Page 5 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Five

TALIA

My scraped skin was tended to; cleaned and bandaged. The nurse dispensed pain medication to dull the ache of my untended heat and gave me an injection of heat-reduction medication to cut the duration down significantly.

The only wound remaining was the ravaged bite mark on my neck. The nurses here were kind, asking before they touched any part of me and checking in regularly on my pain level as they disinfected and bandaged.

No matter how nice they were, I couldn’t bring myself to let them touch that bite mark.

Holding a hand over it, I shook my head. “It’s… No. Please don’t touch it.”

“Talia,” the head nurse, Phoebe, said gently. “It could get infected if we leave it like that.”

“I know. I’m a nurse, so I know what could happen to it. I just…” Fresh tears welled up. “My mating mark was never supposed to look like that. Or feel like this.”

She gave me a sad smile. “No one ever should have done something like this to you, I agree. I don’t want him to make you feel any further pain, though.”

If the rough-edged bite ended up infected, I could die. I’d be in even more immense pain than I already was. Cleaning it was vitally important. An alpha would usually tend to their own claiming mark, which was much more pleasant than disinfectant and a bandage, but I didn’t have that luxury.

“Can I clean it myself?” Reaching out, I grabbed the wipes she had set out.

She didn’t object to me taking them, though she did look worried. “Do what you can in front of the bathroom mirror, alright? I’ll let your alpha know that you’re ready for company.”

My lips turned up into a small smile. West was here—he’d rushed after me as soon as I’d called him. He could cuddle me and help make this sterile nest into a real, comfortable place. Some of my pain would melt away as soon as I could touch him, I knew it.

Of course, the strong painkillers I’d been given would help too.

I stood up from the edge of the stool Phoebe had me sitting on, looking at myself in the large mirror. My skin was pale, and there were dark circles under my eyes. I’d tied my hair up into a messy bun when I’d gotten here, but strands were falling out already.

The worst part was the dried blood caked on my neck, clinging to the edges of the wound. It made my skin seem even lighter and more sallow.

Swallowing, I lifted a wipe and cleaned away the streaks of blood that had dripped down my throat.

Phoebe was still in the bathroom with me, watching every move I made. It was unnerving. “You can go,” I said quietly. “I’d like West, please.”

She smiled. “It’s good that you have him here. He’s a good guy.”

She was halfway out the door when I realized why that sounded off. “How do you know him?”

“Oh, he’s been visiting Violet here for a few years now.”

Instincts rose up, jealousy making me grit my teeth. “Violet?”

“Yes, his sister.”

The jealousy vanished on my surprised exhale. West had a sister? One who was staying here, in housing for traumatized omegas who need around the clock care?

Why had he never mentioned her? I chewed on my bottom lip as Phoebe said some parting words that I barely heard. The door shut behind her and my nest was officially my own until my heat broke, but it didn’t feel right.

My alpha hadn’t even bothered to tell me he had a sister. Had he not wanted me to meet her?

I knew I was being unreasonable. West didn’t know a damn thing about my family—certainly not the most important part; that my fathers were powerful mafia bosses. We’d barely known each other, and I hadn’t even been sure he’d liked me.

Yet with heat hormones washing over me, it stung that I’d had to learn about Violet from a nurse.

“Talia?” West’s voice came through the nest’s door, right after a knock. “I’m coming in.”

I pouted. He opened the door, glancing around the cozy room with its huge bed piled with pillows and blankets. When he didn’t see me, his gaze swung over to the open bathroom door, and me standing just beyond it.

He spotted my neck immediately.

I’d barely cleaned it, and it was especially obvious with my hair pulled up out of the way.

And there was no other reason he would let out a growl so angry at the sight of me.

“That fucker,” he hissed. “Didn’t he at least tend to it?”

“No,” I mumbled. “Why didn’t you tell me that you have a sister?”

West was halfway across the room to me, and he stopped short at the question. “They mentioned Violet to you?”

“Phoebe said you were a good guy, and I asked how she knew you.”

He cursed under his breath, moving toward me again until he could reach out and brush his fingertips against my shoulder. “Can you sit down? I’ll help you clean that wound and tell you about Violet.”

Placing my hand over the bite mark, I frowned. A part of me didn’t want him seeing it, and especially didn’t want him touching it. West being up close and personal with the mark left by my scent match made it too real.

It was a reminder that he’d never be able to mark me himself, now.

Not unless Benjamin died or accepted West, Conrad, and Mercer into his pack—which they would never agree to. I didn’t want to be connected to that sociopath, so why would they?

I slumped backward against the wall, weakness clutching my limbs again. West placed his hands on my hips, carefully maneuvering me back until I could sit on the stool. I let my hands drop from my neck with a whine.

“I don’t want you to look at it,” I whispered.

He kissed my cheek and grabbed a fresh wipe from the bathroom counter. “Why not?”

