Chapter 20 Rowan
I was trying to escape. DUH.
My blood was boiling. Control freak Cade was under my skin. How dare he try to hold Alex over my head? He stole everything from me! I had a life until he ripped it apart. The very least he could do was to let me see my only friend.
It was bad enough that he wanted to mold me into his perfect “good girl” and dictate every facet of my life.
I would rather sleep in a pigpen, then in Cade’s bed.
I wanted to scream and rage at him, but I needed to play nice.
Not too nice, of course; that would draw suspicion.
I had probably overdone it when I hugged Killian, but it was a calculated risk. Seeing the hallway was important.
I went back and sat at the table but opted for my own seat instead of Cade’s lap.
“Wasn’t there something important you wanted to talk to me about?” I questioned, hoping the quick redirection would distract him from pulling me onto his lap again.
“Yes, thank you for reminding me. Tomorrow morning, we will go to the Science Department. Since you will be sleeping in my room, I will make sure you are awake and ready on time. We have an 0800 appointment with Dr. Zolkos. He’s the Chief Science Officer on base.”
“Okay…are you planning to elaborate? I have the who, what, when, where, but you didn’t provide the why.”
Ryker liked my snide comment and chuckled. Maybe he was onto something with poking and prodding Cade. It was kind of fun after all.
Cade shot me a warning look before explaining, “They’ve isolated our unit packmate Talon in the science laboratory.
He is a shifter. Scientists are running a few tests on him and believe he’s ready to rejoin our unit, but we need to go there and help them finish the final tests before his discharge.
Dr. Zolkos also wants to draw some additional blood from you.
The science staff took your samples previously upon your admission to Medical.
They found irregularities when testing the samples, and they want to do more research.
It could be nothing, or it could result from the long-term use of suppressants.
I have no more answers, which is why we are meeting with Dr. Zolkos at 0800 sharp. ”
“Did I just hear that correctly? You have a shifter in your pack?!”
His words shocked me. I couldn’t focus on anything else. Everyone had heard of shifters, but no one I knew had ever actually met one. They were unbelievably rare, even rarer than omegas.
Monsters, some said.
Creatures that could shift into massive, wolf-like beasts that were vicious, primal, and deadly.
A flash of memory, or maybe just a nightmare, flickered in my mind of a shadowed figure with glowing yellow eyes. The image sent a chill through me.
And now they expected that I would eventually mate with one?
Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure Killian was the most terrifying predator in the unit.
“Yes, we have a shifter in our pack. He’s not some wild beast though, like I’m sure you’ve heard tales of. He’s a man. With more control than Killian and Ryker combined, I might add.”
“Yeah, he has a lot of control when he’s fucking tearing up little nurses,” Ryker snorted.
My face morphed from shock to horror. What the hell did Ryker mean by “tearing up nurses?” He had officially freaked me out.
“ENOUGH!” Cade barked at Ryker, seeing the fear written in my features.
I wanted to push him and ask more about Talon and the nurses, but I could tell I wouldn’t get anywhere. Cade was an immovable object when he resolved to be. I would ask Ryker, who was more forth-coming, next time we were alone.
“Rowan, go relax in your room for a while. I put a few books in the nightstand drawer and paper on a clipboard with some pencils. Alex told me how much you enjoy reading and drawing. I’ll come get you when I am ready for bed.”
Great, so now I was being banished to my room like a child. He was so bossy! I wanted to argue as usual, but I was actually relieved at the thought of spending some time alone for once. I hurried, shutting the door firmly behind me, afraid he might change his mind.
Enjoying the quiet freedom of being alone, I busied myself.
It had been strange to have spent so much time with other people over the past few days.
For most of my life, I was used to being alone.
Even when my dad was alive, we lived together in a quiet, easy harmony that didn’t require small talk or forced interactions.
I sketched for a while, and when that grew boring, I started reading one of the books Cade had provided.
I preferred fantasy or romance, but one book he had provided was old, practically ancient, and definitely from the world before.
It caught my eye among the rest because it was leather-bound with gold filigree and embossed letters.
The cover read, “Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.”
It wasn’t my usual reading genre; however; the plot sucked me in fairly quickly, and I was engaged from the start.
The story was about a young boy who finds a treasure map leading to a famous pirate’s buried gold.
It was old-fashioned, but filled with adventure.
It reminded me of the books from the old world that my dad used to read to me before bed.
My favorite thing about any book from the old world was that there wasn’t a single mention of omegas, alphas, or betas. It was easy to pretend to be something I wasn’t when I immersed myself in those literary worlds, void of designations.
An enormous shadow looming over me interrupted my dreams of buccaneers and buried gold as I realized I had fallen asleep. I startled, grabbing my chest, as a silent scream gripped me, but realized it was just Cade invading my privacy as usual.
“What the hell, Cade, have you heard of knocking?! You scared me!”
He didn’t apologize, of course, and merely snatched a tucked T-shirt from his waistband, throwing it at me.
“Change into this. You can leave your underwear on,” he said in his usual demanding tone.
“I don’t suppose you plan on leaving or at least turning around so I can have some privacy?”
“No,” he responded definitively as he reached for the copy of Treasure Island, which was lying pages down, parted where I had last been reading and fell asleep. He traced the edges of the pages and flipped through them.
“Don’t lose my place! It was just getting good!” I told him, trying to slip my shirt off somewhat gracefully.
I turned my back to him while I fumbled with the bra clasp and pulled his shirt over my head. It was another oversized T-shirt that smelled like whiskey. These men were so territorial, clothing me in their delicious-smelling shirts.
When I looked over my shoulder, I expected to see Cade eyeing me hungrily, but his view was downcast, fixated on the book. He delicately moved his fingers along the spine, lost in thought.
“Is everything okay?” I asked him.
“It’s just a coincidence that you picked this book out of all the rest. My father actually used to read chapters to Killian and me when we were little. It’s one of the rare memories I have of him when he wasn’t a complete monster. I quite liked the book when I was young.”
Despite hiding and being relatively lonely, I had a happy childhood. My dad had made sure of that, at the expense of his own safety and well-being. I had always known that he loved me unconditionally and had never considered what it would be like to have a parent who didn’t.
The way Cade talked about his dad made me feel pity for Killian and him. Maybe that’s why Cade was such a control freak and Killian was, well, just the way he was.
“I’m sorry about your uh… dad. Sounds like a jerk. Was your mom at least around?” I asked awkwardly.
I was absolutely not prepared to deal with the daddy issues of a grown man who was also my kidnapper. Although I supposed learning more about Killian and Cade wouldn’t hurt in the scheme of things. It might help me discover a weakness that I could exploit to aid my escape.
“She was there physically, yes. Mentally though she was several pills and a bottle of wine away from capable parenting,” he said, eyes still fixed on the book.
Yikes. I couldn’t help wincing.
He continued, “She’s not Killian’s mother; he is actually my half-brother. And my mother is also dead now.”
Okay, so he clearly had mommy issues too.
I could have extended an olive branch, sought connection with Cade and bonded over our dead parents, but talking about my dad to gain his trust felt wrong somehow. I was exhausted and did not feel like revisiting my grief, so I stayed quiet.
“I’m sorry, Cade, that must have been… really hard.”
We just stood there for a moment, until something snapped his attention away from the book and he turned, walking out the door, motioning for me to follow.
“Let’s go, Rowan.”
As usual… good talk.