Page 77 of Bite Me Alpha Cole

“I’mhelping, Jude!”

“She didn’t even fall hard! She’s fine! She just…tripped! I saw her!”

Cole snarls at his brother, and Jude runs away.

“Come on, Nadia,” Cole says softly, standing and holding out a hand to me. “I’ll help you up and we’ll go see mom. She’ll show you that you’re fine.”

I sniff, trying to hold back the tears. I take his hand with my good one, still cradling my injured arm to my chest, and let him pull me to my feet. “I’m not fine.”

Cole huffs a frustrated sigh, looking after Jude. My mouth starts to tremble as I realize that he wants to be over there, with Jude and Iris. Not here with cry-baby me. I try so hard to stop crying – but it hurts so much…

Cole turns his face back to mine and lifts his hand, using his fingertips to wipe away some tears from each cheek. “Come on,” he says with a sigh. “Let’s go see mom.”

I frown and step back, my feelings hurt nearly as much as my arm. “You don’t want to,” I say softly, still sniffing. I raise my good arm and wipe it across my face, not wanting to be a baby anymore. Not in front of him.

Cole stares at me, his face twisting in confusion because…duh. Of course he doesn’twantto help the crybaby – he wants to go with Jude so they can play wolves. “Nadia, we can –“

“I didn’t trip!”

He stands straighter, going still.

“Why did you push me?”

“Ididn’tpush you!” Cole says, frowning at me now, his hands balling to fists at his side. “Take that back! Apologize!”

“You did push me! I felt it! I felt your hand!Youapologize!”

“Ididn’t!” Cole takes a step towards me, and I gasp when I see the flash of his fangs as the points of them extend. I gasp, stumbling back a step. “I didn’t push you – I’m trying tohelpyou!”

“I know you did it!” I say, finding my footing and shaking my head, crying harder now. “Why are you so mean to me? You wouldn’t come play this morning! And you won’t let me play wolves! I’m not a sheep! And you pushed me!”

Cole’s face wrinkles with disdain. “You’re just being ababy, Nadia,” he growls. “A big…sheepbaby.”

Then he spins and runs away from me, chasing after Jude and Iris, leaving me all alone.

“Nadia?” I hear my mom’s voice call somewhere behind me, worried. “Sugar?”

But I just cry, heartbroken, and crumple down onto the stones, still cradling my arm and sobbing my heart out. Ruined – it’s all ruined – I don’t like them anymore –

“Nadia!” a soft voice says. A hand pets over my hair. I look up into Iris’s face. “Are you okay?”

My breath hitches alongside my sobs. “He – he pushed me!”

Iris’s face falls with sadness for me as she sinks to her knees at my side, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. But I cry out when she jostles my arm.

“What’s going on here?”

I cry and lean against Iris, who loosens her hug and looks up toward her mother’s voice. “I think Nadia got hurt.”

“Oh, baby,” the Queen says, sitting down at our side.

My mom sits next to her, reaching for me, whispering my name in the worried way she hardly ever uses but which lets me know it’s serious. I crawl into her lap and she wraps me loosely up.

“You go on, Iris,” the Queen says, petting her daughter’s hair and smiling at her. “We’ll get Nadia patched up.”

Some more adults come along – the helpers, bringing the baskets of food and supplies, and all the weird babysitters – Iris calls them nannies, but I don’t know what that means. They gather around as mom rocks me and the Queen orders a few to go away and get help – get a doctor.

The Queen sighs and kneels next to mom. “I’m sorry, Annalise.”

---