Denied by Destiny Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond novel Chapter 401

~ Josie ~

Nothing prepares you for this.

You know it is coming but yet…I’m not ready for this. I’m not ready to lose him. It’s too soon.

“Dad?” I scream out as I push through the double doors into the emergency room ward of the hospital, my first instinct was just to come here. To assess his injuries for myself.

As I enter the ward, complete mayhem has landed upon the hospital.

We’ve trained for this, it’s been the entire reason for our weekly repetitive and, even at times, boring drills.

But this is why, this is why we have those drills.

Flustered faces of hospital staff and pack members watch me as I hurry over to Dad, Mum clinging on to him as the Head of Emergency prepares to take him in to surgery.

“Alpha Kaia, I must insist!” He orders at Mum to step aside. Only for his eyes to roll as I and Jaxon join Mum and Jace already at Dad’s side.

“Dad?”

“No…no surgery!” Dad orders out with this alpha command behind it.

“Hector!” Kaia shouts back at him, only for Dad to place a hand upon her cheek.

She’s holding him, lying next to him in his own hospital bed. The surgical team standing over him, waiting for the order.

They are both covered in blood, that fear that had been with me as I raced here, only tightening its grip on me.

“Dad, you need surgery..” I gasp out, my eyes soaking up his deteriorating condition, his paling skin.

“I’m going to be fine, they just need to stop the bleeding…”

“And surgery will do that!” The Head of Emergency seethes out against Dad’s alpha command.

“Bleeding, what bleeding?” Surely they’ve already stemmed the flow of blood already.

“He was stabbed with a silver blade.” Jaxon growls almost in my ear.

“No!” I felt it myself, the moment he fell. But with the hunter holding a gun to me, I didn’t stop to think it was silver. But how could it be anything else.

“We must go, the staff are ready!” The head of emergency tries to pry Mum always from Dad but she wasn’t having any of it either.

“Your alpha has given you an order!” She growls at the surgery staff, pure fear radiating through them as she applies her Luna command onto them also.

“You can’t leave me now, see…you are finally getting your own way.” Mum gentle laughs out, only for Dad’s head to roll back slightly as he bites back on the pain.

“If I had known this is what it took…” He laughs out through the pain, his teeth clenching.

“Stop laughing, you are tearing the wound.”

“Alpha Kaia, it’s now or never.” The doctor inpatiently warns Mum, her eyes holding the weight of the world in them.

She can’t help him, he won’t let her. Maybe he has commanded her not to, maybe they have a pack. A life for a life..maybe they made that vow to one another years ago.

She can’t break it, she can’t help him.

But I can…I can help him. I’ve made no pack, I’ve made no oath. I won’t be breaking any promise to him.

“Step aside.” I order out, all eyes turning to look at me as if I had lost my mind.

“Josie…” I hear Knox’s dissatisfied growl next to me, he knows me too well.

“Josie, no…” Dad starts to protest but it is too much for him, as he starts to cough up blood. We didn’t have time for this, he didn’t have time. I wasn’t going to lose him and on turn, then lose Mum. To lose a mate once marked…even the strongest never come back from that.