Page 46 of Expensive

“Okay.”

She leads me through another hallway to a waiting room. Unlike the other doctor’s offices I visited in the Pallisades Ice Bath complex, the room doesn’t have large windows. In fact, the only windows in this room are frosted.

The clientele is different here too. The patients in the other waiting rooms were clearly Blue Bloods. Everything about their clothing and shoes screamed money. But a boy in the corner who can’t be any older than sixteen is wearing a stained T-shirt and a scuffed pair of tennis shoes.

Howard said he only worked with omegas who were already pregnant or had fertility issues. Is this boy already pregnant?

A girl with bright red hair and striking green eyes looks up at me from the other side of the room. She’s frighteningly thin, and her hair is cropped short and uneven—like the photos I’ve seen of people who were recently rescued from the red wolf shifter breeding pits.

That’s when it all makes sense. While most laws are federal and apply to all humans and shifters, every species of shifter has a legislature or guild that protects their legal interests and creates laws specific for that species. Some shifter groups have made abortion illegal. Like red wolf shifters. They’re the most extreme. Red wolf shifters can’t get an abortion even if the omega parent is dying.

But there is a loophole. Ice dragon shifters protect the magic of their warlocks under shifter law. It can’t be regulated—not even when it violates other shifter laws. Which means magical terminations of pregnancies are legal, regardless of the species of the omega seeking one.

I didn’t realize a healer at the Pallisade Ice Baths provided magical abortions. It’s a hotly contested practice. Medical abortions are safer and don’t require a large personal sacrifice.

But if you’re a sixteen-year-old boy or an omega just rescued from the breeding pits and you couldn’t get an abortion legally… maybe it would be worth it.

“Mr. Barnes will see you now,” the woman tells me.

“But what about the other people waiting?”

“They aren’t waiting. They’re contemplating what their personal sacrifice will be. It can be a difficult decision. Especially for our clients who don’t have much even before they walk through these doors. Please come with me. The fewer people who see you, the better.”

She takes me to an office with two sets of couches separated by a coffee table.

“Sit down, and he’ll be with you shortly.” She leaves the office and shuts the door behind her.

I sit on the far couch. There are several pamphlets on the coffee table in front of me. One of them has the words “Alternative Medical Options to Prenatal Spells: Do You Need Magic, or Can a Doctor Help You?” on the cover. Another is entitled “How to Decide If Sacrificing a Personal Attribute or Body Part Is the Right Choice for You.”

The idea of sacrificing a body part for an abortion makes my stomach churn.

Howard slips in the door, closing it gently. He gives me a kind smile. “Welcome to my offices.”

I set the bag of money on top of the pamphlets and unzip it so he can see the contents inside.

He sits across from me. “Very good. Thank you. As you can imagine, not many of my clients can pay spell-casting fees, so I must collect them when I can. I hope you understand.”

“I’m not sure I do understand. Why don’t you just find a doctor who can help them under the table?”

Howard leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Many of my clients have discovered they were pregnant through a test done by a doctor, so their pregnancies are already legally documented. If those pregnancies were to simply end without any explanation, they would be investigated and prosecuted. This isn’t the kind of place you come if you have choices, Andrew. I understand that my work is unsavory. My clients pay a steep personal price for what they should be able to get from a doctor. It isn’t fair to them. But for most of the omegas I work with, I’m their last chance—their only hope.”

So this is why he decided to help me. Because he’s used to situations where people are down on their luck and backed into a corner. I’m just one of many omegas out there who have no control over my own body. Over my own life.

“Did you find anyone to help me?” I ask.

He nods and pulls out two business cards, setting them side by side next to the bag of money. Each of the cards only lists a name: Kim Denning and Sarah Denning.

“Are they sisters?”

“Mates. But they don’t live together anymore.”

That’s strange. I thought it was physically painful for mates to live apart.

“Which one would you recommend?”

Howard tucks the business cards into his suit coat.

“I don’t recommend either of them. Kim is pure evil and will likely take advantage of you while she ‘helps’ you. And Sarah… well, she’s very difficult to meet with. But they are the only two warlocks who I believe have the skill to remove a bond ache successfully.”

---