Chapter 9
Nine
Vivian
I ’m following the SUV in front of me as we drive to Weeping Willow Institute. While the doctors there do have some actual patients that are ill, many of them are people who snub their nose at their families and society.
It’s a hospital to reprogram wayward family members, mostly omegas.
Truth be told, my daughter took so long to come into her designation, I didn’t think she’d be anything but a beta.
Then, when she did begin showing signs that she was an omega, I pushed forward my plans to get her institutionalized.
She’s too valuable as an omega to allow her to do whatever she wants with her life.
I would much rather stick her in this place that promises a money back guarantee and the promise that she’ll walk out the perfect daughter.
It’s all I’ve ever wanted her to be, and while I was married to Cooper, he’d railroad my every intention by insisting that she deserved some kindness.
While he may be a father to a son, he has no idea what it’s like to parent a daughter who is as headstrong as Nina is. I know what my daughter needs, and it certainly wasn’t hopping on her stepfather’s dick.
“Agh!” I yell as I drive.
I know he tried to be a decent husband to me while we were married, but there were so many things he wanted his way. As soon as I could throw him over and divorce him for someone who’d allow me to do whatever I wanted, I did.
Nina isn’t quite as valuable to me now, but it’s possible that no longer being a virgin will make her popular with some of the older male packs. It could be worth looking into.
My mind wanders to how frustrated I am that my daughter ran from me, and I decide I’m going to sign the papers to commit her immediately.
I had planned to coo over her, brag some more about how clueless she is about the world, but I’m getting too angry.
I want to be perceived as the doting, worried mother who only wants the best for her daughter, and not a controlling psychopath.
I’ll leave her here as long as it takes.
Weeping Willow Institute and other hospitals of its kind are talked about in whispers among the rich at brunches and parties.
My friends were the ones who put the idea into my head, and when she became even more unruly, I decided to book her into the Thresher Institute in Georgia.
Unfortunately for her, the Thresher Institute is going to look like a spa day compared to this one.
The brochure stated they take a very hard stand on unschooling those who do not follow their designations.
Omegas are meant to be sweet and generous, always ensuring they follow the rules provided by their elders.
I even heard they partner with an organization called ROWS, and that they use their content to reprogram omegas. I can’t wait to come back to a new and improved daughter.
Parking the vehicle, I sigh as I check my makeup. There are orderlies in front of the side entrance with a stretcher, and I can see from here that my daughter is not making things easy for them. She’s writhing and flailing around, and as I open the doors, I can hear her screaming.
Not very demure at all. She has a long way to go, and I wish they’d given her something stronger for her sedative. Nina shouldn’t be awake so soon.
Steeling my spine, I get out of the car and gently shut the door behind me. I would like to scream about how life isn’t fair like a toddler, but am I? Absolutely not.
Locking the door with my key fob, I walk calmly over to where Dr. Kind and Dr. Brunes are gazing stoically at my misbehaving child.
“I was heading to the office, when I heard the commotion,” I explain, brow raised.
“Please, I need them!” Nina screams.
Is she talking about her step-father? It didn’t escape my notice that Ethan was exceptionally cold with me when I saw him, and he didn’t enjoy seeing Nina being manhandled.
What the fuck has been going on since she’s been gone?
“I suspect that she’s going into heat,” Dr. Brunes murmurs. “Her skin is warm to the touch, and the air smells like honeysuckle.”
My nose wrinkles because there’s only one reason why that would be. It’s indelicate to be speaking about this, but I’ll allow it because he’s a doctor.
“That was fast. She was completely fine at the house,” I say. My forehead would wrinkle in confusion, but I recently had shots to keep that from happening. I’m quite aware of my age, and I don’t want my current husband to divorce me for appearing to age.
I refuse to start over when he’s so rich and he allows me to do whatever I want.
“It’s possible she got overwrought and it triggered her heat,” Dr. Kind murmurs. “Do you know if she’s gone through her first yet? She is eighteen.”
“To my knowledge, she hasn’t. However, I don’t know what’s been happening in the months that she wasn’t with me,” I sniff. “What is the protocol for this?”
“She’s calling out for someone, possibly a few others,” Dr. Kind muses. “If she’s met her scent matches or she’s bonded, the only way for her to get through this is to medically sedate her until it passes.”
“Will it be a heavier dose than what you gave her earlier?” I ask, struggling to keep my tone from being too scathing. This really is their fault.
“Yes, it will be,” Dr. Kind says with a nod.
A strong push from one of the orderlies makes me wince as the wind is knocked out of Nina. Oh well, she really brought this on herself. Hopefully, the only scars at the end of this will be on the inside.
“Oh, one more thing,” I say softly as I watch them tie my daughter down to the stretcher and take her away.
