Chapter 21
SICK
The phone alarm pierced his brain like a knife.
Aaren whined and huddled into the warmth beside him. “No, no, no...”
Oh gods, his throat hurt too. It felt like he was deep-throating sandpaper.
“Sweetheart?” a familiar rumbling voice said.
“No,” Aaren moaned. He wriggled closer to Hades and tried to bury his head under Hades’ arm. When that did not kill the horrible alarm, he threw his arm across Hades’ hip, except he bumped into something straight, hard, and unsexy. “Kill it!”
“Kill the alarm?”
“Yeah. Hurtsssss.”
The alarm stopped. Blessed silence filled the room, and Aaren sighed.
“Thank you,” he mumbled into Hades’ side.
A large hand petted his head. “How are you feeling?”
Aaren tried to shake his head, except that made everything spin. “Spins. Feels bad. Throat hurts too.”
A sharp breath. Hades moved, which made the mattress dip more under him. Aaren slid helplessly toward his alpha. When he petted Hades’ thigh again, he realized that the hard metal thing was gone.
Before he could wrap octopus arms around Hades, Hades shifted away. Thick fingers brushed Aaren’s forehead, and Hades cursed.
“Fuck. I should’ve checked on you sooner. You’re running hot.”
Hades disappeared from the bed completely. Aaren whined louder.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” Hades called from somewhere echo-y. The bathroom?
He came back like he promised, sticking a cold plastic cone thing into Aaren’s ear. Something beeped.
“Yeah, you’re running a fever. Fuck. Not high enough to be worrying, but I’ll get you some meds. Any allergies?”
Aaren tried to shake his head, but quickly stopped. “None,” he croaked.
“All right. Be right back.” Gentle fingers petted him again, and the footsteps left.
It felt like Aaren had barely huddled into his pillow, when Hades came back.
“Need you to sit up and take this,” Hades said.
Aaren would much rather languish in bed, but Hades was sitting down next to him, helping him sit upright. The alpha pressed a pill into Aaren’s hand.
When Aaren cracked open his eyes, he found a glass of water in front of him. “I hate big pills.”
Hades paused. “Okay, I can cut this. Be back soon.”
He took the pill away and left Aaren sitting in bed. Aaren curled his fingers into the soft sheets, shivering.
“Back,” Hades said.
“Cold,” Aaren told him.
“Here, swallow this first. I cut the big pill in half.” Hades gently set the pill halves in Aaren’s hand.
It was a good thing he had cut the pill, because Aaren’s throat protested when he tried to swallow the halves. After some struggling, they were finally in his stomach.
“Yuck,” Aaren said.
“Sorry.” Hades brushed a kiss against his temple, tucking the blanket around Aaren’s shoulders. “Are you hungry? Need anything?”
Aaren shook his head.
“Need me to call in sick for you?”
Aaren sighed. “Feel bad for cutting out on Olson. I like him. He’s nice.”
Hades wrapped his arm around Aaren and squeezed him lightly. “He’s a boss. He has backup plans for situations like these; he knows that people fall sick sometimes. The best thing you can do is to give him as much notice as you can.”
Aaren bobbed his head, then winced when it hurt.
Hades picked up Aaren’s phone and unlocked it, sending off a text. Aaren was okay with that; he knew how to unlock Hades’ phone, too. “Texted Olson. Now, let’s get you settled in for the day. Do you need to go to the bathroom?”
“Yeah.” Aaren winced. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll help.” Hades scooped Aaren into his arms, carrying him to the bathroom. Good thing Aaren was naked; there were no clothes he had to fumble with.
Hades waited patiently while Aaren peed. When he was done, Hades carried him back to bed and tucked him in.
“Are you going to work in your office?” Aaren mumbled.
“I can work in bed, if you’d like. Not for all of it, but as much as I can.” Hades raised his eyebrows hopefully. “What do you think?”
“Yeah. Yes. I won’t be distracting you?”
“Pretty sure I’ll feel better when I can keep an eye on you.”
Aaren grinned, wriggling closer to his alpha.
“Hey, are you hungry? Would you like some food?” Hades asked.
“There’s food?” Aaren perked up slightly. “I’m not very hungry.”
“I made chicken soup. It’ll be easy on your stomach.”
“Did you cook that for me?”
“Yes.” Hades smiled, brushing Aaren’s hair away from his forehead. “Want to try some?”
