“My dad shot me…” I breathed, looking into his glowing yellow eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing my lips gently like he had the first time, and spun around, taking me with him.
“Stay with me…” he insisted while we ran with his wolves flanking us, the scenery escaping from my unfocused eyes.
I could feel the blood dripping down my hip, but my stomach was beginning to go numb. “You are such a beautiful wolf,” I whispered, remembering the lush white fur that covered his form. He looked so majestic.
Pretty Boy looked down at me with a heartwarming expression, as though he didn’t expect anything less from me, and held me closer to his chest until my head fell onto his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. Did that hurt you?”
“I can’t feel it anymore…”
With my reply, his speed increased, the beating of his heart thundering against me. It seemed he was running twice as fast. “We are almost there…”
Idly nodding, I reveled in the feel of his warm skin under my cheek. “Are you still naked?”
He slightly chuckled, but when I glanced up at him, I found pain in his eyes. “You’ll have plenty of chances to see me naked. Just hold on for me, my love.”
I was pretty sure I was still hallucinating but I liked the way his voice softened when he called me that. Taking a shallow breath, I felt the energy draining from me slowly, the trees, shrubs, and even the sky fading from my eyes.
“Stay with me, Aria!” Pretty Boy anxiously begged when my eyes rolled back. “Stay with me... mate.”
Chapter Eight
The beeping of a heart monitor slowly filtered into my ears as consciousness returned to me. My eyes fluttered open to find spotlights lit up on the ceiling, sterile white walls, and what felt like a million wires stuck to my chest. However, it was the unmistakable smell seeping through my nose that told me where I was.
A hospital. Confusion soon spread through me. Had Pretty Boy taken me to the ER? How? He couldn’t have possibly run the whole way here with the other wolves. Darn it. I had been hallucinating, hadn’t I? He wasn’t a Wolf Shifter. Was he even at the site when everything transpired, or had that been a desperate attempt of my injured mind to have someone help me… protect me?
My hazy gaze roamed the room to find it empty. Completely empty. Tears stung my eyes, and I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much not to see anyone there. I’d grown up as independent as I could, but it wasn’t necessarily my choice. My entire life I had been alone; surrounded by people, but alone.
The first tear fell, and my hand lifted to wipe it away. My own father had shot me, so why was I expecting anyone to be here, waiting for me to awake? The movement made me cringe, so I looked at my stomach, lowering the sheet and lifting the hospital gown to reveal my wound.
Large gauzes covered the holes the bullets had left on me and a long bandage was wrapped around my torso, protecting it. However, I could still see two small, bloody stains on the dressing. Probably from forcing myself to move. My stomach burned with the injuries so I slowly lowered my back to the bed again, taking controlled breaths to calm the pain.
Checking on the aching skin in my arm, I noticed an IV was set up, and I followed the tubes to a saline solution bag and an almost empty blood bag that hung from the steel hook. I’d probably lost too much blood after being shot.
“You choose them above your own family?! You are as useless as your mother…”
Emotion burned my throat with my father’s words, but I glanced up, blinking the tears dry before they could even fall. What had he meant by that? Most of all, how could he shoot me?
“Welcome to the land of the living, dear.”
The voice startled me, and I cleared the pain from my throat, focused on a window I hadn’t even noticed was there. A beautiful forest extended on the other side. Trees so tall they could probably reach the sky surrounded the vast clearing, and what looked like twenty cabins formed a perfect circle around it.
Perplexed at seeing something other than the La Grande cityscape, or a parking lot filled with vehicles, I instinctively sat up, called outside by the joyous laughter of children playing in the kiddie park.
A stabbing pain instantly reached me, and I fell back on the bed.
“Now, why would you ever do that?” the woman asked chidingly. “I knew you were stubborn, but I didn’t figure you were stupid.”
Finally recognizing the voice, my head whirled to the left, to find an older woman in a white doctor’s coat lifting a challenging brow at me. She arranged two vials of medicine on the tray table, and a new bag of saline solution.
“Miss Baker? What are you doing here?” Then my eyes widened even more when another conclusion formed. “Am I dead?”
Wholehearted laughter escaped her, and she reached for the drained blood bag, removing it along with the saline one attached to it. “Does it feel like you are dead, dear?”
Both of my eyebrows wrinkled when I thought about it, seeing her inject morphine and something else into the new saline bag before connecting it to my IV. “Um, no. I suppose I wouldn’t feel pain in heaven.”
Turning to me with a curious glance after hanging the bag, she assessed me for a moment. “You think you would go to heaven if you died?”
The question wasn’t ill born, but it still stung. “Or maybe not. I’ve knowingly allowed everything my family has done. I have never been brave enough to stop them.”
“You were this time…” she offered with an appreciative glance.
“Yeah, and look where it got me.” With the admission, my gaze fell to my hands, ashamed.
She reached for my cheek, eyes filled with the kindness she’d always shown me. “Bad people don’t need permission to do bad things. Once they set their sight on hurting someone, nothing will stop them. Nothing will change their mind, and if their belief is strong enough, anyone who tries is betraying them.”
A heavy sigh left her, as though she knew first-hand the truth behind her words.
