A few minutes and a sip of water later, there was a knock at the door, a moment before it pushed open. The doctor was older, and he had a calm face. She looked at his name badge and smiled. “Good evening, Dr. Aquilar.”

  “Good evening, Dex. I hadn’t thought to meet you again under these circumstances.”

  She shrugged. “I like to keep things fresh.”

  His bland face smiled. “You did that. Are you feeling any pain?”

  “No, I got the good drugs.”

  “How is your face?”

  “Moves funny but no pain.”

  “Good. Good.” He came closer. “I am going to check the incisions.”

  She nodded, and he eased up her surgical gown and started to check the sites with freshly gloved hands.

  “So, the EMT was right. You did have a ruptured appendix, but you also had a ruptured spleen.”

  “Oh. Well, glad I managed both at once. Saved time.”

  Dr. Aquilar snorted. “You did that. You also forced us to assemble quite the team as both surgeries were happening simultaneously. We repaired your spleen and removed your appendix. You are going to be on very light lifts for a few weeks. Good thing you work with shoes.”

  She nodded as he tugged down her gown and made notes in her chart. He frowned. “Why does it say you are an omega?”

  “Oh, because I am. Family had me on suppressors twice a year. Now I need to find out where to get the little buggers.”

  He paused. “Your family had you on them?”

  “Yup. The only proper omegas are male, apparently. So, I was given growth hormones and the suppressors. It’s in my file, isn’t it?”

  He frowned. “I will have to check. This is unusual. Did the Omega Centre evaluate you?”

  “Sure. They said everything was too small to function.”

  “Interesting. There are treatments now.”

  “Doc, I am twenty-seven and have never had a period or a heat. Why would I want to start now?”

  He didn’t answer, just stared at her for a long moment. “So, you don’t socialize?”

  “Sure. I go dancing with the troupe. I think I know where you are going, and no, I don’t engage in sexual relationships. I don’t really see the point. If I want to get horizontal and sweaty, I will try to beat my push-up record at the gym.”

  The nurse snickered.

  Dr. Aquilar said, “I saw Vincent today. He was with his new pack?”

  “Yes. Today was his contract signing. Dad and Mom wanted the family to look like a united front. They thought I would use makeup to cover my face. It was the first time I wore the bruises out where everyone could see them. It’s amazing how folks just stop and stare.”

  “Huh. I want you to speak to a colleague of mine.”

  “Why? Do they stay up nights?”

  He scowled. “You are being deliberately obtuse.”

  “Yes. I am weak and just had surgery.” She sighed. “And I have to tell management that I won’t be in today. I won’t, right?”

  “No. No, you won’t. You are remaining here until tomorrow at least.”

  “Oh. Great.”

  The nurse handed her phone over, and she started texting. She let management know that she wasn’t going to be in, and when they asked why, she took a selfie in her hospital bed with her banged-up face.

  She got the response. Holy shit! What happened?

  She sent a voice message. “Check the security cameras from my workshop between five thirty and seven. He’s been arrested, but I don’t know if he’s still in custody.”

  She sent the message and waited.

  Dr. Aquilar paused and nodded. He wrote a note on a hot pink piece of paper. “If you need a lawyer, call this number.”

  She took the note and saw the number with an obvious legal name on it. “Thanks. I will put this in my phone.”

  He nodded. “They have litigation and defense attorneys.”

  She nodded. “Got it. Thank you.”

  “When we do send you home, do you have someone to help you?”

  “Oh. No. I will be fine. I have been hurt worse than this.”

  The doctor’s lips tensed. “Be that as it may, I would prefer that you have someone to check on you.”

  “I would prefer a perfectly cooked hamburger dispenser in my house. We can’t always have what we want.”

  He frowned. “I am not going to discharge you without someone to watch you.”

  “Tough. I am not trying to be mean, but you were the surgeon. I am going to be handed over to a regular physician.” She smiled brightly. “It will be out of your hands.”

  He looked at her, and she thought she saw him snort smoke out of his nostrils. “Okay. Fine. You want to play it that way? We will see who has the say.”

  He gave her a serious expression and said, “Put her in a room on five.”

  The nurse nodded. “Yes, Doctor.”

  He left the room, and Dex sighed. “I think I pissed him off.” She reached up to scratch the back of her neck.

  The nurse snorted. “You think? I am going to arrange the move.”

  “If there is room.”

  “There is always room on five. It’s the omega floor.”

  “Oh. Fuck.”

  “Yeah. I will be right back.”

  Dex nodded, slowly flipped the blanket off her legs, and eased them to dangle off the side. She focused on keeping her core tight and slipped to the floor. Standing was tricky, and she was looking for her clothing when the tether of the IV brought her up short. She looked at the pain pump and the drip bag then down at the catheter tube and was debating what to do next when two orderlies and the nurse came back in. She froze. “Um, hey. Just seeing if I could stand up.”

  The orderly closest to her lifted her back into bed and settled her tubes in the right places. He smiled. “You wouldn’t have gotten far.”

  She sighed as they lowered her flat. “Story of my life.”

  The nurse chuckled, and Dex was on her way to the omega unit.

