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Chapter 3

Penulis: Floating Boat
Elder Kettering asked me to attend one last pack dinner. Seeing the hope in Noah's eyes, I agreed.

Before the dinner, I put Noah in his soft cotton vest and fixed the heart monitor to his chest, then pulled a sweater on over it, which left a small bulge.

"Mommy, is Daddy coming?"

"I don't know."

He nodded and didn't ask again.

Just as the dinner began, Damian walked in with Erica on his left and Kyle holding his right hand. The moment the three of them stepped through the door, pack members at several tables rose to their feet.

"Damian really has a heart of gold. He's been looking after that widow and her pup for a whole year now."

"Look how close that boy is to him. If you didn't know better, you'd think they were a family."

"Isn't that one over there his actual pup?"

"Actual pup? His own dad won't even stand by him. The pup might as well be a bastard."

Noah gripped my hand even tighter.

Kyle ran over from the head table and circled Noah once, his eyes fixed on the bulge in Noah's chest. "What's that stuffed in your shirt?"

Noah didn't answer.

"Oh, I know! It's a dog tag!" Kyle clapped his hands and laughed, and the circle of pups around him burst out laughing too.

"Only cripples wear those. You're a cripple freak with a dog tag!"

Noah's ears burned bright red, and he ducked behind me.

Kyle took a step closer, tripped over his own feet, and fell to the floor, bursting into tears. "Mommy, he pushed me! He pushed me…"

Erica rushed over and pulled him into her arms, her eyes welling up on cue. "Noah, Kyle was just curious. How could you push him?"

"I didn't push him!" Noah clutched the hem of my shirt, his voice shaking.

"Kyle lost his dad, so he's already sensitive. What kind of mother teaches her pup to act like this?"

Damian walked over with the whole banquet hall watching him.

When Noah was three and first learning to write, his letters came out so crooked that he cried in frustration. Damian hoisted him onto his shoulders and spun him around the yard.

"That's my boy! You write better than I do!"

Noah grabbed fistfuls of his hair, giggling and shouting, "Giddyup, Daddy!"

Back then, Damian said that if anyone ever dared to pick on his pup, they'd have to go through him first. But now, he stood in front of Noah with a frightening scowl. "Apologize to Kyle."

"I didn't push him. He called me a cripple with a dog tag first."

"You're a big boy, so you need to be more considerate. Kyle's younger than you, and pups say the wrong thing all the time. You can't hold it against him. Besides, Kyle's not wrong. That heart monitor doesn't look good on you, so let's take it off for now!"

He bent down and reached for the heart monitor.

"Damian, what are you doing?" I tried to stop him, but he shoved me aside with one arm. "Noah could get seriously hurt without his heart monitor!"

The pack members watching started chiming in. "I heard that after heart surgery, you're supposed to wear the monitor every single day."

Damian spoke calmly. "I'm the chief healer. If I say he'll be fine, he'll be fine."

That shut everyone up.

Noah looked at me and asked quietly, "Mommy, can I take it off?"

Before I could answer, Damian stepped in and spoke to Noah gently. "Be a good boy. You need to be tough."

He hooked his fingers into the collar of Noah's sweater and yanked it off in one go, along with the soft vest and heart monitor underneath. The monitor hit the floor, its screen flickering twice before it went dark.

Noah swayed, one hand pressed to his chest so hard his knuckles turned white. He bit down hard on his lower lip and didn't make a sound.

"That's more like it." Damian patted Noah's head. "You're finally growing up. Don't be such a crybaby about it. Now apologize to Kyle."

"Damian! Enough! None of this is Noah's fault!" I pulled Noah behind me.

Damian dragged me aside, and I only managed to stay on my feet by gripping the edge of the table. Noah rushed to steady me, his eyes brimming with tears, then turned to Kyle and hung his head low.

"I'm sorry."

He picked the heart monitor up off the floor, turned, and walked back to my side.

"Mommy, I don't want to stay anymore. Let's go home."

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  • My Pup Died While His Father Played House   Chapter 10

    Damian didn't go back to the pack. He rented an old house on the edge of town, two streets away from where we lived.Every morning, there would be a new bag of fresh herbs or a few boxes of pups' vitamins outside my door. On rainy days, the leaks in the roof would quietly get patched, and one night, the broken step outside the clinic was replaced with new boards.One day, Leanne wiped down the counter and asked, "So you're just going to let him keep this up?"I sorted the herbs and put them away. "He can do whatever he wants. Just don't let him inside."Leanne smiled and didn't say anything else.Once, Noah ran out of his medicine. The town was out of stock, and I made several calls without managing to order any. But the next morning, the medicine showed up outside the clinic with a note tucked underneath the box."I checked with a healer, and this batch doesn't have any side effects. If you're not comfortable with it, feel free to throw it out."My feelings were complicated as

