Fatal Temptation: Between Two Alphas novel Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Here she comes!”

When I open my eyes, I see my father.

His hair is nearly all white and lines bracket his mouth and eyes. He’s still handsome. Still strong. But he appears to have aged dramatically in the years I’ve been gone.

I sit up slowly.

I’m in a hospital bed. I glance to my right. Cameron is in a bed beside mine.

Across the room is Ashley.

The growl that comes out is feral.

My father steps back abruptly. It wasn’t directed at him, but let him think what he wants. He did nothing that fateful night.

Nothing for his only daughter.

I know he wasn’t particularly emotional, but he was all I had.

“You look so beautiful,” he says.

My dad never paid me a compliment like this before.

His hand shakes as he reaches to touch my hand.

I tense.

He freezes. His eyes furrow like I’ve struck him.

But he doesn’t get to be hurt.

I am the one who’s hurt.

He takes the next step and clasps my hand. His fingers are cold but his grip is firm. Relief pours through him. I can see it, smell it.

“I’m so happy you’re here. I can hardly believe you’re back.”

“It wasn’t by choice,” I tell him truthfully.

Cam’s father walks in. And his bitchy sister Claire too. I arch a brow at her.

Normally, she’d make some catty comment or give me a glare that would make me feel like gum beneath her Prada shoes.

Instead she sobs. Big ugly tears ruining her makeup as she lurches toward the hospital bed.

Her arms sling around me and I’m hugged hard.

I’m too shocked to move.

When she draws back, she swipes her eyes hastily. She doesn’t say another word. No welcomes or apologies. She just stands and nods and walks back out of the room.

Huh.

The Alpha nods once at me and then goes to his son’s side. He presses the call button, but it’s unnecessary, Dr. Lee is already coming into the room.

“His color looks better,” Alpha Healmsworth remarks.

Cam looks a little flushed. But that might just be from our sex dreams.

He has that same, sated smile he’d have after we spent hours together tangled up in bed.

I want to tell myself that it doesn’t count. That what happened in that ‘other place’ just isn’t possible. That it has no bearing on what we do in the real world.

Nala barks sharply.

Right.

I’m pregnant.

I decide to take that little nugget and tuck into a mental pocket. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I’m back, or that Cam is what--in a coma?--or that we can connect in some other plane–one where we can touch and feel and conceive a baby.

Deep breath.

Everyone is staring at me.

Dr. Lee comes over and examines my arm. “This wound is only partially healed.”

“Yes.”

“Have you shifted since incurring the injury?”

“Yes.” I tilt my head. “I’m sure my abductors relayed this information prior to my arrival.”

My father and Cam’s share an uncomfortable look.

Well, that’s just tough. We aren’t going to pretend things are peachy. Not after what they did to me. I don’t expect Alpha Healmsworth to apologize–as the ruler of this pack, he can say or do whatever he pleases.

“Before you arrived, while you were still in flight,” the doctor tells me, “Cameron flatlined. He was… for all intents and medical purposes, dead.”

I gasp.

“Can you tell me what happened when you lost consciousness on the plane?”

Uh? Hours of mindblowing sex?

I wasn’t about to share that. “I, uh, think I was able to connect with Cam. Only it was more like a dream or something.”

My dad’s eyes flare. He looks anxious… and sad?

“Can you try to communicate with Cam now?” the doctor asks.

I’ve never been much good at meditating. And I know nothing of channeling my thoughts or even how to act like some sort of receptor to receive his.

“Just close your eyes and try,” Dr. Lee says. “Concentrate.”