6. Malcolm #2
Victor frowns, his arrogant mask slipping. "I bolted before the visit even started. I never spoke a word to her."
Finn takes a slow, threatening step toward Victor. "You stood right next to her in the hallway. She glared at you with enough fire to melt your face off while we waited outside the kid's room."
I picture the fierce woman standing with her arms crossed outside the Make-A-Wish room. I remember the absolute disgust shining in her brown eyes when she looked at Victor. She overheard everything.
Lawrence curses under his breath. "Olive. The guide who covered for you when you ran away like a coward."
Victor turns the color of ash. His mouth falls open. He looks sick to his stomach.
The realization seems to crush him. I watch his face fall as he connects the dots.
He stood in a hospital hallway and complained about the smell of rotting flesh and bleach.
He called the charity visit a waste of his free time.
He acted like a spoiled, entitled prick in front of the exact woman his body now recognizes as his perfect Omega. He ruined the first impression.
Victor chokes on his next breath. His hands grip the edge of the metal rack behind him. "I insulted her. I stood there and called her ward a depressing nightmare. I insulted the sick kid. She heard everything I said."
Finn snarls. He closes the distance between them. "Yeah. She thinks we act like arrogant trash. You ruined any chance we had of a smooth introduction. She looked at me like a lifeline today. But the second she remembers you belong to our pack, she will run in the opposite direction. "
Victor flinches. He looks like he wants the concrete floor to crack open and swallow him whole. His chest caves in as if the weight of his mistake just broke his ribs. I know how his mind works. He uses his anger as a shield to keep people away, but this time, it backfired in a spectacular fashion.
The volatile tension in the room snaps.
Finn lunges forward. His hands reach for Victor's throat. He acts on primal instinct to eliminate the threat to his new mate, pushing loyalty aside. He looks ready for blood.
I move faster.
I step between them. I slam my hands into Finn's chest. I shove him backward with enough force to send him stumbling across the room. The rubber mats squeak in protest under his boots. Spinning around, I glare at Victor. I point a finger at his chest.
"Shut your mouth." I keep my tone hard and demanding. "Don't say another word."
Turning back to Finn and Lawrence, I let my towering frame expand. I fill the space between the three of them. I push my cedar scent out in a suffocating wave of raw dominance. The air in the home gym grows thick with the silent warning.
"Everyone calms down this second." I use the full weight of my Alpha voice. The deep, rumbling command echoes off the concrete walls and vibrates in their chests.
Finn stops in his tracks. He breathes hard, but he lowers his fists. Lawrence drops his chin, exposing his neck in a quiet show of submission. Victor remains frozen against the metal rack. His icy eyes shine wide with profound regret.
"We deal with Victor's mistake later." I keep my voice hard and even.
"Right now, our Omega sits locked in a hospital room.
She burns alive in a Heat she never expected.
Our priority involves getting her out of there.
Turning on each other gets us nowhere. It leaves her suffering alone in that hospital.
We act as a united pack, or we lose her before we even start. "
The chaotic energy in the room settles into a grim, focused silence.
I look at the three men standing in front of me. The feral panic fades from Finn's eyes, replaced by deadly determination. Lawrence looks ready to tear a door off its hinges to get to her. Victor looks shattered, but he nods his head.
"Good." I drop my arms to my sides. "Now we form a plan to get our Omega back."
I take a seat on the leather bench, resting my forearms on my thighs. Finn paces a tight circle near the weight racks. Victor sits on an overturned bucket, staring a hole into the concrete floor.
I look up at Lawrence. "You have friends in high places. You know the hospital director. Make some calls. Find out her status and her exact room number."
Lawrence looks down at his bare chest and the damp towel slung low on his hips. He curses under his breath. "Give me two minutes."
He turns and takes the wooden stairs two at a time. The basement door shuts behind him.
Every second feels like an hour. My skin crawls with the need to move.
I picture Olive tossing and turning on a sterile mattress.
I imagine the slick coating her thighs and the desperate sounds tearing from her throat.
Her body demands a thick knot to ease the fever, and the hospital plans to leave her empty or worse, she’ll use Alpha Aid.
The injustice of the medical system makes my blood boil.
