Chapter 20 Amalie

We dragged out our lunch as long as we could. I had slowly sipped on my soup. Cal and Mark went from inhaling their food to taking small, precise bites. Rose, my sweet Rose, happily snacked on her food. She talked the whole time.

Rose told me all about the two weeks she had spent with the twins. She told me about spending days in the office with one or both of the twins. Rose colored as they worked on pack business. Rose promised that she had a whole stack of pictures for me. She gushed about how she didn’t have to cover the entire paper before she was able to move onto the next picture. Rose told me about the new colors she had received. She said it had so many colors, over a million.

She told me about going to the park. Of how James, Sam, and Nick played with her when they went to the park. James and Nick would play with her on the equipment when one of them would take her. Sam watched a few feet away and was always there if she needed when he would take her to the park. She talked about how they had all become uncles to her. Rose talked excitedly about her new uncles.

She told me about Dr William and Michael Reed, Mathew’s older brother. Rose told me how Uncle Mike let her sit on his lap and he wheeled her around with him in his wheelchair. I had mixed feelings about that. Mathew had told my parents to keep me imprisoned in my home for seven years. How could I be sure that Michael wasn’t working the same angle. Actually, how could I be sure that Dr. William wasn’t working with Mathew and would get me locked up.

“Stop,” Calyx ordered.

My attention snapped to him. “What?” I asked in confusion.

“You are thinking way to hard about something and went very deep into your mind. Mark took Rose to the park after she became worried about you,” Cal stated.

“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I said with a frown, finally noticing that my Rosebud was missing. Goddess, how out of it had I been?

“She tried to say goodbye. You tuned her out and wouldn’t respond. Mark took her before she realized that your breathing was off,” he explained gently.

I took a few deep breaths to regulate my breathing. I hadn’t realized that I was having a panic attack.

“Now, care to explain what that was all about?” Cal asked.

I knew it wasn’t an empty request. He wanted to know what set me spiraling. “How do I know if your uncles won’t hurt me or do what your dad did?” I asked, ripping off the bandaid, so to speak. “They could be working with your father and my parents!”

“I promise you, Uncle Will and Mike only want to help. No one but our father and your parents were part of keeping you locked up. We are stilling digging into the reason why. I was not able to get straight answers from your parents. And Mellisa, goddess she was so conceited, only cared about herself and what her friends would think,” Cal assured me. I could see that he was angry at what happened with my parents.

I actually laughed at the last part. It wasn’t a happy or merry laugh. It was a biter laugh, one that was full of frustration and hurt. “Of course, she only cared about herself. She’s the golden child,” I scoffed.

“Well, that golden child is rotting in the pack cells with her parents who spoiled her,” Cal smirked dangerously.

“Good, she deserves it along with my parents,” I growled. Beren was in full support of the three of them being locked up.

“Will you be okay with still being examined and talking to William?” Calyx asked, concern lacing his question.

“I think so. Just promise me that you will stay the whole time,” I said. I could do this. Meeting with Dr. Will would be easy, even if he had been mated to Mathew’s brother. I vaguely remembered Michael. He was a great warrior from what I remembered. Michael use to sneak us snacks when we were running through the pack house.

I had spent a lot of time running around the pack house with Calyx and Markus. Anything to keep me away from my parents' house. James would often join us. Sam watched us as he sat down, always working on schoolwork or reading a book. Nick had tried to keep up with us, but he had been five years younger than we were.

When I was younger, it never crossed my mind that I was best friends with my future leaders. They had just been my friends. Markus had literally dragged me into his friend group. Calyx had refused to let me leave. James just rolled with it, being Markus’s best friend already. Sam hadn’t protested as no one else had. And little Nicholas had just wanted to belong with the big kids as he was one day going to be the Delta.

“You’re getting lost in thought again,” Calyx stated as he gently squeezed my shoulder.

“Sorry,” I apologized, snapping out of my memories.

“You don’t have to apologize. What were you thinking about?” Cal asked.

“A lot of stuff from when we were younger,” I sighed.

“When you get out of here, we can sit and talk all you want about the good memories and focus on making new ones,” he assured me.

“Careful, that sounded awfully emotional and sappy,” I joked with a smile, “it might ruin your image.”

“I will gladly ruin my image if it makes you smile,” he stated, a smile gracing his own lips.