I should be studying for finals week lol
but I would rather update for you guys
how's your life going? Who has finals this upcoming week?
Chapter Twenty Three
D O M I N I C
To see Caroline like this was more painful than anything I had gone through in my life. The only sign she was alright was the warmth of her soft skin and the regular breathing. She wasn't always like this though. Her body was repeatedly wracked with fits of coughing and her skin would become clammy. The heart monitor would start wigging out and the doctor and nurse would burst in to try and sedate her.
At least she wasn't dying. That much I knew. If she were, I would be able to feel it. There would be a burning in my chest, my wolf would be extremely upset. He was upset now, of course. He didn't enjoy seeing his mate limp and lifeless for almost two days, but the doctor was sure she would wake up soon.
I held her little hand tightly between mine, kissing her knuckles gently. The worst of it all was the breathing apparatus strapped to her face. When she began coughing, it meant that her throat was closing up, so the breathing tube helped a bit to keep oxygen cycling through her. We knew thus far that the irritation began at her neck, and I feared it had something to do with the mark.
An hour passed before the doctor returned, this time with an old friend of mine. She was one of the last living naturalist doctors for the Shifter nation. She called upon spirits of the world, of mother nature, to heal and for answers to ailments. Humans would probably call her a witch doctor of some sort, but that wasn't quite right in Shifter terms.
"I have seen this before," she announced happily the moment she walked in. The fact that she wasn't worried calmed me extremely. Zara Begay was an old woman in her eighties, her back starting to hunch. Just from looking at her, you would think she was frail, but she was one of the strongest women I knew. Zara was the kind of person you wanted to be on your side, not against you.
"And?" I prodded. "She'll be alright, Zara?"
Zara nodded, leaning over my mate. "Your human will be alright. Her body is just rejecting the mark, but the mark does not want to be denied. Strangely, I have only seen it in situations where a mark can been forcefully given and without consent. So I am unsure why she would-"
The old woman paused, staring intensely at me. Either something in my expression changed enough she caught it or her connection to the spirits were giving me away. The next thing I knew, Zara was repeatedly smacking the back of my head. "You are an idiot," she said simply. "Almost undeserving of her to bear your mark. Almost."
This woman was probably the only one I would let hit me. Mostly because she was vital to the health of many individuals in our pack, including my own mother. Many people felt Zara was a godmother of sorts, and I was no different.
"Your little mate will wake up today, but only for a few minutes. When she does, remove the tube long enough to feed her. Right now she needs nutrients to keep her strength up while her body fights itself and fights the mark. Within a couple days she will almost be back to normal, slightly tired though," Zara explained, patting Caroline's hand gently. "The spirits like this one."
This peaked my interest. "Is that right? What are they saying?"
"That you're a fool for forcing your mark on her," Zara retorted sharply. "They like Caroline's fight. She has a strength that comes from a dark past, one with great loss. It is a strength that is not as visible. But it is there nonetheless. The spirits hope you do not smother that strength with the dominance and ignorance that alpha's inevitably display."
I sighed, kissing Caroline's hand again before entwining our fingers. "Her parents were killed by rogues a long time ago, so she was taken into a pack and raised there."
The healer bobbed her head slowly, eyes shutting. "Yes. The spirits remember that loss. It was not part of her original destiny, they say. But fate is not so straight as one may believe. New paths are chosen each day."
"Was the death of her parents the path needed to bring her to me?" I tested.
Zara snorted, rolling her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, boy."
~ ~ ~
I slept at her bedside for the third night in a row, my head resting beside her hand, which was usually connected somehow with one of mine. The sensation of her hand tensing up woke me, but my first thought was that she was about to have a coughing attack. When my head snapped up, her eyes were wide and afraid and she was about to try and pull the tube from her throat.
My arm shot out and pinned her wrist to the hospital bed, making her let out a pitiful whine, her body squirming. "Good morning, beautiful," I hummed, trying to remain calm to benefit the both of us. "Listen to me, Caroline. The tube was helping you breathe. The doctors have to remove it. We'll get it out right now, okay? Just calm down. Don't touch it."