Finn taps his boot against the floor in a rapid, relentless rhythm. The sound grates against my nerves. The scent of his distressed ozone clashes with the bitter tang of regret rolling off Victor.
"Stop tapping." Victor keeps his eyes glued to the floor.
Finn glares at him. "Shut the fuck up, Victor."
I shoot them both a warning look. They snap their mouths shut.
The silence in the room stretches. It puts my nerves on edge.
My hands grip the edge of the leather bench.
I force my breathing to stay even. Taming the urge to break things takes all my focus.
Finn grabs the edge of the squat rack. He flexes his fingers around the knurled steel.
He looks ready to rip the metal bars out of the concrete floor.
The basement door swings open again.
Lawrence jogs down the stairs. He wears a pair of loose gray sweatpants.
His dark curls still drip water onto his bare shoulders.
He clutches his phone in his right hand.
Walking over to the far corner of the basement, he taps the screen and brings the device to his ear.
His voice drops into a low, persuasive murmur.
We wait for another agonizing ten minutes.
Lawrence ends his call. He shoves the phone into his pocket. His face looks grim. The charming smile vanishes, replaced by a cold, hardened stare.
He walks back to the center of the room.
"Tell me." I stand up to meet his gaze.
Lawrence crosses his arms over his bare chest. "I called the director. The news is bad."
Finn stops pacing. "Is she hurt?"
"He cited privacy laws and refused to share her medical chart." Lawrence drags a hand over his face. "But he confirmed she survived the heat and discharged an hour ago. He also let it slip they gave her suppressants to break the fever fast."
A wave of relief washes over me, followed by a sudden spike of anger.
Suppressants act like poison to a late-blooming Omega.
They crush the fever with brutal force. They replace the slick arousal with violent nausea and hollow, aching joints.
The drugs leave the Omega feeling battered.
They tortured our Omega with pills instead of calling for us.
My teeth grind together until my jaw aches.
"If she discharged, we can find her." Finn takes a step toward the stairs. "We get her address from the hospital database."
"You don't understand." Lawrence shakes his head. "They fired her."
The room falls silent.
I stare at Lawrence. "Explain."
"The director confirmed the hospital board terminated her employment this morning." Lawrence grips his biceps. "State liability laws prohibit unbonded Omegas from working in high-stress medical environments. They fired her for presenting."
Victor lets out a choked gasp. He drops his head into his hands.
"It gets worse." Lawrence looks at the concrete floor.
"I called a private investigator to get her home address.
Then I called her building manager to see if she made it back safely.
Her apartment complex enforces a strict Beta-only policy.
The landlord gave her four days to break her lease and move out. "
My chest caves in.
She is a complete stranger to us. We barely know her name and her job title. But she stood outside that Make-A-Wish room like a fierce protector. In the span of forty-eight hours, our pack stumbled into her world and destroyed it. We cost her a steady paycheck. We cost her a roof over her head.
We left our traumatized, unbonded Omega out in the city. She has no income. She has no safe haven. She has a status she never asked for.
The guilt hits me like a concrete block. I failed to protect her. A pack Alpha provides security. I provided a nightmare.
Finn lets out a broken sound. He grabs a spare weight plate off the rack and throws it against the concrete wall. The iron smashes against the stone with a deafening crack. Dust showers down onto the rubber mats.
"We ruined her life!" Finn kicks the metal equipment rack, sending a shockwave through the gym. "She sits somewhere right now, sick from the suppressants, thinking her entire future is gone!"
Victor stands up. He looks furious, his icy eyes burning with a desperate need to fix his mistakes. "We find her. We buy the damn apartment building if we have to. We get her job back."
"We can't buy her trust." I step forward, forcing them all to look at me.
My towering frame casts a long shadow over the rubber mats.
"Victor ruined the first impression." I keep my voice low and steady.
"After today, she has every reason to hate the rest of us, too.
We acted like arrogant pricks. We cost her everything.
Throwing money at a woman who despises this pack gets us nowhere. "
Finn clenches his jaw. "So what do we do?"
"We step up." My voice leaves no room for argument. "We find her. We fix the mess we made. We provide for her. We protect her. We prove to her that this pack brings more than just ruined lives. We earn her trust, and we bring her home."