~Kade~
I ran through the left hospital wing. My hands grasped at the walls when I made sharp turns and watched as people jumped out of the way when they saw I wouldn’t stop.
The door to her room stood open, and I heard the sound of the beeping machines. However, the sight of her in that bed was anything other than I had expected, and it was more than my body could bear. My legs buckled beneath me, and I fell to the side of her hospital bed. She had a tube down her throat, keeping her mouth open. I heard the shallow breaths that the machine helped her breathe. Bruised body, broken nose, shattered clavicle and god only knew the damage that the naked eye couldn’t see.
I grabbed her hand and looked at the wolf I believed to be indestructible, lying helpless as she fought for a breath.
“Alpha,” a woman’s voice said behind me.
“Kade.” I pushed down on the bed and stood to my feet. Anna was standing next to the doctor. I reached out my hand and touched my thumb over the cut on her cheek. It was deep and would take a while to heal, considering an Emberclaw had made it.
“Doctor,” I said and looked into Anna’s eyes for a minute before turning to the doctor. “What happened?”
She walked over and checked the vitals on the board. Anna stood still by the door, crossed her arms, and hunched her shoulders. She looked uncomfortably around.
“A punctured lung, three broken ribs and a broken arm,” the doctor said and put the board back in its holder.
Her black hair stopped right under her ears, and her thin lips pressed in a line as she stared at me.
“I’m very sorry, but it doesn’t look good,” she said and pointed softly in the air over the bed. “In fact, I don’t understand how she’s still alive. Based on how she fought, she should’ve died from a broken neck or suffocation.”
I could tell she was confused as to how a person could survive that beating. However, she didn’t know that Danielle wasn’t your regular werewolf.
“Thank you for your help,” I said.
The doctor bowed her head, and her eyes flickered over Danielle before she walked out.
I turned around. My blood boiled, and my fingers drew together as I looked at Anna.
“Where is Jackson?” I asked with a growl.
Anna stepped back and lowered her head. We walked together through the hospital into the room where they were keeping him, and he, too, was out like a light. He seemed worse off than Danielle, but there was still one issue—he was still breathing.
I reached over, my fingers circling his throat.
“Wait, whoa!” Anna pulled my arm back, walked between me and the bed, and pressed at my shoulders. “Stop it.”
Her eyes bored into mine, but I wasn’t looking at Anna. I looked over her shoulder at Jackson. Each time his chest rose, I felt taunted.
“Look at me.” Anna turned my head. The bruise on her cheek seemed to be healing well. The cut would take a little longer, but she looked overall fine. I reached out and pulled her into my chest, my arms tightening around her, and I burrowed my face into her neck.
“Kade, I’m fine,” she whispered.
“No thanks to me.” I pulled back and looked at her.
I could feel the blood in my veins cooling when I looked at her wounds. However, what was even worse was that the man who inflicted them was still alive.
“I need you to leave this room.” Anna gulped when I gave the order. “And send in the doctor.” I walked to the foot of the hospital bed and took out his papers. I held the board in my hands and glanced up at Anna. “Now,” I said.
She reluctantly turned around, throwing a glance at Jackson before leaving.
The doctor stepped in not long after. Anna stopped in the doorframe. I reached out my hand to make sure she didn’t come in and walked over to close the door. She was shaking her head, slowly asking me to let her in. However, my lack of emotion made it easy to close the door and shut her out.
Anna could’ve died, and all because I let an Emberclaw into my home without any way of restraining him. Danielle was fighting for her life because of my choices. I was not about to let him get another chance at hurting the people I have sworn to protect.
“What exactly do you want me to do?” the doctor asked in confusion.
“Wake him up,” I said.
Her head jerked back, and an amused glint shone in her eye.
“Alpha, I have no way of doing that.”
“You do, and you will. Whether you need to pump adrenaline into his body and or electro-shock him into awakening, you will do so. Whatever it takes, no matter the damages, you’re not leaving until he’s awake,” I said.
She licked her lips and looked over her patient. “He could die,” she whispered.
“Yes, wouldn’t that be a shame?” As a healer, it was her job to save people’s lives, no matter the person. It wasn’t in her nature to cause anyone harm, which was why healers never fought in wars. My job, my calling, was to protect my pack, and Jackson had the answers I needed to do that, so the good doctor would need to bend her morals this one time.
“You have an hour,” I said, opening the door.
“Yes, Alpha.”
Anna stood with a befuddled look after having overheard our conversation.
The walls here weren’t soundproof, and I could tell she didn’t agree with how I handled things.
“Kade, you can’t.”
I stared down at her shielded body. “Can’t what? I let him in; he hurt you, and Danielle has machines to keep her alive right now until her wolf heals her—if her wolf heals her. We don’t know what to expect, so I will do whatever I want and can to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.” I walked past her and out of the hospital.
There was a reason he hurt them, why he went after Anna, and why he tried to kill Danielle. Even though I tried not to, I kept playing that scenario over again. If Danielle weren’t there, Anna would’ve been dead.
I was walking back to the house and saw a black car driving through the gates. I immediately recognized it as Masons. He and Graham stepped out. Graham walked over to open the passenger door, and I waited to see them get out. Dimitri hung his head. He had a big bruise in the middle of his face, and his hands were tied together.
The door closed; that was it. I took slow steps through the gates and thought I was missing something. Where the fuck was Sebastian?
