Page 133 of Omega's Flight
Raleigh had kept a calm face through everything, but Cas had spent too many hours watching the play of emotion across that face and body to be fooled. Raleigh was upset, more upset than he'd ever been since Cas had known him.
They made it out of the trees where the buildings backed up against them and Cas picked up the pace, tightening his arms around Raleigh, his heart leaping out his chest. If he didn't join the sick roll after this it would be a miracle, and he promised himself and the gods that he'd start running with the Security team in the mornings, if they'd just let him get Raleigh to Adelaide's clinic in time.
And thank Lysoonka that Bram was here in the enclave this weekend, home for a cousin's mating. He saw the van pull up in front of the pack building as he came around the corner and breathed a sigh of relief—or perhaps it was just his body's desperate plea for oxygen—when Bram bailed out of it and raced toward him.
"What happened?" Bram demanded, stopping Cas's headlong flight toward the doors. "Did he fall?"
Cas shook his head and wheezed. "We don't know. He was like this when we found him..." Bram wasn't paying attention, or didn't seem to be. Instead, he was frowning and running his hands over Raleigh's body.
"Let's get him inside. I don't think this is physical." He went for the door and held it open for Cas, then ran ahead to call the elevator for them. "Anything happen this morning we should know about?"
The elevator doors slid open and the hurried in, Bram already hitting the button for the clinic's floor.
"Degan was over with the pups. We kind of got into it." He leaned against the wall, his arms burning and thighs shaking and feeling like rubber. "I thought he was bothered, but it didn't seem that bad. A little off balance, you know? I figured having Degan around would upset him, but—" The elevator doors opened and he staggered across the hall to the clinic.
Bram moved ahead of him, opening doors and leading him down to a small quiet room at the very end of the hallway. "I wish the hospital was done," he muttered, and began flicking on lights around the bed.
Cas laid Raleigh's limp body down on the mattress and tried to arrange him comfortably.
Bram thrust a cell phone at him. "Call Adelaide and get her here."
Cas fumbled it but managed to catch it against his thigh before it hit the floor. Bram pushed him out of the way and began doing things that reminded Cas sickly of Midwinter Moon and everything that had happened that night. The phone started ringing and he said, "I found him at the baby's grave."
Bram stumbled to a stop, frozen for an instant, then kept moving around Raleigh's bed. "I wish I could say I was surprised. Watch him for a second?" He didn't wait for an answer, just bolted out of the room.
"I'm on my way," Adelaide said, without him even having to say a word.
Edmond must have gotten hold of her. "We're upstairs in the clinic."
"I'll be right there." She didn't wait for him to acknowledge her, but it didn't matter, because Holland blew through the door at that very moment, followed by Bax, then Bram with another of those bags of clear fluid in his hand.
"What happened?" Holland spoke like he was in the military, a sharp demand for information.
"I don't know." Cas held his hands out, palms up in bewilderment. "I think having Degan here triggered something."
"Fuck." Holland went to the bed and leaned over Raleigh, stroking the hair back from his forehead. "Well, he's still in there. He flinched when I touched him."
"I don't see anything physically wrong with him," Bram said, setting the bag out of the way on a counter.
"No, it's not physical. Not yet." He raised his eyes to Bram's.
"I called Adelaide, just in case."
Holland nodded and turned back to Raleigh. Cas clenched his hands into fists and pressed them to his thighs to keep from reaching out and disturbing whatever Holland was doing. "Can I...help?" he asked Bax in a low voice. "Should I do anything?"
Bax came over to hug him and lead him to a chair near the head of the bed. "Probably not." He did that thing where he chewed at the inside of his cheek, a tell of his that Cas had picked up shortly after moving home for good. "Look, Cas, we don't know a lot of what's going on. We don't really know how we do this." He lowered his voice and reached for Cas's hand. "You need to be prepared for this not to work."
Cas stared at Bax's hand on his, his own still clenched into a fist that only seemed to get tighter and tighter. He deeply regretted those times growing up when he'd made unsympathetic comments about other young alphas fighting over things he considered stupid, because right now he'd like to cry blood on Degan and make the other alpha feel the pain that Raleigh must have been hiding. Hiding all along, if just seeing Degan had caused this. He met Bax's eyes, then looked over at Holland, whispering to Raleigh, and Raleigh so still on the bed, like his body was there but the rest of him was gone.
"Cas," Bax said in a voice of warning. "Don't start anything. Until he wakes up, we don't know what, if anything, happened."
"I know what happened," Cas replied, his voice deep with anger. "Degan's acting like they're just here visiting, putting guilt on Raleigh and setting the pups against him."
"If you start something, do you think that's going to help Raleigh? Is he the kind of omega you would think likes to set alphas at one another's throats?"
No, he had to admit Bax was right about that. "So I'm supposed to just sit here and do nothing? If Raleigh's still in here tonight, do I force Pip to go spend the night with a sire she hates?"
"Bax?" It was Holland, straightening up from his examination. "I think I'm ready. Just going to tie my hair back so it stops getting on my nerves." His movements were jerky and clumsy as he wandered around the room pulling open drawers and digging in baskets.
