Chapter Twenty Eight: Lost Connection
Vale

"I don't think that guy is that great of an actor." I said as we walked out of the movie.

"I think they keep casting him because he's nice to look at."

I looked at her and saw she was holding back a small laugh, "Nice to look at huh?"

She shrugged, "Eh, he's not so bad..."

I shook me head and bumped her with my hip, she allowed her laugh to escaper her as we walked on to my car. "You sure you still up for dancing...we can always go another day as well, we've done a lot today."

I thought about how we'd spent almost all afternoon walking around town before going back to her house where she'd been up and down fixing the place to the way she liked it, despite my protests and attempts to get her to slow down or take a break she wouldn't stop until everything was put in it's own spot.

"I'm always up for dancing." She smiled.

Of course I gave in, her smile mixed with her sweet fruity scent gave her this innocent childlike quality about her. "Fine...but promise if you start feeling tired we sit down at least."

She nodded just as we reached my car, "I promise...It's just dancing Vale you act like we're going sky diving."

I rolled my eyes but helped her into the car, "to be honest, skydiving might actually be safer than dancing in your condition."

She laughed, "I'm pregnant not made of glass...such a worrisome Alpha." She sounded, I bent down and pecked her lips, this time I got worried looked after and seeing her accept my kisses made me more optimistic about our future.

I closed her door and moved to let myself into the car before we finally took off.

I had decided to go ahead and take her to a more laid back sort of dance club, the atmosphere was more mature and the music was smoother, slower...but of course as I valeted the car, the music from the neighboring club would begin to spilling out into the streets for everyone to hear...Shelby included.

"Ugh I love that song." She said before she began to walk over to that club instead.

I reached out and grabbed her hand, "I was thinking we'd go to this club over here." I said as I tried to get her to follow me into the more tame club.

She shook her head, "Like you said we can always go another time...but lets just have some fun and let loose a little...might be our last shot to just have a little fun before Joy comes."

_____

{ Jessa }

On the road my wolf was on edge the whole time.

"I should've had a run before I left Alpha Ash's pack, I'm sure he wouldn't have minded."

'Don't need a run.'

"You're antsy...you need a run." I sighed.

'Nervous not antsy, don't need a run...need Vale.'

I snickered but didn't say anything because I knew she was right, but sadly I knew it was wrong. I didn't want to be that girl, the girl that always pines over another woman's man.

'We miss him.'

"He isn't ours to miss remember, he has a mate."

My wolf whined.

"I get it, I know it sucks but he's just a friend...always has been, and as his friend it's our job to be there for him and help him in any way we can."

'Like be friends with Shelby?'

"Like be friends with Shelby," I nodded, knowing my wolf was trying to be petty but I had to shut her down. "She is his mate and she makes him happy."

'We make him happy too.'

I sighed, I couldn't get my wolf to understand that we needed to get over Vale, theres just no point in being in love with a guy we can't have...it only leads to heartache...But even still, I couldn't help but smile a little knowing I'd see him and he'd more than likely be wearing his stupid crooked grin, and since it'd be late his hair would be losing it's hold from earlier in the day and begin falling onto his face.

Suddenly I noticed an oncoming vehicle.

In a way it was almost comforting to know I wasn't the only one out traveling this late.

But as I watched on I noticed the oncoming vehicle was a truck and it was coming at me fast, more so it was having trouble staying in their lane.

"What the hell?"

I got as far over in my lane as I could to avoid going off the road and being hit by the truck, I sped up as well to hurry up and pass this guy.

But for all my efforts, The guy hit me head on, mostly my drivers side, The weight of his heavy truck pushed my car back a bit with him before causing me to spinout.

I panicked and closed my eyes tight knowing the car still had to stop.

I felt the airbags and smelt the burning rubber from where I had pressed down onto the breaks in a last ditch effort to get my car to stop spinning.

Last I heard the sound of my car crashing before the pain registered.

I cried and tried to get myself out of the drivers seat but had probably hurt my neck from tensing with the anticipation of the inevitable crash. I could barely move, everything hurt. But I knew I needed my phone to get an ambulance to help me.

