Chapter 173
Chapter 173
Sophia’s 6th surgery.
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Everything hurts. I can’t move an inch without feeling like my muscles are being torn apart. I’ve been alone in this room for months now, and all I want is to go home. No, that’s not what I want. I want to see my mom and my dad. I want my brothers to come for me and take me with them.
Every time I open my eyes, I feel like I’m dying, but the peace that is described never comes. I don’t know what I’m doing here or why these people are trying so hard to save what is left of me. I just want the pain to stop.
“Good morning, Sophia,” Dr Galloway walks into my room.
Tears fill my eyes as fear strikes right in the center of my chest. I try to breathe in properly, but the pain doesn’t let me. All I can do is sit here crying like the little weak idiot that I am. She smiles at me and takes a tissue from the pink box my grandmother brought the last time she was here two weeks ago. She rolls the tissue up and catches my tears before letting the ones in my eyes soak up the tissue. She tosses it in the bin and takes a seat beside me.
“Oh, come on, Sophia. Don’t look at me like that,” she laughs. “I know this is difficult for you, but it’s necessary for your recovery. It’s rare for us to be able to use mortal techniques, and well, we’re just having fun.”
I don’t know what to do or say. I’m completely exposed. There’s no one here to help me, and when my grandmother does show up. This woman drugs me up so badly I can’t even speak. My body shakes as I start to cry. She sighs and comes closer.
“This is going to make you stronger,” she says, reaching into her lab coat. “You know,” she clears her throat and stands to go around me. She places a syringe packet on the table and holds up two little vials. “You’re the first to make it this far. Our subjects usually die by the third surgery,” she takes the syringe and pokes it through the top of the vial and then injects it into the second one. “You have been such a good girl, and it hurts me to see you so scared of me. I’m trying to fix you. You were half dead when you came in. You’re welcome.”
“Please,” I shake my head. The movement feels like my muscles are being torn right off my bones.
I begin to cry again as the nurses come into my room. The panic in my body takes over, and the pain stops mattering. I cry out as I try to get them off me. I scream for help at the top of my lungs as they attempt to hold me down. She injects me in my neck, and slowly, my body’s functions stop working.
“You’re still as strong as ever,” she laughs, stepping closer.
I use the last of my strength and swing my arm. My nails get her across the face. She flinches back. Her hand cracks across my face. Hot, blinding pain whips my head away from her. I can’t move anymore, but I can feel everything.
“Bitch,” I sputter as my body relaxes with the drug she just gave me.
“Let’s prep her. Make sure she’s nice and clean,” she orders the other woman in the room with me.
The head nurse looks at me with pity. She only meets my eyes once and then can’t bring herself to look up at me again. The other three don’t even dare. I can hear Dr Galloway giving orders as I am prepared for
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my sixth surgery.
This bitch cuts into me, and I feel everything. Each incision. Every stitch. Every reparation. I feel it all, and I can’t do a single thing about it. I can’t scream. I can’t cry. I can’t move. All I can do is stare up at the pale white light above me. I fall in and out of consciousness, but the pain doesn’t stop. Not until she’s done and I’m taken back to my room, where she finally administers the sedative that knocks me out.
“There is a bruise on her face,” I hear someone growl angrily when I come around again. My heart skips when I see my grandmother Zaraphine arguing with Dr Galloway.
“I know,” she says, putting her hands up in surrender. “You must understand, Major General. Sophia’s reality is not in the present. When she does wake up, she’s afraid. She woke up right after our last surgery and banged her head on the bedside table trying to escape. We had to sedate her so she wouldn’t open up her wound. I am terribly sorry.”
“I fucking hate this place,” my grandmother growls.
“I have to check her,” Dr Galloway says. “And administer her medications. Do I have your permission?”
I try to move, to tell my grandmother not to let her near me, but it’s not use. I’m too far gone. Dr Galloway pulls the blanket back and begins to check my wounds. She’s careful and attentive in front of my grandmother. She smiles at me when she’s done changing my dressings. She administers what I know are the sedatives to keep me from telling my grandmother anything.
