CHAPTER TEN

~MARCEL~

THE HOSPITAL WAS a small grey building on the edge of the nearest town. I pulled up in front of the doors so hard the car rocked.

I approached the desk nurse, who was an elderly Matron.

"Hello sir, can we help you?" She asked, flashing me a smile.

I nodded. "A woman was brought in today. She was going into labor."

The smile faded a degree. “Are you family? Her husband?”

I began to shake my head but stopped myself. "I am her husband, yes. She was brought here by my sister."

"You should have had her registered, sir," the nurse said. "We did not have any antenatal records or anything..."

"We only just moved into the area," I gave her a tight smile. "It happened by surprise..."

“Your name, sir? Her date of birth? Insurance—”

Bruce stepped up beside me. “I will handle the forms,” he said, in the calm Beta voice that could talk a river back uphill. He slid a card across the counter, the same company card that owned the land beneath our feet. Then he gestured to me with his head.

“Sir, you can not go back there—”

Jane stood in the inner corridor with blood on her sleeves, and her phone clutched in a white fist. When she saw me, her face crumpled.

“They took her in,” she said. “They cannot find the baby’s heartbeat.”

"Take me to her," I said.

"Sir, you cannot—" the nurses tried to stop me, but I barreled them aside and followed Jane into the inner ward.

"I think it might have something to do with her wolf spirit," Jane said softly. "She was already a pretty weak Luna, and this is a life-threatening situation, Marcel."

I clenched my jaw as we went through another set of doors.

"She had been cut away from her pack for the past five months and had basically been a prisoner."

"I let her go for morning walks," I growled.

My beast snarled in my head. "That was not nearly enough. Your stubbornness will cost us our mate..."

I silenced him.

"You know what I mean, brother," she said as we made a final turn and saw the theatre room.

I could hear Elara now. She was groaning in pain. I could hear the soft muttering of the doctors.

"We might have to cut the child out... she can't push."

"Scalpel."

My vision was a haze now. Everything was blurred out, and I could not hear anything except the beeping of the machine in the theatre and Elara's ragged breathing.

Things moved in slow motion as I kicked open the door. The doctors turned sharply, scalpel in hand, and ready to cut her open. Their eyes widened as I imagined the sight before them: a six-foot-seven man with bloodshot tired eyes and a stubble, looking like a homeless hobo, bearing down on them.

"Step aside!" I growled.

They immediately shuffled aside, clearing the way.

Elara lay on the bed. Her stomach and legs were covered by a tent-like canvas. Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat, and she groaned weakly. The contractions were slowly squeezing the life out of her, and her blood pooled at the feet of the bed.

"Oh goddess," Jane whispered behind me. "She is dying."

I vaguely heard Bruce's voice. "Marcel..." he said, but I was moving already. I reached the bed in three strides. It was worse than I had imagined. Her skin was grey, Her lips were cracked. Her eyes were half closed, and her breath came in shallow gasps. The monitor beside her bed was beeping slowly.

"Her vitals are dropping," one of the doctors said. He was a small man, balding, and his hands were shaking. "We need to operate now, or we lose them both."

"Then operate," I snarled.

"We cannot." He swallowed. "She is rejecting anesthesia, and she is too weak to push. We have tried everything—"

"Not everything." I looked down at Elara. My gaze drifted to her hand, lying limp on the sheet.

I knew what I had to do. It was not something I had ever done before, but I had read about it in the old books. An alpha could share his strength with another wolf, but only if that wolf was part of his pack. Or if she was his mate.

Elara was not a part of my pack. She was the granddaughter of the man who had destroyed my family, but she could also my mate... and she was dying.

I reached down and took her hand. Her fingers were cold. "Elara," I said. My voice was rough. "Elara, can you hear me?"

Her eyes moved beneath her lids. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

"I need you to listen to me." I leaned closer, close enough that my mouth was almost at her ear. "Elara Grogel," I said, and my voice was low, my lips brushing her ear softly. "I, Marcel, Alpha of the Silverblood pack, invite you to join us. I offer you my protection. I offer you my strength. I offer you my blood and my bone and my breath." I paused. "Do you accept?"

She did not answer.

“Eighty over fifty,” the doctor said. “... seventy...”

"Elara." I squeezed her hand. "Elara, I need you to accept. Just nod." Her hand was going limp in mine. The monitor was beeping faster and louder now. Jane was saying something behind me.

"Nod," I snarled. "Nod, damn you."

And she did. It was the smallest movement so slight that I might have imagined it, but I felt it. The bond snapped in place like a lock turning.

I gasped. My wolf surged forward as I felt my strength pour out of me and into her. Color flooded into her face. The monitor beside her became steadier, and the doctors stared at it with their mouths open.

"What..." one of them started.

"Resume your job," I snarled. "Now."

****

The doctors worked quickly. "Push," one of them said. "I need you to push."

With the strength she took from me, she pushed, screaming at the top of her voice as the baby came out of her. There was a hush of silence for a few second, and then the thin cry of a baby rang out.

It was tiny, red, and wriggling. Jane let out a sound that was half sob and half laugh.

"It is a girl," the doctor said. "A healthy girl."

Jane burst into tears. Bruce was smiling. The nurses were laughing with relief and delight as they cleaned the baby.

"She is going to be fine," Jane said, wiping her eyes.

Then, one of the nurses came toward me, and in her arms was a bundle of cloth, and in the cloth was a small, wrinkled, furious face.

"Would you like to hold her before she is placed in the incubator for monitoring, sir?" she asked.

I stared at the bundle with uncertainty. I had never held a baby before, but i had spent the last six months thinking about this child was the reason I could not kill its mother.

But now, looking at it, I felt nothing of that. I reached out and took the bundle, and the nurse placed it in my arms, and I looked down at the tiny face.

A thin mop of dark hair plastered to her head. Her mouth opened in a yawn too large for her face, and one tiny hand curled around my finger and held on.

She was the smallest thing I had ever held.

My beast purred in satisfaction, imprinting itself on the child.

I looked at the baby, and deep down, I knew. I came to terms with the fact that had been bugging my mind for months now.

I could not execute Elara. She was mine now, and so was the child.