Page 30 of Mask and the Magnolia

“Your distraction.” He waves his fork around, motioning to my face before stuffing a piece of sausage into his mouth. “It’s working with those animals on Ward C.”

“They aren’t animals, Camden. They’re human beings, men who deserve to have a second chance. We’re trying to rehabilitate them because they should be given the opportunity to receive a treatment that could do that in hopes of?—“

He starts laughing, his head tilted to the side as he gives me a condescending look. “You’re adorable like this.”

“Excuse me?” Adorable my ass. God, I hate him.

“Rooting for the underdog, trying to help those who really don’t deserve it. Your energy would be put to better use at the hospital with me, but I can see this little pet project is something you’re committed to, so I won’t interfere.” Then Camden leans toward me, taking my free hand in his and squeezing so I can’t recoil. “But if it becomes an issue, if you working in that shithole becomes a problem between the two of us the way it is between my parents, I’ll yank you from that building and lock you up in my house so goddamn fast your head will spin.”

Wow.

There’s a lot to unpack there.

Ignoring his ignorance and stupidity, trying to get past the fear racing through me over how quickly his switch flipped, I can’t help but focus on the comment about his parents.

The only reason the asylum is a problem for them is because Dolly hides there. It’s more Donovan’s baby than anything else, so she works the hours she does knowing she’s safe and can spend as little time with her chosen mate as possible while doing so.

She gave up trying to make it work between them years ago, settling for whatever their relationship is until Evie is taken care of, and in the meantime, Dolly only asked that Carter keep up appearances to spare their daughter the embarrassment of his bullshit.

Now, any time he can’t keep his end of the bargain, whenever he gets caught, Dolly lights him up, threatens to divorce him andpull Ridgeway funding from all three buildings, then adds it to her file of evidence for when she can free herself.

His parents are our future if I can’t get out of this contract, and the fact that Camden is either too stupid or too egotistical to think it has anything to do with the work we do at the asylum is mind blowing.

He’s right in saying I’m committed, though.

It’s only been a couple months but I’m so invested in the work Dr. Lowe and I are doing that I’m not sure anything short of Camden interfering would pull me from it. Unless of course it was someif you leave the asylum, you don’t have to bond with this dickhead and can run away from this life to start over somewhere elsekind of thing. Work be damned, I’d run out of Blackhurst Ridge, hell, I’d skip town entirely in order to make that happen, and I’d do it as fast as humanly possible.

My stomach twists at the thought.

It’s not the first time I’ve had it.

I’ve entertained many a daydream where I just run away and leave all of this behind regardless of busting my ass to get here, but I never follow through.

Afraid of my father and the power he wields or not, there’s always something in the back of my mind telling me I shouldn’t act on those impulses. Ican’tact on them. I care about what we’re doing but there is a much deeper seated reason I couldn’t disappear from Ward C even if I tried, and the more time that passes, the more solid that feeling becomes. It’s the reasoning behind it that’s lacking in clarity and considering my future is currently staring at me with a malicious grin while he picks spinach from his teeth, it better be goddamn good.

“I should go,” I say as Camden finally loosens his grip. “Today is a busy day.”

“You’ve barely touched your breakfast.”

I force a smile as I push away from the table. “I don’t have much of an appetite this morning.”

I also hate poached eggs, blood sausage, and papaya. If Camden gave one single shit about anyone other than himself, he’d know that because I’ve hated all three since having them at his parent’s house when I was six. He orders it for me every time I’m forced to meet him for breakfast here, the same place we always come to because they actually serve blood sausage, and I never eat anything but the avocado toast that comes with it.

Grabbing my bag, I watch in horror as he gets to his feet and meets me next to the table. “Are you going into heat soon?”

My stomach pitches as I physically feel all the color drain from my face.

I hate that he knows that.

Granted, I’m still about a month and a half away give or take, but I don’t talk to him about this, or anything meaningful because I don’t want him to know things like that about me.

One of the perks of being born into this stupid system of doctors is having access to a way of getting through my heat without the need for an alpha. Also known as medically assisted. It was forced on me at first, my father insisting it was the only way for me in hopes of keeping me pure or some shit, probably for Camden well before my life sentence was announced but the only thing it did was scare me out of finding someone to get me through when it hit.

I still had sex, lost my virginity at the private school I attended when I was seventeen, and I had a decent amount of it right up until last year. But never when I was in heat.

The importance Byron Reynolds put on it scared me enough to make sure I never let that happen, not until I was with the alpha or alphas I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, and I’ve been successful so far.

Evie gets what I need and she hooks me up to the IV that essentially guarantees I don’t feel a thing and just sleep for a week when the time comes. She stays with me through all of it, too. Just to be safe. Benefits of having a best friend who is going to be a doctor, I suppose.

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