by Kian Rhodes
As my mind began to process my thoughts more clearly, I began a mental inventory of my condition. My eyelids were still too heavy to lift, so I tried to open my mouth, but there was an obstruction of some sort. I tried to move my toes and then my legs, but either they didn't move or I couldn't feel them do it. Not good. There was a slight tingle as I tried to move my fingers. I concentrated and tried again, rewarded by a gasp from beside me.
"He moved!" My fingers were immediately crushed. "Call the doctor!"
"Scott? Can you hear me?" Harley was speaking into my ear, his hot breath sending an involuntary shiver down my spine. Sadly, I wasn't sure if my response was psychosomatic or if it meant that my spine was intact.
"He can't talk with the tube in his throat, honey." That gentle voice again. "Scott, can you squeeze Harley's fingers?"
Unfortunately, with as tight as he was gripping mine, I really couldn't. But apparently wiggling them was enough, because Harley began to sob as he spread kisses over my cheeks, my eyelids, my hair.
"I'm so sorry, Scott," he whimpered, pressing more tear-soaked kisses to my face. "Please forgive me."
My foggy brain couldn't make heads or tails of what Harley would need forgiveness for.
"Okay, Harley. Step back so the doctor can see to him." Zade was using the Alpha voice and it occurred to me that this was the first time I'd heard it from him. Knowing how headstrong Harley could be, I was surprised by that revelation.
Harley squeezed my fingers one last time and then kissed the back of my hand. "I'm just going over by Trevor."
Trevor. Right. The werewolf Omega. That was probably the owner of the gentle voice.
Several minutes went by as my body was poked and prodded, my pulse was taken, and I responded to a series of questions by squeezing the doctor's hand. While that was going on, I was finally able to work my eyelids open, although I did immediately flinch as the bright light accosted my eyes.
"Well, I think we're ready to try and take the breathing tube out," the doctor informed me. He turned to look behind him and for the first time I noticed that it wasn't just Trevor, Zade, and Harley – the whole damned gang was there. So much for privacy. "If you could all step outside?"
Harley choked back a cry and I squeezed the doctor's hand as hard as I could manage. He looked down at me and I could see that he understood.
"Ah, that's the way of it, eh?" He gestured to Harley. "You can stay as long as you can sit quietly on the chair while we work. Can you do that?"
Harley nodded and dropped to his butt in the chair. I could feel tension build as Zade opened his mouth to speak, but Levi caught him by the hand and tugged him out into the hallway. I'd never seen him look so determined, but he clearly wasn't taking any crap from Zade right then.
When the door to the hallway closed, the doctor began to explain the procedure for removing the breathing tube. It didn't sound pleasant. And it wasn't.
A nurse used a machine that reminded me of a portable vacuum to suck the spit out of the tube before it was pulled way too slowly free. No sooner than it was clear of my lips, I began to cough.
"It's okay," the doctor told Harley soothingly, "that's perfectly normal. As soon as he stops coughing, we'll get an oxygen mask on him and that will help."
I heard Harley murmur something and the doctor laughed. "He should be good as new in no time."
Just like he'd said, as soon as I quit coughing, the nurse slid an oxygen mask over my mouth and nose.
"Now," the doctor said, smiling at Harley again, "it's going to be a bit before he feels like talking much, so how about you go sit with him?"
As Harley approached the bed, I managed to lift the blanket just enough to get my point across and Harley hesitated, looking at the doctor nervously.
"It should be fine as long as you don't put any pressure on his chest," he said with a wink. "And just to be sure we're all on the same page, absolutely no shenanigans, okay?"
"Yes, sir," Harley agreed quickly, carefully sliding into the bed beside me and leaning back against the pillow. When I tried to reach for him, there was a searing pain in my back and Harley gently pressed my arm back down. "None of that!" He tucked his hand into mine and laid his head on the pillow next to mine. "If you can't behave I have to leave."
