LIKE EDEN. Princes of Anon (3)

SECONDARY

He went back inside after the call with Lucien ended. Nikita had fallen back asleep with Bambi napping by her side.

Rose glanced behind her when he entered. Her eyes were red and a little bit swollen, clear signs of how much she had been crying. Eldridge pretended to have no clue to save her from getting embarrassed or making things awkward.

“You’re done?” Rose forced a smile as she continued to pack up the food she brought that was not eaten.

“Yes. Are you leaving now?”

“Well, as much as I’d like to stay for a bit longer, visiting hours are over, so we have to leave.”

Checking the time, he found that three hours had gone by just like that. And he hadn’t even realized it.

“Thankfully, I can visit for three days each week.” She added.

“I’ll carry her. So don’t worry about it.” He interjected when Rose made an attempt to carry Bambi along with the many things she was holding.

“Thank you. I’m hoping I can get some sleep when I get back home.” Rose chuckled and then led the way out of the room. Eldridge was reluctant but with one last look at his sleeping mate, he followed Rose out with Bambi sleeping in his arms.

He was a relatively tall man, which made Bambi look small in his arms.

“Why don’t I drop you two off? That way Bambi can sleep undisturbed and you can relax a bit.” He suggested, leading them to the parking lot where the driver was waiting for them.

“That would be lovely.” She sighed with relief.

In the parking lot, the driver came out to open the door for her, making her look back at Eldridge with surprise,

“This…” She whispered, deciding between whether to go in or not. The car was obviously not something that just anyone could own. It had never crossed her mind that he was rich, especially with how casually he looked every time he looked.

“Don’t mind. Just get in and let me drop you off.” He prompted with a smile.

“Well, thank you.” She said after a moment of hesitation before getting in the back seat. After that, he followed, sitting with Bambi in his lap.

Rose gave her address to the driver.

“The lilies..” Rose said, “Did you bring them?”

“Yes. I thought they looked beautiful.”

“That’s true. They are Nikita’s favorite flowers… Although she’s allergic to them.”

His heart thumped in his chest after her words.

“That..” He whispered, suddenly overcome with terror.

She was already in the worst health that a person would hate to be in. With how serious Domminique’s allergy could get when he was exposed to things his body rejected, he knew that it could get deadly. And add that to her who was already tethering at the edge of a blade.

“I didn’t say that to scare you.” Rose laughed, having seen the terror on his face, “She likes the smell and just looking at it or smelling it doesn’t harm her. It’s only if she touches it,” she added.

Her words felt like a breeze of fresh air to him. “Then, I’ll keep that in mind.”

It didn’t take long before Rose and Bambi were dropped off. He went back to the hotel.

Eldridge stood in the shower for nearly an hour before getting dressed. His emotions would keep switching every time he thought of her.

Her smell made him smile.

Her eyes made his heart clench. And those were all pleasant feelings.

Then when images of the many machines attached to her…. Barely keeping her alive, flashes before his eyes, he felt his chest tighten and his stomach ache.

She couldn’t breathe on her own.

Couldn’t eat, sit, or bathe.

She could do nothing!

And it made him angry. So angry.

But he had nowhere to direct that anger. He couldn’t blame anyone. It was all a situation that happened. And if she wasn’t his mate, he wouldn’t even have known that somewhere in the universe there was a green-eyed woman called Nikita.

His stomach growled from hunger, saving him from his self-torment. After not knowing what to eat despite his fridge being full to the brim with food, he dressed up in a black shirt and jeans and then went outside.

Like always, the noise from outside caused his sensitive ears to hurt for a while until he got used to the noise. Eldridge walked aimlessly for 35 minutes, passing by all kinds of eateries and restaurants. But nothing really caught his attention.

Just as he was about to give up and cook himself something to eat, he caught a whiff of something that made him drool. Eldridge followed the scent to a restaurant swarming with people.

When he entered, the noisy restaurant turned deadly silent for a moment. His height was one thing that drew everyone's attention. And then there was his face and body structure. It all screamed, ‘Present!’

“Hi there!”

A red-faced waitress approached him. She was so short that she only reached his chest and not an inch more. Her cheeks were flushed and he didn’t know if it was because she was moving around a lot or not.

