I Moved On, Why Don't You

Soul Searching

Dillon's pov

I knew something was wrong from the moment I set foot in the hospital, everyone had a sense of gloom that I've never felt before and whenever anyone caught my eye, they would shake their head and look away. Dr Williams, I have to find him, he would know what's going on. I rushed through the halls, a desperation I've never experienced suddenly filling me . . . what if I found out that Joel's pup was dead, what if I found out that Joel was dead . . . how would I go on without the best friend I've ever had? I was passing a room when a familiar scent caused me to stop and go inside.

"Hey, you can't just______!"

"I'm sorry, but I smelled silver and________."

"Did you say silver?"

I moved closer and opened my mouth to answer, when I saw a sight that stole my breath and made my eyes fill with tears. A wolf pup, no bigger than the palm of my hand lay on the small table in front of the men its body splayed apart so its cause of death could be studied. I opened and closed my mouth several times before I managed to get any words out, but the men were patient and waited until I'd calmed down.

"Whose . . . Whose pup is this?"

One of the men shook his head sadly.

"I'm afraid we can't give you that information."

"Is it Joel Norris's pup?"

The men looked at me with wide, shocked eyes and I fell to the floor as my legs gave out, shaking my head in denial.

"This is my fault."

I could hear one of the men sniffing the air, obviously trying to see if my scent match the person that attacked Joel, when he was satisfied; he shook his head and shifted his focus back to the pup.

"This isn't your fault, son. Unless you poisoned that young man with the silver you smelled or beat him up."

"But I didn't report the silver to the doctor because I didn't think it was dangerous enough . . . I'm not a doctor, I shouldn't have just assumed like that, especially with how unpredictable silver is. I'm supposed to be his friend, but I was late that day, I overslept and while I was making up excuses for my teacher, he was being hurt . . . what kind of friend am I?! I was supposed to be protecting him!"

"I'm sorry son . . . but you can help us now. Do you know if the silver was mixed with something? Wolfsbane or anything else?"

Angrily brushing away the tears sliding down my cheeks, I closed my eyes, focusing on what I'd smelled the first time I met Joel.

"No . . . I smelled pure silver, but there had to be something mixed into it, something without a scent because the next time I came to visit him, the smell of silver was completely gone as if it had rapidly absorbed into Joel's body. At the time, I really thought his wolf had diverted it or something, but now___________."

"You're right. Each of the pups had some silver in their systems, from the tests run on the others, it's safe to assume that this pup is the only one that absorbed a near fatal amount, however that's not what killed him . . . his ribs were broken and punctured his lungs. Sadly if Mr Norris hadn't been attacked, we could have slowly dissolved the silver in the pup's body and he would have been perfectly healthy. Do you know who attacked him?"

Chuckling bitterly I nodded my head.

"It doesn't matter, there's nothing any of us can do, I mean it's not like we can lift a hand against the future Alpha."

At my words, the room fell silent and the men continued their work. Pushing myself to my feet, I thanked them for letting me help and made my way toward the door.