Barreling Through Road Blocks Read online

  Barreling Through Road Blocks

  Hart Medical Center 8

  The moment Soren Larsen first saw Cillian he knew they were meant to be together. Convincing Cillian would be tough, but Soren was willing to put in the work to woo him. That was assuming the stalker didn’t kill Cillian first.

  Cillian Driscoll had never thought too much about love. His career working in the emergency room as a physician’s assistant was too important to him to worry about the future. Then he got his first threat from the hospital’s stalker. He might have thought he was too independent to need an Alpha, but being in Soren’s arms was the only place he felt safe.

  The stalker’s plan to kill the Omegas of Hart’s Medical Center is cunning. No one is safe. But the stalker’s victims and their husbands refuse to give up hope.

  Can love really conquer all? Soren and Cillian will test that theory as they try to stop the stalker before it’s too late.

  Copyright ©2020 by Shea Balik

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover by Harris Channing

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  DEDICATION

  To my loyal readers, thank you for taking this new journey into Mpreg with me! I am looking forward to bringing you more baby cuteness in the near future!

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  EPILOGUE

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  “Hart’s be advised we have mass casualties headed your way.”

  Just like every other doctor, nurse and medical personnel in the ER, Cillian Driscoll froze as they waited to find out more.

  The coordinator with the EMTs, Tris, hit the button that would allow her to ask those all-important questions. “How many and what’s their condition?”

  The crackle of the mike echoed in the nearly silent room as they all waited for the response.

  “Twelve confirmed but they weren’t done searching the building for more. Three have been routed to Mercy, but they claim they can’t handle more. All Omegas and they’ve been attacked. There are several knife wounds as well as fractures. Five are unconscious, two had to be resuscitated before we could even load them. We are bringing one of them who’s coded twice already. I’m not sure this one will be alive when we get there.”

  None of that sounded good. Hell, it was horrifying, especially since Cillian was an Omega. It wasn’t unusual for Omegas to be targeted, but so many? Something bizarre had clearly happened.

  “All right everyone,” Dr. Noam Yates, the current senior emergency room doctor, said. “Get ready. This is going to be messy. Make sure all the cubicles are stocked and have extra supplies on hand.”

  Cillian might not be a doctor, yet, but he was a physician’s assistant and a damn good one. It had taken him a long time to fight his way through college before working his way through his master’s degree. He hoped one day he’d be able to finish medical school, but the longer he worked at Hart’s, the more he realized it wasn’t as important as he once thought.

  The point was, he was helping people. In some ways, the fact that he wasn’t an actual doctor made that more possible as patients trusted him more. That wasn’t always true, and in situations like the one that was coming their way, not being a doctor would make his life worse.

  Not because he didn’t know what he was doing, but because the staff, especially the surgeons, didn’t listen to him. It was irritating, to say the least, but in cases like the ones they were facing, it was often dangerous.

  Cillian was good at what he did. Sure, he hadn’t gone to med school, but he was better than many of the other ER doctors at Hart’s. He may not have had the money to become a doctor, but damn well knew what he was doing. Cillian spent his off time researching all the newest medical studies and theories by reading journals or scanning through the online articles.

  The sounds of the first sirens heading their way had every head turning toward the ambulance bay. Cillian wasn’t sure if it was the ambulance that had reported the trauma coming their way or not. Then again, it didn’t really matter. Dr. Yates would assign the cases as they came in to those available.

  “Jason,” Dr. Yates called out to one of the orderlies. “Phone Dr. Jacobs as well as Dr. Pierce. Ask them to come in. We’re going to need all hands on deck.”

  Like the well-oiled machine, everyone started gearing up for what was sure to be a busy night. Just as the first siren could be heard approaching the ambulance bay, Cillian was gowned, gloved, and masked awaiting orders from Dr. Yates, who would triage each case and assign the others on which patient to treat.

  Cillian had been working as a physician’s assistant for more than six years and had seen some pretty gruesome sights. Not much affected him any longer, but the sight of the bloody Omega with two bones sticking out of his shin, his shoulder clearly dislocated as it was at an odd angle to his body while the humerus of his other arm looked as if it had been snapped in two, had Cillian’s stomach churning.

  Except it was more than that. There was hardly an inch of skin that wasn’t bloody or bruised. The Omega’s face was so damaged, it would have been impossible for even a loved one to recognize him.

  With each ambulance, it didn’t get any better. It was the fourth one that Cillian was assigned to. He put a hand on the gurney to help push it to cubicle six. Shutting off all feelings he had for the poor Omega who had been stabbed in the leg as well as the shoulder. Clearly, the attacker had been trying to kill him as each wound was dangerously close to major arteries.

