The Luna's Last Choice

13. The other face of Daniel Wood.

It was afternoon and Luc was showing me around the town. It has changed drastically in the last decade. I was at the hospital last night but it hardly counted. So he took me there too. I got my checkup done and moved around all over the place. It was huge with not just a wing but a whole different establishment made for research. I wonder how Alpha Liam gathered all these geeky supernaturals.

I have to admit I thought most supernaturals just loiter around spending all the extra cash they have courtesy their longevity and well extra strength. But that's apparently not the case for everyone. Some people are really interested in stuffs other than money.

I met Eric and his wife. Their kid was at school so I couldn't meet him. They promised to visit in the evening. We were on our way back and our conversation turn to the person who runs the town.

"The towns all up and running" I looked around in awe at the infrastructures.

"Yeah! The hospital brought in a lot of extra crowd and that also forced us to industrialize the outer area" He said "Dan isn't happy about it. We had to acquire a lot of extra land. I was supposed to join Henry but got dragged in the hospital's administration"

"If Dan isn't in his senses all the time, how does he run the pack?" I asked him curiously.

"It's not the pack that's suffering" he said with a sad smile "It's him we are worried about. Dan's a workaholic so the pack's booming but it's how he does the work that has us worried about. Have you seen how he looks?" he looked at me incredulously "Grandpa says he hasn't seen a wolf that looks as beefed up and wild as him in decades. He vanishes without informing anyone and comes back bloody and exhausted. We don't know what he does. Whatever it is, it's making him look like a f*cking caveman"

I fisted my hands to stop myself from flinching. I didn't know hearing this will be so heartbreaking. I knew Dan wasn't doing well. Dad's constantly worried over him but hearing how things actually are is giving me chills. I don't want to believe it.

"But other than last night, he sounded polite this morning. That's how he has always been" I recalled.

Now that I think back, meeting him after a decade wasn't what I thought it would be like. It was nothing in comparison to the embarrassment I had been expecting. Was it because I had other priorities and there were other people around? I did some pretty stupid things when I last bid him farewell. I hope he doesn't remember them.

Luc shook his head "It was strange watching him apologize. He usually doesn't care. It felt weird watching him explain his actions. The family's talking about it. We hope that's a positive sign"

I shrugged trying to be nonchalant "I still don't see why you guys think he's so different. He has always been kind of weird. He once outright told me that I couldn't work at the hospital here coz no wolf would like to be treated by a vampire. Maybe rudeness was concealed in him until now and its coming up slowly"

Luc chuckled "I'll give you an easy example" he said "You remember Autumn?"

"Emily and Tyler's daughter?" I remember of course "Yeah she's really close to Dan"

"She's his best friend" he nodded "Yeah so Autumn found her mate Bryan and he is a human. When she first met him, he was in a committed relationship of seven years" Luc's explained "So Autumn is mom's colleague at work and mom dug it out of her. She assured mom that she was ready to wait and see how things go but then Dan found out about it" Luc's face darkened.

"What happened?" I asked, worried.

"He lured Bryan's girlfriend into bed and timed it so Bryan would catch them in the act"