16:You’re My Mate

I take one step toward the SUV and the parking garage spins.

My knees buckle and I’m falling, except Rhys moves faster than should be possible and catches me before I hit the concrete, his arms wrapping around my waist and pulling me against his chest.

“Astrid, can you hear me?” His voice sounds like it’s coming from underwater.

I try to answer but my mouth won’t cooperate and the edges of my vision are going dark, and the last thing I register is Kade’s voice saying “Get her in the car now” before everything goes black.

-----

I wake up disoriented with my mouth tasting like cotton and my head pounding like someone’s using it as a drum.

The first thing I notice is that I’m not in my apartment, the ceiling is too high and the bed is too comfortable and there are floor-to-ceiling windows showing a city skyline that’s lit up against a night sky that’s way too dark for six PM.

I sit up too fast and immediately regret it when the room tilts sideways and my stomach lurches, and I have to grip the edge of the mattress to keep from falling over.

“Don’t move so fast.”

I turn my head slowly and Rhys is sitting in a chair by the window wearing gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt with his feet bare, and I’ve never seen him like this, dressed down and casual except there’s nothing casual about the way he’s watching me like I might disappear if he blinks.

“Where am I?” My voice comes out raspy and my throat hurts when I swallow.

“My place.” He stands and walks toward the bed. “You fainted in the parking garage, I brought you here because I couldn’t take you home….not after what happened.”

I look down and I’m still wearing my work clothes, my blouse is wrinkled and my skirt is twisted around my waist, but someone took off my shoes and draped a blanket over me that smells like cedar.

“What time is it?”

“Almost ten.” He stops at the foot of the bed. “You’ve been out for about four hours.”

Four hours, I’ve been unconscious in my boss’s penthouse for four hours while he did god knows what.

“You should have taken me to a hospital—”

“And told them what exactly?” His jaw tightens. “That you fainted after being attacked by a werewolf who left bruises on your throat shaped like fingers?”

I reach up and touch my neck and wince because it’s tender and swollen, and when I look at my reflection in the window I can see dark purple marks wrapping around my throat like a collar.

“I look like someone tried to strangle me.”

“Someone did try to strangle you.” He moves closer and I notice he’s holding a glass of water. “You need to drink this, you’re probably dehydrated.”

I take the glass because my mouth feels like sandpaper and drain half of it in one go, he watches me the entire time with an expression I can’t read.

“Why didn’t you take me home?”

“Because your home isn’t safe.” He sits on the edge of the bed about two feet away from me. “The man who attacked you escaped and I’m not taking chances with your safety.”

“So you just decided to bring me here without asking—”

“You were unconscious, I couldn’t exactly ask for your permission—”

“You could have waited for me to wake up—”

“And risk you running off alone again?” His voice rises slightly. “You dismissed James tonight, you walked through that parking garage by yourself even though I specifically arranged transportation for you, do you have any idea how stupid that was?”

“I didn’t know I needed a bodyguard to leave work—”

“You do now.” He stands and starts pacing. “You have needed one since the moment I realized what you might be to me, I’ve just been trying to keep it subtle so you wouldn’t notice.”

That makes me stop. “Wait, what do you mean you’ve been keeping it subtle?”

“I’ve had someone watching you since last week.” He says it like it’s completely normal. “Thy have been rotating shifts, different people so you wouldn’t recognize them, Kade helped me set it up.”

I stare at him because this can’t be real. “You’ve been having me followed?”

“Yes.”

“For an entire week?”

“Yes.”

“That’s completely insane—”

“That’s the only reason you’re alive right now.” He stops pacing and looks at me. “When my security reported that you dismissed James and left alone tonight I came myself, I was thirty seconds behind you in that parking garage.”

“You were following me?”

“I was protecting you.” His hands clench into fists at his sides. “There’s a difference.”

“No there isn’t, you were stalking me—”

“I was keeping you safe from exactly what happened tonight, and clearly I was right to do it because someone tried to kill you the second you were alone.”

He’s right and I hate that he’s right, hate that if he hadn’t been following me I’d be dead right now, and that thought makes my hands start shaking.

I set the water glass on the nightstand before I drop it and wrap my arms around myself trying to stop the trembling, except it’s not working, it’s spreading through my whole body until my teeth are chattering and I can’t make it stop.

Rhys moves fast, grabbing the blanket and pulling it tighter around my shoulders, and then he’s sitting next to me and pulling me against his chest with his arms wrapped around me.

“You’re in shock.” His voice is gentler now. “It’s normal, the adrenaline is wearing off.”

“I almost died.” The words come out small and broken. “He had his arm around my throat and I couldn’t breathe and I thought that was it, I thought I was going to die in a parking garage and no one would find me until morning—”

“I wouldn’t have let that happen.” His arms tighten around me. “I was there, I would have killed him before I let him hurt you.”

“But you weren’t there at first, you were too far away, what if you’d been five seconds slower—”

“I wasn’t.” He pulls back enough to look at me. “I got there in time, you’re safe now.”

“Safe?” I almost laugh except it comes out like a sob. “How am I safe when there are people trying to kill me because of something I didn’t even know existed until a week ago?”

He doesn’t have an answer for that, just holds me while I shake and tries to rub warmth back into my arms, and after a few minutes the trembling slows down enough that I can breathe without my chest hitching.

“Let me see your neck.” He’s already reaching for my face. “I need to make sure he didn’t do permanent damage.”

“Don’t touch me.” I pull away from him and stand up even though my legs feel weak. “You don’t get to do this.”

“Do what?”

I’m backing toward the door even though I have no idea where it leads. “You called me a mistake, and now you want to play concerned protector?”

“Your feelings and your safety are two separate issues—”

“No they aren’t.” I can feel tears burning behind my eyes and I refuse to let them fall. “You don’t get to push me away and pull me close whenever it’s convenient for you, you don’t get to save my life and then act like you did me a favor—”

“I’m not acting like I did you a favor, I’m trying to keep you alive—”

“Why?” The word explodes out of me. “Why do you care if I live or die when you’re just trying to make me quit?”

His jaw clenches and he looks away. “Because you’re my mate.”