"She'll be alright, Ryder." My mother reassures me as she removes the needle from my arm now that the bag is full. "You need to keep her safe now." I thank her before she walks out of the room. Riley hands me another IV for the blood and tells me to put it in her forearm a little lower down then the ones she already has and to close it off ready to put the drip in if it's needed. I could feel her nerves as I put the antibiotics in and I even in her unconscious state I can sense that it's making her uncomfortable. "I'm going to put the drain in now and this is where I have to monitor her closely and if I tell you to do something you need to do it immediately." "What's the worst that could happen?" I whisper trying to avoid my eyes watering more. "Her lungs collapsing." She says confidently. "We're perfectly capable of sustaining her if it does happen though." When I don't reply anything to Riley she inserts the tube into the bottom of the stiches and blood starts to move down it slowly. Some drops I can see are tainted lightly with black. Her blood runs smoothly out of her body for the first fifteen minutes and Riley observes from a distance. My wolf is still on edge and right now the steady sound of her breathing is all that's keeping me calm enough so I don't shift. A beeping begins behind the bed and Riley is quick up out of the chair and moves to one of the monitors. "Lie down next to her and keep her arm in between you and put the drip in. Her blood pressure and temperature are dropping." Riley's voice is rushed and she's putting an oxygen cannula up Lottie's nose as she speaks. I watch her carefully as she moves down and begins to unbutton her jeans. "What are you doing?" I growl at her. "Her temperature is going down. Lie down next to her and press your body against hers, the more skin to skin contact that you have the better. The drip now." She orders. Her hands continue to pull off Lottie's jeans and as I hook up my blood to her my eyes move up her long bare legs. When I get to her underwear I slide down next to her and bury my neck in her throat taking a deep intake of her scent to keep myself calm. I'm still only wearing a pair of shorts meaning that a lot of her skin is pressed against mine and I can feel how cold she's getting. Her skin was sending warm shocks through me. Much more than what a human mate should before a claim. When all the beeping settles out behind me I finally ask Riley the question that I need to. "How is she in heat without my claim?" "Her body is changing from the normal menstrual cycle that human woman have to our reproduction way. She won't be in an actual heat that you will be able to sense for another couple of months but this change shouldn't be moving so fast or before she has your claim." Lottie's head drops in closer to mine and I can feel her soft breathe hitting over me. I'd shifted to slide my free arm under her neck and rested my hand that was still holding hers over her stomach. Riley drops the black faux fur blanket over our legs and she smiles lightly at Lottie's movement. "Her body isn't strong enough to carry a royal pup. It could kill her." I whisper stroking a hand through her long hair that's fanning out around her. "You worry about the when she ends up pregnant. I'll worry about it now. Jake has some ideas that could strengthen her muscles that where your mother sustained most of the damage from carrying you and I've been looking into the possibilities of adding a tiny amount of wolfs bane, enough that it won't halt the pup's growth but enough to weaken it enough to cause minimal pain." This was a tough topic for my mum and I'm glad she isn't in the room to listen to it. My mum was a normal pack wolf. Her old Alpha was visiting my father and because he hadn't found his mate yet all the unmated females from his pack went along. My mum was twenty when she ended up pregnant with me. Royal wolves were strong from the moment they were conceived and just me kicking as a fetus put her in the castle hospital three times. When she tried to get pregnant again it didn't work she couldn't handle it anymore after she had Lucas. He was my brother. He was born at twenty-six weeks. He was a still born. I don't want that for Lottie. "Just keep her safe." I say to Riley pressing a small kiss to Lottie's temple causing her to shiver again. It takes two hours and nearly a full bag of my blood to get all the infections out of Lottie. I had held her in my arms the entire time even though her body temperature returned to normal. Riley pulled a chair from the sitting area next to the bed and the curtains around it giving a little more privacy from the large room. I didn't want to scare her by being half wrapped around her when she wakes up. It's just me and Lottie in the room now with a steady beeping of her blood pressure and heart rate behind the bed. When I get up from my spot next to her, I let go of her hand and she lets out a small moan of complaint. I smile down at her quick to slide the shorts the Riley had gotten back up her legs and sliding her gently over closer to the edge of the bed so I can get comfortably into the chair. Maybe being this close to her now I will be able to get some peaceful sleep. Having her close relaxes my mind. Taking her hand back in mine I rest back in the chair wondering if she actually did squeeze my hand back or not as I let sleep overtake me.