“It’s not. We’re here on a carbon monoxide call. Two women are being taken to Summerlin Medical Center. They were found in the basement doing laundry. It looks like your landlord didn’t have proper ventilation down there and a generator was being run,” Sterling says calmly, and I’m glad we’re both on the same page.
This place is a death trap. It doesn’t matter how goddamn tired I am from this shift, there’s no way I’ll get a single minute of rest knowing that she’s living here.
“But my apartment is safe?”
“No. You don’t have a front door. You’re coming to stay with us,” I tell her and I swear there’s almost an edge of an Alpha bark to it. I just can’t leave her here. There’s no fucking way.
“I don’t have a front door?” she says with an arch of her brow.
Sterling fills the doorframe next to me, his hand on my shoulder.
“At least come stay with us until we make sure the building is safe, and we get the door fixed.”
Hailey seems more than confused by the recent series of events, but as her cat walks into the bathroom, squeezing between Sterling like we’re irrelevant, I know what I need todo. It’s almost like a little Hayes-shaped devil is on my shoulder telling me what to say.
“If there was carbon monoxide in your apartment, it would only take a matter of minutes to affect a small cat,” I say.
I know, I’m playing fucking dirty bringing up the cat. But as she looks down at the cat and back up at us, she nods.
“Okay. Give me a few minutes to get dressed and grab the essentials. Can you pack all of Smokey’s stuff?” she asks.
“Yes. I’ll go finish the sweep. We’ll have Hayes come and get you. Our shift ends soon,” Sterling says, giving one last lingering glance to where Hailey stands in the shower before leaving the room.
I stand there like a fucking idiot. It’s like my feet are glued to the tiles.
“Nate?” Hailey says softly.
“Yeah?” I say and she curls a finger at me to come closer.
I do, and she sighs softly when I approach. “I’m going to go with you, alright? Everything’s fine.”
“I’ve never…Fuck. I broke protocol running up here,” I say as I look at her.
She grabs my gloved hand with her wet one. “Hey. I’m okay. Smokey is okay, and I really freaking hope the women who were in the laundry room are okay. Sterling tested the air in my apartment. It’s fine. You’re going to go do your job while I get dressed and pack, and Hayes is going to take me to your place until we know it’s safe for me to come back.”
I give her an incredulous look, cause there’s no fucking way she’s coming back to this shithole. Not after she made me feel true fear for the first time.
She’s ours, and having her in our space will just prove that even more. She might think she’ll be coming back here, but we’re going to make our house so irresistible she’ll never want to leave.
“Nate, sweetie. Seriously, I’m fine.” I grin at the term of endearment, and she smiles back. “Go do your job. I’ll see you in a little bit, okay?”
She tugs on my hand, and I lean down, the shower curtain shifting as I press a peck against her lips. When I pull back, I can’t help but to glance down.
Fuck, her body is perfect.
“No peeking or else you’ll never get back to work,” she says, shielding herself with the curtain again.
“Hayes will be here any minute. You’ll call me immediately if you feel off in any way,” I tell her and she nods.
“I promise,” she says, and it’s with great fucking willpower I’m able to walk out of her apartment and finish my shift.
Luckily, it was restricted to the basement. But it still doesn’t put me at ease. No, I won’t feel a single moment of peace until she’s safely tucked away in our house where nothing can hurt her.
It’s then that I turn to Sterling, who’s been bossing everyone around for the last hour.
“We’ll need to take her Omega shopping,” I tell him.
“Tomorrow. After we’ve gotten much needed rest, and she settles into the house.”
