Page 35 of Heartsong
A pained sound escaped Anna, and she clapped her hand over her eyes. She blindly but nimbly navigated into the washroom, and next Frey heard the sound of drawers opening.
Memories of that first night came to him, of watching her rummage through those same drawers.
Turning off the television, he placed Captain on the couch and carefully approached the washroom.
Anna had left the door open, allowing him to see as she manipulated a small cylinder in the unlit room. Her fingers were sure, the movements rote, but everything about this, her silence, the strangeness of it, had unease creeping up Frey’s neck.
And then he saw it gleam in the low light from the main room—a needle.
He’d seen her do this before, but that didn’t soften the shock and horror of watching his mate pull down the waist of her sleepwear and poise the needle over her soft skin.
“No!”
Frey lunged forward, instincts flaring. He snatched the cylinder with the needle from her hand, yanking it away from her exposed skin.
Anna yelped as he crushed the brittle cylinder to pieces in his fist.
Clear liquid gushed across his knuckles as he flung the remains into the sink.
“What thefuck!” Anna roared.
Frey reared back at her outrage, his own ire flaring. She glared up at him, the light from the main room glittering in her dark eyes. His lips pulled back over his fangs in a frustrated growl.
“Youwill notharm yourself!”
“It doesn’t hurt much. And it’s better than having this headache!” With a pointed finger and blunted claw, she poked the center of his chest over and over to punctuate her words. “You don’t get tofuckingtell me what to do. It’smyfucking body. This ismedicine. Ineedit.”
“Harming yourself is unacceptable!”
“I’m not! And last I checked, watching a few videos doesn’t make you a fucking doctor, Frey. So getthe fuckout of my bathroom.”
“I will not. This cannot be the only remedy.”
“It is for me. This is how it is, okay?” And to his horror, tears rather than anger began to glitter in her eyes. She turned away from him to reach into a drawer and pull out another cylinder.
Throwing him an evil look over her shoulder, she retreated further into the washroom, lifted her garment, and stuck the needle to her skin.
His whole body clenched, and a growl of displeasure escaped his lips, but he held himself back. Instinct far more ancient than even him screamed to stop her—protecting a mate was vital, sacrosanct, even if it was from themselves. A mate who couldn’t protect his heartsong wasn’t worth the dirt beneath his talons.
A littleclickwas overloud in the sucking silence between them. Anna removed the cylinder and threw it in the small wastebin.
After a moment, her shoulders slumped and she turned. Not all the way. Only giving him her profile, she said, “I get headaches, okay? Migraines. It’s chronic and there isn’t a lot I can do about them other than take that injection. I don’t like it either, sticking yourself with a needle sucks. But it’s better than suffering through a migraine.”
Suffer.His matesuffered. A helpless rage seared across his soul. He’d had to sit and watch his sister wither in a loveless mating. He couldn’t save her or their mother from perishing in battle. He hadn’t been able to stop the fae in their attack. And now, he was helpless yet again.
He’d become the best, strongest warrior in his clan. He was undefeated in battles and brawls. He’d gathered everything he could to make a heartsong happy in his dwelling.
For what? All this he did and yet he couldn’t ease her pain.
“Anna…” he groaned, his heart aching.
When she turned to look at him again, it was with a frown, her eyes shuttered. Whatever ground he may have gained over the past nights had been lost, and Frey brimmed with despair to realize it.
“It’s the only thing that works. I don’t have a ton of doses left and I can’t get more until next month. Don’t do that ever again.”
It felt as though his chest caved in upon itself, his muscles and tendons and ribs snapping to crush his heart and lungs beneath. He could hardly draw breath enough through the agony to say, “My Anna…I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just cannot stand seeing you do such a thing.”
She pursed her lips and shrugged, arms winding around herself. “It sucks. I’m hoping there’ll be a different treatment soon. But this is how it is. I deal with it, so you’re going to have to, too.”
