The Alpha's Forgotten Mate

19. My Baby

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Xander slid down the wall in the hospital hallway and curled himself into a ball, desperately trying to stop his tears because he knew he needed to be strong for her. But how the hell was a man supposed to be strong when he had to see his wife fight for her life for the better part of their marriage?

What was he supposed to do... when all of this was his fault?

He should have come back sooner. No, he should not have left her in the first place. He was so busy being stubborn that he left a gap for the enemies to attack the woman who lived in his heart. His wife. Who just had surgery four months ago. Who was shot before that. Who was targeted time and again because she was born into the wrong family and then got married to the wrong one. He should have been there for her. He should have at least kept his phone next to him.

"Always have your phone on you, Joanne! What if something had happened to you?"

He remembered how he had gotten mad at her when he could not reach her after she had gone out.

"JO, IS YOUR PHONE FOR f*****g DECORATION?" He remembered bellowing as he walked into their bedroom.

"IS YOUR PHONE FOR f*****g DECORATION XANDER??" He screamed out loud. The nurse who was approaching him for filling out the patient details took a step back. He was unnerved by the man on the floor who looked like he would kill anyone at the moment.

"Sir..." He said, his voice timid as he slowly took his steps forward to him. "Sir?"

Xander looked up, his eyes bloodshot, his skin pale, his forehead beaded. "What?" His voice was cold, low and deadly.

"I need you to fill this out." He held the clipboard and pen forward.

"Joanne Xander King. Twenty-four years, nine months old. She was born with congenital unilateral renal agenesis. She was shot in the arm seven months ago and she had a renal transplant four months. She has no food or drug allergies. She eats healthy but I think she was drinking today. All other information you can find on her medical file here!" He screamed towards the end as the number of problems she went through ever since they got married flashed through his mind.

And despite it all, he had the audacity to push her away!

He was a fool and his wife was paying for his foolishness!

"This is not the first time that she has gotten shot?" The nurse asked. They needed to call the cops.

"Call the cops. Do all the paperwork. Do whatever you need to! Just save my Joanne!" Xander was now on his feet.

The nurse nodded taking a step back. He thought that either this man was one hell of an actor or this woman was the love of his life. There was no in between. Xander looked like he was losing his mind.

"And you are-"

"Xander King. Her husband."

"Xandy!" Gregory's voice had their attention. Leon and Antony followed.

"How is she?" Leon asked the nurse.

"Anything but dead is fine." Xander croaked out.

"We are trying our best." The nurse said and left.

"Greg..." He turned to his brother. "Anything but dead is fine." He broke down, hugging him.

"Come on Xandy, this is Jo we are talking about. She is going to be fine." Antony was saying this to his brother but these were the words that he wanted to believe so bad himself.

"I am scared that my baby has run out of all her luck." Xander mumbled.

"Xandy, she is going to be fine." Leon said firmly. "We will make sure she is fine."

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"She crashed twice but she made it through the surgery." Dr. Klein, Joanne's nephrologist, had come in. "But she is in a coma."

Xander bit his lips and turned to face away from everyone.

"She will wake up, right?" Anika was there as well. Stella collapsed due to the shock of hearing about Joanne and Olivia and Antony were with her.

"We can't say anything for now." Dr. Klein sighed and then gave her a reassuring smile. "She got through the worst. I am pretty sure she will fight this as well."

Anika nodded. Of course she would. She has to.

She looked over at Xander. Gregory had told her everything from Xander's perspective. She felt sorry for her brother in law. She really did. But, she was obviously more worried about Joanne. And what Joanne must have felt when she collapsed.

Did she misunderstand? Did she think that no one loved her? That she was alone?

"Where's Rodney?" Anika suddenly asked, turning to Leon and Gregory. "Don't tell me she doesn't know yet."

"I can't reach her." Xander was worried for the mother as well.

Where was she?

Was Rodney attacked the same way Joanne was?

