Page 43 of His Bonded Omega Mate
The building was still locked when I approached, my keys in hand, ready to let myself in. Inside, I switched off the alarm and flicked the lights on. Without looking at anything else, I went to the nurse’s dispensary and searched for what I needed.
I must have lost track of time as I searched through the closet, not finding what I needed. I searched high, or as high as I could reach, and low, but I couldn’t find anything like what I wanted.
“Fuck!” I ran a hand through my hair, feeling its utter disarray. Before I met Roan in a couple of hours, I’d need to shower properly. It felt like there was still shampoo in my hair!
“Hello? Hiro?” James called out.
“In here.”
He found me surrounded by a mess of boxes, sitting on the floor and close to tears. James dashed to my side, crouched, and pulled me into a hug. “What’s wrong, sweet boy?”
This little quirk that James had of calling me ‘sweet boy’ had really grown on me. It felt like he really cared about me and not just as an employee of the clinic. I knew my worth as a healer. Worldwide, I had alphas seeking me out to come to their packs, prides, whatever, to help their sick. I was practically famous.
James, though. He saw me. The person underneath the ability. Not my alter, not my healing gift. Me.
“Can you smell me? It’s different, right?”
I watched as James’s sparkling hazel eyes took on a glow as his bear pushed through, giving their human side stronger senses. Not a partial shift, just concentrating their senses on one sense, this time scent. “Hmm, there’s something there. Do you think?”
“I came here for a pregnancy test, but I can’t find them.”
James got to his feet, pulling me up with him. “Let’s check in Aldrin’s office.” He led the way and unlocked the door for us to enter. “If I know my mate, they will be over here.” He scanned some shelves. “Ah! Yes!” He turned to me with a box in hand. “You okay doing this yourself?” He looked worried.
His concerns were valid. I’d come to him the day after we’d arrived, asking if there was any way to tell sooner if all the contraceptives I’d taken had worked. As a healer, I knew there wasn’t. I’d just wanted someone to listen. To be there for me. While I had Tate and Asher, they had still been healing from their injuries and our ejection from the pride.
James Flemming was an older omega, a scientist, a nurse, and an assistant to one of the most competent healers I’d ever met in his mate, Aldrin. He was also deeply compassionate. His empathy during the beta sickness had nearly made him sick, too.
He’d taken me into his arms and let me cry it out. All the worry and pain that Jared had caused came flooding out of me. James held me, reassured the broken omega inside me that fate would be kind, but if I needed something more than faith, he had an omega who might just have a message for me.
That afternoon, once I’d gotten myself together, James had taken me to meet Janet, an ancient omega bear that had moved from the sleuth to live in the omega area of the compound where she could dote on the children and be cared for by the omegas that lived there.
Her first words were to me, “so you’re the omega that’s been giving me funny dreams. Come here, boy, let me get a look at you.”
I’d dutifully walked close enough she could reach out a gnarled hand, and with surprising strength and quickness, had me sitting facing her within a second. She gently traced my face with a kind smile. Her eyes were cloudy, sight gone, though she saw me in touch instead.
“It is you! We live close enough that I heard your worries in my sleep.” Janet patted my arm. “There’s no baby there just now. Soon enough, mind, but not that bastard’s.”
The relief was staggering. I still didn’t know why I believed her. I just did. Deep in my soul I knew her words to be a truth sent by The Luna herself.
James ushered me towards the bathroom, breaking me from my reverie. No matter what came from this test, I knew he would be there for me. Either to comfort or to celebrate.
It took a matter of moments to do the pregnancy test. I joined James in Aldrin’s office to wait the few minutes for it to work.
James leaned over with me to look as the timer beeped.
Negative.
“Oh, Hiro. I’m sorry.”
I nodded mutely. The hope had overwhelmed my common sense. Of course, I wasn’t going to be as lucky as Kade and Jasper to fall pregnant with one heat with their fated mate. I knew statistically it was more likely with the first heat after bonding, but that wasn’t a guarantee of conception. Especially as year on year, it became harder to conceive. The scent was probably fresh soap or something.
Perhaps this was the price for my greed. Maybe my having three mates meant I’d cursed myself into infertility.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I didn’t have the strength to hold them back. As I’d hoped, James wrapped me in a tight hug.
“Hey,” he crooned, “it’s okay. I’m here. It’ll all work out. Plenty of time to try again.”
With someone else, the platitudes would sound empty. With James, I really felt like he meant it. Like he knew that this would happen for me, for us. All four of us.
