They arrived to find Ronan having a conversation with a doctor near Teal’s bedside. From their grave expressions, Sorcha could tell something was very wrong.
As could the beta next to him.
“What’s going on?” Jax questioned Ronan.
Sorcha’s eyes darted around the room. It appeared the same as when he’d left last night. Teal wasn’t awake, but he didn’t look any worse.
Ronan puffed out a breath. Sorcha wanted to touch him, but knew they still needed to be careful. He had no idea what the doctor suspected about him and Jax.
“Thank you, Dr. Kinzinger,” Ronan said. “I’ll let Teal’s family members know.”
The doctor eyed Sorcha and Jax, but kept a neutral expression. “There really shouldn’t be more than one of you in here at a time, but honestly, we’re having enough trouble with all the well-wishers and media outside. It’s probably easier if you’re in here because Ronan would be recognized in the waiting room.”
Sorcha recalled the crowd he and Jax had passed at the hospital entrance. Several hundred folks had gathered outside the building with signs wishing Teal a speedy recovery.
“Teal spent weeks getting called all sorts of names by the pro-alpha idiots outside the courthouse. Now a bunch of people are here because they admire him so much and he doesn’t get to enjoy it,” Jax grumbled.
“The irony is not lost on any of us,” the doctor said, eyeing Jax approvingly.
The doctor left a moment later and Sorcha turned to Ronan. “What’s going on?”
“He just…won’t wake up.” Ronan ran a nervous hand across his scalp. “They were expecting him to rouse by now, but since he hasn’t, they gave him something that should have done the job. But it’s not working.”
“Do they know why?”
“No. It’s possible the lingering poison is having a counteractive effect, but there’s no way to be sure. The good news is that the poison seems to be clearing out of his system.They ran more tests this morning and the levels in his blood and skin are down.”
“So he’s getting better?” Sorcha asked anxiously.
“Yes, little one, but he needs to wake up for us to know the extent of the damage. The longer he stays like this, the greater the chance his body is telling us that the damage is significant.”
“What’s next?” Jax asked.
“More of the same. And by that, I mean more waiting,” Ronan said tiredly.
“Well, at least he’s not getting worse,” Sorcha stated hopefully. “And this may sound silly, but I feel like if he were really hurting, I’d know. Like in my heart.”
“It’s not silly.” Ronan made sure the door was shut. “I feel the same way.”
Ronan tugged Sorcha tightly against his torso with one arm. With his other, he reached out to Jax, taking the beta’s hand in his own.
They stood that way for several minutes, drawing on each other’s strength as the machines hooked up to Teal hummed and beeped.
But Teal still didn’t wake up.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ronan
At noon, Ronan sat next to Teal’s bed with Sorcha and Jax watching his husband glisten like he was underneath the warming lamps at a fast-food restaurant. Teal had started sweating profusely around ten that morning, soaking the sheets in less than twenty minutes. Nurses came to change them, looking sideways at the three men in the room but not ordering anyone to leave. Ronan guessed Dr. Kinzinger had let his team know there were extenuating circumstances.
The medical staff seemed to think the perspiration was a good sign, but to Ronan, it made his omega appear sicker. Teal had been unconscious for twenty-four hours, and he looked pallid and weak. His eyelids were a ghoulish purple color, closed over the red rims of his eyes. His greasy hair hung limply, soaked in sweat, and his skin was ashy and dry.
Sorcha went to the cafeteria and brought back sandwiches, but everything tasted like sawdust to Ronan. All he could do was worry.
With his focus squarely on his husband, Ronan had forgotten about the crowd outside the hospital until a chorus of cheers rang out from the direction of the front entrance.
“It’s the High Court verdict,” Jax said, looking at his phone. “They voted unanimously in Dayson’s favor. Teal won.”
