Page 38 of Omega Shattered
I touched Quinn's clammy forehead and jerked my hand away. "Really, really hot. Too hot to touch, almost."
He made a strangled sound. "You think she's over 104°?"
"How the hell would I know what 104° feels like, asshole?"
"Does it feel like you could fry an egg on her skin?" he asked dryly.
"Yes."
"Sounds like she's in heatshock. It's rare, but it happens sometimes to omegas who go too long without a knot."
"What the hell?" I stared at the limp omega in my truck and reached out to touch her. She was scorching. It didn't feel survivable. "Is it dangerous?"
"Yeah, deadly without treatment." He sounded worried. "She needs the hospital. Call 911 now."
"I've called, they're busy. What can they do for her?"
"They have drugs to artificially bring her heat down to a normal range."
"What about a knot?" My eyes didn't leave her face, with those gray eyes dully staring into nothing. "Would a knot help?"
"Yeah, but you're not doing that to her, River. She hates alphas. She hates YOU."
"More than dying?"
There was silence on the other end, then he said, "Try to get her into the snow and cool her off. It should buy some time until the paramedics get there."
I managed to get my door open and lift Quinn out of the passenger seat, sliding back out of the vehicle so I could lay her in the snow. She screamed when it touched her skin, and I snatched her back up again.
"We have to get you cooled down." Her skin burned right through the layers of clothing we both wore, her shirt drying as I held her to my chest.
My phone rang, and I picked it up. "She screamed when I put her in the snow."
"I was calling to say don't do that," Kade said from the other end. "She'll go into shock if you chill her too fast."
"Then what the fuck do I do?!"
"Skin to skin," he said calmly.
"We're on our way!" Archer yelled from the background.
"Okay, I'm calling 911 again, and I'll do the skin to skin thing."
"Okay." Kade hung up.
I scrambled back into the truck, laying my seat down and pulling her on top of me.
"Sorry, but I have to strip you down," I told her, pulling the shirt over her head.
Quinn didn't respond, but she nuzzled her face into my neck, her eyes closed as she burned with a fiery heat on top of me. I dialed 911 again and set the phone to speaker, laying it on the console between the seats. The same message played as I tugged my coat and then my shirt off, leaving me bare from the waist up.
"Okay, come on, we're going to get you settled and safe until the guys or the paramedics get here," I soothed, leaning back in the seat and pulling her onto my chest.
Skin to skin, her heat was intolerable. I couldn't imagine what it felt like to be inside her body. I wrapped my arms around thetrembling, panting omega and waited, praying my pack would get here soon.
After 30 minutes on hold with emergency services, my phone died. I hadn't charged it with everything going on at the house. The cold was creeping into the truck, and Quinn still burned in my arms. We didn't even need a heater. She was furnace enough.
"I can't take you back if you're dead," I muttered, tucking her hair behind her ear so I could see her face. It was scrunched in pain. She'd been mostly still for the past half hour, but now she was writhing and making little whimpering sounds. It was breaking my heart.
