Marina’s expression sours when I glance up at her, tucking my phone into my pocket, but she says nothing. Her dark, pin straight long her moves with every step she takes towards my desk. Her eyes narrow, “Is this why you called me here?” she scoffs. “So you can rub my nose in your happiness with your wife?” The way she says the word wife with so much disgust angers me. Since the moment she woke up from her coma; she’s been hateful towards Rosalind. Hell, I’m disgusted with myself for how I treated her. “She’s not just my wife,” I growl, feeling Onyx simmering just beneath the surface, but I hold him back. If this is going to go as I expect, that’ll be a tool for later. Marina rolls her eyes, shaking her head, “You are unbelievable. You spent years with her and the moment I wake up, she’s your mate. That makes no sense, and you know it,” she grits her teeth, “She’s a fraud and you are a fool.”Her words grate against my nerves. I have so many questions, but right now, I need to ask
“Stats are dropping again,” Riley, one of my nurses screams from behind the curtain.My legs are moving before I can think. My eyes scan over the monitor, “Blood pressure is dropping rapidly. His heart is out of rhythm. “Two milligrams of Atropine,” I shout, and the nurse scurries away quickly.James’ grandfather’s body begins convulsing, and the shallow sound of his gasps drowns out the bustle of the hospital. I can’t let him die.The flatline of his heart pulls me back into the moment, and without thinking, I climb on top of his eerily still body, pressing my palms to his chest.One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. I make it to thirty before his heart shows any signs of life. My panicked eyes meet Riley’s as she’s thrusting the syringe into his line. My arms are tired, but I don’t stop. Right now, the only thing keeping his heart from stopping is the rhythmic pump of my hands.“Sir, you can’t be in here,” I hear a nurse shout as the curtain draws behind me. I pay no mind, smelling Jam
“James,” Marina’s voice grated against my eardrums. “Thank goodness. Tell them to let me through.”My eyes lose focus as I stare at her and the reoccurring headache that just won’t go away intensifies.How did she know that James was here?James remains quiet behind me, almost as if he can tell I’m slowly putting the pieces together.During our phone call, he’d mentioned having a meeting with someone.“Was she with you at the office?” I turned around slowly, feeling my heart practically gallop like she was participating in a race.“She was my meeting, but I swear,” James gripped my shoulders, staring into my soul, “It’s not at all what you think. I’ll get rid of her and explain everything.”I nodded slowly, feeling numb. Every single time something like this happens, James pulls away and all the progress that we’ve made crumbles to dust.“She’s not welcome anywhere near this room,” James growls as he walks towards the nurse’s station. “Until I figure out whatever the fuck you’re up to
“Why did he want to speak with you alone?” James growled as I walked back into the room. His eyes looked crazed as he stared at me expecting an answer.“He just wanted to congratulate me on successful compressions and ask me in private if I felt like I could remain as your grandfather’s doctor considering he was my family.” My brows pinched together as I watched his shoulders relax, “What’s going on with you?”“What do you mean?” he fired back, almost too quickly. As if he were expecting the question.“You just seem really angry,” I whispered, walking towards him.“I am angry,” he ran his fingers through his hair. “Today has been a nightmare, and it shouldn’t have been. I planned my day out perfectly. First, with you in my bed. Then, getting to the bottom of whatever the hell has been wreaking havoc on my life, and then finding myself back in bed with you.”A half-hearted smile grazed his face, making him look forlorn. The way his eyes held mine made me feel as if he were apologizing
“What’s the prognosis looking like?” James’ grandfather arches a brow, glancing out to the hallway at James’ retreating back before meeting my gaze.“I don’t have all of the answers for you yet, but you’ll be going in for an echo,” I started, but he cut me off with the shake of his head.“Women, I aint talking about my health. I’m healthy as an ox,” he smirks.My lips purse as I pin him with a confused stare, “I’m not sure I understand what you mean..”“You and my boy out there,” he chuckles softly. “I had to get him out of here to talk to you.”A warm flush creeps up the length of my neck before settling on the tops of my cheekbones. “Things are going….. well.”He snorts, “Well? That’s it.”James’ grandfather has this way of making someone feel as if they’ve known you your entire life. He speaks with the warmth of a father, and despite not having much of a relationship with him; It doesn’t feel that way.“How much do you know?” I walked around to the side of his bed with the bag of f
James appeared with a cardboard tray of coffees just as his grandfather had finished telling me that I needed to be careful when it came to Onyx. But I’ve met him…. He seemed far more interested in me than anyone I’ve ever met. And he’s my mate, so he wouldn’t hurt me… right?James reached up, scratching the back of his neck nervously, “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I guessed.” A deep sigh left his lips, “I hope you like it.”I noticed the lighter color peeking through the tiny hole in the lid and a smile graced my lips. “As long as it’s not black; I’ll be fine.”His eyes lit up as he watched me take a sip, and I felt like a teenager all over again. The thought of knowing that someone pays attention to the little things makes me feel special. “We were supposed to sit down for lunch the other day, but you stood me up,” James’ grandfather narrows his eyes, wincing as he adjusts himself on the bed. “Joan tells me you’ve been a bit busy getting into trouble.”“Let’s not do this now,”
