by Leann Ryans
The desk sitting at an angle in the far-left corner was empty, and Elise hesitated, unsure what to do. As the door to the outside swung shut behind her, she looked between the desk and the partially opened door on the other side.
Elise could hear voices echoing out from the opening, so she crept closer to the desk, hoping someone would come out. By the time she stopped in front of it, there was still no sign that anyone would be coming to greet her.
Unsure what else to do, she called out a shaky, “Hello?”
The voices from the other room stopped before she heard shuffling and footsteps heading her way. Straightening, she crossed her hands over her bag, trying to slow her breathing.
A head of messy blonde hair popped through the opening, brows drawn together in confusion over plain brown eyes. When he noticed Elise, he pushed his way through the door to stand behind the desk.
“Hello, Miss. Are you lost?”
His tone and question made it obvious that not many people passed through this lobby.
Taking a deep breath, Elise spoke before she lost the nerve.
“I’m here to turn myself in.”
The look of confusion didn’t leave his face as he stared back at her.
“For collection… I’m an omega.”
His eyes widened, lips parting as his jaw dropped. Her racing heart made it seem longer than it probably was before he shook his head, throat working as he looked down at his desk.
“Yes… Of course…”
Gaze flitting over the bare surface between them, he leaned down and yanked open a drawer, the screech it released another sign of disuse and neglect. Pulling out an old tablet, he cleared his throat as he tried to get it to turn on. Elise could see color creeping up his neck to his cheeks as the screen refused to light.
Dropping it back into the drawer, his eyes landed on the outdated laptop sitting on the corner of the desk. Fumbling it open, he let out an audible sigh of relief when it cooperated.
“I have a form for you to fill out. I’ll pull it up on the computer, and you can sit at my desk to answer the questions while I go get one of our nurses.”
“Nurse?”
She blurted the word before she could stop herself, and his head jerked to face her.
“Everyone gets an exam when they arrive to be sure they are in good health. Just routine.”
Her mouth went dry, but she nodded. Her experiences with the entire medical field were less than pleasant since she had come from a poor family that couldn’t afford anything more than the charity-care clinics scattered throughout the city.
Overburdened, understaffed, and lacking in funds, she learned only to visit if there was a dire need. She always felt like just another body to get out of the way. Her mother died of pneumonia because an overworked doctor barely looked at her before claiming it was only a cold.
Her father followed not long after due to a work accident. He lost too much blood, then ended up with an infection that was resistant to the generic antibiotics he was given.
Lucky for Elise, she was already working and didn’t end up in the system, though things didn’t turn out as well for her siblings. As the oldest, she had always been too busy helping to bond with them, and she felt more like a nanny or a maid than an older sister.
Giving her a tight smile, the man stepped back and gestured to the seat behind the desk.
“Go ahead. I’ll be back in just a moment.”
Turning, he seemed to flee back through the door he had come from, shutting it firmly behind him. Elise could hear voices again on the other side, but they were too muffled to understand anything.
Placing her bag on the desk, she stepped around it and took a seat. The creaking made her breath catch in her throat as she paused and waited for the chair to collapse beneath her, but it held.
Elise filled her information into the form on the screen. Name, age, registration number… the usual questions asked on government documents.
When she reached the medical history, she felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment, and jumped in surprise when the door behind her flew open. Turning to see who it was, she recognized the man that had come out before, but with him were two others.
One was a short, older woman. Beta by the scent of her, and who Elise assumed was the nurse since she wore a set of grey scrubs. Her pinched face was decidedly uninviting.
Turning her eyes to the second man, a shiver rolled down her spine. His shoulders filled the doorway as he glared down at her, his size alone stating he was an alpha.
He was in a military uniform, and the gold bars on his collar marked him as an officer. His dusky blue skin was a surprise since there weren’t many aliens on Earth, and his ice blue eyes made her skin crawl as he stared at her.
Dropping her eyes to his chest, she didn’t miss the flare of his nostrils as he scented her.
“Well? Is she really an omega?”
The nurse crossed her arms over her chest as Elise’s eyes darted back to her. Her narrowed gaze showed she fully expected the man beside her to say no, but her brows rose as he let out a rumble.
“Yes.”
All eyes focused on him as he kept his on Elise. His expression was less foreboding than it had been but wasn’t something she would call ‘happy’.
“It’s faint, but the scent is there. She has time before her heat.”
Turning, he walked away as the other two stared after him. Their attention snapped back to Elise once she heard a door close behind them.
The two looked at her for a moment before the nurse waved a hand at her to stand.
“Well, come on then.”
“I’m not done with…”
Elise trailed off as the nurse flicked her fingers at her protest.
“We can finish that in the back. I have to go through all the questions anyway.”
Standing, Elise grabbed her bag and pulled the strap over her head. Giving the man who had first greeted her a polite smile as she passed, she followed the nurse down a tight hallway.
There were doors on each side, the first one open to reveal a breakroom where the blonde had most likely been when she arrived, but the others were all closed. They walked quite a while before the woman led her around a corner and stopped in front of a set of elevators.
Pushing the button to go down, the nurse kept her back to Elise as they waited.
Chapter Three
“So, what’s your name, girl?”
The nurse didn’t bother to look at her as they stepped into the elevator, tapping away on her tablet.
