Catching Kate (Book 2.5 She-Wolf Series)

Kate

Our first night back home, I woke to find Emerick's side of the bed empty. It was winter now, and the sun rose later in the morning so I wasn’t sure of the time. I glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table and frowned. We normally didn't get up for another few hours.

I climbed out of bed and wrapped a blanket around myself. When I pushed open the bedroom door, I found Emerick leaning over the kitchen table with the heel of his hand against one of his eyes.

“Hey, wolf-man,” I said, softly. “What are you doing up?”

He jumped at my words.

“Oh, sorry,” he shook his head and frowned. “I was just having trouble sleeping.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said, confused.

“No that’s okay,” he said, his frown deepening. “I just... didn’t hear you get up.”

He seemed troubled, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong.

“Do you want to come back to bed?” I asked.

“Sure, hun.” He gave me a small smile, but it looked pained.

“Is something the matter?” I asked as I turned back towards the bedroom.

Suddenly, I heard a loud thud behind me. I whipped around to find him collapsed on the floor.

“Emerick!” I screamed.

I ran to his side and realized he was convulsing. His eyes were rolled back and his jaw was clamped tight.

“Oh my god!” I screamed and wrapped my arms around his neck to cradle his head.

He didn’t react to my touch and his body continued twitching violently.

I need help, I thought and set him down gently to scramble to our room for my phone.

I dialed the most powerful person I could think of currently residing nearby.

“Luke!” I screamed as soon as he answered. “Something’s wrong. I think Emerick’s having a seizure!”

I sobbed as I explained the situation.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said and I could hear rustling on the other end of the line. “Keep him comfortable.”

He ended the call then and I ran to hold my mate.

“Please, Emerick,” I sobbed. “Please, be okay.”

It felt like an eternity before I heard a howl erupt outside. I laid Emerick back down and sprinted to unlock the front door. I grabbed a pair of Emerick’s sweats on the way, and tossed them to my nephew as the door swung open.

We both hurried back to Emerick’s side.

“Luke, what’s happening?” I sobbed.

Luke shook his head. “Dr. Martin is meeting us at the med bay. Where are your car keys?” His voice was firm and carried a commanding tone. Gone was the child. Before me stood the Redclaw Pack's Alpha.

“They’re, umm...” I tried to gather my racing thoughts.

“Kate! Car keys,” Luke barked.

Finally, I snapped out of my stupor. I grabbed my purse from the dresser in our room and Luke hoisted the still seizing Emerick over his shoulder. I unlocked my SUV and Luke laid him gently in the backseat. I crawled in with him from the other side.

“Cell phone,” Luke commanded and reached a hand back.

I handed him my phone and he dialed with one hand while speeding out of the driveway with the other. The tires skidded when he turned on the main road. I braced myself against the door and tried to keep Emerick steady.

“Enroute,” I heard Luke say from the front seat. “He’s still down.”

He tossed the phone down and increased his speed on the dark highway. I looked down and my stomach rolled.

“Luke, something’s happening,” my voice came out panicky.

Before my eyes, Emerick’s body seemed to be changing between forms but not completely shifting either way. Hair and claws sprouted along his arms and then disappeared while his jaw seemed to elongate and then recede. The muscles in his neck were strained and sweat beaded on his forehead. Muffled, pained groans escaped his lips in gasps.

Luke’s narrowed eyes flashed in the rear view mirror, but he didn’t respond. I held Emerick tightly and prayed to every god and goddess I could think of to spare his life.

When we reached the pack house, Luke jumped the curb and landed on the lawn in front of the main entrance. A team of people in scrubs swarmed out of the doors, rolling a stretcher between them. They pulled Emerick out of the car and strapped him down.

I climbed out and rushed to the other side where everyone seemed to be in motion. Two nurses worked on hooking up monitors as the rest started pushing towards the doors. A petite woman jumped up on the stretcher and started cutting away his clothes as they moved.

Dr. Yvonne Martin came running from the parking lot just as the group opened the front doors. She was wearing pajamas and fuzzy slippers with her usually neat hair pulled back wildly into a clip.

“Get a line and a set of vitals immediately,” she shouted, stuffing her arms into her lab coat.

The medical team stopped the stretcher in the lobby and worked quickly.

“Line’s good,” some called.

“Push ten of lorazepam and start fluids,” Dr. Martin ordered, pressing a stethoscope to Emerick’s now bare chest.

She looked over at one of the monitors and grimaced.

“What happened?” She directed her question at me.

“He collapsed and started seizing,” I said, my hands fisted in my hair on the sides of my head.

“How long?” She asked.

I checked my watch. “It’s been about 25 minutes,” I said, quietly.

Her face was grim and her lips pressed into a thin line.

I looked back at Emerick and realized his movements were slowing, but his skin still changed as though rippling between forms.

“We have to stop the seizure,” the doctor muttered before looking at one of the nurses. “Give him another dose and then let’s move to med bay.”

I followed numbly and watched the team continue to work on one of the strongest men I had ever known. They ended up intubating him before sending him through some sort of machine. People spoke to me but I barely heard what they were saying let alone comprehended.

Doctors hovered over a computer screen and talked quickly in terms I couldn’t follow. Luke wrapped a protective arm around me as Dr. Martin came over and spoke to us in a serious tone.

