Avenger(13)

After everything I’d been through in the last year I had a right to be exhausted. Didn’t I?

I climbed into bed and the dogs joined me. My eyes felt so heavy and my limbs felt weak. What if Caeden was right? What if this wasn’t normal? Could something serious be wrong with me? Oh, God. I hoped not. Archie looked at me with wide brown eyes and they looked so sad. Did he know something to?

I took a deep breath. I couldn’t let Caeden know his worrying was getting to me. After all, it was probably nothing.

* * *

When I woke from my nap I still felt tired. Like something was sucking all the energy out of me. I forced myself from beneath the warm covers. Maybe a nice hot shower would help. Yeah, that was it. That would ease the pulsing ache in my bones and make everything better.

I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it and stripped off my clothes. The water warmed my skin and I let it wet my hair so I could lather it with shampoo. With the scent of my coconut shampoo lingering in the air, I began to feel dizzy. I leaned heavily against the glass shower door, my fingers gliding across the wet glass. Something wasn’t right.

I fell to my knees, pain zinging up my legs. Being a shifter, something like this shouldn’t be happening in the first place, let alone hurting. My stomach heaved and I felt like I needed to throw up but nothing came out of my stomach. I curled into the fetal position, the water falling down on my naked body.

I tried to get up, but I couldn’t get my limbs to move. I felt paralyzed.

“Caeden!” I called, sobbing. “Caeden!”

I heard Archie barking and scratching at the closed bathroom door.

My body heaved again as my stomach tried to empty.

The bathroom door burst open and through the steam fogging the shower door I saw Caeden’s form run towards me. He pulled the door open and reached inside to turn the water off. Soap still clung to my body.

“Sophie,” his voice cracked in fear.

“I can’t move,” my words were shaky as I shivered.

He grabbed a towel, swiftly drying my body before wrapping it around me as he pulled me into his arms. He was trying to be strong for me, but I saw the worry shimmering in his blue eyes. Something was wrong with me.

He carried me into the bedroom, laying me on the bed. He was frazzled and not thinking straight.

“C-c-clothes,” my teeth chattered together as my whole body shook.

“Right,” he ran over to the dresser and returned with underwear, sweatpants, and a long sleeved shirt, despite the fact that it was September and such clothes should be unacceptable.

I was so weak that he was forced to dress me. I felt humiliated. No one wants to be unable to even dress themselves.

Once I was dressed he sat me up in bed. “I’m worried about you,” he brushed my wet hair from eyes. I opened my mouth to reply, but he cut me off. “Don’t even think about telling me you’re fine,” he growled. “That,” he thrust a finger in the direction of the bathroom, “was not normal. Something’s going on with you.”

“I wasn’t going to say that,” I whispered. “I was going to say that you were right. Something has to be wrong with me, Caeden. I’m so weak and the dizziness is getting worse.”

He sat there, holding me in his arms, staring off into space as he thought. Suddenly, he stood, cradling me in his arms like a small child. He tucked me under the covers and propped the pillows up behind me so that I was sitting up. He turned the TV on and handed me the remote.

“I’ll be right back,” he mumbled, leaving the room.

As soon as he was gone, I raised my shirt up, looking at my still flat stomach. “Please be okay, baby. Please. Mommy loves you,” I begged as tears fell from my eyes. If something happened to my baby I’d never forgive myself.

Caeden returned a few minutes later with a glass of orange juice and a plate with buttered toast on it. “This should help…some,” he handed the plate to me and set the glass on the table. He was pale and the worry still hadn’t left his eyes. “I called Lucinda,” he stated with his hands on his hips. He was looking around the room, avoiding my eyes.

“And?” I prompted.

“She’s on her way over. It will probably take her about an hour to get here,” his eyes finally landed on me and he studied my face carefully.

“Sit with me, please,” I patted the empty space in the bed beside me.

He hesitated for only a second before sitting down.

“Will you hold me?” I asked hesitantly.

Without saying anything, he enfolded me in his arms. I inhaled his woodsy scent with a slight citrus tang. It was the best smell in the world, because it reminded me of home. That’s what Caeden was to me—not just my husband and mate, but my home.