Page 21 of Shades of Scars

“Just because you owe me your entire existence, doesn’t mean I trust you with my omega. You’ll have to take it up with them about their reasons for being here.” Wren jabs his thumb over his shoulder at the other three, but they just give the beta hard, unyielding states until he grumbles and looks away. Smart man. These alphas are clearly unhinged.

I definitely don’t think about how that turns me on. Nope. Not going there.

Turning to face me, he looks me up and down with a clinically assessing sort of gaze. I can feel his eyes linger on the still exposed mark on my shoulder, but thankfully, he doesn’t comment on it. It’d already been hard enough talking about it with the four overly possessive man beasts crowding around the exam table. I hadn’t even been able to give them details, and I still don’t think I ever can. Not even if I really want to.

It’s too damn painful to relive.

I can’t deny though how well they’ve broken through the extensive barriers I’ve been building around my heart over the last several years.

It’s annoyingly impressive.

“How are you feeling, Miss…?”

“Reighn. Scarlett Reighn.” I supply, and he nods. “I’ve had better days. My head hurts. I hit it pretty hard against the sidewalk when I was attacked. But it’s my shoulder that hurts the most. I think I landed on it wrong in the scuffle. It might be broken, or fractured at the very least.” I try to shift my shoulder up, but white hot fiery pain lances through me with the action, so I quickly think better of it.

“I figured as much. I’d like to take an X-ray of your arm and shoulder if you don’t mind? I have a simple machine in the back that’ll work well enough to give us the look we need.” He gestures towards the door, and I chew on my bottom lip.

“I… I don’t have insurance… so I’ll have to pay out of pocket. Do you know how much the scan will cost?” All four alphas stiffen around me at my confession. Normally, I would feel embarrassed, but I’m in too much pain to care.

Kars opens his mouth to reply, but Caito’s quick to cut him off. “Cost is no issue,mo chroí. We own Kars and this clinic.” The doctor scowls at his bored, indifferent tone.

My gaze darts back and forth between them while my teeth continue their assault on my poor bottom lip. “I can pay for my own treatment. I don’t need alphas who come bowling into my life to dictate every little thing. I’ve managed just fine on my own so far.”

Kars looks impressed by my back bone of steel. Caito’s jaw flexes, lips tightening like he wants to argue. Instead, he narrows a cool glare on the beta. “Just do the scan.”

“One of you can come back with her during the scan. The space back there is too small for all of you.” He warns with a veryvisible swallow, like demanding such a thing is likely to get him hung up in a tree somewhere.

Predictably, Caito opens his mouth to volunteer, but Wren cuts in before he can. “Apollo will go back with you. The rest of us will wait here.” Then he levels a hard look at Kars. “If you harm one hair on her head, Apollo will rip you apart limb from limb. I can always find a new doctor to put in my pocket.”

I don’t think the warning was needed, but Wren delivered it anyway. Kars, to his credit, doesn’t even blink or flinch at the threat. Instead, he nods. “It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. I have one of the best machines money can buy, after all.” It’s a subtle jab at Wren, but the viking god alpha ignores it.

Apollo places a hand on the small of my back that sends a shiver racing up my spine where I can feel the heat of him, and we follow Kars out of the tiny room. He leads us to the right and to the very end of the hall, before pushing open the last door on the left.

He hadn’t been lying about the lack of space in the room. It’s big enough to house another exam table with a massive X-ray machine mounted in the middle of the ceiling, and hanging down with an extension arm so it can be moved around easily.

“Since you just have a tank top on, it should be fine to leave it on. I only need images of your shoulder. If you’d please?” He gestures towards the exam table, and with Apollo’s help, I climb up and lay down on my back without being prompted.

The beta gives an approving nod before he moves to a control panel on the wall. He pressed some buttons before turning back to me. Grabbing the extension arm of the machine, he brings it down directly over my shoulder.

Once he’s confident he has it placed properly, he twists back to the panel and taps a few more buttons. The machine hums to life above, making a series of clicking noises, before Kars jabs a few more buttons. He adjusts the position of the extension armto take various images of my arm from different angles, before he pushes it away.

On a small side table in the corner is a computer which he moves to while Apollo helps me back off the table with the doctor’s approval. He taps and clicks away at the keyboard for a moment, humming under his breath, before he turns back to us.

“Shall we head back so I don’t have to repeat my diagnosis?” He gestures towards the door. I startle when Apollo’s hand slips into mine, but I immediately relax with the touch as we head back to the exam room where we’d left the other alphas.

We file back into the room and I climb up on the table again for something to do with myself. Kars pulls out a small handheld tablet from the pocket of his lab coat, tapping away at the screen for a second, before he twists the device to face me and the alphas in the room.

There, on screen, is an image of my shoulder on X-ray. Kars zooms in on my shoulder and taps a finger against a small dark spot on the scan. “You have a small hairline fracture along your clavicle vertically that spans about half an inch. At this time, I don’t believe surgery will be necessary, but I will recommend you use a sling for the next four to six weeks until the fracture can repair itself. Minimize time outside of the sling if possible to only when sleeping.”

I blow out a breath of relief. “So, not broken? No surgery?”

Kars gives a small shake of his head and smiles for the first time since I’d been introduced to him earlier. It seems like a genuine one, too.“As long as you can keep it in the sling and allow it to heal naturally, I don’t believe that’ll be necessary.”

“Good thing it isn’t my working arm.” I sigh with a shake of my head. I can tell I’ve immediately piqued the alpha’s interests, but they don’t say anything while Kars discharges us as quickly as possible.

We leave the clinic with a script for some pain meds and a fancy new black sling securing my arm to my body for optimal healing.

13

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