Alpha Knight’s Cursed Mate

NIRVANA

I woke up to the beeping sound. I felt disoriented and so freaking exhausted, like I just climbed a mountain. Then I realized the room seemed familiar with a white ceiling, while the walls and scent alone were nauseating.

When I was in high school, I got food poisoning, and I ended up in the hospital for two days. It all felt the same over again. The only difference was that my tummy didn’t hurt, but my shoulder did. It is excruciatingly painful.

Then my gaze landed on the man I’d been longing to hug. He looked sad and exhausted, as did my best friend, hugging him behind his back.

“Why are you hugging him?”

Their reaction was comical. They froze, eyes wide as they stared at me with mouths hanging open.

“Sweetheart,” Knight said breathlessly as he let Kailin’s arms go, rose from the chair, and hugged me tightly. He showered my face with kisses. “You scared the fuck out of me.”

“Ouch, ouch.” I hissed in pain.

“What’s wrong?”

“My shoulder. It hurts.” I wanted to scream. I’d never felt this kind of pain before, like my skin was electrocuted, burned, and cut open.

“Shit.” When Knight said shit, I looked where the pain was worse. “It’s spreading.”

“What happened?” I saw my shoulder swelling and something like necrotic veins in my skin.

“You don’t remember?”

I stared at Kailin as my brain tried to process. “Oh, my God. That son of a bitch.”

“You know who did this?” Knight asked. His voice was filled with rage. His eyes just glowed, scaring the crap out of me.

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“I will kill him,” he said through gritted teeth, his jaw working.

“Not now, Knight.” I winced when I tried to look at the infected skin. “It hurts a lot. Like someone tried to pull my flesh out of my bones.” I fell back in bed.

“Relax. I will call the doctor,” Kailin volunteered.

“Go,” Knight told her. “The doctor will give you pain meds, but your grandpa is on the way here, and we’re getting you out. So, you may have to pretend you don’t feel any pain. This is more than just a scorpion sting. It may involve magic.”

“I know.” I tried to breathe deeply as I held my arm, but the pain was getting worse- it came and went, and then it attacked me like a wild dog, biting off my flesh, ripping it from my bones.

“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t unsee the pain in Knight’s eyes. He felt my suffering, which was the cons of being a mate. He felt what I felt even if we hadn’t completed the mating.

“For what?”

“I shouldn’t have let you go alone. I should have let you decide on your own. What I did was wrong. Forgive me.” He pressed his lips against my forehead, making me smile despite the unbearable pain I felt.

“There’s nothing to forgive. We’re mates. You have the right to give your opinion. I was just pissed at the whole virginity thing.” My cheeks might have just turned red. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. I’m glad you woke up because it was the worst hour of my life. It felt like living in a nightmare that had no escape.”

The door opened wide, and my grandpa was the first person I saw.

“Honey?” He rushed into the bed and hugged me tight.

I didn’t have good tolerance for pain, but the doctor was watching, so I had to suck it up for a while.

“I wanna get out of here.”

“We will do another test before you go.”

“No. I can’t wait. I hate hospitals.” I did a little drama.

“Doc, she has bad memories about hospitals. Her parents died in a car accident when she was young. You have to understand her,” said Grandpa, supporting my theatrics.

“I do, but-”

“I will sign any documents. Just let me go home. Maybe you can give me a pain reliever because the bite still hurts a little bit.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” You couldn’t just lie to a doctor. They would know, but what choice did I have?

“Yes. A hospital room is a little bit causing me claustrophobic.”

“Very well. I will arrange your discharge paper.”

“Thank you.”

When the doctor left, I screamed in silence.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

“My arm is getting numb, but the site hurts a lot.”

Grandpa checked my shoulder, and I saw his reaction that it wasn’t looking good. “Does it always look like this?”

“It’s spreading fast,” Knight confirmed it. “Zarah and Shadow will heal you, sweetheart. We just need to get out of here. Fast.”

I nodded. “I need to change to something.”

“I brought you some clothes.” Kailin went to take the bag. “Help her get up, Knight.”

“Okay. Take it easy.” Knight took off the probes attached to me.

“I’ll wait outside,” Grandpa said.

I took off the gown with Kailin holding me steady. “I can’t almost feel my arm.”

“What-” His eyes widened. “What the fuck?”

“What’s wrong, Knight?”

“This poison is spreading fast each second?”

“Yeah.” I nodded at Kailin as she helped me put a shirt over my head.

“How do you know, Nirvana?”

“I’ll tell you when we get home.”

The waiting for the papers to be done was excruciatingly painful, literally. I had to lean against Knight’s arm because I needed the energy and started feeling weak.

“The car is ready,” said Luka. “I brought a wheelchair.”

“Maybe we should go now, Knight.” I knew I got paler. I saw the fear in his eyes. “We have to go. Now.”

“Yes, sweetheart.” He stood up and carried me bridal style. I closed my eyes, and I felt he was running. “Hold on, Nirvana.”

I didn’t have much time. I must have slept longer. That asshole only gave me six hours to decide, and I was running out of time.

“Can you hear me?”

I licked my lips. “Yeah. Your heartbeat is fast.”

“Stay with me, sweetheart. Just hold on for a minute. Zarah and Shadow will heal you.” No. They couldn’t, but I couldn’t tell him right now. I couldn’t watch him in pain.

At least if I died today, I would be surrounded by the people I loved.

We must have arrived at the house. I heard whispers, smelled Knight’s cologne, and felt a soft pillow against my head.

“Nirvana, can you hear me?”

“Zarah?”

“Yes, honey. How are you feeling?”

“You know how I feel?” I couldn’t open my eyes anymore.

“I will help Zarah heal you,” Shadow gripped my hand.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, I’m here.” She did a little squeeze of my hand.

“We both know it won’t work.”

“What do you mean?” I felt the bed dip as Knight came close to me. He touched my hair, swiping it away from my face.

“You’ve seen what he’s done to me. There’s no cure, and I would never ever sacrifice any of you or put you in any harm’s way. Just tell my grandfather I love him so much. I wouldn’t have been so strong if not for him.”

“Nirvana, stop saying that. You tell him yourself.” Knight grunted. No matter how hard he tried to be strong, I could feel the fear and pain in his voice.

“Stop talking, Knight. Let us heal her. We don’t have much time.”

“There’s nothing you can do now, Zarah.”

I heard chanting. I felt a hand against my shoulder. It was getting warmer and warmer until it felt so cold I couldn’t take it, as if I was thrown away to the coldest part of the world that had me frozen in mere seconds. I shivered. My body shook pretty hard.

“Why is it not working?” It came from Shadow.

“I-I told you.” My chin trembled. “No one can help me.”

“You had an encounter with the warlock, hadn’t you?”