  Chapter Two

  Dex was in her very private room with the nurses coming in and out. She checked her insurance, and while it paid for the emergency surgery, she was racking up a bill for the private room.

  She spoke to the nurse who removed the catheter. “Is there a way to get me out of here?”

  The nurse tidied everything up and smiled. “You have at least one more day here.”

  “Fine. Can you send up the hospital’s financial officer to speak with me? I can’t afford this room.”

  “Your alpha will take care of it.”

  Dex brought her legs together and turned her hips left and right. “I don’t have an alpha.”

  “A pack then?”

  “Nope. Dr. Aquilar sent me up here because he just found out I was an omega. I am guessing that the trip up here is to keep me stable, but it is just agitating as hell.”

  “Breakfast is coming. I will speak to the financial department and have a rep sent up here.”

  “Thanks.”

  The breakfast was a combination of juices and smoothies, and by the time she was through her tray, someone new was at her door. The female alpha smiled. “Hello. Are you Dex?”

  “If I say no, will it get me out of an internal exam?”

  The doctor laughed. “So, I am in the right place.”

  “If you are in the right place from that distance, I have been woefully misinformed about OB-GYNs.”

  The woman snorted and walked over to her. “How tall are you, Dex?”

  “Five-eight. Five-ten? I don’t know. I haven’t changed my driver’s license since I was sixteen.”

  “Wow. Okay. You were right. I do need to do an internal exam and an ultrasound. Dr. Aquilar was certain that you had been deliberately stunted.”

  “Probably.”

  The exam was about as pleasant as she expected. When she had her blanket over her legs again, the doctor was looking at the results on the printouts.

  “Well, you are definitely an omega, and everything is fine. No intervention required.”

  “Cool, how do I get suppressors?”

  The doctor froze. “You have been on suppressors?”

  “Sure. Every hormone spike, I start them and run them for six days or until the hormones drop, and then I wait until the next one. Six months apart like clockwork.”

  “Wait. So, you have never had a heat?”

  Dex shrugged. “According to my father, who punched me in my face and ruptured my spleen and appendix, only boys should be omegas. He was fixed in his ideas.”

  “So, your father has put you on suppressors when you trigger an ovulation sensor?”

  “Yup. I am really not wanting to go through one, so I am looking for nice, normal, and regulated suppressors.”

  “Does the Omega Centre know?”

  “They have tested me six times and have declared me defective.”

  “I see.”

  “Good. But I don’t want one, and my regular doctor has told me that I am not allowed to get a tubal ligation or hysterectomy.”

  “Not allowed?”

  “Apparently, I need the ovaries to reduce the chance of osteoporosis.”

  “A tubal wouldn’t stop the heats.”

  “Ah. Well, that explains that.” Dex sighed. “He wasn’t really forthcoming as to why.”

  The doctor frowned and made notes. “So, the Omega Centre really refused to work with you?”

  “Yup. I even have the last email on my phone.”

  “Bring it up.” The doctor was grim.

  Dex brought up the series of emails from the centre and handed it to the doctor. “They go back seven years.”

  The doctor flipped through the images and sent them to herself. “This is ridiculous.”

  “Yup. If you want, I can bring up all of the child services’ emails telling me that I didn’t meet the criteria for extraction.” She brought up the files and handed them over as well.

  The doctor spent a few minutes reading the eleven-year-old emails and forwarded everything to herself.

  “Why does Dr. Aquilar have an interest in you?”

  “I work for the family trust. I am the shoe doctor at the ballet.”

  There was a knock on the door, and Dr. Oriel said, “Yes?”

  A man stood there with a clipboard. “I am here from the financial department. Your patient requested a consult.”

  Dr. Oriel looked at Dex with understanding. “You don’t have anyone to pay for you.”

  “Correct. So, I thought that if I made that point to the billing department, I might get bumped down to a lower floor to recover. Yup. My insurance has already started denying things. You are hella expensive, Doc, and I am not going to go bankrupt just because my body has extras.”

  Dr. Oriel paused and nodded. “Got it. I will get a report to you before you leave.”

  “No bloodwork?”

  “There is plenty from your surgery. I can get what I need.”

  “Thanks.”

  The doctor touched her bruised face and sighed.

  The financing officer came and took a seat next to her bed, and they began to discuss her care and the expense of it.

  When he left, she got everything together and was moved down to a semi-private room with another person in the other bed. This, her insurance would cover.

  She listened to the man next to her snoring and settled in to do her final twenty-four hours before she could leave and go back to work, to calm herself down. Dr. Aquilar had ordered four days of hospitalization, but there was no way that she was going to stay that long.

  The new doctor on the ward took a look at her stitches and pronounced that she could be discharged before dinner, and she was all for it.

  When she signed the paperwork and got dressed, there was an extreme sense of relief.

  She gathered her phone and left the hospital twenty-four hours after being brought in by ambulance.

  She got a ride share and headed home. She just wanted to heal her face and put this all behind her.

  * * * *

  Tosh got the call from Etienne Aquilar, and he sat straight in surprise. “What do you mean she’s in the hospital?”

