Page 8 of An Alpha’s Guide to Finding the One

Wyatt’s jaw drops, while Rhys just raises an eyebrow. He’s used to chaos, having grown up in a home with twelve brothers and sisters, but even so I expect him to fully grill me later after he’s had a chance to let the information settle. “What do you mean?”

Lucky turns to Wyatt, gripping his hand for support. Those two have always been physically affectionate with each other, and while I don’t know if it has ever been more than that, I also don’t really care. It is just reassuring to see them still acting like themselves despite having this bomb dropped on them. Even though Lucky knew, he didn’t know it was this girl or that she’s currently in the hospital and pregnant. “Remember the girl I told you about last month?” Lucky mutters to Wyatt.

Wyatt nods immediately, his eyes widening. “The dog walker?”

A smirk steals across my brothers face, and he bites his lip as Wyatt barks a laugh. “Oh man, I should have known.”

I aim a questioning look their way, and Wyatt smiles. “The girl is feisty as hell. Ran circles around our resident playboy and took off before he even woke up.”

That stuns me. My brother, for all his prowess, is not one to let a girl talk him in circles. The fact that this slip of an omega was able to send him into this much of a tailspin has me curious about who she is as a person. What makes her tick? Would she submit to my particular brand of care, or would she buck against it like the pretty brat she played with Lucky?

“Is there anyone here for a Lainey Ryan?” A tall alpha clad in a white coat strides into the waiting room, his face a mask of polite concern.

I don’t know what comes over me, but I stand without hesitation and stride over with a hand out. “We’re her pack.” The lie rolls off my tongue easily, a continuation of my earlier lie to the nurses.

I can feel echoes of shock through our pack bond, but I don’t have time to explain my impulses or the insanity that has been circling my brain since I caught her scent at the fire. Knowing she was hurt, that she had been in danger and I wasn’t there? It’s doing wild shit to my impulses and my alpha is absolutely rabid at the thought of being kept away from her a moment longer than strictly necessary.

The doctor looks hesitant when the rest of my pack joins us, likely since not one of us has a visible bond mark, but he leads us down the long hall anyway. The smell of disinfectant is overpowering back here, like someone recently cleaned every flat surface. “My name is Doctor Franklin and I have been the primary on Ms. Ryan’s case. She was incredibly lucky and seems to have only suffered minor smoke inhalation. It should have been much worse, but once she came around she informed us she wrapped a wet t-shirt around her face since she was not able to exit the building. She had been passed out when firemen finally extracted her from the fourth floor window.”

Anxiety and sheer terror wrap around my throat like a vice as my stomach churns. Just a few more minutes inside that building could have taken her from us and we would have never known. I don’t pray, but I am thanking every deity I can name she made it out alive.

“What about the baby?” Wyatt asks. Lucky looks both concerned and nauseous, a look I see reflected on our other pack mates as well. I am not surprised Wyatt is the one who asked, seeing as he’s the pragmatist to Lucky’s free spirit.

“Your baby is healthy from what we can see. He or she is measuring right on track at twelve weeks.” The doctors expression lifts the barest fraction, his reassurance allowing me to breathe for the first time in what feels like hours.

We stop at room 777, which feels like another of fate’s twisted machinations. First, bringing me right to the girl my brother has been searching for for months and finding out she’s likely pregnant with his baby, and now her room number is his lucky number and jersey number?

It feels like fate is laughing at us.

The doctor leaves us to it and the moment we enter the room, Lainey’s eyes widen and her heart monitor goes crazy. I stride to her side, knowing she might punch me but desperate to calm her down. I grip her chin carefully between my thumb and forefinger, lowering my body so my eyes are level with hers. “Lainey, breathe.” The bark is no more than a whisper, but still has the echo of a true alpha bark. As an omega, her body will demand she obey. I hate that this is her first true impression of me, but I couldn’t supersede the instincts controlling me right now if I tried.

Her breathing immediately slows, a short cough escaping as she gasps for air. There’s a small cup of water with a straw on the table next to her bed, so I slip it between her lips and heave a sigh of relief when she drinks greedily. Before she can finish the glass I pull it away. “Not too much, I don’t want you to get sick.”

Confused brown eyes follow every move I make and only widen when I crouch down next to the shitty hospital bed. My alpha is begging me to get her on a soft mattress, or better yet, a nest that smells like the pack. I shake the thought away, knowing if I have any say, she’ll be coming home with us as soon as she’s discharged. “I know you’re confused and probably pretty scared right now, so why don’t I tell you what I know?”

She nods, hands fisted tightly in the thin blanket. I toss a sideways glance at Rhys and then look to the blanket and back, grateful when he nods and immediately leaves the room. Lainey looks cold, and I won’t be able to focus properly until she’s warm.

“I suppose I’ll start with introductions. My name is Lawson Daire. I’m the Sunday Harbor sheriff, and I was one of the people on scene tonight after the fire was reported. Do you remember being in the fire?”

A nod.

“Do you know how it started?”

Tears immediately spring to her eyes, and I panic. “I, I th-think it was m-my fault,” she cries. Great, wracking sobs shake her fragile body, and all I want to do is pull her into my arms.

So I do.

As gently as I possibly can, I slide Lainey over on the bed and settle in next to her. Half my ass is off the mattress, but with how distracted I am by the way she burrows into my arms, I honestly couldn’t give a fuck. I’ll move when she kicks me out and not a second before.

I rub my cheek across her hair in what I hope is a soothing gesture. It also might be soothing my alpha to have my scent on her when she’s in distress, but that feels selfish so I’ll say it’s only for her comfort. “How on earth was it your fault, angel?”

If she notices my slip of the tongue, she doesn’t comment on it. Using a nickname on someone I just met might be forward, but even with her scent muted by smoke, it has embedded itself permanently in my senses. Add that to the way she so readily accepted my care and it’s doing wild fucking stuff to my impulses.

She shudders, burrowing even further into my hold. Another cough ekes out and Wyatt hands me her water so she can take another sip. “The dorm rooms are really small and they didn’t have any omega rooms left this late in the semester, so when I started feeling overwhelmed and needed a nest, I made one under my bunk.”

We all nod along, but it’s Rhys who interrupts her. “How does you nesting under your bed, which never should have been allowed to happen, by the way, equate to the dorm catching on fire?”

Lainey flinches like she’s been struck, and I glare at my pack mate for not softening his tone while simultaneously starting up my rusty purr. I’ve never used it for anyone but Lucky after our parents died, so it’s a little rough with disuse. Rhys is a total teddy bear, but with his tattoos, piercings, large frame, and general surly attitude, he can be intimidating to even the most steady of people, let alone a traumatized omega. He catches my look and instantly grimaces. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I meant that they should have set you up in one of the apartments or omega-only floors. Not relegated you to nesting on the floor under a fucking bunk bed.”