. That is the only way to break the bond. I suffered so much the 6 months before I left. It has broken me down. I will not want to go forward knowing that type of pain could just come at me, unexpectedly. I refuse to be attached to him any longer, he has shown me how little I mean to him, with his own actions. I would also like to say goodbye to my children. If I can, I want to go to the gate” Cheryl told me, and I have to agree with her.
I nodded at her and stepped into the hallway to go to the nurse's desk to see if I could get some help. Thankfully her doctor, Maxwell Childress, was standing there, coming onto shift as well, because I needed someone who can tell me if she was strong enough to physically go to the gate. I motioned to him to step away from the desk so we could speak privately.
“Dr. Max, Cheryl is requesting to go to the gate. Her mate is here, and she wants to take this opportunity to reject him. I don’t think that she will be able to stand the pain of it, but she is insisting on going. I would like your opinion on this, as I do not want to put her at risk, but I also understand her reasons for wanting to do so, even at this point in her healing” I told him. I didn’t want to give out more information than needed, but the rejection was serious, even for a wolf or she-wolf in perfect health. I see the frown appear on his forehead and I can see that he is giving what I said his full attention. He is worried about her, but they have formed a bond in the few days that she has been here. He cares for her, I think even more than a doctor would. I know that he knows some of her background, just not all of it, so I know that he is weighing the pros and cons of Cheryl going down to the gate.
“If she is insisting, we need to let her do this. Frankly, I am amazed at the healing she has done up to this point. She has a very strong wolf, she is gamma born, and she trained up until the day she left, even with almost starving herself. I think it will be OK, but I will go with her, and she will have to use a wheelchair. I do not want her over-taxing herself by doing this. But I know what he has done to her, especially in these last 6 months. He almost killed her with the pain he put her through, and he needs to know what all he has done. If he cares for her at all, he deserves to know what he did to her, and I will be glad to tell him. This will probably exhaust her for the day, but the opportunity is presenting itself now. Cheryl might as well take advantage of it. I will have a nurse get her ready to go. I will ask the doctor I was relieving to stay. I have worked over for him plenty of times, and I need to be with her for this” Max told me.
I can see it all over his face, he likes her more than a regular patient. I think that it is wonderful because he is a good man. I am sure he will have a tough time of it because this Cheryl is not the same as the one I knew all those years ago. The old Cheryl was bold, and not scared to try anything. This one is hesitant and frail. She has been put down and told she didn’t matter for so long that it took root in her as was allowed to grow. It is her identity now, and she would have probably stayed there at Black Moon until she died in dealing with it, if it wasn’t for Kevin. Her love for him, her protection of him, was admirable. She was so focused on getting him out of there, even to the detriment of her own health. But I have been there before. I can count on 1 hand how many times I have fainted in my life, and it is once. Just once, with Just and Reagan going for round two, when I had not recovered from the first time they had sex.
In talking to Cheryl, I knew that Blake had done it to her too. Those times when it is multiple acts of betrayal from your mate, they will almost make you beg the Goddess to take you out of that misery. The pain was worse than childbirth, and it will take your breath away. Dr. Max had a nurse dress her in some of the clothes that I brought her. It is getting chilly as it is fall now, and it is still early, so I get her a fleece-lined tracksuit, with a long-sleeved shirt. We usually run warm. I don’t wear a lined suit unless it is winter because it is all that I need when I am out running errands. But due to her frail state, and being too thin she is not able to regulate her heat anymore. Her wolf is getting stronger each and every day. Soon she won’t need them, but I know that we are at least 2 months away from that.
Cheryl appreciates the fact that I am going with her, I didn’t tell her that Dr. Max was going too. He was just doing a few rounds right now to check on his other patients for the day, and see if any changes are needed to their medication while Cheryl is getting changed. I can tell that she likes him too, she always flushes around him and keeps looking down. He has been here for about 10 years. His mate had been killed in a rogue attack on their former pack. The pack no longer exists as it was anymore. After the attack, several of the pack members that experienced loss had to get away from such bad memories. The pack lost over 100 members on that fateful day. The horrors stayed with so many of the family members that were left behind to deal with the aftermath of it and prepare their loved ones for the burial ceremony. Many could not continue to stay there with the memories, including Dr. Max. Who packed up his stuff, donated most of his mate’s things, and left.
