Page 16 of Ensnaring Their Rabbit

The voice was right about one thing, I was sick. I had no idea what my supposed mates had to do with it though. Or what the voice wanted me to do about it. Even if I managed to escape, which, considering I couldn’t stand, seemed unlikely, I had no idea how to find Riven and Reeve without getting all three of us killed.

“Chill out, voice. I need a nap.” But I shouldn’t need a nap. I just woke up. Still, the idea of sleeping seemed perfect. I wrapped the blanket around me, shivering against the sudden chill that wasn’t there before.

The voice was still yelling, telling me not to go to sleep, but I ignored it and closed my eyes.

* * *

“What the fuck is happening to him?”

“If you give me some space, sir, I’ll see what I can figure out.”

“His buyer is supposed to come this evening. Why is he like this?”

“Again, I’m not sure. Let me examine him, and maybe I’ll get some answers.”

I tried to open my eyes but they were too heavy. I felt hands on me, moving me this way and that, something wrapped around my arm. There was a flare of panic, but I couldn’t move enough to do anything about it. What was going on?

The voices kept yelling, but I tuned them out. They had nothing to do with me. It was too exhausting to worry about them, when just staying awake was taking all my effort.

“He’s burning up.” Me? I did feel pretty hot. Damp like I was covered in sweat. Why was I shivering though? Should I be shivering when I felt this hot?

“Is he going through heat again? Does that mean the pregnancy didn’t take?” one of the voices asked. He seemed annoyed, impatient. Like I was inconveniencing him. I couldn’t even be happy about it though, because my body felt like it was on fire. A whimper escaped me without my consent.

“No, he’s not going through heat again,” the closer voice answered. “His hole is dry and tight.”

Eww, gross. How did he know this? There were hands everywhere, but it was hard to make out individual sensations with this pain.

“Then what? Even if he’s pregnant, it shouldn’t be making him do this, right?”

Pregnant? What the fuck were they talking about?

“No. It’s still too early to determine that, sir, even if you told the buyer otherwise.”

“So then what the fuck is happening? You need to fix it, Rotham!”

The person touching me sighed. “I’m trying.”

Just then a new voice entered the room. He was panting like he ran here. “Warden! The Balthazar twins are puking their guts out all over their cell. The one started convulsing like he was having withdrawals.”

“That’s not possible. Neither of them ever tested positive for drugs.”

Balthazar? Twins? Were they talking about Reeve and Riven? I tried to open my eyes, tried to focus. Were they sick too?

The man who had been touching me stopped. He felt further away, like he was standing. “You said the Balthazars? These were the inmates that took the omega through heat?”

“Yeah,” someone confirmed. Fuck, it was them. My heart pounded in my chest, and that voice that had been growing in the back of my mind all but screamed. Demanding I get my shit together and find our sick mates so I could take care of them. Thanks voice, so fucking helpful. How was I supposed to do that when I didn’t have the strength to open my eyes let alone fight my way out of this room, find the alphas, and then care for them. This voice was really getting on my fucking nerves.

“Hmmm.” The guy, who I was assuming was some kind of doctor, replied. Hmm? What kind of answer was hmm?

Clearly I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a shitty answer, because the other guy, the one I was pretty sure was in charge, snapped, “What do you mean, hmm?”

“I can’t say for sure. But I’ve done some research on shifters and fated mates. There is some research regarding a sickness that can occur when fated mates meet each other but don’t complete the bond before separating. According to what I read the longer they are apart the worse it becomes, until eventually they die.”

What. The. Fuck?

There was a lot of commotion then, but it was hard to pay attention to it. It was like once I heard the words out loud, my body and mind decided it was fact and shut down. There was no point fighting the inevitable if the only way to survive it was to…what…get the twins to complete the bond?

Even as the voice in my head, and the omega inside me, seemed satisfied with that explanation and was ready to wait and see what happened, there was a part of me that was still thinking rationally and thought that was total bullshit. So if I didn’t accept the bond with two complete strangers I was gonna just die? I always thought that the Goddess’ gifts were a little twisted, but this was fucked up even for her. I couldn’t deny the connection I felt to the alphas, but did I really want to tie my life to them? How would that even work? It was a pretty safe bet that the warden wasn’t gonna let me just live with them in their cell. Especially as he and someone else were currently arguing about a buyer and what to tell them. Still, being claimed by Reeve and Riven had to be better than dying. At least it should buy us some time to come up with a plan.

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