Page 1 of Unhinged

Nine Years Ago

brYDGETT

A sharp, searing pain forces me to double over; a cry rips from my throat. My skin is on fire and sweat drips down my back, as the first faint slick gathers between my thighs. I clutch my belly, gasping for breath, trying to focus on something—anything—other than the agony tearing me apart.

I’m lying on my bed underneath the canopy my adoptive mom bought me when I presented as an omega.

It’s my makeshift nest for now, enclosed in a wall of drapes and filled with every stuffy and blanket I could get my hands on.

I close my eyes and breathe deeply, trying to remind myself that it’s temporary.

It’s not perfect, but it only has to last a little bit longer until I leave for Oakridge Academy.

Now that I’m twenty one, I’m supposed to leave next month, and it’s where I’ll hopefully be matched with my future alphas, my pack.

Earl messed up something with the paperwork and they didn’t think I was enrolling any longer, so I’ll be a late entry, but I’m still in.

We spent hours on the phone straightening all of that out, but luckily, the administration was a dream to work with and let me join late.

A loud banging on the door booms, pulling me from my thoughts and nearly making me jump. I swear it sounds like they are using a battering ram.

“Let me in, Omega!” Earl bellows, sending ice through my veins as it sounds through the room. I shiver, my entire body tense with the kind of fear that settles deep in your bones, the kind you can’t shake.

“No. I think I’m going into heat. Please get Tina. I need her. I think I should go to the clinic to ride this out,” I manage to whimper, my voice weak, almost swallowed by the overpowering scent of my perfume filling the air—orange and jasmine, a fragrance that now feels suffocating.

“Damn, you smell good, Omega. Let me in now. I know what you need.” His voice is thick with desire, with something dark and twisted that makes my stomach churn.

“No! You shouldn’t come in here. I want Tina!” I try to shout, but it comes out in a whine as another wave of pain radiates through me.

The door bursts open with a splintering crash, and I open my eyes to see Earl—my adoptive dad, the man who was supposed to protect me—standing there.

His pupils are blown wide, chest heaving, one hand already rubbing at the crotch of his jeans.

The sight of him like this, so far from the man I thought I knew, sends a bolt of terror through me.

“Gonna make you feel so good, Omega,” he coos as he stalks toward the bed.

“No, Earl! No! You’re my dad. This isn’t you.

You adopted me seven years ago, remember?

” I plead, tears blurring my vision as he grabs my ankles and yanks me to the edge of the bed.

I feel the cool air against my skin as he tears away my pajama shorts, exposing me.

My slick, my scent—it’s supposed to draw my alphas to me, not this. Never this.

“I’ve been waiting seven years for this.

Tina hasn’t gone into heat since she went through the change.

And I have needs.” His words are a snarl as he pushes his pants down, letting his mediocre cock spring free.

He smells of grass and cooking oil as he holds me down. I kick and scream for my adoptive mom.

Why? Why is this happening? I can barely think as he presses a hand to my throat, holding me down while he assaults me, and my mind reels with the awful realization.

He sabotaged my paperwork. He wanted me here, alone, when my heat hit.

The truth is too much to bear, and as the pressure on my throat increases, I let myself slip into the darkness, praying for it to swallow me whole.

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Something isn’t right. I’m puking all the time, everything makes me gag, and my tits and belly have gotten more pronounced.

The truth I’ve been avoiding is becoming impossible to ignore, and now I’m heading to HeatWave, the omega clinic in town.

I don’t want to go. I’m terrified of what they might tell me, but I need to know if this sickness is something worse than the memories that haunt me.

And if it is… then maybe they can help. Maybe they’ll offer me housing or something, so I won’t have to keep couch-surfing or sleeping in parks.

I haven’t been back to Earl and Tina’s since that heat.

That never-ending night where a sudden heat spike wrecked me, and Earl didn’t leave my bed until morning.

My body betrayed me; responded to him in ways my mind didn’t consent to.

I didn’t want him. But in the middle of it, I couldn’t stop the instinct, the pull, the heat-driven craving.

