Page 10 of Secret Heart
“I’m awake,” I say, my own voice scratchy with disuse.
The door swings open a moment later, revealing a small blonde woman in the Haven medical uniform—black knit pants and shirt—and Lance a step behind her. His hands are in his pockets, worry etched in every laugh line surrounding his eyes and lips. He’s in navy slacks and a light blue button-up shirt, a gray tie held in place with a simple silver tack that matches the metal in his belt.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Harding,” the woman says with a small smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’m Dr. Gent, but youcan call me Irina. I’m one of the on-call doctors at the Haven here. I’m glad to see you up and lucid. How are you feeling?”
Confusion rips through me. This hasn’t ever happened before. I glance at Lance, but he’s focused entirely on the woman—Irina.
“Fine?” My uncertainty has it come out a question. “Thirsty.”
She nods. “That would make sense. That’s typical when an Omega comes out of a Drop.”
Drop?
Unease mixes with the confusion, both bleeding into my clove scent. Neither of them notice the change. Lance raises an eyebrow as I say nothing.
“A Drop?” I finally ask.
Irina nods.
“There was a stimulant in your bloodstream when the paramedics got to you. Between those and the suppressants you took earlier in the night, it caused a full-blown crisis in your limbic system. A Drop isn’t uncommon when a stimulant is used. Since you were stable, your medical proxy opted to have you transferred here rather than remain hospitalized.”
She gestures toward Lance.
“I didn’t take a stimulant.”
I know the risks of accidentally combining the suppressant medications used to keep an Omega’s heat—or any of the other traits unique to Omegas—from surfacing with the stimulants some use to better time their own heats. It’s something the doctors and pharmacists reiterate every single time I get the suppressants filled or adjusted. Not to mention the public health campaigns the Council has been putting out the last half decade.
Both of them frown.
“You didn’t give yourself the stimulant?” Irina asks, a new worry in her tone.
I try to shake my head, but it makes my jaw ache. When they don’t say anything else, I press my fingers to the pressure points in my temples and ask, “How long did it last?”
Drops aren’t good. No wonder my entire body feels like I’ve been rammed into the chute by a bull. Already, my eyes burn, and I want to curl into the bedding again.
Lance clears his throat.
“About three days.”
That explains why I’m so hungry. Even during a heat, I’m able to drink enough. It’s part of what the Alphas who work at the Havens are supposed to help with beyond the physical satiation of the heat cycles.
“Drop recovery is a bit more complicated than just surfacing from a heat,” Irina says, still five feet away, just inside the door. “We’ve put you in an observation room to help monitor your progress. I’ll have some food brought up. Is there anything particular you’d like?”
“No,” I mutter.
She crosses to a small phone perched on a three-drawer dresser in the far corner, dialing in a number from memory and then speaking to someone. Her voice is calm and cool, so quiet it feels more like a hum than a true noise.
Lance closes the distance while she’s still on the phone.
“You need to take a break,” he says without preamble. “These buckle bunnies are getting way too comfortable with you again.”
Yeah, they apparently were. A break, though? When I’ve just won the championship buckle and should be spending the next few weeks doing some kind of press circuit with the right magazines and website reporters?
“I’ve cleared your schedule through mid-May. I’ve spun it as a much-earned break after the whirlwind of the last season,” he continues, leaning against the foot of the bed, his hands still in his pockets. “Before you panic, know that your sponsors arehappy enough to wait another few weeks for their exclusives with you. The NBRA interview is scheduled for the 12th.”
“All right. Where am I going?”
Lance’s frown deepens. “I figured you’d want to go back home, but there are a few Omega retreats I can look into if you’d like.”
