Omega Phoenix: Provoked

Chapter 3

3

Liam

Everything is a little fuzzy around the edges, mostly from the painkillers, which is probably good, as I’m very aware that I’m not doing very well... Once the fuzziness wears off, I’m not sure that I want to actually deal with the pain I’ll be in.

My side is one big canvas of stitches, just like my insides. The doc said that I was lucky that the jaguar hadn’t hit anything important, but that I was going to have to be really careful for a long time, as the jaguar had shred just about everything else, flesh, muscles, anything like that.

Me turning to Cyra the exact moment that I did, to tell her to flee with Maeve, was probably what saved me from worse injuries. If the jaguar had jumped on me just a little further up my side, he would have done a lot more damage, potentially lethal damage.

The wound hurt like hell, and when the shifter enforcement burst into the room, I was starting to lose grip on reality from blood loss. And then I wasn’t quick enough with getting through my knees...

Between the pain in my side overwhelming me and the dart they shot me with, I don’t know which of the two actually took me out, but it was probably a combination of the two.

A Beta male nurse comes into the room, checking up on Cyra and then on me. He moves efficiently, having read the room and realising that making chitchat right now would not be appreciated.

I try to glare at Max, to make him tell the nurse about his pulled stitches, but no matter how much Audrey and I glare at him, Max is just staring in Cyra’s general direction, ignoring us. That won’t do, not when he’s looking white as a sheet.

“Nurse?” I try to get the Beta’s attention, as he’s about to walk away, after having checked my vitals. “Could you check on Max? I think he pulled some stitches.”

That gets a response from Max and he glares at me, his gaze deadly dark, though it’s not as impressive at the moment when he looks about to keel over. “Mind your own business.”

“You are my business.” I glare back at him. “You can’t just walk around with a bleeding wound. You’re no use to any of us like that.”

“It can wait,” Max deadpans and he gives the nurse a dark look.

But the Beta isn’t intimidated by it and walks over to him. “Take your shirt off, I’ll take a look. If it’s nothing, you can stay here. If you need stitches, I’ll get someone to do it.” His voice is no-nonsense and I suspect that Max isn’t the first Alpha he’s encountered who’s being difficult, probably not even the first one today.

Max stiffens for a few moments, but then he carefully takes his shirt off. My stomach churns when I see the large bandage on his shoulder and back, and it’s not just the size that makes me queasy. The whole piece is soaked in blood, enough that there’s a small trickle of it going down his back.

Oh, damn. That can’t have been just one stitch that he pulled...

“Okay.” The nurse’s voice is short, clipped. “You’re coming with me. Someone needs to redo those stitches. And, after that, you’re not allowed to walk around anymore. You’re going to have to stay in bed. You’ve already lost a lot of blood, you need to rest, not walk all over the place.”

For a couple of moments, I expect Max to fight, tell the nurse to f**k off, but when he sluggishly stands up, his steps are uneven and his face pales, before he has to lean on Cyra’s bed to not fall. f**k. Max is really not doing as well as he’s trying to pretend.

I meet Audrey’s eyes and see the same worry in her gaze. f*****g hell... Max is great at pretending to be fine, but he’s really not okay right now.

Once Max and the nurse have left the room, Audrey comes over to me, her eyes on me serious. “How are you?”

I try to shrug, but a shot of pain through my body makes me stop. “I’m fine. I’m not going to do anything stupid. I’m just going to stay here and try not to move too much.”

“Good.” Her voice is quiet and she looks at Cyra, pain in her gaze obvious. “f**k. I wish she’d wake up already. The longer she takes to wake up, the worse things might be. If she’d just wake up...” She worries her lower lip between her teeth, trying to hold herself together.

I nod, which is apparently a movement I can still do without too much pain. “Do you... Do you know how Dec and Brian are doing? And Maeve and Gavin? Where are they?” My voice is raspy, but I’ve not heard about any of them yet.

Audrey stills, not meeting my eyes as she bites on her lower lip.

“Audrey?” Alarm shoots through me. “What is it?”

She shakes her head, like she’s trying to get her thoughts together. “Brian is... He’s in one of the next rooms. He’s hurt, but he’ll be okay.”

“And Dec?” My heart sinks. He was fighting a big fire dragon when I last saw him.

She quickly blinks, pulling up one shoulder as she takes a shuddering breath. “They don’t know yet. He... He got hurt badly. They got him stable but...” She swallows. “It’s not clear yet how bad it is. We’re still waiting on more news.”

