Chapter 10
Nathan
This doesn’t feel like fucking; it feels like making love.
Bell clings to me, kissing me softly as I thrust into her slowly. My mate’s cock glides over her entrance, caressing my cock with every thrust. Tears fill her eyes, and I kiss her deeper.
Is she feeling what I am? That this is almost over. Why does this feel like we’re losing her?
This can’t end here…
My last thought as exhaustion takes over is that Bell was meant to be ours.
Something’s wrong.
I jolt upright, searching the room and tensing when I see them. Six men dressed in white. I breathe in deeply, but there’s no scent.
“What the fuck?” I growl, ready to defend the omega sleeping peacefully beside us, but Alec grabs my shoulder, stopping me from launching myself across the room at them.
“Her heat is over,” Alec says softly in explanation, but I shake my head.
No, that's not right.
She’s ours.
I’m so disoriented that I don’t even notice them approaching until Alec is reacting.
“She’s mine!” Alec growls at one of the men in white who got a little too close.
“Don’t touch her!” I bark, trying to keep my body between Bell and these strange men. “Alec, what’s happening?” I whine, forgetting again what’s going on.
“Fucking hell, Nath.” He sighs heavily, like it actually pains him. “Just—just do what they say. We have to leave. Fuck.” Alec grabs both sides of his head, dropping forwards and groaning in pain.
“Alec!” I cry, lunging for my mate when a sudden prick in my neck knocks my focus off. I try to turn, to face our attackers, but I’m forced to my knees.
“Everything is okay,” an irritatingly gentle voice lies to me. It sounds like pity, so I try to shrug them off, but there’s a coolness spreading from my neck that leaves me dizzy.
The hands leave my body, but I find I can’t get up from my knees. I feel myself sway, darkness spreading through my eyes and mind.
What’s happening…? What did I do wrong?
Alertness hits all at once at the sound of my mate’s protective growl. I shoot upright once again, furiously blinking away the blurriness in my vision.
Where is my mate? Where the fuck am I?
I whip my head around desperately as my heart races, sending heat through my chest. The world spins, my head heavy and aching, but I calm slightly when I finally realise Alec is on the bed next to me, glaring at a doctor who’s stepping back with her hands raised in an obviously placating gesture.
My head turns, instinctively searching for something, only for my body to tense as I realise who I’m looking for and the fact that she obviously won’t be here.
Because her heat is over.
Clarity slams into me like a fucking brick as reality returns. My chest aches like I've been kicked. The pain isn’t from my racing heart like I first thought, but from something much worse.
Bell isn’t our omega—no matter what anyone said over the last two days during the middle of sex.
It’s not like you can take anything said in the throes of heat seriously.
Everyone knows that. Of course, she didn’t mean it when she said she wanted us to bite her.
It’s why Alec stopped me from biting her.
He’s stronger than I am, always has been, but I have never come close to biting an omega before. Never even wanted to, honestly.
I don’t know what it is about Bell that caused me to almost cross the line like that. It’s honestly a little scary that she had so much control over me.
Somehow, I just know she wouldn’t abuse it, though. In all the moments when her mind was clearer, there was a softness to her. The way she reacted to my presence when I first came in to find her and Alec cuddling up. She felt guilty even without having a reason to.
I rub my neck and notice that the sensitive skin there is still sore from Alec’s redirection. I wonder if the bottom of his arm is properly bandaged now, hiding my shame from prying eyes.
Fuck, what would have happened if I’d actually bitten her?
Of course, she didn’t mean it when she said she wanted us to bite her. It’s why we’d forced ourselves to hold back, to not give in to our instincts and her pleading.
My fingers dig into the blankets on the bed they’ve placed us in. Logic doesn’t seem to be helping with calming my instincts, which are furiously demanding I go find her. I want to hunt down our omega and wrap her up between us, where she belongs—where she’s safe.
But she’s not ours.
Not. Our. Omega.
