Page 70 of Knot Broken

Shut up, I thought, staring at the doctor, but my focus drifted back to Nadia.

“It hurts,” I confirmed. “In your pelvis?”

“Hips… Back…” she panted.

“Rub her—” I snapped.

“Back?” Grey shot me one of those cold motherfucker looks of his, and while I was well used to it, suddenly that wasn’t OK. The room stank of burned, sour flowers. An omega’s pain. “On it,” he said, lifting up her shirt and digging his thumbs into the muscles there.

“Hey.” Tex shouldered me aside, taking Nadia’s hands in his. “You’ve got this. Meeting your wolf is gonna be amazing. She’ll be beautiful, just like you.”

I stared at him, wondering where the fuck he got this boundless optimism from. Probably because his shift was damn near effortless. Like taking a deep breath in, he said, but not all of us were that lucky. What I knew was coming should’ve been enough to have me walking out the door, so why weren’t my feet moving? Because whether or not Nadia accepted me as her mate, I was her friend, so I snatched a bottle of cold water from the fridge and cracked it before holding it out.

“Take a drink,” I said. “If I had to guess, you’re burning up right now.”

“Yes…” she hissed and then the plastic crackled as she drank down mouthfuls greedily.

“Not too fast,” I warned, knowing what came next.

“Ah, fuck…!”

The bottle would’ve fallen to the floor if I hadn’t caught it, but it was quickly discarded. Spilled water wasn’t what worried me. The way Nadia looked up, eyes wide, I watched the moment the brown bled to pure silver for the first time. It felt like her wolf stared out at me, right into the depths of my soul and whatever it saw wasn’t good, because her scream tore through the tense atmosphere.

“Turn it off.” Grey could shut up a bunch of rowdy blokes at a work site with that voice, but Riley didn’t move. “Turn it the fuck off!”

“You’re not in control here, Grey,” she replied, tapping a red button. “Nadia?”

There was no way for the omega to reply. Falling forward, we all reached for her at the same time, but somehow she slipped through our grip, her hands hitting the floor.

And that’s when the memories hit.

She’d be feeling like every muscle was jumping on her bones, fighting to break free and rearrange themselves into their new anatomy.

Just far too slowly.

Claws pricked her fingers, and white fur raced up her arms and for just a second, I dared to hope. Maybe she wouldn’t be like me. This could be a simple, straightforward⁠—

“Ahh!”

Her shout echoed across the room, bouncing off every hard surface and into me. Dropping to my knees before her, my hands found her jaw. Fangs had pushed down and blood dripped from freshly cut gums.

“It’s push through or push back,” I told her as the others all shouted. More and more people were entering the room, making so much noise, but I stayed focused. “If you’re ready to shift—?” Nadia shook her head sharply. “Then push her back. You’re in charge, not the wolf. She wants out, but she doesn’t get to, not until you’re ready, so push her back, down, deep inside you. Push her back⁠—”

“Shit, look at that.”

Tex crouched down beside me, watching the way the fur shrank back, her fingernails returning, complete with slightly chipped nail polish. The noisy sound of Nadia’s breathing was what I focussed on, right before her arms quivered, then gave out. I caught her, hauling her onto my lap and then wrapping my arms around her, because I remembered what it felt like. For your skin to transform into something weird, ill fitting, and only deep pressure helped ease the ache. Her breath fanned over my shoulder and I felt every twitch as she quivered in my grip.

“Omega…” Grey dropped to our level, then tilted her head his way. “We don’t need to do this.” A growl at Riley and her pack, who apparently had joined us. “Take the pump out now. I’m not putting Nadia through this. If I have to walk away⁠—”

“No.” A ghost of a reply, but the omega had everyone’s attention. “That’s not what I want. It…” Feeling her tense against me was horrible. I didn’t want to let her go, but Nadia sat back on her heels. “It just hit me harder than I thought. Like I knew it would hurt, but…”

But there aren’t enough adjectives in the English language to describe the pain of your body abandoning one form and recreating itself into another.

“Are we done here for today?” she asked, looking up at Riley.

“We should keep you here for the full hour,” the doctor replied, but then her mates looked at her meaningfully. “But the chip will tell us if you start trying to shift again. Head back to your room and try to relax.”

Riley meant with Tex and Grey, so why did I step forward, collecting the omega in my arms? Perhaps because it was only when I was carrying her out of this damn examination room, I could take a full breath. My heart beat way too fast as I felt her eyes on me the entire walk down the hall and into her suite.