Chapter 11 In which I find out that my omega is sick

“Tell me what he meant, Sade,” I demand quietly, following on her heels as she tosses her purse over the back of the couch—Maddox is going to hate that—and then heads into the kitchen, the bag from the drugstore still clutched in her hand.

She glances over her shoulder at me, silver eyes wary, before she opens a cabinet and frowns when she finds it full of tea and coffee.

“There’s not really a lot to tell, Logan.” She moves to the next cupboard and finds canned goods and dry ingredients. A huff of frustration falls from her lips that I can’t ignore, so I step up behind her as she moves to the next set of doors, pressing into her back and beating her to opening them, grabbing a glass out for her.

She spins into my body, scowling up at me, but I just offer her the glass.

She takes it with another of those cute little huffs and goes to the sink to fill it with water.

“You know we can just find out, right?” I say, crossing my arms over my chest and watching her as she opens the bag and pulls out one of the boxes. We got seven because I don’t trust my pack not to fuck up again and fuck her raw, fill her up. Fuck, I want to do that. Right fucking now, I want to bend her over the counter, yank down those tight as fuck jeans and thrust into her with nothing between us, but she’s made it clear she’s not ready for us to breed her, so we have to take this at her pace.

That means condoms and morning-after pills until I can do more research on the best form of birth control for an omega. I’m a doctor, but I handle things like stab wounds and gunshots, and concussions. Things our guys get from fighting, from living the hard life of a made man.

I don’t have any clue about what to do with an omega, how to care for her physically and mentally. None of us do. It’s not like we attended those pack mating classes. The ones that are recommended when a pack starts looking for their omega. They teach everything you need to know about omegas and how to integrate one into the pack dynamics, covering everything from nesting to heats to omega instincts.

I don’t blame Maddox for being pissed that Luca blindsided us with this. Hell, I’m pissed too. I would have preferred time to be prepared for welcoming an omega into our pack, to have presents and a fully functional nest ready for her. To court her. To actually get to know the woman who will complete our pack before she moves in with us.

But we don’t have that luxury now.

She might not want to admit it, but she’s going to need us pretty quick here. I wasn’t lying when I said omegas that present later in life have a heat within a month.

Sadie lifts her eyes from where she’s reading the back of the package to pierce me with a look. Such pretty fucking eyes. Fierce. Unafraid. Sparkling silver and full of fire. So. Fucking. Pretty. Made even prettier by how she doesn’t hesitate to glare at me.

Everyone knows who we are. Everyone is afraid of us, of the Falcone Pack and of what we do to those that cross us. I’ve seen grown me piss their pants after one of Maddox’s glares or Swift’s maniacal smiles. But this girl, this tiny little thing? She’s not fucking scared of us.

I don’t know if that’s her instincts working—she is our scent match after all—so she must know we would never hurt her. In fact, it’s our imperative that she stays as safe as we can make her. Something we’re going to struggle with during this adjustment period from criminal organization to legitimate businessmen.

Sadie is going to hate the limitations we put on her life. I can’t blame her.

She’s spent twenty-five years as a beta, able to go wherever she wants, secure in her safety—well, as secure as a woman can be in this fucked up world. But now she’s an omega, and although she’s bonded to one alpha, she’s still infinitely more vulnerable than she was when she woke up yesterday.

Being our omega makes her even more so.

“What? You’re just gonna hack into the hospital and find my medical records?”

I lift a shoulder at the derision in her voice. “Yep. That’s exactly what we’ll do. Ethan’s a fucking whizz with computers and hacking. I’m sure that Maddox already has him pulling everything he can about you. It won’t be too hard to add medical records to his list of things to find out about you.”

Her pretty red painted lips pop open. “That is a horrible breech of trust.”

“If you could do a background check on us, you would.” Another shrug. “You could just tell me and then we won’t have to do it.” I drag my eyes over her, from the top of her messy hair down to where her hips disappear behind the counter, lingering on the sliver of skin peeking out where her t-shirt doesn’t quite meet the top of her jeans. “You don’t look sick now, so I’m going to assume whatever it was is in remission, or better?”

I don’t miss the slight flinch. What was it I said that elicited that response? Remission? Did she have cancer? Immediately my brain latches onto that as the answer. My omega had cancer as a child. I conjure up pictures of her going through chemo, losing her light brown hair, looking gaunt and gray, sickly.

Fuck. It makes me so fucking sad to think of her going through that. To think of her without a pack around her to support her. Because that is one thing we already know about Sadie Pierce. She wasn’t born to a pack. Just a single mom who struggled to make ends meet.

