Kidnapped in Sister’s Place and Emotionally Numbed: The Tragic Twin Cuts All Ties Chapter 06
Something was off, and Veyra could feel it.
The whole pack house felt different.
Evander hadn’t been home in days. Pack business, he said.
Mom and Dad barely spoke at meals anymore. Just picked at their food and sighed
“Elara, my stomach’s been acting up. Could you make that herbal chicken soup tonight? The one you usually
do.”
Mom rubbed her stomach as she spoke.
“Luna, that wasn’t me,” Elara Keene said.
Veyra tried to cut in, but Elara was already talking. “Liora made it.”
“She didn’t want you to know it was hers. Thought you wouldn’t eat it if you did, so she told me to take
credit.”
Mom didn’t say anything for a long time. Something worked its way across her face, too fast to name and
too slow to hide.
Finally she said, “Just make whatever you want. I’m tired. I’m going to lie down.”
Veyra followed Elara into the kitchen, insisting she could learn the recipe herself.
She burned the pot, set off the fire alarm, and nearly torched the kitchen.
Mom didn’t eat that night.
Elara messaged me everything. She was the only one in that house who ever gave a damn about me
Mom’s favorite flowers were the next thing to go. I’d always been the one keeping them alive
Veyra volunteered to take over. Within a week, every plant in the greenhouse was dead.
Then Dad’s blueberry jam, the wild kind he had every morning, ran out.
He sent Elara out to buy more. She came back empty–handed. Nowhere in the city carried anything close.
I used to make those jars from scratch using berries from my grandparents‘ place.
Elara’s texts kept coming.
The message between the lines was obvious they needed me back
I didn’t budge
Funny how none of this mattered when I was still there
Now they remembered
But I was done doing their invisible work.
Royal Evergreen sat on the outskirts of Seattle, buried in old–growth cedar and ringed by glacial lakes.
The main building was dark gray stone, and a silver wolf–head crest hung over the entrance
Every morning, howls rolled across the training grounds, mixed with the scrape of claws against wooden
posts.
My wolf was still asleep.
No matter how loud the howling got, she didn’t stir.
My first week, I went to the academy’s medical wing for the mandatory psych screening
“I’d strongly recommend you start treatment.”
“The emotional blunting, the detachment, the total lack of interest in anything around you It’s significant.
Left untreated, it could progress into permanent psychological severance from your wolf”
I looked up. Kaelis was sitting across the desk.
He caught my look and shrugged “Senior at Royal Evergreen’s med school. I’m doing my clinical rotation
here”
“Psych evals are part of it. Most wolves here would rather run laps until they collapse than sit in this chair‘
I nodded
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
“I don’t want treatment,” I said.
your doctor, I respect that.”
“But as a friend, why not?”
I wasn’t sure when we’d become friends. But I didn’t feel like correcting him.
“I don’t think I need all those feelings back. Not right now. Having them would just make everything worse.”
“Okay.” He nodded slowly. “Your call.”
He wrote the diagnosis in my file.
His handwriting was clean and precise, nothing like the careless rebel act he put on for everyone else.
“If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks.”
I stepped out of the exam room.
And there, halfway down the corridor, was Evander.
