Chapter 13
Hailey
After another bout of sleep, I woke up again, and I had to admit that my mind was much clearer.
Nolan provided another snack, from ingredients I was certain Merrick had bought—I’d put a pin in that thought until later—and I was actually pretty comfortable lounging on the couch with Wilder behind me, Nolan sitting on the other end of the couch with my feet in his lap.
We had talked for a while about some of the basics: what the guys did for work, Nolan being a lawyer in family practice, and Wilder an ER nurse, foods I enjoyed, and even the inspiration for my nest, since Nolan had taken a peek and described it to Wilder while I was napping.
Now, we were still talking, and despite the newness of the situation, it felt…nice.
“You still need time to recover. How long can you take off work?” Wilder asked.
“They have a pretty good sickness policy. They won’t question it if I take a week off—they know I haven’t been doing well lately.”
“Did the symptoms start immediately?” Nolan asked, his brows pinching together.
“Pretty much, but they were mild—more of an inconvenience than whatever’s going on now,” I explained. “They’ve been slowly getting worse and worse until… well.”
I trailed off, casting an unhappy look down at myself.
“Just skin and bones,” Wilder said, crossing his arms around me.
“Trust me, I know. I must have lost at least fifteen pounds in the last month. On the very rare occasion I do have an appetite, it’s impossible to keep anything down. I even resorted to a banana bag a few weeks ago.”
Wilder’s brows rose, but he shrugged with a nod. “Smart.”
“I’ve been doing the best I can—taking as many multivitamins as possible to help sustain me—but it was only a short-term solution.”
“What were you going to do if we didn’t turn up?” Nolan asked, folding his arms like Wilder.
“I don’t know. I was hoping that if I just powered through, it would get better. But I imagine, eventually, I would’ve had to go to the convict camp if the doctors couldn’t do anything.”
“Why didn’t you do that to start with?” he questioned, his tone offering gentleness where his words didn’t.
“Because I happen to like my job. Can you imagine what would happen if they found out I bonded with a random convict? I don’t think they’d trust me to work in emergency services anymore.”
Nolan grimaced. He knew I was right—he just wasn’t admitting it.
Wilder let out a low whistle. “Yeah, that would’ve caused quite the commotion. And it would’ve raised questions about why the hell Preston was at a bar, instead of at the camp where he was meant to be as a convict.”
“Considering how shitty I feel, I’m not currently concerned about whether or not that idiot gets in trouble,” I grumbled.
“Nor should you be,” Nolan said quickly. “Once we get to the bottom of this, I swear to God, I’m going to borrow that baseball bat of yours and take it to the back of his head.”
“Maybe let her do it,” Wilder suggested with a grin. “If you do it, you’ll actually kill him. She hasn’t got the upper-body strength—it’ll hurt like hell, but he won’t die.”
I turned to face him. “You seem awfully excited at the idea of me causing bodily harm to your pack mate…”
“Normally, I wouldn’t be, of course, but I think we can all agree these are extreme circumstances.
His stupidity and lack of communication have put you in a terrible position.
I’m allowed to be mad over that. Plus, I don’t want him to die, which is why I don’t want Nolan swinging the bat.
I just want him to have a splitting headache. ”
“So you’ve just been dealing with this for months and hoping it would go away?” Nolan asked, and that time, I could actually see the concern on his face.
“I planned a doctor’s appointment, but…yeah.” I nodded. “I kind of felt trapped, you know? How did you guys even find out about me?”
“Preston called us a week ago—he’d been trying to reach us for weeks—but he didn’t really know anything about you, so we’ve been looking for you for a while.”
“We got to town months after you bonded, and it took us three weeks to find the blonde omega who was struggling. You know, if he’d bothered to tell us you were a paramedic, we would’ve found you a lot quicker.”
“Why didn’t he tell you?”
“Because he only managed to call us for a few minutes,” Nolan explained. “Most of the call was just frantic—begging, asking us to find you and make sure you were okay. He didn’t even tell us he was a convict, we found that out after getting to town and looking for him.”
“Oh.” I stilled for a moment, my mind lingering on the idea of Preston so frantic. “Couldn’t you just visit him to get more information?”
“Yes and no.” Wilder grimaced, wiggling his head. “Visitation is monitored, and we couldn’t exactly talk about the fact that he broke out and bonded with an omega. That shit would get him in a lot of trouble.”
“Okay. That makes sense,” I conceded, but this still felt so strange. “Don’t you guys have jobs you need to get back to, though? I don’t think you can just drop everything and stay here.”
Nolan sighed. “Technically, we do, but we’ve both taken a leave of absence to deal with this situation.”
“Deal with this situation?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
Something about the way he said it made me feel like a problem they had to solve. Realistically, I knew that was exactly what I was—or, at least, what the situation was—but it wasn’t a great feeling.
“When he says ‘situation,’ princess,” Wilder cut in, “he means Preston’s idiocy—not you. You’re an unexpected pleasure.”
I stared at the alpha for a moment. “Just how hard did I hit you?”
He burst into laughter, throwing his head back, the veins in his neck protruding in a way that made my mind go to a bitey place.
Maybe it was because they were my pack—or that’s what I was telling myself. Because why else would I be imagining biting alphas I had just met?
