CHAPTER 4 - INJURIES

-RAINA’S POV-

"No fucking way!" Vaheed argued with me all the way to Wolverson Hospital.

He insisted on carrying me in his arms because of my injuries. I managed to convince him that I was physically fit to walk, not crippled. He parked his silver Porsche in front of the illuminated twelve-story hospital building.

There was no rain here, just the moon shining bright in the natural black that hugged the glittering stars, splattered but never falling. It was around five in the morning that we arrived at the central area which is called Central City and I felt weak and burning up with my heart in tatters. The fire raced through me like an amplified jarring jolt when Valen touched me. The shock hadn't dispelled that my own mate inflicted wounds on me.

My pained strides held balance and gave no indication of a limp. I was concealing from Vaheed the extent of agony that I truly experienced. Dauntingly, my entire skin was a picture of chili-red rashes that pinched. Giving the impression that I was being penetrated by an acupuncturist using sharp, solid, thin metallic needles that were subsequently triggered by a violent electrical stimulation.

The cool nocturnal air brushed a whisper of a breeze on my red, inflamed, swollen skin as though it was trying to substitute as a relief gel.

Vaheed grumbled all the way in the elevator. The one time that he stopped moving his mouth was to mind-link his grandma that I required medical aid. Even as we walked through the hallway on the fifth floor, he bleated. Regardless of my situation, I was concerned about him too. The grey T-shirt and blue jeans were dirty with slash marks. His warm-ivory skin, which was built like a wall of solid muscles, had minor lacerations that scaffold and new tissue rapidly strengthened.

"My decision is final," I reiterated and he shot me a disbelieving look that discreetly argued down at me from his 6'4 height.

We unlocked the door and went inside the air-conditioned examination room with an off-white theme. As I was about to sit on the bariatric bed, waiting for Dr. Stone, I realized that my dress was still damp.

"I'll tell Mom what Valen did to you. I swear it, Raina," he vowed. "They ought to know the truth behind your bruises."

"Vaheed, stop." I put a hand up and the small gesture produced dizziness. "Get me some dry clothes to change into before they get here."

His expression was a debatable one and I shot him an intense look that made him acquiesce. He humphed and went out the door.

Valen's words stung my ears and the sight of him haunted the apex of my thighs. My mind journeyed to the stockpile of images I had stored in my imagination of him tonight. His rugged beauty of the thickness of veins prominent upon his ripped biceps. Oh how I wanted to hug and kiss him. Instead of the hailing rain, it should have been my fingers lightly running down his tall bulky manliness. His broad chest heaved breathtakingly ferociously as he tried to calm his essence. The prowess of his alarming masculinity powerfully bounds me. My breasts stiffened. Flames, my body burned for him.

To possess such potent green eyes that reminded me of the natural forest, always captivated me like he was all that I needed to survive.

Regarding me with the smoldering intensity of his sharp emerald gaze, he absorbed my womanly features from my ankles and then gingerly up to my exposed honeyed thighs, which squeezed shut my throbbing core. Ravishing my ample, hefty breast with tantalizing slowness, lingering on my exposed neck, then moving right onto my full, natural scarlet lips.

When I made the decision to go with Vaheed, the man I had briefly seen as caring profoundly disappeared. Even that was more painful than the impaled physical injury.

I glanced at my blistered wrists. The deep red ring had now changed to purple-blue. The burning sensation delayed. Even I was astounded when Valen's touch hurt me. Though it was obvious that it was not intentional.

At age sixteen, I realized that Valen was my mate. That's because I have my wolf. It's a special case and I'll be a red wolf when I get my first shift soon. Therefore, my wolf talks to me but we've never shifted. However, I can see her full form mentally.

I was shocked when I first heard her sweet voice in my subconsciousness. Especially since the first time she showed her presence was at Valen's eighteenth birthday party when she joyfully announced ‘mate.' I was ecstatic because I've been crushing on him since forever.

Though no one else could have heard my wolf, surprisingly at that moment, Valen's emerald eyes and mine locked. I held my breath thinking he felt the bond too. Instead, he looked away and ignored me for the night. It crushed me. I left the party and went home crying.

Did he still see me as an extension of his family? You know, like in a sisterly way. I hated it. Sleeping over with Venus was just to be around him. Yet, he would leave to stay with my older cousin, Devin, at the pack house. Sometimes I think that he intended to reject me.

For shifters, eighteen is the maturity age when we get our wolf, have our first shift, and can recognize our mate through the pull and attraction of the bond. In my extraordinary case, I was early.

Now, in an effort to let Valen know that I knew he was my mate, I openly declared that he was mine. My crush evolved into an obsession. Vaheed protested for me to quit, while Valen pretended not to notice which gravely agitated me. I ordered every she-wolf to stay away from him. Although, it seemed that he had never had a girlfriend. I've often wondered about that. Or maybe he had a secret lover.

No, that's not it. The bond would pain me if Valen was fucking around. Then why did he stay away from me? Or did he know that his touch would hurt me like it did tonight?

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