Page 3 of Going Down Smooth: Part Two

“Why isn’t she opening her eyes?” Trey asks, his voice sounds panicked. If I could open my eyes, I am sure I’d see him clutching the baseball cap he had on earlier. I want to reach out and reassure him, to reassure all of them that I’m here. I’m okay.

“I am going to need you to move now, sir,” someone says. Thick straps band around my body. As a large pad is placed around my neck. I feel disoriented, all of this feels like an out of body experience. I thought I was dying, but maybe this is another dream, and I am willing my brain to believe I’m being saved.

“I know you’re her pack but without any mating marks we can’t verify any of these claims until we get to the hospital. It’s a protocol to protect all Omegas. You can follow us to the hospital, but we need to get her there as soon as possible,” a soft voice finally breaks through more of my fog.

“Fine,” Knight and Lox say at the same time.

A booming sound goes off, followed by the sounds of running, water being sprayed in the distance, and people screaming orders at one another. Everything begins to fade once more. The sound of sirens pulls me under, as everything my father built burns to the ground.

TWO

LOX

“Idon’t care! I want her out of the ER and taken up to a private suite! I want it done now!” I shout at the poor Beta nurse. Her eyes widen for a second in surprise at my raised voice, then she fixes her professional mask on her face and addresses me calmly. I am sure she is used to assholes coming in, demanding things from her and any of the other nurses or doctors assisting the sick and dying.

The place is packed full of people in need, desperately in need of care. Who knows how long they’ve been waiting for assistance? I feel for them all, I really do, but right now, I will pull rank for my little mouse. I’m not just anyone. She must be new here because she doesn’t flinch or shy away in recognition. A portrait of my family hangs in the main atrium of this hospital; my father sits on the board, my family built this place.

Holding out her hands in a placating gesture, she approaches me like a cornered, injured animal. “Sir, she has to be assessed. We understand that you’re worried, but these things take time. Please, just give the doctors a chance to—”

“Not good enough!” I roar in her face. Yep, that does it. She flinches. I know I am causing a scene, and from the sound of the other nurses behind the desk, someone has called security. Good. Let them come. I grab at my locs, pacing like a caged lion. We’ve been here for two hours; she should have been assessed already. Fuck! We shouldn’t have left Mercy alone, we should have stayed with her today.

“Lox. Calm the fuck down.” Knight grabs my arm, pulling me away from the wide-eyed nurse but I yank out of his hold.

“No, Knight. If I can get her out of here faster, I will. She’s been here for hours now.” I round on him as he crosses his arms over his chest. I can tell he is just as anxious as I am, but I am beyond reason at this point. I lower my voice. “I don’t want anyone attempting to come in here and harm her further. If we can get her upstairs, we can monitor who comes in and out of her room,” I whisper through clenched teeth.

“I hear what you’re saying, brother, but throwing your weight around when you have no grounds to do so is only making things worse,” he replies in frustration, as Trey and Nate both stop their own pacing to join us. I know Knight is right. I gave this all up for Mercy and them. I have no say here, at least not anymore. I regret nothing.

“Nurse Braxton, I heard there is trouble. What— Maxim?” I watch Knight’s nostrils flare at the sight of the person behind me. Nate and Trey’s eyes widen a fraction as I bristle at the sound of my biological brother’s voice. How long has it been since I walked out on my parents? Since I left him to shoulder my supposed familial responsibilities.

“Doctor Loxley, this man is demanding—”

“I’ll handle my brother from here, nurse.”

She gasps. Yep, she gets who she is talking to now, but it doesn’t make me feel any better, only more irate at the entire situation. I turn slowly.

“Heath.” My younger brother is as tall as me, his skin a shade lighter, clean shaven, short neatly trimmed hair. He is the complete opposite of me; everything I am not, and I am okay with that. His crisp white lab coat covers his black trousers, white shirt and black tie. His lips form a thin line of disapproval that is so much like our father’s, I want to cringe. My brother and I haven’t spoken in years. This part of my life, the part where I walked away from my family and my duty as the eldest son, I avoided it like the plague. But with Mercy literally at the mercy of this hospital, I will take whatever bullshit he’s about to spew. I deserve it actually.

