Page 50 of Wolf's Fate
“Sir, you must stand back!”
“Willow!” The sharp voice was so familiar to me, and Istopped struggling as I felt his warmth envelop me. “Willow, calm down. You’re in a hospital. Open your eyes.”
How could I tell him I couldn’t? Something was in my throat; were they trying to choke me? Panicked once more, I shook free of his hold, and my hands reached for my mouth, finding something plastic over it.
“No, no,no! Willow,no, leave the tube, you need to breathe through it,” Caleb scolded me. I felt his hands take mine, and I clutched onto his strong hands. “That’s it, I’ve got you, you’re safe.”
I was safe. Caleb had me. I tried to squeeze his hands to let him know I was okay.
“Open your eyes.”
It took so much effort to do that. It felt like they would never open. Was he sure I could open them? Slowly, so slowly, they lifted and instantly shut against the bright lights. A hand cupped the side of my face.
“Try again, I’m blocking the lights now,” he spoke gently. My eyes opened quicker this time, and the blurriness took shape, and I saw his deep chocolate brown eyes filled with concern. I started to cry, and he smiled. “I didn’t think I was that bad to look at,” he teased gently, wiping away a tear with his thumb.
I tried to speak and felt the pain of the tube in my throat. Caleb understood and stood back, taking my hand when I grabbed for him.
“Take the tube out of her,” he commanded tersely. “She can breathe on her own.”
“We’ll wait for the doctor,” came the equally curt reply.
“And when will he be here?”
“Soon.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Fuck that.”
My eyes widened in alarm when he came back into my line of vision with that determined look on his face. He reached up and I felt the sharp tug of tape being removed from my mouth.
“Sir!” The nurse sounded exasperated and furious, and it amused me how he seemed to get most people to react to him like that. “Oh for goodness sake,” she muttered, and then I saw her too. She was older than us, pretty, with warm blue eyes that looked down at me. “When I tell you to, push out a big breath, okay?”
I didn’t understand, but then before I knew what was happening, the tube was being pulled out of me, and I struggled to breathe as it was pulled from my esophagus. As I was coughing and spluttering, Caleb was there with a cup of water with a straw, encouraging me to drink. The nurse took over, checking me and instructing me through the wheezing.
“You’re okay,” she assured me gently. “Can you breathe?”
Tears streamed down my face, but I could, I could breathe. “Yes.” The frog voice was not unexpected, but still, it was enough of a shock to make me stop speaking.
“Drink more water,” Caleb commanded from his perch on the side of my bed, ignoring the nurse’s command for him to get off, and I saw the nurse’s eyes narrow with impatience.
“Let’s just let your wife catch her breath first,” she told him in a no-nonsense tone.
It took a few minutes, but I was helped to sit up. She checked my vitals, whatever they were, and also let me sip water. The whole time, Caleb waited impatiently at the side, and the whole time, I kept my gazefixed on him.
“Right.” With a sigh, she finally stood back. “I’ll go get the doctor and leave you two.” She spoke to him more than me. “Do not overexert her. Understand?” The look he gave her would have made lesser men falter; she barely blinked. “Glad we cleared that up.”
When the door closed behind her, he was beside me, his hand curling around mine. “Tell me how you feel. What hurts?”
“Everything hurts,” I said honestly, wincing as I tried to sit up more. “Wife? Again?”
Strong capable hands hooked under my armpits, and I was gently but effortlessly pulled up to sit straighter. “It keeps me in the room, no questions,” he explained.
Made sense. “Nothing broken?” I asked in surprise, looking down at myself.
“Truck looks like shit,” he told me. “It’s definitely broken.”
“Doc?” I was almost too scared to ask.
“Cannon and his pack have him.”