Chapter 34
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However, I knew almost from the start that something was odd about the way that West Mountain Pack
reacted to Stephanie’s death. It was almost like they transformed the grieving process into an Olympic
sport. I assume there are a lot of factors that contributed to why the pack reacted the way that it did, and
some of those are probably quite legitimate, but after a year or two, the pack’s obsession with the dead.
she-wolf started to make me a bit uncomfortable. Frankly, it started to make a lot of packs in the
surrounding areas uncomfortable.
Ultimately, though, I decided that it was none of my business. I maintained my friendship
ship with Alpha
Randall –still occasionally arriving late to our meet-ups just to drive him crazy for old-times sake- and
just tried my best to avoid being around West Mountain Pack around these weird Stephanie-themed
holidays they created.
The turning point for me was when Lily applied to the accelerated medical program that I run in Red Rock. I received three phone calls shortly after she applied.
The first one was from Lily’s mother, Margie. She told me that she was aware that Lily had applied to the program, and she asked me to accept Lily as a “personal favor to her. When I asked why she thought
that Lily would be a good fit for my program, Margie could not come with a single nice thing to say about
her daughter. After I got annoyed and continued to press her, she finally admitted that she needed a break from Lily and she could “not stand to look at her anymore” after what had happened to Stephanie.
The second call was from James Anderson. James wanted to “wam” me that Lily had caused Stephanie’s death. Unlike Margie, he urged me to reject Lily’s application because, in his view, Lily did not deserve to be a doctor. He said he believed that Lily needed to remain in West Mountain Pack and
accept her continuing punishment.
The third phone call was from Alpha Randall himself. He told me that he was aware that both Margie and James had called me. He apologized for them doing so, and he told me that he would support any decision I wanted to make as to Lily’s acceptance into the program. However, he wanted to have an ” alpha-to-alpha” conversation about it so that he could make sure that I had all the relevant information. He told me that Lily was a bit of a complicated case. He explained that the Moon Goddess had taken away Lily’s wolf after she caused the death of her sister, and that Lily had struggled to get along with pack members and pack leadership ever since.
I was completely aghast after receiving the three phone calls. I had already planned to accept Lily into the program, because her academic credentials and application materials were top-notch. That decision would not change no matter who called me. But what got me was how misguided and oblivious my old friend and the West Mountain Pack had become.
I had never seen any evidence that Lily had caused Stephanie’s death, despite offering to help with the
that Lily’s “inability to get along with pack members” was code for “we have been bullying her for years. without justification.”
How Alpha Randall could not see the reality in front of him was beyond me. As soon as I hung up the phone, I decided to not only accept Lily, but also take her under my wing. I also cut off further contact with Alpha Randall.
I have never regretted my decision. Since Lily enrolled in the program, she has been one of my best students, and she has been a joy to be around. In fact, I had just seen her a week ago and she was laughing and smiling with some of her friends in the school.
To see Lily now, in this state… that is enough to thaw even my frozen, a&&hole heart. Now I must determine if there is anything I can do medically to help her.
Goddess be with me, and be with Lily.
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