Chapter Sixty Three

Katie woke up the next morning feeling better than she thought she should have. The muscle aches were gone and she felt like a heavyweight had been lifted off her. The feeling of the drug in her system was starting to fade, however, the werewolf remained asleep, just like the moon goddess had promised. Katie got up and began going through her routine stretches, thoughts coming through her mind and leaving just as fast. She dismissed the case of the traitor and allowed her mind to dwell on other things such as the Festival ahead of them.

It was a chance to have fun with the others and there was nothing going to put that to an end. As the troubles of the day before left her conscience, the troubles of the new one dawned on her, regardless she didn't feel at all weighed down by it. She finished her stretches and took a quick bath. Regardless of having awoken at six in the morning, she found breakfast ready and the breakfast table set. Her guardians were both putting on aprons getting ready to eat their food. "Took you long enough, sleepyhead," Uncle Tom spoke.

"Good morning," she greeted, closing her eyes and allowing her nose to enjoy the amazing aromas that came from the food they'd prepared.

"Good morning, Katie. Sit down and have breakfast. We were told about your tight schedule this morning, so we got up early to make sure you didn't set off on an empty stomach," she explained before taking out a chair for her to sit.

"Thanks, guys. This is awesome… It looks so delicious," she replied, eyeing the food greedily.

"By all means, help yourself to our combined cooking. I did most of the work," Uncle Tom boasted.

"Oh, come on, Tom. Making coffee is nothing to be proud of…"

"Ouch," Katie pitched in, taking a sip of her coffee, "Going to be hard to come back from that one…"

"Who's side are you on?" Uncle Tom, completely defeated, turned to his daughter.

"Your coffee is amazing," she complimented.

"Thank you… Not the point, you totally took her side there," he swatted her distraction.

"I know how terrible you are at using salt. Your food is always salty. I can tell who cooked these eggs and bacon," she returned.

"Fair enough, but I still could have asked for… Oh, never mind, it's hard to argue when you are eating like that," the man chuckled when he noticed the food was a bigger priority at the moment than the argument that was inevitably going to end in his defeat. Katie would not stop gobbling up what was in front of her.

"You know, honey. Raising Katie has been too easy," Aunt Marie said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katie asked, looking up from her plate.

"It simply means that you've been a perfect child. You never cried or gave us trouble. We were inexperienced youngsters when we were given the responsibility of taking care of you and yet, you didn't give us that much trouble. You never had any cases with the school. Never got into trouble with the other kids except for the one you insulted that one time during Junior Hunter training and got him to even move out of Brigadia," Uncle Tom explained.

"Oh, you mean Jeremiah?" Katie asked.

"You still remember his name? That's one memory you have," he said.

"I didn't want him to give up becoming a hunter because of what I said. To be honest, on that day, he helped me out by not fighting me at his best. I had muscle aches everywhere," I said.

"The hunters in charge of that session told us of your condition. We were forced to give you a week's rest from training…"

"That was torture. I felt like a potato lying on that couch doing nothing as your rules dictated," she pouted. The family continued to enjoy each other's company for a while before something else came to their attention. Katie, who seemed to have a wolf in her stomach that day for reasons unknown to her, asked for seconds and finished the plate of food with her stomach still growling for more food.

"Are you okay, Katie?" Aunt Marie asked worry etched on her face.

"I'm still hungry. Why am I still hungry?" the girl whined, clutching her belly in exasperation. It was like the food was being drained right out of her belly.

"You did say the moon goddess made it so that you didn't have to take those pills. I might say you have a wolf in your belly," she giggled at the joke.

"That's not funny. Am I going to be like this as a werewolf as well?" she asked.

"Normally, I'd say you just need more food because your wolf is finally waking up, but considering you have both Prometheus gifts, I'm not sure how much food the two of you are going to need," Aunt Marie voiced her concerns watching her daughter rush to the kitchen for her third serving of the delicious breakfast. It was true that when Katie let loose, she could eat a lot considering how much energy her Prometheus gifts demanded, but this was double what she normally craved when she was holding back.

"Katie, you better stuff yourself with food. We'll prepare more if you want, but don't leave this house with that pit unattended. You don't want to embarrass yourself in front of Cole like that," Uncle Tom began.

Katie stared at the man with her mouth open, "You're unbelievable. This is embarrassing no matter how you spin it."

"Be that as it may, which it shouldn't in the presence of family, we'd be happier to know that you left this house with your tummy full," Aunt Marie said.

Katie covered herself with her palms, "Rogues are always calling me a monster before I kill them, but this is what finally makes me feel like one." Her parents chuckled before getting to work nourishing her. After all, this was part of why they woke up this early; to make sure that their pride and joy was doing just fine. Katie left the house close to seven finally free of the hunger that had plagued her.

"When you said you were hungry, I didn't think you'd…"

"Let's try to forget about that, mum. It's embarrassing," she whined loudly, missing her violation after having been mothered the entire morning. Aunt Marie pulled her into a tight hug holding the child at the door. 'Where did this come from?' she thought before realizing what she'd said. "I didn't mean…"

"Just this once, Katie… I'll allow it," Aunt Marie paused holding onto her daughter, "just this once." The next time they would be meeting was going to be at the cabin that evening to lock her up for her transformation. Katie hugged her back, Uncle Tom joining them a moment later before they let her go.

Once Katie was out of earshot, Marie buried her face into the chest of her loved one crying softly into him while he rubbed circles into her back, "She doesn't even know…" she sniffled, "that we just had our last breakfast together." The detail had slipped Katie's mind because of the numerous plans of preparation that had run through her mind that morning.

Tom couldn't find what to say… What could he say? This was breaking him just as much as it did his wife. Memories of raising the girl were flashing before his eyes. They'd woken up early that morning just to spend their last morning with their daughter. They knew she wasn't going to notice their farewell breakfast, but they were okay with that… for she needed her focus and resolve for what lay ahead.