“Little sluts just want to cause problems. They always do this shit,” the receptionist muttered under her breath just as the nurse opened the door and pushed Quinn through.
Fuck.
“And you’ve used these, uh, suppressants for how long,” the medico asked from where he perched on the rolling stool by the low counter.
Quinn had asked for a Beta woman, so they had given her over to an old grandfather type with a balding pate and wispy strands of gray hair around his dome. Either he didn’t know what medications an Omega took—which seemed ludicrous considering they were given out in this same clinic—or he had opinions on the Omegas who took them as she did. She wasn’t sure which yet.
“I picked up my prescription on the eighth—”
“No, dear, I mean in total.”
“Since I was twelve, I guess. It should have been on my form.”
“Yes, yes, but not every Omega takes it on such a… consistent basis. And you remember to take them daily? A pill missed here or there can create all sorts of trouble for those around you.”
The tone was one of patronizing condescension, a smug male who thought he knew more about her dynamic than she did. So, it was the latter that was his issue. She held her breath, counting down the seconds to the lecture she heard often. She made it to three.
“You realize that these pills, they’re doing things to your body that are unnatural. Suppressants used to provide a calm workplace environment for your coworkers is one thing, but they shouldn’t be taken to such excess as this. And the other medications you take… Well, it’s no wonder you’ve had such a reaction as this. Your body is trying to tell you something, Miss Ivers.”
“Yes, it’s telling me that the medications are either a bad batch or my prescription needs to be adjusted.” Quinn sat up straighter as the old man slid his dull brown gaze towards her. The smile she offered was polite, but her chin cocked at a challenging angle.
“Perhaps you should just allow your body to cleanse itself of all this,” he said with a cool edge to that fatherly voice. “Allow your estrous and I’m sure things will be just fine. It is what your body is built to do.”
“Maybe you should just adjust my prescription.”
The medico stood and sent the stool banging into the cabinet, no longer warm. Quinn bristled under his disapproving gaze. She refused to give in to the temptation to snarl and shout at the male. It would only get her escorted out with no solution.
“We’ve no reports of faulty suppressants on file. To adjust your prescription, we would need to do blood samples and they will take seven to ten business days to process.”
“Seven to ten days? That’s ridiculous!”
“You are free to go to the hospital or your regular physician of course,” the old man said, and the sneering contempt was as plain as a waving flag. It was obvious that those weren’t options if she was sitting in this dingy little room in the first place.
“Fine, do the tests,” Quinn said with a stiff smile. Already rolling up her sleeve, she presented her arm.
Quinn clutched the borrowed hoodie tight to her chin against the pounding rain as she stumbled from the clinic. The stale funk of teenage male, sweat, and Gods only knew what else was making her feel ill. Add to that a long, sleepless night and no food and she was a walking zombie.
That was the excuse she made for herself when she noticed the black car following her. Once she had even realized it was there, she still did not connect the dots until a cab took a corner where she was crossing at high speed. The out-of-place car, with its gleaming paint job and tinted windows, pulled over when she was forced to stumble back onto the sidewalk and wait for the light. As Quinn started across the street again, she watched the dark car around the edge of her dripping hood as it eased from the curb and slipped into the slow-moving traffic.
Wondering which deity she had pissed off to deserve this kind of day, she quickened her steps. Slogging through soggy trash and streaming gutters, she wound her way through the hurrying crowd. There were some benefits to being smaller. Ducking under arms, squeezing between buildings and bodies, she moved almost unimpeded.
Panting, she swiped a hand through the rain streaming down her face and glanced around at another cross street. The car waited.
Panic crackled up her spine in a bolt of pure electricity. It gave her a renewed energy and pushed her from a fast walk to an outright run. Darting through the crowd with legs pumping, she tried not to look back. It would only serve to trip her up, but she could swear she felt the owner of that car already breathing down her neck.
Questions without any clear answers whirled through her thoughts at breakneck speeds. Who could be following her and why? The car was almost familiar, but why would Mr. Rey or his driver be following her after he sent her cab fare? She was no one and nothing, so if someone else was tracking her, it had to be because they caught her scent at some point.
Distracted as she was, the inevitable happened. Quinn went flying onto the sidewalk after colliding with a brick wall of flesh and limbs. Concrete scraped layers of delicate skin from her palms, knees slammed into unforgiving stone.
“What the hell is wrong with you,” a male snarled above her.
Adrenaline had her scrambling back up onto her feet before the pain even registered. Already spinning away with the worn-out soles of her sneakers sliding on the slick pavement as they sought purchase, she was unprepared for the hand that grabbed her arm and hauled her back.
In a shrieking tangle of limbs, Quinn landed on her ass in a puddle. Searing pain blossomed up her spine to the base of her skull where it exploded in sizzling technicolor. A breathy whimper scratched its way past clenched teeth. Nails ground against the pavement as she fought the scream that wanted to follow. Hunched and making shallow pants, she watched the large male legs spread in challenge before her.
Just. Fucking.Great.
“I asked you a question, you little shit,” the male said in a restrained roar. Alpha anger was thick and acrid on the back of her throat even through the slackening rain. It rolled off of him in waves, sucked into her lungs with the misty air.
