Page 154

“That’s right, Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Doyle,” said a voice I vaguely recognized from before. It was the nurse—the one that had hooked us up to heart monitors and stuff earlier. “We’ve been on standby after your readings became concerning, shortly after the mating bite—but Ms. Dimitriadis asked us to hold back for a bit. Looks like it was the right call.”
“Can you talk to me, Emiel?” Mia asked. “How do you feel?”
I thought about it for a minute.
“Tired,” I decided, my voice sounding like it was being forced past gravel.
“We’re okay now,” Luca said. “Can we rest for a bit before we speak with Dr. Mushimba?”
“Certainly. I’ll inform her that you’ll be available for a video call in an hour,” the nurse said. “In the meantime, we’ll leave you alone unless you need additional assistance.”
“We don’t.” Luca snuggled even closer against me.
There was a bit of commotion around the door, and the unfamiliar scents faded. The tension bled out of my shoulders, but there was still something nagging at me. An uncomfortable ache, throbbing out of time with my heartbeat. I frowned, trying to pinpoint it and failing.
Mia nudged me. “Before you two drop off, can you help Luca with his bite wound, Emiel? It looks painful.”
“It’s fine,” Luca murmured, and all at once I understood what I was feeling.
A flush of guilt heated my face as I realized I hadn’t licked the wound closed like the alphas did in Mia’s romance novel.
“Stop that,” Luca said tiredly. “We had more important things to worry about.”
It occurred to me that he could feel my guilt, just like I could feel his pain.
“Sorry,” I said, shifting us around until I could reach the ugly red mark. It was still bleeding sluggishly.
I fought not to let the guilt creep back, because I didn’t want Luca to hurt when there was something I could do to fix it. Instinct propelled me to lick over the wound, fresh saliva filling my mouth at the idea of tasting Luca’s mating gland again.
Alpha saliva entering an omega’s bloodstream was the biological reason behind the mating bond. But alpha saliva alsohad healing properties, and that was why we were supposed to lick the bite afterward to soothe it.
I didn’t expect how much it would affect me when Luca shuddered beneath the slow swipes of my tongue. When he let out a little moan of relief, my dick chose the wrong moment to take an interest. I tried to subtly shift my hips away from Luca’s body.
He let out a weary chuckle, though—and I could feel his wry amusement inside my head.
“You do know I can still feel you getting horny, right?” he said.
I let go of Luca’s shoulder, shuffling away from him completely. “Sorry,” I said quickly. “I wouldn’t... it doesn’t mean—”
Crap, was I going to fuck this up before the first five minutes had passed?
“Emiel,” Luca said. “Look inside. I groaned because it felt good. We’re not going to have sex in a hospital room, but you’re allowed to think it feels good, too. Can we just nap for a bit until we have to talk to our shrink? I don’t care if your dick is hard. And I’m not upset at you, okay?”
I tried to reset my brain, with its old, ingrained patterns.
“This is gonna be a lot to get used to,” I said.
Luca snorted. “You think?”
“You two are going to beamazingat being mated,” Mia said. “I can tell already.”
“Mmph,” Luca said. He was already shimmying backward into me, making himself the small spoon.
Mia leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then to mine. “Get some rest. I’m going to go update the others.”
“Thanks, Mia,” I managed, exhaustion threatening to overcome me before she even made it out the door. Giving in,I let myself tumble into sleep with the hum of another mind tucked deep inside mine.
I was still groggy when the video consultation with Dr. Mushimba connected, but I woke up pretty damned fast when Luca started talking about what he’d experienced after I bit him.