“None of your fucking business.”
He snorts. Sitting me up, he pulls a sweatshirt over my head that’s big enough for me to wear as a dress. I’m lifted and then tucked under a blanket. Then he starts pulling the pins from my hair. I’m relieved when it’s finally free. I hurt everywhere, but atleast my skin no longer itches from the lace and my head no longer aches from the torturous bun.
“Sleep, Fiona. I’ll watch over you.”
Watch over me. My kidnapper. I’d laugh if I thought it wouldn’t hurt. Instead, I close my eyes and pray for sleep.
Chapter Seven
CONNOR
Something’s wrong. Fiona’s sick. Really sick. I can sense her pain down the spiderweb of a connection the mating bond has woven between us. But it’s pain without a clear source. This isn’t emotional or psychological. She’s in physical pain.
I bring her something to drink and then leave her to rest when it appears she’s fallen into a deep sleep. Then I call Morwyn. The Virgo is the best doctor I know, dragon or human. I tell him it’s an emergency and insist he has to come himself. Taking him away from his clinic, demanding he come here, it doesn’t go over well, but I don’t care. I’m Aries. For the next month, I’m calling the shots.
And I can’t stand to see her like this.
The surge of my protective instincts has me running a hand down my face. Fiona is an unexpected complication.I went to France to confront Stefan, not to find a mate. Now that I’ve wrestled my dragon into submission, I realize the mess I’m in.
There’s absolutely no way I can mate the fiancée of the grandmaster’s son. Nonnegotiable.
If Roman takes Fiona’s abduction to the press, avoiding human detection is going to be a pain in the ass. Under the rare chance that the Order is not behind Lucy Vale’s murder, my actions today could be viewed as breaking the accord. I might have started a war instead of helping avoid one.
In sum, I’ve royally fucked up, all because I allowed my dragon and my dick to take control of my brain.
I pause my self-loathing when Morwyn arrives. After a quick explanation, I show him to her room. He agrees to assess her, but only if I wait in the hall. Patient privacy. I pace outside the door, trying not to think about him touching her. I hate the idea of Morwyn alone with her, of him looking at her skin, at her scar. I catch myself growling and make a beeline into the kitchen to distract myself, but I only end up pacing a different floor.
Way too much time passes before the door opens again. My dragon is on the verge of throwing a full-out hissy fit at the delay. Morwyn must notice, because he darts a cautious look in my direction, his black bag clutched in his hands between us as he meets me in the foyer.
“So? What’s wrong with her?” I grumble. Fucker better start talking.
He gestures for us to move to the table outside thekitchen. Good idea. Fiona needs her rest, and I’m liable to raise my voice.
“Explain again why Roman Cifarelli’s fiancée is in your hunting cabin?” he asks.
I blow a breath out my nose. “I’m holding her to force Stefan to meet with me about Lucy Vale’s murder.”
Morwyn’s eyes narrow. “Why didn’t you take Roman? Or better yet, corner Stefan?”
“Stefan wasn’t there.”
“Stefan didn’t attend his own son’s wedding?”
“He was conspicuously absent. Mark my words. Something weird is going on here. I took the girl because she was the easier target. I acted alone.”
He nods, his jaw tightening. “No shit you acted alone. You acted impulsively. Ellison tells me the four cleared you to read Stefan’s mind, not abduct his future daughter-in-law. So what happened, Connor?”
As a Virgo, Morwyn is a living lie detector. He knows I’ve handed him a partial truth, but I don’t have the patience for his games right now. “Never mind. What’s done is done. Tell me what’s wrong with her.”
“Have you ever heard of fibromyalgia?”
“Heard of it? Yeah, I guess. Why, does she have it?”
“Yeah. She’s had it for over a year now. She knows what to expect.”
“And what’s that?”
“Days, weeks, sometimes months of pain, weakness, and fatigue. She says her last one lasted a couple of weeks. She couldn’t get out of bed for days.”
