“Make sure you stress the urgency.”
Alec smiled wryly. “Don’t worry, they’ll be there soon.” He knew how to get people to move.
Tim gave Seb a quick but passionate kiss goodbye, and Alec looked away, ignoring the pang of longing that swept over him. He moved past them and out into the corridor and started to make calls.
Tim came out shortly after, bag in hand. “I’ll see you up—”
The front door burst open and Gareth’s voice drifted up the stairs, full of urgency. Tim ran to the stairwell door with Alec hot on his heels.
They peered over the rail to see Gareth with two other shifters from his unit, Keira and Luke, hauling an unconscious, soaking wet, and unnaturally pale Jason up the stairs. His head lolled to one side, and Alec winced at the long gash across his neck that most definitely wasn’t healing.Is he even breathing?
Carrying him like he weighed nothing, they soon reached Tim and Alec. They slowed down a little, but Tim dashed in front of them up the stairs, calling over his shoulder. “I’ll go get everything ready. Keira, I’m going to need your help up there. Alec, get the rest of those people to sprint here.”
It’s as bad as it looks, then.
Gareth nodded in greeting as he passed and Alec returned it. “I’ll be up in a sec. Then I want to know everything.”
“See you in a bit.” They hurried past him, whisking Jason up to Cam’s flat, where hopefully Tim could work a miracle, because Jason seemed about as close to death as you could get without actually dying. Handily, Keira was on the list Tim had given him, so that was one less person to track down.
Alec called the rest of them as he hurried up the stairs.
The door to Cam’s flat stood open, and Tim could be heard inside issuing orders in his commanding doctor’s voice. Alec walked inside, closing the door behind him. Gareth and Luke were in the living room, and now that Alec got a better look at them, their trousers were wet up to the knee and spattered with mud. They stopped talking and turned to face him.
“Alec.”
“Gareth, Luke.” He nodded in greeting. “Where did you find him?” He glanced towards Cam’s bedroom where the others were. “Is he awake? Has he said anything?”
Gareth sighed and gestured for Luke to take a seat. “No, he’s not said anything. He’s been unconscious more or less since we found him.”
Luke cleared his throat. “He said one thing.”
“What was it?” Alec looked between them.
“He said, “Alec.””
“My name?”
“Yeah.” Luke glanced down at his hands. “That was it. But he said it like it was urgent, so I don’t think it was a mistake.”
Gareth took over. “Do you know him?”
“Not to speak to. He’s Mark’s beta, but I’ve never had a conversation with him.”
“So why did he mention you specifically? Unless he meant another Alec? One in his pack, maybe?”
“No.” Alec didn’t believe that for a second. “He’d recognise your scent. If he meant someone else, he’d have said their last name. This must have something to do with Mark.”
“What, though?”
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? “Let’s hope he wakes up soon and can tell us.” He left them to go see for himself.
Cam’s bedroom was a hive of activity. Cam had his sleeves rolled up, tearing Jason’s clothes along the seams and carefully removing them, presumably so Tim could get at his injuries.
Currently, Tim was busy attaching some sort of tubing from Keira’s arm into Jason’s. He made her sit in a chair next to the bed, and Alec watched, half-fascinated, half-disgusted as Keira’s blood flowed down the tube into Jason. So wrong. Tim caught him staring, and whatever expression he wore had Tim rolling his eyes.
“If you want him in any shape to answer questions, then this is what he needs.”
Alec grunted and moved closer to the bed. “How bad is he?”
