Chapter 20
Nicole’s POV
Tracy was manageable in the morning but was demanding in the way that borders on entitlement, she is someone who has spent decades having things done for her.
I moved through her morning routine efficiently. Medication at seven, vitals at seven-thirty, breakfast tray at eight. She spoke to me the way she spoke to her maids back at the pack house but I didn’t care.
I was back in my own room by nine-fifteen. I sat on the edge of the bed for a moment and looked at the wall, then called Amber.
The twins arrived still in their breakfast clothes, Maple with something that looked like jam on his sleeve, Rosy carrying her book.
“Sit down,” I said. “Both of you, I need to tell you something.”
They sat as Maple straightened himself immediately while Rosy closed her book.
“The people staying in the residential wing are visitors from outside the institute,” I said. “While they’re here, there’s something I need you both to remember.”
“Okay,” Maple said.
“My name here is just Mummy, i work at the institute. That is all anyone outside needs to know.” I looked at them both steadily. “You must not tell anyone that I’m Dr. Carter. Not those visitors, not anyone they speak to, do you understand?”
Røsy nodded immediately, the way she did when she had already understood before I finished.
Maple was quiet for a moment. “Why?”
“Because some people outside the institute don’t know me well enough to be trusted with that information yet.”
“Like a secret?” he asked.
“Like being careful,” I said. “There’s a difference.”
He considered that with his furrowed brows. “Okay,” he said finally. “I won’t tell.”
“Rosy?”
“I already wasn’t going to,” she said.
I almost smiled. “Thank you, both of you.”
Maple held up his jam sleeve. “Can Amber fix this before nursery?”
“Go,” I said, and they went, Maple already explaining the jam situation to Amber in the corridor with the earnest detail of someone who wanted the record to show it wasn’t his fault.
I put my attendant coat back on and went to face the rest of the day.
The tone in Tracy’s room shifted the moment Sophia and Lily arrived at half past ten.
I was changing the water in the bedside carafe when I heard them in the corridor, and by the time they came through the door I was already moving to the far side of the room, quiet and unremarkable, the way I had learned
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to move in the pack house years ago.
It came back easily, like a muscle memory from a life I had worked very hard to leave.
Sophia settled into the chair by the window. Lily took the small sofa as Tracy’s posture changed when they arrived.
“It has been days,” Tracy said, “and still no sign of this Dr. Carter.”
“She’s probably avoiding you specifically,” Sophia said, lightly enough that it could pass for humor.
“A lead researcher who avoids her own patients.” Tracy’s voice carried the particular satisfaction of someone enjoying an argument they intended to win. “What does that tell you about her confidence in her own work?”
“It tells you everything,” Lily said, not looking up from her phone. “If the work was solid she’d show her face.”
“Marlon is clearly doing the real work,” Sophia said. “She just put her name on it.”
Tracy made a sound of agreement. “A woman that is secretive is hiding something. Incompetence, most likely or worse.”
I moved around the room, keeping to my tasks.
“You.” Tracy’s voice came at me. “Get away from there, you’re hovering.”
“Yes, Luna,” I said quietly, and moved back.
Sophia glanced at me once and looked away but Lily didn’t acknowledge me at all.
I finished what I needed to finish, noted the time on the chart, and left without a word.
The afternoon was quieter, Tracy napped after lunch, which gave me few hours to review Parkville’s preliminary scan results and check in with the team on Diana Ashford’s intake paperwork.
I was at my desk in my room, coat off, contacts out, when Marlon messaged.
Tracy asked one of the other staff about your office location but I redirected it. Just so you know.
I set the phone down and looked at the ceiling.She was asking questions. She hadn’t recognized me, hadn’t even looked at me properly, but she was already mapping, already trying to locate the person whose authority she had tried and failed to challenge this morning.
That was Tracy for you, she never liked to lose.
I picked the phone back up and typed: Noted. Make sure the staff know to redirect everything through you.
His reply came immediately. Already done. How are you holding up?
I thought about this morning’s conversation with Maple and Rosy.
Fine, I typed back. I’ll see you at the next morning briefing.
I put the phone down and looked at the scan results still open on my desk.
Parkville’s neurological profile was consistent with what we had projected, the damage was measurable and patterned in the specific way that bond severance left its mark.
Tracy’s scans would look different, I suspected. Parkville had been deteriorating for years and was only now at the stage where intervention was critical. Tracy had gotten there faster.
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An Alpha bond carried a different biological load than an ordinary mate bond it was wider, deeper, woven into the pack’s energy in ways a standard bond never was.
When it severed, it didn’t just leave absence. It left damage at a scale the brain had no framework for surviving intact and based on what I had seen today, the social masking she was still managing required enormous effort. This was exactly why the trial mattered.
I closed the scan file and started on the evening report.
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