PROWESS. (COMPLETED)

Chapter 76

Anastasia POV:

Since waking up again, after my middle of the night conversation with Seraphina, I feel much better. My appetite has returned, I feel more energetic and overall, much lighter. Instead of running on 20% I now ran on 80% and if Seraphina is right Kellen is the missing 20%.

Part of me wishes to examine Kellen's box in my mind but the rest of me recoils from self-preservation for fear of being hurt again. I hadn't really processed anything from the last few days, and I shelve it again temporarily while I prepare to take my siblings for a picnic at the park.

Right now, Dad is the priority. When Mum finally took me to see Dad the other night, it shook my core how much his health had deteriorated since I last saw him. Completely bedbound now; Dad has lost all his muscles and become much thinner as a result. He now depends on an oxygen mask, without one, he cannot breathe for more than a few minutes at a time. One look at him and I knew why he didn't want me to know; he didn't want me to know he's dying and be around to see him suffer.

I agreed this afternoon to take Kara and Tyron out for the day, to e Mum time with Dad and to have the kids away from the house for a while. While Mum shields them where possible from seeing the worst of Dad's illness, they are aware Dad is unwell, even if they cannot comprehend what it means. They are too young to understand what is going on.

I watch and smile as they run off laughing and begin playing tag with some of their friends from school. I envy their freedom, their childish play...their friends.

My phone rings, snapping me out of my melancholy. I glance at the caller ID before answering, "Rick." I greet, pleased to hear from him.

"Afternoon Ana. How's everything in the south?"

I think about everything that's happened so far: Aries' reappearance, Kellen's appearance and subsequent fights, my near-death experience, finding out about the true state of Dad's health, the DNA results for the lovechild and Seraphina's visit. I let out a heavy sigh before I can stop myself.

"I figured as much," laughs Rick awkwardly. "I saw the newspaper headlines. We've had the press camped out on the boundary to pack grounds. They've been trying to speak to the pack's newest members, get an inside scoop. When I read yesterday's headline I called a pack meeting to root out the 'inside source'."

"Any success?"

"We believe it was Abigail."

"Has she been punished?" I growl lowly. I hadn't bothered to read the article printed about me and Aries so I didn't realise the press had found an 'inside source'. If it had been Abigail, no doubt Abigail's opinion, the same one she expressed to me, would've riddled the ensuing article. Rick's hesitation in answering flares my temper. "Rick?" I snarl.