lost focus and slowly slipped shut.
“What happened?”
“He’s lost consciousness. Sawyer, Andvari, Loch with us. The rest of you in the waiting room. Let me do my work.”
Gentle hands guided Victor into another room. Victor watched the gurney until it disappeared into a different room down the hall. Gus cuddled closer, whimpering every few seconds. All Victor could do was pet his back gently and make soft noises of support. Words were meaningless to both of them at the moment.
Minutes passed.
The rest of Sawyer’s mates arrived, rushing past them into the room where they’d taken Riggs. Eduard shot a reassuring look toward Victor as he hurried by. It somehow helped, knowing his cousin would be in the room, helping bolster Sawyer’s magic.
They had to save Riggs.
Eduard would make sure of it. He trusted his cousin to do this for him. His breath caught. He sucked in another, petting Gus gently, trying to reassure them both.
Time became meaningless.
Gus slept fitfully against Victor’s chest. Victor’s arms were numb from holding him, but Gus refused to go to anyone else, and Victor didn’t particularly want to let him go anyway. The warm weight comforted him.
Finally, Nick straightened beside him. Victor hadn’t even realize he’d been leaning against the alpha. Draco emerged with an unconscious Sawyer in his arms.
Nick stiffened. “Draco?”
“He’s okay. Used a lot of energy helping. I’ll let the doc explain.”
Eduard ran over to Victor and hooked his hand behind Victor’s head. “I’ll be back later, okay? I want to get Sawyer home.”
“I’m fine.”
He was.
Perfectly fine.
“I’ll take care of him,” Nick said.
Eduard gave a quick nod to Nick before meeting Victor’s gaze again. He squeezed Victor’s neck, then turned and ran for the door, following the rest of his mates.
“The doc’s coming out,” Nick said. “You want me to take Gus?”
“No. I’m fine.”
Vaughn emerged from the back room, an unreadable look on his face.
“What’s up, Doc?” Nick asked.
“He’s in recovery. According to Andvari, he was given some sort of magic soon after the accident?”
“Yeah?” Nick said. “Some grape thing from the Lady of the Lake.”
“It seems to be helping him heal, which is good. He wouldn’t have survived otherwise. His insides were… well, scrambled, to put it mildly.”
“Fuck.” Nick wrapped his arm around Victor, who hadn’t even realized he’d swayed until he suddenly had the additional support.
Jedrek appeared at his other side, and the alpha and alpha-mate formed a protective wall around Victor and Gus.
“Sawyer was able to help with the bleeding. Thank the Goddess he was there. All that said, Riggs is resting comfortably now and healing quickly. I suspect he’ll be better within a couple days.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
Vaughn turned to Victor next. “You can sit with him for a while. He needs to rest, though.”
“I don’t need to—”
“That’s great,” Nick interrupted. “We’ll make sure he stays put.”
“Do you need anything for the baby?” Vaughn asked.
“Nah,” Nick said. “Puteri brought him over a bag a while ago. Thanks, though.”
Vaughn stepped forward and looked at Victor. “He’s in shock. Take him to his mate. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“He’s not my—”
“No problem, Doc.”
Nick began guiding Victor down the hall. “He’s not—”
“Do you argue about everything with everyone, or am I the lucky one?”
“I don’t—”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured. I bet your cousin does the same thing to my brother. Heh. That’s good, actually. Sawyer needs someone to argue with him. Draco just does whatever he wants. Ever seen a dragon so whipped before? Sawyer says jump and Draco grabs him, jumps, then kisses him senseless. Which, you know, has its benefits.”
“What are you—”
“And hey, I don’t mind a good fight every now and again. Ask Jedrek. We fight all the time, don’t we, love?”
Jedrek grunted and opened the door for them. Victor’s breath left his chest at his first glimpse of Riggs. He was pale—too pale—and so very still. A monitor beeped, a monotonous droning noise that probably meant something good, but Victor wanted to slam the equipment into the wall to shut it up.
Gus whimpered against him and began sucking harder on his thumb.
“Shh,” Victor whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
Nick guided him closer and helped him sit in the chair tucked beside Riggs’s hospital bed. Crisp white bandages covered his chest to his stomach. They disappeared beneath the plain blanket on the bed.
“He’s pale,” Victor said. He blinked, wondering what had urged him to speak in the first place.
“He’s healing,” Jedrek said.
Victor found comfort in the words, even if he didn’t understand why.
Nick had moved around the bed and leaned over