Ash's POV
Three days.
Seventy-two hours of unbearable silence. Of waiting. Of watching her fight without even opening her eyes.
Seventy-two hours since they'd carried Opal through the doors of the pack hospital, her body limp in his arms, her skin ice-cold, her heart barely hanging on.
Ash hadn't slept. Not really. Maybe an hour or two here and there, but his mind never let go. He had stayed at her side, keeping vigil, waiting for her eyes to open, for her voice to cut through the silence and anchor them all.
Everyone had taken turns by her bed. Forrest cracking jokes to hide the panic in his voice. Brooks bossing the nurses around like he ran the place. Ridge, quiet and brooding, standing at her bedside like a sentinel.
Kael, of course, had barely left her side. Whispering to her like she was his to hold, his to mourn.
Ash clenched his jaw at the thought.
Because Opal wasn't just Kael's.
