Feral Passion

by Avery Duncan

  “Yeah, well, so has Calvin!” she exclaimed, voice exasperated.

  Raffaele groaned, trying not to break the phone as his grip tightened. “Great. What now?”

  “I want to file a report for harassment, Raff. I’m not even joking right now--this is crap,” she raged, the sound of papers fluttering coming from the background.

  “What. Happened.”

  “Calvin came in here, demanding the papers and even saying that he printed more off. He also said that he needed your stamper thingy--you know, for when you send out letters? Yeah, he came in here asking for that and then he threatened me!” she gasped, outraged. Hannah paused to catch her breath. “Then he tried telling me to clean the meeting room for him because he had some ‘associates’.”

  Calvin was taking too many rights in his absence, and while the demand for the papers concerned him, even angered him, his employees safety was also important.

  “What did he say to you, that made you feel threatened?” he asked, reaching out for his notepad, as he should have done as soon as he got the call.

  “Just general creeper terms,” she said, the snort in her voice clear. “How pathetic? I mean really! The guy has some problems and I cannot believe you haven’t demoted him yet. Excuse me for saying this, Mr. Boss-sir, but why are you so stupid when it comes to employees?”

  Forgetting about his earlier depression momentarily, Raffaele choked out a laugh, and a cautious voice said, “I meant no harm, and I didn’t mean me when I said that!”

  “Don’t worry, Hannah. I can’t afford to lose someone as good as you are. Although, if he continues to ask for property papers and my stamp, I will be signing the demotion papers. Violation of the trust and company won’t be tolerated,” he growled.

  “Yes! And I also sent you those papers the other night, so if you just print them out and sign them, you can fax them to me and I can turn them in!” Hannah sounded a little...too delighted, not that Raffaele minded.

  “Alright, Han. Listen, I still have things to do so I’ll get back to you later. Call me or text me if anything comes up and I’ll see what I can do without having to leave here.”

  There was a smile in her voice as she said, “Okay! Chase and I were talking a little bit ago, something about...a woman?” she asked, the interest plain in her voice.

  Raff growled. “That’s great. Just great. How many people in the office know?” he asked, rubbing his forehead as his cheeks heated.

  “Just... Well, I can’t really...”

  “Spit it out, Hannah.”

  “Okay!” she said, sullen. “If you come back here and everyone is throwing flowers and asking about engagement rings, don’t blame me, alright? I promise, it wasn’t me!”

  Raff choked, horrified, then hung up the phone on his awful secretary.

  Of course, though, his phone chose the exact moment that he was putting it away to go off again, and he put it to his ear with a sigh, straightening on the couch.

  “Y’ello,” he said broodily into the phone, deciding to get a drink from the bar.

  “Hey, it’s Romero. Ulrich was asking about Mary, they were supposed to go out for something. He tried calling her but she hasn’t answered so I was wondering if you saw her at all,” he said as a greeting, causing Raffaele’s blood to chill.

  “No... I haven’t,” he said.

  “She said that she had to head over to the hospital a bit ago, did you talk to her around ten-ish?” he asked, sounding more like a cop than a concerned friend.

  Raff thought back to what had happened at the hospital, the hurt in her eyes, the way she had driven and left so quickly.

  “I...did,” he said numbly, face paling.

  “Do you know where she might have gone?” Romero asked, tongue in check. The man could tell that something had happened, and although they were looking for Mary, he would wait till Raffaele said something about it.

  “I don’t...”

  “That doesn’t--”

  Silence, then muffled voices from the other line. Raffaele was just about to ask what was happening when Romero said hurriedly, voice hard and dangerous, “Someone called in.”

  “And?”

  “Mary was found out in the back country roads, passed out by a small pond.

  Chapter 28

  The sound of voices, sharp and hard, were the only thing that Mary could actually comprehend. Her body was numb, mind weak, and eyes...darkened. Hands snapping out, she tried grasping onto something when dry...stuff, clumped between her hands. Trying to sit up, to understand what was happening and where she was, she started getting frustrated when she couldn’t get the strength.

