Lust & Loyalty

Chapter 4

With the rain pouring down, her mind was in disarray, and her heart was ripped. She missed the turn she needed to take by a fraction of a second. She tried to pull the car back at her current speed, but the tires screeched against the pavement, and the vehicle cracked in resistance to the momentum. Into the road without realizing it. Everything was out of her control. She smashed through the car window, pulling her right and out to brace herself as she fell heavily into the dark wet pavement. Her last thoughts were of the man who, for a moment, had called her his mate before she slipped unconscious.

Rosa couldn't believe what was happening; for the briefest moment, she had absolute joy. Like a ray of sunlight bursting through a cloudy sky, her future has a moment of hope. She could be with the woman she loved and no longer need to be promised to Daedalus. What surprised her was her conversations and everything she knew about Daedalus before she spoke to a very kind, good-hearted man. He was very imaginative and creative in his work and highly dedicated. She could never assume he would be this disloyal or this dismissive of his actual mate. When Shayera left abruptly and saw Daedalus walk past, she thought he was going to chase her, but instead, he got into his car and drove in the opposite direction.

How could he do this? How could we be so heartless? She had to find Shayera, her childhood friend, and reach out to the woman who had first accepted her s****l preferences and who would help sneak messages between Rosa and Kathleen, the first true friend she had. Shayera had always done her best to allow Rosa and Kathleen to spend time together. Occasionally she went as far as to schedule teaching sessions and give them the money to enable them to go out and spend the day together.

Rosa had to find her, so she jumped into her car and chased after her. She hated that it was raining, making it so much harder for her to see where it was going. She assumed Shayera would have gone straight to her studio apartment, but a burning patch of blur caught her eyes. She squealed as she turned to where the flames were blazing. She jumped out screaming, “no! no! no" she screamed as she ran. That car was… "SHAYERA" Rosa called, running towards the passenger side, and then she saw the trail of blood and smashed glass Shayera was motionless, leaning on a tree, her arm broken in unforgivable ways. "Shayera… Shayera… can you hear me? Are you OK" she tried to move slowly… only to realize that her right hand was brutally broken. She couldn't even begin to understand what direction it was meant to be oriented. She looked up towards Shayera’s face; her head was severely wounded, blood pouring freely down her face. She was breathing, thought Rosa. At least she was living. She cursed herself for not catching up in time and quickly dragged her body into the passenger seat of her car. "Shayera, don't do this to me! Oh God… please don't do this to me" she gently buckled her friend in and quickly started the car. She headed straight to the hospital. On the way, she dialled through the phone monitor on the screen of her vehicle. “Hello, 911. What's your emergency" "Yes, hi, my name is Rosa… I'm… I'm driving my friend to the hospital right now. She… she got into a car accident. Her head was badly wounded, and her…God... her arm is broken... …I don't even understand. It looks so bad! I don't know what to do! I'm coming straight to the hospital! You need to help! You need to help!"

"OK, ma'am, calm down. How far are you from a hospital right now" spoke the operator.

"I… I don't know… I… 7 minutes, I think… I don't know. I'm yeah… yeah… 7 minutes. I think" Rosa could barely speak.

“OK, ma'am" said the officer on the call, “not to worry, we'll call ahead to the hospital and arrange to have them meet you at the ambulance bay. Please try not to move your friend again. We need to make sure that her spinal cord isn't broken"

"Oh, God! Oh no! did I make a mistake? Should I not have touched her? I …she's bleeding so much I just can't. I didn't think" Rosa couldn't stop herself from interrupting. "No, ma’am" replied the officer calmly. “it's okay. It would have taken too long for the ambulances to get to you… you probably saved her life. When you get to the hospital, you must relinquish control and let a professional take care of her, okay? So take deep breaths"

Rosa took two stabilizing deep breaths before replying, “Okay… I will" she hung up the phone. Then her mind went to Daedalus. she dialed his number, getting straight to voicemail. “Daedalus S**t Daedalus oh God! I'm driving to the hospital…I can't understand what the f**k is going on! On what the hell is wrong with you, man? I thought you were a better man than this. Argh, why would you do this? Damn, it...you" The phone disconnected, and she dialed, again voicemail. "Daedalus, for f**k's sake, this isn't even about you anymore or your responsibilities. Your mate is hurt. We are on the way to the hospital" Rosa's voice started to break as she continued, “she's badly hurt. Do the right thing and go to the hospital. Her arm is ripped into shreds, and her head is badly wounded… she's lost a lot of blood. Daedalus, you can't turn your back on this right now. I know you don't want to accept her as a mate, but that doesn't matter you and I both know her healing will be detrimental with a broken heart. Her healing would be slow without her mate’s presence. Daedalus, for f**k, says get your a** to the hospital right now".