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Doc pressed his fingers to her wrist and nodded to himself. “When did her wheezing stop?”
I blinked. I hadn’t even noticed. “Ah—to be honest, Doc, I’m not sure. But that’s a good thing, right?”
“Yes, it’s an improvement.” He smiled. “She’s far from her usual, exuberant self, but she’s much better than she was last night.”
My heart ached. I breathed a sigh of relief. Even that little bit of good news was enough to make me want to cry.
“She could wake up at any time,” Doc said. “If it’s alright with you, Alpha, I’d love to stick around until she’s awake.”
“That would put my mind at ease, but will things be alright at the infirmary?”
He nodded. “I’ve got good doctors on shift, and if there’s an issue, they know where to find me. The only thing I’d like to do is bring a few more supplies over.”
I nodded. As he headed for the door, I pulled him in for a tight hug. “Thank you, Doc. Thank you so much.”
A bit awkward, Doc lightly patted my back. “I did hardly anything, Alpha. She did most of the work. Your mother is an incredible woman.”
I let him go and smiled. “Yes, she is.”
Doc straightened his shirt and avoided looking at me. I knew that he’d never been good with compliments or expressions of gratitude. The man could live without ever receiving a single word of thanks from any of his patients, but when it came to my family, I couldn’t let him off so easily.
I walked him out, and as we opened the door, we spotted Dom jogging toward us. Doc nodded at me, and then left as Dom neared.
“Any updates?” I asked, letting him inside.
Dom sighed and shook his head. “No. I’ve got everyone on this, but they don’t have any updates for us. I thought I’d check on you and Violet in the meantime.”
We walked back upstairs. “Doc says she’s doing better. He told me that she should wake up soon.”
“Finally, some good news.”
“You’re telling me.” We went into Mom’s room to find her breathing peacefully. Even in the short time since I had walked Dr. Stan to the door, she looked much better. There was more color to her cheeks, and she wasn’t sweating. I could still see the ends of the veins that spread from the wound like the rays of a black sun, but she was alive, and hopefully she would be waking up soon.
“How are you, Night?” Dom asked. “Did you sleep?”
I looked at him, eyebrow raised. How the hell could I have slept with my mom dying right in front of me and Bryn and Tavi missing?
Dom winced. “Okay, point taken. You do look terrible.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I’m not surprised. I feel like shit.” And then after a pause, I added, “I feel like I’m being torn up inside. Like, if I don’t do something right now, I might just burst into flames.”
“That’s probably the mating bond, Night. After finding your mate, you’re supposed to feel powerful, not weak. But because you’re an idiot, you didn’t complete the claiming.”
I couldn’t even muster the energy to glare at him. “So what do I do?”
“You need to claim Bryn, but obviously, Redwolf has made that impossible. Until you can do that, your body and your wolf will start reacting to her absence, too. You’re only going to get weaker and weaker as time passes.”
His words chilled me, but what was even more chilling was that Bryn would have to suffer the same effects, but she wouldn’t have the same support that I had. “So, Bryn is going to be feeling this, too.”
“Yes.” Like Dr. Stan, Dom never sugarcoated the truth, not to me. “The pain won’t stop until one of you dies, and then the survivor will be free from the soulmate bond. But that isn’t to say that they’ll be ‘okay.’” He put air quotes around the last word.
“What do you mean?”
“The wolf who survives their soulmate’s death could very well go crazy from the grief.”
I couldn’t care less about myself, but the thought of Bryn being harmed ignited the need to be beside her again. My wolf began to snarl and grasp for control again, but he began to calm again as I spotted Doc through the window, carrying a tote bag of things. He nodded at Dom and me and headed inside. I heard the front door open downstairs.
“Is he staying over?” Dom asked.
