Putting my guard up, I entered the room, my gaze landing on Harper's bed first.
A few seconds’ glance told me she was okay and in deep slumber, the vital monitors displaying her current status.
She's okay. Stable...
I knew the normal stats for blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation; the knowledge helped ease the trickle of anxiety and fear in the pit of my stomach.
"If you’re feeling exhausted, warn me now. Give me enough time to bookmark this page."
My lips tugged upward at the comforting voice, and I allowed my once-tense shoulders to relax as I let my previous expressionless guard down.
My attention drifted to the other side of the bed to see Damien sitting in a black chair.
His sapphire eyes analyzed my appearance carefully, as if he were doing his own assessment of me in fear I would pass out before he could bookmark his page. He was sitting up straight with his right leg crossed over his left. His shoulder-length blue-black hair was up in a little ponytail, a few strands left to hang on both sides of his oval face.
The hairstyle brought out his Korean features, and I got sidetracked wondering how he kept his skin so smooth and stubble-free.
Damien pouted his pink smooth lips, his eyebrow arched up in question at my continued silence.
"I'm fine," I finally answered him. "You don't need to bookmark your book. I just came to check in."
"Check in and stay."
I thought you were going to give me some peace and quiet.
"Not a chance. I want to snuggle."
Snuggle the damn corner.
I caught sight of the grin that began to spread across Damien’s lips.
"It's good to see you're looking better. Your wolf lecturing you?"
"Somewhat. He's been an extra pain in my ass as of late," I replied with a dramatic groan.
Damien reached out for his bookmark, sliding it into the pages he was reading. When he closed it, I stared at the attention-grabbing image of a woman cradling a heart in her hands. Her right eye was normal, but her left one was a vivid red that reminded me of blood; vines spread out menacingly from that eye, taking over that side of her fierce face.
I wasn't one for horror or anything dark-themed, but Damien was a bookworm and loved Dark Paranormal Romance especially.
Another reason why the girls adore him. Girls love a man who appreciates a good book.
"How far would you go for revenge?" Damien questioned, catching on to my fascination with the book’s cover.
"Depends," I replied.
"Doesn't depend. We'll kill shit."
No one asked you...
"If Harper had passed away," Damien began and I growled, my wolf pushing his anger against my usual focused constraint.
Damien rolled his eyes and reached out to knock on the wood of the window sill and continued. "And you found out it wasn't due to what you originally believed. That foul play was involved. Would you accept her death?"
"You already know my answer," I grumbled. "Don't tell me the main character in the book does otherwise?"
Damien grinned and gave me a wink. "You have to read it to find out. It's really intriguing. Helped time pass after Ian went to rest."
"Hmm. I'll read it after some snoozing." My curiosity was getting the better of me. I wasn't one to read, but if the plot was interesting enough to catch Damien's attention, I might as well give it a try. "What's it called?"
"Nemesis. Pretty badass so far. I'll be done by the morning and leave it for you. Once Harper's awake, you two could read it together," Damien suggested.
"You of all people know I'd do more than just read with Harper," I mumbled, but smiled. "I'll read it when she recovers."
Damien nodded and stood up to stretch. After placing the book on his seat, he turned to face me. "Apparently, I'm supposed to ask if you took your meds before giving you an update."
From Damien's amused grin, I figured it was Ian who told him to make sure he checked on me and not any of the upper wolves or even witches.
"Ian told you that?"
"Yup. Kira was here briefly as well. She said I should let you pass out again so she could come back and take pictures to humiliate you at the next Alpha meeting," Damien elaborated.
My wolf made a muffled sound and looked completely uninterested, and I bit my bottom lip. "Why is Kira here? Also, I did take my meds, to answer your question." I stuck out my tongue for safe measure.
I wasn't going to get a picture taken of me looking all vulnerable and shit. I'd never live it down.
"She came to check in. She is the second generation's Alpha, after all. From what I've gathered, Harriet has a soft spot for her and she gets special privileges around here." Damien lifted his arms up once more to stretch out.
"Harriet..." I trailed off on the name, trying to tug at anything more than I already knew.
"You were spelled, huh?" Damien commented.
I met his sapphire eyes with my mismatched ones, a grimace forming on my lips as I tried to figure out a way to answer and give him even a hint of knowledge.
