We're Stronger Now- Wolfblood

Chapter 19

The next day, Maddy woke up to see the ceiling of the den. Light shone through the floorboards above, telling her it was morning. She looked to her right and noticed Rhydian had vanished from her side. He's probably with Ceri, she thought. Since they had arrived in Stoneybridge, Rhydian had barely left his mother's side, despite the fact she spent most of her time asleep. Maddy hadn't seen him like this in years, and spent most of last night worrying about his wellbeing.

As she sat up, she noticed Jana was also missing from her mattress on the other side of the room. Maddy grabbed her phone and checked the time. 7:08. It was so early, where was everyone?

She got up and pulled a jumper over her vest and sweatpants. She could hear voices above her and identified them as Jana's and Dr Whitewood, but couldn't determine what they were discussing.

Still half-asleep, Maddy pulled herself up the stairs and into the kitchen, where the other two were eating breakfast. "You guys are up early," She said, "Where's Rhydian?"

"Gerwyn's taken him out. He thought it would be a good idea to take a walk around Stoneybridge." Jana explained through mouthfuls of cereal.

"Why?" Maddy asked, joining her at the table.

"To calm Rhydian down, remind him of home. Becca gave her diagnosis earlier, and Rhydian didn't take it very well."

Maddy looked at Becca expectantly.

"I finished analysing Ceri last night." Dr Whitewwod explained, "I gave her some things that will ease her symptoms, and she has to get plenty of rest. I believe she has advanced bacterial pneumonia."

"Is that bad?" Maddy asked.

"It's certainly not good. If it was viral pneumonia the illness would eventually subside by itself, but bacterial pneumonia can get much more serious, especially considering Ceri's immune system was weakened by Kincaid."

"She could be ill for at least another month." Jana added, "She needs antibiotics..."

"We brought antibiotics," Maddy said.

"Human antibiotics won't work." Dr Whitewwod replied, "The illness is most likely in her bloodstream, which is what makes wolfbloods different from humans."

"So...we use wild wolfblood medicine?" Jana asked. Admittedly, she herself didn't know the intricate detail of wild remedies. After all, she wasn't a healer. She definitely didn't know how to treat pneumonia...

"Not necessarily. Remember that Gerwyn said nothing the wild pack used was effective. It looks like we'll have to combine the two until we find something that works." Dr Whitewood explained.

"That sounds dangerous..." Maddy said cautiously.

"They're more similar than you think, Maddy." Jana answered, "The main problem is how long it's going to take."

"Jana's right." Dr Whitewood agreed, "We need to start treating her as soon as possible, but in terms of science we're in totally unexplored territory. Merging human and wolfblood medicine isn't going to be easy."

"Ok. What can I do to help? I'm not exactly a scientist or healer..." Maddy asked.

"Make sure Ceri is comfortable and has everything she needs." Dr Whitewood replied.

"And take care of Rhydian," Jana added, "I know he wants to look after his mother, but he needs some rest too."

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"I still don't fully understand what my mum said..." TJ admitted, thoughtfully swirling his milkshake with a straw. He was in the Kafe with Selina and Matei (Technically the cafe had been shut for an hour, but Katrina felt deprived of wolfblood company since Jana had left), and had just told them about his conversation with his mother the night before.

"To be fair, TJ, you rarely fully understand anything," Selina replied, laughing. "Look, from what your mum said, it seems they're just trying to stick up for wolfbloods. That's a good thing, right?"

"That's if you believe TJ's mum..." Matei mumbled from the other side of the table.

TJ pulled a face of despair. "Holy mother of wolfbloods, are you still upset about Jana? She'll be back next week."

"It's not that," Matei replied bitterly.

"Then what is it?" TJ asked

Matei reached into his backpack and pulled out an opened envelope.

"Letter from college." He explained, "Apparently universities cannot accept applications from wolfbloods due to "concerns involving security and wellbeing of humans"."

"What does that mean?" Selina asked, examining the letter.

"They're not accepting wolfbloods into universities until they can be sure we're not going to eat our housemates," Matei answered, half-jokingly.

"That sucks. Sorry mate..." TJ began.

"It's ok for you, TJ. Your mum's gonna get you a nice big job at Wolfbloods Incorporated." Matei replied bitterly.

"What are you guys talking about?" Katrina asked, appearing from the kitchens.

"Segolia" Selina replied.

"Why am I not surprised," Katrina replied sarcastically. The three wolfbloods looked at each other. She was right; it seemed that Segolia followed the pack around, along with never-ending trouble.

"Kara works there now," Katrina added, "You remember Kara, right? She started a few weeks ago."

"Oh yeah? What does she do?" TJ asked out of politeness.

Katrina paused, trying to remember. "She did tell me...I didn't really understand it though. Some kind of new department or something..."

She shrugged and returned to the kitchens.

"I wonder if I could work at Segolia," Selina said. Ever since her scholarship had been taken away, she'd struggled to think of a new career path. But now that she had experienced first hand the new era of Segolia, something about it resonated with her.

"I can ask my mum." TJ offered "She can search around the departments, get you some more information..."

Selina smiled. "That would be great."

Matei scoffed. "Are you serious?"

"If they're working to make a better world for wolfbloods, I want to be part of that." Selina retaliated, glaring at Matei.

"I mean, it doesn't look like we have many other options," TJ added.

"You're right. My scholarship got cancelled, universities are denying access, what other choice do we have? I'm not putting my life on hold until humans decide what I can and can't do." Selina said.

The pair looked at Matei, whose eyes flitted between them and the letter lying on the table.

"I guess it would be nice if we all worked together..."

Author's note

Hi reader! Sorry for the infrequent chapter updates, hopefully I'll get better at sticking to an upload schedule.

Thanks for staying with this story, please vote etc if you enjoyed xxx