Chapter 25

Liam's POV

This is a tricky situation.

The bulky envelope, no doubt containing money, is begging me to take it.

“I cannot take that, Alpha.” I state. “ I'll do this as a favour to you, but offering me hush money is an insult to the hippocratic oath, and to my license” 

He smirks, Alpha Anderson is not the kind of man you say no to, I had only two options, do it without the bribe or do it with the bribe. I picked the one that eased my mind a little.

“You're very smart, Doc. I'm glad you've decided to help me out” He lifts his leg from my table, standing with a grunt.

“Well, I'll be on my way.” He said to me, then turns to his phone and dials up a number, “Send Gary in” 

Then he walks out without another word and I'm left reeling.

Will I regret this decision I've made?

Three minutes later, a knock sounds on my door.

“Come in.”

A young boy, about eighteen years old, walks in, head and shoulders slumped.

What I notice though, is the way he walks, like he's in a lot of pain and discomfort.

“I'm Doctor Liam, and I'm assuming you're Gary, come on, let me take you to the examination room.”

I push away from my table, opening another door that connects to my office.

“You should remove your trousers and wear the hospital gown” 

“Can I keep my trousers on?” He responds shyly, a whisper so low I almost miss it.

“No Gary, you can't. I'm a licensed urologist, I promise you, there's not a lot of things I've not seen in my line of work. You have nothing to worry about, chances are, your problem is a type that I've handled many times before. So get undressed and wear a hospital gown so my work would be easier.” 

He nods and obeys, getting on the table with care.

“Spread your legs”  The hospital gown falling over his knees.

“So, we are supposed to have at least a thirty minute consultation before the physical exam, but we'll just do it as we go. Is that okay?” 

“Yes”

“Good”  I lift the gown from his knees and am met with a bloody sight.

His penis is bloody and torn at the tip, like someone scratched the head with claws. Shock pulses through me.

“Right off the bat, I'm noticing some kind of injury” I start and he shuts his eyes tight, probably in embarrassment, or pain. Or both.

“How did it happen?” It looks like a foreign object had been pushed through his urethral opening, causing the injury and most likely, severe pain.

Did he do this to himself? Or had he been sexually abused by someone? Why was Alpha Anderson so adamant about keeping this a secret?

“It was an earring” He responds weakly, too ashamed to speak up.

“What was that?”

“An earring, through my hole. It had these hooks so I got scratched.” 

Still no indication of who carried out the act, did he do it himself or was it done to him.

“And who put the earring through your urethra?” I ask, appalled.

He looks away from me, lips shut tight in a straight line.

“I'm going to need you to be forthcoming with me if I'm going to be able to help you”

He doesn't respond, I sigh and give up. I'll get the information out of him later.

“Have you manifested your wolf?” I ask

“Yes I have”

“Good, so your injuries on the surface are going to heal soon. As for the penile and bulbar urethra, I will have to keep you here, run some tests and scans to know if there's any internal damage”

I grab a file, writing his information.

Insertion of foreign objects into the opening of urethra, suspected to be from extreme sexual curiosity, mental illness, intoxicated or assault. 

My phone rings the minute I write the last word, the caller ID says ‘Dr Anne’.

“I'm going to leave you here for a few minutes, I need to take this call. Like back and rest”

I swipe and put the phone to my ear, closing the door to the exam room.

“Pleasure hearing from you doctor Anne, it's been a minute since we spoke. What updates do you have for me?”

My heart thumped in my chest, I sent a quick prayer to the Moon goddess that she wasn't calling to break some kind of bad news to me.

“Liam, I'm calling with bad news.” She pauses, waiting for me to assimilate that bit of information, “Your mom isn't in critical condition. Yet. But she will be very soon, if we do not proceed with the next phase of the treatment, you stand a chance of losing her.” 

“Anne, you know how it is, whatever you have to do, please do it, you have my permission as long as my mom comes out safe. She's all I have, you know this.”

“Liam, you know that I've always liked you, one could even say that I love you, if there's anything I can do, I would have done it a long time ago. To proceed with the next phase you have to pay a non-refundable deposit of thirty thousand dollars” 

$30,000?

Where the fuck am I going to see such a huge amount of money?!

“Anne- you know I don't have that.” 

“I know Liam, and I'm ready to help out in the little way I can, but you need to pay that deposit if we are to proceed. You know it's not in my hands.”

She is right, even though Anne is a family friend, who coincidentally wants to be with me, she's a cardiologist who is working hand in hand with other doctors in order to treat my mother.

She is not the one calling the shots.

“How much time do I have?” 

“She's pretty stable right now, but that won't hold up for a long time, you have between two weeks to one month.”

 I need to find a way to make thirty thousand dollars in two weeks or I risk losing my mother. I'm really starting to regret not taking that monetary bribe Alpha Anderson had offered me earlier.

“Fine, I'll see what I can do” I sigh. “And Anne?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you for all you do.” 

“I'd do more for you Liam, if you would just let me” She ended the call.

I sigh. Anne has made it known multiple times that she likes me and wants us to be a couple. She does not know that I am not sexually attracted to women at all. Nobody knows.

Well maybe except Kai Anderson, whom I was definitely not supposed to even think about.

The image of him and Cerise kissing each other in the hospital lobby flashes in my head and my hands ball into fists.

I want to smash his face for kissing her so passionately after letting me top him, for affecting me this way without my concern. Not that any of that mattered, he is getting married soon, it's best for everyone if we stay far away from each other.

I pocket my phone, Gary is still waiting for me in the examination room, I make my way towards it.

As I approach, I pick up some words coming from inside the room, he must be on a call with somebody.

“...no, he was just asking me a lot of questions.”

“He has not made any advances towards me so far, but he said he would keep me here for more tests and scans so maybe he will.” 

“I will” he says and I hear the click when the call disconnects.

What the fuck is going on here?! Is someone trying to set me up?