Everett

Meleri and Magnus arrived together in the afternoon and found me on the phone with Gareth, who had been my best friend since I was eight.

Gareth had called to check on me. We had standing plans every Saturday to play video games together with a spread of delicious, unhealthy foods in front of us. I had texted him last night after I knew he would be asleep letting him know I wasn't going to be able to make it and had missed his call this morning because I was helping Paula tend Felix.

Now Gareth was demanding to know why I canceled our plans. I didn't lie as a rule and had no idea what I could say to divert his curiosity without giving him the whole truth. I also didn't know how to explain Felix to him.

"Come on, man. What's going on? I talked to Zara and she said you missed your meetings yesterday afternoon without any warning. Something is up and I want to know what it is."

That was when Meleri and Magnus arrived, which made explaining Felix feel even more impossible. No way did I want to get into this with his siblings listening in. "I swear I'm not blowing you off," I said, "but I need to go. Can I call you later? I'll explain then."

"Lame," Gareth replied. "But whatever. You're okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Later." I hung up the phone before Gareth could press me further. At least I had some time to come up with a version of events I was comfortable sharing, I thought.

Meleri and Magnus sat down in the same chairs they had used last night. Meleri, who was annoyingly perky, said, "You didn't have to hang up."

I shrugged. "It wasn't pressing."

Magnus said, "How is he? Paula was busy when we came in and Stacy, who works the desk, said she didn't have any updates for us."

"His ribs aren't wrapped anymore," I told them.

"That's awesome!" Meleri said.

"His neck is a mess," I added in a stern voice. Her cheer rubbed me the wrong way. It was like she was dismissing everything that was still wrong with my mate's body.

"Oh, you saw that?" Magnus asked, his expression all sympathy. "I threw up the first time I saw it."

I smiled at that. At least I wasn't the only one nauseated by Felix's wounds.

Meleri laughed at her brother and said, "I can't believe you threw up. I hope you know you're never living it down."

Magnus shoved her playfully and said, "At least I looked. You were too scared to."

Meleri stuck her tongue out at him. "And you're so brave? You hide your face during horror movies."

"Horror movie," Magnus corrected. "Singular. And what kind of messed up person puts on 'The Conjuring' without warning anyone?"'

I sat back, content to watch the siblings bicker. I had always begged my mom for a brother or sister when I was a kid. My dad died when I was three and I didn't understand when I was young that Mom couldn't have another baby alone. Then, when I was older, I didn't understand why she refused to date anyone. She always insisted she didn't want a relationship if it wasn't with my dad, her mate. To this day, she was still alone.

I swept my gaze over Felix. The pull I felt toward him was growing stronger as I spent more time with him. His scent had been in my nose for over a day now without relief and I was almost used to the feeling of his skin against mine. When I was close to him like this, I was constantly aware of where I was in relation to him. When we touched, I couldn't focus on anything for long because my thoughts kept circling back to the exquisite tingles that spread from the point of contact. The more time I spent with him, the harder it was to keep contact limited to my hand on his.

"You know," Magnus said cautiously, "Felix is an amazing guy." I realized I had been staring at Felix for a while now and I tore my gaze from him to see Magnus watching me nervously.

"Subtle," Meleri muttered with a sarcastic eye roll.

Magnus glared at her before looking at me with an almost pleading expression. "I never promised not to talk Felix up to you and you should know how amazing he is before you make any life-altering decisions."

I snorted in amusement. "I haven't made any decisions yet." I was starting to think that running like a coward wouldn't work, but that was as far as I had gotten.

"Good, that's good," Magnus said.

"What would you do if you went back to Delta alone?" Meleri asked, her tone demanding.

"Meleri!" Magnus said, his voice scolding.

"What? I want to know what he thinks his life will look like without his true mate."

Magnus opened his mouth, probably to scold her again, but I held up a hand to stop him. "It's okay, Magnus. I don't mind answering her." I scanned Felix's face again before turning my gaze to Meleri. "I imagine my life would stay the same without Felix."

"Really? You think leaving him wouldn't impact you at all?" she asked, sneering.

I shook my head, frustrated. "You misunderstand. I think my life would go on just as it has been. No change, no growth. No real future to look forward to. It's not a positive outlook."

Silence fell while the siblings processed my words. "I wish Felix were awake," Magnus said.

Meleri lifted a brow at him. "What, and we don't?"

"No, of course you do. But Everett's trying to make an important decision here and he's missing the most crucial piece of the puzzle. Everett, you can't choose until you've met Felix because you don't really know what you would be giving up."

At the very least, I thought, I would be giving up potential. I liked the way my life was set up, but the routine had been getting to me lately. Working Monday through Friday, attending training sessions after work on Thursdays and running the other days to stay in shape. Saturdays with Gareth, Sundays for cleaning, errands, and anything else that may come up. Rinse and repeat. I didn't think I could go on like that forever.

