Chapter 7

Luka

“Where am I?”

Nothing about this place was familiar. I looked down and saw gauze all over my arms and wires connecting me to machines that beeped regularly.

I assumed it was a medical facility, but it was only based on what I’d heard about them, not experience. It smelled like strong disinfectant, which made it especially hard to try to recognize any scent that might be familiar.

Nothing was. The good news was that I probably wasn’t in Long Lake Pack. The bad news was that I had no clue where I actually might be.

The sun was setting through the window, but I couldn’t see anything besides the fading light. I wondered how long I had been here.

A nurse in a white cotton uniform entered, holding a tray of medical equipment and a bundle under her arm. She put the materials on a table and began to sort through them, sighing heavily.

“Have a good sleep?” she asked sarcastically, not waiting for an answer. “You must have, since you’ve been in a coma for two days, and we’ve been waiting on you hand and foot.”

My brain was still waking up, and this was a lot of information to process. “Thank you, that’s so generous…”

“Please. It’s not out of the kindness of my heart. Why would you think yourself worthy to be the mate of the alpha? Who ever heard of an omega and a king? It’s an abomination.”

It looked like some things here wouldn’t be all that different from Long Lake Pack after all.

“I don’t understand any better than you, nurse,” I admitted. “What should I call you?”

The nurse scowled at the gauze in her hand. “You shouldn’t. We are not friends. Don’t expect to stay here and have me wait on you. And don’t think you’re the alpha’s mate, because you’re not. Stand up, and make it quick, because I am not getting off work late because of you.”

I forced myself to sit up, feeling the strain in my ribs. The nurse moved around like she was about to pluck weeds from a garden, not attend to a patient’s medical needs.

The nurse shoved up the sleeves of my hospital gown and ripped the gauze from my hands. I cried out in pain as blood and pus pooled out of my wounds and onto the bed. I could feel the tears streaming from my face.

“Shut up, bitch! I don’t want to hear it,” the nurse said. “You’re a contract mate, so you’re lucky at all to get any medical treatment. We both know the alpha king will get tired of playing with you soon enough. So save your tears for when you’re discarded, because I don’t want to hear them.”

I held my breath so I didn’t start crying harder. I hated how familiar this entire situation felt. What was the point of leaving Long Lake Pack if everything here was the same?

“And clearly he doesn’t want to hear your whining or see your face either, since he hasn’t come to visit you since you got here. Why should he? He doesn’t care. Omegas like you are trash.”

She was right, of course. Everyone knew that omegas were the lowest of the low, regardless of the pack. Why would I have thought he would think differently? I had met him two times, and he had just decided to take me out of Long Lake Pack, but he hadn’t promised me anything.

Declan’s parting words echoed in my head. You’re just a bedmate, a plaything for his sexual desires. He’ll get sick of you and discard you. A contract mate was just one step above a concubine, and I would be an idiot for it to mean anything.

Maybe Caleb would get sick of me quickly and let me go soon, I thought. Being on my own would be better than being a slave, especially if I could expect treatment like this nurse from everyone else in the pack.

“Now hold still, I don’t want to get blood on my uniform.” The nurse started rubbing ointment into my raw rounds, and it felt like sand abrading my wounds. I pursed my lips as tightly as I could and closed my eyes, willing myself not to scream or cry to avoid even worse treatment.

Please, gods, make it stop, I told myself. I didn’t know how much longer I could handle the pain.

“What are you doing?” The voice was Caleb’s, and I was terrified to open my eyes.

But I realized he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to the nurse. Her demeanor changed immediately.

“I’m applying medicine, your highness.” The nurse backed away and lowered her head in submission. “To treat this patient.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” he bellowed.

She clasped her hands together. “No, of course not, your majesty.”

“I heard everything. I saw everything. You think this hospital doesn’t have monitors? This is unacceptable, a disgrace.”

I firmly expected him to turn to me and blame me for my part in this. But he continued with her.

“I didn’t mean to disgrace you, my king.”

His face took on a shade of red. “You think this is about disgracing me? You disgraced yourself. Your treatment of this patient was inhumane and unacceptable. You are removed from your position at this hospital. You are now assigned to the latrines throughout the realm. Your style of caring is more appropriate for toilets, not people.”

The nurse fell to her knees and lay at the alpha king’s feet. “Please, sir! I’m a good nurse. All I want is to serve you and the kingdom. I have served you loyally for years.”

“I’ve contacted my head of security, and he’ll be here in a moment to remove you. Now get up.”

She cried more loudly and held onto his ankles. He shook her hands loose and nudged her away with his foot. “Don’t touch me.”

Although she had treated me so cruelly, I couldn’t help feeling bad for her. I didn’t like her, but I didn’t want her life to be ruined.

The pounding footsteps of the royal guard echoed down the hall, and a man in uniform grabbed the nurse by the arm and lifted her off the floor. Another guard took her other arm in a hold.

She fought to free herself and planted her feet to the floor, stiffening her body to put up the most resistance she could. “Please don’t take me! I promise I’ll do better…”

She looked around wildly and stopped at my face. I expected to see anger, but I just saw sadness and remorse. “Please,” she pleaded to me, “please have mercy.”

My eyes widened in disbelief. Me? What could I do? I was a contract mate, and that wasn’t even official yet. I had no power to persuade the king of anything, as the nurse herself had pointed out. I didn’t know him at all, either, so how did I know he wouldn’t just give me latrine duty too?

But her wails were so heartbreaking, her face so pathetic. It reminded me of someone: me, when I was a slave for Declan and he took out his anger. I knew better than anyone that this kind of life was not easy. Should a mistake unravel her whole life?

“Your majesty, Alpha King…” I surprised myself by speaking. Everyone looked at me like I had three heads, even the nurse. “This nurse didn’t mean to do any harm. Might you consider mercy…?”

Caleb’s entire body shook. “Absolutely not. Guards! Take away this nurse, now, to the slave quarters.”

Caleb began to speak as the guards took the nurse from the room. The nurse looked back at me with a mixture of gratitude and fear, thankful for my efforts and scared of what would happen now that they had failed. I smiled goodbye in a way that conveyed hope, and that I’d keep trying.

“I have some advice for you, Luka Shaw,” the king said. “Blindly being kind and weak will make you the target of bullying.”

I didn’t quite understand and thought to myself, trying to unravel what exactly he meant.

“Take off your clothes.”