Chapter 2 #2
“Do you need anything else from her today?” Hadrian asks. The doctor shakes his head, but Caitlin nods.
“We would like some more bloods,” Caitlin admits. “But I think we’ll leave that until we’ve had a chat with Dr Abbott. If you’d like to drop in a urine sample, you can, but, realistically, we’re not concerned in that regard.
“You were brought in due to your anxiety. You’re a lot calmer now. We’ve flushed what we could out of your system, I think you’ll be okay for now.
“And we can get back in touch within the next week or so regarding heat blockers and, of course, what we found out from your bloods.”
Dr Rush nods. “Caity has covered it. We’ll be able to get your discharge sorted in a few, and you can head home once you’re feeling up to it.”
The monitor ticks a steady, artificial calm through the room. The air-con hums, the sound far too loud for a room this small.
I want to leave.
“My next heat is due in a few weeks. Is that enough time to make sure I don’t have one if we start the meds soon?” I ask. I fucking hate the way my voice trembles, and they can all hear my unease and anxiety over this topic.
I hate letting anyone see my weaknesses, especially not people who I need to be strong in front of.
Caitlin nods her head. “Yes, absolutely. Typically they start to inject enough hormones in your system within a week, and that should be enough to even delay your heat long enough for them to get fully through your system. There shouldn’t be too many side effects, but, again, once we’ve got the all clear from Dr Abbott, we can go in and discuss that more. ”
“Not gonna lie, but I don’t really care about his opinion. I don’t want to go through heat again. It’s that simple. I want to take these meds.”
Hadrian smirks, and his tone is mocking as he says, “Her body, her decision, no man should get to decide that for her.”
“Oh, fuck off,” I snarl, glaring at the pegasus. “That could have been a very profound moment for you, but instead you’ve got to act like a twat. Mocking me and teasing as if that’s not actually true is so pathetic. Grow up, or you’ll never find your actual mate.”
“Already found her, starlet,” he says, winking at me.
I gag and take it a step further by pretending to be sick. And what the fuck even is a starlet? Why would he call me that?
Is it a poisonous star?
An ugly star?
A damaged one?
“Well, if you’re truly sure, we can talk over the options, and you can leave here with it today, however, we’ll want you to watch for any signs of reaction,” Caitlin says firmly.
“I advise either taking the daily tablet form or we can put a device into you—”
“I can’t handle being touched. I struggle with sensory overload on the daily, and you think I’d cope well with something inside me?” I scoff and shake my head. “Not a chance. Give me the meds, please.”
“Look at that, you do know how to say please,” Lucifer says, smirking at me.
I roll my eyes and don’t even bother replying to him.
Caitlin nods her head and promises that she’ll get the prescription sorted. Her mate walks me through the common side effects.
Nothing like being told you might find yourself constipated for a few days at first while your boss stands there filled with such rage and disdain.
If only I had the capacity to feel embarrassment.
Eventually, the mated pair leave the room with promises of sending out an appointment and bringing back my prescription.
Perfect.
Well, it would be if I wasn’t still stuck with the three men who are a little bit more than acquaintances. I’m not really sure how to describe them, if I’m being honest.
Bodyguard seems a little weird since Draven’s my boss, and Hadrian’s not really that great at the job. It’s the most accurate description right now, though.
Friends is far too big a stretch.
“I know you didn’t ask, but we’ve sent Ari and Nora home,” Lucifer says, and I narrow my eyes. A weird wave of emotion rushes through me, and I know that it comes from me and not my chromius, but I don’t understand what it is.
Why on Earth would I ask about them? I never once assumed they’d be here, and, sure, Ari saw the head, but it’s not like she should care. He was a horrible man, one she never knew and deserved death.
Why would I be concerned?
“What?” Lucifer seems confused by my reaction. “Was that the wrong thing to do? Was I meant to keep them here so you could see them?”
“Why would they even come?” I ask instead. “That’s why I’m confused. I don’t understand why they’d waste their time sitting in a hospital for me.”
