His new stepsister His biggest threat (Claire and Elijah) novel Chapter 216

Chapter 216

Chapter 216

Claire’s POV

The transition from the fluorescent chaos of the cafeteria to the sterile, white-washed reality of the Pack General ER was nothing more than a series of disjointed sensory snapshots.

The smell of Elijah’s leather jacket.

The frantic, uneven thud of his boots against tile.

The cold, biting pressure of an oxygen mask being pressed over my face.

Then, the sharp, silver-tinged scent of the Pack doctors-wolves who specialized in hearts that were too human for the bodies they inhabited.

When my eyes finally fluttered open, the world was quiet.

The rhythmic beep… beep… beep… of the heart monitor was slow and steady, a stark contrast to the frantic drumming I remembered from the cafeteria floor.

I was in a private room.

The curtains were drawn, allowing only a sliver of the afternoon sun to cut across the linoleum floor.

Elijah was there.

He wasn’t sitting in the chair by the bed. He was on the floor, his back against the wall, his head resting on his knees.

His hoodie was bunched at the shoulders, and even from here, I could feel the cold, vibrating hum of his distress. It was the scent of a wolf who had failed his primary directive: protection.

“Elijah,” I rasped. My throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper.

He moved so fast I didn’t see him stand.

One second he was by the wall, the next he was hovering over me, his hands hovering over mine as if he was afraid that touching me might break the fragile rhythm the doctors had restored.

“Don’t move,” he commanded, his voice raw. “The doctor said you need at least six hours of absolute stillness. Your heart… it went into an arrhythmia, Claire. They had to use the pads.”

The memory of the electric shock-the sudden, violent jolt that had felt like a bolt of lightning through my spine-came rushing back.

I shuddered, and the monitor echoed the movement with a quickening beat.

“Hey, hey,” Elijah murmured, finally taking my hand. His skin was ice cold, but his grip was firm. “Breathe. You’re okay. You’ re at General. Ethan is outside. Mom is coming. You’re safe.”

“Mason,” I whispered. “Is he-”

“Gone,” Elijah said, and the word was flat, devoid of emotion. It was the tone he used when he was suppressing a killing

urge.

“Felix and the others made sure he left the school. He didn’t even get to finish his lunch. But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that you almost died because I couldn’t keep my temper.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I argued, though even the effort of speaking made my chest feel heavy. “He knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted that reaction.”

“And I gave it to him,” Elijah spat, finally letting go of my hand to pace the small area between the bed and the window. “I stood there and let him bait me while you were literally falling apart behind me. I sensed your heart rate climbing, Claire. I felt your wolf panicking, and I ignored it because I wanted to put his head through a table.”

He stopped, turning to look at me. His eyes were bloodshot, the blue iris rimmed with an angry, lingering gold.

“I can’t do this, Claire. I can’t be the reason you end up in a box.”

“You’re the reason I’m still breathing,” I countered, reaching out for him. “If you hadn’t caught me… if you hadn’t stayed with me in the ambulance…”

“The doctors said the stress is the trigger. Dr Adrian would be here in a bit too,” he said, ignoring my hand. He looked defeated, a version of the Captain I’d never seen. “The rivalry, the Reeds, the secret… it’s all killing you. Ethan and I had a talk in the hallway while you were under. He thinks you should be moved.”

The air left my lungs again, but this time it wasn’t a medical emergency. It was pure, unadulterated fear. “Moved? Where?”

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Chapter 216

“To the northern sanctuary. With the elders,” Elijah said, his voice trembling. “It’s quiet there. No high school. No Reeds No…

me.”

“No,” I said, my heart rate monitor beginning to protest. “No, Elijah. You can’t let him do that. I won’t go.”

“It’s for your life, Claire!” he yelled, then immediately flinched, lowering his voice as he saw me startle. “It’s for your life. Look at where we are. Look at these tubes. Every time I touch you, every time we hide what we are, your heart pays the price. I’m a Hale. My life is violence and politics and hockey. You have a human heart, and it can’t handle the weight of my world.”

“Then change the world,” I whispered. “Don’t send me away.”

The door pushed open, and Ethan walked in. He looked like a man who had aged ten years in three hours.

He didn’t look at Elijah; he went straight to the foot of my bed, checking the digital readout on the monitors with the practiced eye of an Alpha who had seen too many of his people injured.

“You’re awake,” Ethan said. It wasn’t a question. “The specialist is coming in twenty minutes. We’re going to discuss the long-term stabilization plan.”

“Elijah said you want to send me away,” I said, my voice shaking.

Ethan looked at his son, then back at me. “We want you alive, Claire. This pack is under threat. The Reeds have realized that they don’t have to beat Elijah on the ice or in the woods to win. They just have to stress you out until your heart gives up. You are the target now.”

“Then protect me here,” I said.

“We tried that,” Ethan said, his voice hardening. “And you ended up in the ER with a defibrillator mark on your chest. As an Alpha, I cannot allow a member of my house to be used as a strategic weakness. As your stepfather… I can’t watch my wife lose a daughter.”

“And what about Elijah?” I asked, looking past Ethan to the boy who was currently shattering into pieces. “What happens to him if I go?”

“He becomes the leader he was born to be,” Ethan said. “Without the distraction.”

Elijah let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “Distraction. Is that what she is now?”

“She is your heartbeat, Elijah,” Ethan turned on him, his voice a low growl. “And right now, that heartbeat is failing because of you. If you love her, you’ll let her go to the sanctuary until we’ve dealt with the Reeds. Permanently.”

The room went silent, save for the mechanical beep of the monitor.

The word ‘permanently’ hung in the air like a death sentence. We all knew what it meant. Ethan was no longer playing by the Council’s rules. He was going to end the Reed lineage.

Elijah looked at me, his eyes full of a soul-crushing conflict. He wanted to fight for me, but he also wanted me to live. For a wolf, those two instincts were usually the same thing. But for us, they were at war.

“Give us a minute,” Elijah said to his father.

Ethan hesitated, then nodded. “Five minutes. The doctor won’t wait.”

Once the door clicked shut, Elijah walked back to the bed. He sat on the edge, careful not to jar the IV lines.

He took both of my hands in his, pressing them against his chest so I could feel the frantic, heavy thud of his own heart.

“I won’t let them send you away,” he whispered, his eyes locking onto mine with a terrifying intensity. “But we can’t keep doing this, Claire. No more secrets. No more hiding. If the Reeds want to use you to get to me, then I’m going to make sure the entire world knows that touching you means the end of everything they love.”

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