Filed To Story: Claimed by the Alpha I Hate Book Read Free
Anyhow, the doctors right inside. It was a pleasure meeting you both.”
“You as well.” I replied with a smile, following Nolan into the hospital room.
Two beds sat across from one another, separated by a sea-foam colored curtain. Both were surrounded by heart monitors and those wire hangers that hold bags of fluid. While one of the beds was empty, another held a woman just a few years younger than my dad.
Her wheat-blonde hair was short, curling at the ends where the strands reached her shoulders. The heart monitor at her side beeped slowly, because the woman on the bed was fast asleep.
“Alpha Nolan, and you must be Luna Daisy. Glad you two could make it on such short notice. If you wanted to speak with her, I’m afraid she’s been out for a while now.” Dr. Anderson stood beside the woman’s bed, a clipboard in his hand as he scribbled some notes and flipped to the next page. “We had to sedate her shortly after she woke up. She has no idea where she is, and the last thing she remembers was from eighteen years ago.”
I glanced at the woman in the bed, at her pale skin and angular nose. I tried and failed to imagine what it would’ve been like for herto wake up in a body eighteen years older than what you had.
Dr. Anderson caught my eye as they fell to the mark on her hand, identical to that of the witch that tried to k**l me.
He nodded impassively; his eyes curious as they remained steady on my face.
“When we pointed out this mark to her, to ask if she knew anything about it-it sent her into psychosis.
Also, she’s a full- blood werewolf. Found that out when she grew claws and tried to carve the mark off herself.” I could see the questions bubbling in his eyes. “I’ve worked at quite a few hospitals, and I’ve never seen a case like Flora’s. Eighteen years. No brain damage, nothing on her MRI’s. Perfectly healthy, and yet she wouldn’t wake up. The mark on her hand, something like that looks an awful lot like magic. Don’t know much about the subject, but m parents told me plenty of stories about forest witches as a kid.”
“Is there a question in there somewhere, Dr. Anderson?” I took a step forward as I spoke, mostly to keep Nolan from snapping at the man. A hard-headed Alpha through and through, but that’s exactly why he needs me by his side.
He tilted his head and studied my face, “guess I’m just curious if there are any vengeful forest witches I need to worry about.”
“Not at the moment, but if that changes, we’ll mind-link you.” My smile was playful, but still held the authority of a Luna. I continued before he had the chance to ask another question, “Have someone contact us when she wakes up again and if there’s a psychologist in the building, send them here as well. Provide all resources needed for her to sort through the changes she’s going through. When she’s ready, we’ll speak with her. For the time being, does she have any relatives nearby?”
“I’m afraid not.” I wondered if all doctors had the same sense of reserved sympathy, and if it was the things they witnessed in a day that taught them to hold it together so well. “A couple in this pack adopted her as a child when her mother died. Her adoptive parents died in a house fire just a couple weeks after Flora slipped into a coma. There are a few distant cousins of her adoptive family a few states away. Are you thinking we should give them a call? It’s been eighteen years and not one family member has been to visit.”
I smiled sweetly, “we’ll let her decide if she wants to contact any family members, but I would like the name of the adoption agency that handled her case.”
“You handled that well.” Nolan chuckled, his laugh deep and rich like liquid amber. His breath was hot and curled in the air between us. The cold metal of the car chilled my back, easily seeping through Nolan’s sweatshirt. His hand rested on the roof of the car and his eyes were devastatingly serious as he said, “I was going to tell him to take his questions and f**k off.”
I always took the chance to toy with my hot-headed mate, especially when he made it so incredibly easy.
I gave him a petulant look and tried to push past him, “you never did have any manners.”
My back hit the side of the car with a little more force this time. Rather than hurting me, it brought a twisted smile to my face. My head swam with his earthy scent as he leaned in close, always hovering over me. I could feel his fingers tangling in my hair where they hadn’t been before.
“You’re wrong, I have some manners.” He lowered his head and breathed in my scent. The stubble on his cheek grazed my neck, sending goosebumps pebbling my skin. He noticed every reaction my body had to his and chuckled in my ear. “If I didn’t, this entire hospital would hear me f**k you on the hood of the car, and don’t bother lying, Daisy. You wouldn’t lift a finger to stop me.”
I got my revenge an hour into our drive home. The sun had vanished, darkening the sky as the moon’s silvery light took hold. The glittering forest, sprawling with light and life turned dark and mysterious at night. You could fully appreciate how dense it was when day turned to night and the slivers of shadow began gather and pulse.
I had been ignoring them for a while now and hadn’t even allowed myself to glance their way. They were always there, just out of sight-constantly reminding me what they could do. What they could offer.
No matter how tempting tapping into that power was, the price was rarely ever worth it.
The darkness paired with the curvy highway was lulling me back to sleep, but there was something I wanted even more than another long nap something Nolan had knowingly put into my head.
Letting the image form in my mind, I pictured the two of us parked in a secluded dirt lot. The freezing metal of the car hood on my back was nothing compared to the heat of Nolan’s c**k filling me, or the warmth his hand provided as it wrapped around my throat, his thumb stroking my cheek as he told me how good I was-how well I took everything he gave. I sent the mental image down the mate-bond, always underestimating his reaction.
