Anna chatted happily with Allister, as if he were as young and healthy as she was, and his father was amused. He didn't have the strength to laugh, but Adam could see the sparkle in his eyes. A sparkle that indicated life. There was still life there.
They arrived home after spending the night in hospital. Everyone refused to leave Allister. Anna understood that, despite their differences, they loved each other. All of them. Ryan stayed in one of the apartments on that floor, to be closer to his uncle, and his grandfather and mother were on their way to Las Vegas, to stay there too. Only Allister's eldest son would come, visit and return to his own apartment in the city.
Time went by. Anna met Ryan's family. His mother, brother, sister-in-law and grandfather. It was obvious that he had inherited all his mother's features and only his grandfather's lighter hair. He never tired of saying how much his grandson disappointed him, but he tried to stay close to Ryan at all times, as Ryan's older brother was not the son of the same father.
Anna didn't see Adam's brother any of the times he was there. He usually visited in the afternoon, and she was always asleep. Now, she slept every night in Allister's room, in his bed, but it was a light sleep, she feared he would feel unwell, and she didn't sleep properly.
His eldest son showed up when she took the opportunity to rest in her own room during the day. She didn't mind not knowing another one of the men in the family, she just wanted to rest.
Allister talked a little for the first three days, but after that, he lived like a vegetable. They put probes in him and he rarely opened his eyes, but he didn't talk anymore.
Two weeks after Allister returned to the apartment, the news that had been expected, but that nobody wanted to hear, arrived. Allister was dead. The invitations began, as did the preparations for his body to be taken away and properly buried according to the traditions of the pack and all the honors deserved for having been the Alpha's father.
Packs all over the world prepared to say goodbye to the man they considered the most important in a hundred years, because they were disunited and constantly at war until the birth of the Alpha.
He wasn't just responsible for begetting the most important heir of all the packs. He gave birth to the hope of a united people. A people who would now carry a single common purpose. To follow the lead of their Alpha.
...
When the chief died, Anna was lying beside him. A little inconsolable, she saw the nurse looking at his pulse, and a few minutes later, the machine beeped without the pause she was used to hearing and she woke up for good when the nurse shook her.
"What's wrong?"
"Ah, miss! I'm sorry, he's dead." She said dramatically.
Anna looked at Allister, tears streaming down her face.
"Yes. He died, but not today. He died when he stopped feeding." Anna said and then pointed to the door. "Go tell the doctor."
The nurse left and returned shortly afterwards with the doctor and a glass of water, which she offered to Anna.
Anna looked at her questioningly.
"It's good to calm down."
"I'm not nervous."
"Oh... You're going to face the whole family now. Not just those who are staying here, but also the men who have worked for him for years. You need something to cheer you up."
Anna frowned and stood up.
"I don't want to. I've never heard of water being a source of energy or encouragement." She said and turned to the doctor who was examining Allister's inert body. "What happens now?"
The doctor left Allister's body and approached Anna, ignoring her surprised and inquiring expression. He held her arms back with one hand, and with the other covered her mouth so that she wouldn't scream, and looked affirmatively at the nurse who applied a syringe to her arm. The doctor then released her.
"What's going on here?"
"I'm sorry, miss. We're just following orders." The doctor said, but Anna didn't hear the end of it. She felt her eyes go dark, her head spin and she let herself fall.
Anna couldn't tell how long it had been since she had been locked in that room. The wooden windows with their steel bars, which were firm and humanly impossible to remove, were not opened, and she didn't know when it was night or day. It took about three days for her to understand that she was being sedated through food, and to start refusing the food that was left on the doorstep while she slept.
The meals were left through a small opening at the foot of the door by hands wearing blue gloves. The used utensils had to be left at the door, and the day she didn't, hoping that someone would come and talk to her, Anna regretted it, because at the same moment that her hand noticed the absence of the utensils, she heard a movement outside the room, and immediately a large man with a hood over his face, where only his dark eyes could be seen, entered and twisted her wrist until she pointed to where the utensils were. The man squeezed for a while longer before releasing her wrists, as if it gave him pleasure, and after collecting the utensils, he left.
When Anna stopped eating, suspicious that she was being kept sedated, they just left a note, telling her that she would be visited again soon for the installation of a probe. Anna screamed that she wouldn't allow it, and that she wasn't eating because of the sedative. They started feeding her only fruit, delivered wrapped in a napkin. They gave her three meals, and as they were always fruit, she could no longer tell whether it was morning, afternoon or evening.