Chapter Eight

Tate

An alarm woke me up. A beeping I’d never heard before. Someone make it stop.

“What…” I croaked, not able to get the rest of my question out. My throat felt like someone had rubbed sandpaper inside its walls.

“Easy,” someone said from my right. My eyes fluttered open to find bright lights and a pale-white ceiling above me.

The beeping hastened.

“Here,” the voice said again. “Drink something.” A straw was pressed to my dry lips, and I sucked down a good amount before it was taken from me.

“Where am I?” I managed to get out. I lifted my hand realizing there was a pricking sensation on the back of my wrist.

“You don’t remember? Let me get the nurse.”

I turned my gaze to find a tall, broad man standing over my bed, pressing a button on the guardrail near my head. I squeezed my eyes shut and hissed as someone’s voice asked what we needed. The voice was barely intelligible above the radio-like static.

“He’s awake.”

“We’re on our way.”

The man sat on the chair next to the bed and patted my hand. “Everything is going to be okay.”

His voice and touch triggered my thoughts. Shit. I’d been hit by a car. Ryder. Or Ryder’s goons. The alley. The dumpster wheels. The wetness. The pain. The man. The alpha. He saved me. “Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Bronson.”

Bronson. The way he said his name, the voice wrapped around my chest and warmed parts of me that had been cold for so long. “You were there. You wouldn’t let me die.” I pushed down on the bed on either side of my hips to sit up a bit but as soon as I moved my torso, pain stabbed my sides. My lungs were on fire. There wasn’t a spot on my body that didn’t ache.

“No. I couldn’t let you die. I don’t even know your name. You had a wallet with nothing more than a few dollars in it. No ID. No driver’s license. Nothing. They were calling you John Doe until you woke up.”

“It’s Tate,” I said, cringing at my slipup. The truth so easily fell from my lips. Maybe because this alpha made me feel safe.

“Tate. Can you tell me what happened?”

I leaned my head back against the paper like pillowcase. The smell of bleach and disinfectant infiltrated my senses, along with the spicy warmth of the man next to me. “I don’t want to get you involved. People near me get hurt. It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Let me worry about my own safety. The paramedics said you weren’t beaten like I thought. They suspected a car accident. But I can’t figure out why you ran and decided to die behind a dumpster.”

I laughed, but the motion sent a new wave of pain through my chest and waist. “Not my best decision. And the paramedics were right. I was hit by a car. A speeding car.”

“So, why not stay at the scene? Get some help. Unless…”

Bronson finally got it. His smoky eyes clouded as his pupils widened. He scooted to the edge of the chair and was about to say something else when the door opened. “Good morning. Let’s get your vitals. How is your pain?”

The slim human flitted through the room, checking my IV and numbers on the screen and typing things into the computer.

“Everything hurts,” I said.

“On a scale of one to ten? Ten being someone amputated your arm?”

I flicked my gaze to Bronson, not wanting to seem weak in front of him for some reason. “Um, eight?”

“He was hit by a car going full speed and then dragged himself to safety. He’s being modest,” Bronson said to the nurse.

The human blushed and nodded. “Ten it is. I’m going to get you something to put in your IV, so say whatever you need to before then because it will be lights out after that.”

When the nurse left, Bronson put his hand on me again. The beast inside me howled, dragging out the sound, hoping the sound would carry through my throat and to the alpha near me. “Someone did this to you. I need to know who.”

He was a handsome one. Not the type I would normally go for but a bolder type of alpha. His eyebrows were bushy but well-kept. His jaw chiseled. A round face. Serious eyes. Those hands were bigger than my head.

“No, you really don’t. Thank you for your help, but I’m fine. As soon as I can leave here, I’ll move to another town and be nothing more than a memory.”

“You’ll never be just a memory if I have any say in it, omega. I need to go take care of some things but I’ll be back this afternoon.”

“You don’t…” I started to protest, but he leaned over me, nailing me with a stare that had me locked down in the best way possible. My sentence lodged in my throat.

“I will be back later with better food than what they are offering here. Is there something else you would like? Anything?”

Him.

Naked.

“No. I suppose I need to rest.”

His gaze dipped to my lips, and I wished he would lean down a bit more and press his mouth to mine. “Rest up, then, omega. I’ll be back.”

Yeah, I’d heard those words before.