Page 26 of Free Me

“Hey,” Linus said. “I’m so glad. Let you in.”

“Your sire is pretty persuasive when he wants to be,” Miko told the floor. “Probably all that experience as a constable.”

“Come closer. Need to talk to you. Alone?”

“I’ll be outside,” Tarius said. “If he tries to get up, Miko, you shout for me.”

Miko looked at Tarius, nodded, then dropped his head again. Linus hated that submissiveness, and he hated that when Tarius left, Miko only took a few, tentative steps forward. Despite the distance and his current issues with smelling anything over the antiseptic odor of the hospital, Linus swore a warm, sweet scent began permeating the room. He didn’t care if it was real or just a sense memory; it filled Linus with hope and left him slightly dizzy.

“Everyone kept saying. You were okay.” Linus fumbled for some sort of control so he could sit the bed up higher, but his fingers found nothing. “So glad to see you. Are you hurt? In pain?”

Miko finally raised his head, his dark eyes wide. “Me? I’m still sore but Linus…your leg. I am so fucking sorry.”

“You didn’t do it.”

“We were in that taxi because of me. I might as well have held the scalpel myself.” He blanched. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to bring that up. You need to rest and heal, not worry about me.”

“Can’t help it. At the party…did someone do something? To you?”

“What? No. I mean, at one point we were dancing, and some guy started grinding on me, and I didn’t like it, but you pulled me out of there.” His lips quirked like he wanted to smile but couldn’t remember how. “You made sure I was safe that night.”

“So the guy who was grinding on you. Did he do anything else? Like touch you or anything?”

“I mean, yeah, he touched me while we were dancing but—” His eyes widened. “Shit, Linus, nothing like that. I wasn’t accosted or anything, it was just dancing. Like I said, you got me out of there. We went upstairs to get away from other people for a while. You protected me before anything bad could happen.”

“Good. I’ll always protect you, Miko. I don’t remember the party. Not really. I remember winning the game. Talking aboutthe party, and vaguely dancing, but that’s it. I thought maybe someone hurt you. So that’s why we left together.”

“No one hurt me. The opposite happened.” That smile played on his lips again, before his expression went blank. “We left because I felt my first heat coming on, and you wanted to make sure I got home safely. I wanted you to stay and enjoy your celebration party but you insisted you’d take me, so you called a taxi. And we got in.”

“And we got hit.”

“Yeah.”

Something was still missing from this story, a piece lightly edited out, but Linus couldn’t figure out exactly where. Now that his rage over the idea of Miko being hurt by some faceless stranger was fading away, his physical pain levels were rising. He inhaled deeply, unable to distinguish Miko’s scent this time, but his presence eased the pain a bit, like a cool hand on a feverish forehead. He didn’t understand it but he needed it. Needed something in his pain-addled life to feel good, even if it was temporary.

“Can you come closer?” Linus asked. “I’d love one of your hugs.”

Panic flashed in Miko’s eyes, raising Linus’s internal alarm. “I don’t think I should.”

“Please? I already hurt everywhere. A hug isn’t going to make it worse. Might make it better for a minute.”

“If you’re in a lot of pain, I’m sure the nurse can do something. I’m surprised you aren’t on a morphine drip or something, but I guess since it’s been a few days since the surgery, they might not think you need it, and now I’m really rambling because I’m nervous.”

“Why? You’ve never been nervous with me.”

“It’s just…since my heat, I, um…I guess I’m a little nervous around alphas. Even my friends.”

“Oh. I mean, that makes sense.” Heat. The party. Horror flushed hot through his chest. “Was it me? Did I do something last weekend when you were going into heat? I didn’t force you to go with me, right? Or do something to you in the taxi?”

“No, Linus, stop.” Miko finally approached the bed and grabbed his left hand, careful of the two IV lines. The faintest hint of toasted coconut made it through whatever physical or mental barrier had his sense of smell rebelling against him. His heart raced and a pleasant shiver worked its way down his spine from his neck to his groin. The weird cocktail of medication, trauma, stress, and confusion was absolutely fucking with Linus right now. Giving his body these weird mixed signals. Was he really smelling Miko or just remembering his scent?

Had the accident truly fucked with more than just his leg?

At the moment, Linus didn’t care. He gently turned his hand so they were palm to palm, fingers loosely twined, and a new thrill shot down his arm. A wonderful sensation based solely on touch that battled all the shocks of pain still ricocheting through his body.

“You were amazing that night, I swear on my own life,” Miko said, hoarse, and if he started to cry, Linus wasn’t sure what he’d do. “You did nothing wrong and everything right. I’m not scared of you. I adore you for protecting me. I didn’t…Linus, I need you to focus on recovering from this. You have a concussion and had a serious surgery, and those are not small things to deal with. Don’t focus on me. Focus on you.”

“I can’t help it. Since I woke up, this is the first time I don’t feel completely insane. I don’t feel like the floor fell out from under me and I’m in free-fall. I feel grounded and like I can think.”

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