Chapter 8: Happy Wife, Happy Knife

Thora POV

“Calm down, Miss. I assure you. You’re safe,” The doctor reiterated while checking her vitals.

But Thora was restless. She kept looking over her shoulder, kept eyeing everyone who came in through the door. The hunters had indeed rescued her and took her to the upper side of town in Crescent Falls, where she had led a normal life for the last twenty-five years.

She was in a hospital, surrounded by humans, or at least she wanted to believe so. Her experience in the last few weeks had made that distinction difficult to make.

She begged the doctor to let her go, in the same way she had begged the hunters to take her to the police. No one was listening to her.

How could she blame them? All she had kept repeating since the forest was how she had been kidnapped by humans who could morph into wolves. Everyone in the car had looked at her like she was crazy.

And now the doctor was talking to her softly like a child, like she was mentally unstable and needed constant reassurance that everything would be fine.

“I need to go home.”

“We need to run a few more tests, Ms. Storm.”

“I’m fine, I promise. I just got shallow cuts.”

The doctor exchanged a doubtful look with the attending nurse, who proceeded to scribble something down on her clipboard.

“The wound on your thigh belies that fact, Ms. Storm.”

“I mean…besides the animal attack, I’m all good. Please…” She sat up, “I really need to go. My family must be worried.” She threw in the family lie, hoping that would convince them faster.

“Your family? Is there someone we can call? You can give us their number, and we’ll place a call…”

“No.” She replied too quickly and instantly regretted it when they gave her yet another worrisome stare. “I’d just like to go home myself. My mum isn’t doing very well. A call like this would spike her blood pressure. It’s best if she sees me walk into the house, alive and well, before I hit her with the truth of my kidnap.”

The doctor finally sat next to her and took her hands. “Ms. Storm, your government record shows that you were orphaned at a young age and have lived on your own ever since. My scans show that you didn’t hit your head hard enough to lose your memory. I can only chalk it up to one thing; you must be lying to me because the horrific experience you faced out there in the wild might indeed have led to some form of temporal memory loss.”

Thora was lost for words. She just wanted to leave, to put as much distance between her and the Vermont mansion as she could.

“Fine. I’m sorry for lying to you, but I really need to go. If you really know about my past, then you must know how much I hate hospitals.”

“I’ll let you go in a bit, after the police takes your statement.”

The police were coming? Thora wished she could feel relieved or even safe hearing that. Yet, everything inside her was still on edge.

She didn’t think it would be sensible to waste another second here, and she considered herself a sensible woman. Quick as a whiplash, she yanked off the IV drip on her hand and got on her feet. Blood spurted out but she couldn’t be bothered.

“Ms. Storm!”

“You can’t keep me here. I’ll personally give the police my statement, but right now, I don’t feel safe here. I have to get home.” And pack what she could to make an unplanned trip into hiding, she mentally added.

Amidst the doctor’s yells, she limped to the door and pulled it open. Her face went ghostly pale when she saw Roman standing right outside.

***

Her knees gave out first, but he caught her before she fell. Trembling, she shoved hard at him, then crawled away like she’d seen a ghost. The attending nurse crouched to console her. She began to cry and scream, wagging a finger at him.

“It’s him! He kidnapped me. They hurt me. He’s the man who can turn into a wolf!”

Roman stepped forward, a hand outstretched towards her. He halted when Thora shrieked like a lunatic with every move he made. The doctor ranged herself between them, arms hooked on her waist.

“Who are you?”

Conveniently, Thora noticed he was blocking the door. The stony face which was a constant for him was surprisingly now awash with emotion as he tucked a hand in his coat and retrieved something.

“Doctor, I’m Roman, and that is my wife, Thora.”

“NO! HE’S LYING. PLEASE, CALL THE COPS NOW!”

The doctor quietly skimmed the document in his hand while Roman softly called out to Thora, telling her everything would be fine.

“Roman Valcourt, as in THE Valcourt family?”

Roman sniffled. “Yes, ma’am.”

The doctor glanced at Thora. “You’re married to her? Her records show no update on her marital status, and she claims this relationship doesn’t exist.”

“It’s fairly recent, less than five months old. We had a private ceremony with loved ones and shortly after, she got hurt in the woods while we were hiking. Animal attack. She’s been undergoing treatment ever since. I’ve been so worried about her deteriorating mental health that I forgot to update her records.” He spared Thora a pitiful look. “The doctors we’ve seen concluded that her traumatic past is taking a toll on her. She’s convinced people are wolves and out to hurt her, so she tends to run away sometimes. Poor thing.”

