Page 45 of The Rejected Omega

The doors slide open into the neutral tones and posh leather seating of Kanata's office. There are snake plants by the windows and a waterfall feature in the middle of two hydroponic plant walls.

I've been here more times than I can count, but walking in with Connor paints everything in a different light. Mated couples are a common sight in Kanata's waiting rooms, but I've never had mine here supporting me. Mac rarely came with me anymore, but when he had, the staff always treated him like a father figure.

Coming here without my mate again and again over the years was like picking a scab raw repeatedly, never allowing it to heal. Watching the happy couples holding hands or chatting softly always made me start thinking in what-ifs and could-have-beens. The language of dreams, when I was long past dreaming.

Now, I manage to feel like both an impostor and that Connor could discover the truth at any moment.

The receptionist checking me in glances behind me to Connor, and her eyes brighten. I silently swear. I didn’t consider the possibility that someone here may recognize him. That kind of gossip would spread like wildfire in Crestwood.

“What’s your mate’s name?" The receptionist asks. "He’s not listed on your profile, but I can go ahead and add him.”

My entire body stiffens.

"He’s not my mate." The words taste like acid in my mouth. Have I ever actually said them out loud?

I choose a waiting room chair without a match beside it, forcing Connor to sit caddy-corner from me. He rolls his eyes and crosses one leg over another.

It's not long before a nurse with a clipboard calls my name. She glances at Connor and smiles.

“Your alpha's welcome to come back with you.”

“He’s not?—”

Connor's already standing. I huff out a breath and follow the nurse through the hallway maze to an exam room, where she takes my vitals and updates my chart.

“What are we seeing you for today, Ms. Crane? Your regular check-in appointment wasn’t for another few months, but I see we had a request to work you in urgently."

“I—”

Connor holds my stare. If I’m not honest, he will be.

“I’d like to have my blood drawn and get my levels checked out. I haven’t been feeling great.”

“Of course. And is this your mate? Would you like me to update your file? Currently, you have none listed.”

“No.” How many times am I going to have to repeat myself?

“Just a friend,” Connor says. He’s giving me a weird look.

“Very well. Dr. Kanata will be in shortly.”

The nurse leaves, and Connor turns to me. “The staff doesn’t know your mate passed away? It seems awfully insensitive of them.”

I shrug. “Only Kanata knows. I didn’t want the information leaking and the alpha’s family coming after me like I was a widow to a son I never met.”

I sit on the papered exam table, and Connor takes the guest chair. It all feels a little too real. Like in another version of our lives, Connor and I were here without the false pretenses. Freshly mated and in for a simple checkup, or maybe something more. Post-mating bite care? Birth control?Pregnancy?

“What do you expect to come of all this?” I ask.

“You’re getting off supps. You’re going through a heat. You will find an alpha, or you will fuck your hand and a knotted dildo, and it will hurt, and you will ache, but you will be alive at the end of it, damnit.”

I swallow and squeeze my thighs together.Well then.

Thank god I’m not in the little paper vagina-checking gown, or he’d smell my reaction to that.

The phlebotomist stops in to take a few vials of blood, cutting the tension between us. When Kanata finally knocks and enters thirty minutes later, her eyes snap to Connor and widen. To her credit, she recovers quickly and slips on a smile.

“Connor Masters. I haven’t seen you since Mac’s fiftieth. You’re even taller now.”

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