The Alpha's Heart: Lost Omegas Book Five: A M/M Shifter Romance Page 6

  As he crossed the room he caught sight of the top of his head where he was huddled on the other side of the bed. He knew what was needed. He’d have to be tough to be kind.

  “Alright, on your feet.”

  Luke didn’t move.

  “I said up, Luke.” He matched his words with actions, latching on to Luke’s arm and hauling him up. His actions provoked a small cry of pain.

  “We need to clean those wounds to help them heal.”

  Luke didn’t react to his words so James kept going, reaching for Luke’s shirt, pulling it off over his head, earning a quiet whimper. The Omega’s heart rate sped up, but he didn’t resist.

  “Damn it to hell. They really worked you over, didn’t they?” There was a kaleidoscope of bruises and welts across Luke's skin.

  He thought the Omega wasn’t going to reply but he spoke one quiet word. “Jeremy.”

  “Jeremy did this?”

  “To teach me a lesson.”

  Luke’s voice was soft, his eyes downcast. He used one arm to shield himself from James’ gaze, turning to the side a little. James caught sight of something on Luke’s neck.

  “Turn around.”

  Luke did and James’ heart sank. The skin of the back of his neck was branded, the skin raised and reddened. Reaching out, he brushed the edge of the brand and Luke jerked forward out of his grasp, raising his hands to shield his neck.

  “No, please.”

  James caught hold of him by the shoulders, stilling his flailing. “Easy, easy.”

  “Hurts.”

  “I know, god, I know. I’m sorry.”

  It was hard to find an unblemished patch of skin to safely hold. Luke’s body was a catalog of abuse. A bruised cheek, a cut lip, welts on his arms, his back, deep bruising on his stomach and chest where James thought he could see the imprint of a boot. And he’d only been in Jeremy’s hands a little over a day.

  “Take those off, too,” he said, indicating the pants Luke was wearing before he went to the basin Pamela had left. He’d have let him have a bath or a shower, but he had the feeling it would cause more pain than it eased right then. At least, with the wet cloth, he could be gentle and quick.

  When he turned back to Luke, the Omega was naked and trembling. He spread the larger towel out on the floor next to him. “Come stand over here.”

  Luke did, not meeting his eyes. He started with the worst injury he could see. The burn in his neck. As soon as Luke realized what he was about to do, he panicked, twisting beneath James’ hand.

  “No, no. Please.”

  “Shhh, easy.” James tried to soothe him but as the cloth crossed his skin, Luke screamed, his body shuddering, before he slumped against him.

  James felt it was a merciful thing that Luke wasn’t conscious and made quick work of getting him on the bed and cleaning the rest of his wounds. It didn’t escape his notice that there were fingerprint bruises on both of Luke’s hips.

  Pamela returned with some clean clothes she’d scrounged up from somewhere. They were a little big on Luke but they were soft and warm and wouldn’t aggravate his wounds too badly. The sun was just setting when Luke stirred under the blankets. James had laid him on his left side, where the least bruising was. He suspected Luke had broken ribs on his right chest but he’d need Zack to check him over to be sure.

  Luke’s eyes blinked open, tired and confused. When he went to get up, James spoke.

  “Stay still.”

  The tiredness vanished, replaced by an alert wariness.

  “You have a lot of injuries. I’ve cleaned them and they’ll heal up but it's going to take some time. I’m putting you on bed rest until Zack, our medic, gets here. That means the only reason you get out of this bed is to use the bathroom. Do you understand me?”

  Luke nodded and James sat back in his chair. The Omega’s body was tense and the tension didn’t ease at the minutes passed.

  “You’d be more comfortable if you relaxed a bit.”

  Luke gave him an unreadable look, his body still a knot of tension and James ran back over what he’d said.

  “I didn’t mean don’t move at all. You can move around the bed, get comfortable, just no gymnastics, okay? I’ll be back to check on you in a few minutes.”

