I was hoping she wouldn’t notice, but I guess being my doctor, it’s her job to notice and actually say something.
“I wasn’t eating much before,” I quietly admit, fidgeting with my sheets.
I wasn’t happy. Maybe I was depressed. Maybe I was worse than that, but I didn’t want to eat. There were some days I didn’t even want to get out of bed.
“We have a therapist you could speak to,” she adds. “She can come right to your room.”
I shake my head. “I don’t need a therapist; I just needed to be away from my scent matches.”
“If you change your mind, just let me know.”
I nod, but I won’t be changing my mind.
“There’s something else we need to discuss.”
Instantly, I’m wary. “What is it?”
She lifts her hand for mine. “May I?”
She wants to offer comfort, which means I won’t like what she’s going to tell me. I give her my hand and hope it isn’t too devastating.
“You won’t survive another heat without an alpha.”
I stare at her, my mouth dry. “What?”
She squeezes my hand. “The bond breaking has made you more sensitive.Toosensitive. Suppressants and heat clinics won’t be enough for you now.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because we found traces of suppressants in your system, and we know you were taking them before. And to give you time. You say you don’t want to see your alphas again, and I understand that things would have to have been terrible for you to cut them out of your life the way you did, but youwillneed an alpha.”
“I’ll find one.” I have maybe two months to deal with that problem.
“We can offer mediation if?—”
“I appreciate your offer, but I will find an alpha to help me through my next heat. It willnotbe Pack Wells.”
Omegas must come up with arrangements with alphas to get through their heat and go their own ways after, right?
Her eyes flick to my throat, and automatically, I lift my fingers to trace the three bites there. I could speak to a doctor about removing them, but that can come later. “What is it?”
“We don’t know how an alpha is going to react. You had three scent matches, and you went through the bond-breaking ceremony, but it’s biology that decides scent matches.”
I wish I didn’t understand what she was saying.
“You don’t think an alpha will want me because I’ll seem like I’m already bonded, don’t you?”
She nods. “We’re in new territory here, Juniper. That you survived was a miracle. None of us knows how an omega can cope, orifshe can cope, cut off from her scent matches. We’d be more hopeful if it were just one scent match. But three is unprecedented. Maybe if they hadn’t all bitten you…”
My stomach twists. “So, I’m not out of the woods. I could still die.”
“You’re stronger now, and the fact that you woke up with relatively minor side effects is a good sign, but you need to come back to the hospital if you start feeling unwell. It’s likely to be bond sickness.”
“I didn’t know there was a name for it.”
Her smile is tinged with sadness. “A broken bond happens so rarely. And with scent matches…” She trails off, but the one word she doesn’t say hangs silently between us.
Never.
