Chapter 2 - She's awake!

COLLIN WAS JUST ABOUT TO rush into the doctor’s exam room for a third time when his parents and sister came rushing down the passage. For a couple of minutes, there was total chaos while he tried to explain what happened, how he found her, and, finally, that she was his mate. All he really wanted to do was be by her side but they kept asking him questions!

“Do you know anything about her? Did she say anything?” Leah frowned as she tried to figure out where the girl could have come from, but Collin looked at her with such horror in his eyes that her heart broke and she didn’t question him any further about it. To find your mate only to find out they were dying was possibly worse than having someone reject you!

The door opened and the doctor looked grim as he stepped out. Collin didn’t want to hear what he had to say if he was going to tell him that she hadn’t made it! He shouted with relief as soon as the doctor told him that the young woman was going to be okay. She wasn’t completely out of danger and he couldn’t promise that she would ever completely recover, but she was still alive. They wouldn’t know the extent of the damage to her brain until she woke up and they were going to keep her in a medically induced coma until the swelling in her brain had gone down.

Their tests showed that she had a pretty serious head injury and, although there were no other major injuries, she lost a lot of blood because of the wound in her side. They were lucky that whatever punctured her side hadn't hit any major organs. Her bloodwork came back and it was confirmed that she was in fact one of them. She was definitely a werewolf. Collin rolled his eyes at this since they could all smell that she was a wolf, but at least the blood tests showed that she wasn’t a rogue.

Collin asked if he could see her and the doctor warned him that she was still awfully pale, but he agreed that Collin could see her. As Collin stepped into the room he felt pain shoot through his entire body as the shock of seeing her like that hit him. She was even paler than he remembered and there were a bunch of wires coming from all sides as the machines kept beeping above her head. Her blond hair clung to her cheeks except for the spot where it had been shaven so the doctor could look at the wound. Collin noticed that there was still a bit of blood tangling her hair and he made a mental note to ask the nurse if he could clean it for her.

The long cut down the side of her head looked absolutely horrific and all Collin wanted to do was kiss her and promise her that she would be okay. Collin just wanted to protect and love her. He honestly didn’t give a damn where she came from. He just wanted her to wake up. The doctor didn’t give him a long time to sit with her and Collin was furious by the time his parents told him he had to leave. She looked so fragile and he didn’t want to leave her alone, but when the doctor insisted, he had to give in.

On their way home, his parents kept asking him questions about the young girl, but he couldn’t answer any of them. All he could tell them was where he found her and in what state. He didn’t even know her name and now she was fighting for her life. As soon as they got back home, Sebastian started making calls to the alphas in the nearby territories to find out if any of them knew who the girl was.

After the fourth call, things were looking bleak. Nobody had reported a missing girl and there had been no attacks on any of the packs. The girl seemed to have appeared out of thin air and all they could do was wait for her to wake up. Over the next month, Collin spent every waking moment at the hospital. The doctor eventually brought her out of the medical coma but when she didn’t wake up, he couldn’t tell Collin why the young woman hadn’t woken up. Her head injury was slowly healing and the wound on her side was completely gone. Collin was unable to make contact with her wolf which was concerning, but the doctor assured him that it could just be because of her head injury. Wolves tended to spend their time healing their human rather than communicating under these kinds of circumstances.

The doctor finally suggested that she be moved back to the pack house the day after they took her off the ventilator. She was breathing on her own and everything seemed to be perfectly fine. She just hadn’t woken up. Leah and Emily made all the arrangements and Leah made sure Collin’s things were moved from the top floor to the room next door to where they were going to keep the girl. That was something else Leah kept mentioning. Since nobody knew who she was and they couldn’t keep calling her the girl, she suggested that they pick a name to call her until she woke up.

She was hoping that by giving her a name, Collin would feel as if he was doing something to bring her out of her coma. Leah and Emily could only guess what the young girl might like and they did the best they could to decorate her room with happy colours and fresh flowers in the hopes that when she finally did wake up, she wouldn’t feel too scared of where she was.

Collin sat with her day and night, telling her about himself and his family. He read his favourite book out loud, but his favourite thing to do for her was to play some music and he would just sit next to her bed, holding her hand and listening to the music.

Another month passed and the doctor could only tell them that she was healing, but still, there was no reason for her not to wake up. Collin had started calling her Clara and everyone could see he was totally devoted to her. The only thing Leah could pray for was that Clara woke up and loved their son as much as he so clearly loved her. Collin had just left to take a shower and Leah offered to brush Clara’s hair when Leah heard the young woman moan.

Leah turned around to find Clara rubbing her eyes and yawning. She didn’t want to scare her so she didn’t rush to her side, but she did call Collin through the pack link. He was there in seconds.

“Where am I?” The girl seemed so sweet, but she seemed incredibly confused and Collin explained where she was. When she asked what happened, Leah suspected that she might have memory loss, but she didn’t want to upset Collin by saying anything until the doctor was there to confirm her suspicions. Collin couldn’t stop touching the poor girl and Leah could see that the girl was confused and growing anxious.

“What is your name, sweetheart?” Leah interrupted her son’s ranting and he frowned at her for a moment. Leah looked at him and then at his hands and Collin realized he was overcrowding the poor girl. She had been sleeping for over two months! He had to give her just a bit of space so that she could find her bearings! The girl frowned and started to rub her forehead, but after a little while she said that she couldn’t remember.

Collin asked if she could remember what happened to her and she shook her head. They were at a loss and Leah was just about to tell the girl to take a shower when the doctor arrived. He took some time to check her out and smiled when he met the entire family outside of Clara’s room.

“Well, she seems physically fine. I would like to run a couple of tests, but I would say, other than the amnesia, she is healed.” He gave them a couple of instructions on what to do to help Clara so she could start moving about and number one on that list was for her to take a long hot bath. The ladies suggested they would help her until she could remember who she was.

Collin rushed into the room the second the doctor left and it broke Leah’s heart, even more, to see him like that. The girl didn’t remember that she was a werewolf and, since nobody knew anything about her, they were going to take it one step at a time and see what felt right to her. Leah wanted to find out if she could feel the bond or contact her wolf, but the doctor had given them strict instructions not to pressure her to remember anything.

They couldn’t mention anything about being a wolf or the attack unless Clara initiated the conversation. The entire pack knew about the girl, which made things even more difficult since they all wanted to meet their new Luna, but she was still pretty fragile. Sebastian suggested that Collin and Clara have dinner in her room on the first night so she could find her feet first while he and Leah prepared the pack for the hard road ahead.

You could feel the excitement in the air. Clara was awake! She couldn’t remember anything, but at least she was awake and there was hope!