Chapter Fifty-Two
Darkness came to me like the thick velvet curtains closing at the end of a theatre play. It closed my mind of everything and nothing seemed to matter anymore. The silence was welcomed with open arms as my mind sunk into the peace it was finally given, however, it was not there for long and was slowly being pulled back. Someone came in and interrupted it. I wanted to scream at them and tell them to let me go. I wanted the darkness, I didn't want to think or feel anymore.
I wanted tranquillity.
My tranquillity was shattered slightly when I felt someone grab my body and pull me out of the warm water. I couldn't tell who it was but from their frantic voice and movement I could tell they were panicking.
It's okay, I wanted to tell them. Let me sleep.
The hard pounding on my back had me twisting my body away, why were they trying to hurt me? I'm not supposed to feel anything so why could I feel their panicked slaps on my back? The pounding stopped and something warm and soft caressed my body.
My head lopped to the side and my eyes opened enough for me to see that someone was carrying me.
"Thank God." The person carrying me muttered when they saw my eyes open. "Stay awake."
No, I wanted to say. Let me sleep but my tongue felt too heavy to move. I lost the battle with my eyes as well as they closed again.
I'm unsure of how long I was like this but I drifted in and out of conscious. The time where I did become conscious I heard little snippets of conversation that made no sense to me.
"...bleeding..."
"...ried to kill herself, look at what you did!"
"Brought her here.... your mate."
"Shh, she's waking up." A voice that sounded masculine muttered as my eyes fluttered opened slightly.
"Nala? Nala can you hear me?"
Yes but I don't want to, I want to sleep.
With that thought my mind drifted off and I was in complete darkness again. Through it felt like only minutes, hours had passed. I heard more snippets of conversations, however, the voices felt muted and sounded more like background noises.
I could also feel someone touching me sporadically, sometimes my hair and head and other times my face. Even though I was not fully conscious I could feel the difference in the touches and knew they were by different people. One felt more clinical and professional whereas the other felt more soft and tender making my heart fill up with bliss.
Before my eyes finally fluttered open, my hearing came to me first as the sound of a ticking clock filled my ear alongside the sound of someone clicking away on what sounded like a laptop. I was unable to move anything as my body felt rigid and foreign. After screaming at my body to cooperate with me, it finally did and my eyes opened.
Thankfully the light was lowered to a dim light so my eyes weren't exposed to harsh, bright light. Blinking a few times, I stared at the unfamiliar ceiling for several seconds before wiggling my fingers. My head felt heavy and sore as if I was recovering from a massive headache.
The sound of someone typing began to slowly creep up in volume, getting louder and louder until it felt like the noise was right beside my ear. With great effort I turned my head to the right, the direction the noise was coming from, and froze slightly when I saw who it was.
Alpha Alessandro.
This must have been a dream- or a nightmare depending on whether he started threatening me again- or he wouldn't be here otherwise.
He looked completely focused on the task at hand which seemed to be obnoxiously typing away at a laptop. I used this time to actually study the Alpha, however, I wasn't able to study for long because he stopped typing.
He turned and met my gaze as he closed the laptop. His eyes were filled with relief for a few seconds before it turned blank. "You're awake."
"Where am I?" I began to push myself up but Alpha Alessandro put his hand out to stop me.
Without another word Alpha Alessandro wrapped his arms around my upper half of my body and lifted me up to a sitting position. I watched in bewilderment as he fluffed my cushions behind me and adjusted the blanket that was covering my body.
Yep, definitely a dream.
I let out a groan. Not only did I have to see him in real life now he was invading my dreams too?
"Are you in pain? What's hurting?" He hovered over me as he scanned my body with his frantic eyes.
"Go away." I muttered as I closed my eyes and tried to think of something else. I heard people could control their dreams if they were aware that they were dreaming.
Be gone, devil!
"Is it your head?"
"My head?" I repeated slowly as I opened my eyes.
Alpha Alessandro nodded. "I'll ask the doctor for some painkillers. Does anything else hurt?"
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. He was being awfully nice and even in my dreams that didn't make sense to me. Despite the dull ache in my head I began to shake it. "Wake up. Wake up." I muttered to myself.
"What are you doing?" Alpha Alessandro questioned looking alarmed. "Stop it. You are awake."
I stopped shaking my head and slumped back down on the bed. "If this is real then why are you being nice to me?"
Alpha Alessandro's jaws tightened slightly. "Did you try to hurt yourself?"
"What?" My voice came out in a high pitch tone indicating my shock at the question.
