Chapter 211


    THREE MONTHS AGO


    AARON


    A tray of food appears at my elbow, and I blearily nce up at James, who stares down at me with the


    same sad, sympathetic expression everyone gives me these days.


    “When was thest time you slept properly?” James asks. “You look like s hit.”


    I try to remember when I got anything more than a short doze in between dealing with the packs, the


    businesses and spending every other waiting momenting back to Leah’s bedside over and over


    Ccontent ? exclusive by N?/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.


    again.


    My mate.


    And our son, growing in her belly, getting bigger and stronger everyday.


    I reach over and lightly ce my hand on her swollen belly,


    wishing for the millionth time that Leah could be awake to


    witness the miracle going on within her beautiful body.


    up.


    We don’t even know if she will wake up.


    I’ve started thinking that night in the warehouse, with Leah already being dead, maybe her soul left her


    body, and when I imed her and unbound her wolf, that was enough to keep her body alive, but the


    Leah I know and love is gone from this world.


    I don’t know what I’m supposed to do without her.


    I don’t know how I’m meant to raise our son without her.


    I hate that she’s existing in this kind of half-life and wish it would end, wonder if maybe when the baby


    is born, we shouldn’t do the kinder thing in taking her off all the machines and letting her go.


    But hope that one day she’ll open her eyes and smile up at me


    stubbornly clings on inside my heart and soul


    “I don’t remember,” I tell James, answering his question about


    when Ist slept properly.


    James starts to answer-probably going to tell me to go to bed


    for the millionth time-but an rm starts up in the machines


    monitoring Leah.


    my feet as Adam rushes in.


    “What’s happening?” I demand, fearful of what this could


    mean.


    At first, Adam also seems to be in a panic, but then I see the apprehension change to something else.


    He grins at me as he starts making adjustments to the machine and switches off the rm.


    “Leah is having contractions,” Adam says, and for a second, my tired mind doesn’t connect all the dots.


    “You mean-” I stutter out.


    Adam nods. “Leah is going intobor.”


    I’m both excited and utterly terrified all in the same instance.


    “But it’s too early! She’s only seven and a half months!”


    Adam shrugs. “It’s not ideal, but the baby is thirty-one weeks, he can survive in the NICU. I’ve given her


    some doses of steroids to make sure the baby’s lungs are more fully developed, to increase his chance


    of survival. We knew this


    was a probability, Aaron. It’s rare for women inas to sessfully carry pregnancies to term. Quite


    frankly, we’re lucky she made it this far.”


    Okay, so my unconscious wife is inbor.


    My son is about to enter the world.


    “What do we do?” I ask Adam.


    “We need to transfer her to my hospital for a start. They’re


    expecting us. A medivac helicopter can be here within twenty


    minutes.”


    Adames over and stops in front of me.


    “You’re about to be a father, Alpha Rathborn. Congrattions.”