Page 15

ANGELL

W hen Niro and Cambry left, my heart went hollow.

The doctor had gone.

The door to my room stayed open. The stranger Alpha stood just inside the door, texting on his phone. Two security Omegas stood outside in the hall.

All in all, for falling off a ladder, I was doing okay. In fact, I felt a little high. I was on pain medication, so there was that. But the real high was that connection that had happened between me and Niro. The intimacy of it. A real live bond with a powerful Alpha.

I was still reeling from the mental orgasm that had given me.

I didn’t even know the guy, but I knew the guy.

And then there was Cambry, right there at my side.

Our bond flared and riffled like a kite on wind.

But when Niro touched me, the bond went straight to my core.

There was almost a frenzy in the way that it touched my every thought and shared his as well.

We’d communicated. Actually talked. The bond Cambry and I shared had been more tentative, more a flower bud about to bloom.

Niro caused that bloom. I had no doubt the next time Cambry and I touched our link would open and flow. Niro was the catalyst for that.

Three-ways were rare. I’d read an article about them once. They were considered odd and often studied by science.

The Alpha by the doorway shifted his feet. From across the room, he said, “I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Niro’s brother, Thorne.” He did not move closer.

I glanced at him, turning my head slightly on the pillow.

“I know your name is Angell and that you speak by signing. Sorry I don’t know sign language.”

I was used to that. I signed, “Ok.”

Thorne’s eyes brightened. “I think I understood that. You said ok.”

I nodded.

“Niro was worried about you. He’s a good guy. Just so you know.”

I watched Thorne fiddle with his hands. Nervous.

I put my hand up in a way that let him know I was listening. Sometimes, with people who didn’t sign, I could write my words on paper. But there wasn’t any to be had right now.

I wondered what was going on with the warden in his office. Decisions were being made. I needed to be part of them. No one could decide for me what came next. Not under these special circumstances.

Thorne seemed to think he needed to fill the quiet room with his voice. “I hope you’re feeling better. I am sorry you injured yourself.”

I bowed my head.

“Let me know if you want updates. I’ve got my phone right here.

I can text Niro if you want to talk to Cambry.

In fact—” He glanced over his shoulder at the security detail that still stood outside my door.

They were focused on the wall outside. Slowly, Thorne ambled over to me and set his phone at my side. “Do you know how to use one of these?”

I looked at it. I’d never had a phone before. But I knew of them. I shrugged. I had a tablet and knew how to use that.

“It’s a touchscreen. Here’s Niro and all his contact information up on the screen.

You hit that little icon that says message.

A keyboard will pop up and you type whatever you want to say.

If the phone turns off, just click on the right and it will come back on.

It might ask for a password. That’s easy. One. Two. Three. Four.”

I reached out, my fingers gliding over the smooth edges of the clear phone case.

“You can keep that right at your side,” Thorne continued. “If anyone sends a text, the phone will buzz. I usually don’t get many. Just from Kris, my husband. Or Thorne. If one comes in from Kris, you can ignore it. I’ll check on it all later.”

I placed both hands over my chest and looked up at him.

Thorne smiled. “You’re welcome.” Then, he went back to the edge of the threshold and stood, hands at his sides, as if he were my real guard and not the two Omegas in uniform.

Several times, a nurse came in to check on me and ask me how I was feeling. I was still swimming in pain killer heaven. Which meant I could only sign to him that I was fine.

I kept staring at the phone. Would it make a buzzing sound like Thorne said? Should I check on Cambry? Had enough time passed for anything to report?

Things were muggy, still. My mind had been open with Niro, and when he had held me there were soothing heat waves running through me. It made me clearer, more comfortable. Now that he and Cambry were gone, sleepiness crept in. All thought was precarious, on the edge of fading into a gray chasm.

I picked up the phone and held it to my chest. It was a cold box, but also, weirdly, an extension of my bond with both of them. I could communicate with either Niro or Cambry at any time. But what if I opened my mind? Would they be there?

I wasn’t sure how to even do that. Niro had initiated the bond earlier.

And the one I had with Cambry was less about making it happen and more about, when we touched intimately, it naturally happening.

Cambry and I shared emotion and images. If words came floating by, they were single affirmations like heart and love.

With Niro, we’d had had an entire conversation.

I closed my eyes. My eyebrows squeezed together as I focused on the pale shadows behind my closed lids. Suddenly, I inhaled hard. My lids flashed open. What if it had all been a mistake? What if it wasn’t real? I’d hit my head hard. I could be hallucinating.

