Chapter 14 Knox
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Knox
“Knox, what the hell-”
Lina’s voice broke on the words, tears streaming down her face as she tried to sit up and see what was happening with our baby.
I tried to soothe her, tried to push calm through the bond, but I couldn’t focus on anything except the bundle of blankets on the warming table and Dr. Hartley’s frantic movements as she worked on our child.
Why wasn’t the baby crying? Why wasn’t anyone telling us what was happening? Why were all the nurses clustered around that table instead of bringing our baby to us?
My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. My wolf was clawing at my insides, desperate to protect, to fix, to do something. But there was nothing I could do except stand there and watch and pray to every goddess I’d ever heard of that my child was okay.
Then a sound cut through the chaos.
A long, high-pitched wail. Loud and strong and absolutely beautiful.
I sagged with relief, my legs nearly giving out beneath me. The cry continued, piercing and insistent, the most wonderful noise I’d ever heard in my entire life. Our baby was alive and breathing and screaming at the world with tiny, perfect lungs.
I turned to Lina, tears streaming down my face, a smile breaking through despite everything. “Our baby is fine, love. It’s alive. Can you hear that? That’s our baby crying.”
But Lina didn’t respond.
She was staring at the ceiling, her eyes unfocused, her face pale. Too pale. The color had drained from her skin completely, leaving her looking gray and waxy under the harsh hospital lights.
Alarm flooded my body, replacing the relief so quickly it made my head spin.
“Dr. Hartley!” I shouted, my voice coming out as a snarl. “Something’s wrong with Lina!”
The medical team split instantly, half of them staying with the baby while the other half rushed to Lina’s side. Dr. Hartley was there in seconds, her expression shifting from relief to concern as she assessed my mate.
“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded, positioning myself at Lina’s head, gripping her hand. It was cold. Too cold. “Why did you leave her? Why wasn’t anyone watching her?”
One of the nurses flinched at my tone but answered anyway. “She’s losing too much blood, Doctor. The afterbirth hasn’t happened yet. There might be complications.”
“Then fix it!” I snarled. “Do something!”
Dr. Hartley was already working, her hands moving quickly as she examined Lina.
“We need to get this under control. Someone send the baby to the NICU and I want a full, exhaustive workup on both of them. Blood panels, everything.” She glanced up at me briefly.
“Congratulations, Alpha, Luna. It’s a girl. ”
A girl. We had a daughter. Under any other circumstances, I would have been overwhelmed with joy. I would have been crying happy tears and kissing Lina and demanding to hold our baby.
Instead, I watched my mate grow paler by the second and felt my world crumbling around me.
“Lina, baby, stay with me,” I said, squeezing her hand. “You did it. We have a daughter. You need to wake up and meet her. You need to stay awake.”
Her eyes fluttered, trying to focus on my face. “Knox...” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Is the baby...”
“She’s perfect. She’s beautiful. She’s going to be fine. But I need you to be fine too, okay? I need you to fight.”
“Tired...” she mumbled, her eyes starting to close.
“No. No, don’t close your eyes. Lina, look at me. Stay with me.”
But she wasn’t listening. She couldn’t listen. She was slipping away from me, her consciousness fading as the machines around us started beeping faster and more urgently.
“Her blood pressure is dropping,” one of the nurses announced.
“Get me more units of blood. Now.”
“She’s hemorrhaging internally. We need to get her to surgery.”
“I know what we need to do. Everyone focus. Someone get the crash cart ready.”
I stood there, useless, watching the medical team swarm around my mate. They were shouting orders at each other, moving equipment, doing things I didn’t understand. All I could do was hold Lina’s hand and pray.
“Save her,” I growled, my voice barely human. “Whatever you have to do, save her.”
“We’re trying, Alpha,” Dr. Hartley said without looking up. “Please stay calm.”
Calm? How the fuck was I supposed to stay calm? My mate was dying. The woman I loved more than anything in this world was bleeding out right in front of me and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it.
The beeping from the heart monitor grew more erratic. Faster. More irregular. The line on the screen was jumping all over the place instead of maintaining the steady rhythm it should have.
“Her heart rate is unstable,” someone said.
The beeping grew faster. Then slower. Then faster again. The machines were screaming warnings and alarms and I couldn’t process any of it. All I could see was Lina’s pale face, her closed eyes, her chest barely rising and falling with each shallow breath.
