Bright light greets me as my eyes flutter open, causing me to squint slightly. I feel warmth and pressure on my hand and I squeeze slightly.
Kal is by my side, watching over me intently.
"Be'shmai..." He whispers, the relief clear in his voice as his free hand comes up to brush strands of hair out of my face.
"What happened..?" I asked as I tried to push myself up into a sitting position.
The room swam for a moment and Kal's arm is around my shoulder to steady me immediately.
It brings a soft smile to my lips and I lean into him as I survey the room around us.
It's some kind of motel, cheap-looking and probably somewhere Ty could get us in with little to no questions asked.
Auri is beside me, still unconscious, which worries me. I look around at my squad who have gathered around me and Kal at realizing that I was awake.
"Where are we?" I ask, my arm wrapping around Kal to keep him close for the moment. If the contact bothered him at all, he didn't show it.
Tyler and Zila approach me, out brain having her uniglass out and scanning over my body to check my vitals.
"Hotel on the Emerald City underside," Tyler says. "The low-rent and ask-no-questions kind. I booked it as a backup before the deal with the gremps, just in case things went really south."
"Which is weird," Scarlett says, bumping his shoulder. "Because I thought all your ideas were amazing. Lucky that you knew we'd need a fallback position."
"Almost like I studied tactics," he says, bumping her back.
I can't help laughing a bit, shaking my head.
"I don't think I've ever seen getting chased by gremps in a tactics seminar, Ty." I tease, resting my head against Kal's shoulder for a moment.
"Neither is creating a forcefield." Ty counters and the fight on the doc comes back to me.
"You are well." Zila says and backs off a little bit. "I do not see anything abnormal in your readings."
"What about Auri?" I ask, looking over at the slumbering girl.
Zila walks to the other side of the bed and runs the scanner over her. I must have been holding my breath, because I feel Kal squeeze my arm slightly.
"Her brain wave activity is slightly elevated, but bio-reading are normalizing." She reports, glancing between me and Tyler.
"Thank the maker..." I sigh.
Scarlett has passed out the rations that she snagged, and we are getting ready to eat when Auri wakes up.
Tyler is by her side, answering most of the same questions that I asked. His gentleness and attentiveness makes me smile, glad for someone to have his focus. Ever since losing Cat, he had been more broody than normal, which was unnerving, if I'm being honest.
I feel Kal's thumb against my cheek, making me look up at him.
We're leaning up against the headboard of the bed, eating on our rations. Well more crammed on the bed, as the two of us are sharing the opposite side of Auri. Not that I mind too much, as I can feel each shift of his muscles and the rise and fall of his chest.
There was an amused look in his eyes as he brushed some of the "Just like Shepherd's Pie" off of my skin.
I snort slightly, leaning into him more.
I can feel Ty's eyes on us, making me glance over at our Alpha. Maybe I should tone down the PDA? The thought is immediately dismissed as Kal's arm tightens around my waist.
