Chapter 5

“Fuck!” I shouted the moment I stepped outside, slamming the door behind me so hard the frame trembled. My voice echoed down the empty hospital hallway, but I didn’t care.

My heart was still racing and my lips still burned from what he did.

I hate him so much for taking my first kiss away from me. Like it meant nothing!

How could this be happening to me?

My palms balled into fists. The nerve of him. The arrogance in his eyes. That stupid, infuriating confidence that made me want to both punch him and…

And what? Kiss him back?

“No,” I muttered under my breath, shaking my head hard as if to throw the thought away. “No. No, no, no. He’s just a…”

“My words caught.”

“He’s a fucking werewolf.”

That alone should have been enough to keep me away, to erase whatever just happened. But no matter how hard I tried, the memory lingered. The way he looked at me before his lips crashed onto mine. The rough warmth of his touch. The sudden silence of the pain that had filled his body moments before.

It was like time had stopped as the world had melted into that one heartbeat where everything inside me changed.

I let out a shaky breath and ran my hand through my hair. “What a prick,” I whispered, my voice trembling with a mix of anger and confusion.

Before I could think further, my phone started ringing in my pocket, snapping me back to reality.

I pulled it out, my heart jumping when I saw the name on the screen.

Grandma.

“Oh no,” I muttered softly, guilt flooding through me. She must have been worried sick since I hadn’t shown up at the hospital when I said I would.

I quickly wiped the remaining tears off my cheeks and tried to sound cheerful before answering. “Hey, Grandma!” I said in my most excited voice.

“Sweetheart,” her gentle, trembling voice came through the speaker, instantly wrapping around my heart, “your call got disconnected earlier. Is everything okay?”

I froze for a second. My eyes darted to the floor. “Yeah… yeah, everything’s fine,” I lied, my voice a little too quick, a little too shaky.

I hated lying to her.

But how could I tell her the truth? That I almost got hit by a car, and when trying to help at the end of the day I had just been kissed.

No! I can't let Grandma know about this.

I finally speak.

“I’m actually on my way to the hospital right now,” I said quickly. “I’ll be there soon, okay? I just had to stop by to grab some things.”

“Alright, sweetheart,” Grandma said softly, relief washing over her voice. “Just be careful, please.”

“I will,” I whispered. “I promise.”

When I ended the call, I stood there for a moment, staring at my reflection in one of the glass doors. My lips still looked red and slightly swollen.

“Great,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “Now I look like I just made out with someone I don’t even like.”

I shoved my phone into my pocket and took a deep breath. “Okay, Corvina, just forget it. He’s a werewolf, you’re a human. That’s it. You’ll never see him again.”

I repeated those words like a mantra as I walked out of the hospital building and onto the street. The evening air was cool, brushing against my skin. I pulled my jacket tighter around me and headed toward the other hospital where Grandma was staying.

By the time I arrived, the guilt had already started to suffocate me.

The moment I stepped into her ward, I saw her lying there on the bed, her silver hair spread like a halo across the pillow, her frail hands resting on the white sheet. But when her eyes met mine, they lit up like the stars.

“There’s my sunshine,” she said weakly, smiling so brightly that my heart squeezed in my chest.

“Grandma,” I breathed, rushing to her side. “How are you feeling?”

She chuckled softly. “Oh, you know… still breathing. That’s a start.”

I smiled, though my eyes stung. I sat beside her and took her hand gently afraid of hurting her.