The touch of my skin brings Aiden around after a moment.
My husband is in complete shock when he sees two babies in my arms. After a moment of hesitation, I decide not to tell him what happened for now, because at this point I don’t even know how I would describe it.
I hold the babies close, wrapped tightly in the blanket, and the others wrap the unconscious omega and prepare him for transport. About an hour later rescuers reach us with stretchers and we’re all taken to the hospital, since the helicopter can’t land here.
It turns out the omega, Albert Strada, suffered a severe concussion. The brother of the deceased Max Strada, Dimitri, comes to care for the child and immediately shows gentle affection despite grieving his brother. It also turns out that the tiny newborn isn’t premature at all. He’s full term, just petite, weighing 5 pounds, while Bay weighs around 11 pounds and loudly demands to be nursed constantly.
Aiden and I stay in the hospital for two days. Aiden has a broken leg, broken ribs, and a severe concussion. I’m badly bruised, but luckily I have no fractures, so I’m able to care for Bay.
When Albert finally regains full consciousness after two days, I visit him, and I’m stunned when he looks at me with an unrecognizing stare, assuming I’m a nurse. I decide to leave things as they are without explaining who I am.
When I ask the doctor about it, he explains that Albert may have lost memories from the day of the accident and may not remember taking us on that drive at all.
Not wanting to add to his trauma, which is already heavy enough, I decide to leave him in peace. Adding the burden of knowing that two other people were in the car with him, both of whom were injured, and that there was an infant whose life was at risk, does not seem wise.
Two days later we leave the hospital with Bay, but the events of that day haunt my dreams for a long time. I cannot make sense of what happened.
I try everything, searching medical literature, searching the internet, but I find nothing even remotely similar.
It seems this mystery will have to remain unsolved.
10 Years Ago
LAKE
I wake in the night with a crushing sense of dread in my body, something almost yanking at me as if it wants to drag me out of bed.
Fear chokes me, makes my throat painfully tighten, I want to cough, and I turn to the side to look at Aiden who is asleep with his arm draped over my waist.
I slip out of his embrace and sit up.
The unease won’t let me fall back asleep, so I stand, wrap myself in my robe and leave the bedroom.
For some reason I know exactly where I need to go.
I step outside and head toward Bay’s tiny house, immediately spotting his car in the driveway. He must have arrived during the night while everyone was sleeping, but what would he be doing here? He moved into the new house he and Alex bought together.
The tiny house is open.
I walk inside and look around, but I know Bay isn’t here, I need to keep searching, and my gaze drifts to the hatch in the floor. Something pulls me toward it, I can’t fight it, so I drop to my knees, grab the handle, and pull the hatch upward.
I go down the renovated stairs, covered now with elegant non-slip tiles.
The lights are on everywhere, but my eyes fix on one door, the only closed one, the door to the bathroom.
I don’t knock, I don’t call out; the fear inside me has risen too high to wait even a moment, so with one violent tug I open the door, and a scream bursts from my throat.
Bay is lying in the tub, and it is red with blood.
The water fills it almost to the top, my son’s head resting against the edge, his eyes closed, his face deathly pale.
A terrified howl rips out of me.
I rush to the tub, plunge my hand into the water, and grab my son’s arm, pulling it up to see the horrifying wound, the veins slashed not crosswise but lengthwise in the most brutal and effective way.
I’m an omega; I don’t have the strength an alpha has, but right now I am a parent fighting for my child, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do. With a tremendous effort I shove my arms under Bay’s armpits, bracing myself against the back of the tub, and with a wild scream I haul him out of the water.
Bay is very muscular; even at eighteen he is massive, but by some unbelievable miracle I manage.
