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Shae yawned and stretched, showing off their lithe body. Instead of heating my blood as it usually did, it highlighted how much weight they’d lost in the five days they’d been captive. Miles met my eyes, and we didn’t need words or a bond to agree that our Beta would need lots of extra calories and extra attention until they were back to their typical healthy self. I reminded myself that I also needed to find some time to tell Miles about what I’d done to the Alpha. What he needed to watch out for since the piece of shit had gotten away. Shae’s voice broke me from the mounting list of priorities in my head.
“Nest?”
We all nodded and made our way up the stairs, with various stops for pajamas, so we didn’t make Miles uncomfortable. Being in the nest together was about just that: being together. It wasn’t about sex this time. Our Omega still wasn’t bonded, and he couldn’t feel any of the love or reassurances flowing within the pack. He needed as many of us as possible in his sanctuary, our scents all mingling together, and the instinctual comfort that brought.
Once in the nest, we each took turns in the bathroom with me going last. After brushing my teeth, I positioned the satin bonnet I had grabbed from my room. As I went to turn off the light, I had a moment of worry over whether Miles might be feeling uncomfortable. That was quickly squashed when I walked back into the main area of the nest.
Miles and Ethan had sandwiched Shae between them. One of Miles' giant legs was between Shae’s as he fitted snugly against their back, an arm pillowed beneath his head and the other wrapped tightly around their waist. Ethan lay facing Shae, their foreheads nearly touching as they whispered to each other. Their hands were together, tracing the curves of each other’s fingers, palms, and wrists. My heart ached seeing the three of them like that. A sweet ache born from happiness at the sight but also a deep, almost painful one at the reminder that Trevor was still very much on the outside of any relationship with Ethan. That my bond with Theo was threadbare. The knowledge that this could all have been ripped from us so easily.
“Come to bed, Jade. Stop staring.”
Shae’s teasing voice was countered by a rush of affection in our bond, and I smiled.
“As you wish, Sunshine.”
I moved into the nest, careful not to disturb the blankets and pillows around the edges of the giant mattress. Settling behind Ethan, I mirrored Miles' position but tucked my face into the back of Ethan’s neck and pressed a kiss there. Once we all had settled in and were relaxed, a quiet, soothing Omega purr curled around us. Though I couldn’t feel Ethan through a bond, that sound moved through me, and I knew it was meant to soothe, full of contentment and love. I squeezed my Omega gently and let that beautiful purr lull me into a deep sleep.
CHAPTER FIVE
JADE
Despite how peaceful I had felt as I went to sleep, I woke with a deep sense of dread and loss. I shut down my side of the bond with Shae, so I wouldn’t alarm them before I carefully reached out to Trevor. I could tell he was sleeping, so I blocked my connection with him as well. Carefully, I extracted myself from the pile of limbs that we’d become in the night and crept out to the hall, closing the door to the nest behind me.
I took a few steadying breaths and leaned against the wall before I reached for my bond with Theo. In the place where his steady presence, his love, his devotion had anchored me since the day I’d bonded him, there was just… nothing. Despair threatened to drown me, but I clung to the knowledge that if something had happened to him, Trevor wouldn’t still be sleeping. I would know. Somehow, the drug that bastard had given him had severed our bond. I dragged myself down to my room and threw on sweats and stumbled out of the house and to my car. I needed to see Theo.
When I arrived at the hospital it was barely seven in the morning. I walked onto the ward and was striding toward his room when one of the nurses tried to stop me from going any further. I snarled, ready to knock her out, no matter how well-meaning she was, when the nurse who’d helped Shae and Theo the first day hustled over. She explained that she would take any heat for letting me pass, but that since the whole pack had stayed two nights before, she doubted anyone would care. I nodded my thanks to the nurse and nearly ran the rest of the way to the room.
I wasn’t planning on waking Trevor or Theo; I just needed to see them, to watch the slow rise and fall of their chests, and know they were alright. Opening the door carefully so I wouldn’t make any noise, I peeked in and saw Trevor passed out on the bed nearest the door, snoring softly. Theo was in his bed, too, but he was sitting up and looking out the window. The relief that poured through me at seeing him awake and unharmed nearly brought me to my knees, and my eyes swam with tears. I closed the door behind me and Theo looked at me then, a sad smile on his face.
“I can’t feel you anymore, gorgeous, and I fucking hate it.”
I nodded, biting my lip to keep from sobbing. I moved quickly over to him and climbed into his lap. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed my face there as he did the same, wrapping his arms around my waist. We sat like that for what felt like a long while just breathing each other in as I let the silent tears fall. His normally subtle bayberry and oak scent had strengthened to the point that anyone meeting him would assume he was an Alpha and always had been. The chemical taint had all but disappeared, as well. Once my tears had stopped, he lifted his head and pressed a kiss to my forehead, then held my face between his hands as he brushed the evidence of my tears away with his thumbs. I heard him swallow, hard, before he spoke.
“We can fix this, right? You can claim me again?”
“I will bite you right now if you want me to, love. You are mine. My first bond, my first love. Of course, I want to feel you through a bond again, but…” I struggled to force the words out through everything I was feeling. “…if whatever they gave you means we can’t bond, I don’t care. I will always want you. I love you.”
I felt a shudder move through his body at my words. His fingers tightened briefly around my jaw before he tilted his head and claimed my mouth. My breasts pressed into his chest and my hips drove down until I felt his hard length against my core. We devoured each other, reassuring ourselves with every sweep of our lips and tongues, every touch of our hands, and the way we ground into each other that nothing would change between us: we were pack. We were forever.
“I love you, too.”
“And you know that I love you both, but it’s way too early for all these feelings.”
I looked over to see Trevor smirking at us as he stretched. The joy he was throwing at me from his side of the bond contradicted his words. Before everything that had happened with that psychotic Omega, Trevor had been the biggest cinnamon roll out of all of us. He’d been the most thoughtful and open and communicative out of all of us, but ever since then he kept that side of himself closed off. Lately, the old Trevor was showing up more and more and I would never stop being grateful for that.
He stood and did that effortless, messy, man-bun thing he did with his dark blond waves then slipped out of the room, promising to bring us back shitty hospital coffee. Theo gripped my waist a little more firmly to bring my attention back to him.
“Do we tell the doctors about the bond breaking?”
“I don’t think it will hurt to tell them that. I’m more worried about there being evidence of you becoming an Alpha. I plan on asking Ethan to wipe your records from all the hospital servers as soon as you are discharged. I will not allow you to become some medical experiment. I won’t let that happen to Cat or any of the other girls either, unless they want to.”
“Always taking care of everyone.”
“Fucking right I do.”
He chuckled and kissed me again before he got out of bed and went to the bathroom to clean up. Sometime in the night, they’d decided he didn’t need to be connected to a banana bag anymore and that he’d be allowed to shower, although he still had to have a waterproof covering over the IV cannula until it was taken out. I couldn’t wait to get him out of there. A clatter at the door drew my attention as Trevor pushed it open with his elbow on the handle. He had coffees in a cardboard tray in one hand, his phone to his ear, and a scowl on his face.
“I’ll leave the hospital now and come in. Get everything together for me to look over and meet me in my office.”
