Page 24 of Lying Lainey

“Um… I’m not really sure,” I answered.

“Are you bleeding out or in danger of dying?” she questioned with the same lack of emotion.

“No?” I said, feeling like it was more of a question than anything. “Look, I was forced to take a drug this morning with no label or ingredients listed. The only thing it told me was dosage and injection placement.”

I could hear typing going on as I spoke then it paused. “Have you been taking suppressants or scent-altering medication for a long time?”

“Yeah, like since I was nineteen,” I told her.

“When did you administer that drug?”

Rubbing my forehead, I started to pace, my anxiety rising with each question. “This morning around seven-thirty. Listen, the injection site is red and tender. Doesn’t that mean I’m having a bad reaction to this? Should I be going to the hospital?”

“Absolutely not. If you are in need of emergency care, then we will be the ones to provide that for you,” she scolded me.

“Great, what do I need to do for that to happen?” I asked.

The woman let out an irritated sigh. “First of all, you need to warrant emergency care, and this matter doesn’t qualify. Ma’am, this is a normal side effect of the drug and will go away on its own. With how long you’ve been taking suppressants and alerting drugs, stripping those from your body will have some unpleasant moments.”

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “Did you just say stripping? Are you saying that what I just took this morning will remove whatever traces I have of either drug previously from my body?”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” The woman drawled like she was bored with my questions. “We are the Underground Omega Syndicate, and they don’t like it when Omegas deny what they are. So when they come across Omegas such as yourself, they fix the problem. You were picked for your skills and your designation as an Omega. I suggest you make peace with the fact you’re going through a detox.”

“How long will this take? What is about to happen to me?” I demanded, panic roaring in my ears.

“There’s no way to know as each person is different. Since I’ve determined you are not in any life-threatening danger, I’m going to hang up now. Thank you for calling UOS Pharmacy. Call us back if you find yourself in need of our assistance.” With that, the line went dead.

“Fuck,” I screamed, hurling the phone at the wall. By some twisted fate, it didn’t break as it crashed to the floor.

Running my hands through my hair, my body started to shake as I wracked my brain trying to come up with my next steps. This can’t be happening to me. How the fuck am I going to pull this off when I suddenly turn into an Omega right before their eyes?

“I need the real drugs,” I told myself. “You got this, Lainey. The driver will take us to a local pharmacy that has a clinic, and you’ll get them to administer a suppressant there. There’s no way this mystery drug can break down a fresh dose of suppressant.”

Taking deep breaths, I tried to calm myself, but it was almost as if I’d been given a shot of pure adrenaline with how fast my heart was beating. Dropping onto the edge of the bed, I let my head fall into my hands and focused on calming down. I hadn’t had a panic attack in a long fucking time, but it wasn’t something you forgot the feeling of. It took longer than I wanted it to, but I managed to pull my shit together. There was no time for this if I wanted to get to the pharmacy before the meeting with New Wave in forty minutes.

I focused on nothing but getting dressed, grabbing the few things I would need to do something with my hair, and slinging the dress bag over my arm. Glancing at the phone still on the floor, I debated leaving it there and telling the syndicate to fuck off. Then I reminded myself that getting outed to these people that I was an Omega wasn’t the same as the whole world knowing my name and face. My jaw clenched, I stomped over to the damn thing, scooped it up, and jammed it in my pocket.

Eye on the prize, Lainey. Finish this job and be done with the Syndicate and Corzina once and for all.

The moment the driver spotted me, he hopped out and took the dress from me, laying it out in the trunk. “Did we need to make a stop anywhere?”

“The nearest pharmacy, please. I seem to be out of hair spray,” I answered.

“Certainly, there is one just around the corner,” he said as he opened the back door for me.

In mere minutes, I was heading to the pharmacy counter praying they had a fast-acting suppressant on hand.

“Hello, how can we help you?” the woman behind the counter asked.

Taking note of her name, I smiled. “Hi, Annabeth, I was hoping you might have some fast-acting Intervestron in stock. I was supposed to get my dose yesterday, but the pharmacy I normally used was out. There is a super important meeting I need to be at tonight, and it’s a group of high-powered Alphas.”

She seemed hesitant but typed the name of the medication in her system. “We do have it in stock…” she paused, glancing sidelong at me, “… however, we do need a doctor’s note to ensure we’re giving you the correct dosage.”

I’d been expecting this, and thankfully, this wasn’t the first time I’d had to pull this trick and kept a fake prescription on a cloud server so I could access it.

“I don’t have it physically, but I do have a copy of it from the pharmacy that couldn’t fill it. Will that work?” I questioned.

Annabeth chewed her lower lip, debating. “I’ll get the pharmacist and have him make that call.”