Luka zoomed over to me and hooked his arms under my head, ripping the bindings off my hands.
Everything hurt, my vagina felt like it had been run over by a car, and my shoulder still throbbed from my healing bullet hole, but I couldn’t get one thing out of my head: “You love me?” I said, remembering his declaration to Cassara.
He nodded. “I do. Now please don’t die.”
Over the next five minutes I whimpered and shook in pain as he threw me into a helicopter and I was flown somewhere nearby. It had to be nearby, because after only a few minutes at the most, we were landing. I was pulled from the helicopter and placed onto a stretcher, fading in and out of consciousness.
It was the same doctor who had operated on me before, when I got injured in Portland. The werewolf one.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I told him through chattering teeth as my body convulsed.
The doctor shook his head. “Hang an IV, give her morphine, and prep the OR! She’s going into shock.”
Luka ran alongside the stretcher, his hand in mine, his eyes never leaving me.
“Aspen,” he croaked.
I looked up at him.
“It’s good that if you die, I die too, because I’ve come to realize I can’t live without you.” He stroked my cheek as they fitted a mask over my face.
It was the last thing I heard before the sweet smell of sleeping gas lulled the pain and invaded my mind, turning it into mush.
All I could think was … what a beautiful way to die.
Chapter Thirteen
I awoke to hushed voices.
Liv’s voice was the first I heard. “Will she still be able to have children?”
“She won’t be able to carry them,” the doctor’s voice called back to Liv, “but I was able to freeze two good looking eggs from her ovaries before I had to do the operation.” Shock bolted through my system. I felt woozy, tired, and confused, but those words made the morphine effects chase away in an instant.
“What’s happening?” My voice was warbled and I opened my eyes to see Luka’s face zoom in front of me. The look of relief that came over him melted my heart a little and I was reminded of his words.
I love her.
The doctor cleared his throat and then his face swam into view, along with Liv and my mother.
“Aspen, we are so glad to see you awake,” the doctor said.
“Why are we talking about freezing my eggs?” I asked, “Stop the morphine. I can’t think straight.” I shook my head, panic seizing me.
The doctor nodded and reached over to place a blue clip in my IV line, pinching it shut.
“Aspen, due to the extensive damage done by the stabbing incident—”
“Just tell me!” I sobbed.
He nodded. “I had to do a full hysterectomy. You will not be able to carry your own children. I also had to take your ovaries as their blood flow was compromised, but we have a state of the art fertility department here. My colleague was able to pull two intact eggs off of the ovary that I harvested. It gives you a shot at two children if you have a surrogate and do IVF.”
Holy shit. My head swam with this information. My hands went to my bandaged belly.
I’d never carry a baby? It was theone thingI’d wanted since I was a little girl. To be a mom, to be pregnant. Two kids, white picket fence.
A sob ripped from my throat, but then I cried out in pain because it only caused my stomach to contract.
“I’ll carry your future baby. My uterus is totally perfect,” Liv declared, tears running down her face.