I wonder how many times I’ll need to say it over in my head before it’s properly drilled in.
“I can see this is distressing news for you,” the doctor says softly to my mate, clearly continuing on with a conversation I’d missed the beginning of.
“Distressing? This isn’t supposed to happen! I need—Fuck.” Alec growls, one hand reaching for and gripping my leg tightly to ground himself with the physical contact.
I shift closer to him, pressing against his side and inhaling his scent in an attempt to comfort him while also calming myself. It doesn’t work. We need Bell.
While Alec will always be a source of comfort, I can still smell Bell all over him.
It’s enough to almost make me whine with this—this insane need for her.
It feels like someone’s tried to snap mine and Alec’s mating bond, but it’s there, undamaged and whole as far as I can tell.
Her heat pheromones must be all over me too, as I feel him breathe in sharply, a shudder rolling through his body a second later.
Shit.
“We were told that it was so statistically unlikely we shouldn’t even worry about it!” he adds after taking a moment to breathe in and out, clearly pissed off and barely keeping it together.
“What’s unlikely?” I manage to mutter, finding my throat surprisingly dry. “Water?” I add, glancing around to see if they’ve brought in some. They’re usually pretty good for that kind of thing in these clinics.
“Just on the bedside,” the doctor answers, gesturing towards the small table that has two water bottles on it, which I had apparently overlooked in my current state.
I nod and then lean over to grab them both, deliberately keeping the lower half of my body against Alec for comfort.
I try handing him one but end up setting it on his lap thanks to all of his attention still being directed towards the doctor.
I take a long swig of my own water, feeling a slight relief as it eases my dry throat.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed you’re not quite feeling how you usually do after providing heat assistance?” she hesitantly says, eyes darting between the two of us with a cautious air.
“Yes, I—”
“We formed a false bond with Bell during her heat,” Alec cuts me off to explain, clearly having reached the end of his patience. “Probably one-sided, too. That’s why we feel like complete shit.”
“That’s…are you sure?” I ask, despite the sinking feeling in my gut. It would explain why my instincts are going insane right now and why I feel the pain of a damaged mating bond despite ours being fine.
One-sided bonds being formed is fairly rare; usually it only happens between a compatible pair when there are feelings involved on at least one side.
It can also happen when one participant bites the other, and the bitten resists the claim—something that’s absolutely illegal in modern times.
Thankfully, no one is allowed to force a bond on another these days.
But any kind of bond being formed between near-total strangers, with no biting involved, is damn unheard of, so far as I’m concerned.
“We didn’t bite her.” I have to say it, needing to make sure I didn’t blank that part out somehow, maybe out of guilt.
“You didn’t,” the doctor agrees firmly, her expression turning more sympathetic.
“Neither of you did anything wrong at all, and nobody is blaming you for this situation. It’s very, very rare, but if an alpha and omega are highly compatible, it is possible for a false bond to be formed, even without a prior relationship or claiming bite. ”
“Is Bell okay? She’s not having any problems with this too, right?” I ask, hating the idea of her going through this alone. At least Alec and I have each other.
“You know that we’re not allowed to share information on the omegas who use our clinic, not even with the alphas who assisted them.
” She pauses, then sighs, shoulders dropping.
“Given the circumstances, I can at least reassure you that when she wakes, we’ll be checking for symptoms of false bonding when doing the usual post-heat check-up.
However, it’s even rarer for a false bond to go both ways.
The fact both of you were affected is already surprising. ”
“What are we supposed to do about this, then?” Alec demands, looking like he’d much rather be asking something else.
I get it. I want to push for more information too.
I have to bite back my own demands to be updated on Bell’s condition once she wakes.
That just isn’t how heat clinics work. They very purposefully try to avoid any future contact between their alpha volunteers and the omegas who use the services here.
This is meant to be a secure place for them—a safe haven for omegas like Bell.
It doesn’t matter that I know Alec and I would never harm her. I understand they have these rules for a reason.
