Omegas In Love

Chapter 4

Sugar’s rapid heartbeat beeped on the hospital monitor. It drove Tyler crazy, sounding like a frightened trapped animal. His beast wanted to hunt the delicate flutter and put an end to it. Sam, another of his roommates, sat in a chair across from him. He stared at nothing, lost in his thoughts.

Her injuries were so bad she needed a ventilator, which had gotten her a room in the intensive care unit. A long tube extended from her mouth connected to the machine that breathed for her. Matching black eyes almost made her face unrecognizable. Hell, she even had tubes coming from her chest, draining blood.

The sight had devastated Tyler when he’d first walked in. Now, he kept his eyes from wandering over her, unable to process the anger and frustration the sight caused him. Those emotions fed his beast. The last thing he needed was to shift in public again.

Bad enough Daedalus would go apeshit when he saw Sugar in this condition. Eric had decided they should wait for news at the hospital and keep the vampire from ripping the medical staff apart. He’d sent Tony to Chinatown to speak with the elders of the community.

They had no leads to find their mates, so they rallied around the only survivor, the frailest of their small family. Shifters could do a lot of damage to a human, and whoever hit Sugar hadn’t held back.

Night reflected in the hospital window. Slouching in his hard plastic seat, Tyler watched the flickering light of a plane fly across the sky. The fleeting beacon blinked in time with Sugar’s heartbeat. Life as a shifter was savage. No place for a human. They never should have convinced her to let them into her home.

Heavy footsteps rang outside the room, announcing Daedalus’s arrival. “Shut up, Eric. I need to see her first, before talking to any healer.” He strode in, followed by their alpha, fury pulsing from his body as he loomed over Sugar’s unmoving form.

The air grew heavy and Tyler’s throat constricted. He didn’t want to witness this but he couldn’t pull his gaze away from his mentor. The Nosferatu never pushed him to learn how to fight like he did the others. Tyler wanted a quiet life for himself and Katrina. Daedalus respected that wish. What a fool he’d been to refuse the training–his mate could have been sitting next to him instead of in the hands of a monster.

Reaching out for her, the ancient vampire’s hand hovered over hers for a second before grasping it. “Why is she tied to the bed?” His sharp question wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular.

Tyler cleared the cobwebs from his throat. “It’s to protect her from accidentally pulling the tube from her throat.” Normally, he’d be tempted to make a joke so everyone could have a laugh. But nothing seemed funny anymore.

“She might wake up?” Daedalus knelt by the head of her bed, pressing his face on the mattress close to her. The tube kept them apart. With a fingertip, he brushed her cheek, staring at her face as silence strangled the room. Tyler had never seen the vampire so distraught. Breakable.

Sam lifted his head from between his hands, but didn’t look at Daedalus. “They’re keeping her asleep so she can be comfortable. That’s all the doctor will tell us. We’ve been waiting for you.” Tyler knew Sam blamed himself for Sugar’s injuries. He was her shadow during the day, her protector, his unofficial job in the pack. Her Sigma.

Brushing a matted curl from Sugar’s face, Daedalus rose to his feet and faced Tyler. “Eric told me Katrina’s old pack is responsible for this. What do you know?”

The question stabbed Tyler in the gut. He was just as much in the dark as everyone else. Worse, his so-called soulmate had never confided anything in him. He’d wanted to push her to tell him about her past, but they’d found her in such a terrible state that he feared she’d return to her shell again. What an idiot he’d been. “She’s mated to their alpha.”

The truth hurt more then he’d thought possible.

Resting a hand on his shoulder, Eric squeezed. “It couldn’t have been a true mating if she ran from him, Tyler.”

“Why didn’t either of you mention this possible threat?” A visible tick twitched on Daedulus’s cheek. Three werewolves should be able to contain one vampire if he lost it, but he wasn’t a run-of-the-mill bloodsucker. Nosferatu warriors could do some serious damage on a supernatural level.

“I didn’t know until today.” His voice cracked from the strain of not yelling as he faced off with the Nosferatu who could mash him into pudding if he wanted. “You’re not the only one who wants to find these bastards.” Rage erupted inside Tyler, almost tearing him to pieces.