I squeezed his fingers and managed a small smile. Like I'd risk doing anything to make my Omega leave. Instead, I tilted my head far enough to draw in his comforting scent and closed my eyes, surrendering to the exhaustion that was pulling me back under.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Harley
In the days following the disastrous outing to the Oh! Club, I'd stubbornly camped out at the hospital. First, in a corner of the tiny emergency room cubicle as the medical staff fought to save Scott's life. After that, I'd sat in the chair by his bed and listened to the machine breathing for him as his body fought to heal the lung that had been punctured by the dagger when Scott jumped between me and the fucker trying to stab me.
To make it worse, the knife had been made of silver and, if I understood the frenzied conversation going on around me as the doctors struggled to stem the blood rushing from his back in the emergency room, Scott was allergic to silver.
It wasn't until much later that it occurred to me to wonder how anyone knew that. After all, I knew he'd only met them after I'd been grabbed six weeks earlier.
Levi had pleaded with me to go back to our guest house and rest. I'd declined.
Zade had ordered me out to the car, insisted that I take a break to eat and sleep. I'd refused.
Other than pick me up and carry me bodily from Scott's side – something I swear he considered for a moment - there hadn't really been anything he could do. The look on the faces of everyone in the room had been priceless; as if they'd never heard anyone refuse to do as he said.
It was the Empath, Trevor, who stepped to my side and supported me. Insisted that they allow me to follow my own path, whatever that meant.
From then on, there was always someone in the room with me – watching, I was sure, to be certain I didn't have a breakdown – but I was allowed to remain by Scott's bed.
The nursing staff brought me a food tray each time they made their rounds and, when I said I wasn't hungry the first time, the threat of making me leave if I didn't eat was enough to ensure I emptied the tray each subsequent time it was placed in front of me.
A few hours before Scott had finally woken, one of the nurses - a large, overly friendly woman with frizzy brown hair named Brenda – had wrinkled her nose dramatically and ordered me to the shower. Again, afraid of being exiled if I didn't cooperate, I rushed through a shower and, when I stepped out of the tiny cubicle, found a neatly folded set of soft hospital scrubs waiting to replace my filthy clothes.
As I slid into the bed beside Scott, I sent a silent prayer of thanks to Brenda for the forced hygiene.
Long after Scott fell asleep, I lay awake, listening for his every breath. Holding my own as his lungs filled and then releasing it along with the faint rattle of his exhalation. Repeating indefinitely as I held his hand to my chest, above my heart.
The gentle sound of Scott's even breaths finally lulled me to sleep.
The air around me was deep and dark, the light from the full moon barely making it through the leaves overhead.
I was sitting on a log, staring into a deep pit in the middle of the path when the sound of leaves crunching under booted feet chased away the silence.
I turned and gasped, a scream freezing in my throat as I stared at the monster lumbering toward me, long fangs dripping with blood and red eyes glowing in the dark.
"The important thing is to remember is the rock, okay?" Trevor's words rushed through my mind. "You can fight back, okay? You just have to focus your energy."
I struggled to my feet, the damp air choking me as I frantically searched the ground around me for anything I could use as a weapon. A low snarl came from behind me and
when I turned, it was my wolf, but he wasn't looking at me. He was low to the ground, his body rigid as he walked stiff-legged toward the approaching monster. His beautiful fur stood on end and his lips were drawn back in a ferocious grin, his massive fangs glinting as they caught slivers of moonlight.
I was staring, shocked that the gentle animal I knew could appear so vicious, when he sprang forward, latching onto the throat of the monster in front of me and ripping it out. He spat the flesh to the ground and backed up, his keen eyes locked on his victim.
The monster staggered one step. Then another. Finally falling to its knees and collapsing to the forest floor, dead eyes staring up into the starless sky.
My wolf shook himself, blood from the fur around his mouth spattering the tree trunks around him, before walking over to my side.
