You Know I Care || Zoe & Drake
ââs all in the wolf blood,â she laughed, âIâm probably stronger than you too.â As if showing off, Zoe flexed her arm muscles. âIâm small and donât look like it, but we do some rigorous fucking training around these parts. Canât say it hasnât helped in the odd bar fight.â Somehow, she hadnât expected that Drake would actually want to talk about her brother. She felt no shame for her actions, but it still was a sore spot of sorts. Itâs not easy knowing you fucked everything up with the only sibling youâve got, knowing that everything was fine until you did that one thing that made it all go sour. Briefly, she puffed up her cheeks before blowing out the air in a huff of sorts. âWell, way back, we never fought. Almost unheard of, I know. I fucked it up, though. Donât really talk much at this point, aside from the odd screaming match here and there,â she informed him, shrugging a bit. The girl wasnât even sure why he still bothered calling at all. It always ended the same way. ââs nothing special, really. Just the way things are.â
Zoe laughed at Drakeâs sudden words. It was hard to imagine that most humans could really judge the shifting experience. Before sheâd gotten infected, her father had told her so much about it, made her feel like she understood, but only when she shifted back herself did she realize how wrong she was. There really werenât any words to accurately describe it. âIâm fine, really. Even on my own, itâs not even close to the way it was 6 years ago. We âwolves donât really talk about it much, among us. Itâs just part of who we are.â Whenever she talked about being a lycan, it always struck her just how much she felt like sheâd always been one, even if she only got infected 6 short years ago. Curious, she asked him, âDo I sound to you like I was born a âwolf?â
The she-wolf was an intense person. She knew that. And she loved it. Knowing that her words had hit their mark almost completely wiped away the slight nagging of anger in the pit of her stomach. Still, she narrowed her eyes at him. âYou enjoy holding my hand, Fennis?â Her question was a mock-growl, followed by laughter. She simply found it funny how tightly Drake was holding her hand. Zoe didnât want to linger on their short confrontation or the fact that he was still thanking her for coming to see him, much less the fact that Drake could barely leave his room. Indi probably wouldnât have let them out even if sheâd asked. Either way, a light tone suited the âwolf much more than the serious one sheâd taken on to make her point.
Letting her hand slip out of his, she stood up and padded over to the window, steps completely silent. No matter how much she wanted to talk about happy things, Zoeâs mind had wandered off to different territories. âYou ever wonder if staying here is worth it? In Pickens, I mean.â Sheâd asked herself that so many times - never out loud, because she knew what this could mean to a packmember. The pack was her family and she wouldnât ever abandon them simply because of circumstances like these. But Pickens wasnât making it easy on any of them to want to stay here, she imagined. The last 9 months or so had been wilder and more dangerous than anything sheâd seen in her other years as a lycan.
Drake nodded once, his eyes flicking over Zoe's arms as she flexed them and he couldn't help but smile to himself at how proud she seemed to be. She was relatively small in stature but there was something about her that he had noticed the moment they first met that told him that she was stronger than she looked. Zoe had come across as someone not to be messed with and someone who played by her own rules. Her blunt honesty reminded him a little of how Dean could be and he wondered if it was a 'wolf thing or just some coincidental trait the two happened to share. He hadn't forgotten how she drew the line in the sand when she told him she didn't like to be touched without permission. It felt like a silly thing to bring up now that she was unconsciously toying with his hand and fingers. "I'll just have to remember not to get on your bad side then," he smirked, but he did mean it.
As she started talking about her brother, his eyes slid up to her face and her words echoed what had happened with him and Dean. There was a time when the two brothers were the best of friends but that was all just a distant memory now. "Do you not talk to him much anymore?" he asked softly. Having Zoe open up felt nice. It took the pressure off him to keep the conversation going when his head was dizzy from medications and lack of sleep. When she asked him if he sounded like someone who was born a 'wolf, he just shrugged. "I don't know," he mumbled, "you just seem to know what you're doing, that's all."
Her tease about him holding her hand made him shake his head. Dark eyes looked from her curious gaze to their hands, "you're the one who started it," he said, wiggling his numb fingers a little in her palm. Drake welcomed the contact. It had been so long since he'd had any sort of interaction like this that he'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Before Dean had punched him, Drake had tried giving his brother a hug. The sudden reminder of their confrontation made him press his eyes shut for a moment as he tipped his head back against the headboard.
The sudden absence of Zoe's hand in his made his eyes open slowly and he glanced around to see her standing in front of the small window. He watched her for a moment, his eyes going slowly over the contours of her face as she stared outside and her question caught him a little off guard. "I do, yeah," he replied honestly and almost without pause, "my brother's the one who asked me to come here and look how well that turned out." He chuckled bitterly. The tone of her voice tugged at something deep inside, " but I wouldn't have met you." The last words had slipped out before he could stop them and as much as he wanted to blame his medication, he wasn't sure that was what really made him say them. His attention had fallen to the bandage that was wrapped around his arm as he picked at the frayed edges. If his words had fallen on surprised ears, he didn't notice.
