On My Terms
1373 Words
Silas’s first practical suggestion proved why Talia had made the conditions explicit.
“We can have a physician meet us at the estate within twenty minutes.”
Talia stared at him.
He stopped before adding anything else.
“The estate is controlled by your family. I want an independent clinic even if it takes longer.”
Silas glanced at the time, then nodded.
Callum leaned forward. “If one of these reactions has a physical risk, speed matters.”
“So does independence.” Talia looked at him. “I am not walking into a medical process where the people being evaluated with me also own the room.”
Callum sat back.
Kieran pulled up Ridgewell Medical Center on his phone. “They have a bond-physiology service and an independent patient-privacy office. Dr. Elise Rowan runs the specialty unit.”
The surname caught Talia for half a second. She read the profile herself and moved on.
Silas opened a message to Regency staff where Talia could see it. “Confirm whether Dr. Rowan or the unit has any contract with the Voss household, succession counsel, or Regency medical services.”
The reply came back clean. Elise worked for Ridgewell and reported through its clinical structure.
Talia nodded. “Ridgewell works.”
Callum looked at the time, then at her. “Do you want secure transport?”
She considered the hallway outside. Too many wolves had already seen enough to speculate. Her own rental car sat in a visitor lot across the district. Leaving separately would create more exposure, not less.
“Yes. One unmarked vehicle. No escort convoy unless there is an actual threat.”
Callum sent the request with those limits.
Talia added another condition before anyone moved. “Ridgewell contacts me directly as the patient. My contact information goes on the request, and medical communication comes to me.”
Silas gave her the hospital number from his screen and stepped away while she called.
The intake coordinator verified Talia’s identity and explained confidentiality. “Before I schedule you, I need one consent check. Are you requesting the consultation voluntarily, and are you free to leave where you are now?”
Talia looked at the unlocked door, the open blinds, and the three brothers keeping their distance. “Yes to both.”
Ridgewell offered a private clinical suite in forty minutes.
Talia accepted.
When the call ended, Silas had canceled the estate physician option before it could go anywhere. Callum’s transport request showed a single unmarked car. Kieran had instructed staff that Talia was leaving South Reach after completing her professional work and that no medical destination was to be circulated.
Talia checked the wording herself.
Then she picked up her bag.
“I’m going to Ridgewell. You can come because the evaluation concerns all four of us. That is not the same as you taking me there.”
Silas inclined his head.
Callum opened the door and stood aside.
Kieran waited for Talia to walk out first.
The ride to Ridgewell took seventeen minutes.
Talia spent most of it making sure the rules would survive the change of location.
She sat in the rear passenger seat because she chose it. Kieran took the front. Silas sat across the back from her. Callum rode beside the driver, where he could watch the route without looming over anyone.
“My medical information stays mine. Nobody calls this confirmed mating before a clinician says what the evidence supports. If I stop the testing, it stops.”
Silas nodded. Callum turned enough to meet her eyes and gave one clear answer. “Agreed.”
Kieran did the same.
Talia looked back out the window. Rowan City kept moving around them: traffic lights, storefronts, a delivery truck blocking half a lane, pedestrians waiting through a long signal cycle. The ordinary city gave her something concrete to hold onto while the problem remained unexplained and private.
Kieran’s phone buzzed twice. Before sending anything, he showed Talia a neutral communications line stating only that the emergency review required follow-up. It contained nothing about a medical evaluation. Talia approved the wording with a nod.
Silas opened a notes file. Talia’s attention snapped to it before she could stop herself.
He noticed. “I’m writing the conditions you set, not observations about you.”
“Show me.”
He handed over the tablet.
The list was plain: independent clinician; Talia controls disclosure; voluntary participation; may stop; may leave; no claiming; no political use.
Talia added one more line herself.
No relationship conclusions from medical data.
Silas read it when she returned the tablet and saved the revision.
Callum asked the driver to use Ridgewell’s ordinary patient entrance rather than the private executive access lane. Talia had not told him to do that.
She noticed and said nothing.
At the hospital, Elise’s office sent a staff member down to meet Talia by name.
The woman addressed Talia first. “Dr. Rowan is ready for you. The three gentlemen can wait until you decide whether you want them included.”
Talia looked at the brothers.
“Wait here until Elise and I set the process.”
Silas sat down.
Callum looked at the clinic doors, then sat too.
Kieran put his phone on silent.
Talia followed the staff member into Ridgewell alone.
Dr. Elise Rowan did not begin with the brothers.
She began with Talia.
The consultation room was small, bright, and ordinary enough to be reassuring. Elise wore navy scrubs under a white coat and had the calm expression of someone accustomed to powerful people arriving with urgent opinions.
She closed the door after the staff member left and sat across from Talia.
Elise confirmed only the minimum facts she had been given: an unusual recognition event involving three people, a request for independent evaluation, and Talia’s authority to decide who participated. Then she opened the chart.
“I am your physician for this consultation. I will not release findings to the Regents, their staff, the Council, or anyone else without your permission unless ordinary medical law requires it.”
Talia felt some of the tension leave her shoulders.
Elise noticed and did not comment.
They reviewed symptoms first. Talia described the sudden change in scent significance, the separate attention responses, her wolf’s certainty, and the fact that each brother felt different rather than like one generalized Alpha reaction.
Elise screened for pain, dizziness, involuntary shifting, dominance pressure, panic, loss of judgment, and any sense that Talia could perceive the brothers’ thoughts. None applied.
“That is useful,” Elise said. “It also means I am not treating this as an emergency medical condition right now.”
Talia nodded.
They set the participation limits next. Talia wanted controlled comparison with one brother at a time and no physical contact. She confirmed there had been no scent exchange, blood, bite, or claiming ritual.
Elise wrote that down. “That keeps the physiology closer to recognition rather than claimed-bond effects.”
Talia appreciated the clinical phrasing.
Elise explained the plan. She would establish a baseline with Talia alone, then bring each brother into the room separately for brief, controlled proximity. Talia could stop before, during, or after any segment. The brothers would not receive Talia’s medical readings unless she later authorized it.
“And if they push?” Talia asked.
“They leave.”
The answer came fast enough that Talia believed her.
Elise opened the door and addressed the brothers in the waiting area while Talia remained seated inside.
“Talia has agreed to individual observation. You will enter one at a time when I call you. No touching. No dominance. No claiming behavior. If she or I end a segment, you leave immediately. You will wait separately so one reaction does not contaminate another.”
Silas accepted the protocol. Callum moved to the second waiting area without argument. Kieran handed his phone to the clinic aide when Elise asked for the room to stay free of outside communications during observation.
Nobody tried to renegotiate.
Elise closed the door again and returned to Talia.
“Still your choice?”
Talia looked at the monitoring equipment beside the exam chair, then at the unlocked door.
“Yes.”
Elise began the baseline.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD