Moon Bound (Forgotten Series, #5)

Chapter Thirty

Eight days.

Lynn have been unresponsive for eight days.

Each one seemed to drag on but there was no change. She never moved, never spoke, never gave any indication that she was going to be alright. Doctor Abel's frown had deepened further each day she lay there. His worry had been palpable and it had grated on me until he told me, after day five, that the longer she was like that, the less likely she would come out of it. I had wanted to beg him to give me any hope, to tell me everything he could about her condition and the ways we could help her but I had kept silent, knowing if there was a way, he would have told me.

I hadn't been able to drag myself from her side. I ate only what was brought to me and left only when my body forced me. I had held her limp hand in mine as I spoke to her, talking about nothing before I would break down and beg her to come back. Her soul against mine was so dim. I couldn't stand it, it grated against everything in my being to have it look like that. The bond had raged against me at first but it had grown weaker and now it slumbered within me. I knew it was there, I could feel it, but it was stuck wherever she was.

It had been... hard on me. Three days after the accident Azrael had tried ordering me to help him with some Hunters but it was like the command rolled off my back, my worry for my female was stronger than his dominance it had seemed. He had badgered me incessantly until I shut him out. Which had caused him to storm into the hospital room, Hunters in tow, to shove it into their faces that we hadn't destroyed Caligo for fun, that we had a reason.

I had been surprised to see it was Ricktus that had arrived and he had been just as surprised to see me and horrified to see Lynn. He hadn't really been able to speak but managed to stutter out that he would deal with the complaints personally and that we wouldn't be bothered any longer, his wide eyes on where Lynn lay in the hospital bed. I wanted to feel something for him seeing her like that but I couldn't even manage that. He had been her partner for five years but she was my female and she wasn't there.

After the Hunters had left Azrael had tried to tell me that my disrespect wouldn't be tolerated and he had shut his mouth with a click when I had asked him how he would react if someone tried to take him from Lace's side if she were in the same condition that Lynn was. I had been left alone after that, the only people coming in and out were Doctor Abel and Lynn's group mates.

My wolf whined, nudging me hard. He wanted out, he always did, to lay with her. I had taken to letting him out at night so he could curl up on the bed, his front paw and head over her legs as he maintained a somber vigil over her. He didn't like being separated from her anymore than I did but he had to accept that Lynn was my mate as well and I wanted to be close to her as well.

There wasn't a moment that I didn't think that it should have been me laying there. It was a foolish thought at best but it was still there. Lynn didn't feel the bond like I did, I knew it would have been easier on her than it was on me. That and I didn't want to see her like she was. I would have traded places with her in a heartbeat if someone gave me the chance. She didn't belong in a hospital bed lying so still. Not my female.

I brushed my lips across the back of her hand, rubbing it against my cheek as I watched her face for any sign of movement. Her face was lax, as it always was. I looked glanced at her hair, seeing the braids that Emily had put in her hair, the female's bottom lip had quivered as she had done each one but she had spoken to Lynn in a cheery voice, as if it would help. Katelynn had painted Lynn's nails. I hadn't liked it, the smell was pretty strong but I hadn't been able to tell her no. It had seemed to calm her to make Lynn's nails various colours so I let her. We all needed our coping mechanisms.