11. KATIE
Chapter eleven
KATIE
I can’t fall apart. Even though dread and fear and a manic kind of hysteria threaten to pull me apart stitch by stitch.
I walk numbly back to the sitting room. Aurelia still sips her tea and offers more of her brilliant smiles for each question. I sit stiffly between Layla and Molly Beth. Maddie has joined Norah to check for herself. I hear her swearing from here.
This can’t be happening. We can’t actually be in some kind of alien world.
“I understand that this is a difficult realization for you all. But I specialize in working with late blooming Omegas. We will get you through the initial perfume phase and the first heat. It can be hard on the body, and I suspect that some of you will have a harder time in the transition than others.” She pauses, her gaze darting between Layla and I.
I needed to do something. But I have absolutely no idea what to do. None of the scenarios I trained for included slipping through dimensions to alien worlds.
“Why would that be?” Layla asks with a hint of sarcasm.
“Most of our Omegas perfume as teens, some as late as twenty. Very few perfume for the first time after twenty-one.” She fidgets with a cuff. “It’s harder on your body to transition. Omegas are exceptional, as I’m sure Angela explained. You have a particular biology that’s meant for bonding with Alphas. But it takes… a lot out of an Omega.”
“So you’re saying our bodies are getting ready to become little baby-making easy-bake ovens that never get a break?” Mads asks as she stomps back into the room. She leans on the wall by the door while Norah comes to sit beside Layla. She curls her knees up to her chest and leans her head on Layla’s shoulder.
I can’t blame Maddie’s anger. Fury cuts through the numb blanket that has settled over me. I shake my head.
“What if we don’t want Packs and heats? We weren't consulted about all of this.”
“Biology does not consult any of us,” Aurelia says with a sigh. “Omegas are far more than breeders. Yes, they carry the strongest gene lines. But, Omegas are rare.” She pauses, considering. She swirls her tea then sets the cup down.
“I’m sure the Professor would be happy to give more of a history of the Pack system. However, we have other pressing concerns. Katherine and Layla,”
“Katie,” I cut in. I hate being called Katherine. It was reserved only for formalities and punishments.
Aurelia gives a light huff, then continues. “Layla and Katie , you both are showing hormone indicators that you’ll be going into heat soon. A first heat is especially challenging on the body. You should expect to feel quite emotional over the next several weeks, followed by growing arousal and, well, heat.”
“How soon is soon?” I ask.
“We believe in 2-3 months for you,” Aurelia looks at me, pulling out a slim tablet that looks like a thin piece of glass. She points at a chart full of strange squiggles and lines.
“And six to eight months for Layla. Your sisters look like it will be a year or more before they’ll start the full heat cycling. As long as nothing triggers them early.”
I wrap an arm around Molly Beth. What will this do to her? Can they possibly take care of her lungs? Her anemia? The last thing she needs is a new hormone cycle.
She trembles slightly, but grips her teacup tighter. “How are we supposed to manage all of this? Are there drugs for regulation?”
Aurelia purses her lips. “Yes, but…”
“I want it!” Mads and I say at once.
“Maddison may have some benefit from medical intervention, but Katie you are too far into your heat cycle. Any medication we give you could trigger the heat rather than suppress it.”
“This is such bullshit.” I flop back into the couch like a teenager. I do not want a Pack. I do not want a heat. I do not want any of this shit. I mash the heels of my palms into my eyes. If I can just think of a way out of this.
The lingering sensation of Inspector Murphy’s touch glows on my skin. I swear I can smell his cologne, that fresh scent of citrus and the woods after a rain.
He shouldn't have touched me at all! Fuck, he shouldn’t have jumped on me, or kissed me. But God damn it, what does it say about me that I liked it? That all of this talk about heat and arousal just reignites the phantom fingertips that wandered over my skin–was it just this morning?
Fuck.
Aurelia opens her mouth to speak when there’s a knock and the door slides open just enough to let in a slim figure. A maid scurries forward and whispers in Aurelia’s ear.
“Are there guards?” Aurelia asks and the maid nods.
What the fuck is going on? I look over to Maddie as she moves to stand beside Molly Beth. Layla relaxes back into the couch, but her eyes are wary. Norah’s gaze darts between the door and me.
Someone pauses at the threshold, and I see two guards hovering just outside the doorway.
Then the figure moves slowly into the room, bringing with him the fresh scent of clean laundry and old books. It curls around me like a hug, comforting and oddly familiar.
My core tenses, anticipation building.
Not now . I try to reason with this hunger that has a mind of its own. I do not want a repeat of what happened with him.
Inspector Murphy.
I refuse to let his name creep into my forethoughts. It’s a ridiculous hum in the background anyway.
“Ladies, this is Professor Loren Bellrose, from the Royal University.” Aurelia gives a soft smile.
Professor Bellrose pauses several paces back, giving us a half bow.
“Thank you, Aurelia. It is a pleasure to meet all of you.”
He is tall, taller than Cal– Inspector Murphy , with broad shoulders that taper into a trim waist. He looks like every character of a professor I’ve seen in movies: tweed coat, a red sweater with white collared shirt buttoned to the very top. His sandy-blond hair needs a trim and falls slightly into his eyes. Horn-rimmed glasses have slid halfway down his nose as he sweeps his gaze over my sisters, assessing.
Then his gaze meets mine. His eyes are blue, not bright like May days, but deep like January just before nightfall.
Another burst of his scent wafts over me, as though it were extensions of his fingers.
My skin feels too tight against my bones. I am a live wire, and if he gets too close I am going to spark. I clench my thighs shut.
One of his blond eyebrows raises at my unladylike squirming. Great, now this stupidly hot professor is going to think I’m some open-mouthed panting school girl. Not that I care.
Except, I realize, that I’m very close to actually panting. I swallow and close my eyes, trying to block him out. I stiffen my spine.
I was a soldier, damnit. I need to act like it.
Do all Omegas lose their minds around Alphas? I’m used to being around men in close quarters–all kinds of men. Hot men. Men I wanted to fuck. Men I did fuck. I never lost control, never let attraction make my decisions for me.
But this lust is like a magnet in my belly, pulling me toward these men.
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Miss Wilder, are you well?” Professor Bellrose takes a step toward me, his brows furrowed.
Shit . Did I miss something already? My thoughts spiral in a dozen different directions—hormones and heat cycles, Alphas and Omegas, twin moons and two suns, and a whole world that is nearly identical to our own and yet, so so very different.
Before I can stop my mouth I snap out, “I’m fine Professor, and it’s Captain Wilder.”
Layla groans beside me. But Professor Bellrose only blinks, a brief grin quirking the side of his mouth.
“Duly noted, Captain.” There’s no condescension there. That’s good. I don’t think I could handle it if the object of my traitorous body’s lust was being an actual dick.
“And please, call me Loren.”
Loren . He smiles and my heart thumps.
“Now, if I may, I’d like to discuss the legends of the Travelers so that we might see where you ladies fit.”
Get it together , Wilder.
I scold my body in my firmest commanding officer voice. Because if I am going to fall apart whenever a man enters the room, I am never going to get my sisters home.