The Forgotten Wolf Kin

Chapter 9 – Silver Wound

Malachi’s POV

Mattie snuck off first. He was unlikely to be missed, he was well known for his lack of enthusiasm for social gatherings and parties and tended to stay in the background of most things that involved large crowds.

It would be harder for me, Avery, and Marley to escape unnoticed. Marley excused himself from the increasing numbers of people on the dance floor and went to get some air. I assumed to take the back way to the clinic, and Avery made his way over to me.

“Ready?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, I didn’t really think this through. How are we going to escape?”

“Easy… Watch this” he chuckled “Dude, sorry to be a party pooper, but it’s been a really long day, do you mind if I head to bed?” he said a little louder than necessary so people in the near vicinity could hear.

I took the hint “Sure, tell you what, I’ll show you the way back, everything looks different in the dark! I’m pretty shattered myself, I’m ready for bed, we have an early start!”

That was easier than I thought, soon everyone would know we had left because we had an early start, and as I had not long come out of hospital, it was believable I was tired so early. I walked Avery towards his accommodation, and then took a right to circle back to the front of the pack house. I could see Marley in the distance ahead of us just slipping out of sight, around the side of the medical centre to our left.

“This way”

“That’s your medical facility?” he probed.

“Yeah…. It’s not the best, or the biggest, but it saves lives!” I shrugged.

“No, I mean, we have one room, not a whole building.”

“Avery, your pack isn’t far off the size of ours. How do you manage? Like what if more than one person needs medical attention at any one time?”

“We hope they don’t! I mean, it’s not like we have many medical emergencies. Most she wolves give birth at home and not many wolves get injuries.”

“Avery!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“What?”

“We have a separate maternity suite” I explained. “What if there are complications?”

“Yeah, it has been a problem” he sighed.

“Dude, I’m sure your Dad is a great man, but come on! With a growing pack and modern times, you need to step up!” I had no idea it was this bad.

He shook his head. “I know!”

We got to the centre and went inside, with our heightened night vision, we had no need to draw attention by turning on lights, and we went straight to clinic one, where Mattie and Marley were waiting for us.

“Nice of you to join the party” Marley beamed.

“I thought it was just going to be us?” Mattie said, as he backed up a little to allow room for all four men to breathe. It was a little squished for us in there.

“Yeah, sorry about that, maybe we would be better somewhere else?” I apologised.

“Clinic 4, it’s the biggest, last door on the left”, he motioned us to the door.

Here we had it all. We called it the medical centre, because, for all intents and purposes, it was its main use, but it had a reception area on the ground floor, along with 4 clinic rooms. In the basement was the theatre, rarely used, but full equipment, just in case, and a small intensive care unit, with 4 beds.

The main general wards were on the first floor, and the maternity suite was on the second floor, equipped to take 4 women at any stage of labour or birth. There was room to make more, but it was hardly necessary, the pack wasn’t big enough to warrant it as yet. We had never had this unit full.

This was the only building that had a modern working lift put in, after it was built by a man who hadn’t considered a woman in labour would not happily climb several flights of stairs before giving birth.

We made it to clinic 4. The halls were quiet, there was no one here now.

“What does young Mattie here know?” Marely asked cheekily.

Mattie rolled his eyes in frustration at Marley’s constant jibes “I know nothing. Other than that, Mal wants me to see his wound!”

“Right, OK, well, maybe you should see it and then we can fill you in?” I pondered; not sure I should be doing this, but Eero said he could help, so, here goes.

“OK, let’s see it.”

I untucked my shirt from my pants and lifted the shirt to reveal the large, serrated scar, to the left of my abdomen, edged in an almost invisible, iridescent silver. If you didn’t look too hard, you couldn’t see it, even with our proficient eyesight, it was barely noticeable.

“Wow, ok. That’s different” he said, taking it all in.

“You can see it?” Marley asked.

“Uh, yeah….” Mattie says, confused, like it was a stupid question.

“Ok! I can’t unless I look really hard!” Marley said in an accusatory tone.

“Me too!” Avery says, “It’s nowhere near as obvious as yesterday.”

“Lay on the bed, Mal”, Mattie ignored the comments, but considering he didn’t even know what he was looking for, it seemed odd to me he could see it so clearly, when the others knew and struggled to see it. Maybe he just had exceptional eyesight!

I did as he asked, and he took another look at the wound. “How long did it take to heal?”

“Ah, well that’s the interesting part…. But before we get into that…. Have you ever heard of this before?” I asked curiously. He had every book regarding medicine he could get his hands on. It was a long shot, but I had hoped he had something.

“No” simple and to the point.

“Oh” I couldn’t hide my disappointment.

“I’ll do some research, but for now, can you please tell me what is going on? Then I need to get some samples.”

“Samples of what?” I asked, wondering where this was going.

“Skin”

“What the f**k!” No way was he taking my skin!

“Skin cells Malachi! I’m not going to take a pound of flesh!” he said dryly like I was a moron! How was I supposed to know what he meant?

“Phew”. I relaxed a little and Avery and Marley were snickering behind me. Bastards.

Mattie's eyes widened, in disbelief, as we filled him in on everything that happened.

