He took her to the fifth floor and into a feminine lobby of pink fabric, peach rugs, and bleached woods. Soft and inviting.
Kane should have been out of place. He shouldn’t have fit on any of the furniture. But he checked in and found a corner with a high backed seat big enough for three women to sit side by side on.
Before he had a chance to get comfortable, the nurse was calling.
"We are ready for you, Alpha Kane. Please, this way
The exam room held a medical table, cabinets and sink, things that looked like important equipment, and the unexpected smell of breeder fear and distress clinging to the walls. The sting of it put Sasha on edge.
The familiar scent should have made this feel normal. No one liked doctor visits. Instead, the unexpected slap of bad memories made her clutch at Kane's coat. The welcoming urbanity about the place made her forget how awful clinic visits were. She wormed her way under his lapels to bury her face in his armpit.
"The doctor will want the breeder to undress. Everything off. I need height, weight, and all her vitals. If you’ll just follow me back to the waiting room, sir, we will take care of her from here."
Sasha hadn't had an appointment since she was twelve. They’d wanted her naked then too. She had a flashback of gloved hands and cold, clinical treatment as they turned her this way and that as if she were a test subject, a thing, not a person.
"I'll stay," Kane told the woman.
"Well. Um. That's unusual, sir. Are you're going to be her husband-mate? We don't allow husbands in the room, you understand. It can get uncomfortable for everyone. And by the smell of the dear girl, well, she's starting her first estrous.
"I know you must be feeling protective. Even I feel protective of the little thing. That's what they do, isn't it?" She simpered. "I promise to call you if you are needed."
Kane didn't correct any of her assumptions. He didn't argue. Over her head, Sasha knew he was giving that beta woman the look.
Flustered, the nurse went over to the sink and washed her hands. "Well, then. If you could sit her on the bed." She cleared her throat. "I really do need her clothes off. And her number? Can I see her hand, please?"
Kane sat her down and peeled her arms away. "Beauty, look at me."
When had he started calling her that? She lifted her eyes to his. They were dark brown, nearly a solid black, surrounded by long sooty lashes. His eyes were intense.
She had decisions to make. Undress and let them see her in all her ugly, slug-like glory, with him and his aura influencing the room, or she could scream and fight—get angry that they had to do all of this in the most humiliating way possible.
She could even send Kane away so that the humiliation would not be witnessed by this powerful male. He had no reason to care for her, this appointment just another chore in his day. He had no reason to be kind or protective. He'd said that he didn't want a mate.
But if he left her, Sasha knew she'd find out why this doctor's office smelled like a torture chamber for omega breeders.
She could pretend to not care about any of it, lift her chin and prove she was her father's daughter and not a whimpering wasted mess. But she felt weird. Waves of suffocating heat, achy bones, and a splitting headache all assaulted her, but being near him assuaged it. She felt young, weak, and vulnerable without knowing why. And this place, that nurse, was not helping.
Not the way Kane helped.
She touched his cheek. His chest expanded as he inhaled deep, eyes burning hers with their power. Speaking to her. Challenging her. She'd just met him yesterday, but if she could keep her eyes on Kane's and know that by doing this, she would please him, then that was what she wanted to do.
That last thought that zinged through her body and lit up her nerves helping her to loosen her arms and lean away.
He didn't say another word. Instead he knelt and took off her shoes for her while she pulled her lavender tunic over her head. When she took off her pants, he looked away. But the nurse didn’t provide anything for Sasha to cover herself with.
When he took a position next to the bed, slightly behind, Sasha knew from the sudden blast of ice, like someone had turned the cooling system on high, that he was looking at her mother's handiwork on her back.
She reached out, taking his hand and offering him a purr just like she had yesterday.
The nurse made an uncomfortable sound. Sasha hadn't been watching her, but it seemed the woman had moved as far away from the alpha as she could get. But now that she was purring, the nurse was coming out of her corner, perhaps feeling confident enough to get back to business.
"Well, I see your number," she said. "And don't you look pretty with all those colors. My little niece loves the sparkle lotions too." She giggled, a nervous sound.
Her patronizing comment hung awkwardly in the air. The nurse was the only one pretending it was a compliment. "Let me get my data pad and we will start. The doctor will be here in a moment. I'm afraid we are running behind."
Kane pulled gently at Sasha's arm. When she glanced at his face, she saw that minute upturn at one corner of his lips that qualified as a smile, a thick eyebrow raised in amusement. His eyes ghosted over her from top to bottom as he noticed the glitter the nurse had pointed out.
Sasha looked down at herself. What she had seen in the mirror earlier had darkened from an understated glow to a sparkling shine. She looked a little bit like a child's art project.
