Empty

Maureen's POV

I walked into my room with an unexplainable feeling of emptiness. A lot of things didn't make sense. A lot of questions begging for answers.

Lucia followed closely behind me. She had not said anything since we left the hospital. It was as if she could understand my pain. She squeezed my hand once in a while as if to tell me she was there if I needed her.

What I really needed was to be alone but I couldn't bring myself to do that to Lucia, not after the way she took care of me in the hospital.

I sat down on my bed and looked around my room. Even I didn't understand why I was looking from one angle to the other as if looking for something. I was sad to the level of depression.

Lucia dropped my overnight bag on the floor then silently came to sit next to me on the bed. She had been by my side since I woke up at the hospital.

If not for the seriousness of the situation, I would have laughed at how comical her face looked when she shouted from the surprise of me waking up after days of being in coma.

Her scream had brought the doctors and nurses into my hospital room. Someone had quickly called my parents who surprisingly came in company of the Luna.

I had always admired the Luna as a strong female. She kept the pack together in the absence of the Alpha, but I saw an entirely different version of her that day at the hospital. She had held on to mum and cried after the doctors stopped poking and were satisfied with the fact that I was ok.

I had wondered why she looked so tired and there were bags under her eyes as if she had not slept in days.

'Mum why does the Luna look so tired and unhappy?' I had asked my mum that day after the Alpha led the Luna out of the room.

'We were all worried about you,' my mum had said dismissively.

I knew when mum wanted you to stop talking about a particular topic so I kept quiet but I kept wondering why the Luna looked more distraught than my mum.

My parents and the Alpha had left the pack after they got a distress call from another pack three days after I woke up.

The Luna and Lucia had dotted on me till I was discharged. The Luna was almost always in the room with me. Her smile was enough comfort for my bleeding heart.

I soaked in her motherly love, enjoying every bit of the attention I got from her. If not because of the sadness that encompassed me each time I remembered that Lance left without as much as a goodbye, Just maybe I would have taken my time to enjoy her care and nurturing.

'Lucia.'

'Yes,' she answered looking at me, eager to hear what I wanted to say. I guessed it was because I had said little since I woke up.

'Why do you think the Luna was taking care of me the way she is doing?'

'She is the Luna, Maureen, the mother of the whole pack. She must show love and concern. Besides she is your mother's best friend. She would not want to see the child of her best friend hurt,' Lucia reasoned.

I gave what she said a deep thought and I concluded that what she said must be the truth. Maybe she was trying to also makeup for her friend's short coming.

According to mum, they have been best friends since they could walk. They had both grown up together and when mum met dad, the Luna and my mum refused to leave each other and so they had come to his pack with him and there the Alpha met his Luna.Their love stories were like something out of the romance books.

I sighed hoping one day someone would love me like I wanted to be loved. The only person that ever showed me love was my brother Lancelot and now I am the last person he wants to see. Thinking of that I burst into fresh tears.

'You have cried enough these past days, Maureen. Please you need to stop,' Lucia said embracing me as I cried on her shoulder.

'I feel so sad, I feel as if somebody ripped my heart out and threw it in the dust Lucia,' I sobbed.

'It is normal for you to feel like that. He is the only one that truly shows you love and care in this house. He has been a part of you since you were born. It is normal for you to feel betrayed, even you can be angry at him for turning on you the way he did but you need to snap out of it and move on,' Lucia said close to tears herself.

'You know the most painful part is that Lance left without a goodbye despite the fact that he was the one who put me in that situation. Lance left me half dead, took his things and left. Lucia he left,' I jumped up leaving her embrace.

'You need to pull yourself together. There must be a reason why he did what he did.'

'Reason? What reason? Or should I say which one? The fact that he suddenly hated me or the fact that he nearly killed me or the fact that he just got up and left while I wasted away on that hospital bed? Which one Lucia, which one?' I shouted angrily.

Lucia raised her hands in surrender. She knew I was angry. 'For everything Maureen, he must have an explanation. Please just calm down.'

'What explanation does he have? He treated his own flesh and blood like shit. He nearly killed me Lucia. The doctor said if Dominus had come ten seconds later than he arrived at the scene, I would have been dead by now.'

'Thankfully Dominus got there on time and you are alive,' Lucia said throwing her hands around in obvious frustration.

She sighed audibly before coming to place a hand on my shoulder gently.'Please calm down. Stop being being so hard on yourself.'

'I want to see his room,' I said suddenly after a long pause.

'You will only be torturing yourself that way,' Lucia spoke gently, obviously tired from my behavior.

'I need to see the room,' I insisted.

'Ok. Should I go with you?'

I only shrugged. We left my room and headed for Lance's room. My nose was assaulted with his scent. I carefully entered the room, I opened his wardrobe and felt as if I had been punched in the face. His wardrobe was as empty as my heart.

I turned away from the wardrobe with fresh tears streaming down my face. I placed my hand over my chest where my heart was beating so fast as if it would just burst right out of my chest.

I lifted my eyes and saw Lucia crying too. I lay on his bed and cuddled his pillow. 'I want to be left alone Lucia. I am sorry.'

'You don't have to be sorry. I will let you be if you promise me you would not do anything stupid.'

'I promise. I just want to be here for a while.'

'I will be back in an hour. Then you will get out of this room and snap out of this.'

'Ok,' my answer was muffled by the pillow.

Lucia left after she was sure I wouldn't do anything stupid. I hugged the pillow and allowed his scent lull me to sleep.

Lance's POV

'Have you heard from your mum?' I asked Dominus for the ninth time that day.

'Yes and I have told you she has been discharged from the hospital,' Dominus answered gritting his teeth. He was obviously tired with my questioning.

'I know she has been discharged. I mean how is she after that?'

'I don't know. Mum is back in the house and Maureen and Lucia are in your parents house,' Dominus snapped.

'I am just worried.'

'Mum will inform me if there was anything wrong. Relax man, she is going to be ok.'

'If only...' I stopped mid sentence.

'If only what Lance?' Dominus asked looking at me worriedly.

I could see that he was leaner compared to when we first got there. I knew I was also leaner too. The training there was nothing we were prepared for. It was difficult and straining.

'I just wished we could just call Lucia,' I said running my hand down my face.

'You and I know that is not even an option. If Maureen sees your number calling Lucia she would pick it or better still she would ask her to put it on speaker and she would talk to you. You and I know that immediately you hear her voice, your wolf would snap,' Dominus said.

'We can use your number,' I persuaded him.

'I can't speak to Lucia either, my wolf will go mad. It is too much risk as it is. Let the sleeping dog lie.'

That was the last we spoke of the girl. And in the next three years, I trained like my life depended on it. Sometimes I smiled and it slipped remembering the fact that I left my sister at home at the mercy of hormone driven teenage wolves.

We hear about the girls often from the Luna, Dominus' mum. I call my parents too but they couldn't tell me much since they were rarely around her.

The Luna had playfully told Dominus that Lucia was dating and she felt Lucia was actually in love. It took all my strength to restrain him from packing his things and leaving for our pack that night.

Since then we both resolved to stop asking about the girls and concentrate on our training.

It's been two years since the night Dominus almost left. We eagerly packed our things and looked forward to home. We were silent all through the drive back home. Each of us wondering what our homecoming would look like and hoping things would not go hellish.