The doctor nodded. “I understand, Mr. Valcourt. I’m sorry for the pain you must be going through seeing your wife in this condition. The police will be here shortly. If you don’t mind, they’d like to take her statement, probably yours too.”

“I don’t mind.”

Thora shook her head. Of course, the doctor bought his lies. She sprang up from the floor and bolted to the door. Unfortunately, Roman’s hands were faster. He caught her firmly. She tried to wriggle free, but the effort was in vain.

“Let me go, you bastard!” She cried.

“We’ll be home soon, my love. Everything will be alright,” He picked her up easily and deposited her back on the bed. She smacked him hard across the face in return.

His only reaction was biting down on his lower lip. When he turned to her, he didn’t look angry, but it scared her even more.

He cupped her face and stared at her adoringly. “No one is trying to hurt you, darling. I’m here now. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

The doctor and nurse quietly let themselves out. Alone, Thora shoved at him.

“I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THAT MANSION WITH YOU. I WILL TELL THE POLICE EVERYTHING I SAW…” She trailed off when his dark stare returned.

A cold dare danced in his eyes as they faded to red. When he spoke, his voice carried a distinctive frequency that numbed her bones.

“You will not reveal anything to the police! If you do, I’ll go into town and murder fifty people as payback for the five your kind already took from my pack. Are we clear?”

“Yes.” The words spilled out like a reflex.

It took her a minute to regain control of her limbs. “W-What was that?”

His devilish smile disappeared when the door opened. The doctor entered with police officers and quickly brought them up to speed. When they questioned her, Thora found it difficult to explain how she got hurt or why she was roaming the forest at night. The answers were on the tip of her tongue, but the words wouldn’t come out when she tried to narrate everything.

Roman kept watching her even while another officer took his own statement and perused the marriage certificate. The officer attending to her noticed how scared she was and how often she kept glancing in Roman’s direction. He pulled out a paper and pen from his pocket and asked her to write.

She didn’t overthink it and when he looked down at what she had written, he tucked it into his pocket.

He went to Roman. Thora watched Roman’s face crumple with annoyance. They argued, but the officer wouldn’t budge. He came back and looped a hand around Thora’s shoulder, pulled her up.

Wordlessly, he and his men helped her out, informing Roman that he could go with her only after the marriage license was properly confirmed.

Even though she was too scared to look back, she swore she felt his glare.

***

They had been driving for ten minutes. They asked her about her home address and she told them. Then she remembered her landlord had probably already evicted her weeks back. She begged them to take her to a bus terminal instead, claiming she had a friend she could go be with in the meantime.

“Is he really your husband?”

Thora swallowed properly and realized whatever Roman had done to her had worn off. “No, he tricked me into marrying him.”

“So, you are really married to him,” the officer in the passenger seat asked, staring at her through the rearview mirror.

“In his law but not in mine. I was made to believe we were shooting a movie scene.” She shoveled hair out of her face and sighed. The look they were giving her was the same as the doctor at the hospital.

“I know you don’t believe me, but I am not crazy, I promise. That man can turn into a wolf. Everyone in the Vermont mansion can do the same, and they hurt me for fun.”

“It’s okay. I believe you.”

She doubted it. “How could you?”

“I’ve seen a LOT in this field. Yours is the least incredible, trust me.”

She was going to smile, till she noticed they had veered off the highway, and were headed into a less traveled road that led to somewhere she wasn’t familiar with. The officer didn’t stop smiling when he realized she had caught on.

“Um, I think you missed a turn. The bus terminal is the opposite direction.” She tried to stay calm, assured herself her traumatic experience was forcing her to see things through a pessimistic lens.

“This is a shortcut.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes when his eyes glowed amber like a wild cat. It was the last thing he said to her before bright headlights appeared from nowhere and rammed into them. The car tumbled and when it stopped, it was upside down. Blood dripped from Thora’s head.

Eyes barely staying open, she saw the officers get yanked violently out of the upended car. Loud growls followed and blood splattered all over the ground.

She closed her eyes till it was over, kept them shut when she was pulled out of the wreckage. She was too weak to fight. Roman was peering down at her when she managed to open her eyes.

“You said it yourself. It’s Mrs. Valcourt now, not human.” His tone was spiteful. “Valcourts only have one home, and that’s where you belong now.”

She let her eyes fall shut, and silently twitched her feet in her boot, where the silver blade she’d snuck from the hospital’s medical tray lay hidden.