Chapter 164

Theo's POV Claire looked peaceful despite the oxygen cannula beneath her nose and the bandages wrapped around her throat where smoke damage had been most severe. Her breathing was steady now, no longer the labored struggle it had been when we'd first arrived twelve hours ago. I hadn't slept. Couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that basement corridor filled with choking smoke, felt the crushing weight of the falling beam, experienced again the raw terror of nearly losing her to Nicole's calculated murder attempt. The mating bond carried her calm as she rested, but my own system remained flooded with adrenaline that refused to dissipate. My hand was wrapped around hers, our fingers intertwined in a grip I hadn't loosened since the paramedics had first allowed me to touch her in the ambulance. The steady rhythm of her pulse beneath my thumb was the only thing keeping me anchored to sanity. She was alive. We were both alive. Everything else was secondary to that fundamental