MATED TO THE ALPHA TWINS

CHAPTER EIGHT

ACE'S POV

The cot Rayden had the nurses place in her hospital room was as small as it was uncomfortable. I didn't last thirty minutes in it before I gave up. I shifted the chair so I could be by her side.

I gently took her hand and placed it in mine. The feeling of peace that came over me just from holding her hand was indescribable. She had not changed much.

She had always been perfect, but she also looked so much at peace that a tiny part of me wanted her to stay like that for the rest of her life, but I know I was asking her to die.

Her ginger hair was longer and tamer compared to when she was younger. It had only been three years, but I know her eyes were still the same hazel that I would do anything for. She looked thinner under the sheets, and I vowed to feed her back into her original figure.

The fact that she was taking this long to wake up was concerning. She had always been so strong. Sometimes during the night, the doctor came by to check on her.

He merely assured me that she was stable and that all her vitals were normal. So why the f**k was she not waking up? That was one question he has not been able to answer.

The second day, I could no longer hole myself up in her hospital room, so I quickly went back to the pack house so I could do some of the work I could not delegate to Rayden.

I was pained to go, but I had no choice, and the guard I had stationed to her room had strict instructions. "I want to know if she so much as twitches. Do you understand?"

I was glad that my men knew what the consequences of disobeying my direct orders were. I checked my phone every two minutes and kept my mindlink open so I could get every single piece of information that had to do with Karla.

It was almost afternoon when I heard anything back from the guard. She had merely twitched her hand, but that was enough to ignite a fierce hope in me. I raced back to the hospital, ignoring the stares from my pack members. They probably thought I was running mad. This was the second time in two days that I was racing through the pack.

Nothing had changed when I got back to her room. She was as still as when I left her this morning. It didn't stop me from feeling guilty that I left her side. If it was that she needed me, that would have been the end of it.

"I'm so sorry, baby. I shouldn't have left your side at all." I apologized fervently and hoped that she would at least wake up to scold me. All I got back was a squeeze.

I didn't clock how important that moment was until five seconds later. My eyes widened as I took in the spot where she had just squeezed me. I was certain that she had squeezed me. Careful not to let her go too quickly, I rang the bell by her side.

"She squeezed my hand." I told the nurse that appeared two minutes later, and she scurried back to go call the doctor. He had barely started to check on her when she woke up with a gasp. She started coughing immediately, and I just stood there frozen and useless while the nurse fetched her a glass of water. She shoved the glass into my hand as my cue to give her a sip.

That finally jolted me back into action, and I patted her back while she drank.

"Where am I?" was the first question she asked.

"Karla, let the doctor take a look at you first, then we can talk." She took me in fully for the first time, her eyes widening with an emotion I couldn't describe. Was she happy or not to see me? Did she even know who I was?

The doctor must have sensed the uncertainty in the air because he cleared his throat and asked if I could leave so he could examine her alone.

My wolf, Zeus, screamed bloody murder at the thought of us leaving our mate with a male, never mind that the male in question was in his fifties and had more grandchildren than he could count. It was the logical side of me that won out and eventually gave her space so the doctor could examine her in solitude.

I paced the hallway until the doctor came out of her room.

"So? Is everything okay?"

"Yes, Alpha. Everything is fine."

"Why did she take so long then?"

It looked like he was going to say something, but he decided against it. "Like I said, healing depends on every individual."

"You don't find it odd, then?"

"There is a chance that there might be something else attached to her not waking up on time, but that's only for her to know." It seemed like he was trying to choose his words carefully. I decided that I would eventually get to the bottom of it, so I let it go.

I stepped into her room with the gentility that was only reserved for her and her alone. She was picking at her nails with a faraway look in her eyes when I saw her.

I cleared my throat, and she looked up with a hesitant smile on her face.

"I've forgotten how much you both look alike." She said. I didn't have to ask what she was talking about.

"How are you, Karla?" I said as I sat by her bed. She got the hint that I wasn't exactly interested in talking about my brother.

"Better now that I know it is you I'm with." She smiled, and on reflex, I smiled. Smiling was a weird concept to me, and I genuinely couldn't remember the last time I had smiled.

"We have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

"Yes, we do." She agreed.

"But that can wait until you're back on your feet."

She rolled her eyes. "I am very much okay."

"You were out for two straight days, Karla."

"I know. You know how dramatic my body can be."

"Don't give me that bullshit, Karla. You and I know you have one of the strongest body and mind..."

"Well, you've been gone for three years, so you don't get to tell me what I am or not." She snapped, catching me off guard. She looked guilty too.

"Karla, I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "No, you have nothing to be sorry about. I'm being a b*tch, which shouldn't be because I can't possibly express how happy I am to see you."

I was glad she had said that. I stood up and wrapped her in my arms. It felt right. She felt right. She was the only thing that made sense in the world. The goddess had brought her back to my life, and I wasn't going to mess it up again.

"I'm very happy to see you, too, Karla. You can't possibly know how happy I am."

"I missed you, Ace. Too much. I never thought I would see you again." She said as she unashamedly sniffed my neck. "I thought I had died before."

"I'm never letting you go again." I promised her fiercely. "I missed you, too."