Ensnared

Chapter Nine

She woke with a silent groan, nothing but a whoosh of air passing through her lips in place of sound as she reluctantly began to breech the surface of consciousness to return to the world of the living.

Hot damn, did consciousness hurt.

Her shoulder throbbed constantly, the nerves in her fingers twitching every other throb as the pain strummed at her receptors in an almost mocking way while her fogged mind willed her body to do something, anything to get a grasp on reality.

There was a vibration against the surface she laid on, and she strained her incoherent senses to zone in on the disturbance that had dared drag her back to this sorry ass world.. not that she knew the vibration was the guilty party, but it was annoying as shit.

The sound of rushing blood still clouded her hearing, but after a brief moment of her clawing her way back to wakefulness it slowly faded into the background, leaving an atrocious beeping twang in its wake.

Next to recover was her sense of smell, and dear God.. the first thing she smelled made her instinctively relax with a soft sigh of relief.

Antiseptic, the sweet smell of antiseptic.

It was calming, the familiar hospital scent washing over her and cradling her weary body in a cocoon of comfort as the boulders that kept her eyelids from opening earlier began to lift, allowing her eyes to reveal themselves once again to the world.

A quaint hospital room met her bleary sight, and upon arriving at her fully conscious state, the beeping sound became stronger.. drawing her weary gaze to settle upon the heart monitor that stood off to the side of the bed.

She stayed like that for a while, staring blankly at the noisy monitor and observing her vital signs while she waited for a nurse or doctor to come in to check on her. There was a fuzzy piece in her memory, and she was hoping that they could fill her in on how the hell she ended up here, considering that hospitals and humans no longer mixed in the new world.

"R-riona?!" the startled voice that drifted from the doorway had her gaze lazily sweeping from its focus on the machine, and onto the short stature of a very familiar looking woman holding a tray of IV bags and a pitcher.

Pixie cut red hair, grey eyes, a light complexion peppered with freckles.. "..Debbie..?"

"Oh.. oh my God! Rio!" the petite woman quickly closed the distance between the two and carelessly shoved the tray onto the bedside table next to her hospital bed. "Thank God! He was going to start ripping people apart if you didn't wake up! How do you feel? He did a number on your should-" she weakly held up a shaking hand to stop the redhead from word vomiting further.

"S-slow down.. Debs.." she rasped, her dry throat protesting with its use.

Debbie said not another word as she grabbed the pitcher from the bedside table and filled a small cup with water. "S-sorry, hun! Just.. there is so much I need to tell you, and he'll be back soon!" the ember haired woman gingerly helped her into a sitting position, mindful of the wound on her shoulder before she would relinquish hold of the cup over to her, allowing her to moisten her parched pallet.

 "How.. did I get here? What happened? Who is he, Debs?" she was finally able to speak without it feeling like she was dragging sandpaper against her throat with each word.

Deborah inhaled through her nose, and exhaled through her mouth as if to calm herself before she took a seat at the edge of the bed, her worried gaze locking with her own. "You were claimed, sweetie.. and quite nastily too. He marked you while in his furs and gave your shoulder a slight fracture from the pressure of his bite." she paused for a moment to nervously wet her lips while searching her face for a reaction.

Shock..

Horror..

A flame of anger began to kindle behind her initial reception of the news.

She gave a weak, subtle nod for her friend and ex-coworker to continue.

"Your mate.. Beta Ryder, brought you here for immediate treatment after he realized what he had done.. You've been here for a little over two weeks in a drug induced coma so you could heal faster." at this, her eyes widened and her mouth parted in shock.

Two weeks?!

Her friend reached over and gently grabbed her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "We started trying to wake you last night.. and now here you are." her attempts to provide comfort weren't working very well, and she would be able to tell by the increased noise of the heart monitor.

"That fucking mongrel!" she hissed under her breath as she narrowed her eyes, the bite wound on her shoulder twinging uncomfortably when she moved to sit up straighter.

A look of fear overtook Debbie's face as those words were uttered, and she quickly looked over her shoulder at the door, almost as if she were afraid someone were to come bursting through to dish out repercussions for the slur. "Mind your tongue, Riona! They have ears everywhere!" she leaned forward with a hushed voice, her gaze never leaving the doorway.

"I know how you feel, sweetheart. I really do. There aren't many of us who like being mated to one of them.. but for now your best bet is to play nice, otherwise things are not going to be pretty."

The sound of quickly approaching footsteps echoed in the hall, which had the redhead give her another frightened look; though it seemed like she was more frighted for her, rather than herself. "Remember, play nice.. We will be in contact soon.." and with that final hushed whisper the door to her room was thrown open to reveal a rather intimidating Beta behind it.