Rejected by Another, Chosen by His Brother

Chapter 3: The Wolf She Gave Me

Hawk's POV

"No need to worry Alpha Hawk, the mother and pup are doing just fine," the pack doctor reassured me for about the millionth time but it didn't sink in.

As hard as I tried, I still kept coming to that moment three nights ago.

The special night that was supposed to be Elisa’s coronation.

My mother had promised that she and my sister would take care of Serena and make sure she wasn't a problem, at least for that night.

But I should have known that she would show up like that.

That woman was as resilient as a cockroach!

"Baby, don't tell me you're still thinking of that crazy woman," Elisa asked as she hugged me from behind while we were in the hospital parking lot. I turned around my chest now facing her.

I played with a straight strand of her hair curling it around my finger.

"My lovely moonlight, how can I not think about it, that was supposed to be a memorable night for you."

She smiled in that way that always twisted my chest just right.

"It was memorable, baby." She tried to console me.

I shook my head and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. It was easier because of her small frame that always seem to fit into perfectly in mine.

Unlike Serena who met me eye to eye, a woman had no business being that tall.

"My lovely moonlight I just wish I could have made it more memorable in a good way,"

She leaned closer to me letting me feel her softness, "Well, we still have the rest of our lives to make good memories," she wrapped her palm over her belly that was beginning to show,

"Us and our precious pup. Without that crazy woman in the picture, we will be one big happy family."

She moved closer into me and I wanted to melt at the sentiment if it would have not meant the downfall of the bloodstone pack because as much as I hated to admit it Serena had become an essential in the functioning of the pack.

Everything from scheduling meetings with the elder Council, and sifting through warrior patrol logs to make sure they were actually doing their job, it all fell on Serena, including our finances.

She made sure not a single cent was ever funneled away, yet she lived in such penury that it was obvious none of it was being sent her way.

That was the thing about her that I liked, so low maintenance.

All I had to do was come down to that filthy basement once in a while to whisper the same old lines again. Sometimes when she started creating distance between us, I would throw in some flowers and that usually did the trick.

Hmmm, I wonder what her favorite flowers were again.

••••

She had been transferred from the cell where she was taken to at first over to her basement dwelling, there were tons of other empty available rooms in the pack house practically begging for people to occupy them, I had actually intended for her to take all of the simpler ones but seeing how she's settled there showed how she was to take crumbs from me without complaint.

But upon arriving, I picked up that something was different about the woman I knew and I could see it from the second I walked in holding a lazy bouquet of cheap plastic tulips.

"Serena, I hope you're grateful that I allowed you to be released from the cell after the disruption of the Luna coronation. If it had been anyone else, I would have left them there for months."

I waited for the apologies to come pouring in, but she said nothing and just kept her back slumped on the only available chair in the room.

With casual interest I spread my vision across the entire room, the place seemed like it always had a layer of dust no matter how much anyone tried to clean.

There was a piece of furniture that seemed to be conflicted about whether it wanted to be a stool or a table and at one corner a box where she probably kept the few clothes she owned and her mattress that was covered with worn out cotton sheets.

I had barely noticed these things before.

Mostly because whenever I came down here, the only thing on my mind was how to leave immediately.

She remained slumped even as I finished my observation, saying nothing in response.

"Aren't you going to say anything or have you gone mute?" I found myself snapping. I thought I was going to be a little nicer to her but she didn't have to ignore me.

The silence stretched for a little bit longer and then she suddenly broke it with one simple word.

"Why?"

I tilted my head and c****d my eyebrow crossing my hands together over my chest, "Why what?"

She lifted her head and her eyes seemed empty, the redness at the rims was the only thing that told me that she had probably been crying like crazy.

Seeing her like that made playing dumb a little exhausting.

"Serena, don't pretend as if you don't understand, you're reliable and all that. But without..." I wasn't sure if I wanted to say it but I said it anyways,

"... Without your wolf you are no better than an Omega, in fact you are something below them,"

Suddenly her eyes were no longer so empty anymore. She sat upright brimming with rage.

"I did that to save your life!" She screamed at the chair going flying behind her as she stood up.

I scrunched my nose like I smelt something bad, then awkwardly scratched the back of my neck.

Sometimes I forgot that was why she lost her wolf. I had been poisoned by an elder during a pack ceremony, they were working with a distant relative of mine to steal the alpha position.

Then, just when I was about to slip away from life, Serena knelt next to me as everyone panicked, she had already resolved what she was going to do.

What she was about to do hadn’t been done in so long that it had become nothing more than a legendary werewolf story.

She gave me her wolf.