Chapter 5 - A new life!
Nadia
I KNEW I WAS no longer at the castle before I even opened my eyes. I could smell them. The scent was familiar, but not all at the same time. I groaned and opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was the room. It was decorated in soft pink.
“Honey, she’s awake.” My mom sat down on the bed beside me and smiled. I knew it was her because we looked so much alike. She was just an older version of me, so it was no wonder I looked so much like her in my wolf form. My father appeared behind her and smiled.
“We have a lot to talk about, but first you need to rest.” He smiled and I nodded and closed my eyes. They were right. We did have a lot to talk about. The most important being why they never looked for me, but I was so drained I just wanted to drift into the blissful darkness of sleep.
I heard voices and opened my eyes, but I was too tired and drifted off again. I was sure I saw an older man, but I was too tired to try and figure out what was going on. My dreams were filled with everything that happened. It played over and over in my mind like a bad movie. By the time I finally woke up, I had a slamming headache and I hadn’t really rested.
It was dark outside and I had no idea how long I had been sleeping. I had never been so incredibly tired in all my life. As a matter of fact, I never got tired. It was just a wolf thing. It had to have been the trauma of what I went through. I got up and looked around the room. I was on my own. I noticed the crib and it hit me. Although I saw it earlier in my haze, I didn’t actually register it until now.
This was my old room. This was the room my parents prepared for me when I was a baby. It had stuffed toys of all kinds. My fingers slipped over the soft toys as I walked around the room. There was a small book shelf filled with books I would probably never read and I smiled. When I reached the crib, my heart sank. Inside the crib was a small pink blanket with a blood stain.
I wondered if they ever tried to wash it out or if they couldn’t get it out. Did my parents have other children? Did I have siblings?! My mind was on the verge of spinning out of control again when the door opened and I whipped around to see who it was. Angelo and his mate walked in and for a moment we all just looked at each other. The silence was broken minutes later when an old man walked into the room. He had a bag with him and as soon as he spoke, I recognized his voice. He had been there before.
“Princess Nadia. I am Edgar. I am the pack doctor. Would you mind it if I gave you a quick once over just to make sure you are, okay?” He seemed kind and I nodded. I sat down on the bed while he did his examination. My father … Sebastian had our doctors checking me at least every couple of months, so this was nothing new to me.
Sebastian was always scared something was wrong, so I had a standing appointment in the medical wing which was built especially for me. Back then, I thought he did it because he cared. Hell, just a day ago I thought he did it because he really loved me. Now I wasn’t so sure anymore! Edgar declared me fit as a fiddle with a little laugh and before he left, he told me to come see him any time I didn’t feel good. He left us alone and my parents and I just stared at each other. We were all in shock.
“Was this my room?” I finally found my voice and my mother’s eyes teared up as she nodded. I got up and walked over to the crib. The blanket was soft underneath my fingers as I picked it up slowly. “Why didn’t you wash the stain out?” I turned to look at them and my heart broke when I noticed the tears freely running down my mother’s cheeks. My father put his arm around her but they didn’t move closer. It was almost as though they didn’t believe what was happening.
“It comforted your mother. We’ve been looking for you all these years and each time we thought we had a lead and came back without you she would come in there and cling to that blanket. Your mother never gave up hope … None of us did.” I could see that my father was trying to stay strong, but he was also finding it incredibly hard.
“My fath … I mean, Sebastian, never allowed me out of the castle grounds.” I carefully put the blanket back in its place and turned to look at them. All the questions I wanted to ask were just gone. They were my parents and I was their long-lost daughter, but it was awkward. “Is this just as strange to you as it is to me?” I gasped and they closed the gap between us as tears started to stream down my face. I could feel that I was finally home, but it didn’t feel like the home I grew up in. They held onto me while I sobbed and when my tears died down, we sat down on the bed and I told them what happened to Sebastian.
“I didn’t mean to kill him. That wasn’t what I wanted to do.” I sighed and my mother softly placed her hand over mine.
“We know, sweetheart.” I was home and the people I thought killed my parents were my parents. We had lost eighteen years and we had a lot to talk about. Everything I thought I knew had been a lie. Now I had a whole new life ahead of me.