"Did you try to hurt yourself?" He asked again, his eyes hard and angry.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." What was he talking about? Why would I hurt myself? "Where am I?" I repeated the question from earlier.
"Tell me." Alpha Alessandro commanded. "Did you try to hurt yourself? You were in the bathtub, in the water with a wound on your head."
My mind began to replay the events of earlier, I remember getting into a bath and feeling very relaxed but I don't remember anything about a wound on my head. Lifting my hand up slowly, I began to touch around my head, trying to feel what the Alpha described as a 'wound' on my head.
My whole head was filled with a dull ache but it was towards the back of my head on the right-hand side where it felt tender and slightly raised.
"Don't touch it." Alpha Alessandro gently moved my hand away, a stark contrast to earlier when he smacked it away.
He didn't deserve an explanation but I gave him one anyway. "I forgot it was bleeding, I didn't plan to do this." The blood from my head must have mixed in with the water causing him to think I hurt myself or tried to commit suicide.
Why he was acting like he cared confused me, he was very clear about his intentions earlier. "If I wanted to hurt or kill myself, that's not how I would have done it."
Alpha Alessandro's eyes blazed over with anger. "You will never do that."
I let out a laugh. "No but you will right?"
There was no response from the Alpha as he maintained eye contact with me, his eyes expressed his emotions or should I say one emotion- anger. He was angry, for what I did not know.
Alpha Alessandro finally broke eye contact with me as his eyes lifted upwards towards my head. His hand approached me slowly and carefully as if he was about to touch a traumatised kitten who had been abused all its life and any sudden movements would set the kitten off.
"How did this happen?" He questioned as he stroked my head softly, avoiding the injured section. His touch had me closing my eyes in content without realising as I relished in the pleasure it was giving me. I wasn't supposed to be enjoying this, I should be pushing his hand away from me but at that moment I wanted to ignore it all and enjoy the feeling.
"Nala, how did this happen?" His voice matched the softness of his touch. "Nala?"
The second time he said my name, I reluctantly opened my eyes and met his. Adjusting my head so it was no longer in his reach I narrowed my eyes. "You happened. You did this to me."
Realisation filled Alpha Alessandro's eyes as he dropped his hand. Without a word he left my side swiftly, slamming the door behind him. I didn't have a moment to think about anything at all, as an older man entered the room.
He introduced himself as the pack doctor and explained that the cut at the back of my head was small, under 5cm long and had straight edges which meant it was best to use skin glue to heal it instead of stiches.
While he explained further, Alpha Alessandro slipped into the room, however, he stayed at the opposite end of the room for which I was grateful for. The glue had already set and would form a scab that would either peel or fall after within 5-10 days but the scar could take six months to fade.
The doctor then went into details about how to care for the wound, what to do and what not to do. It was hard to concentrate on what the doctor was saying because the Alpha was staring at me intently. Ignoring him, I tried to focus on the information that was being relayed to me. It didn't seem hard to take care of it and the main thing I needed to be concerned about was if the wound opened, bled or got infected.
The doctor then provided me with an NHS pamphlet on skin glue which took me by surprise as I hadn't realised that they too use the National Health Service and not their own health service. After the doctor took his leave I was left with Alpha Alessandro who was still standing far away from me.
"I want to go home." I broke the loud silence that covered the room.
Alpha Alessandro closed the distance between us. "That's not going to happen."
Instead of disappointment or sadness, anger filled my body. "Why? Why am I here? I've told you the truth!" He had to either punish me or let me go, he couldn't just keep me here all my life.
"Whatever my punishment is I'll accept it." I wouldn't accept it willingly, however, if that meant I could go home and Cami would be safe, I would take it in an instant. "But you can't keep me here."
"You're not leaving."
Frustration filled every inch of me. "Why? Why not? Why do you want me here? Do you get some perverse thrill from keeping me captive and hurting me?"
"I'm not hurting you."
A humourless laugh escaped my lips and I pointed to my head. "I beg to differ!"
Something similar to guilt flashed in his eyes for a second. "That wasn't intentional."
My eyes widened as I listened to his ridiculous words, that may not have been intentional but the other times he had his hands wrapped around my neck certainly was. "I don't understand why you still want me here."
Why did he want me around? Wasn't I a constant reminder of his dead cousin? I paused for a few seconds before asking my next question.
"What am I to you?"
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A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter
Do you think Alpha Alessandro will tell her the truth?
What do you think will happen next?
Next upload will be in a few days but you can read the full story on www.patreon.com/kayy_b
Thank you for reading :)
-Kayy xx