I folded my arms in front of me.
“Lemme tell you a little secret. No one wants a human mating with the Alpha. The council won’t allow it, and I won’t stand for it.”
I smiled. “Well that’s just fine by me. I won’t remain a human for long.”
She scoffed. “Not everyone survives the transition. There are ways to swing the odds either way.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Why? Are you scared?” She sashayed toward me. Her smug expression sent my blood boiling.
I gritted my teeth to stop myself from saying anything else. I knew what she was doing—trying to get me to snap—and she was dangerously close. I was no match for her yet, so I couldn’t challenge her to a fight; but once I transitioned, she would slowly and painfully eat every last word.
“I’m going to tell you one last time.” Her voice went deadly quiet. “Leave Aiden and this pack … for your own safety.”
I couldn’t help the shiver of fear that threatened to reveal itself. I turned away, hoping to keep it hidden and give off the vibe that she was not worth my attention. “Get it through your head. Aiden and I are already mates,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster.
“You’ll never be his true mate.”
Something slammed hard into the back of my head. Before I could register the pain, the world went dark and I felt myself freefalling into nothingness.
Chapter 4
No hangover in the world could compare to the throbbing pain that I felt when I awoke. Aiden’s voice called out to me. I’m not sure how I managed to hear it over the fire alarm ringing in my ears.
Groggy and very much disoriented, I cracked open my eyes and tried to focus. A thick screen of haze clouded my vision. Hanging over me was a tanned blob punctuated by two piercing black dots. I knew it was Aiden, though, and seeing him, even a blurry version of him, gave me that warm fuzzy feeling deep down in my belly. Everything would be okay as long as he was taking care of me.
“Wake up, babe. C’mon. There you go. Open those eyes.” He sounded as if he were talking to me under water, but his voice worked magic, rousing me further. I blinked away some of the haze and focused on him.
“You took a nasty fall. Can you tell me your name?” he asked.
“Diana,” I moaned. It was the first name that popped into my head.
“No, babe.” He sounded really worried. “Diana’s the one who brought you here when you fell. Tell me your name.”
My brain hurt too much to think, and the details, like my vision, were a little fuzzy; I couldn’t make sense of them. “What happened?”
“Tell me your name.” Aiden’s frantic voice sharpened to a high pitch.
I reached back into the murky depths of my mind. “Fall … Fallon.” Yeah, that was right. I hoped. Thinking hurt. Everything hurt. I just wanted to fall back into the peaceful abyss of unconsciousness. There, pain did not exist.
I heard a woman’s voice in the background. “Is she going to be all right?” She must have been Diana. That name triggered instant feelings of anger. She sounded concerned, but that couldn’t be right. Diana was bad. But why, I couldn’t quite put my finger on yet. Again I reached as far as I could into the murky depths of memory for the answer.
Aiden turned away from me, and from what I could make out, the two blurry shapes appeared to be intertwined. Was he hugging her? “I’m so glad you were there to help her.”
“I know how much she means to you,” Diana sounded so innocent I almost believed her, but a nagging voice in my head sounded warning bells that overtook the ringing in my ears.
She hit me? Didn’t she?
The pain kept me from forming the words, but deep down I knew Diana was full of shit. She had to have hit me or pushed me—something. The last memory I had was of her scowling and threatening me. There was no way I fell. I didn’t remember standing up.
Aiden face returned to view. He was clearer now, and those gorgeous obsidian eyes, filled with concern, met mine. “Sorry, babe. Guess I gave you a little too much lovin’ earlier.” He placed something cold on my forehead. The icy chill helped to slow the throbbing. “You’re probably concussed. We’ll have to keep you up for a little while. Diana has offered to help keep an eye on you while I’m tending to pack business.”
“No,” I blurted out.
His head tilted sideways. “No, what?”
“Not Diana.” I felt like I was moving in slow motion while everything around me was on fast forward. I tried to push myself up but felt instantly dizzy and crashed back down.
“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” I heard Diana say. “Must have really hit her head hard.”
“Call Lyssa,” I moaned.
Aiden crinkled his forehead. “Babe … it’s still daytime. You know she can’t come out here.”
“Daytime?” Why was everything so dark? I wondered. “Shit. What day is it?”