The DarkNess Within Him | ✔

Chapter Sixty

"Why do you seem to be getting worse?" I ask an unresponsive Jane with my hands pressed to her heated cheeks. She's sweating and her blonde hair is soaked in it. I take the napkin and wipe her face, forehead, and chest.

My father watches us, his brow tilted upwards as his lips set themselves in a deep frown.

"Each day that passes, I don't know if I should be more hopeful than the last that at least she's alive or stop hoping all together that she'll wake up," My father's face stares into his lap and I walk over to him, wanting to console him.

I lean forward to hug him, not knowing what to say because he's right. I've been in this pack for almost two weeks now and Jane seems even worse than when I first got here. She always has a fever which causes her to sweat profusely. It's like she's having an internal conflict with herself whether to return to us or not and I hate to admit it but it seems like she is losing. I can see it and no doubt, so can my father but I don't blame her because even I have my own internal conflict in this place. There are days where I wish that I never came back and on other days, I feel at home.

"She's still alive father, that's something to be grateful to the moon about at least," I say finally, pulling away from him but he doesn't respond. He only nods. I go back to Jane.

For a long time, my father and I don't speak. I remain by Jane's side, brushing her hair and wiping her cheeks while my father watches us. When Mer came in to bring lunch, I ignored her, not wanting to even look at her. After she left, my father looked at me for a while and I could tell that he was contemplating his words.

"What's up between you and her?" My father asks and I take the soup and feed myself. It's chicken soup and the mere smell has my belly rumbling in expectation and excitement.

Since the day that Mer and I had that argument, we haven't spoken and that was over a week ago.

I shrug, not sure I want to talk about it although it has bothered me all this time. How could she say all that? How could she actually believe it?

"Marie!" My father calls out to me, wanting to talk about it despite me not wanting to. I don't say anything. "She's a good friend, Marie. Don't lose her, please."

I don't say anything, not understanding why I am interpreting my father's words as "don't sabotage this too," my lips scrunch together in concern as Mer's words echo endlessly in my mind.

"She's mad at me because I don't want to be Alpha anymore," I finally say, staring at my father from across the room as I finger the edge of the spoon I'm holding. "She thinks I should have never let Matt become Alpha. She thinks a lot of things,"

My father doesn't say anything, instead, his light blue eyes soften and he attempts to look away. This makes my eyebrows furrow.

"What?" I question. He doesn't respond so I ask again. "Dad, what? Don't tell me you think the same?"

Again, he's silent and I frown deeply.

"Father!"

"Alot of people think that, Marie," he states, basically breathing the words out as if they were stuck in the pit of his throat. His eyes set against mine from across the room. "They feel like this isn't Matt's rightful pack. His brother is already an Alpha, he shouldn't be Alpha of this pack because not only is it not his birthright, he's also not from here,"

I scoff. "Aren't these the same pack members that didn't want a female Alpha?" My mind recalls the day I confronted Matthew and he told me that my pack members only pretended to accept me to go along with his plan and get rid of me in the end because they could never accept an illegitimate woman leading them.