Page 107 of Never Bet Against A Hockey Player

“I’ll talk you through every step of the exam, I promise,” she said. “I’ll give you every bit of information I can to make sure that you’re comfortable and that you and your pack have everything you need going forward. I am a little concerned that you haven’t had a heat yet. But given what you’ve told me, and as long as everything seems healthy, I may want to consider the option of inducing a heat.”

“Inducing?” Dhara squeaked.

“In a lot of cases like this, your omega goes into protector mode. They know when it’s not safe to put themselves out there, and now that you’re out of your previous abusive situation, your system might just need a little jumpstart to get back on track.”

“Okay,” Dhara said, her voice a little stronger this time.

The doctor stood and pulled out a hospital gown, setting it on the exam table.

“If you want to go ahead and change, I’ll step out for a few moments. Then I’ll be back, and we can get the not-so-fun part of this done,” she promised.

Dr. Sanders left the room with one last warm, encouraging smile before leaving Dhara to it.

“What do you want us to do, baby?” Conrad said.

“Can you just close your eyes? I really don’t want your first time seeing me naked being in this setting,” she admitted.

I gave her a teasing smirk that had her rolling her eyes before I turned around to give her the privacy she needed.

“Alright, you guys can open your eyes,” she finally said.

She was sitting on the exam table now, wrapped in a paper gown, her cheeks red.

I couldn’t blame her.

This was one of those experiences that was necessary but humiliating in its own right. I didn’t want her uncomfortable with us.

There was a soft knock on the door before Dr. Sanders opened it slowly, giving Dhara a chance to protest had she not been dressed yet.

“Now, pack, if you guys want to move up here by Dhara’s head, you certainly can,” she said before sitting on the rolling stool and moving toward the end of the exam table.

Dhara squeezed her eyes closed as the doctor directed her to put her feet in the stirrups.

I tried not to look at the instruments she was using because they looked more like torture devices than actual healthcare, but what did I know? I was just a delta.

Her soft, pained whimpers as the doctor inserted the speculum had Conrad growling.

Thankfully, the doctor didn’t seem to care. She simply did what she had to do, talking Dhara through every step of the way.

When she finished, she scooted away, tossed her gloves into the trash, and washed up before handing some tissues to Dhara.

We respectfully looked away again as Dhara cleaned herself up and sat back up.

“Okay, with everything I’m seeing, I don’t have any concerns health-wise, so I do want to move ahead with inducing your first heat. I think it’ll be easier on you. It’ll likely prevent an extended pre-heat, which can be uncomfortable and drag on for quite a while. How do we feel about that?”

“If it needs done,” Dhara hedged, looking nervous but excited.

“I believe this would be the best route to take, but I want you to be comfortable with that decision as well.”

Dhara looked at us, but that wasn’t our decision to make.

Conrad spoke first, the alpha settling easily into that leadership role I’d been waiting for him to embrace.

“We’ll be there for your heat, whatever shape that takes. We support your decision, and we’ll work around it. You already know the AHA is great about making sure the omegas involved are taken care of. That extends to you now.”

She took a deep breath and looked back at Dr. Sanders.

“How does that work?”