Sadie drops her gaze back to the box in her hand and then pries one side open.

“It wasn’t cancer,” she mutters, focused on her task. “So you can get that look off your face.”

“What look?” I ask, trying to smooth my expression of whatever she had been seeing.

“That pitying look that everyone gets when they think of a kid having cancer, going through chemo. It wasn’t cancer. I never lost my hair. I felt fine most of the time. Like a normal kid.” She flicks her gaze up to me, then back down as she extracts the pill and pops it in her mouth, swallowing it with half the glass of water.

“So then, tell me what it was.” She glares at me stubbornly. “Sadie, mo chuisle , you are our omega. We need to know so we can take care of you.”

One of her hands slaps down on the marble, and her glare intensifies. “Like you’ve been taking care of me?” Her mouth snaps shut and her cheeks flame a brilliant shade of pink. Makes me want to lick over that flaming flesh. “I don’t need you to take care of me,” she says through gritted teeth. “I’ve been doing fine my whole life without you.”

“Sadie-” I start to tell her that things are different now, that she’s ours and it’s our job to take care of her… No, not our job—because that makes it sound like a chore—it’s our fucking pleasure, our honor , to take care of her. But I’m cut off by a loud shout.

“Logan!” Maddox snaps at me from the hallway that leads to his office. Both Sadie and I whip our heads in his direction.

My mouth snaps shut, closing around the words I want to say to her. The fury in Maddox’s eyes tells me this is something more than annoyance at my insistence on taking Sadie on her errand this morning. Something’s happened. Probably something fucking bad.

“A word?” he snarls at me, and I don’t miss that Sadie shrinks back at his tone.

I want to tell him to calm the fuck down, but when has that ever actually worked on anyone? It definitely won’t work on Maddox. Not when his alpha instincts are in overdrive because of the pretty little omega in our midsts. He’s more likely to rip my head off if those words pass my lips.

I nod and then look at Sadie. “We’re not finished discussing this.”

She waves a hand at me like she’s fucking bored with the conversation. “If you want to know, have fun breaking into secure databases.”

My lips tip up at the blatant challenge in her tone. She doesn’t think we’ll be able to find out. But what our omega doesn’t understand is the Falcone pack never backs down from a challenge. It’s why we’re where we are today.

I round the island while Maddox watches impatiently, curling my hand around the warm skin of her neck, holding her in place as I bend to press a kiss to her temple. Everything in me is demanding that I grip her chin instead, turn her face toward me and devour those red lips, swallow down her sweet taste, the little mewls I’m certain will sound from her throat.

I ignore the impulse, the need, and slide my lips over to her ear, brushing the soft shell with every word. “If that’s the way you want to play it, omega. Game fucking on.”

A shiver works its way over her body and I don’t miss the way her nipples pucker in response, the slight hitch in her chest, like she can’t get enough air. Under the pads of my fingers, her pulse quickens. She’s so fucking responsive to just these simple touches that I can’t even imagine what it would be like with my hands on her tits or my fingers buried in her cunt.

Her long lashes flutter against her cheekbones as she struggles to get herself under control.

“Logan. Now .”

My huffed breath stirs the little flyaways at Sadie’s temple and I step back, releasing her. It’s not my imagination that she sways the littlest bit toward me, like she’s untethered without my hand around her slim neck.

She steadies herself against the counter and then gathers up the packaging from the morning after pill, keeping her eyes focused on the task.

Maddox watches her as I move toward him, jaw tight, dark green eyes intense. “Be sure not to leave your shit everywhere,” he demands and even though I don’t turn, I can practically feel her glare. “This isn’t your home.”

A stab of anger on her behalf hits me hard in the chest. I don’t know what the hell Maddox is playing at, but alienating our fucking omega should be the furthest thing from his mind. The muscle in his jaw ticks and I glance over my shoulder to see Sadie flashing her middle finger at him as she mouths the words fuck off .

I can’t stop the smirk from pulling at my lips and I honestly wouldn’t want to. Fuck, I love her courage.

Maddox’s eyes gleam, and I can tell he likes it too. He won’t admit it, but he needs to be challenged, needs to have people in his life that stand up to him. An omega that just rolls over would have been a disappointment to him., too goddamn easy.

When I reach his side, he turns on his heel and leads the way to his office, settling behind his desk with a weary sigh, as I take one of the leather chairs facing him. “She is going to be the death of us,” he mutters, running a hand down his face.

