I adjusted the rearview mirror and noticed my hand was shaking violently. “This can’t keep happening, Ty. I’m driving straight to the clinic now to see if I can get a prescription and go back on the suppressants.”
“I think that’s a wise decision. It’s the best we can do for now.”
He didn’t say it, but I knew in his mind he was thinking that our completing the mating ceremony would take care of it. He loved me, though, and he didn’t want to push me into something I wasn’t ready for.
I hung up just as I pulled into the clinic. This time, I wasn’t taking any risks. I asked the security guard to come inside with me. He gladly sat next to me in the waiting room and stood outside the lab door as my blood was being drawn.
After waiting thirty minutes in a consultation room, Doctor Reynolds finally came in. Without a word, the security guard got up and went to stand outside the door. The look on the doctor’s face didn’t give me the warm fuzzies.
“Hello, Liza. I understand you’re hoping to go back on the suppressants. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” I shifted in my seat. “I had a scary experience today with my pheromones, and I’m afraid it’ll happen again.”
“Well…” He skimmed the pages in my chart. “Unfortunately, we may have a minor problem.”
“Damn it.” Of course, there was a problem. If I’d learned one thing, it was that nothing could be easy. At least not where I was concerned. What the hell else could go wrong?
“Your white blood cell count is a lot higher than it should be. With you being an omega, they already multiply rapidly, but now they’ve multiplied exponentially. Suppressants wouldn’t help you at this point.”
I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat. “Are you sure there’s nothing you could get for me? Maybe a higher dosage from Mexico. Something experimental. Anything?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Even the strongest legal dosage would probably have little to no effect on combating the cells multiplying so rapidly within your body.” He took a seat on a black leather stool and tossed my file on the table. “Are you in heat?”
I rolled my eyes. “I think I’d know if I were in heat, and I’m not.” If I was in heat, I would’ve been all over Ty. Yeah, we’d had some fun, but it wasn’t the same as me having no control over my sexual urges.
“Hmm.” Doc Reynolds crossed his arms. “Your bloodwork is suggesting otherwise.”
I frowned. “Sorry, but I certainly don’t feel like I’m in heat. Are you sure the bloodwork is correct?”
He scratched his forehead. “I’ll admit that this is confusing. The bloodwork doesn’t lie, yet I also believe you when you say you don’t feel like you’re in heat. I’m assuming you haven’t had the typical urges you’ve seen in the past when you were in heat?”
I nodded. “That’s correct. I haven’t.”
Reynolds frowned. “This is concerning.”
Great. Just the words you wanted to hear from your doctor.
“Have you been spending a lot of time with Ty?” he continued.“I wonder if your wolf might be reacting to Ty’s regular proximity.”
“Yes.” In fact, we rarely left each other’s side, only for work. Even then, we rushed home to spend the late afternoons and evenings together. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, he’s your mate, and as an omega, your wolf will want to be… bred.”
I choked on air, gasping and spitting.
Doc Reynolds handed me a glass of water and gave me a moment to recover. “It’s quite normal for your wolf to want to start bearing cubs now that she’s no longer being suppressed. She may be feeling like she needs to exude pheromones to… entice Ty to breed with her. Which, to me, would explain the high white blood cell count.”
My head pounded as I tried to make sense of this new and confusing diagnosis. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this information?”
He gave me a pointed look. “You need to stop putting off the inevitable. You’re not going to reject Ty as your mate, and the longer you wait, the more your wolf suffers.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His voice lowered as he asked me the question I was afraid of answering. “What is it really that you’re waiting for? Ty is fated to you, and fate is never wrong.”
I thought about my conversation with the doctor all the way to my parents’ house. When my brothers met me at the door with hugs and teasing, I had to force myself to smile and at least seem interested in conversation.
“Come on in.” Dad gestured for us to join him in the living room.
Before I could protest, Mason scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder like he used to do when we were much younger. “Look what I caught, Michael.”
Michael leaned in and pretended to inspect me, lifting my hair, and tugging on my ears. “It’s a dud. Throw it back in.”
