KOVU

We rush into the hospital through the side entrance and come face to face with Camilla on a gurney surrounded by Elias and a group of doctors and nurses.

The drive felt like an eternity, and my blade is more intimately familiar with the flesh of my arms than it ever has been before, to the point Elijah confiscated all my weapons before he’d let me out of the van with the others.

And for once, I don’t care. I’ve always needed them to make me feel safe, to remind me that I’m not the weak little boy my parents and their friends hurt. But right now, all that matters is making sure Camilla survives.

Wyatt steps in front of us, stopping us from getting within a few feet of the doctors. “They’re assessing her, and then they’ll take her straight into surgery. Her heartbeat is faint, but she’s a lot more stable than she should be given how much blood she’s lost.”

I try to push past him, but I’m caught around the shoulders by Damon Lombardi, and I growl. I need to get to her. I need to protect her.

“You have to let the doctors work,” he says. “You’ll only get in the way, and that will stop them from being able to help her.”

The logic is there, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept that there’s nothing I can do for her right now, and therefore I have to leave her life in the hands of strangers.

Crew wraps an arm around my shoulders, and I find myself doing something I rarely do. I lean into him. He’s one of the only people who understand how I’m feeling right now, and this is what Camilla would want. For us to support one another when she can’t be here to support us.

There’s a loud alarm that blares through the hallway, and it takes me too long to realize it’s coming from the machine attached to Camilla.

“She’s flatlining.”

“We’ve got to go.”

“The OR better be ready to go or we’re going to lose her.”

The doctor’s words blur together as I try to focus on breathing, but the panic takes hold of my chest, and I can barely suck in a breath through it.

Kaos appears in front of me, his huge body blocking the bed from my view as she’s wheeled further away from me. “She’s going to fight for us, Kovu. She’s going to fight like hell.”

Crew coughs on his own emotion as he wipes at the tears falling against his cheeks. “When have we known our girl not to fight like hell for what she believes in?”

“If she can survive being loved by the four of us, she can survive this,” Bishop says.

I hope like hell they’re right, because I don’t know if I’ll survive losing the object of my obsession and the only woman I’ve ever loved.