Page 115 of Awakening

One of the security guards joins him at the end of the aisle. “Austin. Come on, man. You don’t want to do this. Listen to me. I’m your friend. I can help you.”

Austin turns to him with a snarl. “It’s too fucking late for that! Look at me! I’m too weak to even fucking shift!” He then turns to the guests and releases a guttural roar. The room seems to stand frozen in time as we all await his next move.

Lance takes a step forward. “Just leave now, Austin. Be smart about this.”

“Fuck all of you! You’ve ruined my life!” A split second. That’s all it takes for him to raise the gun. Every guard around Austin draws their guns as he aims and fires. I hear myself scream and I hit the floor as Ethan pushes me out of the way.

“You got him, Nick,” I hear someone shout.

The next thing I know, Nick is by my side. “Olivia, are you hurt?”

“No…I…I don’t think so.” He nods, looking satisfied, and then gestures to Chloe. “Stay with her,” he says. That’s when I see Ethan lying on the ground in front of me. He’s not moving and blood is rapidly soaking the front of his white shirt. There’s so much blood.

“Ethan?” I whisper as my entire body begins to shake. “Ethan?” I say a little louder. “Ethan! Ethan! No! Ethan!” I lunge forward, unleashing a blood-curdling scream as I try to get to him while Chloe holds me back. Nick yanks Ethan’s tie loose and rips open his shirt as buttons go flying across the room.

“Chloe, please take care of her so we can help him!” Nick yells. Chloe wraps her arms around me, pulling me back as I scream uncontrollably, and tears pour down my face.

“It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay,” Chloe says on repeat as she hugs me tight to hold me back as she spills tears of her own.

“Hey, look at me, Liv,” Vanessa says, standing in front of me with her hands cupping my face. I let out a strangled cry as her face contorts with tears of her own. “Listen to me. This is my stubborn as hell brother, Liv. You know his strength. He’s going to be okay. He’s not going to leave you. Okay? He’s not going to leave us,” she says, pulling me from Chloe’s arms into her own as we sob together.

“Fuck,” Nick says.

“It’s his heart,” Max says as he begins CPR.

“What? No! No!” I break free from Vanessa’s hold and lunge for him, but Nick holds me back.

The chaos in the room is a blur, and any sound around me turns into a dull hum. Minutes go by and an ambulance arrives. Paramedics join Max at Ethan’s side and take over CPR while Max communicates with the hospital, ensuring that everything is made ready for their Alpha’s arrival. Chloe and Vanessa both have their arms around me, trying to console me, but I don’t hear a word they say. Edwin holds Caroline to his chest in front of Ethan as she cries.

“We got a pulse,” Max yells. “Let’s go!” They lift him onto a gurney and race off down the aisle with him.

“Wait!” I jump up and try to chase after them.

Nick steps in front of me, blocking my path. He rests his hands on my shoulders. “There won’t be room in the ambulance, Liv. I’m sorry, but they need space to work. We’ll take you,” he says, nodding to Chloe, and she guides me out of the ballroom.

Thirty

Olivia

Idon’t remember arriving at the hospital. My limbs are heavy and numb as I sit in the private waiting room, still in my blood-spattered, silk wedding dress. Ethan took the bullet that would have hit me instead. He saved my life tonight, and the lives of our babies. I can’t lose him. This is what I’ve always feared. I already know how it feels to have my world ripped out from under me in the blink of an eye. I won’t survive it this time. He’s my whole world. My everything.

“He’s going to be okay, Olivia,” Chloe says, sitting down next to me and taking my hand. “I just know he is.”

“It was his heart, Chloe,” I say as tears soak my cheeks again. We may be extraordinarily fast healers, but we aren’t invincible, and we certainly aren’t immortal. I stand and walk over to look out the large windows into the dark night sky, and Chloe follows me. I look down at my stomach. We have two babies to raise. I double over, clenching my stomach as I sob. What am I going to do if he doesn’t pull through this?

“What’s wrong? Do you feel sick?” Chloe says. Her hand goes to my stomach.

I shake my head. “No, that’s not it.” I look over at her and break into heaving sobs. “I have to tell you something,” I whisper, then look around. “In private.”

“Okay,” she says, and then guides me down a hallway to an unoccupied waiting room. “What’s going on?” I start to cry hard again, and she rubs my back.

“I’m pregnant.”

She gasps and her hand pauses in the middle of my back. “Oh, Liv. Does Ethan know?”

“Yes. We were waiting until I’m visibly pregnant to tell anyone.”

“He’s going to pull through this, especially if he knows there’s a baby.”

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