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Pain tears through my skull as I am jostled.

My vision tunnels.

Then everything goes black.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Oak Hollow Community Hospital, Oak Hollow

Angel

I pace from one side of the hospital room to the other, which feels as much like home as Cole House does. The staff at Oak Hollow Community Hospital gave me my first job and chance.

They welcomed me into their world with a warmth that I’d never experienced. I learned through the staff who work here that it’s not toughness, hardness, or ability to hide pain that makes a good Alpha but rather compassion.

It should feel like home to Rhett too with how often he ends up here. Luca is just as bad.

I sigh, grabbing the chart from the end of the bed.

I struggle to hide how much my fingers are shaking.

Rhett simply quirks a brow at me.

He is half-sitting in the raised hospital bed with a thin blanket pulled to his waist. He has changed into a pale blue gown with a white ID band wrapped around one wrist, while an IV port is taped to his other hand.

I checked his catheter three times when I first rushed into the room, until Rhett gently suggested that I should trust my colleagues.

I frowned. “I do trust them, handsome. When it comes to my fool Alpha, however, I’m allowed to fuss over his medical care. It’s in my paramedic contract.”

The room is quiet, and the lights are dim in order not to make Rhett’s headache worse.

I even pulled the blinds over the narrow window, which looks over the parking lot.

Paige is probably doing the most for my Alpha’s health by snuggling close to him on the vinyl visitor chair, resting her head on his lap and washing her soothing Omega pheromones over him.

Her pheromones battle against the cool, chemical scent of the room.

Rhett is deeply breathing in Paige’s scent like it alone is healing him.

I have been hiding my smile.

Rhett can protest as much as he likes; he biologically needs Paige.

Studies have proved how statistically beneficial it is to have an Alpha’s scent matched Omega with them immediately after surgery or in the recovery stage after an injury or illness.

It can save an Alpha’s life. And vice versa.

I slam down hard on the terror that I could have lost my Alpha today, glancing under my eyelashes at the way Rhett is petting Paige.

She hasn’t stopped nuzzling my Alpha, as if the two of them have connected over this incident.

Hope soars through me.

Please…

When I received the call that Rhett had been brought to the hospital at the same time as Paige got one about her sister, I reckoned that Paige was going to collapse, she went so pale.

I drove the Omega over to the hospital, masking my nerves by playing loud music.