Chapter 113: Princess In The Hospital
"What happened to her?" Beam shouted the moment she saw Princess slumped on the floor.
I was frozen. I didn’t even have time to catch her the moment she collapsed; she had just gone down like a puppet with its strings cut. I stood there, staring at her pale face, my heart hammering against my ribs so hard I thought it might crack them.
"I don’t know... I... I bit her and she collapsed," I stuttered. My hands were shaking, and I felt like the world was spinning.
Immediately, Beam dropped to her knees. She checked for a pulse and listened for a heartbeat, her face tight with a kind of focus that terrified me.
"Her heartbeat is a little slow," Beam muttered, her jaw set.
Without wasting another second, Beam shifted her weight and hauled Princess onto her back. She didn’t wait for an explanation or for me to help. She just moved.
We were all at the hospital after that, the air smelling of bleach and old coffee. We sat in the waiting room, just staring at the double doors and waiting for any sign from a doctor to tell us how she was doing. I sat there on the chair, holding Kali still in the backpack on my lap. My mind wasn’t at rest. I’ve bitten people before, it’s what wolves do when they’re cornered, but I’ve never seen anyone collapse from my bite. Not like that.
I wasn’t at peace. The thought that I might have actually done something bad to Princess ached in my chest like a physical weight. Even though I knew it wasn’t easy to kill an Alpha, especially one as tough as her, I was still scared that something terrible had happened. Every time a nurse walked by, I jumped.
My thoughts finally slowed down when they eventually came out and said she was conscious and stable. They told us they still had to run some tests to find out why her body had reacted that way and why she had collapsed like she did.
After a while, they let me go in. I went to see Princess in her room. She was sitting up in the hospital bed, her face a bit more color in it now, and Beam was standing right there giving her a glass of water to drink. I stopped at the door, my hand gripping the frame. I didn’t have the courage to face her and apologize for what I had done. I felt like a monster. I was about to turn away and just leave before she saw me.
"Where are you going, Omega?"
Her voice stopped me cold. It was still a little weak, but it had that familiar command in it.
I stepped inside the room, my feet feeling like lead, and kept my distance from the bed. Beam placed the glass down on the side table and quietly left the room without a word, giving us space.
"Princess... I didn’t mean to bite you. I’m sorry," I said in a low voice, looking at my shoes.
"I’m the one who should apologize. I didn’t mean to do that to you," she said.
"I know... you weren’t yourself," I whispered.
"Come closer."
She noticed the distance between us, the way I was hovering near the wall. I took one small step closer, but it wasn’t enough for her.
"Closer," she said again, her eyes locked on mine.
I stepped closer until I was right next to the bed, and she reached out, her hands firm as she pulled me into her. She hugged me, her arms wrapping around my waist.
"I’m sorry," she whispered against my stomach.
I tried to hold myself together, but the guilt was just filling me up. I had honestly thought she died when she hit the floor. I was so fucking scared that I’d lost her forever over some stupid bite.
I breathed in her scent as she held onto me, that familiar smell that always calmed me down. She didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t move. She just stayed there, holding me like I was the one who had been hurt.
And I realized something right then. I still wanted this. I wanted her. Even after the breakup and the fighting and all the drama. It had only been two weeks we dated, but I had gotten used to being her mate friend. No matter how hard I tried to act like I didn’t care, I couldn’t get over her. And looking at the way she was holding me, I’m sure she knew it too.
We were bound together, whether we liked it or not.
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. The words just spilled out.
"Princess... can we still be mate friends?" I asked softly.
She didn’t respond at first. She just kept holding me, her head resting against me. I waited, my heart in my throat.
Then she spoke.
"No. I need to get my control back first... then I’ll work on becoming the type you like."
"I like you like this," I argued.
"No, you don’t. You never did. After I get my control back, we’ll work on that," she said firmly. She still didn’t let go of me.
I wanted to argue more. I wanted to tell her we could fix things together, that we didn’t need to wait for some empire to be rebuilt. But before I could say a single thing, the doctor walked in, a clipboard in his hand.
Princess didn’t move away from me. Her face stayed buried against me, her arms stayed locked around my waist. The doctor hesitated at the foot of the bed, clearly uncomfortable with how close we were.
"You can say what you need to say, doctor," Princess said, her voice muffled but clear.
"The lab results are out, Ms. Kings. It appears that when you were bitten, the bite produced a venom that circulated through your body. It weakened your muscles and slowed your heart rate significantly. However, due to your Alpha genetics, the effect was only temporary," the doctor explained.
"Is that all?" she asked.
"If we can extract more venom from the host, we could conduct further research to understand...."
Princess didn’t let him finish the sentence.
"Don’t worry, doctor. I’m fine now. There’s no need for research. And this stays here. No one, especially my grandfather, should know what happened today. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma’am," the doctor said quickly. He turned on his heel and left the room.
Venom. I produce venom? Since when? I stared at the door, my head spinning. I’m a wolf, not a venomous snake.
"You don’t need to worry, Omega. I won’t report you for what happened. Just don’t let it happen again. You might attract unwanted attention if people find out what you are," Princess said.
"What are you talking about...?"
"I’m very observant. There’s something about you that’s... strange," she said, finally pulling back just enough to look at me.
"I’m not strange. I’m a werewolf..." I defended myself.
She tightened her hold on me slightly, her eyes searching mine.
"Where did you go to school? Do you remember your playgroup days, your kindergarten... even grade four?"
"Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I remember my school life? I was born here..."
I paused.
I remember going to school. I was born here in Oakland. I attended school here until I was ten years old, before I left with my brother to move away. I knew that for a fact.
But when I tried to actually remember the details, the specific things...
Nothing was clear.
The memories were there in my head, like a title of a book, but when I tried to open it, the pages were blank. I couldn’t see my teachers’ faces. I couldn’t remember the name of my friends from back then. It was all a gray fog.
Like something huge was missing.
"Fucking hell..." I whispered.
What happened to my school life here in Oakland?
