The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate Chapter 115

Tristan

"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "I'm not trying to undermine you guys bond. I'm just... scared. I'm terrified that we're going to lose her to this thing."

"We won't lose her," Orion said. But his voice didn't sound convinced.

Sarah stood up and walked over to me. She put her hands on my shoulders and made me look at her. "Athena is the strongest person I know," she said. "If anyone can beat this, it's her."

I wanted to believe her. But strength hadn't been enough in that cave.

Athena's own strength had almost killed her.

"What did your great-grandmother do?" I asked Orion. "When the power tried to take over?"

"Mom never said it tried to take over," Orion said. "She said our great-grandmother learned to live with it. To coexist with it."

"Athena can't coexist with something that wants to kill people," I said.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be about killing," Sarah said. "Maybe there's another way to use it."

I shook my head. "You didn't see what it did to Daxon and Seraphine. It didn't just kill them. It drained every bit of life from their bodies until there was nothing left but husks."

The room went quiet again. I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

"There's something else," Orion said quietly.

I turned to look at him. "What?"

"Mom mentioned that sometimes, when someone with the power drained life from multiple people at once, they needed time to recover. Days or even weeks of being unconscious while the power settled back down."

"How long?" Sarah asked.

"She didn't say exactly," Orion said. "But Athena drained two people completely. That's more than our great-grandmother ever did once."

My stomach dropped. "So we could be looking at weeks of keeping her sedated?"

"Maybe," Orion said. "Or maybe longer."

I felt like I couldn't breathe. The thought of Athena lying unconscious for weeks, of not being able to talk to her or hold her or know if she was even still in there, was almost too much to handle.

"We'll figure it out," Sarah said again. But even she sounded less certain now.

There was a knock at the front door and we all froze. Sarah went to answer it and came back with Dr. Graze. He was a thin man in his sixties with gray hair and kind eyes. He'd been the pack physician for as long as I could remember.

"How is she?" he asked immediately.

"Unconscious," Orion said. "We gave her the sedative like you said."

"Good," Dr. Graze said. He set his medical bag down on the coffee table. "I want to examine her, but I need to know what I'm dealing with first. Sarah told me there was some kind of incident?"

Orion and I exchanged glances. How do you explain ancient werewolf magic to a man of science?

"She shifted under extreme stress," I said carefully. "The shift was violent and took a lot out of her."

Dr. Graze nodded like that made sense. "Traumatic shifts can be very hard on the body. Let me take a look."

He followed us back to the guest room. Orion unlocked the door and we all went inside. Dr. Graze approached the bed slowly and knelt down next to Athena's still form.

He checked her pulse and listened to her breathing. He looked at her eyes and felt along her ribs. After a few minutes, he sat back on his heels.

"She's severely undernourished," he said. "When was the last time she ate?"

I tried to think. "Yesterday morning, maybe?"

"That's not enough to account for this level of malnutrition," Dr. Hayes said. "This looks like she hasn't eaten properly in weeks."

I knew what had caused it, but I couldn't explain that to him.

"What can we do?" Sarah asked.

"IV fluids," he said. "Nutrients and electrolytes. But she needs to wake up soon so she can eat real food."

"How soon?" Orion asked.

"A few days at most," Dr. Graze said. "After that, her body will start shutting down."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "What if she can't wake up yet?"

Dr. Graze looked confused. "Why wouldn't she be able to wake up? The sedative will wear off in eight hours."

"What if we need to keep her sedated longer?" I asked.

"I wouldn't recommend that," Dr. Graze said. "Her body needs time to recover. Keeping her unconscious will only make things worse."

I looked at Orion desperately. We were caught between two impossible choices. Wake Athena up and risk the power taking control again, or keep her sedated and watch her body waste away.

"We'll monitor her closely," Dr. Graze said. "If she shows any signs of distress when she wakes up, we can sedate her again. But right now, her physical health is the priority."

He set up an IV line and hung a bag of fluids. "I'll come back to check on her in a few hours," he said. "Call me immediately if anything changes."

After he left, the three of us sat in the living room again. None of us spoke. We all knew what we were facing now. In a few hours, Athena would wake up. And we had no idea what would happen when she did.

I thought about the way she'd looked at me in the cave when the power was in control. Her silver eyes had been empty of everything I loved about her. If she woke up like that again, I didn't know what I would do.

But I also couldn't watch her waste away in an unconscious state. She was already too thin, too weak. A few more days of this and we might lose her anyway.

"We'll take shifts," Orion said quietly. "Someone should be with her when she wakes up."

"I'll take the first shift," I said.

"Tristan," Sarah said gently. "You need to rest too. You look like you're about to collapse."

She was right. My body was still recovering from what Athena had done to me. I was exhausted and weak and probably not much help to anyone right now.

"Just a few hours," I said. "Let me sit with her for a few hours."

Orion nodded. "I'll relieve you at midnight."

I went back to the guest room and settled into a chair next to the bed. Athena's breathing was a little deeper now that she had the IV fluids. Her heartbeat was stronger. But she was still so thin and fragile-looking.

I reached out and carefully touched her head, stroking the soft fur between her ears. She didn't react at all.

"I'm here," I whispered. "I'm not going anywhere. We're going to figure this out, okay? We're going to find a way to help you."

I didn't know if she could hear me, but I kept talking anyway. I told her about the drive home and how worried Sarah had been. I told her about Dr. Graze and the IV fluids. I told her how much I loved her and how I wasn't giving up on her.

The hours passed slowly. I dozed fitfully in the chair, waking up every few minutes to check on her breathing.

Around eleven-thirty, I heard footsteps in the hallway.

Orion appeared in the doorway with two cups of coffee.

"Any changes?" he asked quietly.

"No," I said. "She's been still the whole time."

He handed me one of the cups and I took a grateful sip. The caffeine helped clear some of the fog from my brain.

"You should get some real sleep," Orion said. "In a real bed."

"I don't want to leave her," I said.

"I'll be right here," Orion promised. "If anything happens, anything at all, I'll wake you up."

I knew he was right. I was no good to Athena if I collapsed from exhaustion. Reluctantly, I stood up from the chair.

"The sedative should wear off around six in the morning," I said.

"I know," Orion said. "I'll wake you at five."

I walked to the door but stopped and looked back at Athena one more time.

She looked so peaceful lying there. It was hard to believe that something so dangerous was sleeping inside her.

"We're going to save her," Orion said quietly.

I wanted to believe him. I had to believe him. Because the alternative was unthinkable.

"Yeah," I said. "We are."

I went to the spare bedroom Sarah had prepared for me and tried to sleep. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw Athena's silver glowing eyes staring at me with no recognition.

I saw the withered corpses of Daxon and Seraphine. I felt the emptiness inside me where my life force had been drained away.

Tomorrow, Athena would wake up. And we would find out if the woman I loved was still in there, or if we had lost her to something ancient and hungry and deadly.

Either way, I would be there. I would fight for her until there was no fight left in me.

Because giving up wasn't an option when everything that mattered was on the line.