  “Her father beat her, ruptured her spleen and appendix. She’s a friend of yours, and my dad is looking for someone to stay with her.”

  “Fuck. Right. I am on my way.”

  “Hold on, I will find out where she is.” Etienne was silent. “Never mind. Do you know where she lives?”

  “Sure. I have picked her up once or twice.”

  “She managed to manoeuvre herself into a discharge.”

  “But she just had surgery.”

  “Correct. And she’s an omega, which I didn’t think she was, so I have been telling my dad that she isn’t my type.” He growled.

  Tosh got his shoes on and headed for his car. “Did you let her know that?”

  “Fuck. I have her address. Meet you there.”

  Tosh wondered how Etienne was going to walk back any comments he had shared with Dex. She seemed the type to take no as a definite no.

  For two years, he had been taking every chance to go down to her shop and talk to her, and she had simply taken his shoes, smiled, and gotten to work. When he returned to pick them up, she had shown a little insecurity as she waited for him to try them on and take a look. The relief she had expressed had been strange when he smiled and thanked her.

  Security and management at the performance hall had been tense, but no one was saying anything. They had simply been left to wonder at what had happened. Tosh still didn’t know, but the contract party was over before he arrived, and there were murmurs about Vincent and Dex’s father attacking her and her defending herself in the back yard. No one was sure how, but she had kept him at bay until the police had arrived. According to other company members, her face was swollen on one side, and she had been moving stiffly. Whatever had happened to her had been between when he saw her at three and seven in the evening.

  He was five blocks over and made it in a few minutes.

  * * * *

  Dex finished ordering groceries and went to take a careful shower with the same gel she had used the last time she had an open wound. She took down her ponytail and washed her hair. It had been driving her nuts.

  She towelled her hair dry on one of her black towels and brushed it. She needed to touch up the dye.

  Dex wrapped herself in one of her soft robes and moved carefully to the kitchen to make a coffee. She was standing in her living room, trying to figure out how to sit comfortably, when the doorbell rang.

  With her coffee in hand, she went to the door and looked through the window to one side. She opened the door and frowned. “Tosh, what are you doing here?”

  He looked at her and cursed. “Fucking hell. Who did that?”

  “Oh. My dad.”

  “May I come in?”

  “Sure. I don’t have any food, though. I missed shopping day yesterday, and I am waiting for an order.”

  “Wholesome fruits and veggies?”

  “Uh, heat and eat. I can’t really do much for a few days or weeks.” She stepped aside to let him in. “But as a doctor recently reminded me, at least I work with pointe shoes.”

  He walked inside and frowned. “This place is empty.”

  “I was never sure what to put in it, so I settled for three chairs.”

  “No coffee table?”

  “No. I hold my coffee, and then I go to work. There is more furniture in the kitchen.”

  “Is there coffee?”

  She shrugged. “Machine and pucks; go for it.”

  He nodded. “Oh, Etienne is right behind me.”

  “What, is there some kind of omega flag that shot out of my house?”

  Tosh looked at her through the kitchen door. “Are you?”

  “Yeah. Sort of. All the equipment but no manual. Wait. Why is Etienne coming?”

  “Because his father called him and raked him over the coals. How did you get out of the hospital?”

  She trailed into the kitchen. “I got in touch with billing and had them send a financial officer to my room. I proved I couldn’t pay for the omega room they had me in, and they downgraded me, which put me under the care of someone who just wanted to clear the bed. Dr. Aquilar was probably in surgery or something, so I was able to get out without any fuss.”

  “What do you mean? You have full insurance coverage.”

  “I have a previous condition that had been undisclosed, so that cancels a lot of omega-specific coverage. That shit is expensive. Just the room itself is seven thousand a day.”

  He glanced at her. “Omegas are worth it.”

  “Yes, but usually the reason they are in there has something to do with their alphas. They don’t have to foot the bill on their own.”

  Tosh paused as the machine chugged along. “You have a point.”

  “Yup. I like my savings, and I don’t ever want to spend it on fancy smoothies just because they won’t let me walk around.”

  He waited and took the cup out as the machine hissed to a conclusion.

  She was going to tell him where the cream and sugar were, but there was another knock at the door.

  She walked to the door and opened it to see Etienne staring down at her. She looked up and cocked her head. “Yeah? What?”

  “My father is pissed.”

  “Why?”

  “You are here instead of the hospital.”

  “He forgets that not everybody is paid to be there. My insurance only covered the surgery and the basic recovery. No extra days. No fancy secure room. That arrangement would have cost me close to forty thousand dollars by the time I was out on his timeline.”

  Etienne frowned. “You wouldn’t have had to pay it. The Omega Centre would have taken care of it.”

  “They have sent me seven rejections confirming that there are no obvious signs of my being a useful omega. So, there wouldn’t be a chance of them footing the bill.”

  He looked at her. “You knew that.”

  “Duh. Want coffee?”

  He stepped in and nodded to Tosh. “You made good time.”

  “Yeah. Here’s your coffee.” Tosh handed him a mug. “We had better discuss this in the kitchen. It’s the only place with enough chairs.”

  Etienne frowned. He was good at frowning.