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I did as much as I could until I felt the pressure build in the back of my neck. I knew I could pass out at any minute. I’d lost too much blood, it seemed, but at least the omegas were waking, and after the first one woke, they were capable of waking the others in the bay.

Leaving them unattended hadn’t been the intention, but I knew it wasn’t worth me sticking around until I could get them out. I headed right for Vasilis’s room where I could finally breathe and remove the clothes that constricted around my chest.

Wriggling around on the bed to undress, I was burning up, and no amount of clothes were going to cool me. I laid on the bed, completely naked, pressing a bottle water soaked piece of fabric against my wrist where it burned the most.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered, screwing my eyes and pressing hard on the wound until I was seeing stars imprinted behind my eyelids. “Just take control, Soren. Just heal.” I never had an issue healing, it was something my body did well, but those times hadn’t been self-inflicted like this one. My claws were responsible for this burn.

Outside the room, a low voice broke through. I shot upright in the bed, my head swinging back slightly. I didn’t know if this was a real voice, or somerthing I’d created. I knew my mind could b a strange place when it felt itself fighting a virus off, or whatever it was battling from the wound on my wrist.

“I think he’s left,” the voice, Vasilis’s voice. “We should check the hallways.” Thumps, heavy in a rhythmic pulsing sounded like the headache breaching the corners of my mind were creating an aura of sound.

The door opened. A bright spotlight shone on me and quickly vanished with Vasilis’s broad shouldered stance, imposing on the light and giving himself the view it had over my naked body on the bed.

“I don’t know what happened,” I whispered, my head falling back on the bed in exhaution.

It was quick but took forver all at the same time. Vasilis was by my body, his cold hand on my forehead. “Shit, you’re burning up,” he said. “I thought we dealt with your heat.”

His innocence, at his age and with all those brood on his face was adorable. “I doesn’t work like that all the time,” I told him. “I think I’ve really hurt myself.” With a limp wrist, I lifted it in his face.

“Well, fuck.” He kissed the cut, keeping his face against it for a moment. “An infection.”

“How?” I grumbled, knowing full well I’d been slicing into myself with the hope that I’d heal nicely. “I don’t know.”

“I can take one big guess,” he said, humouring me with a big smile. “How can my venom not have any affect on you, yet, a little cut will send you into all this pain. I suppose, your claws might have different properties to what I would’ve thought.”

Through all the warmth traveling through my body, I was slowly losing all the thoughts I’d had. They were on the tip of my tongue, and as my mouth searched for them, I was just muttering false starts.

“I’m going to tell everyone you left,” he said, licking at the wound on my wrist and then kissing it. “But the omegas are awake, so we know your blood has the cure, or at least a cure to—” he kissed up my arm, sending a light trickle of tickles. “The cure to me.”

My eyelids were heavy, unable to stay open any longer. A yawn stretched at the corners of my mouth and I was fading.

***

Ten Years Ago

I continued to make Vasilis soups and breads, in some ways we were playing house together. The only thing we weren’t doing was fucking. I was surprised how naturaly I took to the omega role of making a house a home, or whatever bullshit I’d grown up hearing about my kind.

“You can’t get too close to me,” Vasilis said. Since he’d been able to move around and his collarbone had healed up, we were both fighting our urges. At least, I was fighting the urge to actually like an Alpha as a potential mate. “You know we can’t do anything.”

“Relax,” I said. “I’m the one who was getting all aroused just the other week.”

“Well, you were touching up all over me,” he said.

“I was blotting the soup stain you made on the blanket.”

“That wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t fussing over feeding me,” he said.

I had been treating Vasilis like a patient, and I took patient care seriously. “I had to, otherwise you could’ve done permanent damage to your collarbone, and then you might have had some deformed bone structure forever.” He stared at me, almost like he wasn’t even taking in the words I was telling him. “Or never be able to shift again. Did you think about that?” I didn’t know it that was true, but as with everything in my life, there wasn’t a research guide on how Alpha operated, which would’ve come before any omega guide, that was for sure.

“I’m just—” He shook his head, his eye twitching almost like he was winking at me.

“You need to enjoy the sun,” I said.

“No, no, I can’t do that, I’m happy to stay indoors.”

“Forever?”

In my mind, because he wouldn’t confirm anything I asked him, I was under the assumption he worked for the Serpentine Syndicate but had defected, and he knew if they found him, they’d have killed him.

“Just for as long as it takes until I’m back at full potential,” he said.

“And what if that never happens?”I knew he didn’t want to think abotu that, but it was a possibility. “You sustained some pretty bad wounds on that fall. The only time I’ve seen wounds heal that slowly are from, well, when my brother scratched at my face, trying to show me his ability.”

Vasilis stepped closer, for the first time, rather then stepping away. “The crescent shape,” he said. His warm gaze caressing the mark on my temple. “Now that you mention it, it does look like a claw.”

“Yeah, well, he shifted his hands into claws, and it was an accident, but he hit the side of my head. It was an open wound for weeks. My mom couldn’t do anything to help it heal.”

“So, how did it heal?”

“Eventually, all things heal,” I told him. “But we learned that my brother probably had a chemical in his claws that burned skin, which just kept my skin burning in that specific area. He’s lucky.” I’d never tell him that to his face, James already had a big head, he didn’t need a bigger one. “If I had skills like that, maybe my family would actually respect me.”

