Chapter 24
Grey
There was no way I was going to get through this without shifting.
These strangers are not going to touch our mate, the wolf growled as we entered the testing centre. They are not going to lay hands on her, hurt her.
He didn’t really understand what needles were, but we’d had them before and he remembered pain.
If we care about Nadia at all, we are going to allow this to happen, I pushed back.
If we don’t, she could get hurt during her first shift, or worse.
With a blink, I remembered some of what Ethan went through and then brought those memories to the surface.
The way a teenaged version of him writhed on the cool, grey floor of the lab. That cannot happen.
I could almost hear his huff inside my head. I’m not sure if that or the fact Nadia had given him a pat today made him more amendable, but we walked into the waiting room to be met by Riley and her team.
“Morning everyone. Today we’re going to send each one of you into separate rooms…”
Small growls filled the air, and while I expected my wolf to protest, a glance around the room made clear that Tex’s beast felt the same way.
As did Ethan’s.
He blinked and then straightened up as he crossed his arms. Fen Taylor stepped forward.
“I appreciate everyone must be feeling a little on edge.” His wry smile acknowledged that this was an understatement. “But we’ll be making this as quick and painless as possible.”
“The separation will be brief,” Riley continued.
“We just need to isolate everyone for the tests to reduce pheromone cross contamination. Nadia.” Her eyes met my mate’s.
“Now that you’ve discovered you’re an omega, you’ll find you’re a lot more sensitive to scents, particularly those of your mates. ”
She took a deep breath, then nodded.
“Already getting that.”
What was Nadia detecting? It was me that needed to know that, not the wolf. A boundless curiosity about my mate, what she was thinking, feeling, experiencing, was always present, but it just got worse with statements like that.
If you were bonded, you’d know, my wolf said. You’d know her mind, and she’d—
That can’t happen.
With a frown, I nodded when one of the Taylor alphas gestured for me to follow him. Haze produced a thin green cotton gown.
“Not much fun, wearing one of these and having your arse hanging out.” I took it without a word. “Worse when you know a cubicle over, your mate is doing the same.”
“If this is what’s needed, I’ll do it,” I replied, yanking my shirt up and over my head. “So, blood tests first?”
He nodded and, once I was dressed, led me up the hall to where a nurse waited.
“Just in here. Morning, Daisy.”
“Morning,” the woman said and smiled at me. “Take a seat and let me look at those veins.” I clenched my hand into a fist, knowing that would help with blood flow. “Oh, you should be really easy to get samples from.”
As the tourniquet was applied and the woman dropped a number of sample tubes into a tray, I looked up to see Haze regarding me steadily.
“I’ve seen Riley help enough latent omegas to know that Nadia will be fine,” he said, “but will you be OK?”
As I sucked in a breath, the needle was inserted. The bright pain was a pleasant distraction. The samples were taken, the tubes dropped into a petri dish, and then I was told to press a wad of cotton into the injection site.
“I’ll be whatever Nadia needs me to be,” I replied finally.
“Now, we need to do an ECG,” the nurse said. “Fit guy like you, there shouldn’t be any issues, but Riley likes to know what she’s dealing with.”
I could tell her. As soon as I lay back and the sensors were applied, my heart rate picked up.
It beat faster and faster, because I knew Nadia had to be going through the same thing.
How was she feeling in this cold, clinical space?
Omegas traditionally hated harsh lights and echoey rooms. I should’ve brought one of the soft throw blankets that had been draped over the back of the couch with me.
That way I could drape it over her shoulders as—
“Hey.” With a blink, I came back to the room and saw Haze was standing there.
A nod to the monitor made clear my heart rate was spiking.
The nurse had pulled back, her eyes wide, as black fur rippled across my forearms. I was this fucking close to shifting, and I didn’t even realise it. “You’re OK,” Haze said. “So is Nadia.”
Using the same tone he’d used when I was a kid had my face flushing.
“Have you got the scan done?” I asked the nurse. She nodded sharply. I yanked off the sensor pads, dropping them into the bin, then pulled the gown back up. “So what next?”
“Grey—”
“What next, Haze?”
He might’ve been a surrogate father figure, but I was a man grown now. As I stared him down, I made that clear to his wolf.
