An accident
The echoing silence was my background noise as I paced the terrace.
I haven't been as worried and distressed as I was today. Agonized too.
Vince's men were finally getting deployed tomorrow to go save him. Trent finally gave the order. It's great and all, but the fact that enough time has passed already leaves me intensely agonized.
They must have hurt him a lot already. They hate him so much, there's no doubt they've spent a week torturing him.
My heart breaks for him, in more ways than one. I don't wanna imagine what agony they've put him through and what mess he's gonna look like now.
Then again, it doesn't matter. I just pray they get to save him and bring him back to us…to me.
Putting a claim on Vince was an audacious move. My thoughts at the moment were scandalous and inappropriate.
But as much as I can't say them out loud, deep down, I wanna think it's safe enough to say them within myself. To bluntly admit…
I'm the one that Vince loves. I'm the one he belongs to. I have every right to worry about him. And when he returns, I wish he'd still be insanely obsessed with me.
Yeah, scandalous and inappropriate. But no matter how saintly I try to be about Vince and what we share, I can't deny that I've gotten used to it, and it excites me now, and I can't push him away anymore. Neither can I stop it. Even if it ruins me.
“There you are…”
“Hmm?” I snapped out of the thought, turning around. “Father…”
He stepped closer, with a warm smile. “I've been looking everywhere for you.”
“Sorry, I was just out here, getting a bit of fresh air.” I offered a quick explanation.
His eyes scanned me. “You look worried. Is there a problem?”
“What?” I smiled a bit, flushed by his accurate guess. “No. I'm okay.”
“You sure? You know you can tell me anything.”
“I'm…just…worried about tomorrow,” I said. I didn't go into details. And the acknowledgment in his eyes proved I didn't need to.
He understood.
“Yeah, me too. I feel awful knowing we took so long. I really hope he's still okay. And that this doesn't bring about a bigger war.”
I fiddled with my fingers, but Father grabbed my hand, warming it up.
“Don't worry much about Vince. He'll be fine.”
“I hope so.”
“Tell me, Elena. Why don't you wanna return to your mate's Pack? It's been a week already.”
I threw my gaze around, nervously. “Because, Father, I…I…” my words wouldn't do justice to it. So I clung to him instead. “Father, I still wanna stay here with you. I missed you so much and I wanna spend enough time with you. To make up for when I was away.”
Pouting and acting like a damn baby have always been a good trick to use on Father.
Hopefully, it also works this time around and he'll let me stay here a little longer. Just until Vince returns.
“I know that, sweetie.” He said, caressing my hair. “ I missed you too. And I wanna spend every day with you. But you don't necessarily have to be here for that to happen. You can go back to your mate's house, and I'm gonna visit you every day. I promise.”
It didn't work as planned so I let him go and stepped away from him.
“Trent has been calling you, hasn't he?”
“Every day,” Father admitted, without any hesitation. “The young man is lonely and needs you by his side. I feel terrible about the situation. Even more, because he kinda thinks I'm the one keeping you from returning home to him.”
“Just tell him I'll return soon. Really soon.”
“What's with the delay, Elena? What's so important that you're doing here?”
“Told you already, Father. I wanna spend more time with you.”
“And I told you already that you don't have to be here to do that. I can always visit…”
“Are you chasing me away, Father?”
“What?” He had a stunned look. “Of course not. Why the hell would you say that?”
“I don't know,” I pouted. “It feels like you are.”
He sighed, looking really distressed. “I just hate how sad and lonely he is. I feel guilty. Do you understand?”
I nodded, letting the matter die. We stood in silence until a maid brought the home line.
“There's a call for you, Master.”
Father took the phone and dismissed her.
I wasn't paying attention to him until he gasped.
“What?!” His eyes held panic as he stared at me.
My heartbeat doubled, and I grew more jittery. I didn't wanna think about what could have possibly gone wrong.
“Alright.” He said and hung up.
“Father, what happened?”
“Trent was in an accident…”
My reaction was chaotic. First, a sense of relief that it wasn't Vince. Then a little thrill, that maybe this was Trent's karma for every wrong thing he ever did to me. And then, an overwhelming sadness that made my tears spill.
“How bad is it?”
“I hear he's in a terrible state,” Father replied, causing more tears to roll down my eyes.
—-–––
We arrived at the hospital at Trent's Pack. Father stayed behind to drive the car into the parking lot while I already rushed inside the building with tears-blurred eyes.
I bumped through a few people in the hallway until I got to the receptionist.
“Trent Walker, please.”
“Who are you—” she was asking but paled as she looked up. “Lu — Luna Elena?”
“Yes. Where's he?”
“Uh, he's in…”
“Elena.”
I turned. It was Aunt Vanessa. I ran to her, and we hugged. My heart broke when she began sobbing profusely.
“Aunt, please, that's enough.” I tried to console her, but that only lasted for seconds and soon, I joined her sobbing.
Minutes later, she pulled away from the hug, drying her eyes. A couple of nurses in the background were whispering.
I eavesdropped, unintentionally.
“Is she still our Luna? I hope not. After being messed up by the rogues…” one of them said.
“Alpha Trent is such a nice man if he still wants her in his life. She doesn't deserve him…” the other said.
It hit right at my feelings, pushing down more tears. Trent was right. The people are gonna stigmatize me for what happened.
And the part about him being such a gentleman for still wanting me made me feel more worthless.
Crazy how times change. When I first got mated to Trent, everyone thought of him as the lucky one.
And now, years later, I'm the lucky one? Have I been reduced to nothing all because some bunch of rogues messed with me?
Pained tears rolled down my cheek. I felt the last shred of pride I had slip away. Aunt Vanessa cleaned my tears with her thumb and touched my face softly.
“Don't listen to them,” she smiled. “But you're so mean, Elena. How could you not come to see me since you returned?”
I swallowed the urge to cry out loud. “I'm so sorry, Aunt Vanessa,” I couldn't look at her anymore. She might see the guilt in my eyes.
“Please come home to us, dear. We need you, mostly Trent. If he survives this.” She added, crying anew.
"Why did you bring him to this hospital? Why didn't you take him to the Pack's hospital. To Dr. Drake."
This was a newly opened private hospital. An Alpha being brought here instead of taken to the Pack's hospital was inappropriate.
"This is good a hospital like anyone else." Aunt Vanessa replied. She didn't seem to have a problem with him getting treated her. So I held back my words.
“What happened to him? How did he get into an accident?” I asked instead.
Just then, Father rushed towards us, with Mother behind him.
“Vanessa, dear,” Mother hugged her tightly. “I'm so sorry.”
“What happened to him?” Father reiterated my question.
Mother had already let go of Aunt Vanessa and she struggled to keep her tears in check so she could talk.
“It was Leonardo.”
My eyes popped.
"What?” Father bit out icily.