I grabbed onto what my dad called the ‘oh s**t’ handle as Nolan’s head snapped to where I sat, sending the car veering into the other lane. The tones of bright honey had been sucked from his eyes within half a second. Blinking rapidly, he sent us back into the right lane. Thankfully, we were the only car on the road, which is what finally made me giggle.
“What the h**l, Daisy.” His snarl was angry, but he couldn’t stop glancing my way.
Toying with Nolan, letting him evoke these feelings and emotions, it was a distraction from everything else going on, one I needed if I were going to survive the upcoming weeks. I was determined to savor every uninterrupted moment alone with him.
Even though he was now expecting the next few clips I sent his way, he clearly underestimated my creativity. His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel, and his hair was now a mess from the number of times he ran his fingers through it. I had always been a fan of Nolan in sweatpants, especially now that the material was stretched taut against his e******n.
The moment the scent of my arousal permeated the car, Nolan jerked us to the side of the road. A
small stretch of gravel provided even more coverage, not that it mattered with how quickly he tore the clothes from my body and pressed me against the hood. The husky sounds he made as he cursed me for being so tempting, for constantly wanting a rise out of him, they’d forever be seared into my memory.
I was riding a post-s*x high until we reached his parent’s house and I remembered I was going to dredge up some unpleasant memories, Dad still loved her in a way and remembering that the woman he knew had a life full of secrets only brought him pain.
It was around ten o’clock at night when we strolled into Nolan’s parents house. The scent of grandma’s lavender cookies was within every corner of the house, and even trickled outside as we walked through the front door.
Standing by the large entertainment center in the living room was Killian, a glass of amber liquor in his hand. Dad sat back in the leather recliner attached to the sectional. His eyes flitted up from the football game on tv as he greeted us.
“If you’re lookin’ for Sean he’s not here, took up a part-time patrol shift. What’s got you two smelling like that?”‘ Dad grunted, scrunching his nose as he took a long drink of the beer in his hand.
For a moment embarrassment flooded my cheeks, but the scent of what Nolan and I had done was long gone. What did cling to our our clothes and skin was the sterile scent of the hospital.
“Definitely a hospital.” Claire’s soprano came from the kitchen, followed by a head of chocolate-brown hair. She held one of grandma’s cookies in her hand, and judging from the jumbo size, I’d say grandma in for a long night. “Only been to one a handful of times. I’m definitely not fond of them.”
“I never could stand the smell of those places.” He shook his head, his mind most likely flitting back to his injury and the physical therapy appointments he absolutely loathed going to.
Grandma flitted out of the kitchen a couple seconds later, her soft-black hair twisted into a bun on her head. The plate clinked against the glass-top table, turning it smoky from the steam. Tiny buds of lavender dotted the tops of the cookies, coupling with the specks of vanilla bean to form a beautiful pattern.
“Claire’s asked me to bake a few things for the University’s bake-sale fundraiser.” Grandma smiled proudly, her apron speckled with hints of brown sugar and flour.
“Begged was more like it. My cooking skills are sub-par and haven’t improved much over the years.”
Claire sighed and shook her head. Killian looked her way, his eyes glazing over for just a few seconds before the forlorn look was wiped from her face, replaced with an intimate smile. She cleared her throat, blushing as she continued without pause. “Still, I could get used to this if I’m not careful. Your grandma is going to have the whole town hooked on these things. I might have to buy her a shop in town.”
Dad chuckled, his chest rumbling from the gravely sound. “It’s worse when you’re raised on it.”
“You hire someone else to run the place and give me free reigns of the kitchen and you got yourself a deal.” Grandma said with a nod, darting back into the kitchen when the oven timer sounded.
Nolan gave me a single look that made my stomach drop, and for once, I wished I hadn’t developed the ability to see past his expressionless façade. I knew he had sent Claire a quick mind-link when she snatched up another cookie and stood from the couch.
“I think we should go look into that cookie shop.” Claire stepped into Killian’s side, molding herself to the previous Alpha’s torso.
“But the game?” Killian frowned as Claire led him down the hall, his eyebrows gnashing together in an expression nearly identical to Nolan’s.
A strange flutter wormed its way into my heart as I tried to picture Nolan and I like that-twenty years older with children of our own, looking around at all the hard work we had done over the years, and how our family and people could relax and reap the rewards. It was the future e worked towards, one where all people, werewolf or vampire, could safely have families of their own.
Dad’s low chuckle startled me, “now that you’ve gone and chased everyone off, what’s it you wanted to talk to me about? I might not be as useful as I once was, but I still got some of your grandma’s genes.
Mean’s it’s a little harder to pull the wool over my eyes.”
I took half a second to calm my nerves before jumping right in. Subtlety wasn’t my strong suit, and I had spent the better half of the day gnawing over scenario after scenario. Rather than pull up a picture of the sigil on my chest, I lowered my shirt to show where my heart rested within my ribcage. Inches below my collar bone sat the sigil, it’s dark ink just as bright as Nolan’s cobalt mark on my skin.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?