Page 175 of Dream Mates
“Professor?” I frowned. Why was Nate Thorne here?
“Grace. I thought I saw Spencer Thanukos pacing in the parking lot. Are you all right?” The professor came over to me, worry in his blue eyes.
A dam broke inside me. “I don’t know what’s going on,” I sobbed.
“It’s okay to be scared,” he said softly. “Getting dragged into the Office of Designation Management is frightening indeed.”
The door opened and the nurse walked in. “Grace, this whole process will go much better if you just tell me about your mother.”
“She’s dead.” Not that the information would do them any good.
“Is it not in her file?” Nate frowned.
“Not her birth mother–that record is locked. The court order to unlock it hasn’t gone through yet. You’ll get out much faster if you just cooperate,” the nurse said. She turned to Nate. “You’re her biological father, correct?”
“The professor isn’t my father,” I blurted.
Hurt crossed his face and his scent soured.
What did I do? It wasn’t like I could tell them the truth.
Guilt welled up inside me. “I’mthe reason you’re here? I’m so sorry, professor.”
The nurse frowned at him. “You’re not Nathaniel Thorne?”
“I am,” Nate nodded. “I have a daughter named Grace… somewhere. I haven’t been able to find her. Records got messedup and I’ve been searching since she was a baby. This Grace, while a Grace to be proud of, is exactly a year too old. Might be my brother’s though. And don’t worry, we’ll be okay,” he reassured me, with a fatherly look.
A bewildered look crossed the nurse’s face.
The professor knew how old I was? But then, he was probably curious.Exactlya year too old? What was going on here? Especially since Spencerdidn’tthink Nate was one of the omega refugees his dad helped.
Evanhadmade me a year older when my record was created…
“I can tell you about my Grace’s biological mother, if that would help? Her name was Thora Silvers.” He gave the nurse her birth date and a bunch of other information.
Thora Silvers.Not my mother’s name. I exhaled in relief.
“Designation?” the nurse asked.
“Alpha. Most likely. She was a bit of a late bloomer and hadn’t awakened yet. But then we were only twenty when she got pregnant.” His look went wistful, then he finished answering her questions. The nurse did the same diagnostics on him that she did on me, took a swab from him, frowned at me one last time, then left.
You could get pregnant without your designation being apparent?What?At least I hadn’t gotten dream pregnant. That would have been hard to explain.
“You met her in high school?” I asked him as the door locked us in once again.
“University. As firsties. She was a piano performance major. Thora had the most beautiful blue-grey eyes and a sharp wit.”
“She liked Volkov?” I joked. Piano major? Yeah, not my mom. She couldn’t even play.
“Oh, she hated him. Kirkokov, too. She liked the powerful pieces, not the technical ones. I loved to hear her play,” hesighed. “That’s how we met. I liked to study in empty practice rooms in the music building because I enjoyed the music.”
“I play a little,” I admitted. “Mostly I play Volkov too fast to annoy my packmate.”
He laughed. “Annoying packmates is fun. I love to annoy Zain by putting dishes away in the wrong places. Also, Adriana doesn’t like how I fold the sheets.”
“Bren hates the way I load the dishwasher,” I replied.
“Thora hated dishwashers. When we moved in together, I always had to run it when she wasn’t around. We were waiting for her to awaken so we could mate.” His head bowed, anguish on his face.
