AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 40
Milo Emerson Zhao wasborn at two-thirty in the morning on November 9th, the day after the election, via cesarean section. There were no happy tears on the day of his birth, and Madeline didn’t get to do any of the things that she’d planned in her birthing plan.
Instead, as soon as they got the baby out of her, she was immediately taken into surgery to remove the bullet that had lodged itself under a rib and punctured her lung.
Milo was taken to the NICU, and I had been sitting with him ever since. Rio had tried to sit with us in the NICU, but he had started to become agitated from being so far away from the operating rooms where doctors were working hard to save our packmates.
But I couldn’t leave Milo all by himself, something inside of me told me that Madeline would have wanted me to stay with him. He looked just like her, with his downy soft black hair and bow lips.
When they had asked me if Madeline had thought of a name for him, I remembered her last words to me. Mortie had brought her purse to the hospital when he came to get updates and when I dug through it I found a little green notebook. It was full of clothing sketches and doodles, but at the end were several pages of baby name ideas, for both boys and girls.
Milo was the last name written and it was circled several times as if Madeline somehow knew that she would be having a baby boy. Underneath that, she’d written his full name, Milo Emerson Zhao. Emerson being Adair’s father’s name.
He was absolutely perfect, and I was absolutely shattered.
People always spoke of how awful it felt to have bond members close to death, but nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming emptiness, that and the absolute despair from Rio that rushed over my own despair in icy waves.
“Your mum,” I murmured as I reached into the incubator that they’d placed Milo inside of. The baby immediately wrapped his tiny little fingers around my thumb and I wanted to cry. “Is the most amazing mum. When she gets better, she’s going to take such good care of you. So will we, your dads. Adair will be the fun dad who will buy you whatever you like, Rio is going to be the one to kiss your knees when you fall, which unfortunately leaves me to be the not-so-fun dad. But I don’t mind it so much, someone has to do it. Either way you will know that we love you each and every day, you’ve just got to be a little bit patient.”
Milo’s little face screwed up and I was worried that he would start to cry for a moment before his eyes blinked open and I nearly choked with shock. He had the same eyes as Madeline, and it was like she was staring at me through the eyes of our son.
“There you are,” my voice wobbled as he blinked at me and furrowed his brow. “I’ll love you forever Milo, and make sure that nobody ever hurts you.” I promised the little baby who had no idea of what I was saying, but it must’ve been the right thing because Milo’s eyes drifted shut again and his fingers tightened on my thumb. He was absolutely perfect, and now all we needed was for Madeline and Adair to make it through surgery. I hoped to God that they made it through.
2 weeks later...
“You told us that shewould be in a coma for a week, it’s been two weeks and now you say that you don’tknowwhen she’ll wake up?” Adair’s tired voice filled the hospital room as he glared at the doctor who was checking over Madeline. Surprisingly enough, the bullet had gone through him pretty cleanly without damaging any major internal organs. He had woken up two days later, confused and in pain, but otherwise okay.
All of the doctors had told Adair that he was lucky, that the chances of the bullet going through him were astronomically rare. But none of us were feeling very lucky about it, especially since Adair’s luck meant that our mate was lying in a hospital bed instead of getting to enjoy the first few weeks of our son’s life.
“These things are complicated,” the doctor, I think his name was Benson or something like that, said. “We put her in a coma to give her a chance to heal...but sometimes when we take away the medicine it takes the body some time to wake up.”
“Her vitals are good,” Matteo, who had been standing in the corner with the rest of his pack, chimed in. He wasn’t on duty today, but this was his hospital, so it was understandable that he would stick up for one of his doctors.
Unfortunately, Adair was angry and didn’t like that answer. He was angry at the world, at the fact that he’d failed to protect Madeline from the bullets that had been fired on that night two weeks ago, and angry that the bullet that had been meant for him had gone straight through him to hurt our girl. “That’s not fucking good enough,” his voice cracked like a whip, and everyone in the room flinched.
I looked over his shoulder at Rio, who looked as tired as I felt, and the other alpha nodded as he slid a soothing hand up Adair’s tense back.. “Let’s go get some fresh air, you also need to eat. Marcus will stay with Madeline.” Rio said and gently coaxed Adair out of the room.
I finally glanced down at Madeline, despite the fact that it shredded me to see her like this. She was lying flat on her back with her dark hair fanned out across her pillow. Machines were hooked up all over her body which included a breathing tube that was holding her mouth open.
I sat down heavily in the chair next to her bed, bringing her clammy hand to my lips. “Love, we’re going to need you to wake up soon, things are going to absolute shit without you here to balance us out.”
“She’ll wake up,” Eloise said from where she was sitting on the window seat with Milo cradled in her arms. They had been helping us so much with taking care of him while we switched off at the hospital, that I would be forever grateful to them.
“She has to.” Tibby had Vivi on her lap and her voice wobbled with unshed tears. Theo leaned down and whispered something to her and she nodded, handing Vivi to a stoic Ric before the two left the room.
“You’ve handled your nightmare parents, right?” I asked Ric, who was standing with his lips pressed into the crown of Vivi’s dark hair. Over the past two weeks, Ric and Madeline’s parents had tried to gain access to her hospital room several times. They had also been going on any news station that would listen to talk about how much they wanted to see their daughter and how they were being barred access by us.
“I did. I sent a statement to every single news station that they’ve appeared on and then some outlining exactly what our relationship is to them.” Ric’s eyes were cold as he spoke about his parents, and I knew there was no lost love there.
“Good, fuck them.” Eloise said more viciously than I’d ever heard her before and she stood and crossed the room, holding my son out to me. “Let him get close to her, it’ll be good for both of them.” She said gently as she laid him in my lap.
He’d grown so much in the last two weeks, his eyes were alert and he began to fuss as I made a little cradle with Madeline’s arm and laid him down there. Almost immediately Milo quieted and yawned, as if soothed by his mother’s scent.
“That’s a good lad, take a nap with mum and, hopefully when you wake up, so will she.”
