Michael 1988
I slowly enter the dimly lit room. Staring at the hospital bed where the small body of my baby sister lay.
Angie looked up, dark circles under her eyes, and the life I'd known from the first day she'd come into our lives seemed washed out somehow.
She gets up quickly and runs across the room to me. Hugging me as tightly as she could.
Like my father, she felt so light in my arms. Had I changed so much?
"My baby boy," She cries weakly. "My pup."
I hold her just as tightly. Amazed at how much I missed her. Her scent feels like a calm day on the ocean, soothing and clearing.
"Mike?" A weak voice calls my name, and I look up to see Gracie staring in my direction.
"Hey," I force a smile on my face. "What are you doing in bed?"
Gracie's face breaks into a brilliant smile, and I watch as she tries to sit up, but the most she can do is lift her head.
Letting go of Angie, I raced over to her, taking her shaking hand.
"You came back," She breathes happily. "Mommy said you would, but I didn't think so."
"Oh see, that hurts," I put my hand to my heart. "You think I wouldn't come and see you? Even if you're faking it?"
Gracie giggles and tries to tighten her fingers around mine.
Her eyes were so puffy, her skin too dry, and I felt the way her muscles tensed painfully just in the small action.
My dad had tried to prepare me for what I'd see, but I won't lie. I wasn't ready for this.
"Where have you been?" Gracie asks me excitedly. "Mommy said you went somewhere far away."
"I did," I agree, combing back her hair. "I was on the ocean, in a boat."
"Was it fun?" she coughs, and I see how much it hurts her.
"Yeah," I try to keep my voice light. "I got to go fishing."
"Can I come too?" Her eyes light up hopefully. "When you go again?"
"Yeah, you can go with me, but you'll have to work hard."
"I will," she nods solemnly. "You look taller."
"Well, I grew," I poke her nose gently, making her giggle again. "I have to make sure you don't outgrow me."
"I'm still little," Gracie protests. "You're going to be a giant."
"Well, you won't be little for long," I argue with her. "So I had to make sure I stayed your big brother."
"Did daddy and you make up?"
"Dad came to get me," I didn't think it was a good idea to tell her the details of what happened.
"Does that mean you'll come home with me when I get better?" I want to lie to her, but she knows me, and even though I know it'll make Gracie feel better, I can't.
"I don't know, muffin," I sigh. "Things are complicated."
"but you and daddy made up," she frowns. "You can come home now."
"My job is on the water," I try to explain and feel like a jerk for it. "How can I send you money?"
"I don't want that," a tear falls down her cheek. "I want you."
"Hey, I'm here now," I offer. "Everything else doesn't matter, okay?"
"You aren't going to leave?" Gracie's lip trembles.
'Not going anywhere," I promise her, and I mean it. "I'm right here with you, always."
Gracie was dying, and no one understood why.
If that wasn't hard enough to hear, I was apparently dead too.
It was how my father found me. An official from the royal court came to the packhouse with a death certificate. Told my father that I'd died of an unknown disease and that they had to burn my body.
The strange situation didn't get easier to understand either. My name was on a list of werewolves that'd died from the condition. The same one that was killing Gracie now.
The guy who really did die, no one knew who it was, but he was my age and was a rogue like me.
Turns out my father had been looking for me for a while. Angie and Matt didn't tell him where the letters I sent came from, but he didn't need that.
I don't know who he called or what he promised, but he followed the money. The wires I made to the pack.
It convinced him that the Michael Branker who was dead wasn't me.
Now Gracie was sick, and no one believed it was a coincidence. But that didn't change the fact no one knew what to do.
Someone targeted me, and I wanted to know why. They'd attacked my baby sister, and I didn't know if it was in revenge or to lure me here.
Either way, I had to find out.
What had I done? Even as a rogue, I'd never gotten into trouble that would make someone hurt someone in my family.
My major issues had been with other rogues who tried to steal from me. Now and then, I got into trouble with a dragon or, on one unfortunate occasion, a vampire who had a taste for werewolf blood.
Those weren't bad enough for this.
I thought maybe Gracie had been poisoned, but the doctors ran those tests and found nothing.
We were in Texas, the closest hospital our kind has access to. So the royals figured since most supernaturals don't get sick, why spend the money on a hospital for every city?
For the most part, they're not wrong. Most non-humans have their own form of medicine or healing that doesn't require a more human approach to treatment. Still, you have situations like this, and you wonder why there aren't more.
Gracie's eyes start to close, but she opens them quickly.
"You need to get some sleep," I command gently, but she shakes her head.
"You won't be here when I stop dreaming," she whispers. "You always go away."
"I won't," I whisper as if I'm telling her a secret. "When you wake up, I'll be fast asleep in this uncomfortable chair."
"Promise?" Her voice sounds so weak.
"You know I promise," I tuck her covers up, and she nuzzles her cheek into my hand.
Within a few minutes, Gracie was fast asleep, and the only sound was the monitors beeping beside the bed.
I stay until I'm sure she won't wake up and then move out of the room to the waiting area down the hall.
"Dad said this only started two weeks ago," I mutter, still unable to believe it. "She was okay before that?"
"Yes," Angie leans into me, and I wrap my arm around her. "She was healthy, but then she had signs like a cold."
None of this made any sense.
Taking a seat next to Matt, who looks ready to pass out, I run what my father discussed with me in my head. But unfortunately, all of it makes the puzzle harder to read.
How did you cure a disease with no name?
Glancing up at my father, I see him staring at me, but now I don't question what he's thinking.
I know.
What happened next. I didn't have an answer to that. We couldn't turn back the clock, neither of us could undo the choices we'd made, but maybe it had to happen the way it did.
Maybe the moon goddess didn't get it wrong like I thought.
Unable to stay in my seat, I get up and walk over to him.
"I'm going down to get a drink," I mutter. "Does anyone want something?"
"I'll come with you," My dad offers and gets up.
Instantly, his arm was around my shoulder. As if he needed to hold onto me to make sure I was real.
We walk quietly to the elevator, and when we're alone, I release the shaky breath I was holding onto.
"Who would do this to her?" I demand, unable to hold it in. "Why? What do they want from me?"
"I don't know, son," My father stares at the ground with a troubled frown.
"Well, I'm not letting this be it," I growl, Luthando in total agreement. "Someone did this, they can fix it, and I'm going to find out how."
For the millionth time since we saw each other again, my father stared at me like he's never seen me before.
It was the first words he'd spoken to me after he'd let me go.
'I don't know this man in front of me,' he'd whispered. 'But I'm honored to know he's my son.'
The doors open, and I storm out, needing to move, to do anything so I don't feel so lost.
A cocktail of smells hit my senses. Medicines, herbs, creatures that were definitely not human, but we all looked it.
And...
I stopped in the middle of the hallway, no longer following the signs that would take me to the hospital's food court.
The smell of juniper and something else, is that pine? No, it's not that, but Goddess, it's an incredible smell.
"Michael?" My father grabs my arm, a concerned look on his face.
I can't focus on him; the smell pulls me to follow it, and I feel compelled to obey.
"Mate," I mutter the word like I'm in a dream. "I smell my mate."