Chapter 2
Pack Benedict. John. He’s thirty-four. He has four other packmates, who I only saw briefly—but they all smell good, not mine, but still appealing. We talked for hours. Ok, well, he talked, but that’s ok. I want to know everything about him and his pack.
I snuggle deeper in my nest, feeling lonely tonight—I miss Teddy.
We didn’t really talk about pack stuff, because it always upset him.
He’d never say it did, since he always wanted me to be able to talk about anything, but it brought up too many bad memories…
and now, of course, he’s back with those assholes.
As long as they treat him well, that’s fine.
Steve, that little shit-stain, better have had a damned good apology, otherwise I’ll have to kick both their asses.
Him for hurting Teddy, and Teddy for taking his useless ass back.
Fuck, why is it so hot in here?
Stumbling back into my nest, I trip over the rug and face-plant into my bed.
It’s too fucking hot and peeling off my clothes isn’t helping as much as I want it to.
Rolling myself into a burrito is just making everything worse.
This is normally my comfort space. What the ever-loving hell is wrong with me?
I better not have caught a stomach bug.
If I start throwing up, I’m gonna stab somebody.
It’s just so hot!
Well, it can’t be my heat, I just had that last month.
Oh…shit.
Shit, shit…Shit!
Last year…Teddy. He got sick right after meeting his alpha and beta.
What was it?
Scent match!
He met them and got sick when he needed to be around them.
Wait, does that mean…John?
I didn’t get to meet most of them…but maybe.
Fuck, don’t get your hopes up.
Sleep now…see how we feel tomorrow.
Turns out, I feel worse in the morning. I can barely drag myself out from under the blankets.
My body feels heavy and achy. The cold water bottle I grabbed to drink lies hot and uncomfortable against my stomach, where I tried to use it to soothe some of my aches last night.
I reach for my phone without thinking. If I can just call the dorm supervisor, maybe someone can come help me.
My legs feel like jelly, and there’s no way I’ll be able to make it out of bed without help, let alone to the hall and down the stairs.
The phone rings three times—long enough for the edge of panic to creep in—before someone picks up. “Dorm F supervisor Kimberly, how can I help you?” No one should sound this perky when I feel like death warmed over.
My voice is a raspy croak in contrast to her too-early cheer. “’S Sarah ’n room 312. S’mthin’s wrong. Everythin’ hurts.” My words slur, sounding like I had way too much to drink at last night’s mixer. But this is like no hangover I’ve experienced, plus it started last night. “Can’t move…help.”
The sound of a keyboard clacking comes through the phone before she speaks again.
Her voice is less chipper and more businesslike now.
“Sarah in room 312. Is this a heat issue? Our records indicate you just had one last month, but there’s been no reports of anyone else getting sick this morning.
Let me send someone down to assist you. Are you able to get to the door? ”
My eyes do that slow blink thing, trying to process what she just said, and a whine slips free as another cramp seizes my abdomen. My words come out through gritted teeth. “I…I c’n try. Just…hurts. I can…” Everything’s blurry, and I can’t seem to get my eyes to focus properly.
She cuts me off before I can attempt to force out any more words.
“Negative Sarah, just stay where you are. I’ll send someone down now from security with a key.
Do we have permission to enter your nest, Sarah?
” That sounds awfully formal, but my mind feels like Jello right now, thoughts filtering in one side and out the other before I can grab them.
“Yes, please…help.” Another wave of pain washes through me and I curl into a ball, my body tight as my muscles twitch and jerk.
Her keyboard clacks before she speaks again.
“Ok, Sarah, I’ve put in a request for aid.
Beta guard Gregory should be arriving at your door within two minutes to assist. Would you like to remain on the line with me until he arrives? ”
There’s a knock at the door before I can answer. Whoever it is doesn’t wait for a response, and I hear the lock click before the door opens in the other room. That better fucking be beta guard Gregory, because I can barely move right now, let alone stop someone who wants to come in.
The door to my nest swings open and a wide body appears in the frame.
The subtle scent of rain washes over me, cooling my feverish skin.
It’s earthy, almost green, like taking a hike in the forest when it starts to storm.
My spine bows and my body jerks at the male scent invading my space—a scent that doesn’t belong to the mate I met last night, my inner omega reminds me.
Fuck this crazy bitch.
Not gonna have any mates if I’m dead.
The pain radiating from my core feels like it could kill me.
There’s a moment of hesitation when he removes my blankets, and I completely forgot that I stripped last night in an attempt to cool down.
Too late now. His breath hitches, but then strong arms wrap around me and pull me against a warm chest. He’s a beta so he can’t purr, but he makes little shushing noises against my hair as he wraps me in a sheet and steps from the room—turning on the exhaust fan before relocking the door.
Despite him not feeling like the alpha last night, my chest gives a little twinge at the thought that his scent will be completely gone by the time I return to my room.
His arms feel amazing wrapped around me, and I already feel a little better, just being held.
I know some omegas get sick from lack of touch, but it’s not a problem I’ve ever had.
Still, it’s hard not to cuddle into his chest as he carries me down the stairs and across campus to the medical building.
Once inside, he speaks briefly to a receptionist before carrying me to a private nesting room.
I’ve been at the medical center a few times a year for checkups, and during the weeks leading up to my heats to get the heavy-duty suppressants that make them tolerable without alphas.
The nurses usually just put me in a small exam room.
In contrast, the nesting suites are nice, and I have a brief pang of longing for a big nest of my own.
The medication doesn’t stop my heat completely, but it makes it bearable with a toy, or a heat helper if you’re lucky enough to have one.
Teddy was always my helper, not for the sex, because that would have been like kissing my brother, ew.