The blush that spreads up the length of Rosalind’s neck before painting her cheeks with a rosy hue sends a flurry of emotion through my veins. Since Onyx has returned to me; Every feeling with Rosalind has been heightened. I don’t feel the need to hold myself back from her. Before, I felt as if I was teetering on the edge of who I really am. Shielding her from my true personality was like an armor that I’d built in the event that she wasn’t our true mate. ‘You are a fool for every thinking otherwise,’ Onyx snarls in my head. I didn’t disagree with him, but I still found myself trying to make sense of it all. He’d felt my bond with Marina back in Blackwood. While it was delayed, I assumed it was due to whatever had happened with Onyx before I’d turned eighteen. A shiver rolled down the length of my spine as I remember how dark those days were. I felt like a prisoner trapped in my own mind. I could see everything that was going on in my life, but Onyx was piloting my body. The pa
The door wasn’t even shut when James’ fingers laced through my hair, angling my face so that he could capture my lips in a searing kiss. With one hand on the small of my back, and the other tangled in my locks; He kicked the door shut, walking me backwards until the skin on my shoulders pressed against the cool wood. The hand that was on my back moved around to my throat, slowly creating a trail of sparks as his thumb pressed against my pulse point, “Fuck, Rosalind. Less clothing. Now.”James didn’t waste any time sliding the straps to my tank top down before ripping them clean from my body. He stepped back, eyeing me appreciatively before I watched in amazement as his nails formed into claws. He dragged the sharp point on his thumb down my lip, nicking the skin as he pulled it away from my mouth. His eyes swirled with bright green as the pad of his thumb smeared the small bead of crimson across my lips, “So fucking stunning.”Now I was most definitely rendered speechless. James’ e
“I’ve increased security and will be checking in hourly. Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” James held my annoyed stare, knowing that nothing was getting in or out of these walls without him knowing.He held up his hands in mock surrender, “Fine. FINE. I get it,” he stepped towards me, his large frame crowding my space. My butt hit the counter and my crutches fell to the ground. James lifted me with ease and placing me atop the cool, granite countertop. A shiver rolled through my body as the chill seeped into my skin, “I’m allowed to worry about you, you know?”“Worry all you want, but don’t stop letting me live. Please. I’ll be fine and I trust that all of the additional security measures you’ve put in place will keep me extra safe,” I pecked his lips, attempting to pull away quickly, but he grabbed my face, crashing our lips together in a searing kiss.James held me there until we were both breathless, and my chest ached from the lack of oxygen.“The office can wait,” he growled
James assisted me into a house, where the smell of bleach assaulted me the moment I walked through the threshold. A crew of cleaners froze as we walked inside, but a single look from James had them scurrying back to their jobs.The glass had been removed and the blood no longer stained the white porcelain. A new pane of glass shimmered beneath the midday sun, and I found myself frozen as I stared at the picture-perfect home.“It feels weird to see looking how it was before,” I whispered, still feeling the fear of that night swim through my veins. The large floor to ceiling window overlooked the forest in the backyard, and I silently wondered if that fear would multiply once the sun went down and the shadows of the night came out to play.James pressed his lips to my temple, “I replaced the glass from before with something graded to be bullet proof. Nothing will get through those windows again.”A shiver rolled down my spine. Either James replaced the window with bulletproof glass to m
I was finally cleared to go home from the hospital, but I’m not quite sure how to feel about it. On one hand, I missed my bed and the comfort of my own home. On the other, I didn’t know how to feel about being there after the attack.Not to mention my mind has been running in circles since Marina showed up here yesterday.James came shortly after she left, but something seemed off, and I wanted to dissect everything that Marina had said before confronting James about it. But even more confusing was the fact that she’d specifically said a wolf bite, when she shouldn’t have known that small fact.She couldn’t have known that unless she orchestrated it or James had told her about it, but I was leaning towards her orchestrating the attack.“How’s Ahmed?” I glanced up at James as he wheeled me out to the awaiting car.“He’s awake and recovering. I’ve placed him on paid leave and instructed his wife to come to me if they need anything at all,” James’ voice held an edge to it, but I didn’t c
