Reality as she knew it tilted on its axis, and she felt like she was drowning. Her chest hurt from the labored breaths she couldn’t quite catch. Darkness swam in the edges of her vision.
“Here, breathe into this,” the paramedic said, handing her a paper bag.
She looked at him, suspicion making her heart pound. Was he one? She put the sac over her mouth and nose, trying to calm herself. She hadn’t had a panic attack in years. “Are you one of them?” she asked the man when she was finally able to take a breath without feeling faint again.
His eyes narrowed. “One of what?”
“A werewolf. Are you one?” The words sounded ridiculous, even to her own ears. When they got to the hospital, they’d lock her up in the psychiatric ward.
“No, I’m human,” the man said as he turned his attention back to her uncle. He didn’t seem fazed by her question.
“But they are real?”
He looked at her again. “Yes, but I suspect you already knew that.”
She nodded. “Are they all dangerous?”
“Are all humans dangerous?”
She wasn’t in the mood for games. “Just answer the question.”
“No, they’re not. If my hunch is right, the wolf following us would be happy to answer all your questions.”
Maple huffed. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to speak with that particular wolf, much less ask him anything.
Before she could ask anything else, they arrived at the hospital. She filled out forms and approved tests she had no clue how she’d manage to pay for, but she’d cross that bridge when she got to it. Her uncle was wheeled into surgery less than two hours after their arrival to repair some internal injuries and bleeding.
Jaxon had tried to stay with her. Going so far as to say that he’d keep to the other side of the room and not speak with her, but she couldn’t handle being around him yet. Too much had happened. She needed to get her head on straight before she spoke with him again. With a curt reply, she’d told him to leave, and so he had. Bone tired, she sat in the waiting room—alone—her eyelids too heavy to keep up.
Twenty
“Maple, wake up, baby,” a gentle voice called from next to her, a soft hand patting her knee.
Her jaw ached, and all she wanted to do was go back to sleep, but the pain in her neck jarred her to wakefulness. The second she opened her eyes, the waiting room came into focus, bringing to the surface the reason she’d been sleeping in a chair in the first place. Uncle Peter.
“There you are.” Grandma’s voice filtered through the haze of her drowsy mind.
“Grandma?” Maple whipped her head to the left, ignoring the pain of the sudden movement. Sure enough, there she was. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?”
“That’s my son that just got out of surgery. Of course, I’m here. As for how, I hopped on a plane and got a ride from the airport. Your beau made all the arrangements.”
Maple nearly choked on her own spit. “I’m not sure he’s my beau at this point, but I’ll be sure to thank him when I see him next. Uncle Peter’s out of surgery? How’s he doing?”
“He’s fine, baby. It takes more than a beating to keep a Hudson down. The doctor came to tell me he’s in recovery, and he won’t be allowed company until morning. You might as well go home and get some sleep.”
Maple thought about the cabin, and the fact that Jaxon wouldn’t be there with her, and her heart squeezed tight. If she was being honest with herself, she felt a little bad for shutting him out and sending him away like she had. He’d lied to her. There was no getting around that, but she hadn’t let him explain, either.
“He’s waiting at the coffee shop across the street,” Grandma offered with a smile.
“I don’t know if I can deal with him right now.”
“Hog wash. You need to speak with that boy. He’s hurting as much as you are, you know.”
“He lied to me.”
Grandma nodded. “It’s a delicate balance between shifters and humans. Some people accept them, others don’t. Right now, you’re in the don’t category. I thought I’d raised you better than that—judging a man by something he has no control over.” Grandma tsked at her.
“It’s not that simple.”
“Love never is, baby. I can’t tell you how to live your life, and I can’t make you forgive him, but it would make this old woman’s heart happy if you would talk to him. Hear him out. He’s known a long time that you were the one for him, and he’s waited all these years for you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t. That’s partly my fault, but I’m too tired to get into it right now. It’s been a long day for this old gal. Go to him, Maple. Let him answer your questions. If you can’t forgive him at the end of it all, then so be it, but don’t let pride get in the way of your forever kind of love. You deserve that kind of happiness.”
The sadness that crept into her grandmother’s eyes each time she spoke of her late husband shone bright and fresh as the day he died. “That’s what you had with grandpa, isn’t it?” Maple already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it anyway.
“It is. And I want you to have it, too. Now, go. I want to be here when they allow us into the room in the morning, and I won’t be able to do that if I don’t get some rest. I’m too old to be traipsing all over the country like this.”
Maple leaned forward and hugged her grandmother. The manual wheelchair she was sitting in couldn’t be all that comfortable. “Where are you staying? I’ll help you get settled.”
Grandma shook her head, her purple-tinged grey hair bouncing. “I’m at the
