Claiming My Wolf
Chapter 62

~~Ava’s PoV~~

I don’t know what happened. One minute we were making our way through the forest, and the next I’m laying on the ground with my brother in his human form above me.

“s**t, Ava.” His face is pale and he looks way more serious than usual. “It’s going to be okay.”

I don’t know what he’s talking about. Everything feels okay to me. I don’t know why I’m on the ground at all, but I feel really sleepy all of a sudden.

“No, come on, Ava, keep your eyes open.” I hear him talking to me, but it sounds really far away all of a sudden. “Stay awake, sis. Do it for me, please.”

That’s the last thing I hear until I open my eyes again, but now it’s a lot brighter. It’s so bright that I wince as I try to open my eyes.

I hear voices but they’re not ones I recognize. When I finally get my eyes open, I realize that it’s the pack doctor and some of the nurses. They’re standing over at the bed next to mine. Nobody’s looking at me.

“Excuse me?” I say as politely as I can, but it comes out really croaky. It doesn’t seem to matter though, they all hear me, and a second later they all rush over.

“Ms Miller,” the doctor greets me. His face looks tired. “How do you feel?”

I feel okay, the same as I did before. I don’t understand why everyone’s looking so serious around me all of a sudden. “I’m fine. Why am I here?”

They all look at each other. “How do your legs feel?” the doctor asks me more specifically.

I frown. Nothing hurts, so I don’t know why they’re making such a big deal about it, but when I try to move my legs, nothing happens. I try to sit up, but a nurse quickly pushes me back down.

“Not yet, Ava. You need to rest.”

“But I can’t move my legs,” I tell them. “Why can’t I?”

A look of understanding passes over the doctor’s face, and I don’t like it. “Well, that explains one thing,” he says. “Try not to worry too much yet, Ms Miller. Your body’s still healing and you’re young and strong. It’s too early to say if any of the damage will be permanent.”

“What damage? What’s wrong with me?” I’m starting to panic. Why won’t he give me a straight answer?

“Ava?”

A new voice sounds from the door, and immediately my wolf jumps to attention. A new smell fills the air, like leather and sunshine, and as everyone turns to the door, they block my view. I can’t see who it is, but my wolf seems to know.

Mate! She shouts joyfully.

I g***n internally. Not again. I can’t go through another messed-up mate bond, and especially not right now.

But when the person pushes through the crowd to me, I’m surprised to see who it is.

“Micah?”

“It’s okay,” he says, taking hold of my hand, and instantly sparks fly up my arm, sending tingles all through my body. His eyes are locked on mine intensely. “I could feel you getting upset, but you don’t need to worry. I’m here for you.”

He could feel it? But that didn’t make sense, unless we really were mates. But we can’t be, can we?

I don’t even have to ask him. He seems to be able to read the confusion in my face. “Sadie’s got her wolf,” he explains. “She’s become the Moon Goddess’ vessel, which means the mate bonds are back to how they should be.”

“So, you really are my mate?” I ask tentatively. I don’t know how he’s going to feel about that. Last I heard, he was kissing Sadie, and before that he was with Blair. He’s never shown me anything other than friendship before.

But the way he’s looking at me now suggests he’s not as upset about it as I thought he might be. “It looks like it,” he says, giving me a shrug, but there’s a smile in his eyes too. “It’s been one hell of a night.”

I realize I feel calmer with him here, just like I did on the night of my birthday when he helped me shift. Now that I think about it, I’ve always felt pretty comfortable with Micah. I just never really noticed it before.

“Let’s see what’s going on with your legs,” he says, and he lifts the blanket covering them, despite the protests of the nurses.

They’re covered in bandages, most of them soaked through with dried b***d. Micah swallows hard as he looks down at them before looking back at me.

“It doesn’t hurt?” he asks, and I shake my head no. They look like they should, but I don’t feel anything.

The doctor starts to whisper something to him, but he immediately shakes his head.

“Don’t tell me, tell her. It’s her body.”

I appreciate that, and I give him a smile of thanks. He squeezes my hand in support.

“The whole lower half of your body suffered pretty severe injuries, Ms Miller,” the doctor says. “There may have been some damage to your spinal cord that’s affecting your ability to move your legs and to feel any pain in them. But as I sad before, we can’t say yet whether it will be permanent.”

Panic starts to rise in me again, and immediately Micah’s hand is on my cheek, turning my face to look at him. His eyes are close to me, really close, but a soothing calm flows through me as he looks at me. “Getting upset about it isn’t going to change anything,” he tells me softly. “Let’s give your body a chance to heal and see what happens, okay?”

I nod, and the next thing I know he’s kissing me. It’s just a gentle touch of his lips on mine, nothing passionate, but it’s sweet and calming, and the tingles on my lips send a shiver through me anyway.

“I guess she was right,” I hear him say, almost to himself.

“Who was right?” I ask.

He smiles at me. “Sadie. And the Moon Goddess too. I met her tonight, you know.”

I roll my eyes at him, and he laughs.

“Don’t believe me if you don’t want to, but it’s true. You’re going to have to learn to trust me, Ava. I only lie when I really need to.”

Despite myself, I laugh too. I’m still worried about my legs and everything else, but with Micah here, I feel like maybe it’s going to be okay, no matter what happens.

Like he said, this has been one hell of a night.