Chapter One #2
What the hell was wrong with me? I was going to have to get Jolly and call off for the rest of the night.
I couldn’t work while obviously needing to check myself into the neurology department to figure out what the hell had busted open inside my brain.
Was this one of those medical complications of my being wild born that my dads always worried about?
“MINE! MINE! MY OMEGA!” my wolf howled inside his inner sanctum.
Jolly who was already nosing at the guy’s legs, whipped his head around to face me. His eyes went huge and then his tail started to wag quickly enough that I feared for a second he might actually take off like a helicopter led by his butt.
Relief flooded through my limbs. I didn’t have a brain bleed or some neurological episode unfolding.
He was my true-mate. The true-mate response always made wolves dumb.
It was the one time evolution thought it was more important to have blood in your nether regions than in your limbs or brain.
I almost laughed but then met the eyes of my crying omega and realized it might be the night I committed my first murder.
My parents had good attorneys and depending on the judge they may even have taken a lenient look at what I had to do because of the true-mate response.
“Oh my bloody Frost drowning in a tar pit,” my omega said.
“Uh… Is that how he went?” I asked. “I didn’t pay much attention in lore class to be honest. I figured if the dragon wanted me to know his life story that he’d come and tell me.”
He laughed through his tears and something inside me lit up.
My dick was still hard, but I managed to cross the room to him.
I opened my mouth to insist that he tell me who nearly burnt his friend alive but as soon as my lips parted, those kissable lips that should’ve been forbidden to me on the clock, met mine.
I couldn’t pull away. The laws of nature and magic superseded work and anything my employers might say.
His wellbeing was my wellbeing and his happiness was my survival.
His lips opened against mine and our tongues met between our mouths.
He tasted like ice coffee and salty tears.
Fear still tinged his scent and he was a little wobbly as his hands held my face in place.
His tongue swept in a spiral around mine and I wrapped my arms around him.
Whoever hurt his friend would pay dearly.
My wolf growled inside his inner sanctum and Jolly’s tail thumped against my leg in sheer joy.
“Rhomas?” it was a stranger’s voice that met my ears.
My lips curled into a snarl until I remembered I was on the clock and his friend was probably headed into surgery. I could’ve kissed my omega forever but his friend’s wellbeing was at stake and I was the best door watcher any hospital on Hemlock Mountain had.
“I… Umm… I think I have to get someone,” the woman said.
I broke away from my mate, and it broke something inside me, but I met her gaze.
She was short and wearing pink scrubs with a strawberry pattern all over the top.
She was wearing strawberry pheromone blocker spray to match.
Unlike the rest of the staff, I didn’t have to bother with hiding my pheromones.
It was an accommodation since scent was a big way that I communicated with my service wolf.
“He’s mine,” I said, forgetting all the pretty words that shifters were supposed to use to describe our bonds with our true-mates. My ginger dad would’ve facepalmed.
“I’m his true-mate,” my omega spoke up. “Is my friend okay?”
“That’s why I was coming to get him,” the nurse said, her voice shaky.
“He’s not going to eat you,” my mate wiped his eyes.
“What is it?” I said, trying not to sound as impatient as I was.
“He’s going into emergency surgery and you’re the only door watcher here. I think they’ll have to call someone else because….”
“No,” I shook my head. “I’m coming.”
I turned to my mate, trying to find the least amount of words to explain that for the sake of his friend I had to leave him because I was the only door watcher on tonight and he couldn’t be in the gallery.
No one should ever see their friend being hacked on inside an OR.
My scent was enough to inform Jolly who instantly stopped wagging his tail and stood alert and ready for work but my mate wasn’t wild born.
Shifters born from other shifters communicated by scent but they couldn’t read scents as well as me and the wild wolves.
“Here,” I said, pulling off my shirt.
The nurse turned away as if I had breasts to flash her and covered her eyes. I ignored her. If she was that shy, she’d never last long at a hospital.
“Bite me,” I said, cocking my head to the side to expose the swollen claiming gland on my neck.
My mate’s scent danced with confusion. This was supposed to happen when true-mates made love for the first time.
There wasn’t time for that but it was the best I could give him.
At least, with our mating link half-open he wouldn’t wonder if I wanted him or not.
“So, you understand what my job is and why I’m the best one to sit in the gallery during your friend’s surgery,” I said.
Security showed up and I could tell by Guard Melanie Tantra’s tone that she was already speaking with one of my parents and expecting trouble.
She chuckled when she saw me standing shirtless and encouraging my mate to bite me.
Her scent washed with relief because she wasn’t sure if she could take me in a fight or not.
She couldn’t but I wouldn’t fight her because we were on the same side.
Fighting your own only made you weak if another pack attacked yours.
“Bite me so you understand,” I said, struggling to find the words to explain myself as I often did when scent wasn’t enough to expand on what I said.
“Our link will let you know so much more than I could explain. So much more than I have time to explain, if your friend is going into surgery. I know it’s supposed to wait and if tonight wasn’t one emergency after another, I’d wait, but this is what I can give.
Lay your claiming bite and then Guard Tantra will take your statement.
She’ll get down all the details I need to make this all okay.
I’m wild born and that means so much to your friend tonight. ”
I held my omega’s face in my hands as I spoke.
His eyes were so beautiful. Normally the claiming vows were treated like such a sacred thing.
They were the magic that allowed true-mates to feel the bond they forged in the Other World before any of us were born to Earthside.
They let you know enough about your mate’s life to not feel like you had brain problems for feeling so intensely about them so quickly.
“Will he be alright?” my mate asked.
“We will work together to give him the best chance there is,” I told him.
“He’s not going to die but he might lose---” the nurse started and stopped when the guard flashed her a look to remind her about patient privacy.
“We will work together to give him the best chance possible,” I said again.
My mate kissed me one more time before turning his attention to the claiming gland now exposed because I held my shirt in a ball under my arm.
“I’m Eamon,” he said.
“Eamon,” I murmured back to him and the name bounced around my skull, engraving itself upon my very soul.
“No, I’m Eamon,” he teased. “Now you’re supposed to tell me your name.”
“Rhomas. Like Thomas but with an R,” I said.
“Rhomas,” he repeated my name back to me. “I’d very much like my friend to live.”
“He’s going to live. I haven’t felt a door all night. That’ll make a lot more sense after you bite me.”