He shook his head and shrugged. "Uninterested. If they're willing to tell us the whole story on what's going on, that's better than putting you in a sticky situation. Looks like they're going to have to explain it to all of us anyways with Harper here."
"Have any of the second generation wolves seen the first-gen Alpha?" I inquired. Damien grinned, catching on to what I was thinking about.
"If you're curious if anyone noticed a similarity to Harper and North's first generation Alpha, no. The only one who commented on it was Kira, and she obviously knows what Harriet looks like."
"I don't get it, though. No one noticed," I grumbled.
Someone must have seen Harper and put the two together when she visited the North sanctuary or even the other sanctuaries? I didn’t have a strong memory of Harriet, though.
"Did it enter your mind any time before Harriet's name was mentioned the day of the ambush?" Damien countered. I sighed and lifted my hand to run through my hair.
"No."
"Then you have your answer," Damien replied. "As you said, we'll figure out all of this once Harper wakes up. Shouldn't be much longer."
"How is she?" I whispered, looking back to Harper's bed.
I moved closer, though it wasn’t as if I had a choice. My body navigated to her, especially now that she was the center of my attention.
Muffin poked out from the white blanket and sat right on Harper's chest to stare up at me. "Meow."
"Hey, Muffin." I greeted her again, gently patting her head.
I reached out with my free hand, tenderly stroking Harper's cheek with my left index finger, and I leaned over to press a tender to kiss to her forehead.
"The medical team had a brief assessment of her this afternoon. She should be awake soon. Fastest healing time they've seen with the extremity of her wounds. May take her a few days to adjust and shift back and forth from human to wolf, but otherwise, everything else seems okay."
"That's excellent news," I replied, feeling relieved. "The oath worked."
"Looks like it," Damien confirmed. "Doesn't feel like anything has changed though."
"I don't think we'd feel differently… but I can't say that with pure confidence. We'd have to find someone who knows about it or has experienced it themselves," I thought out loud. "We'll figure it out."
No point in troubling ourselves trying to solve something we have very little knowledge about. I continued to stare at Harper, who was still deep in the realms of sleep.
It was expected after her first shift and all that occurred that she'd need lots of rest. I was glad the oxygen mask was gone, and all that was running was the IV drip that helped keep her hydrated.
Her skin looked better too, and from the looks of her hair, Levi must have made sure it wouldn't tangle. He had this obsessive pet peeve when it came to hair, always wanting his appearance and that of those around him to remain clean, with not even a tangle in their hair.
I bet he carried a comb with him everywhere, even to bed.
"She's definitely an Alpha." Damien’s focus was solely on Harper, as mine had been previously.
"I figured. We could tell from before, but after she shifted, my wolf and I could feel it," I replied.
"Aren't you worried?" Damien asked, the curious blue jewels of his gaze meeting mine.
"About?"
"If she's stronger than you?"
I chuckled quietly and glanced at the necklace that rested on Harper's chest.
"It was never about power for me. Ian and I don't get along because he pisses me off on purpose. Not to mention we clearly like the same things." I shrugged. "But with Harper…it never was about power between us. Even before…before whatever happened that pushed us apart, we knew that together, we could bring unity to all. Her dream was never to be better or stronger than the next person. It was to maintain peace and spread that equilibrium across all races. Human, wolves, witches. I doubt her vision has changed, even if she forgot about it."
"Can I ask you something?" Damien whispered.
"Sure."
"How? Even if you swore to not say anything and you guys got separated, only to see her that fateful day when Dolly introduced us…why didn't you confront her? Or tell her. You weren't sworn from telling her?"
I needed a second to think about what I wanted to say, feeling the magic restraint of the oath from long ago tug lightly on my tongue. "Sometimes you have to love from afar and hope the Moon will give you an opportunity to reveal the hidden truth. It was hard. It hurt a lot. Especially…with Ian. You can guess why I got angry so easily and always wanted more time with Harper. Does it make sense now?"
Damien met my sad smile with his own and walked over to where I stood.
"You always remind me why you're the Alpha of our pack," he whispered and patted me on the shoulder. I smirked and turned to give him a quick hug.
"I thought it was for my amazing good looks," I joked, and Damien chuckled, pulling away to give me a smile.
"We all know I have the smooth skin, Levi the hair, Ian the eyes, and the twins were blessed with the dual package. You just have a bit of muscle. Other than that, you’re ugly."
