Chapter 4 Knox
Knox
Pack.
The word resonates with me as I watch Eli while he watches Lia.
There’s a shocked look in his eye as he cradles his daughter…
what was her name? Amber? She looks like him, though I can’t really see her face.
She’s got auburn hair like his that seems naturally disheveled. Her limbs are long, like his.
Is Eli going to be my packmate?
He seems steady. Comforting. Foundational.
I look back at Walker, and I find him watching Lia as well.
His shoulders are pulled taut, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, like he’s trying to hold himself back.
There’s a fire of protectiveness in his eye that Omegas always gravitate to.
That’ll be a nice addition to any pack, especially if one of us has a kid.
Then my attention moves back to Lia, and my heart slams into my chest wall again, just like it did when I first saw Walker holding her in the alleyway. The sight of her. The smell of her. It calls to my instincts.
Do they feel it, too? They have to. I see the way they’re looking at her—equal parts confusion, admiration, and worry.
Is it possible I’ve got a pack out there after all?
A smile spreads across my face as my nostrils flare, becoming greedy with her scent.
I know she’s mine. I can smell it in the air.
I can feel it in the way her lovely green eyes meets my gaze.
She seems so nervous. I want to scent the entire room until she settles down so that we can figure out what’s going on with her.
I want to hold her.
I want to cherish her.
I want to take care of her for the rest of my life.
When the silence lingers on for too long, Dr. Quinn clears his throat. “Right, well. Miss Lia, let me see the suppressants you’re taking. Do you have your pill bottle on you?”
When she motions for her purse, I move before anyone else has a chance to. I scoop up the small bag with the pink bow hanging off the zipper and I hand it to her.
She rewards me with a meek little smile. “Thanks.”
I shake my head. “Nothing to thank me for. We’ll get you figured out while we’re here.”
I figured my words would reassure her, but her scent changes, that cinnamon-roll goodness laced with a bit of soured icing that curdles my stomach. It makes me worried about what’s making her nervous. But I stay strong.
My Omega needs me strong.
“Here,” Lia says in a voice that sounds like sandpaper as she hands the doctor not an orange, translucent pill bottle, but a white, opaque one instead.
Dr. Quinn doesn’t even take it. “Your suppressants aren’t prescription.”
She shakes her head. “Prescription suppressants don’t work on me.”
“I’m sure you just haven’t found the right one,” Dr. Quinn says. I hear him scribbling on something. “If we need to cycle through a few to find the right one, we can—”
“None of them work,” she bites out.
The room falls silent again before Dr. Quinn speaks. “There are several kinds on the market, Miss Lia, so that isn’t possible. The only way it’s possible is if an Omega has experienced Alpha Rejection Syndrome. Only they are immune to prescription suppressants completely.”
When Lia doesn’t speak, the room falls silent again.
ARS? She’s survived ARS? You mean to tell me someone gave up that wondrous scent?
Those gorgeous green eyes? Those sloping curves that call to my twitching fingers?
That lovely smile she graced me with earlier? That wasn’t good enough for someone?
I would never.
The idea that she had to experience something like that makes my blood boil.
I hear the sound of something rolling on the ground before Dr. Quinn slips himself between me and Lia. I want to growl and yank him out of the way, but I stuff my instincts down. I nod at the doctor, who gives me a once-over with his eyes before turning his attention back to Lia.
He reaches out and takes her hand, and I know what he’s about to say isn’t going to be what she wants to hear.
“Okay,” he says, his voice somehow softer than it normally is, “then, here’s what we do: you have a cyclewide disorder, yes?”
Lia swallows hard. “Yeah.”
“What’s that?” Walker asks.
Dr. Quinn ignores him. “How far are you into your preheat already?”
Lia shrugs softly. “Can I sit up now?”
Dr. Quinn stands and helps her to sit up, and that’s when I see a bead of sweat trickle down her brow. The shuffling of steps sounds behind me, and I peer over my shoulder to see Eli slipping into the room with his daughter.
I turn my attention back to Lia before I reach out mindlessly, my thumb wicking away the sweat trail before it has a chance to grace her cheek.
“Better?” Dr. Quinn asks.
“Thirsty, but yeah,” Lia says breathlessly.
“I’ll get her some water,” Walker says before his heavy footfalls backtrack out of the room.
“A cyclewide disorder is when an Omega’s preheat lasts too long, right?” Eli asks.
Dr. Quinn peers over his shoulder at him. “I think Miss Lia would appreciate it if she wasn’t so crowded.”
“They’re fine,” she says softly. “I just need to get back home and get in my nest. That always helps around this time.”
Dr. Quinn focuses back on her. “How far into this are you?”
She sighs heavily, and I hate the sound on her lips. I want to make everything better, but I don’t know how.
