In Reach?
Like a Sack of Potatoes

Mira’s POV

I just jumped into the shower when I got past Liam and locked myself in the bathroom. But halfway through I realize that I don’t have anything to change into. I’m in his bathroom, and I’m not wearing that bloody shirt again. There aren’t even any bathrobes here.

Uuuggghh!

I can’t believe I slept through the whole day. It’s already dark now, and I’m really hungry.

Now I have to risk going out into his room with just a towel. I still have the bandage on me. I tried not to get it wet, but I think I may need to change it. I’m too scared to take it off myself though.

I open the door to peek through the room. But he’s sitting on the couch staring at me. Was he waiting for me?

“I had some food sent up for you. You should eat.” He says as he’s taking a sip from is coffee.

“Uhm. I’ll just take it in my room.” I walk out in the towel and make my way to the door.

But he jumps up and blocks the door. He looks angry. “Where do you think you’re going like that?”

“Liam, my clothes are in my room.” I look at him annoyed.

“I’ll have something brought up too. I’m not letting you walk out of here like that.”

“Really? My room is literally just a couple of doors down. And what’s with the overprotective attitude?”

He walks closer to me smiling slightly. “Oh Mira. You have no idea, do you?”

I walk backwards trying to avoid what ever mischievous ideas he has right now. “About what?”

“The moment I marked you, my wolf decided that it is our right to look after you. So I have every right to keep others’ eyes off of you. You are mine. You should feel it too. I know somewhere your wolf will feel the same about me.”

I can see him looking me up and down now, I can’t help but try to cover myself more with my hands. I don’t know what’s happening. His gaze is sending warmth through every inch of my body he’s looking at. And he’s right, something in me does feel a ‘pull’ towards him.

“That sounds more like obsession.”

He’s reaching out to touch my hair. “Call it what you want. You’re not getting out of it.” He smiles. “Now I suggest you start eating your dinner, before I feed it to you.”

What is going on? Clearly this man is crazy. This all just sounds like obsession to me. Yet I feel tingly at his attention. This is going to be toxic isn’t it? I ask that voice of mine who seems to be moaning in the back of my head.

I don’t move as I’m thinking about this, but he suddenly picks me up into his arms and walks to the couch. I thought he would just put me down onto the couch, but instead he sits with me in his lap.

I try to get up from his lap. “Liam, what are y-“

“Eat.” He takes a plate from the table in front of him and holds it to my mouth.

What am I, a child?

I can hear him snicker. “Take it and eat.” He looks at me intently. “It will calm my wolf and you need your strength.”

But I can’t deny it. I am very hungry, and I do kind of like the position we’re in. So I take the plate from him and take a spoon full. But he just smilingly looks at me.

“What?” I say still chewing.

“I think I’m going to like taking care of you.”

That’s when I hear a knock on the door, and Meg walks in with clothes in her hands. He must have already mind-linked her to get me clothes. She looks so focused on her task, laying the clothes down on the bed, she’s not even looking at Liam and me, or the position we’re in.

When I look back down at Liam as Meg leaves, I notice he’s still looking at me. But he just gestures for me to eat some more. So I do.

After our silent session of me eating on his lap and him going through a few things on his phone, and occasionally staring at me, he picks me up and sits me down on the edge of the bed. He tells me to get dressed because we have to go.

“Go where?”

“To the office. I still have a few things to sort out.”

“Really? I’m sure you don’t need me to go with you to the office. I can keep myself busy.”

But now he looks annoyed again. “I’m not letting you wander off alone. You’re still weak. I need to keep an eye on you.”

Oh this man can make my blood boil. I don’t know what it is, but something in me is getting me so agitated and when I’m with him, it’s making me angry, angry at him. And the worst thing is, I think these hot flashes are coming back, and hotter than ever.

“You don’t need to babysit me. I can take care of myself. And have you forgotten whose fault it is that I’m in this state in the first place.”

Gggrh!”Mira, don’t start with me now. You’re coming with me.”

“No. I’m going to Charlotte. I need to get this bandage changed.”

He looks understanding now. “Okay.” He tries to pull me by the hand.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you to Char.”

I pull away. “No. I’m going to Char. You’re going to the office.” I try to walk past him, but he pulls me back again.

“No. I said I’m taking you.” I’m getting angrier by the second, I don’t like him telling me to do things his way.

“No.” I challenge him back. But I just hear a deep growl before I’m being thrown over his shoulder as he walks out with me.

“Liam! What are you doing? Put me own now.”

But he’s not even listening to me as he makes his way to the stairs. I try hitting him on the back, but with his muscles, I know he doesn’t feel much.

“Liam!”

Smack! That’s when I hear, and feel him slap my ass. I gasp at the shock of feeling it.

“Calm down, or you’ll fall off.”

The nerve of this man. He thinks he can control me, just because I’m smaller than him. Oh, I’ll show him. I’ll show him when the time is right. Now, I’m just dangling over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I huff out annoyed.

It didn’t take long for us to reach Charlotte in the infirmary. I’m not even surprised by the smiling look on her face as Liam walks in with me over his shoulder and putting me down on the clinic bed in the room. I just stare daggers at Liam, hoping he feels the anger boiling in me.

“Mira, I’m glad your up. How are you feeling.”

“Annoyed.” I say straight forward still glaring at him. But it’s not even phasing him.

“Okay? Let me have a look at that bandage then.” She comes forward with some cotton and extra bandages.

She starts pulling off the bandage and it doesn’t actually feel bad, but it’s still warm, like its tender. I wonder what it looks like. But the hurt look on Liam’s face makes me think it’s worse than it feels. The moment she dabs the cotton on it to clean the wound, I instantly pull back as a reflex of the jolt it sends through my body. It’s not painful, but quite a shock to my body. But Liam looks like he has a heartbroken look on his face.

