Page 17 of His Gentle Omega
“Can I see my daddy now?” Pulling his rabbit back to his chest, his small shoulders curled inward.
Becks and I exchanged another silent look, and I fought the urge to stroke a hand over Lucas’s messy mop of hair. “Let me go talk to the doctor and I’ll see if we can make that happen.”
His blue eyes implored me. “You promised.”
Nodding, I stood up. “I did. But hospitals have rules, so I need to ask.”
Lucas wrinkled his nose. “Sometimes rules need to be broken.”
Becks barked out a laugh. “Sometimes they do. Did your daddy tell you that?”
Lucas nodded, keeping his eyes on his swinging feet. He was shrinking back into himself, and it made my heart hurt.
“I’ll be just outside the door, okay?” Lucas nodded that he heard, but he didn’t look at me.
He shouldn’t be alone. He should be sleeping, tucked safely into his bed, not dealing with any of whatever this was. I should ask Carrie to come sit with him, but some protective instinct rose up in me and I didn’t want to get too far away from him.
It was crazy and made absolutely no sense, but it was there, and I wasn’t going to question it too hard.
Meg and Mike met us outside the on-call room. “Lucas wants to see his dad. Will it be okay if we just take a quick look? He needs to see with his own eyes that he’s okay.”
Meg snorted, “He’s far from okay, but I get it. A few minutes won’t hurt, but what’s the plan here, guys?” She stared around our collective group, waiting for one of us to figure out the next step we should take. Her eyes fell on me, and she raised a brow.
Normally, I would be the first one to offer solutions for an abuse case. I had connections and knew all the services available to people. But my mind was blank. Well, not blank. It swirled with thoughts of a blond alpha and his dark-haired son, while my body seemed to have gone completely haywire.
Slick still dripped out of me, and if I didn’t know better I would say I was close to my heat. My skin was too hot and tight, my heart pounded too fast. My blood raced through my veins, and I was overcome with the strongest need to shield Shay and Lucas from…what exactly, I didn’t know. Just to protect them.
Ours, my wolf whispered.
“I’m going to defer to Becks before we decide anything.” Turning to look at the sheriff, I asked, “What exactly does Alpha Law mean?”
“It means the alpha can take his child away from the omega, no questions asked. To get their child back, the omega has to fight the alpha in court. In the past, omegas seldom won these cases, but it’s an old law. Times have changed and omegas have more rights than when the law was made. It’s antiquated, but no one has bothered to nullify it. Probably because most people don’t even realize it exists.”
Becks turned his attention to his deputy. “Run the name Edward Clark in the system, Dallas, Texas. And run Shay’s driver’s license and see what pops up.” He started to hand the license to Mike, but I snatched it from his fingers, took a quick picture of it with my cell phone, then handed it over with a too bright smile. Completely ignoring Becks’ scowling face and raised brow. Deciding he’d rather not deal with whatever nonsense I was up to, Becks turned his attention to Meg. “I assume you documented his injuries?”
“Of course. I’ll forward everything to you with my report.”
Becks nodded, “I’ll need to take his statement when he’s able. The little boy told us some interesting things. He’s got some bruising on his upper arm. I’ll need him to be looked at, everything documented. Alpha Law doesn’t mean an automatic court win anymore, and I want everything documented for his lawyer.”
Meg frowned at the news that we had found bruising on Lucas’s arm. She hated any kind of abuse cases, but kids being abused were harder to deal with. “Bennett, have you gotten ahold of Asher?”
Shaking my head, I pulled out my phone. “Not yet. I wanted to have as many facts as I could before I called and–” glancing at the time on my phone, I winced, “probably wake him up with all this.”
“Let’s see if we can get in touch with Asher.” Meg shoved her hands into the pockets of her white lab coat. “I can keep Shay here a few more hours in the E.R., but then we need to figure out what to do with him. I could admit him, but that complicates things with Lucas. Social services would have to take him, and even a temporary foster hold could cause issues for Shay or Asher getting him back. That little boy–and his dad–have been through enough. If we can avoid bringing in Child Protective Services, it would be better for everyone.”
We all silently agreed, knowing we were skirting protocol. But Asher was a friend and colleague, and this was his family. If we could come up with a better solution that didn’t involve foster care for Lucas, we were all on the same page of doing just that.
My mind was quickly running through the lists of all the services I knew of, and possibilities for how to help these two…strangers. That word didn’t sit well with me at all. They were Asher’s family, and…and…
Fated mates, my wolf huffed, annoyed with me.Not a stranger. Mate. Belongs with us.
Fated mates or not, the man had a mate bond scar plain as day on his neck. He was off-limits no matter what the Goddess thought she was playing at. But I couldn’t stop the pull I felt for Shay and his child. Couldn’t stop the overwhelming need inside me to make sure I did everything in my power to keep them safe.
Just until Asher and Gabe can get home and sort them out.I told myself.It’s what any friend would do. It has nothing else to do with anything. Just being a good neighbor.
The door creaked, breaking me out of my rambling thoughts once more and a small, determined voice broke up our group huddle.
“I want to see my daddy. Right now. You promised, and you shouldn’t break your promises. It’s not nice.”
