Kissing Danger ✔️

EIGHT

Word Count: 1503

Everyone looks up at me as I walk in, mother's glare so intense I nearly turn around and walk back out.

Ignoring the silence, I sit back at the table. My gaze lowers to my lap, as conversation resumes again between all the Alpha's and my mother. I can hear the doors rattle as Eryk walks back in.

"You didn't even change," mother mutters at me, jabbing her elbow into my side. I wince, brushing her off. I forgot that the front of my dress is still soaked with water, which is likely why everyone was staring so harshly when I walked in. Right now, I'm not worried about any of these men think.

"I'm really hungry," I tell her, eyeing the fish sitting right in the centre of the table still. I know what's it's going to do to me, if I actually go through with this...

Eryk is lingering at the edge of the room, watching me with wary eyes. Severs pass by him, muttering to him, but he ignores them, eyes fixed on me. He's going to step in as soon as I reach for this fish, which is all I need to prove that he's trying to protect me...Or maybe that he is being told to protect me.

Reaching out, I grab the shell of the fish, drawing it to my mouth. I keep my eyes trained on Eryk, as he does with me.

"Aven...That's got fish in it," mother scolds, not even bothering to hush her voice.

Before she has a chance to swat it from my hand, I down the fish, hardly even thinking it through. The moment it touches my lips, I immediately regret it. What am I doing? What has all this paranoia brought me to do?

"My bad," I say softly.

"Go call for a doctor, a nurse..." Mother says to one of the severs, standing abruptly. My ears ring with the sound of chairs scraping against the wood, people panicking without really knowing what is going on. I'm paralysed to my chair, my mind processing what I've just done, just as my throat starts to itch.

"What's going on?" Aria asks, clearly not knowing what to do, how to react. Mother is fluttering around me, yelling at servers, no longer caring about her crumbling perfect dinner facade.

"She's deathly allergic to fish, and she just ate it," I hear her say, although it hardly passes by my numb exterior. My throat is already starting to swell, so I'm just sitting here, trying not to panic. "There's medication in the upstairs bathroom."

"I'll get it," I hear Eryk say.

"It's going to be okay Avey. We are getting your medication," mother says, coming to stand next to me, grabbing a hold of my hands. Her touch burns my skin, as my fear begins to accelerate, but I don't shake her off, trying to concentrate on my breathing, which is becoming harder and harder.

"Let's take her up to the bathroom where the medication is," I hear someone else say, their voice oddly familiar, but I'm so distracted with everything else going on, I hardly pay attention.

"Yes...Yes," mother insists.

Mother tries to help me up, but the man brushes her off, reaching for me instead. "It's okay, Alice. I will carry her."

At this point, I'm on the brink of unconsciousness, clawing at my neck as if it's going to help me breathe. I look up toward the man as his arms glide under my legs, pulling me up to carry me. Through the blur that my vision has turned into, I realise that I've seen this man before, at the ball...

His hair is obsidian black, the same as his eyes. He had tattoo's creeping up his neck, ending at his jawline. I must be hallucinating at this point, as it looks as though his tattoo's are moving slightly.