Chapter 8 - Heinrich
“I shifted, and then, she passed out,” I sigh, skittishly pacing the floor in Annika’s bedroom back at my cabin, rubbing my chin with my thumb and forefinger.
“She’ll wake up soon, I’m sure of it.” Anastasia, whom I’d called urgently to come to my cabin when Annika passed out in the woods, sits on the bed now, a hand pressed to Annika’s neck, where she checks for a pulse for a third time.
Upon my insistence, of course. I’ve checked her pulse twice myself, and I drag my feet to the bed to check another time.
Of course, there’s a pulse, and Annika is still alive. I mean, why wouldn’t she be? But my wolf watched her pass out, and it became crazed by the mere thought of losing her somehow.
I know she’s alive, I know she’s breathing, but I just can’t stomach that something like this happened. Not because she’s weak—I know that much—but because she couldn’t handle being faced with the truth.
“It was a lot for her to take in, Henny,” Anastasia appeals to me as she gets to her feet.
“I didn’t even tell her why she’s here, Ana. I didn’t even tell her that she’s my fated mate, or that she’s a witch.”
“For a human who’s lived their whole life not knowing of our existence, this is a fitting response. She’ll wake up soon.”
“Isn’t there something you can do? Something you can give her to wake her up?”
“Patience is a virtue, my friend,” Anastasia chuckles as she pats my shoulder. “Are you dying to tell her everything and risk making her pass out again? Do you even care about her at all?”
“Of course, I do!” I protest, glowering at Anastasia for even saying something like that. “Of course, I care about her. That’s why she must know, Ana. It’s why she must know the truth.”
“Men!” Anastasia rolls her eyes, then grabs my arm and pulls me out of Annika’s bedroom.
She closes the door carefully behind her, then continues to drag me to the kitchen.
My best friend’s sister, who’d been like a little sister to me growing up, is a feisty being, a powerful wolf, and the Silver Stone’s magical healer.
She’s the reason I have a multi-million-dollar pharmaceutical company in Hamilton.
Well, it’s because of my best friend’s insistence that we could do more than just heal the wolves in the valley.
Seven years ago, when I was about to step into the role of alpha of this pack, Alistair, the man I’d chosen to be my beta, turned to me one night as we sat in the mountains, and asked if there was more to life than just the valley.
He went on to tell me about his twin sister’s trials with a new concoction of medicines that would be suitable for human consumption.
The idea of Alpha Pharmaceuticals was born that night, and ever since then, Anastasia has been a silent partner in the company and one of the head researchers without anyone knowing who she is.
Not in the human world, at least. She wanted to remain anonymous, serving the world while staying behind the scenes.
I’ve been the face of the company ever since a few of my human friends, and I pitched the idea with Anastasia’s first successful trial to a few investors.
We started in a garage out in Stevensville and grew to what the company is now.
Still, the company and my double life in the human world remain a secret from everyone else in the pack.
Juggling both lives isn’t easy, but thanks to Anastasia, I’ve managed so far.
Alistair was the only one who knew about it, too, but he died last year during a demon attack, and that loss was a void no one could fill.
That’s why I haven’t chosen someone else to fill his shoes as the beta of this pack.
And perhaps, that’s why Anastasia and I are close—we’re still clinging to the memory of her brother.
Anastasia grabs two beers out of the fridge and throws one at me before taking a seat at the table.
“You think I don’t want you to tell her the truth? Of course, I do, Henny. I don’t agree with how she got here, firstly, and she deserves to know the truth, no doubt.”
“You know I had no choice in bringing her here by force.”
“Yeah, you and your wounded masculinity had no choice. I swear, you have too much testosterone for your own good,” she huffs before taking a chug of her beer.
I sigh forlornly, pausing on the memory of my late best friend, because that was something he would have said if he were still alive. He was always my voice of reason, the perfect Beta, and the most loyal friend anyone could ask for.
I miss him, and I know Anastasia does, too. That’s why I don’t bring up his name now. It was the hardest blow to lose her twin brother, and I don’t want to open up old wounds.
“My masculinity wasn’t wounded when she said no to marrying me,” I retort with a bitter scoff. “My inner wolf, on the other hand…”
Anastasia whistles. “Bet it did the same thing you were doing just now, in the room.”
