Page 5 of Secret Guardian (Fated Mates Collection #4)

FIVE

When I peel my eyelids open four days later, I’m instantly on guard, waiting for the infernal heat to rise within me again.

But it doesn’t. My skin is clammy but cool, my breathing and heart rate are normal, and the spot beside me on my bed…

is empty. My hand rests on the bare mattress, the fitted sheet ripped off at some point in my feral need, and I wonder how long it’s been since Aarick left.

It couldn’t have been long; the place is still warm to my touch.

I sit up with a groan, every muscle in my body screaming as I plant my feet on the floor. I need a shower, and I have to call work. Who knows if I still have a job.

I grab my phone from my nightstand while flashes of the past few days play over in my mind like a movie.

Of Aarick taking me over the edge time and time again—with his fingers, tongue, lips, my vibrator.

On my stomach, my back, standing. In the shower, with me pressed against the wall as he knelt before me.

Thankfully, none of the unbearable desire comes back to these memories. My first heat is over. I have so many questions, and it seems as if the only answer right now is Aarick. But he’s gone. His words from the first day repeat in my mind. I won’t fuck you until you want me to.

But he’s right. Now, I don’t want him to.

The common sense of everything takes over, the reality that I allowed a total stranger inside my home, inside my bed, inside my body.

Well, kind of inside my body. Does it add to my body count if we didn’t have intercourse?

My head pounds from all of the thinking, the puzzling of what’s what, and I roll my shoulders to ease the tension before swiping my phone open.

I touch the app for my work schedule. Someone had put in for vacation time for the two shifts I missed and sent in a doctor’s note.

The invasion of my phone kind of pisses me off.

I was in no mindset to take care of business, and the relief that my job is safe is overwhelming, but it still leaves me with a vulnerability I’m not happy about.

When, or if, I see Aarick again, we will have a confrontation about the invasion of my privacy.

After checking the schedule and seeing that I work graveyard tonight, I drag myself out of bed and into my bathroom.

Oh my god, the whole apartment smells like sex.

Before, I loved it, relished it, but now bile rises in my throat.

This whole place needs to be deep cleaned.

It takes me over an hour, but by the time the steaming spray of the shower hits my skin, my covers are in the dryer, and the whole place has been dusted, swept, and mopped.

My refrigerator door was evidently repaired at some point, and the floor swept clean.

The water has long run cold before I’m satisfied with how clean I am, and when I dry off and step out of the shower, my reflection catches my eye in the mirror over the sink.

My gasp breaks the otherwise silent room.

My curves are more prominent than ever, my breasts full and perky.

My lips are swollen. I can’t imagine why, because I know for a fact Aarick never kissed me.

It’s as if I’ve been given a makeover; my body is practically glowing.

I finally drag my eyes away and finish getting ready for work, determined to push all thoughts of the past four days—and Aarick—out of my mind.

“Are you feeling better, Darian?” A fellow nurse, Tiffany, greets me as I clock in on the computer in the staff break room.

“I am, thank you.” I return her smile, tapping the keys a little harder than necessary as I clock in. “How are you? How’s this week been?”

“Tough, honestly. You know your patient from the other day?”

“Yes, I remember her.”

“Well, she’s… It’s not looking good for her. She’s not waking up.”

“That’s so sad.” My heart aches for the woman, and for her family, if she has any. “Is anyone here with her?”

“Yes, her husband and daughter. The husband isn’t dealing well at all, but he’s doing his best. You’re with her tonight.”

I nod solemnly, determined to put my own emotions about the past four days aside.

I haven’t even thought about the shifter aspect of my life.

Now that I’ve considered it, why haven’t I shifted?

Aarick did it at will. Will I change at the full moon?

I have to worry about that later. This woman and her family need me, and that’s all that matters for the night.

I scrub my hands thoroughly before slowly pulling the curtain back and entering her room.

There’s a man standing at the head of the bed, pushing the woman’s sweaty curls off her forehead.