Dr. Max is a good man, he doesn’t date around despite so many she-wolves who have thrown themselves at him since he got here. He is respectful, and never questioned the two-mate situation that we have. He knew that they had both marked me and that we were actual mates. He has delivered several of our pups. He knows that we are all bound together as mates, and is an exceptional doctor here at our pack. I am very happy to know that these two who have suffered so much in their lives, might have another chance at finding love. I think that this kind and gentle man is just what the doctor ordered for her. I chuckle at my little pun as Cheryl is assisted out of the bathroom to sit on the bed. I had told both Brandon and the gate guard to expect us in about 20 minutes as I knew it was going to take a little while for her to get ready and for us to get to the gate. I already had an SUV waiting for us outside. I keep a band on my wrist for when I put my hair up and asked Cheryl if she wanted her hair up. She usually leaves it down, but she hasn’t had the strength to do it. It just gets brushed each day by either me or one of the nurses. She nods at me and I give her a high ponytail. It looks good on her, and I make a mental note to get her hair cut as soon as she is out of the hospital. It looks like it hasn't been cut in over 5 years.
I have to admit the reason that I wanted to put her hair up, is because I want that asshole to see what he has done to her. She had wasted away while on his watch, due to his actions. His lack of caring for her got her to this point. I know why she didn’t want to eat. His actions could result in her throwing up, and she was just trying to skip that step, so she ate the bare minimum for her to be able to operate. Not to starve herself to death, but because she knew his actions could make her sick. I know she did because I had asked her how her second day here was, with it just being us in the room. I will not tell her secrets, they are hers to tell, but I really wanted to give this ass a piece of my mind. His “I love you, but” and fill-in-the-blanks were not good enough for me. There is no “but” when you love someone. It was saddening to me how many times he had said it to Cheryl.
“I love you, but you need to admit what you did” “I love you, but you cheated on me” I love you, but unless you confess what you did, I cannot keep you as my mate” “I love you but, you refuse to tell the truth” “I love you but, you disgust me for cheating on me” The last one was my favorite because he was disgusted at her alleged cheating, so he was going to do it to her. Cheating on her over and over again, all while gaslighting her. He is a real class act, and I cannot wait to tell him what I think of him, and his actions.
“I am ready, I do not want him to leave before I can tell him that we are done,” Cheryl said, and she is braced like she is going to war. No more smiles, or happiness, just determination showing on her face to get this over with. She braced herself for this, and I squeezed her hand in support. “I will be with you. Brandon and Justin will be coming too. They were just waiting on us to get ready. I will link them now to let them know that we are about to leave. The door opened and Dr. Max is pushing a wheelchair in to collect Cheryl. I watch him as he locks it in place before he unhooks her from the IV. He then gently picks her up from the bed and puts her in the wheelchair. I caught him take a quick sniff at the top of her head before he bent down and unlocked the wheels to escort her to the SUV.
I think she thought that he was just taking her to the SUV. She was surprised that he stored her chair in the back and then got in the back seat with her. She smiled at him for doing this for her, but I don’t think that she is aware of the fact that he has feelings towards her. She was so focused on getting Kevin here, and now healing herself, that she hasn’t noticed it. I can tell that she is nervous the closer we get to the gate. I can tell by the difference in her breathing. I hope she doesn’t have a panic attack. I sense a movement and Dr. Max is holding her hand. Her breathing settles out and thankfully she calms down. I have to fight back my smile, and I refuse to turn around. I don’t want them to stop holding hands because they feel like I was watching them. We get to the gate, and I see that Brandon and Justin are already there. The gate guards are pushing the solid barriers back into place. There is no SUV here for my mates, so I am assuming that they ran here, and they are both in basketball shorts.
