A Rose Among Thorns- Book 2 in the Corvale Pack Series

Chapter 11

A Rose Among Thorns

Chapter 11

Joseph

The pack hospital wing, which up until last year was hardly used, was overflowing. The ten beds were filled with five victims of the attacker, closed off behind a screen, two with heavily pregnant women, and three with small children, two of which were rapidly approaching their first shift. The doctor leaned over the one closest to the door, who was shivering.

"You're doing great, Alex, tomorrow might be the day." He ruffled the boy's sweaty hair after jotting down his blood pressure.

"Do you promise?" The boy sat up hopefully, groaning at the pain.

"I promise, mate. Tomorrow or the day after."

The boy smiled and turned to the girl in the bed next to him," I'm gonna beat you, Susan! I'll shift first, Dr. Swanson said so!"

The girl, looking equally shattered, glanced at him from the corner of her eye," I'm the oldest, so I'll win."

Oscar huffed out a laugh and shuffled away, and I followed him towards the end of the ward.

"That's the first time he's smiled in days, poor guy. I don't envy you guys, watching the first shift." He said, glancing at the two children, who were comparing comic books.

"It's not good, I'm not gonna lie." I mused, thinking back to my first shift. All werewolves, apart from the slow aging, are just like humans until age seven physically, then the first shift happens.

It was awful, lasting up to two weeks, the body changes to adapt to the new wolf form, ending with a painful shift at the first full moon after their birthday. Mine was even worse, because as part of a long line of alphas, I had been able to transform into a half-wolf, half-human form, just like in the movies. It wasn't a form I was fond of, the excess hair and huge fangs were a nightmare to maintain.

"Are you okay with so many patients all by yourself?" I asked him cautiously. Tiny kid or not, the guy was a nervous one.

"I've got two nurses, and it was enough until these attacks. Now...I have to improvise." He gestured to the linen cupboard at the end of the ward, where Erick, cyborg, was putting sheets away.

"Don't worry, alpha, he doesn't have anything to do with the patients, he just cleans up." He gazed longingly at his creation," And I'm sorry about your wasted trip down here, she's still out of it, but you'd be the first to know when Ella wakes up."

"I still can't believe you made that thing." I muttered.

"Neither can I sometimes," He sighed, unconsciously rubbing at his mangled face," I wish I didn't use 100% of my own DNA, it's hard to look at him."

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning to look at Erick again, talking to one of the nurses, who put a hand on his arm, clearly flirting even from across the room.

"Well, look at him. He doesn't just look like me, it's what I would've looked like if none of..." He gestured to his cane, "This happened. Plus I aged him a few years, he's around nineteen physically."

He said all this with a flat tone, like he was reading a boring textbook, but his huge, owl eyes gave away how sad he was. As I looked between the broken boy and the charismatic, flirty cyborg, I think I begun to understand his pain a little more. It was hard enough living with his disability, however spending the rest of your life looking at what could have been was pure torture.

"Just missed out on that facial hair and growth spurt didn't ya?" I said lightly, trying to ease his mood. He broke his gaze from Erick and scoffed.