Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Luch
“Isaid get out of my way. This one’s mine.”
I blinked, my vision blurry, a ceiling whipping past. I was moving, I knew that much, and I recognized the voice.
“Lynn?” I rasped, confused. Was I at work?
“Don’t worry, Dr. Carmichael. I’ve got you. Nobody will take care of you like your own.”
“What …” I couldn’t understand what was happening.
“He really needs a doctor,” another voice growled, arguing with Lynn.
“This is our hospital and we take care of our own. I kindly ask you to step back or we’ll make you step back.”
“But he’s my son.”
My dad was here?
It all came flashing back, in an instant, and I struggled, trying to sit up.
“You just lie right there, darling. I’ve got you.” Lynn’s hand pressed me back, holding me easily on the stretcher.
“Faelan.” I could barely speak, couldn’t move, nothing was working. My thoughts were a jumbled mess, my vision still blurry, and I couldn’t work out what was going on.
“We’ve got her too, Dr. Carmichael. Is this your lady friend?
I knew you were dating someone, didn’t I?
I told the others, that there was no way you were single.
Even Jacob said you’d seemed happier lately.
I called it.” Lynn’s voice was cheerful, even though her steps were hurried and the stretcher moved fast. If Lynn was moving this fast, then this was serious, more serious than she was letting on with her chatter.
Her bedside manner was impeccable, and Lynn excelled at distracting and comforting the patients from the severity of the pain they were in.
Which was exactly what she was trying to do now as they wheeled me into one of the private rooms.
The door slammed and Lynn’s face came into focus as she bent over me.
“It’s just us. I took a private room when I saw who it was. Tell me quick what’s really going on here.” Lynn darted a glance over her shoulder. The A&E was notorious for being busy and it was rare to have a private space, even in a more rural area like Loren Brae.
“I …” My voice rasped as Lynn took my vitals.
“Your heartbeat is abnormally fast. Your temperature is high, but you’re not breaking a sweat.
You have injuries and bruises that would suggest a far greater trauma than what I’m seeing, and yet all we’re told is you need a blood transfusion.
Something’s going on, and I’ll do my damnedest to protect you, but I need to know what I’m dealing with to help you. ”
“It’s …” I froze, unable to find the words. How could I tell her? My entire world would be compromised.
Lynn’s clear blue eyes assessed me.
“It’s something magickal, isn’t it?”
My eyebrows went up and my mouth moved but nothing came out.
“Listen, Dr. C. I’ve lived my entire life just ten minutes outside Loren Brae.
You wouldn’t be the first, or the last person, I’ve had to treat that has come to me under unusual circumstances.
You think I’ve ever said a word of it? You know I love gossip as much as the next, but never would I break a patient’s confidentiality.
But you have to tell me how to help you. ”
“My father.” My voice was but a rasp, and I could barely lift a finger to point toward the door. “His blood.”
“Och.” Lynn glanced to the door and back to me. “That’s … that’s not really standard practice, Dr. C. Patient-to-patient transfusions hold a multitude of risks, as I’m sure you know.”
“I promise. It has to be him.” Talking was becoming increasingly difficult. It felt like I had a boulder on my chest, and Lynn’s face blurred into two talking heads.
“Stay with me, Dr. C. If you insist, I’ll grab him.
” Lynn squeezed my arm, and the door opened and closed.
I stared up at the ceiling, wondering why hospitals never made the ceilings more interesting.
For the amount of time patients had to lie in bed and stare upward, it would be nice if they could look at something other than boring white ceiling tiles.
“I told you he was my son.” My father’s smug tone came through the door as Lynn returned.
“Be that as it may, unless he requests you, family stays in the waiting room during triage.” Lynn came back to my side and squeezed my arm.
“He asked for me?” A curious note hung in my father’s voice.
“He did. Said it could only be you to give blood. He’s insisted, though as a doctor, he well knows the risks of a patient-to-patient transfusion.” Lynn said the last part much more loudly than the first, admonishing me, and my lips quirked in a grin.
“He’s right.” My father’s face blurred past my vision and a chair scraped across the floor. “In this instance, he needs it from me.”
“You’re certain?” Lynn was asking me, but my father spoke.
“I’m a cardiac surgeon, I well understand the risks. I agree with my son’s assessment and am available for the transfusion.” He laid his arm on the bed next to mine.
