Page 104 of Sincerely, Pack Pucked
And she was pregnant and sick because I’d left her alone.
“Get out of here,” Jensen instructed. “There’s a flight you can catch. You’ll be home in three hours. She's got a member of your security team with her, Spencer, keeping an eye on her, so she'll be fine until you get back, but you do need to get back as soon as possible.”
“Of course. We’ll go now.” I clapped a hand on Jensen’s shoulder and turned, looking at Percy. “Shit. The others. Coach only approved two of us to leave.”
“Well, it sucks they take so long, then, doesn’t it?”
I sagged. They wouldn’t like this, but…they’d get over it. “Fine. I’ll go get our bags.”
He nodded, his face drawn.
We needed to get home.
As we turned to leave, I saw Saint coming out of the locker room. His adoring fans immediately yanked him away, having been watching for him at the stairs. He rolled his eyes at me, but let them have their fun. He and Jasper needed to know what was going on, but they’d have to make do with a text from the airport.
***
The drive home was tense, to say the least. We hardly spoke. Percy was busy researching separation sickness on his phone, telling me the information as he read it, which I couldn’t say I loved. Hearing about all the ways my inability to properly care for Mable could affect her made my stomach tighten..
As we pulled up outside the apartment building, Bear was waiting for us.
“How is she?” I asked, handing him the keys. He would take the car down to the parking garage while we prioritized going to see our omega.
“Not wonderful, but Spencer’s with her. He's convinced her to drink some fluids but had no luck getting her to eat yet.”
Guilt gnawed at me. When I was sick, Mable was there for me, taking care of me, tending to my every need. And now that she was sick, I hadn’t even been in the same fucking state as her. I was away, playing a stupid fucking hockey game.
You’re the head of the pack and you’re letting your omega down. Whatever happens is on you. Mable will never trust you after this.
I was going to throw up, but there was no time for that. I’d been a lousy alpha for too long already. I needed to focus on Mable, so I shut everything else out.
“Hey,” I greeted Spencer, who was standing at the kitchen island, mixing up a protein shake.
“She just fell asleep, but I doubt she's going to stay asleep for long. There's no fever, but she has a killer headache. She's drunk some fluids but no food, so I'm going to try a protein shake next.Maybe you guys will have some more luck when it comes to feeding her.”
“Thank you.” I stepped forward and took the protein shake from him.
He merely shrugged. “I was just doing my job, but tell me that she isnotgoing to be left on her own again?”
I shook my head. “No, we’ll figure something out. Never again.”
Spencer nodded, offering a sympathetic smile. “Go see to your omega.”
“Percy, come on. Let’s see if we can get her to eat.”
He nodded, following me toward Mable’s room. The house was so quiet. Mable usually had music playing or was watching some kind of TV. Right now, well, it felt a little too much like a goddamn hospital.
When I gently pushed the door open, Mable was curled up in a bowl in her nest, surrounded by all of her nesting items, as if she was trying to fuse herself with them. She had dark bags under her eyes that hadn't been there twenty-four hours earlier.
When we had left her. WhenIhad left her—all fucking alone.
I nodded at Percy, gesturing with my head for him to go around to the other side of Mable’s nest so we could surround her.
Placing the protein shake on a small table nearby, I focused on creeping into the nest as softly as I could.
“Hey, princess,” I cooed, pulling her into my arms. Her face was red, sweat-drenched hair sticking to her forehead. When I first reached out to touch her, she whimpered and shied away from my touch, but as soon as she registered who it was, she launched herself at me, pressing her face into my neck, grasping on to me so tightly that I was pretty sure I was losing blood flow in some places.
I didn’t care. She could squish me to death if it made her feel better.
