Liam?
Liam was sick? With what? He was hooked up to all kinds of machines and tubes, and Ste was crying…
Whatever it was had to be serious.
But most of all, why the hell was Ste, of all people, visiting Liam in the hospital?
None of it made sense. As far as I knew, Liam and Ste barely knew each other in passing; and Goddess knew I had distanced myself from him after E’s death because I couldn’t bear to look into the face of her best friend now that she was gone.
My hand itched to reach out and open the door, but I couldn’t. I felt frozen to my spot, and all I could do was watch as Liam–not only E’s friend, but the man who had begun to be mine–seemed to wither away in a hospital bed while a woman he shouldn’t have known held his hand and cried into his chest like they’d known each other for years.
And for some reason, my wolf snarled. Suddenly, the mate bond red in my chest, so intense this time that it burned like a wildfire. Ste, as if sensing it too, snapped her head up and looked in my direction. I managed to step out of sight before she could know I was there. <fn81e5> Chapters first released on f?ndnovel</fn81e5>
No. Ste wasn’t my mate. She couldn’t be. My mate was dead.
And yet, seeing her with Liam made something ugly twist in my chest–a feeling I’d felt too many times before with E. Before, it made sense; E was my mate and I thought she was having an affair with Liam.
But Ste wasn’t mine. She was just the nanny who only happened to bear a passing resemnce to my dead
wife.
Goddess, I really was going insane. It was a good thing my appointment with Dr. Evelyn was that afternoon.
“Alpha Alexander.” Dr. Evelyn smiled as I entered her office a few hourster. “Please, have a seat. What seems to be the problem? My receptionist said you sounded somewhat distressed when you called to make the appointment the other day.”
“I’ve been experiencing some… unusual symptoms,” I said as I took a seat on the exam table. “Ever since my mate died.” Evelyn tilted her head, and I cleared my throat and exined, “I’ve been feeling… phantom sensations from the mate bond.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Phantom sensations?”
“Yes. Sometimes, it feels like the bond is still there.”
Dr. Evelyn considered this for a moment with a furrowed brow. “Well, it’s not umon for surviving mates to experience some residual feelings in the first few weeks after their partner dies. But those sensations should fade rtively quickly.” She paused. “How long has it been?”
“Over a month.”
Dr. Evelyn frowned. She stood and retrieved a stethoscope from her desk drawer. “Let me examine you.
Over the next several minutes, Dr. Evelyn checked my vitals–pulse, lungs, heart, blood pressure. She even drew a vial of blood for testing and had me respond to a plethora of mental health questions.
“You seem to be in perfect health,” she finally said once she was done. “Your heart rate is normal, you passed the mental health questionnaire with flying colors, and your wolf is strong. There’s no sign of the typical deterioration we see in wolves who’ve lost their mates.”
“What do you mean?”
“When a mate dies, the surviving partner usually shows some signs of weakness. Their wolf bes lethargic. Their physical health declines. But you…” She gestured at me. “You’re in excellent shape. Better than most in this situation.”
That didn’t make any sense. I felt like shit, although that could have been due to the exhaustion fromck of proper sleep and nothing serious. “Is it possible that the bond wasn’t fully severed?” I asked.
Dr. Evelyn looked perturbed by my question. “No. When a mate dies, the bond dies with them. Perhaps in your grief, you’re simply imagining that it’s still there. Give it time. It will fade.”
The doctor seemed adamant that I was just imagining things, and I wanted to believe her. It would be the most simple exnation.
But as I headed home that day, I couldn’t shake the feeling that as long as Ste was still around, I would never stop sensing that phantom mate bond.