Chapter 4
Dante
‘What happened?’ I thought as my mind cleared from the haze of nothing. Where was I? The last thing I remembered was a wedding. No, wait, I was in a car. I was driving away from a wedding. No, I was driving away from my wedding.
Shit! That’s right. I had gone to Sato’s place to negotiate my way out of marrying his son and had ended up marrying him on the spot. Then, he kissed me, I ran, I felt what felt like a pinch to the neck and then things went dark.
I think I crashed my car. Was I still in my car?
Forcing my eyes to open, I didn’t find my BMW. I was lying down in a white room. As things cleared, I saw a pulse monitor and a ceiling level TV. I was in a hospital room and I felt like shit.
Looking around, I found only one person. It was Lorenzo. He was entertaining himself on his phone when the sound of my movement made him look up.
“Dante, you’re awake. Thank God!” he said hurrying to my side.
I opened my mouth to ask him what the fuck was going on but nothing came out.
“Relax. I’ll get the doctor. I was worried about you for a second there,” he said with a smile before rushing out of the room.
He was worried about me? Why was that? Did other things happened after whoever it was shot me?
I needed to recover and I needed to do it fast. My best option was to shift. But reaching for my wolf, I could barely feel it. It was as weak as I was. It couldn’t come out even if I wanted it to.
I was drugged. They must have given me painkillers. That meant it would be hours before I could shift again. After that, I could get out of here, shift, and then figure out who shot me.
I was reaching across my body to feel where the bullet hit me when the door reopened and a doctor entered. She was a lot younger than I was used to my doctor’s looking. She was also distinctly not a wolf.
As far as I could smell, she was human. Of course, so was Sato. But that didn’t stop him from being possessed by a demon.
“No, don’t do that,” she insisted, reaching out as to stop my hand.
Not knowing the situation, I lowered my hand and again tried to speak.
“What happened?” I squeaked out, my throat feeling like a desert.
“You might need something to drink.”
The small Indian lady turned to my brother.
“Do you mind telling one of the nurses at the stand to bring Mr. Ricci something to drink?”
“Of course.”
“And, can you give us a minute once you do?” she requested causing Lorenzo’s eyes to bounce to mine.
I gave him a nod and Lorenzo agreed. I figured, whatever the doctor knew was better kept between us, at least until I had time to eliminate a few potential shooters.
With my brother gone, the doctor approached the side of my bed. She had kind eyes and there was something about her I trusted.
“I’m Dr. Rohit. You’re in Garrison Hospital Center because you were in a car accident,” she explained.
“I hit something,” I replied as my memories surfaced. “Was it a tree?”
“It was.”
“Someone shot me and I passed out.”
She looked at me confused. “I’m sorry?”
“Someone shot me. They hit me in the neck. It caused me to lose control.”
Still confused, the doctor gently held my chin and turned my head. When she didn’t find anything on one side, she tilted my chin to look at the other.
“Why do you think you were shot in the neck?” she asked with a furrowed brow.
“Cause I felt it. It was right here,” I said finally reaching from the spot again.
To my surprise, not only did my neck not hurt to touch, but there was nothing there. No wound, no bandage, nothing. And as far as I could tell from how the rest of my body felt, I hadn’t shifted and healed it.
“I don’t understand. I felt it.”
“As far as our examiners have been able to tell, you haven’t sustained any injury that might have broken the surface. You will probably have a bruise across your chest from the seat belt and your head might be a little foggy from the impact with the air bag. But, miraculously, other than that, you’re fine.”
“I’m fine?” I asked confused. “Then, why did I pass out.”
The doctor stuck her hands in her pockets and relaxed.
“Yes. That is why I requested that I speak to you alone.”
“Okay,” I asked bracing myself.
“I know how important image can be in your world…”
“What world is that?” I asked interrupting.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” she said backing off her position. “But, I thought you would want us to be alone when I told you that you crashed your car after blacking out from a panic attack.”
Of all of the things that she could have said, panic attack was nowhere on the list. I processed it for a second.
“No. What else you got?”
“I’m afraid this isn’t a multiple choice situation.”
