Chapter 33

The machine performed its usual beep at this time of day, and the nurse entered the room a couple of minutes later to check Ashers tubes and complete regular checks to see whether his state was improving.

Asher had been in a coma for 3 weeks.

3 weeks of pain and tears and anger. Anger that he was too stubborn and wouldn't bloody wake up. Anger that I couldn't do anything to help him.

I thanked the nurse as she left, and started again where I left off reading Alice in Wonderland. We had cycled many books the last few weeks, but this book was my favourite. Hopefully it was Ashers too, if he could hear it, which the nurse said he most likely would. That's why I was sat like a numpty reading aloud in a room with just myself and an unconscious man.

I absentmindedly rubbed my stomach, where my pregnant belly was starting to show. It was so beautiful, yet I couldn't share it with him and that pain would stay with me for a long time.

"Come on, wake up you stubborn fool" I clenched my eyes and wished, my hand strongly holding his.

A Knock sounded at the door before Ashers mum walked in apprehensively, glancing at Asher then shooting me an annoyed glare.

I sighed in annoyance.

"Look, for the last time, I'm not hungry ok?" I told her, as she placed down a salad and a cookie on the bedside table.

"Rose, please. You're not just eating for one anymore, think about your baby , you want them to be healthy don't you? Please just eat something, you haven't eaten properly in weeks. Or showered for matter of fact. Sweetheart, go home, have something to eat and have a bath, and if he wakes up I'll call you immediately, alright?" Her fingertips rubbed by palm soothingly, and she planted a small kiss at the top of my head as she repeated what she had been saying for weeks.

I could feel myself almost begin to cry again. It seemed to be all I would do, cry and read and shout at Asher to open his bloody eyes.

" I can't, I can't do that. I want to be here when he wakes up" I affirmed.

She sighed loudly in acquiescence, before clenching Ashers other palm and wandering out, no doubt back to the pack house. J had taken over Ashers duties, and I had helped as much as I could. Now that Asher was vulnerable, the pack was also vulnerable to attacks and raids from anyone that craved to say they conquered the most powerful pack in the world.

But the witch wouldn't bother us anymore. Once she died, her spell broke, all the rogues running into the woods, claiming no alliance of any sort with the witch, especially after she had forced them to do her dirty work.

So that was good news, I suppose.

The pack was rebuilding after her attack. Our true colours showed as we thrashed her army, our only casualties being 23 deaths.

But Asher was fatally injured, and that made the skirmish feel like a full fledged war. I rubbed my palm over my belly soothingly, but my heart wouldn't stop pounding until he opened his eyes and I could stare into his grey orbs once more.

It was strange to think how this started. Nearly a year ago in that dead end town my family had just moved to. And him. Controlling, obsessive. Until he showed me his true colours. My heartless alpha wasn't so heartless after all.

There would only be more to love once he opened his eyes and saw my pregnant belly. Our baby. And god I imagined how that moment would play out everyday, almost fantasising it to reality. But that all crashed when I peered over once more at his closed lids, chest lifting up and down with laboured but stable breaths...

"Rose" I turned around to the sound of my name, and saw Jane waving at me with her trolley of medical paraphernalia.

"Deary I've been calling your name for years! You were in a trance again sweetheart, how about a cup of tea hmm?" She nodded whilst pouring me a cup, her fond, wrinkled smile the only thing making me not force her out of Ashers room, our private space. She was my favourite nurse these past weeks, so kind and soothing. She made my tenseness almost disappear, if that was possible.

She completed daily checks on Ashers body, changing his catheter, checking his tubes and so on, all whilst humming what seemed like a 1960s tune, smiling to herself.

" you have a strong man, my dear" I nodded in reply, not quite being able to respond verbally without a sob escaping my lips.

The day passed, until the sun was setting and darkness descended. I stood up from the armchair and gravitated towards the window. Outside I could see the pack, children on the park, parents in their homes. You almost couldn't differentiate it from a human town.

But I couldn't imagine myself going back to the normality that I once knew.

But what if Asher wouldn't wake up.

What if he drifted off in his sleep?

What if

What if

What if...

I was so sick of what ifs.

I knew that I could get through this.

I wasn't dependant on Asher. I am my own person, and I'll act independently. I just wanted him. I wanted the comfort that he brings me so badly that my heart was burning. If he died, I could survive. I know that. But the point was that I wouldn't live a good life without my best friend, my partner.

God above, I loved him more than I thought I could love anyone. And I would stay for this child no matter what.

With a sigh,I wandered back around the bed, falling back into the warmth of the armchair and held Ashers hand to my heart.

I awoke to darkness. I must have only had a couple of hours of sleep. But something abruptly woke me from my slumber. I groggily looked around the suite, but my mind couldn't catch anything suspicious.

Then I felt it.

A twitch on my hand.

My head spun around, and I saw Ashers fore finger twitch against mine. I caressed his in reply, mentally begging him to keep pushing, to keep trying. This was the furthest we'd come since he arrived in hospital.

There was no description for how erratically my heart was beating, in hope, in fear...

Then his eyes opened.