“Does it still hurt?” Even Charlotte looks worried for my sudden reaction.

“No. Sorry. It’s fine. You can carry on.” I say with my neck still stretched out.

It’s not long before she puts another plaster on, and this one looks way smaller. “Well your healing pretty well. Way faster than I thought it would. But you’ll probably be able to take it off tomorrow.” She somewhat smiles as she talks to me.

“Will there be a scar?” I have to ask, especially with the look Liam gave.

“Well. There shouldn’t really be one, once the mark sets in. Once that happens, it will turn into it’s own unique design to represent the imprint of your mate bond with Liam. It will look like a tattoo.”

“Oh.” I don’t know what else to say. It’s not like I have a say in the matter. He did force this on me.

I hear him groan. Before I can even say anything else to Charlotte, he throws me over his shoulder again, and walks out with me. Like what the hell!

“I can walk you know.” But he just ignores me.

We’re barely out when I hear Charlotte giggle our way. She must find this very funny. He walks back up to his office and only puts me down, once we’re inside.

“So what now? I’m just supposed to sit here and watch you work?”

He gives me an annoyed look though. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Pfh!

He’s sitting behind his desk going through stuff on his computer. And I’m too bored to just be sitting on the couch and zoning out. So I start walking around, and reading the titles of the books he has in his own little wall of bookshelves. These are the boring kinds of books, - all about business and politics.

As much as I know I like the idea of being his mate now, I’m still bothered by it. For one, there is this anger building in me from the thought of it, it makes me want to just hit him. Then there is the whole thing with Ashton, and how he and I need to settle things peacefully now. But then there is also another concern slowly growing in the back of my mind, ever since this morning. What happens when his mate comes? Mikail said that one cannot have more than one mate. So does that mean one of us will have to go? Which will most likely be me. I’m not his true mate, nor am I someone these people would want as their Luna. I’m still just a suspicion to them.

“Liam?” I say softly.

“Mmh?” He looks up at me.

“What happens when your mate comes?”

He looks confused at my question. Do I really need to elaborate?

I sigh. “What happens to me when she comes? Will I have to leave?” I’m annoyed with how vulnerable this is making me feel and sound.

He stands up from his desk, and walks over to me. He stands in front of me and pulls me closer to him. “You’re my mate.”

I look up at him. “I mean your true mate.”

He looks a bit taken back, but he sighs back. “She,……..she’s not coming back.”

My breath hitches. Back? As in she was already here?

“Back?” I sound sad now.

He’s hesitating to speak. “She,………she is dead. She died, a long time ago.”

“What?” He already found his mate. But she died.

“Dahlia killed her.”

Dahlia. That ‘witch’ that everybody keeps talking about, that people think I ‘work’ for. What the hell.

“Liam, what is going on here? You tell me you’ve already found your mate, but that Dahlia killed her. The very woman you accused me of being a spy for, the reason you tried to ‘kill’ me before. And now you mark me as your mate. What is this?” I’m stepping back from him now. “Is this some sort of game to you?”

“What?”

He’s not risking anything with this. He already lost his mate, yet he takes me from mine and says he’ll handle it like it’s nothing.

“You don’t lose anything out of this.” I point between us. “So what is this? You just take what you want because you can. Or are you just trying to use me because you think it will lead you to whoever this Dahlia is?”

“What?” He walks closer to me. “Mira, no. It’s not like that at all.” He looks confused, but I shouldn’t let that fool me.

I’m just getting angrier, I can feel my body heating up, my breathing is picking up and my palms are sweating now. He’s using me. He never had a reason to want me in the first place.

“Stay away from me.” I’m backing towards the door.

“Mira, no.” I can see him trying to stop me from moving away from him. But it’s too late.

I’m already out the door in a fast pace. I can hear him following me. He grips my arm just as I’m walking down the stairs.

“Mira stop.”

But I just pull away. Those tingles he used to make me feel when he touched me, is scorching my skin now. “Don’t touch me.” I need to get away from him. He’s doing this to me. It’s him.

I get down stairs, but I don’t even know where I’m going. I’m burning up, and I’m out of breath. I run to the kitchen, open the tap and put my hands under the running water and dab my forehead with my wet hands. But it’s not enough. I dab some water on my neck as well. But now Liam is behind me and sounding concerned.

“Mira, are you okay?”

I turn around and see him look at me worriedly as he’s trying to make his way to me. But I’m worried his touch is going to make me burn again. I step away from him.

“Just stay back.”

He looks hurt by my words, but I can’t focus on him for too long. My clothes are starting to scratch my skin like sandpaper. I’m pulling at the collar of my blouse. I want it off. It’s making it harder to breathe.

“Mira, what’s wrong?”

I can barely hear Liam or focus on what he’s saying. The intense heat is making me dizzy and I fall to my knees.

“Mira!” Liam is by my side, and holding me in his arms. “Mira what’s wrong. Please tell me.”

But my body is still burning up, and now it feels like my bones are on fire. I can’t help but scream at the pain as I grip onto Liam.

“Mira!” I can feel him brushing the hair from my face as he cups my face. I think I can hear other voices in the background too, but I’m not sure.

But then a sharp pain hits me in my arm, making me scream so loud, my voice almost sounds like a bellow. I wasn’t imagining the pain, I know, because I heard it. I heard the sound of bone breaking. And something tells me this is just a taster. Whatever is happening is not over. I open my eyes and look at Liam still moaning from the pain.

I see him looking at me, with so much shock in his eyes. “Shit!”

I can feel him picking me up and carrying me, but I don’t know where to.

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