Chapter 32 Nightingale
Nightingale
Oscar
The little omegas have been texting a lot. Cadi is always carrying around her phone and smiling at her screen. She’ll turn it around to show Mads and Locke, who will smile back.
It’s been nearly four weeks since Aurora perfumed, so she should be having her first heat soon. At this rate, if she goes into heat and we aren’t there, it will devastate most of my pack. I can see the writing on the wall.
The atrium we purchased is well on its way to being completed for us to move in.
I’ve been at the city building almost every day getting all our permits, so there are no delays.
I made sure Cadi’s nest was done first. Just in case.
She’s with Mads, Locke, and Kol at the nesting store now, purchasing her nest kit.
I just walked out of my interview at Nightingale General Hospital and stopped at a cigar shop to get one of my old favorites.
Now, I’m headed to a smoke lounge to enjoy it.
When I was young, I used to smoke a lot, but stopped when I got to the States.
It was an expensive vice for someone going through medical school, only on the money they brought with them from their old life.
It’s also wildly unhealthy. I don’t want this to be a habit, but it’s a big day for me.
I’ve interviewed with this same board three times already.
They were happy to hear I’m a “bonded alpha” now, not acknowledging that I’ve been bonded this whole time.
But to them, I need to be bonded to an omega.
We moved on and talked about the position and opportunity.
I’m accepting the job, even if I’m against the requirements of my designation.
I’m a good alpha, a good doctor with or without a bonded omega.
It’ll be a practicing MD position, and there’ll be a chance in the future to expand to research. Not this year, they said. I’d prefer to have a hybrid assignment, but those are hard to come by. This will get me in the right position to get where I really want to be.
The lounge is relatively empty, so I find a seat at the bar and order a whiskey from the menu and cut my cigar. I suggested that my pack go to the nest store while I’m interviewing, so I didn’t have to be worried about them. I have plenty of time to smoke, then wash up.
About ten minutes later, two alphas walk in. Tall, formidable men. One of them looks like a cover model of Vogue Hong Kong. His shirt is unhooked, exposing his chest down to his belly button. He lights a cigarette, and the other one, a man, a black man in jeans and a Henley, notices me.
I know him.
Sebastian Meier walks over with a kind smile and greets me.
“Dr. Soto, what a pleasant surprise.”
“I agree, Alpha Meier. How’re you?” I ask with a friendly tone.
“Good. This is my pack mate, Freddie. Freddie, this is Dr. Soto. Do you remember him?”
Freddie gives a small shake of his head. He’s quite uninterested in the connection.
“Oh, come on, Freddie. He helped with Ondine when she fell ill.”
Ondine is their omega, and she had bond sickness, which is an extremely serious condition for an omega. Her doctor called me for a second opinion.
“Ok. Thanks, Doc.”
“Happy to help. I hope she’s well. And thanks to Meier Protection for providing security while my omega was in heat at Sky Nest recently. You can never be too careful. I’ve heard stories about their security. Two of my pack mates were missing, so I was extra worried.”
“Happy to help out, Doc.” Sebastian turns to Freddie, “You met Oscar’s omega, Freddie. Acadia. We met her in the cafe last spring. When we met Ondine’s parents.”
Freddie is confused for a moment and then realizes he met her while she was being courted by other alphas. His omega’s own parents.
“Right. Acadia Nightingale. Soto now. Congratulations.” He tips his chin to me.
I’ve seen Acadia’s former surname written down several times.
It was in the paperwork we wrote up for the bonding, and again when I registered her as bonded to my pack.
Hearing Freddie say it out loud for the first time makes it seem so different.
Not just a name, but significant somehow.
Maybe it’s because I was just at Nightingale General Hospital…
“Thank you. What’re you both doing here?”
Sebastian sits on the stool next to mine, and Freddie sits on his other side.
“Freddie wanted to smoke, and I wanted a drink.”
This is one of the few bars you can also smoke in in the city. They both order a drink, and Freddie starts a new cigarette.
“How is Ondine?” I ask, and Freddie turns quickly to me with a growl on his lips. Sebastian puts his hand on his arm to relax him. It works, and he settles down.