“OK, pull your clothes on. The next test is going to be right up your alley.” I did as I was told, then walked into a familiar room. Treadmills were set along one wall and Riley and her team were fitting the others with heart rate monitors. “You remember these, right?”
Hell yeah, I did. It’d been the Taylor pack that got me running, reasoning that if I could burn some of the energy my wolf used to try and grab for control somewhere else, I could settle down.
“This isn’t a race or anything, is it?” Ethan asked, shooting me a wary look. “Because while I do cardio, I’m nothing compared to Grey.”
“No one can beat Grey.” Tex looked me up and down. “Not unless he wants them to.”
“Not a race. We need to stress test your bodies, see what happens when the adrenaline gets pumping,” Riley explained.
“That’s usually during sex.” Candy walked in holding a steaming cup of coffee. “I tried to convince Riles that would be a more realistic form of stress testing, but apparently ‘watching patients have sex is unethical.’”
“I know which scenario I’d enjoy more.”
How the fuck did Tex do that? Smile down at Nadia and she looked up like a flower might the sun. Watching his hand slide down her spine to rub at the base, my fingers twitched.
I wanted to do that.
I wanted to soothe her, make her smile, then make her scent sweeten with desire. Instead, I climbed on the treadmill the moment the heart rate monitor was on and started running.
This won’t get us any closer to our mate. The wolf was a dark presence coiled inside our skull. She’s glanced over a few times, see how fast we can run, how strong our body is, but that’s not going to be enough.
Nothing would be enough, I’d decided.
Our pack mate can’t run as fast. His body is bigger, but not as strong, but it is him she smiles at. He seemed bemused by that. We are the ones that will give her strong pups.
My feet faltered. Going at the speed I was, that meant I was forced to grab the handrails, then recover before sprinting forward.
Strong pups?
I was born to two people who were eminently unsuited to have any children, let alone an alpha son.
There were addiction issues, domestic violence, and neglect.
When I’d pushed for it, Jess had done what was necessary to get me access to the case notes.
I barely remembered the people who made me, and yet they haunted me like ghosts.
A memory here, a smell, a sound, would have something rising inside me.
A dark presence that threatened to swallow me whole.
Which was where the wolf came from.
The psychologist I saw as a teenager theorised that my wolf had come forward far younger than normal to protect me.
From their abuse, their neglect, to ensure I survived.
But being able to take fur at an early age meant the maturity needed for control wasn’t there to keep him in check.
She assured me that if I was raised in a healthy, happy family, surrounded by my alpha and omega parents and in the company of brothers, I would’ve been quite a different person.
But that’s not what I saw.
The wolf filled my head with visions of what mating Nadia would be like.
The way her back arched as she struggled to take Tex’s knot the first time.
She’d do that for me and more. But thrusting hard, forcing myself deeper, would result in something else.
My seed splashing inside her and then taking root.
He growled in satisfaction at the idea of Nadia pregnant, but I didn’t.
A child born with a shock of dark hair and too pale eyes?
My feet stopped and the conveyer belt drew me backwards until the brake activated.
Wanting to protect your mate from your own son was not a feeling most alphas had experienced.
“Everything OK, Grey?” Haze asked. I simply nodded in reply. “Well, we’ve got a few more tests to do here, and then we’ll get each one of you to talk to the psychologist.”
No, I wanted to say, I didn’t want to do that.
Not the tests and definitely not talking to someone about my feelings.
The urge to run, really run out of this room, this whole clinic, was building more by the second.
Instead, I looked over and saw Nadia was panting hard.
A bottle of water was plucked from the cooler and I had the lid cracked before I reached her side, then I handed it over.
“Drink,” I commanded and she did just that. “Not too much at first, and keep walking around slowly. You don’t want to get a cramp.”
That had her looking up at me abruptly, then nodding as she began to pace in circles.
My hand was there, hovering around her back, ready to catch her if she felt lightheaded.
Her whole body jolted when the wolf forced my palm to come to rest on her lower back.
Brown bled to silver, just a little as she watched me silently, obviously wondering what the hell I was doing, but how could I answer her if I didn’t know myself?
“Alright, if I can get everyone to come into the next room…”
The request saved me from having to answer her unspoken question, but as we settled into a small group to listen to the next set of instructions, the sidelong looks she kept giving me made clear that there were many, many more questions she wanted answered.
And I had no idea what to say to her.