Chapter 7
wounds showed much improvement over the next week, but Fane still continued to pace the waiting room area as he had since the day of the accident. He was beginning to feel like a caged lion ready to pounce on easy prey. He could tell that everyone was picking up on his edginess because they all seemed to be avoiding him like the plague. He couldn't help it, it had been a week since the accident and still neither Jen nor Jacquelyn had woken. They were both going through daily debridements and although it did appear that Jacquelyn's body was healing a little more quickly than that of a human's, it wasn't quick enough for Fane. He felt helpless. His wolf was restless and desired to be near their mate. He hated not being able to be by her, protecting her while she was in such a vulnerable state, but there was nothing to be done about it. He continually tried to reach out to her through their bond, but all he got was darkness and silence.
***
Dark silence occupied the space his Luna’s voice once filled, but he spent the second week attempting to pull her from the enigmatic place she resided. His concentration was broken when Decebel said, "I wish there was something I could kill," as they sat in the family waiting area on the burn unit floor, the same chairs they both had taken up residence in for the past two weeks.
"I could go for a kill right about now," Fane agreed.
Fane was pleasantly surprised to discover that he and Decebel, despite a huge age difference of 107 years, got along quite well. Up until now Decebel had always just been his father's Beta to him, a powerful wolf, and when he was younger actually quite scary. But as they had spent the past two agonizing weeks waiting in the hospital, they had at times been each other's only company and so had begun to get to know one another. Fane was glad for Decebel's company, otherwise he might have already torn down the door to where Jacquelyn lay too still for his own liking. Fane wasn't sure how much more waiting he could take before he demanded to be allowed to be with Jacquelyn all the time. It was getting harder and harder to convince his wolf to be patient.
***
Two more weeks passed and Fane marked the four week anniversary of the accident on the calendar he placed at Jacquelyn’s bedside, praying the strength of tonight’s full moon would return his Luna to her rightful place at his side. He gratefully stood next to Jacquelyn's bed during one of the limited visits allowed and couldn't tear his eyes from her. It was amazing how much she had healed in the past month. Her skin was raw and pink where the burns had been but you could see the new skin was knitting together rapidly. Dr. Steele had told him that her leg was completely healed. She had gone back through Jacquelyn's medical records to alter some of the past findings because there was no way she could justify a person's broken leg healing completely in four weeks. She had also told him that they still weren't out of the woods regarding the human blood she had received. Jacquelyn had been running a fever constantly for the past 3 weeks and Dr. Steele also said that her white blood cell count was elevated, which meant her body was fighting an infection. Whether that infection was from the burns, or had something to do with the blood, she didn't know. So he continued to wait, and wait some more.
Before he left, he leaned down and kissed her forehead, and as he did everyday he whispered her name through their bond. "Jacquelyn, come back to me." He longed to see her emerald eyes staring into his.
And finally someone heard his pleas. “Fane?”
Fane leaned closer, as if proximity would help with their mental bond. “I am here, Luna. Can you open your eyes for me?” he asked her, desperate to bring her back to this world.
She didn’t answer him, and he thought maybe she had slipped away again, but then suddenly he was looking into a sea of green. His breath left his lungs as he saw the light in them slowly return. Fane didn’t realize he had shed any tears until she whispered in a dry, hoarse voice, “Don’t cry wolf man, you didn’t think you could get rid of me that easy, did you?”
He could barely contain the relief he felt at hearing her speak, seeing her awake. “I want to hold you, Luna, but I don’t know where to touch you without causing you pain,” he confessed, it was his deepest desire that moment.
“I'm so doped up I can’t feel jack right now, so lay it on me,” she told him with a weak grin.
Fane leaned forward as gently as he could and placed one arm around her waist. He laid his head on her shoulder, effectively placing his lips right against the bend in her neck to her shoulders. He kissed her as gently as he could and felt his wolf rumble in contentment.
“I missed you,” Jacquelyn told him in a strained voice.
“I messed up, Jacquelyn. I left you unprotected, I could have lost you. It is inexcusable. How can you even want me near you?”
“Fane, this is not your fault. Don’t go all Alpha on me right now. I need you more than ever,” she told him without shame at her own dependence on him.
“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
The door to the room slid open and, true to his wolf nature, Fane took up a defensive posture in front of his mate. Okay, so maybe he was going to overreact for a while, but everyone would just have to deal with it. Lilly walked in with Dr. Steele at her side.
Lilly let out a shuddered breath and tears tumbled down her cheeks as she looked at her daughter. She walked forward as Fane stepped aside to allow her access to Jacque.
"So nice of you to return to the living," Lilly teased, even though her voice quivered.
"Yeah, well, you would be lost without me so I had to come back." Jacque leaned into her mom as Lilly kissed her gently on the forehead.
"I love you, Jacque."
"I know you do, mom," Jacque responded with her usual remark to her mother's words; it was an inside joke between them. Lilly always said that Jacque was too big for her britches and Jacque continued to prove her right. At the sound of Dr. Steele's voice, Lilly turned away from Jacque to look at the doctor.
“Good, she’s awake,” Dr. Steele acknowledged. "Jennifer has woken as well, about an hour ago."
"How long have we been out?" Jacque asked apprehensively. Somehow she knew it hadn't been only a few hours.
"A month, Luna," Fane told her gently as he brushed some hair from her forehead.
"A month?" Jacque's eyebrows rose with question in her voice.
"I have had it arranged that she will share a room with her friend, Jen. Lilly has consented to that. Jacque, is that okay with you?" Dr. Steele asked her.
“Nothing would make me happier,” she told the doctor, a weak smile joining her words.
Fane and Lilly stepped out of the room when transport arrived to move Jacque to the room she would share with Jen. As she wheeled past, she gave Fane a quick wink and challenged, “Race you to the room.”