Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Six days into Skye’s heat, I give in and call her doctor again. In all the years we’ve been together, she’s never had one drag on this long.
Poking my head into the nest, I find her sitting up and gazing around the room with bleary eyes. Crossing to her, I crouch down and place my palm against her forehead.
“No dice,” she whispers hoarsely, her eyes watery and her bond flooding with fear.
“Shhh.” I pull her into my arms, lifting her gently, and carry her from the nest. My earlier phone call gave me some insight into what the issue might be. A theory we are going to test right now.
“Where are we going?” she asks, shivering against me.
I pause in her room to grab a mostly scent-free blanket from her bed. She takes it, draping it over her nude form. “The sitting room.”
“But my nest…”
Tapping her head with mine, I brush my scent onto her skin. “Your nest is soaked in the scent of your heat and your Alphas’ rut.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
We reach the bottom of the stairs and head into the sitting room, where a fire is roaring. I pushed the furniture aside and laid out several thick blankets and cushions to help keep her warm.
Setting her into the center of the pile, I brush her hair away from her face, fingers lingering on her cheek.
“Normally, yes. Unfortunately, with bond sickness cases, they can have the opposite effect, extending an Omega’s heat.
Your body might be refusing to let your heat subside out of fear that your Alpha will leave you again. ”
“So moving down here will help? It won’t make it worse when I can’t smell Caleb?”
I sit beside her, slipping my sweater off so that she can press against my chest. “No, because you can feel him here.” I tap her chest over her heart, and trail my fingers up to his bond mark on her throat. “And here.”
Skye lets me feed her bites of a hearty stew Mama Aisha made last night, her appetite ravenous with how much energy she’s burned through.
We cuddle in front of the fire, longer than I thought we would make it before she spiked again. There must be merit to the doctor’s theory after all.
“Quentin,” Skye whines, her thighs pressing together and a hand clawing at her abdomen.
I prepared for this, making sure a box of her toys were within arms reach. Digging into them, I find a hook shaped toy in a soft pink, the inflatable knot at the curve perfect for easing her.
Shifting her to her back, I press the tip of the device to her lips. “Open.” They part and her tongue slides along it, wetting the silicone. “Good girl. Now spread your legs, let me see your pretty pussy so I can take your pain away.”
I kneel between her parted thighs and press the toy to her opening, inching it inside. The hook settles against her clit, vibrating intensely when I power it on.
“Oh Fates.” she cries out, hands scrambling in the blankets. I catch one, lacing her fingers with mine to ground her.
I alternate between teasing her clit and pumping the toy into her, letting her build up her release. When she’s mindlessly begging, her head thrashing against the blankets, I push it back in and inflate the knot, letting it and the vibrations sweep her over the edge.
“Quentin.”
My little Omega cries my name so prettily.
Laying beside her, I slip one arm beneath her head, enjoying the way she melts against me, her eyes already slipping closed. The toy stays lodged inside her, ready for another round if she wakes needy and wanting.
A few hours pass without her stirring. I sigh in relief when her temperature regulates, her skin cool beneath my palm.
Onyx stumbles into the room and peers down at us, searching our mate’s face. “It’s over,” I tell him. “We need to air out her nest before she goes back upstairs.”
His lips tilt down at the corners. He doesn’t question me, slipping from the room to take care of it. I’ll explain later. Preferably when the rest of our pack are available.
“My scent made her heat worse?”
Caleb is stricken, his fist clenched tight around his fork. Our pack finally gathered for a late breakfast two days after Skye’s heat broke, and I just finished explaining the doctor’s theory about why it was so extensive.
“This is a side effect of the bond sickness you both share. One we will address at your appointment this afternoon.” I keep my voice gentle, trying to help shake some of his guilt.
He stares down at his lap, fingers clenching and unclenching around his silverware until Onyx reaches over and takes it away from him.
“Caleb, it isn’t your fault,” Skye tries to explain.
I don’t think he can hear her. The thoughts in his head are too loud.
Shifting her plate from beside me, I nudge her with my arm, gesturing toward him. She takes the hint and walks around to plop herself on his lap, forcing him to meet her eye. “It. Isn’t. Your. Fault.”
