Thelma’s POV
I woke up, lying in a room which I was sure wasn’t mine nor Drakes’. I carried my body clumsily, expecting pains. It never came, never did. Surprisingly, I raised my clothes, stared down but my wounds were healed. I didn’t know exactly what to do- laugh or cry. Being a werewolf has some great advantages and also has its curse.
The curse: If I hadn’t been a werewolf, I wouldn’t have been attacked in the first place. The benefits: I would have been dead if it wasn’t because of our unique abilities. I looked to my side, my heart almost skipped when I saw Simon sitting on a back chair, his legs hung crossed and flattened on a stool. He crossed his hands at the back of his neck, virtually supporting his head. I didn’t know he was there, and I wasn’t sure how long he had stayed in the room before I woke up.
“Hey,” I said, my voice erupted lazily. “Are you awake?” My voice was the only thing that still reminded me that I had been wounded almost at the point of death. I wasn’t surprised that Simon didn’t hear me because my voice was so weak. I didn’t bother to wake him up again. I looked beside him and saw a jug and then a glass cup atop another table which was kept very close to the wall. There was also a shelve, new, but dusty beside the table. I stood up from the bed and went for the jug. I opened it first and checked what was inside it. It was water. That was exactly what my body craved for at the moment. I drank three glasses at a shot. I released a loud belch and sighed deeply.
“You are awake?” Simon asked.
The cup almost slipped through my hands but I managed to get hold of it. “Yes, I am. Good morning,” I said.
“Is it morning yet?” he asked.
I looked out through the single window in the room, but the blue curtains wouldn’t allow me to know much. “I guess so,” I said. “How long have I been sleeping?”
“Three weeks.”
I laughed languidly. “That was an honest reply from you, Simon.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” he said. He uncrossed his legs and stood up. He reached for the jug and poured a shot into the cup and drank. He reached for his phone and then began to type something.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“Texting the Alpha, telling him that you are awake.” He spent a few more seconds typing with the phone and then looked at me and said, “Done.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“You are welcome,” he said. “What exactly happened last night if I may ask?”
“A lot.” I walked straight to the bed and sat down. He reached for the breast pocket of the dark leather jacket he was wearing and brought out a stick of cigarette. He lit it with a lighter he brought out from his long brown trouser.
“I wouldn’t mind if you let the shit out.”
“I was attacked.”
“Attacked?” he let out a puff.
“Yes,” I answered. “And poisoned too.”
“Poisoned?” he lowered the cigar stick and looked directly into my eyes. “By whom?”
“Yes. Poisoned by whom?” Alpha asked as he opened the door and sauntered toward me. He breath was coming out fast. I guessed that he might have run on his way coming.
I flashed him a smile. I liked the green polo he was putting on. It made him look younger than his age. “Audrey.”
He came and sat beside me on the bed, he straightened out my hand and checked up my wound. “Why would she poison you?” his voice echoed in my head with a sweet melodious tone.
“She eh, according to her, she said that I took you away from her adopted daughter which wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Adopted daughter?” he narrowed an eye.
“Yes. An adopted daughter, Bridget.”
“Bridget is her adopted daughter?” Simon asked, his cigarette stick burning up in between his right finger.
“That’s exactly what she told me when she attacked me,” I replied.
The Prefect walked in through the unclosed door. She had changed the beautiful dark dress she was wearing the previous night into a more ceremonial red gown that made her look Indian. “Which makes this whole thing fucking unexplainable.”
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“She had told us all that Bridget was her biological daughter,” Drake said.
“She lied to us all,” Prefect Cecily said, crossing her hands on her chest while standing.
“If she had birthed Bridget herself, why didn’t Bridget possess the qualities that we possess or more specifically, Audrey possess?” Simon asked. “We haven’t really asked ourselves this question in a long while.”
Which was true. I didn’t understand why Audrey’s alleged daughter didn’t possess the power of a werewolf. It didn’t make any sense considering the fact that her mother was a strong lycanthrope(es). “it doesn’t work that way,” Prefect chipped in. “In some cases, which shouldn’t even be considered as rare, a werewolf can birth a child who may not inherit the power of their parents. This normally happens in a situation where one of the parents is not a werewolf. The trait may sometimes be genetically altered and would result in a scenario where the offspring may not be able to receive their parents full DNA.”
“This is magic.” Simon popped a smoke.
Prefect Cecily glanced up at him. “Of course, this is magic.”
Simon frowned and muttered an incoherent word. “So you are saying that it is possible that Audrey could still be a mother to Bridget even when she isnt a werewolf?” Drake asked.
“I am saying that it can happen to anyone other than Audrey.”
Simon whistled. “So what happened here was that madam Audrey got mad that someone else got the white collar job her daughter would have gotten? So she decided to screw the person up by getting revenge for her daughter?”
No body answered the question. The room remained silent for a while. “How did she poison you?” The Prefect asked me.
“She had initially approached me before on the morning after I had been crowned the Luna elect. She told me that I didn’t know how much trouble I was in. She also told me to get out when I still can. I thought that maybe that she had been sent by someone outside the pack house to monitor me.”
“And did you tell any one about this?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I really wanted to share it with someone but I didn’t know who I could trust at the moment.”
“You couldn’t trust the Alpha too?” she asked me.
I looked at Drake. He was looking eager to hear me. “I still didn’t understand the procedural proceedings that works best for the pack,” I said. I took away my glance from the Alpha and focused it on the Prefect. “I didn’t want to get him into trouble or let him worry because of something I had considered insignificant at the time. I didn’t know that it would get this undesirable so I tried to manage it without getting anyone involved. Not even the Alpha.”
“Tsk.” Simon puffed out another smoke through his nose and mouth.
The Prefect breathed. “Wise,” she said.
“So what do we do?” Simon asked. He threw the stick of Cigar on the floor and smashed it with his heavy boots.
“Bridget’s needs to be questioned,” the Prefect said. “We need to know if she had a hand in this.”
“I agree,” I admitted, “I have had my fair share of threats from her too and that was before I met or knew who Audrey was.”
Drake nodded and heaved a sigh. “We need to get to the button of this. We shouldn’t let anything slide. I won’t have someone threaten my Luna for any reason.” She placed his hand on my left cheek and caressed me softly. “Are you alright?” He looked pained. His voice also came out strained.
I placed my hand on top of his palm he had placed on my cheek, held him, and squeezed it. I nodded and said, “Yes, I am.”
“Good,” he said, faking a smile. “Let’s go get some answers.”