20. Heatshock
Heatshock
I 'd made a stupid choice. I'd admit it.
When we'd reached a section of the highway that was closed, I'd turned down a side road instead, too stubborn to stop for the night or turn back after five hours of driving.
Then that deer had jumped out in front of us and I'd slammed on the brakes, hit a patch of black ice, and skidded us right into a deep snowbank.
Now Quinn was leaning against the shattered window like it was her comfort object, her mouth open as she panted slightly. Her eyes were still glazed over and when I reached out to touch her face, she was nearly hot enough to burn me.
"Quinn, what are you feeling right now?" I asked. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
She groaned in response. She was hurt.
I tore off my seatbelt, careful not to slide onto her and leaned down to run my hands over her body. "Where does it hurt?" She didn't move or respond. "QUINN!" I snapped. "Tell me where it hurts."
She dropped a hand to her abdomen, right under the seatbelt. Of course, the belt had stopped her from going through the windshield when I'd hit the brakes, so it must have hurt her.
Carefully, I unbuckled her seatbelt, pushing it out of the way and lifting the oversized shirt to look at her belly. There was nothing obvious, but there could be internal damage.
I gently pressed on her stomach and she screeched at me, her hands flying to my face, clawing at me until I pulled back. "I'm sorry, shit. I'm going to call for help."
Digging out my phone, I dialled 911 and waited. "We're sorry, all lines are occupied. Please hold."
"Hang on, I'm getting help."
That's when I noticed the blood smeared under her head.
Holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder, I reached over and carefully turned her face again.
There was a cut just above her eyebrow, where she must have hit the window.
That's why it was shattered, though it stayed in the frame.
Now we were talking about a possible head trauma.
Hanging up on the repeating emergency message, I called Orion.
"Are you guys okay? Kade told me you were in a crash."
"Not really a crash, but we're off the road in a ditch and I think the seatbelt hurt Quinn. She slammed her head into the window, too and she's bleeding. Fuck, Orion, I think we're in trouble."
"Send me a picture."
I took a photo of Quinn's wound with the flash and sent it to him.
"Looks superficial, it shouldn't be a big issue," he told me. "Maybe a mild concussion."
"What about her stomach?"
He asked me to palpate her belly again, moving my hand back and forth, but only the center made her savage. As soon as I moved toward her hips, she stilled, her eyes going sightless again.
"I think she's really hurt, Orion."
"No, she's in heat. You shouldn't have taken her," he snapped. "The pain in her belly? That's her uterus, trying to force her to breed. It has nothing to do with the seatbelt, Riv, and now you're stuck in a snowbank. We'll head that way, but we won't be there for a while."
"What do I do?"
"Feel her forehead. How warm is she?"
I touched Quinn's clammy forehead and jerked my hand away. "Really, really hot. Too hot to touch, almost."
He made a strangled sound. "You think she's over 104°?"
"How the hell would I know what 104° feels like, asshole?"
"Does it feel like you could fry an egg on her skin?" he asked dryly.
"Yes."
"Sounds like she's in heatshock. It's rare, but it happens sometimes to omegas who go too long without a knot."
"What the hell?" I stared at the limp omega in my truck and reached out to touch her. She was scorching. It didn't feel survivable. "Is it dangerous?"
"Yeah, deadly without treatment." He sounded worried. "She needs the hospital. Call 911 now."
"I've called, they're busy. What can they do for her?"
"They have drugs to artificially bring her heat down to a normal range."
"What about a knot?" My eyes didn't leave her face, with those gray eyes dully staring into nothing. "Would a knot help?"
"Yeah, but you're not doing that to her, River. She hates alphas. She hates YOU."
"More than dying?"
There was silence on the other end, then he said, "Try to get her into the snow and cool her off. It should buy some time until the paramedics get there."
I managed to get my door open and lift Quinn out of the passenger seat, sliding back out of the vehicle so I could lay her in the snow. She screamed when it touched her skin, and I snatched her back up again.
"We have to get you cooled down." Her skin burned right through the layers of clothing we both wore, her shirt drying as I held her to my chest.
My phone rang, and I picked it up. "She screamed when I put her in the snow."
"I was calling to say don't do that," Kade said from the other end. "She'll go into shock if you chill her too fast."
"Then what the fuck do I do?!"
"Skin to skin," he said calmly.
"We're on our way!" Archer yelled from the background.
"Okay, I'm calling 911 again, and I'll do the skin to skin thing."
"Okay." Kade hung up.
I scrambled back into the truck, laying my seat down and pulling her on top of me.
"Sorry, but I have to strip you down," I told her, pulling the shirt over her head.
Quinn didn't respond, but she nuzzled her face into my neck, her eyes closed as she burned with a fiery heat on top of me.
I dialed 911 again and set the phone to speaker, laying it on the console between the seats.
The same message played as I tugged my coat and then my shirt off, leaving me bare from the waist up.
"Okay, come on, we're going to get you settled and safe until the guys or the paramedics get here," I soothed, leaning back in the seat and pulling her onto my chest.
Skin to skin, her heat was intolerable. I couldn't imagine what it felt like to be inside her body. I wrapped my arms around the trembling, panting omega and waited, praying my pack would get here soon.
After 30 minutes on hold with emergency services, my phone died. I hadn't charged it with everything going on at the house. The cold was creeping into the truck, and Quinn still burned in my arms. We didn't even need a heater. She was furnace enough.
"I can't take you back if you're dead," I muttered, tucking her hair behind her ear so I could see her face. It was scrunched in pain. She'd been mostly still for the past half hour, but now she was writhing and making little whimpering sounds. It was breaking my heart.
"Quinn, I need you to tell me what to do here," I begged, my chest aching at the thought of this little omega burning to death. I hated omegas, but maybe I didn't hate all of them after all. Or maybe I was still human enough that I knew she didn't deserve this.
I opened the door to grab some snow and pressed it against her cheek. It melted alarmingly fast, dripping hot water onto my chest. Leaving the door open, I kept applying more and more snow to different parts of her body as she whined and twisted against me.
Despite my best attempts, having an omega rubbing herself against me was getting me hard. It was inappropriate, but I was helpless to stop it.
Carefully, I tried to shift her away from my solid cock, but she seemed to gravitate back, pressing her pelvis against me and grinding. After a minute, it became obvious that she really was grinding, not just squirming in pain.
"Hey, no, you don't want that," I told her. "No alphas, remember?"
"Knot," she whined, her omega sound digging deep into my soul. "Please, River, knot me."
Closing my eyes, I tried not to explode right there in my jeans.
She wasn't stopping. Her movement became stronger and harder, the friction bringing me to the brink.
Her slick had long since soaked through the thin sweats Archer had lent her and my jeans were damp in front.
It was almost uncomfortable and I was ready to rip my zipper down and sink into her warmth.
"I can't. I won't violate you like that," I groaned.
Quinn let out a squeak, pressing her pelvis down hard against mine and shuddering as she found her release. Slick gushed over me, running down my legs and soaking the seat.
Then she abruptly collapsed onto my chest.
"Quinn?" I shook her and brushed back her hair, trying to see her face. Before I could completely panic, she let out a little snore and I nearly collapsed in relief.
Cock still straining in my jeans, I wrapped my arms around the little omega and waited for someone to find us.