"You're totally rude," I countered, feigning hurt. "I feel insulted. I worked for this muscle, and my hair is not bad and my skin is perfect."
"Nah, bro. You got a pimple right…here," Damien teased, and I grimaced and slapped his hand away.
"Go away, you flaw picker," I huffed.
Damien shook his head. "See, if you acted the same way around Ian, you two would get along."
"I don't want to get along with him," I grumbled.
"Are you still mad he was Harper's first?"
"I'll kick his balls the next time I get a chance to appease years of pent-up rage for that," I replied.
"You're hopeless." Damien laughed and walked over to his chair. He picked his book back up and sat down, crossing his left leg over his right. "I'm assuming you’re staying."
"As if my wolf will let me leave," I muttered, stuffing my hands in my pockets.
"Damn straight. I'm tired. Stop this bromance and go to sleep."
You literally told me that I sleep too much. Now I should go to sleep after you've been pestering me to wake up whenever you can?
"You also talk too much."
I can't with you.
"Is your wolf bothering you?"
"When isn't he? I really want to see how he'll even get along with Harper's wolf." I lifted my hand to my mouth to muffle a yawn. Damn, I'm tired.
"Go the fuck to sleep. Should I sing it to you?"
I'll take a rain check on that one.
"You can shift to your wolf form and rest for a few hours. I'll be here for a while, and O'Neil will come by to relieve me."
"I can—"
"Nah. You did more than enough and need to rest. Can't have a weak Alpha. If you push yourself too soon, you're going to get sick. That leaves you vulnerable, which will be a bad thing for all of us," Damien reasoned.
He had a point. Bet anyone close to being an Alpha would want a chance at my group. We were all "endangered" breeds on the human radar, but in the wolf world, we were unique, powerful wolves that some of the other sanctuaries would love to have on their side.
The North favored Damien, Levi and I, the East loved Hayden while the West loved Heston, and the South most likely would request Ian if they had their way. I could easily go anywhere, but with how Ian and I fought for dominance, we'd essentially be on total opposite spectrums.
Either way, I couldn't afford to lose my position as Alpha, especially because we didn't know what would happen with Harper in the mix.
"I guess, Flawless Skin. I'll be a good boy and sleep, so I can retain my muscle growth."
Damien grinned, opening his book at the spot where he'd left off. "I'll make sure there's a glass of milk for you when you wake up."
"Meow?!" Muffin sat up at the sound of milk, and I sighed.
"I don't even like milk and that ‘whole milk makes your bones strong’ rumor is bullshit."
Damien didn't reply, but he looked amused.
I watched him read until his expression returned to his concentrated calm look, his eyes scanning the book he was already immersed in.
I walked over to the free half of Harper's bed, stretching a bit before I stripped my clothes off, then folded them and placed the pile on the dresser in the corner.
I shifted with ease and glanced back to see that Damien had been unfazed by my nakedness.
Once he got into a book, the world could go to hell and he wouldn't care until he reached the final page.
Muffin ran to the edge of the bed, leaning forward to stare at me. In this form, she looked very different, her black fur interwoven with her strong, dark purple aura.
Her mismatched eyes remained the same, but they had a magical glow to them.
She reached out with her right paw to pat my nose but lost her balance. With ease I leaned my head forward to catch her little body on my nose, lifting her back up to Harper's bed.
"Meow."
Muffin rolled over and began running around the free space. I waited for her to be done with her act of searching the right spot for her tiny body. She stopped and settled next to Harper's left shoulder, a spot she'd almost always picked, even after her run-around moments.
I hopped onto the bed; the wooden frame was sturdy enough to take my weight and didn't even creak with my movement. I settled down and snuggled my body as close to Harper as I could.
When I was comfortable, I relaxed and took in Harper's soft floral scent. I always loved the way she smelled. It reminded me of the field of pink roses in the meadow we used to play in; it had been a favorite spot.
The hint of vanilla and lilies was like the topping on the cake, creating the perfect scent that would always lead me to Harper.
My eyes grew heavy, and I fought to stay awake a little longer, wanting to watch her breathe.
Muffin reached up to pat my nose gently, and I allowed her to continue, knowing it was her way of saying she was there for me, too.
When my eyes finally closed, I didn't fight to open them again, loving the tranquility Harper's mere presence gave to me.
I love her… so much. I wish she'd remember. Please Moon… let her remember.