Page 3 of For All My Effort

This was borderline torturous. I curled my legs up, trying to nuzzle under the thin blanket and get warm.

“She’s cold.”

Those words had me gasping in outrage. Someone was in my nest. Apparently, a bad night’s sleep could mute my instincts, that’s what they should be teaching me.

I sat up, my vision immediately swimming as I struggled to take in everything. It was all so bright—too bright.

“The lights,” someone snapped. A different someone. How many people were in my freaking nest?

Shutting my eyes, I took a deep breath, scrunching my nose at the harsh smell of chemicals. It was almost overwhelming, but I managed to pull out four distinct scents. Four alphas.

Even with my eyes closed, I could tell the lights had been properly dimmed. By this point, I was starting to realize that something wasn’t right. This bed was definitely not my nest, it was too boxed in and uncomfortable. The room should have been soaked in my scent and I couldn’t imagine the OC allowing anyone into my nest. It was supposed to be a sacred place for omegas, the one place in the entire world that was solely mine.

Omegas had been known to go into rages when someone entered their nest without permission. Even their mates.

“Hannah, how are you feeling?” a third voice asked.

With my eyes still shut, I glared in the direction of the voice. Obviously, something wasn’t right. I tried to think about yesterday, except I couldn’t. What day was it? No one from the OC was knocking on my nest door demanding I get up to attend the mandatory sessions, so most likely a weekend.

Again, I tried opening my eyes. They were blurry at first, which was gross. I rubbed at the eye boogers and tried a third time.

I was right. Four males, alphas by their scent, standing all around me. Rather than stressing me out, my body seemed to relax at their presence, which was definitely not something that was supposed to happen. I’d met alphas before, and they all made me nervous. These ones, they actually made me stressed for them.

Dark circles under their eyes, their shoulders almost hunched, hair mussed, and the air around them was like they were at a 24-hour funeral.

Considering how fragile they looked, I didn’t immediately snap at them for being so close. “What happened?”

The alpha by my feet, the smallest in the group, though definitely larger than me, spoke first. “That asshole officer raced after you. He tried to stop you, but he apparently overestimated his strength because he flung you back so hard you smacked your head on the stone walkway.”

I looked at the other alphas, their anger increasing with each word the male said. On my behalf?

Reaching up, I wanted to touch the back part of my head where the pain seemed to be. The cool texture of my scalp, along with the feel of staples—I screamed.

Regretting it almost instantly as nausea boiled up from my stomach. I threw up once in my mouth and the second time over the side of the bed and into a pan.

“I got you, princess, let it all out.” The nearest male’s words were soothing, and he petted my shoulder which was weirdly comforting as he held the pan for me.

When I finally finished, sitting back against the bed, I felt worse. It was like I could finally recognize the thudding in my head, how much effort it took to move my neck, even the cold. My legs were still curled close to my body, but it wasn’t enough with just the thin blanket on top.

“Blanket,” the large male on my left side snapped. His voice was deep, with a natural growl that had me shivering with just that word.

I must have closed my eyes because I missed whoever set a blanket on top of my lap. I petted it, feeling the familiar weave of the sarape blanket which had me opening my eyes again.

Most omegas preferred super soft blankets, ones that were fluffy and warm. But I’d always preferred the slight roughness of sarapes. I felt like I sweated too much in traditional nesting fabrics, and these were more breathable. Great for keeping me covered without making me too hot.

The design was beautiful. A dark green and brown, the diamond in the middle a light tan. It definitely wasn’t one of mine, except when I brought it up to my face, I could scent myself—the lavender floral of my natural omega perfume.

I guessed that meant it was time to ask, “Who are you?”

No one spoke right away. I looked between the four males, each one radiating fear and sadness and worry to the point that my instincts were demanding I comfort them. I didn’t, though, because comforting strangers while I was in a hospital bed seemed too ironic for even me.

“I’ll get the doctor.”

The male who’d comforted me while I vomited basically ran out of the room, the bright lights from the hallway making me slam my eyes shut until I heard the click of the door shutting again.

“You really don’t know who we are?” one of the others asked.

I looked at the male. His skin was naturally tanned, his features sharp, and his eyes tilted in a way that made him look classically handsome. Even his clothes were good-looking. His white shirt was tucked into his pants, the buttons done up except for the top two, exposing his chest. At some point, he’d curled up the sleeves over his arms, showing off his sexy forearms. Had I ever thought forearms were sexy before?