Page 60 of Her Knotty Alphas

I don't answer him, instead grabbing the water nozzle and rinsing out the deep conditioner. I have a special leave-in conditioner with coconut oil that I run through his hair while it's still in the basin, and then I guide him to my chair and put the cape on him.

He looks like he wants to say something, but then the clippers are going, and I give him the high fade he asked for. The curls on top are drying nicely, dark and shiny. I'm determined to get through this haircut in professional capacity. There doesn't need to be any sort of conversation right now. If he wants to talk to me, he can reach out and schedule something.

Yeah, except you blocked his number, ding-dong.

I finish the fade, and pick up my shears to trim the top. My head is pounding now, the headache having gotten twice as badin the time it took to do the fade. Before I can get started, he blurts the question I really hoped he wouldn't ask. "Why did you leave, Hannah?"

Taking a breath, I start shaping the top with the dried curls. "I didn't know you were a scent match. I was shocked. So I left."

"That's not what I'm talking about."

Oh.

"Twelve years ago, Hannah." He tries to meet my eyes in the mirror but I avoid his piercing blue gaze. I also avoid the eyes of all my coworkers who are no doubt eavesdropping on this conversation. "We were happy. We were so in love, and you just left. Why? What happened?"

A bitter laugh leaves me, even as my head throbs behind my eyes. "Why do you care? You just can't stand that you got caught?"

His head jerks so fast he almost ruins his haircut and I glare at him. "What the hell are you talking about, Hannah?"

"Like you said, it's been twelve years, Charlie. We're both adults. You can admit what happened. Catshowedme the texts." I punctuate my sentence with one last clip and put the scissors down. "You're done."

And I can go take some medicine for this stress headache.

"I'mnotdone," he tears the cape off and stands, towering over me. Black spots dot my vision. "I never texted Cat, so whatever you think happened,didn'thappen Hannah!"

All I can see is his frantic gaze, icy eyes pinned on me. My vision starts to swim, as his words start to sound further and further away.

"Hannah?" Everything sounds like it's underwater. Hands on my arms. "Hannah, what—"

Everything goes black.

Chapter 26

Charlie

What the hell did I do?

One minute we were finally talking about it—why she left me when we were still teens—and the next, we're in the emergency room. Scariest twenty minutes of my life, catching Hannah before she hit the tile floor of the salon and waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Now, she's in a hospital bed and hooked up to an IV. I'm sitting at her bedside, her hand in mine while Austin paces behind me, Noah sits in the corner, and Enzo speaks to the doctor outside, which just so happens to be Simon De Lucca.

He was able to verify that we're her new pack, so Enzo has some leeway regarding her medical information. Will she be pissed? I'm not sure. But Simon called Cady—her actual emergency contact—to see if this is what Hannah would want, and Cady confirmed, so here we are.

The steady beep of the heart monitor is the only noise in the room besides the muffled voices of Simon and Enzo just outside the door.

"Scent sickness…" Austin trails off, shaking his head. "How did we miss that?"

Hannah didn't tell us about the scent sickness—it was in her file sent over by her doctor, Doctor Mejia. The date of her last visit coincides with the day I walked in on them in the kitchen together, feeling like an intruder in my own damn house.

I don't know whether to be pissed that she didn't think to at least tell the other members of her pack about this pretty serious, but easily fixable, medical issue, or to feel like shit that she didn't feel safe telling us about it.

"It doesn't make any sense." I swallow roughly. "She…she was with you guys last night, wasn't she?"

We were at home earlier, and Noah had just finished telling me about their dinner the night before and how they watched my game. Hearing about how she cheered for me…it made me think maybe things were fixable. So I called in and took an open appointment. I had no idea she had just had a super stressful call with the lawyer.

Before he can answer, the door clicks open, and Enzo, Simon, and another doctor—a beta woman looking to be in her fifties—walk in.

Noah stands abruptly, and Austin freezes in place. The other doctor looks at us with mild amusement before her eyes settle on Hannah and soften.

"Gentleman," Simon says, clearing his throat and adjusting his glasses, "this is Doctor Mejia, Hannah's primary doctor. She's going to do an evaluation, since the passing out seems to be a symptom of a bigger issue, and not the actual problem."

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