Chapter 260: Awakening

Catching my trembling wrists, Damian placed my hands around his own neck himself. With clumsy, weakened fingers, I tried to clutch at the fabric of his shirt behind his back, but the material kept slipping through my grasp.

His broad palms slid with gentle care around my waist, his feverish heat effortlessly scorching my skin straight through the thin hospital gown. Supporting me tenderly—one hand beneath my shoulder blades and the other at the small of my back—he lifted me slightly, helping me sit up.

Elevated just enough, I locked my eyes onto the water pitcher on the nightstand with agonizing thirst. As if reading my mind through our unyielding bond, Damian immediately reached for a pre-filled glass and brought it to my lips.

The moment I swallowed several gulps of cool water, the raw, stinging sensation in my throat eased considerably. Exhaling a breathless sigh, I let my eyelids flutter shut.

"What am I doing here, and what happened to my parents?" I asked, opening my eyes just a crack.

My head spun faintly, and a dull, deeply uncomfortable throbbing pulsed through my neck.

"How are you feeling?" Damian asked huskily, entirely ignoring my question.

Gently lifting my hand, he slowly intertwined his fingers with mine. His skin burned devilishly hot against my own, and to my surprise, his hand trembled slightly. Damian’s thumb traced a tender, soothing motion over the hollow near my knuckle.

"I feel like someone ripped my neck open, threw me out a window, and told me they were going to slaughter my family first," I spat venomously. Pouring every drop of hatred my broken body could muster into my gaze, I glared at him.

"You weren’t thrown out a window. Your parents are alive, and they are fine—they’re sleeping in the room next door," Damian stated with measured calm. Pausing briefly, his gaze dropped to my collarbone. "And your neck... it will feel better soon."

I didn’t believe a single word coming from his lips. Narrowing my eyes in hostile mistrust, I tried to yank my hand back. Damian released my fingers without resistance, only to catch my palm a split second later, wrapping his grip firmly around mine once more.

"Get off me—" I began, but the words choked in my throat as speech abandoned me.

Damian suddenly lowered his head, resting it heavily against my legs. He let it drop onto the blanket just above my knees as if completely drained of strength, his grasp on my hand tightening just a fraction.

"Don’t," he murmured, his voice sounding fractured and hollow, without raising his head. "You’ve been asleep for so long... I was terrified I’d never see you open your eyes again. Just let me hold your hand. Let me feel that you’ve finally come back to me."

"How long have I been here?" I asked, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat.

Casting a wary glance around the empty hospital room, I fought with everything I had not to look down at him. I refused to stare at the dark crown of his head resting on my lap, and above all, I tried to ignore the strange, frightening flutter in my chest—a sudden, unbidden warmth and the intoxicatingly rich scent of him that was beginning to fill my senses.

"Two weeks."

Turning his head toward me, he used his free hand to press a button on the side of the bed, triggering a muted electronic chime down the corridor.

"Three days in the ICU, and the rest of the time here."

"Do you really hate me that much?" My voice betrayed me, trembling softly. "What did I ever do to you? What did I do to deserve such cruelty that you put me in intensive care?"

Swallowing hard against the lump in my throat, I whispered the question, feeling my vision blur once more as unshed tears stung painfully in my eyes.

"That’s not it at all, little bird. I was trying to save you."

Lifting his head slightly, he gently drew my hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to my knuckles. That delicate touch sent a shudder racing through my entire body, making every hair on my skin stand on end as my inner wolf stirred violently.

The turmoil inside me was overwhelming. I had no idea what was happening to my body. In my mind, I desperately wanted to tear myself away and run as far as I could, yet my physical form no longer sensed any threat from him—only an irresistible, deeply embedded warmth.

"Save me from what? I’m the one who needed saving from you," I muttered hollowly.

Before he could answer, I flinched as the door flew open, slamming violently against the hospital wall.

"I knew you wouldn’t call me!"

A man in a white lab coat strode hurriedly into the room. Strangely, a bright pink neckerchief was tied around his arm, standing out like a vibrant splash of color.

"Just like your lunatic father! You sit here hogging your breeder all to yourself, interrogation first, answers second, before it finally penetrates that stubborn head of yours that the patient actually needs a medical exam!" the doctor barked, marching over to the bed. "Get out of here and go sleep for once. You’ve been wandering around my hospital like a zombie for two weeks, scaring my staff!"

"Alan," Damian growled dangerously, straightening to his full height. "Lower your tone. She just woke up—don’t you dare come in here yelling and terrifying her."

"I’ll inject you with a horse dose of sedatives right now, and you’ll fall asleep right where you drop. I’ll tell everyone you just collapsed," the man gritted his teeth, completely unfazed by the Alpha’s lethal aggression. "Nothing is going to happen to your precious breeder. Stop growling at everyone in sight. You know damn well the entire staff wears scent suppressors here, and we handle Alpha Breeders without any issues."

"But I’m recessive," I corrected the man softly, frowning.

Hearing this, the doctor fell silent and cast a deeply puzzled look my way.

"You certainly haven’t fully awakened yet. But now your body is in complete order, your vitals have finally stopped being critical, and I’ll bet my head that a full, true awakening awaits you very soon."

"I’ll rip that head right off your shoulders. And your tongue along with it," Damian growled low in his throat.

Releasing my hand, he clenched his fists until the joints cracked, searing the doctor with a lethal wolfish glare that made the man turn noticeably pale and hastily shift his eyes back to me.

I, meanwhile, shifted my bewildered gaze back and forth between Alan and Damian. A ringing emptiness formed in my mind. There was no way I could be an Alpha Breeder, for nothing existed lower than my natural baseline. All my life, I had hovered near absolute zero, deep down having long resigned myself to the thought that I would never be able to awaken at all.

Locking my tense gaze onto Damian’s fury-flushed face, I desperately wanted to know what exactly the young alpha had done to me—and why on earth, while I was unconscious, I had dreamed of that strange childhood memory involving him.