Chapter 44 — Can’t Catch A Break

“Don’t just stand there, silly. Come here,” I say as Dorian stands awkwardly at the door. He smiles at my teasing and comes to sit at the edge of my bed. Emily graciously leaves us alone.

I reach for his hand, squeezing it gently, and he looks like he can’t decide whether he wants to hug me or pull away. His restraint bothers me, and I take a deep breath.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” I say.

“What?” Dorian asks, perplexed.

“This whole self-loathing failure complex you’ve got going on. I want to move past it.”

“Valerie… It’s not a failure complex. Anthony got away, and I wasn’t able to protect you.”

“Anthony lost his title. I don’t care where he went as long as he’s not here anymore. The town knows what he did. He won’t show his face here ever again. He’s not a threat anymore.”

“But you could have been killed.”

“But I wasn’t. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I’m fine because, honestly, I’m sore, I’m dizzy, my mouth tastes like cotton, and my head is killing me. But that’s okay. I’m alive. I’ll recover. You didn’t fail to protect me. You can’t. Protecting me is not your job. It’s not your responsibility. It’s a choice. You and I, we chose to protect each other and to fight against Anthony, and we did. Sure, I got a little banged up along the way, but I’ll get better. It doesn’t matter that Anthony got away because as long as he’s gone, he won’t be able to hurt us ever again. We won,” I say, and I mean every word. Dorian still seems unconvinced, so I tug at his hand, urging him to meet my gaze.

“I want you to listen to me, Dorian. This is important. I don’t forgive you for what happened. I can’t. It wasn’t your fault, and you have nothing to apologize for. We both made difficult decisions, and we did the best we could. And you know what? It was enough. You’re wasting your guilt on something that we should be celebrating. Anthony is gone, and we’re both alive. The pack is safe. We got justice for Angelica and my father by revealing the truth. I wouldn’t take any of it back or change a single thing, so don’t you dare sit there full of regret. I won’t stand for it.”

Something brightens in his electric blue eyes, and I feel a weight lift off my shoulder as he gins at me.

“Fair enough. Although, I don’t think you can stand at all right now.”

I smack his arm playfully, laughing. It’s a relief to be lying here with him beside me, joking around. It feels like everything is as I should be.

“It’s good to have you back,” he says with a smile, and my heart flutters.

“Good, because I’m not going anywhere.”

“Oh, by the way,” he says, reaching into his pocket. “This fell off at the school.”

He hands me the moonstone necklace my father gave me. My hand instinctively goes to my chest as if subconsciously verifying that it’s really not hanging from my neck where it should be. As I take it from him and look at the necklace in my hands, the strangest thing happens. The iridescent stone seems to be glowing softly, emitting a soft and silvery light.

“What the—”

Before I can even comment on the glowing moonstone, the hospital door swings open, and Marcel storms in.

“Valerie, you’re awake! I came as soon as I heard,” he says, rushing to my side.

I shuffle around slightly, flinching from the discomfort as I try to make room for him to sit opposite Dorian on the other side of the bed. It’s best to worry about the moonstone later, so I shove it under the covers before they see it.

“Marcel… you’re here. I’m glad to see you’re okay,” I say with a sigh.

He may have betrayed me to his father when questioned, but he was in bad shape the last time I saw him. I’m glad to see the poison has completely worn off, and he seems fully recovered. Of course, it probably helps that his mother injected him with a much smaller dose of diluted Wolf’s Bane than the one his father used on me. But hey, it’s not a competition.

“It’s such a relief. Everyone has been so worried about you.”

“Um, that’s nice,” I reply, unsure of what else to say to that.

“No, it’s really not. Things have been a mess since my father fled town like a coward. My mother still needs to be dealt with, and the pack needs a new Alpha, but there’s been some debate.”

“That’s an understatement,” Dorian huffs. Marcel looks at him as though he was only now realizing that Dorian’s been sitting there the entire time.

“Thank you for looking after Valerie,” he says, and I’m somewhat offended by the implication of his words. Apparently, I’m not the only one.

“I didn’t do it for you,” Dorian snaps, and the two of them stare each other down.

“Okay,” I say quickly, rubbing my hands against my aching temples. I don’t have the energy for this much testosterone, and Marcel isn’t going to budge, so I look to Dorian pleadingly. “Would you mind stepping out for a moment?”

After a painfully long moment of intense glaring, Dorian reluctantly turns to me and nods. He seems miserable to leave my side, but he gets up and excuses himself to give Marcel and me some privacy.

“You’ve been out for three days, Valerie. We have so much to talk about.”

Yes, but do we have to? This isn’t going to help my migraine.

“I know. Can we just take it easy, though? I still don’t feel back to my old self.”

“Of course. I know. We don’t even have to talk about what happened if you don’t want to. I’m sure it must have been traumatic.”

He doesn’t want to talk about what happened? Is he trying to get out of discussing the fact that he sold me out?

“Okay, so what do you want to talk about?” I ask, arching a brow.

He takes my hand with uncharacteristic care. I can’t help but smile at his excitement. Despite our complicated history, Marcel is my friend, and it’s lovely to see him so happy. He’s been living in fear of his father for so long that it must be a relief to be out of his shadow. To an extent, I can understand why he told Anthony the truth. He really thought there was no other choice, and maybe for him, there wasn’t. He didn’t have the strength to stand against him. All his aggression and attitude came from a place of fear. It’s not in his nature to apologize, but I know in his own way he’s sorry, and, in my own way, I forgive him.

“The future.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“I want to talk about OUR future, Valerie. Now that my father is out of the equation, I don’t have to hold back anymore. I can finally tell you the truth. It’s the whole reason I agreed to help you, the reason I decided to turn against my family.”

“What are you talking about?”

He gets off the bed to kneel on the ground, bending one knee. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. This isn’t happening. I’m hallucinating, right? There must be something in the IV fluids they gave me, or maybe it’s a side effect of the poison. Perhaps I’m just misunderstanding the situation. I tell myself there’s no way in hell that Marcel Ernouf is about to propose to me, but then he speaks.

“Valerie Whren, will you marry me?”