The receptionist gives a practiced sweet smile as she hands Pace a clipboard. “Of course, Alpha. Just fill out sections A and B with your information, and section C for your omega’s.” She points to the different parts of the form with a manicured nail.
We find a pair of empty chairs and sit.
I scan the waiting room while Pace writes.
The furniture is functional but uncomfortable. Hard plastic chairs and a low, cold coffee table. Themagazines on the table are all glossy publications with names like Alpha Monthly and Modern Omega Living. One cover features a smiling alpha holding a pair of fat twin babies, the headline promising “10 Tips for a Happy Nest.”
“How old are you, baby?” Pace asks, his pen poised.
“Twenty-two.”
“Blood type?”
“O-negative.”
He jots that down, then eyes me up and down. “Height…five-foot-eight?” He guesses, and I nod. He’s spot on.
Curious, I lean over and read what he’s written so far.
Under his name, I see his age is twenty-eight. He’s never been mated before. And under ‘Occupation,’ he’s written: Private Security Consultant. It sounds official and important. I wonder if that’s how he got all the scars on his chest.
Pace checks the box next to ‘Heat-Induced Mating,’ then hands the clipboard back to the receptionist. A few minutes later, a nurse in blue scrubs calls back, “Greene!”
I freeze for a second, realizing that’s me. It’s my new last name.
A little thrill of excitement goes through me, but I keep it under control as Pace leads me out of the waiting room.
The nurse is another beta with a kind but tired face. She leads us down a short hallway to a sterile examination room, but she stops Pace before he can follow me inside. “I’m sorry, sir,” she says, her voice firm. “Your omega will be examined by himself. You’ll be in the next room.”
Pace’s whole body tenses, his arm tightening around my waist. “No,” he says firmly. “He’s not leaving my side.”
The nurse leans into the room and points up at a small camera in the top corner. “You’ll be able to see the whole examination from the next room, but you can’t be in herewith him. We’ve had too many incidents with violent alphas attacking the doctors during the physical.”
Pace’s jaw ticks, a muscle flexing in his cheek.
But the nurse doesn’t back down. “If you want to register your mate, this is what has to be done. And if you try to leave with an unregistered omega, I’ll be forced to call the authorities.”
My own fear spikes, sharp and cold, mixing with a sudden uncertainty. I know exactly how my father would react to a stuffy beta in a pair of scrubs telling him what to do. He’d be enraged, and even violent. And while I don’t think Pace is like that, I honestly don’t know for sure.
He’s an alpha, and his possessiveness is a terrifying, thrilling force.
What if he sees this as a challenge he can’t back down from?
Pace pushes out a tense, angry breath, and I move, placing a hand on his chest. Leaning into his side, I push a sense of calm through our bond. “It’s okay,” I tell him softly. “I’ll be okay.”
He looks down at me, and the raw conflict in his eyes is painful to see.
I can feel the alpha in him screaming to stay, to protect what’s his, but it’s not like we have a choice. So I give my mate a small, sweet smile, trying to smooth it over, trying to tell him without words that it’s okay.
Thankfully, some of the anger in Pace’s dark eyes falls away, replaced by a reluctant resignation.
“Fine,” he says, his voice low.
“You’ll be in the next room over,” the nurse adds.
“Knock on the wall once you get over there,” I say, looking up at my alpha.
He nods, then releases me, but he’s obviously not happy about it.
