Thelma’s POV
“Arghh!” I groaned. My back pained me and my head, heavy. Inside, I felt like something was constantly hitting me with a sledgehammer. A thunderous pounding began to scatter my senses. I could only fight it by closing and opening my eyes more often, hoping the pain would go away.
“Where am I?” I asked myself loudly. It was obvious I was no longer on the party ground. I looked down at my clothes and found out that I was wearing a blue hospital gown. I felt a nudge at my right wrist, I looked and then realized I was taking a drip through my veins.
“Fuck,” I said to myself loudly again. “So I am in the hospital?” I couldn’t tell how much time I had spent there. My wristwatch had been taken away from me- hospital rules. But there should be something that keeps time somewhere, right? I shifted my gaze around and found a wall clock hung on the wall behind me. It was 5 pm when I looked. The question that came to my mind was 5 pm on which day exactly? What’s that noise? I looked at the Flat screen TV mounted somewhere close to the entrance door. And there was this gentle-looking woman, charcoal hair, adorable skin, plumb, and officially dressed in a brown suit. She was dishing out the breaking news and somehow the topic she was talking about kind of grabbed my attention.
“The police said that they have not made any arrest yet but urged the public to remain calm and law-abiding and they also promised that they were on top of the matter. When we contacted the sheriff, he told our correspondent that they found two bodies in the nightclub; a young black woman and a white male. He said that while they were able to identify what killed the woman, they weren’t able to particularly agree on what had killed the male. He also said that the autopsy result is on the way and they will soon know exactly what had killed the two people in a public place without anyone noticing when it happened. To this end, we. . .” they showed the picture of Eric and Stephanie.
I couldn’t believe that the only friend, the only female friend I had ever known had gone just like that. It was just as I watched the news that I confirmed that Stephanie and I would never be able to talk to each other again. I would never have the opportunity to say proper goodbyes to her. Tears began to roll down my cheek and my head began to pound harder and harder. The AC in the room didn’t do much to help the situation as I began to sweat profusely- from the head down to my stomach.
The door opened and a young female nurse walked in. She was dressed in all shades of white and wore a bright smile on her face. She stood straight on the black heels she wore. “Hi, Thelma.” The nurse continued with her smile.
Thelma? She already knew my name, I thought. “Where is this?”
She paused and regarded me for a while as though she was surprised at my question. She continued walking toward me. “Of course, this is a hospital.”
“Damn,” I yelled at her. I would have hit my hand on the bed but the needle on my wrist gave me a sharp pain due to the little movement I made. “I know this is a hospital but where exactly is this?”
“It’s in the middle of the town, sweetheart. Believe me, you are not far from home.” She didn’t say what I had wanted her to say.
She approached me and removed the needle from my wrist. She discarded it into a waste container. She reached for the portable fridge just beside where she had kept the needle in the box, opened it, and grabbed a can of chilled water. “Care to drink?” she asked.
Like hell, I was so tasty. And this begs the question, “How long have I been out?” I asked her. I took the bottle from her and knocked off the cover. I began to sip it down.
“A day and a half.”
“What?” I almost got gagged by the water in my mouth. “A day and what?” I asked.
She smiled. The nurse leaned closer and sat on my bed. “Yes. Are you surprised?”
“Of course, I am surprised. I need to go home.” I tried to get up but I got hit by sharp pain again. I thought I had gotten over it by now but it returned with the same discomfort that I had gone through at first when I opened my eyes. The asshole called Eric might have hit me so hard, I thought. He had intended to kill me because if he hadn’t, the pain shouldn’t have lasted up to a day and a half. Would it?
“Lie still, sweetheart,” she advised me. “You don’t need to worry about going home. As a matter of fact, your father was here a few minutes ago. He came to check up on you.”
“What?” I asked surprisingly. “My father came here to check up on me?”
The nurse smiled cheerily. “Yes, dear. He was the person that paid for this VIP room. This room is for special patients.”
I looked around the room again, I found out that she had spoken the truth. The room was large, had only one bed- which shouldn’t be the case. Everything that provided comfort was kept in the right place. I forgot to mention the big flat-screen TV, the large standing AC, the portable fridge. “So where is he now?” I asked.
