by Haley Weir
“None of us are questioning that. What we wanted you to hear is the part where Jenny figured out that he’s got a boss,” Michael said. “If we can get them in the same room again, maybe she can get more out of him. You told me that Vanessa burned down the house under his order. Maybe he’s-”
“No.”
“Dorian, listen…”
“I said no. We’re getting married and that’s final,” he said firmly. “But we’re not going to use my mate to lure a hunter into a false sense of security. She’s been in enough danger. You might all be angry at me now, but you’ll understand when you get your own mates.”
***
Jenny looked beautiful. She wore a cream-colored gown that clung to her figure and was cut low in the back, but it maintained a sense of elegance with pearl accents and a lace trim at the end of the long sleeves. The pews were filled with the faces of their friends and the people of Haden Springs.
When he looked up on her exquisite face, Dorian forgot about the darkness and the pain that had taken over their lives. All he saw was the love and devotion that made him want to sing her praises to the sky above. He wanted to kiss her and hold her and tell the people in the room to go away so that he could be alone with her.
Jenny walked down the aisle with Michael before his best friend handed him the hand of his mate. Dorian’s hands shook wildly as she graced him with her brilliant smile. “I love you,” she mouthed as she took her place by his side. He didn’t hear a word that the priest said, for his thoughts were filled with the beauty of her image.
His chest squeezed painfully as it came time for him to say his vows. Dorian spoke from the heart instead of what he had written on paper. There were no cheesy jokes or poor excuses for poetry, only words of pure adoration for his bride. Jenny was much better at expressing herself. At one point he even shed a few tears that he hadn’t expected to fall. The audience sat quietly, sniffling in the chapel as the priest finally got to the good part.
“Now you may kiss the bri-”
Before he could finish the words, Dorian’s mouth claimed Jenny’s in a kiss that brimmed with emotion he could not articulate. She clung to his shoulders and got just as lost in their passion as he did. People cheered and whistled. The guys from the fire station threatened to get the hose until they broke the kiss and stared lovingly into one another’s eyes.
Though the actual ceremony had been beautiful, what came next was an exercise in insanity. A playlist of eighties and nineties pop floated out of the speakers and Jenny smacked Brock for replacing the sensual jazz they had chosen for the party.
“It was so boring,” their friend claimed, looking a bit offended that they didn’t like his taste in music.
EPILOGUE
A Year Later In December…
She closed her eyes as she dropped from the ledge and her body crashed into the side of the stone hill. Sapphire rolled along rocky terrain before splashing into the river. She flailed wildly as the current pulled her down stream. She looked for something to hold on to, pulling roots and stones loose from the riverbed. There was no way she could make it to the bank; itt was too far away. Sapphire tried to breathe calmly between mouthfuls of water that threatened to drown her. She struggled to keep her dislocated shoulder from bashing into rocks.
Her trembling hands pulled the tube out of her throat, causing her to gag and sputter, expelling the contents of her stomach and way too many fluids onto the floor beside the unfamiliar bed beside her.
She struggled to remain conscious as she collided with a small, shabbily built bridge smacked into some sort of wooden structure. It was a bridge. Not a normal bridge, but one that had been fashioned crudely from things found in the wild. Sapphire used one arm to try and pull herself up onto the structure. The wood was wet and barely stable even before she placed her added weight atop of it, but she was able to get to the riverbank before it collapsed.
A constant beeping echoed in the back of her mind, disturbing the memories of her fall. Sapphire blinked open her eyes and felt pain radiate through her entire body. She grabbed the wires and tubes flowing from her body and yanked them away with a grimace. Her arms and legs felt like pins and needles or million fire ants were gnawing at her bones, but she forced her legs over the edge of the mattress.
Sapphire stumbled, slipping onto the cold tile on the floor. She let her cheek press against it for a moment, trying to calm the heat that threatened to burn her up from the inside. After a few seconds, she began to crawl across the floor.
She did not have time to lie down and catch her breath. The winds guided the fire along the east end of the forest, which was right in her path. Sapphire cursed her miserable luck and looked around for any opening. She spotted one and dashed toward it. The water on her clothes weighed her down, so she kicked her skirt off and continued running.
Sapphire reached the door and pushed it open, falling partially into the hallway. Blinding lights seared her eyeballs as her broken voice rasped, “Help…” Her throat was swollen and her mouth was dry, but she tried to call out. Sapphire couldn’t escape the horrible memories that plagued her thoughts.