  He moved quietly on his return, glancing into the room to see what Luke was doing. He was still on the bed, still on his left side, but rocking back and forth.

  Pushing open the door, he crossed the room to Luke’s bedside. “What is it, what’s wrong?”

  There were tears on Luke’s cheeks and his eyes were scrunched closed. One hand was hovering near his neck but not touching it.

  “Is it the burn?”

  “Really hurts,” Luke muttered, keening quietly under his breath.

  “Hold on, I’ll get you something for the pain.”

  He returned with a glass of water and a small tablet. The morphine wouldn’t last that long, the curse of a shifter’s metabolism, but it would help.

  Luke swallowed it down without complaint and James sat down beside his bed for a while to keep him company. He slept on and off for the first hour, crying out sometimes, whimpering at others. Whether from the present pain or remembered hurts, James didn’t know.

  James was reluctant to leave him but knew his attention was needed elsewhere. The next few hours and days were going to be the most difficult of the second phase. They were at their most vulnerable to attack and there was a heck of a lot to organize. Eagle Creek had just undergone a seismic shift in leadership and the Pack would be waking up to a whole new way of doing things.

  He had a myriad of worries about that. That Eagle Creek’s values were too well-entrenched and they’d never turn them around, being constantly at odds with their populace. That they wouldn’t be accepting of the FW’s varied population with their colorful histories. He had his hopes pinned that years of cruelty at the hands of the Migones had left them yearning for a return to better times. Only time would tell.

  He got downstairs in time to greet Zack and Matthew as they arrived with a handful of others from their safe house. They stopped off in Glenoak on their way, leaving the younger teenagers and children there.

  “Zack, Andrew is through here, he’s badly injured.”

  Zack and Matthew accompanied him to the dining room. He was surprised to find Etta was one of those keeping watch over his friend.

  “Etta, this is Zack, our medic, and his mate Matthew.”

  Etta’s eyes widened when she took in Matthew’s condition, but she didn’t speak, stepping back to let Zack get to Andrew. Leon, one of the teenagers from the safe house, followed them in with another bag of medical supplies.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood. He’ll need fluids and we’ll need to transfuse. I have a few bags of blood but after that, we’ll have to ask for donations.” Zack continued to check Andrew over while Leon and Matthew got the equipment ready. Etta was watching Leon as he left the room, a look of consternation on her face.

  When he walked past her a second time on his return, she spoke. “It’s Leon, isn’t it?”

  He looked up at her, giving her a quiet nod.

  “You’re with them? With Fenrir’s Warriors?” No answer was needed and Leon didn’t give one.

  “Your mother’s never been the same since you ran away. Years of no contact, wondering if you were okay, fearing you were dead, and all the time you were running with a group of rogues?” Her voice got louder with each word. Leon turned to her.

  “Ran away? I didn’t run away, Etta. Your father sold me to a fighting ring. Years of being forced to fight and getting beaten to a pulp because I was a good fighter from a poor family and Frank decided I’d make him some money.”

  “My father wouldn’t do that.” Even Etta seemed uncertain of the truth of her words.

  “He used to come to the fights sometimes. He’d bet on me but only if he thought I was a sure thing.”

  “No, no, you’re wrong. You and Shayla ran away together.”

&n
bsp; Leon laughed, his voice heavy with bitterness.

  “He sold her too, to a brothel. I saw her a few times after that, thin, her skin almost translucent. That’s how they keep the girls in line, starve them, don’t let them shift. James and the FW have been looking for her but they haven’t found her yet. She was bought by a private buyer. Those girls don’t last long.”

  As he spoke, he looked years older than his age. “Frank was a monster. And Kyle was another Frank. I’m glad they’re dead. You weren’t like them but you couldn’t do anything before, none of us could under Frank’s watch. But now? You could make a real difference.”

  Etta was silent after that, turning away towards the window her arms crossed. At length, she spoke.

