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Chapter Thirty-Nine

Jax

“ Y ou’re sure he’s okay?” Jax asked Niall anxiously.

“Yes. I think the hardest part will be keeping the boys from crawling all over him, but other than that, he looks much better than when we left the hospital.”

Jax sunk into the McGinns’ living room couch with relief. He’d been up with the sun this morning, itching to go over to the other side of the duplex. The single wall between the units felt like a mountain sometimes.

When they finally came over after seven a.m. so Niall could help get the boys up, Jax had stayed downstairs, not wanting to crowd into the bedroom with everyone else.

“You should go see him,” Niall said. He asked about you before he fell asleep again. I told him you were here yesterday when we brought him home, but he wants to see you for himself.”

“In a sec,” Jax replied. “I just need to send off a few emails.”

Jax had drafted the rough copy of a letter to his company, letting them know he wouldn’t be returning to the project.

He offered to come out to Hampson Towers in a few weeks, assuming Teal was on the mend, until they could find a replacement.

But after that, he was done. The combined events of the past few weeks had taught him that life was short, and he needed to stop playing everything so safe.

His heart was with interior home design.

Somehow, he was going to transition his career in that direction.

But those details were best left to another day.

The household was still in flux after Teal’s poisoning.

The omega had stayed in the hospital for three more days, steadily improving.

Much as they’d suspected, when Ronan posed the idea of using suppressants to aid in his recovery, Teal adamantly declared he didn’t want them.

“I haven’t won a monumental victory for the people and faced a near-death experience only to give up on my dearest dream,” Teal told them on his last day in the hospital, during one of his more lucid moments.

“If my body gives out on me during heat, I know you’ll be there to take care of me.

” Jax assumed Teal meant Ronan and Sorcha when he said it.

He didn’t let himself think about the fact that Teal’s gaze had been fixed on him.

Because Teal didn’t want the suppressants, Dr. Kinzinger felt he should go home as soon as possible.

When his heat came, it would be better for it to happen in the privacy of his familiar environment.

After twenty-four hours with consistent progress and no new seizures, the hospital released Teal with the caveat that a home health nurse would visit twice daily for a few days.

Ronan had let his co-workers know that he’d need a leave of absence soon for Teal’s heat and that he would only be at the job site intermittently until then. Since his speech to the hospital crowd, his co-workers had become much more accommodating and solicitous of his situation.

Jax imagined that once Ronan returned to work full-time, he’d find the pro-alpha members of his team a lot less vocal in their dislike of both Ronan and the crew’s omegas.

They’d already received assurances from Garin and Kino’s school that the administration would do a better job of making sure the boys were safe from kids taunting them about their daddy.

The twins were taking the rest of this week off from school but would return on Monday.

Jax sent his emails off and went upstairs to sit with Teal, who slept the whole time.

Later that morning, Jax read to Zayne for an hour until the little boy fell asleep. When he came downstairs, he saw that Ronan and Niall had set up a mini chess tournament with the twins, which Kino was winning.

Jax found Sorcha in the garage, working on something that looked like either a coffee table or a nightstand. Ronan had ordered new materials for him, and they’d been delivered that morning.

“It looks beautiful,” Jax told Sorcha, running his hand along the raw wood.

“Thanks. I’m not sure what it’s going to be yet, but I’m really enjoying the process. It was so hard to work while Teal was in court, and then the hospital.”

“Understandable.”

“But now that he’s upstairs, getting better, it’s like my creative mind has exploded with ideas and… I don’t know… I just feel so free, or something.”

Jax chortled. “I think they call that happiness, my friend. And you wear it well. Like you’re glowing.”

Sorcha’s eyes flashed. He put down the tool he’d been holding. “So we’re friends, huh?” he asked, running a finger across Jax’s arm.

Jax felt his blood rush south. He recognized his attraction to Sorcha for what it was. And who could blame him when the young man in front of him peered up with such soft eyes? Jax recalled the way Sorcha felt in his arms when he'd held him during Ronan's speech.

Sorcha’s tongue darted out to lick his top lip, and Jax’s breath caught.

He took a step back. “Of course we’re friends. What else would we be?”

“More than friends,” Sorcha answered without hesitation, his suggestive tone unmistakable.

Jax shook his head wryly. Sorcha was so different from the shy omega he’d met at the barbeque.

“I gave notice today.” Jax changed the subject. “And you were part of the reason.”

“Me?” Sorcha grinned.

