Songbook Vol.1 Chapters 6-7
#3 of Songbook
Standard spoilers! Things are of an adult nature, etc etc.
What is Songbook? Songbook is a story series inspired by certain songs that follow the life of one poor soul or another. The sixth chapter of the first volume of Songbook is inspired by Emotion By Destin'y Child, the final chapter of this Songbook is inspired by What do you say by Reba McEntire.
Emotion
Alec collapsed on the shoulder of the highway, he had tried walking but after a rather short period of time he collapsed into a heap. Lying there crying, with the feeling of his insides being torn beyond repair, gasping for breath as blood poured down his windpipe from his broken muzzle. This was it, a day away from home and he was going to die here, soon, not at the hands of some drunk pervert or anything like that but a highway cop who was bored.
His ears picked up at the sound of a car pulling onto the shoulder and Alec started to pray. He started to pray for his death now before he could be hurt anymore by this new stranger. He was so tired of hurting he had always wanted...tried to be a good kid. What he did that had been so wrong? It didn't matter to him, he felt that he had been punished enough.
He heard steps approaching, he tried to pull himself away from them but he didn't have the strength to do it, so he went into the fetal position and looked up to get a good look at the person that was going to end his suffering one way or the other.
It was a wolf, it was Ryan...no it couldn't be Ryan what would he be doing all the way out here. Ryan started to cry, "Oh god Alec it is you..."
As gently as he could manage Ryan picked Alec up, and gingerly placed him in the back seat. As he drove to the nearest city center and subsequently the nearest hospital he heard Alec tell his story as he slipped in and out of consciousness. Everything ranging from the first time his father had raped him to the cop, at the hospital he was bandaged up, given medication to break his fever and help prevent...infection. The doctor allowed Ryan to take Alec home, his wounds had been caught soon enough to make sure they weren't going to become "problematic". If Alec had been out there for another hour or two? Well the doctor basically stated that ICU would have been his home for the next few days.
Alec slept peacefully as Ryan told him about all sorts of things, all the while Ryan mentally thanked god that when he went into his courier job that day he had been given a package that at the time had been described 'destination...the end of the earth' when in reality it was just on the opposite end of the state. If he had actually passed the job off onto someone else like he had been planning to he wouldn't have his soul mate here with him now, hell if ever.
A couple of days later Alec finally fully woke up from the haze of the pain killers, fear and pain. He was in Ryan's room, so his first thought was that he had died and this is what is like to be in heaven. When he tried to move though his muscles felt stiff, and sore. He shook his head and looked at himself, he was bandaged in various places, gauze was wrapped around his midsection, arm and muzzle? He tried to take a deep breath and felt the plastic in his nostrils, structural support while they healed, so that the muzzle healed the same shape it had been before it was broken. He ran a hand through his hair, he couldn't recall a time it felt softer. Ryan had apparently been pampering him.
As if on queue Ryan opened the door and smiled, "You're awake..."
Alec smiled back as much as he could before his mouth would hurt too much. "So you really were the one that found me? What's the chances of that?"
He held out his arms wanting to feel Ryan in them to make sure once and for all that he was real. Ryan obeyed in the sense that he went, sat on the edge of the bed and returned the embrace. "About one in a million."
"I missed you so much, I thought about you every night. I'm so sorry, could you ever forgiv..."
Ryan stopped Alec's word with a gentle kiss. "All is forgiven, now rest my young prince."
"Lay with me...please..." At first Ryan was going to say no but when he saw the look in Alec's eyes his heart melted and as he snuggled close to his mate. "You just let me know if I'm hurting you ok?...hello?"
He looked up, Alec had already fallen back asleep with a content smile on his face. Ryan made himself comfortable and spent a long time just smelling the scent of his mate and listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart...
What Do You Say?
Three days later Alec was dozing lightly when the door to Ryan's room opened. Alec smiled, yawned. "Hey."
"Hey yourself."
Alec sat up, blinking. "Mom?"
"I'm here...look at you, you've gotten so handsome." The mare walked over, and gently hugged her son. They held each other for minutes, neither wanting to let go just in case everything that had happened the last few days was just some great dream and it would end if they did.
"You should have let us pay for your trip home. I swear sometimes I would pay for you not to have inherited your father's pride." She could feel Alec tense up at the mention of his father.
"Umm where...where is dad?"
The mare sighed, and found herself a seat on the edge of the bed. "A couple of nights ago, I found your father cleaning up some broken glass, I asked him what happened. Do you know what he said?"
Alec shook his head.
She bit her lower lip, "He said: I'm sorry, I'm sorry for what I did to our son, I'm why he ran to New York...
And of course I was like, don't be silly you didn't do anything. You two got along great till he up and left.
He told me that I wasn't listening, that it was his fault. The way he had man-handled you, the things he had done to you. That's why you had run.
...I asked, what things...and, and he told me...
Oh god why didn't you tell me?"
Alec looked away, shame filling him anew. "I couldn't tell anyone, he'd have hurt me. He swore he'd kill Ryan just to make sure I was no one's mare but his! And that there was no where in state I could hide, he'd find me! One day, someday when I wouldn't be expecting it...BAM!"
Alec started to cry, then he started to whine a little gingerly clutching his muzzle.
He felt his mom wrap him in her arms, "There, there little one, calm...calm...just breath normal and it'll hurt less. Your muzzle must still be tender, shhh, shhh it'll be ok...
Your father won't be around, we decided it'd be best if he went on vacation till you heal up. And depending on how things go he may not come back...
But he wanted me to tell you he was sorry. Sorry for everything, and hopes one day you can forget him. Cause he knows you'll never forgive him."
"How can I? How can I? Mom is that wrong I'm sorry please don't be mad..."
The mare clutched her son tighter, "There, there I can't be mad with you. But don't you worry about your father for now, you just rest up. Your home now, everything else will work its self out in time. All that matters is that your home now..."
Alec could see Ryan standing in the door, smiling. He knew deep down that the next few months were going to be hard but his mother had the right about it. At least he was home again, everything else would eventually fall into place.
This brings us to the end of Songbook Volume 1, I hope you have enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave a comment one way or the other. I know the ending my seem unfinished to some but there is a tme when the song ends and all that remains are the dancers this is one of those times. A person could write another 5 chapters just doing a follow up, and you never know maybe we will check in on Alec in future Sonbook volumes but next volume...new songs and new characters!