Chapter 74: Good & Bad News
"Watch it," Lucien snapped, rushing over to my bedside immediately. "You’re hurting her."
"I’m not hurting her," Zeke said with a roll of her eyes. "She injured herself, most likely due to the brawl just now she had with your Luna."
"Sienna isn’t my Luna," Lucien said with a growl, and the corner of Zeke’s lips quivered upwards a little when Lucien fell for the rage bait.
"Either way, she must’ve gotten hurt then," Zeke said pointedly. He turned his attention to me. "Did you feel any discomfort before your encounter with Sienna and those two other girls?" he asked.
"No," I said truthfully, shaking my head. I continued sheepishly, "I left the tent because I was starting to feel a little hungry, and I couldn’t find anyone around."
As though to prove a point, a loud rumble emitted from my stomach. My cheeks instantly flushed red as I recoiled in on myself, while Zeke raised an eyebrow and Lucien’s eyes widened with surprise. A second of silence passed between us before Lucien burst into laughter, stifling it with a hand to his lip.
"Sorry," he said in between chuckles. "Let me get something for you. I didn’t realize that someone forgot to bring you some food."
He shot Zeke a glare as he said that before quickly turning back to me with a smile.
"I’ll be right back," he said, before leaving the tent.
He walked out of the tent after, not forgetting to look back at me every few steps as though to check whether or not I would still be there. I had to make shooing movements with my hands to hurry him along before he eventually left the tent for good.
"Finally," Zeke grumbled under his breath. "Now we can see what we’re actually working with."
He adjusted himself in his seat before continuing with the examination.
"Can you tell me what happened earlier?"
I truthfully recalled whatever I could remember, from Sienna’s taunts to her trying to attack me but failing to do so.
"I felt a burst of strength," I said. "Next thing I knew, she was thrown a distance away as though she were a sack of potatoes."
Zeke placed my hand back down on the bed before scratching his chin thoughtfully.
"And you have no wolf," he said.
I nodded. "Not that I know of," I said. "My memories of my childhood are a little blotchy. But from what I can recall, I don’t think I have ever manifested a wolf in my life. I don’t seem to have the strength of a wolf either."
Even common omega servants who at least had their wolves were still stronger than I was.
"Well," Zeke said, standing up, "do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
"There’s a good news?" I asked, wrinkling my nose.
"The good news is that, congratulations, it seems like you do have a wolf," Zeke said.
My eyes widened with surprise. "How?" I asked. "I have never shifted before. I... I could never shift no matter how hard I tried..."
And as a result, my family had always thought I was a poisoned child. When Willow’s health started to decline, everything became worse. My lack of a wolf led them to believe that I was forsaken by the Moon Goddess and that my very existence was a plague.
If I had a wolf, my life would’ve been so different. I wouldn’t have been treated like the pack pariah. Or at the very least, it wouldn’t have gone so horrendously as it did.
"Then the bad news is that it never manifested physically?" I asked, though my tone made it more of a statement than a question.
"Well, no, not really," Zeke said. "I’ll need more time to figure out why it didn’t manifest physically into a proper shift. However, that’s not the bad news. The bad news is that your body doesn’t seem to have the capability to keep up with your potential. You have the strength of a fully grown werewolf, but your body is just about as fragile as an average human female. That’s why you injured yourself so easily."
My jaw dropped. "Oh."
I didn’t know whether or not I should be comforted by this new finding.
"This should be easily fixed, however," Zeke said. "You will just need to make your body more durable through training. Having a physical manifestation of a wolf would be infinitely better, but until we figure out why you don’t seem to have one―"
"And why my strength only appeared now, when it could’ve appeared years ago," I added.
"Right." Zeke nodded. "Until then, adequate moderate training should suffice. You will just need to be careful, as it doesn’t seem that your body can heal like a werewolf just yet."
He looked pointedly at my still very injured arm. If this happened to any other werewolf, it would’ve probably been healed by now.
"I understand," I said.
This was all too good to be true. It was turning a little difficult to digest this information. Zeke was suggesting that I had a wolf― that meant that I eventually might be able to shift for the first time. This was something that I had dreamed of for such a long time. Now, it was finally within reach.
"How long will you need before you can find out why I am unable to shift?" I asked eagerly.
Zeke frowned, noticing the light in my eyes. "I wouldn’t hold my breath on that," he said. "There are too many possible reasons why your wolf’s growth has been stunted. Not only will it take time, but I will also need proper resources and equipment to run these tests. Those aren’t things that this lousy, unequipped tent can provide."
He gestured to our surroundings, and I huffed. It did look like a bare minimum tent to house the sick and injured while traveling.
I nodded, my high spirits instantly dampened.
"Cheer up," he said, albeit his tone wasn’t nearly as joyful as what his words demanded. "Once we get back to Bloodmoon territory, I will be able to get started. If what you’re saying is true, and that your werewolf capabilities have been slowly starting to show only recently, at this rate, you might not even need my research."
I looked up, raising an eyebrow in confusion. I met Zeke’s eyes. "You mean..."
"Who knows?" he said with a shrug. "You might even be able to shift before I can get concrete results. Won’t that be fun?"
