Page 117 of Knot Here for You

It’s on the tip of my tongue to protest, to add my voice to the other three alphas in the room already arguing with the nurse. But Topher bends until he can meet my eyes, staring into them. His hand rubs over my cheek, coming away wet. “I’ll take care of her, love,” he murmurs. “We need to let them do their jobs and save her. And that means you have to set her down and get out of this room.”

He straightens and lifts his voice. “The longer we stand here arguing, the longer Vee goes without medical attention. The more likely she won’t wake up.” He looks back at me. “Lay her down and get the fuck out.”

I take a deep breath through my nose, my arms tightening around my girl. Everything in me is demanding I stay, demanding I fight and protect and save her. I feel feral with that need, but my logical mind knows the way to do all of that is to do as the nurse says.

“Fuck,” I mutter before bowing my head to brush a kiss over Vee’s forehead. “I love you so much, baby girl. We aren’t going far and Topher’s gonna stay with you and make sure you’re safe.”

I stand and carefully place her on the bed, brushing her hair back from her face, my touch lingering.

“You can’t just-” Ford starts, but he cuts off when I glare at him.

“We need to let them do this,” I say, voice ragged. “They’ll help her. The best thing we can do is give them space to do that.”

I know all of them want to argue. I can see it in their eyes, but I’ll push my dominance on them if I have to, make them follow my orders, make them leave this room.

Topher wraps his arms around me. “You all need to get checked out, too. Whatever he drugged you with might still be in your system.”

The nurse whips around. “You were drugged?”

Davis runs a weary hand over his face as Asher and Ford move to Vee’s side, readying to leave her in the care of the medical staff. “Must have been. There’s no fucking way we would have done what we did otherwise.”

She gives a jerky nod, as she moves to Vee, fingers finding her pulse. “I’ll have you put in a different room. We’ll take your blood and get you checked out.”

The door opens and a woman with gray hair pulled into a bun strides in. She has a no nonsense look on her face as she takes in the room. “I’m Dr. Sinclair. I’ll be taking care of your omega today. Now get out.”

I grit my teeth around the need to tell her to fuck off, but I know that won’t do any good. We need to give them the space to save Vee’s life.

“Come on,” I growl at my pack. We take turns kissing our girl and then move out of the room.

“Wait in the hall,” the nurse calls after us. “After we get her checked out, I’ll find a room for you.”

I don’t argue with her. It’s what I would have done, anyway. Giving them space doesn’t mean going all the way to the waiting room. I’m not sure I’d be able to, even if that’s what she wanted us to do. Here we can monitor Vee, through the tall thin window in the door.

Topher stays out of the way, his arms crossed over his chest as the nurse and Dr. Sinclair check over Vee, taking her temperature, her heart rate, they shine a light in her eyes, ask questions of Topher that he answers with a lower murmur. I can see the tension in him, though, the concern.

He’s bruised and battered. His knuckles split and bloody. I wonder what happened to him. We didn’t have the chance to talk about it. But it’s likely that whatever it was, wasn’t pleasant. They wanted him out of the way, which means that whatever they gave to us wouldn’t have worked on him.

“We’ll figure it out,” Asher says from behind me, like he can read my thoughts. Maybe he can. I’m not trying to keep the pack bonds shut down at the moment.

Which means they can probably all feel how big of a fucking failure I am. Topher beat to shit, Vee on the brink of death. The rest of my pack drugged. I’m a failure of a prime alpha. I didn’t do enough to protect them. All of them.

None of this should have happened.

I should have shut this shit down before it got to this point.

Anger burns through me. “We know who did this,” I murmur, not taking my eyes off our girl. “We know who drugged us, who sent that girl to tempt us. We fucking know.”

Ford claps a hand on my shoulder as Davis moves in closer. “Maxim.”

I give a jerky nod. “Yes. And it’s about time he learned what happens when you fuck with our pack.”

Rule 29: Be brave, ask for what you need

I’m pretty sure I should be dead. I have this vague feeling that it was supposed to happen, that my broken heart stopped working all together and so my lungs should not be taking in air, my blood should not be moving through my veins, my ears should not be picking up the low grumble of too many male voices.

“We have to let her wake up naturally. You heard the doctor, same as me, Jacks.”

“I just need to know she’s okay.”

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