Hospital Appointment

“We still can’t find anything wrong with your body Chris, coming here everyday wouldn’t change that” the doctor said exasperated

“He confessed that I was truly poisoned, please check properly. I don’t want to die” I said with tears in my eyes.

“Yes Doctor, help my friend. Please” Aria followed suit

The doctor was quiet for some time and then he said “like I said during your last visit, I know someone and he’s the best doctor I know. He works for the Dark Howlers pack, but I can contact him on your behalf but just so you know, it’ll cost you a lot”

“I don’t think money should be a problem, I just want to live,” I said resolutely.

“Alright, I’ll get back to you then” the doctor finished.

A few minutes later we left the check up room.

“Chris, how long have you been poisoned?” Aria asked

“I don’t know for sure, 3 months, maybe 4.” I replied.

“Chris”

Kelvin stood at the other end of the hospital hallway, Sophie beside him and Vivian following a few steps back.

Sophie had her hand resting protectively over her stomach. I looked away.

I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more of their drama.

“Let’s just leave” Aria said as she tugged at my hands

“Yh sure.” I nodded as we turned to leave.

“Chris, wait”

I kept walking, we had nothing to talk about at this point.

“Chris” I heard my name again before leaving the hospital building.

————-

By the time I slid into the passenger seat of Aria’s Mercedes, I was already feeling light headed.

My hands shook from so much anger.

Aria started the engine.

Neither of us spoke, I leaned my head against the window watching the hospital disappear behind us as I let out short gasps of breath.

The encounter with Kelvin back at the hospital, although brief, unsettled something in me.

My phone vibrated, I glanced down.

The same unknown number that changed my life from the first day it texted.

I opened the message “I’ll be coming back to the room tonight, wait for me”

I stared at the screen, dumbstruck.

That's it? No name, no explanation. Nothing.

I typed a reply “Who are you? And why are you helping me?” and then hit send.

The message failed. I tried again. Failed.

I gave up, sighed and locked my phone. Dropping it into my lap.

Aria glanced at me “who was that?”

I looked out the window again.

“Mr Anonymous” I said

Her eyebrows rose “what did it say?”

“He’s coming back tonight” I said as I raised my hands to rub my temples.

"Isn't that good news? Aria asked

"What do you mean? I was baffled

"Think about it, when he comes tonight, you can ask all the questions you have in mind and have good sex to top it off, doesn't sound like a bad deal to me" she shrugged.

I didn’t answer her right away. There was just so much going on with me.

“Chris?” she called when I didn’t reply, glancing sideways at me while merging onto the main road.

“I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, Aria” I admitted, “Three days ago I thought I was marrying Kelvin. Now I just had sex with some stranger and he dropped a million dollars in my account like it’s nothing, worst of all I don’t even know his name.”

“You should try enjoying the moment, sometimes” she let out a sigh “You’re always so paranoid about the future that you don’t actually LIVE”

I didn’t have a reply for that, she was right.

“Let’s talk about something we can actually control,” she said, her tone shifting into something lighter. “The doctor mentioned a specialist from the Dark Howlers pack. If that’s your best shot, you know what that means, right? You’d have to leave Stone Creek.”

My shoulders slumped when I thought about it. This was a very big decision to make.

“I know it sounds big” she said, “but be honest with yourself, what’s actually keeping you here? Kelvin, Vivian, that whole nightmare of a family? You’ve got nothing left in this pack worth staying for.”

She wasn’t wrong, and it unsettled me how easily the truth of it landed. With it put into words like that it stung even deeper than it had before. Three years of my life that I poured into this territory, into Kelvin, into Vivian and now all that just went down the drain.

“If it means living instead of slowly dying in a hospital that can’t even tell me what’s wrong” I said slowly, “then no, I don’t have a problem leaving.” My wolf and I had already subconsciously made the decision; it's just that we were still in denial.

“Good” Aria said,

We pulled up outside the hotel not long after. She didn’t get out of the car this time.

“He said he’s coming back tonight, right?” she asked, one eyebrow raised, a smirk dancing on her lips.

“Yeah” I said, feeling the blush creeping up my neck.

She let out a knowing chuckle before she said “Then I’m definitely not third-wheeling” her voice now a tone more serious she continued “Call me in the morning. And Chris, eat something before he gets there, please.”

“Yes mom” I muttered, and we both laughed as I climbed out of the car.

I rode the elevator up alone this time, the quietness of the square lift feeling like an earned comfort.

When I let myself into the suite, the space greeted me exactly as Aria and I had left it, the bed all over the place and undies scattered around the floor.

I sighed as I took in what the room actually looked like, too large to be called a room, more like an apartment.

There was a living area interlocked into an open bedroom and off to one side, a kitchen with marble counters.

My stomach growled and just then it clicked, I hadn’t had anything to eat today. How had I not noticed?

“Is there even anything to eat in this place?” My wolf asked.

I wandered over to the kitchen to check, this was a limited luxury room after all . The fridge was fully stocked with vegetables, meat, eggs, actual groceries and not just a decorative basket of fruit for show.

The cabinets held rice, spices, oil, everything I recognized and even things I didn’t, like it was intended to last me weeks here.

“He thought of everything,” my wolf said, both unsettled and impressed.

“Or someone did it for him” I replied, though I didn't even fully believe that.

I pulled out what I needed and let myself fall into the familiar rhythm of chopping and seasoning, something I hadn’t done freely in months.

Kelvin never let me cook at the mansion “There is always staff for that” he would say to me.

I still cooked though just not when he was home. Cooking was therapy to me and I loved it.

It was while reaching across the counter for a cutting board that I noticed it.

Sitting on the small desk near the window, half-hidden behind a bowl of fruit, was a mask. Simple, black, covering just the upper half of the face.

I set the knife down slowly and walked over, picking it up between two fingers like it might bite me.

It hadn’t been there earlier , if it was I would have noticed. Or was it?

My wolf went still. “He’s already been here.”

“Or he never left” I murmured, turning it over in my hands. Nothing extraordinary, just smooth material and a faint, familiar scent clinging to it that made my pulse quicken.

I set it back down exactly where I found it, and went back to the counter. Without really deciding to, I found myself plating a second portion I had no real reason to make.

“You’re cooking for him,” my wolf said, amused.

“I’m already cooking aren’t I? What difference does one more potion make?” I shot back

By the time the food was done, the suite smelled of steak and mashed potato with gravy. I served two plates and sat waiting on the table by the window.