LOGINElliot POVThe machines in the room did not seem loud anymore. The smell of the hospital was gone, replaced by something nice instead. It was Sebastian's smell, like cedarwood and cold mint. It was around us, making me feel safe.The nurse was very quiet as she moved around the incubator.She spoke softly as she worked. "When they were fixing the cut inside you, they saw that you were not getting oxygen. So they had to deliver the babies right away while they were still fixing you."I looked at the plastic dome of the machine. My throat was dry. My voice was still very weak. "Did they... Did they both make it?"The nurse opened the doors on the side of the incubator. "They are both very tiny. They have strong heartbeats, Captain. They are fighters. The second one had some trouble. Sebastian's smell helped him get better. They are doing okay now."She reached into the light of the incubator.When she turned back to me, she was holding two bundles. They were so small that she could hold
Elliot POVThe nurse's words hung in the air.The nurse sounded really upset. "The twin... His heart is not doing well."I felt like I could not breathe. I looked down at the baby boy on my chest. He was so small. His hand was under his chin. He felt warm. He felt like a person. The nurse's words did not make sense to me."Twin?" Sebastian stood up, his voice low and angry. His chair made a loud noise on the floor. "What are you talking about? We only have one baby. The doctors told us that.""The doctors were wrong." The nurse did not wait for us to say anything. She ran out of the room, leaving the doors open. "The second baby was hiding behind the first one. We did not see him on the ultrasound. We just delivered him. He is very small. He is in the other room."Everything was quiet for a moment. Then it was not.I heard a beeping noise from the other room. It was a different sound than the one in my room. It was fast and scared.I tried to sit up. It hurt a lot. I felt a pain in my
Elliot POVWhite.The first thing I saw. A flat, blinding expanse of white plaster ceiling.I tried to blink. My eyelids felt heavy. They felt like they had sand in them. My tongue felt funny, too. It had a chemical taste. I took a breath, and a sharp pain shot through my side. My ribs locked up. A small gasp escaped my throat.My own voice sounded far away."Elliot."The voice was rough. It sounded like gravel scraping over concrete.I turned my head. It was hard to move. My neck muscles felt stiff. The room was small. A heart monitor was beeping steadily and an oxygen machine was hissing quietly. A clear plastic tube was in my nose, pushing air down my throat.Sebastian was sitting in a metal chair beside my bed.He looked smaller than usual. His broad shoulders were hunched forward. His head was resting against the edge of my mattress. His face was buried in the crook of his arm. He was still wearing his sweatpants, but they were dirty and smudged with grease. His dark hair was a m
Sebastian POVThe words hung in the air like frost."We did everything we could." The surgeon's voice was rough.My heart stopped. The blood in my veins turned cold. The corridor, the lights, the smell of bleach, all of it faded into a gray blur. My hands, dark with Elliot's blood, began to shake. I felt sweat on my forehead."What do you mean?" The words came out rough and broken. "Is he gone?"The doctor shook his head. He looked down at his boots, back at me. He looked like a man who had just been in a fight."Not yet." His voice was flat. "We're at a crisis point. The blade went deep. It hurt a vessel in his lower abdomen. He lost much blood. His oxygen levels are dropping. They can't keep him alive longer.""Then give him blood!" Taking a step forward, my boots clicked on the floor as I grabbed the front of his gown. "You have a bank. You have matching types. Use them!"The doctor didn't flinch. He just stared at me with his eyes."We are using them. We tried five lines. His syst
Sebastian POVThe helicopter blades cut through the night air with a roar.Wind blew across the hospital roof, carrying the smell of fuel and winter. The red and blue lights from the trauma team cast a glow on the wet ground.I held onto the side of the stretcher as we pulled Elliot out of the helicopter.His face was really pale. The bandages on him had red stains that got bigger every second. His hand felt like ice in mine. I did not let go. I kept holding, my boots making squeaking sounds on the wet ground as the medics ran to the hospital door."His blood pressure is dropping." One of the medics didn't look at me, keeping his fingers pressed to Elliot's neck. "We need to get him inside.""Get the operating room ready!" another medic shouted.They pushed through the doors. The warm air inside the hospital hit us. It smelled like bleach and fear.I ran with them, my chest protector on. My gear was heavy. I did not care. I just looked at Elliot's eyes. His eyelashes did not move. His
Sebastian POVThe red lights from the trucks flashed across the wet ground. It was really chaotic. Paramedics in yellow jackets were running around, their boots making splashing sounds in the water. Two men were trying to put my mate, Elliot, on an orange stretcher.I did not like that. I hit the paramedic with my elbow, and he fell back."Get back."The team leader yelled at me. "Sir, Elliot is really hurt. We need to help him."I did not care."I said get back."I took off my belt. Put it on the floor. Then I picked up Elliot. He was a grown man, but he felt really light. His head fell back against my shoulder. There was a lot of blood coming from his side. It soaked through my shirt.I started running toward the door. The rain hit me like a wall of water. The wind was loud. It sounded like an animal.I saw a helicopter. It was from the Wolfe Company. It was waiting for us. Aris was running ahead of me. He had a shotgun. He was making sure it was safe. The guards were holding the ga
Elliot POV For a few seconds, I could not move.I stood behind the curtain with my hand clenched in the fabric, staring down at the black SUV. The city moved around it, a motorbike passing, neon bleeding red across wet pavement, but none of it touched the hollow opening in my chest. Inside that ca
Elliot POV By the time my teammates came back into the locker room, I had my expression under control.That was the only part of me I controlled. My skin felt wrong in a way that had nothing to do with exhaustion, like a hand pressed flat against a crack in a dam with the pressure building steadil
Elliot POV There were many things I hated about Sebastian Wolfe, but the worst was the way he made silence feel crowded.The moment he turned that lock, the air in the empty room changed, thickening and pressing until every breath I took felt like I was breathing him in. I stood beside my locker i
Elliot POV I had learned a long time ago not to want things that could be taken. Hockey was the one exception I had allowed myself. I spent six years making sure no one ever found out why it cost me more than it cost anyone else.The arena was loud enough to shake the bones in my body. I could hea