“You inspired me. Reminded me of my true artistic passions. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Sorcha turned back to his project. “Then since you’re not working, I’m going to take you up on your offer to help me get a business started. An online platform for selling my work. I hope we can be creative together very soon.”

***

Jax visited Teal’s bedroom again just before dinner. He sat there for a while, but Teal remained asleep.

Everyone was exhausted after the past few weeks.

Sorcha nearly fell asleep at the table, and the rest of the men insisted he turn in early.

The boys had been overtired and cranky for days.

It took all of Ronan’s strength to get them down.

Teal’s fever spiked and Niall assumed sickbed duty, sponging him with cool water.

While the others were upstairs, Jax paced in the living room. He wished he’d been nearby for one of Teal’s lucid periods. He missed the omega’s voice. Felt the loss of Teal’s warm gaze on him.

It still angered Jax that anyone could do something so cruel to Teal, to potentially take a father away from three innocent little boys.

The world was an evil place sometimes. He hoped Teal realized he’d been victorious, that he’d done something significant to fight against that evil. Mostly, he just wanted Teal to be okay.

Around ten o’clock, Jax insisted Ronan and Niall go to sleep. His boyfriend went to the office downstairs, to the sofa bed they’d slept on before moving to the other unit. Ronan looked relieved to see that neither beta was leaving the house.

Jax volunteered to pull the night shift with Teal, since someone still needed to monitor the patient constantly.

They’d installed Teal in the guest bedroom for the time being so it would be easier to attend to him, and so the home health aides wouldn’t catch on that Ronan and Sorcha both slept in the main bedroom.

Teal mumbled incoherently into his pillow. His sweat soaked the sheets. Jax thought about changing them, then decided it was at least a two-person job and therefore needed to wait until morning. It felt important to let everyone else rest. He wiped a cool cloth across Teal’s brow.

Even though Teal was sweating, he shivered. Was he cold? Jax wondered if he should put Teal’s T-shirt and sweats back on him, although earlier Teal had been irritated by having those fabrics next to his body. That was why they’d stripped him to his boxers. He barely tolerated the bedsheets now.

Teal’s hands trembled. There were angry red marks where he’d scratched himself and dry, flaky patches of skin all over his torso, a side effect of the poison.

The clacking noise of Teal’s teeth chattering had Jax leaning over from the bedside, running the cloth along the omega’s quivering jaw.

“Shh,” he hushed. “I’ve got you.”

“Jax?” Teal rasped. His eyes opened before he squeezed them shut again.

Jax choked up at the sound of his name on the omega’s parched lips. “I’m here, Teal.”

“So…cold.” Teal’s voice was barely a whisper. As if to prove his point, he began trembling against the mattress.

Jax didn’t know what to do. Should he switch to a warm compress? It was promising that Teal seemed lucid, at least for the moment, but the omega clearly needed something.

“Do you want me to wake up Ronan?” Jax asked.

“No…you…bed…with me.”

Jax pinched his forehead. Teal wanted Jax in bed with him? The beta decided he didn’t have time to question it. Asking Jax to get in the bed was the first thing Teal had said in days that made sense. And he knew that Ronan, Sorcha, and Niall would absolutely want him to offer Teal this comfort.

Knowing how fabrics had been irritating Teal’s skin, Jax stripped off his pajama top and pants, leaving on only his boxer briefs, and crawled into the bed. Teal rolled onto his side, facing away from him.

Jax pulled the omega against his chest. He felt the evidence of Teal’s illness, the ashy skin that covered his sides, his furnacelike temperature, the way his sweaty hair stuck to his skull, and the brittleness of his fingernails.

But Jax felt other things too. The silky trail of hair running along Teal’s belly. The way their similar heights brought them perfectly flush with one another. The round globes of Teal’s ass, covered only by the thin material of his underwear, pushing instinctually into Jax’s groin.

Jax wasn’t hard. The fear surrounding Teal’s illness was enough to dampen any errant arousal. But holding Teal in his arms took away some of the terror Jax had been feeling over the past week. He nestled Teal firmly into his embrace, placing a chaste kiss on the omega’s neck.

Teal relaxed, and after a minute, his shivering ceased. “Jax,” he whispered into the darkened room.

His name again, on Teal’s lips. Jax couldn’t hear it enough, would never take it for granted again. And suddenly, he didn’t feel so wired. Suddenly, he felt like he could sleep for the first time in days.