I moved around to try and get the other drivers attention to let them know I needed help, but I couldn't find him at all...he'd taken off...and the pain intensified quickly.

As my eyes closed I thought how great it would be if Vale was my mate, then I could call out to him right now...he'd save me, and probably make some comment about having to always save me.

Even in pain I couldn't help but smile as I thought about him  before I ended up blacking out.

_____

{ Vale }

I sighed, I found it near impossible to not give in and just give Shelby what she wants especially when I knew as a pregnant woman she should more than likely be relaxing instead of dancing to the upbeat music blaring in the nightclub, but who was I to begrudge her?

We entered the too loud, too crowded club.

On the upside there was so many people here we were hardly noticed if at all, and since it was overcrowded it meant we HAD to be super close due to a lack of space. The music was good but Shelby's dancing to it made it better.

I had to admit that having your mate dance on you was pretty damn exciting.

Her hands went up and her hips moved to the sounds of the beat, her red locks flipped around like wild fire flickering in the wind...she was having a great time.

The amount of bodies also heated the place up and kicked up her wild strawberries filled scent and ignited my wolf's excitement.

The place was so loud and there was so much bass from the music I could hardly hear myself talking as I tried to see if Shelby needed a drink or a seat.

But it didn't matter as she was in her own little world full of fun and smiles.

I couldn't help but smile as I watched her, this was the girl I had remembered all too well from Nico's wedding.

Four songs later I was just about to urge we find a place to catch our breath and get something to drink when she turned around and faced me now.

She was saying something but it was too loud to hear her...but I didn't need to hear her to know something was the matter.

Her face was full of worry.

I grabbed her hand without thinking and began leading her out of the club, when we got outside I stopped and looked at her once again.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I...I don't know, theres no pain or anything...b-but, the baby...I think theres something wrong, no...I feel like something is wrong with the baby."

I didn't hesitate to rush us to my car and soon we were on our way to the hospital.

When we got there a nurse saw me with Shelby and immediately came over with a wheelchair.

"Alpha...What's going on?" The nurse asked as she completely rushed us past the administration desk and into a room on the same floor.

"Uh we aren't one hundred percent sure but Ms Hawthorne believes something may be happening with the baby." I said

The nurse helped Shelby get onto the medical bed "Alright then, Alpha if you'd please check in with the administration desk for us I will get Ms Hawthorne here set up for a quick eval with our neonatal specialist." She said Kindly and more importantly, calmly.

I nodded and left as she began asking Shelby various questions.

I went to the front as instructed and was handed a clip board with a packet of papers to fill out.

I put in what I knew of Shelby but for the most part put my information in incase they needed it for billing purposes, it took a while but when I got to the end of the packet I got up to turn the paperwork in My phone began to ring.

I sighed, I didn't care who it was that was calling, now was NOT a good time.

It was my brother.

Something about seeing his name on my screen made me more nervous.

"Ash?"

"Vale where the hell have you been?!" He growled.

"What the hell, I've been busy this evening!" I growled in return.

Ash sighed, "we've been calling you all evening...Vale...Jessa's been in an accident."

All of the air left my body as I listened on to the details of how one of my brothers pack members happened to find her car damn near wrapped around a thick tree trunk.

"Looks like it was a hit and run, whoever hit her got her pretty good, she's beat up pretty bad Vale...I'm sorry, the Doctor's think she's gonna be alright, but she'll more than likely be here for a while...Flora and I thought you should know so you can start making arrangements to come down."

I nodded.

"Alpha Kirkshaw." The nurse sounded, I noticed this time she wasn't as pleasant as her tone was more serious.

"I...I have to go." I said before I hung up on him.

"The doctor is wanting a word with you in private."

I followed her to the room but the doctor met me outside of the room.

"Alpha." He greeted me.

I nodded my silent greeting.

"Since you've brought the patient in are we to assume she's under your care?"

I nodded.

"It's a bit unorthodox seeing as you aren't her family so we can't really say too much..."

I sighed, pretenses be damned, I needed to know what was going on with Shelby...we'd just have to face the consequences later on. "Shelby is my mate." I admitted.

