We got to see Nox the next day. The little ones were with Ryan and the twins were with me. But it was only me they let in to see him. Ant had been asleep in the middle of the day. He looked horrible, his body was purple and blue and he looked tagged lying in the white bed covered in the white sheet to his waist.
I soon found out why they let me in. Both Dorian and Kai told the doctors I was the point of contact and I had to sign off on any treatment. And there was paper work signed by Nox stating so. I was surprised by the but if news.
A small slip of a girl sat down next to me and twirled a purple stand of hair around her finger. “Nox was a good kid even if he was a little weird. I treated him badly. Everyone did. Do you know how he got those scars on his back?”
“Yeah the asshole he saved did it to him.” I growled.
“Garrett?” she asked. “He says he doesn’t know. But it doesn’t matter.” She sighed. “He has a history of suicide and they want to move him to the psyche ward before he wakes up. You can’t stop us but you can put in a petition to get him out but he’s dangerous.”
“Is that the only reason I’m here?”
“And to see him of course.”
“Madison.” I plucked her name from her head and her relationship with Nox too… bitch, “I’ll be taking him as soon as he wakes up no matter where he is so take him wherever you want,” I said and left my pretty boy before I literally killed the messenger.
They moved Nox to another room, in another wing, in a much more secure facility behind an orange door even. I sat outside of it trying to sleep, and get into the dreams of my pretty boy. They wouldn’t let me inside the room. But Ant said he could get in later in the day when the shadows were deeper.
There was motion next to me and I felt the bench shift. I didn’t open my eyes I didn’t care who was joining me. sat there trying to reach my boy.
It was a while before they spoke. “How is he?” his father asked.
“Broken, battered and still asleep. He looks like like he’s healing, but they don’t know why he won’t wake up and they won’t let me inside.”
“How are you?”
“I’m in need of a shower. I probably should eat, I’m sure there are a thousand other things I should be doing. But I can’t leave him.”
Kai chuckled, “Well, you can either leave at my suggestion, or I can let Dorian do his magic and drag you out even if you are kicking and screaming.”
“He wouldn’t really do it would he?”
Kai laughed, “Yes, he would. He deals with arrogant teenagers and he will man handle you himself”
“I think I’ll sit here a while longer,” I said.
“I figured you’d say that,” Kai said and then there was a long pause between us which I was fine with but apparently Nox’s estranged father wasn’t. “Nox tells me he hurt you because of something that happened to me.”
“What of it?” I didn’t turn to look at the older man. I just wanted my pretty boy to wake up.
“Do you doubt him?”
“Doubt he told the truth, that he really saved you?” I sighed and looked at him. “Nox is not a liar.”
“I know. But he is. He lies everyday about what he is, what he does. But that’s also why he doesn’t lie.”
“Look Kai, sir, I’m a fucking con man, the fact that he’s forgiven me for what I did to him I think we are on the same page. Nox and I are good – really really good – if he can wake the fuck up.”
Kai sighed. “I’m sorry I mentioned it. But I wanted to tell you I’m grateful for the sacrifice he made for my life. I got to see my son grow into a great man, I get to see him raise even better children and to meet the one person who’s been with him his whole horrible life.”
“Maybe I will go home, take a nap.”
Kai nodded. “I’d love the chance to sit down and talk to you, if you’ll allow it, one day after this has all settled down.”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure.” I just wanted to get away right now.
I thought about going back to my place. To be alone, but then I thought about the kids. Fucking kids. Nox kept saying ours when he talked about the kids. Our kids, like we were already married. I looked down at the ring on my finger and wondered if that was all he needed, just proof that I loved him. The whole idea of a wedding wasn’t important anymore, just him being here with me. Ant was lucky he got to feel that connection, he knew Nox was alive. I didn’t want to be but I was jealous.
I opened the door to Nox’s apartment and I wasn’t surprised to see the three little ones sitting on the laps of the other three boys watching a movie. Laker and Matt were leaning against each other holding one of the boys each, and Rider and Cass were sitting at the other end of the couch. That was my family – minus Nox.
Cass was the first one to notice me but I was already walking away into Nox’s bedroom – our bed room according to him. It wasn’t home though. I did lay down on the bed, and Fee scattered to the window to rest in the sun there. I closed my eyes and just wanted to find Nox in my dreams.
The bed shifted and I felt little hands on mine and she made herself at home curled up to me. “I want my Dad.”
I pulled her close. “Me too, Cass. Me too.”
She giggled. “I want Daddy too, but can’t you stay with us?” My eyes popped open at the realization she had just called me her dad. How the fuck did we get to this. She pressed her body against me. “Hunter says Daddy will be okay.”
There was a third shift in the bed and I glanced at the disturbance to find Hunter climbing up and I held out an arm and he came to the other side, Drake followed him and he curled up next to Cass. Rider was in the doorway. “I was going to tell them to leave you alone, but seems you got it under control.”
He opened his mouth and then hesitated and I knew what he wanted. “The three of you can join us, it’s what you’d do with Nox isn’t it?”
Laker spoke from behind his brother. “We’ve all been sleeping in his bed, your bed at night.”
“Come on. I don’t bite.”
That was all the invitation they needed, the three teenage boys climbed up on to the other side of Drake – Rider, Laker then Matt. That made me worry, that they were so young.
“What do you two know about wolf packs?” I asked the twins.
Rider shrugged, “Not much.”
It’s what I figured. “I think there are a lot of conversations we need to have but I want to sleep, try to reach Nox.”
For the next three days I went to sit outside Nox’s door. But every night I came home to the family Nox had built for us. I hadn’t really thought about sleeping arrangements each night, but they always ended up in bed with me. And every night I felt him calling me but there was this fog I had to climb through. But he called me like he used to.
Every evening before I came home, I met with Ant for dinner and we talked. He avoided the AU building but said that he was trying to find a way inside. The rooms were warded from shadowwalking, which was the only reason Nox was still in the stupid building.
Three fucking days of misery. But everyone was helping out. Dorothy Vega stopped by the apartment with lunch for the kids. Rider and Laker had breakfast. Matt was there in the afternoons to help, and I brought dinner home, we at as a family, I didn’t eat much, but mostly because I’d eaten with Ant before making it home to them.
I tried to find Nox every night but I couldn’t get through the fog. I even called Kish, but that didn’t help anything either, only worried her, she and Kay were working to take off time to come help even though I told them not to come. Nox needed to get better.
My phone ringing surprised me as I sat outside the orange door. From a number that I didn’t recognize. I answered it cautiously. “Hello?”
“Alex, are you with Nox?”
“Wicked? You never call me.”
The Wicked Truth laughed on the other side of the line. “Well I’m not exactly calling as The Wicked Truth. It’s just Sage right now, you know that connection you had me make to get Venatori information from? About Nox I assume.”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“I know you gave it to your boss, but I kept the back door myself and I’ve been digging around. I have a lot of information and I really need to talk to you about it. Not over the phone, can you meet me?”
“Of course. Now? We can meet at Bonnie’s. I probably should eat.”
“Yeah, sounds good Alex. See you in a few.”
The Mind of Nox 