ROMANCE: BAD BOY ROMANCE: Entrapment ( Alpha Bad Boy College Romance Book 1) (Contemporary New Adult Alpha Male Romance)
Page 35
The doctor shrugged. “I’m about to draw some blood and run some tests. I’ll let you know then.”
* * *
Natalie felt surprisingly energetic when she woke up. Her vision was sharp, and she sprang up in bed. Where the hell was she?
“Easy.”
She turned to the familiar voice. “Jackson! You’re okay.” She reached over to hold him, but he kept his distance. “Jackson?” she asked hesitantly.
“Dr. Gratsky, she’s awake,” he called out. Immediately, an older and portly man came into the room.
“Natalie! How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” she said, bewildered. “How long have I been out?”
“Three days.”
“Three days!” she gasped. Suddenly, she remembered what happened. Her eyes widened as she grabbed at her shoulder. “Oh god. I’m a shifter. Paul. Paul bit me.” Her eyes filled with tears.
“You are not a shifter,” the doctor said with a smile. “I ran some tests, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure that you won’t turn.”
“How is that possible?” she asked in a small voice.
“Jackson tells me that you’re an empath. What do you know about being an empath?”
Natalie shrugged. “Not much. My grandmother was much better than I am. I just get a few faint traces of people’s emotions. Usually only when they’re strong.” She swallowed hard. “Although, now that I think about it, I feel some traces from both of you.”
She turned to Jackson. “Why are you afraid?”
He backed out. “I’m going to give you two some room,” he said quietly.
“Jackson?” she turned to the doctor. “What the hell is going on?”
“Natalie, has there been anyone you could talk to about this empathic ability that you have?”
“No,” she said slowly. “My grandmother has been gone for awhile now, and my mother never had the ability. But she passed away a few years ago. Why?”
“I just think if you knew more about your heritage, this might not have happened. You see, an empath isn’t just a psychic ability. It’s a type of witch.”
“A witch?” Natalie recoiled. “I would know if I was a witch.”
“It appears to be a recessive trait in you. When the shifter bit you, your body had to choose between one ability or another. And the recessive trait became a dominate one. It’s a good thing, too. It saved Jackson’s life.”
Shifter’s hated witches. That explained why Jackson didn’t want to stick around. He’d never care for her now.
Once again, she was alone.
“Do I need to stick around?” she asked in a neutral voice. “Is it okay if I leave?”
Gratsky frowned. “I’d like to keep an eye on you for a few more days, if that’s okay. I’ve never been able to examine a witch. It’s with your permission, of course.”
Natalie nodded, but she had no intentions of sticking around. Being near Jackson and not having him would hurt. She already knew that. “I’m going to get you something to eat,” the doctor said kindly. “Any requests?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said honestly. She didn’t plan on being around to eat it.
He exited the room. When she heard him leave the office, she immediately threw off the sheet on her bed. Stripping the bed gown off, she pulled on the pajamas she was wearing the morning of the attack and slipped out of the building.
At least this time she wasn’t running for her life. That would, at least, make things easier. She could go back to original plan of going to the city and settling down. If she hid the fact that she was a witch, maybe she would blend in with society a bit better.
“Always on the run.”
She froze. Jackson stood under the tree outside the clinic and watched her intently. “I just thought it would be easier,” she muttered. “For everyone.”
“You though it would be easier if you just ran away again? Is it that easy for you to leave me?”
She turned away from him. “Look, I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me. I really do. You saved my life. But things are different now.”
“How?”
She cocked her head. “What do you mean, how? Before I was a human with some psychic abilities. Now I’m a witch. Everyone knows that witches and shifters don’t mix. I know you hate me now.”
“Hate you?” in the blink of an eye, he’d crossed the small clearing and grabbed her wrist. “Why the hell would you say that?”
She pulled out of his grasp. “Are you kidding me? You could barely look at me inside. It’s clear that you can’t stand the sight of me. Why are you fighting me on this?”
He laughed hoarsely and pulled her into his grasp. “I definitely don’t hate you, Natalie. I failed you. I promised that I would keep you safe, and if it weren’t for your witch gene, you’d be a bear shifter. And you’d belong to Paul’s pack. I figured you’d hate me.”
She collapsed against him. It was nice to feel his warmth again. “You didn’t fail me. Every time I was in danger, you found me. I don’t hate you,” she muttered. “I love you. You did save me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I love you too, Natalie. I have from the moment I felt you enter my building.”
“Even though I’m a witch now?”
“You’ve always been a witch. Just because you’re more powerful now doesn’t change how I feel about you. And it doesn’t change anything about you. I don’t care if you’re a witch, vampire, or otter shifter. I love you. I love everything about you,” he whispered into her ear.
And in that moment, she was happier than she’d ever been in her entire life. Jackson loved her. “What do we do now?”
