“Tristan, do we need to get your foot removed from your mouth?” Heidi asks slowly as we all lean forward to see exactly where we’re going.
Tristan hums a bitchy hum. Her comeback is making her snicker already. “I figured we were here for your personality transplant.”
Heidi splutters ungraciously, nodding her head. “Good one.”
The limousine glides to a stop in the garage of the hospital. Even in the dull overhead lighting it’s easy to see the number of guards Koz has stationed everywhere. He never takes Raney’s protection lightly. His attention to detail extends past guards though. He’s made this look as romantic as possible. It’s totally Raney. She’s going to love all the special embellishments he’s managed, as well as hate being the centre of attention.
Our door gets opened by one of Koz’s people, and we’re helped out of the car and given a bottle of champagne. The guard speaks with the utmost respect as he outlines Koz’s instructions.
Once we’re all in position, waiting for Raney’s arrival, Heidi leans down so she can whisper into my ear. “What I always do when I’m not feeling myself is to borrow something from each of you. I take Tristan’s effervescence, Raney’s fortitude and your gentle heart and let it give me the strength I need. Give it a go. Once our girl is packed, tell her the truth about your heat. Seriously, as soon as Koz and Puck pack her, they’ll be knotting her stupid. At her insistence, of course. We won’t see her before dinner tomorrow at the earliest.”
A stillness descends as the elevator dings. It’s as if everyone takes a collective breath, and when the doors open and Raney steps out, the shock and wonder on her face is exactly how I imagined it.
I sob like a baby, with both Tristan and Heidi helping to hold me up, when Koz proclaims his devotion. Puck steps in and says a few words, but I don’t catch half of them because of my wailing.
After reassuring cuddles from my girls, I jump headfirst into Heidi’s suggestion, taking on the individual energy ofeach of the Scorned Girls as my own. It’s definitely Tristan’s influence that has me bending Raney over and dry humping her all the way into the limousine while Tris continues giving lip to the entire universe.
As the tires of the car screech and the champagne rains down on us, we make our getaway. Raney’s glare as she slumps against the leather and wisteria covered bench seat is matched by the cold welcome she gets from us.
“What?” she sasses.
Heidi leans forward, her movements slow and intentional. “Don’t you ‘what’ us. We said photos of Pucky boy were expected. And you agreed. Straight a-fucking-way too.” She looks at Tristan and me. “Did we get any?”
We both gasp, making sure to overexaggerate as well. And then we dissolve into laughter which sets the tone for the next few hours. We deal with Heidi’s asshole ex’s appearance, but a quick call from Raney to Koz resolves that, leaving us to get back to making Raney’s day as special as it can be.
Of course, she whinges and bitches as loud as possible, but that’s Raney. And it’s why we all love her dearly. Her usual means of protesting is completely one-eighty when we pull up to Birdie the Omega super store, and Raney loses some of her confidence.
Tristan comes to her rescue and snuggles her into a bubble-gum cuddle before she whispers and talks Raney off a ledge. I take the chance to shoot a text to Ryder letting him know I’m going okay and have taken a heat suppressor to help me through the day. I don’t get a response and before I can think too hard about why, I refocus on Raney. Now she’s got sheer terror on her face.
“No dress?” she stutters as she turns away from Birdie’s facade.
“You have to trust all of us and let us make your dreams come true.”
Those words might be aimed at Raney, but they arrow deep into my psyche perhaps because I’d heard something similar said to me recently.
Despite that, my earlier reticence evaporates completely. I adore being with the girls, and it’s easy to get swept up completely in the beautifully romantic moment.
Time passes in a collective Omega-focussed shopping frenzy as we trawl like hunters through each and every shelf of Birdie’s. Raney even loses most of her grumbling regarding Koz’s very expensive courting gift but then she starts getting antsy because she no longer wants to wait to do the actual deed. Except that goes against Koz’s plans, so we’re filling in time and sticking to his schedule. Therefore, we shop.
There’s so many eyes on us while we are inside Birdie. Logically, I know I’m safe. Knowing I am is in complete contradiction to how my designation is interpreting all the people watching. My Omega is going off her head, clawing at me, telling me to get the hell out of here and go anywhere else to wait for my scent-matched Alphas. The need to leave and the constant din inside my head makes it much harder to keep up the appearance that I’m okay. Not even the distraction of finally meeting Puck who is incidentally the sweetest, hockey-playing Alpha, completely and hopelessly smitten with Raney, quells or distracts me from my rapidly increasing anxiety.
My heat has never made me feel this way. Admittedly, I’ve never gone into heat knowing I’ll be spending the time with Alphas. Up to now, it’s been a lonely, painful experience. I’d be confined to my room and drugged to my eyeballs. At Unity, the founding family expected the same. I knew it was cruel, but after meeting Hendrix, Dominic, andRyder, I got a better understanding at just how controlling the founding families have been. To intentionally isolate an Omega when they need love and touch the most is disgraceful.
I find a quiet corner, needing a break from pretending I’m doing alright, and to soak up the comforting reassurance Dominic has been sending my way. Switching my phone back on I get alert after alert.They’re coming. They’re nearly at the airport. They’re arranging everything, waiting for a pilot.After reading the messages a few times over, I finally feel my designation starting to relax. I shoot one off with another update that I’m still at Birdie, and that I’m desperate to see them.
Tristan gives me an understanding smile. I barely manage to get my phone back in my bag and she’s enveloping me in a bubble-gum cuddle and dragging me to the last phase of Raney’s surprise. The Birdie shop assistant has been amazingly helpful without being pushy. She’s done pretty well juggling the personality of the other girls, but she huddles closer to me than the others, as Raney is accompanied by Heidi. It’s pretty obvious what the room is for—the makeup chair kind of gives it away as does the counter of hair products. Before Raney’s protests even start, Heidi and Tristan lure her into the chair by reminding her how little time we have left. Emmalina, the assistant, leaves us.
Sadly, there’s another reason for bringing Raney into the small room, so we can break some news to her. Heidi starts speaking, since she’s the expert, but in typical Raney way she inadvertently beats us to the conversation we need to have with her.
“Where did you disappear to before?” There’s reluctance, and accusation, in her question. And while it’s aimed directly at Heidi, because Heidi did disappear with Koz, Raney includes us all in her interrogation.
My impending heat is making everyone’s emotions feel like they are my own. So, while Heidi gives Raney the run down on her disappearing act—it was to run an ADV test on Raney’s other childhood love, Hayes—I hug the shit out of one of my most favourite people in the world.
Raney and Heidi work through what results the test should provide before moving straight to the actual findings of the ADV test they did on Hayes. In all honesty I tune out near the start of their discussion because I get caught up on the telltale signs of an Alpha suffering ADV Heidi outlined. Particularly the distinctive grey skin rash and excessive mood swings. Two worrying signs for any Alpha but seeing them on Brody recently, and coupled with him being at one of the leading hospitals that treats the virus, it doesn’t take me long to go from A to B.
I add a few things to their conversation here and there but I’m not really present. At all. I get caught inside my thoughts even as we get ready to go.
The only thing that pulls my attention is Raney with Koz. They are hot burning passion, completely unapologetic in their need for each other. A flash of heat races up my spine. I look at Tris, whose eyes are on King, before checking with Heidi to see if they’re similarly affected, and I know my girls well enough to read envy on their faces.