Because there is no other explanation for why she would not be here.

He didn't know where to start looking for her.

"Mr. King!" Samuel rushed in. He was in pajamas and he had forgotten to put on any footwear. "Where's my Joey? Is she okay?"

"She is alive." Leon said. "That's as good as it gets for the time being."

Samuel froze, clenching his jaw. He felt his eyes burn with unshed tears, but more than sorrow, he was filled with anger and dilemma.

What was he supposed to do?

Should he call Melanie and Anderson?

Should he let them know the condition their daughter was in?

Samuel was as mad at Melanie and Anderson as Joanne was for separating her from themselves, but the truth will always remain that everything they did, they did it for Joanne to be safe. They were scared of what would happen to their little girl after their little son was brutally murdered.

No parent would want their kid taken away from them, but they would prefer to be away than to do their last rites, right?

And Samuel too had his share of lies. He kept the truth of Joanne being back and prepping for the Mafia life from his sister. Of course it was because it was the one condition on which Joanne stayed in contact with him, but he too was overcome with anger and selfishness that he completely ignored the pain that his sister and brother-in-law went through.

He let out a deep sigh.

"Xander, I am calling her parents."

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3 months later...

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"He looks nothing like you, Jo." Stella pouted as she held her son out to her best friend. "Absolutely nothing like you. And your worst fear came true, he seems to have taken completely after his father!"

"Thanks." Anthony rolled his eyes as he went through his file. Anthony was not delusional anymore. He came to the realization that he could not manifest Joanne into recovering, and of course, the birth of his baby boy made him divide his attention between the baby, Joanne, and work.

Leon and Gregory wanted Anthony to slack on work and take care of his family but he refused to drop any more workload on them considering Xander was taking time off as well, and Stella was completely supportive of him. He worked mostly from home and spent the rest of his time in the hospital. He came home at night no matter what because he insisted that his queen needed her beauty sleep after hustling with their baby boy.

One would say he was being very unhealthy with his sleep and nutrition, and overworking himself, but it was a fact that he and his wife were much better off than any new parents because they had so many people to help them out.

Xander, on the other hand, had taken up gaming, that too the same MMORPG that his wife played. He had reached level seventy-two in the last two months he had started. He was nowhere near Joanne's five hundred and twenty-third level, but he planned to get there with her someday.

He ate, played games, helped out with small matters in the business, talked about anything and everything to his wife, and whispered "I love you"s to her with every other breath he took.

They moved her to the house, and they had four nurses, taking turns of two at all times. And she was waking up. She was going to wake up soon.

"Look!" Stella jumped as she saw Joanne's finger twitch ever so slightly.

"Shhh..." Anthony shushed her. "Please control yourself babe or you will shock her back to unconsciousness."

"Like she shocked you with the pregnancy news?" Xander chuckled as he walked in with Wolverine in tow.

"Hey baby Joe, fed up with your parents already?" He tickled the baby's nose before sitting down on the armchair he lived on these days. The baby was not named yet. Stella would have tried to keep the baby in as long as she could if it was in her hands but she was not letting Joanne miss out on anything else.

Olivia was the godmother but Joanne was going to name the baby, and until then, he was baby Joe.

Xander leaned in to place a quick peck on his wife's cheek and said, "You need to wake up soon, baby. Leo is so distracted with Livy that he is messing up all the coding he has been doing lately. You need to smack him on his head and then deal with all the work."

"As if she is going to entertain you as soon as she wakes up." Anthony snickered. "He is going to have to run his nose on your feet for you to forgive him, right Jo?"

"Stop pitting my wife against me, Tony!" Xander raised a brow. He liked his brother better when he was on Team Xander.

"I am just reminding you of your near future, Xandy. For all we know, she would open her eyes and jumpscare you today."

'There it was.' Stella thought as she looked longingly at her best friend. 'The hope that you will wake up any moment and fill this house with life again, Jo. Wake up.'

