Twenty-Two
Step up to the plate and the world will be at your feet. Make enough money and your omega will be happy in her home. Don’t bog down your pack with your inane problems and things will run smoother. Save face whenever possible, keep everything shiny, and life will be easy.
Nothing is easy. Nothing is smooth. Everything is fucking falling apart, and it feels as if it all rests on my shoulders, even though I have an entire pack, suffering right along with me.
No one is beating themselves up worse than Moon right now, sitting in our cell with a bloodied face he’s not been allowed to clean and clothes that give further proof to the activities a few days ago.
Getting him out of the pack feels like the only possible way out of this, and we’re all in our heads, trying to get ahead of how badly it’s going to hurt to tear that bond.
We won’t do it without consulting our omega first though, because she’ll feel echoes of it through us and we can’t put that on her after everything Moon just forced her to go through.
Staring off into space the way I am, I don’t register that there’s a police officer at our cell door until he’s unlocking it.
“You guys are good to go; The Omega Center has cleared you of any wrongdoing. Grab your stuff from the registration desk and you can head up the block to where your omega is. Good luck.”
The iron bars slide fully open with a loud clack, echoing across the cement of the walls and floors.
None of us move for a good twenty seconds, because we were all pretty convinced that Fable would hold us accountable for her ending up at the hospital, even if she’s there mostly for protection and recovery. Why would she want us out though?
It doesn’t matter. Not really. If she cleared us, that means we need to go to where she is and find out what she needs the most right now so that we can provide it.
Keep things shiny and light and your omega won’t feel burdened.
If I could burn the memories out of my head, all the lessons my family etched into me from a young age, I’d do it without a second thought.
I tried to be superficial with Winslow, and all it ended with was her not giving a shit about me.
I lasted all of maybe four hours with Fable before I gave up, because all I wanted to do was hold her and make sure she had all of me.
I leave my pack to gather our things because I just need to get to wherever my omega is so I can put her in my arms and then keep her there. I need to see her for myself, to make sure that the alphas we’re going to sue the fuck out of didn’t cause any permanent damage.
Well, any more permanent. It’s highly possible we’ll walk in and she’ll throw us out.
I would if the roles were reversed. What kind of alphas let their omega get into a situation where she’s potentially kidnapped and it’s the fault of one of your bonded pack members?
We weren’t given many details while we were locked up for the past few days, but I’m so damn proud of her for getting away and getting herself somewhere safe.
“Can I help you?”
I blink at the soft lights and the scent neutralizers being pumped into the small cushy room, trying to remember how I even got myself here. Did I walk the few blocks on autopilot? Was I so zoned out that I don’t remember a single thing from the walk?
“Fable. Please,” I rasp, grabbing onto the counter.
The receptionist, a beta in scrubs that’s currently wrinkling her nose at me, consults something in her notes before meeting my eyes again.
“We need all of you. And I cannot allow you to meet up with your omega looking like that. You’ll frighten her further and she needs stability right now. Where is the rest of your pack?”
Before I can answer her, they come crashing in behind me not ten seconds later. I guess we’re gathering shit from the police station at a later time or simply replacing it.
“Showers for all of you. You smell like a riotous blend of people and bad decisions. Down this hall here, first door on the left. There’s an open bay shower and I’ll get some clothing delivered that you can borrow.”
“Get lots of situations like this, I presume?” Anderson tries to joke, but it falls completely flat as the beta stands, nearly meeting us inch for inch in height but with a hell of a lot more backbone.
“Sir, I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation.
You are all being investigated for omega neglect, and if you’re found wanting, it could result in relocation for your omega and placement in the protection program where you’ll never see her again until she decides, after extensive therapy, that she wants you.
This is not the situation for you to be making jokes.