“Nah. Can’t be. I don’t have panic attacks.”
“Have you been under an increased amount of stress recently?”
Have I been under an increased amount of stress? Let me see. My idiot brother killed a Yakuza made man, I’m waiting for my father to make his move to remove me as leader of the pack, and I was tricked into marrying a man who has killed all of his past lovers.
“Not more than usual,” I told the doctor knowing it wasn’t true.
“None the less, all of your symptoms point to an acute panic attack that lead to you feeling light-head and briefly passing out, which lead to you running into a tree. Did anything stressful happen right before the accident?”
Let’s see, the man I married did kiss me in front of my brother and one of my biggest rivals, and it felt so good that my head almost exploded.
“Not that I can think of,” I told the doctor.
“I see,” the Doc said considering it. “Well, we’re still running tests. But until we find contradicting results, I would recommend lowering your stress levels. Can you take some time off from your job? Is that possible right now?”
“That is absolutely not possible. And neither is the chances of me having a panic attack. I hope you didn’t write that down in your records anywhere,” I said as threateningly as I had intended it.
“You were brought in by a representative of the Sato family. And I can assure you that we will extend you the same privacy and discretion we show them.”
Ah! Now I was getting it. This was Sato’s doctor who, I was sure, would say anything Sato asked her to.
“I see,” I said, my mind finally starting to click into gear. “But let’s say that I hadn’t had a panic attack. What else could it be?”
“What do you mean?”
I thought of Kuroi.
“There’s a history of men in my situation having heart attacks. Could I have had something like that?”
The doctor gave me that confused look again. Why was she doing it?
“Yes, that is a possibility. But usually a man of your age and physical condition wouldn’t be a candidate for a myocardial infarction. And we did run a test for markers of such an event and they were all negative.”
“But, it could have been a heart attack?” I clarified.
“The symptoms did present in similar ways. But, like I said, the most likely cause remains a panic attack.”
“So, either I had a panic attack, which, if true, would make me too weak to do a job as stressful as mine. Or, I had a heart attack under very suspicious circumstances. Is that right, Doc?”
“Panic attacks are very controllable with the right lifestyle changes and regulation techniques,” she replied avoiding my question.
“I see. Tell me, Doc, is it also possible that I was shot with something. Not like a bullet, but maybe a dart or anything? Because I definitely felt something hit my neck. Is a pinch to the neck also something that comes with a panic attack?” I challenged.
“Not usually. But…”
“So, it’s possible that something could have shot me in the neck as well.”
“Mr. Ricci, I’ve found that the most likely cause is usually the right one.”
“Just answer my question. Is a pinch on the neck also a symptom, or whatever you call it, of having a panic attack?”
“No, Mr. Ricci,” she said relaxing in resignation.
“Could anything associated with a pinch to the neck lead to a heart attack that doesn’t have what you were looking for? You know, what did you call them? Markers?”
Dr. Rohit paused.
“As I said, the most likely cause is usually the correct one…”
“Doc…” I protested not wanting to argue with her.
“…However, yes. A pinch to the neck could both be the cause of heart attack as well as a symptom of one depending on the cause.”
“And what could cause something like that?”
The Doc shook her head reluctant to answer.
“A poison. But, Mr. Ricci, and I can’t emphasize this enough. There has been no evidence of that and the most likely cause…”
“Is a panic attack. I know. When will I be able to get out of here?”
“If what you had is a panic attack, we can release you as soon as you feel strong enough to get up. If it was a heart attack, then we’ll need to keep you here a bit longer to run a few more tests.”
I looked at the Doc and laughed.
“I see. How about I just release myself when I’m feeling up to it. We’ll go with that option,” I said not giving her a choice.
“As you wish,” she said with a look that said, ‘You had a panic attack’ written all across her face.
Fine. Whatever she needed to believe to allow me to get out of here.
“Could you send in my brother when you go,” I said done with her.
“I’ll send him right in,” she said politely before showing herself out.
“What’s the verdict,” Lorenzo asked immediately entering.
“I think I was poisoned,” I told him rolling the thought around in my mind.
“Kuroi! But how? The kiss!”
