Chapter: 42

SERAPHINA'S POV I'd been wrong.

When I clawed my way back to consciousness, the space beside my bed was empty. No brooding alpha. No Kieran.

Just Ethan and Celeste hovering like vultures over a kill.

What the fuck? My tongue felt oddly weightless, but the bitterness in my chest was lead-heavy.

"Oh, Sera-" Celeste lunged for my hand with performative sympathy. I yanked back before she could touch me.

Ethan's throat worked as he studied everything in the room-the IV snaking into my arm, the EKG's steady blips, the starch-white pillows- anything but my face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been fucking shot," I rasped. A muscle ticked in his jaw. "We're sorry this happened to you."

The sarcasm burned on my tongue-Oh, are you? Sorry enough to finally acknowledge I exist?-but the raw guilt in his eyes choked it back. "Thanks," I muttered instead.

Then, like a masochist, I asked, "Where's Kieran?"

Celeste went rigid. Ethan answered too quickly. "We made him go home. Get some rest."

Of course. The logic was sound-he'd earned the break after playing dutiful watch.

Shortly after that, a nurse came in to administer my medication and painkillers. Then she inclined the hospital bed, so I was sitting up slightly. When she was done, she reassured me that I was doing as well as could be expected, and I took a deep breath of relief-then regretted it, thanks to the stabbing pain in my chest.

"Do you need anything?" Ethan asked when she was gone. "Food? Water?"

I was about to remind him that the nurse had just said I couldn't eat solid foods just yet when Celeste beat me to it. "Could I get a latte, please, Ethan?"

He raised a brow. "We're at a hospital, Celeste. They have exactly one kind of coffee-instant."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. That."

Ethan turned to me. "What about you?" I smiled. "I'm good, thanks."

He nodded. "I'll be right back."

As soon as the door closed behind Ethan, I closed my eyes. Things were definitely awkward between Celeste and me, and I knew she probably felt guilty about our last conversation and wouldn't want to-

"You conniving, manipulative bitch."

My eyes flew open to see my sister looming over my hospital bed, her perfect face twisted with venom.

"Excuse me?" The words scraped raw against my throat.

"I thought I knew every seductive tactic in the book," Celeste sneered at me. "But getting yourself shot to get Kieran's attention?"

She slow-clapped, each mocking clap stinging worse than the gunshot wound. "That's on another level, Sera."