I felt Chuck’s sigh more than heard it and then his gentle fingers brushed over my cheek, making me aware for the first time that my entire head was no longer wrapped in gauze.
“There was a fire at the theater while you were doing something with the costumes,” Chuck explained quietly. “You were hit on the head when a beam fell in during the collapse.”
My brain seemed to be packed full of cotton as I struggled to comprehend the meaning behind the words. Why would I have been at a theater? My silence didn’t seem to bother Chuck as he carefully held another mouthful of the stew against my lips and waited for me to open my mouth.
“It’s okay of you don’t remember,” Chuck murmured, his voice reassuringly calm. “The doctor is pretty sure that everything will come back to you. You just need to give your brain time to heal.”
“I don’t remember much,” I admitted after swallowing. “Where am I?”
The pause before Chuck answered was brief but heavy. “You’re in Texas,” he said quietly. “The combined protection services – human law enforcement and Council of Packs- were concerned about your safety. The organization I run helps Omegas with various problems, so it was decided that you might be safer recovering here than in the hospital in the city.”
I knew there had to be more to the story – after all, the police don’t just randomly ship people off to other states when there are perfectly capable medical facilities nearby – but, honestly, my brain was too tired to worry about it. Even more honestly, having Chuck with me was comforting, so I decided to just shove that little detail away for the time being. “Tired.”
“I know you are,” Chuck agreed, stroking his hand lightly over my head, smoothing my hair back. “The doctor is coming in a bit to check your eyes, but why don’t you rest a bit more in the meantime?”
When I felt the brush of air moving around me, I tried to grab in the direction of Chuck’s arm but got tangled in the light blanket. “Stay?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured me, his voice low and soothing as he gently untangled my arm and squeezed my hand before tucking it back under the blanket. “I’m just going to hand the dirty dishes out to the nurse. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Mmky,” I yawned more than spoke as Chuck’s presence wrapped around me, relaxing me even further. I barely even registered when Chuck settled down next to my bed, his warmth radiating out to blanket me as I lost my tenuous grip on consciousness and let the darkness reclaim me.
ChapterFive
Chuck
The knock on the door was barely more than a brush of fingertips across wood, but my hearing was better than most and Kade knew I would hear it. Glancing over to where Julian lay dead to the world, his chest rising and falling lightly with his breaths, I rose from the chair I’d occupied almost constantly since learning the identity of the injured Omega that the Brigade had shuttled into the compound.
I stretched, ignoring the complaints from my cramping muscles and slipped out through the door, leaving it cracked open in case Julian needed me.
“What?”
Kade rolled his eyes at my less than professional greeting, then jerked his head down the hall in the direction of my office. “You’ve got company,” he said. “The doc wants to talk to you before he goes in, Jem needs you to approve the weekly treatment schedule for the newbies, and Toothless is refusing to leave your office until he talks to you about the perimeter.”
I had to hold back a chuckle at Kade’s less than complimentary nickname for the Böxenwolf Brigade soldier who headed the security complement that had arrived with Julian. The young werewolf’s real name was Roger Honstein, but he went by Fang. “What about the perimeter?”
Kade shrugged casually, but the tightness around his eyes showed his irritation. “Couldn’t tell you. He says it’s need to know and that I don’t.”
Oh, hell. That was a pissing contest that I was absolutely not going to put up with. “You need to know what I say you need to know,” I huffed. “Let’s go.” I hesitated for a split second, not wanting to leave Julian alone. His discomfort had decreased significantly over the past two days, but still.
“I can sit with Julian,” Kade offered quickly, catching my indecision.
“No, I want to settle this bullshit with you and Fang. Julian will be okay for a few minutes,” I said, holding back a sigh. I knew damn well I was being overprotective but knowing it and changing it were two entirely different things. “Let’s get this over with.”
My irritation at being called away from Julian to do my job was irrational, but that didn’t matter as my legs ate up the distance down the hall and when I shoved my office door open with a little too much force, it rebounded against the wall with a resounding crash, making the three men inside jump.
Behind me, I heard Kade snicker.
“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asked, his wide eyes darting between me and his husband behind me.
Shit. Intimidating other Alphas might be heavy-handed but scaring an Omega with an abuse history made me a total dick.
“Nothing,” I muttered, trying to draw in a calming breath and forcing a smile for the Omega who had completed his training with our program and decided to stay on as a counselor. “Sorry about that, Jeremy. I, ah, don’t always know my own strength,” I apologized weakly, ignoring the cough behind me that I knew was Kade covering a laugh. Bastard. “I know we’re supposed to go over the treatment schedule, but would you mind if I read it over and get back to you later?”
“Oh! Of course,” Jeremy agreed promptly, hopping to his feet and placing a neat stack of files on top of the stacks already covering my desk. He headed for the door with a friendly smile. “I’ll just check in at the end of the day?”
“Sounds good,” I agreed, turning to face the doctor next. “Could you excuse us for a moment? If you could wait in the hall, I’ll be right with you.”
“Certainly.” The elderly doctor’s bushy eyebrows twitched, but he rose stiffly from his chair, his knees cracking as he did. “Take your time.”