“The kiss,” I concluded not giving any life to the other thing the doctor had suggested.
“He poisoned you with the kiss,” Lorenzo concluded with a laugh. “Well, that would explain the look on your face after it happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“You looked drugged. It was like you didn’t even know where you were. Then you just took off.”
“Yeah, that’s probably what happened,” I said slowly remembering the kiss.
Was that what happened? Things were coming back to me and any look I had on my face wasn’t from a drug. I didn’t go around kissing men. At least not in front of people who knew me. And doing what I did the way it happened and with him…
What was it about Kuroi? Was it his lips? His eyes? Oh right, the way he looked at me. It was like he slipped into me and became the puzzle piece that had been missing my entire life.
As a wolf, you grow up hearing a lot of talk about fated mates, people who the spirits have planned for you to be with. When you meet them, you’re just supposed to know.
I never believed it, especially considering who got my dick hard. But the feeling I had looking into Kuroi’s eyes made me wonder. I had never felt anything like it. Could that be what everyone was talking about?
Still, if I were poisoned, didn’t it have to be from Kuroi’s kiss? Could this have been the way he killed all of his lovers? The kiss of death? And wasn’t it minutes after that I passed out?
“What are you gonna do about it?” Lorenzo asked bringing me back. “And, did you know Sato was planning on doing that? Marrying you two right there like that? It was nuts!”
“If I knew what he was planning, you think I would have gone there like that?”
“I don’t know. For a moment there you did seem pretty into it,” Lorenzo joked.
“Fuck no! That was a complete mind fuck what he did.”
“Then, I don’t get it. Why’d you go through with it? Why didn’t you just stop it?”
That was a good question. Why didn’t I? And that was when I remembered the look in Kuroi’s eyes.
“I did it because our pack needed it,” I lied.
Lorenzo threw his head back in admiration.
“You’re a bigger man than me, Dante,” my little brother said with a snort.
“And don’t you fuckin’ forget it,” I joked.
“So, what are you gonna do now. You can’t, like, live with him or anything, can you? He already tried to kill you once.”
That was a good question. The living arrangements weren’t something that Sato and I discussed. When I thought I was marrying Yuki, of course I imagined us living together. That would have been one of the benefits of the marriage. But now… shit.
What would living with Kuroi even be like? If he had tried to kill me, the fact that he failed would mean he would try again. How long could I sleep with one eye open?
And, what was with him wearing that dress? Yeah, he looked as hot as fuck in it. But if I was marrying a man, shouldn’t he act like a man? I mean, having sex with a man is one thing. Guys have things that women don’t. But, weren’t men supposed to act like men?
Goddamn did he look hot in that dress, though. As male brides go, I must have had the hottest one to ever live. Unwrapping that gift would be the highlight of my life. I got hard just thinking about it.
“This is a marriage of convenience,” I told Lorenzo. “The whole point of it is to show that our two organizations are one. Living together would be the point.”
“Wow! My big brother just married a man,” Lorenzo said with a mind-altered chuckle.
“Don’t think that will stop me from kicking your ass if I have to,” I said seriously.
“Believe me, it doesn’t. If you’re willing to do to that, what other crazy shit would you be willing to do? Granted, the man you married is likely to kill you in your sleep before the cock crows. But still.”
“Don’t you worry about me. I can take care of myself. The day I let some crazy twink come between me and what I want would be a cold day in hell.”
“Twink?” Lorenzo asked surprised.
“That’s what you call guys like Kuroi, right? I mean, that’s what I’ve heard.”
Lorenzo looked at me suspiciously. Shit! I had been married to Kuroi for one day and I was already slipping up. Maybe us living together would be too much. I had to rethink this.
Marriage was one thing. Hell, back in the old days, royalty would marry their cousins. But that didn’t mean they lived together.
Yeah, that was what I was gonna do. I had already married him. There was nothing I could do about that. But I wouldn’t be living with him. Not today. Not ever.
And if Sato ever asked why, I was going tell him because his slippery crow demon ass tricked me into marriage. My family’s humiliation wasn’t going further than that.
So, that was it. Kuroi, no matter what, would never move into my place. Ever. It was decided.