Page 53 of The Devil Takes

She was silent for a long, awkward moment before she nodded, wrote something down, and asked me another stupid question. “Has this ever happened to you before?”

“No,” I bit out. I hadn’t come here to play twenty questions, but I bit my tongue. Now that I was here I might as well see it through.

“Any recent changes in your life I should know about? New medications? Stressful events? Family issues?” Nosy much? Jee-sus.

Why did I come here?

Why did any of this matter?

I shook my head, more than a little miffed.

Maybe if I left now I wouldn’t have to pay, seeing as how she hadn’t done shit yet.

“Alright.” Reynolds nodded, and I ignored the way the light caught her glasses and made her look like she had no eyes. Or I tried to anyway. I felt unsettled, but then again, I hadn’t felt settled since the last time I’d seen Haden, so fuck me, I guess.

His jacket lay bunched up in my lap. I was a little ashamed to admit how quickly I’d started carrying it around. Clutching it close, chasing his scent with a desperation that made even me sick of myself. It hadn’t taken long to stop hiding it, despite my earlier reservations. It was now a permanent fixture on my body at all times.

“Alright, thank you for answering my questions, Percy.” She was using my name too much. Speaking too softly. Like she thought I was a fucking flight risk, and bound to run the moment she spoke above a gentle whisper. Fuck that. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to do a quick physical to ascertain what might be causing your symptoms. If you can hold still for me, it’ll be over quickly and I can let you go.”

Finally, we were getting somewhere.

I nodded nervously, tempted to tell her to have at it.

But I didn’t.

My words were all dried up for the time being.

I let her touch me, even though the brush of her cool gloved fingers made my skin crawl all over. Scenting her discreetly, I became alarmed when I realized how easy it was to pick out the fact she was an alpha. But…she wasn’t mine. So her scent was all wrong.

I wished desperately then for my scent-blindness to come back. The idea of living in a world where I was forced to smell everyone but the person I wanted was enough to make me sick to my stomach.

Just like I’d suspected, Dr. Reynolds didn’t find anything wrong with me.

Not until she stumbled upon the bandage covering my bond mark, at least. With a sickening lurch, I let her peel back the bandage, terrified she’d find the bite. Even more terrified she’d find nothing.

“I’m assuming this bite was less than consensual,” she said gently, taking a polite step back as my chest heaved and bile rose up my throat.

“Why would you assume that?” I hissed, offended. I knew I was being a dick, my teeth bared, my shoulders drawn high and tight, but I couldn’t help it. This was my fucking alpha she was shitting all over. Sure, he wasn’t perfect. But I’d wanted everything he’d ever given me, and the idea that she’d think otherwise made my skin crawl.

“Newly bonded omegas usually don’t look this upset about bonding,” she said gently. “They don’t hide it from their doctors.”

“I’m not upset about the fucking bite mark,” I managed to bite out, though I was admittedly more than a little relieved it was still there. The itching under my skin only amplified as I slapped a hand protectively over the bite, the bumpy skin soothing me as I fingered the shape of Haden’s fangs. I knew she had a point, but I couldn’t help my reaction to her words.

“So it was consensual,” she replied, clearly confused. I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t really her business. Now that I’d made it clear she was wrong, talking about this with someone that wasn’t Haden felt like a betrayal. Our memories together were intimate. I hadn’t even given Tommy this many details and he was my favorite person ever. (Second favorite, actually.)

Haden had left, though.

Whatever bond we’d had was dead and gone.

He hadn’t wanted me.

And I had a feeling that might be relevant, so I managed to force the words out, feeling alone and small inside the pristine emptiness of the clinic’s exam room. “He left.” The words were robbed from me, ragged and broken, my eyes blurring with heat.

“Ah,” Reynolds took a seat in her chair across the room, allowing me the distance I needed as she scratched away at my clipboard. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Not as sorry as I was.

“So…” I asked after a few minutes had passed and she kept scratching away with her pen. “What’s wrong with me?”

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