34. Fawn
Terror ripped through me.
I stumbled and crashed to the floor.
Thankfully, I’d just set down my drink on the counter, or the floor would have been covered in glass. Another wave of panic, the likes of which I’d never experienced before, slammed into me, causing me to scream.
“Fawn,” Zachary shouted as he ran toward me, dropped to his knees, and brushed a hand over my body. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
The fear coursing through my veins made it nearly impossible to speak, but I managed to get out one word. “Lyra.”
“Tanner,” Zac bellowed as he grabbed his phone.
Tanner came skidding around the corner and spotted me on the floor, curled into a ball. “What the fuck happened?”
“I’m calling Eli. Find Pascal, something happened with Lyra,” Zac said hurriedly. “Oh, thank fuck you answered, Eli. We have a problem. I don’t know what exactly is going on, but Lyra is in trouble, and it’s bleeding through to Fawn. No, I haven’t heard a word from her security. I wasn’t sure if they’d alert all of us or just you.”
Moments later, Tanner returned with Pascal and scooped me up so I was curled in his lap. “It’s going to be okay, Fawnie. We’ll find her.”
My bond with Lyra differed from the ones I had with my Alphas. The connection was clearer with her, and I could feel her emotions, but sometimes, like now, I could sense what was upsetting her. It wasn’t like I could read her mind or she was speaking to me, but I could tell the root of her fear. Another thing I’d found was my ability to know where she was. Not that I could drop a pin to her location, but if I followed my gut, it would take me right to her no matter where she was. Like right now, I knew she was moving fast, probably in a car, and that was the major fucking problem.
“She’s in a car,” I managed to croak out.
Tanner didn’t question it and relayed the information to Zac, who was still on the phone with Eli. “Hey, Fawn says he thinks Lyra’s in a car.”
“What do you mean they’re taking her to the hospital?” Zac snarled, responding to whatever Eli told him. “They did what? We’re on our way. Well meet you there.”
“Where are we going?” Pascal asked, rushing over to the cabinet where we kept all the keys.
“The hospital. Those fucking idiots got swarmed by the media and shoved her into the front seat,” Zac explained, seething. “She’s in the middle of a panic attack, and they can’t get her to calm down, so they’re heading for the ER.”
“I know Eli. He would have made sure everyone knew she couldn’t be in the front seat,” Tanner muttered as he stood with me still in his arms.
“All I know is if Eli doesn’t kill them, I will,” Zac announced as we headed to the garage. “They had one fucking job… to keep her safe. And now, who knows what the damage will be.”
Tanner paused then handed me to Zac. “One sec… I just want to grab something real quick.”
The panic had dulled to a roar in my ears, but I guessed what I felt was only a fraction of what she experienced. “Our angel is terrified,” I sobbed. “I didn’t know a level of fear like that was possible.”
Zac slid into the back seat of Pascal’s car and hugged me tightly. “Tell me how can I help?”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about me. I’m happy to share her pain. Now, I can say I understand what she’s experienced, and let me tell you, none of us would have been able to survive that kind of mental torture every time you get into a car.”
Finally, Tanner joined us, his phone to his ear. “Hi, Dr. Barnett? My name is Tanner Hill, and I’m one of Lyra Clark’s Alphas. The reason I’m calling is because an incident occurred, and Lyra was forced into the front seat of a vehicle.” There was a pause as he listened to whatever the doctor was saying. “I haven’t seen her yet. We’re on our way to the hospital now.”
Slowly, the panic clawing at my throat started to dissipate, and I was once more able to breathe easily. “She’s at the hospital… pretty sure they gave her something to knock her out.”
“Sorry to interrupt, doctor, but Fawn, our other Omega who’s bonded with Lyra, just said the hospital gave her something,” Tanner relayed. “Of course, I will certainly do that, and you’ll loop her in on things since she’s now a patient of Dr. Mann’s? Excellent, tell her to give me an hour or two to make sure Lyra’s okay, then I’ll reach out. I really appreciate this. The last thing we want to do is make the situation worse.” With that, he ended the call in time to grab the oh-shit handle as Pascal practically drifted around a corner before the light turned red.
“What did she say?” I asked, sliding off Zac’s lap so I could buckle in. The last thing anyone needed was for both Lyra and me to get hurt.
Tanner twisted in his seat so he could see us. “She said the best thing is for them to give her something to calm down because she’d be irrational in that state. Dr. Barnett is also reaching out to Dr. Mann and filling her in on everything pertaining to Lyra’s car trauma. She thinks it would be best for all of us to have a session at the house with Dr. Mann so we can learn how to help if something like this happens again. Off-handedly, she mentioned temporarily upping Lyra’s medication.”
All of that sounded like a good plan, but I felt a little wary about upping the medication. I couldn’t say why, but in my gut, I felt like there had to be a better solution.
