RULE 78: THE OUTSIDE WORLD WILL TRY TO LURE YOU WITH LUXURIES. YOU MUST RESIST OR ELSE YOU WILL FACE BANISHMENT.

✷ C H A P T E R      T H I R T E E N ✷

After three days, I lost count of how long I had spent recovering. While my body was slowly starting to mend itself, my mind would thud dully whenever I concentrated too hard. Not that there was much to do otherwise. As a matter of fact, there was quite literally nothing to do to keep my mind occupied besides thinking or sleeping.

My body did not put up much of a fight on whether or not I would be consumed in sleep or thoughts. I spent most of my time sleeping. Supposedly, it was helping my body heal, but even a couple days after the accident, I felt like I had just endured the crash.

Mina, the healer who Theo assigned to help me, said I had been quite banged up. I had three broken ribs, a concussion, a hairline fracture, my wrist was now fully broken, there was a gash on my chest, and my right leg had been sprained. Mina said I was lucky that, with some intense healing, I should be just as good as new.

From what I could catch a glimpse of, there had been someone stationed outside the bedroom as if I required constant guarding. When Mina would come in and out of the room, I would only be able to briefly see snippets of someone's black tennis shoe. Mina never said anything to the person outside the room, but sometimes, I'd see her nod at them when she thought I was sleeping.

Additionally, sometime when I was sleeping the past couple of days, bars were fastened on the sole window in the room. I am guessing they did not want me to attempt a break-out heist like I had done earlier in the week. This time they were prepared for me to try and escape, even when I was not in a state to even walk on my own yet.

On top of the constant ache, I was always enduring, my body was beginning to feel restless. I had been in the bed for the majority of the days I was here, except for the times Mina helped me make the short distance to the bathroom.

Mina had not been in for a couple hours. I normally would not have minded too much, except that she had been telling me that I was too dehydrated. I had been sleeping too much and not eating or drinking enough water for my body to heal at Mina's preferred rate. She had brought in a giant water jug, and in the past couple of hours, I had downed the whole thing. Needless to say, I needed to use the restroom, but I had never even tried to get up on my own much less walk.

Sighing, I used my good arm to push myself up straighter in the bed. I tried to hoist my legs off the side of the bed, but had to immediately take a break; the pressure on my upper body was too much to endure in one swift movement. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw.

I can do this, I told myself, trying to find some motivation.

Even with my positive attitude, it could not quench the pain that rippled through my body as I was able to slowly dangle my legs over the bed. They barely did not touch the ground.

I extended my good hand to the device beside my bed. Mina said it was to administer the medicine. I — under no circumstance — wanted to detach this wonderous device from my body. Taking a deep breath, I placed one leg on the ground, not yet putting my full weight on it it. Instead, I wheeled the medicine device to my side and used it to propel my body up.

I smiled. Maybe I really could do this. With most of my weight on my un-sprained foot, I stood up straight. My head was spinning, all the blood rushing to the forefront. My vision wavered, and I felt like throwing up.

I could do this, I had to remind myself as I urged the bile in my throat back down.

Ready to take a step, I put some pressure on my bad leg, causing it to cave under the pressure, leaving me trying to grasp at anything in sight. Unfortunately, I was not able to prevent myself from falling face down on the wooden floor. The swift movement pulled out the IV from my hand, and I was left clutching my hand in pain.

Tears pricked at the edge of my eyes. I was pitiful. I couldn't even walk. On top of that, in my fall, my skull banged hard against the floor, the cut on my head reopening. How was I expected to save the entire Borderlands? Why had they decided I needed to endure a car crash? Sobs wracked up in my chest. I tried to suppress the overwhelming sobs, but I was not as in control of my emotions as I would have liked.

You deserve this, I thought, and out flew the optimism I had earlier. I knew deep down I did deserve this pain. I was mates with a beast. I was someone the Borderlands warned about.

"Trying to escape again?" The hair on my back raised, and I could tell it was Theo — even despite the fact one of my ears was pressed harshly into the floor and my other ear was ringing.

His voice had been ingrained in my memory by now, even if I had known him less than a week. I tried to mumble something out as a response, but my words were not discernible. There was a pause and soon Theo was helping me up. He put his rough hands on my arms, instantly sending a wave of heat over my body. It was like static electricity when he touched me.

He helped me back to the bed and once I had almost composed myself, wiping away any stray tears. I said, "I was not trying to escape."

He tilted his eyebrows at me like he did not believe a word that came out of my mouth. He crossed his hands over his chest and an amusing smile was painted on his lips.

"Then why were you trying to sneak out of this room? Not that you were very discreet about it. I could hear your fall from across the building," he watched me, eyes unwavering as he took a step back.

