Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
August
We were sitting side by side in the clinic lobby. Soft, ambient music was playing, and the air had that strange emptiness of filtered spaces.
Poor Dhara was so damn nervous that she was practically crushing my fingers where they were wrapped around hers. I didn’t flinch or pull away. If she needed me to keep herself strong, then I would give her all of me.
“It’s going to be fine, firecracker,” I said. “No matter what they say in there, it will not change how we feel about you. Nothing will ever change that.”
She nodded, unable to form the words to respond. We had to practically walk her through checking in. Even her brown sugar, cinnamon, and warm spice scent was charred around the edges.
“Dhara Livingston?” a nurse called as she stepped out of the back room.
Her smile was bright and open, and Dhara stood, pulling me with her. Lachlan and Conrad were right there with us.
She looked at Dhara. “Are you okay having them back there with you?”
“They’re my emotional support pack,” Dhara said, making the nurse crack up.
“Well then, by all means, come on, guys.”
She turned and led us back to a room.
“We’re going to have to change the group chat to Dhara’s Emotional Support Pack now,” Conrad teased.
“You guys have a group chat about me?” she questioned.
“Of course, we do, firecracker. We had to plan how to woo you.”
She rolled her eyes, but there was a small smile on her lips that I loved. She’d been doing that a lot more lately. I don’t know if she’d noticed, but I certainly had.
A few days ago, she’d mentioned to Lachlan how scared she was to come here. So, the next morning, he’d had us pull out our schedules, combine them, and call to set up the appointment. She’d looked so relieved to have someone taking the lead that I knew this was one of her biggest worries.
Outside of that, she’d spent time finding herself again. She’d come back and decorated her nest with all the new things, directing us where to hang everything. Just seeing her boss us around lit a fire inside of me.
This was the Dhara I wanted to see again.
We needed to pull her out of that fight-or-flight state she’d been stuck in for so long and bring her back.
I wanted her to be confident and strong again.
She already was those things, but they’d been hidden beneath so much stress and pain that they’d dimmed.
Once the nurse had managed the initial vitals, she raised an eyebrow at Dhara’s blood pressure.
“We’ll take that again at the end,” she said easily. “I can already tell you’re very nervous, so let’s get this moving along, shall we? I have a few questions before we bring in the doctor.”
“Okay,” Dhara managed to squeak out.
“Do you want them here for these questions? They can get a little invasive.”
“Yes,” Dhara said firmly. That confidence had the nurse forging ahead.
“Are you sexually active?”
“Somewhat,” Dhara said, “but I’m still a virgin.”
I shot Lachlan and Conrad a look, making sure they didn’t react. Their eyes widened in surprise, but they covered it quickly when they met my gaze.
The nurse nodded along, jotting something down.
“Okay. When was the start and finish of your last heat?”
“I haven’t had one. My situation is a bit different, which is why I’m here. I’ve experienced some trauma,” she said, looking away now, fighting to find the right words. “The hospital said it was probably because of that, that my body had shut down a lot of my omega aspects.”
“Okay, don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
There were a few more questions before she finally stood.
“Alright, I’m going to go let the doctor know you’re here and ready, and she’ll be in in just a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Dhara said, her cheeks heated from those questions, and she pointedly didn’t look at the others.
“Sorry... I guess I should’ve warned you guys that I haven’t had sex yet.”
“Baby, if you think that’s going to be a turnoff, you’ve lost your mind. That means you are ours, and only ours,” Conrad said, his voice a rumbling growl full of that alpha need.
Her breath caught, and she blinked at him a few times, her cheeks so red that I thought she might pass out.
I let out a husky chuckle, nipping at her ear.
A knock on the door had her pulling away. The doctor walked in and let out a little chuckle. Even the filters couldn’t take away the pheromones clouding the room.
“Hello, Dhara. I’m Dr. Sanders. The nurse filled me in, but I think I’d also like your take on what’s been going on. What brought you in?”
Dhara’s eyes flicked to me, and I gave her an encouraging smile.
“I’ve been through some parental abuse,” she said, keeping her words careful.
“I’ve never had a heat, and we have an important trial coming up.
I just feel like it would be best to get that sorted out now that I have a pack.
I don’t want it to happen at the wrong time.
We also haven’t bonded yet, and I want to make sure that everything’s okay. ”
“Well, we can definitely take care of that. I would like to start with an exam, if that’s okay with you,” she asked, waiting for Dhara to answer.
Dhara swallowed hard but nodded.
“Yes, I understand,” she said in a shaky voice.
“I’ll talk you through every step of the exam, I promise,” she said.
“I’ll give you every bit of information I can to make sure that you’re comfortable and that you and your pack have everything you need going forward.
I am a little concerned that you haven’t had a heat yet.
But given what you’ve told me, and as long as everything seems healthy, I may want to consider the option of inducing a heat. ”
“Inducing?” Dhara squeaked.
