Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
A shley
“How’s that?” the pretty nurse asks, smiling at me as she secures the tape over the newly injected IV in my arm.
“It’s fine.”
My gaze moves around the room, taking in the three other people still in here with me.
“I’ll come back in an hour or so to check on you,” she says. “But you’re healing quickly. All you need is some extra fluids.”
Healing.
I’m healing quickly.
“H-How long have I been here?” I ask, looking between Emery and the two men.
“Two days,” the one who isn’t my sister’s mate answers.
“You should get back into bed,” Emery says. She doesn’t wait for me to respond before she’s helping me lay back down into the bed. She pulls the blanket up until it nearly comes to my chin.
I don’t fight her on this because I’m so used to it. Em is in her big sister mode, and it just feels natural to go along since I’m so disoriented and out of it.
“How did I get here? And where is here?” I finally ask, once Emery takes a seat at the side of my bed.
“I—” Emery takes my hand in hers. “I think it’s best that you rest until you have your full strength. We can talk about everything later.”
The concern is evident in her voice, but I can’t let it pass. I’ve spent too much of my life lately at the mercy of others who I didn’t know and couldn’t understand why. Too much has been taken from me to just lay here in bed.
“Please, just tell me something,” I beg. I look over at the two men. “He’s your mate?” I point at the younger one and then turn to Emery.
Her eyes widen and she looks at the man across the room. The gleam in her eyes answers before her mouth does.
“Yes. Chance and I are mated.” Despite the heavy mood, her lips spread into a small smile.
“Mate.” I repeat the word. “Because we’re werewolves.”
Emery’s lips press together.
“Shifters,” the other man answers. Authority and power ooze off of him. Without thinking about it, I recoil away from him as he approaches the bed.
He notices and immediately stops short.
A pained expression crosses his face, instantly making me feel guilty for my knee-jerk response.
“I should talk to my sister alone.”
The two men don’t protest. They nod in unison and give me one final look before turning and heading out of the door.
“Was it your mate who pulled me out of that cell?”
I don’t miss the way Emery flinches, though she tries to hide it. “I-I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”
I nod. “He smelled like you.” My head shakes as I try to clearly remember what happened. “He tried to pull me out, and I fought him, ripping off his mask. That’s when I scented you.”
I unconsciously squeeze her hand.
“H-How did I get there?” I whisper to Emery.
Her eyes mist over again.
“Oh, Ashley …” she says through tears as she recounts how our adopted parents knew we were wolf shifters all along.
Em relays to me how they lied and kept our wolves trapped through the pills they fed us over the years, and when I went digging for answers in Florida, almost a year ago, they finally let their true colors show.
“They told me they’d killed you,” she cries, lowering her head to the bed with my hand clutched tightly in hers.
The pain in her sobs rip through me. I try to imagine how I would feel if I were convinced that Emery died.
I doubt I’d survive it.
When Emery lifts her head, I reach out for the wolf pendant with my free hand.
“I found this in the fire. I thought … I thought …” Her lips wobble, and it’s obvious the words refuse to come out.
“I’m okay.”
She instantly shakes her head, negating my statement. “You’re not okay. This should’ve never happened. I’m so sorry.”
“Please don’t.” I squeeze her hand until she looks at me. “You didn’t know. Really. I’m okay.”
I comfort her because I’ve always hated to see my sister distressed, even when I was the cause—maybe even especially when I was the cause.
She rises from her chair at the side of my bed and hugs me again.
When Emery pulls back, I say, “So, you’re mated?”
Her perfectly arched eyebrows raise. I can’t help but notice how different my sister looks. She’s always been beautiful, in my opinion, with her flawless chocolate-brown skin tone, perfect heart-shaped face, and stunning dark brown eyes. But even as she cries, she’s glowing.
Her skin is spotless. The once straight, permed hair, is now in its natural coils in a twistout that’s a bit wild for her usual look. And she looks absolutely stunning.
“Yes, Chance is his name,” she answers. “Chael is his brother and the alpha of the Nightwolf pack,” Emery explains.
I nod. “That explains the power emanating off of Chael … off of both of them,” I reply once Emery explains that Chance is the beta of the pack. Apparently, one of the largest and wealthiest out of all of the wolf shifters.
“You may shift soon,” Emery continues. “The next supermoon is in a couple of months and?—”
“I’ve already shifted.”
Her mouth falls open in surprise. “When? Where?”
“In there.” I swallow the lump that forms in my throat from thinking about the prison I was locked in. “I don’t know when. Hard to keep track of time in that place.”
My gaze falls to the linoleum floors of the hospital.
“You went through your first shift alone,” she says, with sadness, sympathy, and pain in her voice. “That must’ve been so?—”
“I wasn’t alone. I had …” I spring up in bed, throwing the blanket and sheet away from me. “Christophe. Where is he?”
Emery gives me a confused look but doesn’t answer.
“Did he survive? I have to get to him.”
For the second time since I’ve awakened, the IV line separates from my arm. I cover the blood that squirts out of my arm with my hand at the same time Emery screams in horror.
“Ashley, no, don’t!” she calls out as I stumble toward the door. Due to my weakened state, she beats me to it. “Where are you going?”
“I have to get to him.”
“Who?”
“Christophe,” I say as if she should know who. It doesn’t register with me that she would have no idea who Christophe is. Right now, that doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that I find him. I need to see him.
“I— No. Why is it so urgent that you see this Christophe?” Emery asks.
I blink and look at her like she’s crazy. It should be obvious.
“Because he’s my mate.”