Above the snapping and sizzling that assaulted her senses, she heard alarms reverberating through the trees. As she tried to figure out what direction they were coming from, a wall of fire exploded in front of her. She tried to turn back toward the river, but flames surrounded her. She used what remained of her wet clothes to dampen the grass in hopes that the flames would not overcome her.
“Help! I’m over here!” Sapphire screamed until her throat was raw. She coughed and covered her mouth and nose with her hand, but the flames were too high and the smoke began to choke her. Eyes streaming with tears, Sapphire curled up into a ball and tried her best to stay alive. Not for herself, but for Brock, Tilly, Destiny, and even Jenny. They depended on her, especially Brock. She was his stability in a world that had thrown him away
“Help!” she finally shouted. Footsteps approached from somewhere down the hall. A familiar face appeared, but her vision was blurred from the tears that wouldn't seem to stop flowing from her eyes. Arms lifted her from the floor and Sapphire leaned her head against a very masculine chest. “Help me…I…have to…save him.”
“Save who, Miss White?”
“The bear…the bear is on fire,” she wheezed. Those strong arms laid her down in the bed. Her vision cleared enough to reveal his face and Sapphire looked into the tormented whiskey-brown eyes of her savior. Her foggy mind struggled to remember what had happened. What did the handsome doctor have to do with her fall?
She ignored the throbbing in her arm and grabbed ahold of the enormous creature. It waited just long enough for her to climb upon its back before it tore through the forest once more. Sapphire held on for dear life, burying her face in the soft, damp fur that smelled of spring soil and berries. When the heat no longer threatened to scorch her flesh, the bear stopped. Sapphire climbed down and watched as it shifted into a man, a man that she recognized instantly. “Dr. McKinney?” she wheezed.
“Y-you were there,” she rasped. “I remember you. You’re my…my bear.”
He didn’t stop or say anything as he stalked away from her. Sapphire attempted to follow him, but she tripped. The sound of her startled shout was what gave him pause. He was a doctor. He wouldn’t just leave her there to gasp for breath, would he?
“I thought you would leave me there,” Sapphire cried. “You…hate me…of course…why wouldn’t you? But you didn’t. You came back for me.”
“I did,” Dr. McKinney replied.
He didn’t stop or say anything as he stalked away from her. Sapphire attempted to follow him, but she tripped. The sound of her startled shout was what gave him pause. He was a doctor. He wouldn’t just leave her there to gasp for breath, would he? Dr. McKinney returned to her side and hefted her into his arms easily. It was an impressive show of strength seeing as Sapphire White was not a thin woman.
As they moved in silence, Sapphire tried to com
e up with a witty one-liner or some sort of quip to lighten the mood, but she couldn’t concentrate. Dr. McKinney was one of the coveted bears of Haden Springs? She had always believed in tall tales and strange legends, but never had she thought that she would be part of one.
“Thank you,” Sapphire coughed.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve saved your life.”
Though her body ached in many places, Sapphire felt the corner of her mouth curl into a knowing smile. For Dr. McKinney’s life would be so boring without her in it.
“I tried to find you…when it was dark and I…”
“Yes?” Dr. McKinney asked. “Miss White? Miss White! Sapphire!”
And all was dark once more. Sapphire descended into the shadows with the arms of the magnificent beast that had saved her life more than once as he had pointed out. But she wouldn’t forget him this time, for she knew part of the reason why he sat beside her each night and cried. Dr. McKinney was terribly misunderstood. Just like her.
***
Anders hadn’t expected for Miss White to awaken at all, much less on Christmas Eve when he was the only one working. He squeezed her hand as she fell asleep, begging with his eyes that she would stay awake and talk to him. The memories that had been summoned by seeing the face of a woman he thought he had killed made the world seem far too small, but empty all the same. “Please wake up…”
And she did. Miss White stirred, but already she had forgotten the moment that seemed so significant to him. In her mind, he was a bear on fire and she was a damsel in distress. But in truth, he was a man who had gone from hating the enemy of a friend to dreaming about her every night. He didn’t just dream about the bad, but he dreamed of what could have been if they hadn’t been forced to hate one another by fate.
“Dr. McKinney? W-where am I?”
