The Royal Alpha, & Loyal Luna

17. Actual Love, Actual Trust .

~Happy Holidays~

An hour had past and everything was still quiet.

Except for the ringing in my ears.

I tried to contact Grey through our link, but each time I'd tried, it was like more and more of my brain began to fry. The more exhausted I grew. The more the pain grew.

So I stopped.

All I could do was lay shackled to the bed, my bullet wound bleeding through its patchwork and my veins feeling like fire and ice all at once.

But I lay there, quietly. Not giving them the satisfaction of hearing my pleas or cries of pain. That, that I would not give them. This wasn't my first rodeo, being chained and all.

I could barely make out the sound of footsteps approaching the door over my own unsteadily beating heart, but I managed to turn my head just as three figures came through it.

"Nova, are you still awake?" I could hear her voice, but I couldn't respond. It took too much energy to muster a sentence, let alone a simple word.

"Either she's stooped so low as to the silent treatment," She turned to the other two blurry figures in my line of unclear sight, "Or the wulphed's spreading faster than expected." My mother told them.

I blinked hard, squinting my eyes to better make them out. Vile feelings rising as soon as I recognized one of the faces.

"You.." I managed to get out. "You shot me."

Beta June turned to face me. "That I did. As requested by my Luna." She tapped her head to explain it was through their link.

"Stay guarded," I warned her with reflecting eyes and a smile, "Soon.. I'll be returning the favor."

"Why, you little-"

"Now, now.." The third figure, whom I didn't know at all, finally spoke up. His tone eerily familiar though. "Let's not get her all worked up. She's in enough pain."

I wanted to sneer at his comment, but the genuine emotion in his tone not only kept me from doing so, but caught me completely off guard.

"I thought it might've rendered her mute by now."

"That's the thing," The male figure approached me, "It should have by now." His tone now more curious as he knelt down beside the bed.

I wanted to scream at them for talking around me as if I wasn't here, but the scream would've surely come out as pain rather than anger. And again, I wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

"Yet it hasn't." Beta June didn't seem all too happy about that. "Why?"

"Don't know."

I blinked my eyes hard again, attempting to make out the features of his face.

Who the hell are you?

"May I?" He asked, just when his hazel eyes came into view. Eyes that were familiar, just like his voice.

"Who-who are you?" I managed to get out behind clenched teeth, the pain was excruciating.

"I'm the Pack Doctor." He smiled up at me. "May I?" He asked again, gesturing to my arm.

I nodded reluctantly after a moment.

"Do I.. know you from somewhere?" My voice sounded strained.

He chuckled softly. "No, actually. Not at all. But I feel as though I know you." His warm tone was almost comforting.

Almost.