“I’ll tell you this because you’re close to my pack, but Freddie has a wilding bond with Ondine. You’ll have to forgive his protectiveness.”
A wilding bond. A rare occurrence when a feral alpha bonds with their scent match. It makes the alpha defer to her feelings. It’s a very special connection.
“No worries, Sebastian. Having just bonded with an omega, I understand.”
I take a big inhale of my cigar, then blow the smoke out away from the alphas and bartender.
The cigar doesn’t do its job in relaxing me.
It also doesn’t taste that great. I wanted it to fix this odd feeling in the stomach.
I know I’m going to accept this job, and I just don’t feel great about it.
I’ve worked so hard for so long, and this is a great position, and yet…
On paper, this is the perfect job for me.
Practicing doctor with a potential for a research opportunity in Cash City.
Omega patients. Access to some of the leading experts and published papers.
I’m not used to this feeling that something is wrong.
If something was wrong, shouldn’t it have shown up in the data?
Shouldn’t my spreadsheets have pointed out that this wasn’t a good place for me?
“I am actually bonded to two omegas. My alpha was just forced to bond with one. We’ve taken care of the threat, but now we have this whole extra omega.”
I don’t know why I chose to divulge this information like this. Perhaps I need to get my mind off the job?
“You don’t need us to go ruin someone’s day, do you?”
I chuckle and take another mouthful of cigar smoke, letting it come out slowly. My stomach churns. I set it down, deciding I don’t want it anymore.
“No, I got it under control.”
“Not that you would need us anyway, having Acadia.”
My head kicks to the side, and I look at Freddie, confused.
“You don’t know?” he asks.
“Why wouldn’t I have to worry about threats if I have Acadia?” I ask slowly, making sure I understand him correctly.
“She’s a Nightingale. Formerly Nightingale. They run this City. The Wong clan will claim they are the most powerful clan in the city, but they only mean behind the Nightingales. She’s related to Orrin Cash, the omega who founded Cash City. You didn’t know?”
“There has been a lot going on…”
Nightingale. Why didn’t I put it all together? Nightingale is the name of the hospital I’m going to work at, for fuckssake.
I put my hand up so he will stop talking and I can think. But he just keeps talking.
“If you ever need a threat handled, you just need to call her father, Omega Remington Nightingale. He’s head of the clan now.”
Remington Nightingale. His portrait was at the hospital I interviewed at. He looked like a killer. A stone-cold man with a lot of demons. He also…looked like Cadi. A shock of black hair. Green cat-like eyes. Pale skin.
My world suddenly becomes both infinitely small and soul-crushingly large.
Why is it that Cadi has haunted my path over and over again, and I fail to notice?
She was dating Mads, and I didn’t notice.
She was so close to me when I went to confront Mads at the riverfront.
I saw the back of her head, and I didn’t even consider getting a closer look.
She and Kol were together at the nightclub.
He told me he found someone special. His behavior after that should have set off warning bells.
But I ignored them. If she weren’t Locke’s scent match, would we have circled each other forever? Never meeting?
Freddie chuckles at the look of confusion and fear on my face and flicks the ash off his cigarette.
We said it was Fate that brought us together, and yet I am overcome by the fear that we only met by the smallest bit of chance, and there was a huge possibility I could have lost her before even having her.
“It’s ok, you aren’t from here. You’ll start to see the name everywhere now that you have. Remington is a powerful omega. He comes from a long line of omega sires.”
Omega sires. Male omegas who give birth. How did I not know that Acadia was born to a male omega?
Sebastian sits back and drinks from his highball glass, giving me a better view of Freddie.
“Be nice to the man, Freddie. They just met recently. You only know about her because you’re a Wong.”
“My whole life, I’ve had to hear about the Nightingales. It makes sense that she doesn’t advertise the connection. It’s like royalty. But worse.”
“Oscar, we ran a full background check on her before we let Ondine meet her. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t know either.
Acadia had been living at Omega Housing, and we thought that was strange considering her family’s power and wealth.
Turns out the Nightingale family had a big blowout.
Shadow, our alpha, learned this from a very talkative woman in a moomoo.
I can’t recall her name.” Sebastian takes a quick sip of his drink before continuing.
