Chapter Two
Bari
The dream hadn’t faltered in a single detail since the night that Diavol stumbled as he raced through the night, the suddenness of it catching Ahearn off guard even after his decades of riding. My heart still clenched as I watched my beloved fly over the stallion’s head, landing at an awkward angle against the base of a tree with a resounding thud.
I urged my mare from her usual sedate pace to a gallop as I raced to catch up to him, praying aloud to any deity that could hear that my own Alpha was only stunned. I usually didn’t wake up until the horror of the red and white strobe lights bouncing off the trees in the total darkness, but this time was to be different.
“Mr. Walsh?” The nurse’s voice was soft as her gentle hand patted my shoulder, waking me from the fitful sleep I’d fallen into. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” I croaked, coughing to clear my throat as I stared up at her through bleary eyes. “Jan, yes?”
“Right,” she responded with a faint smile. “I’m sorry to wake you, but the administrator would like to speak with you?”
“Oh, of course,” I murmured, straightening in my chair and attempting to smooth my rumpled clothes. “Is there word on my husband?”
My heart lurched when Jan winced, sympathy flashing through her eyes before she could mask it. “Oh! What’s wrong? Please! Tell me,” I begged, one hand dropping to hold my expansive belly.
“Its..all I can say is that he’s fine,” Jan sighed. “The administrator will be right with you, though.” She patted my shoulder again. “If you need anything when she’s done, call the operator and ask to have me paged, okay?”
I didn’t understand, but I nodded my agreement. If Ahearn was okay, that must mean he had finally woken from his weeks long unnatural sleep, mustn’t it?
A faint knock at the door to the small room I’d been resting in alerted me that the answers I needed were at hand.
“Mr. Walsh?” I nodded as an older woman in neatly pressed gray slacks and an emerald green sweater walked into the room followed closely by a pair of armed security guards.
“Yes, that’s me.” I kept my eyes on the woman. She seemed vaguely familiar but wasn’t the neurologist who had been providing daily updates while my husband slept. “You’re the doctor treating my husband today?”
The woman’s lips drew into a tight line when one of the guards behind her snorted. Ignoring him, she stopped before my chair and stared down at me with icy blue eyes. “Not exactly. I am the hospital director and I am here to escort you from the premises.”
“I..what?” I stumbled over the words. It had been many years since I’d come to the United States and I considered myself mostly fluent in the language, but her words weren’t making sense. “But my husband is here. You can’t do that!”
“She certainly can.” The voice from the doorway was a weak and pathetic parody of my Alpha’s commanding tone, but I would have known it anywhere.
“Ahearn!” I jumped to my feet much more spryly than even I would have thought possible and rushed past the woman and her guards, wrapping my arms around my husband’s neck. “My love! I’m so glad to see you improved!” I rested my cheek on his chest with a sigh. “I’ve been so very frightened!”
“I know not what this trickery is, Son of Mikel, but I’ll have no part in it.” Ahearn’s large hands planted on my shoulders and none-too-gently shoved me away, leaving me to grab wildly at the doorjamb to keep from stumbling to the floor. “This man is not my mate.”
I stared in astonishment as my husband turned and wobbled away from me. Then turning to the woman, I struggled to find the words to express my horror at what my protector, my husband had just done. “There..there’s something not right,” I finally gasped as tears welled in my eyes and began to fall. “The admissions person saw the paperwork listing me as his next of kin. Iamhis husband.”
The woman quirked a brow and shook her head unconcernedly. “Whatever your relationship is, HIPAA says that once the patient woke up, it’s up to him who gets to know what and he says you are out of the loop.” She glanced pointedly at the door. “And hospital policy is that if you aren’t a patient yourself or visiting a patient, that you need to leave.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, wiped my tears on the tail of my untucked shirt, and lied through my teeth, “I understand.” I glanced over at the side table by the chair I’d been resting in and had to fight back another wave of tears when I saw it was empty. “I need my bag. I left it in his room.”
One of the guards silently held the brightly-patterned tote bag out to me.
“Thank you.” I straightened my shoulders and held my head high as I walked out the door. I headed for the elevator that would deposit me at the exit to a world I wasn’t even sure I wanted to rejoin.
With no other choice, I left the hospital and made my way to the taxi stand near the emergency entrance. After giving the driver the address to the tasteful country estate we’d purchased three decades earlier, I leaned back in the seat and allowed my tears to fall.
