2. Forty- five

~ Harper’s POV ~ 

She just hung on me. I couldn't believe she just did that. After months of no contact, she had the balls to give me a call, not let me say anything, and then hang up on me.

I was sitting on the uncomfortable plastic chair in the waiting room of the hospital, reeling from different emotions, the majority of them being disbelief, anger, and hurt.

My wolf was restless, he had heard the voice of his mate but it wasn't enough for him. He wanted Zara in his arms eight now. He wanted to see her and bet with her. I, on the other hand, was so damn angry with her that I had no idea what I would do if she were to walk in the room right now. She was hurt and insecure, I get that. But that didn't give her or anyone else any right to play with my emotions. 

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I needed to remind myself that Zara was not here right now and letting her into my head and control my emotions would be a terrible thing. I would deal with her when o would face her. I would cross that bridge when it came down to it. She told me that she wasn't coming back, so I wasn't letting a ghost ruin me, not when my family and my pack needed me the most.

I was battling with my emotions and I had no idea which side would win. Hell, I had no idea which side I wanted to win.

First things first, I remembered why I was in the hospital in the first place. Aiden had carried a bleeding Natalie into the emergency room and the doctors had taken her up to surgery. 

Lack of sleep was taking its toll on me and I promised myself I was going to get a few hours of sleep in as soon as I made sure that both Natalie and the baby were okay. I walked to the nurse's station and asked about Natalie. She asked me to wait in the room Natalie was admitted in and told me that a doctor would be in there soon.

Natalie was awake when I walked inside the bleak hospital room. No matter how many decorations the hospital decorated their rooms with, they still looked bleak and fake to me. She looked a little pale from the blood loss but other than that, seemed fine. But then again, what did I know?

I smiled at her frail from on the bed. "Hey!" 

She smiled back at me. "Hey!" 

"You scared a lot of people today. What happened?"

She shifted a little and moved to sit up on the bed. I rushed to change the settings of the bed, which would help her posture better. "Yeah, I don't know what happened. One second, I was there with Aiden and Samantha, cooking and the next second I was bleeding. The pain was so intense I couldn't even stand up. That's probably when Aiden swooped me up and ran me to the car."

"Well, with how disastrous our life is, I'm not surprised. How are you feeling?"

"A little tired and woozy but good. Fine." She smiled and tried to reassure me but maybe it was the alpha instincts in me, which weren't ready to believe her. I wanted to ask her if the baby was okay, but I didn't want her to get upset in case it wasn't. As it is, the doctor was supposed to come soon, so I wasn't going anywhere near that topic.

Just as the silence between us was becoming uncomfortable, the doctor who had successfully operated on my mother, walked in. It was weird how a doctor's soothing smile immediately felt relief because it meant that everything was right with the world. 

"Hello, alpha. Natalie." She bowed at me and nodded to Natalie as a form of greeting. All these years I still hadn't got used to that.

"I'm going to tell you what you both are dying to know. The baby is alright." As soon as she said those words, I felt a deep breath whoosh out of my lungs. I silently thanked the moon goddess because I didn't know what I would have done had I lost the baby. If I did, then Zara going all the way to some other town and staying away from me meant nothing. And as crazy as that sounds, I wanted the pain I went through to mean something, to amount to something.

"Really?" Natalie asked, sounding relieved herself. 

"Yes, you see. You have a condition known as placenta previa."

"What the hell is that?" Natalie blurted and I laughed at her tone. I guess sensing that our pup was in danger had brought forth both of our protective instincts and the doctor was going to face the worst of it.

The doctor chuckled. "It's a rare condition where the placenta covers the opening of the cervix of the mother. It usually goes unidentified until the second trimester when bleeding occurs. It usually happens in women who are above 35 or have a history of uterine surgeries. The bleeding is generally without pain and I think you manifested the pain when you saw you were bleeding."

"So, what happens now?" 

"For now, I would like to keep Natalie for observation and run some tests. She has suffered from a little blood loss so we will give her some blood too. She will rest here for a few days and then will be discharged."