  “We have an under the table agreement with a local hospital. Tell me what you need and I’ll arrange for them to get the supplies together. We can pay the money by electronic transfer, I have access to the accounts. Then all you have to do is pick them up.”

  “Thank you, Etta. Your help will save lives. Zack will tell you what we need,” James said.

  It was a small step, in one way, but in another, it was the start of a revolution.

  “There’s a bullet inside his abdomen. That’s why he’s not healing up the way he should be. I’ll need to go in and get it out,” Zack said.

  “Here?” James asked.

  “Our nearest medical facility is too far. Even Glenoak’s is pushing it. He’s running out of time.”

  “Ours is five minutes by car,” Etta offered, still pale and subdued. “It’ll have most of what you need. I don’t know if we still have a doctor.”

  “I can manage myself, with a few extra pairs of hands.”

  “Good, we’ll get a group together. Matthew should stay here; the house is better protected.”

  “I’ll go with them,” Etta said. “That way, I can head off any trouble with our own people.”

  James considered her offer. She had some use as a hostage but he could see a longer-term use for her, as a bridge between old and new in Eagle Creek. And Andrew had told him what Jeremy had planned for her. He had no wish to see her back in the hands of Gray Valley. If they could convince her that, while they were no angels, they weren’t the bad guys, it would go a long way to building some trust.

  “That would be a great help, thank you, Etta.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Zack said a quick goodbye to Matthew, wrapping arms around him and pressing their foreheads together.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Don’t overstretch yourself trying to do too much. You’re one person, one heavily pregnant person.”

  “I’ll be careful, I promise,” Matthew said, kissing him soundly.

  They lay Andrew down as gently as they could in the back of the car and the rest of them piled in, Leon in the driver’s seat and Etta beside him giving directions.

  “I remember where it is,” Leon grumbled.

  “Four years is a long time,” Etta said. “How long were you imprisoned?”

  “Nearly two years stuck in the fighting rings before the FW got me out. Then two years of being rebuilt from the ground up by decent people, people who actually cared.”

  The anger burned in his voice and Zack could see Etta regretted asking the questions.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t realize.”

  “What could you have done if you had? You were as much a prisoner as any of us. Look at what happened to your sister. Do you think she’s happy with her heavy-handed Alpha mate in Gray Valley?”

  Etta looked away.

  “I guess not, huh?”

  “Leon, I think we need to set this aside for now,” Zack said.

  “You’re right. Sorry, Zack. Got to keep my head in the game. I just hadn’t realized how much of a deal being back here would be.”

  “Your mom would love to see you,” Etta said, a note of hope in her voice.

  “I’m not sure if I’m ready for that,” Leon replied. “Anyway, we have work to do.”

  They lapsed into silence.

  “Take a right here,” Etta said and then they were there. They hurried out and across to the darkened building.

  “Etta, is that you?” a voice called.

  She slowed to a walk, turning towards the woman who’d greeted them.

  “Can’t talk now Miriam, we have injured,” she replied, turning and hurrying along with them.

  “Nicely handled,” Zack said.

  “Well, it’s the truth,” Etta mumbled.

  He was pleased to find the clinic clean and well equipped and they wasted no time getting started. It was almost half an hour later before they all heard the satisfying clink of metal as Zack dropped the last bullet fragment into the bowl.

  “That’s it,” he said. “Let’s close this wound up. We’ll push fluids and blood for an hour and, if he’s stable, move him back to the Pack house.”

  He looked up at Etta, who had stood unwaveringly next to him holding a surgical clamp and handing him equipment as needed.

  “Thank you, Etta. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

  “Hey!” Leon protested from behind him. “What about me?”

  “It goes without saying that you’re invaluable in these situations, Leon,” Zack said with a roll of his eyes.

  He stepped outside to update the shifters keeping watch and make a call to James. Leon started packing up supplies to return to the car. When Zack stepped back into the clinic room, he found Etta sitting next to Andrew’s bed, holding his hand.

  She looked embarrassed when he walked in, letting go and pushing back her chair.