But he would check in on me, bring me snacks, and drinks, and just make sure I was alive.
Then I’d do the same thing for him. As an added bonus, I got a crash course in pegging, and how many omegas have that on their resume?
Not that I ever had to use it, but the discussion came up a few times.
But at least his cycles are normal and on a regular schedule.
My body’s just defective as fuck. I was a late blooming omega, and my parents were so sure their third daughter was going to be a beta.
It wasn’t until I presented and came to the center that the docs had me jump through all the hoops then told me I probably have PMOS—Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.
It’s not even like they can do a simple test, either.
It’s all these symptoms that make it seem like several other things.
It basically equals out to my reproductive system and hormones being crazy as fuck—erratic heats, possible fertility issues, but hey, at least I can get buff easier than a normal omega. #gymgoals
Fuck, I must be feeling better if my brain is throwing this kinda shit at me.
My omega purr starts up involuntarily as I snuggle deeper against Gregory’s chest. He looks down at me.
“Hey, Sarah. Can I call you Sarah?” He waits for my nod.
“We’re at the medical center. You’re looking better already, but the doctor will need to check you out, regardless.
I can put you over there in the nest if you like?
” His voice is light and smooth, and I think I could easily listen to him read me the phonebook—but I’m ashamed to admit that I cling like a baby monkey when he offers to set me down.
A needy whine slips out as my hands clench tighter to his shirt.
“Ok, Sarah, I’m gonna take that as a no.
How about I sit down on the nest with you, is that ok?
” I peer up at him now that my eyes are working better.
He’s pretty in that Steve Rogers, All-American sort of way.
Dark brown hair brushed back, and long enough to be in a low ponytail, big blue eyes, strong jaw, the whole clean-cut package.
Which is totally adorable and not my type at all.
Give me grunge or punk. Hell, I’d even take goth metal, but clean-cut boy-next-door cute has never appealed to me.
Maybe my hormones are even more fucked up than usual.
He barely jostles me as he sits down on the edge of the big nest, and my mind fills with images of what it would be like to drag him into all the piles of fluffy blankets and pillows that are behind him and demand naked snuggles, or at least less clothed snuggles.
Not that I’m wearing much. It looks like he must have wrapped a sheet around me before taking me out of my room.
Of course he’s still wearing entirely too many clothes for proper snuggles and—
Holy fucking shit!
I need to stop this crazy train before it gets any further.
What the fucking hell is wrong with my brain today?
Before my mind can fall any further down that rabbit hole of naked cuddles, the door opens and Dr. Terra walks in.
She’s a beta doctor who specializes in omega medicine.
She has a pack with three alphas and an omega.
Apparently they all grew up together, which is how she ended up studying omega health.
Her omega, Daisy, was sick a lot when they were younger, and little not-yet-doctor Terra was determined to help her get better.
She rolls her stool over to where Gregory holds me, sitting on the edge of the nest. Her eyebrows shoot up at the sound of my purr, and I will it to stop before I embarrass myself further.
“So, Sarah, you weren’t feeling well this morning?
You seem to be doing better now. Did you eat or drink anything unusual last night?
Meet any new people? Any new alphas you clicked with?
Did you take anything edible that they might have given you, treats or gifts? ”
This is hardly my first year in omega training.
I’m not an idiot, and I clench my teeth to keep from saying so.
She’s just following a script, and we both know it.
“Yes, Dr. Terra, I was feeling horrible when I woke up. Feverish, weak, lethargic. I couldn’t even untangle myself from the blankets.
I did go to the mixer last night and met some alphas.
” Gregory jerks under me, but his cheeks turn pink when both Doc and I look at him.
I turn my focus back to Dr. Terra. “Anyway, I didn’t eat anything they gave me.
I did drink a couple of bottles of water, but they came directly from a server.
Also, while one of them did smell like mine”—another twitch from Gregory—“he didn’t give me anything.
I only really talked to one member of their pack; he told me the others weren’t feeling well, so I only saw them around the room a few times.
” Gregory rumbles underneath me, which is strange since betas aren’t supposed to growl.
But clearly this horrifyingly adorable man has something going on.
Dr. Terra focuses on me again. “You look completely fine now. Are you sure about this morning? You didn’t just have a nightmare?”
Bristling at her question, I’m about to say something super rude to my favorite doctor, but Gregory gets there first. “No, ma’am…
er…doctor…um. No. When I went to her room in response to her request for help, she was pale…
er…washed out, covered in sweat and shakin’ like a leaf.
It didn’t seem like she had the strength to even stand up, ma’am.
I wrapped her up and hightailed it over here, but she looks about a thousand times better already.
” His gaze flicks to mine and he mumbles a small, “Sorry,” before he focuses back on the doctor. He has the cutest twangy accent and—
Oh my god what is wrong with me?
Sure, he’s kind of appealing in a way-too-pretty way, but damn.
Now is not the time, I just found my alpha.
She chews lightly on her pen, a habit I’ve seen several times over the years, including one memorable morning when her omega was about to go into labor.
She chewed so hard that the pen broke and she was trying to clean ink off her shirt when her alphas called her to go to the hospital.
My eyebrows go up, and I wonder if she’s remembering the same incident as she takes the pen out of her mouth and sets it on the desk.
“Well, Sarah, it almost sounds like touch sickness. Now, before you interrupt me, I know you said you don’t get that.
But it has been known to come on quickly when you feel a special connection to new alphas and then separate suddenly.
We’ve only had that happen a few times here.
That being said, it doesn’t exactly add up that you’d feel better from snuggling with a strange beta if your body was craving these specific alphas.
No offense.” This last part is directed at Gregory, whose arms tighten around me, pulling me closer to his broad chest.