Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 46

Her mind was racing at an imperceptible speed in a million different directions at the same time. Needless to say, she was shocked beyond comprehensive thought, and couldn’t get herself to focus past the image in front of her that she still couldn’t accept to be true.

Never in Sophia’s life did she wish she was in a nightmare instead of awake like she did at that moment. Maybe she’d fallen asleep on the couch earlier, and now her worrying had gotten the better of her and turned her worst fears into a torturing dream like her dreams had tended to be so many times already.

But as much as she tried to convince herself that this wasn’t really happening, there was just no denying that this surely didn’t feel like a dream. It didn’t have that hazy void about it, and there was certainly no convincing herself that the blood wasn’t real. The iron metal smell of it assaulted her senses to such a degree that it simply couldn’t have been something her mind could have conjured up. And it certainly couldn’t have come up with the absolute agony the churning of her stomach was creating there. She’d never felt anything like it before, so it just had to be real.

Sophia found it hard to think straight as her brain kept up with its chaotic, rollercoasting cognitive processes, while coming to a complete standstill at the same time as she watched the man she had come to care about more than she’d ever thought possible, bleeding out on the carpet by the front door.

In a sentence; Sophia had no fucking clue what she needed to do!

She then started to shake Neil by the shoulders. “Please wake up! Neil? What should I do?”

One would think that with her background, that Sophia would not be freaking out about blood the way she did just then. By the many times she had been cut and had to nurse her own wounds, she was supposed to be used to seeing blood.

But, within the same breath, she knew very well that it was different seeing Neil’s blood. Especially when there was so much of it!

Wait, what do I always do first when I get wounded? She would first clean it to assess the damage. That was what she needed to do now as well, she thought when some semblance of rational thought became possible at last.

The bathroom! Sophia needed to get him into the bathroom. She could take the portable shower head off its hook and wash his wounds clean. Wounds she couldn’t fully see because he was wearing Goddess-damned black again!

But as she focused on his chest, she could see that he had clearly some kind of gash there, but by the location the blood seemed to seep to the carpet by his legs, he must have been injured there too – and fuck knows where else!

All she needed to spend her energy on now was to get him into the bathroom, she admonished herself. There was no use in freaking out about things that she could do nothing about. Anything more than getting him clean and seeing what she had to work with was a worry for when she got to it later.

Panting and sweating like a racehorse, desperation filled her as she couldn’t get Neil’s upper body up by much. She wasn’t strong enough by herself. He was much too heavy for her as a deadweight. She tried and tried, and even though she had dragged him a meter or two she knew it wasn’t getting them anywhere.

She was just too tired by this time, but he suddenly jerked awake when her hands slipped from under the pits of his arms and he fell back onto the carpet, and she went right onto her bum.

“Sorry,” Sophia cried as she crawled her way back to him. “Neil, we need to get you to the bathroom. Do you think you can stand?”

With his teeth clenched in pain, he sat up slowly to a sitting position with the help of her shaking hand pushing at his back. Once he was sitting, he nodded his answer to her question and pointed to the dining room table.

“Bring over one of those chairs, and put it to the right of me, my one leg is useless, I will need to help you get myself up as much as I can with my other one then.”

Not that had made much sense to Sophia, and not entirely sure what he wanted to do, she obeyed and immediately brought back one of the chairs and placed it as instructed by his right shoulder.

“Okay, what now?”

“Hook your arms under my other arm again, and I will press on the seat here to help you,” he said, sounding like he was in more pain than Sophia could ever imagine.

She cried for him silently, wishing she knew how she could take it away for him. As her heart felt like it wanted to explode with agony for him, it was also pumping the adrenaline she needed to help him as best she could. And that was what she intended to use to do exactly that.

Sophia felt those stress hormones kicking her central nervous system into even a higher gear as she came to the realization that a dizzy spell would come again soon by how Neil was starting to lull sickly. He’d lost so much blood already. They needed to hurry!

She was in position by his side in no time and gathered as much strength as she could to get him up as quickly as possible, so that he wouldn’t lose too much of his waning strength.

“One, two, three,” Sophia counted, and on ‘three’ both Neil and she jumped into action.

She pulled him up by the armpit, while he pushed with his strongest arm against the seat of the chair to get him up halfway, and then his good leg did the rest of the lifting work. He was up. But it had significantly drained him as he almost fell right onto Sophia. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Find_Nøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

She moved quickly to get his arm thrown over her shoulders and hung on tight to his hand hanging over her one side. “Please hang on, Neil,” she begged while praying to the Goddess. “I need you to stay awake and help me get you to the bathroom. Just hang on. We’re almost there.”

They had moved into the hallway by now, so it really was only a few more steps, but Sophia could feel that he was leaning more and more onto her, and his head was even drooping a bit more with each step they took together.