  He took in the stats the paramedic was giving him as they rolled into the cubicle. Considering the injuries, the Omega was doing relatively well. The paramedics that had wheeled him, helped transfer the patient to the hospital gurney, then they raced out.

  Cillian, along with his two favorite nurses, Rosalind and Marco, went to work. An IV was put in and a bag of saline started by Marco, while Rosalind took blood to type and cross, for even though the patient hadn’t l
ost a lot of blood, he was still going to need a transfusion.

  “I’m fine, doc,” the patient told Cillian. “The others are much worse. Go help them.”

  Cillian looked down at the patient reassuringly. “They’re all being helped, I assure you.” He didn’t bother correcting the Omega on his being a doctor. There didn’t seem much point.

  “I got lucky. Levan tackled the jerk who stabbed me, then pulled me behind the desk.” Cillian listened but continued to work on the Omega. “If Levan hadn’t been there, most of us would have died. We all knew entering the police force would be dangerous, but none of us expected we’d be attacked by Alpha cops.”

  Only because of his training was Cillian not visibly shaken by what the Omega was saying. It was hard for Omegas in their world, but to have the police attack them… what kind of chance did any Omega have?

  Afraid he might cause more damage if he sutured the patient’s wounds when they were so close to major veins and arteries, Cillian sent him for an MRI. Transport wheeled the patient away with Rosalind staying with him just in case there were any problems.

  Pulling off his gloves, Cillian grabbed another pair to see where he could help. Dr. Nate Bishop appeared to be having trouble dealing with the bleeding of the patient he was working on.

  “What do you need from me?” Cillian asked as he stepped into the cubicle sliding on gloves.

  Nate appeared relieved to see an extra pair of hands to help him. “I’ve got three bleeders clipped, but there is still another one in his abdomen I’m trying to find, and he clearly has one in his leg. Can you try to find it and clip it? Hopefully, that’s all and I can get him up to surgery.”

  Cillian went to work on the Omega’s leg. He wasn’t sure the poor kid, for he couldn’t have been much over eighteen, was going to survive. He’d lost a lot of blood. There were two bags going into his IV, but the patient was losing more than was going into his body at the moment.

  “Found it,” Cillian told Dr. Bishop. Quickly he was able to clip the ends so the bleeding would stop until the surgeons were able to go in and reattach the ends together if possible.

  If not, well, it was a good thing the body was a miraculous thing. Assuming the kid lived, his body would create new pathways for the blood to flow around the damaged areas.

  “Shit, we have another incoming,” Dr. Yates called out. “Who is free?”

  Cillian had just finished. “Go,” Dr. Bishop said. “I don’t think there’s anything else you can do here.”

  Noticing that Nate was still searching for the bleeder, Cillian said, “Are you sure? I can help you try and find…”

  “Somebody needs to help,” a voice called out. “Where’s Dr. Jacobs?”

  Nate glanced up at Cillian. “Go. I’ll find the last bleeder and get him up to surgery.”

  Cillian stepped out of the cubicle, already having pulled off his gloves and grabbing a new pair. As he yanked them on, he saw a fairly large Alpha, who appeared to have been in a fight, carrying a much smaller Omega, who obviously had lost whatever fight he’d been in.

  Blood dripped off his body, both soaking the Alpha’s clothes as well as the floor below. The Alpha gently placed the Omega onto a gurney. Cillian was by the Omega’s side as soon as his head touched the padding.

  “You have to save him,” the Alpha ordered Cillian.

  Not paying any attention to the Alpha, or his commands, Cillian went to work assessing the patient. It wasn’t until the Alpha suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him away from his patient that Cillian looked at him.

  He recognized the Alpha as a cop that often worked with Jamal, the head of hospital security. Cillian couldn’t remember his name, but he’d always gotten the sense that he wasn’t someone who would beat up innocent Omegas. But if the man’s bruised and bloody knuckles were anything to go by, he’d been a part of what had happened to these Omegas.

  “Let go of me,” Cillian demanded. But the Alpha didn’t budge.

  “You’re not a doctor. You’re that physician’s assistant who replaced Case.” It wasn’t a question, so Cillian didn’t feel he needed to respond. “Levan needs a real doctor.”

  It wasn’t the first time someone had said that to Cillian, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. “Look, at the moment, I’m all you got,” he told the man. “So, I suggest you let go of me so I can help him.”

  The Alpha didn’t right away. First, he warned, “Levan survives. Got it?”

  Cillian was pissed. It wasn’t as if he wouldn’t do everything in his power to save the injured man, nor would he even be injured if it hadn’t of been for the Alpha. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have decided to beat the crap out of all these Omegas,” he fired back.

