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The Attack

The week leading up to Ashlyn’s birthday passed fairly peacefully for Ashlyn, well as peaceful as you can get while being held in a psychiatric hospital.

There was always an air of just contained chaos, random outbreaks of noise, bouts of violence, in fact, on Wednesday, another patient attacked Ashlyn, he ran down a corridor and launched himself on Ashlyn’s back, yanking on her waist length braids and biting her neck.

Ashlyn eventually managed to throw him off, she had always been rather strong for her stature, even now she was only 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 85lbs, when soaking wet and wearing boots. He however was 2 years older, over 6foot tall and a rugby player. He managed to split Ashlyn’s lip and black her eye before she got a foot in his groin.

The only positive to this, the boys mind was so anxious that the only thoughts and feelings that Ashlyn picked up were nonsense, he seemed to be convinced that Ashlyn could read his mind and steal his thoughts, that it was her fault that he was in here, he had to kill her to get his thoughts back. There had only been the anxiety and fear you would expect, no pain, and because of the state he was in nothing from his past either.

The staff had eventually responded to the noise and both Ashlyn and the boy, Ashlyn didn’t even know his name, he was new, were taken back to their rooms and checked over by the doctor.

Ashlyn had to take a trip to the hospital in town for some x-rays, her ribs were tender and her shoulder too sore to touch. As she was hurried out to Jackie’s car, a blanket around her shoulders as she couldn’t get her t-shirt back on, she caught a flash of fur again, this has been happening every time she ventures away from the buildings porches, flashes of fur, howls, whispers in her head again, she had even been feeling irritable and angry, unable to sit still, not anxious just restless.

Her sleep has been worse too, she would struggle to sleep until early morning or would fall asleep really early only to be woken with nightmares and unable to get back to sleep because she couldn’t stay in bed. There were even days that she couldn’t sleep.

The fur she saw now was a reddish brown, like fox coloured, only there was no way it would be a fox, it was far too big. Ashlyn wrote it off as pain making her see things. Jackie drove very carefully over to the hospital, trying to avoid jostling Ashlyn too much. They were checked in quickly and sat in the waiting room to be seen by triage or called through by a nurse or doctor.


Micah received word that Ashlyn was being taken out by a nurse and that she was wrapped in a blanket as if sick or injured, he exploded out of bed, banging on Zuri’s door to wake her too, they had both been on patrol from 3am until 10am, it was lunch time now so they had only gotten about an hours sleep at best, Micah really wasn’t sleeping much, he couldn’t without his mate.

It turned out that Mark had enough of the right qualifications to get a job in the hospital and that the hospital needed someone to cover a short term gap in staffing created by sickness. He had passed on information about where Ashlyn’s room was, that it was comfortable for a hospital room and that Ashlyn had made it her own over the time she had been there, it was easy to see that she didn’t sleep when Micah wasn’t around either, everyone who watched park view reported her light coming on shortly after his leaving the area and not turning off again.

They would even see her at the window sometimes. It broke Micah’s heart when he couldn’t be around for her at night, he didn’t want his mate to suffer like this, especially when she did’t understand why.

And now she was injured? He couldn’t, and wouldn’t leave her there much longer. His father wanted him to wait and not act rashly, but how could he not now? He would be bringing his mate home at the earliest opportunity, but right now he had to find out if she was ok. He had people following the car, they reported that she seemed to be being taken to the hospital.

While he waited for Zuri to wake up, he went back into his room to make a call “Rafe, I need you. My mate is sick or hurt, shes being taken to hospital. I need you to see what you can find out about what’s going on.” Micah started without any preamble

“well hello Micah, its great to hear from you. I’m doing great, family’s good, the kids won their football match, thanks for asking, how are you holding up?” Rafe replied, though Micah could hear him already typing. “Yes yes… its all implied, you know that. I’m not holding up really, I need her Rafe, I need her home with me. Please, just let me know if you come up with anything?” Micah finished before the other man agreed and signed off.

Both Micah and Zander wanted to run off to the hospital right now, they wanted to push in and be with her, to make sure she was ok. ‘She will heal better with us. We have to go. Go now. Why are we still here?’ Zander demanded. He was practically pacing in Micahs head, Micah just about managed to keep control. Luckily Zuri had the sense to threaten them with Rowan, which kept them in the hotel and away from the hospital, well just about.


Ashlyn and Jackie waited only 30 mins before they were called into the examination room by a nurse practitioner. She was given pain killers and swiftly dispatched to x-ray. After what felt like an age of being pushed and pulled into awkward and increasingly painful positions, but in reality was only a few minutes, she was directed back to the same examination room.

This time, wearing even less, unable to get her bra back on and struggling to hold her blanket around herself. Being supported by Jackie she made it past all the people loitering in the corridors, Ashlyn was sure she saw one man sniff the air as she approached and walked by, an intense look on his face.

He was impossibly handsome and large, he looked like he could snap Ashlyn like a twig with one hand. Ashlyn shook her head, that couldn’t be right, she didn’t smell that bad, shed had a shower last night, and anyway, who would be so rude as to smell the air like that? Back in the examination room, she curled up as best she could on the couch.

Outside the examination room, the large mans eyes had lost focus as he communicated mentally with Micah.

“Boss, I got her. She’s injured not sick. But I think I know what she is…kinda… she has magic in her, she smells like a cross between the witch who lived on the edge of the my old pack lands and the healer who was mated to the pack doctor” he said.

Micah was torn, he growled in frustration. His mate was hurt and he couldn’t go to her, she would feel better if she was near him, she would heal better with him, she would be much better protected with him and his pack, there would be no more trips to the hospital and no more serious injuries.

But a magic user? His mate was a witch? How did she not know? Had she not come into her powers or something? Why didn’t she protect herself?

“Thank you Oliver, stay with her, report back when you hear more or she leaves” Oliver grunts in agreement before turning is attention back to what is going on in the room.

Micah quickly types out all this in a text to his father, he wanted to keep Rowan up to date but couldn’t bring himself to call or reach out mentally, he didn’t need any more sensible plans, instead he paced around his hotel room while Zuri lounged on his bed, practically asleep again.

If only he had met Ashlyn already, their bond would be much stronger, even if he couldn’t mark her yet, then Micah would know exactly what was wrong with her and that she would be ok. He growled again, making Zuri jump and nearly fall from the bed “fucking hell man! Don’t do that to a girl or you might find yourself left to stew on your own” she grumbled.

The nurse came back in, Ashlyn and Jackie had been waiting about 45 minutes now, she pulled up the x-rays on the computer and examined them, zooming in on some small areas on each view. Eventually she turned to look at Ashlyn and Jackie who had come to stand by Ashlyn

“ok, so there are no new fractures on these x-rays, there are fractures here that are about 3 to 4 weeks old, on both the ribs and the collar bone. Also, from the way you were holding your arm and the pain, I suspect there was a dislocation of your shoulder too but its back in place now. Ashlyn, why didn’t you come in when you were hurt weeks ago?”

Jackie looked down at Ashlyn and Ashlyn looked between both women, confusion evident on her face “b..but I didn’t get hurt before” Ashlyn whispers back. Jackie is taken outside for by the nurse, they have an urgent whispered conversation. Eventually, after advice to take it easy and avoid contact sports, a prescription for pain killers if she needs them, and a warning to avoid getting hurt again.

The day after this attack, Ashlyn felt like a giant, walking bruise. Even breathing hurt. She didn’t get out of bed unless it was strictly necessary and it was her birthday before she could wear a bra again.

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