Adored by the Alpha

Chapter 73

So as I was writing this chapter, I was offered some Grammarly go shit? With AI? So I guess that fuckery will be stealing stories on here now too- not that it's any surprise.

If I could, I'd sucker punch whoever is responsible for this AI stuff. AI was meant to do the boring jobs, the accounting, the data analysis, and the file organizing. It was not meant to do the passion jobs, to do the stuff people love, like writing and art (although who am I to so that there are no data analysists or accountants who love their job). Automatization was intended to get rid of the need for us to do the sucky jobs, the hard labor that messes up our bodies and bores our minds out, not the creative arts. 

Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to a person dear in my heart. He was kind enough to tell me about his experiences and share something personal with me, so I could write this chapter better.

It's also dedicated to all the aroace's out there. This is a love story, but there is so much more to life than romantic love. Families, friends. Everyone, ciswomen especially, are indoctrinated with this idea that for your life to be whole you need a partner. It's all bs. Romantic love is great, but it's not everything, and you can have a beautiful, fulfilled life without it. 

I love you all (platonically - which is no less important than any other type of love)

**********

The heart monitor moved up and down gently, just the way I liked it.

I'd had Paige in an ambulance within 8 minutes. And then in the ambulance, the driver had been smart enough to follow my yelling and hit the gas, smashing through red lights to get Paige to the hospital as fast as possible.

There'd been a continuous ringing in my ears from the moment I'd stepped out of my car into the snow, gun in hand. It hadn't stopped until the doctors at the ER had told me that as far as their initial superficial examination went, she seemed find. Paige had been half-awake, confused and scared. She'd given a half-coherent explanation of what'd happened, and the thing that settled me most, letting at least some of the worry regarding how this would impact her in the future go; confirming that no sexual assault had occurred.

Then the doctors had asked her permission to give her something to calm her down, to which she'd replied 'I just wanna sleep for a couple of days'.

And now, thank The Goddess Almighty, she was getting her wish, sleeping peacefully in a hospitalbed, giving me plenty of time to imagine various forms of torture I could've inflicted onto Alpha Charles, had I not been forced to shoot the fucker right there in the snow. Although I did take immense, perverse pleasure in his death, I wish it'd been slower. But for now, I was left alone with my imagination - images of stretch racks and red hot pokers moving through several layers of skin. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of knocking on wood.

I looked towards the door, finding Halley standing there, a furrow of doubt on her forehead. I gestured with my head for her to come inside, and without a word, she closed the door behind her and took a seat beside me. "How are you?"

I sighed, reaching out and running the tips of my fingers over Paige's hand, careful not to touch the IV. "Not great, still worried... but mostly very very relieved that she's back here, safe."

She nodded, and reached up to scratch her head as the silence stretched between the two of us. "What..." she sighed, not finishing the question.

"Hmm?"

She bit her lip, ran her hand through her long hair. "How does it feel for you, loving her? Is it just... like an automatic thing? Can't you help it? Or do you like... have to make an effort?" When her eyes met mine, they were earnest. Vulnerable.