I also saw someone who was very sick and very tired.


    After Gabriel left, I sat alone with my drink and tried to figure out why the thought of E moving back to her room made my chest feel too tight to breathe.


    It was ridiculous. We’d slept in separate rooms for five years before Liam arrived. I was used to having the bed to myself, used to having my own space. Used to not lying awake listening to her breathing, or watching the way the moonlight fell across her face when she slept.


    Fuck.


    When had I started doing that? When had I started looking forward to the weight of her beside me in bed, the way she always slept curled on her side facing away from me, the soft little sounds she made when she dreamed?


    During her week in the hospital, I’d barely slept. I kept reaching for her in my sleep, only to find empty space where she should have been. I’d told myself it was just habit, just my body adjusting to the change in routine.


    But now, thinking about going back to sleeping alone while E was all the way on the opposite end of the mansion in her old room… It felt wrong. Like losing something I hadn’t realized I wanted to keep.


    It was just the mate bond, though. That was what I told myself, at least.


    After all, it was far easier to me biology than to ept that it could be anything else.


    I knocked back the rest of my bourbon and headed upstairs, trying to push the thoughts away. E probably wanted her own space back anyway. The arrangement had been for show and nothing more. She’d never indicated that she enjoyed sharing a bed with me.


    The bedroom was dark when I entered, and I assumed E was already asleep. But when I nced at the bed, it was empty, the covers still perfectly made from this morning.


    I then noticed the bathroom door cracked open, light spilling out from within. Curious, I walked over and knocked. No answer.


    “E?” I pushed the door open.


    And I stopped dead when I saw herying there.


    She was crumpled on the floor beside the vanity, unconscious, her face pale as death against the cold marble tiles. For a second, I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. She looked so small lying there, so fragile.


    Then, reality crashed into me. My wolf howled, my heart pounded, my entire body suddenly became filled with adrenaline.


    Mate.


    My mate was unconscious on the fucking bathroom floor while I had been drinking bourbon downstairs!


    “E!” I dropped to my knees beside her, pressing my fingers to her neck. Her pulse was weak but there, and she was breathing, but she wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I shook her or called her name.


    Panic wed at me as I scooped her up in my arms, surprised by how light she felt, and carried her to the bed. Her head lolled as I gentlyid her on the bed then fumbled for my phone.


    “Come on, E,” I whispered, frantically dialing for help. “Wake up.’


    >>


    But she didn’t wake. She didn’t even stir when I called the emergency line. Didn’t stir when Gabriel ran into the room, asking what was happening. Didn’t even twitch when Lilith barreled in soon after him, crying out and throwing herself onto the bed.


    She was still unconscious when Dr. Evelyn finally arrived twenty minutester.


    “What happened?” the doctor asked, setting her medical bag on the nightstand.


    “I found her unconscious in the bathroom. She’s been tired all evening, nearly fainted twice at


    the charity auction we attended. I should have brought her home earlier.”


    Dr. Evelyn’s face paled. She exchanged a look with Lilith that I couldn’t quite decipher.


    Then, she turned toward me and gestured to the door.


    “Alpha Alexander, I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the room.”