Differences Aside, ?

Chapter Forty Two

Maddox wrapped his arms around my torso. "I'll have her family informed and compensated, along with a royal funeral. It's the least that she deserves. At least Faith is ok, your brother would be devasted."

I pulled my head up in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"Faith and Elijah? They've been having a casual relationship of sorts. It's been happening for a while, though I'm not sure if they've been telling people. I only know as it was reported to me." Maddox said calmly.

"Well her certainly didn't tell me!" I shook my head, "That's off-topic - what do we do next? Perhaps you deal with Das's accomplices, maybe pay him a visit and I work with finding out who needs to be temporarily re-located and then assisting in the doctor's office?"

"If you want to," Maddox agreed, "Look, I'll come to find you once I've fixed all that up. I've got to do another thing as well. I'll come find you?"

I nodded, "Sounds good, I'll see you later."

And so off I went. 

I must have talked to thousands of people over the next couple of hours. I held no judgement to any of these people, only wrote down their names on a notepad that someone had offered me. I saw wolves that I recognised, mostly guards that had checked my work slip. At one point I even saw a human girl, crying in the neck of her mate who had one arm around her shoulders and the other resting on her slightly raised stomach. She had looked familiar. It was the last girl that I had seen being taken by her wolf mate before the accident, the one that caused me to find my own mate. I remembered how scared she had looked, how worried her mate was. They were now standing in front of a massive pile of burnt rubble, what I could only assume was once their home. She had stared at me, whether because she recognised me as Maddox's mate, or because she remembered me from her life before. I said nothing, only offered my smile, asked about how many people had lived in their home and offered my support. She stopped crying, wiped her face with the sleeve of her singed shirt and thanked me.

She wasn't happy right now, for the obvious reason of her entire home being destroyed. But I knew, from how she was with her mate, and the glint in her eye, that she was no longer afraid.

I kept going.

The elderly, students, wolves in training, families and mated couples. I talked to them all, not one name going down unwritten in my notepad.

By the time I had reached the gate, it was completely full, not even a line to spare. I shoved it into my pocket and pulled another out of the plastic pack before stepping through the gate.

The human side seemed the same, barely touched by flames, but all the houses still in unreasonably poor condition. No one was in their houses. They flooded the streets, wearing the same ratted, dirty clothes as always. A lot of people recognised me, and most were now too scared to approach me. That was hard, taking a step towards someone and then they suddenly flinch, the foot taking a step back.

Eventually, they eased up, the ones who had known me beforehand having no hesitation in approaching me. Mrs Lila had a very in-detail chat with me about how her shop still hadn't been restored.

I stayed there for another two hours, ensuring that I heard every single problem from all the people willing to talk to me. 

A makeshift doctors office had been set up in the city centre, mainly because it was easier to reach for those who didn't have the strength to get to a hospital.

When I had offered my help, they had been all too eager. I wrapped bandages, smiled, and assured them that everything was going to be fine, that everything was going to heal.