42. Icarus
Chapter forty-two
I put my phone down, humming softly in pleasure at how all of her Alphas were there to support Jordan.
While it's never been officially discussed, the four of us are on the path to officially becoming a pack. I can feel our bond growing stronger each day. Even though the guys haven't fully won Jordan's forgiveness yet, I can't help but be excited about the future.
It feels like I'm getting everything I never allowed myself to want.
Cyrus's idea to go to Omegamart and shop for her nest – how it always should've been done - was good. I should've thought of it when we first bonded.
Jordan's annoyance smacks me in the chest, and I chuckle, wondering what her boss is saying to her to produce that strong of a reaction.
She doesn't talk about him much. I've maybe heard his name three times since we met. Apparently, he's not very involved in her division's day-to-day operations.
Strange that he'd be the one to insist on doing her performance review.
The feeling of annoyance doesn't go away and starts to morph into something sour. It takes me longer than I'd like to identify it because I've never felt it from Jordan before.
Fear.
I'm out of my office in a heartbeat, sending a quick message to the pack chat while I run down the stairs to the garage.
My bond with Jordan is lit up with fear. Get to HUG now.
I don't bother looking to see if they respond. I know they'll be there.
Getting to her office takes maybe fifteen minutes, and I park without feeding the meter. About ten minutes ago, I felt an extreme spike of fear and pain, and since the bond has gone dark.
I'm on edge, barely hanging onto my Alpha, as I push through almost closed elevator doors. I watch the numbers tick by in frustration, feeling like I will crawl out of my skin before I reach the twenty-first floor.
My tie is choking me, so I rip it off and drop it on the floor of the car. The other people in the elevator stare at me and back away.
As they should.
Someone has hurt my Omega, and I cannot be held responsible for my actions.
By the time the elevator door opens, it's been twelve minutes since the bond went silent, and my vision has tunneled. Lanie sits tapping away at her keyboard at the desk in front of me without a care in the world.
Doesn't she realize something is wrong with her best friend?
Why does she not care?
"Lanie!" I bark, and she startles. "Where the fuck is Jordan?"
"She's in her performance review," she stutters, looking around nervously. "You'll have to wait."
The snarl that rips out of my throat causes her to stumble back, visibly shaking. "Where. Is. My. Omega?" I bark, stalking toward her.
The Beta makes the right decision and points down a long hallway. "Corner office down there," she says, barely above a whisper.
I'm running, smelling the fear-soaked pheromones of my Omega seeping underneath the door. I rip it open to find her slumped on the floor, eyes closed, chest barely moving, and a disgusting Alpha leering over her.
"Who the fuck are you?" he says, eyes raking down my body, sizing me up.
"I'm her Alpha." I bend down and pick my Omega up, and she feels so tiny, so broken in my arms. Her head lolls backward, and her arm falls towards the floor. The Alpha, Mr. Woods, steps towards me, and I bark at him to stay where he is.
Clearly, I'm the more dominant of the two of us because he stops moving.
I take off down the hallway towards her office. Lanie pops her head up and says something unintelligible, but I don't have time to deal with her. I don't trust her. I don't want her near my Omega.
Once in her office, I drop to the floor, cradling her close, brushing her hair off her face, and rocking her back and forth.
I'm a doctor. I should be able to tell what is going on right now. I did a residency, even if I went into research instead of practice. But I can't think straight. All I can see is that my Omega is hurt.
I'm not sure how long I clutch her to my chest, fear and anger clouding my vision, before I heard heavy steps stumble into the office. I look up to see Cyrus standing over us. My body acts without thinking, and I growl at him. His eyes widen, and he immediately steps backward.
"Russ, buddy, what's going on?"
I don't answer him.
My Omega isn't waking up.
I force out a broken purr, holding her to my chest while keeping an eye on the other Alpha. He hovers close, looking around the office in confusion.
"Icarus, tell me what's happening, please." The whine with his plea proves to me how worried he is. Maybe he does care for her the way I do.
"Hurt," I tell him. That's all I can say to him. I don't know why, but there are no other words.
Next through the door is Slime, his green hair sticking to his face with sweat. He takes one look at my Omega and drops to his knees, reaching to pull her out of my lap.
"Simon, I don't think that-" Cyrus doesn't finish his thought before I punch Slime in the nose. Blood immediately pours down his face, and I hum in pleasure, knowing that I protected my Omega.
No one will take her from me.
"What the actual fuck, Russ?" Simon howls, scrambling back. Cyrus tosses him a box of tissues from Jordan's desk, and he cleans himself up, never taking his eyes off of me. "I just want to see her, to know she's okay."
"Mine," I snap.
"We care about her, too!" The green-haired one cries out.
"He won't care about that," comes the dark, deep voice of the final Alpha. Rafe gives me a wide berth, perching up against the desk. "He's in Alpha guard. Something happened that caused her Omega to shut down her body. Icarus is pure Alpha instincts right now to protect his Omega."
I narrow my eyes at the newcomer, dressed all in black with a button-up shirt and trousers but shining gold cufflinks. He shows me his palms and leans his head to the side, baring his neck to me.
Huh.
That makes me feel better.
"Hurt," I tell him, knowing he can help.
"Yeah, buddy, she is," he says softly, crouching to be at eye level with me. "Can we get you to carry her out of here, and let's go to the hospital? They can help you take care of her."
