8: Son of a...

Ronnie's POV

I remained frozen for a very long while.

Long enough till I slept off.

By the time my eyes opened again, I could see how the morning light tried to make its way inside the room through the little space between the curtains.

My head snapped up.

He was no longer there.

Of course, what was I thinking? That I'm some royal princess that he'll sit down and wait for me all night and even till I wake up.

One of the young nurses strolled in.

"You're awake?" She said, pausing at the door with her hands still on the knob. "I'll inform..."

"Please don't!" I cut in.

She hesitated for a moment before she finally stepped in.

She began by checking my vitals, then she went ahead to disconnect the IV that had been set overnight.

While she was rolling the IV together to dispose it, I noticed how she kept looking at me from time to time. Like she had something to say, but didn't know how to start.

She took out a new one and began fixing it. Yet, with the side of my eyes I still noticed her staring.

My eyes finally caught hers in a way that she couldn't hide.

"Any problem?" I asked.

She smiled and tried to brush it off at first. "It's nothing!"

But her silence seemed to be eating her more than it was eating me, so she finally burst out saying. "Why is the Lycan King so interested in you?"

I rolled my eyes.

Of course why would she be interested in talking to me if it wasn't the king's matter?

"Honestly, I have no idea." I answered sincerely, frustration eating me so deep. "I wish I could just run away and never get to be trapped with him or anything that has to do with him." I said, looking down at my hands folded on my body.

I finally looked up, hoping to see a sympathetic nurse. Instead, she was smiling.

I didn't know when my gaze turned into a bombastic stare.

"I'm so sorry for smiling." She said quickly. "I'm just kind of marvelled that someone would want to run away from a man that handsome."

She sat at the edge of the bed.

"If I were you, I'll never try to run away." She started. "I'll just let him take me willingly." Her eyes began to drift like she was in a fantasy world.

"Do you know what it means to be with the Lycan King? Or to even spend time with him?" She said as if I didn't know what I was missing out on by trying to run away from the King.

"Girl you're lucky." She reached out to touch my knees gently. "For real." She added, like it was something she could not over emphasize.

"Then why not be with him in my place." I blurted out.

She stood up from the side of the bed immediately, her smile suddenly gone.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you would get offended by my words."

I rolled my eyes at her once again before my eyes then landed on the door like I was waiting for him to step in.

The nurse had barely finished taping the needle to my skin when the door burst open.

My heart jumped.

For a second, my breath caught in my throat. I braced myself, already expecting the overwhelming presence of the Lycan King.

But it wasn’t him.

“Ronnie!”

My mother’s voice cracked through the room. She rushed toward the bed like someone who had been holding her breath for hours. Her face looked worn, eyes red and swollen, like sleep hadn’t touched her in a long time.

Right behind her was Jessie.

Even she looked rough. Jessie was usually the loud one, the bright one. But right now she looked shaken… scared even.

“Mom? Jessie?” I whispered.

My mother grabbed my hand instantly. She squeezed it so tight it almost hurt.

“Oh, thank the Goddess you’re awake,” she cried, pushing my hair back from my face with trembling fingers. “We’ve been sitting in that hallway since last night, Ronnie. We haven’t slept at all.”

I frowned, confusion slowly creeping in.

“Last night?” I asked. “You’ve been here this whole time? Why didn’t you come in?”

Jessie let out a loud sigh.

“Because your King wouldn’t let us,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “There were guards standing outside this door like we were criminals. We weren’t allowed inside until two minutes ago.”

My stomach twisted.

“That son of a...”

“Five minutes.”

The voice cut through the room like ice.

Everything went quiet.

I didn’t even need to turn my head to know who it was.

The Lycan King stood at the doorway.

His tall frame filled the entrance, blocking the light from the hallway.

His eyes didn’t even move toward my mother or Jessie.

Instead, he glanced down at his wrist.

“You have exactly five minutes to speak with her,” he said calmly. “After that, you leave.”

My anger flared instantly.

“What do you mean five minutes?” I snapped.

My pulse pounded against the IV in my arm.

“I won’t even get to see my own mother again until Goddess knows when and you think you can just...”

He raised his hand.

Then he turned his phone toward me.

A timer glowed on the screen.

Bright red numbers counting down.

4:42

4:41

“Your Majesty…” the nurse spoke up quietly. She pointed to the clear drip bag hanging above me. “What about the IV? It just started. She still needs the fluids and the...”

“Take it off.”

The command came fast.

His eyes finally lifted and landed on me.

“But...” The nurse tried to speak again.

“I said take it off.”

His voice dropped lower this time.

Something about it made the room feel heavier.

“I have better things to do than wait for a bottle to empty,” he continued.

His phone buzzed.

With eyes fixed on me, he took the call.

 “Ask the sorcerer to get the rituals ready, we'll be there soon.” He said to the person on the line, his eyes never living mine.

Rituals?

What does he want to do to me?