Leo
After spending the entire night at my desk and on my laptop, trying to find anyone who will retrieve Willow’s videos, my morning alarm rings.
I take a shower, then I make eggs benedict with smoked salmon for Jessica, and as promised, I take her breakfast to ‘her bedroom’.
She smiles when she sees her breakfast and tells me how much she loves me. I roll my eyes in response, and I tell her about my plan to go to Professor Malino for help regarding Willow’s videos.
“That’s a great idea. Professor Malino always knows what to do.” Her mouth is filled with food. I raise my eyebrows, and she smiles sheepishly.
“Don’t look at me like that, you haven’t made me breakfast in a long time.” She says after swallowing. “Send her my regards and tell her I will meet her later before going back to Carkeek Park.”
I nod in response, and I leave. I go to the flower shop to buy a bouquet of various flowers for Professor Malino, to bribe her to get the lab's CCTV footages for Willow, and to show her our appreciation as a mother figure to Jessica and I.
I write her house number and ask for them to be delivered later, and I decide to go to the hospital where Professor Malino is helping out.
I find her in a children’s ward, and I smile immediately when I see her. “Professor mother,” I say in a cheerful voice.
Startled, she jumps and drops the needle she was about to inject her toddler patient with.
“Don’t pick...” She says when she sees me rushing to pick it up, but when she utters the words, I already have the needle in my hand.
I look up at her, and then at the needle, then back at her, with my mouth wide open, and my head spinning.
“Professor! What the hell are you doing?” I ask in a low voice.
“I’m giving these nice kids their medication. What’s wrong, Professor Brown?” For the first time, I notice how her fake smile looks like.
A shiver runs down my spine, and I struggle to control the shaking of the hand that is holding the needle.
“I’m your mother, I will never hurt you. I’m disappointed that you look so afraid of me. You never looked at me like that before.”
“They haven’t even tested this medication yet, and you’re conducting self-trials on these children?”
She raises her eyebrows, and I know she wants to remind me of my limbicus creation. “I’m doing this because I need to speed up the process. There are always people who might get hurt during experiments. You know that better than anyone.”
“Have you thought about the side effects? What about the dosages?”
“Kids obviously get half a dosage.”
I give her the needle. “How many people have you tested this on?”
“What do you think?”
I wince in realization.
“As many as possible, you are a scientist, you know these things.” She shrugs and puts the needle in a plastic bag.
“What happened to you? My Professor Mother is supposed to be caring and following protcol. ” I swallow to get rid of the lump in my throat.
"Your Professor Mother has bern through so much pain!"
"But..."
“Please leave. You are distracting me, we’ll talk about this later.”
I glare at her before stomping out, and she continues to speak to her patient with a smile plastered on her face.
I walk out feeling disappointed, scared, and confused. I have read every article about Professor Malino’s ways of conducting experiments, but dismissed them as rumors. People who wrote about her were always exposed as frauds.
I sit in my car for a minute, but I decide to stop moping and to go to the police for progress on Willow’s laptop. I keep checking my phone for Mike’s threats, but I don’t find any.
“How is the case going?” I say when I walk in the campus police station.
“What case?” An officer asks, without looking up at me.
“Willow Gordon, the student who had a break in.”
“Oh! The wolf girl. There are so many people going in and out of buildings. We wouldn’t know who did it, and what if it was someone who stayed in the same building? There are no cameras near the doors.” He continues with his paperwork.
“So, you are lazy to do your jobs?” My jaw clenches.
“Not lazy, we don’t have enough evidence. There are no fingerprints either, and it didn’t look like a break in. Maybe it’s someone she crossed while parading with her wolf.”
“Freaking rude!” I growl. “Where is the laptop, then? Can your IT department retrieve the information or not?”
“We really have much better cases to deal with. Who are you anyway?” He smirks, and I fight the urge to slap that smirk off his face.
“I’m Professor Brown, and Willow is my student. We need those videos the presentation.”
“Sorry Professor, I didn’t mean this.” His eyes shift.
“Find someone to retrieve those videos, or I will make a call and get you fired!”
I walk out, leaving him mumbling apologies, and I drive to the last place I ever wanted to go to.
“I’m doing this for Willow.” I mumble to myself, but I feel a part of myself excited to see Chloe, and I wince in realization.
‘Please behave yourself. Don’t act all excited around Chloe.’ I say to my wolf.
‘She is our mate, but I’ll behave myself.’
I knock once and the door flings open. Chloe stands at the doorway and smiles mischievously, with a towel wrapped around her body and her hair wet, clinging to her neck and shoulders.
“You back? I knew you would change your mind about me. I just didn’t expect you to miss me so soon.” She grins.
“I will be your whatever you want me to be. Now give me the memory sticks.” I sigh.
“We are supposed to be on a honeymoon phase. Why are you so cold, my love?” She pouts.
“Seriously?” I glare at her.
‘The scent of our mate! The lips, can’t you imagine kissing her?’ My wolf growls. I ignore him because I know he is doing this to get to me.
“I’m the one who is in control. So, you do as I say.” Her face changes from a playful smile to business-like seriousness. “So, here’s a deal, my lawyer will draft a relationship contract, and your lawyer can have a look at it, then after signing, I will give you what you want.”
“She only has a few days before the presentation, how long is that going to take?”
“Oh! Poor Willow. It’s best then, for you to sign as soon as possible. The contact will be ready by tomorrow.”
“You came all the way here to torture Willow?”
“I’m not that petty, I came for a job, and I remembered all about her presentation. Then guess what, you came and made things more interesting for me.” She chuckles.
I glower at her before walking out of the room and slamming the door. I brace myself for a conversation with Professor Malino to ask for her help, and I tell myself that if it doesn’t work out, I would have no choice but to sign the damn contract.
‘Our mate smells so good!’
‘You mean our psycho mate? I don’t understand why she wants to hurt Willow so much, but this is for the best, Willow is going to hate me when she finds out about me and her sister, and then Mike will see that we not close anymore.’