This Pain is My Doing

He closed his eyes as she began to run her paws through his mane after he’d admitted what he needed. Company. To not have to be here alone, awake with his own thoughts of ineptitude and dismay. He could ignore all of that when he was trying to help someone else, when he could focus on the challenges someone else faced instead of his own. He was glad she could allow herself so close, even as she reminded him of the other wolves that dedicated themselves to him and the cause. He appreciated what she didn’t say, and listened to what she did. Duchess and Segin both were likely not so far, he couldn’t imagine either would have taken the sight of him being rolled in here very well.

They hadn’t hardly left his side she said, he wondered if Gypsy was included, she didn’t often go anywhere unless invited. He knew the she wolf was Duchess, not only because it didn’t sound like Gypsy but Duch was the mother hen of the group. He thought of her fondly, but then in completely different ways as Emersyn went on and mentioned him having a type. Indigo choked on the words and started coughing even as he’d been trying to laugh. The strangled sounds turned to a groan as he disturbed his wounds too much. He had to remain perfectly still and even then he ached. The wounds were not kind.

”Maybe, but I would help anyone regardless of what they looked like.” He told her as he tried to hold the bandaged at his belly while he spoke. It was an odd coincidence all of the wolves that followed him were all of similar traits. ”Gypsy is the only one that I’ve found. She was tied to a tree, facing certain death if she wasn’t taken somewhere warm to sleep. Duchess and Segin both found me. Or fate brought us together.” Indigo slowed his speech, feeling himself get out of breath. ”If you believe in that sort of thing.” Indigo didn’t know how to explain his skill of finding the wolves that needed him most but he had never questioned it. Only acted as he saw fit when the challenge arose.

He hadn’t opened his eyes, and he hoped she was still absently stroking the long fur down his neck and shoulders. It was soothing and helped distract him from both physical and emotional pain. She let his mind touch on what might have happened that day had Indigo not been at the river. He wouldn’t have ever found Emersyn and she would have been floating down the river instead of the hunter right now. Maybe it was fate.