I hated how I melted under his touch, how my body welcomed him even while my thoughts screamed no.

That kind of betrayal sticks. Makes your skin crawl after. Makes you wonder who you even are.

When Tina came home that morning, I told her what happened—choked it out through sobs, my face buried in my hands. She laughed. Then slapped me. Said it was my fault. Said, “At least now I don’t have to worry about him cheating on me with some random whore.”

Something in me cracked.

Maybe it was a coincidence she was gone that night. Maybe. But I can’t stop thinking she planned it. That she knew what would happen. That she wanted it to.

And honestly? I don’t even care anymore. What wrecks me more is what it took from me—how it rewired something inside me. How it taught me that even people who are supposed to protect you will hurt you if it serves them. That love can be conditional. That safety is a lie.

Now, whenever someone gets close, I wait for the slap. The laughter. The betrayal.

It’s been four months, and I’ve been surviving on scraps, eating from the trash, or whatever my friends—those few who didn’t leave for the Academy—can spare when I crash at their places.

I didn’t go to the Academy because no pack would want a damaged omega.

Plus, it’s the first place Tina and Earl would look for me.

Walking through the clinic’s doors, I take a deep, calming breath and pray that what the pharmacist said yesterday isn’t true, but there’s only one way to find out.

“How may I help you?” an older beta at the counter asks, calmy, almost motherly, and I nearly break right there.

“Um, I haven’t been feeling well for a while now and I need to see a doctor. I might be pregnant,” I whisper the last part, not wanting anyone to hear.

“That’s wonderful.” She claps her hands together, her face lighting up with joy—until she sees the way my shoulders slump, the way my eyes brim with tears. Her smile fades, replaced by concern. “Oh, dear. Okay, let me get you right back to see someone.”

She hands me a clipboard and stands from her chair, leading me to an exam room in the back. “Someone should be right with you.”

I sit on the exam table, staring at my tattered Converse, and sigh before looking at the paperwork on the clipboard.

Okay, not bad, just my general information and medical background; I can do this.

Filling out the papers as thoroughly as I can, I freeze when I get to the question I refuse to answer.

If you might be pregnant, who is the baby’s father? What is his designation?

No. I can’t. I refuse to put his name down. I can’t link this baby—if there even is one—to him. I leave that line blank and quickly fill out the rest.

There’s a knock on the door just as I finish.

The doctor enters, followed by a nurse. “Hello, I’m Dr. Birch, and this is Nurse Sally,” he says, taking the clipboard from the nurse.

He glances over it and frowns. “I see you left the father’s name blank.

If this is the result of an assault, we need to know. We can contact law enforcement?—”

“No!” I cut him off. The pounding in my chest is so loud it’s hard to concentrate on what he’s even saying; like my body’s trying to drown everything out with pure panic.

“I’m not putting his name down. Just give me the damn test so I know if I’m knocked up and I can get out of here,” I snap, my scent going all sharp and sour without me meaning to.

“That’s not how it works, Ms. Holland,” he replies coldly.

“We need to know who hurt you, so they can be charged and if found not guilty, they have rights to the child,” he informs me like this is routine and I’m boring him.

No! No, no, no, no, no. This can’t happen.

If it’s true and I am pregnant, this baby is mine. NOT his!

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m out of here!” I leap off the exam table, shoving past the nurse. Dr. Birch reaches for me as I pass, but I dodge him, my shoulder slamming into him as I run out of the room, down the hall, and out of the clinic.

Back to square fucking one. I need to know if a baby is growing inside of me.

But I’m fresh out of cash, and I can’t afford a pregnancy test from the store.

As an omega, I can’t even buy one without the clerk logging my name and contact info, which is just one more thing I can’t risk right now.

So, I head to the sketchy part of town to see if I can find Franko.

I’ve only known Franko for about four months, but we’ve gotten close in the kind of way that happens when survival puts people in each other’s paths.

It started when I scared off some guy trying to break into his warehouse.

