Page 92 of His Stolen Omega

What did he do?!

What—

His eyes landed on Levi’s multi-slate, which was set on the end table on his side of the bed. In the couple of weeks they’d been here, Elm hadn’t bothered trying for the device, and the alpha had grown laxer about taking it off for bathing and sleeping.

Elm hadn’t seen a point to try stealing it. Even if he were able to call Kian, what then? There was the risk that the Eumia showed up and Elm ended up hurting them with his chaotic pheromones. Since he’d needed Levi to stabilize anyway, and he was no longer being mistreated to the degree he had been, staying put made the most sense.

But this was different.

He snatched the device, relieved when he found it wasn’t locked. There weren’t many contacts, so it only took him a second to find the number he’d been looking for, hitting the call button and nibbling on his bottom lip as the line began to ring.

“Pick up,” he hissed, every second feeling like it was an hour.

“Leviathan,” Baal’s voice finally echoed from the speaker. “Is—”

“He’s—” Elm only managed to get the one word out before the multi-slate was grabbed out of his hand.

Levi ended the call and chucked the device to the side, hard enough it hit the wall. He was already moving before it landed on the floor, rolling over Elm so that he was on top of him, vision clearly unfocused, breathing labored.

It felt like being engulfed by an oven.

“You’re sick!” Elm pushed against the alpha’s chest, snapping his teeth when Levi gave a low rumbly growl. “Stop that. You’re ill. I was calling your underboss for help. I think you might need to go to the hospital.”

“No.” Levi squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his forehead to Elm’s chest, inhaling deeply before he groaned. With one swift move, he practically tossed himself to the side, landing on his back in the spot on the bed Elm usually occupied. “In the drawer. My pills.”

Elm scrambled to open the end table drawer, frowning when he found the packet of gum he was always seeing the alpha chew. After riffling around and finding nothing else, he picked them up and turned. “These?”

The alpha tore the packet from his grasp and frantically popped a tiny white circle free. He dropped it into his mouth, chewed quickly, and swallowed, then went still, clearly struggling against whatever discomfort he was enduring.

Across the room, the multi-slate chimed, but when Elm went to retrieve it, Levi captured his wrist, stopping him.

“It’s probably Baal,” Elm said, trying and failing to pry the alpha’s fingers off. His grip was tight enough it was starting to hurt, but he didn’t say anything about it. “Levi.”

“I’ll be fine in a minute,” he replied, voice guttural and scratchy, very unlike how he usually sounded. “Don’t let anyone else come. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise…?” he prompted when the alpha’s sentence trailed off, but Levi merely shook his head against the pillow. Fine. If the stubborn idiot refused to call for help, Elm couldn’t stop him. “What should I do?”

“Nothing. Just sit here. Stay.”

“At least let me go get a washcloth. We need to try and get your temperature down.”

“No.”

“Levi—”

“I said no.”

A sharp flick of aggressive pheromones snapped against Elm’s skin and he recoiled.

The alpha immediately reached for him, grabbing onto his forearms. “I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

“Yeah. It barely stung.” That wasn’t a lie. Just a quick flash of mild pain and then nothing. “Lay back down.” He urged Levi back into a lying position. “Five minutes. We’ll stay like this for that long, and then I’m going to go get a washcloth and you’re going to let me. Agreed?”

Levi hesitated, clearly not fond of that plan, but must have seen Elm’s determination. “Okay.”

They’d spent some time in the hot spring last night after dinner, despite the chill. Had the alpha gotten sick from that? It seemed unlikely, since Levi could handle the cold even better than Elm could, but there was no denying the flu-like symptoms he was showing now.

A sudden pounding on the front door, loud enough it could even be heard from all the way up there, had Elm jumping. At the same time, the multi-slate began ringing again.