Part 1: Chapter 35

Nikolai

The beeping of the monitors drowns Caterina’s voice out as she comforts me, but I only have eyes for my mate lying lifeless on that hospital bed. It’s odd that I find myself in a room where humans come to heal when they’re injured. But we’re werewolves; we’re supposed to recover in record time… but Nova doesn’t have her wolf yet, so she’s still devastatingly human.

Caterina mentions something about Nova’s wolf being silent as well, then takes my silence as a hint and leaves the room. I slowly walk over to where she lay and sit down on the stool next to the bed, my heart not yet registering that this is the woman I love. I take her hand in mine and hold it against my cheek, and something occurs to me then.

There’s no light in this body, no giggles or smart ass answers to my questions, no warmth in her skin. She simply /is/ - and it kills me.

“Nova,” I breathe out her name as I hold her hand in mine and draw it to my forehead, wishing she would answer me with ‘Nickybabe.’ But