The Touch of Demise │18+

22: The Deal

When she awoke, she was alone in the room. She coughed harshly once more into her hand, grimacing as blood coated the back of her wrist. Demise was no longer here, which was odd because he usually spent the evening with her, especially when she wasn't feeling well. The door swung open, but instead of her mate, her eyes met Goliath.

He was an impressive person. With Godly height, his long blonde hair fell onto his massive shoulders that couldn't fit through the door comfortably. But he forced his body through the small doorway with a kind, yet stern gaze.

"How are you feeling?"

She didn't mind Goliath. He seemed kind enough. They simply didn't speak much to one another. "My chest hurts, but I am okay. Where is Demise?"

"The doctor is here to see you." He rubbed the back of his neck and lowered his gaze like he didn't know how to speak with her. So he decided to be blunt. He decided to treat her like an adult that could handle the news. Lying to his Prima was disrespectful. "Alpha Primus feels that he is...malignant to you and that you will get better if he no longer came close to you."

Her heart fell. "That stupid, stubborn-"

He continued. "He loves you. Deeply. He doesn't know how to deal with such requited emotion."

"He just left," she whimpered, feeling the cascade of tears on the edge of her eyes. "He left me."

"To protect you."

"Protect me, huh? Some protection. Where did he go?"

Goliath remained silent. She knew that Demise had been smart enough not to tell him where he was going.

"He doesn't get it," she responded. "I feel so much better with him around. He's just like..." she shook her head. Her voice dropped. Demise did what Aleksander did, just without admitting the words. "He can't handle my illness either. That's why he left. No one wants a sickly mate."

"That is not true. Don't get too mad, you'll hurt yourself-"

"No, it's not me that keeps hurting myself."

She went quiet again as the doctor came up from the foyer. Again, with the tests, the blood pressures, the O2 oximeter, the questions about how she felt, and then the sickly sound of the prescription being ripped from the pad.

Her O2 steadily began to plummet. She was told to always keep the oxygen canister near her with the nasal cannula in her nose.

"If your O2 goes below 94%, you have to be admitted into the hospital. Please do not stress yourself too much."

She nodded mutely as the doctor gave Goliath further instructions in the hall. Taking a look at the clock on the bedside, she sighed softly. She didn't sleep that night. She realized after two hours of laying down that she had grown used to Demise. It wasn't that she necessarily needed to sleep with him, but that her chest ached. It was as if her body knew that her mate was not near her.

When the sun started peaking through the blinds, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

Goliath appeared in his training attire. The sight would have been welcomed earlier in her life, but now she couldn't find another male attractive. Sitting up, she mustered up a kind smile as Goliath handed over a bowl of oatmeal to her.

"Didn't sleep, huh?"

"I look that bad?"

"Yeah."

"Geez, Demise has rubbed off on you." The smile that had grown shrunk as soon as the events of the previous night came back to her head. "Is he okay?"