Primal

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Stubborn Shifter

Adam's P.O.V.

She was right.

I didn't make her stay in that foul-smelling hospital room that night. It was partly for her sake, but mostly for mine. I hadn't had a restful night's sleep in a while, and I knew I wouldn't sleep if she was several floors down alone by herself in a hospital cot.

I did take precautionary measures, however. A glass of water was beside her on the bedside table if she needed it and I woke up nearly every hour to make sure her fever wasn't coming back. About the fourth time I did so, I began to get frustrated with myself.

I had never been so concerned with anyone other than myself before. Evelyn had a way of keeping me on my toes. I found myself doing things just to please or impress her. She was slowly becoming someone I looked to for affirmation, which frightened me more than I cared to express as someone who had always been self-sufficient.

I couldn't wait for the day that she fully stepped into her role as my Luna. I already knew she would be phenomenal at it. But, with the way things were with Europe and all the changes I knew would soon be coming, I couldn't expect her to step up now. I worried what the stress would do to her, seeing as she was already overwhelmed by the disappearance of her mother and father.

I was not so worried by their desertion, however. I hated her father and I had to fight everything inside me the day I brought her home to keep myself from ripping him to shreds. He wouldn't be so lucky the next time I got my hands on him.

It kept me awake at night to think about all the stories she had yet to tell me, all the pain he had caused her to suffer through.

It could make my blood boil just thinking about it.

I felt Evelyn stir next to me and she turned over to lay her head against my chest. I reached my arm around her and smiled as I imagined the blush that would spread across her cheeks if she were to wake up and see what she had done.

It amazed me the power that a woman who was nearly half my size had over me. By the feeling in my chest, I knew that was power I had lost and would never earn back from her.

I held her in my arms for the rest of the night, finally falling asleep myself a few hours later.

When I woke up and got up to get ready for that day's meetings, it was harder to leave her than it had been the day before.

I made sure the balcony doors were securely locked before leaving the bedroom quietly.

I got to my office early that morning to look over a few things before the first meeting began. 

First, I glanced over security footage from the night before. Evelyn didn't know this, but I had cameras put on the outside of the balcony, outside of our bedroom door, and everywhere on the floor with the guest suits after the arrival of the tulips. I wasn't going to take any chances. If anything else happened, I didn't want to take someone's word for it; I wanted to know about it myself.

I looked over my schedule for the day and called in one of the guards outside my door to have him tell someone to send for Evelyn at lunch. 

I was looking over my notes for the meetings when I heard Jace's footsteps in the hallway. I looked up just as he walked in to see a frustrated look on his face.

"I looked into the letter," he explained. "The Post Master said that a man came in yesterday to get the letter and was apparently irate when he was told they hadn't received a letter with your insignia on it."

"Who was it?"

He shrugged. "None of them had ever seen him before."

"Did you get the security footage?"