Maybe I was having a complete mental breakdown. That would explain why I’d bitten Preston—and why I wanted to bite these guys. Years of living as an omega alone were getting to me. I mean, I’d made a fantastic decision to go out in that alley with Preston in the first place.
“There’s no denying we’re highly compatible, scent-wise,” Nolan said, his eyes trailing over me. “Is it the same for you?”
The second part carried a hint of insecurity, and something about that warmed the center of my chest. He was nervous? For me? It was kind of cute.
“It definitely goes both ways,” I admitted, my cheeks heating as I was forced to deal with the truth. “When I met Preston at the bar, it was like lightning—and there was no way to stop it. It’s like I wasn’t in control of my own body.”
“Scents are powerful things.” Wilder nodded, his stare dwelling on me for a while too. “Frankly, I’m already obsessed with yours. No one should be allowed to smell that good.”
“I smell like sickness and sweat,” I said, turning from Wilder to Nolan to add, “I really think you should take him to the hospital to get his head checked out.”
“Why would he do that when we’ve got a certified paramedic and a nurse here?” Wilder asked, as if it was obvious.
“Well, probably because the paramedic is sick and the nurse probably has a concussion,” I pointed out. “Do you really want the lawyer making medical decisions for you?”
“I’m actually not bad at making medical decisions—I just don’t understand them without a lot of research. If I’m ever put in that position, I need a few weeks to do proper research and look into medical journals.”
Wilder peered at his pack mate for a moment. “Yeah, I think I need to make my own decisions. Between you and Preston, we’re screwed.”
He turned to me, lightness in his eyes as he smirked. “I promise you, we do occasionally have our shit together. You haven’t accidentally bonded with a pack of complete idiots.”
“We’re actually highly educated idiots,” Nolan insisted.
After managing to eat a little breakfast and sleeping for several hours on Wilder’s chest, I finally took a quick shower.
I should’ve been more concerned about the alphas in my apartment, but they’d been nothing but good to me—and frankly, I was weak and pathetic in this state. If they wanted to overpower me, they would’ve done so when they first arrived.
The only reason I’d managed to get the drop on Wilder was that I surprised him.
After throwing on the first pair of pajamas I found, I padded back into my bedroom with wet hair, intending to crawl straight into the nest.
Nolan was sitting on the edge of it, waiting for me. “Hey, how are you feeling?” he asked cautiously, both of us aware of how close he was to my nest. “Wilder’s gone to get some takeout. You need to eat some more.”
“I know. I’ve been struggling to keep food down, though. Remember?”
He sighed, his eyes dropping to the floor. “Well, we all know whose fault that is.”
“I think I’m going to lie down for a bit longer,” I said, moving toward the nest.
Nolan frowned, making me pause. “Your hair’s soaking wet.”
I sighed this time. “I know. I just don’t have the energy to dry it.”
He jerked his head toward my dresser. “Go sit down,” he instructed lightly.
Usually, the command would have made me bristle, but my lack of energy won out. I quietly stumbled over and sank into the cute pink shell-shaped chair.
Nolan grabbed a hairbrush and a hairdryer and began carefully working through every tangled wave. He even picked up my hair oil, squirting a small amount into his palm before running it through my ends.
He even knew how to brush it, from the ends going higher, instead of tugging down the entire strand, which would’ve hurt like hell.
That made me raise a brow. “Do you already have a woman in your life?”
I had never met a single man who understood the importance of hair oil and basic detangling.
He chuckled but didn’t pause. “I have sisters,” he explained, a small smile on his face, wistful almost.
“Ah. That would do it. How many?”
“Too many. Some days it feels like hundreds, but in reality, there are only four. Do you have any siblings?”
“Nope, just me. I’ve got a bunch of pseudo-siblings at the firehouse. Blaze annoys me in ways only a sibling could.”
“Siblings do have that superpower when it comes to irritation, don’t they?”
I simply nodded as he turned on the hairdryer and began gently working through each section. His fingers brushing along my scalp made me close my eyes, a blissful moan escaping.
There was something so relaxing about having someone play with your hair. I’d been a sucker for it since I was a kid.
He was far more careful and meticulous than I ever was. Half the time, I only dried it to eighty percent before throwing it into a bun for work. This dedication felt good.
“Thank you,” I said quietly as he finished.
“Anytime. You deserve to be looked after,” he told me softly.
Those words hit somewhere deep—a place I hadn’t explored in a long time.
I wanted to be independent, but I also wanted to be cared for. It was a tricky dance. Then again, I’d never expected to end up in a situation like this.
“Nest?” he asked after a moment.
The exhaustion hit me all at once. The effort it had taken to shower came crashing back, and I felt like I could fall asleep right there at the vanity. Unable to form words, I nodded.
Nolan took the hint, scooping me into his arms and carrying me to the bed.
I hated how sick I was—but deep down, I appreciated the care. Nolan treated me like I was something fragile and precious. Which, given my condition, I kind of was.
And while I was usually annoyed by that, at least I had someone here right now. Powering through was, well, exhausting.
My body already recognized them both as pack, and every time I curled up with them, I did feel better. The headaches lessened, the nausea eased, and I could actually keep food down—for a while.
“I’m only agreeing to this because I’m tired,” I murmured, snuggling into Nolan’s chest as he got situated against the headboard.
“I totally understand,” he assured me, gently running his hand up and down my back.
That was the last thing I said before falling into a deep, peaceful sleep.