Lynn tutted her frustration but did as she was told. I barely felt the prick of the IV, and I took a deep breath, hoping the weight on my chest would ease as my father’s blood entered my veins.
Wulvers were notoriously good healers.
But even so, a trauma of this nature would require help. Our blood was different from humans and a transfusion from a regular person would do little for me. In fact, it could very well harm me.
It was just one of many reasons that my father wanted me to come home.
Add it to the list.
I closed my eyes, willing my father’s blood to be speedy in its healing, as the last few moments before the attack played through my mind.
Faelan’s disappointment in me and my family.
My father and my brothers prowling Loren Brae under the full moon instead of returning home.
Finding my father growling at Faelan and Sophie, scaring them.
Irritation flooded me.
He’d gone past overbearing to almost unforgivable at this point, and if I had the strength, I’d tell him to get the fuck out of my hospital room. He’d had no right to pull the little stunt he had at dinner the other night. I’d told him and ordered the lot of them to leave Loren Brae.
Instead, they’d stayed and run the woods in their wolf form, forcing me to defend my territory against them.
Even though they were family.
When a lone wolf splits from the pack, there was usually a good reason for it.
In most cases it was because there were too many Alphas, and the one who breaks away leaves to start his own pack elsewhere.
I suppose if I had done so, with my father’s chosen bride in attendance, he might have let me go more peacefully.
Instead, I’d left, refusing to allow him to force his choice of a wife upon me.
Continuing our Wulver bloodline, and following the old ways, had become something that he’d fixated on after my mother’s injury.
The Wulver clans were small, spread out among the Shetland, Orkney, and outer Hebridean islands.
To avoid inbreeding, each year at summer equinox, the clans met and had a small festival to introduce eligible partners to those in neighboring clans.
Tradition was held dear, as our way of life was deeply hidden from the outside world.
It was rare for a Wulver to break away, to start fresh somewhere, and when it happened, all efforts were made to recover the wayward wolf.
Even force, if necessary. It was considered a security measure, as one small privacy leak could threaten entire clans, and it was easier to keep members in line if they were kept near.
Beyond being a security risk, I’d threatened our bloodline, according to my father, who so studiously ignored his own lapse when it came to that.
Our mother was not of the Wulvers.
And despite having borne four other sons, her subsequent paralysis after my birth had convinced my father that it was because he’d chosen a wife outside of the clans. A normal human.
Nobody could tell him differently.
Soon my brothers had taken up the belief, following his directive to find wives with suitable bloodlines, as well as sharing in his distrust against all healers. My father had become a zealot in favor of traditional Wulver ways.
Ultimately, it was what had led me to leave. Not only did the islands have more than enough skilled doctors for such remote areas, but I’d needed space to try and pick out my own path, outside of my father’s controlling voice.
I closed my eyes, resigned.
This incident would only make him spiral, and he’d be relentless until I gave up and came home.
Maybe it didn’t matter.
After this instance, I might have to leave anyway.
None of that mattered, not now. What mattered was willing myself back to health so I could check on Faelan. I knew she was in here, but I didn’t know why. Had she been hurt in the attack? Had I not fended off the Kelpies well enough?
“Son …” My father surprised me by reaching over to squeeze my hand. “You scared me. I wasn’t certain you’d make it.”
“I shouldn’t have.” The pressure on my chest was beginning to ease, as strength returned to me, and I took in a deeper breath. My leg throbbed, where the Kelpie’s teeth had ripped through tendon and bones, and I wiggled my toes experimentally.
All seemed to be in working order.
Which was impossible … unless …
“Did Faelan heal me?” I asked, my voice becoming stronger. I rolled my head on the pillow to see my father’s stony expression. “Well, did she?”
“Aye, she did. No matter how I tried to stop her. By the time I got through the barrier to you … she just dropped to the ground.”
My heart stopped.
It just stopped.
Panic gripped me.
If she took the pain in, that meant …
I struggled to sit up. I had to go to her, to see if she was still alive. Nobody would be able to help her, as they wouldn’t know what to do. My injuries from the Kelpie would just eat her alive.
“Hey, now. Just rest, boy. There will be time enough to check on the lass.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Fury had me jerking away from my father’s touch at my shoulder, and the IV line went taut between us.