The inside of the house looked like a massacre. Tiny shards of glass decorated the floor like snow. Some of the larger bits were painted with a deep, blackish crimson from the dried blood, and the smell was nauseating.‘These were definitely rogues,’ Onyx spat through gritted teeth, his anger blending with mine the more we assessed the scene.Through it all, I could smell Rosalind’s blood, and the thought of them hurting her while I was off chasing some ignorant lead on Marina made my blood boil with anger. But the anger was directed at myself.I should have been here. I should have been the one to protect her, and Ahmed did his best, but one man against multiple wolves just didn’t succeed.Rainwater had flooded most of the evidence, causing it to spread before drying. The cops wouldn’t be able to pull anything from this mess. Not anything concrete anyways.I’d learned the hard way how easily evidence can be destroyed. If you’re not on the scene within a tiny window of time, your succ
“Rosalind,” Chris shouted, shouldering through a group of nurses who were conveniently gossiping about James. They still couldn’t believe he was married to a woman like me. Sure, I was a doctor, but that wasn’t anything special when the most eligible, billionaire bachelor in Georgia was in the running. He was like a God around here. And me? Well, I was simply an average looking woman who also happened to be a doctor. My status as a Red didn’t mean a damn thing, because I wasn’t a hot man who also happened to have enough money to buy the entire United States and not blink an eye. “What the fuck?” Chris muttered; eyes wide as he stared at my elevated leg. Blood had seeped through the bandages because they couldn’t seal the wound and for someone who doesn’t see this kind of thing on a regular basis, it was pretty disgusting. “Close the curtain,” I whispered, and he did quickly, rushing back to my side.“Was that,” he pointed at my injury, “From one of them.”“We are one of them,” I n
Pure, unfiltered rage didn’t even begin to describe the poisonous feeling flooding through my veins. The anger feels like a living, breathing thing.Like a Goddamned snake slithering its way beneath my skin, releasing toxic poison in the form of fury that bleeds into every square inch of my body.I want the heads of every single person who stepped foot on my property last night. I don’t give a shit who they were or what they were doing there. If they accidentally stumbled upon the forest at the back of the property…. I’m going to find them and make them pay.Since my driver is now fighting for his life in the hospital with Rosalind, I’m forced to call and wait for a driving service to offer me a temp replacement for Ahmed.A few painstaking minutes pass while I pace a hole in the cement out front of the hospital, sweating from the sweltering, humid Georgia heat before the damn driver finally shows up.‘He is clearly incompetent,’ Onyx spats in my head, ‘Ahmed would never keep us waiti
“Rosa,” James’ voice filters through the darkness, “Rosalind, baby.”My body shakes softly on my shoulders and my eyelids flutter. The lashes on my left eye are stuck to my face, and after a few attempts, they tear free.Bright lights above my head blind me as I blink away my disorientation.The sound of multiple different voices has my eyes panning around the room. EMS workers move quickly, rushing inside the small space and focusing their attention on Ahmed. I recognize a few of the faces rushing around me, but a relieved sigh falls from my lips as I finally focus on James.“What’s going on?”My voice sounds foreign and gravelly.“Are you injured?” James rushes out, coming back to my side and ignoring the emergency personnel shouting at him to back up.“My…” I start, trying to move the leg that had gotten bit, but it felt numb and stiff, “My leg and my ribs.”“What happened here?” The gold flecks in James’ eyes glitter beneath the harsh lights of the elevator, and his eyes soften as
A loud noise jars me awake and my eyes struggle to focus in my disoriented state. The sky is nearly black and rain pelts against the floor to ceiling windows at the rear of the house.The television remains on, but the show I’d been watching has long ended. Glancing at my phone, I blink away the sleepiness seeing that somehow, I’d managed to nap for the last five hours.Another loud crack startles me as the sky lights up with a flash of lightning. A few seconds later, the power goes out, causing complete darkness to blanket me. The storm raging outside is the only sound I hear, and I quickly grab my phone, illuminating the flashlight as I walk towards the rear windows.The backyard leading into the forest looks eerie blanketed in complete darkness. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and the feeling of being watched envelopes me as I squint my eyes, trying to see anything through the heavy sheets of rain.Another flash of lightning illuminates the sky, and I swear I saw someth
James left early this morning for work and forbade me from going into the hospital. I called in with a family emergency, and there was no questioning. They knew if I was taking off, it was necessary, even though it didn't feel that way. Chris remained passed out on the back patio, and I’m not sure if I should force him awake or let him sleep off the shockwave that was yesterday. I still don't even know if I've managed to brush off the reality that I've been a werewolf my entire life and everyone I loved kept it from me..... and I've had weeks to process it.My phone buzzing against the countertop startles me, and I glance over to see that my father is calling.Begrudgingly, I grab the phone, hesitating as my finger hovers over the small green button. I’ve been avoiding talking to either of them. Since my meeting with my father and my mother’s explosion over the scathing interview I did with Mr. Arden; I’m not sure they even consider me a member of the Red family.“Hey dad,” I finally