Six
Someone was pulling on my arm when I started to wake up again, and for a moment, I was afraid that the guys coming to save me had only been a dream and I was still stuck in hell.
My eyes flew open just in time to see a nurse holding a syringe up to my already bruised arm. I yanked my hand away from her roughly, glaring at her and trying to push down the urge to scratch her eyes out.
Her brows drew together but if she said anything, I couldn’t understand it because she was wearing a mask.
I didn’t know where I was. The room was dim, the only light coming from the hallway and the urge to get to it filled me.
I couldn’t be trapped again. I just couldn’t.
Yanking the tube out of my arm I hissed in pain as the catheter from the IV came out of my already bruised flesh and I tried to get out of the bed.
Hands reached for me and I pushed them away, the air catching in my lungs and making me choke and cough.
As soon as my feet touched the ground, my legs immediately buckled and sent me tumbling down onto the icy, tiled floor.
My mind moved a million miles a minute as I tried in vain to get my legs to cooperate.
I needed to get away from here, I needed—
The scent of sweet kiwis filled my nose as arms wrapped around me and picked me up off of the floor. Then I was face-to-face with Elio and all of the tension in my body melted away.
Somewhere, deep inside of me, I feltsomethingshift and stir in recognition. Then it whispered the wordmine.
The sensation was so foreign to me that I thought I must have been losing my mind.
Betas who heard voices in their heads were crazy—right?
“You’re okay,” Elio said, his lips moving extra slowly so I could keep up. “You’re safe, do you understand?”
I nodded, swallowing hard as my nose continued to pull in drags of his sweet scent. Elio had always smelled good to me, but neverthisgood and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Someone must have said something behind me because Elio’s gaze moved away from mine as he spoke again. “She’s fine, just give her a moment.”
I whirled around to find the room full of strange people in scrubs. Amongst their unfamiliar faces I saw them sprinkled in.
My protectors. My guys. The ones who had pulled me up from the darkness after my world crumbled with Alesso’s death and built it up brick by brick again over the past five years.
Nicolo pushed his way to the front of the group and skidded across the tiled floor on his knees until he was in front of me andI was reminded just how much he looked like his cousin—just with a little less refinement.
Elio’s every emotion was tightly controlled thanks to his years as Alesso’s right-hand man, every emotion and every reaction were planned and measured.
But Nicolo seemed to feel everything all at once, each emotion flashing in procession behind his dark eyes as he cupped my face in his hands and I inhaled the scent of him deeply.
His scent had changed too since the last time I had seen him, like Elio’s scent, Nicolo’s watermelon scent had deepened. Now it smelled like someone had been cutting the fresh fruit on a hot summer day and flashes of warmth filled me as I couldn’t help but lean forward and press my nose just underneath his jaw.
Elio’s hold on me stiffened, but he didn’t stop me.
Then the other two members of Elio’s pack surrounded us, accompanied by their seemingly invigorated scents.
Ranieri’s scent was sweeter than the rest, like a sugared blueberry pie, whereas Dante smelled of sour grapes—the kind that made your lips pucker but still made you want to reach for more.
All four scents together were dizzying as I was lifted back into the bed and the doctors seemed to converge on me. They were saying something, that much was obvious, but they were also all wearing masks.
The same age-old frustration with my inability to hear filled me as I grew increasingly panicked and shot Elio a look for help. My discomfort with the entire situation must have been almost palpable because he immediately pointed at his face. “She can’t read your lips if you’re wearing a mask.”
The doctors glanced at one another like they didn’t know what to do next. Finally, one of them rolled his eyes and shoved to the front, ripping his blue mask off.