“But my scent—“
Onyx grips the back of his neck firmly, cutting him off. “We won’t know anything for certain until we speak with the specialist. Stop borrowing trouble.”
Caleb’s breath rushes out of him, his head falling to rest against Skye’s neck. “I’ll try.”
Dealing with the whirlwind of his emotions is something he must face alone. All we can do is support him as he powers through it.
The rest of the morning passes slowly. I keep track of time, encouraging my packmates to rest and recover post-heat. We decided after breakfast that only Onyx, Caleb, Skye, and myself would make the journey to meet the specialist.
Sterling and Bellamy made plans to take Mama Aisha into town to get her hair done and restock her groceries now that the majority of the snowstorm has passed.
While they’re gone, Emmett will be video chatting with his family. He’s worried about his grandmother, who is still in a cast after breaking her leg.
Pulling the SUV from the garage, I turn on the seat warmers and keep it running outside of the front door. The air is frigid with another wave of snow predicted over the weekend, and I don’t want Skye to have to wait for the car to heat up.
“Are we ready?”
Onyx is sliding into a pair of thick-soled combat boots when I step into the house. He holds out Skye’s coat for me to take. “She went to grab Caleb.”
My Omega and her newest Alpha mate appear a moment later, hands entwined and their smiles weak. Helping Skye into her coat, I loop her arm through mine and guide her to the car.
Caleb follows, his hands tucked into his pockets and a thick beanie on his head. I stop him on his way into the backseat. “Whatever happens at this appointment, know that we all support you. You’re a member of the Crowley pack now.”
“Thanks, Quentin.”
The waiting room is empty when we arrive, so we’re called back quickly.
I can feel Skye’s nervousness more than I can smell it thanks to the scent blocker she put on before we left.
Part of me loathes not being able to sense her through her pheromones, but I recognize that it is necessary when we are in public.
Onyx would have lost his mind if he was stuck wrapped in the acrid scent of her stress for the hour and half drive here.
We sit in fairly comfortable chairs while Skye and Caleb are taken to have their vitals checked.
Worry pinches my brows when they take Skye’s weight, but she doesn’t look at the scale, nor does the nurse mention the number she reads on it.
I realize as she leaves the room, telling us the doctor will be with us momentarily, that many of the patients seen here must have similar struggles with their weight as my Omega does.
Is it terrible that I am relieved by this knowledge?
“Hello Pack Crowley. I am Doctor Koch, but please call me Alva.” A middle-aged Beta woman enters the room, her graying brown hair pulled into a tight bun on top of her head. She winks at Skye as she takes a seat on a wheeled stool. “I hear the two of you have been going through it.”
“Yeah, I suppose we have.”
Taking Skye’s hand in mine, I give it a squeeze. “Don’t downplay this, darling.”
“I agree. Being honest about how you’ve been feeling will help me help you. Can you tell me what’s been going on?” The doctor flips open a notepad and pulls a pen from her front pocket. She doesn’t rush Skye, waiting patiently for my mate to speak.
“I should start by telling you that our Fated connection is shared emotions.” Skye goes on to explain about her lack of emotional control, the mini heats, heat irregularity, and, most recently, her overtaxing super heat.
“She’s also struggled to gain weight,” Onyx cuts in when Skye tries to shift the doctor’s attention to Caleb. “It’s something she’s dealt with since she was a teenager, but it never regulated as she got older.”
Skye’s winces, but I don’t try to soothe her. She has to face this head on if she wants to get better. To have that chance at feeling normal that she is so desperate for.
Doctor Koch hums, adding it to her list. “Are you certain there’s nothing else? Little things you might not think are related?” When Skye shakes her head, the doctor’s attention shifts to Caleb. “Walk me through what you’ve experienced.”
Caleb scratches the layer of stubble on his jaw, his eyes lock on an informational poster across the room. “I guess I’ve felt the overwhelming emotion thing. And some depression. Lack of appetite. Nothing as strong as what Skye’s been dealing with.”
“Do you feel that helping Skye with her symptoms is more important than your own?”
