Pack Darling, Part One by Lola Rock
Forty-One
LILAH
Everything hurts.
I’ve never been hungover before, but it must be like this. My tongue aches, cramps crackle through every muscle, and even my freaking eye sockets ache.
I whimper.
“Shh,”a soft voice whispers. The sheets rustle, and I’m pulled gently against a warm chest, our legs tangling, arms surrounding me. His chin rests on the crown of my head. Comfy.
I start to pull away, but he holds me tight. “You’re alright, Lilah. It’s okay now.”
Orion.
His voice settles the raging seas inside me.
I relax into him, enjoying this dream. His apple scent is tart, a little agitated.
He shouldn’t be upset, not even in my dreams. I ache so hard, I hate to move, but I roll and nuzzle, worming my face into the fruity-sweet hollow of his neck.
“Lilah,” he rasps, pulling me tighter.
I fit so perfectly against him.
This is perfect.
“We’ll protect you now.” He pets my back in long, soothing touches. “We’ll take care of you.”
It sounds nice.
I know it’s not true, but it’s so nice.
I let myself sink into him like I’m sinking into a cloud because I know when I wake up from this, all that’ll be left is the storm. Lightning and thunder and me all alone in my cave, the way I was always going to end.
The truth sours the fantasy.
I’m done being pathetic. Done hanging around a pack that doesn’t want me. I can be strong.
I will be strong.
I pull away from the dream.
“Careful,” Orion says, so soft.
I try to open my eyes, to break the spell, but they won’t open. I touch my face, but my fingers scrape cloth.
“You hurt your eyes,” Orion whispers. “The doctor said you’ll be fine, you just have to rest.”
“Doctor?” I sure as fuck wouldn’t dream a doctor.
I grip my temples, panic starting to rise.
“Is she awake?” A rumbling alpha voice stirs the panicking mouse inside.
Atlas.
“Lilah?” His voice comes closer.
I push Orion, flailing as I start to panic, start to remember.
They rejected me like they were always going to.
So why are they still here?
“What… Why…” My voice is scratchy.
“It’s okay,” Orion soothes like he’s speaking to a spooked horse. “You’re okay.”
“I’m not.” But I will be when they’re gone.
“Star?” Finn’s scent hits my nose, oranges sharp in a way I’ve never smelled before. Anxious?
Not possible.
Fingers brush my shoulder.
I jolt like he tazed me. “Don’t.”
“You’re at the clinic,” Hunter says, the only voice of reason. “We found you in the barrel.”
“Why didn’t you leave me there?”
Something breaks, a crash shaking the room, and a pathetic whimper slips out when I flinch.
“Quiet!” Atlas barks.
My throat shuts down. I press into the corner, my back digging into the bed rail as I hunch away from the sounds and bodies I can’t see. That I don’t want to see.
The commotion stills.
I feel the wires connected to my wrists, and whatever’s monitoring my heart beeps faster and faster.
“We fucked up,” Hunter says at last.
“I’m so sorry,” Orion says.
“No. I’m sorry.” I have to make that clear. “I shouldn’t have gone into your nest during your heat. I should never—”
“You’re our mate,” Finn growls.
I swallow a lump of coal.
So they know.
But it’s too late.
“I’m not. You have Orion.”
There’s a commotion—four of them speaking at once, their scents tangling with their words, and I scent Jett too, even if he doesn’t say a thing. He’s already said plenty of words, and I don’t want to hear another sentence from the alpha voted most likely to break me. Again.
“Gentlemen,” a firm female voice cuts off the chaos. “I need to examine my patient.”
“I won’t leave her,” Orion insists, his weight shifting on the bed.
His words ache in my chest.
Lies.
“You can go home.” I roll away from Orion, not caring when the wires tug. “Add my bills to my OCC tab. I’ll head back as soon as possible.” At least now that my heat’s over, I have months before I’m put in rotation.
Plenty of time to plan my escape, even if waking up in Wyvern custody means it’ll be ten times harder to get away clean.
“Lilah—” Atlas starts.
An alpha-female growl cuts him off. “Out of my room. Now.”
Orion pats my wrist, a touch I flinch away from, and then there’s shuffling as their steps fade. The door slams shut behind them.
I let out a shaking breath.
“Lilah. I’m Doctor Morgan. How are you feeling?” The woman’s voice softens. Her alpha energy should put me on edge when I’m this vulnerable, but it covers me more like a weighted blanket. She feels like the mother I should’ve had—not the one who threw me away.
“Rough,” I admit, shimmying painfully back to the center of the bed. “What happened?”
“You sustained a widespread chemical burn in addition to the backlash from your heat.”
That explains why it feels like every muscle was meat-tenderized in a lava pit.
“We sedated you for about twenty-four hours, which was long enough to ride out the last wave. This was your first heat?”
“Yes.”
She makes a concerned hmm that sends my anxiety spiking. “We need to run a few more tests, but your hormones are likely to be erratic for the next few months. Since this heat wasn’t satisfied, we can expect your next cycle to be more intense.”
If the heat’s any more intense, it’ll have to take place in hell because that was already hot as Dante’s fucking inferno.
“Do I have to have visitors?” I ask.
“Absolutely not.”
I let out a heavy breath. “Can you stop them from coming? I need...space.”
“It’s done.” She pats my hand, and my bandaged eyes throb with unshed tears. “Rest. I’ll send in a nurse to check your bandages. No one else will bother you.”
When the door opens, a wave of noise bursts in. All familiar voices.
“Is she—?”
“You can’t—!”
“We’re her—”
I sigh with gratitude to whoever soundproofed this place, because as soon as the door clicks shut, I’m left in silence.
I need so much time and space away from Wyvern Pack, but their scents linger like proof that I’ll never escape my fate.
I don’t want to make big decisions when I hurt so bad. Plus, the buzz that has flowers blooming behind my bandages says Doctor Morgan has me on the good drugs.
All I know for sure is I’m done hiding.
The world knows I’m an omega, and my scent’s going to have more than one pack begging for a taste.
I don’t know if I can escape Wyvern Pack.
I don’t know if I want to escape.
What I do know?
I never want to hurt like this again.
And if the Wyverns want to beg for my forgiveness?
I’d better see them on their knees.
CAN THE WYVERNS WIN BACK THEIR DARLING?
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