“Where are we going?” Karen asked him as she got in the car rather obediently.
“To Jacksonville,” Aiden told her, a fond smirk stretching his lips.
He had good memories there. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Anastasia The Troublemaker’s daughter was good company… when she wasn’t mourning the absence of her mate, that was.
He briefly wondered how she was faring in the vampire academy, and made a note to himself to call her or Ace later on.
Karen kept quiet the entire ride to Jacksonville, and although Aiden wasn’t particularly affected by the silence, he preferred when she was arguing with him than her distracted state of mind.
“I need to be back home before 5 pm,” she announced just as he parked the car in front of a big house.
His bodyguards were naturally in another car, following closely behind, not knowing what to expect, but probably reporting everything to his mom… yes, his mom, not his dad. She was overprotective and nosy like that.
“Fine,” he conceded easily, already planning on having Shane insist that they stayed for dinner… so that would give him the chance to know her better.
As soon as they stepped out of the car, with her trying to discreetly nurse her shoulder, Shane, the future alpha of the Black Shadow pack showed up at the doorstep of the house.
Sure, Aiden was making him miss school, and he knew he should care about that… but he didn’t.
After the fiasco at the party he and Anastasia attended in his house, where Ace showed up and the princess awakened a long last, he and Shane became friends somewhat. He had recognized him from a meeting they had both attended with their dads.
“Al…” He began, a bright smile adorning his face, and at the glare he received from Aiden, he was quick to cough and say, “Aiden, how nice it is to see you.”
“This doesn’t look like a clinic to me,” Karen observed in a pensive tone as she looked mefiantly around.
“The clinic isn’t far from here,” Aiden explained before telling Shane to lead the way.
** ** ** ** **
So, Karen had bruises a lot of them sure, but nothing she wouldn’t survive and a dislocated shoulder.
All the warning she got from the doctor who was examining her before he put it back in place was, “This is going to hurt.”
In one swift move, he had righted her shoulder. Only it didn’t just hurt. It hurt like a bitch. She couldn’t help but shout at that.
She heard the slam of the examination room, and a beastly growl, and then a deep throaty voice that sounded like Aiden’s demand, “What did you do to your Luna?”
She opened her eyes to find an enraged looking Aiden holding the doctor by the neck and squeezing. Said doctor’s face was turning purple from lack of oxygen.
“Hey! What the hell?” She exclaimed, half astonished half angry. “He was helping me.”
“You yelled,” he deadpanned, looking at her with endless pools of black.
Black, not blue.
“It was painful,” she whispered in awe. “Aiden… your eyes… what… what are you?”
Aiden released the man when he saw the sincerity in Karen’s eyes, but also because of the scared look in their depths.
“What are you?” She asked him again in a firmer tone.
And he realized his mistake. He had looked her way while his wolf had taken over. Silly rookie mistake!
He tried to reign in his emotions and gain back control over his body, his voice, and his eyes. But to no avail.
Although he got that it was solely him who was scaring her at the moment, his wolf didn’t get the memo, and wanted to look after her, to keep harm from befalling her, and to ward off any potential threats…
“Aiden,” Shane entered the examination room, looked between the slumped healer on the floor, the scared Karen and the angry Aiden, and it seemed as if he was robbed of his speech capacities.
“Aren’t you going to answer me?” She demanded to know in a shaky voice, transfixed by his eyes still.
Before he had the time to think of a suitable lie, his wolf, still very much in control, said, “I’m a werewolf.”
She giggled. It was nervous, disbelieving, and nothing at all like her usual giggles.
“As far as jokes go, this isn’t a good one,” she rolled her eyes at him.
Upon seeing the fear and uncertainty in her eyes, his wolf retreated to the back of his mind, whimpering.
Aiden took a deep breath, felt his eyes change back to normal, and looked at her with determination, “But what if it wasn’t a joke, Karen?”
“Bi-tch please,” she scoffed at him. “Don’t take me for a fool.”
He took two steps towards her, and she cowered away on the bed frantically. “What do you want from me? You proved yourself to be as violent as my dad, if not more…”
The last sentence was such a blow to him, he couldn’t help but avert his face.
“Shane,” he called.
“Yes, A… Aiden?” The future alpha of the Black Shadow pack almost slipped again.
“An eraser would be appreciated,” he said simply, the fight leaving him altogether.
“Yes, alpha,” Shane nodded curtly at him and went to work.
“What’s an eraser and what’s an alpha?” Karen then asked in a frightened tone.
“Don’t worry about it,” he told her softly.
Only from the look on her face, it was clear that she did worry. She looked to the right and then to the left frantically.
Aiden barely had the time to tell her, “Don’t!” that she was already running from the examination room.