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Thane denies every possibility because he knows—like we all do—that Riley deserves to be treated like a queen. The way we would treat her if she were ours.
Thane stiffens, but before he can protest, the door swings open on squeaky hinges. A stout Beta nurse comes in with a clipboard full of paperwork. She clicks her pen and fixes her gaze on Thane. “I see you’ve calmed down, Mr. Woods,” she says cheerfully.
Thane lets out a muted growl but obediently stays seated on the bed.
“I need to talk to you about Riley’s points of contact.”
“What do you mean?” Fox asks, a baffled look on his face. “We’re her points of contact. Miles was registered as her Alpha and everything. The enforcement authorities took care of all that. There’s no one else to contact.”
“Well, yes, we’ve received notice of that registration,” the nurse says, eyes sweeping over the paperwork in her hand. “But you haven’t actually bonded with her, so that makes the medical privacy laws a little trickier. As an unbonded Omega, we need to inform her next of kin, which would be her surviving Alpha fathers. Have you contacted them about her condition yet? If not, we will have to do it.”
There’s a beat of silence, then suddenly, four raging Alphas turn on the poor nurse. A growl rips through my chest until my blood feels like it’s vibrating inside my veins.
“Fuck, no!” Fox explodes. “Those bastards don’t get to know anything about Riley. Do you understand me? They aren’t her family, not now, not ever. I will tear them to pieces if you bring them in here, and your little emergency room won’t be able to put them back together.”
“Absolutely not,” echoes Thane. He leaps up from the chair, and I grab his arm to keep him from pouncing on the nurse. “They didn’t protect her as a young girl, so they don’t get to be here now. End of story.” Every word has so much Alpha power behind it that my stomach flips, and my knees shake. Levi stands there and growls, his pupils wide. I’m taking deep breaths, trying to control myself, but I’m not succeeding.
I don’t care where Riley ends up, whether it’s with our pack or someone else’s. Neither of those bastards will ever come near her again. At least so long as she doesn’t want it. They didn’t believe her when she needed help. Hell, by the looks of things, they didn’t take care of her enough to start her on proper cervus treatment. If I have anything to say about it, they will never be in her life again.
The nurse looks at all of us, unaffected by our posturing, and shakes her head. “Alphas. You’re all the same.” She sighs. “It’s hospital policy, but… I’ll hold off calling them until she wakes up. But if she wants them contacted—”
“She won’t,” bites out Levi, cracking his knuckles. “Erase them from her file. Hell, just make a brand-new file.”
“If she wants them contacted,” the nurse repeats slowly, “then we will do so at that time. Now calm down or you’ll never get out of this room.” She rolls her eyes and goes back through the door, slamming it shut behind her.
“Look at us,” mumbles Levi, running his hand through sweaty hair. “We’re a mess. Let’s face it, we all want Riley. We want her to be our Omega. There’s no decision to be made. We’ll tell her as soon as she wakes up.”
“Not all of us want her,” Fox says, glaring at Thane. “It needs to be unanimous. So how about it, Thane? Are you going to accept what we already know? Or you going to keep fighting the inevitable.”
Thane takes a shaky breath and sits back down on the hospital bed. “She’s going to die,” says Thane softly, twisting the knife still lodged deeply in my chest. I clench my teeth but say nothing as he swipes a hand over his gaunt face and continues. “If we take her on, we will watch her suffer for the rest of her life. Is that what you want? Is that the kind of life you want for our pack?”
“Yes,” says Fox, throwing his hands up in the air. “That’s exactly what I want if it means we get her. If it means we canhelp her.”
Thane hangs his head, and I wonder if he’s going to deny her here and now, when her diagnosis is so fresh. Maybe it would be better that way. We don’t want to give her any more hope only for Thane to finally say no.
“I need more time,” he whispers after a moment. “Just give me a little more time, and I’ll make my decision.”
Disappointment floods me, and Thane visibly flinches as he feels it through the bonds. He knows what he wants, deep down inside, but he won’t accept it or take that responsibility. He’s so worried about our future happiness that he’s ignoring his own present needs, and in turn, making us all miserable.
“Thane, man,” says Fox, shaking his head. “We’ve got to make a decision. You can’t keep dragging this out.”
“I know!” snaps Thane, anger sparking in him for the first time since we arrived. It isn’t much, but it’s still better than the depressed daze we found him in earlier. “I know what’s at risk. I know I need to just make a decision and get on with it. But I can’t.” His face twists in an agonized expression.
“All right, Thane,” I say with a long sigh. “You can have a few more days, but that’s it. We need to make a decision, for Riley’s sake. She needs to be bonded to a pack, whether that’s ours… or another.”
He nods, and we settle back into silence, waiting for any news about Riley.
Come on, sweetheart,I think.Keep fightingand I promise, I’ll do what I can to take care of you for the rest of your life. Even if that means letting you go.
TWENTY-FOUR
—
T H A N E
The walls are white.The floor is gray. The coffee is terrible.
God, I hate hospital waiting rooms. No wonder my patients are so cranky by the time they get to me.
