Chapter 39: Parallel views
Amina’s POV
I looked up at the nurse and watched her hesitate a while before shutting the door and walking up to me. Without taking her eyes off me, she sat on the edge of the bed and placed a hand on my leg.
“If anyone asks, you didn’t hear this from me.” She started.
I felt a hot flash coming through my body and my heart started pounding in anticipation of her news.
“Sometime after you were admitted today, Alpha Benjamin captured the rogue that he’s been after. He has him chained up in his cellar and it’s being said that he’s going to kill him before dawn. That’s why he’s not here. He’s going to kill the rogue Alpha. ”
My head started spinning and my body sank into the mattress. Benjamin caught Micheal and he was going to kill him. My tormentor was going to die in a few hours. I should’ve been happy about that but on the contrary, it made me sick. I didn’t want Micheal to leave this earth before I had the chance to see him. If he did, I knew that I would forever remain trapped in my past. I sprung from the bed suddenly and landed on my feet in front of my clothes. The nurse got up and went around the bed to meet me.
“What are you doing?” She asked in a high-pitched voice.
I didn’t answer and focused instead on getting dressed. I put on my dark jeans and when I reached for my shirt, I realized that I needed to take out the IV sticking out of me.
“Could you help me with this?” I asked the woman besides me. “If you don’t, I will find a way to take it off myself.”
I expected her to refuse even with the threat of self-harm as I would have with any of my patients but she simply grinned at me before removing my catheter and placing a plaster on the old site.
“I will take you to him.” She said in a much lower voice than before.
Benjamin’s POV
“You guys should go home. The doctor said that she’s going to be fine.” I tried to reassure my family. “I’ll tell her that you were here when she wakes up.”
My parents, Roxanne and Ryan had rushed to the hospital when I told them that Mina fainted. They haven’t left her side ever since, but as it neared one thirty in the morning, I could see that they were all physically drained. I was exhausted as well, but I couldn’t leave my mate alone in the hospital.
“Let us know how she is the moment that she wakes up, okay?”
“No problem, sis.”
I hugged her and Ryan as they stood up and congratulated them again for their baby before they left. I couldn’t believe that I was going to be an uncle and even less that my sister was going to be a mother. She spent most of her life saying that she never wanted kids so her pregnancy was absolutely mind-boggling.
“They seem really happy.” I said out loud as I watched the soon-to-be parents leave the hospital’s cafeteria.
“They are.” My father agreed. “What about you?”
There was no way that I could answer his question. I didn’t know where I stood with Mina and it was mostly due to the fact that I didn’t know if I still deserved her. Up until a few hours ago, I couldn’t understand why she felt the need to hide anything from me and I was so angry for all of the lies and the secrets that I almost rejected our bond. Now, I couldn’t even dare to look at her, let alone ask for her love.
While she was in surgery, Roxanne revealed the entire truth about Micheal Miller. The four of us listened in as she recalled everything, from the day Mina met him to the very last night that they both saw him. He had planned on killing my sister all those years ago but was thwarted when his desire for Mina grew. As Roxanne described in great detail the horrors that my mate had suffered, I felt disgusted by my own actions. Arrogantly using the mate bond, I had demanded that she blindly gave herself to me and I belittled her when she wouldn't.
“You know…”
My mother’s soft voice pulled me back in.
“After the day that your uncle tried to hurt me, it took a long time for me to come back to normal.” She said wrapping her arm around mine. “For months, I couldn’t even stand to look at your father. You just have to give her time to heal, honey.”
‘*Samuel and Micheal Miller.*’ I scoffed their names in my head. The two really made a good pair for they both had betrayed the trust of the women who loved them.
“I just don’t think that I’m what’s best for her.” I said devastaded when I realized that through all of my broken promises, I was no better than them.
“Of course you are what's best for her, son. You're her mate. I know that it’s difficult right now, but you both have to work and grow from here.” My father tried to remind me but I didn’t want to hear it.
I didn’t want to hear about the mate bond anymore. It was my egotistical way of relying on that damned thing that brought us here in the first place.
“You guys should go too. It’s getting very late. Thanks for the coffee.” I said cutting the conversation short.
“What about you? You haven’t slept properly in days.” My mother asked me concerned while I insisted that they left.
“I’ll sleep in Mina’s room, Mom. Don’t worry.”
Amina’s POV
The nurse stood guard by the door as I finished getting dressed. I used my black sweater as a make-shift splint and tied it around my right forearm with my teeth and left hand. Having only my non-dominant arm useable, it took quite a bit of time and a lot of strenuous movements to finish getting dressed. Out of breath and in pain, I joined the nurse and we darted out of the hospital. Normally, I should’ve signed some discharge papers and a medical waiver as it was required by the law, but I didn’t care. I needed to get to Benjamin fast.
The nurse didn’t seem to care either. She unlocked the doors to her car and drove off with me in the dark of the night. I wondered why she’d risk her job to help me, but I was glad that she was. I started to think about what I would say to Benjamin once we’d arrive and how I would react upon seeing Micheal again. One had tainted my past while the other held my future in his hands.
Benjamin’s POV
I accompanied my parents all the way to the main lobby of the hospital and watched them leave, hand in hand. They were still very much in love after twenty-nine years and some very trying times. It gave me hope that, after all, things could get better between Mina and me. I took the elevator until I reached the third floor and from across the elevator’s very short passageway, I could see Mina’s room. To my surprise, the door was wide open.
I knew that I had closed it earlier before going down to the cafeteria. ‘*The doctor must be with her.*’ I thought to myself when I remembered his earlier visit. Not wanting to miss him, I picked up my speed. My eyes were glued to her room and I failed to see the man that was coming out of the bathroom door. We bumped into each other and I recognized Mina’s doctor.
“Doctor Ramsay?” Seeing him out here left me confused.
“Ah, Mr. Miller. Good news, Miss Langley is awake and she’s doing great. We’ll keep her here tonight, but if she remains stable, she could go home tomorrow.”
I quickly thanked him and ran to Mina's room with a bad feeling in my heart. Her bed was empty and her clothes had disappeared. I looked for her in the bathroom, but she was gone. My wolf and I both became restless. He was pacing back and forth in my head and my own thoughts were racing. I was about to seek help when a sudden sharp pain tugged at my heart and sent me to the ground. My wolf let out a long howl as he felt the agonizing pain too. This had happened once before and I knew what it meant. Mina was leaving town.
Amina’s POV
It took me quite some time to get out of my own head, but when I did, I noticed that the nurse had passed the streets that could lead to Benjamin’s house. Confused, I turned to her just as she made a turn that would take us out of town.
“What are you doing? I thought that you were taking me to him?” I asked as panic began to set in.
“I am.” She replied with a smirk.
I yelled for her to stop the car and as I grabbed on to her arm, a heavy hand came out of nowhere and landed right on top of my forehead. The hand shot my head back against the car’s window and smashed it with the back of my skull. An excruciating pain was the last thing I felt before everything went black, again.