Chapter Seven

Bronson

Damn.

I’d just been thinking that I’d be single forever, grateful for a night or two with someone, and then bam! This omega turned up, severely injured, and touched me in a way no other ever had. If he’d just gone off to the hospital with the paramedics, I’d probably never have seen him again. After all, I didn’t know him from Adam. Not even his name. But in the chaos surrounding the arrival of the authorities, an odd thing happened.

The human emergency workers assumed I was the injured omega’s significant other or maybe next of kin. They weren’t very clear about their impressions beyond the fact that they offered me a seat in the back of the ambulance for the ride to the hospital. And odder still, I climbed in and went.

My wolf was particularly insistent that we go and make sure the omega was all right, preferably right after chewing up whoever harmed him in this way. But at this point, nobody seemed to be able to figure out how he was injured. He’d claimed he wasn’t beaten, but he sure looked like it.

They had me stand aside while they gently lifted him onto a gurney and strapped him in, covered with a coarse blanket that was not at all what I would choose to warm him with. A soft quilt, a cotton sheet…me.

How could I even be thinking like this in such a tragic moment? As I took my place beside him, I rested a hand on his shoulder, feeling like anyone should be able to feel a friend nearby when they were in such bad shape. He wasn’t even conscious anymore, so far as I could tell, and a spark of panic made me want to feel his warmth, to know he had not tipped beyond life.

The hospital lay no more than ten minutes away, but it felt like an hour while the driver wove in and out of traffic, siren blaring and lights flashing. The other attendant sat beside me on the bench, monitoring the mysterious patient’s vitals.

Calling the human emergency services had been a risk. In most cases, the omega would have been able to shift into his wolf and heal, but that required full consciousness and a measure of strength he just didn’t have.

As long as they didn’t need to operate, it should be okay. I’d heard some rumors about shifters who required surgical intervention, and while our human forms were pretty close to the regular folk—after all, it wasn’t as if someone was going to find a wolf curled up inside him or anything—there was always the concern that some anomaly would come up.

Finally, we swept into the ER loading area and the omega was wheeled into a curtained cubicle without ever regaining consciousness. Still under the impression that I was his partner or maybe next of kin, I was allowed to follow him in and sit beside him while we waited for a doctor to come in and look him over.

Nurses flitted in and out, taking his vitals and commenting that his heart rate was a little high for someone in his current state, but I just agreed and called it a family condition. Somehow nobody was asking me for much information, which was very lucky because I had almost none.

“The doctor will be in soon.” Yet another nurse I hadn’t seen before poked her head around the curtain. “How are we feeling?”

“Well, you and I are probably fine, but the patient is still not awake, and I hope I’m not remiss in pointing out that might be a problem?” With great difficulty, I kept my wolf from emerging and leaping on her. “So…how soon is soon?”

As it turned out, soon was right that moment, just as the omega opened his eyes and tried to sit up. He went right back out, but that moment seemed to reassure the medical team. He did not need surgery, thankfully, but his injuries were made worse by malnutrition and dehydration.

Any hopes I’d had for getting him out of there would have to be put off for a bit while he regained some strength. And I’d be there with him as much as possible because…well, because I would.