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"It always is for people who end up here, unfortunately."
"Right."
I can still vividly remember the night we lost my mother. Staying up for hours, watching her every breath, worried about which would be the last. Of course, we knew her cancer had spread and the moment would come inevitably.
With Tess, I don't know what the hell to expect. I'm still not sure why the hell she's laying comatose in a bed in the pack medical ward in the first place.
The Luna Sovereign, who seemed to have a far better understanding than me, seemed desperate to usher her out of her house. She's the chosen one meant to share and protect shifter history. If she's not sharing, it makes me real damn curious what she might be protecting.
Maybe I should take a moment away after all.
"If you're gone for more than so much as a bathroom break, you'll be looking at an early retirement," I warn Al, keeping my voice lighter so he knows I'm only giving him a hard time. Mostly.
"I'm not going anywhere," he promises. As if to prove his point, he drops into an armchair near Tess's bed and picks up a newspaper. The man takes his job seriously, and I have to remind myself nothing is happening to Tess on his watch.
I force myself toward the door, each footstep brutally painful. Tess's rejection seems to only be getting worse by the minute.
Al is wrong to compare this situation to what happened with my father. After my father's mistake, it was easy to do the right thing. My wolf and I were both prepared to choose honor and the pack. It wasn't the kind of ache I have now that tells me I was very wrong thinking I might walk away from Tess Jarreau a second time.
And speak of the devil… there's dear ol' Dad when I want him the least.
I can smell the bourbon on him, but at least he looks lucid. The last thing I need is him stumbling around the pack grounds drunk and making a fool of himself.
"Is Tess okay?" he asks, moving to try to see around me as I purposefully fill the doorway to block his view.
"She'll be fine."
"I recognized her you know." My father squints at me. "I trained her father, trained alongside her grandfather, too. The family resemblance is uncanny, aside from the size of her, of course."
"The family resemblance," I repeat, mulling over the phrase.
"I've probably got a picture somewhere. Plenty of them in the books, too, if you're feeling curious. Of all the women that might have been your mate, you went and found a legacy." He sounds so awe-struck that it only compounds the fact that I feel like I'm missing something.
"What does it matter that she's a legacy?" I ask, nudging him further from the doorway so I can pull the door closed for Tess's privacy. I can't imagine the little firecracker would want anyone seeing her like this.
My father throws his head back with a laugh, clapping me on the shoulder in a way that makes me want to put more distance between us. I hate when he's drunk. It usually makes him mopey and pathetic—tonight we've got the added benefit of it making him chatty.
There's one thing he said that does interest me.
"When you say there's plenty in the books… which books do you mean exactly?"
Chapter Twenty-One
Tess
Tess.
For a moment, I'm so disoriented I can't tell where the voice is coming from. For one heart-stopping moment, I think I'm back at the Luna Sovereign's house, an invisible entity calling me to find answers about myself.
As my eyes creep open, I realize that's definitely not where I am.
Bright white walls greet me, and I squint in the harsh light. Something beside me is beeping, but my body feels too weak to turn my neck. I feel like I've been sleeping for years.
"You're awake," an unfamiliar voice says.
Please, Tess.
My eyes feel so heavy that I let them close again.