“Let me show you something,” she says and covers me with the blanket again. “Your granddaughter is extraordinary.” This catches my grandmother’s attention. She takes a tablet over to her and begins showing her something my grandmother approves of. “The reconstruction of these wounds is coming along perfectly. Her organs are healing better than expected. Because she has yet to shift, the process is taking longer than it should, but the treatment is working.”
“How is she?” she asks. “Do you see her when she’s awake?”
“Yes,” she sighs. “Sophia’s mental state is very fragile. There have been times when she lashes out at the nurses and me, thinking we’re attacking her,” she shows her something on the table again, and my grandmother shuts her eyes as if it pains her to see it. “She attacked me. Despite the pain she’s in constantly, she was able to move enough to attack.”
“I don’t know how to deal with her,” she says and takes a seat. “I don’t know how she’s come this far. The attack, her wounds. They should have killed her. If we hadn’t found the right blood donor-”
“Major General,” Dr Galloway crouches down in front of her the way a real worried doctor does. “Sophia is a very strong girl. I don’t know much about Lycan culture, but as a wolf, I can tell you that she is fighting to be here with you. There is a reason why she’s alive. Your granddaughter is a fighter. She is destined for greatness. I can feel it in my bones.”
“What do you suggest I do?”
“Give her some time, Major General. Sophia has gone through something no one else has ever survived. Her wounds aren’t only physical. She’s lost so much already. You just need to be patient with her. Give her the love and support she deserves. You have a little warrior here,” she looks back at me as the room begins to spin. “I’m not worried at all about her recovery. I know she’s going to pull through. It is the will of the
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Chapter 173
Moon Goddess.”
། ག
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Chapter 174
Chapter 174
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Release Day.
I’m sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for someone to pick me up. I can move now. I feel a little better, but the pain from my last surgery still lingers in my mind, and it’s making it difficult for me to breathe or move. It feels like the lingering effects of the paralytic they used to keep me from moving are going to be sticking with me.
The door opens, and Dr Galloway walks in with a big triumphant grin on her face. She takes a seat where she always does and looks me up and down as if she can’t believe she’s looking at what might be her only successful test subject.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat, feeling the silver fork poke my thigh. One of the nurses came in here last night and gave it to me. She was crying and profusely apologizing for all of it. She gave it to me without instructions. Her hands were red and blistered from gripping the silver for as long as she did. It’s deadly to shifted wolves. She said that if I ever wanted to hunt her down for her part in this, she would understand.
Dr Galloway mistakes my silence for fear, and her brazen attitude returns. She stands, and on instinct, I stand with her. She takes a deep breath and lets it out with a satisfied sigh as she reaches for me and places her hands on my shoulders.
“Thank you for healing me,” I say, and she smiles even bigger. “But you should have let me die.”
“Sophi-”
I move on instinct, pushing the fork into the middle of her throat to keep her from screaming. I cover her mouth and shove her towards the closet door I had opened just before anyone walked in. Her eyes are big, and she’s reaching for something, anything to try and save her miserable life. I push her hard into the closet and pull the fork out of her throat and stab her again and again until she stops moving.
I flick the blood on my hand at her and reach for the blankets on the top shelf of the closet to cover her so it soaks up the blood as much as it can. I don’t want her to be discovered while I’m still here. I gently shut the door and go over to the sink to wash my hands. I make sure that I didn’t get blood on anything else.
There’s a single moment of peace, and I find myself questioning if any of this was real. A knock brings me back. I look up to see my grandmother open the door. She smiles, looking me over, and lets out a heavy sigh.
“You ready?” she asks. I nod. She comes in and takes my two backpacks. She takes a deep breath and then shakes it off. “I hate hospitals. The smell of blood always lingers.”
“I know. I hate it here too,” I say and hold the door open so I can stand in front of the closet door.
The two of us walk out together. The nurses are all staring at me. I don’t react, but they all look horrified. It’s not until we get into the car that I feel the consequences of my actions. My body aches everywhere. There’s a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. I sit back, trying to catch my breath.
