“Your arm, sweetheart,” she murmured, catching my wrist before I could pull away from her. “Can you stand?”
“Where’s Thompson?” I asked, voice straining.
“Let the police handle it.”
“No, I need to see! You don’t understand!” My heart waged war with my ribcage as I scrambled to my feet. She called after me, but I was already staggering towards the flock of cops. They tried to stop me, but I pushed past them. One of them grabbed my arm, but it was too late.
My gaze fell upon Thompson, his white coat stained red with blood and bullet holes, his face pale and lifeless. Dead. Gone. The nightmare was over. My shoulders sagged in relief, and then I was crying all over again.
But where was River?
Before I could go looking for him, the woman from before caught my shoulder and led me away from the scene of the crime. She got me a bottle of cold water. I gulped it down fast, like I’d been stuck in a terrible desert oasis nightmare for days.
In a way, I had been.
When the EMS arrived, they took my vitals and checked my wounds. I sat on the stretcher, but anxiety wound up inside me, a spring coiled tight, just waiting to snap.
“We’re going to take you to the hospital,” the EMT said gently. “You’ll get the care you need there.”
SNAP!
I jumped up and backed away, shaking my head. “N-No! I don’t wanna go!”
“Honey, you’re hurt. You need stitches and probably antibiotics so that wound doesn’t get infected,” he tried to explain, but I wasn’t having it.
All I could picture was being strapped to a bed and injected with medicines, and my PTSD roared to the forefront.
“No. No, no,no!Please! I don’t want to go!” I cried, frantic. “Adam! Where’s Adam? He’ll tell you!Adam!”
As if summoned by his name like some sort of genie, Adam appeared out of nowhere, and both my mates suddenly flanked me.
Confused and frightened, I only sobbed harder, grabbing onto Adam like a needy child.
“Sky? Sky, baby, it’s me. Calm down. What happened?” His fingers smoothed through my hair, but I pressed my face into his stomach and tried to breathe his scent through the snot clogging my nose.
“He’s been injured and really needs to be looked at by a healthcare professional. We were going to take him to the hospital, but he started panicking.”
“Yeah, that happens. He’s got severe PTSD from all of this,” Adam murmured. “Is there any way you could stitch him up here, and I promise we’ll get our doctor to take a look first thing tomorrow morning.”
“And who are you, exactly?” the EMT asked.
“His Alpha.” Adam’s tone left no room for argument, and the EMT did as he asked.
They cleansed and stitched my wound, and Adam held me the entire time. Fletcher played with my hair, distracting me, but honestly, the fight had sucked all the energy out of me. I lay limp in my mate’s arms, utterly exhausted.
When it was over, Adam kissed my temple. “Let’s get you home, baby.” He picked me up in his arms as if I were as lightas a feather, but when we passed a couple of cops, I pointed at them.
“Wait. I need to talk to them.”
Adam set me down on my feet, and I stumbled a little, but found my footing. The three of us moved walked over.
I raised my hand. “Excuse me, officer?” The tall man’s gaze swept over me, hesitant but also sympathetic to the young, pregnant omega in a bloodied hospital gown. “There are more of us down in Thompson’s lab. Other living experiments stolen from their families and forced into slavery.”
His expression sharpened. “Where?”
“I… I don’t know. I’ve only really seen the facility from the inside, but it used to be a rehab place. Thompson has a badge on him that will grant you access to the restricted levels, though. Please, save the others.”
He nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
