99 Times for Alpha’s Bestie novel Chapter 107

LUCIEN POV

I held Claire in my arms and rushed into the car without a second’s pause.

I felt Claire was too light in my arms. She needed to eat more. Her eyes closed as if she were in a deep, eternal sleep, her heartbeat barely detectable.

This was my fault! Why do I keep doing this to her? My wolf was demanding the same answers; he had never believed that Claire’s mother wronged my family, but Matthew wouldn’t make such a horrible thing I trusted him.

“Claire, please! I need you to hang in there!”

My voice was hoarse, my gaze fixed on her pale face, and each mile travelled stretched out painfully. I needed to take her to the pack hospital, not that bullshit one in neutral territory. I couldn’t risk Liam or his family getting to her.

John had been silent in the front of the car the entire time. I barely heard his breathing.

“How far away are we from the pack hospital?”

“Twenty minutes max, Alpha.” John nervously responds.

It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I also saw how fast John was driving us. We were going forty miles per hour over the highway limit.

Twenty minutes later, the car quickly sped into the front entrance lane of my background.

The Crown of Thornes pack was heavily guarded; only a fool would dare challenge my territory border by entering, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Liam Sterling was that level of fool. After all, he carelessly tossed away someone like Claire for that cesspool of waste he calls a best friend.

I burst into the emergency wing of the hospital, holding Claire tightly to my body.

“Doctors! NOW!”

Seeing me, the pack nurses and warriors all came rushing over.

Noticing the wound on my leg and the blood still seeping from it, along with the lifeless face of the young female in my arms, the experienced pack nurse immediately recognized the severity of the situation.

“Alpha, we need you to put her down! Your wolf isn’t healing your leg fast enough, and we need to take care of your injuries as well!” One nurse stepped forward, trying to take Claire from me.

“You will not take her from me!” I stepped back sharply, holding Claire even tighter. My bloodshot eyes scanned the crowd, commanding, “She is to be helped first! Get the pack doctor here now!”

My fierce demeanour intimidated everyone, and no one dared to step forward to separate us again.

“Alpha, we are going to need you to calm down! We need to know her condition to help her!” The senior Doctor on staff hurried over, trying to soothe my wolf’s protective surge.

“She almost fell off the building, but I caught her! She has probably just fainted from shock and has a fear of heights!” I replied rapidly. “Hurry! Check her first! Oxygen! Heart monitoring! Whatever is needed, just do it!”

The medical staff quickly placed the unconscious Claire on a stretcher and wheeled her into the emergency room. I hated that she was out of my sight; it tore through me like a knife to paper.

I staggered, trying to follow, but was stopped by a nurse with a concerned expression.

“Alpha, you can’t go in there! You need to have your wound treated immediately! Please come with me!”

But I ignored her as I leaned against the door of the emergency room, staring intently at the busy figures inside. Nothing mattered more than Claire.

The nurse anxiously tried to pull me away.

“Alpha, please listen to me! We need to fill out the patient’s basic information first. We need to know her name and age. Does she have any medical history that the Doctor should be aware of? Alpha, if I may ask, who is she to you?”

My body stiffened suddenly.

I slowly turned my head to look at the nurse. My wolf was fighting to speak the answer for me. I knew what he wanted, but could I say it?

I opened my mouth, my throat constricting, and finally squeezed out a word from my cracked lips.

“She is my girlfriend. She is to receive only the best care here.”

The nurse’s eyes widened in shock, almost thinking she had misheard.

As a seasoned nurse at the hospital for many years, I knew she had only heard the rumours of the countless she-wolves I had sent away. I was known not to be fond of women and had never had any she-wolf by my side.

The nurse dared not ask anything further, silently holding her breath as she filled out the information and quickly withdrew.

I slumped onto a bench, my gaze fixed on the emergency room.

Claire was so afraid of heights, damn it, how could I have forgotten that?

A wave of intense guilt washed over me. Just then, the emergency room door suddenly swung open, and the doctors and nurses pushed Claire out, their serious expressions making my heart drop.

Ignoring the pain in my leg, I practically lunged forward, grabbing the older Doctor’s arm.

“Why are you out so soon? What’s the situation? Is there nothing you can do? Or, has she died?”

“Lucien,” a weak voice called out softly.

I looked down in disbelief, seeing Claire lying there, her pale face forcing out a smile.

“I, I’m fine. I just got scared.”

Only then did I realize I had been overly anxious.

In an instant, the tension in my chest eased, and I allowed my expression to return to its usual aloofness and coldness.

“Alpha, Ms. Reese just needs to rest in her ward. She should be fine. But your leg injury…” The Doctor nervously suggested.

Claire struggled to sit up, glancing at my leg, the horrifying wound and nearly dried blood, shocking her.

“Don’t worry about me. Please hurry and bandage his wound first!”

Claire practically jumped up, scrambling off the bed and urgently speaking to the doctors and nurses.

“I’m fine-‘

But the next second, Claire interrupted me with a huff, “What do you mean you’re fine? Look at you! You silly, stubborn mule of a man!” She was working herself into a slightly less annoying, and perhaps adorable, frenzy.

“Well?” She turned to the stunned Doctor and nurses, as they watched her speak to me as she was. “Don’t just stand there. Get him inside and looked at already!”

Without another word, Claire pushed me onto the bed she had leaped off of, and directed the Doctor and nurses to take over.

The doctors and nurses quickly reacted, surrounding me to help, and soon, they wheeled me into the emergency room.

As I lay on the hospital bed, my eyes widened in disbelief, still trying to process what had just happened, my mind was blank,

Just a moment ago, I was worried about Claire’s safety, and now it was my turn to be taken into the emergency room on her worried orders?

I didn’t miss the smile forming on her lips while she fussed over me. Only Claire had ever been able to break through these walls I built after my mother died. I shouldn’t let her, but for some strange reason, I couldn’t seem to cut her off completely.

I wanted to hate it. I wanted to hate her, but I can’t.

Today was proof of that.