“Are you okay?” my grandmother asks.
I glance at her, but the same rage I felt when I looked at Dr Galloway boils in my chest when I meet her worried expression. She didn’t care to ask about anything beyond what was in front of her because it was completely inconvenient to her and to what she was doing.
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“Yeah, I say reluctantly because, unfortunately for me, my grandmother isn’t as killable as that stupid doctor. “I’m just sore. This is the longest I’ve walked in a long time.”
“I’m sure it’ll take some time to get used to,” she says coldly. “I’ve set you up with the best physical therapists I could find. You’re going to be fine.”
“I was wondering if you got the names of the nurses who took care of me?” I ask.
“What for?”
“They were great. Maybe I can send them something to thank them,” I lie.
“That’s very generous of you,” she smiles and pats my head. “But they were just doing their job. They were all paid handsomely.”
I’m sure it’s meant to be reassuring, but her words only make me angrier. They made a lot of money out of what they did to those other patients and me. Patients who, unlike me, didn’t make it. How many were there? Were they just kids like me? What made me different from them?
“I know,” I nod. “But I was with them for the past three years. They were all I had.”
She stiffens at this and nods.
“I’m sure it’ll be easy to track them down. Don’t worry about it. I’ll get you a list. I want you to rest for now. We’re almost home.”
Present
There was nothing on Dr Galloway. No evidence of her training or schooling. There’s no registration of her ever being qualified for all the things she did to me. It’s like she never existed. There were no known associates or family members. There were just rumors and fake social media accounts.
I found some sites where she’s praised for her work, and some posts about a doctor who killed an eight- year-old by putting her through procedures that ultimately caused her death. However, the girl’s parents were discredited because they signed a waiver stating that the risks of each procedure were high. Nothing was done for that family.
After my physical therapy began, my grandmother made sure I was fine on my own without her, and I located the family. The girl’s parents were separated, and the family itself was ruined. I put some money I found in my parents’ bedroom into their mailbox, along with the fork I used to end Dr Galloway. The note read, for Malory. May she be at peace now that justice has been served.
No one reported ever finding her. If they had, no one would have cared to report it, and I was able to move on with my life as if none of it had ever happened. At least, so I thought. Seeing her son and the massive shit he’s taken on our world, orders or not, has woken that same hatred I felt before.
As I sit in Ragnar’s car trying to calm down, my affinity refuses. It’s spinning out of control. I gasp for air, trying to focus my breathing to steady my heart racing with both fear and anger.
“Sophie?” Ragnar comes over to me. “Baby, you have to calm down. Look at me. What’s going on?”
I’m shaking, not sure what to do or how I’m going to explain this to him. I was sure that maybe it was all a
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dream. I got through my physical therapy, sure that I had wanted to die with my family so badly that I made it all up as a distraction. The nightmares of what I did never came; it was just me and that attack for
years.
“Sophia!” I flinch when the Alpha King shouts my name.
“Back the fuck up. She had a panic attack,” Ragnar growls.
“We needed more information,” the Alpha King reminds him.
“If it were your mate, you wouldn’t even flinch,” Ragnar challenges him. “Back the fuck up or I’ll hurt you, Alex.”
“What happened?” he demands.
“She was my doctor,” I inform them both. “Dr Galloway was the woman who performed all my surgeries when I was a kid after the accident.”
“You killed the son of the woman who saved you,” he scoffed.
“And I’m going to kill the rest of them, because that’s all they deserve. If you stand in my way, I’ll fucking kill you too,” I make the water in his body spin. He drops to the floor, but before I can escalate things further, Ragnar pulls me away and pins me to the car.
“You have to stop, Soph. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it, but can’t go around threatening people just because you can,” he says, trying to keep me from looking away from him. “Tell me. What happened? What is going on?”
“My surgeries were done while I was conscious. She needed me to be awake to trigger early healing abilities. I was injected with a paralytic that still lingers in my system. It’s why I can sit still for as long as I can and why my pain tolerance is as high as it is. I wasn’t the only one. I was the only one who survived what they did to us.”