Luc rolls his eyes. “Oh, Maeve, I swear, for such a smart girl, you’re so stupid.”
“Don’t you dare call her—” Draven starts, and his voice is very husky and full of emotion. He’s almost choked up—is it rage or something else?
I wish I could read him, but he’s so closed off. Makes me a shit employee, since it means I can’t just get whatever he needs.
“But, Dad,” Lucifer whines, cutting Draven off as he drags out the ‘a’ sound in dad.
“Don’t call me dad.”
I bite back a laugh at Draven’s disgust, and I know that he’s only digging himself a bigger grave here. Lucifer gets off on the reactions, and the more Draven bites, the more the cheeky imp is going to play.
“They were worried,” Hadrian says, giving his cousin a weird look. “I think they’re together at the flat waiting to hear from you. I don’t know. Or care.”
Lucifer laughs. “He’s such a liar. He was terrified of the fox that came with Nora and nearly pissed himself when I kicked them out.”
Hadrian’s glare is vicious. “I was not. I thought he was an arrogant fucker who has no business—”
“Voss is pretty… helpful in these situations, as I said to you, Little Cuz,” Lucifer says. “Don’t be so jealous. Our priority is Maeve and Julian.”
The moment Julian’s name is mentioned, a dark cloud seems to storm through my hospital room. Both of the Graves men turn sombre, and even Draven seems unsettled. I’m not stupid, so clearly something bad has happened with the light pegasus.
Is it… I wonder if it’s his work. Has he found something he shouldn’t have? Is it my fault? Did I guide him into danger?
My panic spikes again, and the sharp pang in my chest is severe enough to be a heart attack.
Great.
“Where—where is he?” The shaking in my words and the trembling of my hands is due to the heart attack I’m suffering from.
I’m sure of it. “Julian was investigating something he probably should’ve kept his big fat nose out of.
But he was his usual annoying self when we spoke last. What’s happened—what could have happened to him? ”
My eyes dart between all three men, each of them shuffling awkwardly, as a heavy silence weighs on us all. My heart is still pounding against my rib cage, and I can’t function with this level of anxiety.
Hadrian curses under his breath, scrubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw. He doesn’t answer me, but he doesn’t have to.
My chromius already knows, keening deep inside me, a sound that rattles my bones and terrifies my very essence. He’s hurt. He’s in danger. Something—or more likely, someone has harmed him beyond what is acceptable.
In fact, any hurt not caused by me is not acceptable.
I claw at the sheets, dragging myself upright, even though the room tilts sideways and my head pounds. “Tell me. I need to know.”
Lucifer steps forward and shakes his head. “Not here. Not now. You’re barely recovering from a hellish morning, and you need—”
“Tell. Me,” I spit back, my voice cracking, trembling, but furious all the same. “Don’t you dare keep this from me. I’m not… I can handle it. I need to know. I deserve to know.”
The silence is heavy, crushing, even, as the three men exchange wary looks. My anger builds, and every second without an answer feels like I’m drowning all over again. They’re protecting me in the wrong way.
Knowledge is always a weapon. Ignorance is always a danger.
Finally, Hadrian exhales, and when he speaks, the reluctance is dripping from his tongue. “We have reason to believe that my brother is potentially harmed.”
“Potentially harmed?” My voice rises in pitch, the shriek hurting my ears and my throat. I don’t know why I care, but even my chromius has inched closer, a desperation filling us both as we think about the very annoying light pegasus.
Potentially is not a guarantee I feel comfortable with.
“He’s alive,” Lucifer says. He rubs the back of his neck. “But Adrian’s got him.”
The world tilts, everything spinning, as tears well up in my eyes. I press a hand to my stomach, trying to hold myself together, but the sob still rips free from my throat.
My chromius keens, a bone-deep feral sound that echoes through my mind.
“You know, when I first woke back up, I thought we were there, on the compound,” I whisper. “And now, I almost wish we were.”
Lucifer’s eyes darken so fast, they’re now black.
“You think we’d betray you like that? Do you really think that I would take you to the place you despise the most when you’re unconscious and at your complete and utter most vulnerable state?
