Chapter 20
As the needle moves toward the crook of my arm, I stare at the ceiling tiles instead of the doctor’s face, counting the small holes in each square to keep my mind from racing.
“This will pinch,” the doctor says as his gloved fingers find a vein.
The pinch comes as promised, barely registering on my scale of pain. I’ve had worse. So much worse.
Around us, the warehouse has been partitioned with temporary walls for a pop-up clinic, clean enough to perform procedures, but not sterile enough to pass a hospital rating. Perfect for people who need to stay off the grid.
“How long?” I ask as he withdraws the needle and presses a cotton ball over the tiny wound.
“Two hours for preliminary results.” He caps the vial of my blood. “I’ll run a comprehensive panel while we’re at it. Standard practice.”
Standard practice for pregnant Omegas he means. Or potentially pregnant ones. I press my lips together, holding the cotton ball in place as instructed.
Avery waits by the wall near the door, present without hovering.
He’s been like that since I approached him three days ago, asking for this test. He didn’t ask for an explanation before making the appointment, but he didn’t need to.
There’s only one reason an Omega would ask for a blood test after a Heat cycle.
“There’s a waiting area through that door,” the doctor says, gesturing with his chin as he labels my blood sample. “Help yourself to the drinks and snacks.”
The doctor turns toward his portable equipment as I slide off the examination table, rolling down my sleeve.
No record of this exam will go into public records, where people with sneaky hacker skills can find them and alert Aaiden about the results.
The waiting area is another sectioned-off piece of the warehouse, furnished with two worn couches and a folding table holding a coffee maker and water bottles. I grab a water, twist off the cap, and drain half the bottle in one long swallow.
Avery settles onto one of the couches. “You want to talk about it?”
“Nope.” I pace the small space instead of sitting. “Nothing to talk about yet.”
“Fair enough.” Avery pulls out his phone to start scrolling, giving me space without leaving me alone.
My mind cycles through the possibilities again. If I’m pregnant, everything changes. My control over my own future slips away. I’d never keep Aaiden from his child. Never. But neither will I give up my baby. Which means going back on his terms, not mine.
The doctor moves around in the next room, glass clinking on metal as he works. Each sound winds me tighter.
My feet carry me to the far wall and back, a tight circuit that does nothing to burn off the restless energy building under my skin.
Words rise in my throat like bile, burning to be spoken after being locked inside for so long. “I’ve never told anyone about what happened after I went into Heat while in captivity. Not even my therapist.”
Avery sets his phone down and focuses on me.
“I was locked in with the other Omegas. When my Heat hit, the guards dragged me out by my arms, my heels scraping on the concrete. I remember the sound of a heavy door, then being shoved into a dim room thick with Alpha pheromones. When I came to days later, they hosed me off and threw me back in with the others.”
My fingers curl over my stomach without conscious thought. “I was coming out of the fever, still not fully lucid, when someone shoved a post-Heat pill down my throat and forced me to swallow.”
Avery doesn’t respond, his silence a confessional booth between us, neither absolving nor condemning.
“I spent weeks in that place afterward, terrified as I watched other Omegas go through the same thing.” I laugh, but there’s no humor in it.
“Every cramp. Every moment of nausea. I kept thinking, what if it didn’t work?
What if one of those Alphas left me with more than nightmares?
Or what if they didn’t, and I went into Heat again before someone found me? ”
I crush the empty water bottle in my fist. “When I escaped, Aaiden was waiting. Had his family doctor run every test imaginable before I’d even stopped shaking.”
“That tracks.” Avery’s voice remains neutral, with no judgment in either direction.
“Blood work. STD panels. Pregnancy test. Internal damage assessment.” My jaw tightens around the words. “All while I was still in shock. Still having nightmares every time I tried to sleep.”
I stop pacing to stare at the closed door separating us from the doctor and his tests. “He said it was to help me. But it was also his need to know everything.”
Avery folds his hands in his lap. “And now?”
“Now I’m back in the same position.” I shake my head, the irony not lost on me. “Only this time, the Alpha I’m worried about is him.”
“There’s a difference,” Avery points out. “This time, you chose him. You didn’t ask me to get you a post-Heat pill.”
The words hit harder than they should. Because he’s right. Whatever happens next, I can’t blame anyone but myself.
