Mercer’s hand landed on the small of my back, and his voice was a whisper, a futile attempt to keep our conversation private from the bodyguards. “No one would blame you for leaving. We can come see him again once you’ve had something to eat and are a bit more settled post-heat.”
I swallowed.
It wasn’t right to leave Conrad when he was like this. He was my alpha; the first one who’d decided he wanted me too much to stay away.
He would never leave me if I was the one lying unconscious in that bed.
Looking at him upset me, though. And the emotional pain of seeing him hurt gave Benjamin opportunities to poke and prodat my mind. He would take any chance to harass me, and the more I felt his emotions, the more unsettled I was.
“I can’t leave him,” I whispered. “But Benjamin… he…”
My throat closed, and I couldn’t finish.
Mercer rubbed his chin across the top of my head, bathing me in sandalwood and brown sugar.
West slipped past us and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need a minute with our packmate,” he commanded with a fierce glare at the bodyguards.
They remained still and impassive. “We’ve been instructed to stay with him at all times,” one said.
“He’s my packmate, and I’m telling you to fuck off.”
The bodyguards looked affronted. I managed a small, teary smile—it wasn’t often someone challenged an order given by Lavinia. Everyone knew her wrath wasn’t something you wanted to face.
“Please leave,” I said. “You can stay right outside.”
“Miss Talia, your sister?—”
“Will be very upset if you don’t listen to me.”
The head guard closed his mouth, glancing between me and West with a deep frown. He hesitantly brought a hand down to his baton. “I’ve been told this alpha could be dangerous to Miss Talia,” he said. “I can’t allow her to be in here with him alone.”
“Does she look alone to you?”
I’d expected Mercer or West to answer, but the booming voice came from behind me. I spun around with wide eyes to find James, looking me up and down with relief in his kind eyes.
“Sir, Miss Lavinia?—”
“Let her be alone with her unconscious mate,” James said firmly. “The other two will protect her if he wakes up and is a threat, and none of us will be far.”
The head guard wanted to argue; it was obvious from the way he flexed his grip on the baton. James was his superior, though.Our personal bodyguards ranked above all the other guards our fathers employed. He’d shown up just in time to avoid West giving those men a beating they may not have been able to survive.
All three guards filed out of the room, leaving only James behind. He bowed his head to me. “I’m glad to see you’re alright.”
“Who are you?” Mercer asked. “One of her fathers?”
James laughed. “Of course not. I’m her bodyguard. The one she’s gotten far too good at avoiding recently. I hope you’ll allow me to guard you properly again once this is said and done, Miss Talia. For now, I’ll be outside with the others. Miss Mira stepped out to check in with Miss Lavinia and greet the family doctor when he arrives, but she should return soon.”
He closed the door behind him, leaving only me and my alphas in the dimly lit bedroom. Conrad still looked small, even without the direct comparison, and I whined when I noticed he was hooked up to a few machines that beeped occasionally.
My legs threatened to give out beneath me, but Mercer kept me upright. “Come sit, sweetheart.”
West shoved an armchair over until it was directly beside Conrad’s bed, and I collapsed down into it. This close, Conrad’s scent was off. Slightly soured, a sign of his distress. His pain.
Benjamin’s feelings shoved past my defences and I doubled over with a sob. West stood at the foot of Conrad’s bed, but Mercer crouched beside me, his hand on my thigh. “He’s going to wake up. They fixed the injury at the hospital. He’ll be fine.”
Tears dripped onto my hands, and I shook my head. “It’s not that. I know he’ll wake up; I see him breathing, but Benjamin… He’s sensing my weakness. He’s using the bond to hurt me, just like he did when he first marked me.”
“He can do that?” West asked through gritted teeth. “Was he doing it during your heat?”
