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I knew I needed to, but I couldn’t let him go. My Omega wasn’t ready, scared that releasing him would mean losing him all over again and I couldn’t do that, even if it was only the feeling of it. I wasn’t leaving him. Ever. No.
Gentle hands lifted under my arms, pulling me away. “Come on, baby girl.”
“No,” I struggled against it, but Jace held me fast, pinning me to his body.
“Sloane, listen to me, baby. It’s me. It’s Jace.” His voice sounded like I felt. Blasted and empty. “Ash is alive. He’s alive, baby girl. The paramedics are going to check him and take him to the hospital. I’m not taking you away from him.”
A sob broke out of me, all that pain and fear cracking through. Another warm body pressed against mine. Roman. Offering his strength and presence. When I looked up at him, there were tears in his eyes, too.
“If—” I swallowed. “If—”
“Don’t even think about it,” Jace said. “I can’t either. But it didn’t happen. He’s safe. He’s here. You’re okay and he’s okay. We’re all okay.”
“No we’re not.”
“No,” he finally said, leaning his head against mine. “We’re not.”
One ambulance was gone and another arrived. Will’s body must have gone with the first one. Thinking about him brought on a whole new wave of pain and tears. Will was a good person and was such a good friend to Ash…
And to me.
I should have kept in contact with him more. Should have been a better friend with so many people after I left.
Ash climbed into the ambulance, and Gabriel watched as they closed the doors. “Wait,” I called. “Wait, he can’t go.Please.”
Gabriel was with us in seconds. “We’re going to follow him, little one. We’re going right where he is. I just have to give the details about where to take Asher’s bike, but they’re going to take you to the car.”
“We can’t leave him.” My thoughts weren’t rational, and I couldn’t stop them. “If we can’t see him, then—”
“I know,” Gabe said, crushing me to him. “I know. I’m sorry, little one. We’re going to be right behind him. I promise.” The break in his voice wasn’t imagined.
Roman scooped me up again, laying me across the back seat so my head could rest in his lap. I turned into him, letting him stroke my hair as we drove. Nothing felt right. Everything felt wrong. I needed closeness and darkness and warmth. I needed my Alpha. The world was too big and too dangerous, and I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t feel that again.
You could never go back from understanding this kind of fear.
Roman purred the whole drive, and Jace occasionally reached back to touch me. But our bonds told me the truth. They were in just as much pain as I was. The reality of it was too close and too harsh.
And this would happen.
Not today, and not like this, but it would happen. Eventually. Not for a very long time, I hoped. But all of us would suffer pain unlike anything else when it did. My only relief was that it wasn’tnow.
I walked into the hospital on my own two feet, but they still touched me to keep me steady. A doctor stood outside the room where they’d put Ash, talking to a man. “You’ll have to get it later, detective,” the doctor said. “He’s not speaking.”
Gabriel stepped around us. “Can I help you, detective? We’re his pack.”
The cop looked us over, noting my tears and the general gray pall we all had. “We’re not sure what happened, and I’d like to talk to your packmate to see what he remembers and if he can help us find who it was. They didn’t stick around.” He didn’t have to clarify how he felt about that.
“Here,” Gabe said, pulling out his wallet and giving his card to the detective. “If you’ll put your number on the back of that, we’ll call you as soon as he’s ready to talk to you.”
The man nodded and scribbled his number down. “The sooner the better,” he added quietly. “Whether whoever hit the other driver was drunk or asleep at the wheel, we don’t want them driving around.”
“Of course.”
Ash sat on the end of the hospital bed, still staring into the middle distance, seemingly unresponsive. He obeyed the doctors when they told him to move, but nothing more. I wanted to touch him, but being near him was enough. For now.
I sat in the chair by the door, knees pulled up to my chest, watching him and trying not to give in to the instinct to wrap myself around him like armor so I could protect him and never let him go.
The doctor stepped outside, and the others went with him. I stayed where I was, but could hear.
