It was me.
Chapter
Nine
TALIA
I woke up to a body that was far too warm beneath sixteen layers of pillows, blankets, and alphas. I was sweaty and could barely move with how the men were curled up on either side of me, limbs on top of mine.
As happy as I was to have them back, they needed to get off me.
Poking West in the stomach, I cleared my throat. “Guys? Can you wake up?”
He grumbled, using one arm to tug me closer to him.
I poked Mercer next. He groaned, but his eyes opened a slit. “Sweetheart? Need something?”
“You’re too hot.”
His lips turned up into what I assumed was meant to be a smirk but ended up being more of a dopey grin. “Hot, huh? Love to hear you say that.”
Rolling my eyes, I pushed at his shoulder and he rolled away from me. With one of the alphas awake and freeing my limbs, Iwas able to shimmy out from beneath West. He reached out to pull me back, but Mercer smacked his hand.
That was enough to pull West from sleep.
“Hey! The fuck was that for?”
“Talia wants to get up, and you were trying to keep using her as a pillow.”
Yawning, West glared at his packmate. He pushed himself up to a seated position, back resting against the head of the bed.
Well, against the six pillows that cushioned the head of the bed.
“Thanks for freeing me.” I sat cross-legged in the centre of the nest, looking around. “You were way too warm. It was like a freaking sauna down there.”
“Guess that means you’re well and truly out of heat,” West said. “You were all for the sauna the last few times we napped.”
Stretching my arms over my head, I noted the aches and pains that still existed. My neck reminded me of the ragged bondmark any time I moved my head, and my scrapes and muscle strain certainly hadn’t healed. But there wasn’t a debilitating ache in my core anymore, and I was able to keep Benjamin’s black hole emotions locked away despite how they tried to harass me.
“My heat is done,” I confirmed.
Which meant I had more to deal with now.
What if I just kept hiding away in this nesting room forever? Wouldn’t that be nice?
My family would be insane with worry if I didn’t show back up soon, though. Chewing on my bottom lip, I looked at Mercer. “How did you get here, anyway? I never asked.”
“Your sister bailed us out of jail.”
Well, shit. Jail?
They’d been involved with a shooting, so it made sense they’d gone to jail instead of just being detained and kicked out of thehospital. And with Conrad feral… Yeah, jail was the best place they could have ended up in that situation.
Emilia must have found them. I’d known she would, which was why I’d only given their first names and hadn’t mentioned they were part of a Villem motorcycle club.
With enough time, she didn’t need more information than that.
“But how did you find us here?” I asked. “Did Emilia figure out where I’d been dropped off?”
