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I know the score. She’s a Beta, but she’s also a vampire. I don’t stand a chance.

“So submissive,” she hums, crouching in front of me. My eyes flick over her scrubs, noting the wrinkles. It looks like she’s been wearing them for hours.

“Not going to say anything?”

I shake my head.

“Alright, then. Look up.”

I do, and am instantly accosted by a piercing light shining in my eyes. Slamming my eyes shut, I recoil, a shrill whine of pain slipping past my lips.

Fates, that hurts! Why did she do that? Isn’t she supposed to be a Doctor?

“Well, that answers that question,” she murmurs.

“What question?” I ask, cracking open a single eyelid cautiously. When I don’t see that terrible bright light, I open the other.

“Gavran thought you might be faking a concussion. Can’t fake an Omega whine of pain like that, though.”

Warmth flares to life in my chest.

Not my Bond, but the ember that lives deep behind my ribs. The flame my mother told me stories about. I feel it spark, flaming along with my indignation.

They think I’m faking my injuries? How?

The Beta pulls a pair of surgical gloves from her pocket and snaps them on. “You are, from what I understand, a lying Omega who used your designation to make Caelan feel sorry enough for you that he went against orders. You then set him up and led him to your father, which resulted in his near-death.”

No.

That’s so, so wrong. If that’s what these people genuinely think of me⁠—

I hiss in pain as her fingers poke and prod the cut on my forehead. “What happened here?”

“I didn’t use my designation to make Caelan come back for me,” I whisper, unwilling to ignore her accusation.

“No?” She doesn’t sound like she cares one way or the other

“I don’t think—” I flinch as she presses harder on my wound. “I don’t think anyone can make Caelan do anything.”

If these are his friends, they should know he wouldn’t come back for me unless he wanted to. I never asked him to come back. He offered.

He promised.

“Oh, so this is his fault, then?” She wrenches my face up so I’m looking at her. One of her hands holds my chin steady, while the other moves a finger back and forth in front of my eyes.

I follow the movement with narrowed eyes, my anger growing higher and hotter. That isn’t what I meant at all. She’s purposely twisting my words.

“It is not his fault. None of this is.”

“I’m aware. Gav and Silas made sure we all understood that you’re solely to blame for the agony Caelan’s experiencing. Do you know it took us forty-five minutes just to stabilize him?”

I shake my head. Of course I didn’t know. No one’s brought me any news at all, despite my repeated questions.

A tear tracks down my cheek. I don’t bother swatting it away.

“Please tell me—” I need to know how Caelan’s doing, but she interrupts me.

“Absolutely not. Why? So you can gloat?”