I wasn’t doing it for him; I just didn’t want my shit stolen while I was staying nearby in a park trying to sleep.

Franko saw it, though. The way I handled myself.

The fact that I didn’t ask for anything.

He offered me a spot inside instead of leaving me to sleep in the park. I said yes, and that was that.

Since then, I’ve done whatever small jobs he tossed my way; counting cash, making drops, running errands.

Nothing dirty enough to make me feel like I sold my soul, just enough to keep my head above water.

I made it clear I wouldn’t deal drugs, and he respected that.

Franko’s rough around the edges, but he doesn’t break his word.

We’re not family, but he’s the closest thing I’ve got right now to someone looking out for me.

Let’s hope he knows someone who can give me a pregnancy test without involving the law.

An hour later, I’m lying on a dirty table in Franko’s warehouse while some girl named Candy, who claims she used to be a nurse, checks the results of the blood she drew.

My arm aches from where she jabbed the needle repeatedly until she finally hits a vein, but I keep my mouth shut. Beggars can’t be choosers.

“Well, you’re for sure pregnant,” she rasps as she types on a laptop.

“You’re sure? That was awfully fast,” I question as my heart beats wildly in my chest.

“Yup,” she says, popping the p. “Franko said to rush the results, so I sent them down the road to the lab. Freddie there is sweet on me, so he rushed your shit. He just messaged and the HCG is indicating pregnancy. Let me get Franko’s okay and I'll get the ultrasound machine in here so we can see how far along you are.”

Pregnant. The word echoes in my mind like a death sentence.

Pregnant. A baby. This can’t be happening.

Not after that night. The night I’ve tried so hard to forget, the night that changed everything.

I don’t need an ultrasound to confirm it.

I know exactly when this happened, and the thought makes my stomach churn.

“No need.”

I can’t let her do this. I can’t see the image of a baby, his baby, on a screen.

“I know when this happened. I’m four months, give or take.

That makes me having a baby, when? June?

” I ask, but I already know the answer. In five months, I’m going to have a baby, a baby conceived on the worst night of my life.

A baby I never asked for, never wanted. I need to leave town, so Earl and Tina have no way of finding out.

I slide off the table and leave the room.

“Thanks, Candy,” I mutter as I push through the door, not bothering to look back.

I need to get away from here, away from this town, away from everything that reminds me of Earl and Tina. They can’t find out. They can’t ever know.

As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, I’m on autopilot. The bus station. I need to get to the bus station. I need to get as far away from here as possible. My mind races as I walk.

Where will I go? What will I do? Can I even do this alone?

I don’t have the answers, but I know I can’t stay here.

When I reach the bus station, I march straight to the counter, my hands shaking as I pull out two crumpled fifties.

“I want on the next bus scheduled to depart and headed far, far the fuck away from here.” I slam the two fifties on the counter as I snap at the guy behind the glass.

I don’t have much money, just what I’ve made doing odd and end jobs for Franko, so a ticket better not be more than that.

He barely looks up from his screen, raising an eyebrow at my tone. “Try using some manners. The next departure is Virginia, and the bus leaves in ten minutes. Round trip or one way?” He stares at me like I’m wasting his time.

“One way,” I grind out through clenched teeth, my patience hanging by a thread.

“Sixty even. Terminal G. Enjoy,” he drawls as he slides my change and ticket underneath the glass partition.

“Thank you,” I tell him, grabbing my shit and shoving it in my pocket.

In just a few minutes, I’ll be on a bus leaving Illinois and heading for Virginia.

A new life. A new start. But as I walk, the reality of what I’m facing starts to sink in.

In fifteen hours, I’ll have to make a decision.

A decision that will change my life forever.

Will this new life include a baby? His baby?

The thought makes my chest tighten, and I struggle to breathe.

I have fifteen hours to figure it out. Fifteen hours to decide if I can live with what’s growing inside me, if I can bring this child into the world.

I don’t know what I’ll do, but I know one thing for certain: I can’t go back.

Not to Earl, not to Tina, not to the life I knew before.

This is my only way out. And I have to take it.