Chapter 48: YOU CAN TAKE YOUR HAND AWAY NOW
Chapter 49
Lumi
Before I could even step down from the ambulance, two male nurses stepped forward.
They moved with an incredible, smooth speed, lifting Theo’s bed out of the vehicle so gently that the fluid in his single IV tube didn’t even shake.
I scrambled out behind them, my sneakers hitting the clean marble driveway. The moment I stood up, a thick, warm scent of pine trees and fresh earth hit my nose.
It was so different from the cold city air of London. For hours, my chest had felt like a tight knot, but standing here, that knot finally began to loosen.
This place didn’t smell like a regular hospital. It didn’t smell like sickness or bleach. It felt safe. It felt like a home.
"Follow us closely, Ms. Lumi," the head doctor said, turning quickly. He wore a sharp dark suit with a small silver crest pinned to his collar.
We hurried through the giant glass entrance. Inside, there were no crowded waiting rooms full of coughing people, and no harsh, blinking lights.
The floors were made of polished dark wood, and the entire building was completely quiet. It felt hidden, completely cut off from the busy streets outside.
The medical team pushed Theo’s bed down a wide hallway and stopped before a pair of heavy wooden doors.
Just as the doors opened, a warm hand rested gently on the lower part of my back. A sudden rush of heat spread through my jacket, making my racing heart slow down instantly.
I didn’t even have to look up to know it was Ren. He had already caught up, his chest rising and falling from running across the parking lot, with Neve and her boyfriend walking right behind him.
"I’m right here," Ren murmured, his deep voice low and steady against my ear. "They know exactly what to do. Let them work."
The room they wheeled Theo into looked like a beautiful bedroom in a luxury estate, but it had modern medical screens built smoothly into the walls.
The nurses transferred him onto a large, comfortable bed with crisp white sheets. They immediately hooked his small hand up to a different kind of drip—one that held a thick, faintly glowing liquid instead of regular clear water.
The doctor stepped over, checking Theo’s eyes before looking back at me and Ren.
"The physical change is happening too fast for a boy his age," the doctor explained, his voice calm but very serious.
"His small human heart is fighting the heat of his awakening Alpha blood. Without that masculine anchor, his body is treating his own bloodline like a dangerous fever. How come no one saw this all this while, isn’t he with his biological father?"
Hearing those words felt like a slap to my face. A sharp, horrible wave of guilt pierced straight through my chest, and my eyes filled with hot tears.
I looked down at my shoes, my throat tight and aching. It was my fault. I was the one who ran away.
If I’d stayed, maybe I would have noticed something was wrong from the onset. Callum didn’t care about him. Because how would he be oblivious to the fact that his son was going through an alpha phase.
It took Ren a few seconds to realize what the issue was.
The thought that I would have lost him if I hadn’t received that call broke something in me.
A heavy sob caught in my throat, and I covered my mouth with my trembling hands, my shoulders shaking as the terror of losing him threatened to break me completely.
"I.... I left him... Now...I almost lost him...I almost...lost hi...m" Before the dark thoughts could swallow me, Ren shifted his body, blocking the doctor from my view.
He reached down, his large, warm fingers gently but firmly cupping my chin, forcing me to lift my head and look into his dark, unyielding eyes.
"Don’t do that," Ren said, his voice dropping into a fierce, protective whisper. "You saved his life by coming immediately. Look at me, Lumi. You are here now. We are here now. I and Neve will never leave your side. We’ll get to the bottom of it. The fever stops today." He turned back to the doctor, his jaw tight and hard.
"What do we need to do right now?"
"We are giving him a specialized herbal medicine to coat his nerves," the doctor replied, pointing to the glowing bag.
"It will act like a shield, helping his human body accept the Alpha heat without hurting his organs. But he needs a strong, dominant presence to keep him stable through the night. The mother’s scent helps, but he needs the energy of a powerful male to completely break the fever."
The room went completely freezing cold. Neve stepped forward, her face full of worry as she looked at me.