“I mean, kinda? It’s my fault she’s been suffering all these years. Whatever I’ve been facing hasn’t done nearly as much harm to me as it has to her.”
“Caleb,” Skye whispers, tears welling in her eyes.
“Well, I have to admit, there is no precedent for your illness. None of my colleagues have ever encountered bond sickness that set in without a complete bond. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything we can do. Almost everything you’ve described today is something we see in our other cases.”
A breath saws out of me, relief easing the ache between my shoulders. Despite the correlations between the two, we were still concerned that the doctor wouldn’t have a plan to help Skye or Caleb move forward.
Onyx scoops Skye off her chair and into his lap, finally giving in to his need to hold her and soothe the worry in her bond.
“The first step, for both of you, is going to be therapy. Separately and together. Understanding your reactions and normalizing them will help build a foundation for healing.”
As soon as Doctor Koch suggests it, I feel silly for not considering it myself. Part of their struggle is directly related to their self-images, of course seeing a therapist could help with that.
“I would like to run blood tests. These will act as a baseline for how you are healing on a biological level. What we’ve seen with bond sickness cases is that the longer the pair is separated, the longer it takes for their bond to be satisfied after they’re reunited.
So, this will take time. For now, keep doing what you’ve already been trying.
Scent marking, physical touch, tending your bond. Those things will help.”
Turning to Onyx and me, she says, “My only concern right now is regarding Skye’s heat cycle. It is likely that catching her heat scent will send Caleb into a rut. Every time.”
“Which will lead to heats like the one she recently experienced or extended mini-heats,” I confirm, dropping my hands to my knees to prevent myself from stealing Skye from Onyx’s arms.
“Yes. So, Mr. Michaels, I would like to go on a prolonged rut blocker. We’ll use your blood work to monitor how your body reacts to taking them on a regular basis, but you shouldn’t have any adverse effects.”
Caleb nods. I’m fairly certain he would agree to anything if it meant making Skye safer and healthier. Regardless of how he views himself, he’s an excellent Alpha mate to her.
“Do any of you have any other questions or concerns?” When we say we don’t, she leaves us, sending in a nurse to do a blood draw on both Skye and Caleb.
The air has somehow gotten chillier, so I rush ahead of the others to start the SUV and get it heating, wanting Skye to stay toasty and relaxed after a stressful week.
My phone pings when I unmute the volume, another email from the label waiting in my inbox. I haven’t told Skye about the repercussions of her going into heat on stage. To say the executives were not happy would be an understatement.
Not that they’re upset she went into heat, accidents are bound to happen. No, they’re furious that she continued to perform instead of ending the concert early.
“Q?”
Locking my screen, I drop my phone into the cup holder and face Skye. “Sorry, darling, I did not hear what you asked me.”
“Can we stop at a store on the way home? Keeping journals of what helps and what doesn’t might make it easier.” She darts her eyes between mine, searching for some hint of what I’m thinking.
Work issues are mine to deal with, that is my job as her manager. I will involve her only when it is necessary. Why worry her further when she has enough on her plate?
“That’s a splendid idea. Sterling and Bellamy planned to grab groceries, but there is a certain Alpha who needs his bedroom redecorated. Perhaps you’d like to help him with that?”
Her smile is glorious, excitement flowing through our bond as she bobs her head. “What do you think, babe?”
“Sure, bunny. As long as you keep smiling like this,” he says, thumb brushing along her jaw.
“Let’s grab dinner,” Onyx adds. He’s in the back with Skye, having given up on riding in the front with me. “Is anyone hungry for anything specific?”
Caleb and I both shake our heads, but Skye bites her bottom lip, her head tilted in thought. “Soup? There has to be somewhere that specializes in it, right?”
I guide us out of the parking lot and back into traffic while they search up restaurants closer to home where my Omega can find soup.
Snow starts to fall as we’re driving into Starburgh. The pretty flakes stick to the windshield and coat the road in small patches. It doesn’t pose a danger to us or worsen the road conditions yet, but I glance at Onyx in the rearview mirror and silently request he keep an eye on it.
Better that we leave early than risk being in an accident if it gets bad out.