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Chapter Quote:
"Real love, even in moments, is worth more than any of us can say."
~Bloodrose, Andrea Cremer
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Chapter 59

Spencer

"You tell one more person that, and I will hit your back," a girl warned.

"You wouldn't!" a guy exclaimed in mock horror.

"Don't test me Dominic Stone."

"On the contrary, I like it when you're angry. It leads to great, great things," he said, an impish tone to his voice.

"I... actually you have a point," the girl said.

"Oh my god, I don't want to hear this," another girl said, her voice nearly identical to the first but slightly softer.

"Sorry sis," the first girl said sheepishly.

"No you're not. We are emotionally connected. I can feel your amusement and there is no remorse anywhere in there."

"That's because it's miniscule."

"You two bring up your sex life one more time, directly or indirectly, I will break your other arm."

"You'd have to catch me first and since I don't have the broken ankle..."

"I have my ways."

"Oh I'm so scared."

"Lies."

"Ladies, I hate to interrupt this bickering because it's thoroughly entertaining, but I need to go get food because I'm starving and unfortunately, I can't make food magically appear in front of me. Anna, want to come with?"

"Sure. Elsa, want anything?"

"No, I'm good. You two behave yourselves," Elsa said. There was some faint scuffling, then silence. I tried to open his eyes, to tell my girlfriend that I was here, that I was alive, that I could hear them! But to no avail, my body wouldn't listen to me. It was as if my entire body was paralyzed. Fear ripped through me. What if I was fully paralyzed? What if I'd gone blind? What if I'd gone mute? What if-

No. I wouldn't let myself think like that. Most likely, I was in sleep paralysis. I'd experienced it before. After Hunter had gone haywire and hit me in the head with a rock, the day after I'd woken up in complete paralysis, the only thing able to move was my eyes. I'd simply gone back to sleep and woken up with normal motor functions later on, but now, in my condition, I had no idea how long it'd be before I woke up again. I tried to decide whether or not I should ride it out and stay awake, or go back to sleep and wake up later. My body made the decision for me though and I fell asleep again.
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I had no idea how much time had passed from the time I'd last woken up to now, but at least this time I could open my eyes, if only a sliver because they didn't know how to open after being closed for so long. The room was mostly dark save for a faint, warm yellow light coming from the far side of the room. There were three distinct heartbeats. Two were so slow and steady that they had to belong to sleeping people. The third was steady but fast enough, telling me whoever it was, they were awake. I tried to talk but I only started coughing.

"Spencer?" A guy said in surprise. There was the ruffling of sheets and suddenly through my barely open eyes, Dom was standing over me. "Hey man, can you hear me?"

I nodded.

"Okay, hang tight, and don't talk. I'm going to go get a nurse." Dom disappeared, reappearing about a minute later with a Healer behind him.

"Okay Mr. Barnes, this is going to feel weird but I urge you not to panic," the Healer instructed.

Oh that made me feel great...

The Healer started pulling on something that was just outside my peripheral vision, but it felt bizarre because whatever it was, they were pulling it out of my throat. I tried not to gag but it was impossible. Thankfully though they made the process quick.

"What was that?" I wheezed out.

"A tube to feed you," The Healer explained. "You've been in a coma the past week and a half."

"The past... Elsa? Caleb? Lily?" I stammered.

"Your girlfriend is currently asleep in the chair next to you, Caleb is still in a coma but he's been stabilized, and Lily is with him, almost completely healed now. All your injuries were hindered from healing as fast because of the wolfsbane. How you survived is a miracle, honestly."

I turned my head to the side to see Elsa asleep in an armchair, curled up in a ball. Her hand was outstretched, grasping mine.

"She's barely left your side. She'll move to go shower and grab a bite to eat but otherwise, that's it," Dom said while the Healer did some checks on me. It took about half an hour before she was done. Upon finishing, she gave me some pain killers and left.

"What all happened?" I asked.