Magnus and Meleri left not much later, saying they would be back in the morning. Magnus gave me his phone number so I could text him and Meleri if anything noteworthy happened. When they were gone, I let my fingers drift up Felix's arm, watching the way his hair stood on end wherever I touched and goosebumps popped up. Even when he was completely unaware, his body responded to my touch. It was kind of fascinating.

Paula came in to do her afternoon checks on Felix. "Hi, Everett, how are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm well, Paula. Don't you have days off?"

She snorted. "That depends. We have several doctors in our pack, but none of us like to hand off any patients we've been seeing to the others. I'm mostly off today. I'm only here to check on Felix."

Her dedication made me feel better. Surely, he would get better care from a doctor who was willing to come in on her day off just to see him, a doctor that knew his situation intimately from having watched it unfold herself. "Thank you for coming," I said. I hoped she could tell just how fervently I meant it.

She just smiled at me as usual and said, "Don't mention it, Everett." She went through her usual routine, checking the machines he was hooked up to, taking notes, checking his eyes. I noticed that her gaze kept falling on the bandage around his neck.

"Is everything okay?" I asked anxiously after the fourteenth time she looked at it.

"Yes, everything is fine. I'm dying of curiosity, though. I want to know what that neck looks like."

"Why not look?" I asked.

Paula's warm brown eyes twinkled mischievously and she said, "Don't encourage me or I'll do it."

"Well, why not?" I pressed.

Paula flung her clipboard down onto the tray near Felix's bed and threw her hands up. "That's it. Now I have to look." She glanced at me and her smile returned. "There's no harm in looking, Everett. Stop frowning like that."

I huffed. I hated how transparent I was around Paula. She saw every stupid thing the mating bond with Felix made me feel and she wasn't shy about calling me on it.

"Want to help me out?" Paula asked, already approaching Felix. "It's a good idea to have you go over his neck again, anyway."

"Sure." Easily, as though I had been handling Felix for years instead of since yesterday, I positioned myself behind him with him leaning back against me. Paula wasted no time in unclipping his gauze and together we unwound it.

When Paula pulled away the final piece of wrapping, she gasped. I had been stupidly transfixed on Felix's face, which was just inches from mine, and I panicked until my eyes landed on his neck.

Felix's neck was almost entirely healed. There was shiny pink scar tissue and a little swelling where the worst of the damage had been, but that was it.

I glanced at Paula, trying to gauge her reaction, but she was just staring at his neck, blinking rapidly. Tears welled in her eyes and I instinctively wrapped an arm around Felix's torso, pulling him tighter against my chest as though I could somehow protect him from whatever was making her cry.

"This is good," Paula assured me. "Really good. His healing is almost back to normal now. There are two possibilities. The most likely one is that his neck healed because his body has already finished healing the worst of the brain injury. If that's the case, he'll wake up very soon."

"And the other possibility?"

Paula hesitated, making me feel sick. "In rare cases with head wounds, the body will divert healing away from them not because they're healed, but because the body has already done all it can. In these cases, the patient doesn't wake up."

I struggled to rein in my reaction, but my whole system went haywire at her words. I trembled, my heart raced, my breathing hitched. I clutched Felix helplessly to me and looked down at his face, at the eyes that I willed to open. I didn't care if he saw me now, I just wanted him to be okay.

"Just focus on breathing," Paula said in a soothing voice. "I really believe Felix will be okay. He's tenacious."

As if his temperament made any difference here, I thought scathingly. Paula was just trying to help, though, so I fought against the swell of animosity and tried to take her advice, focusing on the simple act of drawing air in and out of my lungs. It was hard, but after several long moments, I was breathing normally. I was still completely unwilling to relinquish my hold on Felix, though.

Paula bustled around the hospital room, disposing of the used wrappings and writing on her clipboard. She finally looked up at me and smiled sadly. "I'm going to leave you with Felix now, but I'm not leaving the building. There's a call button on the left side of the bed. If anything changes, push it and I'll come. Okay?"

I nodded, unable to speak since I had my face buried in Felix's hair. Focusing on his scent was helping me work through my panic. Paula left me with Felix and I wondered whether I should return to my chair. Paula knew I was still sitting with him, though, and she hadn't said anything about it.

I decided to just give myself a few more minutes of peace, but a few minutes quickly flowed into half an hour, then an hour. I checked the clock occasionally, but mostly I just watched Felix's pulse jump, listened to the sound of his heart beating, and focused on his scent.

It occurred to me that this was exactly the kind of update his siblings would be interested in, but I couldn't reach my phone from my position behind Felix and it didn't seem worth moving.

Or, it didn't seem worth moving until I thought about what it would be like for him to wake up with a complete stranger wrapped around him and with his beloved brother and sister nowhere in sight. With that in mind, I slowly extracted myself from my mate, reached for my phone, and settled on the edge of his bed, where I could see and smell him better than from the chair.

I sent a quick text to Meleri and Magnus, saying that his neck was healed and Paula thought he could wake any time. As soon as the message was sent, I glanced back up at Felix and everything in me froze.

His eyes were open.