Chapter 22
MILES
It’s been three days of fucking, coaxing our stubborn and horny omega, and knotting her. Caelia’s sprawled out on my body now, where she’s been for the last six hours.
I love this girl so much, mood swings, temper tantrums, and all. She bit Santo’s thigh when he went to move from riding her face yesterday, and bonded herself to him. It was so funny that it hit her afterward, and she burst into tears because she hadn’t asked him first.
They were already half bonded. Santo reassured her that she did what her instincts wanted her to do.
Levon is patiently waiting for his turn, happy because she told him that she loved him. There’s no rush, and he knows it. Things are exactly where they need to be.
“Let me make sure that the apartment is still standing,” Santo mumbles, pushing himself into a sitting position.
Levon continues to snore, unbothered by the movement. I’m not surprised, Caelia liked to wake him up with his dick in her mouth.
“Maybe hunt down our phones?” I ask. “I don’t think we had a chance to really let anyone know before we went radio silent.”
Fuck, Caelia’s dad is going to kill us for not at least sending him a text message.
“On it,” Santo promises, slipping out of the nest.
Sighing, I close my eyes, feeling his presence outside of the canopy a few minutes later.
“I’m plugging the phones in. They’re all dead,” he explains, yawning sleepily.
We’re all still pretty wrecked, but damn it was worth it to be able to be here with Caelia.
“I’ll check them as soon as they’re on,” I murmur.
“Cool, I’m going to hunt down food. Maybe I can make Caelia waffles,” Santo says.
“Don’t burn down the apartment,” I remind him.
Santo snorts in derision, muttering about how he’d never do that as he leaves, leaving me to chuckle alone at having offended his fragile male ego.
One of the phones begins to ring, and I blindly knock back the canopy, reaching for the phone. Caelia’s charger cord is long enough for me to answer it, putting it up to my ear.
“Hello, this is Caelia’s phone,” I rumble, my hand smoothing over her hair as she sleeps.
“Who is this?” a male’s voice suspiciously asks. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve called?”
Confused, I pull the phone away from my ear, but it’s not a saved number. A quick check of her call log shows that he’s called dozens of times. Shit.
“This is Miles Wallace,” I reply, putting the phone back to my ear. “I apologize that you haven’t been able to get in touch with her, she’s currently sleeping. She’s been indisposed for the last three days.”
I figure that’s a delicate enough way to explain that she’s been in heat and unable to answer the phone.
“You’re the Scented Scorpions coach,” he says accusingly.
“You know who I am, but I don’t have that advantage,” I say politely. “Caelia is sleeping and hasn’t been feeling well for the last three days. Her phone has been dead until just now.”
“My daughter said something about this, but I didn’t believe her,” the man grumbles. I can tell he’s older by his voice, but I’m beginning to get a really bad feeling about this. “I’m Friedrick Olsson, Caelia’s boss. Well, her soon to be ex-boss after this.”
“Why? She hasn’t done anything wrong,” I growl.
“Are you worried that she’s spilling secrets?
With all due respect, sir, she would never do that.
Maybe you should explain why you originally called.
I doubt you’d have rung her so many times just to talk.
She doesn’t even have your phone number saved. ”
“Yes, well, we don’t usually talk this way. I call her father or email her,” Friedrick mutters.
Fuck, he’s the owner of the Dragons. This is so bad.
“The reason for your call?” I ask again, my tone angry.
“I figured that Caelia would like to know that her father is in the hospital,” he says, making my heart rate spike. “He’s been there for the last two days, and he keeps asking about his precious daughter.“
Friedrick spits out the words sarcastically, and I’m very glad I’m not standing there in front of him because I’d be forced to punch him. Caelia is going to freak the fuck out when I wake her up.
Everything was so perfect a few minutes ago. Fuck me.
“What hospital?” I bite out. I’m so goddamned angry right now. Caelia whimpers in her sleep, and I immediately purr for her.
“You’re her alpha,” Friedrick whispers. “Why did she not say anything when she was hired?”
“Again, you’re off topic,” I admonish him. “Caelia and I are scent matched, and it occurred after she was hired. Nothing inappropriate has happened as far as her sharing team secrets. If you’ll remember, your team won the last two games we played against each other.
“That could have been a fluke,” Friedrick mutters to himself.
“Friedrick!” I yell, losing my patience. “The fucking hospital name, please.”
Caelia startles badly, pushing herself up to gaze at me in shock. I wince in sympathy, especially as Levon gets up as well. Putting my finger to my mouth to keep them quiet, I silently fume in anger.
