Queen of Midnight

Chapter Three.

I woke in a daze. At first, I couldn't figure out why everything was black when I tried blinking, until I realized my eyelids were almost glued shut. After I managed to pry them open, I tried to move my arms but they felt heavy. I groaned at the pain that coursed through my limbs as I moved slowly, the sights around me settling enough for me to see where I was.

The pack infirmary was a small building just outside the pack house, with rows of beds along either side of the long room. I was lying on one of them, a fresh set of clothes covering my body that I knew I hadn't been wearing before. But before what? What happened? I could hardly remember...

"Rhea?"

I blinked again, turning my head in the other direction, and froze when I saw the Alpha King sitting beside my bed, watching me curiously. I couldn't see any other emotion in his eyes; no recognition that he had been worried about me, or scared for my life. Disappointment rose in my throat, but I tried my best to push it back down.

"What happened?" I croaked, giving up on trying to move and just laying back down.

"You were attacked. The wolves were from an unknown pack, but definitely not your own. They surrounded you. And you-"

"-I defended myself," I interrupted, my memory coming back to me in floods. I remember the wolves. They cornered me, surrounded my wolf, and when I shifted back into human form...

"Who are you?" The King questioned, looking at me intently. I felt a sudden spot of anger rise in my belly at his words, knowing exactly to what he was referring.

"What, so you can turn around and say you do want me if I turn out to be powerful or important?"

He looked taken aback by my words, blinking as he registered them. "What? Please, stop being ridiculous. If you saw what I saw..."

"I was there too," I snapped. "I know what happened. And your guess is as good as mine, your Highness."

He pursed his lips in an effort to hold back a retort, instead raising a brow indifferently.

"James," he said eventually. "I've called you by your name enough. You can call me James."

"Tell me, your Highness," I continued, ignoring him blatantly, "what were you doing in the forest anyway? How did you find me so quickly?"

"The bond," he replied simply, not tying any emotion to his words. "It told me you were in danger, so we came to find you. I have my people studying the wolves that attacked you to see where they came from. I can't risk endangering anyone else's lives."

I swallowed another bout of disappointment and pain at the stab of his words, coming closer and closer to the realization that there would be no future between us, regardless of the fact that he had said he didn't want to reject me. It would make things better for me, than to have to keep putting up with his hurtful words and emotionless opinions.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, I heard someone else enter the building, and my heart clutched in my chest when I saw who it was.

Shit.

"Rhea, you're awake," Ethan exclaimed, moving over to the other side of my bed. When he saw James, he stumbled and froze on the spot, his eyes flickering between us. James rose to his feet slowly, and I could feel the heat of his gaze from where I lay as he glared down at Ethan.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice suddenly deep and dangerous. Ethan looked at me and then back at the King. I, however, had just stopped moving. It was like I forgot how to breathe, or think.