Page 8 of Ondine, Vol. 2 (Cash City Omegaverse)

Omegabrain

Ondine

D r. Chen sits in front of me with a look of deep concern on her face. Not because she feels concerned, she’s trying to send me a message that she’s about to tell me something serious.

Freddie sits next to me, the back of his hand stroking my leg. Sebastian stands with Dr. Chen’s beta nurse. I don’t remember his name.

“Last time we met, I took your results to my colleague Dr. Soto, who is an omega specialist. He reviewed your case, and told me it is highly likely you’ve been suffering from chronic bond sickness.”

“Yes,” I reply, having known this information.

“I’m sorry?”

“I knew that. I mean, I’ve never been diagnosed, but yes, I knew. I’ve always had it under control, though.”

She emotes her “concern” look even more.

“Ondine, no one can manage chronic bond-sickness on their own.”

“What was I supposed to do?”

She sighs. “Go to a doctor.”

Sebastian interrupts what was about to be a sassy reply. “What can we do now?”

“Well, now things are different. You’ve bonded a feral alpha.

Which looks like it’s done two things: one, it’s established a wilding bond.

” We all want to ask about it, so she puts up her hand and explains, “Freddie is, or was, feral, and now has a healthy bond, with a scent match. Bonding in that case results in a wildling bond. It essentially means that Ondine’s feelings take priority over his own.

He’ll default to her first most of the time.

He is hers, more that she is his. His alpha bark may not even be effective, but I’d encourage you not to test that. ”

I’m ready to apologize to him. I didn’t know that would happen. He should have known before that that was a possibility. Freddie grips my knee.

“It feels like my hands are connected to her heart. Is that not how a standard bond feels?”

Freddie looks to Dr. Chen and then to Sebastian.

Sebastian answers, “I don’t feel that at all with Shadow or Jake.”

“I haven’t heard that either. I would safely say that’s the wildling bond.”

“How does it feel?” Sebastian asks.

“Incredible,” Freddie answers and I feel the truth of it through the bond. I nod. It does feel incredible.

“The second thing is, as long as you stay with Freddie and solidify the bond, I don’t think you’ll have issues with bond-sickness. It’s a healthy bond. As long as he takes care of you.”

“Always,” he promises.

Dr. Chen leaves me with a script for vitamins and a low-dose hormone supplement to take as needed. Sebastian takes off to go to the pharmacy to pick it up.

Freddie orders us lunch and then takes me back to the nest.

We wrap up in each other in the nest. I’m so happy he’s mine. I stroke his hair away from his face and he closes his eyes and gets lost in the process. How strange is all of this? A wildling bond. A scent match. Freddie. I want it all to be true so much.

“Freddie,” I say.

He makes a mhmm noise.

“What do you need? You seem…agitated.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.”

I run my fingers through his scalp. He was thinking a lot and I felt the strain through the bond.

“I need to talk to my handler, Alpha Kam-po. At the monastery.”

“In person? We can go to the monastery.”

His eyes open. “You want to come to the monastery?”

“I don’t want to be apart from you.”

He nods like he agrees, but he looks conflicted.

I ask him, “What is it?”

“And we have to talk about what we will do next. We can’t stay at Sky Nest forever, with Sebastian running our errands.”

“Why not? Aren’t you rich?”

He rolls his eyes. “Rich? I’m not the only one here with a trust fund.”

I scoff. “It’s like 25k a year. How much is yours?”

“A little more than that.”

“Living in a hotel money more than that.”

He pulls me into him quickly, and I squeal. And then he kisses me. “Don’t be a brat.”

I snap my teeth at him. There’s a knock at the door. He unwinds himself from me and retrieves our lunch. I meet him in the receiving room.

As Freddie prepares me a plate of tortellini and salad, he tells me how much his trust fund actually is.

And it’s definitely live in a hotel for the rest of your life money.

“I have investments and I own parts of companies. I have a board of accountants and financial advisors managing my portfolio. I’ll get you all the info as soon as possible.

I’ll make sure your name is on everything, because it’s all ours now.

And it’s more than enough to take care of you. ”

“I’m not worried about that, Freddie.”

He kisses my cheek as he hands me my plate and then pours me an orange soda, the kind without caffeine.

We eat while sharing a chair.

“My mother keeps calling,” he says.

“Oh, yeah?”

“I think I should go talk to her and my dad about Man-ho, and about you.”

“Are you still going to kill him?”

He leans back, having had cleared his plate.

“He needs to be dealt with. In one way or another. I’ll need to do something.” He kisses my neck and strokes my arm. “Come with me to my parent’s pack house. We will take care of that first.”

I love how he tosses out the word “we” like it’s so easy.

“Yeah, but I can’t let your mom see me in yoga pants and wearing your t-shirt. Her seeing me with chlorine hair and wearing Sebastian’s clothes was hopefully a one-off thing. I’d like to look good.”

“You always look good. And I love you in my shirt.”

I laugh at him and go to stand up, but he pulls me all the way on his lap.

“I’ll let her know we are coming by. You do what you need to do, princess.”