“I’m sure they respect you plenty,” he said. “You’re able to live out here and nobody has come to see you, not once.”

A smirk formed on my lips as I wondered about what would’ve happened if they had taken an interest in my life the way they did my siblings. “They wouldn’t,” I told him. “They put all their works into my brother and sister, and trust me, they’ve spoken at length about how much they want me to work for them, but I’m committed to my nursing degree.”

“Well, if you’re ever going to need a review, I’ll give you five stars for the service,” he said, and now I wasn’t compeltely sure if he was flirting or not, but I desperately wanted to jump on his body and see. He snapped his fingers. “You good?”

“Huh?”

“You kinda just stared at me,” he said. “Like blank.”

“Oh. Yeah, I was just thinking what would happen if my folks came down from the house, and then I was wondering what they’d say if they saw you,” I mused aloud to him. “They wouldn’t know what to do, I don’t think. M mom would probably pull me aside, scold me privately about having a guy over, and then obviously, telling her you were part of the Serpentine Syndicate would—”

Vasilis let out a grumble as he shook his head. “Don’t tell anyone that,” he said. “It’s not who I am, and I definitely don’t want to be known for that.”

“I wouldn’t immediately tell her, but I’m not going to lie,” I said. “She deserves the truth when it comes to someone living here. And she’d probably be sympathetic towards you as well. You know, you’re leaving that life behind.”

He continued to shake his head. “There’s no leaving that life behind when people keep thinking of you with them,” he said. “So, is that all you think of me?”

“You said it yourself, I gotta keep my distance from you,” I reminded him of his owrds only moments ago. “Almost like you think you’re gonna be unable to control yourself and will attack.” My eyes rolled. “I can be pretty vicious too, you know how small I can go when I shift? My claws are like razors.”

“I believe you,” he said, stepping closer, his big smile spread across his face like he was entertaining my belief I could’ve been dangerous. “But I really don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay here. I’m a viper, you’re a squirrel, we—”

“Flying,” I butted in.

“We shouldn’t even be hanging out.”

“We’re not hanging out.” A lie, of sorts. I enjoyed spending time with him when I wasn’t out at the clinic I was interning at. “I’m your nurse.”

“My nurse,” he snickered. “Speaking of, do you have any pain relief? My collarbone is aching. I don’t realize how much pressue is put on my body from just standing.”

Vasilis needed me. He was in no position to be running around, and definitely not asking me to stay away from him. I gave him a little all-knowing smirk. “Go sit down then,” I said. “I’ll get you the pain killers and more soup. Obviously.”

“Come on, give me something with meat, at least.”

I clicked my tongue. “Maybe I’ll grab some chicken after my shift tonight.”

“Fried chicken?”

“Yeah, if that’s hwhat you want.”

He laughed before his smile faded and he sucked on his teeth. “Ok, now I’m actually in pain.”

I clapped my hand at him, as if to chase him away. “Go, go. Have you been drinking plenty of water too? That’s why the soup is important. You’re not hydrating.”

***

My eyelids fluttered open to see Vasilis applying a cold cloth to my forehead, compressing it and cooing. I was running warm, my skin on fire, burning like a fire unable to fizzle out, fixated behind my skin.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” he whispered. “I can’t stay here long. Do you need anything?”

I needed to be both covered up andd undressed completely. I didn’t want to be awake right now, but I also didn’t want to go back to my dreams that were filled with painful memories I’d long since buried.

“I feel something off, but I can’t put my finger on it,” he said, pulling the cloth away and then back to my forehead. “Do you want some of my blood? Maybe that will heal you.”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to dabble in his blood. I knew it was toxic, even if I was supposedly the cure. “Maybe you can go find something in the doctor’s office for me,” I told him. Everything blurred for a moment, almost like my eyes were swelling inside my skull, and deflating with each breath.

“Fuck, I don’t want to leave you like this,” he said, pulling the cloth away again and replacing it with a kiss. “I’m going to leave this on your head, and I’m going to set some bottled water with the cap off on the bedside.”

“Yeah.” I knew I hd to keep my fluids up, because the hot and cold shivers across my body meant I was definitely sweating them all out. “You should go. Don’t let anyone find me.” I couldn’t protect myself from this onslaught of sickness. It was my fault, and in hindsight, I should’ve known not to use my shifted claws on my human skin.

“I’ll be back once I’ve found something,” he said. “And I need to check on the omegas. I believe they’re all awake. Hopefully, none of them have Rotmor left in their system as well. My conscious would feel a little lighter.”

I stared up into Vasilis’s sympathetic eyes, they were the eyes of the man I’d met all those years ago. They weren’t the cruel pinched glances I’d seen on him when we met again in that bar. And a memory flourished to the front of my mind. It was our first kiss, again.

“I’m trying to remember the advice you gave me,” he said. “Deep breaths, fluids, and I guess pain killers, but I don’t have around. Fuck, this is why I knew I’d make a horrible mate. I’m not prepared to take care of anyone else. I could barely ever take care of myself.”

Reaching his face, I touched his chin with my sweaty palm. “It just needs to work itself through me. I’ll be fine. Plus, I liked taking care of you.”

He gave me another kiss on the lips, a strange taste to it. Sweet, yet bitter. As he pulled away, I saw the blood from his tongue, redden his lips. “It’s the only thing I could think,” his voice grew distant as I fell back into a deep sleep.