“He’s at the Tulane Medical Center,” Friedrick finally says. “Caelia is fired. She no longer works here, and I expect all footage that she’s shot for us to be delivered to my email.”
“Not so fucking fast,” I say, sitting up.
Caelia’s worry is filling her gaze, and I can feel her body trembling.
I hate that I’m scaring my omega right now.
However, this isn’t fair. “My pack’s lawyer will nail your dick to the goddamned wall if you’re not providing her with a severance package.
You and I know this is nothing but a jealous excuse for firing her.
“Firing,” Caelia whispers.
“I know nothing of the sort, but she has been a good employee as far as I know of,” Friedrick grunts. “I’ll arrange a modest severance for her, and pretend she’s not a backstabbing whore.“
“That’s unfair and uncalled for,” I say, my voice low and angry. My southern accent is slipping into my words, and I wish I could reach through the phone to throttle this man. “I hope you have the day you deserve and that your streak of luck ends with Caelia’s removal from the company.“
Hanging up, I drop the phone on the mattress. My hand palms my omega’s face, her breaths coming in fast puffs.
“Hey,” I rasp, my voice gentling. “Your phone rang and I didn’t think, baby. I answered it.“
“Why am I fired?” she whispers, her eyes filling with tears.
“He thinks you’re giving me team plays,” I grumble. “There’s something else.”
“Worse than this?” she asks.
“Unfortunately. Friedrick has been calling because your father is in the hospital. I wasn’t told why. Get dressed, we’re leaving now,” I say. “I’m—“
“I’ll deal with it later. Dad’s in the hospital?” she confirms, pulling away to scurry out of her nest.
Glancing at Levon, I see that he’s already following her.
“Yes,” I say, getting up as well. “Santo! Come get dressed. We gotta go!”
Fuck, where are our clothes? Turning back to the bed, I begin to find clothes, tossing them at Levon to go through.
“Caelia—” I begin to say, pulling on a pair of pants without bothering with boxers.
“He said he went to the doctor,” she says in a small voice, pulling a tank top over her head.
Caelia forgoes a bra, and I hunt down a sweatshirt for her to throw on as well. She’s already found leggings, so it’ll work.
“Did he say why?” I ask, wondering if the old man’s been keeping secrets from his daughter.
Santo reads the room as he comes in and begins to get dressed without asking questions. Levon grabs him and presses his mouth to his ear, speaking quietly to catch him up.
“Dad just said they wanted him to eat healthier and that they were worried about something they’d seen on his tests,” Caelia explains, searching for socks and boots.
This room is a huge mess, but we’ll deal with it later.
“I found one,” I grunt, handing her the boot. It takes a little time, but we’re finally able to get dressed. We all showered before we passed out when her heat finally broke, yet I’m certain we still reek of sex.
Caelia pulls her hair up into a bun, grabs her phone, and calls a ride share.
“We’re coming with you,” I say, chasing her across the apartment. “Caelia—”
“It’s not your fault,” she says, shaking her head as tears slip down her face. When she gasps out a sob, I pull her into a hug.
“Your boss is being manipulated by his daughter,” Santo complains. “She was really fucking rude to you after the game.“
“Clarice has been looking for a reason to get me fired,” Caelia says, swiping at her tears. “I’m really just worried about Dad.”
“You’re right. The dickhead wouldn’t even tell me why your father was in the hospital,” I grumble, picking up the keys to usher everyone out.
Santo is on his phone as we run down the stairs, walking out onto the sidewalk as the car arrives.
“Well, I refuse to let this happen,” Santo says, pocketing his phone.
“What did you just do?” Caelia asks, opening the door to the back seat.
“You’ll see,” he says cryptically, helping her in. “No one fucks with my omega without consequences.”
The driver glances nervously at me as I get into the car and I shrug, motioning for him to get moving. On the heels of Santo’s words, nothing else is necessary.
Wincing when he slams on the gas, I check the back where Levon is buckling Caelia’s seatbelt. This is going to be a really stressful fucking drive.
CAELIA
I feel like I’m moving both too slow and too quickly. It’s disquieting, and I can’t stop crying. I was out of contact for three fucking days, and now my life is going up in flames.
As soon as the car stops, I push on Levon’s shoulder to get him to move faster. I’m trapped in between my alphas, and while I was perfectly happy before with this arrangement, I need to find my dad. Levon moves quickly for such a large alpha, I’m simply impatient.