"Go to your wife, Finisher," the man said. "And brace yourself. It's just begun."
With that ominous warning, before Alpha could say anything else, the presence from his side was gone.
Rubbing his chest, Alpha went inside to the private room corridor.
Zephyr was in one of the rooms, and since her parents were visiting, he stayed outside in the corridor. Dante sat there too, on one of the hospital chairs, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, his face somber. Amara was at the compound with the kids, not wanting to leave them alone for too long in a new place or bring them to the hospital. Tristan stood against another room's door, his eyes never straying from the glass that let him look at Morana inside.
Alpha had seen her, strung up with tubes going into her body, not looking good. But the doctor had reassured them that she'd make a recovery.
His wife, on the other hand, would never recover. He had seen first hand how close the two sisters had been, and just remembering Zenith's warmth made his throat tighten with emotion. The world was a darker place without her.
"You okay?" Dante asked him. Alpha didn't know. He was still in a rage, juggling with both betrayal and loss, and knowing he'd have to push it all aside to be there for Zephyr when she woke up.
He shrugged, folding his arms across his chest, looking to Tristan. "I'm sorry Morana got hurt in my city."
He saw the other man's jaw clench but he didn't say anything, just stared inside where the girl lay.
Zephyr's parents came out of the other room. Her mother looked at him with such hatred he felt it in her bones, and he didn't blame her for it. Her father stopped at his side. "Send Zephyr home with us to recover. We have one daughter left, and we don't want to lose her too."
Alpha tamped down the urge to refuse immediately. He didn't want her to leave. He never wanted her to leave. Tasting the fear of the last day, tasting what a life without her could be like... she gave him meaning. She was his lifeblood.
"If she wants to come to you, I will bring her. You have my word." It cost him to say that, but he did, not knowing what she would need, if she too would blame him for the loss.
Her father gave a nod, his face moving with emotions, and took her mother with him.
Dante slapped him on the shoulder, his eyes serious. "Men in our world don't find love, brother. Don't let it go. Whatever you need, I'm here."
It moved him, Dante offering that. And he would need help, with his second gone.
He inhaled deeply and entered his wife's room. She was asleep on the bed, after having been sedated, her face tensed even in her unconscious state.
Alpha sat down beside her, taking her small, soft hand in his, and felt his eye burning, wet sliding down his face into his beard.
He let everything crash down on him, everything that had been building and building in the last day, last month, last decade, being in the hospital and the memories it brought, losing his friend to betrayal, realizing he had been the one to blind him, forgetting Zephyr and still not getting those memories, losing Zenith and almost losing his wife, everything crashed on him and there, holding her hand while she slept, he cried in a hospital after twenty years.