“You had taken a nasty fall on one of your walks,” he explained. “Someone found you and brought you here. You’ve been in a coma, Miss White.”
“A coma? For how long?”
“A year and four months,” Anders revealed. “I put you back together as much as possible, but your body needed to heal itself. You might feel alright now, but there will be a lot of physical therapy and—”
“I’ll need to see a shrink, won’t I?” she asked with a smile.
Anders nodded his head. “It would be advised.”
Miss White looked down at where their hands were connected. She frowned, but didn’t pull away. “Thank you for taking care of me…thank you for saving me. I know you’ve done it many times, but I like knowing that you were the one.”
“Me specifically?”
She nodded.
“Why?” he probed.
“I feel safe with you. I don’t l know why, but I always have.” Miss White stroked a scar on his thumb with her fingers. “You don’t like me and you didn’t have to take me as your patient, but I’m grateful.”
“Get some rest, Miss White. I’ll speak with you again in the morning.”
He uncurled his hand from around hers and turned to leave, but her weak arm shot out and lightly grasped his arm.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Miss White.” Anders stepped into the hallway and took a moment to call all of her friends. Every day since he saved Sapphire White from the fire, he went to her apartment above the auto repair shop and fed her cats, changed the litter boxes, and watered the plants. Her home was filled with beaded curtains and strange patterns.
Against his better judgment, Anders had done a bit of snooping. He realized that Miss White had a very strange infatuation with him, but also that she had always had terrible luck when it came to her health. For so long he had accused her of purposefully harming herself just to see him, but now he knew it was all due to his ego.
There had been no photographs of Miss White with any men aside from Brock and the firefighters from the station, but that didn’t mean anything. Eventually, he felt like a creep for snooping and left her apartment with more to the unique story that was Miss Sapphire White. She was more to him than just Michael’s sworn enemy.
She was a person, one that needed him in her darkest hour.
When she had looked at him that night, Anders felt useful for the first time. Sure, in his line of work, he was bound to save lives and heal wounds, but no one had ever looked at him in that way. Miss White had looked at him with so much unbridled affection that it had stolen the air from his lungs. He didn’t want to feel that way, of course, but it was inevitable. After Christmas Eve, however, he would pass her off to a different doctor. Now that she was out of danger, she was no longer his responsibility.
Could he do it? Could Anders go back to pretending that Sapphire White didn’t mean anything to him? Yes, he supposed he could. But the sound of her loud voice ringing through the halls once again was welcome in a way it had never been.
“Where are my cats?! I’ve been here for over a year and my furry little angels have been all alone?”
For some reason her shouted complaints sounded like Lucy from the Peanuts cartoons he enjoyed as a kid. He smiled to himself and strolled through the corridor, humming carols under his breath as he made his rounds to the patients in the clinic. Just beyond the sliding glass doors was a light flurry of snow that blew in the wind. Anders felt the urge to shift willingly for the first time in many years. He wanted to run through the forest and feel the snow soak into his pelt, reminding him that though he could change his appearance, he was still the same on the inside.
That was what was important, right? Being able to still find himself in the end. After what happened in Nevada, he knew it was possible to lose track of time in his other form, to feel the world slip away as he committed acts of great violence against his own will. He knew no woman could love a man like him. The lies he told himself wouldn’t keep him warm at night, but they would keep him safe. They would keep everyone safe.
“Merry Christmas, Miss White,” he said in the darkness of his office.
*****
Where to Read More From Haley Weir & Get Free Books
To be notified of new releases, Haley’s favorite books, and free giveaways, or become a Haley Weir advanced reader, join the Haley Weir Book Club.
Sign Up Here: https://fictionobsessed.com/luciens-inquisition-free-download/
About the Author
Haley Weir is an author from South New Jersey. Obsessed with all things romance, you can catch her over at FictionObsessed.com, where she one of the head writers.
Growing up near Philadelphia, she always loved taking trips into the city and felt magnetized by its culture and art. She recalls her first trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a young girl. The vast displays of skills and beauty left her in awe and she slowly developed an interest towards the creative side of life.
She began drawing and writing at 13 years old and graduated from Drexel University with as an English major in 2011.
You can find her outside reading at her local park in South Jersey, strolling through the streets of Philly, or awkwardly sipping a glass of wine at a nearby bar.