“I would have come out here sooner, considering who the paramedics rushed into my ER, but the nurse is right, she needs to be assessed properly. Miss Smooth is being moved up to the private wing as we speak,” Heath says, always the professional. He’s not one to air his grievances with me out here in front of everyone. Oh no, that’s not the Loxley way. Heath takes a step towards us and pauses. “I know how you feel about Mercy, she is your Omega, so emotions are running high. Let me escort you up.”

Trey pushes past me, followed by Nate as my brother turns on a dime and beckons with his hand for us to follow him. I stand frozen for a moment as they move past the nursing station and through the doors that lead to the main hospital. Yeah, he knows how I feel about her alright, enough to wash my hands of my entire family. I don’t know if he is being genuine or if that was a jab at my expense.

“She’s more than just our Omega, Heath,” I growl low in my throat. He turns and gives me a curt nod but doesn’t otherwise respond.

Knight tsks beside me. “You did all that and now you don’t want to move? Seriously, Lox, what did you expect when you came in here acting like you own the place? I know all this stirs up some shit you don’t want to deal with but maybe this is a good thing. Clear the bad blood with Heath, at least. Remember, you walked away from the life your parents wanted for you, and now he is shouldering it.” Knight pats me on the shoulder, but when I don’t move, he sighs. “Let’s go. Mercy needs us. She is first above all else.” Knight leaves me standing in the middle of the waiting room with the memories of the day I walked away from my family too vivid to push down.

“Maxim, I thought your friendship with the Smooth girl was a phase. I knew we shouldn’t have indulged your relationship with her. If your father and I thought for a second you would come in here with these silly ideas of walking away from your legacy. . . You can’t be serious.” My mother stared down her nose at me in disgust as she paced behind my father, who sat behind his desk in his study. He looked at me as if he didn’t know what to do with me. Disappointment was what came to mind; the only word I could put to the glare that was cutting through me like a knife. His hands were laid flat on the pile of papers in front of him, the only sign that this was affecting him was the sight of his fingers slowly clenching around the now crinkled edges of the pages. As much as their behavior used to make me fall in line, then I refused. He audibly sighed.

I had thought I would come home, gather some more clothes and sneak back out of the house before anyone noticed me. Of course, the family butler had notified them of my presence immediately. I’d been avoiding my parents for weeks since my sixteenth birthday. I knew it was coming; they’d thought they could arrange a pack for me, handpicked by them, including the Omega they’d chosen for me. It happened all too often with families like mine. When you came from a family of this stature, tradition and prestige was everything. It wasn’t about what you wanted but what was good for the family image as a whole. I wanted none of it. I’d made my intentions clear, and I didn’t want their legacy. I wanted my chosen brothers by my side, and I wanted Mercy. My little mouse.

“There’s no point bringing me in here to lecture me. I have a pack and I have Mercy—”

“She has no designation, Maxim! She’s not good enough. It doesn’t matter who her family is. The Smooths, although prosperous and well-known, are not our equal.” My mother clicked her tongue and I cut a glance to my father, who remained quiet. That was how it always went; he let my mother do the talking. I guessed he just signed the checks. Figured.

I stood. I was done listening, because this would go round and round in circles, and I would still have come to the same conclusion. I didn’t want this life. I thought of my younger brother and sister, a pang of sadness hit me in my chest because I knew that what I was about to do would change everything for them. Maybe if I had never met Knight, Nate, and Trey there would have been a different outcome here. If I had never laid eyes on mouse, then I would have gone along with my family’s plans for me.

My father cleared his throat. “Maxim, if you walk out of here, you walk away with your trust fund and nothing more, Son. I’m not heartless, that money is yours by birthright. I only hope you make the most of it because that is all you will get from me. You will lose everything else. Are they worth it?” He tilted his head as if to study me. Was I being weighed and measured? Possibly. What was more important? Money or family? Blood or comfort? His words were both heavy and freeing at the same time. My mother went to speak but his hand shot up in the air, shushing her without even a backward glance.

At sixteen, you would think that this decision to walk away from my family would have been a hard one, but it wasn’t. I had a family; a family of my choosing. I backed away from them both, and my mother’s face crumbled. I was sure she was more sad about having to explain this to the women in the country club than she was about my decision to leave. My father gave nothing away though, as he watched me go.

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