Don't leave

Chapter 5 - Don’t Leave

Aurora

“Coming!”

A distant voice filtered in and I immediately placed it — Roland, the name I had been able to attach to the female voice that had woven in and out of my consciousness.

The door opened and she walked in while I stared at her from under my lashes because I couldn’t help it. She was striking, standing nearly six feet tall with an athletic, powerful build in a way that caught you off guard. Not to be prejudiced, if I saw her outside I would think of her as an MMA fighter or weightlifter instead of a traditional doctor.

A sharp Chinese script was tattooed down the side of her neck, disappearing beneath the collar of her crisp white lab coat, with glasses that were sitting on her nose.

Her gaze found mine and I quickly cut my eyes away, realizing I had been caught staring openly, as a small smile curved at the corner of her lips.

She came closer and began the necessary work, checking the IV line, before asking softly, “How are you? Are you feeling any discomfort?”

I gulped and opened my mouth to respond but what came out was barely a voice as my throat was dry and scratchy.

I turned my gaze away; it was embarrassing, but Roland had an understanding look on her face.

Alpha, noticing my dilemma, jumped to his feet, crossing to the table, pouring water from the jug into the cup and carrying it back to me immediately.

I was shocked but mumbled out, “thank you,” while he smiled and I drank the water. It was so refreshing that my throat bobbed and I briefly closed my eyes.

“I’m fine,” I responded when I lowered the empty cup, while Roland nodded.

When she was done she straightened and turned to the alpha with her pen going back into her coat pocket. “She’s okay now, Alpha,” she said, “she just needs rest for a few days and to make sure she takes her medicine.”

The alpha nodded in understanding and Roland walked out of the room, pulling the door behind her, leaving just me and the alpha, my chest picking up its pace, the room feeling smaller without feeling uncomfortable.

I looked around the room to keep my mind from wandering. Everything in the room was simple — the design, the furniture, the walls — and that was when I noticed I was cocooned in a white shirt. I clutched the edge and quickly touched my chest in mortification.

“My clothes,” I breathed out. I could hear the panic in my voice even though I already knew that whatever I had been wearing that day would have been tattered and torn.

Alpha looked at me and his eyes were warm and he rubbed the back of his neck with a shyness that contrasted his big frame.

“It was Roland,” he mentioned.

A relieved breath left me and I nodded, and then I heard his next words and the nod turned into a squeak.

“But the shirt is mine.”

Silence settled over the room as I dropped my eyes to my hands and began fiddling with them, my breathing going slightly uneven from the awkwardness. I could feel the heat starting at the base of my neck and moving to my face.

“I’m Orion Beckham,” he introduced after a moment. He stretched his hand out toward me and I looked at his hand and then up at his face and then back at his hand before I placed my sweaty palm into his gingerly.

His hand practically swallowed mine, igniting the same jolt of electricity I had felt when I first woke up, which moved through me the moment our skin connected, my stomach fluttering as my nose caught his rich, intoxicating scent of rain and sandalwood. The same scent that had been reaching me in and out of consciousness.

I was very sure my face would have been a deep shade of tomato. “I’m Aurora,” I mumbled, blinking repeatedly. “Aurora Whisper,” I added.

“Aurora,” he reiterated in a low and quiet tone, like he was testing my name, and the way my name rolled out of his mouth in that deep voice did something to me.

Was someone’s name supposed to be that powerful?

My throat bobbed as I wondered what was happening to me. I had never reacted to a person like this in my life, not even in the beginning with Knox, and I didn’t know what to do with it, so I cleared my throat and looked out the window.

“How did I get here?” I asked softly, because the last thing I remembered was a large bear and I was sure I would be its dinner that day.

“I saved you,” he said.

I turned my face toward him. He saved me? How? The question was at the tip of my tongue. “Where are we?”

“Clawpine.”

I squinted my eyes. I had never heard of Clawpine in my life and I filed that away, and then my chest tightened when I remembered Knox and his men. I sat up straighter, my fingers curling into the blanket, dread pooling in my stomach. “Is this place safe?” I asked, my voice coming out smaller. “Can he—” I stopped and pressed my lips together and breathed through my nose because I could feel the mini panic attack crawling up to my stomach.

Orion tilted his head slightly, something shifting in his face, and then he nodded once. “This place is secure,” his voice was steady and certain. “No one gets in or out without my permission. Clawpine is away from civilization. It’s a small town.”

The firmness in his voice made me breathe out slowly in relief. At least I could hide here for a while.

Orion glanced at the clock and moved to the nightstand. He opened the drawer and brought out a tablet, set it on the surface, and poured me fresh water before handing both to me. I put the pill on my tongue and swallowed and immediately grimaced at the bitterness spreading across the back of my throat.

He chuckled lightly and I felt the vibration of it in my body.

He slid his hand into his pocket and brought out a small wrapped candy, turning it in his fingers before he unwrapped it and held it out to me. “Honey candy,” he said simply, “it’ll help with the bitterness.”

I took it from him and put it in my mouth and hummed before I could stop myself as the sweetness hit my tongue, then I looked up at him and found him watching me with a softened gaze and I jolted, quickly looking back down at my hands.

“Thank—” my voice slurred in the middle of the word and I blinked slowly, the room somehow tilting as Orion was already moving toward me before I had finished the sentence.

“Rest now,” he said, “Roland said the medication will make you sleepy.”

I thought I nodded as I laid back against the pillow. I was not entirely sure which happened first because the medication was moving through me fast, and the last clear thing I registered was my own hand reaching out, finding his,

my fingers wrapping around his and my voice coming out low and already half gone.

“Don’t leave,” I murmured.

And then I was out.