Chapter 29
Luna:
Proof of life check!
Allie?
Girl, it’s been 6 hours you’d better be fucked into a stupor and not dead
Alliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie
MA’AM
ANSWER ME
If I don’t hear from you soon I’m going to show up at his place with a shovel
Allie:
I’M SORRY
I’M ALIVE
Luna:
About fucking TIME
I HAVE BEEN PACING
Allie:
I’m sorryyyyyyyyyyy
In my defense I WAS fucked into a stupor
And my phone died
But I have a charger now
Luna:
OMG YAY!
Mission was a success!!
Date went well then?
Allie:
Still on it
Luna:
:O
Okay I’ll leave you to it!
Iassuaged Luna’s worries while Sidney made me breakfast, my phone plugged into the wall to get enough juice to get me through the day.
Once I was fueled up on the bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast with jam, we headed over to the omega clinic. We were ushered straight in when we arrived, and only sat a minute in the exam room before the doctor joined us.
Dr. James froze, looking back and forth between the two of us. “You have bondbites?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“You didn’t know?” Dr. James pulled out a hand mirror from one of the drawers and passed it to me. “You’ve both got a bondbite on your throat.”
I snatched the mirror out of her hands and stared, aghast, at my neck. “We can’t be bonded. This is our first date!”
“Okay, one moment. I’ll run a quick test to see if the bond has taken.” She bustled around, taking a few quick samples and disappearing to process them. When she returned, her expression was tight. “I wish I could change my answer, but the bond is fresh and solid. You’ve got the marks and unless you got them from other people…”
“Oh god. My mom is going to lose it.” I dropped the mirror into my lap and buried my face in my hands. I couldn’t be bonded. That was bigger than a wedding. Sure, I had been fantasizing about Sidney for the last few years, but that didn’t mean I was ready for him to be my mate. “Can we undo it? It’s recent; does that help?”
Sidney watched me panic and turned to the doctor. “I know the answer, but I’m asking anyway. It’s permanent, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so.” Dr. James sat down across from us and opened up her laptop. “I’m sorry to rush you after that realization, but we should figure out what the situation is.”
“It’s weird is what it is,” I snapped, my panic getting the better of me.
“I’ve input everything that Sidney already told me.” She looked over to me. “It definitely smells like you’re near a heat, which, by our records, shouldn’t be happening for at least six more months.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.” I groaned. “Stupid body.”
“It’s out of the ordinary, for sure. I did some research last night so that I could be prepared for you this morning. I’m going to venture a guess and say that the two of you are ideal mates. It would explain the prolonged focus after your initial connection and your rut symptoms, Sidney.”
I listened as well as I was able, but the doctor’s words were fading into the background.
“What does that mean for us?” Sidney asked.
“There’s not a lot of research available, so I can’t be certain. There’s nothing dangerous about it so far as we know, but we can do some blood work. I’ll make sure both of your birth control doses are updated, assuming the two of you aren’t interested in having children at the moment.”
“God, no. No babies right now. I just got settled in my career, and, no offense, but I don’t know Sidney well enough to be procreating with him.” There was no way in hell I was going to be a mother anytime soon. Years from now? Sure. But super duper not now.
Sidney took my hand, and while his touch was a comfort, the hurt in his eyes made me feel guilty for my outburst.
Dr. James looked at Sidney, and he nodded. At least he wasn’t going to argue against my statement, regardless of how he felt about it. Dr. James pulled out a pair of syringes and a set of vials. “Okay, let me take the larger blood samples, we’ll get you a fresh dose of birth control to offset any heat concerns, and we can go from there. According to what I’ve read, the hormonal surge should last a day or two, but I’ll send what information I have to your emails. Otherwise, you’re free to go about your lives once your hormones settle.”
Dr. James finished our appointment with ease and efficiency. We didn’t have all the information to explain what had happened, but at least we knew it wasn’t dangerous.
I stewed the entire trip back to Sidney’s place, trying to figure out how to tell my mom and my friends that I’d gotten myself accidentally bonded.
“You okay?” Sidney asked.
The question broke open my internal dam and my chest tightened, throat thickening. “Just thinking. Is that why it was weird all these years?”
“It would make sense, yeah. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t really know.” I sniffled, sliding out of the vehicle as he parked so I could get some air.
He drew me into a hug, and I leaned into his embrace. “Want to go inside and hold some puppies while you figure it out?”
I nodded, and Sidney moved us inside, sat me on the couch, and returned a moment later with Kassia. I stared into her sweet blue eyes and stroked her fur to soothe myself while Sidney put on the kettle for tea and draped a blanket over my shoulders. Too many thoughts tumbled around in my head for me to grab any particular one to dissect, so I focused on the wriggling floof in my lap instead.
When the chamomile tea was ready to drink, he quietly approached me and traded me the cup for the puppy.
“How’re you doing?”
“If I hadn’t found you again, would everything have felt wrong forever?” Would I have gone through the rest of my life feeling like something was missing?
“I don’t know,” Sidney said softly. “Maybe?”
“What if…?” I trailed off, not finishing the sentence, but my brain lined them up neatly: What if we didn’t like one another beyond these circumstances? What if we got together and broke up and then no one ever made me feel like he did? What if all the things I was feeling were only because we were ideal mates?
“This would have been better if we weren’t anything special,” I said instead. “This is too much pressure.”
Sidney sighed and sat next to me, settling Kassia in his lap. “I can’t argue with that.”
“I never liked how it felt weird with other people,” I told him. “There was nothing wrong with any of them, but…”
“Yeah, I get it.” He fussed with Kassia’s ears and watched me sip my tea out of the corner of his eye. “We don’t have to be together. There’s no pressure from me for that.”
“Don’t we?” I stared at him for so long that he got squirmy.
“I don’t know what to say. I like you, a lot. Whether that’s from a weird mates thing or not doesn’t change that.”
I nodded slowly. “I like you a lot too. I just don’t know if I can trust myself, you know? Do I like you because you’re amazing, or is it because the omega hormones won’t let me consider otherwise?”
“I don’t know. I am pretty amazing.”
That sent a helpless giggle tumbling from my lips.
Sidney wrapped an arm over my shoulders. “I think I’d like you regardless.”
“It’s hard to argue against that when you made me cake and let me cuddle puppies.” I let out a deep sigh and sank against him.
“We could try being together. This was only our first date, and, while things got a little weird, I had the best time I’ve had in a long while.”
“Me too.”
“So, want to do that, then?”
“I’m open to it.” I set down my empty cup and reached over to give Kassia a pat. “We still get to move at regular speed, right? Bonded and ideal mates doesn’t change anything else?”
“We get to move at whatever speed we’re comfortable with.”
I angled up to kiss him on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re as sweet as I remember. It would suck to be bonded to an asshole.”
A chorus of arooos echoed out of the nursery.
“I think they might be hungry,” Sidney said. “Want to supervise while I get them some brunch?”
“Absolutely I do.” I took Kassia from him, and we went about the puppy chores.
Being surrounded by them brightened my mood, but Sidney still watched me like he was worried I’d burst into tears at any moment.
I covered a yawn with her hand. “I might need a nap.”
“Want company?”
“Only if said company is going to cuddle.” I winked at him and set Kassia in with her littermates.
“Go get settled, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
I slipped into the bedroom and changed into pajamas simply because I could, then curled up in his blankets.
“Going for the full nap experience, I see,” Sidney said with a laugh.
“It’s Sunday. I’m allowed to chill to maximum levels before I go back to work tomorrow.”
He stripped down to his underwear and climbed in next to me, tugging me close. I caught his hand, laced our fingers together, and fell asleep almost immediately.