Chapter 256

Chapter 256
Steven's POV

Thanks to my mate, everyone lived.

She sacrificed herself to save us all, and now she lay in a coma.

One month! One whole fucking month without hearing her voice, without seeing those beautiful eyes open, without feeling her consciousness through our bond.

"Any progress?" I asked when Dr. Bell walked back into the hospital room.

This question had become a daily ritual, always met with the same answer.

She shook her head. "I can't find anything physically wrong with her. Has your bond strengthened at all?"

"Barely," I sighed, running my hand through my unwashed hair.

"At this point, I'm not even sure if what I'm feeling is my bond with her or with our child."

Dr. Bell had asked if I wanted to know the baby's gender, but without Hazel present, I couldn't bring myself to find out officially. Truthfully, I already knew. Hazel's body carried her usual wildflower scent, but her abdomen radiated a distinctly masculine aroma.

She once told me I smelled like sandalwood and cedar. Now, that same sandalwood scent emanated from her growing belly.

Hazel was connected to various machines, their steady beeping the only indication she was still with us. We fed her intravenously to keep the baby healthy and hydrated them both with IV fluids. Monitors tracked both her heartbeat and our child's. Because her breathing remained shallow, she wore an oxygen cannula.

Every day, I positioned myself as close to her as possible. I longed to crawl into bed beside her, but with so many tubes and wires, I couldn't risk hurting her or our baby. Instead, I sat in a chair, resting my head near her stomach, talking to our child. When I needed to move, I'd shift to her side, my head next to hers, whispering to my unconscious mate.

In the beginning, Dr. Bell constantly urged me to leave—to eat in the packhouse, to sleep in our bed—promising she'd watch over Hazel.

But I couldn't leave them. So I showered at the hospital.

My Beta and Gamma brought me meals and updated me on pack affairs.

The hunters' bodies had been cremated. Officials had visited several times, wanting to search the forests surrounding our territory. We explained that we would've noticed if thousands of people had entered our woods. They tracked evidence to the edges of our land but lacked sufficient proof for a search warrant.

Ethan and William refused them entry to our territories. It had been impossible to hide the battle completely—if we hadn't been werewolves, we'd all likely face murder charges.

It took days after the battle for me to reconnect with Hati. All pack members who'd been exposed to silver took time to recover their wolves—some up to a week.

When Hati finally returned, I sent him searching for Lupa. He reported that while she was present, she remained completely unresponsive to his calls.

During private moments with Hazel, I'd carefully move the tubes and wires aside, climbing onto the hospital bed to hold her in my arms, one hand resting on her stomach, feeling our little one moving inside her.

"Hazel, please, baby. It's been long enough. If you don't wake up soon, I'm going to lose my mind." My voice cracked as I spoke. "Baby, you promised me you'd be okay. This isn't okay. I'm not okay. Our child needs you. I need you. You have to wake up now. I want to hear your voice, hear you laugh, yell at you for what you did, tell you how amazing you are for saving everyone. Please, Hazel. You're the only good thing in my life. You made everything I went through worth it. If I had to do it all again just to have you, I would. I can't do this without you. I don't want to raise our son alone. He needs his mother."

By the time I finished speaking, tears streamed down my face. I rested my forehead against hers, letting them fall silently.

"How did you know it's a boy?"

My head snapped up to see my mate's tired eyes looking back at me.

"Hazel!" Her hand reached up to touch my face, and I kissed her palm before covering every inch of her face I could reach with kisses.

"Oh, Hazel." I choked out, finally breaking down completely, sobbing because my mate had returned to me.

Hazel's POV

Chaos. Complete and utter chaos. That's all I could feel.

Voices everywhere, people talking. I couldn't understand what they were saying because too many spoke at once, their voices tangling together. I tried telling them I couldn't understand, but my voice got swallowed by theirs.

I searched my mind for Lupa, but even if she was there, I couldn't hear her through the noise in my head. The sensation was unbearable and never-ending.

I curled into myself, covering my ears, trying to muffle the sounds, but it made no difference.

