Twisting You

by Simone Elise

  “Her parents are with her. Like I said on the phone, it’s bad but I don’t know how bad. I haven’t gotten an update.” Dan looked me up and down. “Did you run back?”

  “So you’re telling me you know nothing?” My hands curled into fists. I needed to know. I needed to know NOW!

  “The doctors won’t tell me anything. She is the alpha’s daughter. Everyone is more tight-lipped than ever.” Dan glanced in the direction of the nurse’s desk.

  St. Core was a hospital run for and by werewolves. Not one human was treated here. They couldn’t ‘afford’ the private health coverage to be a patient here. All you really needed to get treated here was to be was a werewolf, but they didn’t know that.

  “How did it happen again?” I ran a hand through my wet hair. My heart was pulsing with panic. I couldn’t lose her.

  “She drifted on to the wrong side of the road, overcorrected and the car flipped down an embankment.”

  “Dammit.” I shook my head. This was my fault. I should have answered my phone. I pulled the phone out of my pocket. I had run back with it in my mouth. It wasn’t pleasant. “Why was she on the road so late at night anyway?”

  Dan suddenly moved uneasily. I knew my brother. He was keeping something back. I arched an eyebrow at him and looked him square in the eye. He couldn’t lie to me.

  “She was, um, well, she was heading to you.” Dan looked at the ground. “She was worried that you had, well, I guess, gone back to your mate.”

  “You told her I went and saw Gab!” I growled. “What were you thinking?”

  “How was I meant to know you hadn’t told her?” Dan spat back in disgust. “How could you keep that from her?”

  “Don’t give me a goddamned lecture.” My body shook with rage.

  “Boys.” Maddison’s voice was below a tiny whisper. She nodded her head in the direction of the nursing desk. Spinning around, I saw Chloe’s parents were coming out of the glass sliding doors.

  My stomach fell when I noticed the tears in Chloe’s dad’s eyes. Gulping, they walked in our direction. Chloe’s mom curled into her husband’s side.

  “Is she ok?” Dan asked.

  “She is…” Chloe’s dad started to speak, but then paused. I noticed him pull Chloe’s mom closer to his side. “Chloe isn’t responsive.”

  “She’s dead.” My voice was hollow. This can’t be happening. Chloe can’t be dead. This morning I was holding her hand. This morning I was helping her choose her clothes for school. How could everything change within 24 hours?

  “Her wolf won’t heal her.” Chloe’s mom’s voice was low. “Her body is seriously hurt and, without her inner wolf’s power, she won’t make it.”

  “Xavier. Get Xavier here,” I suggested. He could help her. He could save her.

  “Xavier can’t help.” Chloe’s dad shook his head. “Chloe wouldn’t want his help anyway.”

  “Chloe wouldn’t want to die either.” It hurt me suggesting, no begging them, to get Xavier. A man I hated. Who didn’t deserve her. But he could help her, and that was all that mattered.

  Chloe’s mom looked up at Chloe’s dad. They were having a silent conversation with each other. I knew Chloe wouldn’t want Xavier’s help. But if it meant she didn’t die, wasn’t that more important?

  “Xavier is with her.” Chloe’s mom sighed. She looked me in the eye guiltily. “We called him as soon as we were told how bad it was. He is with her now.”

  “Can I see her?” My pulse was racing. I had to see her. If Xavier couldn’t save her, then we were really out of options. I felt my eyes beginning to glass over. We were going to lose her.

  “Ok.” Chloe’s dad nodded his head. “Follow us.”

  Dan gave me a pat on the back as I walked off. I glanced over my shoulder, sending him a weak smile of thanks. Tears were already leaking from his eyes. Chloe meant so much to him. He hugged Maddison and tears dropped into her hair.

  At least he had Maddison.

  The glass doors slid open, and I followed Chloe’s parents. I was moving. But it felt like I wasn’t. The shock of what was happening wasn’t wearing off. I could smell Chloe’s blood and scent. They were thick in the air.

  Her smell got stronger, and when we turned the corner, I saw her, lying limp on a bed. Bandages were covering her stomach, and blood was leaking through them.

