There were colourful flowers all around them, Carlisia had a walking stick in one hand while her arm was slung over Zane's shoulder, supporting her as they walked on the small track of the hospital garden.
Her steps were careful and slow as she looked at Zane and asked for the bazillionth time,
"My weight isn't too much on your shoulder, is it?"
Zane was in his own bubble as he turned to her then smiled,
"Give me more credit Carly, you keep this up and instead of putting an hour in the gym I might have to put 3."
Carlisia smiled and poked her stick on his foot as they finally approached a bench and sat. She clutched her side, wincing a bit. She turned to look at Zane who once again had a vacant expression clouding his features.
"What are you thinking about?"
Carlisia asked him, taking a deep breath as fresh air blew her hair back. She leaned against Zane, looking around the beautiful flowers, the fountain not a few feet away and then the forest that extended beyond.
"Nothing."
Zane said, his smile strained as he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her up.
"The doctor said to sit a bit straighter." He mumbled. Carlisia let him help her as she stared at him,
"Come on, tell me." Carlisia pressed and Zane sighed, looking away from her.
"I think you should come back to Australia." Zane said.
Carlisia stared at Zane for a while before nodding. Every night when she would wake up screaming, this was the one thing she was sure of. She was going to leave.
"I think so too."
Zane placed his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze, he gave her a brief smile before his face took on that vacant expression again.
"What else is bothering you?"
"Nothing. Everything." Zane let out an exasperated breath, rubbing his breath.
"Come on, tell me." Carlisia turned to him, her face etched with concern.
Zane looked at Carlisia's face, her pale skin, the redness underneath her sunken face, thick bandages on her frail shoulders, yet her concern was evident.
"Who is Gabriel?"
Zane saw the momentary terror that passed through Carlisia's eyes before a calculated calmness set over her,
"Why would you ask that?"
And so Zane started his tale of everything that happened last night, how he was there when she was screaming his name and the unfortunate encounter he had with the man in the hospital's waiting room.
Carlisia listened attentively, stitching an acceptable lie in the process. She wouldn't risk Zane getting hurt just to release the burden of what happened to her, not for one second.
"He is a business partner of Ben's - my moms husband. The nightmares are old, remember I told you about them a while back."
Zane tried to remember and fragments of that conversation came back to him, the day when Carlisia had gone running, how he had told her it could be fragments of her subconscious trying to make something that wasn't there.
His stomach dropped with guilt.
"I think I was wrong when I said what I did. And I believe that guy is very, very dangerous."
Carlisia stared at Zane, the bandages on her body a stark representation of exactly how dangerous she knew Gabriel to be.
She felt like suffocating as she stared at Zane,
"I think once I get out of Fircrest and am back home, everything will go back to normal." Carlisia smiled.
She didn't have the heart to lie to him, to say he was overthinking, to defend Gabriel for one moment.
She wouldn't lie. Not to him, not for Gabriel.
Zane smiled, pulling her and placing a kiss on her head.
"Everything will be okay."
He mumbled, resting his chin on her head staring around the empty garden, a chill going over his body.
Gabriel's face was emotionless as he watched from the window of her hospital room, directly at the bench where they sat.
His frown was deep, he had listened to everything.
He had watched how she had let Zane touch and support her, his hand on her side as they walked.
He had watched as she let Zane prop her up on the bench.
He had watched how he had pulled her to him and kissed her head.
His knuckles were white, his eyes a window to his anger, his fury.
"Alpha Kane, here is your card. All of the medical bills have been cleared - Oh! Your hand is bleeding."
Gabriel looks down at the cup of coffee he had crushed in his hand, the remnants of the glass in his hand.
The nurse didn't offer to bandage his hand as she placed the card in Gabriel's outstretched hand and left.
Gabriel let whatever was left of the cup in his hands fall to the floor.
If she wanted to leave, she would have to kill him first.
YOU ARE READING
Alpha Kane's Obsession
FantasyCarlisia ran as fast as her sore legs would let her. Her top was ripped and her knees scabbed from all the time she had tripped on the rough patchy ground. She tripped again, blood dripped from the corner of her mouth as a stone bust her lip. She...
