Page 91 of The Heat of Us

“Oh Jesus fuck, Hazel!!”

The ground came rushing up so much faster than I expected. Pain burst from my hip. My arms curled around my head — reflex — and asphalt tore into my exposed skin. The sensation of a million little pebbles digging and jabbing into me before it all came to a harsh stop.

I blinked once. Sky. Twice. Remy?

“It was green, wasn’t it? The light?” His face grew hazy above me as my words muddled together. “I was so sure it was green.”

Darkness crept into the edges of my vision before taking over in a rush.

I was still in the same spot when I came to.

“I thought when you faint you end up waking up in hospital or something.” I wasn’t sure if I was meant to move or not so I settled for widening my eyes pointedly at Remy. “Are you just really slow at dialling triple 0?”

Remy’s arms slid beneath me and suddenly I was airborne. I hope I’m not too heavy for him, I mused, because even a minor car accident could not stop my brain from having insecure thoughts.

“Fucking hell, Hazel. How can you joke at a time like this?” He set me down safely on the footpath, gently supporting my head as he seated me leaning against the nearby building.

“Don’t though,” I said softly.

“Don’t what?”

“Call an ambulance. No hospitals.”

Remy shook his head vehemently. “I need to know you’re ok.”

“Ben. And Aleks,” I said simply.

He called Aleks first, eyeing me as if he was still ready to change his mind at any time if I so much as hiccuped wrong. “It’s Remy. Hazel’s been hurt,” he said curtly. “She doesn’t want to go to the hospital. A car clipped her. I know, Aleks. Jesus, if I thought if there was even a chance that it was any worse I wouldn’t have listened to her and called an ambulance, stop yelling at me.” He huffed exasperatedly. I let my bottom lip stick out a little and gave him a tiny shake of my head. Remy groaned, his eyes going to the back of his head. “She really doesn’t want to go to the hospital and she’s doing the sad face thing. I’ll drop a pin to you so you can meet us.”

“I can move, I’ll be ok,” I piped up. “It’s just some scrapes.”

“You also fainted briefly.”

“Briefly. It was only for a second, wasn’t it?”

“I am not moving you,” Remy snapped before turning back to his phone. “I know. I told her, Aleks, don’t worry. You know what, fuck you. You come resist that pouty lip thing she’s doing and then you can talk shit.” He hung up with an agitated tap of his screen.

I fished my phone from my pocket. “Ben will be closer.” I started trying to unlock it, wincing as even the weight of my phone made my arm ache. Remy immediately took it from me, kissing the back of my hand and enfolding it in his.

“Ben. It’s Remy.” He relayed what happened and I swore he was talking with a deeper voice. Alphas. Unlike Aleks, Ben was much more focused on whether I’d hit my head or not and exactly how long I’d been out for.

Eventually, another location pin was promised and Remy turned to me when the call was over. “First Aleks with his dad and now this. Maybe we should all just share our locations with each other if this sort of shit is going to keep happening,” he grumbled.

Why did I not hate the thought of that? “You wanna stalk me, Remy?” I fluttered my lashes at him.

“Always, buttercup.” He grinned.

“Noooooo,” I moaned.

Remy looked amused by how much I hated his latest nickname. “Not even after some light head trauma, huh?”

Unlike Aleks, Ben wasn’t working and was only a couple of blocks away. My whole body suffused with warmth when I caught sight of him. Safe.

A low whine escaped me when he knelt down and immediately cradled my head into the curve of his neck. The first cosy sip of hot peppermint tea, hugged between palms and inhaling the soft aroma from the rising steam. All my trapped tension slowly ebbed out of me.

“You’re going to be ok,” Ben promised me and I believed him. His fingers found my pulse, some of the tightness in his jaw loosening when he found it strong and steady.

Then he turned to Remy and the two alphas made eye contact for the first time. The dominant energies between them clashed, sword against sword, no one gaining the upper hand.

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