Chapter 2

**Kataleya POV**

Darkness. That is all that I saw. I didn’t want to wake up. I didn’t want to relive my trauma. I didn’t want to see the pity on the pack member's faces when they realized what happened to me. Why couldn’t they have just killed me? What could I have done differently? Why did the Moon Goddess think that I deserved this? I am only 13, not yet old enough to have my wolf, but I have already suffered greatly. They took my innocence. They took my joy. My happiness. My birthday was in two weeks, but I could not see anything worth celebrating.

I slowly feel myself regaining consciousness. My fingers begin to twitch, and I try to wiggle my toes. I heard a gasp and I felt

Someone grasped my hand.

“Kataleya! Come back to us. It is okay. You can wake up. No one will hurt you again.” Michael. My brother was here. I remember Oliver and him finding me after the rogues left. I remember Michael starting to pick me up and then blackness. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around the room. Everything was white and it smelled sterile. I must be in the pack hospital. I saw Michael sitting on one side of my bed and Oliver sitting on the other side.

Oliver gets up and opens the door to my room. He poked his head out and asked one of the passing nurses to get the doctor that he had finally woken. Several nurses rushed into my room with the doctor. The doctor looks at Michael and Oliver and tells them that they need to leave my room while I am being examined.

Once they leave, the doctor stands next to my bed looking at my heart and blood pressure monitors. I started to shrink away from her and tried to curl into a ball on the other side of my bed, tears streaming down my face.

“If you prefer to have only female nurses in here, Kataleya, then let me know. I can leave at any point in time if you feel uncomfortable with males in the room.” I slowly nodded my head, indicating that I would rather he left the room.

The lead nurse, Emily, began to ask me questions about what happened to me and my pain level. I try to explain to her the best I could what happened, but whenever I try to say what happened, I am thrown into a flashback, and I start to tremble.

“Kataleya, I am going to have to examine you. At any point in time when you are uncomfortable, you can tell me to stop. We, also, are going to have to get some bloodwork done, just to make sure that everything else is okay.” I slowly nodded my head at Emily, and she gave me a small smile. “Kataleya, I am going to need you to speak. I cannot continue until you verbally agree with everything that I am going to do. I will walk you through each step and at the end, you will have to verbally confirm that you understand. Do you understand?”

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. One of the other nurses handed me a glass of water and I chugged it. When I opened my mouth, the words came out, but it sounded like I hadn’t used my vocal cords in months. My throat was scratchy and hoarse. “Okay, I understand.”

Emily completed the exam and asked me if I was up for any visitors. She told me that my parents, brothers, and the Beta’s family were waiting to see me. She said that no one in the pack knew what had happened besides the ranked pack members and the staff that was assigned to my case. I apparently had two warriors always stationed outside of my room. I quickly shook my head no. I wanted to be left alone. I didn’t want to have to pretend that everything was okay, that I wasn’t dying on the inside. I wanted all the pain and all the suffering to end. I wanted the memories to disappear.

Emily assured me that she understood that I wanted to be left alone and she would let my visitors know. Once the nurses left and I was alone once again, I just laid in the bed and cried. I cried all my pain, sorrow, anger, and frustration. I shouldn’t have gone by myself, should have had a warrior escort me. I knew my parents were going to be upset when I finally had the courage to face them. They were going to be incredibly angry that I went to this party and remind me that I am the Alpha’s daughter. I should have used better judgement.

I spent the next several hours alone in my room. I could feel that my eyes were puffy, and I can only imagine how red they are. They felt like sandpaper. There is a knock on the door and then it opens to reveal Emily bringing me food. She sets it on the table and asks me how I am feeling. I just shrug my shoulders. She told me that the doctor wanted to release me in the morning to my family. I just nodded my head and continued to start into space. Once she leaves the room, I pick up the tray and take it to the trash. I am not hungry, even though I can tell that it has been several days since I have eaten.

I lay down and closed my eyes, hoping that I was able to get some sleep. My dreams are plagued by nightmares about what happened to me. I woke up screaming. One of the nurses and the warriors outside my room rush inside to check on me. I smiled at them and told them that I was fine, just had a rough dream. I was glad to see that when my parents decided to station the warriors outside of my room, they stuck with female warriors. I am not ready to face the male population. Instead of going back to sleep, I just lay there until the sun rose and the nurse came back in, accompanied by the female pack doctor.

“Kataleya, how are you feeling? Do you think you will be comfortable if we release them to the care of the Alpha and Luna?” the doctor asked me.

“I am okay, I guess. I am ready to go home.”

The doctor goes to get my release papers. She tells me that she understood that I struggled with sleeping last night, so she was going

to prescribe some sleeping medication, as well as some pain medication since I haven’t received my wolf yet. I idly nodded my head and she nodded.

Last night, I had an epiphany. I will not allow them to break me. I am done with the crying and feeling sorry for myself. I will come back from this stronger. I will become a fucking queen.