I twist the empty bottle in my hands, the plastic crackling. “No, I didn’t. But if I’m pregnant without his claim, it’s... complicated. During my Heat, I wanted him. God, I wanted him. But I also wanted his Mark.” My fingers drift to my bare neck. “He gave me one but not the other.”
“And if you’re not pregnant?” Avery asks.
I don’t answer. Can’t answer. Because I’m not sure what I want the test to show. A negative means freedom to choose my own path. A positive means the decision is made for me. And I’m not sure which scares me more.
I give up pacing to sink onto the couch opposite Avery, forearms braced on my knees. The waiting stretches out before us, two hours that crawl by inch by inch. Two hours until I know whether my body carries a piece of Aaiden that will bind us together more permanently than any Mark ever could.
Avery doesn’t try to fill the silence with pointless conversation or forced optimism. He just stays while I face the truth. Pregnant or not, I can’t run forever.
Something has to change. And it starts with this test.
“Negative.”
The word hangs in the air, simple and life-altering at once. I wait for relief to wash over me, for the uncertainty to lift from my shoulders. It doesn’t come, not the way I expected.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” The doctor slides a paper across the small table between us. “The hormone levels are definitive.”
It’s filled with numbers and medical terminology I don’t understand, but the conclusion is clear enough.
Not pregnant.
I stare at the paper, not really seeing it. My hand doesn’t shake when I lift it, and that steadiness surprises me. Shouldn’t I be trembling with relief? Shouldn’t I feel as if I’ve dodged some terrible fate?
Instead, I feel... nothing. Then, everything. Relief, yes, but also uncertainty.
“The full blood panel looks good, too.” The doctor gathers his equipment. “No lingering infections or health concerns from your Heat. You’re clear.”
Clear. As if anything about this situation is clear.
“Thanks.” I fold the paper, creasing it with my thumbnail before tucking it into my jacket pocket.
“Any questions before I go?” the doctor asks, professional to the end.
“No,” I murmur, and he leaves without further comment, the door clicking shut behind him.
The sound echoes in the small room, marking the moment my future splits cleanly in two directions.
Avery stands by the wall, watching me with concern. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” The response comes out of habit more than truth, and I correct myself. “No. I don’t know.”
He nods as if I’m making sense. “Not pregnant. That’s good news, right?”
“It should be.” I brace my hands on my thighs, grounding myself in the pressure and the texture of denim on my skin. “That’s what I wanted.”
“But?” Avery prompts when I don’t continue.
“But now I have to decide what happens next.” I look up at him, finding no judgment. “If I’d been pregnant, the choice would have been made for me. I’d go back to Aaiden. We’d figure it out because we’d have to.”
“And without that excuse?”
I stand, needing to move again, to work through this tangle of feelings with motion. “Without a baby in the picture, I have to choose. All of it. What I want. What I’m willing to give up to get it.”
Avery stays quiet, letting me pace the small room as my thoughts race.
“I could stay with your crew,” I say at last. “Keep doing jobs. Keep my anonymity. My freedom.”
“You could.” He crosses his arms, leaning back on the wall. “You’re good at it. Better than most.”
The compliment slides past without really registering. “Or I could go back to Rockford Manor.”
“Also an option.”
I stop pacing and turn to him. “If I go back, I’m choosing everything that comes with it. The loss of anonymity. The scrutiny. The end of this work.”
“Probably.” Avery doesn’t soften the truth. “Being the mate of Aaiden Rockford means visibility. You’d be recognized. Photographed. Your past would be investigated. You couldn’t operate in the shadows anymore.”
“I’d be giving up part of who I am.” The words sound bitter, but they’re honest. “The work. The independence. The control.”
“Yes.” Avery pushes off the wall and moves closer. “But you’d be gaining something, too.”
I think of Aaiden, of the life waiting for me if I choose to return. The security. The belonging. The way I felt during those three days was as if I were the center of his universe. As if nothing mattered but us.
“I’d have him.” I thread my fingers through my hair, only now noticing how it’s grown long enough to brush my collarbones. “But would it be enough?”
Avery doesn’t answer right away. When he does, his voice carries the weight of someone who’s made similar choices. “Only you can decide that.”
“What would you do?” I ask, not really expecting an answer.
“Not sure I’m the best person to ask for relationship advice.” Avery’s lips quirk into a smile. “I let my mate walk away. And when he came crawling back, expecting me to change my mind, I killed him to remove his Mark.”