Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Spencer
Pain rippled through me. I moved and felt another jolt. “Ow.”
“Spence?” a sleepy female voice croaked.
Opening my eyes, my surroundings came into focus. A hospital room? Oh. Memories of Adriana trying to stab Grace, and me stepping in front of her came back to me.
I looked over at Grace, who was curled into my side. She smelled of Brennan and Evan. Wes slept on the couch. No one else was here. I had no idea what time it was.
“Spence, you’re awake.” Grace’s blue-grey eyes gazed at me.
“Hi, Darling.” My hand reached out and stroked her hair. “I feel a little shitty.”
“That bitch stabbed you. But you’ll be okay. Alpha healing and all that. I’m sorry.” She sniffed. “I’m so sorry you were hurt and had to have surgery because of me.”
The angst in our bond hurt my soul.
“It’s not your fault, Baby Girl. Don’t think it is for one minute.” I wanted to lean over and kiss her, but that took too much effort. So, I stroked her hair again and sent her reassurance through our bond.
“Okay. Bren, Wes, and Evan said that, too, but I needed to make sure,” she whispered.
“I love you.” I tried my best to pull her to me.
She snuggled into me more. “I love you, too. It’s morning. They sedated you after the surgery and gave you the drugs to bring you out of it an hour or so ago. Bren dragged Evan off to the hotel. Jett and Riley are there too. They’ll be back. Wes is here with us.”
“Are you okay?” I had vague memories of her not being okay.
“I wasn’t injured. But I had a seizure and a spiral and some nightmares. However, I’m okay. I don’t really want to move right now, but I’ll be all right.” She headbutted me.
“You can stay next to me as long as you need.” It was probably scary for her. It was frightening for me.
“Um, I texted your mom and your publicist.” Grace looked up at me.
“It hit the news. They were calling you. I told them what I knew. Also, I said that I didn’t think they needed to come here.
I also talked to Mrs. K. She was worried.
Other people called and texted, but I didn’t reply. Evan or Wes might have, though.”
Oh. But then if Grace and I walking on the beach was news, my being stabbed absolutely was.
“Thank you. I’ll call them later.” Right now, I really didn’t feel like moving.
A doctor came in, though she stayed near the doorway.
“I’m fine.” Grace scowled at her.
“I know. I’ve been checking with the doctors on this floor. I’m sorry for how you were treated. I assure you, that nurse will be disciplined.” She looked anxious.
“Disciplined? It’s malpractice. He needs to never work in healthcare again.” Wes sat up, scent going spicy with anger.
What happened?
“It’s not indicative of how we treat our patients. Usually, our staff are professionals and don’t let their personal beliefs cloud their professional judgement,” the doctor said.
“Okay.” Grace’s lower lip quivered.
“We’ve got our lawyers on it. This is a clusterfuck, and you know it,” Wes snapped.
“I know. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.” The doctor gave her a concerned look, then she left.
I turned to Grace and Wes. “What happened?”
“People are stupid.” Grace buried her face in my shoulder.
Wes filled me in on all the questions the pack had from various agencies–and how Grace was treated in the Omega Ward.
“No, that won’t do. I’m glad Brennan’s on it.” Horror coated me. They did what? She could have died if Brennan hadn’t broken down the door. My poor baby girl. No wonder all she wanted to do was snuggle.
“Oh, he’s on it, and is after that guy’s license. The hospital’s going to pay for letting that happen. Someone from the hospital administration already came with flowers. That’s not going to fix the fact they could have killed her,” Wes muttered.
“They’re pretty flowers. I’m okay, Wes. It was scary, but I don’t like the idea of someone losing their job–and you don’t need to sue anyone and hurt the hospital’s ability to care for others.” She sniffed.
Wes pulled a chair over to the bed, not that the couch was far. “Grace, getting him fired means he won’t do that to anyone else. Same with going after the hospital. Also, the hospital has insurance for this specific reason.”
She gave him a skeptical look.
“He’s right, Grace. Taking legal action means protecting others.” I continued to play with her hair.
“Okay. I really don’t want anyone to go through what I did. I don’t want money from this, though.” She frowned at Wes.
Wes took her hand. “If you get any money from it, you can put it away and have a little extra money of your own. Or you can save it for Wyatt, Hannah, Daisy, and Grayson.”
Children. She, Wes, and Evan had named our pack’s future children. Awww. I knew Evan wanted a daughter named Daisy. His mom loved daisies.
