Hunter's Secret
Chapter 31 - Awake

Hunter’s POV

I wake up to my hand being held again but not by Cameron this time. Their thumb moves over my knuckles, and I try to move my hand to tell them I am awake.

“Hunter? Are you awake?” my mother asks, her voice laced with concern and relief all at the same time.

I move my finger and she gets up and kisses me on my forehead.

“Oh, my sweet baby boy, you are so strong. You are doing so good. I love you so much.”

She goes quiet and a few minutes later, I hear Cameron walk into the room and I can tell someone else walks in too.

“Hunter, I am going to hold your hand now. Can you move your finger for me?” Dr. Hart asks me.

I move my finger and I can hear collective sighs from around the room.

“This is a good sign, but I am not sure why he isn’t able to actually wake up yet. He can clearly hear us, and he can respond but he is still mostly unable to move. I am going to do an entire physical examination to see if he can actually do more than he thinks he can.”

“Whatever you think is best, Dr. Hart,” my mother says, “Do you want us to leave?”

“If you want to you can but your presence will not impact my ability to do my job,” Dr. Hart responds.

“Alice, maybe I should take you back home. You have been here all night. I can come back and sit with Hunter while you rest some,” Cameron offers, and I can tell my mother takes him on his offer because they start to walk out of the room.

“Alpha Cameron, do you want me to wait until you get back to start my examination?”

“You can start now, Dr. Hart. I will be back shortly.”

I hear Cameron and my mother leave.

“Hunter, I am going to gently place my hands on your body and wherever you feel my hands, I want you to try to move those muscles. Is that okay?”

I move my finger in response. She gently places her hands on my feet, and I try to move my toes, but they don’t move at all. She tries a few other places, but I am not able to move anything there either. I hear the door open again, and I hear Cameron sadly sigh.

“Hunter, I am going to shine a light into your eyes to check your pupils. It will be bright,” Dr. Hart tells me.

She gently opens my eyes, and she shines a light into my eyes. She wasn’t kidding, it was really bright.

“His pupils are equal and reactive so that is a good sign.”

She moves back down to my toes again, “Hunter, can you move your toes?”

To both of our surprise, I can move my toes now. She goes back over every spot she tried before, and I am able to move all those muscles this time. She moves away from me and starts talking to Cameron. I am not focusing on what she is saying though because I am trying to open my eyes. The lights are really bright, and I have to close my eyes again. But I managed to blink a few times and my eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

“Hunter! You’re awake!” Cameron exclaims, his face coming into view. His blue eyes have tears in them and he looks like he hasn’t slept in a long time.

“Can I help him sit up so he can see the room better?”

“Sure. Do you need help?” Dr. Hart asks.

“No, it is okay. I will raise the bed up and then just move him.”

When Cameron gets me into a sitting position, I take in my surroundings. He is looking at me with worry. He is wearing a wrinkled shirt, and his hair looks like he has run his hands through it many times. I noticed the mark on his neck and my eyes got bigger. He blushes and turns away from me. I move my eyes over to Dr. Hart and when our eyes meet, I hear her heart start to beat faster. She has beautiful hazel eyes and long brown hair that is braided over her shoulder. She is significantly shorter than Cameron, probably around 5’3 or 5’4 but she is also at least a few years older than he is.

I don’t recognize her though so she must be a specialist. My eyes drift to a pitcher of water and I suddenly realize how thirsty I am. She notices and pours a cup of water for me and places a straw into it. She brings the cup over, holding it for me to drink. She guides the straw to my lips and her fingers lightly brush the side of my face.

“Thank you,” I croak out, my voice sounding not like my own. She smiles and nods her head. Cameron turns back around and practically throws himself on me. He gives me a huge hug and I can’t help the tears that leak out of my eyes.

“I am so sorry! Did I hurt you?” he says, scanning my face with his worried eyes.

“No…just…love…you,” I slowly say.

He smiles at me and tells me he loves me too. Dr. Hart comes over and places her stethoscope on my chest, listening to me breathe while placing one hand over my heart. I can tell she is counting my heart beats. Her heart starts to match mine and that brings me a strange sense of comfort.

She spends a few more minutes testing my reflexes and checking my skin. Every time her eyes meet mine, her heart speeds up. I know Cameron can hear it too because he is watching the entire interaction with a smile on his face. She went to move away, and I grabbed her arm.

She looks surprised at my initiation of contact, and I just say, “Thank you.”

She smiles at me before turning back to Cameron, “He seems to be doing okay now. I still don’t know what happened, but I think he will make a full recovery. He just needs lots of rest and gentle movement. Today is my fifth day of being here and I have to catch a flight early in the morning because my director is not giving me any more days off. I don’t think there is anything else I can do for him anyway, so with your permission, I would like to return home to spend some time with my family before I have to go back to my residency.”

“Of course. Thank you so much Dr. Hart, you are a miracle worker,” Cameron says with a smile.

