Page 15 of Free Me

“I would never force Miko, and you know it.” Liam rested his forehead against Isa’s chest and sighed. “His choice.”

“His choice.”

“What do we tell Brogan and Mikel?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t tell Mikel what your text said about the bond, and I didn’t see Miko pass the waiting room when he left. I have no idea what his parents know, but we can’t keep this from them.”

“We can if we hide in here and never leave.”

Isa chuckled. “The nurses will chase us out at nine anyway.”

“I know, I’m just being selfish. I don’t want Linus to hurt any more than he’s already going to. If Miko felt something the night of the party, there’s a good chance Linus felt it too.”

“Baby steps. First, Linus needs to wake up. The doctor already warned us he could have temporary memory loss from both the accident and the coma, so we may have time before we need to worry about that. Time for Linus to understand his new reality.”

Liam let out a loud, furious snort. “Our son’s new reality is that we gave the surgeon permission to cut off his leg, Isa. That’s his new reality. He’s going to hate us.”

“Probably. But we’re his parents.” He pressed a gentle kiss to Liam’s forehead. “He’s allowed to hate us if that gives him the energy to heal. We’ll bear it together, like we’ve born everything else together. And we’ll love him to bits for however long it takes.”

“Linus doesn’t deserve this. He should be in class, preparing for finals, not laying there like that and missing part of his body.”

“You’re right. Linus and Miko should have gotten home safely, so Miko could get through his first heat, and then oursons realize they’re bondmates, and they begin planning their future together. But fate fucked us all over. Again.”

“It wasn’t fate, it was that stupid taxi driver running a red light.”

A stupid, reckless driver who’d been released on bail, but who was still facing a host of charges at a future date. The moron was lucky Isa was retired and unable to access his personal records, including his home address—and that the good friends he still had in the constabulary were smart enough to ignore Isa’s requests for the information.

“Consequences will catch up with that driver,” Isa said, the statement as much a fact as a vow of personal vengeance if the justice system didn’t come through with a proper punishment. Not that any judge would order the driver to be strapped down so his own right leg could be surgically removed, leaving him as maimed as his son, but an alpha sire could dream. “You don’t need to waste energy hating him, all right? Let’s focus our energy on Linus.”

“I can do that.” Liam brushed a lock of dark hair off Linus’s forehead. “He’s always been so independent, Isa. Outgoing and active, striving to be the best at whatever he does. So different from Layne and his quiet anxieties. This is going to hurt him.”

“Yes, it will. But he’ll have us. His brothers, his friends, and if the goddess is willing, his bondmate, too. They both just need time.”

Liam sighed and leaned into Isa. “We’ve got all the time in the world to give him.”

I wish that was true, little one. I truly wish it was.

But Isa vowed to give all the time he had to his youngest, to help him push forward and take this new, unexpected life by the wheel and steer toward something wonderful. A future he could thrive in when Isa was no longer there to protect him. Him, his mate, or his other four sons.

Please.

Miko didn’t have a destination in mind when he sneaked past the ICU waiting room, unable to face anyone right now, not after his painful dismissal from Liam. So many unnamable things boiled in Miko’s heart and gut, and they left him fuzzy and off-kilter, and all he knew was he needed fresh air. Fresh air, even cold air, would help, so he walked, following various exit signs until he finally found a door to freedom.

The door opened into one of the many small gardens, withered and brown for winter, the cement paths empty of wanderers, the metal benches lonely and forlorn beneath the gray sky. The entire outside world looked like Miko felt inside after walking away from his best friend and bondmate. But it was for the best.

Right?

A week ago, Miko would have laughed in anyone’s face if they’d suggested he and Linus were bondmates. Growing up, a few of their friends had teased them because of their genders, but they had all seen how close Layne and Peyton were. And when the pair mated, all the jokes had stopped, because no one had ever heard of two pairs of siblings being bondmates. It didn’t matter that Linus and Layne were half-siblings, sharing an omegin but having different sires, just like Peyton and Miko had different sires. It had seemed silly and impossible.

But now…not only possible, but too seriously real.

He sat on one of the cold metal benches, uncaring that he was shivering in the cold without his coat. Leaving it behind in the waiting room had been dumb, but he also hadn’t been thinking clearly. He ought to go inside but found peace in thechilly outside world and its current silence. It was a comfortable silence.

The silences of hospitals were terrifying sometimes, for all the reasons people were trying to reduce noise. Not to upset patients or their families, not to speak too loudly and spread personal information. Trying to walk without shoes squeaking or belts jangling, startled by every little squeal of a gurney’s wheel or ding of an elevator button. The loudest quiet noises in the world happened inside of a hospital.

His phone buzzed with a text alert he ignored. He couldn’t ignore everyone for long or they’d worry, and he’d already worried his family enough. And now they had to spend their precious energy reserves on getting Linus through the next few hours, days, weeks, and months. Not on Miko. Never on Miko.

Miko hadn’t spent his entire life with a guillotine hanging over his head like Peyton, whose body had carried a deadly disease that could kill him at any time—until he was cured, and even that had come with months of illness, memory loss, and anguish. The first time Peyton had looked at Miko with no recognition in his eyes had punched him in the heart. Watching their parents do everything possible to jog Peyton’s memory was like slowly drowning in two inches of water. His eventual recovery was nothing short of a miracle.

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