“OK then!” it was the most animated he had been all night.

“You don’t believe us?” I asked.

“I do, it’s just, well, a lot to take in, honestly.”

“We know!” Marley and Avery said simultaneously.

“You can’t tell a soul,” I added.

“No one would believe me if I did!” he said in his usual stoic way.

“True”

“I need to get some samples” he added.

“What are you going to do with them?” I asked, unsure of exactly why he needed them.

“Take them to my lab and check them for abnormalities” he spoke, as if it was obvious.

“Your Lab?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, yeah, while you were away, I had a lab built just at the back of the clinic. So, I can do blood work and stuff” he said, sounding pleased with himself.

“Sure, that’s what you told Dad!” Marley grinned.

“You know, this place is quite primitive if we want to be completely self-sufficient, we need a proper hospital, this is like a make-do one built inside a medical centre”. Mattie ignored Marley, but something wasn’t quite adding up. I needed to remember to ask him later.

“Right… okay. Go ahead, skin me!”

He took a small blade and scratched the wound, flicking the small scrapings into a test tube “Done”

“That’s it?”

“Yep, hopefully I’ll have something for you soon.”

He lifted the test tube up to the light and looked at it curiously, “What is it?” I asked, knowing there was more to his look than curiosity alone.

“Nothing. Yet”

He was deep in thought, and I knew when he got like this there was no point in even trying to get any sense from him. We had left him enough to do, it was time for us to vacate the premises. Marley left first, followed shortly by Avery.

“Mattie”

“Hmmmm” he didn’t look up from the desk where he was labelling the test tube.

“It’s not normal, is it?”

He turned, glancing at me from above the test tube he was labelling, “Mal, it may be nothing.”

“You don’t believe that, and neither do I. You can see something we don’t. I’m not stupid Mattie”. I didn’t like that he was keeping something from me. It was my body and I wanted to know what he did.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we don’t know anything yet. As soon as I do, you will be the first to know”

His vague and evasive response was nothing short of what I expected, but I was stubborn and wanted more “But….”

He cut in before another word left my lips. “Know me better Malachi, I am not going to guess! I can’t give you answers. I simply do not know. I will, however, not stop looking until I find them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot to do”, he turned back to the table and carried on as if I was no longer in the room with him, probably wishing I wasn’t.

I took the hint and left, saying no more about it. Mattie had always been there for me, and now was no different, but his quiet, solitary, and brooding persona was so different to my other brothers, I didn’t always know how to handle him.

Avery and Marley were just ahead, and I caught them up in a few long strides.

“Get anything from him?” Avery asked.

I shook my head. “ No.”

Marley laughed, and Avery asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Mattie is a perfectionist and a pragmatist, for the best part. He would never commit to anything unless he had evidence. He certainly wouldn’t speculate just to keep you quiet”

“I guess that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Avery contemplated.

“No, but it’s frustrating, he knows more than he’s letting on, I’m sure of it.” In fact, I was certain of it, but there was no point in dwelling on it. Mattie was Mattie, and he wasn’t about to change for me!

“Yeah, I thought so too…. Hopefully he’ll enlighten us sometime soon” Marley didn’t know Mattie as well as I did, or at least, he didn’t when I left, so if he thought that too, then I knew I was onto something.

Marley and I walked Avery back to the guest house, and then made our way to our floor in the pack house. The party was still in full swing, we had only been gone a few hours, so we needed to avoid being caught. It wasn’t too difficult; everyone was distracted, and we were quick.

When we got into the safe space of our apartment floor, Marley and I went to my room to have a quick debrief before heading to bed. We came up with nothing new and were achieving nothing but mild frustration.

“ OK, let’s just put a pin in it for now. How long are you away for?” he asked.

“Dad is coming, and Luna Aldine wants to throw a dinner in honour of our visit, so we are staying overnight and will be back the following day.”

“Why leave so early then? Can’t you just go a little later?”

“Avery hasn’t seen his family for a year! I’m sure he just wants to get home. Plus, It’s been a long time since Dad has been there, and I guess he and Alpha Aldine will have a lot to talk about. Avery wants to show me around in the hopes we can help him reconfigure the structure of his pack grounds. They are more primitive than I had realised.”

“…. And maybe you will find your mate…. Avery has a sister, right?” he smirked.

“Yeah, he does, but I doubt she is my mate. Can’t say I’m not interested in finding out, though” the thought had crossed my mind, “although I actually think Avery would be unimpressed with anyone who ends up her mate…. They are really close, and he is super protective of her.”

I liked that he was, but it also scared me a little if she did turn out to be my mate. He talked about her a lot when we were away. It would just be easier if she was someone not directly related to Avery. I knew I had no real choice. I mean, whoever she was, she was perfect for me and I for her.

I knew, whoever she was, that I would love her, because we were meant to be together, we were fated for one another, but having to deal with Avery, an added complication I could do without! Especially as we had become such good friends.

Marley left, and I got ready for bed, grateful I was finally in my own bed, there would be no banging my head on waking in the morning, and as I drifted into sleep, my mind subconsciously went to finding my mate at Avery’s Pack. I don’t know why, but I just had this feeling she was there. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

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This book is going PTR on or around the 16th May.