Chapter Four

Vekra

I run all the way back to the olive pack territory.

Only when I am safely back on familiar ground with the feeling of being surrounded by my own do I finally stop running.

I know I look disheveled because I receive many glances as people try not to be too curious about the alpha's daughter.

"Hello Gwen!" I call out with a wave at an older wolf coming into the territory with me.

She must be close to four hundred years in age and yet she does not look a day over twenty five.

"Vekra." She says and waves back. "Had a rough night?" She asks.

"Something like that." I say.

Not at all. I slept through it.

I hurry towards my home in be middle of the pack. The infamous Olive tree is about a hundred feet in front of our house.

I don't know when I first notice that there is something wrong. Perhaps it is when I draw nearer to my house and I hear nothing but deathly silence.

I am the only child of my parents but our house is always teeming with wolves coming in and out of our house to discuss important things with my father, the alpha.

There is no one at home, or so it feels. And yet when I push in the door, it gives softly beneath my hand.

"Ma?" I call, stepping in.

Our living room is empty.

The house is quiet but I don't like the energy. Something has unsettled the energy of our home.

"Pa?" I call.

"Vekra. We are up here." My father's voice calls from above stairs.

My heart in my throat, I am running, jumping the stairs two at a time, my embarrassing night forgotten in the intense dreadful feeling that something is awfully horribly wrong.

"Pa." I say, pushing their door in.

I stop short when I enter.

My mother is on the bed and in all of my life I have never seen her look so pale. She is nearly the colour of the white sheets beneath her and she looks like she has lost half of her weight since I last saw her yesterday evening.

My father is the only one with her and he looks up at me with haggard, panicked eyes and the desolation in them... I never thought that I would ever see something like that on his face.

I walk forward as if in a trance, horror crawling all over my skin. I wouldn't mind someone waking me up from this nightmare now.

I drop to my knees in front of my mother and with shaking hands, touch her hand. She is cold, so cold it is like icicles are lined beneath her skin. I snatch my fingers back with a gasp.

Werewolves are always running hot, always.

"Pa. What happened to her?" I ask, unable to take my eyes from my unconscious mother. I have never seen one of ours down like this. It feels like an impossibility.

What feels like minutes ago, she was teasing me about what my wolf would look like when she finally comes, and she told me not to be late coming back. I told her I would.

"Your mother... she is sick." Alpha Din says.

"I can see that!" I say, my voice rising in a frustrated panic. "But how, Pa?! She is immortal, she can't get sick."

"She is not healing." He says.

"Yes but why?!" I ask again helplessly even though I know that he does not have the answer to that. If he did, he would have already had her fixed.

He is silent and that is somehow worse. My powerful father is left speechless, powerless in the face of this ailment. I feel a little guilt for driving that home with my incessant questions.

He clenches her hand in his, staring at her face so intensely I think he believes she will stand if he stares hard enough.

He is suffering, I can see that. His cheeks are hollow and his lips are pinched with pain. Whatever is wrong with Ma, he must be feeling a measure of it through their bond.

I stand, my mind spinning.

"I- I'll get the pack physician." I say.

The chief physician is not in our territory at the moment but perhaps the others can help.

"Don't." My father's voice rings out when I am about to dash outside.

I'm not sure I heard him right.

"Pa, she needs a physician." I say, my feet shuffling impatiently because I should be flying towards somewhere else not standing here being totally useless.

He shakes his head. "None of them are aware of her condition." He says. "They must not."

"But why?!" I ask. "She needs help. Mama is dying." I say, my voice breaking at the end.

I run back to her bedside and take her hand in mine, ignoring the bone-chilling cold that feels so wrong. I squeeze it because I need her to remember that she cannot leave me here.

A cry is bubbling at the base of my throat but I push it back down. I will be no use to anyone crying.

I would love nothing more than to run out for help from someone more qualified but I cannot disobey my alpha's command.

"What are we going to do?" I ask my father even though I don't expect a reply.

"Why are we not telling the others?" I ask him. "They could help. Inan could heal her too."

Inan is the pack omega and her healing energy manifests itself at the most unexpected times, mostly when one of ours needs her the most.

Alpha Din shakes his head no.

I nearly groan in frustration. My mother's hand in mine is too lax, too cold, too dead. I need her back to life and I need her back fast! I just don't get why Pa has sent away and closed the doors behind everyone when someone out there could help. The help she needs is definitely not going to come through me or him.

"How did she get like this, Pa?" I ask.

He does not answer. He does not answer any of my question. He does not look away from her face.

My frustration finally bubbles and spills over.

"You are not giving me anything, Pa." I say, my voice rising.

The tears finally come then, filling my eyes, threatening to pour. I have never felt this powerless in my life. I hate feeling this powerless.

"Pa, we need to help her!"

My voice breaks and tears flood down my face.

I stand and turn my back on my father, unable to show such weakness in front of him.

Why is he just sitting there? We should be doing something.

"Vekra." His voice cuts my silent sobs short and my eyes widen as I spin around.

"Yes?" I say, hurrying back.

Say the word, Pa. If he gives me permission, I will carry my mother in my own arms and be out of here in the next second. I will scour the entire werewolf community to find out what's wrong with her and how to cure her.

My father finally looks away from my mother and when his eyes fix on me again, the pain there makes me feel hollow and yet makes me feel reassured. I am not alone in this feeling of devastation, I suppose misery does love company after all.

"Take care of your mother for me." He says.

I stare at him uncomprehendingly. Is he going somewhere? Is this the right time to be leaving her side? Anything could happen to her any second!

But then I see the weight of knowledge in his eyes and my thoughts quieten.

"What are you not telling me, Pa?" I ask quietly.

Whatever it is, it looks too much for him to handle alone, Alpha of the olive pack or not. I want him to share it with me, I need him to. We can work on anything together. I will do anything so I don't see that trapped look in my father's eyes.

"Tell me, I can help." I say, stopping short of begging him to.

He strides around the bed and stops in front of me.

Then he takes my head in his hands and plants a kiss in my forehead. He has not done that since I was a child.

Tears fill my eyes again, but this time I cannot stop him from seeing them. Why the hell does that kiss rip my heart out? Why does it feel like goodbye?

"Let me help, Pa." I whisper. "Please."

He smiles, or tries to force his lips into a semblance of one. They are too stiff.

"My baby. You have grown so much now, and so strong too. I am proud of you." He says.

I choke on my tears.

"So why does it feel like you are saying goodbye?" I ask him.

He steps back and his features arrange back into more of the alpha and not my father. The hierarchy of our power is suddenly between us, I cannot question him as I would like. I duck my head.

"I'll be back." He says.

And then my father melts out of the door.

My instincts were right, it would be a while before I saw him again.