Chapter 149
Dominic POV
I wake to the sound of the world ending.
At least, that’s what it feels like.
Alarms tear through the endless halls like a bomb going off, red lights flashing so fast they smear together. For a second I don’t know where I am, just ripped awake into chaos, my heart already racing before my brain catches up.
Code red. Code red.
I jolt upright so hard the chair scrapes loudly against the floor. My pulse is in my ears, loud enough to drown out everything else.
Beside me, Sarah gasps awake.
Her hand flies out and clamps around my arm, fingers digging in like a life line. Her eyes are huge, glassy, already wet.
“Ellie?” she chokes. “Do they mean-Dominic, do they mean Ellie?!”
“I don’t know,” I say immediately, low. My mouth feels dry, wrong. “They didn’t say a name.”
But everything feels wrong in me. Like something slipping.
Sarah is on her feet, nearly tripping over the chair. “They don’t just call code red for nothing,” she says, voice pitching higher with every word. “They stablized her earlier, right? They said she was stable—”
“They said managed,” I snap before I can stop myself. I drag a hand through my hair, trying to ground myself. “They said managed, not fine.”
Her face crumples at that.
“Oh my god,” she whispers. “Oh my god, Dominic, what if—”
She looks at me like she’s drowning. “What do we do? Because no one’s telling us anything!”
As if summoned by her words, a nurse rushes past us, clipboard clutched to her chest, ponytail swinging wildly.
“Hey!” Sarah shouts, lunging forward. “What’s happening? Is it Ellie-”
The nurse doesn’t slow. Doesn’t even look at us.
Sarah spins back to me, breath hitching. “Did you see her face? That wasn’t a ‘routine complication’ face.”
My chest tightens.
“It’s okay, I’m going to find out,” I say. Though I don’t even feel convinced.
I take one step forward and Sarah grabs my sleeve this time, panic bleeding into anger. “Dominic, don’t be stupid. They’ll kick you out if you start throwing Alpha weight around.”
I try to pull away. “They won’t, just wait–”
She flinches. “I can’t just wait here alone! If Ellie dies-”
That stops me.
She swipes furiously at her cheeks, smearing tears she doesn’t seem to realize are there. “I can’t” Her voice breaks. “I can’t lose her. She’s my best friend!”
I soften despite myself, turning back to her. “You’re not losing her,” I say, though I don’t know if I’m lying to her or to myself”
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Ellie’s too stubborn for that.”
Sarah lets out a shaky, hysterical laugh. “…Yeah. She’d haunt the healers out of spite.”
For half a second, we both cling to that.
Then another alarm shrieks from somewhere deeper in the ward, sharper than the rest.
Sarah grabs my arm again, nails biting into my skin. “That’s closer. That’s her room, isn’t it?”
I open my mouth, but as nurse passing, my hand snaps out. I stop her, standing to my full height.
“Sir,” she whimpers, clearly recognizing me. “You need to let go.”
“Is it Ellie?” I demand. “What happened?”
She hesitates.
“I’m not supposed to tell you. You can’t go back there-”
My grip tightens.
“Her heart rate dropped!” she says. “They’re working on her!”
Sarah makes a sound I’ve never heard from a human throat before. She folds in on herself, hands over her mouth, knees buckling into the chair.
“Dropped?” I repeat, voice low, dangerous. “Define dropped.”
The nurse swallows. “Sir–”
“Tell me.”
“She coded,” she admits quietly.
The hallway tilts.
Dead. Dying. Going.
Sarah is crying openly now, gasping, clinging to my jacket like it’s the only thing keeping her here. “No no no no, this can’t– she was talking to me yesterday, she was joking-”
I’m frozen for a second, then I’m moving.
“Sit,” I tell Sarah. “Breathe. Look at me, Sarah. Breathe.”
She tries. Fails. Tries again.
My own hands are shaking, but I keep my voice steady because someone has to.
“Relax,” I say to her. “I’m going back there. I-”
“Sir, you can’t! Your not a healer! You can’t do anything!” The nurse pleads.
“Okay,” I say to no one. The word feels hollow. Fake. “Okay.”
Sarah looks up at me through tears. “What do we do?”
I stare down the hall toward the sealed doors, the screaming lights, the place where Ellie is fighting for her life without me
A part feels like it’s tearing in two. Like it’s leaving.
My jaw tightens.
I can’t wait for permission.
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I’m moving, going before I can think anymore. My shoes squeak, legs flying. heart pounding so hard it makes me dizzy.
Sarah shouts my name. Another voice yells that I can’t go back there, that it’s restricted, that only healers are allowed past the doors.
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