Page 5 of Watcher's Omega

“He’s different,”my wolf said into my thoughts.“He’s different because he knows he has to focus on his job and pay attention. He’s paying attention for us.”

I curled up on the bench, hoping Guard Tantra told the hospital staff where to find me once Glenn was out of surgery.

Chapter Three

Rhomas

Hemlock Memorial Hospital, Hemlock Mountain

The biggest threat to Glenn’s immediate survival was shock. If they moved the surgery to fix his broken collarbone along too quickly his body would recoil from the invasion. If they waited too long, it would heal crooked and even with future surgeries, he’d probably never be as good as new and suffer from lifelong chronic pain. The biggest threat to his long term health was infection. If his alpha/omega gene didn’t kick in soon, he might need blood from an alpha through some therapy designed to speed up healing in omega shifters discovered by Doctor Michael Lawngry in the GGB years ago. Only his chart said he was part vampire. So, if he went into shock I had a backup plan. It was one that might get me fired but it wouldn’t be the first time I fed a vampire. Hell, half my siblings in my age group had fed on me at one time or another. Wild born blood runs strong. If push came to shove, I’d save Glenn. If they fired me, so be it. I could work at any hospital. There was only one of me and I was here to save lives, not sit idly by while my true-mate’s best friend died.

Jolly looked up at me a nano second before the static crackled across my skin. I slapped the button and shoved my mask on, nearly taking off one of my ears as I moved toward the gallery steps. Jolly followed on my heels as if I led him on a hunt. None of the staff looked up from their tasks as I entered the room. The door was in the back of the OR. Big, red, and ornatewith carvings of fangs and vines. On the table Glenn convulsed against the straps that held him in place for surgery. His face was uncovered but sheeted off from the view of his body. The surgical team were ants in a chaos storm.

“Rhomas?” the surgeon inquired, his voice level but strained. He was starting to sweat through his pina colada pheromone blocker spray.

I said nothing but held my hand out to Jolly. He looked at me and cocked his head as if asking if I seriously meant for him to do what I asked. I nodded and a stinging second later his canine brought blood from my palm. A nurse tried to step in my way but I stepped past him and pulled down Glenn’s bottom lip and smeared my blood on it. It was the only part of his mouth I could get to with him still in the full surgery set up. His eyes flickered open and the rabbit shifter anesthesiologist swore at me. I held my palm there letting the blood soak into his gums.

“Mother, save him,”I called out in my mind, following the old, invented religion of my childhood.

The door cracked open and a furry snout appeared. Mother had answered again and watched with one glowing eye. Her mossy, forest magic drifted across the room and soaked into me. Through my blood it transferred to Glenn who had stopped convulsing. The surgeon tried to order me out of the operating room, but I wasn’t budging.

“Finish your work!”

“You are not sterile!” he said and pushed the security button with his foot.

“Don’t make me fight you. He’s the friend of the other half of my soul. Do your job,” I said.

The wolves behind the door growled as it faded away. If it had lingered a few moments longer, they might have burst out to fight those who threatened to send me away.

“Rhomas,” my dad’s voice reached my ears, and I almost jerked my palm away. I’d been too focused on the door and Glenn, so I hadn’t heard him enter the OR.

Wearing his green wolf scrubs, Lee Knight-Hemlock was an imposing force in the operating room. He was called for his opinion on every emergency vampyric surgery. He’d come for this one. Something inside me sighed. Glenn would live after all.

“Go donate blood properly. Tell them I want it hot and ready to be put through a feeding tube if necessary. Leave me Jolly, if you can handle it,” he said.

“Stay with Dad,” I told Jolly. “Let him know if the door tries to come back, okay?”

Jolly nodded and walked over and leaned against the surgeon’s legs until he stepped away making room for my dad. Once I knew the surgical staff wasn’t going to take out their anger at my breach in protocol on my service wolf or dad, I left the room at a sprint.

“I guess Jolly is doing our job now?”my wolf wondered inside his inner sanctum.

Chapter Four

Eamon

Hemlock Memorial Hospital, Hemlock Mountain

Rhomas was on the move and so was I. Had something gone wrong? His thoughts gave away so little. He was headed towards the lab but where was that? I’d never gotten blood drawn at this hospital before. I tried to search his thoughts but because he couldn’t sense me as our link was only half open, he couldn’t help me. I wandered the halls for a few minutes before a nurse found me.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, her eyebrows arching so high on her forehead I thought they might fly off.

“I’m looking for the lab,” I said.

“Who sent you there?” she asked.

“Uh…”

“Let me see the lab order,” she held out her hand.