Page 51 of Princess

“I’ve got you,” I said.

“I would rather check the shrapnel wound first,” Axel told her.

“I don’t know if I can stop it,” she moaned.

Kenneth arrived at the car.I placed her on the stretcher.Axel handed me the saline bag and began pushing Marinah toward the medical bay.

“She has shrapnel embedded in her side, and her water broke,” he told Kenneth.“We’ll need blood just in case.I may need to do a cesarean.When we get to the surgical room, set everything up for me.”

“Got it,” Kenneth replied.

He had been one of the Federation fighters who attacked the island as a red stripe.He had medical experience and had turned into an asset.

“Where’s Garrett?”I asked after we arrived at the medical bays.

“Southern part of the island in case there was trouble.You need to check on them while I examine Marinah,” Axel said.

“Beck’s got it under control.Your job is my mate, and my job is to stand by her.”

Axel lifted a hand with scissors and brought them to the straps covering Marinah’s chest.

“No, not the straps,” she said.

Axel ignored her, and she growled.The growl turned into a moan.

“I let you do your job without interference, and by damned, you’re going to let me do mine,” Axel lectured.He proceeded to cut her clothes from her body.“Help me roll her to her side,” he said when he finished.

Two inches of shrapnel stuck out.The piece was about a quarter-inch thick.Dammit, how much was inside her?

“Check the baby’s heart rate,” Axel told Kenneth who was working busily around the room grabbing supplies.

A stethoscope was placed on Marinah’s belly.

“Stable,” Kenneth said after thirty seconds.

“Grab a blood bag before I remove this.Her name is on the bags I want,” he ordered after he knew the baby was okay.

“Marinah,” Axel told her.“I’m going to give you a local before I remove the shrapnel.I may need to cut into you, so I know what I’m dealing with.”

“Do it,” she ground out.“And hurry.I need to shift.”

The pain was bad.Marinah never stayed silent, and she’d barely said ten words since she went to her knees at the shipyard.My concern for her overshadowed thoughts of our child.I couldn’t lose her.This was my worst nightmare.

Axel put another line in her arm for the blood and administered the local.He looked up at me.K-5 burned in his eyes.“If you stop me from anything I need to do, I’ll have you removed.Do we understand each other?”

I grunted, but he continued to stare.“Fine,” I said like a petulant child.

The doctor cut her skin along the edge of the shrapnel.I held Marinah’s hand.

“It’s approximately three inches deep.It doesn’t look like it hit anything vital.This will hurt.”He didn’t give her a chance to object.Using forceps, he slowly removed the metal.

Marinah’s groan was louder.

Axel quickly squeezed a clear substance onto the wound.

“Superglue,” he said.“You can shift now,” he told Marinah.

Marinah’s shifts were usually fast and explosive.

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