Page 17 of Their Perfect Omega

We barely had any time off before we jumped right into rehearsals for our tour. Our record label worked us like we weren’t actual people, and as soon as this tour was done, we needed to reassess if this was really what we wanted out of life.

It wasn’t what I wanted.

“Here, sweetie. Fill out this paperwork for your dog since we don’t have him in our system. As soon as the vet decides what to do, we’ll have an estimate for you.” The receptionist held out a clipboard to Cal as he turned to walk toward us.

I kept my voice low as Cal fell into the chair next to me. “We have the assessment tomorrow and you decided it would be a good idea to have an omega sleepover? What’s the point of having a pack if the rest of us aren’t going to be thought of before life-altering decisions are made?”

Most of the time I stayed quiet about what bothered me, but not tonight. Tonight, I was fed up with never having control of my life. We had all the money we’d ever need, but what good was it if we couldn’t live life because of the record label and the alpha police?

“She needed a place to stay for the night. We texted you both.” Tate was playing mediator yet again. When was he going to get tired of it all and just let us come to blows? “You were pretty much dead to the world, Avery, or we would have woken you up.”

The swinging doors opened, and a vet tech walked out. She gave us a half smile, and I felt like my heart was going to rip through my chest and make a run for it.

The tech turned to Alvaro as he stood. “We were able to get Gizmo to vomit but are going to be giving him activated charcoal to absorb anything that wasn’t expelled and IV fluids. The receptionist will have an estimate for you in a few minutes. The vet would like to speak to you, so if you four could follow me to an exam room.”

My leg bounced with nervousness. “Is he going to be okay?”

“You got him here very quickly, that’s a good thing. There are no cases of a dog ingesting heat suppressants, but with these new blister packages instead of the pill bottle, I anticipate we’ll see an increase.” She turned and walked toward a hallway. “Follow me, please.”

The rest of us stood and followed her down a long hallway to a private room with a bench seat and an exam table.

“The vet will be in shortly.” The door clicked closed behind her.

The blister packaging was a brand-new thing that had just rolled out a few weeks ago. It was much safer for omegas, and their pills were much less likely to be tampered with. The only problem was now they were easily accessible to pets and children.

As if we all suddenly were thinking of the same thing, we looked at Cal.

“What?” He shrugged off his leather jacket and hung it over his arm.

“Kara... where is she?” Alvaro leaned against the wall next to the door.

“She needed a few minutes.” Cal sat down on the bench seat next to Tate. “It’s probably better she just stays out in the car. If OPS or the Pack Health shitheads know we’re hanging out with an unbonded omega...”

I grabbed the door handle. “Where are the keys? She can’t just sit out there unprotected.”

“She has them.” Cal patted his jacket and pulled out his phone, the conversation finished.

I hated that this was how we were now. We were together, yet we were so far apart. It was completely fucked up that the entire six hours we had everything we ever wanted could fuck us so royally.

Alvaro grabbed my forearms as I started to open the door. “Are you okay to go get her?”

“Just as fine as the rest of you.” I wrenched my arm away and walked out of the room.

Finally, I felt like I could breathe a little and paused as the door shut to take a few deep breaths. That was a mistake because all I could smell was scared dog.

There were a few other people in the waiting room now with pets. Eyes landed on me, and I put my head down as I walked to the doors.

We could hardly go anywhere without being recognized, but hopefully, with their focus on their pets, they wouldn’t post on social media where we were. The last thing we needed was a two o’clock in the morning mob outside of a vet hospital when our dog was in bad shape.

Did dogs have HIPAA rights? How were we going to explain how he got ahold of heat suppressants?

I made it to the SUV and knocked on the back window. There was a squeal of surprise and then the door opened.

Fuuuuuck me.

There was no way she was on scent blockers because her perfume hit me like a blast of wind from a plane’s propeller. I stumbled back a few steps and brought my hand to cover my nose and mouth.

I wanted to breathe her in, to let her pheromones—that smelled a hell of a lot like warm chocolate to me—make my base instincts go crazy. I’d never scented such a tantalizing omega, even all those years ago when we went through profiles and spent days sniffing scent cards.

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