Page 33 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

“Can you send that to me?” Frankie asked, pulling out her phone to write down the author and article title while I stared at the monitor without really seeing it.

My eyes wouldn’t focus on the words or charts and the ringing in my ears was getting louder and louder.

“I’ll send over all the research I’ve found,” Nathan agreed. “But since there aren’t many recorded cases, I was curious if you had any omegas in your immediate family who wouldn’t mind sharing their medical history with me.”

There it was. The one thing I didn’t want to talk about.

“She’s an orphan. Lucy doesn’t have any immediate blood family,” Frankie told him – the lie so smooth after all these years that every single doctor believed her without question.

Until now.

Nathan looked at me then and I winced, wondering if he’d figured it out somehow. “There are a lot of ancestry tests that can be done now to help you find any possible blood relations. It would really help to see what’s worked for them and what hasn’t.”

Doing an ancestry test would be worse than just telling him the truth. Then there’d be a paper trail leading my father right back to Lucy Parker. I’d changed my name for a reason and I wasn’t about to undo all that hard work.

“I’m not interested,” I told him, keeping my voice quiet but firm. “My mother was an alpha and my father was an omega. I never had any siblings and my grandparents on either side were alpha-omega pairs.”

“Hm…” Nathan whipped the monitor back around and started typing. “Typically the omega carries the child when an alpha and omega conceive, regardless of whether they’re male or female, but considering the way legacy alphas evolved…was your mother the one to carry you?”

I raised an eyebrow, not sure why that would translate to birthing a dominant omega when the genetic markers would be completely different the other way around. “No, my omega father was the one who carried me. He was the main caregiver while my mother was always away on business trips. She provided for the family, but that was about it. She never wanted to be vulnerable like that even though my father couldn’t conceive anymore and begged her for another child.”

Frankie shifted, clearly uncomfortable, but Nathan just nodded like he understood everything I wasn’t saying and more.

“Do you have access to any of your father’s medical files? As the only living member of your family, you would have rights to them.”

“He didn’t believe in doctors so my father doesn’t have medical records, not even an autopsy report.” Not a lie since he wasn’t dead and fucking hated doctors.

The twitch in my eye was back and I rubbed at it, ready to get the fuck out of here before I screamed. “What exactly am I supposed to do now? Am I screwed if I decide I don’t want anything to do with Cassius or Liam? Is there some sort of deadline I have to decide by or I’ll snap and murder everybody because I can’t control my instincts?”

The doc did me a solid and didn’t stare at me like I was insane and desperately in need of a vacation that involved wearing grippy-socks.

He just gave me a sad smile and went back to typing. “Whether you choose to be with your mates or not is up to you, but I would suggest a suppressant regimen regardless. We can do regular blood draws to monitor the situation. I can’t give you a more detailed answer than that considering how little we know.”

“Wait,” Frankie interjected. “I’m still not understanding how this could all get worse if she doesn’t see them.”

Nathan picked up his tablet and selected something before turning it around to show us the graph of my pheromones over the last fifteen years. “As you can see here, everything was relatively stable until three weeks ago. This spike is when they first met, and then here we see that her pheromones are finally regulating after her heat by the way it trends down towards a level closer to normal. But if she doesn’t want to see them again, the levels might spike even higher than they did during her heat.”

The memory of the excruciating pain before Liam finally kissed me was sharp and I winced.

I’ve never felt anything like that in my life. It was horrific. Like my skin was literally on fire. I’ve had bone breaks that hurt less than the twisting sensation in my stomach that wouldn’t go away until he finally touched me.

“It’s a biological reaction,” Nathan explained as gently as possible. “I assume it’s dependent on each omega with this issue, but logically, the safest way to exist after denying your scent matches would be for your pheromones to go back to dormancy, or to spike hard. Enough for the pheromones to permeate a large area so the right alpha, or alphas, can find you. Our body knows what we need, whether we want it to or not. It’s the same idea as craving a food that has the vitamin you’re deficient in.”

It made sense.

Everything about pheromones had evolved to ensure an omega found the alpha, or alphas, that would protect them and the pack they’d make together. It was the same reason why a bond ensured other alphas didn’t react to a bonded omegas pheromones or vice versa.

Purely biological.

“Will Liam and Cassius have any side effects?” Frankie asked.

My entire body jolted with shock. That thought had never occurred to me and I squeezed her hand in thanks as I stared down at Nathan’s desk. My eyes burned from the unshed tears but I ignored it as I tried to absorb everything the doctor was saying.

“Alphas always have side effects,” he admitted. “Their violence and aggression will amplify exponentially until they bond their omega.”

Even more violent than they already were? I chewed on the inside of my cheek until fresh blood filled my mouth, making all this feel a little more real. “Does it have to be me, or could it be any omega?”

“A bond with any omega will ease the symptoms, but it won’t be as effective as it would be with you. They might even react poorly to other omega pheromones and try to destroy anyone encroaching on what they perceive to be their omega’s safety and happiness. They wouldn’t even realize what they’re doing until the other omega was dead.”

---