Rourke
Blood. Screaming. The glint of steel. The thunder of the storm, the crack of lightning and the cackle of bandits. Amos clinging to me, crying, his tears wetting my shirt—
I shot up with a gasp. My forehead was soaked in sweat and I was gripping the standard issue sheets hard. When I realized where I was, I exhaled a heavy breath.
Fucking nightmares.
The same replaying memories plagued me, even when I was knocked out, because of course they did. If I could pay someone to wipe the bad memories out of my brain, I would. Obviously, that was a fantasy in which I actually had money.
On second thought, wiping the bad memories from my brain would probably result in alotof memory loss, so fuck it.
I got up with a groan. Nightmares always made me wake up stiff and sore, which defeated the point of sleeping. I may as well have stayed awake the whole damn night.
The sole window in my cell was dark, as usual—that tended to happen when you lived in a place called the fuckinglower quarter—but a couple slivers of sunlight shone down through the cracks. I let it instil some tiny scrap of joy in me. I’d learned to be grateful for what I had.
There was a knock at the door. It was a light, casual knock that indicated it was a fellow alpha, not one of the beta guards who always seemed to try and break through the damn door.
I was right. My buddy Shepherd stood at the door with a lopsided grin. “Hey, man.” He glanced down at my lower body, dressed only in underwear. “Did I catch you in the middle of some morning fun?”
“Very funny. Just the opposite.”
Shep frowned sympathetically. “Nightmares again?”
“Yup.”
“That sucks.” He patted me on the arm. “C’mon, I have some good news for you.”
“What’s up?” I asked.
Shep grinned. “Mini Rourke is here to see you.”
My bad mood disappeared. “Amos is here?”
“Yeah, and he brought those ginger cookies again!” Shep laughed. “Those are seriously the best. Amos is a talented kid.”
“Yeah, he is,” I said, smiling.
My heart ached. It had been a while since Amos visited last, but he never forgot his big brother. Ever. How could he when we were the only family each other had?
It was hard to keep track of the days in here, but I had the vague feeling that there was something important, like my internal clock knew better than I did. I turned to Shep.
“What day is it today?”
Shep shrugged. “Uh, I dunno. Sixteenth of Leaf Burning, I think.”
My heart sank, sending a numb chill throughout my whole body.
How had it been an entire year already?
Shep gave me a grounding pat on the back. “You’re spacing out. You okay?”
“Fine.” I blew out a long breath. I massaged my temples and tried to return to my senses. “Just thinking about how its been a whole year since I’ve lived in this dump.”
Shep laughed, loud and genuine. I liked that about him. He wore his heart on his sleeve, always honest about his feelings. In that way he reminded me of Amos sometimes. In a place like this, it was nice being able to trust him and know it was mutual.
“Tell me about it,” Shep said. “But do so on the way to the showers, all right? No offense, but you have that—how do I put this gently—perfume of alpha.”
I chuckled and playfully swatted him. “So do you, asshole.”
