“No! LINA!”
I lunged toward her but the nurses held me back. Dr. Hartley shouted something I couldn’t hear over the roaring in my ears.
“Clear!”
They pushed me aside, positioned the paddles on Lina’s chest, and sent electricity through her body. She jerked on the table, her back arching, then went still again.
The monitor still showed a flatline.
“Again! Clear!”
Another shock. Another jerk. Another moment of terrible, endless silence.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything except stare at the woman I loved, watching her die right in front of me while I stood there completely helpless.
Tears were streaming down my face. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except Lina waking up, Lina’s heart beating, Lina being alive.
“Come on,” Dr. Hartley muttered, preparing for another shock. “Come on, Luna. Fight.”
“SAVE HER!” I roared, my voice echoing off the walls. “DO SOMETHING! SAVE MY MATE!”
“Alpha, please calm down or you’ll be escorted out of the room!”
A nurse was in front of me, her hands raised, her expression a mixture of fear and determination. I realized I’d been yelling. Screaming. Making demands that they couldn’t possibly fulfill because they were already doing everything in their power.
But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t control the primal terror that was consuming me, the wolf inside me howling with grief and rage and desperation.
“Please,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please save her. I can’t... I can’t lose her. I can’t.”
“We got a pulse!”
Dr. Hartley’s voice cut through my spiral. I looked at the monitor and saw it. A heartbeat. Weak and irregular, but there. Lina’s heart was beating again.
“Thank the goddess,” I whispered, my legs threatening to give out beneath me.
“To the surgery room, NOW!” Dr. Hartley ordered. The nurses immediately began moving, unlocking the wheels of Lina’s bed and rushing her toward the door. “We need to stop the internal bleeding and complete the delivery of the placenta. This can’t wait.”
I followed them, not willing to let Lina out of my sight. But Dr. Hartley stopped me at the doors to the surgical wing, her hand firm on my chest.
“Alpha, you can’t come any further.”
“The hell I can’t. That’s my mate in there.”
“And she needs surgery to survive. You cannot be in the operating room.” Her voice was firm but not unkind. “She’s bleeding internally. We have to operate to stop it and help with the afterbirth. It’s going to take some time, but I promise you, we are going to do everything in our power to save her.”
“And our daughter?”
“Your daughter is okay, but she’s still weak from being preterm. We’ll keep her under close watch in the NICU. The pediatric team is with her right now.” Dr. Hartley met my eyes, her expression serious. “Be patient, Alpha. I know that’s hard for you. But the best thing you can do for your mate right now is let us work. I’ll see you after the surgery.”
She didn’t wait for my response. She just turned and ran after the gurney that was disappearing down the hallway, through the doors that closed behind her with a sound of finality.
I stood there for a long moment, staring at those doors. My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. I could still feel Lina through the bond, faint and flickering, her presence a dim glow where it should have been a blazing fire.
She was alive. Barely. But alive.
I had to hold onto that.
I turned and walked back down the hallway, my steps unsteady. Everything felt surreal, like I was moving through a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from.
