Once I got into the healer’s quarters, the guard who had accompanied me stood at attention and said,
"Alpha Xaden has requested that she reside with you from now on." He said.
Loren looked at me through his glasses. I half expected him to grumble at how I disturbed his peace, but he said.
"Alright." And then he went back to his work. The guard nodded and turned away, closing the door behind me.
Loren resumed his mixing of potions and reading his books while I just stood by the door, unsure of what to do.
Then he looked back up at me.
"What are you waiting for?" He asked me. "An invitation?"
I jumped up. "Oh no, uhmm no."
"Then come on in." He invited. "Go down that door; you will find a small room with a bed. Take it."
And after that, he returned to the work before him.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
He didn’t make any comment on my disgruntled appearance or what had happened—that I was being brought into the room late at night.
He just went back to his work.
I didn’t see the need to disturb him, so I walked on ahead to the room that he had pointed to, and then I walked in.
There was a small bed in it, and then I just lay curled up in it and willed myself to sleep, but I couldn’t.
I sobbed silently so as not to disturb him, and I wondered what the point of my life was.
No one, not one single person, acknowledged me or cared about me.
I was a nobody in the eyes of these people, the same way I had been back home.
Eventually, I fell asleep.
I woke up the following day before it was even breaking dawn.
It was extremely dark, but I knew that it was already morning.
I slowly got up from the bed and found a mirror facing me.
My lip was swollen, and my head was bruised.
If I were a shifted wolf, then I would have healed by now, but here I was with proof of what had happened to me the previous night.
I arranged the bed and stepped out of the room.
Loren was asleep on a bench.
There was a makeshift pillow under his head, and he had no blanket over his body.
I turned back to the room that I had come out of and saw tiny personal things.
Then, it dawned on me that I had slept in his room.
I looked around the living space, which was filled with his desk and work table, along with his potions and a small couch.
There was no other door to show that there was another room.
I felt awful that he had given up his bedroom for me and even slept outside in the cold.
It was rare for someone to extend such kindness to me—especially an older man.
Why?
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