Wolf's Bliss (Paranormal BBW Erotic Romance, Alpha Wolf Mate) (2 page)

“You can’t just walk out like that. Put a gown on,”
I said, my eyes still turned away.

But before he put on a gown, I snuck another quick
peek.

When he was finally clothed, I led him outside of Room
340.

“Take my arm,” I said. “You need to look like a
patient, not a breakout artist.”

“Right,” he said, as he gently gripped the upper
part of my arm.

Once again I felt that charge of energy course
through my body. We walked along briskly as I led him down the hall toward the
back staircase. I bumped into another nurse on the way.

“He wanted to go for a short walk,” I said with a
warm smile.

She gave me a polite nod and walked on her way
without a word. When we got to the staircase, I told Caleb to wait as I walked
into the stairwell ahead of him to make sure the coast was clear. Once I was
sure no one was coming upstairs, I came back out and pulled him inside.

We went down a few flights to the ground floor then
through a dark backend hallway that led to a little-known exit at the back of
the building. As we stood beneath the red glow of the exit sign, Caleb pulled
me close to him.

“I need you to give me five minutes. Then go back
upstairs and do whatever you have to do, say I escaped or whatever, that I
threatened you. I’ll be long gone by then, so it won’t matter.”

He pushed a bit of hair out of my eyes, and held me
there for a second. I was enthralled by him, simultaneously wanting to run away,
repulsed, yet somehow craving his touch. He was devilishly handsome, but that
alone couldn’t explain how he made me bend to his every whim. It was something
deep and special in his nature, supernatural even. I looked into those blue
eyes and sighed. Then I pushed him away again.

“Wait a second. You can’t seriously mean to go
outside like that,” I said, pointing to his hospital gown. “You’ll look insane,
the police will pick you up in minutes.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said.

And before I knew it he’d pulled me in for an
unexpected kiss, my lips parted and I felt my wet tongue touching his.
Was
this crazy
? It felt a little crazy, but I didn’t want it to end.

Even as I had these thoughts, it was over. Caleb had
busted through the back door and I stood watching in the shadows as he ran
away. What happened next made me rethink everything that had just passed
between us. I watched in horror as his body convulsed midstride, his muscles
ripping as his entire frame grew in magnitude, shredding the thin hospital
gown.

Looking on, I saw the transformed shape more
distinctly in the form of a gigantic wolf. It paused briefly about fifty yards
away, turning to growl at me, its large blue eyes glowing in the dusk. I
screamed and ran back inside and up the stairs. What the hell had I just been a
part of?

***

As I ran up the stairwell and back down the hall, I
tried to get my story straight:
We’d gone on a walk, and he’d bolted. I
chased him down the stairs, but he ran out of the hospital. I yelled for help,
but because he ran out the back no one was around. I didn’t see which direction
he went, since he’d gone out of eyesight before making a decisive turn
.

It was simple enough, basically just tell the truth
and leave out the part where I’d helped him and where he’d turned into a
freaking
werewolf
. I was breathless when I got back to the nurse’s station, putting
on hysterics that were half real and half fake. I truly was freaking out right
now. I didn’t know why I’d helped him, but I also knew I couldn’t confess to it
without losing my job.

Out of breath, I told the two nurses I found in the
station that the patient in Room 340 had escaped from the hospital.

“What happened?” asked Ida, the older of the two.

She was the head RN tonight, the most tenured of all
of us. Basically, she ran things during the night shift.

“He asked if he could go for a walk. I tried to
persuade him not to, but when he wouldn’t budge, I told him I’d escort him,” I
said, still nearly breathless.

“What happened next?” asked Ida.

“He said it was fine, that he just wanted to go for
a quick walk to stretch. So, we went for a walk down the hall. When we got to
the stairwell, he broke free of my arm and ran down the stairs. I chased after
him, but he was too quick and before I knew it I was chasing after him outside.
Then he turned a corner and I lost him,” I said, hoping that my speech sounded
natural and not too rehearsed.

“Why didn’t you call for help?” asked Ida
skeptically.

“I did. No one was around. He left out the back
exit.”

“What was the patient’s name? We’re going to have to
call the police.”

“No one knows his name. He was the one with
amnesia,” I said, half-lying, not letting her onto the fact that he’d confessed
it to me earlier.

Besides, I only knew his first name anyway, that
wouldn’t help much.

“I’m still calling the police. With all the tests we
put him through and all the doctors who looked at him when he came in, that man
owes well over $10,000 in medical bills. That’s theft of services right there.
You’re going to need to give them a statement, I’m sure. But before I call, is
there anything else you need to tell me?” she asked as she stared me down.

She was definitely suspicious of my story but I did
my best not to let on that I knew.

“No, that’s it. He just started running out of
nowhere.”

“Alright then, wait right here.”

Ida went to make the call while Ellen, the other
nurse who’d stood silently listening to my story came over to comfort me.

“You want a coffee, honey? Let’s go make some
coffee,” she said, ignoring Ida’s orders as she took me gently by the hand and led
me into the break room. For the time being, I was in the clear. But who knows
what would happen once the police arrived.

***

Several minutes later, I was sitting across from
Ellen at a table in the break room, each of us sipping our respective cups of
coffee. Ellen looked up at me curiously. I knew she was dying to hear more
details of my story, but I was still trying to make sure I had everything
straight in my head. Now that I would be speaking to police within a few
minutes, I had to be sure I didn’t say anything contradictory.

“You know, I had a bad feeling about that man ever
since he came in,” said Ellen before taking a sip of coffee.

