Alpha's Private Plaything (Elsa and Drake Stone) novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Drake

‘Mr. Stone?”

I looked up from my phone to see a middle-aged doctor with tired eyes and a clipboard approaching me in the sterile hospital corridor. I’d been sitting there for hours, the scent of antiseptic burning my nostrils while I ignored calls from board members

and Vera alike.

“How is she?” I asked, pocketing my phone and standing to my full height, using my Alpha presence intentionally to

intimidate.

The doctor glanced around before lowering his voice. “Your mate is stable now. The bleeding has stopped, and we’ve administered fluids for the dehydration.”

I didn’t correct his assumption about Elsa being my mate. It was easier this way. Besides, wasn’t she still mine in all the ways

that mattered?

“However,” he continued, his expression turning grave, “I’m afraid the pregnancy couldn’t be saved.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. My chest constrict the

as if the air had been punched from my lungs. “Pregnancy?”

Holy shit. Elsa was pregnant? My mind raced, calculating dates, remembering nights—there had been so few recently.

“Yes. Ms. Hale was approximately six weeks pregnant. The combination of extreme alcohol consumption, severe stress, and the gastric inflammation caused a spontaneous abortion-a miscarriage.”

My mind raced back to the island resort. The memory of her skin glowing in the moonlight, her back arching as I claimed her, hit me with unexpected force. Fuck.

“Are you certain?” I managed to ask, my voice rougher than I intended.

“The blood tests confirmed it.” The doctor’s face hardened with disapproval. “Mr. Stone, I don’t mean to overstep, but consuming that amount of alcohol while pregnant is extremely dangerous. Even if the pregnancy had continued, the fetus.

could have suffered serious developmental issues.”

My jaw clenched. “She didn’t know.”

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to process what this meant. A child. My child. Now gone. Something primal and painful clawed at my insides-a loss I had no right to mourn, for a future I’d already rejected.

1,

“Does she know now?” I asked, my voice deceptively calm despite the storm inside me.

“We haven’t informed her yet. She’s still coming out of sedation. As her mate, I wanted to speak with you first.”

I nodded slowly, decision forming like ice in my veins. “Don’t tell her.”

‘Mr. Stone, I understand this is difficult, but patients have the right to know—”

“And I have the right to protect my-” I stopped myself. What was Elsa to me now?

The doctor looked like he wanted to argue, but my posture and scent must have communicated enough of a threat that he simply nodded.

“As you wish. But I strongly disagree with this decision.”

“Noted,” I said coldly. “When can I see her?”

I sat beside Elsa’s bed for hours, scrolling through emails without really reading them, the words blurring into meaningless

symbols.

Fuck, I never wanted a child with her. I never wanted to make our temporary arrangement permanent.

The lie tasted bitter even in my thoughts.

I noticed her eyelids fluttering before she fully woke. She looked small and fragile against the stark white hospital sheets, her golden hair spread across the pillow like a halo, so goddamn beautiful it hurt to look at her. The scent of her pain and confusion filled the room as consciousness returned to her.

She turned her head and saw me. For a moment, we just looked at each other. Her eyes, still clouded with medication, tried to focus on my face. When she attempted to speak, only a raspy sound came out.

“Water,” she croaked.

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