#nicrad

Conrad’s leg bounced incessantly the longer that the room was filled up with a scent that didn’t belong to his pack. He was rather spoiled, most of his pack belonged at the hospital and had been the ones that were treating Nic as she recovered from the trauma that had occurred a few days prior. Most people didn’t have that luxury, had to deal with strangers laying hands all over their pack members or mates. He had tried to just be grateful for the small things, that being that he didn’t have to deal with anyone that was truly a stranger in his room or unwanted near his mate, at least for a while. It was becoming harder and harder to see the good of having his pack in the hospital when he knew that also meant that they could keep the intruders out.

He knew that it was outrageous to think of Nic’s best friend like that. She and Billie had grown up together, though they’d had a brief falling out when they had become too different during their high school years. It was only natural that after something so traumatic had happened to her that she would want to reconnect with someone like that.

The only thing was that Conrad was both jealous and tipping on the edge of feral. Billie had waltzed back into Nic’s life like she belonged there, as if she hadn’t betrayed all of them in a way that had almost cost them all their jobs. Her rash actions and cocky attitude had paralyzed a young beta, though her attempts to cover it up had been what had gotten the rest of them into deep water. He knew that she had been atoning for what she had done by going to therapy and doing humanitarian trips with her medical license as a higher form of help, but that all did very little to soothe the feral animal in his mind. She had been gone for most of his and Nic’s new relationship, hadn’t been there when the pack had formed, and wasn’t even present during their wedding. She had supposedly been somewhere in Africa doing a malaria clinic for the last one, but it didn’t change the fact that it made her feel like an intruder that was trying to replace him.

He shouldn’t have felt like that, he was the one that was sporting the rubbed raw marks of Nic’s teeth over his mating gland. He was the one that she had chosen to have a beautiful ceremony after every one of their pack members had been vaccinated and cleared to safely gather unmasked. He was the one that she had chosen to spend the rest of her life with, above all others. He was the one that she had chosen to mate and have a family with, the one that she had placed a baby into.

Billie was a stranger to them both, and yet also the one that Nic had specifically requested when things got bad.

She should have felt comfortable coming to Conrad with the issues that she was having, should have been able to draw the comfort that she needed from him instead of the woman that was basically a stranger. Part of his brain knew that she was reaching out towards the safety of her childhood, which he hadn’t known her for. She wanted to remember a time in her life before her sister had become addicted to drugs, before her father had estranged himself from the world, and before she had been traumatized with a knife and an insane patient. On the other hand, he was so much closer to his instincts than he would have been at literally any other time in his life that it felt as though she were spitting on his face to invite someone else into their protected space.

A pregnant omega was always going to have closer access to their instincts than even an omega in heat or an alpha in rut did. Supposedly, it was meant to help them navigate the new realm and condition better than they would have been able to without them. It guided them away from foods that could hurt a pregnancy and towards cravings that would give them the nutrients that they needed, encouraged them to nest and make a space that was safe for their future pup, and brought them comfort through shoving them towards the safety of their pack. Usually it was an encouraging and loving thing, something that a pack and mate would be elated to see since it meant 

Conrad was an omega that had feraled, once during his life many years ago. It had been when he was in the army and pushed too far, too fast. It was common for omegas in the military to feral to some extent, but a lot of the time they were so doped up that it didn’t really matter what their instincts were telling them anymore. When Conrad had originally enlisted, he had been in control of his instincts enough that he didn’t get any of the medications that were supposed to turn that off and it had resulted in him being one of the few omegas to be discharged due to feraling from his regiment.

The closeness that the previous feral had on his instincts was enough to make him growl lowly every single time Billie came into Nic’s hospital room. He was able to bite his lip and keep himself as quiet as possible so that he didn’t upset his mate, but it was hard to even take his eyes off the other omega when she was so close to ihs mate.

Now, things had gotten even worse. Nic was recovering well from the traumatic incident that she’d had, her body healing despite being operated on in a hospital that was basically shut down. However, Conrad was deteriorating in his pregnancy. Something had gone wrong with the baby’s heart and it was going to require fetal surgery, something that no parent wanted to hear but was especially difficult for Nic.

“I just don’t think that it’s a good idea for my alpha to be in the same room as me when I’m being stabbed after what happened to her,” Conrad argued.

“It’s her child, she should be there for everything concerning it,” Billie snapped back. She had her arms crossed over her chest and an ugly scowl over her features, her thick caramel scent turning the room sickly. Conrad really hated how she was always trying to lay her scent over the top of his own.

Conrad twitched, his eyes flicking over to where Nic was sitting. She’d had another nightmare the day before and it had left her exhausted from lack of sleep and the adrenaline rush. She was also torn between defending her best friend and mate, he could tell based on the way that her fingers were tracing her arm as she searched for imperfections to pick. 

He turned back to the other omega at that point. “Billie, the baby may be Nic’s as well as mine, but I’m the patient in this procedure. It’s my baby, given to me by my mate, and that’s final. I get to decide who’s in there and who isn’t. And you won’t be allowed in the room that Nic and I share once this procedure is finished.”

“But Nic wanted me here!” Billie shrieked like a child that hadn’t gotten what she wanted, which she had been resembling more and more lately.

“I don’t fucking care! Nic is my mate, this is my baby, you’re not part of my pack,” Conrad shouted back. “I know that she asked for you, but that doesn’t change the fact that you fucking ditched her twice and I’ve been there the whole time. She chose me, not you. Now stop acting like you can fucking replace me!”

Billie turned to Nic, who had her head bowed down towards the blankets in her lap. “Nic, you can’t possibly let him talk to me like that. You said that you wanted me here so that you could feel like things were normal. Don’t you still feel that way?”

“Billie…” Nic whispered as he looked back at her friend. She reached her hand out for Conrad and then rubbed their pack glands against each other, the only part of each other that they could easily reach. “He’s my mate. You may be a very close friend of mine, but I chose to spend the rest of my life with him and have a child with him. You have been trying to push him away since you came here, and that’s not okay.”

The omega opened her mouth to argue with them, but then she tossed her head moodily into the air and stormed out of the room. Conrad felt his shoulders sag the moment that the scent had finally dispersed from the space he was sharing with his alpha. Immediately, Nic reached out and wrapped her arms around Conrad so that his head was resting in the crook of her neck. He took in breath after beath so that he was drowning in her scent, comforted and safe with his alpha around him.

“I’m sorry that she did that to you, Conrad. I know that she’s been pushing your buttons and I’m not okay with it. I thought that it was more of a sisterly thing until she started trying to make medical decisions for you, which is not okay,” Nic huffed. “I hope you know that I’m always going to take your side, unless you’re in an absolutely ridiculous argument with Devon about something.”