Page 3 of Finding the Forward: Part Two
“Hey, Dean, you’re still not feeling great after last night? I can send you in for some scans. At least there’s no game tonight and you have tomorrow off.” Dr. Moser had a worried look on his face.
“If I go home and rest, I should be fine. We can meet the day after tomorrow to see if I still need anything?” Dean offered as he pulled a shirt over his head.
While lies had smells, Dean’s statement wasn’t totally false. Rest made a lot of things better.
“Great. I’ll set up a time. I’ll let Coach know you’re going home. Jonas, are you going with him?” The older alpha doctor looked at Jonas.
If the doctor noticed anything amiss, he had the good sense to not say anything.
Jonas sat on the bench and put on his shoes. “Yes. I already told Coach I’d probably take him home.”
“Grif, you’re going back to practice?” The doctor’s eyebrows rose as Grif continued to dress.
“Um, I feel weird. I’m going home, too,” Grif sputtered, clutching his stomach.
“Okay, I’ll let Coach know.” Dr. Moser shot him a skeptical look. He shrugged and left the locker room.
“While I understand waiting, maybe you should go to the doctor to get those teststoday,” I whispered to Grif, worry coursing through me. Not only could his omega coming out to play impact his career, but it could affecthim.He’d been hiding as a beta for years and that came at a price.
“What does that have to do with what happened?” Grif murmured back, frowning.
“Everything,” I told him.
I’d tried to be supportive of him hiding, but had I crossed the line into complacent?
“What tests?” Jonas shoved his phone in his pocket without looking at it and then closed his locker.
Grif grimaced, grabbing his stuff. “The kind I should get every year and never have.”
“Let’s do that. We’re also going to talk about this.Allthis. You two, whatever happened with Verity, and how we’ll contain everything.” Jonas frowned as he looked at everyone. “AJ, can you come back with us? Or are you going to fill us in as we drop you off at the office? How did you know what’s going on, anyway?”
“I told you, Verity called me.” I glanced at my phone and realized I’d missed several calls from her.
The door to the locker room slammed open hard. “Grif, you better fucking be in here you fucking ding-dong.”
Mercy, Verity’s teenage sister, marched in with a bossy-pants expression on her face, even though she was about six inches shorter than the shortest of us. Like always, her light brown hair was in two neat Dutch braids, secured with scrunchies. She wore a Maimers hoodie, some leggings, and fuzzy boots.
She turned to Grif, scowling, spicy plumy anger wafting off her. “I know you had a fight, and I’m fucking pissed at you. But I need you to walk me off the property right fucking now, because I need to leave and you’re on the fucking list.”
“Mercy, we have a lot going on right now. Where’s your sister?” Jonas slung his bag over his shoulder. “How did you even get in here?”
“You think we don’t know your codes? Cute. Look, you’re clearly leaving. It’s not that hard to walk me out. I can get to her myself.” Her brown eyes narrowed as Dean closed his locker.
“Something’s wrong,” I breathed, recalling the missed calls from Verity, and realizing that Mercy had her bag.
“Ya think? If you fuckers checked your phones, you’d know. I thought she meant something to you. Especially you, Grif.” The young alpha’s hands fisted like she was itching to throw a punch.
Shit.
“I’ll take you. Verity put me on the list. I was supposed to meet her, anyway. Where is she? What happened?” I asked, hoping she hadn’t collapsed or something.
“If something happened to Verity, I’ll go with you.” Grif’s rain scent went sour.
“Not sure she wants to see you after what you did. Do you know how fucking scary that was to watch? She could have gotten hurt.” Mercy glanced at her phone then scowled again. “Comeon.I need to go. Jonas, youshouldfucking care, since all this is because of you fucknuggets.”
Grif strode toward the locker room door, phone in hand, look frantic. “What happened? All I have is an apology text.”
“Seriously? You don’t remember?” Mercy followed in a cloud of anger, skepticism in her voice.