“We’re almost there,” she repeated for him as much as for herself. “Just a few more steps then you can rest. Please try and stay awake.”

Goddess, I know you might not have always liked me very much, but if there’s one person that deserves your mercy right now it’s him. Please, help me help him. Please don’t take him from me…

Finally, they’d made it into the bathroom. Now what? Oh right, get him cleaned with water. Her mind was still running around like a frantic headless chicken, but she knew she had to get that done first.

“Can you stand if I move from under your arm?”

He nodded weakly. “Lean me up against the wall.”

His eyelids were scarily hanging low. She knew that she didn’t have a lot of time to do what she needed to do. Other than the blood loss, she wasn’t sure she could help him if he passed out on her again.

She helped him move a step to the side and he placed his hand against the wall for support, but when she moved out from under him he looked like he was about to topple forward when she was out from under him and just about to move to take off his shirt, and she instantly moved to stop him from falling.

He hissed with pain as she had to catch him, and he had fallen with his chest wound against her own chest. This seemed to bring him back a bit more as he pushed off her and looked at her with his eyes a lot more lucid as he took in her face.

“You look different,” he said, his voice gravelly and weak, but his bronzed eyes very much alive as he took in her hair and her face. He even lifted his other hand that was not leaning against the wall to her face, and smiled as he said, “You look beautiful.”

There was no anger or worry in his eyes as he must have realized that she had had to leave the apartment to get her new look, he almost looked impressed actually. But there was no time to go on about her appearance, she still needed to see how bad his injuries were.

“Tell me where you got hurt?” she asked urgently, but he still smiled, even though she ignored his compliment. He might just be delusional from all the blood he’d lost anyway, so he might have something completely different to say when all of this was over. If he made it, but she didn’t allow her mind to wander there.

He seemed to think hard then as his brow furrowed in concentration, almost like he’d forgotten about his injuries and how he’d gotten them for a moment. “I got a cut on my chest and stabbed in my thigh,” he said, swallowing hard as his Adam’s apple bobbed, and Sophia knew he was in a tremendous amount of pain and looked like he was getting weak again.

“I’m going to step away now,” Sophia said, as she tested his ability to stand by himself little by little as she slowly moved away from him. “I need to get you cleaned up.”

Once she stood far enough away to really have a better look at his chest under the bathroom lights, which were sharper and more directly above them than in the living room, she was able to see that it looked deep and there was still blood pouring from the wound.

With Neil clearly getting weaker by the second, she couldn’t possibly expect him to be able to get undressed. He wouldn’t be able to lift his arms long enough and would lose his balance, so instead, she tried to pry the tear in his shirt wider so that she could get easier access to his wound.

Shit! He was hurt really bad. Bending down onto her haunches, she searched for a tear around the thigh area of his left leg, which was the one he hadn’t been able to walk on earlier.

She found the tear there quickly and delicately started to pull against the material to try and open it wider as well, but it didn’t want to budge as it was made of tougher material than his shirt. After a few attempts, he gave a muffled groan as her fingers had accidentally pressed into his wound. She felt like she wanted to puke.

This wasn’t working, Sophia thought as she felt dreadful fear and desperation entering her chest, but she realized just then that she could just take his pants off. She could just let it drop to the floor by his feet and she would be able to clean the wound without the material getting in the way.

She started to stand up to loosen his pants from his hips when she saw his head going slack, and within an instant his body came toppling toward her as well. Without thinking, she caught him as she had before with her chest coming up to catch most of his weight, but this time, he didn’t get forced awake.

She let out a groan herself with the effort of trying to keep him up, but it was soon evident that she wasn’t able to for much longer. Both of them kept sagging lower and lower until her final strength gave out and they crashed to the floor.

“Fuck!” was all she could get out with her final push that had failed and she had to accept that she just wasn’t strong enough and had to let the fall happen.

“Scott!” Sophia called in desperation with Neil on top of her, hoping that Scott might have followed him back here by now. “Scott! Help!”

She wriggled herself out from under Neil and was somehow able to get him over onto his back again. “Scott!” She tried again, but there were no other sounds within the apartment that would indicate that he was back yet.

“We got separated,” she heard Neil’s weak voice, and almost cried at the sound of it. He was awake!

“We need to get you to a hospital,” she sobbed, feeling overwhelmed and helpless at not being able to help him. “You need someone who knows what they’re doing here. I can’t do this…”

“Just like you–,” he said slowly, almost stutteringly. “I can’t go to a hospital either–. They would find me–.”

It looked like he was about to faint again, but Sophia urgently grabbed his face in between her hands before he could and his eyes flew slightly open again at her ardent touch. “Please, don’t leave me! Neil, stay awake.”

He gave her that familiar smile of his. Was he seriously still fucking trying to reassure her even while his own life was ebbing away?

“I believe in you, Soph,” was all he was able to get out before he fainted and went terrifyingly slack within her hands.

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