The door cracked open, and Max pushed Vivienne behind him. “Here,” he said, handing her the blanket they had been lying on.

Doctor Kalisten entered soon after. “You are both awake.” She gave him a small smile before tilting her head to look at Vivienne, who was wrapping her naked body in the blanket. “Vivienne, as a woman of science, I’m so glad to admit that you are the proof miracles exist. Your wolf and Mr. Prize’s dragon achieved the impossible.” She hugged herself. “Max, Amber Rose underwent surgery.”

“She had the surgery? Already?” Max asked, scrambling up to his feet. “How long was I away? How is she?”

“After you healed Vivienne, you entered a healing coma yourself and slept for the last nine hours. In the meantime, Amber Rose’s condition declined, and there wasn’t time to wait. A team of eight pediatric surgeons operated on your daughter’s heart for roughly six hours. The surgery was successful.” The expression on the doctor’s face was guarded, her eyes lowered to the floor.

“What’s wrong?” Max barked. “Didn’t the blood from Toronto come through?”

“It did. It arrived in the nick of time, but it was just enough for the surgery, and she needs more,” the doctor answered.

“What blood type is Amber Rose?” Vivienne asked, stepping to the side.

“AB Negative,” the doctor answered.

“My blood type,” Vivienne said. “And a half-breed like me.” She raised her arm. “Take what you need.”

“Vivienne,” Max started at the same time the doctor spoke.

“As I said, it’s a miracle you are alive.” Doctor Kalisten shook her head. “The amount of blood we need is more than you can safely donate. Even if Amber Rose is small, shifter babies need larger quantities than mortal ones.”

“I’m offering.” Vivienne placed her hand on Max’s arm.

“We’ll find another donor—” Max said.

The doctor let out a hard sigh. “We already did, and it’s in Los Angeles. Your friend arranged for its transportation, but even with the private jet and the fast delivery from the airport, it will arrive in three hours. It’s too late. Amber Rose needs the transfusion now.”

“I’m here,” Vivienne said.

Max wanted to scream. Why would the Goddess test him thus? Why for the second time he was presented with the choice to save one of the women in his life at the expense of the other? What was the point of being a multi-billionaire if money wouldn’t help?

“Please, there must be another solution,” Max said, looking at the doctor, his hand pressed against his heart.

Doctor Kalisten gently shook her head, her eyes filled with sadness. “I wish there were.”

Vivienne walked to the door and gave Max a beautiful smile. “It’s my choice to make.”

With his heart breaking all over again, Max reached for her, grabbing her wrist. “I’ll find another donor. Give me a moment—”

“All these past years, I knew there was a reason I survived.” Vivienne turned her hand in his, caressing his palm. “I should’ve died that night and almost did yesterday. I couldn’t save my baby. Let me save yours.”

“Please,” Max begged. He needed time to think. If only life would grant him a moment of reprieve. Even five minutes without scrambling from one crisis to the next would suffice.

Vivienne rose on the point of her toes to brush his lips before turning to the doctor. “Where to?”

“I’ll come with you,” Max said when Vivienne made to release his hand.

They followed the doctor outside where two different policemen from the night before stood sentinel to the door. One of the two, a were-puma stepped out, facing Max.

When Max straightened to order the man out of the way, the doctor gave him a subtle shake of her head and said, “Mr. Prize hasn’t been discharged. He’s still my patient and in need of medical attention.”

The man groaned a curse under his breath but lowered the hand he had raised and opened it to the side to let them pass.

“Mrs. Lanetti is here,” Vivienne commented, pointing at the woman reclining on the hallway chairs. Someone had covered her with a blanket and her shiny stiletto heels poked from underneath the tan fabric.

“Your lawyer refused to leave.” Doctor Kalisten walked past Mrs. Lanetti. “You have loyal employees, Mr. Prize, and I can see why. You give yourself completely to the ones you love.”

Taken aback by the doctor’s praise, Max didn’t say anything.

The doctor continued, “Your parents didn’t want to leave, of course, and I opened my office for them to rest. Your friend Wilson remained to take care of things, he said. He’s been calling nonstop for the last three hours, while making sure your parents were comfortable, bringing them coffee and blankets. He showed the same courtesy to me.”

Afterward, they walked in silence to the anteroom of the OR where a nurse handed Vivienne hospital scrubs.

“We’ll hook you to a line for a direct transfusion,” the nurse explained, helping Vivienne onto a narrow bed. “You’ll be monitored during the procedures and if you feel uncomfortable, just let us know.”

Vivienne nodded, smiling at Max. “I’ll be okay,” she said to him.

“I’m entering with her,” he said.

“It’s a sterile environment. Only the surgical team is allowed inside,” the nurse said, looking at the doctor for guidance.

“I’ll shower in antiseptic if needed, but I’m going in with her.” He started removing his shirt, causing the nurse to blush.

“Mr. Prize, there’s no need—” the nurse said, turning to the doctor with a panicked expression on her plump face.

“I will go into that room one way or the other. Nothing is going to keep me apart from my soulmate and my daughter.” Max handed the shirt to the nurse and went to the sink to scrub himself.

The doctor nodded at the nurse. “His dragon might be of help. Let him in.”

A few minutes later, the nurse wheeled Vivienne’s bed into the OR, and Max accompanied them, wearing scrubs, pants, mask, and overshoes made of scratchy paper in a hideous shade of green. The nurse had also ordered him to tie his hair and to don a matching cap. To complete the ensemble, he wore gloves two sizes too small for his large hands.

Several nurses and doctors glided across the OR in silence, busy either checking instruments or cleaning around the surgical bed in the middle of the room. Nobody was talking when Max and the rest of his group entered.

Max’s legs buckled when he saw Amber Rose. His small daughter rested in the middle of a bed that dwarfed her. They had closed her chest, but the incision stood out against her white skin, red and puffy where the stitches framed the long cut across her sternum. A machine helped her breathe, while a second kept her heartbeat count. More equipment bordered the bed. In the eerie quiet of the room, the constant beeping and humming provided a macabre soundtrack.

The nurse parked Vivienne’s bed next to Amber Rose’s and whispered a few words to a blond nurse. Both women looked up at Max, and the blonde nodded, signaling for him to come closer.

“You stay out of the way and only intervene if needed, understood?” the woman said, cocking her hip and giving him a tilt of her head and a raised brow for emphasis. “Sit and be quiet.” She pointed at the stool by the breathing machine.

“Understood.” Max hooked his foot on the stool and brought it closer to Vivienne’s bed. He wanted to sit between his two women but knew it was pushing his luck too far.

Under Max’s watchful stare, Vivienne and Amber Rose were connected by IV lines, and the longest hour of his life started as his soulmate donated her blood to his daughter.

They had just passed the sixty-minute mark when Vivienne lost consciousness. Max’s dragon intervened right away. He mentally connected with her wolf, lending her the strength necessary to see them both safely through the end of the transfusion. A third bed was wheeled in for Max who entered a healing coma for the second time in less than two days.