Page 20

“Get your f*****g hands off of my friend,” Jaxon says. I cry even louder, sure now that Jaxon is talking about me. Is he calling me a friend? What does that mean?
“Jaxon, I respect you as an Alpha. But right now, you need to back up. Can’t you see that you’re scaring her? She’s never going to accept you if she’s scared of you,” Skyler says, hugging me tighter as he says this. He is still holding me up because I can’t stand, and it seems like it’s not hard for him at all.
Another animalistic growl is all it takes for me to start crying again. “Jaxon, he’s right. Calm down and look at Calla. Look at how scared she is right now. Stop acting like a possessive wolf and be a person for a second,” Ezra says firmly. The growling stops all of a sudden, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
A voice breaks the silence after a few moments. “Calla?” His voice is soft but firm. I know I shouldn’t, but I pull my face out of Skyler’s hoodie and slowly turn my head to look at Jaxon. When I look into his eyes, I’m surprised to see that they have some tears in them. Even though he won’t let them fall, I can still see how he feels.
“I’m sorry if I scared you, but I was just worried that you were hurt. You keep backing away from me like I would hurt you, which I would never do. I care so much about you, Calla. So much more than you could ever know. And I know you’re confused right now, but would it be okay if I… If I held you?” He asked this last question with a sense of desperation.
It’s crazy how much my heart wants him to touch me. I want so badly to make his sadness go away, but my mind won’t let me. I can’t stop thinking about how I should run away from him. My mind still thinks of him as the big black wolf that was biting the red-eyed vampire last night. And since my mind is like this, I can only cower away from him when he reaches out to touch me. It’s just instinct. I can see that he is disappointed and defeated as he slowly lowers his outstretched hand.
Jaxon has been so open about what happened last night that I almost forget that Skyler and Ezra must be very confused about why I’m scared and hurt by Jaxon. But when I look at their faces, they look sad that I won’t touch Jaxon…
I gasp and quickly break free from Skyler’s hold, my eyes widening in shock. He seems shocked by my sudden move, but I don’t care at all. It took me this long to put the pieces together that I got into Ivy League schools! How hard did I hit my head?
I ask Ezra, who seems to be holding Jaxon back with a tight grip on his shoulder, “You too?” He nods his head in shame. I take a step back and then turn to Skyler with new tears running down my face. “Ezra and you?”
He nods his head, and tears well up in his own eyes. “Calla, I can explain…”
“Don’t come near me! Any of you!” I yell as I raise my hands in front of me to protect myself. Honestly, I know that if any of them wanted to hurt me, they could have done so while I was asleep. But my brain isn’t thinking clearly; it’s only thinking emotionally.
I whisper, “You’re all… werewolves?”
They shake their heads. I start to blink my eyes over and over again to try to get rid of my blurry vision and pounding head. When I turn my head the wrong way, I feel a big bump in the back of my head and wince. “Ow,” I say.
It looks like Jaxon is going to blow up. He has never looked so upset before, especially when he looks at me. It’s frightening.
“The doctor said you have a concussion and that stress is bad for your health. Please sit on the bed if you won’t let anyone help you.” I do what he says, but only because my head hurts so much and he probably knows what he’s talking about when it comes to medical advice. When I sit down on the bed, I look around and see that this isn’t a normal hospital. There’s an IV stand and a regular hospital bed, but a window outside shows a forest that looks like it goes on for miles and miles.
“Where am I?” I ask in a slow voice.
“You’re at the pack house,” Jaxon says.
I ask, “What the heck is that?” “Never mind. I want to go home. Can I go home?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Ezra, Jaxon, and Skyler all answer at the same time. Jaxon is the one who says no. Ezra and Skyler glare at Jaxon, then look back at me. “You can go home,” Skyler says. “I’ll take you.”
“No.” Jaxon’s loud voice fills the room, daring anyone to go against him. I shake with fear again. “She needs to stay while we talk this out and record her recovery. A f*****g vampire attacked her last night. I want to know why. It can’t be a coincidence that the bloodsucker went after her.”
“She needs to go home and think about what happened, not be forced to stay here. If you take away her choices, how will she ever respect you?” Skyler says protectively.
“I’d be careful how you talk to your Alpha,” Jaxon says, moving closer to Skyler.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Ezra’s voice is soft but strong, and it cuts through the tension. “Skyler, you take Calla home.” Jaxon looks like he wants to say something, but Ezra holds up his hand to stop him. “We’re leaving to question the vampire. That’s the best way you can help her right now.”
It looks like Jaxon wants to argue more, but one look from Ezra makes him look over at me in bed. I’m sitting on the bed right now with my face on my knees and looking up at the scary men in the room.
Jaxon storms out of the room with a sigh and a ruffle of his own hair. Ezra quickly follows him.
Now I’m alone in the room with Skyler… another friend who turned out to be a wolf…
I can breathe a little easier now that Jaxon and Ezra are gone. I’m still not completely at ease because I’m still with Skyler, but I feel a lot less stressed. I let out a breath to try to calm down. Skyler is looking at me carefully, and I can’t stop looking at him. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on by watching how he moves, where his muscles tense, and where his eyes are looking. I don’t know if Skyler really plans to take me home or if he was just making things up.
I jump back and start to breathe heavily when the door to the room opens. Skyler sees that I’m upset and comes over to calm me down. But when he sees that what he did makes me feel worse, he stays where he is and tells me that the “pack doctor” is just here to check on me.
I shake my head back and forth and hold my hands in front of me to protect myself. The man stops in the doorway and doesn’t come any closer. This helps me calm down a little.
“Hello, Calla. My name is David and I’m a doctor here. May I please check your wounds? Once I give you the all-clear you’ll be allowed to go home,” he says softly.