I didn’t want to call Callum here but it seems like we can’t do anything without him. He’s the father after all, even though he doesn’t deserve that title.
"We can call the local council here in London, see if they can send an older member..."
"No," Ren cut her off. His voice carried a sudden, heavy power that made everyone in the room instantly freeze. He didn’t look at Neve. His dark eyes were fixed entirely on Theo’s small, pale face. "I’ll do it. I’m staying in this room."
The doctor blinked, a look of deep respect passing over his face as he looked at Ren’s broad shoulders and the sheer strength radiating from him.
"How about the father?" The doctor asked.
"That’s not an option." Ren responded, cutting him off. "Is it possible that I do it? Or..." He turned towards Lumi’s boyfriend in a way of asking if either of them were an option.
"An Alpha of your rank... yes. That will be more than enough to protect the boy. But... it will drain you completely. You just flew across the ocean. And the elders might..."
"I don’t care," Ren said flatly. He took off his heavy coat and tossed it onto a nearby chair.
He rolled up his sleeves, revealing his thick, strong forearms. He walked straight to the opposite side of the bed, sat down on the edge of the mattress, and placed his large palm directly over Theo’s burning forehead.
Almost instantly, the wild, rapid numbers on the heart monitor started to slow down, shifting into a steady, normal pace.
Theo let out a long, quiet breath in his sleep, his tiny fingers twitching on the white sheets as if he could feel the massive wall of safety that had just wrapped around him.
I stood on the other side of the bed, watching Ren’s chest rise and fall as he willingly poured his own strength, his own life, straight into my little boy.
The man I had been fighting my emotions against, was completely exhausting himself just to keep my world from falling apart.
How do I move from here and act like this didn’t happen?
Neve walked over silently, wrapping her arm tightly around my waist and letting me lean against her.
Her boyfriend stood right behind her, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder, letting me know I wasn’t alone anymore.
I looked across the bed at Ren, the tears blurring my vision.
"Thank you," I whispered, my voice cracking because the words felt way too small for what he was doing for us.
Ren looked up, his dark eyes locking onto mine through the soft light of the room. A very faint, tired smile touched the corner of his lips, but his gaze was completely fierce.
"I told you, Lumi," Neve responded instead, her voice filling the quiet room. "We’re family and family should have each other’s back." I nodded, hiding whatever was going on behind my mind.
"Yeah. We’re family."
.....
The hours crawled by in complete, heavy silence. The only sound in the room was the steady hum of the medical screens and the quiet breathing of my son.
Neve and her boyfriend stayed with me for a while, their quiet presence keeping me from falling apart completely.
But as the clock neared midnight, the crushing weight of the long flight and the endless terror finally caught up to everyone.
Neve’s eyes were bloodshot, and her boyfriend was leaning heavily against the wall, barely able to keep his eyes open.
"Go book a hotel," I whispered to Neve, gently patting her hand. "You guys have done so much. Theo is stable now. Please, go get some rest."
Neve looked at me, then looked across the bed at Ren, who hadn’t moved an inch from his spot.
His hand was still resting firmly on Theo’s forehead, his face pale but completely determined. She let out a soft sigh and nodded.
"We’ll be back first thing in the morning, Lumi. Call me if anything changes. Even a little thing."
After they quietly slipped out of the room, the silence grew even deeper.
I sank back into the plush armchair beside the mattress, my eyes darting between my boy and the man saving his life.
The thick, glowing medicine in the IV bag was almost empty, but the bright red numbers on the screen showed that Theo’s temperature was finally back to normal.
His skin was no longer flushed or sweating, and his face looked completely peaceful.
I looked up at Ren. The sheer power that usually rolled off him felt subdued now, drawn inward as he focused every ounce of his energy on anchoring Theo’s fragile system.
Dark circles had formed under his eyes, and his jaw was set in a tight, painful line. He was completely exhausting himself for a child that wasn’t even his.
"Ren," I called out softly, my voice cracking in the quiet room. "You can take your hand away now. The monitor says his fever is gone."
