Page 78 of Claiming Xan
She wore stained scrubs, her dark hair scraped into a tight bun, like she’d literally ushered everyone out of the vet’s office and flipped the sign to closed and come straight here—and hell, she probably had. If there was one thing I knew about Gracie Howell, it was that family came first.
Her expression was tight and sorrowful, filled with regret. She gently rubbed my back. “I’m so sorry, River,” she murmured. “It seems I judged the wrong twin.”
I let out a broken, humorless laugh. “I don’t even care. So long as Xan and the baby are okay, I don’t care,” I uttered.Please, let them be okay…I might actually lose myself if Xan died.
Gracie squeezed my arm, as if she could tell exactly what I was thinking. “My Xanny’s a fighter. He’ll pull through,” she promised me. “Us Howells always do. Can I get you anything to drink? Coffee? Water?”
“Water,” I said. “Please.”
She strode off towards the nearest vending machine and when she came back, it was with two bottles of water and a small baggie of Doritos. She sat down beside me and offered a sympathetic smile.
And we waited.
45
XAN
I came aroundto the steady beep-beep of a machine somewhere nearby, and the soft hush of voices talking in low tones.
My first thought was that my body felt…strangely heavy. I shifted, prying first one eye open and then the other, and glanced around groggily.
The room was white. Sunlight streamed through the blinds, hitting the floor in pale bars. I closed my eyes against the assault on my senses. It smelled too clean. Bleach-y. It made my nose hurt.
Was I in the hospital?
“Xan?” I heard a familiar voice say, and I slowly fluttered my eyelids open once more. River sat at my bedside, his hand gripping mine. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in weeks.
At the bottom of the bed stood my mother, in rainbow-printed scrubs like she’d left the clinic and came directly here. I frowned.
“Mom…?” My tongue felt fuzzy in my mouth. I swallowed, but it didn’t make the weird dryness go away. “What happened?”
“How are you feeling, honey?” she asked me instead, and I blinked a couple more times, trying to figure out how I felt.
“Tired,” I mumbled. “Everything is kind of…hazy. Did I wreck the car?” The last thing I remembered was driving home after work on Valentine’s Day, excited to surprise River and then…
I touched my stomach and gasped, struggling to sit up in bed, but pain rippled through me. “The baby!”
Everything flooded me at once—Sky approaching me with a knife in his hand and booze on his breath, running for my life, being tackled from behind, fangs ripping into my gut.
My baby. Oh, no.
“Xan, it’s okay,” River assured me, but I was already panicking.
“My baby! Is he?—”
“He’s doing just fine,” Mom told me in that soothing, calm Alpha tone she always used on uneasy packmates. My heart skipped a beat. I stared at her, blinking away tears. “Just born a little premature, that’s all.” She patted my leg. “Strong set of lungs on him, though. Echoed through the entire NICU.”
I sank back into the pillows, breathing heavily. River stroked hair from my face and smiled. His eyes were soft and loving. “Everything’s gonna be okay, baby,” he assured me. “Just rest and heal.”
I frowned at him. “Rest? Rest?! I was nearly killed by your psycho brother and you want me torest?I want to see my baby!” I cried out, feeling like a petulant child not getting his way, but inside, my wolf was freaking out.
Mom nodded. “I’ll talk to the nurses and see what I can do. Please, honey. Relax. You’ll pull out your stitches. Don’t make me put you in the cone of shame.” She winked at me, then left the room.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. River threaded his fingers in mine, then kissed the back of my hand before pressing his forehead to it.
Suddenly, his smile was gone.
“You scared me,” he said, hushed. “There was so much blood. I thought I was going to lose you.”
