Page 56 of Altius
“You’re responsible for handling the mess in here. Clean it out by Monday morning. That gives me eleven days and change.”
“Not asking for perfection, Kels. Passable is more than I deserve.”
“Why?” Kelsey turned to settle on the edge of the mattress, sitting on her hands as she regarded me with something akin to disappointment. “You don’t think you deserve nice things—or do you feel bad about asking for my help because you think I’m mad at you?”
“Aren’t you?”
“No. I’m frustrated as fuck on your behalf, but I’m not angry. The seizure wasn’t your fault. I knew that even before Cal told us about the medication screw-up. You’ve been working hard, but not to the point of being reckless. Not like your first year of residency. But I do regret leaving you alone.”
“Things would’ve panned out the same way, even if you’d stayed home, Kels. Sure, I might have been found an hour earlier because you would’ve called Cal when you couldn’t reach me, and he would’ve come to the fieldhouse or sent Wyatt to check on me. Either way, I was still hitting the floor.”
I picked up a ruined photograph—one of me and Wyatt at nationals the year we met—puzzled by what looked like drops ofblood splattered on the corner. Must have cut myself on the glass insert when I broke the frame.
“And it’s not like I can yell at the pharmacist or blame Dr. Flemming because he asked me to re-tape a player’s knee before sending her home. My body is the problem and will continue to be the problem, especially if—”
My jaw snapped shut.
No one could so much as breathe about waning syndrome to my family before I received a formal diagnosis. Based on my conversation with Chantal, there was a chance I was simply a horny mess of epic proportions that needed to get laid.
Repeatedly.
“See, that,” Kelsey said, drawing circles in the air with a fingertip, referencing my verbal evasion, “is what Piper gets upset about. You think that by shutting your mouth and making yourself into a tight little ball, you won’t worry anyone. And if you’re not a bother, no one will notice that you’re trying to hide something.”
Her mouth stretched into a tight approximation of a smile.
“But the funny thing about secrets is that they stop being a secret once they go in your medical record.”
Oh shit. I’d forgotten to check my patient portal.
Of course, my record would mention suspected mate waning syndrome. And here I’d been so pleased with Cal printing all the new updates and adding them to the hard copy binder for her review.
What a chivalrous, unintentional snitch he turned out to be.
I didn’t want to ask, but I had to. “Does anyone else know?”
“Not about what’s in your record, no. But I’ve always worried about what staying away from Wyatt might do to you, wondering if a skipped meal or a sleepless night was theone—the start of a physical decline. You don’t know how weirdly relieved I was when Wyatt started stinking up the place becauseit meant the clock was ticking. That you two would have to work together—betogether—to stay healthy. No matter how many excuses you came up with.”
“It never occurred to me. Not once.” I bit back a self-deprecating laugh. “That’s how little I made myself believe he valued me. Never imagined we’d end up like this.”
“But it’s a good thing, right?”
I nodded, still in awe of how their scent cards affected me. “I’m getting greedy, Kels. Which scares the shit out of me.”
“An omega who wants more?” Kelsey teased, nudging the side of my knee with her foot. “What’s the world coming to?”
Thirteen
Owen
Ihad low expectations for our meeting with the university leadership. Yet I was still taken aback by their willful disregard for the facts.
“They were just wound up,” the head coach insisted, slapping the polished surface of the conference room table. “It was ouronlychance to secure our place in the conference championship, and it worked.”
“But at what cost?” Talia asked.
Cal’s deputy administrator was a straight shooter with limited patience for nonsense. She was more than willing to play pit bull on behalf of the entire disgruntled Designation Services department.
The coach shook his head. “You don’t understand. We’re better than Garroway Forest and Wakeland State. Everyone knows it. But we can only prove it by playing to win, and yes, that means pushing the boys to their limits.”
