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 herself 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.