"That's good." I nodded, happy that everything was alright.

"Also, I wanted to prepare you that in pregnancies like these, the mother usually experiences heavy blood loss either before or after the delivery. When the placenta breaks, so does the blood vessels in the uterus, which leads to heavy bleeding. It makes a pregnancy risky and lowers maternal mortality but I'm going to try my best to keep both the mother and the baby alive and healthy."

"You're saying I might die." Natalie shrieked, startling me.

"I'm saying that I will do my best to keep the both of you alive. There's nothing to be afraid of. First, you have to carry the baby to term and then we will talk about that." The doctor then nodded to both of us and them walked out of the room.

I acknowledged her but I was sure Natalie didn't. I guess she was still fixated on the fact that she might die, and I didn't blame her. I put my hand on her and tried my best to sound convincing. "You're going to be okay."

"I think I need to be alone right now." She said, her mind a thousand miles away, and then looked at me. "As it is, you look like shit. You need to get some sleep."

"Wow, first Aiden and then you. You know how to care for a guy's feelings." I joked, hoping to lighten the sudden dark mood. She didn't exactly laugh but cracked a hesitant smile. Well, it would have to do.

"Okay, then I will be going and leave you to your rest," I said and hugged her. She hugged me back and patted me.

After saying my goodbyes, I walked out of the room, feeling lighter because for now, everything was fine. Dad was fine, and even though there were no recent developments in his case, I had a feeling he was going to pull through. Katelyn was with Mom and I hadn't seen her for two days but I would see her after I dropped dead on a bed. Natalie and the baby were okay. I had no immediate pack duties to attend to. I did need to think about Zara but doing it right now, while running on low fuel wasn't going to do me any good. Even my wolf agreed with that.

I made a detour to the pharmacy and took some sleeping pills. I had no prescription but it is hard to deny your alpha. It wasn't that I was suicidal or anything, I just wanted a good night's sleep, even if it was in the morning.

I walked out of the hospital, wishing I never had to return to this place. I suddenly understood why people hated hospitals. A week of frequent visits had even made me skeptic. 

My wolf was still feeling restless as he reminded me of the possibility of Zara never coming back, as she had said on the call. I refused to believe that, however. It was something unexplainable but I had a feeling that I would be seeing her soon. I just wanted to be on happy and good terms. I think after all that we have been through, we deserved at least that.

To relax my wolf, I let him take control and changed into my white furry form. I let myself fade into the back of my mind and let him be at the forefront. He desperately needed to get his mind off of things that were troubling him and I needed a break. 

I felt my wolf stopping at the corner of the woods and immediately understood where and why he had brought me here. I wonder why I did not think of that. The idea was simply brilliant.

I was looking at Zara's house and even though her scent was faint, it was there. Maybe that was exactly what me and my wolf needed to smell to get to calm down.

It was perfect too. It was morning, so her parents would be at work and her brother would be at school. The house would be empty and no one would disturb my stalker tendencies.

I stealthily made my way to her window, careful to not be spotted by her neighbors, lest they call the cops because Zara's ex-boyfriend was lurking near her family home. Not a good impression on the humans. Fool's. They did not understand that we weren't your everyday boyfriend and girlfriend who broke up because of some altercation, we were soul mates and we owed it to ourselves to try our best to resolve everything between us.

I jumped over the tree in front of the widow and came close to her window. I quickly opened the window, surprised and pleased that it was open. What if it wasn't me and some crazy burglar or something?

I heaved myself into her room, where her scent was concentrated the most. I took several deep sniffs of her scent, immediately feeling my wolf and myself calm down. That's the effect mates have on each other. 

I opened the bottle of sleeping pills and popped one into my mouth. I had never taken them and figured since they were specially designed for a werewolf, one would do its job.

I locked the door from inside as a precaution and climbed inside her bed, where I had held Zara in my arms only a few months ago. 

I didn't just need the pills to have a good and undisturbed sleep, I also needed them to feel a little numb.