“I called him a few minutes ago. He will be here anytime soon.”
The nurse had just barely finished her last statement when someone knocked at the door, it came from behind. “Might be him. Catch you later.” She smiled at me.
I watched the nurse go but deep down, I wish she wouldn’t go especially if the person knocking was my father. But it turned out to be him. When she opened the door, she murmured a few words to him and they both smiled before she left. I couldn’t hear them because of the pain in my head. My father looked at me from the door, his amber eyes focused on me, without moving. His chin was still freshly shaved and his face oozed with seriousness. I quickly looked away, throwing my face to the side. He walked in gently without closing the door.
“Thelma,” he called me. “Don’t you have any atom of respect for me? Why have you chosen to thread the part of rascality?” he asked, a note of disappointment trailed with his voice.
But Hell, he didn’t even ask me how I was doing nor did he ask me if the injury I had was that bad. I turned to look at him, his lips were tight in a grim. “Father” I called him “Good evening.”
“Hold your greetings, moppet,” he said, affectionately not. “You agree with me that you have brought shame to the family’s name? I thought I had sent you to school to learn? So what in the world drove you to a nightclub?” he asked.
“Fun,” was my raspier reply. I didn’t intend to be funny but it didn’t seem so. He giggled.
He raised a brow. “Fun? Oh, I see,” he said. “Have you not eyes to see that I have had enough patience when it comes to matters that concern you, moppet? Trailing off from an agreed agreement, doing as you deem fit has really broken my heart and it is really affecting my position in our line of ethics. This case, the way I see it, can not be overlooked. You ended up causing the death of another.”
I frowned at him, clenched my hands hard into a fist, the hospital gown preventing my father from seeing it. “I have caused no death upon anyone,” I defended myself. “Someone else did.”
“And how are you planning to explain that to the police?” he asked. “Hey cop, I am innocent and know nothing about what happened? Huh? Is that what you have to tell them?”
I remained silent for a few seconds. “I didn’t know that any of these will happen, Father.”
“And that’s because you don’t listen,” he said. “For goodness sake, moppet, two dead bodies were lying beside you in their pool of blood in the closet and you are the only person that survived. Doesn’t it in the rational part of your brain ring a bell that something is wrong?”
“Not entirely father,” I told him. “I was conscious enough to notice that there was a third party presence there that had saved my life. This would have been my corpse staring at you.”
He shook his head disgustingly. “I’m not here to listen to those blusters that come from your mouth,” he said. “You have left me no choice but to take disciplinary measures against you. Just remember that this is of your own doing. Have a nice evening.” He turned and headed for the door. I saw Mr. Rudolph as he glared at me for a second, his cop eyes were smaller than usual. His hands were inside the pocket of his red suit. He then smiled with one corner of his lips and followed my father. It was now obvious that he might have heard everything my father had told me. Which means my father had given him the mantle to treat me as he likes. My father can be an arse sometimes but I sure preferred him to Mr. Rudolph. I couldn’t imagine myself going back home to stay with these two people. My father didn’t even care to listen to my point of view nor did he give me grounds to tell him what I think had happened. He had told me that he would awake disciplinary measures against me, a statement I had never heard him make. I had lived down in our mansion like someone who was under disciplinary actions and punishment already so I can barely imagine how my situation would be now that my father had just mentioned it to me. F u c k, f u c k, f u c k. “I’m as good as dead,” I mumbled to myself loudly, angrily. If my father wouldn’t have the time to make my life a living hell, then trust Mr. Rudolph, he was going to unfailingly make sure of that. Unless I somehow in one way or the other, avoid both of them. But how was I supposed to do that? How was I supposed to avoid my father and his Beta while under the same roof? As I lay on my back in the bed, I covered my eyes with my wrist as though I was covering it from the heat of the sun. I was thinking. I was trying to focus. I was trying to find solutions. I had to. I was tired of home. It had gone beyond managing. I remembered something. Yes. But that was one of the most insane solutions I had ever thought of.
Blood Moon Pack.
Yes. This was somewhere I had refused to visit. I had seemingly argued against the decision before but it was time I had to put away arrogance, it was time to put away pride, I thought. It was time to embrace reality. It was time to be mated.
“Drake. Drake, here I come.”