Rejected By My Mate, Now Mated To The Lycan King-Chapter 178

~ ROWAN

I watched Nyssa’s expression carefully, trying to gauge her feelings about the news we just received.

She sat quietly in the hospital bad, her hands folded neatly in her lap as she stared at the doctor. She did not speak, did not blink, and had it not been for the steady rise and fall of her chest, I would have wondered if she was breathing.

"I just have to deal with it essentially," she managed out after a long stretch of silence.

"Not really, I mean, we can... I will still run some tests," the doctor stammered. "Hopefully it’s just a twenty-four hour thing and we don’t have to worry about it much."

Nyssa hummed, and then, to my surprise, she hopped off the bed without another word, dusting her hands off her pants. "Thanks for the help. I’m guessing we can go now."

He blinked at her, surprised by the sharp change in demeanor. "Yes, but—"

Nyssa didn’t wait to hear the end of whatever he wanted to say, she just turned to me. "I’ll be in the car."

She walked out of the room without a backwards glance at either of us, leaving us standing there in complete silence. It took me a few seconds before I was on my feet, heading after her.

"Your Majesty, wait!"

I stopped, turning to the doctor. "Yes?"

"There was... something else," he began slowly. "In her blood."

"What was it? Why didn’t you mention it earlier?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I don’t know what it is. I have treated thousands of patients and I have never seen that compound in anyone’s blood before. It showed up in the tox screen—"

"You ran a tox screen on my mate?" I asked incredulously.

"I needed to know if she had taken something. Sometimes poisons show up as symptoms like this. What I saw, it was... in her blood but it wasn’t an additive or trace elements, it was... part of it."

I crossed my arms over my chest, turning to him fully. "I don’t understand."

He sighed deeply. "There are certain markers found in blood, they are what make us human or lycan or even werewolves. From the markers in your blood, I can tell who you are—"

"I understand that," I snapped. "Explain what you found."

"It’s a marker in her blood, something that stands out differently from the rest of her genes, and I have never seen it before. I don’t know how she could have gotten it either. Someone could have given her something. I would have considered it being hereditary but both her parents are wolves."

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, my blood thrumming as my heart raced inside of my chest.

"Thank you," I managed out. "Just... keep searching and let’s keep this quiet."

He bowed low. "Of course."

I walked out of his office without another thought, cursing under my breath as I made my way into the parking lot.

Nyssa was seated in the car already, her seatbelt buckled and her eyes fixed forward as she waited for me to get in and drive. As I watched her, I could not help but worry. Her family was a sensitive topic for her, we hadn’t spoken about it since finding out that her parents weren’t hers and they’d deliberately hidden the truth from her.

"Nyssa—"

"Can we just go home?" she asked softly. "I’m tired and hungry and fucking thirsty."

"He said something else, something you may want to—"

"Can we talk about this after I have something to eat?"

I pursed my lips tightly but nodded. It was her right to decide after all. "What do you want to eat?"

"Meat."

"What kind of meat?"

She shrugged. "I don’t care as long as it’s meat."

We stopped at a restaurant and Nyssa was quick to order a steak.

While we waited for our food, she fiddled with the tablecloth, sipping her water slowly. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, waiting for the right moment to tell her.

"You know the funniest part about being mated?" she asked, not bothering to glance up. "I can feel your concern. The wall is there but I can still feel you."

"The wall doesn’t stop you from feeling me," I explained. "It stops me from overwhelming you with my emotions. You’ll still feel them, especially if they’re a lot."

"So you’re very concerned for me?" I nodded, not bothering to lie. "There’s no need, I’m perfectly fine, I just need a good meal and—oh, it’s here."

The server returned with two steaks.

I cut into mine, smiling softly when I realized it was the perfect rare. I lifted a fork to my lips and turned to Nyssa, only to find her staring at my plate longingly.

"You don’t like yours?" I asked. Hers was medium-well, the inside a soft shade of pink. It looked perfect on the surface. "Do you want to take it back?"

She shook her head. "It’s perfect... but yours looks better... juicier."

I bit back a smile as I reached for her plate, swapping it with mine.

Her eyes widened. "I wasn’t asking you to—"

"I don’t mind, little wolf," I assured her. "It’s fine."

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, obviously nervous, but after a minute, she sighed and took a bite. She let out a soft moan as she chewed. "Perfect."

Medium wasn’t my favorite, not by any standard, but I chewed it quietly, watching the satisfied look on her face. Her shoulders had sagged and she seemed more at ease than she had in a while.

I figured there was no better time.

"The doctor thinks that what’s wrong with you might be hereditary."

She paused, her fork halfway up to her lips. "What? Why?"

"There’s a lot of explanation. Hopefully, it isn’t something to worry about, but if you want, I can look into it for you, see what we can find. I can’t promise anything but I’ll do my best."

She was silent for a long minute, chewing on her food with a faraway look in her eyes. Through the bond, I felt her confusion, and a sticky, bitter feeling that I couldn’t name.

"Don’t worry about it," she said finally.

"But—"

"Rowan, stop, don’t worry," she glanced up at me with a small smile. "You won’t find anything, we both know that, and even if you do, it’ll take too long."

"I can still try."

She shook her head. "Don’t worry about it, I’ll figure it out."

"How?" I asked but she never responded.