Chapter 170

• “I woke up in the hospital later that day. He left me alone for a while. Nearly a year went by. He withdrew me from warrior training and I never spoke of what happened. Mom hinted that she knew based on my injuries but somehow my father was left in the dark. At least that’s what I thought. Two weeks before my fifteenth birthday he went storming out of the house. My mom ran out after him. Alpha Tristan showed up at my door three hours later. It was obvious that he had been in a fight. He asked if he could come in. He was polite and I was concerned about my parents. He went to the kitchen and cleaned his hands and face. When he finished he turned to me and apologized. He told me that there had been a rogue attack. Three rogues had crossed the border and avoided his patrolmen. He believed that they had been there before because they went straight to the pack house and knew exactly where to find him. He was in a meeting with my parents discussing my schooling options since I wasn’t a normal wolf when they attacked. My parents, being warriors, protected him with their lives until additional security took the rogues out. My parents survived the attack but just barely. He left the pack house to come to me as soon as the ambulance left for the hospital. It was important that I find a suitcase and pack some of my personal belongings. He was moving me into the pack house until they were released. I did as he said and packed a bag. I didn’t want anything to do with being that close to him but I also didn’t feel I had the right to choose.
• Two weeks later, two days before my birthday, he called me to his office. He shut the door, heightening my anxiety before telling me that an empathic nurse hired at the hospital argued against medication the doctor had ordered for my parents. The doctor insisted that he was right but the nurse refused the doctor and did what she felt was right. He received word that morning that my parents died late the previous night. At the time I thought that was the hardest thing I would have to go through but ….” She trails off slightly.
• She surprises me when she accepts a straw from Cassius and takes a few gulps of water.