Chapter 24
Quinton’s leg bounces so rapidly in the truck beside me that I worry he’s going to kick a hole in the floorboard.
“Baby, you have to calm down,” I say softly, grasping his knee. “They’re going to take care of her. She’s going to be alright.”
“It should be me in that ambulance.” His voice is strained, like he’s holding himself back from crying. “Dexter doesn’t even like her. Why is he the one holding her? Her Omega marked me. She needs me. Not him.”
Jealousy coats his words like tar. Usually, my Alpha is as easy-going as they come. This selfish attitude is unlike him, and I have to force myself to swallow my chastising words and give him grace.
These are extenuating circumstances, and getting onto him isn’t going to make it any easier.
Jude grunts from his position behind the wheel. “She’s his Omega, too. I’m sure he’s got some confusing feelings right now.”
“I’ll bet he does,” Quinton snarks. “ He doesn’t want her. He’s wanted you to get rid of her from day one. And now, suddenly, he’s being the Alpha she needs? It’s not right. She deserves more than that. Better than that.” He leans forward, grabbing onto the dashboard. “Can you drive faster?”
Jude gestures wildly in front of him. “The ambulance is right there! Do you want me to outpace them?”
My Alpha groans and throws his head back. “I need to see her. Need to touch her. She’s been gone for days and..”
And I didn’t sound the alarm.
She was texting me, and then went radio silent. I should’ve let someone know long before I did.
Why didn’t I?
I can tell myself I just assumed that she was done talking to me, but part of me worried the entire time that I was missing something. It seemed strange that she could go from being receptive to my questions to just ignoring me.
Yet I let it go. I pushed her out of my mind and tried to convince myself she was just done talking to me, even though a part of me knew she wouldn’t just ghost me like that.
If something happens to her because I ignored that feeling, I don’t know what I will do. Quinton would never forgive me. He can love me as much as he wants, but if our Omega is harmed because of me…
Jude throws his truck into park right outside the ER, as they’re pulling Alex out of the back of the ambulance. She’s hooked up to oxygen and an IV, with Dario and Dexter each holding one of her limp hands, and the three of us jog to meet them.
The female EMT is informing the nurse at intake about what has happened and what she observed during the ride.
The nurse looks at the five of us, her expression stern.
“Are we going to have a problem treating this Omega?” she asks bluntly.
“I do not have time for Alpha posturing. I want to take care of her, and I can’t do that if you’re all growling and snarling at me.
If you cannot handle me and the Alpha male doctor touching her, you need to stay in the waiting room. ”
“We’re fine,” Dexter grits, squeezing Alex’s hand. “Just fix her.”
The nurse gives us a final once-over and nods, directing the EMTs down the hall.
“Here’s her paperwork,” she says, handing it to me. I snag it from her, knowing this is one of the reasons why Betas are a part of a pack. We can keep our level heads more than an Alpha in an emergency. “I need her information and whatever medication she’s on.”
“She’s on heavy-duty suppressants,” Quinton tells her. “Like, can’t even scent her heavy-duty.”
The nurse wrinkles her nose. “Any idea of the brand? Or how long she’s been on them?”
“Two months, that we know of. Probably longer,” Jude says cautiously. When the nurse gives him a confused look, he shrugs. “It’s new. But you know how it is with scent matching, I’m sure.”
“She had the flu,” I tell her as I’m scribbling the few answers I know onto the form. “She was vomiting a lot, and the suppressants ran out of her system. That’s how we scented her. Then she went back on them, but was still sick. She was found unresponsive today.”
The nurse makes a clicking noise with her tongue as she grabs a computer on wheels from the hallway. She begins to type, recording what I said and making notes of her own.
“I’m going to order a few blood tests. I need to know how much of the suppressants are still in her system, and her hormone levels. The doctor will be in soon.” She holds her hand out to me for the forms, and I hand them over.
I filled out what I could with the little that I know about her. How can I know so little about this woman and yet feel like I’ve known her forever?
Quinton climbs onto the foot of the bed, kneeling in front of Alex. He looks so out of place in his cutoff denim shorts and black t-shirt that reads, “My bite is just as bad as my bark”, his brown hair sloppy and falling into his eyes.
But he’s whispering something to her, his hands gently tracing up her legs, with a reverence that makes my chest ache.
The Rot has been stable, almost manageable, since he scented her and got her shirt, and while he’s not pain or symptom-free, he certainly seems better than he has in a long time. This can’t be the end of the road for the two of them. She’s going to get better, and they’re going to figure this out.
They have to.
A phlebotomist comes in to take Alex’s blood, and I slump into an uncomfortable chair, knowing we’re in for a long night.
“I’m Dr. Grissom,” says a handsome, older Alpha as he walks into the room three hours after we arrived in the ER.
Nurses have been in and out checking on her, swapping out her IV bag, and checking her vitals, but this is the first doctor we’ve spoken to.
