Chapter 140

Claire POV

After sending that urgent mindlink to Nathan, I paced my office at the clinic, waiting for his reply.

Was I too late?

Had she already done something crazy?

“Crazy” turned out to be the right word, unfortunately.

When Nathan finally answered me, telling me he’d had her removed to the mental health clinic in Salt Springs, I stopped pacing and sat down heavily.

Poor Catherine, I couldn’t help but think.

To do all of that - to go through all of that - just to prove some kind of twisted love?

It made me wonder if there had been signs before this, something I could have spotted before she ended up doing what she did.

Nearly getting herself killed, just to show that she was “worthy” of a man who didn’t even want her.

My heart hurt for her, and I was determined to visit her as soon as possible. I knew I was probably one of the last people on earth she would want to see, but I had to try.

I wondered if maybe I could even help heal her, the way Dr. Baldwin sometimes helped patients with depression or anxiety.

In the meantime, I decided as I stood up and left my office, I needed to get back to work.

I felt like I’d been neglecting the clinic lately, and my patients, so I’d cleared as much of my schedule as I could for an entire week. Now I could spend every day here, catching up on work and getting to know people.

There were more patients than ever since the end of the rogue attacks. Many people had fled to this city trying to escape the violence, and a lot of those people had ended up staying.

Add in all the people who came from other packs to help, and decided to stay as well, and my little clinic was suddenly booming.

It made me so happy to walk the halls and see it bustling with doctors, nurses, staff and patients.

But the hectic work pace was also utterly exhausting.

I hid it as best as I could, feeling embarrassed that I seemed unable to handle the kind of pace I used to keep back when I worked at the Silverfang clinic.

Was it busier here, or was I just slower?

Either way, the healings I did over the next few days left me feeling more and more drained.

Because it wasn’t just the healings.

It was the questions, the curiosity, the interest shown by every single patient too.

“Good morning, Miss Clara,” I said to an elderly woman as I walked into her room. I stifled a yawn, turning my face away as I sat on the stool in front of her.

“Hello, Princess! I’m so happy I get to see you today.”

“You are? Most people aren’t ever really ‘happy’ to have a reason to come to the clinic.”

She laughed. “Oh, well, at my age I look forward to any reason to leave the house! But I’m especially glad I got you as my doctor.”

I took out my stethoscope and pressed it to her back, listening to her heart. “Oh? And why is that?”

“Because I want to know about that handsome Alpha Gavin,” she said, a twinkle in her eye.

“Is it true you two are officially courting now?”

I shook my head, chuckling as I checked her other vitals.

“Now, Miss Clara. I can’t discuss my private life here at work. That would be unprofessional.”

“Of course, dear,” she said, a knowing look in her eye. Like I’d confirmed something, or somehow answered her question.

I did my best to make small talk with her while giving her a healing session to treat her arthritis.

But the visit left me tired.

So did the next, with a pregnant young woman and her toddler.

“Your Highness, I’m so relieved to see you,” she said as soon as I walked in the room.

Her toddler waddled over to show me the picture he was drawing.

I ooh’d and ahh’d over the picture, then smiled at the mother.

“What brings you in today, Jennifer?”

She rubbed an anxious hand over her belly.

“I just want to make sure everything’s alright. With the baby? I’m so worried something’s wrong with her?”

Looking at her chart, I saw that this was the third time Jennifer had come to us in a month.

“It looks like everything has been fine so far. What’s got you worried?”

To my surprise her eyes filled with tears.

“It’s just…ever since the attacks, when my husband was killed…”

She buried her face in her hands. Her son hurried over, patting her knee and babbling, clearly sad to see his mother so sad.

I sat down next to her, putting my arm around her.

“Please,” she said, taking my hand. “Please just tell me it truly is over. There won’t be any more rogue attacks.”

I looked deep into her eyes. “Jennifer, I promise you. It really is all over.”

She sagged against me, relieved by my reassurance.

“Can you check the baby again please?” she whispered. “Just in case?”

So I did a scan of her large belly and the baby inside, just in case. And then I scanned her toddler, healing all the small bruises and scrapes a young child has from playing.

And I left the room feeling like I had a giant chain tied around my waist, dragging an anchor behind me.

Running a nation came at a heavy cost, sometimes. Poor Jennifer’s husband was just one of many casualties my pack was still figuring out how to deal with.

And all day long, I met with patients struggling with fear, with sadness.

I dismissed rumors that I was pregnant with Alpha Gavin’s child, that Sabrina was attending Alpha conferences at the Bloodclaw pack, acting like an advisor, and that the Alpha Presidency had already been determined days before the election.

“Woah, slow down!” Amelia cried as I rushed from one appointment to the next late in the afternoon.

Her words barely registered, and she had to grab my arm so I didn’t just hurry by her.

“Claire, look at me. Are you okay?”

I smiled, trying to act like I was just distracted.

When the truth was I was nearly asleep on my feet.

“I’m alright,” I said. “Just lost in my thoughts.”

She studied me for a moment, and I could tell she wasn’t sure if she believed me.

“Can you help me with this patient? She has a few cracked ribs I’d like you to heal, if you have time.”

Taking a deep breath, I agreed and followed her into an exam room.

I greeted the patient, a young man who fell doing construction, and began to heal his ribs.

Until the room began to spin, and a sickening wave of dizziness slammed into me.

The next thing I knew Amelia was kneeling in front of me as I sat in a chair, checking my pupils with a pen light.

And the patient sat behind her, holding his side and looking alarmed.

“What the hell was that?” Amelia hissed, not wanting to scare the patient more.

I put a hand to my head. “It was nothing. I’m sorry. Let me finish the session.

Standing carefully, moving slowly so I didn’t move my head to fast and bring back that awful dizziness, I finished the healing session.

But Amelia followed me when I left the exam room.

“Something isn’t right,” she said as we walked down the hall.

“You look terrible. Tell me what’s going on.”

But I couldn’t answer. My vision had tunneled, and it was taking everything I had just to get to the break room.

If I could just get there, and sit down for a while, I’d be alright.

That’s what I told myself.

But as soon as we were inside the room, I simply collapsed.