“Hey, baby, how’s it going?” Kane purrs in my ear. I grit my teeth at the relief that sweeps through me.
“What are you doing?” I ask quietly. “I can’t believe you missed a game. Do you know how fucking serious this is?”
“Oooh, I love it when you swear. It gives me tingles all over.”
“Kane!”
There’s a pause before he sighs. “I’m at the hospital. I’m sick.” He coughs, but it sounds so fake that not even a kid would believe him.
“What!?” I shoot up from the bench, still falling for it, because there’s a sliver of a chance he’s telling the truth. “What the hell? Which one?”
Ares looks at me questioningly, but I shake my head.
“I’ll only tell you if you promise you’ll come and see me,” he hums.
“Kane, stop fucking around and tell me where you are.”
The phone goes dead the second he says the name, and panic tears through me.
“What’s going on?” Ares asks as I slap the phone back into his hand.
“I don’t know, but I have to go.”
“Am I coming with you?”
“I get the feeling I’ve got to do this myself.”
“I’m right here if you need me,” Ares says, waving his phone, and I nod as I take off.
Timber
My heart explodes with panic even though my common sense tells me Kane is fine.
It’s suspicious enough that the second I burst into the hospital and run to the desk, the receptionist tells me what ward Kane’s in without asking my name.
With each footstep pounding on the linoleum floor, I grow more frantic. What if he’s had an accident? What if Ollie has been hurt? What if they’re both so ill that there’s no saving them?
I’m already so sleep-deprived that I’m taking all my messy thoughts as fact. By the time I reach the room and fling open the door, I can’t fucking breathe because I’m so scared that I might have lost him.
“Kane!” I shout as I jump into the room. There’s a curtained area on the far left with a slit in the center. I’d recognize the back of Kane’s head anywhere, so I bolt toward it. I whip the curtain back, and shock chokes me.
Because in the hospital bed across from where Kane sits is Ollie, dressed in a hospital gown, with the blanket pulled up to her waist.
“Yo,” she says, waving one hand, but my alpha side takes over the second I see my omega is hurt. A snarl rips from me as I fling my arms around her, dragging her to my chest, shaking as my panic flips into overdrive.
“What happened?” I gasp. “Why are you here?”
“Oh my God, it wassotragic. You are not going tobelievewhat happened.”
My brow furrows because it doesn’t sound like Ollie. Her voice is deeper, and there’s something about her body that’s off.
I pull back, clutching her upper arms. She still looks like Ollie, but the way she grins isn’t quite the same.
She bursts out laughing as I drop my hands and lean back in shock. I spin to Kane, who is smiling in an annoyingly relaxed way for someone who is supposed to be sick.
“What’s going on?” I ask between breaths.
“It’s nice to know if we’re ever in danger, you’ll go for Ollie first,” Kane says.
