Chapter 3
“But do you mind if I add a little to it?”
Her voice is like honey. It is syrupy sweet and thick, making me feel like I’m a fly about to be trapped.
Her black hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, and she has thick makeup that most people would think is her natural face. I know better. I can spot stage makeup, and for some reason, she’s covered in it.
She’s got soft curves, with creamy skin and dark eyes. Her jeans hug her thighs but widen at her knees, brushing the ground and barely giving me a glimpse of her black canvas sneakers.
She’s wearing a white coat over a form-fitting forest green shirt and has a stethoscope around her neck like an accessory.
When Jude doesn’t move to stop her, she steps closer to us. I shrink back reflexively, even though she’s nowhere near me.
“I’m Dr. Alex Shields. You’re welcome to call me Dr. Alex.
I understand that my employment here may come as a surprise, and I can see that it will be a challenging adjustment for you all, given the designation dynamics that will be nearly impossible to avoid.
I would appreciate it if you would do your best to think of me as a doctor, not as an Omega.
Please trust that I want to be here. I want to help you all and am happy to do it.
I will be implementing regular clinic hours, so you won’t need an appointment to see me. Just show up, and we’ll see what’s up!”
She chuckles softly to herself, and a couple of the crew members release amused puffs of air. Everyone here is at risk of falling for the Omega’s charms. It’s in their DNA to want to please her, to want to win her over. But I’ll be damned if become one of them.
“Additionally, I’ll ensure everyone has my phone number to text for emergencies.
As with my predecessor, the clinic is located in my trailer, which requires me to establish a rule that no one is allowed past the seating area.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to allow anyone to use the bathroom or stretch out and rest on my bed. ”
For the first time, she looks a little nervous. She tries to push her hair behind her ear, like she’s forgotten she has bangs, before taking a deep breath and continuing in a rush.
“An Omega needs a nest, and since part of my trailer is the clinic, I do not have room for a dedicated nesting space. Because of this, I have had to set up my nest in my bedroom, which I have expanded into the bathroom to make a small suite. It’s not ideal, but I knew what I was getting into when I accepted this position.
An unknown and uninvited person in my nest is detrimental to my physical and emotional well-being, so I must impress upon you all the importance of no one, not even Betas, leaving the clinic area of my trailer. ”
This shit right here is one of many reasons we shouldn’t have an Omega as part of our group. Forgetting my personal issues with them, she’s going to have all of us walking around on eggshells the entire time she’s here.
“That feels reasonable,” Quinton says, his strange gray eyes locked on her. “None of the rest of us have everyone barging into our space.”
Her smile is saccharine sweet when she nods at Quinton.
“Thank you, I appreciate your understanding. I am very excited to work with you all. If you have any regular medication I need to be aware of to write prescriptions for, please come see me. Dr. Tran left your files, but I prefer to hear it direct from the horse’s mouth, as it were.
” She nods at Jude, whose jaw is set so tightly that he looks like he’s going to crack a tooth, and then turns to leave.
Before she ducks out of the flap, she comes up short and spins around.
“Oh. And please do not touch me to get my attention. Do not try to sneak up on me. I prefer not to be touched at all unless I initiate it, if it can be avoided.”
And then she leaves, leaving all of us in a stunned silence.
“Doesn’t want to be touched?” my brother, Dario, says under his breath. “That sucks, because there are so many parts of her I would love to…”
“You’re not going to go near her,” I snap. “We don’t get involved with Omegas.”
He huffs and rolls his eyes at me. “You don’t. But I can. Not all Omegas are like Dad, Dex.”
“It’s not worth the risk. It’s never worth the risk.”
Our Omega father killed our mother in front of us while in an Omega Storm when we were seven years old.
That kind of trauma stays with you. I’ve not been able to be alone with an Omega without the memories plaguing me since. We were shipped off to live with some extended Beta family members, and once we turned eighteen, we joined up with Cirque de Mordu. That was ten years ago .
Cirque de Mordu isn’t just our job. It’s the only family we’ve got.
It was my safe place.
And now there is an Omega here.
“What happens when she goes into heat, huh?” I ask Dario. “It’s going to be a fucking feeding frenzy.”
He wrinkles his nose. “I’m sure she has plans in place for that. She’s gotta be on suppressants, because I saw her outside and couldn’t get her scent.”
“You knew before now and didn’t tell me.” My chest aches with betrayal. “You let this blindside me.”
The tent has cleared out except for Quinton and Matteo, who aren’t paying us any attention as they crouch over the latter’s notebook. Still, Dario lowers his voice.
“I did not blindside you. I knew ten minutes before you did, and didn’t see the benefit of telling you early.
Your personal hangups around Omegas have nothing to do with Jude hiring one as our doctor, okay?
” He grabs my face in his hands, pressing our foreheads together.
“Just because she is an Omega, doesn’t mean you’re unsafe.
You never even had to see Dr. Tran once, but if you need to go, you know I’ll be right by your side.
Now breathe with me, you’re getting panicked. ”
Of course, my brother knows my body better than I do. I didn’t even realize I was starting to lose control.
At Dario’s encouragement, I follow my breathing techniques that were taught to me in trauma therapy, and center myself. I can feel the tension drip from my body as I breathe in tandem with my brother.
I’m man enough to admit that I’m a little scared. That having an Omega here has the potential to send me spiraling into a black hole of horrible memories. I’ll just have to avoid her as much as possible, and have Dario by my side when I can’t.
It’s four in the morning, three hours after the curtain closed, and that was our last show at this location.
While it’s not my job, I like to help the crew pack everything up so we can get moving.
I’m always revved up after a show, with my adrenaline still riding me hard. This helps calm that down a bit.
This is the least glamorous part of things, when our trailers are hooked up for relocation, the stands and tent have to be packed up, and we have to leave the spot better than we found it. It’s why we typically do longer engagements than this one.