He wasn’t here the first day. The daughter was for a while, but now she’s gone. They must take visiting her in turns.

He looks up at me with empty, haunted eyes.

His face is scruffy, as if he hasn’t shaved in days.

He’s mostly bald on top but has some hair around his ears.

But there’s something about him, about the way he turns, that seems familiar to me.

Maybe I did pass him in the hall the other day and didn’t realize.

“Hi, Mr. Miller. I’m Darian. I’ll be taking care of your wife tonight.”

“Darian,” he repeats with a nod. He gives me a soft, paternal smile. “You’re probably about the same age as my daughter.”

“I think so. She was here for a bit the other morning.

“She went home tonight to be with her kids, but she’ll be here in the morning. We… They’re doing a scan tomorrow of her brain.” He clears his throat, covering up the emotion in his voice. “I can’t believe this has happened.”

“Me neither, sir. I’m so sorry. I promise I’ll take the best care of her possible.”

He nods again, swiping at his eyes quickly. I grab him a tissue and pass it discreetly before getting started on Mrs. Miller’s medications for the evening.

When I push myself up the steps of my front porch early the next morning, it’s all I can do not to lean over on the rail in exhaustion.

Mrs. Miller was heading down for her CT scan when I left, and the daughter had arrived to keep her dad company.

It was heart-wrenching, their pain, them not understanding why it happened to them.

I always wonder, why do some people go through these things and others come out just fine, or deal with no pain at all?

Even as an employee in the medical field, where I witness miracles of science every day, sometimes there’s nothing you can do for someone. And it’s the absolute worst.

A small meow greets me as I step onto the porch. I know it’s not Old Man, because his meow is husky and deep. The calico before me rubs around my legs, and I reach down to scratch her ears. “So, who are you going to turn into?”

She chirps in response, and who knows what all she’s talking about as I unlock the door and step inside my house.

She attempts to follow, but I block her.

“I don’t think so, ma’am.” I rush inside, quickly shutting and locking the door before peeking out of the peephole.

I may have let my guard down with Aarick, but that won’t be the case with anyone else, especially animals.

And I was right. Before my eyes, the calico transforms into a stunning blonde beauty with a dangerous smirk, her eyes glinting at me. “I know you’re watching me, runty bitch.”

The air leaves my lungs, my chest aching as I struggle for breath while she moves closer to the door. She bangs on it with her fist. “You better stay the fuck away from him. A deal was made long ago, and he has to abide by it.”

She transforms again into the calico and hikes her leg, spraying urine all over my patio chair before bounding off into the night.

Good god. I never asked for any of this. She can have Aarick if she wants. I don’t want to stand in the way.

But even as I think it, I know that’s a lie. My blood drums in my veins at the thought of his name.

Mine. Mine. Mate.

The drumming gets faster and faster, my body filled to the brim with anger, possessiveness, and something else I can’t quite put a name to.

My hand stretches out, opening the door, and the hissing of the calico as she turns around, crouched close to the ground, is as clear as if she were right next to me.

My body suddenly releases the tension it was holding in all of my muscles as I move down the first step, and as my hand hits the rail, my limbs feel like mush.

My vision clouds, everything around me blurring, and my body contorts, the stretch of my muscles rearranging me onto all fours the strangest sensation.

Quickly, I acquaint myself with my new form.

I can swish my tail, twitch my ears. It’s freeing to be able to stretch, to arch my back and release a low growl at the calico.

But she’s no longer as brave, apparently, because she’s backing away from me, eyes wid. Her head twists back and forth as she looks around, as if searching for someone to rescue her.

Not sure how this will work, I open my mouth, trying the way I would normally clear my throat, but it just releases a small growl.

Inhale deeply, with your whole chest. Aarick’s voice is in my mind again, and it’s like another invasion, but I look past it and obey his orders, then release a ferocious roar. The calico jumps a foot into the air and takes off at a sprint, her bushy tail the last thing to disappear over the hill.

Well done, Mate .