AT THE RYDER PACK: Judy Patrick stared at her father and wished she would tell him to go take a walk or a run or anything. She looked at her watch and found it hasn't passed ten minutes and it already felt like an eternity.
Michael hadn't spoken again and he had sat down for a few seconds and continued with his pacing.
"What can it be?" Judy asked herself. Yes, her father was always on alert, but she had never seen him all worked up like how he was in his current state.
Judy Patrick never thought she was ever going to be patient with her dad and her obnoxious brother, but she had to as it was her work to make sure they were all okay, or they would go crazy, especially her father.
If only Michael Patrick trusted any other wolf. Or even find himself a beta, Judy wouldn't have to worry about being summoned anytime to come and sit then wait for her father to decide whether he was going to tell her what was wrong.
And not always was something wrong, Michael Patrick would call his daughter and asked her to just sit.
Their relationship wasn't anywhere near that of a father-daughter, but rather that of stranger-stranger.
Michael Patrick liked it that way and even if it was that of a stranger-stranger he knew he would trust her daughter with anything.
Judy wanted to ask her father where her brother was so she would escape from the torture of sitting there and watching her father pacing.
"Dad, dad, dad," Judy called him but got no answer.
Someone was knocking on the door and they were not going to enter without their alpha's permission and neither was Judy going to answer it. The alpha had told the pack no one was to enter her room be it the office or any room he was with no permission.
Any new werewolves knew that as soon as they came into the pack.
The door opened and Judy was ready to see who it was that dared go against the alpha's command, she looked down bored when she found it was her brother.
"The coming of the obnoxious brother," she murmured to herself.
"You know I can hear you," her brother told her.
"I know," Judy answered and went back to stare at her father.
Judy got tired of staring at her father and looking at her brother she found him smiling.
"What?" her brother asked him.
"Nothing," Judy answered.
"Come on sister, tell me, I am Lawrence Patrick, your brother."
"Yes, I know."
"It's not like you have anyone else. A sister," Jody said.
The smile on Judy's face dropped, and there she was thinking her brother had finally made up his mind and they were going to reconnect.
Sister.
Lawrence knew talking about a sister was painful to Judy and yet he did, it was his happiness to see the pain written all over Judy's face.
Judy looked down and remembered the time she had left home and gone to look for Gal, she didn't even finish a week due to the cold and hunger. She was ready to go back home and ask her father for forgiveness.
And she was happy when the rogues had found her and brought her back home, Michael Patrick was not going to leave her daughter to suffer.
Well, at least at that time he had a heart and some small part of him acted as a father.
Michael Patrick had sent some of his rogues to go search for his daughter, he had asked them to bring her back no matter what. They were not to come back without her, and when they found her if she said no, they were to carry her on their shoulders.
What her father wanted at that moment was for her girl to be brought back home to him.
She was disoriented at that time but she was sure she didn't cry and scream, "Please take me home to daddy," as Michael Patrick loved to recap the story to Judy when he wanted to annoy her.
Judy was ready to leave again, to leave Ryder Pack, a place she used to call home. And now it was hell.
An empty one.
With full of pretenders.
Michael Patrick was still pacing and Judy knew he wasn't going to stop any time soon if no one asked him to.
"I am enjoying this," her brother told her, of course, he was enjoying that.
Judy didn't look at him, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she heard what he has spoken.
"Alpha."
Michael Patrick stopped pacing as soon as he heard his son calling, and he began walking towards them with striding steps, he was no longer the man who was pacing.
"Yes son, morning?" Michael asked his son as he took his seat.
Judy's brother was everything to her father and Judy didn't know if it was because of Lawrence being a suck-up or just because Michael Patrick didn't want a daughter.
Staring at the father and son, Judy wished her mother was with them as she was certain her mother would have been on her side.
But her mother was nowhere to be found, there was no way any woman would possibly stay with her father.
When they had moved to Ryder Pack, she wondered why her mother wasn't there for them but after what her father did to Alpha Mia and her family, Judy knew why.
Michael Patrick was sinister, paranoid, and insecure.
"Where is my mother now?" Judy asked herself. She wished she knew so she could find her and they would stay together. She would even ask her for help to search Gal Ryder.
But she didn't know.
Her dad and her brother were talking in hush voices as if it even mattered, if she wanted to know she could eavesdrop on them.
It was useless and a waste of time as they were not even talking about anything important.
"Fetch me some water Judy," Michael ordered her daughter not even bothering to look at her.
What was she, a dog?