“In a lot of cases like this, your omega goes into protector mode. They know when it’s not safe to put themselves out there, and now that you’re out of your previous abusive situation, your system might just need a little jumpstart to get back on track.”
“Okay,” Dhara said, her voice a little stronger this time.
The doctor stood and pulled out a hospital gown, setting it on the exam table.
“If you want to go ahead and change, I’ll step out for a few moments. Then I’ll be back, and we can get the not-so-fun part of this done,” she promised.
Dr. Sanders left the room with one last warm, encouraging smile before leaving Dhara to it.
“What do you want us to do, baby?” Conrad said.
“Can you just close your eyes? I really don’t want your first time seeing me naked being in this setting,” she admitted.
I gave her a teasing smirk that had her rolling her eyes before I turned around to give her the privacy she needed.
“Alright, you guys can open your eyes,” she finally said.
She was sitting on the exam table now, wrapped in a paper gown, her cheeks red.
I couldn’t blame her.
This was one of those experiences that was necessary but humiliating in its own right. I didn’t want her uncomfortable with us.
There was a soft knock on the door before Dr. Sanders opened it slowly, giving Dhara a chance to protest had she not been dressed yet.
“Now, pack, if you guys want to move up here by Dhara’s head, you certainly can,” she said before sitting on the rolling stool and moving toward the end of the exam table.
Dhara squeezed her eyes closed as the doctor directed her to put her feet in the stirrups.
I tried not to look at the instruments she was using because they looked more like torture devices than actual healthcare, but what did I know? I was just a delta.
Her soft, pained whimpers as the doctor inserted the speculum had Conrad growling.
Thankfully, the doctor didn’t seem to care. She simply did what she had to do, talking Dhara through every step of the way.
When she finished, she scooted away, tossed her gloves into the trash, and washed up before handing some tissues to Dhara.
We respectfully looked away again as Dhara cleaned herself up and sat back up.
“Okay, with everything I’m seeing, I don’t have any concerns health-wise, so I do want to move ahead with inducing your first heat. I think it’ll be easier on you. It’ll likely prevent an extended pre-heat, which can be uncomfortable and drag on for quite a while. How do we feel about that?”
“If it needs done,” Dhara hedged, looking nervous but excited.
“I believe this would be the best route to take, but I want you to be comfortable with that decision as well.”
Dhara looked at us, but that wasn’t our decision to make.
Conrad spoke first, the alpha settling easily into that leadership role I’d been waiting for him to embrace.
“We’ll be there for your heat, whatever shape that takes. We support your decision, and we’ll work around it. You already know the AHA is great about making sure the omegas involved are taken care of. That extends to you now.”
She took a deep breath and looked back at Dr. Sanders.
“How does that work?”
“That can work however you want,” she said.
“You can take the medication and induce at home, but with it being your first, I think I’d prefer you stay close to a hospital should anything happen.
Not that I foresee that being an issue,” she added quickly, holding up a hand before Dhara could panic, “but it never hurts to be cautious.
“We have heat rooms available for packs free of charge. They’re covered by the Omega Network. Of course, there are plenty of ways we can do it. It’s something you guys can discuss. Just send me a message through the patient portal, and I’ll make sure to have the prescription ready for you.”
“Okay,” Dhara said. “I think I’d like to wait a little bit. I have custody of my little brother, so we have to make sure that he’s taken care of first.”
Dr. Sanders nodded along.
“That makes perfect sense. You just let me know. Either way, I’m going to call in the prescription, but I would like you to send us a message when you plan to take it.
That way I can leave one appointment slot open each day, just in case you need to rush in for an emergency visit.
I would just caution against waiting too long. ”
“Okay. I’ll let you know,” Dhara promised.
With that, Dr. Sanders gathered everything she had before heading out of the room.
Once again, we all gave Dhara her privacy as she changed.
“Well, firecracker, what do you think about all that?” I asked carefully.
She blew out a breath.
“It’s strange. I was so worried about not having a heat, but now I’m worried about having it.” She huffed out a laugh. “It’s so dumb that everything scares me. I should be stronger than this.”
“You are stronger than any omega I know,” Conrad argued. “It’s just new, and that in itself can make things stressful.”
“I’m glad to be inducing it. I don’t want to go into heat when we have to go to trial or something. That’s been one of my biggest worries. Gavin needs me strong.”
“Waiting makes sense. That gives us a chance to talk about all the things you want and make sure Gavin is safe and cared for while we’re there.”
“He’s just getting used to our house. I don’t want him to have to go somewhere for a week because of me,” she admitted.
A smile split across my face, and she looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You said our house.”
She let out a huff and rolled her eyes. “It is our house.”
I pulled her closer and pressed my lips to hers, kissing her soundly before giving her space again.
“It is, but I just like hearing it from those pretty lips of yours, firecracker.”
“Do you ever stop flirting?” Lachlan accused, shoving me toward the door.
“Not when it comes to her.”