Forty-Two
FORTY-TWO
Mia
WHAT EMIEL AND I HAD just told Nat felt big , in a way I couldn’t process right now with everything else going on. But it also felt right , as though something that had been off-kilter for months was settling back into balance.
There was no time to sit with it, though.
“Speaking of the others,” Emiel prompted. “What did you learn?”
“The doctor’s finished with Luca,” I said. “I need to go see him. It’ll be a while until Byron can have visitors.”
“Is Luca all right?” Nat’s voice still held a wet quaver. It tugged at me—I’d never seen him like this in all the time we’d been together.
“They won’t give me any details; I’m not family or a legal guardian.” I tapped the side of my thigh restlessly with my fingertips. “I’ll go talk to him and find out.”
Emiel nodded. “I’ll stay here for now. Don’t think Luca’s gonna want an alpha in his room for a bit.”
I winced, because he was probably right. God, what was this going to do to Luca’s already precarious mental health? I couldn’t even imagine the trauma he must be going through.
“Thank you,” I told Emiel. Impulsively, I got up and stepped close to him, stretching up and pulling him down to press a kiss to his cheek. He straightened, lifting a hand to cover the spot with his palm.
Before things could get weird, I turned and did the same to Nat, brushing my lips against his temple on the uninjured side of his face.
“I’ll be back,” I told them both.
As I was leaving, I passed a white-coated female alpha with a stethoscope and a clipboard, who gave me a polite nod as she headed toward the door I’d just exited. I guessed she was the promised doctor, which was good. I might not be entitled to Luca’s medical information, but I was worried about Nat. He looked like he’d gone ten rounds with Emiel in a cage fight.
‘Byron picked the lock on the room where they were holding us, after they took Luca away ,’ Nat had said. ‘ We managed to take them by surprise and overpower them. I think they might be de —’
And then, he’d cut himself off, his face going even paler than it had been before, beneath his golden skin. I tried to picture what might have happened, my mind stuttering over the image of Byron and Nat fighting against gang members. I’d never known Nat to raise a hand to anyone , while Byron gave every indication of hating physical violence with the understandable passion of someone who’d been shot once and nearly died from it.
Shaking myself free of the disturbing thoughts, I took a moment to get my bearings and headed for the room number the duty nurse had given me for Luca. Not at all sure what I’d find, I knocked lightly on the door with my heart in my throat.
“Yes?” called a light, female voice from inside.
I poked my head inside cautiously. “Hi... I’m here to see Luca Doyle? I’m one of his roommates.” It was such an inadequate descriptor... but Luca and I had never talked about how to classify our complicated relationship—much less whether he was comfortable admitting to it publicly.
The nurse—a female omega—looked at Luca with concern. He was staring out the room’s large window, not moving, and he hadn’t acknowledged my presence at all. His left arm was in a sling, but I couldn’t see any other visible injuries from my vantage point in the doorway.
Thank goodness they’d at least assigned him an omega nurse.
“I’m not certain he’s up to visitors right now,” the nurse said, shooting me a look of sympathy before returning her full attention to the slight figure on the bed.
“Mr. Doyle?” she asked. “Someone’s here to see you. One of your roommates?”
“Mia,” I said, my voice thick.
Luca’s head turned, his eyes fixing on me as though from a great distance. He looked painfully young.
“Mia?” he whispered.
“It’s me, I’m here,” I said unsteadily. “Can I come in?”
There was a slight pause, and then he nodded wordlessly.
I slipped inside, coming to a stop a few feet away from the bed; not sure if he’d want anyone in his personal space, even me.
“Luca, did they inject you?” I asked urgently.
He shook his head no.
My gaze flew to the nurse. She smiled, although it looked a little forced. “I can confirm that his blood panel came back normal. Believe me, he wouldn’t be in a regular patient room like this if it hadn’t.”
The breath whooshed out of me in a relieved gust, and I sagged. “Oh, thank god.” Practicalities jangled at me, disjointed and slow in the wake of my own exhaustion and worry.
“Luca, the police are going to show up at some point to interview you. I want you to have a victim advocate present when they do.” I looked to the nurse again. “Is that something the hospital can facilitate?”
She nodded, growing businesslike. “It definitely is. Mr. Doyle, do you agree to that? I’ll need the request to come from you directly before I pass it on.”
“Yes,” he whispered, looking at his lap.
“Would you like a moment alone with your visitor?” she asked. “You can say no.”
“Yes,” he repeated, even softer this time.
“All right, there’s a buzzer hanging right on the side of the bed. It’s on your right side,” she said. “You just press the button if you need anything at all, you hear?”
He nodded, a tiny movement.
The nurse gave me a sympathetic smile as she gathered everything up and bustled out. Silence echoed in her wake, and I wasn’t sure how to break it.
“I’m so sorry.” The words burst free when the heavy blanket of quiet grew too stifling. “Nat says they were after him, not you. You should never have been involved.”
It was such a stupid, useless thing to say. As soon as it was out of my mouth, I wanted to drag it back somehow.
Luca continued to stare down at the pristine blankets folded over his waist. His gracefully arched brows furrowed, as though he were puzzling over some mystery.
“They came to rescue me,” he said eventually, the words a scratchy rasp. “Your husband, and Byron. They came and saved me, even though they might’ve been killed. Blaze’s men were armed.”
The blood drained abruptly from my own face, until I was sure my pallor matched Luca’s. Stupidly, I’d pictured a fight with fists, not deadly weapons. Even odds.
“Byron shot one of them,” Luca went on, his voice eerily level and calm. “He’s terrified of guns, Mia.”
Shock ricocheted through me. But then, all at once, I understood. I’d been stuck on the new revelation about just how much danger they’d all been in, fighting against armed gang members. But Luca was hung up on something different, even though it was related.
Luca, who saw himself as damaged goods—a broken omega not good enough for a pack, for alphas. He had honestly assumed that no one would care enough to try to save him from his personal hell. Then Byron and Nat—a virtual stranger —had not only rescued him, but they’d done so at the risk of their own lives.
I couldn’t afford to think about what might have happened if that rescue attempt had gone wrong, or else I’d end up useless—curled up in a shaking, sobbing ball in the corner.
It didn’t go wrong , I reminded myself firmly. They saved Luca, and the police came, and they’re all going to be okay .
God, I needed an update on Byron. I clung to the fact that he was supposedly in stable condition.
“Luca,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “You are worth fighting for. Byron is your alpha, whether the two of you are willing to admit it or not. I don’t think there’s much he wouldn’t do to keep you safe. And Nat... well, Nat’s a good man. I’m not surprised he wasn’t willing to sit around twiddling his thumbs while someone else was in danger.”
Luca’s face wobbled. For a moment, he curled in on himself, his good arm coming up to cradle his injured one. But then, he lifted shiny green eyes, swimming with tears, to meet mine. His arm reached out toward me instead, and I was piling onto the narrow bed with him in an instant, wrapping my body around his and holding on tight.
He burrowed his face into the juncture of my neck and shoulder, shaking silently. Dampness soaked into the collar of my work shirt, matched by the tears slipping from my eyes into his dark mass of flyaway hair.
“You’re worth it,” I told him again— fiercely , and with the desperate hope that if I said it often enough, he might start to believe it. “Don’t ever think that you aren’t, Luca Doyle.”