~Aurora.
“He will be your personal driver throughout your stay with us, feel free to call on his services whenever you need him.” Sam said as we got to the car parked by the gate of the guest quarters. With a slight nod, I said a ‘thank you’ before slipping into the car.
The drive to the pack's hospital was quite an interesting one. The driver first kept trying to make small talk with me, even upon noticing my hesitance to speak with him, until I gave in, and we had a full-blown conversation about the pack and I learned a lot of things had changed since I last saw them.
Well, why wouldn't it? It had been ten years, after all.
Somehow, I was half expecting and waiting for the driver to point out that I looked familiar because everyone had pointed that out but, when he didn't, I finally totally convinced myself that I was not the poor omega whose pathetic situation made her recognizable by everyone.
The sight I beheld as we arrived at the pack hospital wowed me. The building was no longer the few squares as I knew it to be, it now covered a whole mass of land, safe to say, about six to eight acres of land. From the outside, the hospital looked better and more advanced than the last time I was in it.
“Thank you, Elijah,” I said to the driver as I stepped down from the car, “you can go about your day, I will call on you when I need you.” He gave me a tip of his hat in response, and I turned to the building.
“Hello,” I said to the nurse behind the counter with a smile, and he looked up at me with a smile.
“Hello, and welcome, how may we help you today?”
“Uhm, I am here to check on the victims of the plague.” The nurse raised his brow and slightly cocked his head to the side with his smile -his signature smile I was certain - still resting on his face. I chuckled,“ doctor Rory Aldrich” I handed him my ID, and he returned it with widened eyes.
“Forgive me, Doc. I didn’t recognize you, we were not informed that you would be coming in today.”
“It is fine, we didn’t discuss my visit today. If you may, I would like to go see the patients now.”
“Please,” he said and led the way, and I followed him closely.
He first led me to a large office where some nurses and fellow doctors were introduced to me before he and three other nurses led me to the patients wards.
About seventy to eight-five patients occupied the rooms in the ward, having transferred back the patients at the royal infirmary to the pack hospital, it was safe to say the wards were filled to the brim.
After my rounds, I went with the nurses to the lab, where we gathered to examine and evaluate the reports we got from the patients. Their symptoms were almost similar, cold and joint pains, then dizziness and weakness of the body, then nausea and excessive vomiting, then diarrhea and the weakness to eat or talk, it was only a few who experienced episodes of passing out as a result of a very high fever.
It was funny how every one of them knew Doctor Rory Aldrich of Waxing crescent pack but were left with widened eyes after introducing myself to them. I was a new Rory, I said to myself, not the Aurora, they used to know. Smiling silently to myself, I resumed work alongside some technicians and the three other nurses.
About an hour into work, the nurse from the counter - Ferdinand - came in.
"Excuse me, doctor Rory,” He said, and I turned to him, Lady Isidora wishes to see you. She is waiting in your office.”
“Isadora?” I muttered with furrowed brows. “ Okay, I will be with her shortly," I said to him, and he turned on his heels.
I couldn't tell why Isadora wanted to see me. If I could remember clearly, she had explicitly said she wanted nothing to do with me. So, why was she here? And in my office, too.
I hated the fact that she was the first person to step into the office that was just assigned to me.
The events of the previous night came rushing into my head as I placed the test tubes I was heating back in their racks and turned off the Bunsen burner, and I rolled my eyes.
“Heavens, Isadora.” I muttered with a shake of my head as I walked out of the laboratory.
“Hello, sis.” I greeted with a smile as I stepped into the office, leaving the door to lock with a click behind me.
“What are you doing here, Aurora?” Isadora replied with a wicked glare, her arms crossed against her chest as she rested comfortably in my seat with her legs crossed at the ankles on my desk.
I scoffed as I went to sit across her, “that's no way to greet your little sister. I believe we didn't have the opportunity to do that yesterday, did we?”
“Fuck you, Aurora.”
I scoffed lightly, “Oh, dearest Isaora," I chuckled, “if I ever decide to do girls, I am certain I wouldn't start with my sister.”
Isadora gritted her teeth as she jerked up from the seat and took slow yet, cautious steps towards me, narrowing her eyes at me as she walked before coming to a halt just a few feet away from me.
“I know why you are here, Aurora. I am yet to figure out the games you plan on playing but, I can assure you that they are not going to work because, I, Isadora, will not sit back and watch them play out.”
Perhaps, I thought, not only did Isadora's character got worse, she also developed a psychotic trait too.
“Are you in need of a hug or something, Isadora?” I said and shifted an inch away from her.
“Oh, drop that act, Aurora.”
“What in Heaven's name are you talking about, Isadora?”
“You don't think I know you came back for Ethan, huh? For the throne and the Kingdom. You came back to have all of these but, I am sorry to disappoint you, Aurora because all of those things are already mine, the throne, the kingdom, they are all mine.”
With a slight shake of my head, I scoffed and made to stand from my seat, but Isadora gripped both my hands, pinning me down.
“Be careful, Aurora. That is my advice to you. I will be watching your every move and I promise you, if you keep up with the games you are playing, you won't like the outcome of it, I promise you.”
I was angered not only by the fact that Isadora was in my office and spewing things I couldn't understand, but also by the fact that she had a tight grip on me.
I yanked my hands off her grip and got up from the seat when she stumbled backwards and took some steps away from her because I was trying to leave, not that I feared her but because I couldn't bear wasting my precious time on someone who obviously has turned a lunatic.
“Why don't you go get a life, Isadora? A good and peaceful life that you and everyone around you can enjoy instead of going about causing trouble.”
She raised an eyebrow and I figured she understood what I was talking about. There was no point in her acting shocked because it was a truth everyone knew about.
“You can say all you want, but, I am going to warn you just this one time,” she closed up the gap between us and I perceived a mixture of strawberry and mint on her as she spoke,
“Stop whatever you think you're planning, Aurora. I don't think you understand what you are getting yourself involved with because if you did, you wouldn't have set your foot back here in the first place.
A lot of things changed while you were away, things you will fail to understand, things that will drown you if you fail to stay away. Keep your distance, Aurora. From the throne and every other thing you have your eyes on.”
If only Isadora had known that I was forced down to this place, she would have saved herself the breath.
After being forced back to Sturgeon Moon pack, I only had one mission in mind; to find the cure to the plague as quickly as possible and get the hell away from the pack because that was all that needed to be done.
The longer I stayed, the more the chances of Ethan finding out Arne was his and the more chances of Arne meeting his doom, and that was nowhere close to what I evy wanted.
If only Isadora knew.
Taking some steps away from her, I turned on my heels and left the office, shutting the door behind me.
I noticed the changes Isadora spoke about, quite alright, and there was no way there were ever going to drown me.
Ever.