I pressed the call button for the nurse and doctor to come in, but it took them a couple minutes so they must have been asleep. I had to hold Caroline down, who was determined she could take it out herself. I held her close as they delicately pulled the tube from her throat, watching as her eyes filled with tears and she whimpered. I shushed her, pushing her hair from her forehead and kissing her face repeatedly. As it was removed, Cara began coughing, but it was a mild cough. Nothing like the attack she had been having the last couple days.
"Dominic-" she rasped, stopping when she heard how hoarse her voice was. Caroline's eyes widened in surprise and sadness.
"It's okay. Don't talk just yet. We'll get you some water and that might help. But then you have to eat, okay? Eating is most important right now because you've been asleep for a long time and missed a lot of calories."
I picked up the water cup I had kept on standby since Zara arrived, holding it to her lips. Caroline pushed my hands away so she could do it herself, which was somewhat of a calming gesture. There's the Caroline I knew. The water was gone in seconds but ended up she coughing wildly, enough to lose her grip on the cup into her lap.
The doctor left shortly and came back in, the nurse following shortly behind with a cart that had food on top for Caroline, plus lots of water, which seemed to be the only part she was interested in. "Hello, Caroline. We were waiting for you to wake up. How are you doing?"
"G-good," she replied curtly, voice still raspy. Most likely from the tube and its removal. "Can I h-have mo-more water please?"
"One more glass and then you need to start eating," I told her, filling up her empty cup almost to the brim.
I know I said one more glass, but I ended up giving her two or three before forcing her to eat. The doctor didn't give her much, just a sandwich and a small fruit cup. They were concerned about giving her too much food and about the food irritating her throat again. It was laughable how she was shoveling food into her mouth, uncaring about if it got around her mouth. So I kept a napkin and kept wiping her cheeks and chin.
"I'm okay," she muttered, growing increasingly annoyed by my constant care.
"I've sat here the whole time, Caroline. It would soothe me and my wolf very much if you would let me take care of you."
The nurse cleared her throat from her place on the other side of the bed. She was checking all of Caroline's vitals. "It would also help your neck as well. Calm the disruption that your bond has had over the last couple of days," she explained. "Your vitals are all stabilizing, just as Zara predicted. You look much better, more alive. Alpha, you should be able to take her to her room as soon as you both are ready. I will take out the IV now and begin to unhook you from all of the machines. But she is more than welcome to stay another night."
I gazed down at my sweet girl, who I could tell was getting sleepy again. "Do you want to be in a real bed or in here?"
Caroline blinked slowly at me before thrusting her arms out. "Real bed." With a chuckle, I waited for all of her body parts to be unraveled from medical cords before scooping her up against my chest. "What happened to me?" she asked, burying her face in my neck. Her lashes tickled my skin, her soft breathing creating goosebumps across my flesh. The mark was definitely working hard now. The connection had been so close to severing that it was now strengthened and would be much more powerful until we completed the bond.
"I will explain next time you wake up."
"Am I dying?"
I snickered, starting up the steps. "You think that if you were dying, I would be unplugging you from those machines?"
She sighed deeply, snuggling closer to me. "If... If there wasn't anything you could do, maybe."
"You aren't dying, Caroline. We've got you perfectly taken care of, I promise. Go to sleep now."
Caroline nodded slowly, letting me lay her down in my bed. Normally she made some sort of face when I did this, but I think she was much too tired to do so. Instead, Caroline cuddled into the pillows and huffed out a low breath. "Scoot over, sugar."
My mate obeyed automatically, rolling away enough that I could slide in next to her. I watched with a warm smile as her arms wrapped around a pillow and hugged it to her chest, eyes remaining closed. "You gave me quite a scare these last couple days, Cara. Don't do anything like this again, please, not to me."
"Yes, sir," she muttered.
I leaned over her to kiss her cheek, expecting her to move away from me like normal, but the corner of her mouth curled up, so slightly that I doubt even she noticed, but it was enough to give me hope. "Goodnight, pretty girl."