Chapter 20: Wolf's Outburst

Zena woke the next morning with a migraine. Not just your average, light hurts sort of migraine.  Her migraine was an aching, searing, head throbbing, knife through the skull kind of migraine pain.  She yanked a pillow over her eyes and reached for the blinds to pull them closed. She moaned in pain, rubbing her temples and flipping over on her stomach to block more of the light.  She groaned as she suddenly remembered her responsibilities, as if a brick wall had slammed into her.  She pulled a pillow off the bed and scrunched her eyes shut as she slid out of bed and walked to the bathroom.   Her brain seemed to pulsate even more intensely inside her head, as if her whole head was about to explode. She drug herself to the bathroom and pulled out a few aspirin from the medicine cabinet and dry-swallowed them. 

                She felt like a child as she walked out to the kitchen with her forearm over her eyes.   Wolf was at the table, his head down and an empty coffee mug in his hands. She peeked out from under her arm at him. Her eyes strained in the sudden light.  She moaned in pain as her migraine acted up again and plopped down in the same chair as the night before. Wolf lifted his head to glance at her.  With Zena sitting there, still in her pajamas and groaning in pain, he was quite worried.

                “Are you…ok?” He asked quietly.

                “Don’t talk so loud!” Zena replied even quieter.

                “Would you like me to make you some coffee?” Wolf asked just above a whisper.

                “No… that’s what caused this excruciating migraine in the first place.  I had a cappuccino before bed and now my brain feels like it is two sizes too big for my skull.” Zena said back.

                Wolf watched her closely, unsure what to do. Maurly padded into the kitchen and licked Zena’s idle hand.  Wolf stood up from the table and walked out of the kitchen and down the hall.  Fifteen minutes later, he returned to the kitchen and gently took Zena’s elbow.   She looked up at him in surprise, but quickly replaced her arm when the light hit her eyes.  Wolf sighed and gently pulled her into a standing position, and led her down the hall way to the living room, allowing her to walk at her own pace and keep her arm over her eyes.  When they got to the living room, Zena opened her eyes to utter darkness.  Wolf had placed blankets over the curtain rods to block the light from the windows.  He had laid out his blankets and pillows on the couch for her to lay down and rest.  He knew giving up his bed, but he was afraid of what Zena would have done to him if he had gone into her room.

                He gently laid her down on the couch and covered her up with the blanket.  Then, he put a warm washcloth over her eyes and forehead as he sat down next to her.

                “Chrissy always used to do this for me when I had a headache.  Usually, it was brought upon by my father’s late-night lectures, punishment chores, or my parents incessant arguing. It always seemed to word, no matter how bad my headaches were. “ Wolf spoke as quietly as he could so as to not upset Zena’s headache.

                “Was Chrissy your mum or sister?” Zena asked him as she lifted the cloth to look at him with one eye.  Her eyes trained mainly for nighttime work, Zena was able to make out his features in the almost pitch black room.  For a moment, his eyes seemed sunken and tired, as if he hadn’t slept in age, and his hair was fluffed wrong. After a pause, Wolf responded with a pained look on his face.

                “No, not really… I mean, she was more of a mother to me than my actual mother.  Mother was always busy with one dinner party or another, and if not that, then she was screaming at someone in the household.  Chrissy was our housekeeper.  She cleaned our house as well as my scrapes and bruises as a child.  She was the only one who really cared.”

                Wolf sighed and looked down at his hands forlornly.  Zena couldn’t stand to look at his hurt expression, but she found it odd that he was more upset talking about Chrissy than his parents fighting and the punishments and lectures. Suddenly she jumped up into a sitting position, causing Wolf to jump in surprise and give her a confused look.

                “We need to train.” She said matter-of-factly, groaning slightly as she felt light headed.

                “But… what about your headache?” Wolf asked her.

                Zena winced as if suddenly remembering the pain, and began to kick her way out of the blankets.  “ I will be fine, don’t worry about me.” She said quietly.

 Suddenly, Wolf’s face flashed to an odd mixture of anger and compassion.  “No.” He yelled as he grabbed her legs and held her down.  Not expecting his reaction and drained from the headache, Zena realized how strong Wolf was. 

“You are going to rest until you are feeling better, and THEN we will train.  I don’t care if I have to SIT on you to make you stay, you are staying here.”

Zena looked at him, bewildered.  The only person who had talked to her like that in the last decade was Jaenes, and even that wasn’t very often.  Wolf looked almost as surprised as Zena did, but he stood his ground.  He gently but firmly pushed her back down and placed the washcloth back over her eyes carefully.  Unsure of how to react without violence, Zena lay still for a bit.  The way that Wolf acted revealed that he cared about her, more than his safety, considering the fact that he had just yelled at an advanced assassin that had a serious headache, when he was unarmed and undertrained.  He seemed to realize this at the same moment, because he softly apologized but said he wasn’t going  to let her risk hurting herself further.  Though her head ached from his yelling, she wasn’t sure if she had grounds to be upset or not.  Maybe she needed someone around to keep her from over exerting herself.  Quite often she found herself out training with lightning storms, sprained joints, bruises, cuts, gunshot wounds, and headaches.  She realized that doing so could be bad for her health, but then again neither is assassinating rogue assassins.  She sighed and gave in.  Wolf watched protectively over her as she slept, keeping a watchful eye out for intruders of any kind, much like an overgrown great dane, as well as making sure that Zena didn’t try to get up again before her headache was gone.

               

               

Reviews

[Meat of Dog]

I like your choice of descriptive words. I used to get migraines as a kid, so I can imagine her horrible pain. Also, with a job like hers, something debilitating like that kind of headache could be really bad! Ans, as always, wolf is there to offer some nurture. It's cool how Zena is sort of the center of her universe; she gets sick and every living thing in the house seems to gravitate toward her.

Regardless of his kindness, and her accepting of it, you maintain the alpha and omega dynamic (such as his fear to go into her room). I liked to have another look into Wolf's life, because these little glimpses hugely develop his character. Wolf's sudden assertiveness surprised me! I think that was what Zena needed t hear, though. Assassin work, in this story, seems more like a job than a secret club, but she is very obsessed with it (beyond her own health).

Zena's tolerance of his actions speaks a lot about her growing to become fond of him. As she mentioned, she is very advanced and could kill him no problem if she wanted to. And yet, she doesn't.

other suggestions:

-". She realized that doing so could be bad for her health," I think this should maybe be reworded to 'she knew it was bad for her health' because one usually doesn't need to think about something like training with injuries to realize it's bad for them.

[Coyote Poetry]

I like this chapter. Wolf is getting some balls. I like the family history of Wolf. A very nice chapter. Getting to know and understand the main characters. A outstanding chapter. Thank you.
Coyote