Chapter 226
Chapter 226
Sarah’s POV
I stumbled out of the hospital, my vision blurred with tears I refused to let fall.
+25 BONUS
Alexander’s words still echoed in my ears, each syllable dripping with disgust and disappointment. The memory of his face twisted in rage made my chest constrict painfully.
I’d never seen him look at me that way before–like I was something repulsive, something dangerous.
The Sarah sun beat down mercilessly overhead, its heat a stark contrast to the chill spreading through my veins.
Every step away from Thea’s hospital room felt like walking through quicksand.
My body was physically present on this sidewalk, but my mind remained trapped in that hallway, replaying Alexander’s look of pure disgust over and over again.
“Taxi!” I called weakly, raising my arm to flag down a passing cab. My voice sounded foreign to my own ears- fragile and distant. No car slowed. Perhaps they couldn’t even hear me.
I tried again, stepping closer to the curb, but the world around me swam in and out of focus. Despite the blistering heat, I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself.
–
“You’ve ruined everything again, Summer,” I whispered to myself, the guilt crushing me like a physical weight. “Why did you come back?”
Felix’s face flashed through my memory–my beautiful boy who I’d failed to protect. And now I’d nearly killed his cousin too.
Perhaps Alexander was right about me. Perhaps I truly was poison to everyone around me.
The bond between an Alpha and his pack members–especially the young ones–was sacred.
I’d interfered with that bond, allowed my own selfish desires for connection to cloud my judgment, and Thea had paid the price.
My thoughts spiraled darker as I stepped further into the street, barely registering the sound of tires screeching against asphalt.
A horn blared, the noise piercing through my mental fog too late.
I turned, time slowing to a crawl as headlights bore down on me. My muscles locked in primal fear–I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
In that frozen moment, my wolf’s absence felt more profound than ever. She would have reacted, would have saved us both. But I was alone in my human fragility.
Something solid slammed into me from the side–not the car, but a body. Strong arms wrapped around my waist, twisting to take the brunt of the impact as we fell.
I caught a glimpse of familiar eyes, burning with an emotion I couldn’t name, just before we hit the ground.
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Alexander.
Pain exploded through my shoulder as we rolled across the pavement, but I barely felt it.
All I could process was his scent surrounding me, his arms still locked protectively around my body even as the car clipped his leg.
We came to a stop several feet away, Alexander positioned above me, his breathing harsh against my neck.
For one breathless moment, our eyes met–his filled with something wild and primal that made my heart
stutter.
“Are you both okay?” A bystander rushed over, her face pinched with concern. “That was so close! Sir, your arm is bleeding!”
Alexander pulled away from me slowly, the intensity in his gaze shifting to something colder as he surveyed my form for injuries.
Blood seeped through tears in his expensive shirt where his skin had scraped against the pavement.
“You should go to the hospital,” another onlooker suggested, pointing at Alexander’s injuries. “That looks pretty bad.”
“It’s nothing,” Alexander replied curtly, standing and pulling me up with surprising gentleness despite his obvious anger.
His touch was careful yet commanding as he steered me away from the gathering crowd.
“What the hell were you doing?” he hissed once we were out of earshot. “Are you blind? Or just determined to get yourself killed?”
I flinched at his tone, unable to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, the words woefully inadequate. “I wasn’t thinking—”
“Clearly,” he cut me off, his voice like ice. “You never do. Walking into traffic without looking—what kind of responsible adult behaves this way?”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“You’re hurt,” I said softly, reaching tentatively toward the laceration on his forearm. “We should get you looked at-”
“Don’t.” Alexander caught my wrist, his grip firm but not painful. “I don’t need your concern, Sarah.”
The use of my name, rather than the dismissive “Miss Winters,” sent an unexpected tremor through me. In his voice, my name sounded like both a curse and a prayer.
“Let’s go,” he said, tugging me back toward the hospital entrance.
“Where-”
“Back inside,” he growled. “Where I can keep an eye on you since you clearly can’t be trusted alone for five
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minutes.”
As we walked, I couldn’t help noticing how he positioned himself between me and the street, his body a shield against any potential threat.
Despite his harsh words, his actions spoke of a protectiveness that confused me deeply.
“Your injuries need attention,” I tried again, genuinely worried about the blood now seeping through his shirt sleeve.
Alexander shot me a withering look. “I’m an Alpha. These are scratches. My body will heal itself before we even reach the hospital doors.”
I bit my lip, knowing better than to argue with him, but still concerned. “At least let me help clean the wounds-
“Sarah,” he said, my name a warning on his lips. “If you want to continue seeing Thea–if you want to remain in our lives at all–you will stop this self–destructive behavior immediately. Do you understand me?”
His words cut deeper than any physical pain could. The threat of being separated from him again made my heart clench painfully in my chest.
“I understand,” I whispered, lowering my eyes in submission—a gesture my absent wolf would have power. recognized as necessary before an Alpha of his
“Good.” Alexander’s voice softened almost imperceptibly. “Because Thea seems to think she needs you, and I won’t have her upset further.”
As we approached the hospital entrance, I risked a glance at his face.
The afternoon sun caught in his dark hair, highlighting the sharp angles of his jaw and the tension in his shoulders.
Even angry and injured, he moved with the fluid grace of a predator–a reminder of what I’d lost when my wolf had been torn from me.
What struck me most wasn’t his physical perfection, but the conflict I glimpsed in his eyes when he looked at me -as if I were a puzzle he couldn’t solve, a threat he couldn’t neutralize through normal means.
I didn’t understand what I’d done to earn such complexity of emotion from him.
But as we stepped back into the sterile brightness of the hospital, I realized with startling clarity that despite everything–despite his anger and my guilt–there was nowhere else I wanted to be than by his side and Thea’s.
Even if it destroyed me in the end.
