Page 7 of Petals & Promises

She nodded, so I plucked a smaller-size chip from the cup I was holding and held it against her lips. Most of it melted before she got it in her mouth, but the sigh of relief was music to my ears. I went back for another, and she turned her head to look at me, a smile growing on her face.

“Hi,” she croaked out as my Care Bear tried to lift her arm, reaching for me.

Fuck the ice chips, I decided and dropped the cup on the side table so I could grasp her hand in both of mine. “Hi back,” I whispered.

Some of the guys were still sleeping, having just laid down. Dr. Arbour didn’t want me to wake them in case things didn’t go well, and we put her right back to sleep. So far, things seemed to be going amazingly well.

“You’re…” She paused then coughed, only to then let out a shrill, painful whimper.

Instantly, every Alpha in the room was awake and rushing to the bed, hearing her distress. A nurse rushed in and offered a syringe to the doctor who immediately administered it through a port on her IV tube. When the nurse started to place a heart-shaped pillow near Bailey-Rose, Gareth took a step only to have Eli yank him back. This caught the doctor’s eye, and he was none too pleased.

“Boys, remember where you are and what Bailey-Rose has been through. I don’t want to hear one growl or see you so much as glare at my staff. It’s going to take us a moment to figure out the right balance of medication to manage Bailey-Rose’s pain,” Dr. Arbour snapped. “Fighting your instincts is hard, especially when it comes to your Omega, but if my staff can’t do their job, then the only person it will hurt is Bailey-Rose. Do we have an understanding?”

We all agreed and understood why he felt the need to nip the attitude in the bud. I’m sure they’ve run into issues before.

The doctor turned his attention back to Bailey-Rose, who looked miserable. “I’m sorry you needed to hear that, kiddo. No one is mad at you, and you did nothing wrong. I just needed to set the ground rules. I did the same thing to your brothers many years ago… you just weren’t in the room. Let’s leave trying to talk for a little later when your throat isn’t so angry. You can have all the ice chips you like, so take full advantage of that.”

Snatching up the cup once more, I grabbed a chip at random to offer her. She took it greedily and gave me a look of appreciation, squeezing my hand. Gingerly, I lifted it and kissed the inside of her palm since she had an IV taped to the back of it.

“Now, kiddo, do you remember being taken to the hospital?” Dr. Arbour asked. She shook her head and seemed a little alarmed at that. “That’s fine, it’s okay. I didn’t expect you would. I’m not going into all the details right now, but what you need to know is we did the surgery.”

Care Bear’s eyes went wide and slowly used her other hand to tentatively touch her chest. Of course, she was bandaged up so she couldn’t feel the incision, but I’d seen it when they changed the dressing, and it was from her neck to her navel. My sweet, tender-hearted Care Bear already had an underlying fear of the scars she’d had from other surgeries, worried that we would see her as imperfect. Nothing in the world could happen to her that would make me think she was anything less than perfect. I knew she wouldn’t believe me or the others right away, but that simply meant I got to convince her every day for the rest of our lives how beautiful I thought she was.

“You gave us one hell of a scare, Care Bear, but you did it. You pulled through and beat the odds,” I told her, staring deeply into her eyes, trying to look super serious. “Bailey-Rose, you are a total badass.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she smiled, trying not to laugh or burst into hysterics, I’m not quite sure. However, the look in her eyes told me she truly didn’t believe she’d survive if forced to go through the surgery, yet here she was.

“Those better be happy tears because there is no use for sad tears right now,” I reminded her as I wiped them away with the sheet. “Things are only going to go up from here, I know it. We sat the entire six hours in the waiting room, dreaming up things we wanted to do together. Even your brothers gave us a few ideas. Let me tell you, boy have we gotten in some bonding time with them. Crew is lucky to be alive after how loud he snores, but we’ll forgive him because we’re family now, right?”

“My family,” she managed to whisper then looked at the others gathered at her feet. “My pack. People I love.”

I ducked my head as tears welled up in my damn eyes at hearing her say that. Fuck, this woman had a chokehold on my heart that didn’t deserve her love, but I was going to damn well strive to be a man who did.

“All right, I think it’s time we give you something to help you rest and take away the pain for a little while. It’s going to be a rough recovery, I'm afraid. But if there’s one thing I know about you, kiddo, it’s that you're not afraid of facing a challenge,” Dr. Arbour said, giving her a wink before turning one of the medications back on.

Within seconds, her eyes fluttered closed and was once more fast asleep. I cradled her hand for a little longer before I stood, letting Crew take my spot for a while. Wandering over to where Gareth was once more hunched over his laptop, I plopped down beside him. Glancing at the screen, I saw a series of tabs open about service dogs.

“Wow, you’re really latching on to this idea, aren’t you,” I commented.

He paused in his reading to hand the laptop over to me. “Read this article and tell me it doesn’t seem like the perfect thing for our girl.”

“Ah… this is about a guard dog, not a medical alert dog,” I pointed out.

“Just read the damn article,” Gareth grumbled before shoving up to get another cup of coffee.

Out of all of us, he’d been the one to sleep the least. I suppose it made sense with everything that happened with his sister. I'd be an irritable asshole, too, if I were being haunted by a loss from the past. Focusing on the article, it didn’t take me long to see why this idea had turned into his obsession. It appears certain breeds of dog could be taught to be both a medical alert dog and a guard dog, especially with a situation like Bailey-Rose where she didn’t need mobility help or was at risk of stumbling over them if the dog were trying to herd them away from a situation.

“Okay, I’m in,” I stated once Gareth sat back down. “So what kind of dog did you pick, and when is it showing up?”

Gareth blinked at me for a second then laughed. “What—”

“Nope, don’t even pull that shit. I know you, Gareth,” I said, cutting him off. “Spill.”

Instead of answering, he opened a page showing a massive dog that Bailey-Rose could ride if she needed to. It had a light golden coat, making it look like a fucking lion, having me question if it was a dog. Scrolling down, I saw his name was Waffles, and according to the message that popped up, Waffles would be arriving at our home in two weeks. Bailey-Rose was going to lose her mind, and I couldn’t wait to see it.

six

Bailey-Rose