Page 62 of Omega Forged (Hartlock Omegas #2)

Pan

Dr. Stanson pressed his clipboard to his chest with a thin-lipped frown. The urge to tear him limb from limb crawled under my skin. I could turn the insulting white of his coat red in the blink of an eye. Behind the scuffed silver hospital door was my heart and they wouldn’t let us in.

“You’re not family. I haven’t thrown you out because I respect the Baylark Pack.” He shot Walden a ‘ get your pack in line or else,’ look before he added, “my patient needs rest.”

A growl bit the back of my teeth. Dr. Stanson was right; the four of us crowded the hallway, periodically rumbling and stomping.

It had been at least an hour since we brought Tully in and there had been no update.

Outside, paparazzi lurked. Chewing their gum and scrolling their phones.

One photo of us emerging from the hospital would pay their bills for the month, and they knew it.

I couldn’t stop the panic looping through my mind. The sight of Tully’s knees folding out from under her and the rush of my senses. Walden’s helpless thump on the wall brought me back, startling a beta nurse as she rushed by.

“Please, we might not be bonded, but she’s part of this pack.” He clasped his hands in front of him.

Dr. Stanson pursed his lips and let out a deep sigh. “I refuse to be emotionally manipulated into giving information about Tully. She’s not the only one who needs care in this hospital and if you continue, I’ll have you thrown out.”

There was no choice except to slink out into the crowded waiting room.

I scanned the crowd, biting my tongue as I saw phones pointed in our direction.

Even in our weakest moments, we were still the Baylark Pack.

Walden put his arm around my shoulder and I let out a wet breath into his chest. Ajax watched with a zombie expression.

He’d shut down when the ambulance came, and they wouldn’t let one of us ride with her.

Lloyd chewed his bottom lip and tracked the doors that led into the hospital.

I spotted a familiar dark-haired bob weaving through the crowd. Two red spots appeared on Beatrice’s cheeks when we converged on her.

“What did they say? They won’t let us in,” Walden said.

“Lucky, I thought ahead to ask Tully to add me as her emergency contact. I always take extra good care of my clients, and future sister-in-law seemed like something that required extra attention.”

Her fingers kneaded my shoulders. “She’s not lucid, and they think you might have something to do with it.” Beatrice cringed at Walden’s answering growl, and she gave him a slap on the shoulder.

“Stop before you get kicked out of the hospital,” she muttered. “There are phones recording us right now. I answered all their questions and told them about the attack.”

Was Tully’s fainting because of something Chase did to her? She’d been sluggish and withdrawn, but I never once suspected there were any lingering aches and pains. Walden rubbed his chest, and his lungs emptied in a violent exhale.

“Please, daddy, breathe,” I whispered to the other half of my heart.

If Walden had a meltdown in the middle of the waiting room, it would ruin all our efforts.

Lloyd wrung his hands. “Can you get us back there?”

Beatrice frowned as her gaze drifted over our shoulder to the white doors where Tully was hidden.

“I’m hoping Tully will wake up so I can check with her. I don’t want to put her in a position where she can’t trust me.”

“We would never hurt her,” Ajax’s voice wavered.

“Whatever happens, her comfort is my priority.”

With that sharp-edged truth, Beatrice disappeared behind the swinging doors.

My stomach dropped. There was a clawing need inside of me that wouldn’t be tamed until I saw Tully and heard her sweet voice.

The urge to use had been scratching at me for days, heightened by the disastrous visit from my parents.

Tully’s fiery protection was the only thing that stilled my tongue and kept my dark desires in check.

The color on her cheeks, and the set of her jaw.

I wanted to sink into the feel of her more than any false high. She inspired me, like a pink glittered phoenix. Especially after her livestream, her words gave me so much strength.

Barely ten minutes passed before Beatrice burst back through the door, her cheeks bloodless. She was a Baylark and used to presenting herself impeccably. Whatever she’d learned about Tully unraveled her. She motioned frantically, and I didn’t hesitate, barreling after her.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of Tully encased in a narrow hospital bed, a drip attached to her wrist. Her skin was violet with smudged bruises.

My knees turned to water, and I stumbled, swallowing my horror.

She was asleep. Her eyes darted underneath the paper-thin skin.

As if her torment fled with her into sleep, poisoning her with nightmares.

We rushed to her side, compelled to touch wherever we could reach.

“Some space, please.” Dr. Stanson’s eyebrows bunched together with ire.

