Page 4

SEVEREN

Crux and I sat in silence. Crux kept jostling his leg and looking at his phone to see if he had missed any message from Halo or Charisma. After a moment I realized it wasn’t simply a quick check as he typed on his screen.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to contact Bianca.” Crux didn’t skip a moment or look away from the screen. He scoffed, knowing how futile it was probably going to be. Bianca hadn’t spoken to Skye in over two years, but in times like this, everyone needs their mother.

“Good idea.” We needed all the encouragement we could get.

I left him to his quest, leaning my head back as far as it would go. I rolled my shoulders. “I wish they’d tell us something. How long has it been?”

“Not as long as it feels,” Crux mumbled.

As he sat beside me, my aura brushed up against his. It was tight, and congested, weathered.

I sat up and looked at him. “I know you’re not okay, but, are you okay?”

“No.” He spat out the word. “But yeah,” he nodded.

Crux had a long history with drugs and alcohol.

When Halo brought Skye around, he quit the hard shit cold turkey, and mellowed his drinking to socially acceptable levels.

I considered all that as a true sign of his character.

Every once and a while his aura turned tight and thin, like an elastic pulled to its breaking point.

Still, he hadn’t given in to the cravings.

I knew he hadn’t. I would sense it through the bond.

The tough-love moment was broken by Crux’s ringtone. He looked at the display. “Halo.”

He put it on video chat. Halo’s perfect face took up the screen. She looked impeccable. Not a hair was out of place. The only hint of frazzle was in her eyes. They were bloodshot, the red clashing with her jade green irises.

“Thank god I got a hold of you,” she said. “I managed to get a flight to Port Haven. I’ll be there in a few hours. How’s Skye?”

“We don’t know,” I said. “We haven’t been told a single thing. No one’s come to see us.”

Halo stopped sorting her carry on bags and paused, recalibrating, like she had to digest my words. “But it’s been hours.”

“We know,” Crux said, sourly.

“When do you board your flight?” I asked.

“Soon. In a few minutes. I told the flight attendant that I had an emergency and my omega was in the hospital. Granted, that won’t make the plane fly faster, but they’re giving me priority seating.”

“Aren’t you already in business class?” I smirked.

“First, actually. But being the absolute first of the first is better than best.” Halo smiled, despite the situation. Even sad, her smile was radiant. The smile didn’t last though. “I’m not hanging up until the last possible moment,” she said.

“Hey,” Crux lightly bat me on the shoulder and I looked up. A doctor was walking down the hall in our direction, with purpose.

“One second, Halo,” I said, rising from my chair.

“The Heller pack?” The doctor asked.

“Yes, I’m Severen, the pack lead.”

“I’m doctor Houser, the cardiologist. We’ve run a battery of tests and I’m sorry to inform you that Skye is in critical heart failure.”

“How?” Crux and I asked, stepping on one other’s words.

“Since when?”

“How did we not know?””How do we fix it?”

“Let me talk to him,” Halo’s voice cut through the phone speaker clearly. She was the most level headed out of the three of us. We passed the phone to the doctor.

“Who am I speaking with?” Asked the doctor.

“Halo Kwan of the Heller Pack. Skye is my omega as well.”

“What do you know of her birth pack’s history?” asked Dr. Houser.

“We just moved here,” I said. “Our medical records are probably still hidden away in a box somewhere.”

“She didn’t have a birth pack,” Halo clarified. “Both her parents were monogamous betas.”

“Very traditional,” Crux said. The way he said it transformed the word traditional into oppressive .

“Her aunt on her mother’s side is a paragon omega,” Halo continued. “Other than her and Skye, it’s all betas as far as I know.”

“I see,” said the doctor. “Was she, by chance, late to perfume?”

“Yes,” Halo said.

“How soon after she perfumed did you bond with her and claim her as your omega?”

Halo murmured under her breath as she thought. “About a year and a half, I suppose? Maybe two?”

“Two,” Crux put in, confidently.

“She’s had a few heats since then?”

“Yes,” the three of us said together.

Dr. Houser’s mouth pressed into a thin line.

“This all confirms my diagnosis. I believe Skye is suffering from Congenital Atrial Inefficiency Syndrome. It’s a rare condition that occurs in omegas with a long line of beta parentage.

Their omega heart is overwhelmed by the very nature of being an omega.

The heats, the bonds, the presence of others in their aura, in their blood.

The atria, the two upper chambers of the heart, literally become scorched from being overworked, thin out, and eventually break down. Unfortunately Skye was one of the few.”

As the doctor spoke, every nerve in my body burned.

I wanted to tear him apart with my teeth and my bare hands.

I wanted to smash through walls until I found where they were keeping Skye.

I wanted to pick her up, feel her perfect body in my arms, and take her home.

Our home. Our new beachfront home that she dreamed of.

Her heart was perfect. Skye was perfect. Nothing could ever change that.

“Okay, so how do we cure it?” Halo asked, calmly.

“For the time being, we have her on an ECMO machine. It’s pumping the blood for her so her heart can have a rest. However, this is only a temporary solution. At this point, the only course of action for her health is a complete heart transplant.”

“And if she doesn’t?” My voice shook. It didn’t sound like mine.

Dr. Houser looked at me gravely. “Then she won’t survive the year.”

There was a clatter from Halo’s end of the line as she dropped her phone. My aura flared but felt like ice on my skin. Crux’s legs gave way and he collapsed back into his chair.

“There’re lists, right?” Halo asked, having retrieved her phone. “Transplant lists? Put Skye on those. Put her on those now.”

“Of course, I’ll have that process started right away.”

“When can we see her?” I asked.

“They’re moving her to the ICU,” Dr. Houser said. “A nurse will tell you when you can see her.”

“I will hear no such nonsense about the ICU.” Marching down the hall on six inch heels came Charisma Evercrest.