Chapter 17: Broken

Chapter 17: Broken

21st century.

Conrad sat on the nurses table and waited patiently to be attended to. Connie stood by the corner without uttering a word but occasionally her eyes wandered to where her brother was, especially the bleeding claw mark on his abdomen.

She knew he was in pain because she felt the sting of the injury she inflicted on him earlier in the classroom.

"Are you alright?" She asked him and sat down beside him.

"What do you think?" Conrad retorted.

Connie exhaled and scratched her forehead. "It wasn't my fault you decided to use yourself as a human shield for that garage! You should have stayed out of it, Conrad. You were get good at staying out of my business until now"

Conrad turned around and grabbed her hand forcing Connie to look at him out of both surprise and curiosity.

"Why?" Conrad asked her.

"Why what? Why did I attack your newest pet project? Because I felt like it!" Connie told him.

"No, I don't care about the omega, Concetta!"

"Then why did you stop me, Conrad. She deserved it, she stuck me and yet you defended her. You chose her over your own twin sister. Bravo brother!" Connie jeered at him.

"I stop you because you would have killed her and this is the white oak pack! We don't kill members of our pack including omega bloods. You know this, Connie! You would have been exiled for a number of years and put father in an impossible position" Conrad yelled at her.

Connie settled down and rolled her eyes. The consequences of her actions started to dawn on her but she shrugged it off.

"Oh please, I wasn't going to kill her. It was just a scratch"

Conrad ripped his shirt off and showed her her handiwork. "Take a look, I am a pure blood Werewolf and I am barely keeping myself from screaming in pain. Do you think a previously Comatose omega with a brain issue would have survived this?"

Connie watched the distinctive three craw lines on her brother's abdomen that was currently gushing out blood and she accepted defeat.

"Okay, maybe I wasn't thinking straight…sorry"

"And still leads me back to my question…why?" Conrad asked her and adjusted his shirt.

"Why what?"

"Why are you pretending to be a horrible person, Concetta?"

Connie stood up and stared at the pictures of the human body on the wall. She took her time but at the end she answered.

"Maybe, it's who I am now, brother"

She turned around and faced him. Her face, devoid of any distinctive emotion and her heartbeat unnaturally still to a steady pace in the shortest amount of time.

Conrad shook his head. "No, I refuse to believe it"

"Why? It's the truth, Conrad"

"No" Conrad muttered and stood up forcing Connie to go to him and make him sit back down.

Conrad groaned and held steadily to the table as the bout of pain subsided.

"Why can't you believe what is staring you right in the eyes, Conrad?"

"Don't you understand? Because you can't be this and be the sister that picked up a viper snake to stop it from hurting me, you were six years old, Concetta"

Connie looked away, only two people called her Concetta. Conrad but only occasionally when he is trying to make a point and their mother. She hated that he was calling her that now, forcing her to remember someone she would rather not remember. And she hated that he was forcing her to be someone she wasn't anymore.

"People change, brother" Connie muttered.

Conrad placed his hands on hers and squeezed.

"No but people get hurt and lash out. They also shut people closest to them out like when you shut down our private mind link when Mama died. You are grieving, sister and you are lashing out. I get it but I can help you"

Conrad felt the drop of tears on his cheeks and he wiped them off. He pressed his lips tightly together to prevent him from getting more emotional. He was the future Alpha of the largest werewolf pack on this side of the country, he would do well to control his emotions.

Conrad looked at his sister. Whereas he was struggling with his emotions at the mention of the dead Luna, Connie was calm and collected. There was no distinctive emotion or any indication that he was talking to his twin about their recently deceased mother.

"Why did you do that? Why did you even shut down our link after our mother passed? I was grieving too and it would have been easier to know that someone else felt that loss the way I did. Maybe I wouldn't have felt alone if I knew my sister felt the same heartbreaking sharp pain in the gut or the queasy stomach or the one thousand and one things I felt, Connie"

"I didn't"

Connie's voice was a bare whisper. But Conrad heard every word. She turned and she looked her brother straight in the eyes.

"I don't….feel anything, brother. I don't feel love or pain or joy or anything at all. I am not grieving because I don't want to but because I can't. But I am angry all the time, and if I keep it in….I am going to explode, don't you understand?"

Conrad grabbed her face with both his hands "That can't be right!"

"Am I crying, Conrad?" Connie went to the nurses table and picked up a scalpel and tried to cut herself but Conrad took it away from her.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't have felt that too. Mom died and she took my feelings with her and now, I am empty, Conrad. Letting you in into my empty mind would have hurt you more than letting you grief alone"

"Concetta" Conrad called out in horror.

"I am broken, Conrad and you can't fix me but you can stay the hell out of my business, okay?"

Connie stood up and she walked out.

"That can't be right"