“I have Dr. Shields’s blood test results back. ”
“What’s going on with her?” Dario asks solemnly. He hasn’t let go of her hand since we got here. Neither has Dexter, for that matter.
“We believe she is suffering from Foresaken Omega Syndrome,” he says gently. “It can be a side effect of these heavy suppressants for unlucky Omegas. I’m sure Dr. Shields was aware of that possibility when she went on them.”
“What can you do?” Jude asks from his place on the plastic couch.
He had to redo the lineup for tonight’s show and convinced Rex to be the showrunner as well as perform his regular contortionist act.
Since we’re the main attractions and none of us wants to leave her side, the show is probably going to be a little lackluster, but there is nothing we can do about that other than cancel it, and that’s a stress Jude doesn’t need right now. “How do you fix her?”
“The only fix is to go off the suppressants for good and be exposed to her scent matches. The nurse says you’re all matched with her, even the Beta?”
The Beta. I’m used to being an afterthought. An other. Why couldn’t he say “all of you”? Why single me out because of my designation?
“She doesn’t want to do that,” Dexter pipes up. “It’s the absolute last thing she wants. She’s going to want to go on the suppressants again as soon as she wakes up.”
The doctor stares Dexter down with a stern expression on his lined face.
“Well, she’s going to have to if she doesn’t want to die.
I don’t think I have to tell you how dangerous FOS is.
She’s lucky you got her here when you did.
We can clear what’s left of the suppressants from her system, and give her a pheromone infusion if one of you wants to volunteer. ”
The room is quiet as we all look at one another. None of the Alphas want to volunteer, knowing that she’s going to be devastated when she wakes up and learns what happened.
But she needs this. We can deal with her hating us if she’s alive to do it.
“I don’t think I can do it,” Quinton says sadly. When the doctor raises an eyebrow, my Alpha shrugs. “I have Alpha Rot.”
The doctor sighs, somewhat dramatically, and takes off his glasses.
He cleans them on his white coat. “Well, aren’t you two a match made in heaven.
While we can’t use your pheromones for the infusion, you need to spend as much time with her as possible.
There have been a few studies of exposing Alphas with Rot and Omegas with FOS to one another that show positive outcomes. ”
“Easier said than done,” I mutter bitterly. I understand that it’s her choice not to be around Quinton, but her choice can literally kill him. If she spent a little more time with him, she’d realize how wonderful he is, and it wouldn’t be a hardship to match with him.
He’s nothing like her ex, but I don’t think she’ll ever believe that.
“It should be me,” Jude says, pushing himself up from the couch. “I’m the most dominant Alpha.”
The doctor tilts his head to the side, observing our showrunner. Jude’s presence is massive, and he stands taller and broader than the rest of us. This is one of the moments where stereotyping is true, because the big boy doesn’t just look like the most dominant, he truly is.
I often wonder what people think when they first see Jude. He’s broad, with large arms and thick thighs, and a large belly that hides a layer of muscle under his skin. His rich brown skin, dark eyes, and wavy dark hair hint at his Māori ancestry .
He’s handsome, of course, but it’s his presence that has most people taking a few steps back. His dominance is off the charts, and I would hate to be on the receiving end of his bark.
“I think you’re right,” the doctor says after sizing him up.
“You’re all quite dominant, which will pose a unique challenge for your pack structure, but it will be a boon for your Omega in this situation.
You’re easily the Prime Alpha. I’ll send a team in for the extraction and begin flushing Dr. Shields’s system.
We should be ready to do the infusion in two hours or so. ”
“How long until she wakes up?” Dexter asks softly. “Will she wake up?”
“There’s no way of knowing for sure, but I believe that she’ll wake up within an hour of the infusion. I don’t think her FOS is terminal at this point, and all of you being here is already helping. Her pulse is much stronger than it was when you brought her in.”
Once he leaves the room, the quiet is enough to make my skin crawl.
I hate feeling like I’m useless. What can I contribute to this situation?
It’s not like my pheromones can do anything for her in this situation.
Mine can soothe and calm a stressed-out Omega, but it’s hard to be stressed out when you’re all but dead to the world.
Quinton crawls off the bed and walks over to the chair where I’m sitting with my elbows on my knees, and drops to a squat in front of me. It’s like he knows I need him right now, because he clutches my face in his hands and drops his forehead on mine.
“This isn’t your fault,” he whispers, where only the two of us can hear. “You couldn’t have known.”
“I should’ve said something as soon as she stopped responding.” My voice is tight, and my eyes sting. “What if we lose her before we even get a chance to know her? ”
“Oh, baby, that won’t happen. You know how I know?”
I look into his odd, gray eyes, his expression so earnest that it makes my heart skip a beat. “How?”
“Because that Omega is a survivor. She won’t give up without a fight.”