“I want the pink strips in her hair cut off. I don’t care if it’s done easily.
If she complains, shave her damn head. She’s always been much too vain.
This will teach her the humility necessary to be an omega. ”
The last bit is a lie. My daughter has never truly cared about her appearance. She was always happier as a child climbing trees and looking like a vagrant. I can’t stand her hair, though.
“Yes, of course,” Dr. Brunes says. He’s the other psychiatrist working here, and the one who cultivated this idea to reprogram omegas. He’s been having good progress with other omegas.
We’ll see what he can do with Nina.
“I’m off to fill that paperwork out now, and then I’ll be returning to Georgia immediately,” I say. “Please keep me up to date about her welfare.”
“Of course,” Dr. Brunes says with a nod. “It’s best that you don’t stay in town for this. I believe Nina will have a very hard road ahead of her. She should never have left home the way she did. The world is full of deceit. We’ll make sure she doesn’t remember her scent matches as well.”
“Scent matches,” I breathe, wide eyed. “Oh that won’t do at all. How am I supposed to get a reputable pack to look at her if she’s scent matched? I need her thoroughly checked for any bites as well please. ”
“We can make it so that she forgets those people,” Dr. Brunes says confidently. “As long as she never sees them again, the treatment will have no chance of breaking.”
Dr. Kind nods as he sees my face. I can’t say that Cooper and Ethan will never see her again. The world is a very small place, I’m discovering. She didn’t know they were at this school, yet ran into each other anyway.
“Honestly, we may be able to get it to stick even if she does see them,” the doctor says. “It does mean that she may need to stay with us longer.”
“Is a year long enough?” I ask. “I want to begin putting out the word that my daughter can be courted, but that she is in Paris for the year painting and visiting relatives.”
We really do have relatives in Paris, as I have an ailing great aunt there. No one needs to know I’m telling a white lie.
“Yes, that should be more than enough time,” Dr. Kind says, but I’m already walking away.
I’m not made for the cold, and the Minnesota wind is impossible. It insists on blowing up my coat and chilling me to the bone. No, I’m going back to Georgia immediately.
Nina, you brought this on yourself.
Nina
I’m so hot. My head whips wildly from side to side as I try to get away. All I can think about is knots and the warmth of Ethan and Cooper’s bodies.
Why aren’t they here? Why didn’t they fight for me?!
Screaming as a clenching pain in my lower belly tears through my body, I continue to writhe.
“Please. Please!” I beg, crying. “I need them!”
“Why do you need them?” a voice asks.
My eyelashes are sticking together from the salt in my tears and I can’t fix it with my arms tied down, which means I’m partially blind.
“It hurts,” I groan. “I need them to fix me.”
I’m not so far gone yet that I want to tell a complete stranger about the knots I need to fill me. I hate that I didn’t make the time to learn about what happens during a heat or how alphas are meant to take care of an omega.
I bet Cooper would be amazing at it…
“Cooper, who is that?” the voice asks.
Fuck a duck. I don’t want to tell them anything, so I press my lips together. Pain has a way of making me say too much, I guess. No more, I won’t…
“It appears as if you’re having your heat, Nina,” another voice cuts in. “Have you ever had one before?”
“No,” I wheeze. “It hurts.”
“It only does if you don’t have a pack,” the man says.
Yes, well no shit, Sherlock.
I won’t know if Ethan or Cooper would have wanted to be my alphas. They called me theirs and I thought they were mine. We didn’t have enough time to discuss anything. We needed more time.
“No pack,” I whine.
I don’t know what I mean by this as I start to tremble and cry. My entire body burns, my pussy begs for a knot. I’m a mess of slick and pain.
“We’ll help you make it through,” one of the men says, wheeling into a room. It feels cooler, which means it may as well be freezing next to my overheated skin. “Now be a good girl and don’t move.”
Everyone wants me to be ‘good’. What if I don’t want to be? I want to be bad, terrible even, if it means I get to live my life on my terms. What I wouldn’t give to erase the last twenty-four hours of my life.
Maybe I wouldn’t be having a heat at all if I hadn’t reconnected with Cooper and Ethan. Maybe I wouldn’t be in this position and Mom wouldn’t have found me.
I’m wallowing because I’m in pain and I hate everything. Especially my mother. I really want her to rot in hell.
A prick in my arm makes me flinch, and my eyes are carefully washed with a wet cloth. I’m surrounded by two men in white coats and orderlies. The walls are a blinding white as well, and it’s as if the color has all been washed away.
Is that what I have to look forward to?
Whatever is in the bag hanging over my head dripping into my vein burns, but my body is relaxing at an alarming rate. A part of me wants to hang on, but the medication is ripping through my system and making my eyes closed.
I should have known better than to run. My mom always gets her way.