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Joanne blew into her tissue paper and sniffed, and she was no lady about it.

She looked over at her mother.

"Really?" She rolled her eyes at her spoiled little baby.

Joanne shrugged at her, pouting.

"What? A girl has to blow when she has to blow."

She looked down from the building. "Ah, what I would do to have a falcon's view."

"Right." Rodney chuckled. Her daughter really was a drama queen.

Joanne rolled her eyes and looked through the eyepiece. What's the use of being called the falcon if you don't have any of its features?

But then again, thank you, optic technology for rifle scopes.

Joanne noticed some i***t lurking behind some containers all alone. "Hmm... I wonder how he would look with a bullet in his brain."

"Don't even think about it, Jo." Rodney said, her scope focussed on the exact same man.

Joanne looked over at her, her eyes narrowed. Why did they have to be so similar? Why did Rodney know everything that went on in her daughter's mind. And worse of all, why would she never let her carry anything out?

"My mother is such a party pooper."

That being said, even Joanne knew that she was not the sort of person who could kill a human. Of course, she loved the gore, and she was unfazed by dead people. She could watch her mother or someone else kill people without batting an eye. But at the end of the day, she found it difficult to do it herself.

As of then, Joanne was just bummed with the whole arrangement and could not believe that her mother had dragged her over to waste her time preying on unassuming condiment stealers when she could be home, passed out on her couch after having too many Cheetos.

"There, now we have the big guys..." Rodney's statement had Joanne rolling her eyes before she looked back down through the scope.

"Miller." She chuckled, recognizing the short fat ugly bastard as soon as he came into view. "Barty Miller."

"You know this guy?" Rodney was surprised. She did not know whether to be impressed that her daughter was so well informed or be concerned that her little one was getting involved with these sorts of people. She knew that some day or the other, she would have no choice but to let Jackson have his way and drag Joanne into the mess called the American Mob, but she wanted to keep her little girl as far away as possible from all of this as long as she could.

"Of course, I know him." Joanne hissed at her. "Guy runs this club called The Loft but among the boohoo people, it's called The Sewer. The NYPD Narcotics Unit is seven days away from a sting operation there. What can I say? I love to hack into law enforcement when I am bored."

"Impressive Lake." Rodney nodded, relieved that Joanne did not have any direct contact with these people. "I see you have done your homework."

Joanne bowed as dramatically as she could in the position they were in - though the truth was that it was mere coincidence that she knew about him. She tailed him one day only out of pure boredom, not because she was looking into this case.

"Get him, falcon." Rodney smirked through the scope as she muttered out the order.

Joanne shrugged and turned to her other rifle - her very own creation. She aimed at him and shot her shot at record speed, smirking as she saw the little fat rat collapse to the floor.

A giggle escaped her lips as she watched his henchmen try to get their hands on him, only to jump back.

Joanne's own creation - a capsule that latches itself to its prey when shot and immobilizes them and shocks anyone who touches them. The current could stay live for up to an hour.

"What do we do?" The capsule also had a mic on it, so they now had complete access to the commotion down.

"Nothing honey." It was Rodney's turn and she looked hella excited about it. "You just need to die." Her fingers went for the trigger.

BANG!

Joanne's vision blurred for a moment to be replaced by the intruder in her house, shooting at her.

BANG! BANG!

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Joanne's eyes snapped open only to be welcomed by complete darkness. She blinked to make sure her eyes were actually open.

She tried to lift her hand to reach for the table lamp. She knew where she was. The familiarity was unmistakable. But she was unable to move her body.

She was aware of someone's breath on her face, and the breezy snoring felt like music to her ears. It made her feel at home. It made her feel alive again.

"Hi... My baby." She breathed out.

He moved suddenly but as cautiously as he could.

Letting out a tiny yelp of joy, Wolverine Lake welcomed his mother back with smothering wet kisses all over her face.

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