Mated To An Enemy

Peter was finishing his last chart. He had been here all night and finally caught up with all his patients. Finally, he was ready to go home, draw his curtains tight and crawl into bed to sleep.

At least, that was the plan until his office door flew open.

He let out a deep sigh, preparing to tell whoever it was to go away.

“I… need help.”

Peter looked up at the voice. It was Axel.

He was leaning heavily against the door frame, his hand gripping his head, and he was sweating profusely. Even from his seat at the desk, Peter could see the pain written on Axel’s face.

“Axel!” Peter shouted, jumping up and running to the man’s side.

“Help…” Axel gasped out, grunting as the pain in his head grew.

“Let’s get you to the chair,” Peter said, helping Axel sit down. Once he was in the chair, Peter moved back to the door. “A little help in here!”

Peter dropped down to his knees in front of Axel.

“Hey, tell me what’s going on,” Peter said, lifting Axel’s chin. “Shit!”

Axel lifted his chin, and blood poured from his nose. His mouth was almost covered in the dark liquid.

“I need to get you to a room.”

A nurse appeared in the doorway.

“I need a wheelchair and a clean room!” Peter shouted to her.

“My head…” Axel said, his teeth held tightly together. “… it hurts…”

“What happened? How did this happen, Axel?” Peter asked. “Did you fall? Did you get in a fight?”

The nurse appeared with the wheelchair. Peter helped Axel into the chair and then rushed him down the hall.

An hour later, Axel was in one of the hospital beds, IVs attached, monitors connected. Peter stood by his side, checking all the test results again. He didn’t understand what he was seeing.

There was no reason for any of it.

Axel’s fever was spiking, his heart was racing, and the bleeding had stopped, but there was no explanation for how it started.

Peter had given him a strong sedative, but even that wasn’t keeping him calm. Axel lay on the bed struggling through whatever nightmare he was witnessing.

“Maggie, I think you need to call Bell,” Peter said as the nurse walked in, “I can’t figure this out on my–”

“No!” Axel shouted, grabbing Peter’s wrist.

Peter looked down at Axel. He should have been asleep.

“Axel, I don’t know what’s going on with you, and I need help,” Peter said, trying to calm Axel down.

“I don’t want anyone to know,” Axel said through gasping breaths. “Bell, my parents, no one… you can’t… tell….”

“Axel, I–” Peter tried to argue.

“Order… from… your Alpha…” Axel managed to say before his consciousness faded.

Another hour later, Axel’s room had been made private. Only Peter and Maggie knew he was there. He had fallen asleep; his vitals were returning to normal. But Peter didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone.

He fell asleep in the chair beside Axel’s bed.

“Peter,” Axel called out gently.

Peter stirred. Axel sat in his bed, looking at him with tired eyes.

“Axel, are you alright?” Peter asked, jumping up from his chair and immediately checking on Axel’s vitals.

“I feel okay,” Axel replied. “My head, it’s still hurting a lot. But I feel better than I did when I came to the hospital.”

“What exactly happened?” Peter asked as he sat down.

Axel shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ve been getting headaches a lot lately.”

“Has there been a change in your diet or routine?”

“Well, I became Alpha,” Axel smiled.

“Haha,” Peter sighed. “Stress could explain increased headaches, though I thought you were taking the new role slowly?”

“I am,” Axel replied, “honestly, I don’t think that has anything to do with this.”

“Then what do you think is going on?” Peter asked.

Axel took a deep breath.

“Could this be a side effect of a poison?” he asked.

“What?!” Peter asked, jumping up from his chair.

“It’s been a while since it happened. It was the night after the ceremony,” Axel said. “I ate a small amount of something, but Bell couldn’t identify what it was. I didn’t eat much of it, it left me feeling awful for about a day.”

“I don’t see how this could be related to that. It was too long ago,” Peter said. “But you’re saying the headaches started then?”

Axel nodded.

“Is there anything that makes them worse?” he asked.

Alice’s chocolate eyes flashed in his mind, followed immediately by a sharp pain. Axel hissed.

“Yep,” Peter said. “That, what was that?”

“Just thinking about something,” Axel replied, rubbing his temple. “Actually… yea… whenever I think about it, the pain comes back.”

“Is this a bad memory? Or a stressful event?”

“More like a mystery that’s driving me crazy,” Axel said. “It’s a person, someone I don’t really know, but I keep thinking about them.”

“When you think about a person, it gives you a headache?” Peter said.

“Not exactly,” Axel laughed. “I can think about her, about the things she said. But when I feel like there is something familiar about her… it hurts.”

Peter sat up.

“You mean,” he said. “When you try to remember her, it hurts?”

“It doesn’t make sense, does it?” Axel laughed. “I just met her the night of the ceremony, we didn’t even talk that much. But her eyes… they just seem… familiar.”

He took a deep breath.

“Axel,” Peter said. “Have you ever heard of a ‘treatment’? Something to help you forget, or to keep information secure?”

Axel furrowed his brows.

“It’s a ridiculous practice that I am strongly opposed to,” Peter said, “but it is fairly common.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a memory suppression. Voluntary, usually. The point is to hide information from oneself, but sometimes it is used to keep information from others. So the point is that these treatments don’t remove memories. They just hide them.”

“Ok…”

“Well, memories have a way of finding their way back. And if you have already poisoned your mind to believe that the memory is bad. Your mind fights it resurfacing.”

“So, you’re saying I am trying to remember something?” Axel said. He sat up suddenly, intrigued. “Something about her?”

“It seems likely,” Peter nodded. “Usually, when someone has a proper ‘treatment’, they are guided through the process. This prevents memories resurfacing on their own because the guide works new roadmaps into the mind to avoid it.”

“If I have memories of Alice that I don’t know about, you need to help me remember!” Axel shouted.

Peter raised an eyebrow.

“I was afraid you would say that,” he sighed. “Look, we can do it, but I need to sedate you and keep you sedated, so you don’t overload yourself. After that, I will give you something else to help the memory, and then it should play out like a dream.”

Axel nodded.

“You’re going to experience the memory again. After that, you will feel like you have been drinking for three days straight without any food or water. It won’t be a nice process.”

“I don’t care,” Axel said. “I need to remember.”