Page 38 of Alpha's Embrace
“It appears to be a bite.”
“Misha bit him?”
“That is what is indicated. It’s not life threatening. A surface abrasion, but it bled a lot.”
“I know in my heart Misha didn’t just attack him. Something is very wrong with Tory.”
“It appears that way to me, too. We’ll find out when the labs come back.”
“I don’t want to leave Misha’s side, but I need to begin the interviews. And of course, now I have no assistant.”
Prim frowned at me. “If you need to leave, you can be assured I will look after him.”
“I know. But I--” My body and mind wanted to go back to Misha right now. The urge was so strong to be with him, to sit at his side, to touch him. But why?
But of course. The blood test. The bond.
I knew Prim wanted to ask me why I took such an interest in one patient. Why I wouldn’t leave. But he was polite enough to keep his questions to himself.
When I walked back to Misha’s cubicle, Tory’s yells had quieted. The sedation was working. But how long would they have to keep him that way? If he didn’t improve, he’d need to be transported to a real Alpha hospital where they dealt with dangerous Alphas.
Misha lay as I’d left him, unmoving, pale in the face, the bruising about his neck darkening to violent shades of purple and red.
I came to his side again. Behind me, I heard a shuffle against the floor. I looked over my shoulder to see the nurse bring a chair around so I could sit.
“Thank you.” I was worn out from everything, though I felt like I’d done nothing at all.
The past few days I had been working hard, trying not to think about Misha. I thought if I could break my cycle of fantasizing about him and thinking I needed him everything would be okay. I thought if I avoided everything, even my own symptoms, I would not feel like I was entering the Alpha Burn early. I could deny everything and break the bond, the way I had done with Mase. Only that hadn’t worked very well, had it?
Why did I think this partial bond would be any different?
Now I wondered, if I had not ignored Misha, would this disaster have been averted?
I stared at his quiet, pale face and held his hand. Everything he was going through felt like fractures in my heart. He was inside me. I couldn’t doubt it now. I didn’t need a positive blood test result to prove it.
Doctor Prim came back to check on him some time later. Prim looked at Misha, then up at the screens with their read-outs.
“I’ve given him medication to reduce the swelling. So far, so good. He’s stable. Give it a night. He should be more improved by tomorrow.”
My chest ached. My muscles hurt. Everything was pain. I touched Misha and that was what was in my mind, what I felt.
“Is he in pain?”
Prim shook his head no. “We’re keeping him sedated while he’s on the respirator. He isn’t aware. Even if you see him move around, he won’t remember it when he finally wakes.”
“But I can’t stand to think he’s suffering right now.” I rubbed at the sharp edge of pain in the middle of my chest.
“He’s fine for now. He’s in a gray state where, even when he’s not asleep, he’s still in an alpha-state.”
“Will he feel the Burn?”
“No. This extreme sedation will upset that routine. He won’t feel it. But I can’t keep it up for long. His body won’t take it.”
Even Alphas sometimes used sedatives for a temporary relief of the Burn, but it didn’t work long-term and the side effects could be bad. The worst effect was when the drug wore off the Burn would return, sometimes worse than ever. It could cause out of control behavior and that was why Alphas who used such drugs needed to be monitored by physicians at all times.
“For the night, he will rest. He won’t remember any of this, I assure you,” Prim said. “You should go home soon. Get some rest yourself.”
I took a deep breath.