“He’s had a brain hemorrhage,” she explained. “We need to do emergency surgery to relieve the pressure.”

“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “How did this happen?”

Both Luke and the doctor looked at me with pity in their eyes, but neither said a word. They didn’t have to.

Werewolves didn’t have seizures. Werewolves didn’t even catch a cold. In my gut, I knew this was the mate bond.

This is my fault.

I watched as they pushed Emerick through a set of double doors and stepped to follow. Dr. Martin held up a hand to stop me.

“I’m sorry, Ms. McClain,” she shook her head. “You’ll have to wait here.”

“I need to be with him,” I said firmly.

“Aunt Kate, they need to do their job,” Luke said next to me and wrapped an arm firmly around my shoulders, as much to hold me back as to support me.

“I will update you as soon as I can,” Dr. Martin promised before hurrying after the rest of her team.

My body felt numb. I stared blankly ahead, unable to move for fear of falling apart. A nurse came to my side and led Luke and I to a waiting area.

Through my haze, I heard him say, “Mom I need you in med bay. Emerick’s in surgery...”

A few minutes later I felt my sister wrap her arms around me. I watched as Trinity pushed her way past the same doors they had taken Emerick through. Sam kept saying everything would be okay and stroking my hair, but I knew she was only trying to make me feel better.

I stared at the hallway to the operating room and waited for the doctor for what felt like eternity. Someone set juice and crackers in front of me, but the thought of eating made me nauseous.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Dr. Martin and Trinity pushed out of the doors. Both looked somber and exhaustion weighed on them heavily.

“He’s out of surgery,” Dr. Martin spoke first. “We repaired the bleed and the seizing resolved.”

“Is he awake?” Sam asked.

The doctor shook her head.

“Were you able to heal him?” I asked Trinity. My voice sounded so small.

“There are limits to my magic,” she explained, slowly. “I was able to help some, but there are certain things I can’t fix.”

“What does that mean?” Sam frowned.

“I can’t repair his brain,” Trinity said, quietly.

Silence hung heavily in the air.

“I don’t understand,” I said, finally.

“We were able to evacuate the hemorrhage,” Dr. Martin explained. “But he was down for a long time. The bleed increased his intracranial pressure until we were able to relieve it.”

“He’s a werewolf,” I pointed out, confused. “He will heal, right?”

“Kate,” Dr. Martin said carefully, “he’s not healing. It doesn’t seem like he has been for a while.”

“How is that possible?” I demanded.

“The incomplete bond is tearing him apart. It’s unraveling his DNA. His body is failing on a cellular level.”

“No,” I shook my head. “It’s only been a few months. Sam and Ivar - “

“The king and queen are the most powerful werewolves in the world,” Dr. Martin interrupted. “It affected them more slowly.”

Guilt washed over me painfully. The love of my life was hurt and it was because I was too stubborn to admit what he meant to me. I drug my feet out of fear and felt content with the way things were. Meanwhile he was falling apart and cared about my feelings too much to let me know.

“Then we’ll mate,” I said, firmly. “Once the bond is made whole, he’ll be able to heal again.”

Trinity looked away and I saw tears in her eyes. Even the doctor seemed hesitant to respond.

After a moment she said, “We aren’t sure he will wake up. If he does… we don’t know the extent of the damage.”

It felt like the floor fell out beneath my feet, and my head spun.

“But he made it through surgery,” I argued. “We can bring a witch -”

The doctor cut off my desperate rambling, “You're fated mates. The two of you have to be able to recite the vow to complete the bond. We aren’t sure that if or when he wakes up, that he will be able to speak.”

Someone caught me before I hit the floor. Hard sobs wracked my body as the true reality of the situation sunk in. Even with everything I had been through, never in my life had I felt pain like this. I had never let myself feel this much and it was all consuming.

We aren’t sure he will wake up. The doctor's word echoed in my mind.

It was Sam who finally shocked me out of my grief.

“Kate!” She said sharply. “Emerick is one of the most stubborn, goddamn werewolves to walk this earth. He is going to get through this. He is going to wake and he’s going to mate you. Right now, he needs you to be his strength.”

I caught a sob in my throat and tried to take a deep breath. I looked into my sister’s fierce, green eyes and nodded. I wiped the tears angrily from my face.

“Pull your shit together,” she commanded. “He’s not gone. I’m choosing hope and faith because that’s all I’ve got right now.”

She was right. I was mourning a man who still had a chance. The odds might not be on his side, but that didn’t mean I had the right to give up on him. I knew without a doubt he would never give up on me.

“Okay, Sammy,” I said, keeping my tone even.

She gave me a tight hug.

“Be the badass bitch I know you are,” she said quietly. “When he wakes up, you better give him hell.”

Despite myself I laughed, although it came out sounding like a gasp. I took a deep breath and then stood up on shaky legs.

“I’m going to go see him,” I told her. My voice sounded more resolved than I felt.

“Good,” she nodded. Despite her serious tone I could see tears in her eyes. My sister loved fiercely and I knew she was hurting deeply for her friend. She was choosing to put aside her own feelings and be my anchor in the storm.

“Do you want company?” she asked as I stared towards the hallway.

I squared my shoulders. “I think I’d like some time by myself.”

I didn’t wait for a response before I strode through the doors and went to find my mate.