Page 20 of Knot for Sale

My heart kicked hard against my chest. “Cade’s coming here?”Shit, shit, shit. I needed to get out.

But Elijah shook his head. “No, I think we’re okay. We’ve got an ally, oddly enough. A guy—an alpha—named Gabriel Rosencranz. He helped me out; offered to go find the doctor and make sure Cade didn’t tag along with him.”

An ally? Analphaally who’d randomly decided to help us?

“Why?” I asked cautiously.

Elijah gave me a sheepish shrug. “My A+ flirting skills, I guess? I talked to him at dinner before the shit hit the fan. He’s pretty hot.”

I spent a few seconds trying to take that on board. “O...kay?”

“But the doctor is still coming here, I assume,” Elijah continued. “How good were you at playing sick to get out of school when you were a kid?”

I thought back to my childhood, which had been unconventional, to say the least. “It never really c-came up.”

Elijah digested this. “Wow. England must be pretty different from the States. Okay. Just, um, tell him you’ve got really bad seasickness, I guess. That you didn’t want to come to dinner because you were afraid you might hurl on a multi-millionaire.”

I drew breath to saythat’s not even a proper plan, but I was interrupted by another knock at the door.

“Ms. Huntwell?” The voice was muffled and sounded German. “My name is Dr. Metzer. May I come in?”

Elijah was frowning. He mouthed the words‘Ms. Huntwell?’at me, but there was no time to try and explain about my name. At least he already knew I was related to Tommy and Cade, so it shouldn’t have come as a complete shock.

There didn’t seem to be any way to avoid Dr. Metzer without bringing even more attention to myself. I mouthed‘sorry, it’s complicated’to Elijah and went to open the door.

“Hi,” I said, trying to sound suitably pathetic.

Metzer had a sort of ‘Albert-Einstein-with-a-better-barber’ vibe going on. He was carrying a leather satchel, and his wild gray eyebrows were drawn together in concern.

“Hello, my dear,” he said. “I understand you’re not feeling well?”

I belatedly wrapped an arm around my stomach, hunching my five-foot-ten-inch frame to something less impressive. “Uh, yes. That’s right.”

“Well, I’ve come to take a look at you, in that case.” Metzer squeezed past me into the cabin. “Let’s see what the trouble is.” His gaze fell on Elijah, his frown deepening. “If you would excuse us for a few minutes, young man?”

Elijah crossed his arms and didn’t budge. “Actually, I think it would be best if I stayed.”

Sudden humiliation at having dragged my innocent roommate into this slow-rolling disaster flooded me like a tidal wave. “No, it’s all right.”

Green eyes pinned mine. “I’ll leave if you want, Em. But I’ll be right outside, okay?”

The humiliation burned hotter. “Okay. Thanks.”

Another hard stare at me, and Elijah left. On his way out, he flipped the inside security latch on the door so it couldn’t close completely, leaving a one-inch gap and ensuring the main lock wouldn’t automatically engage.

I steeled myself and turned to the doctor. “Sorry, whatever this is, it hit me earlier this afternoon. I’m sure it will pass.”

“No harm in doing a few diagnostic tests,” said the doctor, placing his bag on the end of the bed and unzipping it.

I submitted to a stethoscope, temperature check, eye, ear, nose, and throat examination. Metzer hummed and muttered to himself throughout the exam.

“No sign of fever or infection,” he said, straightening. “I’ll need to take a blood sample next—”

I flinched back. “No. No blood sample.”

It would take an in-depth pelvic exam to tell visually that I was an omega—but a blood test would also make it pretty damned obvious.

He hesitated. “Are you afraid of needles, dear?”