“In my opinion, heaven would be lucky to have you, dear. Just not quite yet.” She winked at me and pressed a button on the wall.
Her statement brought a small smile to my face, but confusion swiftly returned. “Miss Baker, what are you doing here? Are you a doctor?” I didn’t know her to be more than the Gossip Queen in town, but I supposed people had hobbies.
“Baker is not my real name, dear. You can call me Isabella.” She paused to give me a moment to retire my baffled expression. “I was a doctor when I was young,” she confessed, focusing on me once more. “I’m retired now, but this occasion called for all hands on deck.”
“Isabella?” I whispered, wishing I understood, just as the door opened and a younger woman walked inside the room.
As the door automatically closed behind her, I heard a man’s voice anxiously complaining, and someone was stopped from coming in, but it all disappeared too fast for me to distinguish who it was.
“I’m glad to see our sweet pea has finally awoken.” The girl’s smile was so sincere, it turned what I would have otherwise thought to be a sarcastic remark into a true endearment.
She was younger than me, and had long blond hair with pretty pink strands in between, but they were held back by a ponytail. A couple of wavy pink locks framed her face and she looked at the monitors behind me, placing the stethoscope that hung from her neck into her ears.
“Let’s see how that heart drums today.”
Coming closer, she placed the diaphragm on my chest and signaled for me to take a deep breath. I did, noticing the pain in my stomach had all but disappeared with the morphine.
“Girl, you have a party going on in there,” she snickered. “It’s good. I want to be invited and dance the night away, but you are still recovering from the gunshots, so I need you to calm down a bit.” Lowering the stethoscope from her ears again, she motioned for me to take slow and steady breaths with her, and I did. “How are you feeling?”
“I suppose everyth
ing that happened has me a bit frazzled still,” I confessed, and a kindhearted gleam shone in her eyes.
“It’s understandable.”
“You are my doctor?” I asked, a bit nervous. “How old are you?”
A slow smirk curved her lips with my question, but she wasn’t the one to reply as she reached for the dressing change she had brought into the room.
“She’s sixteen,” Isabella answered as amused as the girl was, but the pride that shone in her eyes was stronger. “And she is the best damn doctor you will ever see.”
The girl rolled her green eyes at the praise, then shook her head to me. “Super annoying, I know. You probably want some eighty-year-old man with a heavy belly and thick ass glasses, telling you everything is going to be okay, and you’ll be in tip-top shape in no time. But you are stuck with me.” Her nose scrunched up. “Don’t worry, girl. I totally get it.”
My lips twitched at her rant, I liked her. Her hands reached for my hospital gown and I helped lift it up, giving her access to check on my wounds.
“So, you know how you are kind of a veterinarian, except you have never gone to school for it?” she continued. “But you were lucky enough to realize when you were a tiny little girl that that was the thing you loved, so you read everything about it and pretty much taught yourself everything you could, then found someone who believed in you and could teach you the rest?”
I nodded, fully enjoying that she was pretty much telling me off for judging her based on her age.
“Girl, same.” She gave me a pointed look to emphasize her words.
“I was a general surgeon in my heyday, and I started tutoring her when she was a girl. I’ve taught her everything I know,” Isabella added, taking the dirty bandages away while the girl began to clean the injured area.
“So yeah, I’m a real doctor,” the girl finished, glancing at me with humor dancing in her green eyes. “Judgy much?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle when she winked at me. Yeah, I really liked her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. I’m grateful you saved my life.”
Lowering my gaze to my stomach, I found that only two small slits with stitches were visible, and my bewilderment grew. How was it possible my wounds were almost fully healed?
“I know,” the girl answered. “Just to be clear, we are not the ones who saved your life. We only made sure to treat you after someone else did.” Placing a cream on the wounds, she began to cover them again. “Oh, and I’m Violet by the way.”
Perhaps I nodded, but her statement went in one ear and out the other. I couldn’t seem to hear anything after ‘someone else saved you’. “Who?” I asked, pulse racing. “Who saved me?”
The beeping of the machines jumped into a frantic rhythm, reflecting the anxiety now running through me. I wanted her to say it had been him, but it couldn’t be, right? It wasn’t possible, because if he had, then it meant everything I saw was true, and not just a product of my injured mind.
Exchanging a glance, Isabella reached for my arm, stroking it soothingly. “We will tell you anything you want to know, but we need you to remain calm, dear.”
No. I shook my head, sitting up again, and pushing them away. “Who brought me here?!”
Sighing, Violet smiled at me. “I think you know him as Pretty Boy…” She paused as though to let the words sink in for me. “He’s my brother, and her grandson.”
“You are married?” I asked the woman I had thought to be someone I didn’t recognize anymore.
She nodded. “I was. He passed away long ago.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled but my heart was still running frantically.
This couldn’t be, could it? Blinking, I looked at how normal the girl seemed, and then at Isabella. They weren’t monsters or some strange malformation of a man. They were perfectly human, or at least they looked perfectly human.
“Then it’s true,” I gasped, gripping the bed as I leaned away from them. “Everything that happened with the wolves. Everything I saw. I-Is he?” I swallowed, my heart slamming against my chest. “Are you…?”