  Yanking his arm free, Cillian went to work. It wasn’t easy. Levan had definitely been beaten, but he’d also been stabbed multiple times. Normally, he would start with the most life-threatening injuries first, but he feared there were too many of them to count.

  He’d forgotten all about the Alpha as he, Marco, and Rosalind, who had sent their first patient of this catastrophe to surgery, the MRI showing a small nick in a major artery. It had held up without him losing too much blood, but if not repaired, it would eventually kill him.

  Cillian was thankful he hadn’t made the mistake of suturing the Omega himself without the MRI. At least now the Omega had a chance.

  As he worked, Dr. Bishop had sent his own patient up to surgery and came over to help. It still wasn’t enough. Glancing up at the quickly draining bags of blood, Cillian knew they’d need more. “Call for more blood,” he ordered Marco, who had obviously already known what he was going to ask since his nurse had already picked up the phone before Cillian had even finished speaking.

  “They only have one more unit,” Marco told him.

  As if things weren’t already bad enough for this poor man, running out of blood would ensure he didn’t survive.

  “What does that mean?” the Alpha, who had brought the patient in, yelled.

  “Gal,” Jamal called out.

  Cillian couldn’t help but feel relieved. If Jamal was there, that meant his husband, who also happened to be the head of the emergency department, Dr. Brace Jacobs, was there.

  “What do you need me to do?” Dr. Jacobs asked as he stepped up to the gurney.

  That he didn’t instantly take over was one of the reasons the man was great at his job. Dr. Jacobs trusted his employees to know what they were doing instead of assuming he could do it better.

  “Pick an area that’s bleeding too much and stop it and Marco call…” Cillian didn’t bother to finish telling his nurse to call around to see if anyone could transport blood to them as he could hear Marco already doing just that. He really loved his team.

  “What the fuck happened?”

  Normally, when Cillian worked on a patient like this, he could ignore the chatter that didn’t directly pertain to the patient. But this voice had been deep and commanding, causing Cillian to glance over to find a man with grey peeking through the strands of his hair, making him look older, but Cillian doubted he was much older than forty.

  He kept it to a glance but Cillian felt his body react to the handsome man with his strong chin, broad shoulders, and stormy grey eyes that seemed to take in everything in the room despite the fact that he was speaking to Gal.

  Focus Cillian.

  It wasn’t easy but Cillian refused to let his attention waver when it came to saving the Omega he was working on.

  CHAPTER 2

  Letting out a sigh as the phone rang for the tenth time since he’d sat down to fill out all the red tape caused by firing so many officers for their overt bigotry against Omegas, Soren Larsen knew this was going to be another long night. It was bad enough that he had to jump through hoops to ensure those he’d fired stayed that way despite the attempts of the union to get them reinstated. But by getting rid of so many at once, he’d left his department woefully shorthanded. Hence the constant barrage of phone calls.
r />   Not that he didn’t get his fair share anyway, but they had tripled with questions on how to deal with gaps in coverage. It meant signing off on a lot of overtime, which led to the mayor and city council calling him about the budget and what they termed his ‘overreaction to a few Alphas being a bit callous.’

  None of them seemed to give a damn that there was a stalker at Hart’s Medical Center targeting Omegas. The mayor even insinuated that the Omegas probably deserved it. How one deserved to have a stalker after them, Soren still wasn’t sure, but it didn’t seem to matter to those in charge.

  The trill of the phone ringing reminded him there was no point in not answering. He’d learned long ago that it wouldn’t stop whoever was trying to get ahold of him from continuing to try again – repeatedly.

  Annoyed, he grabbed the offensive phone and barked, “What?”

  “I told you those Omegas needed to be protected, but did you listen? No. You said, ‘They’ll be fine.’ Well, guess what?” Gal, one of the few people on the force he could trust to look out for the Omega population yelled, “They’re all in the hospital, barely alive. And Levan…” The man’s voice broke.

  The knots in his stomach had become a living thing since he’d learned his police department was filled with men and women who felt it okay to dismiss a third of the population. He’d had no idea that his people were treating Omegas as if they didn’t matter. Sometimes ignoring them completely.

  Although it was the reports of abuse to those already vulnerable Omegas by his own officers that had truly sent Soren into a rage. When he saw it for himself, he’d fired everyone involved on the spot. That was when he’d finally understood too many Alphas felt Omegas were nothing more than property.

  It had sickened him.

  That feeling had only grown when he’d discovered the mayor and city council were of the same mind. He might be an Alpha, but Soren had been raised to believe everyone was equal.