“You’re going to marry me.” He pulled back and searched her face. “You’re my mate.”
She punched him lightly in the arm. “Aren’t you supposed to ask, first?”
He shook his head. “And give you a chance to say no? Absolutely not. You’re mine.”
“I am yours,” she said with a smile. “But what about your pack?”
“They’ll love you. And no one is going to be upset with a witch by our side. But I have to warn you. I think something big is about to happen. And I’m not sure I want you in the middle of it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not leaving your side. If you’re going to be in the middle of it, I’m going to be in the middle of it. That’s what marriage is. That’s what love is.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and Natalie suddenly didn’t care about her being a witch or him being a shifter. She didn’t care about their past, and she didn’t care about the future. At that moment, he was a man that she loved. She was the woman that he loved. And life couldn’t be more perfect.
THE END
Desired by the biker
Derrick Jonas slowed down as the figure grew closer in the distance. It was a nasty night out, hell if he wasn’t trying to get away so badly he wouldn’t even be out on a night like this. The rain was coming down in folds, as if the skies had opened up and a bucket was being poured down to earth. Why was this person out on the side of the road on a night like this? Derrick wasn’t positive until he was almost stopped and about 20 feet from the figure that it was actually a person and not simply a figment of his imagination.
“What are you doing out here?” He said, looking at the soaked figure in front of him. Her hair was long and brown; it was wet, hanging over her eyes. Derrick looked closer at her, he barely could make out her dark brown eyes, but he saw fear in them.
“Hey, are you okay?” He asked her, walking towards her now that he had parked his bike.
She looked up finally, realizing there was another person with her now. Derrick saw a small spark of fear in her eyes, and she began to back up.
“I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay. Come on; let’s get out of this weather.” He waited to move toward her though.
It took a few minutes before she seemed to decide he was okay. But she didn’t move towards him, instead her shoulders slump
ed in and she began to fall forward. Derrick moved quickly to make sure she didn’t fall, grabbing her a second before she sunk into the wet floor of the waiting ground. He picked her up and carried her to his bike.
“Look I’m going to need you to hang onto me so you don’t fall off.” He looked into her eyes, waiting for some kind of response that she understood. She shook her head, but he wasn’t sure, so instead of putting her behind him, he placed her in front of him.
Derrick started up the bike, hoping that there was some shelter coming up soon. This girl looked soaked to death, and scared along with it. There was a little part of his mind screaming out, don’t take her anywhere, leave her there, let whatever will happen, happen.
It was the good guy in him that won out in the end though, the one that had been hidden for many years now. But there was no way he would be able to continue down the road, leaving this helpless young woman there, without help, or shelter.
As he drove his mind kicked into overdrive, and he began to wonder. The questions came at him with a force so great; he almost had to yell out for them to stop. Who is she? Why is she out there near the forest, on the side of the road? What is she so scared about? Too many questions and no time to ask them, at least not right now, maybe later.
He saw the hotel come out of the tapestry of rain as he got a few miles up the road. Derrick began to pull over and felt the girl tense up a bit. “I have to stop; it is too dangerous to drive right now.” The rain had begun to come down even harder in the past few seconds. Derrick knew his bike well enough, and his skills to know that there was no way that what he was doing was safe.
The girl shook her head in response. Derrick pulled in and got off the bike, then lifted her, setting her on the ground. She stood on her own, though a bit precariously. He wrapped his arm around her slight frame and felt her body tremble.
“Come on; let’s get out of the rain and cold.” He pulled her towards the restaurant that was beside the hotel. Even though he really wanted a bed and some much needed sleep, he knew this girl would think he was trying to do something bad to her.
The waitress placed them near the back of the restaurant, which was perfect for Derrick. He loved being out of the way, away from where he could easily be spotted. When the waitress came back for their order, Derrick got them both some coffee. The girl looked like she needed something to help warm up her body, and Derrick knew that and the caffeine were something he would be able to handle as well.
“So you want to tell me what you were doing out there?” Derrick said looking into the dark brown eyes of his unknown guest.
As she sat there, he studied her more closely. Her face was nice, but she wasn’t striking, however, there was a strange pull in his body. Her mouth was small and pleasant; it was also a bit crooked. There were many contradictions to her. A mixture of beauty, and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on. At least that was the only thing Derrick could compare how she looked.
Maybe she had been hit in the past, and those were old scars that had healed, leaving a permanent mark on her skin, and her soul. But Derrick still waited for her to answer, until that point it was all just guesses.
Her voice was so low when she started talking Derrick almost missed it. Thought it was the music playing from the juke box, or anything else, except her voice.
“He left me there. He said he was done with me once and for all, that I would never see him again.” Tears began to stream down her face. She stopped talking and just looked as the tears rolled; there was no sound with the tears though.
Derrick knew that state, it was one where you had cried so much about an event that you had no emotion left, but the tears just wouldn’t stop. He wished he could hug her, comfort her even, but knew it would be too forward.
