Everyone that saw her eyes that day blamed her for every little mishap… The red-eyed freak… the cursed wolf – they’d call her…

She even overheard Valerie curse her existence and deny that she was ‘their sister’… That she was ‘adopted’ - the same rant she used to shove down Aegis' throat when they were younger... when their parents and brothers weren't there to hear her turn into the little she-demon that she was. It made sense though… why her parents stopped liking’ her when Tristan was born… he took away the pain they felt losing their real child and could finally move on… Every little thing was slowly starting to build up into a very unsteady tower. She no longer had the strength to even try and fight against these rampaging thoughts.

A year passed and Aegis barely spoke a word, since she was a decent ‘hunter’ she had taken on the duty of hunting for extra meat and scouring for herbs and other edible plants – instead of spending the money the Pack makes as a whole – hunting and growing their own food was a smart and cost efficient tactic, considering they were ‘wolves’ who loved their meat, meat was expensive. While out ‘hunting or fishing she would ‘train’, it had been built into her over the years to the point that being idol made her ‘sick’.

She was calmed by the rocking of the little boat, the water of the lake stirred some more, and a glimmering light could be seen rising out of the depths… A ball of light broke through the surface and hovered closer to Aegis, she stared at it with a sad attempt to smile and the light dispersed revealing water sprite.

Its little mouth moved, but only an inaudible whisper could be heard.

“I’m alright…” Aegis reassured the little sprite, it puffed out its chest folding its arms, giving Aegis the best ‘mad’ look she could before her arms dropped to her sides and she looked with concern at Aegis. Again it spoke.

“I can’t run away… I’ll be considered a rogue and be hunted down.” The sprite was trying to rebuke telling Aegis it would be better to live pretending to be human than continue being abused by the very people she once called family.

“That’s just it, they are family… sooner or later they’ll come around…” Knowing she wasn’t going to get through to her, the little sprite sat on the rim of the boat, dejected, looking at the fishing rod… She snapped her finger and three fish out of the water and straight into a bucket where the rest of the fish that had been caught was kept.

“You shouldn’t help me, and besides it is not safe showing yourself, someone could have followed me, and then they’d try to hunt you or worse… kill…” She choked out the word… the thought scaring her.

Sighing the little sprite dove back down into the depths of the lake.

Aegis’ mind was on the attack again… Just as how they appeared out of the blue with no prior ‘spotting’ they had vanished, leaving no traces. This little cumbersome detail made sure that the Pack had placed extra defenses and that the fighters were training daily to insure they could defend against any rogues that might attack… that was if it were rogues… She wondered what they wanted, why they had to kill her entire pack for?

After handing the fresh batch of fish to Mr. Davis, Aegis headed up to the attic, she had refused every offer from Luna Brea and Loretta to move into a proper room – simply refusing anyone’s help, she rarely even helped in the kitchen these days… Only when there was a lot of work to do did she ‘invade’ his space. Not wanting to have Mr. Davis to think she is trying to ‘curse’ him too… Even after he tried to reassure her he’d never think that way, even trying to tell her that she wasn’t ‘cursed’ and to stop listening to the others…

The attic also acted as ‘storage space’ meaning she only had a small part of it to herself. In the corner behind some boxes and crates were her worn out little bed with a thick scratchy wool blanket… It wasn’t all that comfortable, but it was what she wanted… her mind already starting to run rampage with the voices that tried to convince her she deserved even less than she had… She coughed – it has been persisting for a few days now – always feeling tired she kept pushing her to do as much as possible, so that no one felt burdened by her, so that no one tried convincing the Alpha to kick her out… and so that the Alpha didn’t think to do so thinking she was ‘useless’.

There was a party for one of the warriors, Declan, he had finally surpassed Brent who was ranked the seventh strongest wolf in the pack, the two having been rivals for the longest of times – albeit one sided. She had to ‘help’ with preparing food for the party and cleaning, but Mr. Davis instead insisted she go freshen up and get some rest. And that was what she did thinking he himself didn’t want her around so much anymore…

She flinched tracing the bruises on her body; a few of the youths have made it their life goal to use her as a punching bag – Declan, Valerie and her mate, Matthew, then it was her brother Aaron and the Gamma’s son, Kane. They were the worse the others would only push or shunt her if not cussing and swearing at her, but they… they made sure to leave as much damage they could without it being noticed by anyone.

“Aegis?” A voice called from below, it was Loretta.

