Ignite [Wattys 2024 Shortlist] | ✔

07

An Explosive Turn

HADEN

        The man I was looking at wasn't the same man I was raised by. My eyes focused on the man laying still in the hospital bed, his eyes closed shut and his breathing even. Streaks of grey colored his hair and his face was sheet white. The former Alpha was a shackle of himself, a painful reminder of the damages done by rogues.

By the Rogue King.

That day was the last time I had seen my father's wolf. Whatever that madman injected him with had completely erased my father's wolf, which meant the mate connection he had with my mother was destroyed. No matter how many doctors tried, they couldn't heal him. Without his wolf, with the serum flowing around in his blood, he had been confined to this bed with doctors and nurses at his constant care.

I took the chair in the corner of the room, my regular seat whenever I visited my father, and I rubbed my palms together.

"Alpha Haden?" a voice called out to me from the door.

I glanced up at the nurse before I sprung up and met her at the door, my eyes moving between the clipboard in her hand and her expression of hope.

"What's the latest update?"

"Your father is doing well today! He went for a morning walk and had breakfast shortly after. The swelling on his arms concerned us, but we are working on the tests as we speak," she said and I released a sigh of relief.

"When did the swelling start? Has it happened before?" I crossed my arms as I asked.

"We've seen the swelling on his calves months ago but it went down before we could test further."

"Well, do –"

"Oh, leave the doctors alone, sweetheart."

My eyes watched as my mother walked towards me, a bouquet of flowers in her hands. Patricia Pierce was the embodiment of grace. Styled to perfection as always, her dark brown hair cascaded down her shoulders and her soft yellow dress flowed with every step she took. Despite not being the Luna for this pack anymore, she assisted in the nurturing and upbringing of the pack members just as much as Natalia did.

"Mother, it's good to see you," I said stepping away from the nurse to embrace her and kiss her cheek. "How are you?"

She pulled away with a soft smile then her gaze drifted to my father.

"I hear he went for a walk today," she mused pulling me into the room. "He always liked to walk, said it helped him think."

I watched as she caressed his face, a familiar look of longing clouding her face. With the downfall of my father, their mate bond had suffered and, while they loved and cared for each other, the pull they felt from being mates had been extinguished the minutes the Rogue King poisoned my father. He didn't only ruin my father's life, he ruined my mother's, and he would pay for it with his life.

My father's eyes fluttered open and a smile warmed his face when they focused on us.

"My love," he whispered then his eyes landed on me, "and my son."

With a small smile of my own, I stepped forward and placed an arm around my mother's shoulders.

"It's good to see you, old man," I joked.

"Who are you calling old man? I'm the spitting image of youth," he retorted and a chuckle escaped my lips. "Help me up, will you."

"Dad, you don't –"