Chapter Six
Seth was too slow. The story of his life. Never in the right place, at the right time. Never fast enough or strong enough. So when Darius tripped on the stairs, Seth wasn’t close enough to catch him, instead forced to listen and then to watch as he crashed down hard across the metal plates, his crumpled form coming to a stop against the inner wall of the lighthouse.
“Darius!”
The omega was so very still that, at first, Seth thought the worst. He vaulted over him, kneeling down to hold a hand in front of his mouth. He could hear a heartbeat, faint but there. And he could feel the warmth of Darius’ breath on his fingers.
Hunter came into view.
“He’s alive.” Seth went to turn him over.
“Don’t move him.”
Hunter jumped over the omega’s still form to crouch beside Seth. The alpha’s hands felt the omega’s neck and back gently. “I can’t feel any broken bones. Let’s turn him over.”
They rolled him carefully onto his back, Seth catching sight of a cut on his head that was bleeding freely. “That looks bad.”
“Yeah, it does. But we’re shifters so it’s nowhere near as bad as it looks.” Hunter continued to look him over. “I think his shoulder’s out.”
“What?”
“His shoulder. It’s dislocated.”
“What do we do?”
“I’m not a doctor, Seth.”
“But it’ll heal, won’t it?”
“Once it’s back in place, yeah. But I don’t know how to do that without causing more harm.”
“Maybe he knows?”
Hunter shrugged. “Worth a try. Darius? Can you hear me?”
The omega didn’t stir.
“What was he thinking running like that?” It had been so stupid, so foolish. Especially in his condition. Speaking of conditions, Hunter was pressing a hand over Darius’ belly.
“I’d guess,” the bear said at length, “he was thinking he wanted to get far, far away from the two scary alphas who’d broken into his home.”
“His home? Or his prison? Come on, Darius. Time to wake up.”
The omega did respond this time, his eyes opening a slit, one hand flexing weakly.
“That’s it,” Seth encouraged. “Just try to wake up for us, open those pretty eyes.”
Darius’ eyes blinked open, taking them both in and glancing at his surroundings.
“You had a bad fall,” Seth started to explain. “You—”
Without warning, Darius tried to sit up, his uninjured hand going to his stomach.
“Don’t move, Darius—” “Lie back down—” They spoke simultaneously, trying with gentle hands to ease him back down. He cried out, his hand tightening around his stomach. Hunter rested his hand on it too, his eyes widening. “Shit.”
“What? What is it? Is it the baby?”
“A contraction.”
Darius went quiet again, giving in to their urgings and lying back down, his eyes closing.
“Hunter?”
“I think the fall might have triggered him to go into labor.”
Seth shook his head. “No, it can’t have. We are so not able to deal with that.”
“No, we’re not. And he’s too badly hurt. I’m sorry, Seth. We have to take him and get him some help.”
“You’re right. There’s no two ways around it. Where’s the nearest help?”
“The Den and the Cove are about the same distance. But the Den is better equipped.”
“Then we take him there. This is our fault. My fault. I have to make it right.”
As much as he didn’t want to waste time, knowing every hour counted in the search for Lucas, he couldn’t see any way around it. They had to get Darius to the Den.
“Darius?” Hunter said. “We’re going to move you now.”
The omega didn’t give any sign that he’d heard.
“I’ll carry him,” Seth said.
Hunter looked doubtful. “Maybe I should.”
“You’re the one who can shift. If we get ambushed, you’ll need to fight. It would be better to have my arms full than yours.”
Before Hunter could reply, Seth gathered the omega closer.
“Darius.”
The omega stirred at the sound of his voice.
“I’m going to pick you up now and I can’t lie, it’s going to hurt.”
Darius’ eyes blinked open, and he cried out when Seth stood with him in his arms.
“No, wait, what are you doing?” he said.
“Getting you some help. The fall did some damage.”
“I can’t leave.” Darius’ hand grabbed his stomach again, the omega shifting in Seth’s arms and making it tough to hold on to him. “Oh god, it hurts.”
Seth started walking, following Hunter who set a fast pace across the sand.
“I know. We think the fall shook the baby up and he’s decided to make an appearance.”
The omega went pale, his arm tightening protectively across his bump. “No. It’s too soon.”
“Don’t worry, we’re going to get you some help, I promise.”
But Darius was out again, his head lolling against Seth’s chest.
“You know, that’s twice he’s woken to the sound of your voice,” Hunter pointed out as they raced across the wet sand.
“Yeah? Well, it must really grate on his nerves to pull him out of a faint.”
Another contraction had Darius sobbing and trying to double over, which would have been fine if Seth wasn’t struggling to hold him in his arms in the first place.
“Shh, it’s gonna be okay.” Was it? What did Seth know about babies beyond the obvious?
“No,” Darius said, eyes open again. “Zane can’t know I’m gone. I have to go back.”
“There’s nothing back there.”
“He’ll think I ran from him.”
Seth slowed for a moment, holding Darius’ gaze. “No, he won’t. We broke the door down, kicked off the padlocks. You can’t have done that from the inside.”
The omega shuddered, closing his eyes and huddling closer to Seth.
“Max,” he mumbled. “Have to protect Max.”
When Seth looked up again, Hunter was standing right in front of him.
“What?” Seth asked.
“He said Max, didn’t he?”
“Sounded like it, why?”
But Hunter’s attention was all on Darius. He tapped the omega’s cheek gently.
“Hey, can you wake up for me?”
Nothing. Hunter looked to Seth who rolled his eyes. There was no way his voice would make a difference. “Darius, can you open your eyes?”
The omega blinked his eyes open with a sigh. Huh, maybe Hunter was on to something.
“Is Max your brother?” Hunter asked him. The omega sat up a little straighter in Seth’s arms. “Are you Dara? Cade’s Dara?”
For the first time since they’d met him, there was a flash of hope in Darius’ eyes. “You know Cade?”
“Yeah,” Hunter said. “We’re going to take you to him, right now.”
“Good,” Darius mumbled. “He’ll know what to do. Tell him we have to save Max.”
His hand scrabbled at Seth’s chest, beseeching him and not Hunter. “Please, we have to save Max.”
“We will,” Seth assured him. “I promise we will.”
Darius slowly lost the battle with consciousness again while Seth and Hunter picked up their pace.
“Dara and Max?” he asked.
“Cade’s brothers. They’re who he was looking for when Baelon captured him. They were searching out old den lands to try to find somewhere to set up a new den. They just vanished one day; missed a check-in and were never heard from again. That was just over a month before we met Cade at the gathering.”
“Were they near Red Fang’s lands when they went missing?”
“That was the problem. No one was sure. Cade went looking and that’s when he was captured. I went looking myself after we mated and found their car in Red Fang territory. We guessed they’d been captured and we’ve been quietly looking for information but it’s been almost impossible to get any.”
“Okay. But why has Zane got Dara locked in a tower? That’s not exactly standard in the ways to treat your pregnant mate, right? You know; flowers, chocolates, banished to a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere.”
“I don’t think they’re mates.”
“Doesn’t the whole pregnant thing give it away?”
“He’s not carrying a litter. There’s just the one extra heartbeat in there. If they were mates, there’d be at least two. I think.”
Seth pushed himself to walk a little faster. They needed answers, they needed time, and they needed to find Lucas before Zane worked out they had Darius.