Chapter 3 #2
“I don’t know. I’m going to need to do more tests and—” Razyr sniffs the air, his nostrils flaring with each deep inhale. His brow furrows. “You are not in heat anymore.”
Now that he mentions it, I realize the agonizing pain is gone. Like it was never there in the first place.
“No way,” Angie says, standing behind me, wrapped in the white sheet from the hospital bed she’d been bent over just moments before.
A hard banging on the locked door distracts all of us from the impossible, wild scene we’ve found ourselves in. I don’t even care anymore how insane things got. I don’t care about anything except that my husband is alive.
My Sutton is alive!
“I do not think we should let him in,” Razyr says. “I do not think we should let anyone in until we know exactly what is going on here.”
“Except Strykr,” Willow says with as much authority as Razyr.
“Of course,” he concedes.
“He’s in pain,” I say, watching the sweat drip and soak Sutton’s coal black hair and the pillow and sheets beneath him. “A lot of pain, and he’s still bleeding. A lot.”
“I have a theory about that, but I cannot test it with you here,” Razyr tells me.
“What? Why not? You can’t just let him suffer. It’s cruel. I—”
Raised voices flood the room when the door flies open.
I turn to see the end of a fight between Strykr and Zayd as Strykr barks a final order for Zayd to leave, shutting the door between them.
“I’m sorry, Strykr. This mess… It’s all my fault.” Tears pour down my cheeks.
“Nonsense, Layla,” Willow says. “This is merely the reality of our world. And it’s nothing new to them.”
“No, Willow. This is all very new to us,” Razyr says, waving for Strykr to join us, gathered around Sutton’s bed. “I have not had a chance to analyze his blood sample yet, but Sutton is not a beta. Nor an alpha. I believe he is something new.”
“Is this really the time to talk about this? My husband’s in an incredible amount of pain. Can’t you help him first?”
“Not with you here,” Razyr reiterates.
“I can’t leave him. I won’t abandon him. Please, just help him.”
“What happened, Razyr?” Strykr asks, diffusing our argument.
“The alpha’s bite did not kill him. It only incapacitated him for a short while. While he was incapacitated, Layla went into heat. I think, when he is conscious, her heat is suppressed. The issue with his pain is, our venom has the ability to heal him. But—”
“But if you bite him, I’ll go into heat again and cause utter chaos,” I finish for him.
“And you’ll need your heat tended to,” Willow adds.
If I hadn’t just been through the most intense pain of my life, I’d argue with her that I don’t need help.
That I couldn’t possibly be intimate, for any reason, with anyone but my husband.
The pain of that heat only lasted a few minutes, but I felt like I was going to die.
I couldn’t possibly bear it for hours or days, like I’ve heard it could last.
“Layla?” Sutton rasps. The healing properties of the venom haven’t done enough for his throat, nearly ripped open by the alpha he killed. “Layla, baby.”
“Sutton.” I throw my arms over him, hugging him the best I can without causing him further injury.
“How am I not dead? Fuck, it hurts, baby.”
“Can you give us a minute?” I ask the others, and they agree, exiting the room.
“There’s good news, and there’s bad news, honey,” I tell him.
“Let me have it.”
“Turns out I am an omega.”
“Kinda knew that already.” He chuckles uncomfortably, chokes, and winces at the pain.
“But you’re something special too. You survived that alpha’s bite, and miracle of miracles, the venom started to heal your wounds.”
“Well, hell, woman, why haven’t you made one of those purple fuckers sink his teeth into me already?”
“That’s the bad news. The venom puts you into a sort of coma. While you’re conscious, I can’t go into heat, but when you’re out, I go into heat hard and fast. Sutton, the pain from the heat is like nothing else. I thought I’d die if I didn’t…”
Red-hot anger fills his cheeks, glowing brighter than the pain of his injuries.
“No. This is why we lived out there. So far away from them. To keep one of them from claiming you. And now you’re telling me you want it?
You want me to lie here in a coma while one of those monsters fucks you…
Owns you? You’re my fucking wife, Layla!
Arrrgh!” Sutton cries out as he tries lifting himself.
Blood sputters from his lips as he coughs.
In seconds, Razyr is back, but Sutton swats him off. Razyr backs away but doesn’t leave.
“Shh. Sutton, please. I know it’s not a good plan, but it’s the only plan. If you don’t let the alpha venom heal you, these injuries will kill you. For good this time.”
“I’d rather die than live to watch you leave me for one of them.” His eyes bore into Razyr.
Razyr doesn’t react, patiently waiting to do his job.
“I won’t, Sutton. They told me that an alpha can tend to my heat without claiming me.”
“You believe them? Their entire reason for being here is to claim omegas.”
“I trust the other omegas.” I take a deep breath, preparing for my next declarative. “And I trust Zayd.”
“Who the fuck is Zayd?” Sutton seethes.
“He’s the alpha who brought us here. He had every chance to claim me on the way to the Center, but I asked him not to, and he swore he wouldn’t. He didn’t, Sutton. And I trust that he won’t.”
Sutton’s muscles slackened for the first time since he woke. “I don’t like this, Layla. Not one bit.”
“I know. Neither do I. But I can’t let you die. I won’t.” I hold his face in my hands.
“And I can’t let you suffer while I heal.”
“I know. It’s not what either of us wants, but it’s what both of us need.” Tears drip from my cheeks onto Sutton’s.
Sutton nods. “I want to talk to him. Zayd.”
“I am here,” Zayd says from across the room, Strykr walking in with him.
Sutton’s nostrils flare as he huffs like an angry bull. “You take care of my Layla.”
“I swear it,” Zayd says, planting a fist on his chest.
Through gritted teeth, Sutton adds, “And if you claim her, I swear, I will kill you.”
Zayd bows his head. “You have my word, Sutton Nash. I will not claim your mate.”
“Bite me, doc. I’m fucking dying here.” Sutton takes my hand and kisses the back of my palm. “I love you, Layla baby.”
“I love you, Sutton. I’m so sorry.”
Next to me, Razyr says with his voice low, “I need to draw some blood, Layla.”
I nod, giving him my arm, never taking my eyes off my husband.
“I’ll see you soon,” Sutton hisses through his teeth as Strykr sinks his fangs into Sutton’s arm, filling him with alpha venom.
As Razyr finishes drawing my blood, Sutton’s eyes flutter shut.
“Come, Layla,” Zayd says, placing a heavy, clawed hand on my shoulder. “We need to get you to our room before your heat comes on again.”
My stomach rolls with guilt. Though we have Sutton’s permission, the idea of having sex with anyone else feels wrong. The only solace I take is knowing that once the pain of the heat overwhelms me, I won’t be able to think about anything other than soothing it.
And so, after placing one last kiss on Sutton’s forehead, I leave my husband, hoping we made the right decision.