Page 25 of Torment Me Knot
She blinks. Slow. She takes in the room and her shoulders come up around her ears, chin dropping, whole body pulling inward like she's trying to occupy less space than she already does. Then she nods, just barely, and starts to uncurl.
Aubrey makes a sound. Low, desperate. He rises with her anyway, clumsy and shaking, keeping her tucked against his side.
Ezra takes a half-step forward. “Let me—”
“Easy.” Kev doesn't look at Ezra. He's watching the omegas. “They're responding to Sera.”
I move in slowly, sliding my arm around Espie's waist from the opposite side, taking some of her weight. She tenses, a full-body shudder that travels from her shoulders all the way down, but her feet stay planted. As she rises, Aubrey staggers to his feet, swaying a little.
“That's it. You're doing good. Aubrey, can you walk? Just down the hall. That's all.”
When I start moving, he moves with us, his hand fisted in the back of Espie's gown, his side sealed against hers from hip to shoulder, not a breath of space between them. We shuffle forward together.
Espie eases against my side. Her hair brushes my jaw. Her gardenia soaks into my jacket, into my skin, and my purr starts up low in my chest, instinct getting ahead of me.
The male alphas close around us. Close enough to catch anyone who falls, far enough not to spook the omegas. Protecting without touching: Kev's hands jammed back into his pockets, Lex with his arms crossed over his chest like he's physically holding himself in, Ezra's gaze moving over Aubrey in rapid clinical sweeps, counting, assessing, the only way he has left to touch him. I know. I'm in the same fight.
We inch down the hallway. Kev's oakwood and whiskey stays close enough that my hindbrain keeps trying to classify him as either threat or pack. Lex and Ezra flank Aubrey on the opposite side while I flank Espie, both of us orbiting our omegas with the same rigid vigilance.
The nurse opens the door to the nesting room. Blankets mounded in soft piles, pillows stacked for comfort. Espie locks up. The sound that comes out of her is torn from the deepest part of her. Pure animal terror.
The blankets. Nesting trauma.
I should have known better. I shouldn’t have listened to my instincts. I thought Espie would be different with Aubrey. Should have known better. Should have—
“No no no no—” The words pour out of her in a flood, tearing at my soul. “I'll be good, I promise. I won't do anything you don't want, please alpha, please—”
Aubrey goes rigid. He opens his mouth but nothing comes out. His chest isn't moving.
He's not breathing.
“Get them out!” The roar tears from my throat. Espie lashes out and catches me across the face with her elbow. Pain explodes through my cheekbone. I don't care. “Get them out!”
Kev grabs Espie around the waist, hauling her back from the doorway. She twists in his grip, screaming, beating her fists against his chest.
“I know. I know, I've got you.” Kev's voice is cracked wide open.
Ezra takes Aubrey's face in both hands, tilting his head back, checking his airway. “He's not breathing. Lex, he's not—”
Lex drops to his knees beside them, hands shaking as he presses his fingers to Aubrey's throat. “Come back, Aubrey. I need you to come back. Do you hear me?”
Aubrey's lips are turning blue and he's making a choking sound.
I shove Lex aside and grab my mate's shoulders. “Breathe.” The alpha command tears out of me, scraped raw. “Aubrey, breathe!”
His body jerks. His chest heaves. Air rushes into his lungs in a horrible gasping wheeze, and then he's breathing again, ragged and too fast, and he keens, the sound climbing and climbing until he raises his hands over his head and pulls his hair, and the wail thins out to nothing.
The bark worked. I stare at my hands. The relief hits so fast it nearly takes my legs out, and right behind it, shame. That the first thing my voice ever gave him was an order his body couldn't say no to.
Kev has Espie pinned against his chest. She's stopped fighting, gone limp in his arms, making sounds that are barely sounds at all. Her eyes are open but empty.
“Shit.” Adrian's command snaps through the chaos, directed at the nurses. “Take them to a standard room. Quickly.”
The nurses go ahead and we follow down the hall to another door. Kev carries Espie. I've got my arm around Aubrey's waist, half dragging him, Ezra on his other side with his arm around Aubrey too, Ezra's wrist warm against mine where our arms cross. A nurse opens a door to another room and we filter through into it.
The standard room has nothing soft. Nothing that could be mistaken for a nest. Kev tries to set Espie on the bed.
She whines. High and thin, cracking at the edges, reaching for Aubrey. His head snaps up, and he lurches out of our grip.
