My eyes feel like there glued together as I try to blink them open. It takes me a while to actually get them open but when I do they sting and I let them drop closed again. With them closed I feel more aware of what my body is doing and what I feel. The pain in my ribs is tight, like my skins getting stretched, it's dull, but I can still feel it. My ripped blood soaked shirt hasn't been replaced in my unconsciousness, but my jeans have been changed into the shorts that I've been sleeping in. The only warmth of blankets that I have in the winter weather is the black faux fur blanket that unusually sits at the end of the bed. There isn't a breeze in the room but I still feel shivers pulsating through my spine. Just the black cropped bra is comfortably covering the top of my body, but the tight coarse bandage wrapped around me torso is annoying me. It's not too bad when I feel Ryder's warm hand in mine and something tickles against it as well. He hasn't left me and judging by the warm steady exhale of his breath against my hand I think that he's fallen asleep and the tickle must be the light covering of stubble on his defined jaw line that I noticed before. Shifting lightly I try to move to my side, uncomfortable from being on my back for so long. I feel stiffness over my ribs when I move and I whimper at the pain. The movement wakes Ryder up and he jolts with a tightening grip around my hand that hurts a little as he growls. Growl. Wolf. I must remember those two. His grip loosens on my hand and my eyes blink open again, fighting to stay on the beautiful hazel colour. His other comes down on my hip, lightly pushing me so I'm on my back again instead of facing towards him. "Riley said to stay on your back." He says as he sits back down in the chair next to the bed. "Riley?" I question, my hand flexing in his. His hand tightens on my hip and it doesn't seem as if he's going to remove it any time soon. "Riley is the doctor." The chair Ryder is in is one of the grey wing backed chairs at the end of the room. I've been slid closer to the right side of the bed instead of the centre. The thick white curtains have been pulled over the left side and end of the bed and also half way up the bottom of the right, stopping at Ryder's chair, closing off the rest of the room, letting in only the soft orange glow of the fire. It's when Ryder's moves his hand from my hip to my arm closet to him do I notice that the single tube that was in my arm has been replaced with a double connection and another one stuck into my skin a little lower down my forearm. The tubes clear but there's a bright red liquid moving down it, the three tubes plus another disappearing behind the bed. The thing checking my heart rate is still there as well, beeping quickly behind us. Ryder grabs my hand holding it back from when I try to grab at the new tubes and pull them out. I don't want them all in my arms. Ryder isn't going to hurt me but I want to get them out and his strength is holding me back. Needle's made me weak and I can't fight those that want to hurt me off. "Lottie." Ryder's voice is worried and his chest is rising and falling rapidly. He looks like he's trying to prevent something. I stop fighting his grip and he sighs, letting go of my hand and sliding the thing on my finger as he does, stopping the annoying noise. His eyes stay on mine the whole time, caressing the hand that he's still holding. His free fingers run underneath my eyes wiping away the tears that I didn't realise I had shed. "I can't take any of these out yet. Riley will be up soon to check on you, and then she can take them out for you." He says massaging my arm, where all the intrusions are. The words he says go in one ear and out the other. "You can change into a wolf." Ryder scoffs, shaking his head as he leans back away from me. "We're werewolves. Half human, half wolf." The memory of having the black and white wolf in front of me was lost in the haze of the rushed medical assistance to my stomach. His wolf was beautiful. He's beautiful. He doesn't scare me like I know he should. My body's telling me that this is right but I can't exactly get my mind around it. "Ho-how?" I stutter. His tongue runs along the bottom of his teeth before he answers. "It's genetic. I can't really explain how it happens. We get our wolves at thirteen and it takes about a week for a normal wolf to shift for the first time and it's painful but it kind of just happens. You asking me how, is like me asking you how you're human. It's just who I am. " Shifting closer to him, I want to know more. I go to say something but he speaks instead. "You aren't scared of me." His eyes search my face afterwards he seems genuinely scared of my reaction. "I trust you." The words that I thought would calm him now seem to set him on edge more and he opens his mouth to say something more before he shuts with a look down my body before they stop on the right side of my neck. His hand comes over to brush over the skin in the hollow of my neck where it meets my collar bone. He wets his lips as he leans in closer to me. I fight back a moan as I watch every single one of his movements. "That's not all." He whispers shakily.