Page 53 of His Rejected Alpha Mate
I shrugged. It was possible they had. Or it could have already been here. “Maybe, but it was coming for us.”
Trey, with great effort on his part, helped me strip Grady down to his underwear and get him under the covers. I made sure they both had some water and went to check on Angel.
“Daddy, I don’t feel well.” My Angel complained as I approached the bed.
“I know, sweetheart. Your fox should help you feel better soon, then you can get back to playing with your friends.”
“Daddy, where’s Papa?”
Repeating the conversation she had with Jasper, I worried she was worse than I’d thought. She shouldn’t be so confused after only being ill for a couple of hours. Jasper and I hadn’t been in Northarbor all that long when we’d gotten the call that she was ill.
“I’m just going to call your grandad, okay, sweetheart?”
Angelica had drifted off to sleep again. My gut told me this wasn’t right. Sleep was healing, but this sickness was working too fast. I slipped into my room and made the call.
“Hello, son.” My dad rarely answered the phone himself. “Your Papa is setting an I.V.”
“For who?” The question slipped out unbidden.
“You know I can’t answer that. Patient confidentiality and all. We are treating some of the sick betas up at the main house.”
“Everyone is sick here.”
“I heard. Your Papa promised your mate that we would check in on you all in a few days.” Jasper. My heart warmed that even while he wasn’t here, he was still trying to take care of us. “Dad, I’m worried. Grady passed out trying to go upstairs. Trey hasn’t left the bed since he became ill. The worst is that Angel doesn’t remember video chatting with Jasper. She asked me where he was.”
Dad let out a curse. The action was so shocking to me I nearly dropped my phone. “Son, this is moving faster than I thought possible. Give them as much fluid as you can. The fever burns hotter than any I’ve known. If they were human, I think we would have lost some already.” There were sounds on the other side of the line. “Your papa says that we will be there to give I.V. lines tomorrow. If they worsen through the night, call us and we will come straight over.”
My parents would run themselves ragged, caring for all the sick betas. I knew that with certainty. I wouldn’t call them unless circumstances were dire. Angel was young and healthy before this. There were remedies I could try if need be.
Ending the call to my dad with promises to call back if things got much worse, I then called Poppy’s shop and asked for a care package to be delivered with remedies and poultices that I could use on my daughter. Since Grady liked tea, I ordered some healing ones for him and Trey.
Poppy’s assistant delivered them quickly, with careful instructions for their use. I was grateful to the witch for that as I used tonics and tinctures. I roamed the house, unable to stay still as the hours passed. The remedies showed signs of working and allowed me a chance to get a couple of hours’ rest, but by morning I was bone tired. Wary of being out of earshot, I stayed in bed, my bedroom door open so that I could hear our guests or Angel.
Regular texts to Jasper weren’t cutting it. I missed my mate. His scent. His laugh. Everything about him. This house hadn’t been a home until he and Angel had moved in. It wasn’t just bothering me, I knew the distance was hard on him, too. He had the added problem of being away from Angelica. His omega instincts were likely pulling at him to come home and protect his child.
The front door opened, my bear on alert at the sound. “Just us, son.” Dad called. He sounded as weary as I felt. Shoving on some sleep pants, I went downstairs and breathed a sigh of relief at both of my parents bustling around the kitchen, a bakery box on the counter, and the smell of coffee permeating the room.
Papa scanned me quickly and pulled me into a tight hug. “You’re doing your best,” he reassured me.
“I checked on them all a couple of hours ago. They all took the remedies that Poppy’s shop sent. They seem to have helped some.”
“What’s in them?” Dad inquired.
I passed him the sachets of tea for him to read the ingredients. He took a couple of sniffs of the poultice and made a thoughtful sound. “Not bad. James,” he called to Papa, “we need to get The Spell Shop to send us more of this. It’ll help.”
“How bad is it at the house?” I asked.
“Let’s just say that I’m relieved we’ve evacuated all pregnant omegas from the area. We can’t afford to lose babies or birthing parents. The betas… they’re dropping like flies. Every hour there seems to be a fresh case.”
Papa looked pale. “Are you okay?” I asked, wrapping him in another hug. He didn’t speak, just sent a look at my dad.
“Your Papa is exhausted, we both are, but his omega instinct to protect and care for the pack has really done a number on him. Once this is all done, I’m taking him for a holiday somewhere. Isn’t that right, my love?” Papa nodded against my chest. I’d thought he’d fallen asleep standing up.
“Why don’t you have breakfast, check the patients and then have a nap? I’ll change the sheets on my bed for you.”
“Would you mind? I fear it isn’t safe for us to drive home and this heat is too much for us to walk.” While Dad sipped at his coffee, I went and turned the air conditioning up and cleared my bedroom for my parents. Making up a pallet for myself on Angelica’s floor sounded like a better idea than trying to sleep another night alone, and they appeared as I was finishing up. Papa’s eyes looked to be filled with approval and it warmed something in my chest to see it. There would never come a time when I didn’t want that man’s respect.
“We’re going to have to go back to the clinic after a nap. The enforcers could probably do with fluids. You’ve done a great job with the tea, you really have. They’re just getting worse.” Papa looked frustrated. “The council doesn’t seem to have any actual information on what this is, why it acts as it does. All the resources that they have and no one is studying it!”
