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Parking the vehicle, I sigh as I check my makeup. There are orderlies in front of the side entrance with a stretcher, and I can see from here that my daughter is not making things easy for them. She’s writhing and flailing around, and as I open the doors, I can hear her screaming.

Not very demure at all. She has a long way to go, and I wishthey’d given her something stronger for her sedative. Nina shouldn’t be awake so soon.

Steeling my spine, I get out of the car and gently shut the door behind me. I would like to scream about how life isn’t fair like a toddler, but am I? Absolutely not.

Locking the door with my key fob, I walk calmly over to where Dr. Kind and Dr. Brunes are gazing stoically at my misbehaving child.

“I was heading to the office, when I heard the commotion,” I explain, brow raised.

“Please, I need them!” Nina screams.

Is she talking about her step-father? It didn’t escape my notice that Ethan was exceptionally cold with me when I saw him, and he didn’t enjoy seeing Nina being manhandled.

What the fuck has been going on since she’s been gone?

“I suspect that she’s going into heat,” Dr. Brunes murmurs. “Her skin is warm to the touch, and the air smells like honeysuckle.”

My nose wrinkles because there’s only one reason why that would be. It’s indelicate to be speaking about this, but I’ll allow it because he’s a doctor.

“That was fast. She was completely fine at the house,” I say. My forehead would wrinkle in confusion, but I recently had shots to keep that from happening. I’m quite aware of my age, and I don’t want my current husband to divorce me for appearing to age.

I refuse to start over when he’s so rich and he allows me to do whatever I want.

“It’s possible she got overwrought and it triggered her heat,” Dr. Kind murmurs. “Do you know if she’s gone through her first yet? She is eighteen.”

“To my knowledge, she hasn’t. However, I don’t know what’s been happening in the months that she wasn’t with me,” I sniff. “What is the protocol for this?”

“She’s calling out for someone, possibly a few others,” Dr.Kind muses. “If she’s met her scent matches or she’s bonded, the only way for her to get through this is to medically sedate her until it passes.”

“Will it be a heavier dose than what you gave her earlier?” I ask, struggling to keep my tone from being too scathing. This really is their fault.

“Yes, it will be,” Dr. Kind says with a nod.

A strong push from one of the orderlies makes me wince as the wind is knocked out of Nina. Oh well, she really brought this on herself. Hopefully, the only scars at the end of this will be on the inside.

“Oh, one more thing,” I say softly as I watch them tie my daughter down to the stretcher and take her away. “I want the pink strips in her hair cut off. I don’t care if it’s done easily. If she complains, shave her damn head. She’s always been much too vain. This will teach her the humility necessary to be an omega.”

The last bit is a lie. My daughter has never truly cared about her appearance. She was always happier as a child climbing trees and looking like a vagrant. I can’t stand her hair, though.

“Yes, of course,” Dr. Brunes says. He’s the other psychiatrist working here, and the one who cultivated this idea to reprogram omegas. He’s been having good progress with other omegas.

We’ll see what he can do with Nina.

“I’m off to fill that paperwork out now, and then I’ll be returning to Georgia immediately,” I say. “Please keep me up to date about her welfare.”

“Of course,” Dr. Brunes says with a nod. “It’s best that you don’t stay in town for this. I believe Nina will have a very hard road ahead of her. She should never have left home the way she did. The world is full of deceit. We’ll make sure she doesn’t remember her scent matches as well.”

“Scent matches,” I breathe, wide eyed. “Oh that won’t do at all. How am I supposed to get a reputable pack to look at her if she’s scent matched? I need her thoroughly checked for any bites as well please.”

“We can make it so that she forgets those people,” Dr. Brunes says confidently. “As long as she never sees them again, the treatment will have no chance of breaking.”

Dr. Kind nods as he sees my face. I can’t say that Cooper and Ethan will never see her again. The world is a very small place, I’m discovering. She didn’t know they were at this school, yet ran into each other anyway.

“Honestly, we may be able to get it to stick even if she does see them,” the doctor says. “It does mean that she may need to stay with us longer.”

“Is a year long enough?” I ask. “I want to begin putting out the word that my daughter can be courted, but that she is in Paris for the year painting and visiting relatives.”

We really do have relatives in Paris, as I have an ailing great aunt there. No one needs to know I’m telling a white lie.