I haven’t heard my name out loud for a long time.
The doctor –Max– smiles as a machine starts to beep next to me. I turn my head to look, no longer restricted by the tubes in my throat.
Scanning the room, I take in the bland grey walls, the steel sink in the corner, the tall wooden cupboard. Artificial strip lights above us throw Max’s face into sharp angles, highlighting the beginnings of a beard. There’s no window, and a hint of regret flickers in my chest. I would have liked to see outside.
The machine beeps again, and I glance over to see my heartbeat on the screen. It looks fast, like a hummingbird.
If only I could fly away.
My attention is drawn to the next machine, and I look between them, confused. Why do they have two heart monitors? Three, I realize, taking in the one next to it.
Maybe they’re not heart monitors? My eyes trail the wire from the first machine that caught my attention, following it from where it’s plugged into the monitor, down and onto the bed and towards my stomach.
For the first time, I pay proper attention to my body. A stab of pain hits my chest as I suck in a breath, my vision tunnelling. More beeping sounds, and then Max is there, concern in his eyes as he follows my gaze.
A whimper sounds in my throat, and his eyes swing to mine, horror filling them.
“You didn’t know,” he whispers, swallowing hard. “Ava, you’re—"
“No,” I gasp.
No.He is not going to tell me that. He can’t tell me that.
But the truth is literally staring me in the fucking face.
I’m pregnant.
ChapterTen
Nikolai
Lucien paces around my workshop again. No matter how much I try to hide away in the wooden hut on our grounds, my pack always seem to wander in when I’m trying to focus.
I give him the side-eye as he growls and throws his hands up in the air. “Talking to yourself isn’t a good sign, Lucien.”
“What?” he snaps, turning to me. Sighing, I point to the chair.
“Sit your ass down. You’re giving me whiplash watching you strop back and forth.”
Luc throws himself down, hunching his shoulders as he huffs in frustration. His raven hair stands on end from the dozens of times he’s run his hands through it.
“We should have heard from him by now.”
I lay down my sanding machine and take a seat next to him, crossing my arms.
“He needs to be careful,” I point out. “And he doesn’t need to call all the time – Bastien has been tracking his phone and it’s still at the hospital.”
“But it hasn’tmovedfrom the hospital for three days,” Luc snaps. I growl lightly back at him and he waves a hand at me in apology.
“Sorry,” he groans. “I just—"
“I know, Luc, but we need to trust him. If we don’t hear from him by tomorrow, we’ll make contact. And if he doesn’t respond, we’ll go and bring him home. Agreed?”
He looks across at me, guilt across his face. “I’m being an asshole, aren’t I?”
I pull my shoulder up in a shrug, a smile twitching on my lips. “Nothing more than usual.”
Luc shoves at me with a strained laugh, getting up to leave. As he walks past my workbench, he stops and looks down.
