Chapter 50

LEO

After that, Ella slipped into a coma. The doctors said considering the dangerous weakness of her body, it was probably best, however, I couldn’t help but feel responsible for inducing it.

I managed to get her back onto my territory and into the hospital where the doctors immediately whisked her away.

“Alpha,” a doctor said to me after approaching me in the waiting room of the hospital.

“How is she?” I asked eagerly.

“She’s severely malnourished and weak. Her vitals are all over the place, and she’s struggling,” she explained.

“And there’s something else I need to discuss, but you should come into the office,” she added, looking around the waiting room that I shared with a few other pack members.

I took a deep breath and ran my hand through my hair before nodding and following her into the office.

“She’s pregnant. I presume you know that?” she said.

I nodded. “Of course. I could sense that she was carrying that motherfucker’s spawn almost immediately,” I said.

“She’s only two weeks along, and after everything she’s been through, the child is unlikely to be healthy and is only adding to the stress on her body,” the doctor said.

I knew exactly what she was insinuating.

“All the more reason to get rid of it,” I said. “I wanted it gone anyway.”

“Whatever you wish, Alpha, but would the luna not want a part in that decision?”

“She is not giving birth to another man’s child, especially not fucking Andrea Martinez’s, and I am certainly not raising it alongside my own,” I growled.

“And you said it yourself. The child is unlikely to be healthy anyway, and the last thing she needs is a pregnancy.”

“Yes, Alpha,” she said, nodding her head. “It’ll be done immediately.”

I got up to leave but turned just before I reached the door.

“And put it down as a miscarriage. She doesn’t need to know.”

She swallowed and nodded again. “Yes, Alpha.”

***

It was weeks until she woke up. After the abortion and with time, she stabilized, but I still couldn’t bring myself to leave the hospital for long, and I spent hours just sitting by her as she slept.

The kids didn’t understand, of course, which only made it harder. While I didn’t want to keep them away from their mother.

Confusing and upsetting them by bringing them to see her in this way didn’t feel right either, so I kept them away from the hospital mostly in the care of my mom or Luca.

They asked questions and missed her, of course, but they seemed happy enough.

There was no progress in South America. Martinez had frustratingly slipped off the face of existence along with Luciano and everyone else associated.

It was severely frustrating, and instead of relaxing, it put everybody anxiously on edge.

We knew we hadn’t seen the last of him and that this was far from over yet, and the anticipation of when, where, and how he would rear his ugly head was agony.

The pack tried to go on as usual, but we couldn’t ignore the shadow over us, and with Ella still in the same condition, morale was low.

It was a dark time for Stella.

ELLA

The beeping of machines. That’s all I could hear for ages. Then the murmurs of voices in rooms all around me got louder before the pulsing of my own heartbeat and the hoarseness of my breath joined.

A clinical smell came through my nostrils. It was so sterile and inhuman and totally insufferable. I opened my eyes. At first, it was fuzzy and blurry, and I could only make out a bright white light above me.

Slowly, my vision focused, and the clean white ceiling, walls, floors, and sheets came into view.

All I wanted was to get out of there. To get somewhere real.

I sat up. There were tubes and wires attached to me, imprisoning me to the buzzing and beeping machines, but I began ripping them out. My ears were instantly pierced by a blaring alarm, and I wasn’t even free yet.

With little control over my body, my fingers fumbled. I felt like I was physically still asleep, but my mind was screaming, trapped inside this useless body.

The panic of being so helpless began to set in, and my thoughts moved instantly to the person I knew would always help me.

“Leo!” I started screaming. “Leo!”

He’d come. He’d get me out of this godforsaken place.

A few seconds later, a woman dressed in plain blue scrubs ran in and began trying to calm me.

“Luna, you’re in the hospital. You’re perfectly safe,” she said, taking my hand and trying to stop me from ripping out the tubes. “The pack hospital.”

“The pack? Where’s Leo?!” I asked her frantically as tears began to stream down my face. “I need him.”

She nodded seconds before the door slammed open, and my mate walked in. He seemed to sigh in relief upon seeing me before he came over and took my hand away from the arm with the tubes.

“Ells, no. You need to leave those alone.”

“I feel so trapped,” I said. “Why is everything so white!?”

“I will have those walls painted whatever color you like, but for now, please just lie down and leave those wires alone. They are there to help you.”

I nodded and did as he said.

He picked up a blanket from the bottom of the bed and laid it over me before taking my hand and sitting beside me.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why am I here? The last thing I remember is falling asleep in the jungle.”

“You were in a coma,” he said. “This thing is a life-support machine. It’s been keeping you alive.”

“A coma?” I asked. “For how long?”

I dreaded his answer.

“Only two and a half weeks,” he replied.

Could be worse.

“The kids,” I whispered. “When do I get to see them?”

“As soon as you are strong enough,” he replied, taking my hand. “You’re in no state to see eight excited children right now, but I will send them your love.”

I nodded.

“What happened?” I asked. “What did I miss?”

“Well…,” he began. “You’ve been through a lot. At one point we didn’t know if you’d live. And part of you didn’t. You were pregnant, Ella.”

“Pregnant?” I asked in disbelief. “Were?”

“You miscarried, and after that, you improved,” he added.

“No,” I said. “No. I had his child inside of me?”

My heart rate began to rise again along with the beeping of a machine beside me.

“But you don’t anymore. The trauma caused you to miscarry,” he explained.

I felt an unexplainable deep sense of loss. It was almost as bad as when Leo and I lost a baby. But Andrea wasn’t my mate, and I despised him with everything I had, so why was I upset to have miscarried his child?

“Oh, Leo,” I whispered, beginning to sob.

He leaned down, squeezed my hand tighter, and wiped my eyes with his thumb.

“You’re going to be okay,” he reassured.

“And what of Andrea?” I asked.

“We haven’t heard from him,” Leo said. “There’s been no sign of him since we left South America.”

Another tear slipped down my cheek.

“So it’s not over?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

I squeezed his hand and forced a smile.

“Bring the kids here as soon as they say I’m well enough. And Luca and Max and my mom and your mom and—”

“All right, all right,” he said with a laugh. “All in good time. Just get some rest, okay?”

“As if I haven’t been lying here for two and a half weeks,” I said.

He smiled and kissed my hand.

“It’s good to have you back.”