Page 23 of Power Shift

She nods, hands falling to grip her hips as she sucks in a deep breath. “I know. It’s just that she’s in trouble, and that makes it feel different.”

“I know. But we handled it last time we were in this sort of situation.”

It just hasn’t been for a few months. We haven’t needed to hire security to hang around outside of the building since the last runaway omega sought us out. Asking for another few bodies to help was a bit nerve-racking, but it didn’t change our willingness to help Sadie. If anything, it only made us more serious about what we were about to do.

“I’m being dramatic,” Clover relents, shoulders slumping.

“No, you’re being cautious. That’s not a bad thing. Especially not today. We’ll listen to Sadie’s story and go from there, okay?”

Her eyes meet mine as her lips tug into a soft smile. “Yeah, okay.”

“Come sit beside me and try to relax so you don’t scare her away when she gets here,” I urge, patting the empty chair beside me.

“You don’t think she’ll have trouble where to go without one of us waiting at the door?”

“No. Alicia knows to bring the patients to this room herself when they arrive.”

Clover swallows and rushes toward me before plunking down on the chair. She smooths the top of her pencil skirt and wiggles her shoulders in her white coat, drawing my attention to the Dr. Clover stitched in hot pink thread on the left breast.

“Maybe my heat is coming soon,” she grumbles, fanning herself.

“Are you serious? You shouldn’t be here, then?—”

“I’m fine right now. I’m just blaming my anxiety on hormones. Ignore me.”

I lean close, my brow twitching. “Are you sure?”

That does remind me that mine should be coming in a couple of weeks. I’ll have to phone the heat clinic as soon as I can to reserve yet another room.

“I’m sure. Not that I’d have let a heat affect this meeting, anyway. This is too important to postpone.”

“For an OB, you’re the worst when it comes to your own health,” I scold.

“Don’t you even start. Have you already forgotten how I found you Saturday?”

“As if you’d let me.”

“Exactly.”

I shake my head, leaning back in the plush leather chair. We didn’t spare any expenses when it came to the furniture in this clinic, including the elaborate glass table in front of us and the comfortable chairs we’re sitting on. It’s not like we spend a lot of time in meetings, but for the few hours a week we are here, comfort wasn’t something we were willing to compromise on.

Omegas are the most sensitive and picky of all designations, and I say that with pride instead of judgment. I love being comfortable and can get irritable quickly if I’m not. Clover and I go into every meeting with a new patient knowing that they’re most likely in the same boat as us.

“How are you doing, Bri? Feeling any better yet?” Clover asks.

I force myself to smile wider than I could naturally. “I’m getting there. Work helps.”

“And you haven’t seen that guy again?”

“No, and I’m not about to go back to that restaurant to see if he’ll show up. He’s gone, Clo.”

She rests a hand over the one I have palm down on the table, leaving fingerprints on the glass. “What about Greg? Have you heard from him since?”

“I blocked his number the other night.”

“Atta girl. He wasn’t worth a second thought.”

He hadn’t reached out to me since I left the restaurant that night. I took that more of an answer than I would have an outrightit’s overtext. Keeping his number open was only encouraging a tiny spring of hope I needed to crush.

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