Filed to story: Claimed by My Ex’s Alpha Brother
I screeched to a halt outside the hospital, bursting from the car before I even shut off the engine. I bundled Lina into my arms, her frame suddenly feeling so fragile as I lurched toward the shifter ward. There was a medic out front, looking toward us, and I yelled, “We’ve been in a crash. Can you help the man over there?”
The medic ran toward Chuck, and I hurried into the shifter entrance of the hospital, the air laden with antiseptic and a faint hint of herbs.
A sharp-eyed nurse met me, her movements brisk and efficient. “We need to get her on the table, now!” she directed, guiding me through the sterile corridor illuminated by fluorescent lights that buzzed in the silence.
“Lay her down here,” a shifter doctor said as I approached the surgical room, urgency saturating her tone.
“She was shot! She’s burning up!” I blurted out, breathless with urgency.
“Sounds like wolfsbane bullets,” the nurse interjected, her eyes flickering back to me before her focus returned to Lina. Her words blasted through me like ice-Wolfsbane was a manufactured poison that could be lethal to us shifters.
In a moment, the doctor ordered, “I need the room clear.”
“Please! Let me stay with her!” I protested, but the nurse’s firm hand on my shoulder steered me away. Sometimes, the shifter doctors and medical staff in these infirmaries were more like the healers of old, letting loved ones stay with patients, but more often than not, they were like human doctors, and I was ushered out of the room while the doctor removed the bullet.
As I looked back, the doctor was already working with quick, methodical precision, cutting away her blazer and shirt, revealing her soft skin marred by blood and the wound that still oozed crimson. A leaden weight settled in my chest.
My lungs seemed to burn as the nurse closed the door. Time felt suspended, and the sting of antiseptic mingled with the one at the back of my throat as I waited and waited.
After what felt like hours, the nurse returned, her face a mask of professionalism softened by a hint of empathy. “The antidote’s working.”
A wave of relief crashed over me, making my heart feel too big for my chest. “Thank you!” Before I knew what I was doing, I’d seized the nurse’s hands, squeezing them as gratitude colored my voice again. “Thank you.”
She nodded, her expression compassionate. I had no further words as the torrent of what could have been swirled in my mind as I let go of the nurse’s hands.
After the doctor had left, I sat by Lina’s bedside, her soft breaths mingling with the beeping of machines. I felt immense gratitude rush through my veins as the sound of her breaths and the sight of her chest rising and falling ever so slightly centered me in a way I’d never known before. The overwhelming realization of how much Lina meant to me confronted me. My chest felt too full, and I knew that Lina had nestled even more fully into my life-and heart-than I’d been willing to admit until now…Until I’d almost lost her.
Just the thought had me laying my hand on her arm again, needing the feel of her soft skin and her warmth to soothe my edgy wolf.
The nurse had stayed behind and was cleaning and dressing the wounds on my face and neck where the glass had cut me. The distinct antiseptic smell filled my lungs, and despite the sting and burn of some of the deeper wounds, I felt only immense gratitude.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor behind me, and I stood up. Something about the heavy tread told me it wasn’t the doctor’s gentler footfalls. My hand fell from Lina’s arm.
The door opened, and Magnus stepped inside. His expression was tight, clearly annoyed. “I received a call from the hospital, Stephen, telling me Chuck and Lina had been admitted to the hospital.” His voice was sharp.
I realized in my absent-mindedness, as my thoughts had been too full of worry about Lina, I’d forgotten to phone him.
My father’s clipped tone turned to the nurse. “Leave us,” he commanded.
Unwisely, the nurse said, “I still need to treat some of these-“
Magnus interrupted, “My son will be fine. Leave us,” he ordered, his tone becoming a growl.
“It’s fine. Thanks,” I said to the nurse, although I knew some of my wounds still had glass in them, their prickling feeling telling me they did still need tending to. She left the metal dish, tweezers, and antiseptic wipes she’d been using. At least I could tend to them myself.
As soon as the nurse had exited, Magnus launched into his lecture. “Your attackers were members of the shadow company. The van was traced back to a leased deal through a company name we’ve linked to them previously,” he informed me.
Shock spilled through me. So far, I’d only ever felt secretly pleased with the shadow company that had picked away at Blackthorn Corporation and sabotaged my father’s dealings. I’d always felt like I had a secret ally working away at ruining him, too, as if our goals aligned. But now, with what the shadow company had done to Lina, now that they’d almost taken her from me, hatred for that organization burned through me.
“Really, Stephen, I expected better performance from you,” Magnus continued.
His words felt like a slap. All the warmth of gratitude shattered, replaced with frustration and anger. All I wanted was to hold Lina’s hand again and bask in the relief of knowing she was safe, but I couldn’t in front of Magnus. The walls closed in on me, igniting rage within.
I clenched my jaw, battling the tension while Magnus continued to dissect my failure. The weight of my emotions was in danger of bubbling up, but as usual, I had to bury them. But never had my mask of dutiful son been as hard to maintain as it was now. My hatred burned toward him for intruding on my relief and on my moment with Lina. Lina needed her rest and didn’t need my father’s abrasive words to disturb her.
I suggested, “Let’s go next door into the waiting room outside so that your intended can rest.”
Your intended.
Those words seemed to burn like wolfsbane through me as I tried not to let how much she meant to me show once again. I took the metal dish, tweezers, and antiseptic wipes out with me, feeling as if I’d rather suffer a thousand lacerations with these slivers of glass burrowing in than face the wrath that I knew was coming.
Lina
The sterile smell of antiseptic swathed the air, yet I found myself quietly relieved to find myself nestled in the scratchy hospital linen sheets. The muted beeping of the monitors and the overly harsh white light surrounding me felt oddly reassuring because the hospital bed was exactly where I’d planned to be.
Over the weekend, I coordinated with Emily and Matthew for a team to target our car on the way to the airport. By sustaining this injury from my very own company, I hoped to deflect Magnus’s suspicion from me.
Matthew had warned me that the wolfsbane would leave my limbs aching, but he had seriously undersold how achy. I felt as if I’d run a marathon or as if my wolf had been sprinting through the forest for hours.
I closed my eyes, briefly letting the warmth of the cover over me ground me in comfort, but the murmur of voices from the adjacent room broke into my reverie. My heart quickened as I strained to listen, tension coiling in my stomach.
“-You should have been able to apprehend them, Stephen!” Magnus’s voice thrummed with a deep, simmering rage, echoing off the stark walls.
“There wasn’t time; the priority was protecting your future mate,” Stephen replied, his tone steady. But something about the steady pacing of his words told me that burning fire I’d sensed so often in him was dangerously close to the surface.
I flinched at Stephen’s words. Future mate. Even though that was the part I’d been playing, those words from his lips made me feel ill. But I reminded myself that my life-and my mother’s freedom-was entwined in maintaining that cover.
My heartbeat had quickened, something which the annoying beep of the heartbeat monitor echoed. With effort, I focused on breathing more deeply, congratulating myself as the beeping slowed.
With conscious breaths, I forced calm over my body, determined to take the opportunity that my being here with Magnus and Stephen in the next room presented.
“This company has been sabotaging us for years. Yet, all three attackers escaped. This was poorly done, Stephen,” Magnus rebuked again.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?