I see Blake standing there as the gate gets pushed back, and he is looking around for Cheryl. He is clearly not doing well. It looks like he has run his hands through his hair several times while he waited. He is agitated and I hope he can remain calm, I see their other three children standing there, and the middle child was the only one that was looking for Cheryl, or Kevin, out of the three of them. The back door of the SUV opened a short time later and I wondered what they said after the warrior and I got out of the SUV. Cheryl may have gone into a larger panic attack after we got out. I also wanted to give them a moment alone before she had to face Blake.
“Where is my mate? Is she not coming?” Blake asked Brandon, ignoring the rest of us. I was good with it, I didn’t want to speak to him right now anyway.
“She had to get clearance from the hospital to come here to speak with you,” Brandon told him in a cool tone. He was letting him know that he didn’t like, or respect Blake, right off the bat with how he spoke to him. I was proud of Brandon, he does not back down. He was letting Blake know that he needed to watch his tone, or he could just leave.
“What have you done to her? Did you hurt her? Know this, if she is hurt, you are now at war with Black Moon. I will not allow anyone to hurt my mate” Blake said with venom pouring out at us.
“Are you serious? You think WE hurt her. She barely managed to get here before she passed out behind the wheel of your SUV. If she had still been driving when that happened, she could have wrecked and killed both herself and Kevin. That was all on you and Graham. None of us hurt her, you take ALL the credit for it” I could not stop myself from saying to him. Blake’s eyes look at me and they flashed between his and his wolf's color. His wolf is close to the surface and is not calm. He wants his mate back, maybe he should have made his human think before he acted.
“I didn’t intentionally hurt her. Graham did this whole thing because we banished Reagan and demoted her to breeder since she liked to trick people into sleeping with her so much. It was a fitting punishment. I was on guard for the first 5 years, but he never made a move. He just started about 5 years ago, I was in too deep and never realized that he was ruining our relationship, instead of helping me repair it” Blake said, and I could tell that he was being torn apart by the guilt and sadness that he felt. It seemed like he really did want her back. Unfortunately for him, he had gone too far, I had the same bottom line myself. I was only able to get past it with Justin, because I found out the full story, and even with knowing that, the Goddess herself had to help me get over it.
“Just stay calm she is here, with her doctor. I will tell you now that you need to stay calm, or this conversation will be over, and you will be asked to leave. The doctor said her stress needed to be kept to a minimum, and her just being here to speak to you has her stressed out. Please do not attack her when you do speak, say what you need to, and leave. I do not want her to have a relapse. She almost died, it is clearly the Goddess’ will that she didn’t. So do not go too far, Blake. I do not have a problem at all with going to war with Black Moon, if we need to” Brandon told Blake, and I can tell from how Blake's jaw flexed he was grinding his teeth to keep from threatening Brandon back. An Alpha's pride is a big thing. It is real, and any misperceived slight to another Alpha could result in war. Brandon drawing the line before Blake could even see Cheryl angered him. He was only controlling himself because he needed to see Cheryl. That was the only thing holding him in place and calm right now.
I heard the door shut behind me and Dr. Max went to get the wheelchair from the back of the SUV. He repeats the locking of the wheels after he gets it opened for her to sit in. We all watch as he leans in to get Cheryl to help her get into the chair. Cheryl put an arm around his neck as from the angle he is at, he will have to take a step back with her in his arms to assist her into the chair. Blake’s growl of anger at his mate being touched is loud. It is made worse by their looking so intimate together, we can all tell that it angered him.
Dr. Max ignores Blake’s clear threat to him, and gently assists her into the chair, kneeling down to speak to her with whispered words, that none of us can hear, which made Blake roar in anger again. Dr. Max unlocks the wheels to bring her to the gate, and as soon as he stops, he locked the wheels back again. I can hear her panicked breathing again as she looks at Blake on the other side of our gate. If he would calm down he would hear it too. Dr. Max put his hand on her shoulder to give it a squeeze. Blake cannot take it anymore and yelled out, “Get your filthy hands off of my mate.”
I Don't Think so Blake