“Athena…? Athena, wake up, honey.”
I groan as I open my eyes and see my mom standing over me. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, sweetheart. The doctor just needs to look at your eye,” she tells me as the door to the room opens and Doctor Connors comes in.
“Where am I?” I ask Doctor Connors.
“You’re in the pack hospital, Miss Argos,” she explains as she leans over me. “I just need to remove the bandages to check how your eye is healing,” she explains.
I nod and slowly sit up, and she removes the bandages wrapped around my head, covering my right eye. As the last bit comes off, she removes the gauze, and the light above me burns my eye.
“Argh!” I yell, covering my eye with my hand.
“Try not to touch it, Miss Argos. Is the light hurting it?” Doctor Connors asks.
“Yeah, it stings like a bitch,” I say, refusing to move my hand.
“This is good. It means your vision may not have been affected. Remove your hand, slowly open your eye, and tell me if you can see anything,” the doctor instructs me.
With a grimace, I remove my hand and slowly open my eye. I blink a couple of times, trying to adjust to the light. “It’s blurry,” I tell the doctor.
“Try closing your left eye,” she tells me.
I close my left eye and focus with my right. When I look around the room, things become clearer.
“It’s getting clearer,” I tell the doctor, and Mom lets out a sigh of relief.
“It may be blurry for a couple of days. Your body is still trying to work the wolfsbane out of your system. I’ve been giving you fluids and pain medication through an IV to speed the process up, but it was a high dose of lethal wolfsbane. So, it may take some time to feel a hundred percent.”
“Will it heal completely?” I ask.
“Honestly, you’re lucky you didn’t lose your eye,” Doctor Connors says as she places fresh gauze and bandage over my eye. “Unfortunately, there will be scarring where you were cut. But you’re lucky, Miss Argos. Any other lycan would have been permanently blinded, maybe even killed, with the amount of wolfsbane that was in your system.” She finishes wrapping up the bandage and then pats my arm before leaving the room.
‘*I’m going to kill that bitch*,’ Enyo threatens.
‘*Let’s see what information the Alpha could get out of her first*,’ I tell her.
“Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Mom sobs as she takes my hand.
“I’ll be fine, Mom. I’m a Gamma. A few scars are nothing.” I squeeze her hand with a small smile.
“Your dad would be proud of you.” She squeezes my hand back, a few tears falling down her face.
I ignore what she says and sit up properly in the bed. “Have you heard anything from Alpha Peter or Beta Jason?” I ask her.
“Beta Jason will be here shortly to ask you about the attack,” she tells me as she wipes her eyes with a tissue.
“Have they found my mate yet?” I ask, a blush forming on my cheeks.
“No, nothing yet. But I’m so glad he’s found you. I wonder who he is,” she grins, her face lit up with joy.
“He’s like me,” I whisper.
Mom gasps, “Really? How do you know?”
“His wolf has a crescent moon on his forehead and bright green eyes.”
Mom slumps back in the chair and says, “Well, this is a surprise.”
“Luna Rachel says that we’re chosen. That we’ve been blessed by the Moon Goddess,” I tell her.
“Chosen for what?” She asks, not able to hide the concern in her voice.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” I say with a sigh.
The door opens, and Jason comes in with his mate.
“Hey, Athena. Good to see you’re awake,” he says with a smile. “This is my mate, Jess. You guys haven’t officially met yet,” he beams with pride over his mate.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Jess,” I say warmly.
“You too, Athena. Jason has told me so much about you. I am so thankful that you came to the Moonstone pack. Otherwise, we may not have met,” she says as she wraps her arm around Jason’s waist.
‘*I hope he didn’t tell her everything*,’ Enyo smirks.
‘*Shut it, Enyo*!’ I squeal at her, embarrassed.
“Do you mind if Jess stays while I ask you some questions about last night?” Jason asks.
“No, of course, that’s fine,” I smile.
“Great. Can you tell us what happened?”
#
“And that’s when you guys came in,” I finish telling them.
“Well, by the sounds of it, you’re lucky that your mate came when he did,” Jason says.
“How did you guys know what was happening? Were you at the pack house?” I ask them.
“Carol heard you scream and came and got us,” Jason says.
“Is Carol okay?” I ask him.
“She’s shaken up, but she’ll be fine,” he smiles. “She brought you those flowers over there earlier this morning,” He points to a vase of black and purple calla lilies sitting on a side table.
“They’re beautiful.” I smile.
“Have you found her mate yet?” Mom asks Jason.
“We’ve been searching the territory, but there’s no sign of him. He’s good at hiding his tracks and scent.”
“He must be here somewhere, though. How else would he have known I was in trouble?”
“We’ll obviously keep looking, but he’s skilled. Just when we think we have a lead on his scent, it’s gone again. Even our most experienced trackers can’t locate him,” Jason explains.
“I didn’t imagine things, did I? You guys saw the crescent moon on his forehead too, right?” I ask nervously.
Jess nods. “It was black as night on his white fur. You couldn’t miss it.”
“I don’t think he was one of the chosen we were working with, though. I didn’t recognize his wolf,” Jason says. “It makes me wonder how many of you are out there, though.”
“And your Luna doesn’t know why they’ve been chosen?” Mom asks.
“Absolutely no idea,” Jason says.
“I remember when I first saw Nick shift, when I became a warrior. I couldn’t stop gawking,” Jess says. “Is you wolf as big as his, Athena?”
“She’s bigger,” Jason laughs.
There’s a knock on the door, then Uncle Alex walks in. “Hey, kiddo,” he says with a warm smile and then walks over to Jason and whispers something in his ear. I try to hear what he’s saying, but my senses feel sluggish, and I can’t hear him clearly.
Mom looks at him nervously, wringing her hands.
“Very good. Thank you, Gamma,” he says and shakes Uncle Alex’s hand. “We will come back tomorrow to visit you, Athena. Get some rest,” Jason smiles, and he and Jess leave the room.
“What’s going on?” I ask, my brow creased with worry.
“The Elder council is coming,” Mom says nervously.
“What? Why?” I ask, stunned. The Elder council only gets involved in matters when things are seriously bad, or they are requested by an Alpha to help solve disputes between packs.
“Things are getting out of hand, Athena. And not just here. Attacks are happening on lycan packs again,” he says sadly.
“What? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Does it have anything to do with these supposed chosen ones?”
“We didn’t want you to worry, sweetheart. You have had enough on your plate. We also don’t know what the motives are behind the attacks yet,” Mom explains.
“I want to meet them. I want to know what they know about me and the others,” I say forcibly as I try to get out of bed.
“They’re not arriving until tomorrow. So, until then, you need your rest, Athena,” Uncle Alex tries to stop me.
I sigh and sit on the edge of the bed. “I’m so sick of this shit. Chosen this, chosen that. I just want to get to the truth of what happened to Daddy,” I sob, covering my face with my hands.
“I swear to you we will avenge your father, Athena. But you can’t do this on your own anymore. It’s too dangerous,” Uncle Alex says as he sits next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.
“You need to go back home and protect our pack,” I tell him. “I’ll call Ryna to see if he can come down.”
“Ryna and Gino are already on their way.” He leans back and smiles at me.
I cry in relief at seeing my best friend and hug Uncle Alex hard. “Thank you,” I sob.
“He wanted to come down when we did, but Gino needed some time to get some things together. So, they’ll be here late tonight,” Mom explains.
“Why don’t you lie down and get some more sleep, sweetheart?” Uncle Alex suggests.
I nod and climb back onto the bed and lie down, and Mom strokes my hair as I fall back to sleep.