Alpha Tristan ✓ [Republishing]

Sarantaefta [ 47 ]

author's note: coming close to the end :).

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It took an excruciatingly long month to feel like myself again.

There had been a numbness in my chest that consumed me for the first three weeks as I healed. It was like I had felt everything all at once and suddenly stopped feeling anything at all.

I wasn't myself and everyone had noticed it. My parents walked on eggshells around me and Brielle visited me every day just to talk to me. The only person who wasn't cautious around me was Tristan. Every morning, he would make me breakfast and just hold my hand. Most days, he would do his work from home and keep an eye on me.

It wasn't like I was a ticking time bomb and everyone was waiting for me to explode. It was more like I didn't laugh or smile like I used to—nothing and no one could make me feel better except for Tristan.

He was the only thing stopping me from turning into a shadow of my former self. He kept me grounded and I often found myself on his lap or in his arms. I still longed for him as strongly as I did when I started loving him. The only flame in my heart that kept burning was my love for him.

I hadn't been the only one suffering. Over the weeks, Mindy's state of mind deteriorated. With no contact with anyone for more than a few seconds and being in the dark for so long, she became a shadow of her former self and didn't seem like the same stuck-up woman as before.

During the times when I let the barrier in my mind between the pack and me down, she would express her remorse and beg to be released. I had blocked her out as much as I was able to and focused on maintaining a connection with the rest of the pack. That was her slow torture and after a while, I stopped thinking about her.

Tristan's ruthlessness never wavered and he had announced to the pack that whatever he decided Mindy's punishment to be, they wouldn't be able to change his mind.

To my relief, they hadn't considered her a part of the pack from the moment she tried to kill me. Her family had died in the war so only her friends had cut her off. She had tried to take my life and in return, she lost everything she knew and had.

I knew it wasn't the end of her punishment. The cells weren't called Tartarus for no reason.

After pulling myself away from the edge of the dark hole I had crawled out of, I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. I wrapped a towel around my body and patted my hair gently before letting it air dry.

Once I had done my routine, I stood in front of the mirror in my and Tristan's bedroom, staring at my abdomen. The five puncture wounds had almost completely healed and the stitches were leaving white scars. It was a lifetime reminder that I had almost died.