I was jolted awake by someone pushing me, and I struggled to open my eyes. All I could see were dark shadows, making it difficult to determine where I was.
I knew my illness had worsened due to being drenched in the rain, but thankfully my thoughts were still clear, and I remembered that I was in Preston’s car.
Quickly, I sat up straight, thanked Preston again, then pushed open the door and exited the car.
“Ms. Palmer…”
Preston stopped me, took an umbrella from the back seat, and handed it to me. “It’s still raining. Take it.”
The logo on the umbrella was designer, and there was no way I was taking something so expensive from him. Especially since I didn’t know if I would have the chance to return it. I softly declined, “Thank you, but it’s only a few steps away. I’ll run.”
Preston seemed stunned for a second. He seemed to have read my mind, and he threw the umbrella at me. “You don’t have to return it.”
I hated being in this position. I hated taking things from people, and I really hated that it was Griffon’s cousin who was being so nice to me. But as a human of lower standing, the last thing I could afford to do was offend a man from such a powerful pack.
“May I please have your contact information? I’ll return this to you tomorrow.”
Preston looked at me with a raised brow and a bit of a frown on his handsome face. “I don’t like it when people show up uninvited.”
But…all I wanted to do was return his umbrella. I would rather not visit him, and I wasn’t looked for anything more. He’ll, I didn’t even have to see him to return the damn thing. “I didn’t mean-”
“Ms. Palmer.”
Preston interrupted me abruptly, his eyes full of warning and glowing a bit with his wolf. “It does not matter what you mean. I brought you home out of kindness. If you have any other ideas, put them out of your head immediately.”
His words made me uncomfortable. I didn’t say anything more. Just put down the umbrella and turned to leave.
After two steps in the rain, I felt dissatisfied and turned back to look at Preston.
“Mr. Knight, thank you for bringing me home, but I require nothing more from you. The last thing I want to do is take something that is yours without returning it, and I would rather not be indebted to you.”
Looking at the petite figure as she ran into her neighborhood, Preston was a bit stunned.
In his experience, women like Taya would do everything they could to seduce rich, powerful wolves from dominant packs such as the Knight pack. And if Taya wasn’t like that, she wouldn’t have started dating Roman immediately after things ended with Griffon.
Taking the umbrella would have been a perfect opportunity for her to work out a way to see him under the pretense of returning it.
Perhaps Preston had misunderstood the little human girl…
After I ran home in the rain, I removed my dress and the diamond necklace and threw them into the box they’d come in.
Tomorrow, I would send them back to Roman. His “gifts” disgusted me, and I would never accept them.
After closing the box, I went to the bathroom and turned on the faucet in the bathtub. I desperately needed a hot soak to warm me up. The chill from the rain had set deep in my bones, and my illness didn’t improve it.
Once the tub was full, I sank into the water with a sigh.
I held the bath ball and scrubbed my face and body, rubbing my skin red before looking at myself in the mirror, sans of my armor of makeup. My face was left with a sickly pallor, devoid of any vitality or energy, and my eyes were dimmed to the point of lifelessness.
I couldn’t see the light, couldn’t feel the warmth.
Tonight I’d been treated as if I were no better than the dirt under someone’s shoe. But I was a person, dam it. And I deserved to be treated with dignity.
“Dignity.”
I snorted and gave myself a self-deprecating smile in the mirror.
From the moment I’d sold myself to Griffon, I had lost whatever bit of dignity I’d possessed.
I dried my hair and lay down on the bed, exhausted, and fell deeply asleep again.
After getting drenched in the rain, my condition worsened significantly. I buried my head in sleep until the afternoon of the next day.
Harper had been on duty all night, so she slept from morning to afternoon. When she got up and prepared dinner, Taya was still asleep.
She had no choice but to knock on Taya’s door. She called out to her, but there was no response. Only then did she realize that something was wrong.
Harper quickly pushed the door open and walked in. When she saw Taya’s flushed face, she quickly reached out and touched her forehead.
She was burning up!
Harper quickly lifted the quilt to help Taya up. “Taya, you have a high fever. Get up quickly. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Taya, in and out of consciousness due to the fever, resisted when she heard the word “hospital.”
“We’re not going to the Harper didn’t allow Taya to refuse. Thanks to her wolf’s added strength, Harper was easily able to carry the small woman, get her into the car, and drive to the hospital.
As soon as Harper carried Taya into the emergency room, staff rushed over.
“She’s not a shifter,” Harper hurried to tell them.
Harper knew that Taya had congenital heart disease, and if the hospital assumed she was a shifter, they wouldn’t give her the proper treatment. It was easy for her to run short of oxygen if she caught a cold or fever, and her body wouldn’t work to heal itself the way a wolf shifter’s would.