I don't like the idea of needing someone else to help my Omega. My displeasure must show on my face because the dark-haired Alpha exposes his neck to me again before he says, "You're doing a great job helping your Omega. But she is so special that she deserves everyone to stop what they're doing to take care of her, right?"
I clamor to my feet, holding her tighter to my chest, and nod at Rafe. He takes the lead, walking out of the office towards the elevator while telling the other two to protect my back.
The annoying Beta woman shouts something, but Cyrus barks at her as we load into the elevator. Simon is sniffling, but I don't care if it's from blood or tears. All I care about is the Omega in my arms.
Rafe leads us to his sporty black car, which is a tight squeeze for all of us, but we manage. I sit in the back with my Omega in my lap and Cyrus beside me as Rafe drives us to the hospital.
"Why aren't we getting an ambulance?" Simon asks from the passenger seat.
My purr raises in volume, and Cyrus joins me with a rusty sound of his own. He doesn't touch her, and I appreciate his trying to help from a distance.
"This is just as fast, and can you imagine Icarus allowing her to be loaded into an ambulance right now?" He shakes his head, locking eyes with me in the review mirror. "St. Michael's, yeah? You have privileges there?"
I grunt in affirmation, then turn my attention back to my Omega. Her breathing is still slow, and her body is still so. What did that asshole do to her? My perfect Omega.
"Omega," I whine, burying my face in her neck. I rub my face on her neck, trying to inhale some of her calming chamomile scent.
The door opens beside me, and I startle, not realizing we have made it here already. I follow Rafe into the hospital, Cyrus and Simon flanking out around me as my head darts around, looking for more threats toward my Omega.
"We've got an Alpha in guard and an Omega in drop," Rafe says calmly to the nurse at the ER desk. "He's a doctor here. Icarus Valentine and that's his Omega Jordan. We're unsure what made her drop." He pulls his phone out. "The timestamp on the text he sent us when he first started to feel her fear was almost an hour ago."
Has it really been that long?
The nurse says something to him, but I don't hear it. The familiar scent of the hospital does calm me a little.
"Icarus, we're going to go back to a room now," Cyrus says, pointing down the hall where Rafe is waiting with the nurse. "You got it, buddy?"
"Why aren't the rest of us in guard?" Simon hisses to Cyrus as we walk.
From the corner of my eye, I see the massive Alpha shrug. "We're not bonded to her. No doubt his bond makes it worse for him. I imagine if Icarus weren't here, we would be, but he's pack, so our Alphas are trusting him to handle it."
They guide us into a sterile room that is a bit more comfortable than the standard one. I've been here with my Omega before. I climb into the bed and curl up on my side, bringing her to my chest and cuddling her tightly as I purr.
The other three stand there staring at me. "Purr!" I bark. They startle, stepping closer to us as purrs roll out of them.
Rafe slowly reaches a hand toward her, raising a brow in question, and I nod. He places his hand on her leg as he purrs. Cyrus and Simon take note and gently put a hand on her as well,
"Icarus," a familiar, scratchy voice says. "We need to come see your Omega."
"Ruby," I snarl. I don't know why. The woman is a fabulous nurse, and we get along well. But she's not pack.
"Yes, yes, you're a very scary Alpha," she scolds. "But I've got to check you and your Omega out."
Cyrus snorts and doesn't even look sorry when I glare at him. "What? She's funny."
"Try not to antagonize the feral Alpha. He won't care that you're famous." Ruby pushes her little computer cart into the room, and Cyrus and Simon hop out of the way to allow her access.
"I'm not famous," Cyrus grumbles half-heartedly under his breath.
Rafe stays sitting by my side, his hand that was on our Omega resting on my shoulder. It's soothing, settling me in a way I didn't know I needed.
"She's not going to hurt our Omega," he says softly. "She's just going to check on her and make sure we don't need to do anything else since we don't know what happened." He flexes his fingers, his grip on my shoulder tightening. "You did a good job taking care of her, Icarus. You protected her."
My throat burns at his words, and I take my eyes off Jordan for the first time since I found her. "You think so?" I whisper, looking over my shoulder at him.
He smiles, adjusting from where he's sitting, perched awkwardly on the side of the bed behind me. "Yeah, buddy, I do." His words release something inside me, and the tightness I didn't know had taken up residence in my chest loosens.
"Okay, Dr. Carr is going to come in in a few," Ruby says, taking a step back. "And you need to get someone to set that one's nose," she nods towards Slime, whose nose is a swollen purple mess. "Even with his enhanced Alpha healing, it needs to be in the right spot."
After she leaves, I shift a little away from Jordan, sitting up and looking at the guys. I'm about to apologize for the way I acted reflexively, but I'm not sorry. Not at all. I protected our Omega in a time when she was vulnerable.
But I feel settled now. My Alpha feels settled.
So I slide out of the bed and nod to Rafe to take my place. He does so willingly, gently pulling our Omega to his chest. His purr is loud and deep, like his voice, and his eyes drift closed as he buries his nose in her neck.
It's that moment, looking at the three of them around the hospital room with Jordan in the center of us, I realize nothing is missing in my life. I'm terrified of what's happening with Jordan, but we're in the best place to help her. And I trust all three of them with her implicitly. I focus on that place within me that recognizes these men, different than the way I recognized Jordan but still so similar, and I lean into that feeling as I say, "I want to officially become a pack."