Chapter 22

**Justin’s POV**

I watched as she walked away from her after telling me she needed time to process all this. I was being serious when I told her that I was not giving up on her. I would never give up on her. As I was watching her, I noticed she started to wobble on her feet. I started running to her and I barely made it in time to catch her as she fell to the ground. I picked her up as I linked the pack doctor. Before I even finished my link, I saw a few of the hospital staff members running out of the hospital with a gurney. I looked down at her and she looked peaceful, free of pain. I glanced at her leg and noticed that there was green pus oozing out of her wound.

Fuck, what did I do? I injured her and now she has an infection. As the staff made it to me, I gently laid her down onto the gurney. “You will be okay,” I whispered to her as I kissed her forehead.

‘Alpha, you may want to get to the pack hospital.’ I decided to link her father.

‘What happened?’ he asked me.

‘We were walking to the pack hospital and we had stopped and talked about the mate bond…she walked away from me, continuing to the pack hospital, and then she started to collapse. I was able to catch her before she hit the ground. However, the gash I left on her during our spar was oozing green pus. I feel she may have an infection. I am so sorry. We did not realize that she was that injured. I should not have let her walk. I should have carried her.’

‘No use in blaming yourself, son. I will be there shortly; Michael is on his way now. You were sparring, you were not intentionally injuring. This could happen anytime she spars with anyone. ‘ He cut the link before I could even respond to him. I am glad the Alpha does not blame me for injuring her on her birthday, no less, even if I am blaming the fuck out of myself. I feel myself getting more and more racked with guilt. I walked into the pack hospital and headed to the reception area.

“How is Kataleya doing?” I asked the receptionist.

“She is currently in surgery to remove the infection. They should be out soon. It was a wonder that her wolf did not heal her before the infection was too bad.”

The receptionist finally looked down at my arm. “Oh crap. You need to have your arm checked out. You must have been the other one sparring with Kataleya and Jacob.” She takes me to a room, despite my protests, and calls one of the nurses into my room.

“This looks pretty deep and it might take your wolf about 24 hours to fully heal this wound. I am going to need to add some dissolvable stitches to help keep the wound closed, so you can properly heal.” The nurse said to me.

I sighed. They were not going to let me leave this room until they put these stitches in me. To be honest, I do not even feel the pain. It took the nurse 45 minutes to finish closing up my wounds. As she finished, she told me that they had just finished Kat’s surgery and I could join Michael and the Alpha in the waiting room, while they finished prepping her for visitors.

As I walked into the waiting room, Michael nearly attacked me in his impatience to learn what had happened to Kat. Apparently, the Alpha would not tell him and he had left before I even finished my mind-link with the Alpha. Once I finished telling Michael the events that led to Kataleya passing out, the pack doctor came out to talk to us.

“Kataleya had some minor injuries overall; however, the gash and bite mark on her leg had become infected. I am speculating that her wolf was weak from the fight and was not able to actually fully heal Kataleya. I would very much appreciate it if not everyone crowded in there and gave her some room. So, I am requesting that only one person is in there at a time. She is still on pain killers and coming off the copious amounts of morphine we had to give her for the pain. One more thing, has Kataleya found her mate? She was completely out of it when she came out of surgery and started mumbling ‘mate.’ Then, she was out again and we did not hear anything from her. If she has found her mate, then her mate being near her could help speed up the recovery process.” The pack doctor finished telling us.

I looked at Michael and the Alpha and raised my eyebrows. “We do not know if Kat has found her mate. At least, she has not told any of us if she has found him. I will ask the Luna if Kat has told her anything, just to make sure.” The Alpha smoothly stated. “Justin, I think Michael and I are going to go update the Luna, so we are going to let you go in and sit with her.”

I nodded my head towards him. “Thank you, Alpha.” He then linked me, ‘Let us know if you need anything and keep us updated on her recovery. Let us know when she wakes up.’ I nodded to him, acknowledging what he asked of me.

As they left the hospital, I walked into Kat’s room, shutting the door behind me. She looked so fragile lying in the hospital bed, not that I would ever admit that to her. She would kill anyone that said she was fragile. I leaned over her and kissed her forehead. I pulled a chair next to her bed and sat down with her, placing her hand in mine. The delicious tingle of sparks was flying across my skin. Goddess, I could never get tired of this feeling. She invoked happiness in me, just being around her made me happy. Maybe this is why I always wanted to pursue her before she hit 17, I wanted to be near her. Maybe it was my body and soul recognizing her as my mate.

It is too early to say I love her, but I can tell that I definitely could love her, if given the opportunity.

There was a knock on the door and I yelled at whoever it was to come in. Once the door opened, I could tell from the smell that it was my mother.

“Hey, the Alpha told me you were here. He said that you had injured his daughter and you were feeling guilty and that you refused to leave her side,” she told me.

“Yeah, we were sparring as part of her training and I injured her leg pretty badly.”

My mother glanced at my arm and then looked into my eyes, “Well it looked like she got you pretty damn good too.” She wasn’t wrong. Kat really took a nice chuck out of my arm. “I was just coming to bring you some lunch. You did not eat breakfast this morning and, since I already know you are too stubborn to leave, I thought I would come bring you food.”

She handed me the bag she was carrying. “Thank you, mom.” I opened the container and realized she had packed me some of my favorite foods. She made me fried chicken, homemade mashed potatoes with some brown gravy, and some mixed vegetables. As I started to dig in, she pulled up a chair and sat with me.

“Mom, I love you, but the doctor said that only one person could be in here at a time.”

She looked at me before responding, “Son, I already spoke to Emily, the nurse with her care, and Chad, the pack doctor you are so concerned about getting upset, and they assured me that I could come in here for a few minutes to keep you company and talk to you. You never talk to me about what is going on in your life, so I want to catch up with you. Now, tell me son, why are you so hell bent on staying here with Kataleya? She is not the first person that you have injured while sparring and you have never gone to sit with them. What is Kataleya to you?”