“I don’t think I really did anything, but I am glad, nonetheless. Thank you, Alpha Cameron.”

“You are welcome. And you are welcome here anytime. It was a pleasure to meet you,” Cameron smiles at her again and she waves bye to me before leaving.

Cameron turns back to me, “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” I say hoarsely.

“Understandable. Your body has been through a lot recently,” he pauses, trying to blink back tears, “I should probably tell your parents you are awake. I am sure they want to see you.”

My parents came and spent some time with me and over the next few days I lost track of how many people came in with gifts, flowers, cards, and balloons. I was finally feeling more like myself and was ready to be discharged after spending ten days in the hospital.

Cameron helped me home and up to my bedroom. I was still really weak, so he helped me take a shower and change into my own clothes. I felt embarrassed by the fact that he helped me, but he just reassured me that he didn’t mind, and he could get one of my parents if I wanted them instead but I definitely preferred Cameron. Then he helped me get into my bed and made sure I was comfortable.

“Locks?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for helping me. Now that I am home, will you tell me what happened?”

He sits down on the bed and leans against the frame, taking a deep breath.

“I thought I was going to lose you, Hunter,” he says, avoiding looking at me.

“But you didn’t. I am okay now.”

“When I saw you laying on the floor like that, you terrified me. You were unresponsive and burning up. You had two seizures and were unconscious for almost a week. I thought you were dying, Hunter,” he cries, failing to keep his tears from falling.

“I am sorry,” I say, trying to move to comfort him.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for. But if you ever scare me like that again, I will kill you,” he cracks a smile and playfully narrows his eyes at me.

“Noted,” I smile back, “I heard some of your conversations, you took to the Alpha role pretty well.”

“Well, please get better soon so you can take it back. You are much better at this than I am. I don’t want it.”

“You seem to be doing a pretty good job,” I tell him, and he quickly looks away from me, “Or not?”

“I maybe kind of went after Titus and maybe kind of broke a few of his ribs…”

“Locks! Why?” I say, shocked.

He tells me the story and I can’t help but laugh at him. Picturing him in ‘air jail’ is hilarious.

“I honestly don’t know how you handle all of this power all of the time and still remain so calm and composed.”

“I am not perfect at it but River has always been a part of me so I guess I am just more used to the power and have learned to control it, most of the time anyway. Speaking of River, I still can’t feel him. Should I start becoming concerned?”

“Oh my gosh, I am sorry! I completely forgot about him. Ash had to put him under a spell because he kept trying to take control and was fighting the doctors. I will call for her, hold on.”

His eyes gray over as he mind-links someone. A few minutes later, Ash appears.

“Hunter! It is good to see you looking more…alive…”

“Nice to see you too, Ash. You had to spell River?”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Here, I will reverse it,” she says, as a burst of magic flows out of her hand and goes directly into my chest. I start to feel very warm and I can feel the magic moving around before I feel the familiar presence in my mind.

River yawns, ‘I think that was the best sleep I have ever had in my whole life.’

‘It is good to hear your voice, River. I missed your company.’

‘Well, you decided to fink out on me, so I am not even mad at Ash. I enjoyed the quiet. Your thoughts can be pretty annoying to listen to sometimes.’

‘Your comments are annoying all of the time, but I am really happy to hear your voice.’

‘Likewise.’

“Thank you, Ash. How is Titus? I heard about what happened,” I ask and Cameron sighs in embarrassment.

“He has three broken ribs and a giant bruise, but he is healing just fine. His daughter gave him a stern talking to before she left.”

“His daughter?”

“Yeah, she was the one who took care of you. Dr. Hart? Remember?” Cameron asks.

“Oh, I didn’t know she was Titus’ daughter, I thought she was just some specialist from a different pack that you called in.”

“I did call her in. She flew here just to come take a look at you,” Cameron explained, and Ash nodded in agreement.

“That was really nice of her. Where is she now? I would thank her now that I am feeling a bit more like me again.”

“She had to fly back to continue her residency, she finishes in two years and then she will be able to practice on her own. She is very excited about that prospect,” Ash said, with a hint of pride in her voice.

For some reason, that makes me feel a bit disappointed, but I just chalk it up to the fact that I am incredibly tired, and I just got home.

“Well, thank you, Ash. I really appreciate your help with River and for calming Cameron down,” I say with a wink. Ash smiles and quickly disappears. I turn my attention back to Cameron, “So…you and Emma?”

He blushes and throws a pillow at me. I just laugh at him, and he rolls his eyes at me.

He gets a more serious look on his face, “I am really glad you are back, Hunter. I really missed you. But I am going to make sure you are eating three meals a day and are actually sleeping so this doesn’t happen again.”

“I love you too. As for the sleeping, you may want to get me a pair of earplugs before you go back downstairs to your girl,” I smirk, and he blushes again but pulls some out from his pants pocket and tosses them to me.

He winks at me and goes back downstairs. I put them in and quickly fell asleep, very happy to be back in my own bed.

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