I arch a brow at his fatalistic attitude, but don’t argue with him. I’ll leave that to Luca and Swift. Ethan and I are much quieter. I’m not worried. Maddox will come around when he’s had time to process. There isn’t an option for him to reject her. She’s fucking ours.

He’ll see it, eventually.

I lean back in my chair and lace my fingers over my stomach with my elbows propped on the armrests. “What did you need to see me about?”

He scowls, and he then turns his open laptop toward me, letting me read the screen. “This is why I fucking told you not to take her out today.”

My brows arch as I lean forward, running my eyes over the article. It’s a picture of me and Sadie on the street, my lips pressed into her hair and she looks… startled by the contact. The text of the article is mostly just wondering who she is and if the Falcone pack has finally found their omega. It wouldn’t be so bad—we’ve been photographed with countless women before—except the article makes a point of saying we left our building together, exiting the private elevator, and there’s a closeup of the fresh bite mark on Sadie’s neck.

“I should have fucking locked her in her room,” Maddox mutters, before jabbing a finger at the screen. “This is going to be a problem.”

“Can Ethan get it taken down?”

Mad scowls and nods. “He’s already working on it. But you know the way these things work. It’ll never be completely gone.” Another weary hand over his face. “This is the last fucking thing I need to worry about. The timing…”

I nod sympathetically. “I know. But it doesn’t change the fact that this is happening now, Dox. She’s here, and she smells like heaven and she’s ours . We have to do what we can to make sure this works.”

There’s a flicker of something in his eyes. “We don’t know she’s ours.”

Stubborn ass. I laugh. “Bullshit.” His scowl deepens, but he doesn’t say anything else, so I lean back again. “There is something else, though.”

“Jesus fucking christ, what now?” he groans.

I have to clench my jaw around the censorious words that I want to say, and instead tell him calmly, “We ran into someone Sadie knows on the street. A doctor, her physician from when she was a child.” Maddox turns his laptop back to face him and lifts a brow at me to continue. “He seemed surprised to see her healthy and whole on the street, in the presence of an alpha. I think she spent quite a bit of time ill as a child, but she won’t tell me with what.”

“So not only do we now have an unwanted omega, but she’s a sick one, too?”

Anger floods my stomach, bitter and sharp, and I know it’s showing in my scent, turning it from butterscotch bourbon to smoky burnt sugar. But I stay outwardly calm as I say, “she isn’t unwanted, Maddox. And she isn’t sick. At least, not that I can tell. She reassured me it wasn’t cancer, so that is one thing we don’t have to worry about.”

He leans back in his chair. “She told you it wasn’t cancer, but didn’t tell you what it is.”

It’s not a question, but I confirm it anyway. “Correct.”

“That’s what the whole ‘have fun breaking into secure databases’ comment was about?”

My lips twitch. “Yep.”

Maddox’s mouth curls at the corners. “Challenging little omega.” He doesn’t sound like that bothers him.

I nod. “Yeah, she is. I think it’s a good thing, though. How bored would we be if she was just… easy?”

Our prime doesn’t say anything, but he picks up his phone and taps out a message. I’m sure it’s to Ethan, to add Sadie’s health records to the load of information we already need about her. I lean back in my chair and watch him.

I’m not surprised Maddox is resistant to this newest development. He’s been the most vocal about not wanting an omega. Ever. And while he says ‘ever’, I suspect what he actually means is ‘not right now.’

Our lives aren’t exactly safe, and we need to provide a secure environment for our omega. She needs to feel like nothing will hurt her, and we need to feel like we can protect her from anything.

While we have a lot of men at our disposal, a secure penthouse that only the five of us have access to—soon to be six once we get Sadie into the system—and we all know how to fight, shoot and kill, it isn’t enough for Maddox to feel confident that we can keep her safe.

Not while we’re still in this transition stage. Not until we’re able to go one hundred percent legit, and even then, I’m not sure we’ll really be safe. No matter if we’re no longer criminals in the eyes of the law, we still had to step on a lot of other packs and organizations to get to where we are. We have enemies.

“How are you holding up?” I ask, and he turns a dark glare on me. I meet his gaze steadily. He can glare all he wants. It’s my job to look after my pack’s wellbeing and that means more than just their physical aspect.

“I’m fine,” he grits out.

I suppress my mouth’s urge to curl into a smirk at his petulant tone and keep staring at him. “Now that you’ve got that out of your system, why don’t you tell me how you’re actually doing?”

He shakes his head, runs a hand down his face, and leans back in his chair. “I honestly… I don’t know.”

