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How they’d embraced.
I’d rolled down the window, wanting to call out, and heard the young alpha promise to smooth things over with her dad.
“Maybe she did mean that on the yacht, Anne-Marie,” I said, my voice creaking. Creaking, like the old man I was. Or was becoming. “But she’s with him now. And he’s… he’ll be better for her than me.”
I’d collapsed on my desk then. Lorelei had panicked, calling an ambulance that I had to send away. Dr. Rimbolt had already warned me about what might happen as the days passed. The exhaustion returned full force now, facing down my angry aunt.
“Marguerite, I don’t want to be rude. But I’m not feeling well. Can we schedule the verbal evisceration for later in the week?” I staggered as I tried to move past her.
“Oh god, Gio, what’s wrong with you?”
Dr. Rimbolt stepped around the corner and helped her guide me into the larger consulting room. My aunt demanded again to know what had happened to me. “Well, Marguerite,” he said with a sigh as he took my vitals. “This is what happens when a stubborn alpha won’t do as nature intends.”
“So sheisyour true mate, like Lorelei suspected.” Marguerite’s lips got so tight, they almost vanished. “How you could abandon that young woman is beyond comprehension. If it was just you suffering, that would be one thing! But to leave her now when she may need you most…”
“What do you mean?” I demanded, my blood going cold. “What do you mean she needs me?” I glared at Rimbolt. “You said omegas don’t feel the loss of the bond like alphas. You said there would be no side effects for her—”
“Not severe ones, no,” he said, cutting me off with a curious look at my aunt. “At least, not that I know of. Marguerite? Has there been some recent research? Is the girl ill?”
My aunt’s lips pursed. “I can’t say.”
“But she came to see you two weeks ago, right?” I interrupted her stare-off with Rimbolt. “She wasn’t sick from being in the ocean?”
Something flashed in her eyes. “You should contact her and find out what’s wrong, Gio.”
“Is she ill?” Rimbolt looked concerned. “Were there side effects from her misadventure?”
Exasperated, she huffed, “I can’t violate patient confidentiality, Herb. You know that.”
“Please, Marguerite. Should I have called the helicopter to evacuate her that day? I’ll never forgive myself if—”
Her eyes slid to mine, then away. “No, that’s not the issue.” She leaned close to Rimbolt, speaking quickly and quietly. “Some slight concern with elevated hCG, but only at twenty-four.”
Dr. Rimbolt tapped the side of his nose. “Ah, I see. I saw the tech setting up the ultrasound.”
“Exactly.”
“What the fuck are you twotalkingabout? Is my omega sick?”
“That,” Aunt Marguerite snapped, poking a finger into my chest. “That right there is the problem. She’s your omega. But if you don’t make it right… well, let’s just say, she won’t be alone.”
“I know she won’t. She’s got a fucking fiancé,” I spat out. “Why do you think I’m suffering like this? It’s for her. So she can have… what she wants.Whoshe wants.”
Aunt Marguerite stared at me while I panted. “My god. Lorelei really did get all the brains, didn’t she?”With that, she turned on her heel and walked out.
Dr Rimbolt did his exam in silence, only humming a bit. Then he directed me to a chair, and sighed. “It’s not good, Giovanni. I’m afraid the symptoms will only get worse.”
Worse? I wasn’t sure I would be able to work if the pain got much more severe. I’d barely been able to keep up with the aftermath of the “Alphonse Dubois debacle” in the past two weeks. Meetings with Storm Security officials, federal agents, and even Interpol. I felt like an hourglass, running out of sand.
But I had to keep my companies afloat. My family protected. There had to be something I could do. “I’ve heard they have some treatments. I read about some clinical study—”
“I know the one you mean. Paxson Pharma pulled it in December. A friend of mine is on the board. There were potentially lethal side effects. Some of the alphas in the trial had coronary infarctions.”
“What else can I do? It’s been two weeks, and I can hardly work. I can’t think.”
“This is just the beginning, son.” I didn’t like the look in his eyes, like he was trying to find the gentlest way to break terrible news.
“Wait, I know a guy. Victor Castleton. He’s doing fine.” I stopped, wondering if that was true. I’d texted him nine months before, when he was down in South America, but not since.
