Page 130 of Choosing Their Omega

Cruz is last, but he doesn’t bother telling us to wait for him. I snatch the keys from his bag and race out of the building to grab the car and drive it over to the entrance. We can leave our equipment bags in the locker room. It’s not like we’ll be needing them.

Cruz, Lawson, and Miles hurry out and pile into the car, and I step on the gas.

“I’m on the phone with emergency responders,” Miles says. He’s the one out of all of us who will stay the calmest in a crisis like this, but I can still hear panic threading through his voice. “Do we know where she is?”

“Not exactly,” Cruz says, “but we know the route she’ll take.”

I do some quick calculations in my head as I tear out of the parking lot. “She would’ve been halfway to the arena when she called because she said she didn’t have time to go back and get hair clips, and she doesn’t like to be late to things. That would’ve put her near Third street.”

“She’s near Third, off of Fairfax,” Miles says into the phone.

I feel like I can’t breathe. I’m sure I’m speeding, breaking the speed limit, but I don’t care. The only thing that keeps me from driving too recklessly is the fact that if we get a ticket or into a car crash of our own, I can’t be with Lily. I can’t make sure that she’s okay.

“You—what?” Miles puts one finger in his ear so that he can hear the emergency dispatcher. “Oh my god, thank you. Thank you.”

He turns to the rest of us. “They found her. She was in a car accident like you said. She’s unconscious and they’re on the way to the hospital with her.” He talks to the dispatcher again. “Which hospital?”

Miles gives me the address and I switch lanes, taking a hard left and heading for the hospital as Cruz pulls the address up on his phone and gives me directions. The atmosphere in the car has never been this tense.

She’s unconscious. She’s unconscious.

My mind can’t help but race with the worst-case scenarios. I love my sister dearly and I always will, but it was bad enough when she died, and so quickly, so unexpectedly, barely any time to say goodbye.

Losing Lily would be so much worse than that. And I wouldn’t even get the chance to say goodbye. I feel like throwing up.

I’m shaking. I think the others can tell, but nobody says anything. There’s nothing to say.

Cruz puts his hand on my shoulder and keeps it there, grounding me as we drive.

We pull up to the hospital and park haphazardly in the first spot we can find in the parking structure and pile out, sprinting to the building and through the lobby.

“Where is she?” I blurt out, even though I know the poor woman at reception has no idea who I mean.

Miles pushes up so that he’s next to me and gives the woman the information. She gives us directions and we hurry to stairs. I can’t possibly take the damn elevator right now with all of my energy, crammed in among other people, tapping my foot waiting for it to arrive and then move. The stairs are so much faster.

I sprint up them to the right floor, the others right on my heels, and we hurry down the hall. But when we get there and I try to go farther, I’m stopped by an orderly.

“Sir? Where do you think you’re going?” He frowns up at me.

I’ve got a good six inches on him, and I bet I weigh twice as much as he does. “Get out of my way,” I growl.

The orderly stands firm. “Sir, I need to know who you’re looking for and—”

“I’m here to see my Omega. She needs us. Now get out of my fucking way before I make you.”

“Knox, Knox, hey, buddy, come on.” Lawson yanks me back. Cruz ends up having to help him while Miles talks to the orderly. “If I’m the guy telling you not to fight someone, then you know it’s not a good fight.”

I want to throw them off and storm down the hallway, but then another nurse comes down the hallway and speaks to the orderly and Miles, and Miles turns to us, a look of such relief on his face that my knees nearly buckle.

“We can see her,” he says, and Lawson and Cruz have to hold me back from sprinting.

We’re led by the nurse down the hallway and into a room, where I feel like I almost throw up my heart.

Lily’s lying in a hospital bed, in one of their trademark pale green gowns. I suddenly instantly hate the color. She looks so pale and bruised.

Whoever crashed into her is going to pay. I’m going to rip them limb from limb.

Lily opens her eyes as we enter, conscious but still looking exhausted and a bit woozy. She smiles tiredly. “Hey…”

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