"Thank you." When I placed my hand on his back, he whimpered and pulled away, looking at me with sad eyes. My hand was damp, and when I held it out into a ray of moonlight, I could see that it was red with blood.
"Scooter? You're hurt?" I asked, confused. I knew the monster hadn't managed to lay a claw or fang on him. I stared into his eyes. "What can I do for you?"
He nudged me back to the log and I sat. He pressed his way between my legs, sitting with a groan and leaning sideways against me to avoid putting pressure on his wound.
"You want me to hold you?" When he sighed, I wrapped my arms around him as carefully as possible and rested my cheek on the top of his head and we both drifted off to sleep.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Scott
"How in the world did you manage to tear this wound open?" The nurse hissed at me, rolling her eyes when I shushed her. Harley was still sound asleep, and I didn't want to disturb him. "I swear you haven't even switched position all night."
"Bad dream," I suggested with a one-shoulder shrug. "Is it bad?"
"Well, it's not good," she shot back with a roll of her eyes. "We're going to need to move sleeping beauty to re-stitch it so it doesn't scar."
I was shaking my head before she finished talking. "Not right now."
This time when she rolled her eyes, she heaved a dramatic sigh. "At least let me redress it before you bleed all over the bed."
I considered her request. I'd woken up on my back with Harley wrapped around my left side and my leg nestled between his. If she helped me remove my shirt, I could roll over onto my side without waking Harley. "Okay. Can you pull it off?"
"Whatever," Brenda grumbled, but I caught the sparkle in her eye that told me that she didn't really mind.
After a few minutes of coordination, the bloody bandage had been removed and replaced with a fresh one. When she held my shirt back up, I just shook my head. Given a choice, I'd much rather be skin to skin with my Omega, and with my shirt off, I was fifty percent closer to making that a reality.
After I was lying flat again, I obediently took the handful of pills she shoved at me and then reclosed my eyes, determined to enjoy every minute of my snuggle time with my Omega.
The next time I woke up, Harley's fingers were tracing gentle patterns on my bare chest and his honey colored eyes were soft.
"Hey, you," I murmured, bending my neck to kiss the top of his head. "Sleep well?"
"I..think so," Harley said hesitantly, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth and biting down. "I had a weird dream."
"A nightmare?" I asked cautiously, unsure how much he remembered.
"It was at first," he admitted. "But I think it ended as a good dream. Kind of."
Harley continued to watch me as though he was waiting for a response, but there was no way I was acknowledging that I'd been with him in it. Much less, telling him that I'd reinjured my wound defending him.
"That's an improvement, right?"
"I guess."
Any further discussion of the dream was put off as an orderly entered, pushing a cart with two trays of food. I was ravenous and it seemed that Harley had recovered his appetite, because by the time we were done, there was nothing but crumbs left on the plates.
~*~
"Run that by me again?" Zade said testily, exhaling sharply.
I sighed. Between the blood loss and the infection from the silver dagger, my recovery was taking longer than I'd expected and my patience was low. "Where did I lose you, Zade?"
"How about the part where you think I should hand Harley's custody over to you because you dreamed that you slayed a monster?"
"You already know that he and I are planning on getting married, Zade. Since I can't actually claim him without him knowing what I am, transferring his custody to me legally is the most logical option."
"Oh, so you think I'm going to just hand a member of my pack - a bought-and-paid-for Omega at that - over to you because you're horny?"
I felt my eyes narrow at his trivialization of the situation, but before I could respond, Levi jumped in. His Omega, it seemed, had had just about enough of Zade's shit.
"What is your problem?" Levi snapped angrily.
"Wh..what?" Blindsided, Zade spun to look down into the flashing blue eyes of the smaller man. "You already know…"
"Oh, that's right," Levi growled, "I know. What I know is that you are awfully invested in saving Harley from having a relationship with a man who obviously cares about him despite the fact that Harley wants to be with him." Levi's ears shifted slightly on his head and a drop of blood fell from his lip where the tips of his fangs poked out. "Maybe you need to re-evaluate whether or not you claimed the right damned Omega, Zade!"
