Waking up without the freezing bite of concrete against my skin felt like a dream I didn’t want to open my eyes to break.
The soft, rhythmic crackle of the stone fireplace was the only sound filling the bedroom, sending a gentle wave of warmth across the plush silk sheets pulled up to my chin.
I lay perfectly still for a long moment, blinking against the bright morning light filtering through the grand glass windows.
The white-hot fire in my shattered ribs had dulled into a manageable throb.
But as I tilted my head toward the pillow, the right side of the world remained completely dead.
The silence in my right ear was a permanent scar, a reminder of everything I had gone through.
No matter how deep or soft the mattress under my back was, the void on the right side of my head was an anchor pulling me right back to reality.
Resting neatly by the foot of the king-sized bed was a stack of clean, unfamiliar clothes.
I traced my fingers over the soft fabric of a grey sweater and a pair of thick trousers, a sharp contrast to the frayed, worn-out clothes I had always owned.
My old wardrobe consisted entirely of forgotten rags salvaged from water-logged cardboard boxes in the storage unit, fabric that was constantly damp and thin enough to let the winter wind bite through my skin.
These clothes were entirely different.
They were thick, dry, and clean.
Someone had left these for me in secret while I slept.
I quickly took a bath in the adjoining washroom, working carefully around the neat bandages Hazel had placed over my body, before pulling the clean clothes over my head.
The large sweater swallowed my small frame, the sleeves falling slightly past my knuckles, but the overwhelming sense of security it gave me was something I never wanted to strip away.
There was a knock at the door right before it opened, and Hazel stepped inside the room with a tray of food in her hands.
“Ohh, I see you are awake,” she said, walking into the room and dropping the food on the table there.
She turned and smiled warmly at me.
“Good morning, Ella, how was your night?” She looked expectedly at me.
“Good morning, Hazel, fine thank you,” I replied, my voice sounding a little steadier than it had during the recording yesterday afternoon.
“Just fine?” she asked, tilting her head with a teasing glint in her big blue eyes.
“When I came to drop off the clothes in the early hours of the morning, you seemed more than just fine.
You seemed to be…
what is the word for it…
at peace.
I even saw you smile,” she said, laughing softly as she adjusted the heavy wooden tray on the table surface.
“Speaking of clothes, I see they fit all right…big, but okay.
Those are mine, by the way.
I always carry more clothes than I need whenever I am on the road,” she said, smoothing down the front of her own beautiful, bright dress.
She pointed towards the chair and said, “Sit down, let’s eat.
I am so hungry.”
I took my seat beside her and stared at the large size of food she had brought into the room.
The size of the breakfast array made my jaw drop slightly.
“I figured you’d be more comfortable if you ate here instead of the dining area,” she said, smiling again.
Gosh, I loved her.
She had a way of anticipating my fears before they even manifested.
She knew that stepping into the dining hall would probably trigger a panic attack.
“I didn’t know what you liked, so I brought everything.”
The tray was full of bacon, sandwiches, warm oatmeal, freshly baked cookies, a thick slice of sweet pie, and slices of toasted bread.
Looking down at the mountain of food, a wave of profound emotion washed over me.
Some of the food in here, I hadn’t eaten in a very long time, and if I was being entirely honest with myself, I too didn’t know what I liked.
I didn’t have the luxury of preference.
I usually ate anything and everything I could scramble to get, choking down cold grease or raw vegetable scraps behind the kitchen counters or in my room just to keep my stomach from devouring itself.
This was paradise.
And I didn’t even know where to begin.
Which one should I eat first?
“Is there anything on this tray you don’t like?
I will get rid of it,” she said, noticing my wide-eyed hesitation.
“I like everything,” I said quickly, my fingers tightening against each other.
“Thank you for the food.”
She smiled again at me, a genuine expression that reached all the way to her blue eyes.
“No problem, dig in.” She passed me a clean metal spoon and fork before gesturing grandly to the steaming tray.
I didn’t know what to take first, but the thick strips of bacon looked fresh and were literally screaming my name.
So, I started from there.
The smoky, savory taste exploded on my tongue, and I had to close my eyes for a fraction of a second just to absorb the sensation.
Hazel made easy small talk as we ate, her cheerful voice filling the quiet gaps of the master suite.
She would casually throw in a few light questions about how the clothes felt or if the room was warm enough, which I answered between small, careful bites.
