Ethan

I blink my eyes open to bright white lights and the sterile scent of a hospital.

It takes a few moments for my senses to focus on the details around me. At first I see only my surgeon’s face hovering above me. Has the surgery not begun yet? I wonder dazedly. I could have sworn I’d already started counting backwards for the anesthesiologist.

But when my doctor speaks, there’s a smile in his voice. “Welcome back Ethan. Everything went perfectly. You’ve been asleep for a while, but your family is eager to see you.

My family, I muse, the wheels in my mind turning much too slowly. Does he mean Nina and Matthew? But even as I think these words, my wolf pipes up.

I smell Jane. I smell the pups! They’re here! He exclaims.

No, they can’t be. It’s not possible. I reply, groaning internally at the pain this simple fact causes me.

Jane’s scent washes over me, much too potent to be my wolf’s imagination. Gentle fingers stroke my cheek, and the next thing I know, her sweet voice is floating through my consciousness. “Open your eyes, Ethan.”

I hadn’t even realized that I closed them again. I’m hovering on the edge of sleep, barely able to tell dreams from reality. I shake my head stubbornly, determined to stay in the dream. “No.” The word is little more than a whisper, my lips slurring the hard consonant. “Wanna stay.. in dream.”

I feel soft, familiar lips graze my temple, and I want to cry for wanting Jane. “Okay, my love.

There’s no rush.”

She feels so real- sounds so real. My wolf is whining in my head, and I gradually lift my heavy eyelids, caving to his pressure. At once I see Jane’s stunning features hovering above me. Her face is blurred around the edges, like an out of focus photo, but I don’t care. She’s beaming down at me, her emerald eyes swimming with tears. “Hello mate

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful, and suddenly I’m afraid I imagined the doctor’s words. “Am I in heaven?” I murmur, trying to reach for her but realizing I can’t lift my hand. That fact alone tells me this isn’t entirely my imagination – if I had it my way she would already be in my arms.

“No, of course not.” Jane answers, caressing my jaw. “You’re just a little hazy from the drugs.”

how is this possible?”

often heard her use when the pups are upset. “The surgery was a

surgery jolts me into the present quicker than anything else. “You mean

impossible man.” Jane replies, hiccupping

into me one after the other. This isn’t right. She can’t know. “No,” I manage to

Jane croons. She strokes my hair back from my crown, and something deep inside of me starts to crack. “We have a whole lifetime to fight about

the onslaught. It’s a giant tangle of fury, anguish, guilt, fear, grief and the Goddess only knows what else. I jerk against the dead weight of my arms and legs, hating that I can’t move. I growl my frustration into the to0-bright room, and the machine beside me starts beeping faster and faster. Suddenly the

don’t think it’s the drugs.” Jane’s voice intimates, sounding

out, maybe send his mate in.” The

the man for suggesting Jane leave, but I can’t make the words come, as if some part of me is still enough

get the message.

a stubborn tilt to her mouth that tells me she hasn’t given up. “You shouldn’t be

about that?” Her lip quirks and I want to throttle her and kiss her at once. “You didn’t seem

mumble drunkenly, “He’s

her voice. “So you think it was reasonable to push me away for the sake of your own

fight back a sob, wishing for the thousandth time that I

have

she lets me feel her warm curves pressing against my side, her slender limbs cradling whatever they can reach. It’s a terribly awkward position, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t effective. I can feel my wolf calming

in her belly, kicking out to say hello. A few stray tears escape the corners of my eyes, “Why are you doing this to me?”

inch, in fact if anything she simply cuddles closer. “Because mates give each

rumble in agony. “I’m no good

simply. “You’re always taking care of everyone else, Ethan – even when it kills you. Now

though I’m still slurring like a man

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