019

Numbness all over the body. A burn in the throat. Itching all over the skin. The inability to form words. Blurry images. Beeping inside her eardrums That was all Camila could see, feel, and hear when she woke up. She cleared her throat, attracting the attention of the figure backing her. After hearing her, that person walked out of the room in a hurried way. She jerked herself into a sitting position, dragging her buttocks on the fluffy bed beneath her until she leaned her sore back against the bedrest. Slapping her hands on the rough surface beside her, she located the small button sitting at the bedside table full of medicines and pressed it with trembling fingers. Almost immediately, an elderly familiar man wearing a white coat, a stethoscope around his neck, and gray hairs sprouting in between the black strands above his head walked through the half-opened door, smiled sweetly at her, and asked her something she couldn't hear.

"W..wh.." She tried to speak, but her breath was suddenly taken away, and she coughed, clutching her throat. The elderly man, whom she assumed to be the doctor, now pressed his index finger on his lips, signaling her to be quiet. He walked to the water dispenser just behind the door and brought a glass of water to her lips. The first gulp she took, she felt her bones strengthening, some energy spewing through her, and her whole body turning cold, but in a good way. She felt active.

"How do you feel, my child?" She could now hear the doctor's excited voice clearly.

"As if I were hit by a train," she said, causing the doctor to chuckle. "What happened to me? How did I end up here, and why do I feel like I have been sleeping for so long? If I slept for one night, there was no way my back could be as sore as this," she asked.

"You have been in a coma, my child," the doctor said, brushing the strands of hair that had fallen on her pale face.

"C...coma? For how many days?" She asked in shock. Suddenly terrible images started flocking in her mind, and she wished that she could have been better in that world of darkness but not there. After she was accused of tainting the pack's and Alpha's reputations by shooting a porn video, she refused, defending herself by saying that she had no idea what was going on and that whoever did that was not her. She begged the alpha, even though he didn't want to listen to her, to look for the two guards who had escaped and question her. She even suggested that he ask Alina if he wanted to, but the slap she got sent her canine teeth flying away.

After she kept on vehemently refusing, even when Alpha Killan insisted that she did shoot that video, he promised the pack members and the elders that he would torture her until she agreed to her deeds. He locked her up in a completely different dungeon with no light, food, or water for three days straight, and the fourth day she was taken out under the scorching sun, where she was whipped while everyone watched. As if that were not enough, despite having wounds all over her body, she was forced to work as the palace servant all alone. She would spend the rest of the day cleaning the vast rooms, sweeping the compound, and preparing meals, and the rest of the night washing clothes, washing utensils, and preparing for the following day's duties. Despite all the pain she was subjected to and all the punishments she was given, she never once agreed to that act.

Alpha Killan couldn't take no as the answer, so he decided to break her emotionally by forcing her to go to the pack stripper house so that she could entertain all the pervets of the pack. She did it with a cold face, and no matter how hard he broke her physically, emotionally, or mentally, she never agreed to any of that, and she still stood her ground. One day she even cursed at him and yelled at him so loudly that everyone could hear that even on her death bed she would never agree to what she was accused of.

What she didn't know was that Alpha Killan could take that seriously. It was like mentioning the death bed brought some evil plan to his head, but all she recalls is that after she said that, Alina pulled him aside for a discussion like she had said it, and after a few seconds, she came back with another punishment that would make her agree, and if she doesn't, then they'll accept their defeat.

Alpha Killan announced that she, Camila Rassort, should be thrown to the pure wolves den, who were always starved, so as to inflict the desired punishments on stubborn traitors like her. Elder Peter's and Beta Steven's said no to that because, according to them, she was a human who wouldn't even survive in the starved wolves den. But because the other ninety-eight elders voted yes, their votes were added to the alpha's and Alina's, and she was thrown into the den.

She doesn't know for how long, but obviously it was so long that she lost the ability to hear, speak, and even move around. It was after, like, forever that she felt herself floating in the air and something connected to her body: a soft voice talking to her and something warm being pulled over her body. What she remembers is that even at that state, the last thing she said was, "I didn't do it," and that was the last day she felt the outer world.

She thought she had died, and because she failed to see the light, she thought the angels of death had taken her to hell. Each passing day she waited for the day the moon gods would appear to judge her, and she would tell them that she had done no sin, but if her mother getting killed when she was four, her getting taken away from her home, her father despising her, acting as a maid in her home for eighteen years, being a human, getting sold as a mistress, being the ruthless Alpha's mate, being subjected to different false accusations by the alpha's girlfried, and getting bullied in her husband's house was a sin, then so be it. She can burn in hell, listen to the devil's evil laughter for the rest of her eternal life, and be the culprit they had all decided she was.

The day never arrived though; the moon gods never came to judge her, and after she thought that she had died the death of a cow, where one will be forgotten completely and will never be judged, her eyes started flickering slowly, slowly taking away the darkness sorrouding her, and there she found herself, in the hospital, sorrounded with beeping machines, an anesthetic smell that churned her intestines, four blue light walls, and nothing else.

"You have been in a coma for a month, my child," the old voice said, sending some calming waves all over her body as she was jarred out of her wonder world to the real world around her.

"They are still after me, right?" She asked him.