Still, knowing all of that doesn’t mean I like any of this right now…
“Generally, without further contact, the bond should fade by itself within two to six weeks. There are things we can do to help ease the fading process, though. There are options available to you, like medications, which SSHC can either provide or refer you to elsewhere if needed,” she explains.
She’s being perfectly professional, and yet I want to argue with her anyway, to shout or punch the nearest fucking wall.
“The medications won’t affect our bond?” I ask instead of doing any of that. It won’t help; it won’t magically bring Bell to us.
All that would happen is that we would be written off as being unsuitable for helping in heat clinics.
But do I even want to do it again? Knowing it could lead to this?
It’s probably just the bond messing with my brain, but I feel repulsed by the idea of going near another omega, regardless of the risk.
“They shouldn’t,” the doctor answers. “While it’s called a false bond, it’s really more of a partial one.
The first-line medications act to ease the symptoms and encourage the fading process of incomplete bonding.
They cannot sever a completed mating bond.
There have been some reported instances over the years of needing a stronger treatment, but again, let me stress that is incredibly unlikely to happen.
There’s less than one such case every few years, worldwide. ”
“How does the medication work?” Alec asks, sounding exhausted.
“Two weeks of tablets, taken twice a day. We can give you a prescription when you leave or have it sent to your pharmacy if you would rather not wait. I’m also going to send you both some information packets on false bonding; your emails haven’t changed since you registered with us, right?”
“Pharmacy, and yeah, they’re the same ones we’ve had for years,” he answers bluntly. “Is there anything else we need to know, or can we leave?”
“You’re free to leave whenever you’re ready. There’s a private shower room just through that door over there if you’d like to clean up first.” She points at one of the two doors in the room, the other presumably leading out to the main hallway.
I nod. This isn’t a room we’ve been in before at this clinic.
Usually we’re able to walk out of the heat treatment areas and head straight for the shower and changing block provided for the alphas here.
I appreciate the information, even if a stupid part of me wants to refuse, not wanting to wash away Bell’s scent.
“One last thing before I get out of your hair,” she says, the seriousness of her tone fully demanding my attention, Alec’s too, judging by the way he somehow tenses up even further.
“The clinic would like to reassure both of you that we fully understand neither of you did anything to cause this situation. So, once you’ve recovered, you’ll retain your clinic approval status.
We’d hate to lose two alphas with such a long, reliable record… ”
My gut twists, and nausea creeps in as she explains how they want us to keep volunteering here.
I tune her out, not wanting to listen to her drone on about how they want us to help other omegas through their heats, all while they’re denying us from ever seeing Bell again.
I turn my head, burying my face in the crook of Alec’s neck and inhaling his scent—Bell’s too.
“I can’t do this again,” I whisper to Alec, hoping he gets it, that he understands why.
His arm wraps around me, squeezing reassuringly.
“We’d actually like to remove our names from the clinic’s list,” he informs her, and I slump with sheer fucking relief.
“Are you sure? Again, the clinic—”
“We’re sure. Take us off the list. We’re done with this,” Alec orders firmly, leaving no room for argument.
“Of course,” she agrees, accepting our decision even if she doesn’t sound particularly thrilled about it. “I’ll leave you both to freshen up and sign yourselves out. I will send the script to your pharmacy right away, so you should be able to pick it up later today."
“We appreciate it, Doctor Hastings,” Alec says, polite but also an obvious dismissal.
Not lifting my head from where I’m pressed against my mate, I only hear her leave, her shoes clicking against the hard floors and the door closing softly behind her.
“Are you okay?”
“No. Are you?”
“Not really,” he agrees softly, slowly turning to shift us so we’re curled up together on the bed.
We both lie there in silence for a bit, just taking comfort in being alone together. It should be enough, but I find myself keeping my eyes tightly shut. With them closed, I can pretend that she’s here too—that her scent left over on our skin is really her lying with us.
Just for a few more minutes…