Accidental Surrogate for Alpha

Chapter 274

Cora’s Gift

3(rd) Person

Cora almost skids to a stop as she flies into Ella’s hospital room. “What,” she gasps. “What is it – is she –”

But Sinclair is just standing at the side of Ella’s bed, his hands pressed deep into his pockets, staring at the door as if he was waiting for her. Cora bites her words back, knowing that if Ella had …well, Sinclair wouldn’t just be standing still. He’d be tearing the world to pieces.

Cora lets out a deep breath, her eyes trailing down to her sister in the bed. God, she looks so fail just laying there, wired up to all of those machines. Her passionate sister, so full of life, looks like a little bird crumpled up in that bed…

“She’s fine,” Sinclair snaps, bringing Cora’s eyes back to him. Roger comes into the room then as well and Sinclair’s eyes flick to him, a little surprised. After all, he hadn’t called for Roger, he’d called for Cora. Apparently, they’d been together.

Sinclair didn’t let himself think about why. He didn’t care. His attention returns to Cora alone. “Give it back to her,” Sinclair demands, his voice even and controlled.

“What?” Cora asks, standing up straight. “Give what back? I didn’t take anything -”

“What’s going on, Dominic?” Roger asks, stepping in front of Cora, realizing that his brother is worked up about something. “Tell us. We need to understand.”

Frustrated at not being immediately obeyed, Sinclair takes a deep breath and steels himself, trying to will patience into his body, even though he’s run completely out of it. He just wants this done. Wants her back.

“I met her,” Sinclair snaps, working to summarize the past few hours as quickly as possible. “In the dream state. She was there with…with Rafe.” Cora’s face lights up with this news and she opens her mouth to ask a thousand questions, but Sinclair keeps going. “Ella is strong in her spirit, but the doctor says her body is too weak. That she would need a gift from the Goddess to heal her now.” His eyes move to Cora’s, angry. “Which you took from her.”

Cora’s mouth drops open at his accusation and a hand flies to her breast. “Sinclair,” she breathes,” I would never – she gave it to me – I had to –”

“I don’t care,” he interrupts, his voice raising now. “You took it, and now you have to give it back.” He takes a step towards her now, as if he’d rip it from her body if it would save his mate.

“Easy,” Roger warns, taking a step closer to his brother. “Easy, Dominic. We hear you. You have a point, okay? Just…just let Cora think.”

her thoughts. Is this her fault? Did she

says carefully. “What

mutters, her eyes unfocused as she stares at the ground, trying to piece it together. “I don’t know? I didn’t mean…I didn’t mean to? But he might be right? When I took the gift from her, that’s when

says, working hard to keep the energy in the room calm, feeling like he’s walking in a minefield that could explode at any

–

looking between the brothers. “But will that be good for her? She couldn’t she couldn’t hold it

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to growl then and

Cora. “Can’t you see that she’s trying? That none of this is her fault? She’s trying to help – let her help, if she can.” Sinclair visibly fights his instincts to force Cora to do his bidding, to save

the brothers, hesitating. “Are you sure you

–

over his shoulder at the open door. “Do you want me to get the doctor and

to say it, to admit – however tacitly that there’s nothing he himself can do anymore. That

his eyes are filled with hope. “I think he’s right, Cora. It makes sense. And it’s a gift – I don’t think it can hurt her.” Cora’s lip

side of Ella’s bed, taking her sister’s

legs up beneath her so that she’s seated cross–legged,

that Ella did that night in the desert. Had watched her sister fall deeper into a state of truth, had watched her make that connection with her mother, had watched her be filled with the Goddess’s gift and start to glow with it. Cora hadn’t wanted to admit it then, but she’d felt….well, a little jealous. It was the jealousy of an orphan for a friend

a little piece of that for herself as well. And she had been ashamed of those emotions in that moment, of her envy, and had felt herself…undeserving of her spot on that sacred trip to

now, after learning the

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