His voice is gruff, like he hates admitting it.

I lean forward. “She’s ours, Dox. She’s here now. A part of our pack. I know it’s not the right time, or easy. But this is the situation and we have to deal with it. Now.”

He sighs and nods. “I know. Believe me, I know. It’s just…” He stares off over my shoulder, looking haunted. “Its not safe, Logan. We’re not safe.”

A low warning growl rumbles from my chest and Maddox gives me a look. “Stop it. You know that’s not what I meant. We wouldn’t hurt her. Never. I know that, but…”

Swallowing the growl, I nod. “I know.” I brace my elbows on the arms of my chair and lean forward. “It doesn’t change the fact that we have an omega now. That Luca bonded her.”

Maddox scowls. “Fucking Luca.”

Oh, Maddox is pissed at our packmate. Really fucking pissed.

I keep quiet, letting him decide if he wants to talk about it, if he wants to discuss it with me. My patience is rewarded when he continues, “I don’t know how he could do this to us, to her. He took away all of our choice in the matter. Just knotted her and bonded her without our consent. I would expect something like that from Swift, but Luca?” He shakes his head. I agree with him. Luca is usually more level-headed than that. But then I can’t be sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing If I’d found Sadie first. She has a way of making every alpha instinct I have rise to the surface. I can only imagine it’s worse when buried inside her. “And what the hell was Ethan thinking? Letting him bite her? He’s a beta. He should have been the first one to pull Luca back from making a mistake like that.”

I swallow my growl again, but my accent is thicker as I snap out, “she’s not a fucking mistake.”

Maddox meets my gaze. “I didn’t mean she’s a mistake. Fuck, I have a nose, alright? I can smell her. Smell how she’s…”

Perfect. Our scent match. The single omega we are helpless against.

“I meant the way it happened, Logan. In one of the back rooms at a bar? During what she thought was a one-night stand? Fuck, as soon as Luca scented her, he should have called us and we could have approached her together. Courted her properly. Given everyone a chance to get to know each other. Instead, she’s here and bonded into our pack.”

I get what he’s saying. I do. Hadn’t I just been wishing we’d had the chance to do this right? There’s a way to approach adding an omega into a pack. It usually includes a period of courting where the pack takes the omega on dates, brings them gifts and proves that they can take care of them, to provide for them.

All Sadie got was a quick tumble in a public space and a bite on the neck.

“So we do those things now.”

Maddox glares at his desk. “She doesn’t want to be here. Ethan told me they had to convince her to come meet us.”

I swallow and nod. “It had to be confusing for her, thinking she was a beta for all these years and then finding out she’s not. I’m sure she needs time to process and that can’t be easy while dealing with her scent matched pack, new omega instincts and a bond with Luca. You know he’s pestering her on that thing all fucking day.”

Maddox sighs again. I swear he’s sighed more in this conversation than he’s ever sighed in the thirty-two years I’ve known him. “You’re right. She needs time to process what happened. Hell, we all do. And once we’ve gotten used to being around each other, we can have a conversation about where we go from here.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to put it off,” I murmur. It’s not that I don’t agree that we all need time, it’s that I’m worried what Sadie will think if we don’t have this conversation as a pack sooner rather than later.

Maddox pins me with a look. “She’s here through the weekend, at least. We can give her time and space to get used to the idea of being an omega. On Sunday, we can all sit down and have a chat.”

It’s Friday now. I think giving our new omega that much time and space might be a bad idea. But Maddox is right that Sadie is resistant to being here, to sharing things about herself. Not that I blame her. We’re all strangers.

I’m not exactly rushing to tell her all my deepest, darkest secrets, to show her the most fucked up parts of me. I want the girl to like me… No, I need her to like me. I need her to want to bond with me, to trust that I’m safe. That I’ll take care of her.

Maddox has been watching me, probably reading my emotions like a fucking book because I rarely keep my bond to the pack closed. He knows I want to argue with him, but there’s a glint in his eye that tells me if I do, he’ll pull some prime alpha bullshit like he already did with Luca. “Fine,” I agree. “But don’t avoid her, okay? We can’t make it obvious we’re all keeping our distance. It’ll hurt her feelings.”

A furrow appears on Maddox’s forehead and his dark eyes glance at the door. I can feel him vibrating with the need to go check on Sadie, to make sure she has everything she needs, to verify for himself that she’s okay.

I smirk to myself. Yeah, he might say we’re gonna give her space, but I doubt it’s going to last very long.