ELODIE“Are you alright, sweetie?” Mrs. Vinters asked, her fingertips grazing my cheek.Why are they so worried? I am not dead yet; I just collapsed from... I couldn’t even tell what caused me to faint. It must have been stress from reading all night without getting proper sleep.“I am fine,” I replied.“No, you aren’t,” Belle choked out.It was then that I realized she was crying. What the hell was happening? Her sobs increased, making me panic.“I am seriously fine,” I said, trying to calm her down. “Nothing happened to me; I only passed out from stress. It was nothing important.”Although I was confused, I was glad that they were still by my side. That proved they didn’t believe the allegations Freddie made against me, but where was Tedros?I had trailed my eyes earlier to catch sight of him, but he was nowhere in sight.“Stop lying to us,” Cole murmured.Mrs. Vinters pulled them both away from my body and shoved them behind her. Sitting next to me on the bed, she snatched the box
ELODIEHer response made my lips curl into a smile. Tedros did what he had never done because of me.“You shouldn’t bother about what that man said about you. We believe you and would never believe a word coming from his lips,” Mrs. Vinters said, her voice cool and collected. “Remember, we are family and will always stick together.”Warmth filled me as I listened to her. “Yes, thank you.”Belle’s face lit up. “Are you going to stay with Mom and me?” she questioned, changing the topic. “It would be a great vacation for you.”I shook my head. “No.”My main reason for refusing was that I couldn’t leave Tedros alone in the house. If I were to go on a vacation, there would be no one there to feed him the pill.Belle tilted her head to the side, stunned by my sudden refusal. “Why are you refusing to stay with us?”It was then that it hit me: Tedros hadn’t taken the pills for five days now. Was he okay? He didn’t go on a rampage? I couldn’t help but panic.“Where is Tedros?” I asked.“Oh, I
ELODIE“He came to look for you again,” Tedros muttered, making me wonder who the man he was talking about was. “You know him; he comes all the time to visit you, and he also insisted that I tell him where you are.”As soon as he was done talking, I could already picture who it was in my mind. The only man who had ever visited me was Lucas.“Was it Lucas?” I questioned him, frowning at him for not telling Lucas where I was. “You should have told him where I was; he must have been worried sick.”“He shouldn’t be worried about another man’s wife.” Leaning in, his face was inches from mine as he stared at me like he could see into my soul. “So, what’s that pill that you are feeding me?” My eyes widened in shock. Did he know about the pill? How did he find out? My heart began beating hard against my chest as I panicked, trying to think of what to tell him, but I couldn’t come up with anything. It was like my head was blank, and I couldn’t think of what to say. I could only wonder how he
ELODIETedros’ brows arched at my question, then a grin spread across his face. “What do you think? Do you think he’s fine after poisoning me?”“It wasn’t poison,” I corrected him. “Lucas would never poison anyone without my permission.”“He shot me with a tranquilizer. Did you permit him?”I wasn’t going to deny that I ordered Lucas to shoot any prematurely transforming werewolf on sight.“Yes, I did tell him to shoot, but I had no idea it was you.”Tedros gave me a questioning look. I knew he had many questions, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to answer all of them.“What were you going to do to the person if it wasn’t me?” he asked.I had a feeling he was starting to figure out that something was wrong. I’d do the same if I found out someone was feeding me pills.Averting my eyes from his, I tried to think of the best response, but he moved my head to the side to meet his gaze.“Look at me when you answer.”I looked up at him. From the look on his face, I felt like I wouldn’t be able
ELODIESeeing that my words were having an effect, I tilted my head to the side. He was still cupping my face in his hand and forcing me to look at him.“How sick am I?” he questioned. “And when can I stop taking the pills?”“When you’re better,” I replied.“What’s the name of the sickness anyway?”That was it. The grin I had been trying to control spread across my face. Lucas didn’t tell him what the sickness was. I was right; he wasn’t given all the information he needed.“It’s a secret,” I answered, winking at him. “If you know the name of the sickness, it will only get worse.”“Is that true?”“Yes.”He released me and sat up on the bed, and I did the same. I stared at him from the corner of my eyes, sighing in relief. I couldn’t believe how I had panicked for no reason; now it was all settled.“Are you going to find Lucas and apologize?” I asked, keeping the conversation going.“No, I won’t,” he replied stubbornly.“You beat him on purpose because he shot you with a tranquilizer.”
TEDROSThe lights were turned off, the curtains drawn, and a breeze found its way in. My eyes were still open, focused on her hair as she inhaled and exhaled.We were lying on the hospital bed together, just as she wanted. Her head was on my chest, and I held her close.The bed was small. It was enough to contain us, but it felt like she was sleeping on top of me.A smile reached my lips as I remembered how red she turned after suggesting we share the bed and how stunned she was when I agreed.“I was just wondering what it would feel like if you lay on this little bed with me and I could inhale your scent as I sleep,” she had said, avoiding my eyes.It had taken me by surprise, but I agreed. And here we are, lying on the same bed.She didn’t fall asleep early. She was wide awake until thirty minutes ago when she couldn’t hold back sleep anymore.To be honest, if it were me, I wouldn’t be able to sl
ELODIE“Ducky, can you hear me?” A loud, impatient voice rang through the air.Despite the background noise, I recognized the voice immediately. There was only one person in the world who called me that.“Keep your voice down; you might wake her,” another voice muttered, slightly softer than the first.Beep!Beep!The beeping sound pierced through me. My head hurts. Every breath I took made me feel like my lungs were blocked.It hurt so much.I tried moving my fingers, but it was tough. I noticed that I couldn't move any part of my body.“Ducky, can you hear me?” The first voice repeated itself.Hearing his voice made me want to talk to him. “Tedros?” My lips moved on their own, and surprisingly, it didn't hurt anymore.“Ducky, you're awake.” He sounded pained, and I felt a hand on mine.I wanted to open my eyes and look at him. He came; he came for me. My head throbbed as I tried to remember all that happened.“What happened to Beatrice?” he asked almost immediately.Surprised, I man
ELODIE3 years later.“Welcome, Ms. Campbell.” My personal assistant greeted me as I made my way inside. Holding my head high, I glanced at the people that were in the conference room. They were two women, and they were in their mid-40s.“Good evening, Ms. Campbell.” The woman greeted me. Taking my seat, I smiled at them. “Hello, Mrs. Thompsons.” They returned the smile, and I tried to keep my fake smile in place. The Thompsons were my high-paying clients. I'm currently the CEO of Elod's security organization. It is currently located in human territory, but my employees were werewolves. However, our clients were mostly humans because they were the ones who needed protection more than werewolves. The ladies in front of me were humans who had no idea that they were staring at a werewolf. “Ms. Campbell, we have been waiting for an hour. Couldn't you have told us that you were going to be late?” The first woman muttered. Sighing, I collected the files that my assistant was handing