Page 134 of Omega's Flight

"Here," Bram said, holding up a length of gauze.

"Thanks." Holland took it with a brief smile and knotted his hair at the nape of his neck, winding the gauze through it until the whole thing had been secured.

Adelaide burst through the door. "What happened?" She threw her medical bag on the chair and strode over to the bed. Bram handed her a sheet of paper with numbers and letters scrawled on it; she glanced at it, then handed it back. "Thank you."

"I think it's stress. And depression." Holland shook his head and frowned thoughtfully at Raleigh. "I've been careful not to look too close at anyone. The thoughts I pinched off at Christmas, they seemed to come from the loss of the baby. But maybe it was more, and the baby was just one more thing."

It felt like a giant hand had reached into his chest and wrapped fingers around his heart, squeezing harder with each breath. "Adelaide?"

"I don't have those drugs." She laid a hand on Raleigh's chest and looked earnestly into Cas's eyes. "We'll have to take him the hospital."

"Will the one in Memphis take him? They took Garrick."

"Garrick was a trauma case," Holland said solemnly. "He'll have to go north."

North was a lot longer drive. "Will he make it?"

"Probably," Adelaide said. "He's catatonic, his vitals are low, but if they stay stable, he should be fine for the trip."

"Who will they release him to after?” Bax asked quietly. "He's not really Mercy Hills yet, remember?"

Holland made a noise of disgust at the back of his throat. He brushed Raleigh's hair back from his forehead again, then looked up at Cas. "As the closest thing he has to a mate here, do you want me to try this? It goes a lot deeper than what I did for him at Christmas. Right down to places where I'm not sure I'll know what to do."

"You've done it before, though, right?"

"On my mate. It's not going to be the same here."

"Why not?" Dammit, Holland, stop waving salvation in front of me then snatching it away. "What's different here?"

"He's my mate, Cas! I know him, inside and out! Even if I didn't have this," Holland poked the side of his head, "I'd still know him, because he's my other half. That doesn't apply to Raleigh."

The fist in Cas's chest tightened again, until he wondered that his heart could still beat inside its grip. He bowed his head and squeezed Raleigh's hand. "You don't think he'll come out of this himself?"

Adelaide but a hand on his shoulder. "He could. He could wake up tomorrow and be fine."

The unspoken or hung in the air, until Cas couldn't stand the uncertainty any longer. "Or what?"

"Sometimes," Bax said slowly, and his eyes went to Holland. "They never come out of it."

Holland grimaced and shook his head, then turned back to Cas. "What do you want to do?" he asked gently. "We don't have to make a decision now. If he stays like this but doesn't get worse, we can wait and see if he wakes up on his own."

It was tempting to take the safe road, or the one that appeared the safest. But how could any of them know what was safe? And there was the pups to consider too. "Can you do something to stop this happening again?"

"A little." Holland reached across to him and covered the hand that was holding Raleigh's. "I'm afraid to do too much. But Quin will find him a counsellor and we'll make sure it doesn't get so hopeless for him again."

"Killing that Degan would be a start," Cas growled, and held up a hand to stop Holland's protest. "No, I know, we can't. It won't stop me wanting to chase him out of the enclave with his tail between his legs and let the guards pick him up." Actually, that might be a good start to things. But at the moment, there was Raleigh—too, too still before him, and the pups he was going to have to explain this to later. "Do it. Bring him back, we'll do whatever we need to after."

Holland nodded, gave Cas's hand a last squeeze, then looked over at Adelaide. "Stick around? And you too," he told Cas. "I'm thinking you might be something he'd want to come back for."

"Okay." Cas accepted a stool from Bax and settled in for however long it took.

Holland took the stool that Adelaide brought for him and moved around to the head of the bed. He sent a look in Adelaide's direction that seemed to carry some message, then put his hands on either side of Raleigh's head and, with a quiet sigh, he closed his eyes and went utterly still.

C H A P T E R 9 3

I opened my eyes, wondering why I felt so tired, but it didn't take long before the memories hit me again. They seemed faded, as if they weren't really real, but I remembered them and the feel of white fur against my body and again, that sensation like fingers combing through my thoughts. Strange dreams.

There was an alpha in the room, too. At first, I thought it was Cas and I wanted to climb back down into my darkness, but then he spoke.