Instead Derrick looked down at the table and allowed his mind to float back to the time in his life that had been normal. It seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it had only been a few years. Those years he had been happy, living a normal life, one that had him smiling each and every morning he woke up. He would gladly go back to those days, but they were too far away now.
It hit him like it did every time he would think back, the pain and anguish was always quick to replace the feeling of happiness he would first feel when he thought back. Now it was a mixture of shame, anger, grief, depression, and a bit more anger in the mix.
Had he done it differently, would he be where he was right now? It was part of the overall process of his grieving during this memory. He thought he had considered every option there was in this situation, but maybe the right one hadn’t come to his mind yet. So he would scour every recess of his mind to think of the other things that he might have done all those years ago.
What would he do with that new plan though? It wasn’t like he could turn back time and go to that one fatal night. No so why did he do it each and every time? Derrick often chastised himself about this type of thinking, but he would never change the pattern. Each time he would do this to himself, each and every step was the same, however, that didn’t mean he ever stopped it.
If he sat long enough he could see her long brown hair flowing behind her as they rode in the car. She was so beautiful, so much of his heart belonged to her, that after all this time just the memory of her would make it ache. Tears threatened to escape from his eyes, but he would stop them. It had been too long; he shouldn’t even waste his time on this. But he had to do it.
She had turned to smile at him and say something; he had looked over at her too. Taken his eyes off the road, only for a split second, but that had been long enough. Derrick tried to turn the memory off, stop it; he didn’t want to see anymore.
He cleared his mind, and looked up at the girl sitting across from him. He wondered what her story was, why had this guy simply left her on the side of the road.
Derrick took a deep breath in, trying to stop the memory that was trying to push the way to the front of his mind. He couldn’t do it right now, there was no way. He wasn’t ready to live the rest of that night, not right here, not now. It took him several minutes to compose himself enough that he could look up at her once again.
He looked up and saw her brown eyes, shinning, and staring right at him. She was studying him, he felt raw and open, like she could see into his inner core. He felt a blast of quick shame, and looked down to shake his head once again.
There weren’t many people who would ever see that part of him, in fact he couldn’t think of one. But he had not been paying attention. Had wanted to give her the time she needed to think of her pain, relive her past. Derrick had taken too long in his own past though, and she had finished hers. After all it was much fresher for her, it had happened recently, today even.
I know how this feels, Derrick thought to himself. Maybe I can help her. But he knew he shouldn’t do it. Instead he should simply pay for her coffee, give her a few dollars and leave her there. She would eventually find her way back to wherever she was from. It really wasn’t his problem, and he should just stay out of it.
But he looked back up at her, and saw the flash of pain in her eyes. Was it for him or for her? He wasn’t sure. But he saw the compassion that also came across her eyes. It had been so long since he had seen that look. It made him tingle inside. The good guy in him won the battle at that very moment. He wouldn’t be able to walk away and ever live with himself. It would be too much on what already weighed deeply on his soul.
“What is your name?” He asked her. Finally bringing his mind around enough that he could focus on the reality of what was in front of him.
“Mackenzie, Mac for short.” She said.
Derrick studied Mac a bit closer. He still saw a little bit of fear in her eyes, but not near as much, now that they were inside. “That’s an odd nickname for a girl.”
“I grew up with three brothers and they treated me like a boy too. So needless to say they gave me a boy’s name. It stuck through the years, and I’m so used to it I never changed it.
She looked down for a second, he knew that look, it was the one where you were trying to consider what parts of a story to share, and what to hold back. He watched her take a deep breath, and look up. It had been his turn to study, he knew how to read people well, he had always known, but had gotten much better at it in these past years.
“I wanted too much from him. He wasn’t willing to give it, he’s a bad man. He really is, but I thought I could change him. I should have listened, should have stopped pushing. But I didn’t learn. It was too much, too far, and he had enough of me.” Mac said her eyes glazed over; Derrick was sure she was reliving the event.
“But why did he leave you on the road?” Derrick asked.
“I told him I wanted to get married. If he didn’t marry me I was done with him. I couldn’t do it anymore.” Mac sighed.
Derrick looked down, anger flooded his body. “That’s not a reason to leave you in the rain.”
“He’s not a good man. I already said that. I knew it for many months now. But I thought I could change him.” Mac stated. “But I guess it’s true you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.” Derrick stated honestly. He was never one who had lied much in the past. So he found it difficult to know what to say to this young girl right now.
Mac began sobbing suddenly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. Where will I go? I have nothing left.” She looked down at her hands, which she clinched, open and shut repeatedly.
Derrick took a deep breath in; he wasn’t sure what to do. He could offer her pass with him on his bike? But he didn’t need to invite another person into his life. He did so much better alone. His life wasn’t something that was normal. He never stayed in one place for too long.