“You owe her big time and probably a good ass chewing.”
Elias glares at Anders. “She’s not one of your guards you can push!” Anders doesn’t answer him; he knows he took it too far.
Jessica pushes away and turns to Elias. “Are you okay?” She hugs him before he can answer.
“I’m fine, little one. I just had my ass plastered to a wall for a bit.”
“I’m sorry.”
He pats her shoulder. “That was devastating news. You have every right to be upset. It’s how you got to this point is what upsets me.” Elias levels Anders with a scathing look.
“She needed it, Elias. She’s been holding back her anger for a long time,” Anders claims.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Elias replies, turning back to Jessica. “I’ll make sure Emily finds you later.”
She nods. “Thank you.”
She won’t even look at me. Please, look at me, Princess. I need her to know that we’re okay. This doesn’t change anything for me.
Chapter 30
So Much for Happy Endings
JESSICA
Seven Years Ago
Embarrassment sweeps over me at the way I handled my interview, how I reacted to Anders. And I did it all in front of Shadow. I can’t even look at him. I feel the heavy weight of his stare on my skin. It burns so deep; it hurts my heart. For three days, he built my confidence back up, helped me to see past all the guilt, the self-wallowing. Then, some bad news spurned all of his efforts away.
I’m disappointed in myself, my body. I’m angry at the turn of events when everything was just starting to look so clear. I press my fingertips to my forehead.
Dr. York frantically shuffles through my medical file and then turns back to a laptop resting on the conference room table. My parents, Anders, and Shadow practically glare at him, waiting for answers. He joined us at the mansion. Poor guy didn’t have much of a choice. Anders nearly bit his head off, demanding he come with us right this minute, like he had nothing else to do.
Chris and Elias stayed behind to clean up the mess I made. I hadn’t spoken one word to Anders or Shadow as we made our way home. Why is Shadow still here? He should have left after the shitshow I created.
This changes everything between us. I already know what he’ll say, but one day, he might change his mind. I’m not too naive to realize that. We’ve only been dating for a couple of weeks. I don’t think I could handle it, if he changed his mind weeks, months, or even years from now.
Anders slams his palm down on the table. “Dr. York! Explain to me how this happened. At her last checkup, you told me everything looked good.”
Dr. York flinches at Anders’s demand. He clears his throat.
I drop my hands from my face and gently place them on the conference room table. I stare at the wood grain, too afraid to look up at him, too afraid to witness the concern etched on his face.
I swallow the salty tears in the back of my throat. I want him to tell me that this is a mistake, some lab error.
“She was under your care! How does something like this happen?” Anders roars, slamming his hand down on the table again. I jump at his reaction.
“You checked her progress quarterly. How does this just happen without warning?” my father asks.
Dr. York clears his throat. “I’m equally shocked to see the drastic change in her lab results. Looking back at her notes, when she was first discharged from the clinic, her labs looked really good, almost normal even. Even the specialist on board didn’t feel she needed any supplements or hormone injections moving forward because he was confident her body would start to produce hormones naturally on its own.”
“Dr. York, she was discharged with the supplements and hormone injections prescribed. They arrive in the mail everycouple of weeks, and Mimi brings them to us,” my mother interjects.
“Yes. I’m aware of that now.” He rifles through the file again, frowning down at his messy writing before turning back to the laptop. “I wrote it down that I discontinued the prescription for hormones and supplements, and the mail order for the prescription appears to be discontinued. I have to check with Mimi on why it’s still coming in.” He closes the laptop and file. “I checked her blood levels once more after her discharge. When she returned to the clinic after she went missing for five days, with the sudden change in her appearance, growth, and maturity, I ordered her another set of labs, just out of mere curiosity. Her hormone levels were finally at an optimum level, a normal level for a shifter either just before or during the transitionary period. I wrote down in my notes that I would check again at her next follow-up. That was this past week.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” my mother says, leaning toward Dr. York to gain his full attention. “I’m not a medical expert, Dr. York, but how could her levels now be so low? Shouldn’t they be higher? In fact, should they be too high, if they were normal without the injections?”
Dr. York leans back and runs a hand over his sweaty face. “I don’t understand it myself. But if we don’t figure out what is causing the decrease in hormone production…” He trails off.