  Xavier was at her side, crying, looking at her.

  “Any chance?” Chloe’s mom asked the doctor with some hope.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

  Chloe’s mom’s tears picked up speed. “We need to call Chad.” Her dad nodded, agreeing with her. “He would want to be here.”

  I moved forward, closer to Chloe. Blood was splattered across her face. Her hair had leaves in it and was damp. A strong smell of lake water was coming from her.

  This was my fault.

  Xavier glanced in my direction. His face was that of a broken man. Watching your mate die in front of your eyes was painful. I had been there.

  “Can I be with her?” I looked at Chloe. “Alone?”

  Xavier got off from his knees and nodded his head. “For Chloe.” He muttered as he walked past me. He was letting me have a few minutes alone with her because he thought that was what Chloe would want.

  I gritted my teeth and walked to her side. I couldn’t waste time thinking about Xavier, not when the woman I loved was dying in front of me.

  “Chloe.” My voice broke and the tears fell free. “I’m sorry.” I swallowed hard and gently swooped up her bruised, bloody hand. “I love you. I’m so sorry.”

  Chloe’s pulse was weak. I could feel the blood slowly pumping through her veins as I held her hand. “I love you, Chloe.” I repeated, lowering my lips to her forehead.

  I heard Chloe’s mom whimpering behind me. I didn’t care if they saw me like this. I was breaking, and I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t.

  “Please, Chloe, don’t give up.” I whispered in her ear. She had to fight. The inner beast inside her had to awaken.

  “Excuse me.” The doctor was pulling on my shoulder. My eyes doubled in size and a deep growl came from my chest.

  “Are you her mate?” He frowned at me. I straightened up, looking at him like he had lost his mind. Hadn’t he just met Xavier?

  “No.” It hurt saying it, but it was the truth.

  “The inner beast inside her says differently.” He nodded at Chloe’s hand before taking it from me.

  My face lost all expression. My wolf was calling hers. Why hadn’t I felt it?

  “Are they…” her dad interrupted, “claws?”

  “Yes.” The doctor smiled, looking at both of us. I looked at Chloe’s fingernails, which were curving into crawls. “Growl again,” he said to me. “You’re stirring the wolf inside her.”

  “How? I’m not her mate.”

  “Sometimes we wolves form a strong bond with someone who isn’t our mate. It’s rare, but it happens. But right now that doesn’t matter. You must mean a lot to Chloe because her wolf is stirred by your presence.”

  “Alec, please talk to her. Do something. Help her.” Chloe’s mom reached out and gripped my arm. “Please, Alec.”

  She didn’t have to ask me. I would do anything for Chloe. She had to have known that.

  “Changing, could that help?” I asked the doctor. Maybe I wouldn’t lose her. Maybe I could save her. Chloe meant everything to me. I never thought I would care about someone again after Gab, but I did. I loved Chloe, and she must care for me too.

  “What is going on?” Xavier was back. He was looking at me with a deadly tint in his eyes.

  “Alec is stirring Chloe’s wolf.” Chloe’s mom’s voice was high with delight. “Xavier, she might not die.”

  “Get away from her.” Xavier’s eyes darkened. “Now.”

  “Xavier.” Chloe’s dad’s voice hardened.

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” I growled at Xavier. Who th
e heck did he think he was? He had no right to be here anymore.

  “Get away from my mate!” His body began to shake with rage, his fists tightly clenched.

  “So now she is your mate,” I spat in his direction, walking away from Chloe and closer to him. “Funny, I don’t remember you ever acting like one.”

  “Nothing you can say can change the fact that she is mine,” Xavier growled.

  “Boys,” Chloe’s father yelled, stepping between us. “Enough.”

  “Chloe isn’t a piece of property!” I roared at him. My rage was starting to show. I hated Xavier. After everything he had done to Chloe, no wonder her wolf wouldn’t react to him.

  “ENOUGH!” Chloe’s father roared. “Chloe is dying. My daughter is DYING! Alec, change.”

  He wasn’t asking, he was ordering. At an alpha’s order, changing was instantaneous. I was on four legs immediately.