This fucking doctor was going to lose his tongue if he tried to keep me away from my omega.

“Listen to him, you great pack of oafs.” Beatrice swallowed.

I gripped the bedspread as my vision narrowed.

“What’s wrong?” Ajax gripped his throat.

Misery and fear were a permanent cloak over his skin. I brushed Tully’s tangled hair back from her forehead. Her forehead was a clammy furnace. Dr. Stanson shooed Lloyd out of the way. He retreated with reluctance, dragging his hands through his hair.

“Did one of you try to mate with Tully?” he asked, and the seriousness of his question sent a chill through me.

I exchanged looks with the others, each of us stunned into silence.

“No, of course not,” Walden said with a curse as he gazed at Tully like she was his sun, and he bathed in her light.

Even small and broken, she was perfect. She was here . So, what was wrong?

“If there is an outburst, I will eject you, no matter what Miss Baylark has to say in your defense.” He eyed us. “Understand?”

His comment thickened the tension in my lungs, but we all nodded. Control was tenuous as I forced myself to comply. Now I was here, they would have to tear me away from Tully. I needed her like she was my only anchor to sanity.

Dr. Stanson sighed, shuffling aside her hospital gown to reveal a bruise of a bite mark, faded violet. The color of dying hope. Fiery red inflamed the outside, the skin shiny and swollen as if ready to burst.

“No. No. No,” Lloyd moaned, cupping his face.

“There has to be a mistake,” Ajax cried as he sagged against Walden.

The culprit was Chase. It had to be. Acid burned my stomach.

I sent a curse to the gods, but they couldn’t be real, not if they allowed Tully to be bonded to someone so evil.

He’d fooled me for years with his gilded charm.

It was a privilege to mark an omega, and not something an alpha could take by force.

If an omega was unwilling, the bite would fester and disappear.

So why hadn’t the mark healed?

My chest cracked open, and I teetered on the edge of blood and bone.

“She didn’t want this. The alpha who did this terrorized her.”

“It’s not a bonding mark, not exactly. See the partial skin tear?

Tully’s body has prepared itself in readiness for a mark that wasn’t completed.

There is a fraying tether inside her body and it’s poisoning her.

It’s putting pressure on her body. Cases like this are rare, and she is too far gone for conventional medicine.

In previous cases, the only solution is a completed bond, to cancel out the partial mark. ”

He looked at each of us, and his thick eyebrows met each other.

“And if she doesn’t? What are you saying?” Walden barked and even I trembled from the force in his voice.

Our wild scents flooded the room with violence, and Lloyd and Beatrice bowed under it with gritted teeth. I wanted to get on my knees. I trusted him for salvation more than the gods.

“A mark can’t stay untreated or uncompleted for long before the body shuts down.

Tully needs a solid bond. Her body thinks she was being claimed and won’t heal until she’s marked properly.

Beatrice says you are her pack, and she’d welcome a bond from you.

It would be healthy enough to reject the poisoned one. ”

I flicked a look at Beatrice as she lifted her chin. Daring me to argue with her. As if I would, clever girl. Tully might never forgive us, but I wasn’t living in a world without her.

“A bond?” Walden’s eyes flared wide, and our staunch leader lost his composure and shook his head. “I won’t claim her without her consent.”

My stomach dropped to the floor as Ajax shook his head as well. Guilt scored new lines in my brother, and he could barely look at Tully without shame clouding his vision. Lloyd clasped Tully’s hand in his, glaring at us expectantly.

His scent turned sharp. The beach on the precipice of a storm. When the wind whipped sand into your eyes. “I would if I could, but I’m a beta.”

Pressure crushed my lungs, and I jutted out my chin. I knew what I was about to do, and all I could feel was relief, dousing my entire body for the first time since Tully left.

She’d been mine the minute I saw her. I might have been drunk, but I remembered the light of her.

Brilliant. Heavenly. She was my angel, and I was a damned devil.

She could hate me for an eternity, but I knew we were meant to be together.

This wasn’t how I wanted to claim Tully, but we didn’t have a choice.

“I’m not losing her.” I ignored Walden’s sharp intake, cutting him with a glare.

Any lecture he was about to make dried up on his lips, and I turned to Dr. Stanson. He indicated to her neck, on the opposite side of her infected shoulder.

“The where of the bite doesn’t matter, but it needs to be done soon. The quicker we can get this done, the more stable Tully will be. Without a proper bond, she won’t heal.”