Then the sound I’d been dreading.
One long, continuous beep.
Flatline.
“No! LINA!”
I lunged toward her but the nurses held me back. Dr. Hartley shouted something I couldn’t hear over the roaring in my ears.
“Clear!”
They pushed me aside, positioned the paddles on Lina’s chest, and sent electricity through her body. She jerked on the table, her back arching, then went still again.
The monitor still showed a flatline.
“Again! Clear!”
Another shock. Another jerk. Another moment of terrible, endless silence.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything except stare at the woman I loved, watching her die right in front of me while I stood there completely helpless.
Tears were streaming down my face. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except Lina waking up, Lina’s heart beating, Lina being alive.
“Come on,” Dr. Hartley muttered, preparing for another shock. “Come on, Luna. Fight.”
“SAVE HER!” I roared, my voice echoing off the walls. “DO SOMETHING! SAVE MY MATE!”
“Alpha, please calm down or you’ll be escorted out of the room!”
A nurse was in front of me, her hands raised, her expression a mixture of fear and determination. I realized I’d been yelling. Screaming. Making demands that they couldn’t possibly fulfill because they were already doing everything in their power.
But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t control the primal terror that was consuming me, the wolf inside me howling with grief and rage and desperation.
“Please,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please save her. I can’t... I can’t lose her. I can’t.”
“We got a pulse!”
Dr. Hartley’s voice cut through my spiral. I looked at the monitor and saw it. A heartbeat. Weak and irregular, but there. Lina’s heart was beating again.
“Thank the goddess,” I whispered, my legs threatening to give out beneath me.
“To the surgery room, NOW!” Dr. Hartley ordered. The nurses immediately began moving, unlocking the wheels of Lina’s bed and rushing her toward the door. “We need to stop the internal bleeding and complete the delivery of the placenta. This can’t wait.”
I followed them, not willing to let Lina out of my sight. But Dr. Hartley stopped me at the doors to the surgical wing, her hand firm on my chest.
“Alpha, you can’t come any further.”
“The hell I can’t. That’s my mate in there.”
“And she needs surgery to survive. You cannot be in the operating room.” Her voice was firm but not unkind.
“She’s bleeding internally. We have to operate to stop it and help with the afterbirth.
It’s going to take some time, but I promise you, we are going to do everything in our power to save her. ”
“And our daughter?”
“Your daughter is okay, but she’s still weak from being preterm.
We’ll keep her under close watch in the NICU.
The pediatric team is with her right now.
” Dr. Hartley met my eyes, her expression serious.
“Be patient, Alpha. I know that’s hard for you.
But the best thing you can do for your mate right now is let us work. I’ll see you after the surgery.”
She didn’t wait for my response. She just turned and ran after the gurney that was disappearing down the hallway, through the doors that closed behind her with a sound of finality.
I stood there for a long moment, staring at those doors. My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. I could still feel Lina through the bond, faint and flickering, her presence a dim glow where it should have been a blazing fire.
She was alive. Barely. But alive.
I had to hold onto that.
I turned and walked back down the hallway, my steps unsteady. Everything felt surreal, like I was moving through a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from.
When I pushed through the doors to the waiting area, I was immediately surrounded by voices.
“Knox!”
“Son!”
“What is going on? Where did they take Lina?”
The words blurred together, overlapping and echoing in my ears.
I lifted my gaze from the floor and saw them.
Hunt, his face pale with worry. Noah, already moving toward me.
My father, standing stiff and formal but with fear in his eyes.
And Sarah, her hands pressed to her mouth, tears already streaming down her cheeks.
The twins must have stayed with my mother. I was glad. They shouldn’t see their mother like this. They shouldn’t see their father like this either, but I couldn’t control myself anymore. I couldn’t pretend to be strong.
“Lina...” My voice broke on her name. I couldn’t finish the sentence. The words stuck in my throat, choking me.
“What happened?” Noah asked, his hand gripping my shoulder. “Knox, talk to us.”
“She needs surgery,” I managed. “She’s bleeding. Internal bleeding. They have to operate.”
“Oh god,” Sarah whispered.
“Her pulse-” I stopped, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat. “It stopped. Her heart stopped. They had to... they had to shock her...”
I broke.