Page 47 of Knot As It Seems

Before I can answer her, they come crashing in behind me not ten seconds later. I guess we’re gathering shit from the police station at a later time or simply replacing it.

“Showers for all of you. You smell like a riotous blend of people and bad decisions. Down this hall here, first door on the left. There’s an open bay shower and I’ll get some clothing delivered that you can borrow.”

“Get lots of situations like this, I presume?” Anderson tries to joke, but it falls completely flat as the beta stands, nearly meeting us inch for inch in height but with a hell of a lot more backbone.

“Sir, I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation. You are all being investigated for omega neglect, and if you’re found wanting, it could result in relocation for your omega and placement in the protection program where you’ll never see her again until she decides, after extensive therapy, that she wants you. This is not the situation for you to be making jokes.

“It is rare we find an omega in the state Fable came to us in, and she has how many of you? Seven?” She shakes her head and drops her glasses to the desk, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I will be shocked if your omega ever functions the way her biology wants her to. We are only allowing you guys in here at this time because you’re bonded and she won’t be able to survive off of donor blood for too long, and because her omega is trying to go into heat. Her bites—”

None of us stick around for another accusation we deserve because if Fable’s going into heat, she needs us and she needs usnow.

Nothing else matters but taking care of her the way only we can provide as her alphas.

We race to the showers and strip before the door to the room even shuts, dumping bodywash by the handful onto our bodies and scrubbing with way too many washcloths because the faster we get clean, the faster we’re allowed to find Fable.

Finally, we all throw on the robes that do a good enough job of covering us up, feet in hospital issued nonslip socks, and a different nurse walks us up to another wing of the building that immediately feels different than the sterile outer parts where we entered.

Here there are warmer paints on the walls, a more comfortable temperature, and suites that look more like small apartments as we’re led past them.

The nurse stops in front of a door that has a green indicator flipped open at the top of the door and a medical chart with Fable’s last name in a black plastic holder. “Before we enter your omega’s room, I need you all to be aware of Fable’s condition. She shielded from us initially when she found her way to us and it took a lot of trial and error for us to treat her successfully. I’m assuming you all know the significance of that ability manifesting. She has been deeply traumatized and exposed to living conditions that would break an omega with less constitution. She was unconscious until this morning, her system too overwhelmed to function.

“You alphas have an incredible omega on your hands, and I hope that I don’t need to actually tell you that she is going to need an incredibly committed group of I’m guessing, oh, about seven alphas or so, to help her heal and become the omega she deserves to become.

“There are no cameras in this room for your privacy, but if anything happens, there is a large red button right next to the bed you can press to call for medical help should you need it. We will require you to check in every two to three hours by picking up the telephone on the bedside table and pressingone one one. If you go even two minutes past that three-hour allotment, we will be coming into that room whether you want us to or not.

“Keep your voices low and your hands gentle, and do not be the reason that resilient omega in there ends up even more broken than she already is.”

The nurse knocks a few times on the door and announces her presence, and I crowd as close to her as I reasonably can so I can get to my omega sooner.

Fable is sweating something fierce, curled up in a ball and grimacing, shaking, pale as the sheets she’s lying on. A whimper escapes her lips, and my alpha is already on the move, pumping out pheromones and urging me across the room.

Fable’s eyes snap open, clarity entering them as she takes us all in, immediately reaching her hand out to invite us into her makeshift nest.

The nurse maintains a barrier between us and our omega though, holding all of us off with a raised hand. For as powerful as that hits us, you’d think it was a concrete wall. It hurts knowing somebody that’s been caring for my mate doesn’t think it’s safe to leave us alone with her. “Fable, are you comfortable being alone with your alphas? They’re here to see you and look after you for a little bit. If you don’t want them here, then we will escort them out immediately and ease you in any other way we can.”

Another whine slips out of Fable’s throat as she says my name, making my knees buckle. The nurse quietly sees herself out as I crawl into the bed and pull my girl to me, breathing her in while trying to gauge her injuries.

Her face is still pretty swollen, but other than that, she looks like she’s been well cared for here.

“It hurts, Alpha. It’s bad. I don’t think it’s ever hurt this bad before.”

She trembles in my arms, this stunning, angel of an omega, clinging to me like I’m the only way she’ll ever make it through this.

If I have anything to say about it, I will be.

Fuck my entire pack right now. Not one of them kept Moon from taking her away, when several of them were aware he wanted to take her somewhere alone, which was completely out of character. Fuck all of them because I was the only one not home at the time, the only one that truly couldn’t have stopped it.

My pack is all being pulled to this omega, same as me, but it doesn’t matter. She’s fucking mine right now.

A growl bursts out of me, warning all of them to keep their fucking distance if they know what’s good for them. At the same time, I’m soothing my omega, removing all barriers between us so I can help her.

When she’s lying down underneath me, face still twisted in pain, I lean down to kiss my bite, only to be mortified when I find all of her bites once more open and oozing blood, looking like raw meat.

“Infected,” I mumble, heart breaking further.

I don’t know what she did internally to shred the connection we have, but it’s in tatters. The level of distress she must have been experiencing to get to a place where that was even possible is just about the worst thing an omega could be subjected to, and now I want to tell myself to fuck off too. Surely I could have found a way to ease her pain before it got to this point. I could have kept Moon away from her or something, anything that would have ended with us in any other situation.

“Please, Alpha.”