“It is rare we find an omega in the state Fable came to us in, and she has how many of you? Seven?” She shakes her head and drops her glasses to the desk, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
“I will be shocked if your omega ever functions the way her biology wants her to. We are only allowing you guys in here at this time because you’re bonded and she won’t be able to survive off of donor blood for too long, and because her omega is trying to go into heat. Her bites—”
None of us stick around for another accusation we deserve because if Fable’s going into heat, she needs us and she needs us now.
Nothing else matters but taking care of her the way only we can provide as her alphas.
We race to the showers and strip before the door to the room even shuts, dumping bodywash by the handful onto our bodies and scrubbing with way too many washcloths because the faster we get clean, the faster we’re allowed to find Fable.
Finally, we all throw on the robes that do a good enough job of covering us up, feet in hospital issued nonslip socks, and a different nurse walks us up to another wing of the building that immediately feels different than the sterile outer parts where we entered.
Here there are warmer paints on the walls, a more comfortable temperature, and suites that look more like small apartments as we’re led past them.
The nurse stops in front of a door that has a green indicator flipped open at the top of the door and a medical chart with Fable’s last name in a black plastic holder.
“Before we enter your omega’s room, I need you all to be aware of Fable’s condition.
She shielded from us initially when she found her way to us and it took a lot of trial and error for us to treat her successfully.
I’m assuming you all know the significance of that ability manifesting.
She has been deeply traumatized and exposed to living conditions that would break an omega with less constitution.
She was unconscious until this morning, her system too overwhelmed to function.
“You alphas have an incredible omega on your hands, and I hope that I don’t need to actually tell you that she is going to need an incredibly committed group of I’m guessing, oh, about seven alphas or so, to help her heal and become the omega she deserves to become.
“There are no cameras in this room for your privacy, but if anything happens, there is a large red button right next to the bed you can press to call for medical help should you need it.
We will require you to check in every two to three hours by picking up the telephone on the bedside table and pressing one one one.
If you go even two minutes past that three-hour allotment, we will be coming into that room whether you want us to or not.
“Keep your voices low and your hands gentle, and do not be the reason that resilient omega in there ends up even more broken than she already is.”
The nurse knocks a few times on the door and announces her presence, and I crowd as close to her as I reasonably can so I can get to my omega sooner.
Fable is sweating something fierce, curled up in a ball and grimacing, shaking, pale as the sheets she’s lying on. A whimper escapes her lips, and my alpha is already on the move, pumping out pheromones and urging me across the room.
Fable’s eyes snap open, clarity entering them as she takes us all in, immediately reaching her hand out to invite us into her makeshift nest.
The nurse maintains a barrier between us and our omega though, holding all of us off with a raised hand.
For as powerful as that hits us, you’d think it was a concrete wall.
It hurts knowing somebody that’s been caring for my mate doesn’t think it’s safe to leave us alone with her.
“Fable, are you comfortable being alone with your alphas? They’re here to see you and look after you for a little bit.
If you don’t want them here, then we will escort them out immediately and ease you in any other way we can. ”
Another whine slips out of Fable’s throat as she says my name, making my knees buckle. The nurse quietly sees herself out as I crawl into the bed and pull my girl to me, breathing her in while trying to gauge her injuries.
Her face is still pretty swollen, but other than that, she looks like she’s been well cared for here.
“It hurts, Alpha. It’s bad. I don’t think it’s ever hurt this bad before.”
She trembles in my arms, this stunning, angel of an omega, clinging to me like I’m the only way she’ll ever make it through this.
If I have anything to say about it, I will be.
Fuck my entire pack right now. Not one of them kept Moon from taking her away, when several of them were aware he wanted to take her somewhere alone, which was completely out of character.
Fuck all of them because I was the only one not home at the time, the only one that truly couldn’t have stopped it.
My pack is all being pulled to this omega, same as me, but it doesn’t matter. She’s fucking mine right now.
A growl bursts out of me, warning all of them to keep their fucking distance if they know what’s good for them. At the same time, I’m soothing my omega, removing all barriers between us so I can help her.