Escaping Duty

Chapter 29

"I'm so sorry this happened to you. To both of you guys," Valentina said, clenching her hands into a fist tears coming to her eyes.

"It's alright it's not your fault, I'm sure if you could you would've saved me"

Is what she wished her friend would say. But Phoebe wasn't and couldn't say that, right now. Being in the hospital for a day and a half now the doctors told Valentina she wouldn't suffer any permanent damage.

Some of the worse cuts would eventually heal as faint scars, and she needed to take it easy on her ankle for a few weeks. It was fractured, so they gave her a cast. Unfortunately, the cast along with the broken skin and muscle left her in a good amount of pain. They gave her medicine for it though so that was manageable.

Her injuries weren't anything compared to Mateo's and Phoebe's. After spending the night in her brother's room, she learned that he had a concussion, and a broken arm as well as numerous bite wounds. Phoebe also suffered from bite wounds but after hitting the ground hard she was currently in a coma. The doctors didn't think she'd stay under long, but every hour she was like this felt like forever to Valentina.

She knew about wolves, she should've known they might've been in the woods, and she should've known how to stop them. But she couldn't do anything when they dragged away her brother and friend.

"I'm so sorry" she gasped out again.

She would've been sitting with her brother again, but her father told her to get some rest and made her leave. Instead of going to her room she came to Phoebe's. Her parents hadn't come yet, and Valentina didn't know if they would, so she did what she knew her friend would've done for her and stayed by her side.

Valentina couldn't sleep either when all she saw were dreams of wolves dragging them through the forest, and guys who could turn into them. She was so helpless, and yet she had parents who knew exactly how to handle wolves. If they were there they could've helped, it was one of the reasons why they said they became hunters to protect the people they loved. Phoebe and Mateo could've been dead right now.

Just because she thought there were good and bad wolves it didn't mean she couldn't know how to deal with them on her own. Even if she didn't want to kill she could detain them at least. Reaching over and squeezing Phoebes hand Valentina's wiped her face with her other hand.

Sitting here and crying about what did happen or could've happened wasn't going to change anything. It made her sound whiny, and if she wanted to be treated like an adult then she needed to make important decisions for herself.

"When you wake up, because I know you will, I'm going to tell you everything. But until you do I'm going to learn how to protect you and Mateo, I can't just learn about them. I have to be able to stop them if something like last night ever happens again," she said, knowing her friend couldn't respond but maybe she'd hear her.

Rising from the chair she had pulled alongside Phoebes bed Valentina went into her friends' bathroom. She'd wash her face of any signs she'd been crying and using some water she wet her curls, so they were more tameable to put into a braid. She wanted to look as resolved as she felt at least. Limping on the cast she wasn't used to, yet she left her friends room in search of her father. He was still in Mateo's room and looked up from a book he had been reading, coffee cup in his hand.

"Valentina? I thought I told you to get some rest" he said putting them down and rising from his chair to make Valentina sit. She pushed his worrying hands off her and he looked at her confused.

"I want to know more about them Papí, what they are, where they come from, and how to deal with them," she said outright.

Her father looked at her even more confused, "We're already teaching you-,"