The woman’s husky voice sounded completely professional down the line, not like someone who’d give secret serums to billionaires to drug hapless betas and turn them into omegas.
“Um…hi, my name is Sage Davies.”
“Sage! So he took my advice and told you. Awesome. You must be kind of confused right now.”
“In more ways than one. You talked to him about me?”
“Ahh…so he didn’t get far with that discussion, obviously?” I said yes. “OK, so did you want me to fill you in on the conversation I had with Lucien Lockwood?”
“God, more than bloody anything right now.”
“Well, part of this will include my own story, so you’ll have to excuse that, but basically, Lucien came to me after the two of you went out on that date. Everything inside him was telling him that you’re his mate, his pack’s mate, and he couldn’t work out why. Apparently, to him, sometimes you smell like an omega and sometimes you don’t.”
“So sometimes I’m his mate and sometimes I’m not?” I snapped, then apologised for the outburst. “I’m just…”
“On edge? Feeling both harassed and kinda low-key flattered at the same time? Wondering if they’re responding to you or whatever they’re sniffing on you?”
I let out a little bark of a laugh.
“Yeah, that.”
“I understand, really.” I’d heard doctors and nurses say similar things before, but for some reason, I believed this complete stranger. “Let me tell you my story.”
The sun shifted across the sky as Riley talked, outlining her situation and how she came to find her pack. Strangely, the tension that had been throbbing in my body seemed to dissipate as I followed the trials and travails of her relationship. She’d thought she was a beta, had been stopped from even thinking of the brothers she felt were her soulmates as potential partners, and then had been sent away like a dog to the pound, put out of reach of her mates, but they’d come and found her. After that, they’d proven to themselves and her that they were in it for her, not because of what they sensed about her designation.
“They love me.” She said it so simply, but the feeling there was palpable. “And I love them, each and every one of them—I feel that in my heart. I always have, when I was a beta and when I was an omega. I just let the bullshit about designations get in my way, but let’s get back to you.”
I chuckled at that and then agreed.
“Lucien contacted me because his wolf is responding to you like you’re an omega, like you’re a very special omega—his mate. You might be a latent like me. It appears that a great many of us could potentially be omegas. We tend to think of genes as written in stone, biological determiners that are the foundation of who we are, and if you were asking about eye colour for example, you’d be right. You’ll never have brown eyes if you have blue and vice versa. Other genes seem to respond to environmental factors, turning the nature versus nurture debate into natureandnurture. That could be what’s happening now, and I could give you a more definitive answer for the state you’re in currently with some blood tests—”
“God, yes, that would be really helpful.”
“But that will only tell us what’s going on in your body now. The longer you’re around this pack—”
“The more I might change…” I whispered the words, feeling and hearing everything that Lucien had said from a whole different perspective.
“We’re working on medication to help people with that. Not everyone wants that change, and I’m dedicated to helping people take control of the process,” she assured me.
Riley gave me some instructions, letting me know where the nearest collection centre was with a promise she’d fax over the relevant forms directly to them, but as I finished the phone call, something deadly rose inside me. I knew which one of the rooms was Lucien’s, and after I changed out of my work slacks and into some yoga pants, I rapped on his door.
“You were trying to turn me into an omega?” I snapped the moment the door opened.
“Come in, Sage.” His eyes flicked up and down the hallway. “Let’s talk this out.”
“Except every moment you spend near me could be changing me, right?” He didn’t reply, the muscle in his jaw flexing. “Book that flight. I want to be home in my own bed by tonight.”
I went to the elevators and waited, wondering if he’d follow me, but I was able to exit the hotel unmolested. I followed the GPS directions on my phone until I found the pathology centre, going in and getting my blood taken.
“You think you might be an omega?” the phlebotomist said as she took the blood samples. “Damn, I’d love that. A pack of hot alphas at my beck and call…” She looked all swoony for a second, even though I was the one getting blood taken. “Hope you get the answer you’re looking for,” she said as I went to leave.
I nodded, feeling the tape and cotton ball she’d applied over the draw site pull as I turned to leave. Then I walked, supposedly back towards the hotel, ready to pack my belongings and get the hell out, but that wasn’t where my feet took me. I walked up and down hills, past gleaming shop fronts and office buildings, through crowds of office workers, then those began to thin as the sun began to lower in the sky. I watched the oak leaves tumble across the concrete, until finally, I came to a stop.
I’d arrivedin Hyde Park, and I stood there, staring down a broad avenue, complete with a canopy of Hill’s weeping fig trees. People strode past me in a variety of activewear, either running down the concourse, pushing prams, or dragging along recalcitrant children and dogs, trying for a family outing as evening approached. I just shuffled forward, all of the fire inside me, all of the discontent, having somehow exhausted itself. I found a park bench and sat down, fishing out my phone, and saw I had a whole swathe of missed calls from Lucien, but it was voicemails from an unknown number that had me clicking on them.
“Shit, Sage, I’m so sorry about what happened.” Max’s voice came down the phone line raspier, rougher than it had been at the airport. “It was like watching a car crash unfold. I could see how much I was scaring you and…” I heard a sharp hiss. “I’m not going to make excuses. I just wanted to apologise. Call me back if you want to talk, but…” After long sigh, the call ended.
I just stared at the phone screen, seeing the reflections of the trees above me more than the notifications, my mind almost too tired to think, to feel another thing.