The second they were gone, the room suddenly felt too big, too empty. Miss Eloise was here with me, but I couldn’t feel her presence. I dragged my chair to the side of her bed and laid my hand over hers.
“Please wake up.” Fresh tears filled my eyes. If only I’d acted the first time she came into the kitchen with the same gift. If only I’d caught her as she fell. “I can’t imagine the world without you in it. You have taught me so much, given me tons of love, and I need to repay you. Come back to me, Miss Eloise.”
I lowered my head to rest on the edge of the mattress and quietly sobbed.
CHAPTER FOUR - Ozias
Jason was off his game the rest of our shift. Hell, I wasn’t myself either. That hot blonde Omega had thrown both of us for a loop. I couldn’t get her out of my head.
Good thing we only had two other calls the rest of the day, and they were minor ones. One senior who had fallen in his driveway and a kid who sprained his arm trying to do a trick on his snowboard. His mom was more terrified than the boy was.
By the time we came to the end of our shift and were filling out our reports, Jason was bursting out of his skin. “Nellie says Lyla’s still here.”
I shot him a look and tapped his unfinished paperwork. “Concentrate, bro.”
Not that I’d say it out loud, but my stomach quivered with the thought of Lyla still at the hospital. With visiting hours over, it meant she got special permission to stay the night. Usually that was reserved for family, but as I’d heard all day from various folks, Eloise Koch was family to everyone in Fond du Lac. If Lyla hadn’t stayed, one of the nurses would have likely camped out in the room.
“We should go see how she’s doing.” Jason hadn’t put down his phone yet. He had the biggest heart and was quick thinking, but when he focused on something, it was like trying to tear a steak bone away from a bulldog. Right now, his bone was Lyla.
“You mean Eloise or the Omega?” I knew who he meant. Signing my final report, I slipped it into the ‘in’ box on our supervisor’s desk.
“Well, both.” Jason finally looked up from his phone with an intense glimmer in his eyes. “You can’t tell me you don’t think Lyla’s smoking hot?”
With her long legs, perfect tits, and, “She had on an ugly Christmas sweater that said ‘Santa’s favorite.’”
Jason laughed and nodded. “She’s a riot. She has a whole line of crazy sweaters and leggings. Plus she started adding socks and slippers to her line this year, but she doesn’t handmake those.” He held up his phone with an image of Lyla… Oh fuck, she was gorgeous. “Look. She does her own modeling, because, hell yes.”
I took his phone and pointed to his reports. “Let me look while you finish those.”
He was more than happy to do so, going on about how talented and beautiful she was. Lyla was most certainly that. The pic showed her in a blue sweater with a Christmas tree on it with blinking lights. The ugly sweater trend was never my thing, but it wasn’t the top I was looking at. Her whole face was lit up. She smiled in a flirty manner at the camera. Flawless makeup, color in her cheeks, and a sparkle in her pretty blue eyes. Joy beamed out of that image and into me, and fuck, I could only think what it would be like to be with a woman who had such a bright soul.
I’d never met an Omega that pulled me to her after barely meeting her. My family was the traditional type, all properly Greek even though they’ve lived in Chicago for decades. I’d dated three Omegas since I turned twenty, and all of them were chosen by my parents. They were of Greek heritage, from old rich families, and all were quiet and family oriented Omegas, ready to have babies. Not one of them made a lasting impression on me.
It wasn’t as if I was rebelling against my family, even if my father threatened to disown me if I didn’t marry someone they approved of. I loved kids and wanted a family. My parents were happy together, but it was my grandparents who were my ideal. Their love for one another shone in everything they did, and as I was the eldest grandchild, I was doted upon. I wanted what theyhad. While I would marry a traditional Greek Omega to get my family’s approval—I would never disappoint my grandparents—she would have to be one that I loved. Yet finding love had proved much harder than I’d ever anticipated.
I flipped through the rest of Lyla’s sweater collection and clicked on a section of her non-festive fashions. Whimsical tea dresses seemed to be another thing she liked. Classical yet with a modern and more colorful flair. She was coy and playful in these shots, and those long legs stretching out from under the skirts… Fuck.
“Done.” Jason stood and tossed his reports onto our supervisor’s desk. I handed him back his phone. “I want to get her something to eat. Get her some fashion mags from the shop too.”
“The cafeteria and gift shop are closed.”
“Shit. Right.” Jason grunted. We met in college and trained together to be paramedics. Everyone expected the two Alphas in the class to butt heads, but we surprised everyone by making a pack bond. We complemented each other perfectly. He led with his instinct, running hot, and I was the cool-headed one using my medical experience to help save lives.
And because he pushed forward with his heart, it led him to trouble with women. He tended to come on too strong. Yet if he was seriously interested in Lyla, I would do what a best friend does.
“I bet we can get some fruit and snacks from where the nurses keep food for the patients if they need it at night. And Julie’s in tonight over in the children’s wing. She always has at least one of those magazines with her.”
Jason grinned and hugged me. “You’re brilliant, bro. I’ll run over and find Julie. You get the snacks. I’ll meet you outside of Eloise’s room.”
He took off before I could say anything. I went to the fridge in the nurses’ breakroom and grabbed an apple and an orange, a pair of pudding cups, and three packs of peanut butter crackers. Not an elegant meal, but it would help Lyla get through a long night. She especially needed something to eat after the shock she suffered.
I went to emergency, smiling and nodding to the people I knew, and stopped outside of Eloise’s room. Inside, the machines beeped steadily and Eloise remained still on the bed. The lights were off, but the dim glow from the monitors and her phone bathed Lyla’s face in a soft light.
She sat in a chair that had her back mostly to the open door and had one knee curled under her with the other leg bent up against her chest. There was a cot set up to the one side, but it looked undisturbed.
Lyla’s golden blonde locks were swept into a messy bun. Her neck was exposed, making her seem even taller than she was. The Omega was a delicate, almost fragile-looking, beauty. Something in me pushed me toward her, urging me to wrap my arms around her, and kiss just behind her ear as I nuzzled her.
I didn’t move. I stayed where I was, staring at her like some sort of stalker, and reminded myself that family had to come first. I loved them too much to fail them in finding a Greek Omega they approved of, and I couldn’t fail in that since I’d already disappointed them in not becoming a doctor. Only my father had chastised me about my choices in my career, but the look on my family’s faces when I told them I wanted to be a paramedic had gutted me. The only thing that kept me on track was my grandparents encouraging me to do what made me happy. I loved them all the more for it.