  I growled once more at Xavier, before turning around and strolling back to Chloe. She was more important. I could deal with Xavier later. If he thought he had a right to her, he was wrong. And if he had suddenly realized how much Chloe meant to him, and he wanted her back, it wasn’t going to happen.

  “We will operate, and that should help her wolf heal her.” The doctor told us before summoning the nurses to help move Chloe’s bed.

  Chloe’s parents nodded their heads. Hope was in their eyes. I followed alongside Chloe’s bed as the nurses pushed it into surgery. I wasn’t leaving her side. If me being near her was helping, it was all I could do.

  But even if I weren’t helping her, I wouldn’t leave her side. I had to be with her. The aching in my heart and the overwhelming feeling of grief consumed me. She had to be ok. I had to see her bright smile again.

  “Alec, wait outside the door,” the doctor told me, when they wheeled Chloe into surgery. Knowing that it would be easier if I stayed out here, I sat beside the closed door. I watched Chloe’s lifeless body pass through the doors.

  I was large in size, and there wasn’t much room in there. But I could hear Chloe’s weak beating heart. I was close enough and that was all that mattered.

  I howled softly when I heard them begin. I heard the spike in Chloe’s heart rate in reaction to my howl. We really did have a strong connection. I should have never doubted it.

  If I hadn’t doubted her, we wouldn’t be here. I didn’t think the guilt would ever leave me. This was my fault. I just prayed that she would survive so I could tell her how sorry I am.

  Maddison

  It was the middle of the night and I felt death slowly pull me closer. I exhaled slowly, rolling to my side. I wasn’t in pain. I was just weak. I was glad that it was the middle of the night. I couldn’t stand my mom seeing this, me passing slowly.

  I wondered for a few moments what life would be like for them without me? I didn’t have the strength to pretend I wasn’t scared. I let the tears flow freely. The pillowcase was getting a wet puddle from the never-ending steam of tears.

  I didn’t want to die.

  Why did this happen to me? Why didn’t I deserve a life? Why didn’t I deserve to live a full life? Or at least a half one? I weakly wiped the tears from under my eyes. I could barely keep them open now.

  My breathing was getting shallow, my heart beat weakening. This was it.

  “Maddison,” a low male voice spoke to me. But I didn’t have the strength to see who it was. I couldn’t move my head. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

  “Maddison.” The voice was closer. “It’s me, Daniel.” He lowered himself bedside my bed. I was barely able to make out his figure. Why was he here? Why had he come?

  “Maddison, I’m about to do something. I’m sorry for leaving this so long.” Dan’s voice was low. What did he mean? What was he going to do?

  Dan brushed my hair from my shoulder, his fingers so warm on my skin. His touch was sending shivers through my body. He was tracing a circle on my shoulder. It was so relaxing. His touch, I was getting lost in it.

  “Just relax.” Dan’s voice was soft, and it swirled around my ear as he spoke. “Try not to move.”

  I frowned, wondering what he was up to. But then I felt it. A small cry of pain escaped my lips. He was biting me! I didn’t have the strength to push him away from me. I was too weak.

  Then, just as quick as it happened, it was over. Dan traced the wound with his tongue, before he pulled back and looked me in the eye.

  I noticed the glow of possession in his eyes. The darkness within them wasn’t human. It was animal like.

  I gasped softly, my heartbeat getting stronger. His eyes, they reminded me of a predator who has just claimed what’s his.

  Gulping, I said, “What did you do?” I now felt a new form of strength within me. I was able to pull myself up in bed and, more importantly, away from him. Why was I feeling better? I was on death’s door a few moments ago and now, well now. I felt perfect.

  I could make him out perfectly through the shadows of the darkness. “What are you?” I was prepared. I knew he wasn’t human. The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. He was, well, I wasn’t sure. “What have you done to me?” I ran my finger over where he had bitten me. The skin was slightly raised where he had left a mark.

  “I’m not human.”

  “I guessed that part.” My voice was steady but inside I was scared. Scared of what he really was. “What do you want from me?” I was afraid of death, but I was scared of Dan, of what he wanted from me. “Am I still sick?” I felt better, but that was impossible.

