57
Caito
A hand lands on my shoulders, but I don’t take my heavy lidded eyes off of my omega’s sleeping form. “How is she doing?” I shrug off War’s hand. He knows I don’t like to be touched. Still, my eyes don’t waver.
“Kate wants to visit.”
“Does it look like I give a fuck?” I rumble, pressing my cheek into my palm, the rough stubble I really should have shaved days ago prickling the skin there.
Warrick crosses into my line of sight, but he doesn’t get too close to the hospital bed where my omega is laying.
He crosses his big arms over his chest, pulling the fabric of his expensively tailored suit jacket taut across his broad shoulders.
He looks like he’s just gotten out of an executive board meeting.
He’s the clean cut, Italian knock-off of Wren.
“You know I don’t like denying my omega, just like you wouldn’t.”
Finally, I flick my gaze to him. My unimpressed gaze. “We don’t owe each other anything anymore, Warrick. In fact, I’m surprised you aren’t hoarding your omega back in your lair away from prying eyes.”
The leader of the infamous Infinity Ring sighs before scrubbing a hand over his face, that golden ring with the organization’s symbol glinting in the low lights of Scarlett’s private room.
I’m going to have to have a discussion with Sutton about allowing him through when he knows I don’t want to be bothered.
It’s been five days since we got our omega back and she’d blacked out.
Five days of never taking a full breath of air. Five days of sitting my ass in this chair. Five days of wondering if I’d ever see her beautiful eyes open again.
The only upside being that Apollo woke up three days ago.
Today is the day he’s supposed to be wheeled down to sit with her. Maybe then I’ll allow myself a few hours of rest. Wren has been busy cleaning up the mess we’d left behind in our wake rescuing the omegas. Everything had been done relatively legally, but to the public, Harlan Erossi escaped.
The world will never know that the asshole won’t live to see another day once our omega wakes up and deals out her own justice. To the world, he’ll just be another criminal on the run.
“Kate isn’t a threat to her. She just wants to sit and talk with her. It might help her wake up.” War suggests gently, more so than I’m used to coming from him, and I growl.
“She’ll wake up when she is ready. Her body needs rest.” I snap, losing my grip for a split second on my carefully bottled away emotions. Internally, I curse myself out for my lapse in control. I know better than to show that kind of weakness around a man like Warrick Arson.
“Consider it a favor. One you can cash in at any time for any task. Just let my omega sit here for twenty minutes. You don’t even have to leave.” He bargains, sounding far too desperate, and I scoff.
“I wouldn’t leave anyway, but fine. She can visit until Lark brings Apollo down. Our pack gets priority with visitation.” Relief swamps War’s features, and he nods.
He disappears for a minute or two before he returns with the little dark haired omega by his side, though I note she does keep her distance from him by a good three or four feet. She sits in a seat on the other side of the bed from where I am, but her eyes are only for my little omega in her bed.
Kate is quiet for several minutes before she asks, “Have there been any changes?” She knows the answer, yet she feels the need to voice the question, anyway. I get it in a way. That need to feel like you’re doing something.
“The doctor just says she needs rest. We aren’t rushing anything.” A single tear escapes the corner of her eye, but that’s the only sign she’s even affected by the picture of her best friend’s broken body hooked up to half a dozen different machines.
A muscle in Warrick’s jaw ticks at the sight of the bead of moisture slipping down her cheek, and a fist clenches at his side like he’s physically holding himself back from reaching out to swipe it away. I almost smirk at him when our eyes meet for a brief second, but I think better of it.
I know exactly what it feels like to be around my scent matched omega when she wants nothing to do with me.
Another several minutes pass in silence.
“She protected me, you know? Did everything she could to keep that monster’s attention off of me.
She made me promise to keep my mouth shut while he made me watch.
” My teeth clench at her words, but I keep my own mouth sealed.
I didn’t want to be an asshole to Scarlett’s friend.
Not after everything we’ve all been through.
But I absolutely fucking hate listening to the things my omega had to endure while we’d been struggling to find her.
“Our pack owes her a life debt.” War’s words are gentle as he speaks to his omega, but Kate’s shoulders tense at the sound of his voice. I watch her face tighten, an emotion I can’t quite place flashing across her features, and gone too soon for me to read.
“She deserves the world.” The fiery little omega says this as she lifts her eyes to me for the first time since she stepped into the room. I admire her bravery.
“She will receive nothing less than that, and so much more.”
We lapse into silence again after that. Kate eventually reaches over to grasp Scarlett’s limp hand, and she gives it a gentle squeeze. She stands and leans over my omega, brushing her lips against the top of her head, murmuring something too soft to her for me to hear.
Kate doesn’t say another word to me before she marches stiffly back out of the room. War hesitates, studying me for a silent moment, before he dips his chin to me and follows after her, shutting the door softly behind him.
Then, I am alone again with my omega and all of my pent up fury.
The minutes tick by where I just watch the rise and fall of her chest and listen to the steady beat of her pulse on the machine.
Before I know it, Lark is wheeling Apollo into the room, and I finally perk up.
I haven’t been by to see him since we’d gotten back with Scarlett, but I know he understands my reasoning.
He looks a hell of a lot better than he did the day we left on our rescue mission.
He has a hospital gown on with the front open, exposing the white bandages wound tight around his chest and over his shoulders to secure it in place.
Lark pushes the wheelchair right up to the side of Scarlett’s bed, and as soon as our pack brother reaches out to grasp our omega’s hand, something miraculous happens.
Those beautiful hazel eyes pop wide open, and I take my first real breath of air in five excruciating days.