Chapter Twenty Two
THANE
I remained in the garden. Maybe this hadn’t been the right time to tell her about Bella.
She was right.
While I didn’t love Bella anymore, I still cared, and it felt wrong.
At that moment, I felt like something was wrong. It had been pure instincts but I felt the need to check up on Riley so I hurried back to the room we shared.
She might need her space, but she was pregnant, and she needed company, just in case anything happened…
She wasn’t in the room.
I moved to the bathroom, and there I saw the blood on the tile.
Damn.
I had been heading to the healers when I met Daisy halfway there.
“What’s wrong?”
“The Luna is in labor.”
That’s all it took, and I was sprinting to the healing room.
Riley had been placed on the bed; sweat coated her face – maybe it was tears. I walked to her holding her hands in mine.
“You are going to be fine.” I assured her.
“It’s not yet time; I don’t know why this is happening to me.”
“We will get through this together, okay.” I said to her, and she nodded.
I noticed her head had been wrapped with a bandage. I didn’t ask her about it; she was in enough stress, but from the bloodstains on the bathroom floor, it was clear that she might have tripped.
“I’m sorry about all those things I said to you earlier in the garden.”
“It’s okay; let’s not talk about that right now.”
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I kissed her knuckles.
“I am so afraid, Thane; I don’t want anything to happen to the baby…”
She gasped in pain.
“Do something,” I said to the healers.
“She’s expressing contractions; it’s normal.”
“I don’t want her in pain.”
At this point I didn’t care what they had to do.
Daisy walked in.
“Alpha, I need to speak to you.”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“It would only be a few minutes; she would be fine.”
I followed her out, but all I could think about was Riley in that room, in pain, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
“Riley had a bit of an accident; we suspect she might have a slight concussion but that’s the least of our worries. I had to tell you this alone because I didn’t want to give her any more anxiety than she already has. But the Luna has only a fifty–fifty survival rate.”
“She will survive.‘
There wasn’t just any other option; she had to.
Daisy nodded. “I’ll advise you to wait outside; the healers might not be able to work under pressure.”
“I need to be there with her.”
“I wouldn’t advise that, Alpha; we are going to do our very best.” She promised.
I waited outside, but it took everything in me to do that. I heard her cries.
“Make it stop,” she pleaded as the healers forced her to ‘push‘.
The minutes drew on, and the hours felt more like days; my patience was running
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Chapter Twenty Two
out.
Finally Daisy walked out; I couldn’t read her face, and she took a moment too long to speak. “The child had been delivered. It’s a boy.”
“What about Riley?”
“She is not doing very well. We would give her some medications, and hopefully she gets better. For the next few months, the child would have to complete his growth in a child pod, what the humans call an ‘incubator.”
Riley was asleep; I took my position by her side and held her hands.
“You were really strong today; I had no doubt you would make it.” I said to her, her fingers moved slightly. “The baby would be fine too, it’s a boy; you don’t have to worry about anything.”
I waited for her to wake; it took almost a day, but finally she opened her eyes.
but I picked up the glass of water which had been placed on the stand beside her bed, gently lifting her head up so she could take down some. She could barely move, she was going to get better.
