On the fourth ring, Megan finally answers, her voice full of sleep. “Marcus? What’s wrong?”
The words catch in my throat. All at once, the proprietary need to be the only one near Cole sweeps through me like a wildfire. My body trembles with the force of it.
“Marcus? Did you butt dial me at four in the morning?” There’s humor mixed with her irritation, and it’s enough to unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth.
“No,” I say roughly.
Then I blow out a breath and feel the words take shape on my tongue. They’ve been the ones all three of us have wanted to hearfor over a week now, but they feel so small at the moment. They don’t convey the dread I felt from him or the quiet sobbing still coming from his room.
“Did something happen?”
I just say them. “He’s awake.”
There’s shuffling on her side of the call and then something hitting the ground. I don’t say a word, knowing she’s going to Charlotte and waking her up.
“Megs?” Charlotte’s sleepiness is a whisper in my chest. “Why are you scared?”
Shit, she must be feeling the web of emotions happening in the communal bond and not realize what she’s feeling. Of course she wouldn’t. She had less than a day of feeling him like this before everything happened. We’ve slowly adjusted to feeling each other, but it’s never as vibrant as the Omega. And with her tired and confused right now? Yeah, of course she’d assume it’s Megan that’s scared.
“Not scared,” Megan says. Then, louder, “Marcus, say it again.”
It’s even harder to say them this time. Confusion weaves through the bond, and I can’t for the life of me figure out if it’s Charlotte’s or Cole’s.
“Lottie, he’s awake,” I croak out finally.
There’s a rush of excitement followed almost immediately by trepidation. Neither replace the confusion. It must be Cole’s, then.
“Have you talked? What does he remember?”
The confusion morphs back to that soul-wrenching dread, and I have to breathe through the near-feral need to rush back into that room and bury him in my scent until it goes away. Charlotte sucks in a breath as she must feel it, too. His dread and confusion and my entire mess. I feel like I’ve run the gamut of emotions in the last fifteen minutes.
“Marcus? What’s wrong?” It’s Megan this time.
“We haven’t really talked, no. I got the nurse and she’s running through whatever she’s supposed to.”
“Can we come?” Charlotte asks. “Or do you want more time?”
It’ll take a while until they make it here.You have time to talk even if you say yes,I tell myself. And I can’t be that much of a selfish asshole. She’s been so torn up this entire week. And Megan deserves to see him awake and not dying in the ER before all of the hospital staff descends soon.
“Yeah, of course you can come.”
“Take the time you need,” Megan says. “Text us when you’re ready. We’ll wait outside the room.”
Bless that woman.
“Oh, of course,” Charlotte softly agrees.
Jessica steps into the hallway, her gaze catching on me as she slides the glass door closed. Instead of continuing to the computer, she turns down the hall and into the storage room, returning with a large plastic cup and straw. She wordlessly fills it from the communal ice maker and water fountain, then walks back toward Cole. Except her eyes stay focused on me, and she walks right past Cole’s door.
“Okay, I’ll let you know. The nurse needs me.”
Megan hangs up before me. I let my hand drop to my side.
“He’s alert and stable,” Jessica says, “but very emotional. It’s a pretty typical reaction. The doctors say he’s free to eat but all he asked for was water. You should be the one to give it to him.”
I take the plastic cup from her outstretched hand.
“They’ll be in in another hour to do their full evaluations and coordinate step-down care, but you shouldn’t be disturbed until then. Are your other pack mates coming?”
