Chapter 13

One moment I was about to kiss Grace, the next, she was wrenching herself off of me and off the bed. She stumbled to her feet, one hand clutching her head, the other, reaching for the bedpost for stability.

I launched myself off the bed as her face turned a sickening shade of white, and I all but dove to catch her as her strength seemed to fail her. Her eyes fluttered as I lifted her into my arms before they closed completely.

“Grace?” I begged her to open her eyes. “Grace, I’m here, it’s okay.”

“HELP!” I bellowed. “I need a doctor!!”

Her lifeless body didn’t even flinch when I yelled. Grace was scared of everything, I would have scared her if she was conscious. But she wasn’t conscious. I had just gotten her. I couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not after I had saved her.

Several servant rushed in, and they looked around helplessly. I could hear someone mindlinking the doctor to hurry, but there was no time. Her breathing was shallow, coming out in just short little breaths.

“Grace.” I cried as I raced down the 5 flights of stairs, and out the door, ignoring the stares of several people who were still up in the house. “Grace, please. I just got you. You can’t leave me.”

I burst through the hospital doors, and my brother looked up in surprise. “Sawyer,” I cried out, my voice breaking. “Help.”

Sawyer wasted no time. He jumped right into action. He grabbed the door to an exam room, and I rushed through it.

I laid her on the table as gently as I could. She hated laying on her back due to her injuries, but there was no other choice right now.

Sawyer grabbed his stethoscope and immediately began his work up of her unresponsive body. I stayed as close as I could to her as he assessed the situation. Sawyer then grabbed a shot, and I held her hand as he injected it.

I didn’t get a chance to ask what it was for or what it would do before she woke up screaming. It was the most gut-wrenching sound in the whole world, I wanted to scream right along with her. She thrashed around, her hands gripping at her head so tightly, her knuckles were turning white.

“Sawyer?” I called out desperate for it to start.

Sawyer’s normally very controlled expression masked something of true horror before he grabbed something completely different.

“You need to hold her still for me, Rhys. As still as you can so she doesn’t hurt herself more.”

“Why what are you going to do?” I asked, still trying to soothe her.

“I’ll explain after. This is going to be very painful for her.”

“She’s already in pain!” I shouted at him angrily.

“Do it, Rhys, now.”

I hated that I followed his order. Hated that I held her down like that. The way the people who had all but destroyed her life probably had countless times. And my heart was going to beat out of my chest as she started to let out hoarse, broken sounding screams, her body fighting against me blindly.

“Sawyer!” I shouted angrily, But he didn’t answer. He was focused on holding his hand as steady as he could as he injected her with some unknown substance.

“Shhhh.” I tried to soothe, but my voice didn’t sound real to me, and I knew it was falling on deaf ears, but I tried anyways. “It will be over soon.”

It felt like a million years before Sawyer pulled the syringe from her side, and it was at least another minute before she started slowly stop fighting me. Her screams stopped, and she once again went limp.

“What did you do to her?” I felt numb as I let her go. I hated how helpless she looked. How helpless I felt.

“We should take this to another room.” Sawyer tried, looking uneasy.

I gestured for him to lead the way. My wolf didn’t wat to leave her, but I knew she was fine if Sawyer was willing to walk away.

He led the way to his office a few doors away, and he sat at his desk, and I plopped down into the chair on the side.

“What do you really know about her, Rhys? Because from where I’m standing, you know nothing about her.” He said after a long moment.

My frown deepened. What did he mean by that? Of course, I barely knew her, I had only found her like 2 days ago, and she didn’t speak. Not one word even in all of that. She didn’t say one word.

“Your point?”

“Is she like the others?” Sawyer asks bluntly.

“No. I think she might be my true mate, but she’s wolfless so I’ll never know.”.

“I think this was a mate thing, Rhys...”

“But I haven’t marked her yet.” I answered dumbly.

“No.” Sawyer said seriousy. “I mean, I think she has been marked by someone else, and this was their doing. Her mark isn’t visible, but the amount of bruising and scars on her body makes it hard to see anything.”

“You think she’s mated to someone else?” My stomached turned. The thought didn’t sit well with me.

“Based on everything her exams have shown, I would guess it wasn’t a consensual mark and mated situation... But this was almost definitely a side-effect of a mark... I’m sorry.”

My hand fisted at my side and then punched the nearest wall in frustration. Everything felt like it was crashing around me. There was little to do but wait now till she woke up and could tell us whatever painful answers we needed. And we would go from there. But there was one thing for certain, whoever was responsible for her pain, for every mark on her innocent body, to whoever saw and didn’t stop it, they would not get out of it alive. I was the Alpha King for a reason. I prided myself on being ruthless, and I was going to show them all just how ruthless I was, starting with her sister Kinsley, and her brother-in-law, Adrian.