God help those shifters when Tyler found them. He would tear out that alpha’s heart and swallow it whole. The wish surprised him. Daedalus, Eric, and Robert were the warriors. Tyler was…well, he was a real estate agent.

Eric pressed between them and drew Tyler away. “No death wishes tonight.” He whispered as they retreated from the pissed-off Nosferatu.

A gentle knock on the door broke off their conversation. The woman entering wore a white lab coat. “I’m Dr. Jotan. I’m taking care of Sugar. Which of you is Daedalus Pal Robi?” She glanced at each of them.

The vampire offered his hand.

To her credit, Dr. Jotan didn’t flinch at shaking it. She acted as if bald, incredibly pale vampires strolled through the hospital nightly.

Maybe they did? They were legal citizens. Who’s to say that some of the night staff couldn’t be undead?

“She’s been seriously injured. Whoever attacked her crushed her chest and broke several of her ribs, bruising her heart.” She led Daedalus to a chair and with a gentle hand guided him to sit. The vampire sank like an anchor. “Sugar’s lucky to have survived the trip to the hospital. At this point, with such a crushing trauma, nothing surgical can be done. We have to wait and see, support her lungs, and let the medicines work.”

“Will she live? That’s all I need to know.” Daedalus rubbed his chest where his heart didn’t beat.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, and I’ll keep you updated with any changes.” She turned to leave.

“Wait. I have a question.” Tyler stepped forward. “Has anyone tested her–” He glanced at Daedalus then at the doctor. “I mean, was she bitten or scratched by the attacking shifters?”

The vampire’s eyes narrowed while the armrests he held squealed in protest.

“There are no signs of the lycanthrope virus in her system. She’s still human.” She rested her hand on Daedalus’s shoulder. “If Sugar has any family, they should be called to come to see her.”

All the warmth vanished from the room. Just the steady beep of the monitor made any noise.

Rubbing his temples didn’t relieve the growing ache in Tyler’s head. He wanted to hit something, tear things apart, and howl at the sky.

They were good people. They helped the weak, guarded the humans of Chicago from predators, and lived full lives. What happened to karma? Where were the fairy godmothers to make things right?

He glanced at Daedalus. The emotional explosion hadn’t happened.

The Nosferatu pulled his cell phone from his back pocket of his jeans. He scrolled through a screen. “I have a few calls to make.” With those words, he left.

From the blank expressions on Eric’s and Sam’s faces, Tyler wasn’t the only one surprised.

“Who the hell could he be calling?” Sam pushed off the chair and paced the room. “He should be staying by her side.”

Eric scrubbed his hands through his hair. He looked like he shared the same stylist as Albert Einstein. “Not everyone deals with things the same way. Maybe he’s calling another doctor?”

A phone rang and they all checked their cells. Eric had the call. He spoke quietly, then hung up. “Robert’s with Tony. Someone gave them an address to check out.”

Hope heralded through Tyler’s body like a wave of warm water. “Let’s go.” He crossed the room and heard Eric tell Sam to stay with Sugar.

“Where are you going?” Eric caught him at the elevator.

“I can’t stay here. I’m going with you.” The doors opened and they rode to the lobby.

Eric leaned against the wall, his head hung low and his shoulders bent. “There’s going to be fighting.”

“I know.” He couldn’t meet his gaze. The sting of the comment too sharp on his battered soul. Over the past two years, Eric had matured from super geek to ultra alpha. Tyler gazed down at his own slight frame. Nothing had changed. Why did Katrina want him?

“You haven’t trained much, Tyler. I don’t want to rescue the girls and lose you in the process. Let me, Robert, and Esther go.”

All those chances to learn to fight and he’d blown them off, always thinking that there’d be other options besides violence. Now, all he wanted to do was tear Chen’s head off with his bare hands. “I’m going. I’ll stay back, even in the car if you insist, but I need to be there.”

Eric shook his head and sighed. “All right, but you let us take the lead. And listen to what we tell you.”

