Destined for Disaster ✔️

Chapter 47

Something was off.

Ryleigh had been silvered enough times to know exactly what to expect, yet this was not how it usually went. She was in pain, sure, but this was the kind of pain she felt weeks after the initial silvering, when her body had readjusted to its new balance.

Her eyes slowly blinked open. It took a few seconds, but at last the blur in front of her eyes cleared to reveal the infirmary ceiling. So she had survived. Odd. She pushed the covers aside and lifted her head to look at her stomach. Her brows inched down when she realised that the wound had healed completely. Her fingers travelled up to her left shoulder and found only scars there. Since when did her healing work this well? It hadn't been this quick in months.

Her heart slammed to a halt and she shot upright. As erratically as a pup just learning to walk, her heart started up again, then started hammering against her chest. Her trembling fingers moved up to her neck, hesitating before pressing into her skin. A gasp escaped her, and her breathing quickened.

He'd marked her.

"No," she said, her voice nothing but a breath. "No, no, no." Ignoring the deep ache in her muscles, she clambered out of bed, falling to the floor the moment she put weight on her legs.

"Hey, easy," Ridge said, bursting out of his office and hurrying towards her.

"He marked me!" she said, slamming a hand in front of her mouth, as though saying it out loud made it real. "No, no, no." She planted her palms against the floor and made a move to get to her feet, only they weren't willing to hold her yet.

Ridge crouched in front of her and grabbed her shoulders, stilling her. "Calm down, Ryleigh."

"No! He marked me! O, Goddess. O, Goddess. He marked me. O, no. No, no, no." Her hands moved up her face, tugging at the roots of her hair.

"Calm down or he'll sense that you're upset and come straight here."

She froze. Eyes wide, hands still tangled in her hair, she sat unmoving.

"Alright, now breathe with me. Come on. In – slowly. Out. Come on." He gestured for her to follow his example. She wanted to tell him she knew how to breathe, but she realised she didn't.

"That's better," Ridge said, releasing his hold on her and slipping down on the floor, cross-legged.

"He marked me," Ryleigh said, her hand moving back to his mark in the crook of her neck. This couldn't be happening.

"It was the only way to save your life."

"I said no."

"You weren't reasonable. Don't tell me you really would have rather died."

She looked at him, her eyes filled with panic and a touch of challenge. "Now what? I'm supposed to reject him!" She huddled into herself, drawing up her legs to her chest. "Goddess, now what? Can I even reject him?"

Ridge didn't respond quickly enough to that question – or at all, for that matter.

"Ridge? I can still reject him, can't I? Ridge?"

He raised both hands to calm her. "Yes."

A breath escaped her and she leant back against the side of the bed. "You nearly gave me a heart attack." She eyed him suspiciously. "Please tell me I didn't sense a 'but' at the end of that 'yes'."

"Well, you can still reject him. Just not right now."

"Not right now?" She moved her hand away from the mark and pressed it against her chest instead. "Why?"