Chapter 1-2
808 Words
The doctors wouldn’t release Jake until they were sure his knee wasn’t in really bad, surgery-requiring shape. Hopefully someone would come up with the results of his CT scan sooner rather than later, and the results would be good. In the meantime he was feeling fine thanks to the painkillers he’d been given and his greatest complaint was boredom. That, and hoping none of the kidnappers got away.
All things considered this was not a bad state of affairs, though he knew his knee would hurt like hell without the painkillers. Best to enjoy them while they lasted.
His parents were with him and his dad picked him up a legal thriller from the hospital gift shop. Jake was having a hard time reading because his mom wanted to talk. He’d already told her three times it wasn’t their fault he got kidnapped but the statement hadn’t stuck.
Now she announced, “We’re buying you a house.”
Jake once again put down his book. “You don’t need to buy me a house out of your misplaced sense of guilt.”
“Actually, we’d already decided to buy you a house last week,” said his dad. “We were just waiting for the money to come through before we told you.”
That was better, at least. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting it, you know.” Jake didn’t feel entitled just because his parents got a nice windfall.
“We know. We can afford it, obviously, and we want to give you something that would be a benefit long term, not just a fancy car or something,” explained his mom. “We’ll get you a nice house, a place where you can raise a family if you want.”
“That is the long-term plan,” he agreed. His mom was obviously delighted at the prospect of grandchildren in her future.
His dad said, “You’ll own it outright, so you’ll only have to pay property taxes. It’ll save you a fortune in interest and that’ll be a real leg up.”
Not to mention he wouldn’t have rent and/or mortgage payments. “Thank you. Really. This is amazing.”
“So think about what you’d like,” suggested his mom.
“Single-story for sure.” He could usually manage stairs but would rather not if it could be avoided. Jake would also prefer to live in certain areas; specifically he wanted to be close enough to visit with his parents but not so close they lived in each other’s pockets. He’d chosen his apartment with that in mind, as well as being a reasonably short commute to work.
His dad started to speak but was cut off by a nurse in the doorway. “Mr. Nelson?”
“Yes?”
“Dr. Andross would like to speak with you about David Beecham. He should be in—oh, now.”
Dr. Andross was a balding alpha well past his prime who still retained his air of authority. “Jake Nelson?”
“That’s me.”
“We have an unusual situation here,” began the doctor. Jake didn’t care for the sound of that. “You were taken by the same kidnappers who held David Beecham.”
“Is he okay?”
“I’m getting to that. You noticed, I’m sure, that he’s an unclaimed omega.”
“Yes.”
“From what I’m told he was kidnapped by a rejected suitor in the hope he would bond with his captor.”
That was sick. Once an omega bonded with an alpha they couldn’t bond with anyone else for the rest of their life. To bond with someone who kidnapped them was so awful Jake felt queasy on David’s behalf.
“Frankly it’s scientifically inexplicable that David didn’t bond with his captor. For an omega to fail to bond with an alpha who they spend hours a day in close quarters with for two weeks is unheard of.”
Jake was really glad David wasn’t bonded to the bastard kidnapper. Nobody deserved that. “Is that why he wasn’t given water?” he asked “To punish him for not bonding?”
“Yes. However, that’s not the salient point here. After this impressive feat which I can at this point only attribute to tremendous strength of will, David was in a very vulnerable place. And then you came in, an alpha who protected him, cared for him, and secured his freedom.”
“That’s what alphas are supposed to do,” pointed out Jake.
“Mr. Nelson,” said the doctor gravely, “we believe it very likely David bonded with you.”
For a moment time actually stopped. That couldn’t be right. Sure, accidental bonding happened, usually when an unclaimed omega started having s*x with an alpha. It wasn’t common because omegas were rare enough that they were carefully guarded by most families, but it happened. After only a few minutes together, though?
Jake was dimly aware of his parents speaking. The words didn’t register. This was just a wild theory, maybe. The doctors were reaching for something because they didn’t know what else might be going on. Yeah, that made sense.
“Mr. Nelson?”
He realized the doctor was talking to him and rejoined the world. “Yeah?”
“Would you come with us to his room to test our theory?”
“I guess I’d better.” The sooner he did that, the sooner they could rule this crazy idea out and move on. He accepted his dad’s help getting into the wheelchair.
“Please stay here,” Dr. Andross instructed his parents. “Are you ready, Mr. Nelson?”
“Ready as possible.”
“David is just down the hall.”
He told himself this was only an insane notion the doctor pulled out of thin air, something that would make a great story when it was over. If only he could entirely believe that.
- Writer
