35
Scarlett
L ight floods the bathroom, and I groan, rolling over to try to stop the glare from penetrating down to my skull behind my closed eyelids.
“Fuck, Kate! Turn it off!” I snap, waving a hand in the general direction of the doorway where I can just sense her standing there.
I know she probably has her hands on her hips and a scowl etched onto her pretty face.
“Are you hung over?” She sighs, sounding incredibly disappointed in me.
“Fuck, no. I have the damn flu or something. Can you please turn the light off now?” I growl, then I barely manage to sit up and throw my face over the opening of the toilet bowl before I am dry heaving into it all over again.
My stomach revolts against me, but there is literally nothing else for me to vomit up.
I haven’t been able to keep even water down.
I feel Kate’s soft, warm hand glide over my forehead, but she doesn’t say anything until I am done gagging and I’ve slumped back against the edge of the tub beside the toilet.
Thankfully, she turns the light off, but the soft glow coming in from the open door is enough to highlight her features for me.
I squint up at the frown on her face. “I thought you were hung over. You’ve been throwing up like this for the past two days. Are you sure you haven’t been drinking?”
“No. I told you. It’s the flu or something.” The look she’s giving me says she’s heavily doubting that.
She stares at me for a long moment while I try to breathe through the nausea churning in my stomach. “Don’t you find it odd that you only seem to have these symptoms in the mornings?”
Confusion swirls within me at that. “What are you getting at, Kate? If you don’t have anything useful to add, can you please leave me be? I’d like to die in peace now.”
“Weren’t you supposed to have a heat? Like two weeks ago?” She’s got her hands on her hips, and I seriously don’t like the way she’s staring at me. Like she has a secret that she wants me to puzzle out for myself. I also don’t like what she’s implying.
“It’s probably just delayed because of my recent stress and this flu.” I shrug, sighing out in relief when the churning of my stomach settles slightly.
“Come on. Get up. I’m taking you to the clinic. They can give you a test for the flu there.” She doesn’t at all look convinced that the flu is what I have.
“I don’t need a test to tell me what I have, Kate.
I’m just going to crawl back to my nest and sleep this off.
” It takes me longer than normal to haul myself off the bathroom floor.
Once I am standing, I curse when I start to list sideways, and Kate catches me before I can crash into the toilet and counter.
“You can either let me take you, or I will call one of those stalker alphas of yours inside from their permanent posts across the street.”
I tip my head back and groan. “Fine. Let’s go.” I spit out. I really don’t want her to alert any of them that there’s something going on with me. I’m still not ready to face them after everything that happened three weeks ago. I’ve already fucked shit up enough.
* * *
Kate takes me to the small clinic the guys took me to after my attack several weeks ago.
My stomach is back to roiling again the moment we step through the door, and I clutch my arm around my middle as if that will help keep the bile down.
I follow Kate over to the receptionist’s desk, and the young and pretty beta sitting there looks up at her with a broad smile stretching her ruby painted lips.
“How may I help you today?”
“I booked an appointment online this morning for my roommate. Scarlett Reighn.” The beta nods before she starts to tap away at her computer.
“Ah, yes. If you will please have a seat in the waiting room, one of our nurses will be with you to take you back to a room.” She keeps that smile up as Kate takes me by the arm and practically drags me over to the waiting room off to the side.
Once I’ve plopped myself down into one of the uncomfortable chairs, I catch her eye and arch a brow at her.
“You made an appointment before I even agreed to come.” Normally, I’d be irritated with her for trying to take control of my life like that, but I didn’t care much at the moment.
I’m just looking forward to possibly getting some meds out of this visit to help combat the constant nausea I’ve been feeling.
“I’ve been stuck listening to you dry heave your guts up for the past two days. Of course I made you an appointment. I told you that you were going to come, even if I had to get one of those alphas of yours to do it.” She shrugs, and my jaw clenches at that.
I don’t look at her when I say, “They aren’t mine.” The lie tastes like ash on my tongue. Kate snorts, but she blessedly keeps her opinion to herself. I only told her a little about what happened. Enough to get her to lay off of me and keep them the hell away from the apartment for the time being.
Though that doesn’t stop them from hanging around on the bench across the street. Today is actually the first day I’ve been out since I came home that day from their penthouse three weeks ago. I’ve been spending the majority of my time moping around and sketching.
We lapse into silence for about ten minutes before a short, dark haired beta nurse steps out of the back hall with a clipboard in her hands, calling my name. I rise, palm clenching against my stomach when the nausea makes my stomach gurgle uncomfortably.
Kate rises to her feet, too, and I give her a look. “You don’t need to come back with me.”
“Try to stop me from finding out if my bestie is preg-”
“Kate!” I hiss, cutting her off before she can say it. “Just stop it. That’s not even possible.” She rolls her eyes, but I am being fucking serious. She doesn’t know my reasons behind my resolve on the situation, but it doesn’t matter, either.
I ignore her while I stalk after the nurse.
She leads us to a small room, different from the one I’d been in before when I was here last. Once inside, she shuts the door behind us, and gestures for me to get up on the exam table.
“Can you tell me a little about what’s brought you in today, Miss Reighn?
” The nurse is polite enough, so I quickly state my symptoms, and she scribbles some notes down on the clipboard she’s holding.
“Can you tell me the dates of your last heat cycle?” She doesn’t look up from the board as she asks this, and I can feel Kate’s gaze boring into the side of my head.