“How so?”

“I don’t know. Just this feeling that something was
wrong with him. Maybe it sounds weird, but there was something evil there. I
could feel it. And then when he regained consciousness earlier today, those
eyes…”

She shivered dramatically.

“Weird,” I said casually, absentmindedly even.

Ellen shivered again at the thought of his piercing
blue eyes. I tried to let on like I hadn’t felt the same nervousness around
him. But in reality the only difference between myself and Ellen was that for
some reason I’d been inexplicably attracted to him.

“And another thing. You remember how he had that
gash on his face when he came in? His face was all cut up the first time I saw
him. Next thing you know –
woosh,
perfectly healed
! How do you
explain
that
?” she asked pointedly, putting down her coffee and looking
directly into my eyes.

I didn’t say anything, not wanting to let on that I’d
noticed that as well, but I felt my heart beat start to rise, my face turning
red. Ellen was beginning to make me feel guilty, like I was an accomplice or
something. I guess I
was
an accomplice from a certain perspective.
But
what choice did I have
? Caleb would have done whatever he’d wanted; he had
that power. There was nothing I could do to stop him.

We finished our coffees and went out to the nursing
station and found that two police officers had just arrived, one an older man
and his partner a young kid who looked like he was straight out of the academy.

“Hello officers,” I said, trying to make my voice
sound confident to build credibility.

“Are you Ms. Page?” asked the older of the two men.

“Yes, Alison Page.”

“We just want to ask you some questions about the
incident that occurred here about thirty minutes ago.”

“Of course. Anything I can do to help.”

***

I was pleasantly surprised to find that their
questioning was much less extensive than I’d anticipated. Both the men were
exceedingly kind and polite. In all reality, I’d probably been asked harder
questions when I was initially confronted by Ida.

The men were primarily concerned with getting a
highly-detailed description of Caleb. I had to use all my willpower not to use
the words “handsome” or “sexy” in my description. But I’d told them that he’d
been wearing a hospital gown when he ran away, conveniently leaving out the
part where he’d transformed into a werewolf!

They were puzzled by this information, wondering why
they hadn’t heard anything come across their scanner. Surely, a man in a
hospital gown in such a crowded section of the city would have been reported by
now. The younger man wrote something down as we addressed this strange point.

After they finished their questioning, they got up
to leave, thanking me for my time. As they walked out the door I heard
something bizarre come across their scanner:

We’ve got reports of a
large, wild animal loose in your precinct. We’re gonna need you to check it out
pronto. The cross streets are…

The voice trailed off as the men exited this level
of the hospital and disappeared down the staircase. I gulped as a fear-induced
lump built up in my throat. Tonight had gone by so quickly that I hadn’t
properly stopped to examine things. I’d been concerned with saving my own skin
– avoiding blame so I wouldn’t lose my job or get in trouble with the police.
But the fact was my life might still be in danger.

I had no idea who Caleb was or how dangerous he
might be. Guilt washed over me. What had I let loose on these streets? What if
he killed somebody,
would I be responsible for that
? I shivered and
shook my head, trying to get these thoughts out of my mind. I set off to do
another round of checks on my patients. Hopefully that would help me to relax
and forget about all this mayhem, at least for a moment or two.

***

The rest of my shift went by relatively quickly. We
had a few new patients admitted, not to mention some complications with my
existing patients, so I was able to keep my mind off of events earlier in the
night. When I clocked out at 9:00 AM I was completely exhausted.

Fortunately, tomorrow was one of my days off. Once
I’d gotten back to my apartment, I collapsed immediately into my warm bed with
my scrubs still on. The next time I woke up it was seven o’clock at night.

One of the toughest things about working the third
shift is the sleep schedule. I slept during the days and worked through the
nights. This meant my sleeping patterns were almost directly opposed to
everyone else’s. I was usually waking up right when everyone else was sitting
down to dinner, and going to work when they were going to sleep. And vice
versa.

I’d gotten used to the pattern, but it was most
annoying on my days off. I’d be up and ready to do something fun right when
everyone else was getting ready for bed. This meant a lot of my time was spent
just watching bad reality television into the early hours of the morning, or
reading a book by myself as I enjoyed a glass of wine.

It wasn’t the worst schedule, but it did mean I got
pretty lonely sometimes. I saw my friends on somewhat rare occasion. And it
certainly wasn’t a fitting sleeping pattern for a boyfriend.

On this particular day, I was a bit weary. It was my
first night alone after the encounter with Caleb. I’d be up all night by
myself, with nothing to distract me but the television. I ordered dinner in and
went to the cute little wine shop around the street corner to pick myself up
something nice. I knew I would need more than a few drinks to maintain my calm
through the night.

As I walked back from the wine store, I kept having
this strange sense of anticipation, like something bad was going to happen. You
might think I’m crazy, but I expected to run into Caleb every time I turned a
corner. I knew it was unwarranted. In a big city like this, how could he find
me? But I felt nervous all the same.

When I got home, I opened the bottle of wine,
pouring myself a tall glass and taking a deep sip. That calmed the nerves a
little bit. I sat down on the couch in front of the television and flipped on
the TV.

On ESPN, the Knicks were playing the Heat. I watched
the game for a few minutes. There was something rhythmic about basketball that
captured my attention. I didn’t watch games often, but found that when I did, I
enjoyed them. My last boyfriend, Brad, had been a huge Knicks fan, so I’d
become pretty familiar with the roster over the time we’d dated.