Chapter Six: You Are A Stubborn One

“Burger King?!” His driver parrots, certain he heard his boss wrongly. The man behind him  doesn’t eat in such restaurants, so his request of the place as his destination was a strange one. 

Eros lifts his eyes off his phone to fix his driver with a stern look. “Is there a problem?” He questions coldly. 

His driver shakes his head vigorously. “No problem boss,” he replies with a sheepish expression and promptly starts the car. 

On their way, Eros makes a call to the hospital.

The doctor’s phone rings interrupting him in the middle of attending to another patient. He takes permission from the patient and goes out to the corridor to answer his phone. 

“Hello.” 

“Is she awake?” Eros asks into the phone, going straight to the reason he called, without wasting time with pleasantries. 

“Yes, Mr Helix and—” the doctor goes to say more, but the sound of the dial tone signalling the end of the call had him pulling the phone away from his ear. He shakes his head after confirming that Mr Helix really hung up him. 

“What an odd fellow,” he mumbles to himself before returning to his patient. 

After his call, Eros feels his driver stare on him, and without looking in his direction demands in a cold tone. “Is there something on my face?”  

His driver shakes his head. “Nope, Boss,” he lies. There isn’t a problem per se, but he is trying to figure out his boss’s change in behavior. He is not acting himself recently since they picked up the young woman. 

First is his insistent on staying in the hospital to make sure the girl is alright, and now is the desire for a fast food. Something his boss would not touch with a ten feet pole. 

Despite his claims that nothing is wrong, he keeps stealing glances at his boss, as if his numerous looks through the side mirror would some how reveal to him the reason behind his boss weird personality change. 

“If you are certain there isn’t a cartoon character on my forehead, I would suggest you concentrate on your driving. We would not a repeat of last night,” Eros warns calmly, his voice chilled. 

His driver gulps nervously, hearing the threat lacing his bosses softly delivered words. He does as his boss suggested. Keeping his focus on his driving, and wiping away any thoughts of distraction. 

The last thing he wants is to get on his boss side. The man might have the face of an angel, but when he deals with his enemies, or those unfortunate to get on his badside, he wears the face of the devil. 

Inside the restaurant, the driver stands in disbelief as his boss makes his order. 

As they are leaving the restaurant, people gawk at them strangely, puzzled as to why they needed so many chicken. His driver also has the same question running through his mind. 

He holds his peace until they get to the car, before causually asking his boss. “Did the army call?” 

Eros, who had managed to find something to occupy himself, while his driver loads their order in the boot, lift his eyes away from the game of crush he is playing to look his driver’s way. “Excuse me?!” 

His driver comes out from behind the car, and explains his question to his slightly perplexed boss. “Well, we ordered a good amount of chicken to feed an army, so I wondered if the army general called to tell you that he is sending a battalion to the house, and this is what you intend to feed them.” 

Eros couldn’t believe the audacity of his driver. Did the young man just tease him? Ryze has been with him for years. He found the young Lycan as a teenager, going through the system, struggling to live among the humans while hiding his identity. 

Ryze had lost his parents during the war between the Lycans and the wolves–A battle for supremacy, which the wolves had lost, but his side suffered a great loss. Himself not excluded. 

He takes the young man as his son, and the only one who could claim to be close to him. Their relationship hasn’t been rosy. Raising Ryze was like raising a teenager, and the lost of his parents didn’t make it easier. 

It took years for them to trust and get comfortable with each other. They both lost people dear to them, and that helped laid the foundation of their relationship. 

Raising the teenager has had it perks and disadvantage, and one of the great disadvantage is the young man’s ability to annoy him with his little sassy comments or questions. Like now. 

Eros doesn’t know whether to wring the boy’s neck or sow his lips together so he never speaks again. Neither of those appeals to him, not to someone dear to him, so he settles for glaring at him, knowing it would be just as effective. 

He was right. 

Ryze looks as if he swallowed his tongue when he caught the evil look Eros sent his way. Never mind. You don’t have to answer, he tells his boss with a subdued demeanor. He quickens his actions. Hurrying to open the door for Eros and going to the driver side. 

He gets them on the road without dallying with his usual chit-chats. 

When they get to the hospital, Ryze jumps down from the car, humbly opens the door for his boss, before hurrying to the boot to unload their order. He is still behaving perfectly to wipe off his earlier blunder from his bosses mind. 

Aware of what the young man is doing, Eros smirks to himself as he gets out of the car. On their way to the entrance the hairs at the back of his neck stands on end. Someone or someones are watching him. 

He stops and looks in the direction the stare seems to be coming from. He sees a strange car park off the parking lot, and from the distance between them he could make out the occupants. 

Four men. Two in front, two behind. All wolves. 

Why are they here? 

Did they come for the girl? 

Eros protective instinct rears its head. If they intend to get to the girl, they would have to go through him. 

Ara is awake, and though she seems not to be in any physical pain, her mind is troubled. What is her next line of action? She can’t stay in the hospital, because it is very close to the Pack. It won’t be hard for her mate to figure out that she is here and sends someone after her, if he hasn’t already. 

She needs to get out of this place before they find her. 

She sits up with some difficulties and goes to remove the line on her hand again when the door to her room opens, and Eros deep voice rings out into the room. 

“You are really a stubborn one, aren’t you?” 

Ara’s eyes goes wide at the sight of him, even as her heart leaps in fright or excitement, the blonde is not certain.