I returned her smile sheepishly and reopened the book with my left hand, my right returning to where Otto’s lay on the blanket covering him. “I didn’t mean to seem ungrateful,” Iapologized. “It’s just that this book was so special to us, and I haven’t even thought of it in years.” I swallowed hard. “Um, do you really think he can hear me? That he knows what I’m saying? If he’s in a coma can he remember that he knows this story or is it all just noise?”
“There’s a lot we still don’t know about comas and we don’t really know the answers to all of those questions, but there are a lot of stories about memories seeming to trigger patients to wake up, so I think there’s a good chance that Otto can hear and understand you.” She shrugged. “The only way we’ll really ever know for sure is if he tells us, love.”
She was barely finished speaking when the Alpha pheromones that had been barely present in the room while Otto was unconscious began to increase. Then, the fingers under mine twitched and my heart leaped in my chest, the pressure was light, but Otto was squeezing my hand.
I gasped and looked down at him, swallowing when I saw a single tear tracking down his left cheek.
Was he really waking up?
Oh, dear god, please let Otto be waking up!
~*~
Otto
The holes in my memory were almost more frustrating than being trapped in my body, able to hear everything around me but unable to communicate or interact with the world. With little else to do, Iabsorbed every word I heard, gleaning the information I could and trying to slot it into the puzzle of my situation.
Having Dex visiting again, hearing his voice, feeling his skin on mine when he held my hand settled some of the anxiety inside me but not all of it. Especially when some of the information I received spurred my Alpha instincts to bethere,to be able to comfort and protect my Omega in all the ways he should be able to expect from me.
There is a library in the lobby in case you want to read to your husband.
Dex and I were married? When? Why couldn’t I remember?
You’re eating for two, remember.
Did that mean Dex was pregnant? How could I possibly have forgotten not just marrying the Omega I always loved but also creating another life, our child with him? Why couldn’t I remember?
Until there was talk of husbands and pregnancies, the bear inside me had been content to slumber, almost the way he did during the cold months when he hibernated just beneath the surface, only pushing forward when I insisted on it but now he was waking up. Slowly, languidly at first. Stretching and yawning, pushing me to inhale deeper to test the air, and then snarling when the tube in my throat kept me from cooperating.
Then fucking help me!I growled back when he snarled again.I’m stuck in here, too. Neither of us is protecting our family while we’re frozen!
I felt the slight twitch on the sides of my head as the bear’s ears flicked forward, listening intently even though the only conversation in the room was about the story Dex had been reading me.
The bear was fully alert now and I could feel him drawing our energy in, sending a wave of Alpha power through my body that would have made me weep in relief if I had been able. As it was, I could feel wetness on my face that told me some tears had escaped.
Shaking his head, the bear stretched again, this time flexing his paws one at a time, the power surging painfully through my cramped muscles. Drawing on every iota of reserve energy, I put all of my focus into a single act and tightened my fingers on the hand holding mine.
Dex gasped. “Otto?” His voice rose sharply. “Did you see that? He moved his hand! He squeezed my fingers!” There was a sudden weight on my chest and the sweet, clean scent that was all Dexter Boreal surrounded me, filling my nose and soothing the bear. “Otto? Can you hear me?”
“Easy, love,” the other voice said gently as Dex’s weight was pulled off me. “Don’t smother him. Let me get the doctor, okay?”
“Oh, right. Of course.” I could hear the tears in Dex’s voice. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be,” the nurse assured him. “Let’s just make sure that everything is okay and see if there’s a way for us to help him wake up more. Until then, you keep on holding his hand and talking to him, hm?”
Dex sniffled a small laugh, wrapping his fingers more tightly around mine. “Yeah, I can do that.”
The door made the open-close clicks and after a long silence, Dex started talking to me again. “Otto, I don’t know if you want me here. Or if you can actually even hear me, to be honest, but if youcanhear me will you please, please come back to me? We..I need you to wake up!”
The air shifted around me and the mattress dipped under my left side, telling me that Dex had sat beside me on the bed. “Oh, hell. Are you crying? Otto? Are you crying?”
The gentlest of touches ghosted over my cheek, brushing away the wetness there. “I know you might not believe me, Otto, but I love you and I need you.”
Inside me, the bear flexed again, and I managed to focus the energy enough to force my eyelids open, regretting it at once when the light stung my eyes and they slammed closed.
“Otto?”
I called on the bear’s strength once more and inched them open a tiny bit, managing to keep them open despite the light and drank in the handsome, tear-stained face staring down at me. I forced my lips to move, but with the tube in my throat no sound came out.