"Unfortunately, yes, I really don't know what happened to my grandson, but I hope he'll come back to his senses soon." The man sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose, and then put on his reading glasses.

That was when it clicked in her mind. "No wonder you are familiar." She smiled, squeezing his hands. "Thank you, grandpa, for taking care of me," she smiled once again.

"No need to thank me, child; beside, I'll only accept your thank you after you get back to your feet once again." The man smiled, kissing her forehead.

Grandpa, can you do something for me?" She asked him after something crossed her mind.

"What is it, my child?" He asked her, "You know I can do anything for you because you have been nothing but a good child to me." The doctor smiled.

"Will you please tell him that I am not awake?" She pleaded with him. Before the doctor could answer, the door was pushed open, and two familiar faces walked in. Alina and Alpha Killan are on his side.

"How did they know?" The doctor asked her in a low, worried voice.

"When I woke up, Alina's spy was standing at the door watching over me, and when I pressed that, she ran out. It seems like she told her, and she told Killan." She whirled back, pointing towards the small bell on her side with her chin.

"We are here for Camila, grandpa, Alpha Killan said while walking towards the bed, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"I didn't tell anyone that she was awake, nor is there a single doctor or nurse in this hospital who is aware of this; in fact, it's only me who knows this, so how did you two get to know that my child is awake?" The doctor turned to ask them, the polite, sweet expression on his face replaced by a cold one.

"We..." Alina panicked, biting her lower lip.

"Could it be that it's true what I have been suspecting?" he asked them with a harsh tone. Alpha Killan looked at his grandfather in confusion, and before he could say anything, he cut him off. "I don't want to see any of you here. Just by being present, the air around someone gets tainted, and the last thing I would want is for your presence to take my child back to a coma. Alpha Killan," he called him by his name, something he had never done before, making Killan gasp in shock.

Killan was used to the fact that this grandfather would always call him by sweet names, but that was the first time in his life that he refused his greetings, refused him in his presence, and even called him by his name! "You won't like it if anyone barges into your office without you calling them or asking them to, and so will I. This hospital is my office, so I'll advise that you both scram away and get back here the day I say so." With that, he pushed them backward and closed the door on their faces.

"That was harsh, grandpa," Camila giggled weakly, looking at the man hyperventilating in front of her.

"That was what you wanted, right? They're not taking you with them. I'll make sure that when you are strong enough, I'll call the person who brought you here to take you home." He roughed up her hair.

"Who brought me here, grandpa?" She asked, curiosity filling her brown eyes.

"Beta Steven's; he's such a good boy." With that, he asked her to get back to sleep and walked out of the room because he had other people to take care of.

At the hospital gate, Alpha Killan sat on his car, fuming with anger. Alina, who was sitting beside her, kept taking deep, troubled breaths while chewing on her bottom lip. Alpha Killan drummed his long, thick fingers on the car's seat, and after a while he asked the petrified Alina, "What do you think Grandpa meant by it could be true what he's been suspecting?"

"I don't know, babe; maybe Camila instigated him the moment she was awake and made us look like bad people in his eyes." Alina lied even though she knew that those words said by the doctor were directed at her. She had been sneaking spies to see if Camila was awake, and the moment the one she had sent came with the news, she lied to Alpha Killan that a nurse called her saying that she was awake, and they immediately went there after she instigated him that if he doesn't go pick her up, she may run away.

"He also said that no doctor or nurse knows about her waking up, so which nurse called you?" he turned to ask her.

Alina, who had already broken into sweat, mummered for a while until she could form the words, "I don't know. The nurse called through the landline." She smiled at him and then said, "Babe, you don't need to work yourself out. Your grandpa must be going through a rough day; that is why he was so angry with us, or, like I said, he may have been instigated by that bitch Camila. Since you've ousted her from your life, she will now try to snatch your favorite people from your life and turn them against you so that they can take her side. You know, after she achieves that, we will no longer be able to punish her for the pain she has brought to us."

"I agree." Alpha Killan said after giving that a thought: "I am the alpha of this pack, and no one can go against me, not even my own grandpa. If he doesn't take my word, I'll be forced to use force on him because, after all, it's for his own good. I don't want that bitch to manipulate him like she did with my beta!" He thought about it while getting out of the car.

Alina smirked, thinking that would be her chance to zip Camila completely. Her happy mood didn't last long because, as she was busting smiles, her phone vibrated, and a sour mood covered her face, causing wrinkles to appear all over it, snatching her youthful look away. With trembling lips, she scanned her eyes around her as if looking for someone, and after she made sure no one was following them, she leaned on the chair's back, taking in a deep breath and chanting a mantra recurring on her lips.

"The message is not mine; the message is not mine." Before she could chant for the third time, another message came, this time with a picture of their car in the hospital's parking lot. A scream escaped her mouth, and Alpha Killan, who was about to walk into the hospital, ran back and barged through the car's open door in a panicked mood.

"What happened, babe?" he asked her, worriedly checking her out.

"It's cramps, ouch," she lied.

"Cramps? But you are pregnant." Killan reminded her. To prevent getting caught, she decided to use her high school biology to escape his confused gaze: "Not all ladies miss their periods when pregnant. A few get them like normal."