He nodded his understanding, "Well then, we'll let you know everything we've told Shelby to bring you up to speed...you should know that we've been monitoring both the mother and baby's heart beat and the babies heart rate was rather low to begin with upon arrival and dropping...rapidly."

My own heart was pounding now. "What does that mean...is there something wrong?"

"We believe the umbilical cord may be around the baby's neck cutting off it's air supply, and the only way to achieve removing the cord from around the neck is to go in and surgically remove it."

I shook my head in a slight daze now...this was all too much, too fast.

"We really must make a quick decision here as time is of the essence, that being said...I do have to warn you that when performing a procedure such as this one has it's own list of side effects or more so dangers."

"What are the side effects?" I asked.

"I think we should discuss this part with mom as well...just because essentially it will be her choice, we just had to make sure we could allow you in the room to even discuss this first."

I nodded my understand and followed them back into the room.

"Shelby." The doctor said as he entered the room, "As we've discussed the cord is around the baby's neck, now we can go in an fix this but we do have to tell you about the possible effects of this..."

Shelby just nodded, I took a seat next to her and grabbed her hand for support.

"First in order to even perform this procedure we'd have to paralyze you're wolf gene so that you don't essentially begin healing yourself upon us cutting you open...with your wolf gene paralyzed however...a slew of things could happen mainly that you in fact wouldn't be able to heal yourself...the mixture we use does contain Wolfsbane so it works instantly and lingers for about two to three days depending on each Were."

"Once in, we would remove the cord from around your babies neck, however...due to however long the cord has been around the babies neck being uncertain to us, the baby could be born with brain damage possibly even longterm cognitive problems ranging from headaches to memory loss."

Shelby looked at me then back at the doctor. "...I don't care what it takes...save my baby."

I followed them a they moved her up a few floors for surgery, I held her hand the whole way through but when we reached the room for her surgery I was asked to wait in the lobby. I was a mess as I watched them cart her into the last room on the left.

I wanted to cry for Jessa alone in a hospital from her car accident, I wanted to cry for Shelby and the baby, but all I could do was just stand back while everything happened around me.

I stood right next to the double doors that kept me from going down the hall to Shelby's room. I looked down the long empty hallway awaiting the Doctor to exit, I knew once I saw the doctor everything was done and we'd be good to go.

But as I stood there my heart stopped as I watched nurse after nurse rush into the last room on the left...Shelby's room.

I broke down the doors and ran down the hall.

Two male nurses had to hold me back from entering the room, the machines were going crazy ad then I heard someone shout.

"She's hemorrhaging...we're losing her."

And with the sound of one last failing beep I knew she was gone. I let out the most guttural scream as I literally felt our connection be torn away from my entire being. The nurses held me up as I lost my will to stand.

Breathing seemed impossible and as the Doctor and nurses came out no one could look me in the eye as they all held heir heads down. I watched as a couple of nurses carted the baby away in an enclosed looking baby bed.

"I am so sorry Alpha...With her wolf paralyzed she began losing more blood than we could fix...-"

My tears wouldn't stop falling as he continued to talk, he placed a caring hand on my shoulder " I truly am very very sorry Alpha."

The gentlemen still with me escorted me back to the empty lobby and made sure I was alright emotionally as they left to go back to work.

"Alpha Vale?" The same nurse from earlier sounded in a strained pleasant voice sounded unsure, "Is there anyone we can call for you?"

I looked at her, who was I suppose to say? Her family was gone, My family was miles away not to mention none of them knew she was my mate.

"C-can you call my Beta for me?" I asked, My voice hoarse.

She smiled softly and nodded.

Not even five minutes later I saw George rush in.

He saw me and I stood to greet him, Somehow I calmly told him what had happened, I think I was in some fucked up daze.

"Where's Wex?" I asked.

"Wexler took Ramona to be with her Daughter." He said.

I looked at him confused, "What?"

"Wex is with Jessa's Mom...they went to your brothers pack since Jessa hasn't woken up yet...I know this isn't the best time Vale, but they think she could fall into a coma."

And just like that I lost it all over again, George hugged me tight in a fatherly fashion and let me get it all out