Instead of waiting for a response, Levi turned on his heel and stomped from the room, pushing past a stunned Blood Valley Alpha.
"Bad time?"
"Not for me," I snickered.
"Fucker," Zade snarled. "Yeah, Rafe, it kinda is." He started for the door. "I better go after him."
Rafael waited until the door clicked closed and turned to me. "Wasn't here to talk to him anyway." He dragged the straight-back chair to the side of the bed. "What was that all about?"
I shrugged my good shoulder. "Zade wasn't amused by me suggesting that I should request custody of Harley so we can get married." I glanced back to the door and couldn't hold back a grin. I know, I can really be an ass. "It seems that Levi was even less amused by Zade saying no."
"Ah." Rafael shook his head. "Clint saw that coming."
"Didn't really take a crystal ball."
"Nope." Rafael pulled his notepad out and stretched his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. "Where is Harley?"
"The doctor treating him has an office in this hospital, so Trevor convinced him to go to his memory recovery appointment."
Rafael nodded. "Is he making any progress?"
Did he really think I was going to sell Harley out? Or did he think I was too stupid to see what he was trying to do? I raised a brow. "Don't you think you should be asking him that?"
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rafael
Scott's eyes shuttered and his entire demeanor went to cold as fuck in a heartbeat. Shit.
"Take it easy," I said calmly. "I'm not trying to tangle your boy up."
Scott's disbelieving snort made no secret of his opinion. While it wasn't the first time that my attempts at reassuring someone had flopped spectacularly, I wasn't quite sure why this particular being doubted my sincerity.
"Scott, I fought by your side to save him," I reminded him. "Why would I do that if I thought he was guilty?"
"Why would you offer to shelter him in your territory when you admitted you thought he was guilty?" Scott countered.
I sighed. "Okay. I admit that you've got me there, but we honestly aren't after him, Scott." Giving up, I tried a different approach. "Like you said, I should talk to Harley. Are you up to answering some questions about the other night?"
I took Scott's cautious nod as a positive sign. "Great. How did you end up at the Oh! Club?"
Scott rubbe
d his hand over his face and exhaled. "I followed Harley."
"Okay." I scratched the note in my book. "Then what?"
"When I got inside, he was being mobbed by that pack of assholes," he said, scowling. "Then he was pinned to the wall by one. I pulled that jackass off him and then you all showed up." He narrowed his eyes. "What were you doing there?"
Ignoring his question, I pulled a sheet of mug shots from the notebook and handed it to him. "Do you recognize the guy you pulled off Harley?"
Scott glanced at the assorted pictures and plunked his finger down squarely on the face of the Alpha that had stabbed him. "Him."
"Got it." I jotted down another note. "Did you have any history with him? Previous altercations?"
"Never seen him before."
"Okay." I closed my notebook and studied him. "Do you know why Harley was at the club?"
Scott's lips thinned and he remained silent.
"Okay. What if I tell you why I think he was there and you tell me if I'm right?" No response but I decided to give it a try. "We were monitoring the message threads on the dating site."
No response.
"Harley sent a message earlier that morning to one of the Alphas saying he was going to be there."
Still nothing.
"I think he was hoping that if he met up with that Alpha, he might be able to find out what happened to him."
I could tell by the sudden flaring of Scott's nostrils that I'd caught his attention, but, like the stubborn Alpha he was, still nothing so I kept pushing. "Was the jerk that stabbed you one of the guys he was chatting with?"
I already knew that he wasn't. Not only had we taken him into custody with no problem, he'd spilled his guts like a jack o' lantern before we'd even made it to the intake center. Turned out that he was just a crybaby punk who was pissed off at being cock-blocked, but I didn't know if Scott knew that.