Page 23 of Knot Just A Fan

“Are you active?”

“Sexually?” When was the last time I had sex? That would’ve been Lee, the Beta I was seeing briefly, about two years ago. We still message now and then, when he sends me photos of his baby. I give a quiet sigh. “Er, I mean, I wouldn’t say no?—”

Cami busts out a laugh.

The nurse, probably five years or more younger than me, gives me a stern look. She shifts her weight back to catch me in a no-nonsense stare, blood pressure cuff dangling her from hand. “I mean, are you active with the Guild? Are you still with them?”

I wrinkle my brow for a second, then nod. “Yes, I—I worked last night. I have today and tomorrow off, and then I’m back on?—”

“Ms. Phillips, I don’t need your work schedule. Your file suggests that your current prescription of heat suppressant expires at the end of the year. I can try to switch you to a different type, maybe Immuno-Heat or one of the twice-daily types.” She trails off, reciting names of drugs as she scrolls down a tablet device sitting on the counter beside a pristine sink and a giant glass jar of long swabs.

“I take Immuno-Heat. I gave her one last night,” Cami pipes up.

The nurse swivels to face her. “And it didn’t help?”

Cami looks pointedly at me. I shift my dangling legs and the paper beneath me crinkles. “I feel worse than last night, but now that I know what’s going on and I’ve had maybe four hours of sleep, I feel less shocked by it.”

But not less shocked by Ronan’s words. By Arcadia Echo sending me away. By the threat out of nowhere, that I refuse to accept as reality, even though his words are still rolling around in my head. I’ve got to message Grayson today. He might not reply, like he never replied to my emails those years he was away. But we’re friends again now. We’ve put all that past us.

Or I thought we had.

My heart aches continuously. I don’t know what I did to upset them, but the humiliation and confusion are as thick as they were last night.

Especially since I thought he might actually kiss me.

The nurse taps something into the tablet, then frowns. “Ah. Okay, we can’t do that.”

“Can’t do what?” Cami says, hunched forward on the chair, gripping the sides of the seat.

“Your file has a new note on it. I’m afraid your insurance has been cancelled, Ms. Phillips. Unless you want to pay two thousand pounds for the six-month supply of a different heat suppressant, you’ll have to stick to the one you got and hope it kicks back in.”

“Cancelled?”

I don’t mean to shout but I do. I leap off the table to standing, and a sweltering dizziness hits me so I lean my butt back against it. My fingers fly to my temples, circling as if that’ll clear my thinking. “Why?”

The nurse looks at me through heavy-lidded eyes. She purses her lips. “You’d have to take that up with your employer.” Then her face softens and she looks back to her tablet. “Your vitals are fine, though I can verify you’re in pre-heat. If you have no mates,you know to stay safely in your home with a friend”—she nods at Cami— “keeping an eye on you for the next three to four days. As far as why you’re experiencing this despite the Duo-supprex Max, I can only surmise it’s because you’ve been on it for such a lengthy time. Efficacy can diminish. It’s not likely to make any changes to your heats from now on, though the anti-depressant treatment in it has been shown to continue working even when the heat suppressing effect of the drug ends.”

I’m trying to take in all she’s saying but I keep hearingcancelled. Cancelled. Why would the Guild cancel my insurance? I’ll have to call Nic. There’s been a mistake. The thoughts writhing in my head feel like a rabid nest of snakes, each trying to get on top of the others.

I look at Cami’s face, which shows no emotion but that same alert focus. “So if her med’s not working and mine hasn’t seemed to help, do you know of one that might? One of the twice-a-days? We can pay out of pocket for now.”

I note thewe.But I’m not letting her do that. Cami has been working her ass off and she deserves all the savings she’s got put away. Like she deserved that perfume, that bonus from her last portrait. And I know she’s been counting down the days until she can pay off her credit card.

“Hmm, I mean, I can prescribe herthisone,” the nurse says, drawing out thethisas she scrolls. “Ah—found it. It’s got the highest level of the actual suppressant drug in it and it’s morning and night. This has a 98% success rate. It probably wasn’t on your radar because it doesn’t include the anti-depressant that Duo-Supprex Max has.”

Cami straightens in her seat. “But it should work?”

“It should,” the nurse says. “It’s usually only prescribed for what we callgeriatricOmegasstill regularly going into heat.” She looks at me, voice flat. “It’s the strongest on the market that’s also safe and reliable.”

“How much?” I croak.

The nurse flicks her gaze back to the tablet. “For a six-month prescription, which is the lowest available, forty-five hundred pounds.

Fuck. Me.

“Er, can I just have a minute please?” I fumble for my phone from my coat pocket. “I’ll call my employer and get this straightened out.”

“Briella—” Cami starts, but I ignore her as I open my contacts and find Nic’s number.

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