Page 11

HALO

We were back here again. Sitting on the sidelines while Skye was in a coma. We thought those days were behind us. This was so much worse.

“We managed to get her stabilized,” Dr. Houser told us. “But she–”

“What happened?” Crux asked. The same question sparked on the very tip of my tongue.

“She had a cardiac arrest. A heart attack.”

“How is that even possible?” I demanded, throwing away my usually cool and balanced temperament. “Aren’t the machines she’s connected to supposed to stop things like that from happening?”

The doctor shifted where he stood, probably hating being under the withering stare of three alphas and their keyed up auras.

“The ECMO filters the blood in her body for the heart, to give it a break. The heart is still beating while Skye is hooked up to the machine. But now her heart has taken a hit with that last heart attack. We’ve placed her in a coma so she wouldn’t be excited or agitated.

Any little thing could trigger another episode.

I recommended moving her case from urgent to critical, and put her on the top of the donor list.”

Crux sneered, all his life saving zen burned away. “You were told to do that when we first got here.”

“What can we do in the meantime?” I asked, trying to regain control of the situation, and my pack.

“Let her know you’re here,” Dr. Houser said. “Let her know she’s loved. Give her reasons to fight.”

“As if we hadn’t already been doing that,” Crux seethed.

The doctor spared us all a sympathetic look. “Excuse me.” And he made a quick, quiet escape.

I hung my head back to keep the tears in my eyes so the others wouldn’t see me cry.

“You heard what the doctor said,” I told my pack mates. “Let’s go make sure Skye knows exactly how adored she is.”

Without waiting for them to follow, I crossed the room and went to Skye’s bedside. I took her hand in mine and practically willed her to get better. There was evidence that an omega could help heal an alpha, but it didn’t seem to work the other way around. I wished so badly that it did.

I reached over and brushed hair from her face, and traced the bridge of her cute slender nose with my fingertip.

Crux sat on the opposite side of the bed, took her hand and kissed her palm.

“You’ll never guess what Crux and I did today,” I said to Skye, before glancing across the bed at Crux. “Do you want to tell her?”

“Huh? Oh. Sure.” He cast his eyes down at her and kept hold of her hand. “Halo and me donated blood. Crazy right?”

I watched as he stroked her fingers with his thumb, as gentle as he would touch a newly hatched bird.

Skye had helped Crux so much in discovering his tender side.

Before I found her, he was loud, crass, wild, and could be mean and violent.

An alpha barely in control, but I always knew he had a good heart. It just took an omega to find it.

“It was actually kind of nice. Relaxing. Did you know that one donation can help up to three people? That’s pretty cool, huh? And they had the best snacks.”

After a time, I looked over at Severen, sitting on the couch in the comfortable den area of the room. I went to join him, leaving Crux to share a private moment with Skye.

“You alright?” I whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“You know how Skye can say something, and it gets in your head, in a way that makes it seem true?”

“Yeah, kind of,” I nodded.

“Is that a Skye thing, or just an omega thing? Or a bond thing?”

“Did Skye say something to you?” I rubbed circles on his back with my palm in an effort to comfort my pack lead. It wasn’t as effective as it would have been if I were an omega, but I did what I could.

Severen took a deep breath, and seemed about to say something, then shook his head. “No.”

I didn’t believe him, but thought it best not to push.

“Go take a shower,” I said, giving him a little push. “Shave. You’ll feel better. Believe me.”

With a sigh, Severen got to his feet and trudged to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. I stretched out on the couch and closed my eyes to keep the tears trapped inside.