  “You two know each other,” he surmised.

  “Andrew spent a few months living in Eagle Creek. Though he was going by Drew then. It was about eighteen months ago. Then one day he just upped and disappeared. I guess now I know why.”

  “You and he were close?”

  She hesitated before she shook her head. “You don’t know my father. His daughters were like currency. He just hadn’t found the best deal for me yet.”

  “And Andrew…”

  “Was just some rogue they took on because they thought they could buy his loyalty and add to their number of fighters. Then he flaked out on them and fulfilled their expectations as just another unreliable drifter.”

  There was something in her expression when she said it that had Zack doing a double take. “But you thought differently?”

  “I thought my father had found out about us. I thought… he’d taken him out of the equation.”

  Andrew stirred and Zack went to check him, his mind reeling at the idea that Etta had believed her father had killed a man she’d had a romantic interest in.

  “His blood pressure and pulse are holding steady. We’ll give it another twenty minutes before we move him.” He injected more pain relief into the IV, sending him back to a comfortable sleep.

  Zack did feel sorry for Etta. Frank Migone, for all that he was, was still her father. Eagle Creek was still her home. They’d turned everything upside down and she was just another victim caught in the crossfire.

  James was relieved when the group returned safely with Andrew stabilized. They moved him to an upstairs bedroom and arranged for someone to stay by his side.

  Etta went into the kitchen as Matthew joined them and he and James listened, eyebrows raised, as Zack explained the connection between her and Andrew.

  “That makes things both easier and harder, I guess. Are you up to more doctoring, I have another patient for you,” James said

  “Sure, point me at them.”

  James hesitated. “He mightn’t be very receptive to your attempts to treat him.”

  “You’re talking about the Omega you found?” Matthew deduced.

  “His name is Luke. He’s had a rough time of it at Jeremy Migone’s hands. Orchestrated by us, unfortunately. We used him to distract Eagle Creek, get Jeremy and some of the others out of the way while we launched our attack. Only we didn’t manage to
get to Luke in the aftermath.”

  “Jeremy thought Luke had been in on the plan,” Etta spoke from where she stood in the kitchen doorway. “He thought Luke had information about you. At least, that’s what he said.”

  “You don’t think that was true?”

  “I know my brother. Causing pain for pain’s sake is enough of a reason for him. There was a slim chance Luke knew anything.”

  “How badly is he hurt?” Zack said, hefting his medical bag.

  “Jeremy burned him with a hot poker on the back of his neck. And beat him, with his fists, his feet, his belt,” Etta said, her arms folded.

  “He’s easily spooked. He may not let you get that close,” James added.

  “Why don’t I give it a try?” Zack said, heading for the stairs.

  Chapter Twelve

  Zack stepped out of Luke’s room minutes later.

  “He’s terrified. I can’t get near enough to examine him.”

  “I’ll help you,” James said, getting to his feet.

  “I might be more use,” Matthew pointed out, using the wall as support as he stood.

  “Oh, no,” Zack replied. “We’re not risking you getting a kick to the stomach. He looks half-feral.”

  “He’s not,” James was quick to say. “And Matthew’s presence might help calm him down.”

  Zack didn’t look happy. “You stay behind me and out of arm’s and leg’s reach, okay?”

  Matthew rolled his eyes. “Fine. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  Luke was in the corner of the room, his knees drawn up, rocking slowly.

  “Luke, stand up and come over here,” James said. “Zack needs to take a look at your injuries.”

  Luke kept rocking, not responding to James’ words.

  “There’s someone we’d like you to meet,” James continued. “This is Zack’s mate, Matthew. He’s an Omega, like you.”

  That was enough to get through to him, Luke’s eyes looking up, seeing Matthew standing just behind and to the side of Zack, taking in everything, including the swell of Matthew’s abdomen.

  “Hi, Luke. I was hoping, once Zack checks you over, that you and I could talk. I don’t get to spend a lot of time with other Omegas.”