Oh, f**k. My chest constricts and I move too quickly when I try to cover my face with my hand, and I let out a groan. f*****g hell. Dec has to survive. He has to get through this. If it wasn’t for me going to Maeve’s family for help when we fled from the apartment, he wouldn’t have been here. He has to make it, or I’d never forgive myself.

Audrey’s voice comes through the stream of thoughts. “Maeve and Gavin are with him right now. Maeve is fine, just a few scratches, and Gavin is being fussy because he doesn’t like being here, but that’s all.”

I nod, and when I don’t say anything else, Audrey goes back to Cyra’s side.

Cyra still hasn’t woken up, but at least she’s stable. Her wounds aren’t life-threatening, just not good. Which sounds ridiculous, but knowing that she’ll be fine, even though she looks on the doors of death is what’s getting me through this.

But Maeve doesn’t have that, she doesn’t know if Dec will be okay, or what their lives will look like if he does make it. That uncertainty... It hurts. Knowing that without me, they wouldn’t have been here, they would still have been safely at Maeve’s clan’s village. And even though it’s because of me that they’ve been in any danger at all, I’m not able to help them. I feel so useless. So f*****g useless.

The door to our room opens and Zack’s brash voice comes through it. “Well, I could let you sign my cast, if there’s any space left...”

Oh, f**k. I groan. I so do not want to deal with that asshole right now, not when he’s like this. Just hearing him is already getting on my nerves.

Then he’s pushed into the room. As soon as he passes through the door, the grin disappears from his face and he looks worried, tense. He looks at me and then Audrey and then the still form of Cyra on her bed. He frowns and it almost seems like he’s about to get up, but he can’t.

His eyes shoot to me, a range of emotions passing behind them. He looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t seem to be able to find the words. It’s interesting how quickly he can go from playboy to overprotective mate.

“She’s not woken up yet.” I push the words out, even saying it hurts. “They’ll take her in for surgery as soon as she does.”

He keeps glancing in Cyra’s direction and then around the room. “Where are Spence and Max?”

“Max is getting his stitches redone, he pulled some of them open. Spence...” I swallow. “He’s not out of surgery yet. We’re still waiting on news.” Spence is a fierce fighter, but he really did get badly hurt. He kept fighting even after one of his back legs started to hang unnaturally, but I have no idea how much they’ll be able to fix...

“Liam?” A quiet voice comes from Cyra’s bed. “Zack?”

She’s awake!

Cyra is awake!

My heart skips a beat and I unthinkingly try to sit up. My whole body objects and the best I can do is to lean on my good arm for a few moments before I ease myself back onto the bed.

“I’m here.” I suppress a moan of pain. “I’m right here.”

“Me too.” Zack’s voice is rough. “We’re here. How are you feeling?”

“Everything hurts.” Cyra’s voice is strained. “Where are Max and Spence?”

Audrey has started to flutter around Cyra’s bed, probably trying to do her best to make her comfortable.

I meet Zack’s eyes and he’s the one who replies. “They’ll be back soon. You rest now. Everything will be okay.” He tries to sound soothing but even from here, I spot the worry in his eyes. “Do you remember what happened? Anything important?”

For a moment, I’m confused, but then I remember what the docs had said earlier. That if she does wake up, no matter how tired she is, we should try to keep her awake until the doctors are able to run tests on her. Just as a precaution.

Cyra falls quiet for a while, and then she speaks again, her voice unsure. “Zack? Where are the others? How are they doing?” She seems to start to panic slightly. “Are the babies okay?”

My stomach drops. This is not good. Not good at all.

“I’ll go tell a nurse that you woke up.” Audrey’s voice is quiet as she stands up. Then, as she passes me by, there’s a deep worry in her eyes.

As we wait for Audrey to return, Zack answers Cyra’s questions, keeping his voice light and carefree, trying to not let his worry show. This is bad, really bad.

Pretty soon, Audrey comes back with a couple of nurses, who are all looking very nervous and they quickly take Cyra away without any words to us. That sets me on edge even more.

What’s going on with Cyra? How bad is this? How bad is her asking the same questions multiple times in a row?

And why is it taking so long for Max to come back? It can’t be that hard to put a couple of new stitches into the guy, can it?

When the shifter enforcement showed up, I thought that things would be okay from now on, but everything seems to have only gotten worse.

And on top of all of it, I can do jack s**t about it.

The most frustrating thing is that I feel like I need to do something, but I can’t. I’m stuck here, waiting on news about the people I care about, unable to help anyone, and it’s just so frustrating.