"Barry, Derek, Nancy, Sabine, and Ethan are all dead. Quite a few pack members had to be put in medically induced comas if they weren't in natural ones already, but they're all awake now, doing just fine."

"What do you say Anna and I leave and give you some alone time with Elsa?"

"I don't want to wake her up."

"You're the only person besides Caleb she wouldn't mind waking up for at the moment. Trust me, you'll be fine in waking her up. I'll see you soon, brother."

Dominic scooped Anna carefully in his arms so as not to wake her. She stirred but when he told her everything was okay, to go back to sleep, she listened. When they were out of the room, I turned my attention to Elsa. She was paler than usual, but showed no bruises anywhere on her body so either she didn't have any in the first place or they'd all healed. The only visible injury I could see was her ankle and leg, encased in a massive cast.

"Elsa," I whispered. That was the loudest my voice would go at the moment. Apparently being near death did that to you. "Elsa, are you awake?"

My girlfriend stirred, causing me to repeat her name a few more times. Around the fifth time, she opened her eyes, appearing completely out of sorts.

"Who's there?" she murmured.

"Spencer. Dom said you'd want to know when I was awake."

She shot up into sitting position, eyes wide with disbelief. "You... you're awake. H-how long have you been awake?"

"About fifteen minutes. A Healer did some checks on me and Dom told me what was going on before he left with Anna."

"How are you feeling?" she asked worriedly.

"The Healer gave me some pain killers so I feel great. How do you feel? Something's bothering you."

"I'm just so glad to see you awake," she admitted, tears welling in her eyes. "They had you stabilized for ages and you should've woken up just a few days after because of our Guardian healing but you didn't and we were all getting worried."

"Hey, I'm awake now so that's all that matters. Now answer my question: what's bothering you?"

"It's not that it's bothering me but... did you know?"

"Know what?" I queried, getting a bad feeling about where this conversation was going.

"That we mated. I talked to my mom about what I felt when you were shot and she said the only way I could've known that you were in danger was if we'd mated. Of course now my mom knows... it's only a matter of time before my dad does and you can expect a certain conversation with him because of that."

"Will that conversation have to do with if I hurt you, he'll kill me?"

"Well, actually Hunter would probably be the one to kill you. Dad would make sure it all looked like an accident."

"That's terrifying."

She chuckled quietly. "Did you know though?"

"Yeah... the morning after we mated. I was panicking about some thoughts of mine and you woke up from a dead sleep. There was no reason you should've but you did. That's when I suspected but considering I couldn't come up with any other explanation, accepted that we'd mated. I was going to tell you but I didn't know when. I didn't want to freak you out."

"I was more freaked out when I felt you dying."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she said, resting her chin on our intertwined hands.

"Who all knows about us being mated?"

"So far just Hunter, my mom, Anna because she's my twin and it's hard to hide anything from her, and Dom."

"Caleb never knew?"

"No, and I never told Lily."

"How long until I can get up and move around? My body feels sore from laying in this bed for so long."

"I'll talk to the Healers, see what we can do. Do you need any blood?"

"No, I'm good. I'm awake so the recovery should be much faster."

"All right. But you know who to ask if you do. Can I get you anything?"

"Want to watch some TV?"

"I'd love to. What channel would you like to watch?"

"It is completely up to you."

"If you say that, we're watching the Hallmark channel because that's the cheeriest thing on, even if it is the cheesiest."

"As long as you're lying next to me, I'm okay with that. Besides, maybe I can learn a few things from it," I laughed.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"You're the only person I give permission to hurt me."

"Looks like you don't need the Hallmark channel to teach you anything."

I grinned at her as she crawled in bed next to me, carefully resting her head on my shoulder. In that moment, nothing else mattered except that she was next to me. I didn't let myself think that at some point, Lily, Caleb if he survived, and I would be heading back to Canada, and Elsa would be staying with her family. But we had a while until that point. So I settled down and let myself relax.
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