Persuading the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons 9)

His beast roared at the possibility. Zain managed to remain the calmer of the two of them. "Can you help her?"

Emily was the one to reply. "We think so. If we use the treatment Sid and Gregor talked to you about, it may be enough to move her from critical to merely feeling ill for a few days."

He snarled, "Then why haven't you fucking done it already?"

Unfazed, Emily stated, "We need your permission since we can't obtain it from Ivy herself."

"Do it, and quickly."

Gregor stepped in front of Zain, blocking his view of Ivy. Zain was about to tell him to move when the doctor said, "I can't guarantee it will work, Zain. You need to understand that. It could make things worse since the treatment didn't factor in her recently weakened state."

"Is there any other way?" he demanded. When both doctors said no, then Zain motioned toward Ivy. "She'll die without any treatment, right?"

Gregor nodded. "Correct."

"Then fucking give her the treatment."

Emily said softly, "You may want to wait outside, then. We can't risk your dragon taking control and stopping us partway through the process."

His dragon snarled, I would never do anything to endanger our mate. Tell them so.

Are you sure? I don't want to leave Ivy, either. But if she's in pain, you may lose reason.

I won't bloody lose my head. We should be here.

Just in case she doesn't survive was left unsaid.

Pushing aside the negative thought—Ivy needed as much hope and positivity as he could muster—he looked at each doctor in turn. "We'll both behave and stay out of the way. Just help her, please."

Gregor studied his eyes a second before nodding. "Aye, then let's get to it, Emily." He motioned toward the side of the room. "Wait over there until we say it's safe to approach your mate, Zain."

Zain followed the order and stood out of the way. He watched as the pair took something from a refrigerator, prepped some medical supplies, and then stood to either side of Ivy as they laid a large, blanket-like object over her.

It was difficult to see her with the tube in her mouth and wires attached to various parts of her body. His female had come so bloody far, fought with all her might to merely walk again, and was back at point zero.

His beast murmured, She will walk again. There's no way she'd let us carry her everywhere.

He almost smiled. No, she wouldn't, would she?

Gregor finally met his gaze again. "We're going to start. The first part will be the most difficult as we need to lower her body temperature before we administer the treatment. Are you ready?"

As soon as he bobbed his head, Gregor and Emily murmured some last instructions to one another before Emily flipped a switch.

At first, it seemed like nothing happened. But soon, the machine used to monitor Ivy's vital signs beeped faster and faster. While he wasn't a nurse or doctor, he knew what most of the displayed information meant.

Ivy's body temperature was dropping. Fast.

Every muscle in his body itched to dash over, tear the blanket-like object off her, and hold her close to warm her up.

But he trusted the doctors. Even if he sometimes complained about the Scottish bloke, Sid would never have put up with, let alone mated, an idiot.

As one second passed, and then another and another, Zain clenched his fingers into fists and resisted rushing to his mate's side. The treatment wasn't something he could do, and it killed him that he couldn't protect his mate in all ways.

His dragon said, No one can. Even I know that.

Emily quickly flipped the blanket down, and Gregor administered one, two, three different injections before Emily put the blanket back. Both watched the monitors, waiting for something, although he had no idea what.

As the machine beeped louder, Zain couldn't contain his growl. For all he knew, she could be dying. "Help her," he ordered.