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“You killed him?” He asks, voice as steady as his hands as he tilts her head to get a better look at the bruise blooming on her temple.
“Of course,” I reply.
“Good.”
Luca hurries back from upstairs and Logan takes the bag from him, riffling through it until he finds a small penlight. “Luca, can you get an ice pack from the freezer, please?” I watch as he carefully tugs one of Sadie’s eyelids open, then the other, shining the light in both to check her pupil dilation.
Then he sits back on his heels, and shrugs even though I can tell he’s anything but calm. “Near as I can tell, she’s got a concussion and bruising, nothing too serious.” His jaw tics as he says it, though. Any injury on our omega is fucking serious. She could have a paper cut and I’m pretty sure we’d all rush to get her a bandaid and kiss it better.
“Why is she still out?” Luca asks, sitting next to me. I reach to take the ice pack from him, but he scowls and presses it to Sadie’s head himself. “Shouldn’t she be awake by now?”
Logan nods. “Typically, yes.”
“I gave her a contradictory command,” I mutter, staring down at her. “Can that hurt her?”
Logan frowns and looks up at me, reaching out to lace his hand through Sadie’s limp one. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, the asshole who tried to take her alpha barked at her to stop fighting and she just… went fucking limp in his arms, pliant.” The sight damn near killed me. “He almost had her in the van, so I barked at her to fight. Is that… should I not have done that? Could that be why…”
I trail off. Logan narrows his green eyes at me, considering. “I’ve never heard of something like that resulting in traumatic brain injuries, Dox. I think what we’re seeing now is only because of the knock she took to the head.”
It only makes me feel moderately better.
I pull her closer, bending to brush my lips over her forehead.
I’ve fucked up so royally with our omega.
I never should have locked her in her room last night. It was a real dick alpha move, one that I regretted as soon as I did it. But a part of me loved knowing she was safely locked away, that she couldn’t disappear on us.
What she doesn’t know is that I went back and unlocked the door thirty minutes later. My guilt wouldn’t let me sleep until I opened that door and made sure she was actually okay.
She’d been in bed, asleep, tear tracks on her cheeks.
It was tempting to climb in next to her, to sooth her with my alpha purr, to hold her until she realized that she’s fucking important to us. Too important for her to be running off alone late at night.
I didn’t do that, though.
I did, however, sleep in the hallway in front of her door. Just in case.
By the time she got up this morning, I’d cleared the bedding away, and she had no fucking clue I’m so obsessed with her, with keeping her safe… keeping her in general, that I slept on the floor.
I knew it was also a mistake to leave things as they were this morning, but I didn’t really have a choice. There was an attack on one of our businesses last night while I was curled on the floor in front of our omega’s door.
We had to deal with it first thing this morning.
I never got the chance to tell her we’re working so fucking hard to make sure she’s safe. To make sure shit like what just happened doesn’t keep happening to her simply because of the pack she’s bonded to.
Sadie shifts in my arms, letting out a soft huff. A cross between a groan and a sob. The three of us hold our breaths, waiting until her pretty silver eyes flicker open, only for them to shut again with a wince.
A low whine pulls from her chest, one that has Logan leaping to his feet to turn off all the lights in the room, while Luca grabs a blanket and drapes it over he and I haul her up into a sitting position, until she’s straddling my hips, her chest flush to mine, head nuzzled into my neck.
I stroke a hand over her hair and down her spine. My purr rumbles to life in my chest, momentarily stunning me, because I’ve never purred for anyone in my fucking life. It’s rusty with disuse, but Sadie doesn’t seem to mind, melting against me like hot wax, her nose brushing against my neck as she takes deep breaths of my scent.
My alpha fucking loves this. Loves having our omega nestled into me, loves that she’s taking comfort from me, that the heavy weight of my palm against the back of her neck soothes her.
I should have known it wouldn’t last.
“Dox,” Luca says quietly from the seat next to us, sounding pained. “Can I hold her? My alpha is… going crazy right now. She’s keeping the bond shut.”
