Accidental Surrogate for Alpha novel Chapter 205

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.

I shake my head violently. “No… you don’t understand.” I hiss, between gulps of air. “It’s Dominic… I think… I think something happened.”

She goes very still, “what do you feel?”

“Nothing,” I reply hurriedly, trying to feel him through our bond even though I know he’s too far away to sense. “I mean, not… not different.” Tears are spilling from my eyes, and my voice is shaking over every syllable. “We were on the phone and then there was this huge boom and a flash of light… like an explosion and the call dropped, I can’t get him back. It says the line is dead.”

Isabel 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 ripped out of my body and torn to pieces.”

“Were you together, when it happened?” I ask urgently, “were you chosen or fated?”

“We were together.” Isabel admits reluctantly, as if I’m forcing her to remember things she’d rather not. “I saw it happen, and yes, we were fated.”

“I’m sorry.” I hiccup, “I didn’t mean… I’m just trying to figure this out.”

“It’s okay.” Isabel answers, though her shoulders are rigid. “I understand.”