The first thing Tahra saw the second she woke up was a white unfamiliar ceiling above her, one that was vastly different from the one in her tiny apartment.
She blinked twice more trying to recall how she got into the familiar bed, raising her upper body up to look around only to wince in bed, falling back into the bed the second she placed more weight on her right arm.
Recalling all the events that led to it seconds after which only made her gag in disgust placing her left hand over her mouth in a bid to stop whatever was in her stomach that threatened to come out.
"Your arm is fixed, but you still look sick!" A deep authoritative voice said from beside her, coming from someone she was yet to notice had been standing there.
Shocked to turn to see Arshe standing there, leaning against the wall of the small room they were in.
The very last person she expected otr wanted to see.
"You don't look happy to see me, considering how I saved you from your tormentors," He said and Tahra, unable to let go of her fear, instinctively lowered her head only to stubbornly raise it back up a second later, when the silence that filled the room became unbearable.
"He-he wasn't lying you know! You killed--"
"An innocent man? You seem to have forgotten what he intended to do before I came around. If not that I feared that you would have been too traumatized, I would have killed the other one just as fast!" Arshe continued to speak, pleased to see Tahra meet his gaze for the first time since they began talking.
'I need to show her that I care and I'm willing to protect her. Its the only way she'll trust me,' Arshe thought to himself as he slowly took a step closer, closing the distance between them.
"You're a part of my Pack now moreover you're my mate! I can't let anything happen to you!"
Tahra had been previously calm, waiting for Arshe to say whatever he wanted when she watched him move closer to her, but that was until he opened his mouth.
Spewing words she found absolutely too hard to swallow.
"I'm-I'm not your mate!" Tahra immediately spluttered, looking around to confirm that Marina was nowhere in sight, confident that the woman would indeed do as she said.
"But you are!" Arshe immediately whispered back in the most loving way he could. "I;ve never had a mate and unlike Zane I have no plans to throw it away!" He declared in such a firm voice that only served to confuse Tahra as she laid on the bed staring at him.
"Yo-you have a lover!" Tahra responded feeling the need to remind, just in case he had forgotten, wondering what sort of games the Alpha was playing.
"Yes, but I'm only with her because of how popular she is in the pack. I don't love her! You know what she's capable of, how can I love someone like that," Arshe said but even before he was done speaking, he could tell that Tahra didn't believe a word he said.
Which was why he felt the need to go a tad deeper, having investigated enough to know all the ways he could manipulate and make her dance to his tune.
Most of the things you've heard about me are nothing but rumors. If I hadn't pretended to dislike you when we first met, do you think you'll still be alive right now?"
"I can't watch you 24\7, everyday. For you, its safer for you to be at the border for a while, while the rumors about you and Zane die down,"
The more Tahra heard him speak, the more sense he seemed to make but at the same time, Tahra couldn't help the nagging feeling she had at the back of her mind as she stared right into his eyes.
"I-I don't want a mate!" Tahra said when she finally decided to speak, when Arshe' gaze on her became too much to bear.
'The last thing I want is to become the Luna of another pack!' Tahra realized that regardless of how handsome Arshe was, she was completely unwilling to deal with another Alpha.
"Okay! I have no intention of forcing you, but still I intend to protect you while you're under my care!" Arche told her, stretching out his hand to smoothen the blanket that had been placed over her before he turned around to leave.
Speaking one last time before he walked out and closed the door behind him.
"Come to my office tomorrow morning! It's important!" He informed her, speaking in a less aggressive tone, unlike the one he usually used.
'I guess this is going to take a while!' Arshe thought to himself, with a deep expression of annoyance flashing across his face as he walked away from the room, intent on leaving the hospital, whose putrid smell made him want to burn it down.
He enjoyed seeing blood but only if he happened to be the reason it was there.
***********
Back in the room, Tahra laid on the bed breathing a deep sigh of relief the second she was the only one left in the room.
"What a joke!" Tahra mumbled to herself wondering what the Alpha was up to and why he would even hint at the fact that he wanted her to be his mate.
'Even if the attraction he feels towards me is more than I feel towards him because of my bond with Zane, so what!' Tahra thought to herself recalling the ease at which he had taken off the head of John, one of the people Marina had ordered to torment her.
'Marina might be a force to be reckoned with but there's no way I'll believe that Arshe is being pressured by her' Tahra thought to herself clenching the edge of the blankets she had been covered with tightly in both her hands.
'I just need to avoid all of them! Every single one of them!' Tahra thought to herself, closing her eyes to take a nap when suddenly the thought of Zane popped into her head.
As much as she hated it, she couldn't help but wonder what he was up to and why he hadn't come to visit her. At that moment, she regretted ever raising her hands to hit him.