The Alpha (The Lycans 4)

We didn’t speak, and I didn't move again as he tended to me. He brought the washcloth to my head, cooling my skin, murmuring in a language I didn't understand, but his words sounded gentle.

“Where am I?” The last thing I remembered was being hit in the head, then being yanked up by my hair. I remembered hitting the woman, getting hit again, but everything after that, I drew a blank.

“Ye’re safe,” Cian said softly again, and I realized he was keeping his voice low to be considerate of the pain in my head.

“Where are we that’s safe?” I glanced around, the room standard if not a bit plain. It gave off vibes that it wasn’t really lived in. There was the bed I was on, a dresser to the side, a slightly open door that led to a hallway, another fully open door that led to a bathroom, the closet, then a few pictures hanging on the walls depicting landscapes or floral arrangements. The room was decked out in grays and creams. It looked like a room you’d see in a model house.

I shifted on the bed and instantly felt my stomach roiling. I knew I was going to throw up just as I leaned over the side of the bed, a small wastebasket filled with pink-and-red-tinged gauze directly below me. I reached for it just as I threw up. I felt Cian lift the heavy fall of my hair away from my face as I gagged and was in one of the most humiliating positions imaginable.

Once the nausea passed, I lay back in bed, grabbing the washcloth Cian gave me, and wiping off my mouth. “Thank you,” I said as he handed me a bottle of water and a couple of pills. I eyed them hesitantly.

“For the pain.”

Maybe I should have declined or questioned it more, but I didn’t as I popped the pills into my mouth and swallowed them with a large pull of water from the bottle. I rested back on the bed and just stared at him as he took the bottle from me, so many questions firing off in my head, yet I couldn’t find the energy to ask them.

“This is one of the properties owned by an associate of mine,” Cian said as if he knew I wanted to know things but was just too tired to ask them. “We’re safe here for the time being.”

I nodded but didn't know what I was agreeing with. All the what happens next reverberated in my head. “How long was I out?” I touched my temple again and felt the bandage covering my temple.

“We’ve only been here for the past couple of hours. Thankfully it was stocked with medical supplies… a lot of stuff tae soak up blood, I assume.” His eyes narrowed, his brows pulling down as if even thinking that pissed him off. That was another thing to tack on to what I needed to ask him about later. And when his eyes lifted to my face, his gaze softened. “Rest, a chiall mo chridhe.”

I felt the heavy pull of sleep start to take over. “What does that mean? What you just said.”

Cian leaned back in his chair and moved his head from side to side, the sight of him working out the kinks in his muscles strangely attractive. But the entire time, he kept his gaze locked on mine, as if he couldn't bear to not look at me. “My dearest darling.” He gave me a small smile that shouldn’t have made any heat lick through me, given my current state, but one that most certainly did.

The endearment made me feel as if I was something special, something profound to someone else. My dearest darling… two words that shouldn’t have meant as much as they did.

“I have so many questions,” I whispered as I started to feel even more tired.

“I know,” he said softly, his voice still pitched low. “And when ye wake up, I’ll be here tae answer everything.”

In the past twenty-four hours so much had gone upside down, had been so crazy. It made me feel very unnatural. Except where Cian is concerned, I thought. Where he was concerned, I felt like things had fallen into place, like I ran away for nothing—dare I say, the biggest mistake of my life.

Before I let that sinking darkness pull me under, I felt Cian take my hand in his and whisper, “Cha robh dithis riamh a’ fadadh teine nach do las eatarra.”

When I woke up again, I knew right away I was alone in the room. I sat up and noticed a plate with fresh fruit, cheese, and crackers on it, and another bottle of water sitting beside that on the bedside table.

The very idea of eating anything had my stomach roiling. I grabbed the water and drank half of it before setting it back down and sitting up even more, my back now fully against the headboard.