“How do you stay so calm? I feel like I’m going to lose control any second.” Tyler stormed out of the elevator when it opened, and exited through the front entrance of the hospital. “Every second that passes, I can’t help but wonder what he’s doing to her. What if he’s hurting her or worse–”

“Enough.” Eric grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. “Don’t you think I’m wondering the same?”

Yanking his arm out of his alpha’s grasp, Tyler rounded on him. The ability to control his beast cracked and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men wouldn’t be able to stuff his beast back inside of him again.

Sensing the change about to take hold, Tyler scanned for a hiding spot. They stood in the open parking lot right in front of the hospital, with humans entering and leaving the building.

Eric dragged him kissing-close. “Easy, Tyler. Look at me, I’m your alpha.”

All he could manage was a nod.

“Don’t shift. Breathe. Deep and slow. In…and…out.” The calm words seeped into Tyler’s bones. His beast recognized Eric. His will was law. Only a true alpha could command his pack with his spirit. Humans couldn’t understand this power. The ingrained need to obey went marrow-deep.

Tyler released a shaky breath through clenched teeth and clutched at Eric. Sweat drenched his t-shirt.

“Good. Breathe again. We’ll find her. We’ll get her back.”

Taking another breath with stiff lungs, Tyler struggled with comforting his beast. It didn’t believe they would. He sobbed once–he didn’t believe either.

Eric gripped him harder, the intensity of his wrath barely contained in his body. “When we find those bastards, we’ll let our beasts out to feast.”

His alpha’s promise soothed Tyler’s turmoil more than the commands. The beast backed off and curled up to watch. Until today, it had been years since he’d lost it in public. He leaned his forehead on Eric’s.

“Get a room.” Someone shouted from a group of college boys strolling through the parking lot.

Tyler met the stranger’s gaze. “Jealous?” He raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t help it, habit took over, and he laughed even if it wasn’t heartfelt.

“Shit, Tyler.” Eric pushed him away. “Let’s go before I leave you here with Sam.”

They drove in Eric’s new white pick-up truck. Nothing more could be said about their misery, so they stayed quiet.

Tyler slouched in his seat, his knees bent against the dash. He stared outside at the dark city.

The GPS led them to a neighborhood close to Chinatown. All the old remodeled brick buildings were split into homes, industrial posh for the middle class. They passed the house slowly and parked farther down the street.

“I don’t see anyone around.” Tyler twisted in his seat to get a better view of the house. God, Katrina could be just a few buildings away as he sat here useless.

“Doesn’t mean anything.” Eric glanced at the parked cars on the streets. “I don’t see Robert or Esther.”

The skin on Tyler’s back crawled with thoughts of what could be going on inside, behind closed doors. He glared at his alpha. “Don’t tell me you’re going to make us wait for them.”

“Fuck.” Eric banged his hand against the steering wheel. “No.”

Tyler opened the passenger door to spring out, but was strangled by the collar of his t-shirt when yanked back inside.

Eric loomed over him. “Stay behind me. Don’t get killed, okay?”

“Got it.” He gave his alpha a friendly slap on the face. “I’ll follow and not trip you up.” Nothing was going to keep his scrawny ass from rescuing his mate.

Nodding, Eric released him and exited the truck. They traveled toward the house.

It felt like every home owner on the street peered at them through the curtains, the sparse street light casting deep shadows, hiding any number of enemies.

Tyler’s limbs trembled with contained energy. Zipping over his nerves, the impulse to fight became hard to resist. He called his beast to come closer to the surface so he could shift in an emergency. If things got physical, his beast would take over.

“Don’t just charge in,” Eric whispered.

“Why not?”

“What if we have the wrong address?”

“Oh.” That would be a one-way ticket to the pound. Shifter attacks had a zero tolerance with law enforcement. They’d get put down. “Crap. What do we do?”

Eric shrugged. “Knock.”

They climbed the stairs to the front door. The small lawn consisted of more weeds than grass, the lights were off, and Tyler couldn’t hear anything inside. Even with his shifter hearing. He glanced at Eric, who met his gaze and shrugged again.

