“Ye—”
He shoves his fingers in my mouth, cutting me off, his strokes on my clit growing feverish. I can’t hold back anymore. The orgasm washes over me like a tidal wave, fast and brutal. Something sounds in the hall, and Foster’s fingers are ripped from my mouth and my pussy at the same time. I let out a whine, but he’s already trying to right my clothing and sit me up.
I’ve barely pulled myself together before the door opens and an older woman enters. Short grey hair frames her temples, and wrinkles dance around her eyes as she gives us a smile that’s knowing and kind.
“Ah, someone is close to her heat.” She speaks heavily accented English, but with a slow cadence that makes her easy to understand. Her eyes dip down to my chart, and she frowns. “Did you stop taking your suppressants?”
“No. That’s why I’m here. This shouldn’t be happening, right?” I glance at Foster and immediately look away. His hair is disheveled from where I gripped it. His cheeks are rosy. And there’s a tent in his pants that makes a fresh wave of slick drench my already wet panties. We haven’t had a chance to talk about what just happened. Should we? Was he just playing a role to help me take the edge off? Or was that something more?
The doctor ignores the new intensity of my scent and sets down the clipboard. “Well, let’s take a look at you.”
She starts by listening to my heart, then takes my temperature and checks my pupils.
“Could meeting her scent matches be why the meds failed?” Foster asks.
The doctor looks up with the stethoscope still in her ear. “You?”
Foster bites his lips, not confirming or denying.
“Um, three other alphas,” I answer, a little sheepish to be discussing this with a stranger.
“Hmm, it’s been known to happen with the older drugs, but meds these days are much stronger.” She picks up my chart and studies it again, as if she’s reminding herself which medication I’m taking. “Ah, well, this drug in particular was tested against scent matches. It was a small study, mind you, but subjects were put in a room with their scent matches and none went into heat or even had a spike. Now, they were all already bonded, so…” She slides back across the room on her wheeled stool so she’s right in front of me. “I’m more concerned that something is wrong with your medication”
She gives us a look I can’t interpret, but Foster seems to understand what she’s alluding to. “Someone tampered with her meds? How?” He stands from his seat, aggression radiating off him.
“Who would want to do that?” I ask at the same time.
The doctor looks from him to me, then gives me a motherly pat on my knee. “I can’t say for certain without looking further into it. Do you have your pills with you?”
“Um, no, they’re back in my room.”
“Well, there’s only one manufacturer of this particular drug, so if they are legitimate, they’ll have an imprint on one side that says 405-O.” She pulls up a photo on her tablet of what it looks like, showing us a round white pill with the imprint she mentioned. “It could also be that you were introduced to something that counteracted the effects of the medication.”
“Like what?” Foster gruffs out as he comes to the side of the bed where I’m sitting and takes my hand. I squeeze it in an attempt to calm him down. It’s not the doctor’s fault.
“Here are a number of drug contradictions, but to my knowledge nothing natural that she might run into on her own.” There’s that look again.
“You’re saying she might have been drugged?”
“It’s a possibility.” The doctor watches Foster warily, like he may explode at any second.
“But who? Why?” I ask, still hung up on that question. “What would they gain from that?”
Foster and I share a look, and it’s clear his thoughts are racing just as fast as mine are, swirling around and crashinglike rapids as we each try to guess who—or what—really happened. None of the options are particularly great. A shiver runs down my spine when I consider the facts I do know. Someone deliberately tried to harm me, and we don’t know if they’ll try again.
42
ORION
Iprobably should have come up with a more unique date for my omega. I thought about glass blowing—according to Rhodes, Italy is known for its glass artists. There was a moment I considered pottery. I’ve always wanted to reenact that scene from that movie… what was it called?Ghost? Yeah, I think that’s it. A fancy dinner was an option, but that seemed kind of boring.
In the end, there was only one thing that made sense. I knock on the side door of the arena and wait.
“I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.” Foster looks side to side, frowning.
“Don’t worry,” I reply. “I know a guy.”
Raven looks up, studying the mural on the wall. She seems distracted. She and Foster were running late and ended up meeting me here rather than the hotel. When they filled me in on what the doctor said, I was ready to ditch the date and go find answers, but Raven said she wanted the distraction. The pills will still be there waiting when they get back.
