Saving Briar

“Oh Darling. Thank the Goddess that you’re awake. I’ve been so worried about you.” That voice. It was high pitched and whiny. Theon had only just begun to regain consciousness, but the sound of that voice made him wish that he could retreat back into the dark hole that he’d only just managed to claw his way out of and stay there until she’d gone. She’d seen his eyes open a moment earlier though, and she knew that he was awake. There was no use playing dead now.

“Cara?” He sucked in a breath, surprised when the sharp scent of antiseptics and bleach stung his nostrils. “Where the fuck am I? Where are Harlow and Kayla?”

“Oh, is that the welcome I get? I’m out making plans for our wedding for the past several days, and besides that working on tracking down that little slut that your guards let slip away, and the first thing you do after scaring me half to death with whatever that fainting spell was back in that parking lot is ask after the toy I got you?”

Theon’s vision had adjusted to the bright light coming in through the window and filling the room just enough to see that Cara was standing by the side of the bed, wearing a short pink dress, her arms crossed in a way that showed her cleavage in the most advantageous way.

“No. Babe. Wedding?” If it was possible, his head managed to hurt more than it already had. “The fuck. I haven’t even proposed. What are you talking about?”

“Yes you did, Sweetie. When we were in the eighth grade, when I asked you said we would get married as soon as we found out we were mates. And now that you’ve rejected your mate, or as good as have rejected her, so we’ve basically sealed the deal. And that’s as good as a proposal.” Theon’s eyes widened as she gave him a bright smile. “Now I still have oodles to do. My Daddy is back and he has an update on the slut situation. I think it’s good news. I mean as good as can be while she has a pulse.”

Theon was at a complete loss for words. His relationship with Cara hadn’t always been like this. Hell, it hadn’t been like this two weeks ago. They’d been a typical high school couple. And if he’d been asked he probably would have said that he planned on marrying her someday. He had thought that she would be his mate. But the last week had turned his entire life on its head. And she wasn’t acting at all like the girl that he had grown up with.

Cara had kissed his forehead and slipped from the room, saying something about having more planning to do. He looked up at the sound of footsteps, half expecting to see her father bringing news about the hunt for his mate, but instead it was one of the three doctors who worked at the local hospital, standing in front of him, a serious expression deepening the already dramatic lines that criss crossed his face.

“Alpha,” the doctor nodded at Theon before walking over and taking a seat in the chair next to his bedside. The younger man was trying desperately to remember the older doctor’s name. It wasn’t Doctor Warner who saw nearly everyone in the pack in his office in town since this doctor had all but retired.

He was wearing a nametag with a lanyard, but it was flipped around and Theon couldn’t read it. It didn’t help that the way the man’s white jacket fell open obscured the blue embroidered script sewn across his chest. Theon knew he’d met the older doctor at least a dozen times, and on any other day he would have probably remembered what he was called, but his memory seemed to be failing him at the moment and so finally he cleared his throat and put out his hand and simply replied with the doctor’s title, forgoing his name altogether.

“All of the tests we’ve run have come back entirely normal. You seem to be in perfect health.” The doctor’s expression didn’t match the words that were coming out of his mouth and so Theon waited. It was obvious that he had more to say. “The young lady with a child who came in with the paramedics spoke with one of the nurses before your fiance told her to leave. She said that this has happened more than once now. She mentioned that you passed out last night and that you then had a spell this morning where you nearly lost consciousness before this happened in the parking lot. She told the nurse that she believed you were in a great deal of pain before you fai- lost consciousness. Is that true?”

Theon took a deep breath, frowning. The pain had been fast, ripping through his body, almost like his first shift, but it had been even more extreme. And there had been no reason for it that he could decipher. He related what he could recall back to the doctor who leaned forward, running his hand over his face.

“I hate to ask about this, because I know it might seem like it’s none of my business, but there are rumors going around the pack. Is it true that you found your mate a few days ago?”

Theon managed to suppress the string of profanity that exploded in his mind. He’d wanted to keep Briar’s existence, and the aftermath of what had happened, to himself. But of course, that was impossible. There hadn’t been many witnesses to Cara beating Briar, and while they had all been either his warrior’s or Cara’s close friends, there had been enough people there that word must have spread through the pack like wildfire while he had spent the last few days in bed moping and fucking. Even if his men kept their mouths shut, Cara’s friends wouldn’t have. It was unlikely that there was anyone left in the pack that didn’t know what had happened.

A mixture of shame and rage mixed in his gut as he thought of what he had allowed to happen to the little Omega who had been meant for him, all while he’d stood by and watched. Suddenly a mixture of bile and what was left of the contents of his stomach came rushing up. The doctor barely managed to reach for a nearby bin to thrust it into his hands, although what came up was next to nothing since he still hadn’t had a chance to eat that morning.

Once he’d finished the doctor set the bin aside and handed him a glass of ice water that Theon hadn’t noticed sitting nearby on a tray.

“I met her a few days ago. She’s an Omega. I couldn’t keep her. She’s gone now. I let them beat her. She escaped from the jail cells. I haven’t had a chance to reject her.”

The doctor gave him a strange, sad smile. “Why couldn’t you keep her? A mate is something that most of us are only blessed with once in a lifetime.” Theon stared at him for a long moment, to see if he was making some sort of a joke when he asked his question. Briar was an Omega. He thought it was fairly obvious why he couldn’t keep her. An Alpha paired with an Omega? What did the man think this was? Some sort of fairy tale?

“I can’t be paired with a weak mate. My father would have had a stroke if he were still alive. Our pups would be weakened by her blood. It’s impossible. I need an equal.”

Theon was surprised when he heard laughter escape from between the old man’s lips. “So you think the Goddess made a mistake then? Do you really think she does that?”

“She must have.” Theon had meant to sound confident when he gave his answer, but when the words slipped out they were just barely louder than a whisper and even he could hear how uncertain they sounded.

“I will take your word for it, Alpha. But I must tell you. Not every child who grows up in this pack is given the rank that they should have been born with.” Theon heard the words that the old man said, but they didn’t make sense. Of course every pup had the rank it should. Rank was passed down from parent to child. Omega parents birthed Omega pups and Alphas gave birth to Alphas. It was the way that it had always been.

Sometimes werewolves rose and fell by great deeds, although falling was much, much rarer, because if a wolf did something that was worthy of losing their rank they were almost certain to be expelled from the pack and made a rogue and that hadn’t happened, at least that Theon had heard of, in his lifetime.

“I don’t understand.” Theon’s brow was knitted together as he tried to make sense of what the other man was saying.

“Cheating is rare among werewolves. If you haven’t already discovered the reason, you will soon realize why. But it does happen. Over the years while I’ve worked here I’ve seen enough to know that even our pack is not immune. I can’t tell you much beyond what I’ve already said, Alpha, but you should know that you have some strong Omegas in your pack, especially among the young. And you might want to look into that..”

“Now, back to the matter of your health. What’s the last thing that you remember?”

“I had just pulled into the parking lot at the dinner with Harlow and Kayla. I remember feeling pain. Anger. I think jealousy. And then everything goes black until I woke up here.”

“That’s what I expected. Now you’re not going to like what I have to say. But I have to say it. So hold on to your temper, Son. Because you need to know what’s going on. And then you’ve got some hard choices to make so you can figure out what the Hell you’re going to do next to fix this mess.”