"I would not classify falling face down on the way to the bathroom sneaking out," I muttered as I slid back into the bed slowly, hoping that the unattached IV would not cause my pain to intensify.

"Is Mina not caring for you properly?" His face heated up, eyes turning a dark black. "I'll talk with her."

"Oh, no, there is no need to do that," I responded quickly. My body instinctively sent a shiver down my spine. I hated confrontation. I more so hated confrontation that was caused by me and, if I was being honest, there was no need for anything to be brought up with Mina. "It's just she hasn't been in for a while, which isn't unusual. I just drank a lot of water, because she said I was too dehydrated. I think I'll just wait for her to help me from now on."

"Let me help you," was all he replied.

"Oh you don't have to," I shrugged off his suggestion, nervously.

What I had wanted to say was that I did not want him to help me — well, at least that was what my brain was telling me. I knew I should not verbalize this thought. While he was a beast, I could not have him hating me for the next three months. After that? Well, after that, things were out of my control.

In my hazed state over the past couple of days, I had come up with a sort of game plan since the Council had left a lot to the imagination with their instructions. My plan was this: I would be as nice to Theo as I could stomach ( I would allow myself to not always be agreeable for my own sake), but I would try my best to be more understanding. I wanted to seem like I was making progress in the right direction from our first confrontation where I ran away. But, I did not want our relationship to get further than slight acquaintances. That way I'd be able to get the information I needed without making things more difficult. No collateral damage would be needed.

I anticipated things would be way easier said than done, but I had to think of Pa, Gran, Pop, Auntie, and Uncle. Everything I did from here on out was for them.

"Let me," his words were more of a command than a suggestion.

My stomach was uneasy, but I silently nodded along, accepting his help. I could see his smile widen before wiping the smirk completely off his face. He moved over to my side and picked me up, the fabric of my clothing preventing me from feeling his touch.

"It will be easier if I carry you," I agreed with him, again refraining from trusting my instincts, which was to counter back. I tried to soothe the plush fabric of the gown I was dressed in to calm my nerves, but the material had been too wrinkled.

Theo carried me out of the room. I was surprised to see that no one was outside guarding the door. I could have sworn that I had seen someone earlier; in fact, I could remember seeing someone multiple times, but I shrugged it off, the headache forming in my skull preventing further inquiry. Outside the room, I was healing in were multiple other doors with a bathroom at the very end of the hallway.

Somehow, I had managed to reassure Theo I did not need his help beyond escorting me to and from the bathroom. My cheeks blushed intently at the thought of him seeing me in such a compromising position.

After I was all finished up, Theo once again carried me back to the room and helped me get situated in the bed. For a fleeting moment, it was easy to forget that he was a beast tied to a phase of the moon.

"I'll mindlink Mina to give you more pain meds. I can practically feel your pain from here," he backed away from helping me in the bed, making his way over to the dresser. "Here's the TV remote. Mina says you do nothing but sleep and stare."

He handed a thin black, hand-held device to me.

"Thanks," I accepted the remote, looking it over. It was littered with many different buttons — not even one of which I knew what the purpose was. Memphis had talked about how his cousins would brag about being able to watch something called TV and I vaguely remember Natasha pointing out a TV at Midnight Mercury, but I never paid much attention to it since we must not concern ourselves with wonders of the Outside.

"Are you going to put something on?" Theo looked at me quizzically, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Excuse me?" I was confused, eyes scanning over the remote, helplessly.

"On TV?"

"Oh, um, yeah," I stumbled through my words, pressing buttons at random, trying to see if I could turn on the TV. I knew the TV was the black-framed object I first thought was merely a picture frame with a questionable piece of art, but I had never watched or seen anyone watch TV before. I would not be able to mimic what I thought was the right way to turn on a TV.

"Certainly the crash did not make you forget how to turn on a TV," I gulped at Theo's words, hoping my lack of knowledge would not lead to any suspicions about me being from the Borderlands. He couldn't know. He just couldn't.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Theo came over and pressed the red button at the top of the remote, his fingers lightly brushing up against mine. The screen hanging over the dresser turned on.

"I've never had a TV before," I reasoned, my eyes not leaving the TV screen.

"Well, here," Theo pressed a couple of buttons, and then the screen switched to a different set of people on the screen. "This is a good show to watch."

"Do you watch a lot of TV?" I asked.

"No," was all he said as he made his way over to the door to leave.

"Oh," I breathed out as Theo's hand grasped the doorknob. "Um, Alp—"

"—Theo."

"Theo," I corrected, "uh, thank you."

He nodded before leaving the room, leaving me to watch the TV while I waited for Mina to administer more pain medicine.