Page 16 of Bonds and Beasts

Her eyes expand at the realization. He tentatively reaches out and takes her fingers into his hand, squeezing them gently while I continue to rub her shoulder blades. More of her muscles release and she slumps slightly, as though giving up on holding everything so tight.

"You will be safe. We promise,” Easton says.

She catches me off guard when she looks back at me, eyes searching, clearly looking for my reassurance or my approval. I'm not sure which. So I do my best to give both.

I nod. "It'll be okay."

She takes one last wobbly breath and lets herself be gently pulled out of the car by Easton, who's still holding her hand. I follow close behind, hand on the small of her back, prepared to retreat if she shows even a little discomfort at my touch. Instead, she leans back into the contact and I let my hand spread, palming most of her back.

Bello is getting out of his taxi as we close the door to our car, and Larry takes it to park. The omega looks at him but doesn't react, following us into the hospital with Bello on our heels. Bello checks us in, hesitating when asked for her name and turning toward her. The nurse takes one look at her shaking hands, wide pupils, and pale skin, and seems to understand. She slides a pad of paper and a pen across to our omega. I'm internally beating myself senseless. Why didn't we consider that? Too late to go back now.

She takes the pen and writes in looping, but shaky, cursive: Adison Dubois.

Adison. Why does that name ring a bell? Adison hands the pad back to the nurse who takes it, reads the name, does a double take, then looks back to her computer. "Okay, Miss Dubois. You can come right back to our omega heat room. I'm afraid your alphas will have to stay in the waiting room. No alphas are allowed in that area."

Adison searches me with her eyes. I try to project calm, to transfer my alpha energy to her. It must work a little because she calms.

"We'll be right here, okay?” I say. “The doctors are going to help."

She nods and shuffles along after the nurse, looking back one more time before she disappears behind sealed doors and is out of sight. My alpha growls within me. He doesn't want to be separated, but I reason we'll get her back soon.

For a moment we all stand there awkwardly. Easton moves first, flopping into one of the waiting room chairs, his glasses slightly askew. Bello chooses to stand in a corner and I start to pace. We wait.

Adison

The exam was easier than I expected. The doctor, a beta woman named Dr. Hollis, immediately understands that I can't speak and provides me with a pen and paper. After a lot of questions about my age (twenty), condition (shaking, pain, aversion to bright lights), and especially my scent—which even she can tell is high—they take blood samples. We move on to medications. I write down the ones that Mr. Clocks's doctor, Dr. Fray, had prescribed me. Dr. Hollis looks over the list with a deep frown and furrowed brow.

She leaves for a while. Because this is the area of the hospital usually reserved for omegas in heat crisis there are snacks and hydrating drinks that I fully take advantage of along with the shower facilities. The alphas packed a bag with clothes from my drawers and I change into a simple shorts and tshirt set.

When she returns, she has a new clipboard.

"Okay, Adison, your results are in and I'm happy to say that we have treatments for everything you've been experiencing. First, would you like to discuss this with me alone, or would you like us to go into an alpha-friendly room so that your pack can be present?" She looks at me expectantly. The air whooshes out of my body.

I begin writing, and this time my hand shakes from nerves as much as anything else. Are you sure they're my scent matches? I thought, because of my scent, that it might be messed up.

The doctor gives me the most pitying look. I wish she wouldn't, as it somehow makes everything so much worse. "Yes, we did the standard scent match test, and they consented to the test as well. They're definitely your mates. I'm sorry this happened and that you didn't feel you could trust your instincts."

It takes me a moment to process all of this. They're my mates. The pull at my center isn't just the result of too long being alone or my broken scent.

I'd like them here, with me, I write. She nods.

I change back into my clothes and am moved into another room outside of the heat clinic portion of the hospital. Heavy scent neutralizers are being pumped in. Instead of a medical table, there's a plush couch and two armchairs. I sit, pressing my hands together between my thighs, hoping to make the shaking less obvious. Though I don't know what the point is. It's not like they haven't already seen me wrecked.

Still, everything has been so chaotic between the rut and my crash afterward that this feels like the first time I'm really meeting them.

The door opens and Dean comes in first. I expected… well, I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't for him to walk right up to me and drop to his knees between my knees. His face is inches from mine and his hand finds my cheek, gently stroking. The calm warmth that spreads from each point of contact feels like everything I need and not enough all at once.

"Adison. Pretty name for a pretty girl." He purrs and I can feel the heat climbing up my face.

"Jesus, Dean, could you be more cringe?" Easton asks, walking through the door next. Dean finds the seat on my left and Easton takes the seat on my right. "Are you okay, Sweetheart?"

I nod. I still have the pen and pad of paper so I write, The tests weren't bad.

Easton nods.

Bello comes in last. His eyes scan me from the top of my head to my toes and back again, but he stands next to the couch, arms folded, like a sentry. I want to bury myself under Dean.

Dr. Hollis arrives a few minutes later holding two thick folders. She smiles politely and each alpha introduces himself.