ChapterTwenty-Four
Scott
"How in the world did you manage to tear this wound open?" The nurse hissed at me, rolling her eyes when I shushed her. Harley was still sound asleep, and I didn't want to disturb him. "I swear you haven't even switched position all night."
"Bad dream," I suggested with a one-shoulder shrug. "Is it bad?"
"Well, it's notgood," she shot back with a roll of her eyes. "We're going to need to move sleeping beauty to re-stitch it so it doesn't scar."
I was shaking my head before she finished talking. "Not right now."
This time when she rolled her eyes, she heaved a dramatic sigh. "At least let me redress it before you bleed all over the bed."
I considered her request. I'd woken up on my back with Harley wrapped around my left side and my leg nestled between his. If she helped me remove my shirt, I could roll over onto my side without waking Harley. "Okay. Can youpull it off?"
"Whatever," Brenda grumbled, but I caught the sparkle in her eye that told me that she didn't really mind.
After a few minutes of coordination, the bloody bandage had been removed and replaced with a fresh one. When she held my shirt back up, I just shook my head. Given a choice, I'd much rather be skin to skin with my Omega, and with my shirt off, I was fifty percent closer to making that a reality.
After I was lying flat again, I obediently took the handful of pills she shoved at me and then reclosed my eyes, determined to enjoy every minute of my snuggle time with my Omega.
The next time I woke up, Harley's fingers were tracing gentle patterns on my bare chest and his honey colored eyes were soft.
"Hey, you," I murmured, bending my neck to kiss the top of his head. "Sleep well?"
"I..think so," Harley said hesitantly, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth and biting down. "I had a weird dream."
"A nightmare?" I asked cautiously, unsure how much he remembered.
"It was at first," he admitted. "But I think it ended as a good dream. Kind of."
Harley continued to watch me as though he was waiting for a response, but there was no way I was acknowledging that I'd been with him in it. Much less, telling him that I'd reinjured my wound defending him.
"That's an improvement, right?"
"I guess."
Any further discussion of the dream was put off as an orderly entered, pushing a cart with two trays of food. I was ravenous and it seemed that Harley had recovered his appetite, because by the time we were done, there was nothing but crumbs left on the plates.
~*~
"Run that by me again?" Zade said testily, exhaling sharply.
I sighed. Between the blood loss and the infection from the silver dagger, my recovery was taking longer than I'd expected and my patience was low. "Where did I lose you, Zade?"
"How about the part where you think I should hand Harley's custody over to you because you dreamed that you slayed a monster?"
"You already know that he and I are planning on getting married, Zade. Since I can't actually claim him without him knowing what I am, transferring his custody to me legally is the most logical option."
"Oh, so you think I'm going to just hand a member of my pack - a bought-and-paid-for Omega at that- overto you because you're horny?"
I felt my eyes narrow at his trivialization of the situation, but before I could respond, Levi jumped in. His Omega, it seemed, had had just about enough of Zade's shit.
"What is your problem?" Levi snapped angrily.
"Wh..what?" Blindsided, Zade spun to look down into the flashing blue eyes of the smaller man. "You already know…"
"Oh, that's right," Levi growled, "Iknow. What Iknowis that you are awfully invested in saving Harley from having a relationship with a man who obviously cares about him despite the fact that Harleywantsto be with him." Levi's ears shifted slightly on his head and a drop of blood fell from his lip where the tips of his fangs poked out. "Maybe you need to re-evaluate whether or not you claimed the right damned Omega, Zade!"
