Page 76 of Chased By My Grumpy Alpha
But I’m not in that room anymore. I’m lying on soft grass beneath towering trees, wearing clothes that feel like silk against my skin. The fabric is expensive—softer than anything I’ve ever owned. Above me, filtered sunlight dances through green leaves, and somewhere nearby, I can smell meat cooking over a fire.
I stare blankly at the sky, feeling absolutely nothing. Empty. Hollow. Like someone reached inside my chest and scooped outeverything that used to be me, leaving behind just this breathing shell.
Where my heart used to be, there’s only a vast, echoing void. I should feel relief at being alive. Gratitude for being rescued. Something. But there’s...nothing.
I hear footsteps approaching through the underbrush, and when I turn my head, Lucian emerges from the trees. For one wild, desperate moment, I wonder if it was all just a nightmare. If Andrew’s betrayal, Luna’s death, the men with their shackles and collars—if all of it was just some fever dream.
But the hollow ache in my chest tells me otherwise.
“How are you feeling?” Lucian asks, sitting down beside me. His voice is careful, gentle in a way I’ve never heard from him before.
The question almost makes me laugh, but the sound that comes out is more like a broken wheeze. “Why did you save me?”
He doesn’t answer my question. Instead, he reaches for a waterskin and offers it to me. “You need to drink.”
I look at the container but don’t take it. I can’t summon the energy to care about being thirsty. I can’t summon the energy to care about anything. “I asked you a question.”
“You need to eat and drink to survive,” he says, still holding out the water.
“I don’t want to survive.” The words slip out before I can stop them, flat and unemotional. I mean them completely. What’s the point? Love is a lie. Kindness is a weapon. I’m better off dead.
Lucian ignores my statement entirely, pressing the waterskin into my hands. “Drink.”
I let it fall to the grass beside me.
He stares at me for a moment, then stands and walks over to the fire. I watch him tend to the meat, turning the pieces and checking them with his knife. The blade catches the firelight as he carves off a small piece to taste it.
We don’t speak. The only sounds are the crackling of flames and the soft sizzle of meat cooking. I turn my head to look around the camp and notice some things that seem odd. A neat pile of supplies stacked against a tree. A carefully arranged circle of stones around the fire. Multiple sets of cooking implements laid out like someone has been here for more than just a night.
“How long was I out?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Four days.”
Four days. I’ve been unconscious for four days while he...what? Stayed here? Watched over me? The thought makes my chest feel even more hollow, if that’s possible.
Exhaustion weighs down on me suddenly, so heavy I can barely keep my eyes open. Everything feels like too much—the sunlight, the sounds of the forest, even breathing. I want to sink back into unconsciousness where I don’t have to think or feel or remember.
Lucian returns with a piece of cooked meat on a flat stone. He sets it down beside me. The smell should make me hungry, but I feel nothing. No appetite, no interest, no desire for anything.
“Why are you here?” The question comes out level and weary.
“Because you’re hurt.”
“I can move.” I flex my fingers experimentally. Yesterday—or however long it’s been…Last I remember, I could barely breathe without pain shooting through my ribs. Now, my body feels functional, albeit strange. “How is this possible?”
“I forced a healer to fix you.”
The nonchalant way he says it makes me turn my head to look at him. There’s something dark in his expression, something that suggests “forced” might be putting it mildly.
“You shouldn’t have gone that far for me.” My voice sounds foreign to my own ears, dull and lifeless. “You should have left me there to die.”
“No.”
“Just leave me here, then.” I stare back up at the sky. “I don’t want your help anymore. I don’t want anyone’s help.”
“What will you do if I leave?”
I don’t answer because we both know what I’ll do. I’ll lie here until the forest takes me. Until this emptiness in my chest spreads to everywhere else and I finally stop feeling anything at all.
