Page 101 of The Bratva's Beast

Good night.

Chapter 50

Hanna

Beep... Beep... Beep

Oh my God, someone shut it up!

I barely made out the annoying machine next to my bedside through my half-opened eyes. "I'm alive, so shut it up." I groaned through my scratchy throat.

"Oh, Hanna!" Pressure tightened around my body. "Don't fucking scare me like that again." Angel's familiar voice sobbed against my chest.

"Heavy, off," I demanded with a weak smack to Angel's arm.

Angel scrambled off before adjusting the bed so I was slightly upright, then she shoved a straw into my mouth and made me sip at some fluids. "Both you and Stepan need to be locked away in your house, I swear." She fretted over me.

Giving out a weak, raspy chuckle, I reached over and took her hand in mine. "Shouldn't you be the one in bed resting? Or are you being a bad patient yourself and disobeying doctor's orders?" She was about ready to pop, or at least ready to be popped.

"You know what they say, nurses make the worst patients." She joked after cracking a smile.

I joked back with a raised eyebrow. "Nikolai let you out?" Her husband worried about her pregnancy more than her. If anything, she was the one who complained about the father of her children being insufferable.

"I don't need permission from him to do jack shit," Angel remarked with a tilt of her chin.

"Oh, really now?" Nikolai's amused voice made Angel's face drop.

"Anh, honey," Angel giggled sheepishly with a nervous grin.

"Bedroom, now." He growled in response, darkening his gaze at her.

Angel immediately hung her head regretfully, giving me a quick apologetic look before returning to Nikolai. "Yes, sir." She meekly shuffled her feet out of the medical suite, leaving me alone briefly before Alexei showed up.

"How are you feeling?" Calm and professional like always.

"Like I got stabbed." I quipped back with a sarcastic smile, earning a flat look from him. "I don't know, okay? Still feel weak and groggy, but other than that okay ish? I guess? I wasn't out for long, was I?"

"You were only out for a day, which isn't too bad considering the surgery and amount of blood you lost. I'm going to keep you here for a few days though to monitor you to make sure you're fine before releasing you into Stepan's care. Stepan will be by soon, we made him leave to go wash up and eat before he needed a bed himself for passing out. Judging by the look on your face though, you have another question?" Alexei stopped his exam to look at me with a flat expression.

"Nothing got too damaged, right? Getting stabbed in the stomach like this won't affect my ability to have kids, will it?" I couldn't hold back the wariness in my voice as I placed my hands over my stomach.

"It shouldn't, no, but if you do get pregnant then you'd just have to be closely monitored," Alexei assured me with his typical distanced smile that did little to damper the immense relief I felt from the news.

Once he was done with his assessment, he left me to my own empty thoughts until Stepan showed up minutes later with the brightest smile I'd seen in a while. Stepan was careful with his hug, not wanting to pop my stitches. "Malen'kaya tigritsa, fuck you had me so worried. We lost her, we tracked her to the docks, but then she went off the map after that."

"It's okay, she's bound to rear her ugly head sooner or later, and we'll catch her then. Let's not talk about her or any of that right now, I just want to enjoy this moment." I spoke into his neck before taking in deep breaths of him into my system.

As much as I hated her being in the wind, I didn't want to worry about Lilian or anything related to her. It's not like we could do much in our states anyway. Nikolai and Angel had to give the bulk of their attention and forces into maintaining the peace with the newly acquired territories to spare much help to us, and Stepan and I were far from tiptop shape after the recent shit we've been put through. It was going to be a few months before I could be fully functional again because of this stupid wound, and Stepan still had quite a bit of healing to do himself.

"Well, guess we're going to be stuck at home for another long while." Stepan chuckled, attempting to lighten up the mood.

The thought of being housebound with Stepan for the next few months had me groaning in complaint. Again, don't get me wrong, I love Stepan, but by God he was an insufferable man after so long without a break in between. I might work for him, but at least during our office hours, I was physically away from him. Granted, I could move my home office out of his and into a different room, but I doubt he'd fly by with that idea.

Also, I'm sure Stepan was just as sick of me but didn't make it known. "Don't worry, you'll have your peace with me away from the house. I'm gonna head back into the office part-time in a few weeks, then full-time again when you don't need much assistance." He assured me with a sly smirk.

"Thank fucking God." I groaned under my breath before looking at him with tired but happy eyes. "I love you, hon, but you're exhausting to be around twenty-four-seven with no breaks."

"The feeling is mutual, no offense. I love you, but seeing you all irritated and snappy gets me in a mood." At least we agreed on that, and surprisingly, I wasn't too offended by him.

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