Athena

Chapter 18

"What about mom and dad?" My voice is barely a whisper.

Their faces drop and my heart shatters.

"It's just us, bambina." Anthony replies and takes my hand in his, squeezing it gently.

I blink my eyes rapidly trying to hold back my tears. My parents are dead. They are dead. Gone. It shouldn't hurt this much. It's not like I had them before, so why does it feel like I just lost a piece of my heart.

I guess, regardless the time I spent away from them and blaming them for everything I've been through, I never really stopped loving them. I turn to look at Leo, with a hopeful expression. Maybe their parents are alive and I'll have a parental figure after all.

My eyes close, though and I let a single tear roll down my cheek when he shakes his head no.

"How?" I whisper, my voice shaking.

"It was three years ago. Someone cut the breaks off their car. The four of them were going out for dinner when it happened. It was death on impact." Enzo answers with a neutral expression. He might try to hide his emotions but it's clear that it still pains him.

I nod as an indicator that I heard him. He comes to sit at the end of the bed and I take his hand in my own. He looks up at me and I just smile softly. He let's out a shaky breath and squeezes my hand tightly. I gently rub my thumb up and down on the back of his hand in a calming manner.

Out moment is interrupted by a doctor entering the room.

He looks up from the papers he's holding and smiles softly at me. "Hello, my name is Dr Reid. We just got back the results from the tests and everything looks fine. Your back, of course, needs time to heal but other than that you're all good. I'll give you some meds for the pain and then you'll be ready to go home." He finishes with a bright smile.

"Thank you, Nick. How are the boys?" Anthony asks the doctor.

"They're fine. Atlas will be in a bit of pain for a while because of the gunshot wound but it's nothing that some pain killers can't fix. You are all good to go." He answers before leaving the room.

"Ready to go home, Thena?" Apollo asks me, excited.

"Sure. But we need to make a stop first to get Cade, my wolf."

"OMG we're gonna have a wolf?" Apollo grins.

I laugh at his childish behavior. "Yes, we're gonna have a wolf!" I grin back.

Anthony gave me a change of clothes and then they all left the room to get the others. I also handed a sleeping Noah to Leo who happily offered to take him to the car, where I would meet them.

Once I exited the room I was greeted by concrete hallways. It looked more like a werehouse than a clinic. I sigh. Mafia...

After walking for a few minutes I found them all near the entrance. The minute they saw me, Atlas ran to me, engulfing me in a tight embrace.

"You're hurt." I scolded him with a frown. "You shouldn't run."

"I don't care" He replied plainly without relaxing his hold.

We walked towards the others with his hand draped around my shoulders.

Everybody smiled at the sight apart from Ares who was glaring at me.

"I'm glad you guys are okay" I told them honestly.

Matteo came to hug me as well while Ares just rolled his eyes and got in the car.

I frowned at that. What did I ever do to him?

"Don't mind him, he's always like that. He'll open up to you eventually." Atlas whispered in my ear.

I just nodded and looked away from Ares.

There were three cars in total. I was with Alex, Atlas and Noah, Matteo was with Ares and Leo while Enzo got in a car with Apollo and Anthony.

The other two cars headed straight home but we had to stop at my old place, if you could even call it that, to take Cade.

Once we arrived I immediately exited the car and ran towards the house. I opened the door and found no-one inside. I searched and called his name but he was gone. I got out and started shouting.

"Cade! Where are you boy? Cadey!"

After about five minutes of looking around I saw a big fur ball running towards me from behind the house. When he reached me he jumped at me and started licking my face.

" Hey, I missed you too buddy. " I cooed, scratching behind his ears.

"Come on there are some people I want you to meet." I started walking to the car with Cade trotting behind me.

"Guys can you please get out and let him smell you?" I asked and everyone complied.

Cade is not really aggressive so it was an easy process.

After he got familiar with their scents he jumped in the car and sat right beside a sleeping Noah. He licked his face once making him grumble incoherent words and face the other way.

We drove for about half an hour before we finally reached the house.
It was huge! I remember that it was big but not that much.

We got out of the car and walked towards the door, Noah in Alex's arms. I held Cade close to me, so he doesn't attack any guards that might appear appear.

We reached the front door and Alex turned around to face me with a big smile on his face.

"Welcome home, love."

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She's finally home, yay! Vote and comment!

-A