“Acadia asked her family to pay for private security at the Omega Housing after omegas kept going missing all over the city, and they refused. So, she moved in, forcing their hand. They wouldn’t let their omega daughter live there without security. ”
I have to admit that I assumed she was at Omega Housing because she had nowhere else to be.
It would never have occurred to me to assume otherwise.
But that wasn’t the case at all. Cadi wanted the omegas at the housing complex to have security, so she moved in so her family would have to pay for it.
Every time I learn about Cadi, I discover she has more heart than I can even imagine. She always chooses to be the good guy. She deserves all the good things in life. She deserves anything she wants.
“She’s moving out, I assume. I’ll talk to Jake, maybe we can take over security at Omega Housing. I’m sure we can figure out how to keep it going. We have a special projects division…”
“I’m sure she’d appreciate that. That’s so great. Thank you.”
I wipe my hand down my face. Cadi was always the one to find us, never the other way around.
She found Mads on the dating app, Kol at the club, and even me.
She called me. She picked up the phone and made our connection happen.
I’ve been waffling around, assuming I always knew the best path forward because I considered the facts available to me.
But that’s not how love and connections work.
She’s a compass, I realize. She points in the right direction. And right now? She’s pointing us towards the little omega in Salt Port.
“It was great talking to you, but I have to go,” I say, getting off my stool and nodding to the bartender to run my card. He hands me the receipt, and I sign it.
“It was great running into you, Soto. We will have to talk again soon.”
It’s not yet closing time, so I rush out of the bar and over a few blocks to the jewelry district. I picked out this store when we first arrived. They specialized in custom silver pieces. They said my piece for Mads was done, but I was avoiding picking it up until I’d made up my mind about Ro.
When I walk into the small, glittering storefront, Deidre greets me. She’s a black woman, a beta, bonded in a pack with a male omega. The two of them have a special bond. He is sitting with her while she’s working on resizing a watch band. Deidre owns this shop.
“Alpha Soto, I’m happy to see you. The chain has been burning a hole in my case. Though I should thank you, I’ve had customers request similar pieces after seeing it.”
She stands up to remove the silver chain with the names of each of us on little metal bars running the length of the chain. There’s an empty bar, which was just due to the size, not on purpose.
“I actually need another name added. I also need another order like the one you did a few weeks back with the lilac on it.”
Her smile broadens.
“Another pack mate? That’s six. Congratulations.”
I’m strangely impressed by how proud and excited it makes me to tell more people about Aurora.
“Thank you. She’s another omega. Aurora.”
“Holy fuck, Soto. Two female omegas? I always say that the alphas who give good gifts deserve the best omegas.” She winks.
Always the businesswoman. “I’ll add her name to this chain.
It should be done in 15 minutes. What about the other necklace for the omega?
Do you want her scent profile on the pendant? ”
“Help me out with that one, Deidre. Her scent profile is lime. She’s very fashionable. She wears luxury brands and is always dressed well and in style. I’m not sure a necklace with a lime on it will appeal to her.”
Her omega, Justice, joins us, curious about the problem.
“Omegas have complex scent profiles, especially to their pack. Wasn’t the first omega more than lilac?” Justice asks.
“Honey and lilac. Sun-warmed lilacs, like you were passing under the blooms on a hot summer day next to a hive brimming with fresh honey.”
He smiles at me.
“Aurora…I have not seen her since before she perfumed. It’s my pack that wants her. I’m going to go get her, and I want the necklace for her then. They told me she smells like sparkling water, or maybe smelling the scent feels like sparkling water? He said that it’s a lime seltzer scent.”
“Seltzer,” he repeats.
I look around at the pieces and see a few cuffs with a hammered texture.
“Maybe instead of the image stamped in the pendant, we do this?” I point at the hammered piece. “Maybe to show the bubbling soda part? Would that look more interesting?”
Deidre joins me to look at the pieces.
“You have a great eye, Soto.”
“Let’s do that then.”
I wait with Justice as Deidre preps the pieces.
We talk about some great restaurants he likes in the area, and some good recommendations for places that have large seating available.
Which is always great info to have. Deidre finishes up, and I leave feeling lighter than air. I’m going to go get Aurora.