Milo leant over his knees feeling sick. He couldn't breathe. But he didn't have time to spend unable to breathe. Something was wrong with Katarina, his little wolf, his true mate. But he couldn't move. He just stood there and felt weak.
"Leo...I can't move. I'm going to be sick." He panicked, gasping for breath. He closed his eyes to stop the floor spinning, but that didn't help.
Instead of the floor swirling around and around, he saw pictures. Katarina must have been projecting to him for some reason. But it was no good. He couldn't make them out. They just made him feel even more nauseous.
He felt momentary relief when the pain in his knee finally took over. He fell to the floor, on his knees, having to push one hand into the hard surface of the gym floor to make sure he didn't take a header into it and knock himself out.
"Leo." He wasn't sure what was taking his Beta so long, but he was happy to see a bucket was pushed in front of him. Just in time, since he couldn't hold it back any longer. He was sick into the bucket, leaning his arm on its edge as he waited for the nausea to pass. He had a feeling he was going to be here a while. "Where's Katie?" He asked, able to feel a body hovering at his side.
"The Beta's bringing her in now, Alpha. She's right here." Josanna's words soothed him. So that was why Leo hadn't answered him. He had done as he asked and looked out for Katarina. That was good. He didn't want her being alone through this.
Milo grimaced as the pictures in his head began shifting, faster. There was no way to make sense of them, so he ended up being sick again. When that wave passed, he reached his hand out to where he could feel Josanna hovering and tapped her leg. She bent down to his level and listened, patiently.
"I need Katie over here...right beside me." He asked breathlessly.
Josanna didn't even bother answering, she ran off and did as he asked, speaking quietly to Leo, who was clearly at the other side of the room.
Milo waited as someone dragged one of the exercise mats to his side and hands lowered Katarina onto it. She was unconscious and twitching in an uncomfortable way. It worried him.
"I need water, mints and someone to get rid of this." He reverted back to Alpha mode, seeing his little wolf in such distress. He forced himself to push the bucket away as he moved to lie down with his mate. No-one questioned him, although he did notice, with an absent smile, that Josanna delegated the sick bucket to his Beta. But that wasn't anything he hadn't dealt with before.
Milo had got blind drunk about a year ago, frustrated at being Alpha, depressed because he couldn't find his mate. The mess he had left in his wake had been more than just vomiting over the furniture. He was pretty sure he'd smashed a few things up as well. In the morning, his Beta had cleaned up like nothing had ever happened. Right now Milo needed that loyal Beta more than anything.
"Katie...I need you to wake up, little wolf. I can't take much more and neither can you." He whispered to her, hoping that she would manage to get some control over these unusual gifts of hers. At least enough to bring herself out of it for once.
Milo's legs felt like jelly, but he managed to drag himself beside her and lean over her twitching body. He brushed the hair back from her face, where it had fallen out of its ponytail and waited.
It wasn't long before Josanna came running back with a bottle of water and a packet of strong mints. He used half the bottle to get rid of the taste of his own vomit and popped three mints into his mouth. If Katarina felt as parched as he did, then he was saving the rest for her.
"Katie, please." He begged, leaning his forehead against hers. "I have to tell you that you're my mate little wolf and I can't do that when you're like this."
Josanna gasped somewhere beside him, but he didn't care. He wasn't taking his eyes off Katarina until she woke up.
It took ten minutes for Milo to get his legs back in working order. The images had stopped spinning around inside his head and he guessed it had something to do with Katarina garnering control of whether she projected to him or not. It was enough of a relief that he managed to get to his feet and lift her into his arms.
"Josanna, we're supposed to have dinner with your father. Tell him about Katarina and that we're moving dinner to my house. We'll meet him there." Milo explained briefly, making sure that his little wolf was comfortable in his arms before leaving the gym hall.
Leo would bring their bags and see Josanna home safely. That was one less thing to worry about. And frankly, he didn't care if Grene was furious with him. He could have carried Katarina to her house, but there was no way he was letting her out of his sight until she woke up. He wasn't risking Grene throwing him out or telling him to deal with Alpha business and then return.
***
Milo walked home with Katarina in his arms and didn't stop until he lay her down on his bed. She was still twitching, but not as extensively as before.
He changed clothes, gave his mouth a good clean and sat by the bed, waiting for her to wake.
Leo wasn't long in showing up.
"Alpha, I offered to see Josanna home but she refused. I'll keep her downstairs. And I spoke with Grene. He's going to make some sort of drink and bring it over for Katarina." He explained, making Milo sigh.
He had forgotten about that. At least Grene had thought of it. He didn't want her suffering because something had slipped his mind.
"He's asking if she'll be staying the night."
Milo heard the questioning tone in his voice, but he ignored it. "Yes. She'll be staying the week." He answered. "I forgot to call the doctor, Leo. Will you ask him to keep himself available for when she wakes up?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck. He still felt dizzy and sick, but at least he wasn't running back and forward to the bathroom to throw up. It was more of a ghostly feeling. Like he felt what Katarina felt. He hoped he was wrong, because she didn't have the luxury of being sick and feeling better for it. She was stuck, in some sort of tortuous limbo where her mind had taken over.
"Please wake up." He pleaded with her for the hundredth time. He leaned over the bed and took her hand into his. It felt cold and empty. Milo tried his best not to cry, but he felt a real sense of hopelessness creeping in.
"Milo, you mate is stronger than we knew. She will come through this." Leo tried to sound supportive.
"It's too much, Leo. I don't know if she can cope with it. It's...indecipherable. She's used to clear, obvious messages." He confessed, worried that this had never happened to her before and it was some cause of their being together.
Had he done this to her? Because he had discovered she was his true mate? Maybe she had been right, maybe they weren't meant to be together? Not because they didn't love each other, but because it put them in too much danger.