Waking up this time felt completely different.
The paralyzing weight of the injection had finally vanished from my veins, leaving my head strangely clear.
I blinked against the morning light, and to my absolute shock, my eyelids actually parted easily, my eyes were no longer swollen shut, and I could see the cracked ceiling perfectly.
Oh my goodness I could totally see , I wasn’t blind anymore and it hasn’t been permanent.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the usual white-hot agony, but my ribs weren’t hurting anymore.
But the moment I turned my head, a cold wave of dread washed over me.
I could hear the wind rustling the pine trees very well from my left ear, but my right ear was as silent as my life.
Nothing was going on there.
No ringing, no echo, just an empty, terrifying void.
I was completely deaf in that ear.
Alpha Richard has succeeded in making sure I remember him for the rest of my life with a permanent injury like this.
I didn’t really know what day it was when my mind finally cleared, but I was sure as hell it wasn’t the next day.
A brutal beating like the one Alpha Richard gave me takes weeks to heal, yet when I dragged my hands over my chest, the fractured bones didn’t grind against each other under my skin.
I was too excited by the lack of pain all over my body that I tried to get up, swinging my legs off the mattress.
I stood up way faster than I should have.
Instantly, my vision went pitch black and a burning ache shot straight through my muscles, knocking me back to the floor.
So, my whole body hasn’t fully healed yet.
Point taken.
Once the room stopped spinning, I turned my head to look around, and I froze.
My room was different from how I remembered it.
It was a complete contrast to the chaotic, bloody mess I expected to see.
The entire room had been meticulously, flawlessly cleaned.
The massive, dark pool of dried blood that had covered the concrete floor hours ago was entirely gone, scrubbed away until it was just the gray stone completely bare and dry.
Whoever saw the room now wouldn’t believe that just a short while ago, this exact floor had been covered up with my blood.
The rusted rubbish had been pushed back into neat rows against the wall, and the dust had been swept into the corners.
I was shocked because even I couldn’t have handled this.
Whoever saw my room now wouldn’t believe that a brutal crime had happened here.
I looked at the line of my now dried clothes and to my surprise the exact shirt that Alpha Richard had torn down to clean his hands after beating me was back on the wire, this time completely washed and dried.
A deep lump formed in my throat as I stared at the shirt.
Someone had gone entirely out of their way to look after me, to hide the evidence of what the Alpha had done, and to make sure I woke up in a clean room.
A profound wave of gratitude filled my chest, even though the mystery of who did it made my mind spin.
I shook my head, turning my left ear toward the room to catch any outside noise.
That’s when I saw it.
On my window side, resting neatly on the wood ledge, my eyes caught something out of place.
It was a small, neatly wrapped gift bag with a silver ribbon tied around the top.
I carefully stood up, my muscles groaning with every step, I walked over to the window and picked it up.
My fingers shook slightly as I untied the ribbon and opened it.
It was a birthday gift someone had dropped for me.
Inside, wrapped in a piece of soft parchment, was a small, beautifully carved wooden wolf figurine and a single, unmelted piece of sweet, expensive chocolate.
A quiet sob broke from my lips.
This was the first time in a long while anyone has ever even me a birthday gift since the death of my parents.
The last person to give me one on my ninth birthday was Celia.
It was a beautiful dress and a hair clip.
By now, I was full on balling my eyes out.
I stared down at the little wooden wolf, and a sudden wave of sadness washed over me.
I missed it.
I had completely missed my own birthday while I was trapped in that drug-induced twilight sleep on the floor.
The exact date had come and gone in absolute darkness.
I clutched the small gift bag against my chest, the sadness slowly turning into relief.
I was finally eighteen.
The magic number.
Even without a wolf spirit, I was legally an adult in the eyes of werewolf law.
My minor years under Alpha Richard’s legal guardianship were officially over.
If the Moon Goddess had any mercy left for me, my fated mate was out there somewhere in the world, and the moment our paths crossed, the bond would give me a legal right to walk out of this pack boundaries forever.
I was grateful I was finally eighteen and could get a mate now.
That hope was the only thing keeping my knees from shaking.
At long last I could get out of this God forsaken pack.
I tucked the gift bag into my usual hiding space next to the remaining ointment and bandages.
I couldn’t risk anyone walking in and seeing them.
I just healed and was not looking forward to anything beating.
I pulled on clean clothes from the wire line, the fabric still smelling like cheap soap.
The shirt fit loosely over my shoulders, but as I ran my hands down the front, my right ear remained a dead, hollow void of absolute silence.
It was a strange, terrifying sensation, hearing the birds chirping loudly on my left side while the right side of the world felt completely dead.
I had to constantly tilt my chin to the right just to make sure I wasn’t missing the sound of someone approaching from behind.
I walked over to the door, and was surprised it had been repaired too.
I remember clearly that Alpha Richard had broken it down.
The heavy iron door creaked loudly as I pushed it open, stepping out into the bright, blinding afternoon sun.
The courtyard was strangely empty, but the heavy tire tracks from the convoy were still deeply cut into the dirt lot.
The massive black SUVs were parked in a neat line outside the main garage.
The air of the pack grounds felt different today thick and tense.
The atmosphere was so suffocating that it made my lungs strain just to draw a full breath.
I knew I had a lot of cleaning to catch up on after being unconscious for days.
The pack house kitchen would be a total disaster, and I knew very well that the senior omegas and Alpha Richard wouldn’t go easy on me for missing a single hour of work, let alone days.
They wouldn’t care that I had been bleeding out on a concrete floor; in their eyes, I was just a lazy, useless omega who had neglected her duties.
They would probably be waiting by the doors with their hands raised or a new list of grueling chores designed to break me all over again.
I wanted to scream out loud but instead I tightened my fists, tucking my chin tight against my collarbone, and forced my aching legs to carry me across the dirt yard.
I kept my left ear tilted toward the packhouse, scanning for the sound of patrolling guards, while my right side remained entirely blind to the noise of the world.
When I reached the back entrance of the pack house, my heart was beating a frantic rhythm against my ribs as my fingers gripped the cold metal handle of the door.
I took one deep, ragged breath, bracing my entire body for the inevitable strike, the harsh scream, or the wave of insults that always welcomed me back into their territory.
I pulled the door open and stepped inside, ready to face the music.
Okay she is finally awake guys…….
oh my poor baby