Did you really think I would do that to you?
Fuck these cunts. You thought I would do that? ”
He’s hurt, but also furious, and I know that I’m the cause of his unhappiness. He’s horrified I think so lowly of him.
I don’t really know how to reassure him. Lucifer and I, our bond, our relationship, our… friendship or whatever is different from that between Hadrian and I and even Draven and I.
Lucifer is someone I feel comfortable with. I feel safe with him. And that’s scary.
I don’t place my trust in other people at all.
But if I ever had to let somebody in, it would be him, which is really weird considering everything.
He’s the wrong man completely and utterly. He has the wrong family. He’s the wrong species. Fucking hell, he’s dangerous and has no morals and no respect.
And he cared. He cares. He changed the seats in his precious car so that I could be comfortable.
He protects my boundaries.
He’d light the world on fire and yet somehow protect me from the flames.
Lucifer is special, and I don’t deserve him.
I shrug. “I wasn’t… I didn’t think that you’d be able to argue against your uncle. I didn’t think you’d do it willingly.”
The laughter that rings around the room is so dark, so terrifying, and yet I don’t even flinch as my imp bodyguard seems to completely lose any semblance of calm. He turns his back to me, and I can see the tension rippling through his body.
“My uncle and I are never going to be on the same page when it comes to you,” Hadrian says. “This is your home. We’re not letting any fucker take you from it unless you want to leave.”
Draven nods firmly. He’s not said too much, probably due to the murderous intent I can feel rippling from him, but he often says more without speaking than he does with his words. Every action, every stance… he agrees with the Graves men right now.
These two, at least.
It’s funny that Hadrian referred to this place as home considering everything that has happened here today. My stepfather’s head in a box, my stalker’s twisted promises in a blood-soaked letter, and now the bane of my life trapped with the uncle who… well, who has done something to him.
I think that the weirdest part is that Hadrian’s right. This place, this pride, is my home, and nothing is going to scare me away from it.
“So what the fuck are we going to do about Julian, then?” I ask, looking between them all with a raised brow.
I hope they can’t tell that I’m feigning indifference at this point. They can’t see how deep the panic goes and how scared I truly am. They’ve already tried to hide things from me in some pathetic attempt to protect me.
But I don’t need protection from knowledge. It’s men that I need protection from. Horrible, dangerous, twisted men who think that just because I’m a pretty girl means that they’re entitled to my body because they’re powerful.
They think that, because they’re in charge, they deserve to decide when and where I should bear children. That just because I’m a mythical shifter who needed some support, they got to just come in and railroad my life.
They’re a joke, they’re toxic, and, honestly, if people knew the kind of men they had elected to represent themselves…
I shake my head, wishing that it would be so easy just to go on the fucking news and get it all out there, and it could be done with. But that’s not how politics fucking works.
I don’t like Julian. I don’t have much care for him.
An enslaved Adrian slit his throat and killed his nephew?
Not my problem, I couldn’t give a fuck. However, Adrian has made Julian a pawn in his game, which makes Julian a player in my game, too, and I’m not gonna let Adrian have the upper fucking hand with everything else going on.
I still don’t believe that this stalker isn’t somehow tied to the shit he’s been doing. And, honestly, after this fucking appointment here where we found out they’ve been drugging me, never mind touching me when I’m asleep. They’re now flooding my body with drugs forced to fucking impregnate me.
Who was going to rape me? Julian? Was that the plan for my next heat? That Julian would be raping me with all this fucking baby juice inside of me?
Who cares if the fucker’s dead? Let them kill him. I don’t care.
But I’m not going to lose this game that we’re playing.
The walls close in, and my panic grows stronger. The pit in my stomach is impossible to ignore, and the burning in my throat is a stinging pain.
With all these unanswered questions, at least I know one thing for certain—none of us are safe as long as Adrian Graves is out in the world.
Honestly, I don’t think I’m willing to sacrifice everybody anymore.
So, we start with Julian… which means calling the devil.