“Doesn’t it make you not want me anymore? I’ve been claimed by someone else.”

“Someone who never should have fucking touched you,” he growled. “If Conrad’s claim had stuck weeks ago, you would have been safe with us.”

He hesitated before touching my injury with the wipe, then gently pressed down on it. I winced.

“I wish it had been a successful claiming bite,” West admitted quietly. “You’re in so much danger with us, but I couldn’t have imagined you’d be in more danger without us.”

“I’m in less danger than you think.”

“You don’t understand our world, Talia?—”

“My name is Talia Alfieri, you know. I understand perfectly fine. Is it clean yet? I want to go to the nest, please.”

West had frozen at my last name. I couldn’t blame him.

It was a bit of a bomb to drop, but it felt wrong to keep it from him now.

I would call my family as soon as I was settled in my nest and my heat was causing me a bit less cursed pain, and then I wouldn’t be able to hide from the truth any longer.

I was the daughter of a mafia pack.

“It’s… probably clean enough,” West grunted when he found his voice again. “Let the nurse take a look at it next time she comes in, please.”

The thought of it being touched more gave me a tingle of disgust, but I nodded. “Fine.”

“I’ll shower and then join you.”

He stripped off his shirt, dropping it into a hamper in the corner of the room. I stared at his bare chest, not getting up. He’d undone his jeans before he realized I wasn’t moving. “I can help you to the nest, little omega.”

“Clean me off, first.”

“Haven’t they already bandaged up some of your other injuries? We shouldn’t get those wet.”

“I don’t care. I want to be clean.”

I’d been crawling around on the ground, fallen into a ditch. They’d helped me wipe off the worst of the dirt, but my skin felt sticky and Benjamin’s touch was branded onto me. I needed to wash it all away.

West sighed. “You can’t stand for too long, especially not in a steamy shower. Might faint. Let’s move the stool in there, okay? And you can sit while I wash both of us.”

It was a compromise I could accept, especially since he was right.

Leaning on the wall, I let him move the stool and help me over to it. I tried to reach the zipper of my dress so I could drop it to the floor, but my arms were too sore and shaky to reach.

He was there to help me before I had to ask. With careful fingers he undid the zipper and worked the dress down over my hips, then helped me step out of it and tossed it into the hamper. My bra and panties he left untouched, and I didn’t take them off.

His underwear stayed on too, and he turned the water on to drench us in our few remaining pieces of clothing.

I gasped at the sudden cold on my legs, but then he was there, blocking the water with his broad shoulders so it could warm to a more reasonable temperature.

My cheeks flushed—sitting on the stool, I was eye level with his crotch.

My heat had taken a turn away from arousal, but I knew it could have come roaring back if he’d been wearing nothing right in front of me like this.

I didn’t want that, though.

West and I deserved a better beginning to our relationship. A better first time.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he grunted. “Should be warmer now.”

He moved out of the way, and the water was indeed warmer. It ran down my legs, wetting the bandages on my knees and making the fresh wounds sting beneath.

I winced, and West looked pained. “Does it hurt too badly?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

The sting was the least of my worries. If I waited too long before satisfying at least one of my heat urges—nesting—I’d end up prone and overwhelmed with pain again. We would have to shower fast.

Reaching for the body wash, I’d gotten it half open before West snatched it from me. “I’ll be doing that, little omega.”

“Doing what?”

“Cleaning you. Can’t have you wasting energy when there’s nesting to be done.”

I couldn’t disagree. I’d need all I could salvage if I wanted to create any sort of comfort for this heat. And I didn’t know how long the heat was going to last, either.

My suppressants had failed, but it was the first time they’d failed, so my heat might be short. The trauma I’d been through at the beginning of it, though... It could have odd effects on how my body reacted. There was the heat-reduction medication to factor in, too.

Leaning back against the cold tile wall, I let West rub soap down his body first, and then mine. I closed my eyes and relished the gentle touch, the warm water washing away the dirt and grime of the horrible night.

He washed my hair too, making me spin around so he could lather shampoo and then conditioner through the thick strands. When he’d rinsed the products out, he turned off the water and kissed the top of my head.

“I’ll get a towel to dry you off. Be right back.”

He returned a second later with a fluffy white towel and a smaller one for my hair.

Before this pack, I’d never realized how much I liked being bathed and washed. Cared for like this. Now, I never wanted to give it up. It was so comfortable knowing I was safe that I was half-asleep by the time I’d been laid down in the nest, wearing a baggy t-shirt and a new pair of underwear.

West tried to leave me there, heading toward the nesting room door, but I caught his shirt in my fist. “Lay with me. I’m tired.”

“Alright, little omega. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

He laid down and I settled myself half on top of him, our legs entwined. His body ran warm, keeping me in that cloud of comfort. With his hand stroking my side and his heartbeat pounding a solid rhythm beneath my ear, it was easy to drop into a deep sleep.