  Something grabbed onto her shoulders, the voices quieting. Nothing except her mind worked, her thoughts barely processing at the right speed.

  She whimpered at the unfamiliar touch, the hard hands grasping her tightly. Was she going to die? she thought, slowly starting to realize the danger she had placed herself in by being so careless.

  “We have her,” someone said, static being a reply.

  “Got’cha. Is there any physical harm?” a deeper, more recognizable voice asked. The sound of crunched steps came close by her ear, then she felt herself being moved. Her eyes blinked open slowly--although it seemed like they were being forced open.

  It took a second for her to recognize Ulrich, green eyes blazing with anger and fear, his hold on her tender, reverent. He dropped his hand from holding her eye open, then swiftly started carrying her. “God, Mary. What were you thinking?”

  She struggled to talk, grabbing her throat with frustration when she found that her teeth were chattering too much to do so. Her feet were soaking wet, the cold water slipping off of them, leaving them numb and vulnerable to the freezing air.

  “Is she alright?” someone asked, coming up beside them.

  Mary watched Ulrich nod, arms tightening under her body as he supported her fully. “I’m not really...sure. I want her checked out, and tell Raffaele that we found her. Poor jackass was worrying the whole time, I swear the guy is worse than a mama bear.”

  Her heart had already been running like a racehorse, but when she heard Jacques’ name, it somehow managed to get double the speed, her head going light. She felt hurt, pain, distance and maybe even off-put by the sound of his name.

  What her brother had said registered, causing her heart problem to worsen. She could have bitten him for making this happen, but it was useless now.

  Jacques had worried about her? Like...he cared? Her eyes closed on a shudder, the coldness seeping throughout her body more quickly now, making her feel more different than she had before.

  “Got it... Mary, you’re such a dumbass sometimes,” Romero chided, eyes worried as they ran over her damp legs and shivering form. As a shudder wracked her body, Ulrich quickened his pace, lips pressing.

  She glared at him through her roiled emotions, knowing that through everything that was happening, he didn’t have to be calling her names. But obviously, her brother agreed since he didn’t speak up to correct him. Digging her nails into his arms, she looked up in time to see a flash of anger in his eyes as he stared down at her.

  “The next time you do something like this, I will hold you down and beat sense into you. I’m not even joking right now, Mary. And I know a couple of people who would be more than willing to help.”

  Placed inside in what she was assuming was an ambulance, someone wrapped a blood pressure pump around her arm, and she watched in horror as a needle came for her. Ulrich sprang into the back of the large car with them, grabbing onto the hand of a dark haired doctor, shaking his head.

  “I wouldn’t do that... Anything with needles and we are all dead.” Mary could only agree with his warning.

  “But, chief... It’s required, especially with her status...” the tech said, stuttering.

  Ulrich stared the man down while Mary felt bad for the man as his stutter worsened and he backed up. “You should also know that when you don’t listen to the leader�
��s brother, bad things happen. Needles? Are a no. Thank you for understanding,” he said curtly, eyes blackening with his warning.

  The tech swallowed nervously, Mary glaring at her brother for making the poor guy nervous. She could have told him plain and simple that she didn’t want the needle shoved inside her skin without Ulrich’s help.

  Lights of the city rushed through the car as they traveled quickly, the blackness of gone day illuminating the never ending sky. For the first time, she wondered how long she had actually been out there, and how much risk she has posed by talking with Kevin.

  She lay on the gurney, eyes trained on the cieling of the sterile van, thoughts racing as she struggled to understand everything. Surely Kevin wouldn’t have kept her there had he realized that she was in danger, would have forced her awake. But then...

  Mary jackknifed, eyes wide. “Oh my god!” she screeched, hands flying to her mouth. In seconds, her brother was up ad clutching her shoulder, everyone in the van coming to attention at her scream.

