Odette
Buzzz. Still half asleep, I reached towards the bedside table with my hand, seeking to find my phone. I realized I was pinned down into the mattress by Caden, who had decided that sleeping on top of me was the most comfortable position, sometime throughout the night. I attempted to shove him off of me but gave up soon after, this man was made of pure steel.
Instead, I aggressively smacked his armed with an open palm. It was another failed attempt and Caden only buried deeper into my left boob. The urgent buzzing continued from Caden's table I craned my neck and realized it wasn't my phone that was blowing up, but Caden's. I leaned close to Caden's ear, "someone keeps calling you."
He jerked away and grabbed his phone, "oh shit."
His phone was instantly plastered to his ear before I could ask him who was calling him, "what's wrong?"
I watched his facial expression change from confusion to pure horror. He sputtered and couldn't seem to get a full sentence out. His mouth opened and closed with incoherent words spewing out.
Finally, something said over the phone pulled him out of his trance. His hand gripped his phone even tighter and his expression turned angry, "what do you mean? Of course I'm going to be there. You think I'm just going to leave him. I already fucked up."
Caden choked at the end of his sentence, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him as close as I could to me. I offered the only comfort I could give. This action snapped something in Caden and he completely broke down, sobbing into my hair.
The phone in his hand became forgotten, but was still connected to the call. I hesitated for a moment before lightly peeling his phone from his hand. He didn't put up any resistance and let it go quickly.
I placed it to my ear, "hello?" I softly asked.
A firm but soft spoken voice answered, "hello, Odette. This is Caden's pack mate, Ronan. I'm sorry to say, but Dante wasn't as safe as we thought he was. He's currently in the hospital, we haven't heard any information yet." I gasped and pressed my hand against my mouth to stifle the noise.
Ronan droned on, "I will keep you and Caden updated when I know anything. Could you keep Caden home? I don't want him driving to the hospital in his condition."
"Of course." I answered still not processing that Dante, the huge, intimidating, tatted alpha was in the hospital.
"Thank you, tell him, I'm staying at the hospital. Atlas is out looking for help and Caspian is on his flight back right now. When he gets there, he can take Caden and you, if you want, to the hospital."
"Okay," I whispered.
"Alright. Thank you again, I've got to go, take care of Caden for me."
The line beeped, indicating that he ended the call. I relayed the information back to Caden while stroking his back. He only squeezed his arms tighter around me, gulping in mouthfuls of air. He became quiet after some time passed. I assumed he fell asleep and tried to roll out of bed to scrounge through the cabinet and see if there was any cereal, but Caden pulled me back with a groan.
I tucked the blanket around his shoulder and snuggled closer to his warmth, deciding to wait him out. I put his phone on my other side so I could be alerted when it rang without stressing Caden out even more.
I jerked awake to a familiar vibration against my back. I scrubbed a hand down my face cursing myself. How could I have fallen asleep? After making sure Caden was undisturbed, I picked up the phone and answered, glancing at the name didn't help decipher who was calling because Caden had changed their name in his contacts to some cheesy nickname.
"Hello?" I spoke first, hoping the person would introduce themselves and that it would be Ronan on the other end with good news. He seemed very pleasant and from what I've heard about Atlas he kind of scared me. And there was one more mystery man, Caspian, who was supposed to come to pick Caden and I up and take us to the hospital.
Ronan's soothingly calm voice filled the phone much to my relief, "how are you and Caden holding up?"
"I think Caden doing better. We've been sleeping mostly."
"And how are you doing, Odette?"
I found it odd that he was making such a big point to ask about my well-being, I barely even know them. At the same time a small fire lit inside my stomach and spread throughout my body, filling me with tingles and warmth. "I'm okay." I meekly responded, to exhausted from the day and trying to figure out my treacherous body's responses to give him a solid or honest answer.
"Good, Dante is in his second surgery right now. The first one didn't help a whole lot. They seem more positive about this surgery. I just wanted to call with an update. Caspian should get to you guys in like fifteen. I told him to text Caden's number when he was about ten minutes away. You can still choose not to come to the hospital, no one will blame you, you are new to this pack. You shouldn't feel pressured into going to the hospital if you don't want to. Do what you feel comfortable with."
"Okay." I had already made up my mind, "I would like to go if that's alright?"
Ronan sounded enthusiastic, "of course, sweetheart. I will see you soon."
I ended the call and snuck out of the bed to take a shower and get dressed. I used Caden's body wash, shampoo and conditioner so I emerged smelling like him with a small hint of my natural scent underneath.
After getting dressed in yoga pants and one of Caden's sweatshirts, I gently shook him awake. Even with me taking extra care not to startle him, he still jerked upright as if he had awoken from a nightmare.
I quietly hushed him and helped him out of bed. I brought him a set of clothes and directed him towards the bathroom to get changed explaining that Caspian would be here soon to pick us up.
He still looked so out of it. I didn't want to tell him what Ronan had just told me about Dante, afraid of his reaction. He took a long time to get dressed and he came out with the hood of his sweatshirt in the front. I helped in turn his sweatshirt around and only a moment after, there was a knock on the door.
I whirled around, frustrated that I wasn't able to pick up a scent, Caden must have because he bounded to the door and flung it open. I slunk away to the bed, not trying to get in the middle of a private moment. I checked Caden's and there was a text from someone that said they were five minutes away.
I assumed that meant the mystery man at the door was Caspian. I put Caden's phone and mine into my sweatshirt pocket and slowly crept towards the door, not wanting to intrude on a private moment.
Caden was describing what happened in his own slurred gibberish and the man, who must have been Caspian was nodding along. I don't know if he was pretending to understand Caden or if he actually understood him.
The man's eyes snapped to me, the intensity of them made me take a step back. His dark blue eyes watched me with predatory intentions, his scarp features combined with a scar that started just above his right eyebrow and running directly down the center of his eye and stopped about an inch below it. His long, dark, wavy, midnight colored hair gave him the look of the devil.
His hair was longer than Dante's and reach below his shoulder. If Dante looked like a demon, Caspian was the devil that commanded him. Caspian was also huge. I had thought Dante was muscular, but Caspian had to be double his size.
His shoulders were like boulders, straining to pop through his dress shirt. One thing was for sure, Caden had a bunch of scary alphas. Only when that thought crossed my head, I realized that Caspian didn't have a strong, overpowering alpha scent. In fact, I couldn't smell him at all.
I frowned confused but decided to ask about that later because right now was definitely not the time. Caden finally glanced back and motioned for me to join the hug fest. I coughed awkwardly, I didn't exactly want to be mashed between Caden and a stranger, but Caden needed support right now. If he wanted me to give him a hug that might mean I was also pressed up against Caspian, so be it.
I walked over to Caden and put my arms only around him. As I suspected he turned himself around so that my back was pressed against Caspian's rock hard abs. I tensed as Caspian again went back to soothing Caden. I was grateful he was careful not to touch me, well except for the fact that my back was glued to him.
I cleared my throat, "we should probably get going now."
Caspian finally spoke, his voice so low, his whole body rumbled as he spoke. "She's right. Come on Caden."
His voice noticeably softened when talking to Caden. Caden nodded wiping his tear stained face on my sweatshirt and grabbed the back of my legs and lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist automatically so I didn't fall. Caden placed one of his arms under my butt so I had some support and he grabbed Caspian's hand with his other.
Caspian walked us downstairs. I pressed my face into Caden's hoody and for the first time since the phone call, I felt as if I could breathe. He was comforting me as much as I was comforting him.