Eric knocked on the door.

Tyler didn’t bother to wait. He grabbed the doorknob and twisted it with his shifter strength until the lock popped.

“What are you doing?” His alpha tried to shout and whisper at the same time.

“Breaking and entering, so keep it down.” He was wasting time, cooling his heels on the front step while Chen and his men could be escaping out the back door.

“What if this is the wrong house?”

Tyler stopped mid-step as he crossed the threshold. “Not thinking that far ahead right now, but I’m not hearing an alarm, so all’s good.”

A low growl rumbled in Eric’s chest.

Ignoring his alpha’s displeasure, Tyler entered the house. Nothing moved. Dark shrouded the first floor. He glanced around the corner and almost shifted on the spot when Eric grabbed his arm.

“Let me take the lead.” He shouldered past Tyler. “Watch our backs.”

Releasing his breath, Tyler followed farther into the house. The rooms were all empty. No furniture or pictures, not even a rug on the floors. He sniffed the air. Katrina had never been inside this building. As her mate, he could have picked up a trace amount of her scent. “Are you picking up any of Spice’s smell?”

“Nada.” Eric stopped whispering. “This place is a bust.”

“Doesn’t look like it’s been lived in for awhile. Why would they send us here?” His gut clenched with a little gasp.

“Run!” Eric barked, pushing him toward the door with all his might.

They raced for the entrance and tumbled down the stairs. Sprinting up the street as Esther’s car rounded the corner and drove toward them. They’d made it past two houses when a light flashed and a giant hand of kinetic energy swatted them. Flung off their feet, Eric landed in a roll, tumbling a few times. In contrast, Tyler crashed into Esther’s car, leaving an imprint of his face on her hood.

She slammed on her brakes and he slid off the cool metal to puddle in a tangle of limbs on the pavement.

Tyler lay on the street for a moment, his ears buzzing with a high-pitched tone. A cloud of dust particles washed over him. He blinked them from his eyes, unable to move his arms yet. “I’m not made for this kind of shit.” He felt the words in his throat but couldn’t hear them.

A few seconds later, sounds began to drift back in. Car alarms, people shouting, sirens–lots and lots of sirens–were drawing near fast.

Esther slipped beneath his arm and helped him stand. “We need to not be here.” She guided him to her vehicle.

“I’ll pay to fix that dent.” He pointed to her hood.

“Don’t worry about it.”

On the short journey to her car, Tyler spotted Robert assisting Eric. Flames reflected in Esther’s windshield. The house was on fire. “Damn, they tried to blow us up.”

Esther pushed on his head to make him duck, and shoved him in the back. Jumping in the driver’s seat, she waited for Robert to get in before putting the car in reverse. “We need to get out of here before the police cordon off a perimeter.”

“Shouldn’t be hard.” Robert texted someone on his phone while he talked. “Chicago PD can’t organize something that big, that quickly in the dead of night. They’ll need to call and get people out of bed and on the job.” He twisted in his seat and glared at them. “What the fuck happened?”

“The house went boom.” Tyler closed his eyes and rested his head against the seat. He listened to Eric explain their stupid reasoning for entering the quiet house. He’d almost gotten his alpha killed. Where would the pack be without Eric? From now on, he needed to think with his head, not his heart.

Eric sighed. “It was a trap. Whoever gave Tony the tip works for Chen. Send someone to find them. How are the other arrangements going?”

Tyler straightened in his chair. Arrangements?

“The airports, shipping yards, bus and train terminals are all being watched. We’re spread thin. Tony’s still working Chinatown with Aaron. I’m open for suggestions.”

Digging deep, Tyler ignored the ache in his chest. Where could he find out more about Katrina’s old pack? She rarely spoke of them. Her closest friends, Sugar and Spice, were both unavailable, and the Asian community just tried to kill them. Whenever Katrina seemed disturbed, she’d go talk with Sugar and sometimes him but… “I want to go home. I’ll need Tony to meet me there.”

“Why?” Eric and Robert echoed each other.

“He can read Mandarin, and Katrina keeps a diary.”