I don’t know if it’s even possible.
“Only a few days. My preheats usually last about a month.”
“A month?” Eli asks as he moves closer. “That’s a long preheat. Who watches over you while this happens?”
“Silence from the peanut gallery unless you’re pack,” Dr. Quinn says as he eyes both of us.
Walker comes storming back in, a dark cloud over his face as he hands Lia the small plastic cup of water.
She downs it in a couple of gulps, and I watch as another bead of sweat trickles down her neck.
It sluices across her milky white skin, and before I can catch myself, I reach out and smooth that trail away as well.
“Thank you,” she says before handing the cup back to Walker.
“No thanks needed,” he says as he crumples the cup in his hand and tosses it into the small trash bin in the corner. “What did I miss?”
“She’s got a cyclewide disorder,” Eli says as he steps up to Walker’s other side. “Preheats last about a month; she’s a few days in.”
“Miss Lia, do you want them in here?” Dr. Quinn asks.
She looks around at all three of us before her gaze stops at Walker. The two of them stare one another down for a little while, and then she clears her throat.
“They’re okay,” she says softly.
“Are you sure? Because you’re protected by HIPAA. You don’t need Alphas in this room hovering over you if you don’t want them to be here.”
Lia looks at the three of us—well, four of us, including Amber, who’s still curled up against her dad—before she looks back at Dr. Quinn. She looks so unsure.
I don’t want her to be unsure of me.
“Let’s take some steps back,” I say as I hold out my arm. “Give her some space. She’s processing a lot right now.”
When Lia nods, the three of us step back as if we’re on some marionette string that someone is tugging around. We move until our backs are against the far wall of the exam room.
Her breathing slows, the natural up and down of her shoulders evening out. Her throat bobs as she closes her eyes, and I can hear her forced rhythmic breathing from where I’m standing. She sits there, her thighs splayed along the exam table and her legs swinging aimlessly over the edge.
I have to look up at the ceiling in order to stop staring.
She’s mouth-wateringly gorgeous.
“Okay,” Dr. Quinn says. “You’re right. Your cyclewide disorder prevents many prescription heat suppressants from working.
But you shouldn’t even be using them in the first place.
So, here’s what we’re going to do until your heat comes on.
You’re going to rest in your nest as much as you can.
You’re going to mitigate as much stress as possible. ”
“I have baking orders I have to fulfill before I can take time off,” she says. “I usually stop my life about two weeks out from my heat.”
Dr. Quinn nods as he scribbles something down. “I’m still going to prescribe you a few things to help. A vitamin that is loaded down with enough B-12 to regulate the mood swings of a mammoth. It’s also got extra iron, magnesium, and some lavender in there as well.”
He rips the piece of paper out and hands it to her. “I want you to take two of those a day, same time every day, with a cup of warm chamomile tea with raw honey. You can get those two things at the grocery store here in town. Tell them I sent you, they’ll give you a discount.”
She looks down at the prescription. “And this is going to help?”
“If you stay away from stressors and rest when you’re not baking, it’ll help take the edge off things until you take the time off to help yourself properly.”
She tucks the prescription into her purse. “Thank you, Dr. Quinn.”
She holds her hand out for her the bottle of suppressants, but the doctor just stares at her. “You don’t get those back.”
She blinks. “What?”
“Prescription heat suppressants are some of the most dangerous things that the street peddles nowadays, and they’re not helping you the way you think they are. The only thing a heat suppressant does is delay the inevitable, but with a cyclewide disorder, even delaying the inevitable is impossible.”
I see the panic rise up behind her eyes. “Doctor, I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t even know me, you don’t know my health history, and I need—”
“What you need,” he says as he stands, “is to slow down, take these vitamins with that tea and honey like I’ve said, and rest as much as possible.”
“I can’t rest until my orders are fulfilled. I have a life to pay for. Bills that are due. I can’t just—”
While she argues with the doctor, I simply watch her. She’s got fire in her, and it makes my inner Alpha preen with pride. It’s insane to me that someone ever gave her up. Was she rejected by just one Alpha? Or did she have another pack before all of this?
I scan the parts of her that are available to my eye, and I can’t see any sort of mating marks. I want to know everything about her. I want to ask questions until she falls asleep in my arms so that I can hold her through everything that’s going to come her way.
“Okay?” Dr. Quinn asks.
I shake my head a bit and focus back on Lia, who looks equal parts pissed and exhausted.
“I hear you, Doctor.”
Dr. Quinn stands. “Promise me you won’t just go buy more.”
She scoffs. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Those things are expensive.”
Dr. Quinn nods before he turns toward the three of us. And then he poses a question that makes Lia leap off the table and onto her feet in defiance.
“So, who’s taking her shopping and escorting her home?”