Page 16 of Destined Bear
“Who are you?” I ask coldly. “I’ve never seen you before, but you seem to know a lot about me.”
The healer recovers faster than Millie, whose mouth remains agape, as if she’s seen a spirit in me.
“Seline.” She extends a graceful hand toward me, and I take it. I’m eager to see if I get a read off her by our handshake.
Another wave of alarm shoots through me at her touch. The closer I get to her, the more I dislike her. Shifters have an inherent ability to read others’ energy—a primal instinct that’s kept us alive for generations. Right now, that instinct is screaming danger.
I do not like this female, but that doesn’t surprise me somehow. I could already tell that before I touched her. Shaking hands only confirmed it.
“Who invited you?” My question causes her to pale more.
She drops my hand as if I’m made of molten lava.
“Millie!” Mom’s voice is louder now, and I hold out a hand before Millie can move.
“Both of you, stay right here,” I hiss, my eyes narrowing. “Don’t go anywhere near my mother.”
Millie remains frozen in place, her dark eyes darting frantically from me to Seline as I stride toward my mother’s room. Wheezing, Mom sits up in bed, extending her arm toward the nightstand, and I rush to the cup of water sitting there.
“It’s okay, Mom.” I hand her the plastic cup and sit at her bedside, one eye on the doorway as I expect Seline or Millie to enter.
Neither of them comes into the room.
As my mother’s breathing returns to normal, I take the cup back and reach for her trembling hand.
“Mom, who is Seline? Where did she come from?”
My mother looks at me through watery irises, a look of confusion hazing her vision. “Who?”
“The healer who was just here. Where did she come from? Who called her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Viv.” Mom flops back, closing her eyes. “I want to sleep.”
A part of me wants to keep pushing her, but she needs her rest, and I can’t keep badgering my mother if she genuinely doesn’t know what’s going on.
“I did, Vivienne.”
My head whips toward the doorway at Millie’s meek tone, and I glower at her. “I told you to wait in the hallway. Where did the healer go?”
Millie hesitates before responding. “She left.”
I’m on my feet, racing toward the front lawn, but there’s no trace of the car on the road. Seline had not hesitated when my back was turned. I had hoped in a small way that she had lingered around the property for a conversation, that there wasno reason for me to be as on guard as I was. But my gut is rarely wrong, even if I am out of the loop.
“Dammit!”
Storming back into the house, I glimpse Alessa’s sleek, charcoal gray body curling around the side of the house. I don’t call out to her. She’ll be back around again, and she might be able to pick up a clue as to Seline’s whereabouts better than me.
I make my way back through the front door and into Mom’s room again, breathing heavily.
Anger consumes me as I approach Millie. “Why did you invite that healer here? She wasn’t on the approved list. Who is she? Who recommended her? Why her?” I fire off the questions one after the other until the nurse looks like she’s about to shrink into the floor.
“Viv!” Mom’s voice is a rasp of displeasure. “Stop speaking so harshly! What has gotten into you today?”
“Something was going on between those two when I came in.” I’m unyielding as I stare Millie down, and she falters more as my mother struggles to sit up.
“No, Mom! Stop.”
“No, you stop!” Her anger with me motivates her enough to sit upright and infuriates me even more.