But then I thought of how I’d experienced myself with Cambry yesterday, as if I was with him by his side in the Mating Hall. I saw his face hovering over mine. I’d become instantly aroused.

That had all happened before my accident.

I closed my eyes again just as the nurse walked in.

“Try to stay awake, Angell.”

I looked up at him and nodded, signing, “Sorry.”

“Oh sweetheart,” he said with a big smile. “You have nothing to be sorry about. Just feel better, okay?”

He was a kind nurse. The sort who wanted unworried patients who did as they were told.

I glanced at Thorne. He sent me a soft, supportive smile, eyebrows popping upward. He had dark hair like his brother, but longer, and he wasn’t as tall as Niro. I decided I liked the really tall Alphas. Maybe it was because I was so little.

Just as the nurse left again, the phone buzzed. I looked down. The incoming message read, KRIS. I held the phone out to Thorne.

“My husband?” he asked.

I nodded.

Thorne took the phone, immediately tapping it. “I’ll let him know I’m probably going to be here all night.”

I frowned. Was it late? I had no idea if it was night or day. It was a strange feeling of limbo.

Suddenly, my head spun. Or maybe the room was moving. A sleepiness came over me and all I wanted was Cambry at my side followed by the scent of something on fire. My vision went white and I heard voices that weren’t nearby.

I reached out—or thought I did.

Angell, are you all right? It was not Cambry’s voice. But then a warmth suffused my entire body, as if Cambry had given me a big hug.

Niro’s voice continued. Angell. Open your eyes. Can you do that?

I realized it was so easy to talk in this different space. Yes. But the room is moving. I might be sick.

Focus on my presence in your mind. I promise I’ll keep you safe, Niro said.

Cambry spoke, finally. We’re on our way.

I shut my eyes hard against the spinning in my head and took shallow breaths.

Thorne’s footsteps clomped as he crossed the room. Then a buzzing sound surrounded me.

Something warm and comforting surrounded me.

At first I thought it was Niro’s brother.

I opened my eyes in a weird panic only to see Thorne standing at the foot of the bed.

Cambry sat to my left, holding my hand. Slowly, I looked up.

Niro had me in his arms again, secure and warm.

There I was again, in front of everyone, sitting in his lap.

At least the room had stopped moving and I didn’t feel like heaving.

Protective mode. Alpha healing. We hadn’t learned a lot about that in class when we were being taught about Alpha Burns and how best to serve our future husbands. But now I was experiencing it firsthand. Something others talked about like it was a secret myth was actually happening to me.

Niro had his hand on the side of my head, holding me against his chest. I was completely engulfed in his size. I gave a little start when I saw my infirmary gown was twisted up to my thighs. It was open in the back and was probably gaping by now. That meant my naked ass was on his thighs.

My nerves had me upside-down and sideways in my thinking. My body started to shake in silent laughter.

“Angell?” Cambry signed.

I moved my hands toward him. “The room stopped moving. I’m okay if he holds me. But my gown is undone.” I hesitated. “In the back.” I gasped back more silent laughs.

“You were about to pass out and you’re worried about that?” Cambry snickered.

I looked around at the faces in the room. The doctor, the nurse, Thorne, the warden, and the security detail at the door.

“He’s nervous with all of us here. He laughs when he’s nervous,” Cambry said aloud to the room.

The doctor came forward. He asked me questions I didn’t answer, looked into my eyes with a bright light pen, and adjusted my wires and hook-ups.

“Any pain?” he asked.

I shook my head once, careful of it rubbing too hard against Niro’s chest.

“Good.”

Next, Warden Chirl stepped up. “I think we talked enough in my office. I have paperwork to draw up. Consent forms. Blood samples.” He looked directly at me. “You sign only if you wish to. No one should put any pressure on you.” His eyes flicked toward Cambry. “That goes for you, too, Cambry.”

I squeezed Cambry’s hand because I knew. Deep in my heart, I knew. Niro was our mate. And we were each other’s, as well. It couldn’t be disputed. And it felt right.

Niro was technically still a stranger to me, but after sharing the open bond, floating in his essence and he in mine, plus that mental orgasm, he was like someone I’d known forever. He was my Alpha.

I let go of Cambry’s hand and signed slowly to him those exact words.

Cambry’s eyes grew bright and round. Then he spelled back to me words of truth for us both.

“Our Alpha.”