Page 6 of For All My Effort
It was weird. It was like the air in the room physically changed. Becoming something softer, lighter. Shoulders lost their tension, lips turned up naturally at the ends. Everyone seemed to get closer to me—Zeke and Han barely sitting on edge of the bed, Jackson keeping his hand on the back of my neck, and Sebastian reaching out to hold my hand.
Having all four of them so close, without the morbid air distracting me, it gave me a weird mix of calm and arousal. With my one free hand, I reached out to the blanket over my lap, petting it, pretending to arrange it around me as if it needed to be tucked under my legs just right.
For the first time in my life, I wished I’d paid attention to the classes at the OC about flirting—yes, that was an actual mandatory lesson.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling very confident. Especially when I thought of the patch of missing hair. Was it vain? Sure. But it made me worried that the males wouldn’t want this version of me.
Fuck this.
I bottled up the emotions, grabbing onto the negative tail ends and shoving them so deep inside me that I could ignore them. Pulling my shoulders back, I sat up straight. I was letting my instincts run the show right now, that was why I was so trusting. But I didn’t want to get lost in them.
“We’re all mates?” I looked at each male, watching them nod along to my question. “You’re all hot, so that’s good, at least. How long have we been together?”
“Two years,” Han said.
Zeke glared at the other male before turning his focus back to me. “Two and a half.”
“That would make me … how old exactly?” I couldn’t remember the last birthday I celebrated.
“You’re about to turn twenty-two,” Seb said. His fingers were starting to trace invisible designs onto my hand and wrist. With how much attention he was giving the area, I was surprised his claiming mark wasn’t there.
It would be interesting to figure out where all my bites were. Weird, too, exploring my own body.
Someone knocked on the door, peeking in through the crack. I could just make her out between Seb and Han, giving me just a sliver of a view of the room. Considering the scrubs, it was obviously a nurse. “Hey, Hannah. We have time now to get your images taken. You ready?”
“Sure.” I tried to get out of the bed, which was hard enough since the side railings basically blocked me in like a crib. Only none of the alphas moved. Even when I scooted down to the foot of the bed, expecting Han or Zeke to get out of my way, neither did.
The nurse basically shoved her way between them, giving me a wide smile. She looked remarkably happy, as if she was having the best day of her life while working in the hospital. Her smile was definitely contagious.
“Oh, you can stay lying down.” She patted the top where the thinnest pillow in existence was. “I’m going to push the whole bed out of here. Doc says you shouldn’t be walking.”
I literally wasn’t going to argue with her until she’d added that last bit. “I can’t walk?”
Someone groaned, it sounded like Zeke, but I couldn’t be completely positive since I didn’t look away from the nurse.
“Just for a bit. Once we get your head all scanned and cleared of any brain injuries, no doubt you’ll be up and running.”
I could run now. I didn’t say that, but if the muffled smirks were anything to go by, the sentiment was understood through my mating bonds. Not even physical exhaustion was stronger than my spite.
“Be good, rebel,” Jackson called out. The command seemed to wash over me, but it didn’t encourage me to do anything I would have considered good. And his deep chuckle as the nurse pushed me away told me that he knew it too.
Chapter Three
Apparently, there was a difference between sleeping and being knocked out. After all the scans of my head, I was pushed back into my room. All I had done was basically lie still, and yet I was exhausted.
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I noticed the whispered shouting that woke me up. It was weirdly comforting to hear the voices of the familiar alphas and being able to recognize them. At least until their words finally managed to penetrate the heavy fog of sleep in my mind.
“Tell them to leave me the hell alone,” I mumbled before adjusting on my other side so I could fall back asleep.
With the stitches along the back of my head, and the gap of missing hair, I couldn’t lay on my back. Usually I slept on my stomach, needing the perfect mattress to caress my boobs, not smash them, so I hadn’t even tried that position with this hospital one.
A hand ran along the side of my face, gently tracing my features. The spiced pumpkin scent told me it was Han. “Unfortunately, I think you’re going to have to talk with them. It isn’t a great look if we deny them access. They’ll just send a mandatory appearance in the mail.”
I groaned, ensuring the sound was loud and emphasizing how put-out I felt.
I was more tired than when I had first woken up. My head wasn’t thumping anymore, but I would’ve sworn the stitches were too tight with the amount of pressure I felt on the back of my head.
The room was dark, with just a sliver of light coming from the attached bathroom between the cracks and the floor. Even with the black-out curtains over the windows, I knew the sun had already set. In late winter, that made knowing the time slightly more difficult since the sun went down before dinner.