Page 10 of The Pack Next Door
With a sigh, I parked the car and then rushed around to her side, getting the door for her, but rather than head for the surgery, she turned and eyed the town square just across the road.
“Looks like they’re getting everything ready for the big opening ceremony before the dominance fights.” Mum eyed me closely. “We might stop in there on the way home.”
I opened my mouth to protest. Agreeing to that before was a mistake because she obviously needed to get off her feet and rest. Before I could get a word in, she shuffled over to the front door of the building. Damn, my mother could really move when she wanted to have the last word. I followed along behind her, smiling at the receptionist before checking Mum in.
“Maggie?”
The door opened and Dr. Stanton came out with a smile. I offered my mother my hand, but she just waved me away, limping over to the consulting room.
“Let’s get this over with,” she grumbled, before turning to me with a sly smile. “Because we want to get a good seat at the opening ceremony this evening. Briar needs to sit front and centre when they bring all the new alphas to the stage.”
I plastered a polite smile on my face, even as my teeth gritted tightly. I would rather be anywhere else in the entire world than right back in the town square watching alphas come onto the stage, but I didn’t know how to tell Mum that.
“Alright then,” Dr. Stanton said as he pulled the privacy curtain around the examination table. “Hop up there for me and I’ll take a look.”
Chapter 6
Briar
“Briar, can I have a quick word with you before you go?” Dr. Stanton asked.
“Why?” Mum looked back at him over her shoulder. “This isn’t about putting me in an old person’s home again, is it?”
“Supported living facility,” Stanton corrected smoothly. “And no. I haven’t seen Briar in years and just wanted to catch up.”
“I’ll wait outside,” Mum said before walking out.
“So obviously there’s nothing wrong with her mind,” I said with a rueful smile.
“It wasn’t your mother I wanted to talk about, Briar.” That look of pity. I hated seeing it on anyone, but somehow it was worse when doctors did it. I wanted to say nope, I’m not your patient, but instead I just smiled and listened. “The Crowe Institute sent me your files. I’m assuming because at the time, I was the last doctor you saw.”
“I’m sorry they sent that to you.” I was trying so hard to keep my voice steady and failing utterly. “But I have a new doctor now, so you won’t get anything more sent to you.”
“Briar…” Dr. Stanton had given me all my childhood immunisations, seen me through illnesses, and even helped me through the medical side of my transition into becoming an omega. He was there for so many of my milestones, but I didn’t want him here for this. “I wanted to call you in the city, see how you were coping.” His hands rose and fell. “I wasn’t sure how to contact you, or if I should.”
“It’s OK.” I placed a hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. “It’s very sweet of you to be worried about me, but you don’t need to be. I can’t have children.”
Why did I feel a flash of shame at saying those words? When I got the news, it all made sense. Why I’d never found my fated mates. Alphas needed heirs, or they were stuck in the situation Damien and the Harts were in, having to relinquish control of the town to some stranger pack.
That didn’t explain the way I’d felt.
Relief, that was the first reaction, the truest one, when I got the news. Maybe it could be explained by the fact I was an only child, but really, it was this. Mum’s friends would all coo over me when I was younger, saying I’d be a great mother one day. That only intensified when I revealed as an omega. People looked at the unmated alphas and tried to guess what our children would look like, and each time, one word would sit there on the tip of my tongue.
No.
No, I wouldn’t have kids. No, I wouldn’t make a great mother. Just… no.
In Moon River, I was some kind of aberration: an omega who didn’t want to bear children. But at home? I was successful, strong, capable, talented, and it took everything I had to stand here and let the doctor finish, because all I wanted to do was get in Mum’s car and drive all the way back to the city.
“I can’t have children,” I said finally, “and I’m perfectly happy with that situation.”
“Oh.”
Dr. Stanton jerked as if I’d hauled my hand back and slapped him, and this was the bit I hated. Somehow, I became responsible for other people’s feelings about my fertility. I was to be saved by the bell, though, because before I could go into damage control, my phone started to buzz. I glanced down at the screen and then smiled when I saw who it was.
“I need to take this, but thank you for checking up on me, Dr. Stanton.”
Before he could say anything more, I was walking out of the surgery while putting the phone to my ear.