I chew on my lip as I think. “I’m usually pretty regular. June fifteenth through the nineteenth.” The nurse looks up at me and studies me for a moment.
“Any unprotected intercourse during that time?” I shake my head before she’s even finished asking. My stomach is twisting itself up in knots, and I can feel sweat beginning to bead along my brow the more my brain starts to overthink all of this.
She frowns, glancing briefly over at Kate, before returning her attention to me. “Any unprotected intercourse at all since the last day of your last heat cycle?”
I grit my teeth, hesitating for a moment before I nod. “Listen, I don’t know what this has to do with anything. I think I have the flu. Can you just give me a nose swab for that?” The nurse’s attention is wholly on me now, and I don’t like the way she’s looking at me.
It’s the same look Kate’s been giving me since she dragged me out of our bathroom earlier to bring me here.
“If you’re pretty regular for your heats, you would have had one two weeks ago?” She words it like a question, and my neck is stiff as I nod again. Her lips purse in thought. “I’d like to run a pregnancy test just to rule it out. I can still perform the Influenza nose swab as well.”
“I don’t need a pregnancy test. I can’t be pregnant. I didn’t have sex during my last heat. I’m not stupid. I know how omega biology works. Pregnancy outside of a heat is impossible. Especially for me.” I say through clenched teeth with strict vehemence.
“My bestie here is forgetting to mention that she’s been getting it on with her scent matched alphas over the last few weeks.” Kate chimes in, and my head snaps towards her to glare at her. She just shrugs like she’s not bothered by me at all.
“Ah, yes. That’ll do it.” The nurse smiles at me when I drag my gaze back to her. My heart is slamming against my rib cage now, disbelief and anger warring within me.
“It’s not possible.” I shake my head, and I hate the knowing look she gives me. She doesn’t understand. Neither does Kate. “We’re wasting time, just as you’ll be wasting a test.” I growl.
“Is there a reason you are so adamant against the possibility? Because it is possible, my dear. Especially if your recent intercourse has been with your scent-”
“I’m infertile, OK! I can’t be pregnant!
” I can’t help myself. I explode. I lose control for a split second, and my shout echos around the room.
A stunned silence falls over the exam room, and I realize then that I am panting after expelling some of my pent up emotions.
“I’m sorry…” I add, trailing off. “I just can’t be pregnant.
I was diagnosed as infertile last year.”
I look down to my hands clenched into fists in my lap. I can’t look at the nurse or Kate. I suddenly feel so goddamn raw. If I look at either of them, I think I might lose it. I can’t allow myself to fall into those memories and emotions. I’d already accepted this fate a long time ago.
It’s literally the only thing that has granted me my freedom in the first place.
I’m fucking defective. A worthless omega that can’t even do the one thing I’d been fucking sold for.
“Scar…” Kate is suddenly there, laying a hand on my bare forearm.
She draws my attention until I’m looking up in her face.
She’s giving me such a tender look. It breaks something inside of me to see her looking at me like that.
“Please take the test. What can it hurt if it’s not even possible?
It’ll help them rule it out in case they need to perform other tests. ” I hate how encouraging she sounds.
Finally, I look back over at the nurse, and the beta woman offers me a reassuring smile.
“I’ll do it, but I’m telling you it will be a waste.
” I deflate like a balloon, giving in far too easily.
Maybe there’s a part of me that hopes I’ll be wrong?
It’s fucking crazy to think about, but I can’t help it.
I’ve never been more crushed in my entire life than I was the day I found out I’ll never become a mom.
The nurse thankfully says nothing. Instead, she turns to the wall of cabinets behind her and opens one up to pull out some supplies.
She performs the nose swab first before setting that aside on the counter.
Then, she hands me a plastic cup and gestures towards the small bathroom attached to the room.
“The Influenza test will take at least ten minutes. Go ahead and get a urine sample for me, and then I’ll run the pregnancy test. Just leave the cup on the counter there when you’re done. ”
I don’t look at either of the women before I duck into the bathroom. I don’t think about what I’m doing as I pee in the damn cup and set it on the counter. I wash my hands as quickly as I can, and then I step back out into the room.
I hop back up on the exam table, and the nurse disappears into the bathroom with a white stick in her gloved hand.
Before I can protest, Kate drags her chair closer to the table and grabs my hand, giving it a gentle reassuring squeeze that I try to pretend doesn’t make me choke up with emotions I haven’t allowed myself to feel in a very long time.
The nurse is in the bathroom for a few minutes before she comes back out.
Her expression is unreadable, and that makes me shift nervously on the exam table, the paper crinkling beneath me.
“Do you want to see?” She holds up the plastic stick she’d taken in the bathroom with her, and I suck in a breath.
Do I? I’m absolutely terrified of what it might show me.
I look over to Kate, and she holds my gaze steadily.
“Can you look?” I ask her, and she gives my hand another squeeze before she nods.
She stands and moves towards the beta nurse.
The woman flashes her the stick, and Kate stares at it for a very tense few seconds.
“What does it say?” I can’t stop myself from asking.
I hold my breath when Kate turns to face me. “Will you believe me if I tell you it’s positive?” She asks, and I feel my heart stutter in my chest.
“P-positive?”
She smiles at me. “You’re pregnant, Scar. I don’t know who told you that you were infertile, but they were wrong. You’re going to be a mom.”
And just like that, I pass the fuck out.