Chapter 35
Chad was torn out of sleep at three a.m. by the sound of his cell phone ringing on the nightstand.
At first Chad wondered if it could be Peter, but that didn’t make sense.
Grabbing the phone, his body aching worse than it had when he went to sleep, Chad’s adrenaline spiked when he saw his mom’s name flashing on the screen.
His mother would never call him this late unless something was wrong.
“Mom? What’s wrong?” Chad answered the phone.
“Your father is fine,” his mom said, and Chad felt his anxiety spike. If she was starting the conversation with a reassurance it had to be bad.
“What happened?” Chad demanded, cutting his mother off just as she continued. “Sorry,” he said, forcing his mouth shut as he waited to hear what had happened with his dad.
“Your father had a small heart attack. We’re in the hospital now, but the doctors say that we got here in time. They put a stent in one of his coronary arteries and… wait a minute, what time is it there?”
“Three a.m.,” Chad said.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot about the time difference. I shouldn’t have—”
“No, mom. I’m glad you called. I’ll book a flight and be there tonight.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I didn’t call you to guilt you into coming home. Like I said, the doctors say that your father is going to be fine. You have things to do with your new job and—”
“Mom, I’m not going to stay here when Dad had a fucking heart attack. Jesus. I’ll be there tonight.”
There was a loaded pause.
“Well, your father and I will be happy to see you,” his mother said, sounding reluctantly relived. “And watch your language. You know I don’t like hearing the F-word.”
“Sorry.” Chad’s heart stopped racing. He couldn’t believe his father had had a heart attack. It scared the shit out of him.
Chad had a sometimes-complicated relationship with his parents. He loved them very much, but they were betas, and sometimes there were parts of being an alpha that they just didn’t understand, instincts that they were aware of on a theoretical level, but that didn’t make sense to them.
Chad, tall for his age and cocky after popping his first knot, hadn’t exactly been an easy teenager to deal with.
He wondered now if the added stress of having an alpha was part of why his dad was sick.
Fuck no. Chad gave himself a mental shake. His dad would smack him over the head if he knew he was thinking like that.
“Well, I should let you sleep,” his mother said. “Call me in the morning when you have your itinerary and I’ll pick you up at the airport.”
“I can take a cab,” Chad said. “You stay with Dad.”
“All right,” his mother said. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” Chad hung up the phone and got out of bed to get his laptop.
He booked the earliest flight he could find, which was at noon the next day.
There was no way he was making it home before the morning West Coast time, but there was nothing he could do about that.
He sent his flight number and arrival time to his mother via a text message, and then went back to bed to try to go back to sleep.
It wasn’t easy. Chad’s mind wouldn’t stop racing, and when sleep finally claimed him, his dreams were uneasy and tense.
When he next opened his eyes and saw that it was six a.m., he was only too happy to wake up and get packed.
***