Chapter 23-Questions

“Athena…? Athena, wake up, honey.”

I groan, not wanting to wake up yet. I open my eye and see my mom standing over me. “Mom? What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing, sweetheart. The doctor just needs to look at your eye,” she tells me as the door to the room opens and Doctor Connors comes in. 

“Hi, Miss Argos,” Doctor Connors says as she leans over me. “I just need to remove the bandages to check how your eye is healing,” she explains. 

I nod and slowly sit up, and she removes the bandages wrapped around my head that are covering my right eye. As the last bit comes off, and she removes the gauze, the light above me burns my eye.

“Argh!” I yell, covering my eye with my hand.

“Try not to touch it, Miss Argos. Is the light hurting it?” Doctor Connors asks.

“Yeah, it stings like a bitch,” I say, dropping my hand and trying to avoid the light.

“Light sensitivity is normal. This is good. It means your vision may not have been affected,” she says, pausing for a moment. “There’s still a lot of swelling, and I had to place some sutures because even though I flushed your eye, the wolfsbane was stopping you from healing,” she explains as she gingerly checks the sutures. “You seem to be healing much better than last night, just very slowly. Let’s see if you can carefully open your eye at all, and tell me if you can see anything,” the doctor instructs me.

With a grimace, I slowly open my eye, but it doesn’t open far. I try to blink a couple of times, trying to adjust to the light, but I can’t see much out of it. “It’s blurry,” I tell the doctor.

“Try closing your left eye,” she tells me.

I close my left eye and focus with my right. When I look around the room, things are still blurry.

“It’s still the same,” I tell the doctor, and Mom lets out a sob.

“It may be blurry for a couple of days. Your body is still trying to work the wolfsbane out of your system. I’ve been giving you fluids and pain medication through an IV to speed the process up, but it was a high dose of lethal wolfsbane. So, it may take some time to feel a hundred percent.”

“Will it heal completely?” I ask.

“Honestly, you’re lucky you didn’t lose your eye,” Doctor Connors says as she gently places fresh gauze over my eye. “If she had pressed any harder, she would have cut your eyeball as well,” she explains as she wraps a new bandage over my eye and around my head. “There will be scarring where you were cut, especially your eye. But you’re lucky, Miss Argos. Any other lycan would have been permanently blinded, maybe even killed, with the amount of wolfsbane that was in your system,” she says as she finishes wrapping up the bandage and then pats my arm before leaving the room.

‘I’m going to kill that bitch,’ Enyo snarls, and I bite the inside of my cheek as I try not to cry.

“Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Mom sobs as she takes my hand.

“I’ll be fine, Mom. I’m a Gamma. A few scars are nothing.” I squeeze her hand with a small smile, trying not to show her how upset I am. 

“Your dad would be proud of you.” She squeezes my hand back, a few tears falling down her face. 

I ignore what she said about Dad and sit up properly in the bed. “Have you heard anything from Alpha Peter or Beta Jason?” I ask her. 

“Beta Jason will be here shortly to ask you more about the attack,” she tells me as she wipes her eyes with a tissue.

“Have they found my mate yet?” I ask, a blush forming on my cheeks. 

“No, nothing yet. But I’m so glad he’s found you. I wonder who he is,” she grins, her face lighting up with joy. 

“He’s like me,” I whisper. 

Mom gasps, “Really? How do you know?”

“His wolf has a crescent moon on his forehead and bright green eyes.”

Mom slumps back in the chair and says, “Well, this is a surprise.”

“Luna Rachel says that we’re chosen. That we’ve been blessed by the Moon Goddess,” I tell her. 

“Chosen for what?” She asks, not able to hide the concern in her voice.

“That’s the million-dollar question,” I say with a sigh. 

The door opens, and Jason comes in with his mate. 

“Hey, Athena. Good to see you’re awake,” he says with a smile. “This is my mate, Jess. You guys haven’t officially met yet,” he says, beaming with pride over his mate.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Jess,” I say warmly. 

“You too, Athena. Jason has told me so much about you. I am so thankful that you came to the Moonstone pack. Otherwise, we may not have met,” she says as she wraps her arm around Jason’s waist.

