Page 24 of Bubblegum Pop

I might not be able to save her from her contract, but I could at least save her from hunger.

Pressing my lips to her hair, I eased myself backwards into Zeus’s hard chest and quickly crawled away from him before he grabbed me in a pincer hold. He was a massive cuddler, and he liked to hold on tight.

His hand missed me, finding Candy instead. He shuffled closer, caging her in against Odin. My two mates sandwiching our lovely omega. I just prayed it would be a quiet night for him, that he had dreams rather than nightmares.

I quietly crept over to our bedside table, picking up my phone and taking a shot. I wanted something to commemorate the peace before we had to return to reality.

I gave them one last lingering look before I turned and headed to the kitchen, already looking forward to their reactions when they finally woke up.

Zeus

Igroaned as I weakly tugged against the handcuffs, both my wrists stinging, though it was nothing compared to the pounding of my head, and my hand where they pulled out the glass. Even half a day later, blood still roared through my veins, matched with my need to destroy any fucker who wasn’t my brother or my mate.

I couldn’t look at Odin, not when the doctors had wrapped him up so tight in bandages that he could have been any of the alphas from the pub.

After the bartender knocked me out, I woke up in an ambulance. I couldn’t sense my brother in our bond or Apollo close to me, and I was fucking wild, tearing at the back doors of the speeding van, trying to find them until they managed to sedate me.

Odin on my left, Apollo on my right, both lying flat on hospital beds, layered in cheap blankets. They were both attached to machines that were supposed to confirm they were alive by constant beeps, but I just stared at the screens, daring them to stop.

Rage simmered under my surface, like a pool of lava waiting to erupt. One wrong word from those doctors, one wrong fucking move, and I was sure I’d go rogue again. I could taste it at the edges of my mind. The only reason I was fucking stable was the hope that my pack was going to make it.

They'd handcuffed my left wrist to the rails of Odin’s bed, the other to Apollo’s. They let me stay as long as I agreed to take another sedative shot they used for rogue alphas, so, of course, I fucking agreed. We were in a special alpha ward, where the beds were bolted to the floor in case any of us lost our shit due to the pain, but I was stronger than normal alphas. If I wanted to escape, I could, but I wouldn’t until both of them woke up.

It was three long hours of not seeing them while they stitched Apollo up. A four-inch blade had been rammed straight into his gut. But I could feel him beating inside me, and I sent him as much energy as I could, though most of my focus was on reaching Odin.

He came back from surgery six hours later, and to be honest, I was glad I couldn’t see what was going on with his head. Even his rasping breaths nearly made me puke. I didn’t know how he was alive, but I’d been praying non-stop since I woke up that they’d both survive.

Because he wasn’t there. I couldn’t feel Odin, even though I was sitting by his feet, his chest rising and falling under the fuck-ugly pink hospital blanket they’d wrapped him in.

They said losing a pack member was the most painful thing anyone could experience. Depending on how they died, the pain could be so extreme that it drove some people mad. Others felt their mate’s death so deeply that they died themselves. And cleaving, severing the bond between yourself and a pack, was just as dangerous. Either way, the mating bites, whether it was on the neck, arms, or arse, went black after a death or a cleave, like the skin had gone rotten.

As twins, Odin and I'd had our own special bond since we were kids, but we both shared a mating bond with Apollo.

I kept checking Apollo’s neck. Odin and I had bitten him under each ear, and Odin’s bite was still pure as fucking snow. That’s what I was clinging to as I slouched in the crappy hospital chair and tried to keep my shit together, even though my world was falling apart.

My head dipped as I squeezed my eyes closed, my guilt pounding like a fucking sledgehammer pounding in my body. It was all my fault. If I hadn’t reacted, if I’d just forced down my pride and let those bastards get on with their night, then maybe we’d be back in bed, Apollo sucking on Odin’s cock as I took my mate from behind, celebrating the fact we were fucking heroes.

Now all I had were the echoes of people walking behind me, chatting, and shouting on the other side of the flimsy white curtain that shut us in, and the intense chorus of beeping machines.

I knew Apollo would forgive me—he was just like that. But I still hoped he would hate me, even just a little bit. It would make the pain of what I’d done so much harsher, and I fucking deserved it.

The beeping of one of the machines suddenly sped up like a bullet train, and I gasped, my gaze shooting up to find Apollo, his head twisted to the right, staring at Odin with wide eyes.

“No,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “No. Odin. Please…” My mate let out a pained sob as he yanked himself up, the machines going haywire as pain stabbed through my abdomen.

“You’ve got to stay still,” I wheezed. “You’re going to fuck yourself up if you move.”

He’d looked pale when he was asleep, but now he was sheet white; even the gleam of his hair had become bland in the shitty hospital light.

“Zeus,” Apollo croaked, looking at me with despair. “What did they say? Will he be okay?”

I had to bite my lip to stop my stinging eyes from releasing all the tears I’d been holding back since I woke up. Tears were already slipping from Apollo, along with his cries.

I didn’t need to give him an answer, just a sharp shake of my head.

“Oh, God,” Apollo gasped, dragging himself to the edge of the bed, ripping off the heart rate monitor, pulling out the IV, yanking out all the wires and needles they had shoved into him. “Odin. Where are you?”

He managed to get his feet over the edge before I had a chance to stop him.