Chapter 2

I'm on fire My neck and shoulder are burning, generously distributing pain throughout my body. My throat is dry, I can't even swallow. It seemed to me that I was drinking and drinking and could not get drunk, glass after glass, but this water could not quench my thirst. She reached out her hand to her neck to relieve the burning sensation. The fingers touched the tissue that did not allow reaching the skin, which I wanted to tear just to stop this unbearable itch. The fog in my head dissipated. Bare legs felt the coolness of the sheets and the weight of the blanket, and the body felt stiffness. I opened my eyes, there was a white ceiling above me, which did not help me decide what was happening.

"Lark," I heard a voice... familiar... Mira's voice.

And then everything that was. As the neck was cut with pain, and a wolf's howl. She seems to have lost consciousness almost immediately. But I remember hearing Morgan's voice telling someone to get away from me.

“Let us go, let us help her,” he urged, but in response only wolf whining, “she will bleed, she will die.” Before it's too late, come to your senses.

And now I'm here - in the infirmary of the pack - so they persuaded me. I can't even turn my head to Mira's voice.

- Don't move, I'll help you now, - Mira was already going to help, lifting my bed. That's right, I'm in her abode. Like the good old days. Assuming a reclining position, I was able to look around. Nothing seemed to have changed - a small room with a single bed on which I lay, on the left a window covered with white blinds, opposite an ordinary office chair, and next to it was a medical table filled with instruments and jars. Even Mira, with whom we were alone in the room, has not changed in four years - a skinny figure in a white jacket, a short, straight haircut of dark hair. Time saves them. She looked at me anxiously as she handed me a glass of water.

- There will be difficulties with the voice and swallowing for some time, but don't worry, everything will heal quickly on you, - as always, I thought sadly. She also remembers how many times she gave me first aid in my battle wounds, - Do you remember what happened? Did you understand what happened? She immediately corrected herself.

I did not understand anything! I did not expect a cordial meeting, but this was the first time I had encountered such a meeting. What kind of wolf is out of control of the leader? Newbie? I tried to ask this important question, but all I got was wheezing.

- Someone .. - I squeezed out with difficulty, swallowing painfully, like a handful of glass. Before I had time to finish, Morgan entered the room without knocking in his usual guise. The ringleader, if that’s the case, he can only come in without knocking, it would be better if he looked after his menagerie. How could he not hold it back? I met him with a frown, expressing the highest degree of my displeasure with him. It's not like he hurt him in any way. Morgan examined me in detail, and I answered him the same. I have always called this type of people - "absorbing space." Here he enters the room, and it immediately decreases in size. This works with any room, and even more so with a small ward. Yes, he was tall, but he did not stand out outwardly among the locals. It was huge only next to the low Mira. It's all about the aura of such people - they are eye-catching, crushing with their presence, and you intuitively recognize their inner strength. Even when they, like Morgan, stand in old tattered dark green trousers and a thin gray jumper from long wear. Sleeves rolled up, arms crossed over chest. A frown is directed at me. I always thought that he had very kind warm brown eyes, but he always frowned, like one of those people who are burdened by all the troubles of the world. Perhaps that is why there was already enough gray in his short blond hair. And it has increased since we last saw each other. And a new scar above the eyebrow. but he always frowned, like one of those people who are burdened by all the troubles of the world. Perhaps that is why there was already enough gray in his short blond hair. And it has increased since we last saw each other. And a new scar above the eyebrow. but he always frowned, like one of those people who are burdened by all the troubles of the world. Perhaps that is why there was already enough gray in his short blond hair. And it has increased since we last saw each other. And a new scar above the eyebrow.

"Lark," he said dryly instead of "hello." I frowned even more, - How is she? he asked Mira. Oh yes. I forgot about this cute feature of his behavior with me. He almost never addressed me directly, if at all. Usually, these are dry questions to Sarah in my presence. I still can not cope with this mystery of his attitude towards me. So much effort for the one you don't even want to see.

- Ligaments, miraculously intact, all damage is more superficial, - Superficial?! I feel like I have a huge open wound all over my neck! - The mark heals quickly.

- How long? Morgan asked. I was distracted from their conversation, stumbling over the word "mark". Label? What's the label? Straining my memory, I diligently shook up my knowledge in search of clues about marks.

- I think I'll take off the bandages in a few days. Painful sensations during speech, I hope, will pass earlier - this is already for me. Thank you, at least someone else remembers that I'm in the room - but the wound on the arm is worse, it's from the claws, it doesn't dry out.

As soon as she said this, the pain in her arm reminded of itself. I raised my arm, it was bandaged from palm to elbow. That's where this strange stiffness comes from. Right, damn it!

- You should go home, loitering around here like a ghost, - I heard the voice of my aunt from the corridor.

- Am I disturbing someone? - I heard a hoarse familiar voice. A painfully familiar voice. Simultaneously with the determination of the ownership of the voice, his owner also looked into the ward. She might not have recognized him, his face was so painfully gray, with bruises under his eyes and disheveled hair, but she recognized him. Reed Cooper! His nasty appearance, his aunt peeping anxiously from behind him, Morgan frowning and Mira frozen - these pieces of the picture started the gears in my head. But how can it be him? After all, he is completely subordinate to Morgan? Here I must admit that I am not very familiar with their animal appearance, walks under the moon, all the rites and mysteries of their wolf life were inaccessible to me. I once saw Reed's wolf, but it was so long ago, and briefly, that it was difficult for me to compare the huge night beast with that bright one. How could he go against Morgan? Yes, I heard that he also has alpha blood, but going against the leader is a terrible crime in their world order. There's more to it than his old dislike of me.

At the sight of him, I reflexively crept up on the bed. I knew intellectually that now I didn't have to wait for an attack from him, but who knows what form of rabies forced him to go against his own and attack me yesterday.

Apparently, Reed did not expect to find me conscious, so he froze in the doorway.

- It's him? - I croaked, my further words drowned in a wheeze, - ...fell on me? - something in my verbal attempts, apparently, caused them surprise, so the picture quickly changed, because they all - surprised, amazed, bewildered - stared at me.

- It will be more difficult, - summed up Mira, - I think it's worth talking to her alone first.

“Get on with it then,” Morgan sighed wearily. What to talk about? If we were among people, it would be like a situation where they want to persuade the victim of an attack not to leave a statement. But here Morgan is the king and the king, my opinion does not matter to him.

Morgan headed for the exit, shrugged his shoulders, and again that weary sigh. It immediately became so insulting that again my injuries cause only irritation and discontent among those around me. He stopped in the doorway, waiting for Reed to follow him, but he only froze like an idol, not taking his eyes off me.

Now you'll only make things worse. Let's go," Morgan told him calmly. He drooped even more, but obediently followed him. I caught his eye before Morgan closed the door. What's this? Repentance?