Page 85 of Knot Just A Fan

“Bri? What’s up, babe?”

Briella stirs but her eyes are screwed shut and her pulse is still fluttery. I keep my finger at her throat to make sure it continues.

“No, it’s Ronan. Briella’s here. She’s passed out. Like a heat-sickness or something.”

“Is she breathing? We’re on our way. Five minutes away! We’ll call an ambulance, you just keep her breathing, Ronan!”

Cami sounds in control but I’m not. “Do you know what the fuck this is? What’s happened to her?”

“Don’t for sure. I would be willing to bet it’s more than heat. It could be the blood toxin. From her mum.”

“Her mum? What?” My head swims with this random statement as I prop Briella against me, feeling her chest rise and fall but her skin is turning pale.

Cami starts spewing words out at me in a rapid-fire release. It sounds like she and Ash are running, feet smacking the pavement. “Her mum took fucking back-alley suppressants that didn’t work, and got pregnant with Briella. Her system rejected them, but they did something to her. She came away with this kind of wasting disease, almost like blood cancer but she couldn’t get a good diagnosis. Only told it would probably kill her, and it did, when Briella was nineteen.”

My God. “And Briella’s got it too?”

“Well, that’s—always been her worry. No signs to date but her heat’s been super weird since she her suppressants stopped working. And she hasn’t been able to be seen by a doctor since. She was waiting for her new job’s benefits to kick in.”

New job—benefits? I haven’t heard of any of this. I feel like I’ve been off the planet for a month. What else have I missed?

The one thing I haven’t is the one I should’ve rectified: this is my fault. If she dies, it’s my fucking fault.

“If this is a total unknown, how will a doctor know how to treat her?”

I can hear the shrug in Cami’s response, and her voice wobble. Only a little. She’s a strong woman, and I love that for Ash. “I have no idea. All I know is she made me promise if anything ever happened, I wouldn’t let a machine keep her alive.”

I hug Briella’s limp form to me. No. This won’t happen.

Why the fuck isn’t Grayson banging down the door? Surely Ash has messaged him. Or maybe he’s on the phone with emergency. Ash likes to pretend he’s a man of the world but his French is severely lacking.

“Just get here fast, I’ll try to get Kyren.”

Cami has no idea what I’m talking about but I hang up and dial Kyren on my phone. I don’t know why I didn’t before.

“Hello? Ronan, is that you?”

“It is, and I don’t have time. I have a friend here—an Omega. Our Omega, Kyren.”

I explain the little I know in a flurry of words. Within seconds Kyren was pumping me with questions. Her weight, her height, timing her pulse, are her eyes open? Yes, they’re fluttering now and then. She spoke a minute ago. She’s breathing fine but her heart’s like a jumpy bird.

He pauses and I can hear his fingers clacking away. He’s at work, on a hospital computer. “Are you still on rut sups?”

Fuck. I forgot I ever told him that. That I didn’t want an Omega, ever. That I wanted to numb myself without becoming some kind of burnt-out addict rock star stereotype. That I would just stay on rut suppressants for ever.

But I get where he’s going.

“They’re stronger by far than any Omega heat suppressant. They’re not made for Omegas. Their systems are much more complex, more delicate. But it might be what she needs to jumpstart her immune response to whatever toxin. That could give us time to get her into A&E where they can treat her vitals and get bloodwork.”

“Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks mate.”

“Anytime. Let me know what happens. I’ll be keeping hope up. When you get her in a hospital, message me which one. I’ve got a colleague who worked at two Paris hospitals. He might be able to speak to someone there.”

“Thanks. And Kyren—thank you. For picking up.”

“Ronan, thank you for calling. Please. Keep calling. I miss you, you little prick.”

I hang up and look around. I scramble on my knees for the nearest of the pills from my smashed suppressant bottle. There’s a small fridge built into the makeup counter stocked with white wine, Champagne, and soda. I take a soda and tilt Briella’s head back and get the pill down her.

---