  She stared at her brother, eyes wide and panicked, trying to breath. “Kevin,” she choked out, body shuddering as she remembered what he had told her.

  Her head fell into her hands, horror roiling through her as dangerously as a train would have. At that moment, she much wished one would come rolling along to kill her. Her eyes closed as tears stung her eyes, heart lurching in her chest.

  She didn’t want to go through with what Kevin had told her.

  Co-leaders was just a euphemism for bonding. Her hands shook, eyes watering unstoppably. Was it the cold that was still imprinted inside of her being, the cold in her heart, or the fear of what was to come?

  “Mary?” Ulrich asked, the worry in his voice biting her.

  “What.” Her voice was groggy, wavering--close to tears.

  “Are you...hurt?” he asked, uncertain. He pulled her in for a hug, one that she would have accepted if she hadn’t been told what she had been earlier.

  She said nothing in reply, only stared down at her hands, extracting herself from Ulrich. Was she that bad of a leader that she had to be forced into a binding with Jacques? God, she prayed that it had just been a bad dream--even while she knew it hadn’t been.

  “Where is Jacques?” she asked, voice soft, resilient.

  Ulrich got confused. “He’s at the station with his friend. They couldn’t come with me because of protocol, but they’re waiting for us there,” he explained, crossing his arms over his chest, frowning.

  “Why did you come looking for me? I wasn’t in any trouble, not like it was a big deal that I went missing for a couple of hours.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

  “Why did we go looking for you?” he repeated, astounded. “Because it’s close to midnight, and only a couple of hours ago we got a call saying that you were sited passed out from an anonymous caller who only gave us that much information! As leader, you have responsibilities! You can’t just leave to take a break, Mary. You can’t just excuse yourself of your duties!” By the time he was done, his voice had risen to a coarse shout.

  She shrank back from the anger in his voice, eyes widening. Sure, they had fought before--what brother and sister didn’t--but never had it seemed so...angry. A weight on her shoulders pressed down, almost made her sob, hoping that it would relieve the pain she was starting to feel.

  Not just from her legs, but her very soul. “I’m sorry...” she started, voice faint, hands twisting in her lap.

  “You should be. What you did was plain fucking stupid,” he grated, both of them ignoring the looks from the techs as they finished checking her out.

  “Ma’am, we have to check for a concussion,” one of them broke in hesitantly. holding up a small pen light.

  Swallowing, holding back the threat of tears, she let them check and knew that they wouldn’t find one. Mary hadn’t been hurt at all, besides about what Kevin, Ulrich, and Jacques had said to her. Why did it feel as if the universe was turning on her?

  Static was heard as the receiver up front went off. “Arriving in less then two minutes.”

  What the driver said was true; they were out of the ambulance and she was being wheeled into the hospital corridors, as much as she protested.

  Everyone was tense around her, and she could have slapped every single one of them for it. It’s not like she had been attacked or anything, and she knew for a fact that she wasn’t close to dying. Except for the pain in her legs that was spreading everywhere, she was perfectly fine...physically.

  Mentally? Not so much.

  Mary was silent as they put her in a room, ran small tests on her, and basically annoyed the hell out of her. Small talk was barely made, the atmosphere sterile and awkward, stiff and closed off.

  Ulrich wasn’t in the room, just her and a human female nurse. Looking at the woman who was checking her vitals, she realized that the sooner the new hospital--well, clinic--was up, everything would be so much better--and safer.

  The nurse left silently, placing Mary’s jacket next to her slowly.

  She hopped off of the bed, taking a breath as her legs took the brunt of her landing, knowing that it had been dumb of her to get up after still feeling like a frozen icepop.

  Mary didn’t hear the door open.

  Arms came around her body, a scream building in her throat, all too late.

  Chapter 29

  Relief, sharp and painful, coursed throughout Raffaele as he held Mary in his arms, alive and safe, uninjured and still as pure as she had been. Ulrich had been lenient enough to give him small details and had even let him be the first one to have time wth her.