If it were always three nights, we’d burn out from the constant relocation, but this location couldn’t hold us for longer, and we sold out last time we ran through here, so it seemed like a good stop to make.
It was. Our stands were packed, our crowd was incredible, and Jude went on a radio show that covers a broad range, so it should help us at other stops down the line.
The dew on the grass wets the bottom of my sweats and sneakers, but doesn’t bother me. I’m searching for where I’m needed when the trailer beside me opens and Dr. Shields comes tumbling out.
At this early hour, her hair is wavy and loose, looking unstyled and clearly slept on. She’s in her pajamas too, a pair of plaid shorts and a baggy back shirt that brushes the bottom of her curvy ass.
Fuck, she shouldn’t be here. She’s too fucking pretty. Too delicate.
Too dangerous .
If she weren’t an Omega, I think I’d be a goner. Those dark eyes would trap me in their depths.
It’s not like I spend much time around women. Dario will bring some back to his trailer every few stops, but that isn’t my cup of tea. It takes a while for me to warm up to people, and I don’t have the time for that when we move on so quickly.
I don’t think I’m missing out on much, but I worry that will change if I allow myself to think about the doctor that way.
Dr. Shields doesn’t even notice me, taking off at a run. I’m nosy as hell, so I follow behind her, curious about what has her moving so quickly in the early morning hours. She doesn’t seem to realize she has a shadow.
I see where she’s going at the same time she does. A cluster of people surrounds someone lying supine on the grass.
“Out of the way!” she says, shoving through the crowd smoothly. They part for her seamlessly. I push through after her, the crew not so welcoming at my intrusion, hoping I can get a good look at what is happening.
One of our stagehands, Edmund, is on the ground, a massive gash gushing blood on his forehead.
Oh shit.
“Has anyone called Jude?” I ask loudly. No one answers, so it looks like it’s up to me.
He picks up on the second ring. I know he’s not sleeping at this hour. He’ll crash in the trailer once we’re on the road.
“What’s up, Dex?”
I step out of the circle. “Edmund’s hurt. Massive head wound. Lots of blood.”
“Fuck! Why did no one call me? Did you call the doc? ”
“Not me, but someone did. She’s here. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Yeah, I do. Thanks for the heads up. I’m on my way.”
I elbow my way back to the front of the circle, where Dr. Shields sits in the wet grass with Edmund’s head on her lap.
“Hey, Edmund,” she says softly, gently. It’s nearly a purr, and I can see the tension seeping out of him like the blood does from his forehead.
“You need a couple of stitches. We have two choices. I can do them right here, right now in the field, or we can get you back to my trailer to do them.”
“What do you suggest?” he says, voice tight with pain.
She wipes the blood from his head with a piece of gauze, humming softly. “I can do neater, prettier stitches in my trailer. It’ll minimize the likelihood of scarring.”
“Why wouldn’t we do that, then?”
She shrugs, eyes twinkling with laughter. “Some people find scars cool, and you won’t get to lie in my lap in the trailer.”
Edmund huffs out a laugh, and I have to hold my own back. She said she didn’t want to be touched, but she’s got him on her lap and her hands on his face. She seems fine to me. I wonder why she has that rule in place, because she looks perfectly happy to have him resting on her.
“It’s a very comfortable lap, I know,” the doctor continues. “But I think your face is too pretty to have a big ol scar on it. Do you think you can stand?”
He nods, and several of the other stagehands help him stand up, wrapping their arms around him and carting him off towards the doctor’s trailer. She clambers to her feet, no one offering to help her up, and follows behind, barefoot and in wet shorts.
I don’t know why, but I follow her again, like a fucking creep. Jude intercepts her on the way .
“What happened?” he barks. She flinches almost imperceptibly at his tone. I sock that information away for later, because that was definitely a conditioned response.
If he was using the full force of his Alpha bark, I worry she would’ve hit the ground.
“According to witnesses, Edmund was smacked in the head with a support beam. He’s got a nasty cut, and it knocked him on his ass, but overall, it could be much worse.
I’ll want to have him monitored for a concussion, but that’s just me being ultra conservative because I currently see no signs of one. ”
“Who called you?” Jude asks her. Again, his tone is harsh. He’s the one who hired her, and yet he’s pissed at her for doing her job?
She doesn’t seem to notice his tone, and if she does, she writes it off.
“One of the stagehands. Several of them came to see me yesterday to update me on their care plans and got my number.” The door to her trailer is wide open, and I can hear Edmund moaning a bit in pain.
“What are your rules on narcotics and pain medication?” she asks Jude.
“It wasn’t in my contract, and you don’t have an HR team to do orientation, so… ”
“You have narcotics with you?” he hisses. “Are you malicious or just fucking stupid? Do you know how many people here struggle with addiction?”
I feel like I’m watching a soap opera. I lean against the trailer beside Dr. Shields’s, just listening to her back and forth with Jude.
She takes his attitude and throws it back in his face.
“Do you think I was able to leave my job at the hospital with a fucking case of oxy? That I just snagged armfuls of drugs as I ran for my li-” She takes a deep breath.
“I meant to prescribe. But no narcotics on the property is a fine rule to have, and it makes my life easier. Having to worry I’ll get robbed isn’t high on my list of things I want to concern myself with. ”
Was she about to say she ran for her life?
That can’t be right.
But I can’t find another word that would fit in that sentence. It must be Omega dramatics.
Even though Dr. Shields seems like a perfectly competent addition to our team, I don’t want her here. Omegas are challenging to deal with on a typical day, and when their hormones get out of whack, they’re even worse.
She may seem just fine now, but if her suppressants fail, she could end up just like my dad.
Starting now, I’m staying far, far away from her.