“Yeah I do,” Aaren said. “But I don’t know how much I can eat right now.”
“Why don’t we find out? Wait here.” Hades dropped a kiss on Aaren’s nose, before heading out of the bedroom. Aaren snuggled back under the covers.
It felt kind of lonely, Hades’ side empty and his laptop abandoned on the nightstand. Aaren shuffled into the dip that Hades had left, wriggling into his residual warmth. It smelled more like him here, and Aaren huddled under the covers like a snug little bug.
Hades’ eyebrows went up when he returned with a steaming bowl and a tray table. “You stole my spot?”
“Smells more like you,” Aaren said.
Hades grinned. He helped Aaren sit up, then set up the tray table over Aaren’s lap and placed the bowl in front of him. “Tell me if it’s good.”
It was a simple soup, with tiny pieces of chicken, vegetables and macaroni. Aaren sipped on it and hummed. “It’s good.”
“Yeah?” Hades lit up. He sat on the far end of the bed—too far—except he took Aaren’s foot into his hands and began massaging it.
“Is this how you treat sick omegas?” Aaren blurted.
“Just mine,” Hades murmured, working his fingers over the arch of Aaren’s foot. It felt so good.
“You make me want to be sick more often,” Aaren moaned.
“No.” Hades narrowed his eyes. “Get better, and you’ll get more foot rubs.”
“Okay.” Aaren drank more soup, settling into the pillows.
“More?” Hades asked when the bowl was empty.
Aaren shook his head. “Enough for now. It sucks going to sleep on a full stomach.”
“Okay. I’ll make some lemon tea with honey when you wake up.”
“You’re gonna spoil me so bad.”
“Good.” Hades took away the empty bowl and tray table. When he came back to the bedroom, he popped a blister pack and handed Aaren a round golden candy. “A lozenge for your throat. Suck on it.”
Aaren popped it gratefully into his mouth. “Imagine if I could suck on you and make my throat better.”
Hades laughed. “If only.”
He settled into the spot Aaren had left, retrieving his laptop. As the keys clacked away, Aaren drifted off into sleep.
The cold got worse. Aaren had a headache when he woke up, and he was starting to sniffle even as his throat remained sore.
“Hades,” he whined.
Hades stopped typing and looked over immediately. “What do you need?”
He felt Aaren’s forehead with the back of his hand, then brushed his fingers through Aaren’s hair. Aaren leaned into his touch.
“Everything hurts,” Aaren mumbled.
“Damn it. I think it might be time for your next pill. Here.” He helped Aaren sit up, handing him a glass of water and more halved pills. When those were swallowed, he took back the water glass and kissed Aaren on the cheek. “I’ll make you that honey tea. Is there anything else you need?”
Aaren shook his head. “Tea sounds good.”
“Give me a minute.” Hades climbed out of bed and disappeared from the bedroom.
Aaren was still in Hades’ half of the bed; Hades had not moved him while he slept. But now Hades’ recently vacated spot smelled more like him—faintly, through Aaren’s stuffed nose—so he shuffled back into his original spot. It felt nice here, a cozy dip where Hades had been sitting.
Hades huffed when he came back with a mug. “Back in your spot?”
“This one smells more like you now.”
Hades smiled and sat next to him. “Here, honey lemon tea.”
It was sweet and sour, lighting up Aaren’s mouth. He sipped on it and purred when Hades wrapped an arm around him.
“More soup?” Hades asked.
“Maybe later,” Aaren said.
“Sure.” Hades kissed his ear and went back to work on his laptop, but he kept his arm around Aaren the whole time.
The days progressed slowly. Aaren slept and took the pills that Hades gave him, drinking everything that Hades handed him in a mug.
Sometimes Hades had to go to his office to use his drafting table or big computer screen; sometimes he cooked or worked out, taking Aaren along with him to sit in the kitchen or home gym.
It was all starting to get really comfortable, even if Aaren was now a horrific snot monster. Hades had set up trash cans on either side of the bed, so Aaren would have somewhere to put his tissues no matter which side of the bed he picked.
On the third day, Ballus called.
“Where the hell have you been?” he blustered down the line.
“Sick,” Aaren said. “I’ve been staying over with my—my friend.”
He’d come really close to saying my alpha, and that made his heart pound.
“Your friend?” Ballus said disbelievingly. “You didn’t cook for me today. The stir-fry was crap.”
