Chapter 122
ELENA
I hadn’t moved from his bedside since yesterday. Not when the muses gently undged me to rest. Not when my back ached t the hospital chair. Not even when my eyes burned from staying open too long
Alden hadn’t stirred.
The doctors said he was stable, that the transfusions were w
working that his vitals were holding–but he still hadn’t opened his
And so I stayed.
Theld his small hand in mine, my thumb brushing lightly over his knuckles. His skin was still warm.
His breath steady, it shallow. But the beeping machines and the antisepile scent in the air were constant reminders of how close we’d come to losing him.
How dose we still were.
The room was dim, the shades drawn against the harsh Caribbean sun. Derek had adjusted the lighting hours ago, asking, just quietly dimed the fluorescents until the space felt less sterile. Solter.
Theard the door open behind me,
without
Derek stepped inside, silent as always, a cup of coffee in one hand and a bag with a wrapped sandwich in the other. He’d made it
a habit–coming and going just enough to keep me ted and hydrated, but never hovering. Never forcing conversation.
I didn’t look away from Aiden.
He set the items down on the small table beside me. “You should cat,” he said gently,
“I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
I didn’t argue, but I didn’t reach for the food either.
He crossed to the opposite side of the bed and lowered himself into the chair, looking down at Alden, mirroring my position.
“When he wakes up
“If,” I whispered, the word tearing out of me before I could stop it
Derek’s gaze flicked to me, steady and sure. “When,” he repeated, firmer this time. “When he wakes up, I want to take him to Silverclaw.”
My head lifted slowly. “What?”
“Just for a visit. A day trip. Not an overnight, not unless you’re comfortable with that.” His voice was calm, but there was a thread of hope in it. “I’d like him to see it. His other home. His heritage. Where he came from.”
I stared at him.
And suddenly I was back in the Silverclaw compound, standing in a place that was never mine. Surrounded by people who called me rogue. Who doubted me. Who would have doubted my son if I’d stayed there any longer.
“Derek, I don’t know…”
My voice cracked, the weight of too many memories pressing down on the words. They hung there, brittle and unfinished, suspended in the sterile quiet of the hospital room. The warmth in Derek’s expression faltered just slightly–like he felt it too, the echo of all the pain I hadn’t yet found the courage to explain.
He opened his mouth to say something more-
But the door opened before he could.
The shift in energy y was immediate.
Logan stepped in first, sharp–eyed and tense, with Mason close behind. They both took one look at the room–at Alden, at Derek holding his hand–and froze.
The air went tight.
Mason’s gaze locked on hisnephew’s pale face, horror and grief ching lines across his features. He crossed to the end of the bed like a man moving through a dream, reaching out but stopping just short of touching Aiden’s foot.
Logan didn’t move at all. He took in the sight–Derek sa clase, so comfortable–and something flickered behind his eyes. Suspicion. Possession. A protective instinct so strong it radiated off him in waves.
He crossed into the room and his hand came down gently on my shoulder. But it felt more like a stake in the ground.
Aclai
I stiffened beneath his touch, and Derek saw it. His body straightened, subtle but unmistakable, the sharp edge of an Alpha coming to the surface. The tension in the room coiled tighter, like rope about to snap.Top of FormBottom of Form
“Elena,” Logan said, not taking his eyes off the other Alpha. “What’s he doing here?”
“I told you, Logan,” I said, looking up at him. Putting my hand over his on my shoulder in an effort to calm what felt like a dangerous situation. “He saved us. Me and Alden. He saved our lives.”
“I’m also,” Derek said, slowly rising to stand next to the bed. “The boy’s father,” he said.