At first, I thought I was going insane. Eventually, the noise became almost like background static, allowing me to think more clearly.

I remembered what happened—how I'd connected to nearly a thousand living werewolves, channeling their energy and strength into my soul before releasing it to kill the hunters and save our packs.

That's when I realized what the noise was.

I'd established connections with every member of all three packs, and now I didn't know how to disconnect myself.

Lupa was protecting our child, leaving me to untangle this web of voices alone. If what I'd done had actually worked, I needed to sort through over fifteen hundred voices to escape this mental labyrinth.

My first attempts overwhelmed me completely, forcing me to retreat. Then one day, I noticed a thread glowing brighter than the others. I could see this voice-thread weaving through the others. I grabbed it, separating it from the chaos.

Steven. His voice, now isolated. I kept it close so I could hear him when he spoke to me.

Next came Grace and Skylar. I wasn't sure if my connection with them was stronger or if they were physically near me, speaking, making their voices easier to "see."

Once I learned how to untangle one voice, I started with my own pack members.

I focused on one voice at a time until I located it, then separated it from the others. The process was slow and draining. When I couldn't continue, I'd pull Steven's thread close, resting my head beside it, listening to him talk.

He spoke to our baby and to me, begging me to return. Soon, my love. Just a little longer and I'll come back to you.

I had no concept of time passing. In my mind, there was no day or night, only this intricate web of voices. After finishing with my pack members, I moved on to those I knew better from the other two packs—Ethan, William, and their higher-ranking members.

I untangled the massive knot in my mind one by one.

Steven's voice grew increasingly desperate. I'd been gone too long; he needed me back. I could only imagine his suffering. If our positions were reversed, I wasn't sure I could have endured as he had. I also discovered that when Grace and Skylar spoke to me, their pack members' voices became easier to identify, allowing me to separate them from the chaos more quickly.

As I neared the end, my pace accelerated, more voices separating from the tangle.

My mind grew quieter, making Steven's voice clearer.

When his light shone especially bright, I was working on the final group. I could hear his desperation, his crying, pushing me to work faster, desperately wanting to return to my mate.

Just as he told me our son needed his mother, as I heard him break down in tears, I untied the last knot, finally freeing my mind from the chaos.

I opened my eyes, and perhaps it shouldn't have been my first question, but I really wanted to know—how did he know we were having a boy?

When he looked up, I could clearly see how my coma had damaged him.

Stress lined his face, exhaustion filled his eyes, and he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, aging him considerably. How long had I been unconscious? I caressed his face, trying to comfort him, but he completely broke down, sobbing while I held him. As he cried, I surveyed my surroundings.

I was in the pack hospital, smelling less than fresh, with a small bump on my abdomen—our child growing inside.

Wait! I'd been less than a week pregnant when we fought the hunters, and now my stomach showed a visible bump?

I'd been unconscious longer than I realized.

When Steven finally controlled his emotions, he wiped his tears and nose before leaning down to gently kiss my lips. The tingle spread across them, making me sigh involuntarily. I'd worried his broken bond might affect our connection, but it hadn't changed at all.

I pulled back slightly, looking into his tired eyes.

"How long have I been out, love?"

He cupped my face, his thumbs gently stroking my cheeks.

"A month, baby."

No wonder! "Oh, Steven, I'm sorry. But I'm here now. I'm back and I'm not leaving again."

"So how did you know we're having a boy?" I asked again as he settled beside me.

I curled against him, sighing as feelings of love, protection, and comfort washed over me.

He pointed to his nose: "I can smell it. I didn't let Dr. Bell tell me. I wanted us to hear it together, but Ethan and William both said they could tell by scent, and so could I. He doesn't smell anything like you. He smells like that sandalwood you say I smell like."

I smiled.

We were having a boy!

One year later, when baby cries finally filled the air, I gazed at the little boy in my arms and at the friends gathered around my birthing bed, looking at everything Steven and I had built from nothing, feeling happier than I'd ever been before.

THE END