‘I hope he didn’t go into details about what happened in the motel room,’ Enyo smirks.

‘Shut it, Enyo!’ I squeal at her, embarrassed. 

“Do you mind if Jess stays while I ask you some questions about last night?” Jason asks.

“No, of course not. That’s fine,” I smile. 

“Great. Can you tell us what you remember?”

*

“And that’s when you guys came in,” I finish telling them.

“Well, by the sounds of it, you’re lucky that your mate came when he did,” Jason says. 

“Why haven’t you found him yet?” Mom asks Jason.

“We’ve been searching the territory, but there’s no sign of him. He’s good at hiding his tracks and scent.”

“He must be here somewhere, though. How else would he have known I was in trouble if he wasn’t watching the pack house?”

“We’ll obviously keep looking, but he’s skilled. Just when we think we have a lead on his scent, it’s gone again. Even our most experienced trackers can’t locate him,” Jason explains.

“You guys saw the crescent moon on his forehead too, right? I didn’t imagine that?” I ask nervously.

Jess nods. “It was black as night on his white fur. You couldn’t miss it.” 

“I don’t think he was one of the chosen we were working with, though. I didn’t recognize his wolf,” Jason says. “It makes me wonder how many of you are out there, though.”

“And your Luna doesn’t know why they’ve been chosen?” Mom asks.

“Absolutely no idea,” Jason says.

“I remember when I first saw Nick shift. I couldn’t stop gawking,” Jess says. “Is your wolf as big as his, Athena?”

“She’s bigger,” Jason laughs. “Carol also asked me to tell you she wishes you a speedy recovery.”

“Is Carol okay?” I ask him.

“She’s shaken up, but she’ll be fine,” he smiles. “She brought you those flowers over there earlier this morning,” He points to a vase of black and purple calla lilies sitting on a side table.

“They’re beautiful.” I smile. 

There’s a knock on the door, then Uncle Alex walks in. “Hey, kiddo,” he says with a warm smile and then walks over to Jason and whispers something in his ear. I try to hear what he’s saying, but my senses feel sluggish, and I can’t hear him clearly.

Mom looks at him nervously, wringing her hands.

“Very good. Thank you, Gamma,” he says and shakes Uncle Alex’s hand. “We will come back tomorrow to visit you, Athena. Get some rest,” Jason smiles, and he and Jess leave the room. 

“What’s going on?” I ask, my brow creased with worry. 

“The Elder council is coming,” Mom says nervously. 

“What? Why?” I ask, stunned. The Elder council only gets involved in pack matters when things are seriously bad, or they are requested by an Alpha to help solve disputes between packs. 

“Things are getting out of hand, Athena. Alpha Peter now has to banish three members of his pack. Plus, the attack on you and Beta Jason. The Elder council wants to investigate it all,” he explains. 

“Like they’ve investigated the attacks?” I growl.

“Try to relax, sweetheart. You have enough on your plate,” Mom says, concerned.

“I want to meet them. I want to know what they know about me and the others,” I say angrily as I try to get out of bed. 

“They’re not arriving until tomorrow. So, until then, you need your rest, Athena,” Uncle Alex says as he gently places a hand on my shoulder to stop me from walking out. 

I sigh and sit on the edge of the bed. “I’m so sick of this shit. Chosen this, chosen that. I just want to get to the truth of what happened to Daddy,” I sob, covering my face with my hands. 

“I swear to you we will avenge your father, Athena. But you can’t do this on your own anymore. It’s too dangerous,” Uncle Alex says as he sits next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.

“You need to go back home and protect our pack,” I tell him. “I’ll call Ryna to see if he can come down.”

“Ryna and Gino are already on their way.” He leans back and smiles at me.

I cry in relief at seeing my best friend and hug Uncle Alex hard. “Thank you,” I sob.

“He wanted to come down when we did, but Gino needed some time to get some things together. So, they’ll be here late tonight,” Mom explains.

“Why don’t you lie down and get some more sleep, sweetheart?” Uncle Alex suggests. 

I nod and climb back onto the bed and lie down, and Mom strokes my hair as I fall back to sleep.