As soon as I knew with one hundred percent certainty that Kaden was okay, I planned to fucking kill that guy. His weird comments didn’t click for me at first, and that was a huge mistake on my part. I should have recognized what he was doing before it happened. And I shouldn’t have let Kaden come and sit in a fucking bar all night long. What did I think would happen?

Justin and I had built our entire career around the reputation of being caring and careful bar owners who took care of our patrons. We’ve always wanted our omegas to be happy with our progress in innovation and the level of security we employed to keep them safe. And then this happened.

My own omega was drugged just a few feet away from me, and I let the fucker just walk away.

I held Kaden’s hand as we waited for the doctor to come into the room. The hospital staff wasn’t rushing around with any urgency so I took that as a good sign. When my brother was here, people were always rushing around like it was a life or death situation. Unfortunately for Michael, it was.

When the doctor finally pulled the curtain around the bed for a private conversation, my tense muscles felt ready to burst right through my skin. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, but we wanted to contact Dr. Mueller before releasing you, Mr. Foster.”

“Releasing me?” Kaden squeezed my hand. “I can go home?”

The man walked up to a computer attached to a platform that swung off the wall. “Yes, your vitals all look good and there were only trace amounts of Swelter in your system. You and your baby are both strong and healthy so you can go home.”

I lowered my forehead to Kaden’s bicep, so grateful they were okay that I couldn’t even find words.

Kaden’s hand came up to the back of my head and combed through my short strands. “Thank you, Doctor. Can I leave now?”

He scribbled something on a white board near the door then turned back to us. “A nurse will be here in just a minute with the discharge paperwork, but I want you to stay hydrated and take it easy. The sooner those toxins are flushed from your system, the better.”

“He won’t move a muscle for the duration of his pregnancy!” I’d planned to wait on Kaden and foot to make sure he stayed perfectly healthy.

The doctor chuckled at the same time Kaden shot me a glare. “That’s not necessary, Dad. Just make sure he rests for the next twenty-four hours, and he should be good as new.”

Kaden waited for the doctor to leave the room before carefully sliding his legs off the side of the bed to stand up. “I’m sorry I was so stupid.”

I closed my knees around Kaden’s as I stepped up to the side of the bed. “You were not stupid. You didn’t do anything wrong. If anyone is to blame, it’s me for not protecting you. I made a promise to my brothers that I’d always protect them… I failed with Michael. And I can’t ever fail with you.”

Kaden rested his open palm over my heart as he gave me a sweet kiss. “Tell me what happened with Michael. I know you feel guilt but I don’t understand how you could have changed anything.”

I grabbed Kaden’s shirt off the guest chair and slipped it over his head while I shared the worst night of my life with him. “I was at school on the West Coast so there was a three hour time difference. I’d just gotten to a bar with some friends when I got the call from Justin that Michael was in Intensive Care. He’d been violently raped by an alpha in the back of a bar. People were all around them, and several later confessed that they knew he’d been drugged and wasn’t able to consent. But nobody intervened. Nobody stopped that asshole from filling him so full of amphetamines that his heart stopped while he was penetrated by a broken beer bottle. It was a brutal way to die, and something my family and I will never fully recover from.”

Kaden lowered my hand to his slightly rounded belly, knowing the position always relaxed me. “You couldn’t have done anything to change that night. He was an adult. He would have been on that date whether you were five minutes away or five hours away.”

I nodded and wiped a tear from my cheek. “That’s why Justin and I opened The Fallen Nut. We wanted to provide a safe place for omegas to meet with alphas and know someone was watching their back.” I threw my head back and stared at the ceiling.

“You guys are my heroes,” Kaden kissed my neck until I couldn’t resist.

I leaned forward and tried to kiss Kaden long and hard but the damn nurse came in with the discharge paperwork.

We’d be getting back to that worship of his neck as soon as we got home. For now, I was just happy to have my omega and our baby safely cradled in my arms.

It might have been an old-fashioned sentiment, but I was the alpha of my family, and it was my responsibility to keep them safe. Always. Which probably meant keep Kaden out of the bar as much as possible.