keep holding on

"I’m Jasper Kallager, my bonded mate Aria Baker was just brought in via ambulance. Can you tell me anything? Please.” The nurse looks up and smiles softly as she types in the information to the computer. She grimaces before looking up at me.

“Your mate has been rushed into emergency surgery. I’ll make a note that you are here so the doctor working on her can come out and tell you what’s happening when he gets a chance. Don’t feel like we are pushing you off.” She glances at the screen and reads the chart. “She coded in the ambulance three times on the way here.”

“I don’t know what that means.” I whisper. My throat closing at the thought.

“She stopped breathing multiple times. They brought her back each time. But the doctors are working on her now. As soon as we know more the doctor will come out and inform you. If you want to go wait in the surgical waiting room. I’ll let them know you are here. Is any more of her family coming?”

I shake my head and push away from the desk. Rushing into the surgical waiting area. My legs are bouncing like crazy as I wait for news. Hours later of pacing and eating from the vending machine and chugging bad coffee the doctor finally came out.

“Aria Baker’s family?” he calls. I rush over to him and stand there. He smiles softly as he focuses on me. “You're her family son?”

“Her bonded mate.” I lie.

He nods, “Aria has multiple broken ribs, one that punctured her lung which required emergency surgery. Her spleen was broken, and we had to remove that. Internal bleeding caused her to code three times on the way to the hospital. She is on a nasal cannula. Her lung didn’t collapse. If it had, we would have had to vent her. Luckily her body is responding to minimal help. We are very hopeful that she is going to make a quick recovery. We are taking her for an overnight stay in the ICU. In the morning she’ll be moved to a normal room. She's a very lucky wolf.”

My hands are folded in prayer to my chest and I just whisper, “Thank the Goddess”

The doctor nodded before tilting his head. “We did a full x ray on her body. Was she abused as a child?” he asks.

I bite my lip as tears come to my eyes, “I’ve wondered that for a while sir. She’s never mentioned it.”

“We found evidence of an untold number of fractures and breaks in her bones. Some that never set properly. Her jaw is wired now because her jaw was completely shattered. We repaired the damage. Her left arm is broken near her shoulder as is her wrist. Her right shoulder is broken. Her left ankle was sprained. Her right leg is cast all the way up to her knee. The ankle is broken.”

My head slides back and I groan. I wish I could take all the injuries for her. All these broken bones. The beatings. I would take them all if it meant she would never hurt again.

I nod my head when the doctor asks if I want to see her. I pull a chair over to her bed and lay my head down next to her hand. I press a kiss to her fingertips.

“I will do whatever it takes, love. I will get whoever did this to you.”

I sit there and hold her hand for a few hours, a few nurses see me and smile softly as they work around me to check her vitals and adjust her pain medications. Weaning her down to help her wake up. I needed to confront Asher. I needed to know he wasn’t the one who hurt his twin. I needed to know I wasn’t going to have to kill my best friend. I couldn’t keep thinking badly of him the way my mind kept swirling between all the possibilities of who could have hurt her. I prayed repeatedly that it wasn’t my best friend and Beta Asher.

I sent Linc a text.

Me: Meet me in thirty minutes at my place. I’ll have Asher meet us there. I want to get to the bottom of this.

Linc: Be there soon.

I press a kiss to Aria’s forehead gently and whisper even though she’s still asleep. “I’ll be back baby. After this it's you and me forever. I love you. I’ll never let anything happen to you ever again.” I close my eyes and press another kiss to her forehead. I had a knot in my gut. I don’t know why but I feel like I shouldn’t leave, even knowing that I need to so I can find out who did that. I feel like once I walk out that door, I’ll never see her again. It makes me physically ill at the thought of never seeing her again. I couldn’t handle that.

I shake the thought away as I take one more look at her sleeping face before I walk out the door. I close it behind me as I walk away to confront her brother.