Aaren rolled his eyes. “There’s some boxed mixes in the pantry if you need food. Or I can come over and cough into everything I make.”
“Or you can wear one of those masks when you cook,” Ballus said.
Aaren lifted the phone away from his ear and stared at it, wondering if Ballus even heard what he was saying. “Ugh. It’s not like you wore a mask to bed. I bet it’s your germs that made me sick.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t wear a mask to bed either, so it’s not my fault if you breathed in the germs.”
There were so many things wrong with Ballus that Aaren would start a list, except Ballus just wasn’t worth the effort.
Except his phone buzzed while he was staring at it.
It was an email from his lawyer, the one who was making sure he obeyed Gran’s contract rules.
Ugh, Aaren thought. Everything sucks.
He put his phone back against his ear. “I think I’m gonna throw up again. If you want some puke in your food, I can come over and puke in it. Bye.”
He ended the call with a sullen jab, only for Hades to snort.
“Oh well,” Aaren said. “It would’ve been a bigger fuck-you if I’d answered the call while you were inside me.”
“Mmm,” Hades growled. “Some other time, when you’re feeling better.”
“Okay.” Aaren tucked himself into Hades’ side. Hades wrapped his arm around Aaren’s shoulders.
“Hey, sweetheart?” Hades said after a moment. “While we’re on the subject, I found you a lawyer.”
Aaren spent another two days in bed. Then he went back to work on a half-day shift. When Olson was happy with his recovery, he put Aaren back on full shifts.
The next week, Hades brought Aaren to see the new lawyer.
They swept into a coffee shop close to the Wine Shack, one of those expensive places that Aaren always eyed, but could never justify spending his limited money there. Hades ordered for them—a black coffee for him, a vanilla latte for Aaren, and two warm chocolate muffins.
Varian Lagerstrom was a large alpha Hades’ size, tall and imposing with his suit and briefcase. When they strode up to him, he shook their hands readily, waving for them to take a seat.
Funny enough, he had an old hawk tattoo on the back of his wrist, half-hidden by his cuff, the same tattoo that Fury had on his wrist.
“Do you know Fury?” Aaren blurted.
Varian blinked.
Aaren squeaked and shoved himself into the same wide armchair Hades was sitting on, instead of taking a chair for himself. Hades huffed amusedly, shifting to make space for Aaren.
“It’s just that your tattoo looks familiar,” Aaren said.
Varian glanced at his tattoo and smiled. “Yeah, we know each other well. It’s a brotherhood tattoo.”
“Is he cheating on your Brothers by being part of other brotherhoods?” Aaren whispered to Hades.
Hades laughed. “Fury can be part of however many brotherhoods he wants. Probably just the two, though. Ours is newer.”
“The only way you can cheat on a brotherhood is by actively doing something that harms its members,” Varian said dryly. “What Fury does in his own time is up to him.”
“Okay.” Aaren squirmed into Hades’ side. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy.”
“It’s fine. I’ve looked at the contract you sent.
” Varian slid over a printed copy of the damned thing, pointing at a highlighted paragraph.
“This clause will release you from the contract without completely invalidating it, provided that you have good reason to end your relationship with the alpha you named.”
“That sounds too easy,” Hades said.
Aaren’s heart began to flutter with hope.
“Well, there are caveats.” Varian smiled crookedly, looking apologetic. “You will have to prove to a certified agency that the alpha is causing you distress, but once that’s done, it’ll be easy to rework the contract into something you’re comfortable with.”
Hades tightened his arm around Aaren.
“What kind of proof?” Aaren made a face; it sounded like he would have to deal with Ballus again. In front of someone who would judge them.
“Here’s what I recommend,” Varian began, pulling out a small tablet.
An hour later, they walked out of the coffee shop, full of sweet treats and a bubbly, hopeful feeling in Aaren’s belly.
Just that everything felt like too much. The sky was too bright, the cars on the street driving too loudly. Aaren couldn’t see a dumpster, but somehow, he caught the reek of trash.
He huddled into Hades, trying to escape the smells and sounds. “I think I might be falling sick again? Everything is... too much.”
Hades slowed down, guiding Aaren over to an empty bus stop bench. “Really?”
He cradled Aaren’s jaw, tipping his face up to examine him. Then his nostrils flared, and he froze.
“Sweetheart,” Hades said slowly. “You smell different.”