  “Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you. You are, well, you are very special to me.”

  “Why?” I barely knew him, we had met me what once? Maybe twice.

  “I’m a werewolf.” Dan was studying my reaction, but I wasn’t giving him anything. “And you’re my mate.”

  “Mate as in soul mate?” My nerves were showing now. Perhaps I had died.

  “You aren’t dead, if that is what you are thinking.” Dan sighed and slumped down into an armchair. “This is screwed up,” he muttered more to himself than to me.

  I moved uncomfortably on the bed, folding my legs under me. “You’re saying it’s screwed up you just told me you’re a werewolf?”

  “Does it scare you?” Dan looked up from his hands.

  “Did you save me? From death?”

  “I suppose that is one way to look at it.”

  “Thank you,” I muttered weakly. What did you say to someone who just saved your life? But more importantly, how did he save me? “What does this mean?”

  Was I now his slave forever? Was I going to turn into a werewolf too?

  “You are doomed to spend the rest of your life with me.” Dan leaned back in his chair.

  “As what? Your slave?” I was scared now. Perhaps death was a better option.

  “I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.” Dan got up from the chair and went to stand in front of wide-eyed me. “I know you don’t know me. I know what I have told you tonight is…”

  “Unbelievable?” I offered him.

  He nodded his head. “But I promise you, Maddison, that I will try my hardest to make you happy.”

  “I barely know you.” What else was I meant to say? He was promising me that he would spend the rest of his life making me happy, but he didn’t know me! And on top of that, he is a werewolf? Did he expect me just to take that fact lightly?

  “Then let’s change that.” Dan offered me his hand. “Come with me.”

  “I can’t leave the hospital.”

  “Why?” He smiled weakly at me. “You aren’t sick anymore.”

  I had wanted to hear those words for so long, and now that I did it was unbelievable. Standing in front of me was a man promising to spend the rest of his life with me, telling me he was a werewolf, telling me I wasn’t sick anymore.

  Should I believe him? Was he really telling the truth? I looked at his hand, and back into his kind eyes an
d I realized I had nothing to lose. So I took the hand he was offering and just hoped I wasn’t making the worst mistake of my life. Then again, I only had this life thanks to him, so I guess he had a right to it.

  Chapter 34

  Chloe

  “Chloe?” My dad sat on the edge of the bed with his hand on my knee. “Chloe, darling, you can’t keep ignoring him.”

  I rolled over slightly with a blank expression on my face. “I can and I will.” I rolled back onto my side, and stared at the hospital’s white wall. “Just tell him I’m not up to seeing anyone.” I mumbled into the pillow, which was still slightly damp from my tears.

  “Chloe, he knows you’re lying.” My dad sighed softly, still pressing the conversation even though I was sick of having it.

  “Fine then.” I threw the blankets back and got up abruptly, storming across the room and throwing myself in an armchair, trying to get away from him. “Go tell him the truth.” I pointed an arm out in the direction of the door. “Tell him I never want to see him again! Tell him I’m done. TELL HIM I DON’T CARE!” The heartache I was feeling was clear in my voice.

  “He saved your life, Chloe.” Dad looked at me from the bed. Why was he even bothering trying to make me let Alec see me?

  “He should have let me die.” I wiped a tear from under my eye away and my face returned the emotional blankness. “He shouldn’t have bothered.”

  “Do not say that.”

  “Fine then, Dad.” I looked at him. “Tell Alec that I wish him and Gabby all the best. That I am well and that I thank him for saving me, so that I can experience losing him.” Anger boiled through my veins. “I hate humans.”

  Dad looked sadly at me, the same look he had been giving me all week. “Just let him speak to you,” he began to beg me again. “Please Chloe, you are working yourself up over nothing.”

  “Nothing?” I arched an eyebrow. “So my mate isn’t married to a human. He didn’t choose that human over me. Daniel didn’t dump me for a human? And I didn’t just nearly die while trying to run after a man, in the hopeless belief that he would choose me over his mate?” I shook my head bitterly. “And to top it all off, the one who saved me is also the one who is killing me slowly.”