Page 48 of An Alpha’s Guide to Finding the One

She lifts the hand that isn’t strangling my arm, inspecting her nails with a sigh like all of this is just one big inconvenience for her.

“You won’t get away with it.” I hiss. “My alphas know I’m not clumsy, and I would never be careless enough to fall up the stairs.”

Laura shrugs, like it doesn’t matter. “Things happen when your center of gravity has shifted.” She sneers at my belly. “Especially when it’s such a drastic shift.” I watch in real time as her eyes go lifeless, and that terrifies me enough that I shove all the love I can down our pack bond, emphasizing it to each alpha. If I don’t get to tell them in person, I want them to know I love them. “I wish I could say it was a pleasure being your mom, Mags. But that would be a lie.”

She uses her grip on me to pull my arm to my chest, and then she pushes.

I scream, but the momentum of my fall stops abruptly when I crash into a warm body. Two muscular tattooed arms encircle my torso as he absorbs the impact of my body with little effort. Several feral growls ring out around the room, and when I look up, I see Lawson standing behind Laura with a stun gun pointed at her back. I watch the color drain from her face as she whirls around, arms up like she’s getting ready to play the victim.

“She went crazy! I had to stop her from attacking me, and she tripped!” She screeches the explanation and I want to correct her, but my body is shaking too hard to speak. My teeth chatter together, horror and relief overwhelming me to the point of shock.

“Don’t bother, Laura. We heard every word. And so will the judge.” He points to the doorway of a first floor guest room, where Rhys steps out holding his phone that is clearly trained on us. I have no idea when they got here and how I didn’t hear them come in, but my eyes fill with tears because they came.

Laura launches herself at Lawson, screaming obscenities and trying every dirty trick in her book to take him down, but it’s like watching a gnat attack a lamp for all that he moves. I watch as he pins her arms behind her back, pulling out a set of metal handcuffs from his belt. “Laura Ryan, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, assault, and attempted murder.” Lawson marches her down the stairs, reading her rights as they go, and I’m turned around only to be met with Lucky’s horrified expression. There’s worry swimming in his watery eyes, and he places frantic kisses all over my face. “Kitten,” he whispers, clutching my face in a grip that’s almost uncomfortably tight. “I am never leaving your side again.”

At least I think that’s what he says. Everything starts to sound like it’s moving underwater, and then there’s nothing but darkness.

The first thing I hear is the rhythmic sound of beeping. Calm and eerily similar to the last time I woke up feeling like this. Though my throat doesn’t hurt this time, and I count that as a small mercy. “Hey, I think she’s waking up!” Calloused hands cup my cheeks as a forehead presses against mine. “Wake up, angel. We need you to come back to us now.”

My eyes open to a blessedly dim room. Fluorescent lights likely would have aggravated the headache pounding behind my eyes and made me want to go back to sleep. As it is, all four of my alphas are gathered around the hospital bed in various states of disarray. Lawson is perched on the corner of the bed, and it’s his hands and forehead I’m feeling. “What happened?” I croak.

Rhys hands me a small cup of water, and I drink greedily. I catch a whiff of a familiar scent on my arm as I do, and everything hits me with sudden startling clarity as I start to cry.

The alphas rush me, touching any part of me they can reach and murmuring sweet words and reassurances. Lawson moves back, but only enough that he can meet my eyes. “She’s in a holding cell, Lainey. We have the whole attack on video. Between that and the previous restraining order, she won’t be getting out for a very, very long time, if ever. You’re safe now.”

Loud, heart-wrenching sobs leave my body, and all of my alphas cuddle in closer as rumbling purrs hit me from all sides. It’s the best comfort I have ever known, and I know down to my very soul that I’m safe with my pack.

Doctor Mel walks in then, carrying a clipboard and dragging a wheeled machine behind her. “Oh, you’re awake! Excellent. I was just about to order fluids if you didn’t wake up on your own soon.”

My alphas part to let her access my bedside, but they don’t go far. Lucky claims my left side and curls himself onto the bed beside me as he continues to purr. It would be funny if I wasn’t so shaken. Mel pulls a chair up to the side of the bed and sits down, placing two fingers on my wrist to check my pulse. “How are you feeling?”

I shrug. “Physically? Shaky, exhausted, and a little nauseous. Mentally? Well… my egg donor tried to kill me for a payout. So, not great.”

Mel doesn’t laugh, but she does give me a sad smile. “I am so sorry, Lainey. I won’t pretend to understand what you’re going through right now, but I see your pack is here with you and that gives me hope you’ll get through this.”

I nod, not capable of much more right now but wanting to give her some sort of acknowledgment. “Are you okay with me examining you? I would understand your reluctance to let a woman touch you right now, so if you need a male doctor, please feel free to speak up at any time.”

“No!” My heart rate spikes, the monitor going crazy behind me. The thought of anyone but Doctor Mel or my pack touching me right now is too much. In a calmer tone, I continue. “I want you to do it, please. And then I want to go home.”

She nods solemnly. “We will get you out of here as soon as we can, Lainey. Just need to make sure you and babies are healthy first and then I think being in your nest with your alphas will be the best thing for you right now.”

About an hour later, Mel gives me a clean bill of health and leaves to get the discharge paperwork started so we can go home. Seeing the babies on the portable ultrasound machine she had dragged in set off another round of tears, and this time it wasn’t just mine. All four alphas looked misty-eyed when those heartbeats finally sounded through the small room.

As soon as the door clicks shut behind Mel, my alphas converge on me again. Wyatt is the first to speak. “As soon as I felt your fear through the bond, I left the gym and called Lawson and Rhys. Law picked us up and used the lights and sirens to get us home faster.”

“I had already turned around to come back home by the time I felt the first tendrils of your panic through the bond, and I had this feeling… I came in through the back door and as soon as I heard a voice that wasn’t yours I texted the guys and told them to come in silently and use the back staircase.”

I just stare at them blankly. “There’s a back staircase?”

Rhys huffs, dragging his thumb along the back of my hand. I’m not sure when he laced our fingers together, but I’m grateful for the contact. “There is, and we’ll show you later if you want. After at least twelve interrupted hours in your nest.”

Lucky beams. “Pack cuddle puddle?”

Lawson and Rhys both sigh, the sounds so eerily similar you would think they were the brothers. “Yeah.” Lawson concedes. “Pack cuddle puddle.”

The two weeks after my attack are a blur. Most of it is spent in my nest with one or more of my alphas, but by the end of the second week I’m starting to go a little stir crazy and they can tell. “You up for a field trip today, darlin’?” Rhys pokes his head into the bathroom, eyes catching on my nude form. The bubbles disappeared a while ago, so now it’s just me, some tepid water, and the planet on my torso.

As soon as the words leave his mouth, I sit up, excitement zinging through me. Wyatt got me in with a therapist a couple of days after we got home from the hospital and I’m seeing her once a week, but overall I’m feeling okay. I’m not sure I’ll ever come to terms with my own mother trying to kill me, but she didn’t succeed, and now she’s serving a life sentence in a women’s penitentiary on the other side of the state.