  Not knowing if she had been okay enough to even stand, or be awake, he had been over-joyed to see her stand, although she had moved stiffly. Unable to hold himself back, he had strode over and embraced her as he had wanted to from the moment he saw her in the hospital’s parking lot only a couple of days ago.

  “Oh--” Mary’s voice rang shrilly, causing him to wince. His hand snapped over her mouth, shushing her.

  Fearful that he had hurt her, he turned her in his arms to get a look at her face, scanning for bruises or any sort of injury. Raff held her gently, yet firmly in case she got weak kneed and fell. She was slightly wobbly, as if she couldn’t stand right.

  “Are you alright?” he asked, holding her jaw.

  Mary didn’t reply, only stared at him, eyes wide yet emotionless. Then, she yanked herself form his grasp and back peddled, wrapping her arms around her chest defensively.

  “Hey...” he said quietly, watching as her eyes started to tear up, even though she wasn’t looking at him. It seemed that she was looking everywhere but him.

  “Where is my brother?” she asked, seeming to not hear him at all. Her voice was jerky, full of suppressed emotion that only made him wince because deep down, he knew that he was part of why she looked so close to breaking down.

  “Don’t know,” he said, walking close to her, ignoring that she backed up till she was completely against the wall. Her wide, red rimmed eyes met his pained blue ones. Raff got close enough that he just had to move an inch closer and they would be pressed together, enough that he could feel the heat radiating off of her body. “What I said earlier...” he started, hand coming up to barely brush his thumb against her cheek.

  Her face turned from his, breath catching on a small sob.

  “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I promise. The last thing on Earth that I would ever want to do is hurt you,” he murmured, uncharacteristically tender and worried about her.

  He heard her breath catch, not with tears, but in an honest gasp. He watched the blush spread up her cheeks, she started to smile. Then it fell.

  Her eyes hardened. “You made it clear that you didn’t want me know you, and it seemed at the time that you could care less about my feelings. Not like they are important to you anyways. I’m sure you have millions of long legged blond women just waiting for you back at your home.”

  Raffaele shook his head, not angry but regretful. �
�That came out the wrong way, Mary. Have I given you any inclination that I wouldn’t want you, to talk to you, at all in these past days?” he asked, looking at her with a small smile that was close to speaking his heart. He completely ignored what she had said about the long legged woman--she was hitting to close to home.

  Her brow wrinkled. “Well... What you said...”

  “I already told you, love. I didn’t mean it to come out that way,” he explained calmly, watching her eye brows scrunch even more.

  “Why didn’t you come get me, if you cared so much?” she finally deanded, looking up at him with suspicious eyes.

  “To find you earlier, or after you walked out on me?” he asked, crossing his arms.

  Mary flushed. “Both.”

  “Well,” he started chidingly, grabbing her hand to sit her on the white, sterile hospital bed. “I had to take care of getting my uncle out of here the first time. I couldn’t just leave him and Chase here. And I had thought that you were to angry at me, and that I should hold back a bit, to let you cool off.”

  She bit her lip, considering. Confused, out of his place, and wondering what the hell was going on with him to make him act like this to her--to anyone. Raffaele brought his hand up, cupping her cheek. He tried to stop himself, he really did. It was just hard to when she looked so uncertain, as if she had lost her mind and couldn’t think straight and needed his help doing so--which he was all too willing to give.

  Finally, Mary asked--more like whispered, “And when I was in the woods?”

  “Ulrich wouldn’t let me. Romero explained that since I had no tangible clue as to where you might be, I couldn’t take the risk--being a civilian here, and also a leader. I wanted to though... God, did I want to,” he said gruffly, dragging her into his chest.

  They sat there for several seconds, Mary awkward in his arms, Raffaele enjoying how well she fit there. Suddenly, everything seemed as if it were okay, and that this had been happening for forever. His nightmare with the unknown woman was long gone from his mind as he craddled Mary to him, thankful to the gods that she was alright.