“Aegis, I heard you have a nasty cough.”

“I’m fine.” Aegis called down, not wanting Loretta to go through the trouble of treating something silly like a cough. She pulled on a shirt and wished for Loretta to go away.

“Then you won’t mind that I check to reassure myself?” Sighing Aegis went to lower the steps leading up into the attic.

“Thank you.”

Loretta dragged a chair closer that was up against the wall and sat down near the bed where Aegis went to sit.

“You look terribly pale…” Loretta said somewhat concerned as soon as she saw Aegis. She had been spending a lot of time at the hospital, even staying in town, and so didn’t see much of Aegis, not that she would have gotten to see her much anyways with how she ignored her and the Luna.

“I’m fine…” Aegis’s voice was soft she kept her eyes glued to the floorboards.

“Well then I’m just here to make sure.” Aegis shook her head; she really didn’t need anyone fussing over her. Her head throbbed; she shouldn’t have moved her head so fast.

“I’m not taking a ‘no’ for an answer, it’s my job to a thorough check-up on everyone!” Aegis sighed. Loretta took out her statoscope first when she tried lifting Aegis’s shirt, she quickly pulled away, clutching her shirt tightly so that Loretta wouldn’t be able to ‘pull’ it up again, but it was too late, Loretta had already seen what she knew to be a bruise.

“What the hell happened here?” She hissed pulling the shirt out of Aegis’s hands and over her head. Her delicate fingers gently poking at the raw bruises and Aegis couldn’t help but bent her body away from the stinging touch. Loretta was already aware that Aegis was healing really slow, thanks to Mr. Davis’ concern after he had seen her arm the first time, but this…

“It’s nothing.”

“It is not ‘nothing’. You’re… not healing…” She tried to think back over the years, after Aegis’ eyes had changed color, the time her parents kept Aegis hidden from the world she knew how fast a healer the little girl was, but this… She knew Aegis was healing slower than usual, but thought it because she had yet to shift and her body was preparing itself for it... a handful of wolves would temporally lose their abilities or at least be slightly weakened before they shift, rare as it was, it's often these wolves who were stronger than normal once they did shift... but this... she was healing far slower than even the ‘weakest’ humans…

Her eyes turned to find a little brown plastic bottle inside were still a few more pills, small tiny pills that she didn’t recognize.

“What are these for?” She asked Aegis.

“Mom gave it… It’s for a virus I picked up when I was small.” Aegis said simply, she had been skipping taking them to ‘stretch’ it, taking half of it – as small as it already was – and then later just started skipping taking it whenever she didn’t eat; which quite a few times… Especially breakfast, it was just a waste of time to eat breakfast. But now that she thought about it… Her not ‘feeling’ so well of late… perhaps it the virus… it wasn’t ‘dead’ yet.

Loretta eyed the pills suspiciously... Aegis was never 'that' sick... something wasn't adding up...

“What virus?” Loretta asked knowing that it had to be a lie.

“I used to get really sick after my eyes changed… So I take this.” Aegis handed Loretta the little brown container, there was about thirty or so pills still left.

“I skipped a few days to make it last longer, so I guess whatever virus was making me sick is also slowing down how I heal.” Aegis said, putting her shirt back on wanting to leave to get started on her ‘work’.

“But honestly Doctor Loretta, it doesn’t hurt… that much. I’m used to it.” At those words Loretta seemed even more upset.

“Who did this to you; I’ll talk with the Alpha to get them reprimanded.” Aegis simply shook her head, she could not let anyone else find out!

“Most of it is because of work; because I don’t pay attention. I miss a corner turning into a table, or trip because I’m trying to carry too much at once, or a trap ‘backfires’ on me.” Loretta knew Aegis was lying by the way she kept her eyes down, even more so than when so when she was simply avoiding looking people in the eyes.

“This can’t keep happening, I’ll accept your words as the truth for today, but don’t ever lie to me again!” She snapped; standing up to leave Loretta bared her fangs once again when she took one final look at Aegis, spotting the slight discolored bruise that was nearly healed around her neck; Aegis quickly looking away to avoid the doctor’s concerned gaze. Not wanting to explain why it looked like strangle marks around her neck… which was Declan’s doing… he loved to choke her…

“You’re clear to go tend to your duties.” Her words were barely audible as she stormed out of the room without having actually checked on Aegis’ health. In her hand she still had Aegis’ ‘medicine’.