Lightning & Thunder

Chapter Thirteen

"I need an aspirin." She said. Raiden nodded, and together, with a large distance between the two, he led her through different corridors of what she assumed was his pack house.

She assumed correctly. As they walked through different corridors and rooms, Olivia was finally able to fully take in her environment. The pack house was definitely larger than her's back home, with brighter coloring and better style coordination.

Maybe they were less strict on the women enough to allow them to decorate properly. She highly doubted it was the men of the pack decorating.

From her experience, they never really found that sort of thing interesting. And they were always terrible at it.

Not that she was really allowed to decorate back home, either. Not in the way she wanted. Bessell always had weirdly specific restrictions. It was a control thing.

Olivia eyed Raiden as they walked through the ginormous house. She tugged her white gown closer to her, rubbing her arms as they entered chillier air.

"Cold?" Raiden asked. On instinct, Olivia shook her head no. Like she always did.
"Seriously? I can see that you're cold." Raiden said, suddenly veering off somewhere. Olivia awkwardly stayed where she stood, not quite sure if she should follow him or not. The answer was given to her when he came back with a thick hoodie, gently placing it around her shoulders.

In her head she muttered a thank you.

Then she pulled it tighter around her form. A slight thought crossed through her mind about who's jacket it was-and logic dictated it was probably his.
She didn't know how she felt about that.

Life seemed to be happening too quickly. She just wanted to crawl back to that nursing bed downstairs and take a long, long, nap.

It would be preferrable if she never woke up, in fact.

But she wasn't given that satisfaction. The two of them continued walking through corridors. In her mind she took note of the winding stairs, counting each and every doorway. She needed to pay attention and know the layout just in case she needed to escape later.

Eventually they found a kitchen.

Nobody was there. In fact, Olivia realized, she hadn't seen anybody else.

Her pulse quickened. Maybe they were as bad as they seemed. Maybe they just kept it all secret, hiding it from the outcomers to seem friendlier. To trap them.

"Where's the doctor?" Olivia asked timidly, her gaze exploring the kitchen. It was of fairly large structure, with dark wood cabinets and beautiful marble countertops. The walls in this room were a creme color.

"Out." Raiden started looking through some drawers.

Olivia tried not to feel annoyed at his clipped tone.

Men were such children. Their true colors always showed when they don't get what they want.

It seemed Raiden was no exception.

"When will she be back?"

"He, and probably in an hour or two. It's not really that important, here-some painkillers." He handed her a box.

She could feel his eyes burn holes into her head when she took it. Something about it felt weird, like he was trying to will her to look up at him.

It wasn't happening.

She just continued to stare at the box in her hands.

"Here-sit." He gestured to the stools next to the counter-tops. "Did you want anything specific to eat?"

"Not really."

She took a seat while he went back to the pantry, pulling out odds and ends. Meanwhile, she opened the box and popped an aspirin, wincing sorely when she swallowed it dry.

It left a slight medicinal taste in her mouth. She shivered.

Then she brought her hand to her head, massaging the sore ache there. Her stomach kept growling, yet her stomach was also doing weird flip-flops at the same time. Everytime she looked at the light, she wanted to throw up.

It was definitely a migraine. Something else she could've done without.

But it only would've been a slight relief. Her mind was still whirling. She didn't know what she wanted anymore. She needed to state the facts in order to ground herself.

She tried to kill herself at the river, but she didn't die.

Her unofficial ex-husband saw her jump into the river. He'd assume that she was dead, and stop looking for her.

Except, Raiden had to ruin that plan by letting all of the packs know of a run-away female. No doubt, Bessell would come running at the opportunity to drag her back.

She didn't even know where to begin with that mess.

She didn't even want to address the claim of Raiden being her mate. She didn't want to believe it. He had to be lying.

All of the mate rumors always talked about mates feeling something. A zing, maybe. She wasn't sure she felt anything at all for Raiden. She didn't smell anything, either.

Other than the food he was cooking.

But it wasn't like she tried either. She was traumatized. Her sense of control kept slipping out from under her.

Should she try to kill herself again?

Or-

-oh. Oh.

Maybe she could use Raiden to her advantage. She may not believe they were mates, but he sure did.

Surely she had some type of power in that?

Surely he wouldn't give his very own mate back to her abusive ex-husband?

Ah, but there were problems with that too. What if he was disgusted with the fact that she was already married? They still haven't been legally recognized as divorced.

That process would be a pain.

Maybe he didn't have to know that she was once married? Maybe she could keep it a secret, saying that a family member wanted to keep control over her.

It could work. If she played her cards right. Right?

Her attention was pulled when a large, heaping plate of food was set down in front of her.

There were large servings of everything. Scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, waffles... it was the most amount of food she had seen in so long.

Olivia couldn't help feeling bewildered.

"Is there something wrong?"

Olivia jumped in her seat. "No, no, thank you." She muttered before stabbing some eggs with her fork.

Her stomach lurched as soon as she tried the egg. Her head pulsed in one side. But she forced down the eggs anyway. She wanted to eat.

And they were good.

She tried bits and pieces of everything, horking it down in her mouth. She needed to fuel up so she could leave as fast as possible.

And oh goddess, it was so nice having real food. If Raiden wasn't sitting across from her-if his eyes weren't still drilling holes into her head from how hard he was staring-then she absolutely would have teared up a bit at finally being able to eat.

But no. She was a big girl. Any and all tears would be held until she was alone.

"So-" Raiden tried to start up conversation, but Olivia was saved from the awkwardness in the form of two people hurrying through the doors.