“What was I doing?” I ask with a skeptically raised brow.
“Trying to force her awake so you can spill everything to her in one go. If her reaction to seeing you shift was that”—she points in the direction of the bedroom—“then I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell her everything all at once.
She might be stubborn, she might be powerful, but she’s also fragile, and she needs to figure out some things on her own. ”
“Like her powers?”
“Precisely,” Anastasia winks. “But now that she knows you’re a wolf, you can tell her about the fated mate bond, and the demons, and why you needed to marry her.
Let her figure out her powers on her own.
If you tell her she’s a mystical being herself, she might freak out.
And she can’t freak out and run away again, Henny.
It’s dangerous enough that she’s a target for the demons.
But we risk exposing ourselves to the humans, too, if she escapes again. You must tread carefully, please.”
“Promise you’ll be there for her when she needs you.”
“Where else would I be?” Anastasia chuckles, taking the last sip of her beer before standing up. “And please, for Goddess’s sake, don’t be an asshole to her.”
“I’m not being—” I start defensively, but Anastasia cocks her head to one side, arches her eyebrow, and gives me that scolding look she always does when she’s right.
“You’re an asshole to everyone in the human world, Henny. You’ve had to be, I don’t blame you. But Annika…she’s different. She’s not human. And she’s your fated mate. That’s special.”
“She’s special…” I whisper, my inner wolf stirring at Anastasia’s words of advice because I know they’re true.
Maybe I have been an asshole to her, and as Anastasia leaves the cabin, I sit in the kitchen and wallow in my regret.
It’s only been two days since Annika arrived here, and already, so much has happened. Not only does it seem that the demons are onto her arrival, but she just learned tonight that I’m a werewolf.
That didn’t go well, and now my wolf won’t stop worrying about her after she passed out. It’s like ever since I learned that she was my fated mate, I can’t stop thinking about her.
Truthfully, I could never stop thinking about her from the first day I met her, when she walked into my office for an interview, looking hauntingly beautiful with bright brown eyes and a fresh face void of any makeup because she never needed it to look stunning.
Her hair was pin-straight, brushing her lower back, and she wore a black and white pinstripe pencil skirt with a ruffled black blouse tucked into the waistband.
She was so plain, but so extraordinary all at once. In hindsight, the pull I felt toward her back then, the reason why I hired her in the first place, was the strings of fate doing what they do best. The only reason I never pursued anything with her was that she was human.
But the universe works in strange ways, orchestrating something entirely out of my control to lead me toward her in a very sacred way. It’s why I stand up now, knowing she’s still sleeping, that pull drawing me to her as if she’s a force field attracting me like a magnet.
I make my way to her bedroom quietly, steps soft and slow until I’m at the door, sneaking a peek inside.
To my surprise—or maybe not, since this might be why I was drawn here—I see her sitting upright in bed, wringing her hands together on her knees, staring blankly ahead.
I know she’s going over what she saw tonight, the early hours of the morning offering a quiet sanctuary in which she can sit with her thoughts.
Seeing her like that pains me, my inner wolf becoming despondent in my mind, as if it can feel the way she’s feeling. It makes sense. It makes perfect sense. And so does this dire need to knock on her door and go inside and offer her some sort of comfort. Ease. Affection. If she’ll allow it.
“Annika…” I whisper softly behind the door, catching the moment when her breath hitches.
She clears her throat then and murmurs tentatively, “Y-yes. Come inside.”
I take a deep breath before entering, slightly hesitant because I’m not really sure how she’ll respond to me after what happened. As I enter, I notice that she doesn’t look my way, keeping her gaze cemented to the wall in front of her.
“How…how are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better,” she murmurs dryly, her fingers steepled on her knees now, not moving, her shoulders rigid.
“About what happened out there…” I begin, hanging near the door, when Annika snaps her head in my direction, eyes ablaze with accusation and nearly appearing scarlet.
“Nothing happened.” Her voice is flat, final, unwavering, but I sigh as I step closer.
“You can’t deny what you saw out there, Annika. I know you don’t want to believe it, but it’s true. I am a werewolf.”
Annika gulps hard, the fire simmering in her eyes. “How can it be possible? Things like that don’t exist.”