“Yeah, you and Evan do not get two kids each.” Grace shook her head. “Honestly, I’d prefer those fraternal twins with different daddies, so I have your and Evan’s babies in one pregnancy.”
“I’m not sure it works that way.” Wes laughed.
“Fraternal twins run on the professor’s side and identical twins run on Thora’s side. So, it’s a possibility.” Grace squirmed. “I don’t have a twin, right? Like we’d know?” Anxiety shot through the bond.
“If you had an identical twin, we’d know,” I reassured her. “You could have twins? Hmmm, identical twin girls that looked like a cross between you and Evan? They’d get away with everything.”
“Right?” Grace chuckled.
“How many kids do you want, Grace? Two?” I asked.
She thought for a moment. “Maybe three, one for each of you? I want to wait a couple of years to get my career started, get our life going.”
My heart exploded. I hadn’t expected that. I’d always wanted children but knew it was a strong possibility that I’d never have any. Elaris couldn’t have children.
“That makes so much sense, Darling. I’d love that, but only if you would, too.
” I could feel that something about children made her anxious.
Was it work? Compass BioTek had very generous parental leave, flexible schedules, and on-site day care, but Grace also struck me as someone who didn’t want to pause her research for long. It wasn’t uncommon. We’d figure it out.
Wes grinned, revealing a dimple. “I think the world needs your and Spence’s identical triplets. They’d be running their own company by middle school.”
I laughed too, trying not to wince in pain. “Yes, they would.”
“Wes. Identical triplets?” Grace laughed. “I do worry about being a good mom.”
“You’ll be a great mom,” I reassured. “You’ll have all of us to help you, and you absolutely won’t need to give up your career or slow down if you don’t want to. But if you do, you have so many options.”
Wes kissed her hand. “You’ll be the best mom.”
“Also, I’m a little unsure about pushing out all of your giant babies,” she chuckled.
“You’re my soulmate, you’re made for our giant babies.” Wes gave her a kiss.
“Oh my god, Wes.” She play-smacked him, still laughing.
The idea of her pregnant with our children turned me on. I’d cook her everything and anything she wanted and rub her back every night. Of course, I’d do that now. I was also so relieved that Adriana hadn’t harmed her. Grace’s safety was worth my discomfort.
“But all this with Thora’s genetics? It’s scary.” Grace’s scent turned anxious.
“Of course it is. But you’re not a carrier, so it’ll be okay,” I reassured. “Also, don’t feel like you have to allow the professor and his family into your life.”
“I think I’d like to get to know my siblings more. Creed and I sort of clicked. Riley and Mercy get along amazingly well. I wasn’t there, but apparently Verity came to visit and even brought us an omega lily,” she told me.
“Oh, she did? How lovely.” I spied an omega lily in a beautiful pot next to a giant bouquet of flowers.
“Hale’s a lot. But Tru? How could I not love a five-year-old obsessed with math? I look forward to getting to know them. I’ll give the professor a chance, but I don’t know about the other parents.” Grace frowned.
“That’s just fine,” I assured her.
“You don’t even have to give him a chance if you don’t want to,” Wes added.
“I know.” She sighed. “It would be nice to have siblings here–especially sisters.”
“This pack needs all the sisters.” Wes chuckled. “But hey, don’t worry about everything with the hospital, okay. We’ll let Bren and the lawyers handle it.”
Grace made a noncommittal noise. “I guess. Bren said we could buy ice cream with the money. Can I just give it to the foundation so our scholarship kids can buy ice cream? They need ice cream money.”
“I love that idea. Being able to give our students allowances would be helpful. For right now, at least, we’ve got all of Evan’s omegas situated. We’ll get everything else worked out eventually. We should probably create an application process,” I said.
While I’d reached out to Rock Tech and Hadley Hall about the science scholarships for betas, I still needed to talk to Sonja, Evan’s sister, about establishing one at Darthmore, which was the private academy primarily for gifted betas that she was dean of students for.
Grace nodded. “I think we should call the science ones Starbright Scholars. Because they’re going to make the world brighter with all the good their science will put into the world.”
“Ooh, I like that,” Wes replied.
I did, as well.
“We should call the omega scholars Starlight Scholars. You know, like Starlight, Starbright, first star I see tonight.” She beamed.
“Oh, we used to play that and make wishes,” Wes breathed.
While I didn’t know that game, it sounded just like her. “Perfect.”
She frowned. “While I understand wanting to have applications for the omega scholarships moving forward instead of just Evan randomly awarding them, aren’t most of his given out of urgency? Maybe we should still have the option to award emergency scholarships based on referrals?”