“First time here?” She went on to ask, the smile firmly planted on her face.

“Yh. I smell something good from here.” He replied, making her chuckle, after which she told him to find any seat that he wanted and that she would be back to take his order.

The place was so full that the only seat available was at the center, which he went head to take, completely ignoring the eyes on him and the whispers around him. The seat he got was no help to the matter, since everyone could see him. But the attention wasn’t something he wasn’t used to.

Eldridge scrolled through his phone whilst waiting for the waitress, which didn’t take long. And when he had finished placing his order, there was meat, meat, meat, and more meat with a little bit of sauce and rice and vegetables on the side. But everything was meat.

His food took the whole table that he was seated on.

“Is he going to eat all that by himself?”

“Damn, that's a lot.”

“It’s no wonder he’s so tall.”

The voices rang around him. They probably thought that he couldn’t hear them.

“Ug.. excuse me.” The waitress who took his order awkwardly glanced between him and the food he had ordered after bringing the last thing he ordered to him.

He looked at her questioningly, waiting for her to finish what she wanted to say.

“So… I don’t mean to be mean or disrespectful. But uh... you have ordered quite a lot. And my boss wanted me to make sure that you could ..pay.” She awkwardly said. She knew that a lot of people were watching and she liked how handsome he looked, so she didn’t want to embarrass him if he couldn’t pay. But then he needed to pay so that she could also get paid.

Eldridge could feel the eyes on him, waiting for what he had to say.

“That’s no problem. How much is it?” He calmly asked with a smile.

She handed him a bill for everything he had ordered.

“Is there any drink you think will taste good with anything? This is my first time in this country so I don’t know what to get.” He inquired after checking the bill, which was barely over $700, which explained just how much food he was going to eat by himself.

She looked at him oddly before recommending some alcohol for him. She brought it along with the new bill.

“Do you accept cards?” Eldridge asked, to which she shook her head.

And in the end, he ended up paying it all in cash before he had even started to eat. She left with flushed cheeks and a broad smile after he gave her a heavy tip too.

For the next hour, he sat alone and ate everything on the table without a care as to who was watching him. Within that time, the restaurant was full of murmurs as everyone watched him calmly eat gracefully and unhurriedly, as if he was at a 5-star restaurant.

He ate and left nothing behind. And although alcohol did absolutely nothing to him, she was right. It made the meat taste better. And when he was done, he left feeling slightly embarrassed at the applause he was receiving.

He knew that werewolves ate a lot compared to humans, but he didn’t think that it was enough to earn him a round of applause. Still, the food compared to what he ate in Anon was ‘Lighter’ so he had to eat a lot before he felt full.

On his way back, he indulged himself in ice cream and bought some sweets from a convenience store to go. When he got back to his suite, he was so full that he fell asleep right after.

The next morning, Eldridge went back to the same restaurant to eat the same meal and when he got back to his suite, he made a phone call to Vida. He had thought about what to do about his mate all morning. For now, he wasn’t close to her enough to do anything about the fact that she was engaged. But that didn’t mean he could not be able to learn about her in the meantime.

“Hello, Vida. It’s Eldridge.”

She chuckled, “Hi. I saved your number so I knew who called. Is there anything I can do for you?”

It went without saying how excited she was about getting a phone call from him.

“Yes. I need you to find some information for me.” He said, then proceeded to give Rose and Nikita’s names. Since he didn’t know their surnames, he gave her their addresses.

“This should be enough to get everything on them.”

“That's good. Don't single out anything, just give me everything you can find. Also, can you get all the medical records of Nikita for me?” he told her a little bit about Nikita’s sickness.

“That will take some time, since records like that are mostly confidential. Especially in cases like hers. But it won't be too difficult. I’ll get it done for you.”

He knew that he most likely needed Nikita’s consent to dig up anything, especially her medical records. He didn’t know how angry she would be or if she would be angry at him if she found out. But he didn’t have much time to waste. If she gets angry, so long as she was not dead, he would find a way for her to forgive him. Because right now what mattered was making sure that she stayed alive.

Everything else was a secondary matter.