Chapter 9 Elias #2
But Elias knows better. He saw the look in O’Daire’s eyes. There was no changing his mind.
“He knows he’s no good for you, Izzy.” It’s choked through tears and wrenched out of his very soul.
It’s enough to bring Isaac’s attention away from the door—the full weight of his devastation nearly knocks Elias over.
“He didn’t stay—he could have stayed. It doesn’t matter to me what he does.”
“It mattered to him.”
“And to you, right?” Isaac’s eyes narrow. He jabs a finger with unerring accuracy into the spot on Elias’s chest that already aches with loss.
He can’t lie. “Yes. It matters to me that you are safe. I would do anything to make sure you—”
“Safe?! Eli. I have been safe my whole life—” He chokes out a sob. “I want to live. I want a pack. I want us to be a pack.”
“Aren’t we already?” The words are hard to say, as Isaac and he had always said they would be a pack even without an alpha.
“We are, but we have an alpha. He—he—he tasted like home, Eli. Like forever. Like family.”
The words collapse out of him all at once, and his body goes with them—he falls to his knees like something inside him has been cut loose. He gags, retching onto the floor, bitter salad remnants splatter the Terra Cotta tile.
“Why didn’t he want us? Is it me? Did I—did I taste bad? My scent is so strong. Maybe I could wear a blocker,” he moans.
“Izzy, no,” Elias says instantly. “It’s not you.”
“It’s always me,” Isaac’s voice cracks. “You smell too strong, Isaac. You’re so loud. You’re too bossy. No alpha will want an omega who’s so confident.”
His words are a litany of old wounds drilled into him by his zealous parents—words Isaac whispers like a confessional in the darkest part of the night, as he begs Elias to love him no matter what.
Crouching down, Elias uses the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe his chin. “No, Izzy. It’s him. He’s a criminal.”
“I need him. Please, Eli. Please.”
And then, before Elias can say another word, Isaac’s eyes roll back, and the tremors that had shaken him turn into convulsions.
Luca’s beside him in an instant, sweeping a chair out of Isaac’s path and clearing space without pause.
“Elias!” he shouts, voice sharp, face inches from his own.
It’s almost enough to make Elias shove him away. Almost.
“What’s happening?” Elias’s voice won’t work. His throat burns. His heart’s in freefall.
“I called an ambulance,” Gideon says above him, and he feels a gentle hand over his hair. “It’ll be okay.”
How could it be? Nothing is okay. But he clings to the comfort of it, reveling in Gideon’s familiar summer rain scent.
“Isaac’s an omega, right?” Luca asks, dropping to the floor and catching Isaac’s jerking hand before it lands in the bile pooling at his side.
“Yes.” Elias would have thought it was obvious to everyone who could see Isaac’s magic shining from every pore. “Why—”
A siren cuts through the air outside, and then the bell over the door rings again as two paramedics barrel in, gear bags already open.
“Step back, please.” The woman moves fast. “You said Rejected Bond Syndrome?”
The words hit like a slap.
Rejected Bond.
“He’s not bonded to anyone but me, though.” He looks from Luca to Gideon. “Right?”
“Shit. Sorry, Elias, this is going to suck,” Luca warns just as Gideon speaks up.
Gideon answers for them all, clear and steady. “First contact with an unbonded alpha. This is Isaac Fletcher. He’s an omega.”
The taller paramedic, Coop, doesn’t miss a beat. “All right. That changes the dose. Lorna, draw up Midazolam—he’s maybe 130 pounds, call it sixty kilos. Five milligrams to start.”
Gideon is still speaking to someone on the phone. “I’ll tell him. Finn—Dr. Merritt says five won’t touch it. He wants thirty milligrams to stabilize.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Coop mutters. “Tell the good doctor to let me do my job.”
Coop injects something into Isaac’s thigh, and within seconds, the convulsions stop. The silence that follows is terrifying. Isaac lies limp—completely motionless, his mouth slack, his face too pale.
They move quickly, lifting his lax body onto the gurney, and Lorna straps him down while Coop sets an IV, checking his vitals with cool efficiency.
“This is the same stuff we gave him before,” Coop says with a reassuring smile. “We’re monitoring his vitals too. Lorna, I think the faster we get him to the hospital, the better. I need him on the monitor, stat.”
“Then let’s roll.” Lorna’s already pulling the stretcher toward the door. “You can meet us there. Tell the doc we’re coming in hot.”
They’re gone in a blur of red lights, the sirens screaming away down the street.
When he feels Gideon’s arm around his shoulder, he realizes he’d been whining out loud.
“Are you all right?”
No, he’s not fucking all right.
He wants to tear at his hair, throw up, and for the first time in his life, he wants to punch something. Or someone.
What he wants most is to drag O’Daire back here so he can fix it.
He shakes his head. “I’m okay.”
The silence is so heavy he can feel it weighing him down.
“Sugar,” Luca says gently, waving a hand at the mess on the floor, the overturned chairs, the kitchen beyond. “What about…?”
Elias can barely think past the ringing in his ears and the ghost of Isaac’s whine echoing in his chest.
“Thanks, Finnie. Can you get Jay down here to stay with Luca? Yeah, me too. See you.” Gideon disconnects and slips his phone in his pocket.
“You okay, baby?” Gideon asks Luca. “Can you call Maureen? See if she can come down? Close everything down for the night? I’ll open tomorrow.”
“Sure thing. I’m good til Jaybird gets here. I’ll see you at home.” He grabs his alpha’s hand, bringing it to his lips for a kiss. “I’ll call her now. Take care, Elias.”
Luca disappears through the door to Elias’s kitchen, where less than an hour ago, he was thinking about Fabricland orders and how lucky he was to have Gideon in his corner.
Now—none of it matters.
Now there’s only Isaac.
And the promise Elias made to keep him safe.
Even if Isaac never understands why.
Even if Isaac never forgives him for it.