“Elise Carson.”
“Date of birth?”
“July twenty-third, twenty-seventy.”
She rattled on with the basic questions Elise had already answered on the computer as the elevator descended. Considering she had entered on the ground floor, it was a bit strange to be going down.
When they finally came to a halt and the doors slid open, the hallway ahead of them was as different from the one they left as it could get.
Where the previous hall was the dingy, off-white of a tired office building, this one was a pristine white that brought a hospital to mind. Brightly lit, the walls seemed to glow as the fluorescents shone off them.
Leading her past more closed doorways, the nurse turned down an adjoining hall before reaching an open door at the opposite end. Inside was the usual, sterile exam room.
There was a reclined exam table, stool, a single chair where Elise placed her bag, a counter with a sink, and various containers of medical supplies. It was cold, impersonal, and unwelcoming.
The nurse picked up the questioning with Elise’s medical history. She had never smoked nor done drugs. Never drank. No surgeries or history of medical issues in her or her family. Her medical history was as plain and boring as the rest of her life had been.
Except for one thing.
“How many sexual partners?”
Elise felt heat rush up her chest and neck to burn in her cheeks. She kept reminding herse
lf that being a virgin was nothing to be ashamed about. It was all part of the plan, not because she was undesirable.
“None.”
Elise had taken a seat on the exam table and was studying her clasped hands. When she flicked her gaze up to the nurse after a prolonged pause, she could see the disbelief on the woman’s face.
“You’ve had no sexual partners? In your entire life?”
Pulling her shoulders back, Elise nodded.
“That’s correct.”
“You realize you’re about to receive a pelvic exam, and the doctor will be able to tell?”
“Yes.”
The questions were insulting, but Elise conceded that her status was hard to believe. She didn’t know a single person her age that hadn’t had at least one partner.
Taking a deep breath and blowing it out, the nurse went back to tapping on her tablet.
“I guess we can skip the rest of these for now then. I need you to strip and lie on the table.”
Eyes darting around, Elise looked for the usual paper gown and drape you wore during an exam, but none were in sight. The nurse seemed to guess what she was looking for, because she walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a pale green square barely large enough to cover the tops of her legs if Elise pressed them together.
“The gown is pointless since the doctor will be examining all of you and you’d just have to take it off again. His time is important, and we can’t keep him waiting. Strip and cover yourself with this if you must.”
Turning, she left the room, the door clicking shut behind her. Left speechless, Elise swallowed and slid to the floor.
Slipping her feet out of the flats she had worn, she pushed them under the chair before pulling her dress over her head. Unhooking her bra, she folded it into her dress before placing them on top of her bag.
Hesitant, she hooked her fingers into the sides of her panties. These exams were always uncomfortable, but this one was already worse than usual.
Sighing, she slid them down her thighs and stuffed them under the dress before returning to her seat on the table. One arm crossed over her chest, Elise fidgeted with the square in her lap until she heard footsteps outside the door.
It swung open without even a courtesy knock, the man striding in like he owned the world. Grey head held high, his white coat hung from his lanky frame. His eyes were so dark behind his glasses it was hard to see where his iris ended, and pupil began. The only reassuring thing was that his scent marked him as a beta.
One side of his lips pulled up in a smirk that made shivers run down her spine. Maybe not so reassuring after all. He was still male. His eyes roamed over her body as he took a seat on the stool.
“I believe you were told to lie on the table.”
His voice was smooth in a way that made Elise think of grease coating the back of her tongue. Feeling herself flush, she dropped her eyes and obediently laid back, knees pressed together as her lower legs dangled over the end.
Rolling closer, he pulled stirrups out of the table, locking them into place before tapping her on the knee. Sucking in a shaky breath, she lifted her leg and let him guide her foot to the stirrup.
Both feet in place, the little square slid up to her stomach, leaving Elise a clear view of his face between her thighs.
Core clenching in the natural instinct to protect herself, she could see the smile stretching his lips as he turned his attention to her face. Eyes never leaving hers, he reached over to the counter and grabbed a pair of gloves.
“Since you told the nurse you’re a virgin, I’ll use my fingers to begin the exam. It’ll be less painful for you if you’ve never been stretched.”
Her stomach churned as he rolled closer and his gaze dropped back to her core. The doctor’s hand moved to the top of her mound, his finger and thumb spreading her lips as his palm pressed down to hold her hips in place.
She still jerked when his other hand brushed over her clit, and she could see his eyes light up as his smirk grew. Elise felt his finger run down the edge of each inner lip before he pressed it to her entrance, causing her to tense.
Thrusting it in until the backs of his knuckles pressed against her, she couldn’t stop the gasp when he pulled out and shoved in a second without letting her adjust. Pushing up with the tips of his fingers, he twisted his hand back and forth before removing them.
“I’ll need to use a speculum to ascertain if your hymen is still intact. You should try to relax.”
After the lack of gentleness with his fingers, the thought of him thrusting the speculum into her with the same suddenness had every muscle in her body tightening.
Eyes focused on the ceiling, Elise jumped at the sound of a drawer opening and shutting below her. Almost to the point of panting, she was everything other than relaxed.
She jerked when she felt his hand touch the inside of her thigh and he let out a chuckle.
“Shhh. I’ll go easy. A virgin would be a special thing.”
USED