Chapter 32 Amalie

“I’ve been okay,” I tell James as I settle back into my hospital bed. Rose climbs up onto the bed and settles at my feet.

“Uncle James, I need pictures please,” Rose asks as she holds out her hands.

“I know that is a lie, but I’ll let it slide,” James says as he moves the wheelchair and sits beside me. He then hands Rose a folder.

Rose tunes us out and focuses on her envelope of pictures.

“What do you want me to say?” I demand, my walls and defense rising. “That my life sucked for seven years? That I find out my parents and my old alpha were both in the plot to keep me locked up for no reason? That my best friends never gave up on finding me and are now my mates? Or how about the fact that I’m free for the first time and I have no idea what to do with myself?”

“I want you to be honest with me,” he stated calmly. He looked me in the eye and continued, “I know you. You push everything down and bottle up how you are feeling. You have so many walls up that you only let people see the first or second wall. You may let Cal and Mark see deeper, but not all the way.”

I forgot how well James knew me. He was the first one to notice the flinching at words my parents said. James knew that something was going on at home. “I don’t know,” I tell him. “I don’t know how I’m doing or what to feel. Everything is too much too soon.”

“That’s okay, as long as you are being honest with me and yourself. I would love you to talk with Cal and Mark about your trauma, but I have a feeling you won’t,” he says simply.

“I’m going to talk to a therapist,” I tell him.

He gives me a pointed look, a look that says he knows I will share enough to satisfy the therapist but not delve in to deep.

“Mommy, I made these for you!” Rose says happily as she hands me the yellow folder that she had been sorting through. I open it up and see that it is full of drawings and coloring pages. “Wow, these are so good! I love them.”

James sent me a look that told me we were not done, but he would top the conversation for the moment. “You should be jealous, I saw the blue owl she colored for Mike,” he told me.

“Wow, Uncle Michael got a blue owl?” I ask Rose, engaging with her.

“Favorite color!” Rose stated happily. She then looked at James and asked, “Your color?”

“My favorite color?” James asked, clarifying what she waned to know.

Rose nodded her head in excitement. She held out her hands for the folder. I smiled and handed it back. She took the folder back and started to sort through the pages to find one that would qualify for James.

“Orange,” he says with a smile.

Rose nods her head and finds one that has orange on it. “Okay to give?” Rose asks me as she holds up an orange dog.

“I think that one is perfect. Thank you for asking me,” I tell her and pull her back to me. I give her a hug, as big as I can. I love my daughter so much.

Rose turns and hands the picture to James. She then turns and states, “I will color more when we home.”

“I look forward to see all the new pictures,” I say. Rose makes herself comfortable in my lap.

“Daddy says you get to come home today,” Rose tells me excitedly.

My brain short circuits at the word daddy. I start to panic. Did Mellisa’s ex come back to the pack? Does he now want my baby? Goddess what am I going to do if he tries to take her away from me. Beren doesn’t help. She is growling with rage in my head. Her thinking is following my same line of thoughts. She will fight to her death to keep Rose with us. Beren isn’t talking to me, just growling and pacing. Beren wants to be free to go rip Mellisa’s ex to pieces for coming back into Rose’s life.

The bastard who got Mellisa pregnant wanted nothing to do with Rose. He had advised Mellisa to abort Rose when he learned he had gotten Mellisa pregnant. He then asked Alpha Mathew to leave to go to college out of state. The guy hadn’t come back since.

I can hear James in the background trying to get my attention. But it was no use, Beren and I were in our own little world. We were trapped by the prospect of losing our pup. Our combined anger just fueling our spiral.

Goddess, what had we ever done to lose the one bright spot in our lives for so long? Was this punishment for something in a past life? It had to be, why else would someone be trying to take our pup away from us.

I heard crying and a door slam open.

I wasn’t able to respond to anyone. My thoughts continued to spiral out of control at the prospect of losing Rose. Rage started to fill me. I knew Beren and I were growling. I was about to snap when I felt hands on me. The hands were going to hold me down and rip Rose away from me for forever. I could not allow that to happen. They would take Rose away from me over my own dead body.

“Sleep little one,” Zviad ordered me, breaking through the haze.

Blackness overtook me. Beren and I slipped into darkness and peace.