It didn’t take us long with Pascal driving for us to get to the hospital, toss the keys to the valet, and rush into the ER.
“I don’t fucking care what your hospital policy is, I’m going to see my Omega.” A voice I knew well roared.
Sure enough, there was Eli at the nurses’ station, looking like he was about to breathe fire and burn the poor woman to the ground.
I hurried over to him and slipped between his chest and the desk. “Hello,” I greeted, smiling.
The woman’s stony expression warmed. “Hello.”
“I’m so sorry my Alpha is yelling at you, but something happened to our pack’s other Omega, and he’s not taking it well,” I explained.
“Other Omega…” The woman repeated before her eyes went wide. “Oh my God, you’re that pack.”
“Guilty,” I admitted with a grin. “Would you please be able to tell us what happened to her? She was with her bodyguards, and they were the ones to bring her over.”
“Oh, you mean those guys?” the nurse asked, pointing to the two men dressed in suits, looking rather disheveled.
Before I could duck out from between Eli and the desk, Zac charged over to the men and clocked one of them right in the jaw. “This is what you call keeping her safe?” Zac thundered.
Hospital security made a beeline for Zac, but the bodyguard waved them off. “It’s fine, I deserved that.”
“Damn right, you deserved it and a whole hell of a lot more,” Zac threatened, but Tanner grabbed his arm and hauled him back.
“Enough, Zac, this isn’t important right now,” Tanner snapped. “Do you want to see Lyra or end up in jail?”
This seemed to convince my papa bear to let the matter drop and be led back to our group.
“Your Omega is sedated and in our Mental Health ward. She was uncontrollable when they brought her in. If you would like to see her, then you’ll need to go to the fifth floor and deal with them, not me,” the nurse explained.
“Thank you. We’ll be getting out of your hair now,” I assured the woman and tugged Eli after me.
It was a bit of a maze to find the Mental Health ward, but when we finally did, they had us all fill out patient connection sheets since we weren’t officially bonded yet. At the moment, I was the only one who could speak on Lyra’s behalf for her medical care, which was daunting as fuck. When they finally were willing to let us see her, they were only going to let three of us go, but I managed to convince them it would be best if we were all there. My heart broke when I saw her lying there in that bed, eyes red, a bruise on her cheek, and her wrist wrapped in soft constraints.
“Hello, I’m Dr. Putner, and I’m overseeing Lyra’s care,” an older gentleman said, introducing himself.
“Are the restraints necessary?” Pascal asked, running a hand down her arm.
“No, I’ll see that those get removed. When she was brought in, I was afraid she’d hurt herself the way she was fighting everyone. I’m sure once she wakes, she’ll be completely rational,” Dr Putner assured us as he directed the nurse with him to remove the restraints. “I believe Lyra suffered a severe panic attack due to a past trauma. The men who brought her in said she tried to jump out of the car, and when he pulled the door closed, it smacked her face, which led to the bruise. I don’t see any other physical injuries, though. Once she’s awake and I can talk to her, I don’t see the need to keep her here longer than necessary. Can you tell me if she’s on any medication?”
“Yeah, I took pictures of the bottles,” Eli said, offering his phone.
“Thank you,” Dr. Putner murmured, jotting down the information. “And does she have a local therapist? I see these were filled out of state?”
“Ironically enough, this happened just as she got out of a session with her new therapist,” Tanner answered. “Dr. Mann is her name.”
“Wonderful. These are all good things and make it even easier for me to discharge her once I feel she’s back on her feet,” Dr. Putner approved. “For now, we’ll just wait until she wakes up.”
Finally free of her restraints, I curled up in bed with Lyra, needing to know she was okay. The panic I’d experienced opened my eyes to the battle that had been going on in Lyra’s life. Yes, that was an extreme situation, but to actually feel what a person was dealing with was a whole different level of understanding.
I dozed beside my angel as the guys turned on the television and flipped through the channels. Something caught my eye as the news channel sped past. “Wait, go back,” I urged, sitting up.
An image of Lyra and I kissing from the other day was splashed along the screen as a reporter talked. “It has been discovered that Lyra Clark is not only the sole heir to her family’s fortune but has also survived a suicide attempt by her mother. While investigating the accident that led to Mrs. Clark’s death, it was discovered there was a suicide note left on the kitchen table at their home. In this note, it was clear Lyra’s mother planned to kill them both that night and by some miracle, Lyra’s life was spared.”
“No,” Lyra sobbed. “No, no, it can’t be true. My mother would never try to kill me. She loved me.”
My angel had woken up only to learn the truth about her mother’s accident. Heartbroken, she hid in my arms as I tried to soothe her. A second later, the entire pack surrounded her, trying to do everything they could to hold her together as this truth threatened to shatter her.
“I will find out who’s feeding these vultures information, and then I’m going to burn it all to the ground,” Eli vowed.
To be continued in Yes Now Yes Forever