#Chapter 206 – Panic
Ella
I stare at the black phone screen in shock and confusion, trying not to jump to the wrong conclusion. One moment Sinclair was there, talking to me as if everything was normal, and the next I heard a terrible boom and saw a blinding light. Then the line disconnected. It didn’t look or sound like a car crash… it seemed… it seemed like some sort of explosion.
Maybe it was just the call getting interrupted, some sort of weird static… or a sound on the radio. My wolf suggests, even as I frantically attempt to call him back. The line doesn’t even ring, I simply hear an error tone and a voice telling me the call can’t be completed.
I untangle myself from the sleeping pups, waking a few of them but too alarmed to pause and apologize. My heart stops beating, and my lungs stop pumping. This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening. It’s just a problem with the phone. I think desperately, stumbling out of the blanket fort, gasping for air. Isabel looks over when she hears one of the rudely awoken pups emit a cranky cry, her attention quickly zeroing in on me.
“Ella, what is it?” She asks, looking between me and the pups. “Is it the baby? Are you sick?”
“I ca… I can’t breathe.” I wheeze, pressing my hands to my breast in a feeble attempt to make my body start working again.
Isabel tries to guide me to a chair but I push her off, gasping. “Get the King.” I beg, “Henry… get everyone.” The room is spinning before my eyes, and I reach out to the she-wolf to steady myself, certain I’ll topple over at any moment. Isabel shouts an order to one of the guards and he takes off at a run.
“You’ve got to calm down, Ella.” Isabel says sternly, pushing me into a chair and forcing my head between my knees. “You’re alright, you’re just having a panic attack.” Though her voice is cold, warm hands rub my back.
you don’t understand.” I hiss, between
still, “what do
my eyes, and my voice is shaking over every syllable. “We were
exhales a breath I hadn’t realized she was holding. “That could be nothing. And when my mate died, I felt like my soul had been
I ask urgently, “were you chosen or
to remember things she’d rather
didn’t mean… I’m
though her shoulders
the nursery,
worse now that my tears have taken hold, so Isabel explains for me. Both men immediately tense, their faces growing grave and serious. “I’ll call the doctor for something to calm you down.” Gabriel says
flutters and kicks inside me, and I feel a rush of sadness and confusion through our bond.
I take a step I never have before, and cut him off from my feelings completely. This was never possible when I was in the depths of hypnosis because I wasn’t even present myself, and the other times I’ve shielded him from things, I’ve had the presence of mind to allow the good things through our bond. But now I’m too out of
him pummels my heart, and I immediately drop the shield I put up. “It’s okay,” I say aloud, running my hands over my belly – it must have felt like I disappeared completely, and with Sinclair so far away too, he must have
demanding where I went – how I could leave him like
was permanent. I’m all too aware that I’m still in the nursery, surrounded by a number of children who were old enough to remember
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