  • My Pup Died While His Father Played House   Chapter 9

    Damian found us in the end. I was at the clinic checking Noah's heartbeat when the wind chime above the door jingled.I looked up and saw him standing in the doorway. He'd lost a lot of weight. His coat was rumpled, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His face lit up the moment he spotted Noah, and he hurried forward."Noah?" he called, his voice trembling.Noah had been sitting on a little stool eating blueberries. The moment he heard that voice, he looked up and immediately hid behind me."Mommy."His small hand clutched the hem of my shirt, shaking badly.I picked Noah up and turned to hand him to Leanne. "Take him upstairs."Leanne glanced at Damian and, without asking a single question, carried Noah away.Damian stood in the doorway, his eyes following Noah the whole time, his voice frantic and overjoyed. "Noah's alive? That's amazing! Can I hold him?"Then he finally noticed the cold look in my eyes and went stiff.I shut the little gate behind the counter. "Noa

  • My Pup Died While His Father Played House   Chapter 8

    By the time we reached the border clinic, the stasis serum was just wearing off. Noah lay in the white bed, his chest rising and falling softly. His face was still pale, but his fingers could move again.I took his hand, and the tears came all at once. "Noah, I'm here."Noah opened his eyes and looked at me for a long time before he finally rasped, "Mommy."I leaned down and wrapped my arms around him. He was so thin that his shoulder bones dug into my arm."Mommy, I'm not dead?""No. You're alive and well."Noah was quiet for a moment, then asked softly, "What about Daddy?"I didn't know how to answer. After a long pause, all I could do was stroke his hair. "Let's not talk about him anymore."Noah looked at me, and the little spark in his eyes slowly dimmed. "Okay."With that, he buried his face against my chest.Healer Brown stood in the doorway and didn't come in to interrupt. Once we'd both calmed down a little, he set our new IDs and Noah's old medical records on the bed

  • My Pup Died While His Father Played House   Chapter 7

    Damian sat in Noah's old hospital room all night. The bedding had been changed, and the only things left were a half-finished box of pups' medicine on the nightstand and a drawing Noah had given up on beside it.There were three people in the picture—a tall man, a little boy, and a woman with long hair. The man's face was scribbled over so heavily in crayon that his features were barely visible.Damian stared at the drawing, his fingers trembling for a long time before he worked up the nerve to pick it up. On the back was a line of wobbly little letters."When is Daddy coming home?"Damian sank to his knees beside the hospital bed, his tears falling onto the paper one by one.He finally remembered that Noah hadn't always called him "Mister". Noah used to run up and throw his arms around him, and he used to wait by the door when Damian got off work.Damian was the one who'd brushed that little hand away over and over again. He was also the one who'd told Noah that Kyle needed him

  • My Pup Died While His Father Played House   Chapter 6

    Damian pushed the door open and stumbled in. He reached out to touch Noah's cold little hand, his eyes fixed on that small face."Noah," he called softly. "I'm here."My fingers curled tight. Noah had waited so long to hear those words. He'd waited outside the operating room for hours, looking up every single time the elevator doors opened, but Damian wasn't there. Now he was finally here, and Noah didn't need him anymore.Damian lifted a corner of the white sheet and saw the long stitched scar on Noah's chest. He swayed on his feet."How did this happen? I saw him yesterday. He was talking, and he was perfectly fine."I looked at him, my voice flat. "Yesterday, you made him take off his heart monitor. You said he was a big boy and needed to be tough."Damian's hand froze in midair, and his voice came out hoarse. "I didn't know it was this serious.""You're the chief healer. How could you not know?"The hallway was packed with onlookers. A few older shewolves turned their faces

  • My Pup Died While His Father Played House   Chapter 5

    Damian looked up at me, his eyes wild. "Vera, tell me straight. What happened to Noah?"I walked over to the stretcher and stroked Noah's little face, lowering my head without a word.Healer Brown moved to wheel the gurney away, sweat trickling down from his temples. "Damian, please step aside.""I'm his father." Damian pushed himself up off the wall, his voice shaking badly. "I'm the chief healer. I can operate on him right now. I can save him."I looked at him, my voice dripping with scorn. "You could've saved him two hours ago, but you were busy dabbing antiseptic on Erica's finger."The color slowly drained from Damian's face.Erica stood behind him, a small band of gauze still wrapped around her index finger. She gave his sleeve a gentle tug. "Damian, don't jump to conclusions. Maybe she just wants to make you regret it. Noah can't really be—""Shut up." Damian whipped around to face her.It was the first time I'd ever seen him lose his temper with Erica. Her eyes welled u

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