~ Chapter Forty-Four ~

Valerie and her family had arrived very early in the morning, so when I woke up after bringing them to the packhouse, it was almost the middle of the day. Still, Dimitri was fast asleep behind me, his face nuzzled into my hair as he breathed heavily.

I carefully removed his arm from around my waist and slipped out of bed. My hair fell down my back in a rush of curls that I didn't want to contain. I tip-toed out of the bedroom into the hall, and continued downstairs toward the food someone had made. When I entered the kitchen, I found Xanthe, as sprite as ever, standing before a pan of smoking meats. Sitting at the island behind her were Bree and Jake, both of which pounding their hands on the countertop in excitement.

"Hi, Doc!" Bree exclaimed at me, hardly turning her head.

"Hello, Doc," Jake added.

I nodded at them as I walked up next to Xanthe. "How are you this awake? Even Dimitri is knocked out right now."

She laughed. "Well, Erika, I happen to be an expert at getting a lot of sleep in very little time."

"It didn't seem that way when you and Dylan were in here complaining," I grumbled under my breath, walking to the other seat at the island. "Kids, where's your mom?"

"Sleeping," Bree chirped. She glanced at me. "She was very tired from bringing us here, Doc. We didn't want to wake her and we smelt food."

"It's good you didn't wake her, she needs some rest," I agreed softly, giving them both a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Ooo! Are you gonna give us a check up, Doc?" Bree's face twisted in excitement, tearing a hole in my chest. I'd worked hard to make sure I was no longer a doctor - both here and at the village - but I supposed they and Valerie didn't know that. I was stuck as a doctor in their minds, and since the kids loved that, I didn't want to tell them the truth and ruin this day for them. It was important they remained happy.

"There is another doctor here," I replied, casting a questioning glance at Xanthe's face, "and I'm sure they'll do as great a job as me."

Bree pouted, but Jake was still distracted by food, so he hadn't heard me. I turned to peer through the doorway in hopes that I could catch someone else to entertain the kids but it was still quiet in the house. So I settled in my stool and prepared to act cheerful for the next half an hour until I could talk to an old friend who'd lost everything because of me.

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Dimitri came downstairs looking as zombie-ish as me, but as soon as Jessica was up and about, he was out the door to train with her and the other warriors. I hung around until I saw Valerie and let her eat some lunch before asking to speak with her alone. Xanthe led the kids outside, excited to watch the training with them, and they went along with her antics as if they were really fooled.

Valerie followed me into the living room, where we sat next to each other on the couch sipping coffee from mugs.

"It's a lot colder up here," she commented, rubbing her fingers against the ceramic.

I nodded. "I kind of like it. It's more... challenging. You can't train that well in the cold."

"I never thought you would like training."

"I was never allowed to do it," I pointed out. "Roger had one role for me and that was being a doctor. Since I left, I've only helped out medically once, and that was when I was at the village."

Valerie's brows perked up in surprise. "Really? You were at the village?"

I sighed heavily, crunching my feet under my butt on the cushion. "Dimitri and I, we didn't get off on the right foot. He was very paranoid about keeping me safe and it was always quite suffocating. Anyway, we didn't get along so I spent some time away for a while. But I'm back for good now."

"That must have been hard, being separated from your mate." Valerie's voice was soft and understanding, and I realised she must have been feeling the agony of the separation.

"It's kind of a complicated story. I think it's better if we talk more about what's been going on with you and Roger. You've got to be begging to talk about it, right? It seems so horrible."

I watched a thought cross her mind at my words, but whatever she thought, she didn't say it out loud. I couldn't imagine it would be very good as I had been the one to abandon her and the rest of the pack. In a way, I'd known everyone, because I'd treated them in various ways multiple times. But surely, by planning to take down Roger, I could not only redeem myself but free them from his torture.

Though, you never forget when someone abandons you.

Valerie told me about the condition she'd been kept in, how she hardly ever had many clothes on and she was always under some sort of threat. She hadn't seen Connor for about a week before she escaped, but she'd been left with her kids because no one wanted to look after them themselves. Roger was as strict as ever with those who weren't in the prisons with her, or so it seemed when she listened out on quiet days.

Jake had suffered the most of them all. Being an early bloomer was pushing him to shift when he didn't have the environment to do so; it'd been torture for him, not being able to let out this beast inside. But after weeks of this, it seemed to just go away along with the fever. Valerie assumed it was the Moon Goddess sparing him, but being of medical mind, I knew he had more likely just suppressed his wolf, which meant he might never be able to get it back.

Valerie didn't know much about Connor after they took him to a different cell. She would only ever hear his shouts when it was quiet, as he was dragged away from them all. She did know they were taking Tony and starting to train him, though, to teach him how to fight for them.

"I can't imagine that could go well for them," I murmured. "Won't he use those abilities against them?"

Valerie slowly shrugged, her eyes on her lap. "It's hard to say, Erika. Now that I've left him..."

My heart dropped. I couldn't handle fighting against Tony, and I didn't think anyone else could, either. He was too young to be mixed up in all of this.

To try to take our minds off the horrors the last of her family were going through, I asked about her journey, how she had managed to travel so far just on four legs. They'd camped out a lot, begged anyone they came across for food, and just once, she'd had to fight against a small pack of rogues who attacked. She said it was lucky the last person to give them food had also given them a knife, because otherwise, Bree never would have been able to save her from a rogue - and the kids wouldn't have been able to find this place alone.

Everything that happened to them had led them here. "I call it fate, but I know you don't believe in that."

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "I believe in the Moon Goddess, Valerie. That's enough."

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