Chapter 39

JUSTIN POV

Sweat is dripping down the back of my neck, trickling down my back. I run my hands through my hair, which has grown out from my normally buzzed cut. I’m wearing a path in the ground from the pacing I’m doing between these two giant trees. This is our usual meeting spot. He’s running late. I get anxious when he’s late. The updates I have for him should make him pleased, dare I say happy? He took me under his wing years ago. He was my mentor. The closest thing to a father since I lost mine to the fucking plague. My father died when I was 13 years old. My mother got the plague first- that seemed to be how it happened to everyone. All the women got sick first. Their mates and children had to watch them slowly die, and then the men died. There were a few exceptions where the male mates got sick first, but it was almost always the women who died first. My father loved my mother. He didn’t have to die. He was selfish.

I guess the pain of living without my mother was too pai