“Wolf Shifters,” Violet confirmed. “Yes, we are.” Her gaze went to the blood pressure monitor and concern tinged her soft features. “You are not in any danger with us, please believe me. Regardless of what you have heard, we mean you no harm,” she vowed. “Now, will you please take deep and slow breaths with me?”
I should have thrown the tray at her and run. I should have been scared out of my mind, but looking into her kind eyes, I believed her. Nodding, I began to breathe with her over and over again, her hand gently holding mine, until the beeping around us slowed. When the ruckus the machines had caused with my distressed state disappeared, the sound of growling and fighting outside filtered into the room.
Violet’s eyes crisscrossed as she gritted her teeth like she was trying to control herself. “Men are so impatient. I want to smack the shit out of them sometimes. She is fine!” she yelled towards the door, clearly out of patience.
“Don’t make me come out there!” Isabella shouted as well, and suddenly the growling stopped. She grinned at me knowingly. “He might be the Alpha but there is no man in this pack who isn’t afraid of me.”
I should have chuckled at her words, part of me wanted to, but the implication of the word Alpha made the reality fall on me like a bucket of iced water. “Wolf Shifters…” I repeated, swallowing again. I was literally in the wolves’ den.
“Dear, I know you are afraid of us, but I promise you, you shouldn’t be. There are life threatening dangers in these woods for humans. But none of them are us. We are not who you were told.” Glancing back at the door, she sighed when the sound of physical struggling and growling once again reached us. “I should let him in to visit, before he destroys the waiting room,” she huffed.
“Is that okay, Aria?” Violet asked. “Can my brother come in?”
The emotion that rushed through me was the last one I expected, but anticipation at the thought of having him close again and nervousness wreaked havoc in me instantly. Yes. The answer was a million times yes, except it made me feel guilty to want him here. Frankly, it made me feel like I had lost my darn mind.
“Okay,” I whispered, unable to fight the need growing inside me.
They both looked at me surprised by my reaction, then exchanged a relieved smile.
Lowering my gown again after changing my dressings, Violet pulled the sheets and blanket over me, and ran her fingers through my hair—fixing it. “There, a total knockout.”
Chapter Nine
Relaxing a bit while I watched them both walk to the door, I smiled. Then the nerves clawed at my belly. I fixed my hair too, and wiped the corners of my eyes, hoping there was nothing gross stuck there from being unconscious for only God knew how long. EW. Reaching for the water on the tray table I drank some too, feeling a minty and refreshing taste in the first sip.
The growling diminished until it finally stopped, and I heard Violet explaining my condition to her brother. Apparently, my high blood pressure was concerning, and she had given me something for it along with the morphine for the pain. She scolded him too, telling him to behave and keep me as calm as possible.
Her words concerned me, but I smiled at the way she put him in his place. Yeah, I definitely liked that girl.
The door burst open suddenly, and Pretty Boy entered like a mad man who had just been freed from his restraints. I jumped on the bed from the start, and a hand immediately smacked him upside the head.
“What did we just tell you?!” Isabella snapped, and he took a deep breath, looking at me with an apologetic expression.
Turning, he locked the door so we wouldn’t be interrupted, and when he faced me once more, my chest constricted. His hair wasn’t long at all but still managed to be disheveled, like he’d run his fingers through it countless times. There was a five o'clock shadow accentuating the sharp edges of his chiseled jaw, like he hadn’t shaved in days, and his chest rose and fell swiftly w
ith his anxious breaths.
“I’m fine,” I whispered, something inside me urging me to let him know I was okay. Nodding, he made his way to me, and it struck me how mind-numbingly HAWT he looked like that. I wasn’t sure if it was just the sexy rugged look in his physical appearance, or the fact that something told me he looked like that because he had been worried sick about me.
Probably the latter.
Sitting next to me on the bed, he held my cheeks like he had done it a million times, like he had the right to, and pressed his forehead against mine. I thought he was going to kiss me—in fact, I was ashamed to say I fully expected him to—but he just breathed me in, exhaling like the life had been returned to him now that he was by my side.
My entire body hummed, utterly pleased by his behavior, as if I had always had him by my side. Something about him felt so familiar, part of me somehow. It responded to him like I’d known him for years.
Leaning away, he placed a lingering kiss on my forehead, and glanced at me, intertwining our fingers in an intimate way.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I rasped, the voice suddenly leaving me. That statement overwhelmed me more than I thought it could, and the emotion I had been holding back ruptured. Tears instantly escaped my eyes.
Both heartache and rage filtered into his.
Cradling my neck as possessively as he had in Dr. Robert’s office, he brushed the tip of his nose against mine a second before giving me what I so desperately craved. Pretty Boy kissed my lips deeply, unrestrained, in a way that said he had been waiting a lifetime to kiss me that way, and my entire body gave into him.
His mouth moved against mine, taking away the pain that unfurled in my heart with his presence, and the final admission of what my own family, my father, had done to me. The kiss ended way too soon, and he hid his face in my neck, smelling me and holding me tightly to him. The pressure brought a slight tinge of pain to my stomach, but I didn’t care.
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