Page 59 of Roman

“Yes?” Roman whispered his greeting, knowing his friend would hear him regardless.

“I need you to come to the hospital.” Soren’s voice was sharp, lacking any of his usual teasing tones.

“What for? What are you doing in a human hospital?”

“Gabe was attacked.”

Merde. Roman’s eyes darted reflexively to Danny’s sleeping form. “How bad is it?”

“He’s okay. Relatively. He had a bite and some superficial wounds I was able to heal. But I had to bring him to the ER for a broken arm.”

Not good. Not good at all. “Are you there with him now?”

Soren huffed into the phone. “He wouldn’t let me stay in the room. Kept calling me a monster, kicked me out. I’m outside the hospital’s emergency entrance.”

“What did you do?” Roman accused, dressing as fast as his abilities allowed. Danny still hadn’t stirred.

“I didn’tdoanything!” Soren sounded aggrieved. “I healed the dolt. But Luc wasn’t exactly subtle when he attacked him, and my licking his wounds closed might have raised some additional questions about my own less-than-human condition. I kept him calm enough at the scene with a little compulsion, but whatever pain meds they gave him in the ER messed with it, and that’s when he started panicking, yelling at me to leave.”

Roman was gently shaking Danny awake as he listened to Soren’s rant. It was unusual for his friend to get so worked up. Danny blinked up at him in sleepy confusion. “Gabriel was hurt,” Roman whispered gently. “He is all right, but he is at the hospital. I need you to get dressed.”

Roman watched as the blood drained out of his mate’s face, but Danny only nodded, moving to grab his own clothes from the floor. Roman watched long enough to make sure Danny was steady on his feet before stepping out of the room, into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

He turned his attention back to the phone. “How did you even happen to be there? I thought you lost Luc’s trail?”

There was a long pause on the other end. Then, “I picked it back up again.”

Lying. His friend was lying to him, although Roman wasn’t sure for what possible reason.

“We’ll be there in five minutes,” he snapped out.

“You know this could be a trap to lure Danny in.”

“It could be.” It was definitely a possibility. “But I am imagining the response if I tell Danny he cannot go see his injured brother, and I believe it would not be pretty.”

“You’re whipped.”

“I do not know what that means.”

There was a small, reluctant laugh at the other end of the line.

“Besides,” Roman continued, “Danny works regularly at the hospital despite my protests. Luc does not need to injure his brother to lure him there.”

Soren didn’t sound convinced. “I’ll stick around anyway. I can warn you off if Luc comes close.”

“I owe you a debt, mon ami.”

“Ugh, stop being so dramatic. You owe me nothing. Just get here.”

Roman hung up, relieved to hear his friend’s voice sounding slightly more normal.

The drive to the hospital was a mirror of their earlier drive to the house—tense and silent but for a few questions Danny asked about Gabe’s condition. He clenched his jaw at hearing about the broken arm but said nothing more about it.

Roman wasn’t sure if he should be grateful for the silence or worried.

They spotted Soren outside the hospital doors pacing back and forth in a way that reminded Roman of himself earlier that morning.

“A moment, sweet.” Roman tugged at Danny’s hand to attempt to halt the boy’s entrance into the hospital.

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