I had told myself when she first walked in that we wouldn’t be able to finish even half the food on the tray, but boy, was I wrong.
Hazel had a big appetite, like a very big one, which was thoroughly impressive because judging by her small frame, you would never guess that she could eat that much.
She tore through the sandwiches and cookies with a great metabolism, laughing and chatting without a single care in the world.
After we were finally done, the tray was completely cleared.
Hazel gathered the dirty dishes together and left the room, promising to return shortly after.
The moment the door clicked shut, I was officially in a food coma.
I had eaten breakfast with pure greed, shoving the food into my mouth since it had been so long since I had a proper meal and especially food that was cooked with my name attached to it.
My stomach actually hurt from the sudden expansion, and I had to lay flat down on the edge of the mattress to calm myself down, letting my breathing slow.
The food was absolutely delicious.
A few minutes later, the deadbolt scraped against the frame and Hazel returned, this time carrying a tall cup of water which she made me drink.
She kept the glass cup on the dark wood table after I finished downing it.
“Sorry I didn’t bring it up with the food.
I hate drinking water while I eat and usually forget not everyone is like me,” she said, laughing at her own forgetfulness.
“How are you feeling now?” she asked, sitting down right beside me by the edge of the bed.
“Filled up,” I replied, resting my left side carefully against the pillows.
“I think I ate a lot.”
“Ohh, is that so…
then I suggest you sit up and not lay down, to let the food digest properly,” she instructed gently, helping me shift my weight so my spine was straight.
After a quiet moment passed between us, she spoke again, her voice turning a little more serious.
“Alpha Alexander said I should escort you downstairs to the ballroom.
But it can wait for a bit; you should gather your full strength first.”
We stayed there in the safety of the room for another thirty minutes, letting the food settle while the fire slowly crackled down to glowing amber coals.
Finally, Hazel stood up, extending her hand to help me off the mattress.
We left the room, heading out into the upper corridor and walking towards the staircase.
The pack house was usually booming with noise at this hour, full of running pups, shouting pack members, and slamming doors, but today it was completely quiet.
The eerie silence hung heavily over the polished wooden floorboards.
I guessed everyone else in the territory was already gathered in the ballroom downstairs, waiting for whatever Alpha Alexander and the Council was planning to do.
“Can I ask you a question?” I whispered, my voice cutting through the stillness while we were coming down from the staircase.
“Yes, go ahead,” Hazel replied, slowing her steps to match my own steps.
“It’s about my ear…
my right ear.
I can’t hear anything from it again.
I think I might be permanently deaf in it,” I said, the confession feeling heavy and terrifying now that I was voicing it to a medical professional.
I stopped on the steps, turning my head slightly so my left side faced her.
“Seeing as you are a doctor and all, can you maybe please take a look at it?”
She stopped walking immediately, her big blue eyes widening as she took a swift step toward me on the wooden stairs.
“Let me see,” she murmured, her playful demeanor completely vanishing into her professional persona.
She moved her hands gently, lifting a strand of my hair and inspecting my right ear with an intense focus, before shifting to the other side and inspecting my left one for contrast.
She pressed a warm finger near the joint of my jaw, her brows furrowing deeply as she noted the lack of response.
“Well, I can’t really say for sure how severe the internal damage is until we get you properly checked out in a real hospital with diagnostic scanning,” she said, her voice dropping into a tight, strained register.
“How long have you been completely deaf in that ear?” she asked, her gaze locked onto my face.
“Five days now,” I responded quietly, looking down at my shoes and then lifting my head to look at her.
She looked back at me, completely surprised and visibly upset on my behalf.
“Why haven’t you mentioned this before, Ella?
Especially during the video evidence collection yesterday?
It would have helped a lot with the formal report to the Council elders.”
“I didn’t even remember to mention it,” I said, a hollow feeling settling in my chest.
“It totally skipped my mind.
There was just so much to say, and I…
I guess I just got used to the quiet on that side.”
She looked at me with a wave of deep, quiet emotion and reached out, touching my hands with a firm grip.
“Well, I didn’t notice it until you mentioned it just now, either.
Don’t you worry about it, Ella.
I will make sure it gets officially added to the list of crimes against them before the magistrates arrive.”
She took my hand tightly in hers as we continued walking down the remaining steps, the warmth of her fingers giving me a surge of courage.
We reached the bottom floor, taking a sharp left turn, and walked directly down the long hallway toward the heavy double doors of the grand ballroom.