Page 76 of Frenzy
What about the kids? Would they need bodyguards in their own home? For their trips to school?
Dominic had called Rosa while Courtland was in surgery, to let her know what was going on. He’d also called ahead to the school, Eden Academy, and they were sending down Lycanthropes to collect them and escort them back to the safety of their compound.
But what if the babies suffered while they weren’t with us?
The bed shifted and my head snapped up, and I looked straight into the glorious abyss that was Courtland’s gaze. “Omega.”
I stood, the chair scraping back, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed him. “You’re okay. You’re okay,” I chanted over and over, because despite my bravado, I hadn’t been sure he’d wake up. “Thank fuck you’re awake. Goddess, I love you. Don’t fucking do that to me again, okay?” I swore a few more times, and Courtland laughed, then groaned.
“Harder than that… to kill.”
“You can say that a-fucking-gain, you giant asshole.” I looked over my shoulder at a furious Dominic. “Do you have any idea?” he gasped, like he was in physical pain.
“Come here, Dom.”
Dominic stood his ground, like he was going to refuse, but Courtland quirked an eyebrow and he crumbled. Squeezing in beside me, he kissed our Alpha hard. It was a kiss filled with fear, like he didn’t think he’d get another so it was laced with desperation.
“You guys… having an orgy… without us?” A sweet gasping voice had me whirling around, and tears flowed from my eyes and down my cheeks.
“Bonnie!” Courtland tried to sit up, then groaned with pain.
Dominic slapped him back down. “Are you fucking insane? You had a double knee reconstruction. The goddamn Executioner played with the cartilage of your knees like it was a puzzle.”
He was still muttering about stupid Alphas as he pushed Courtland’s bed over to Bonnie’s, so she was sandwiched between him and a still sleeping Radic. Where she should be. I wanted her home in my bed so I could kiss her and stroke her and love her until I was sure she’d never leave me again. But she needed to be here a little longer. In Doc’s house, but without Doc.
My face fell, but I quickly covered it. Bonnie needed to recover, and this? This would be a huge blow. Bonnie loved Doc, and Doc had loved Bonnie. He’d loved Bonnie so much that when Eldridge had apparently gloated about murdering her to everyone who would listen at the arena, Doc seized the opportunity and avenged his child the best way he knew how.
He was a fucking martyr. The gold standard of Manix. He’d be irreplaceable in this town, and in Bonnie’s heart. But none of that would help Bonnie with the pain in the coming days.
Dominic gave me a worried look, like he wasn’t sure if he should console me or remind me to keep my mouth shut, but I gave him a tight smile. I could keep my shit together for her. At least for a few more hours, until she noticed that her attending doctor wasn’t the person she expected.
Courtland reached out, hooking his fingers around hers. She was attached to oxygen and had a tube in her chest. She’d been too close to dying too, and I wasn’t sure I could have survived without her. Without any of them.
“As soon as you are all better, we are bonding as a Pack. No arguments.”
They all stared at me. Hell, even Radic woke for long enough to stare. I smiled gently at him, walking around to kiss him softly too. “Hey. I was worried about you. You nearly died on me.”
He lifted his arm toward me, cupping my cheek softly. “Seems like a trend.” He was groggy, having nearly exsanguinated by the time Merrick and Murphy had found him. He still didn’t look quite the right color.
“Will you be my Beta, once you’re recovered?”
He smiled, his eyes drifting closed again. “Yes. Always yes,” he said drowsily, until he was asleep. I sat beside him, my fingers twined in his. They were okay. I was okay. That was all that mattered.
It felt a little less okay the following day when Bonnie finally realized that vampires were here taking care of her, and not Doc.
When Dominic told her what had happened, how he’d saved Courtland, the sound that came from her mouth was so tragic I never wanted to hear it again. She wailed endlessly, gasping for breath, and it was the worst thing I’d ever heard. The pain that came out on every sob shattered my heart, even as I held her close to my body and murmured how sorry I was.
On the other side of the coin though was Courtland, when Dominic told him what had happened to Loren. He shut down, his face once again a scary, impenetrable mask that blocked the world out as he hid behind his stone-walled fortress. He was silent for a long while, then asked Dominic for his phone. I wasn’t sure who he called or why, but he seemed more at ease when the call was over.
“They’ll find him and bring him back to us,” was all he said, and that seemed to appease Dominic too.
The day of the coup had been brutal and violent, but this slow aftermath was a different sort of torture. After a few days, when it was time to go home, it was a relief, but also filled me with a fear so strong it made me weak in the knees. What if it wasn’t over?
It was the same reason we’d hesitated on bringing the kids home, even though I missed my cubs furiously. Rosa called every day, sometimes three times a day, to make sure we knew they were okay. Eden Academy, the sanctuary, gave them a house, and Stacey—the doctor who’d helped discover what was wrong with Bonnie—had moved in with her Pack to help take care of the smaller kids. Apparently, her Omega wolf girlfriend had instantly become den mother, and she had an incredibly calming effect on the shifter kids, including the cubs. So they were fine, happy even, and while I was stressed at being separated, I could acknowledge that it was the safest place for them right now.
Unsurprisingly, Radic was moving about the best, now that he’d rested for a good couple of days. Supernatural healing had sped up Bonnie’s injuries too, though she still got easily tired. Courtland was healing slowest, because the shit they’d done to his knees would have crippled a human. The vampire X had some serious skill under that sociopathic exterior, which meant that Courtland could now walk several steps, but not much further without great pain. Still, it was something, and it would get better as time went on.
I could see he hated it though, and that was understandable. He was our Alpha, our protector. Being laid up made him feel like a failure. Sometimes I caught him watching Radic and Bonnie, completely consumed by guilt, especially if they were having a tough day.
