Camden took me back to his office, and it would be a lie if I said I hadn’t been a little nervous about it. But ultimately, this had to be discussed now. Those fish were disgusting, and this meant nothing good.

“Where exactly did you read about mutated fish?”

“In one of many books.” I pulled out a binder. “Here, I’ve photocopied every article I thought was relevant to the anomaly.”

Camden looked suspicious. “So, these were all from your… magical history books, I presume?”

I sighed. “Look, Commander, I know you’re inclined to believe that magic isn’t real. I understand, I didn’t believe in it either. But I know that every scientist on this base has done incredibly thorough research, and they haven’t found any natural occurring event that is anywhere near similar to this one. And didn’t the site test negatively for radiation?”

“That’s right,” he answered.

“Then, how the hell were the fish mutated? It makes no sense. There is an element at play here with which we are not familiar. And based on everything I’ve read, it’s magic. There are cases of mythical sea monsters creating the exact same effects as the anomaly. They’re capable of killing fish, and they can mutate creatures they come in contact with. This absolutely has happened before—it just wasn’t ever anything natural.”

He looked skeptical, but he did not berate me this time or question my critical thinking skills.

I flipped a few pages in my binder. “Look, okay, read this.” I pointed to him. “Tell me that this event, one caused by a sea monster previously, does not sound exactly like what we’re dealing with.”

He took the binder from me and began to read. As he did, I watched all skepticism fade from his face.

He looked at me seriously. “Thank you for this information. I will take it to the lab immediately and inform them of what you’ve found.”

“So… you think it might be a sea monster, too?” I asked.

“I… really don’t have enough knowledge to state either way. But I do think this has a lot of important information. More information than we’ve been able to find thus far. And I thank you for it.”

I was so relieved to hear that he wasn’t throwing all of this info away. “Of course, sir. Anything I can do to help.”

He nodded. “That’ll be all for now. I’ve got to take this information to be assessed immediately.”

“Of course,” I answered before leaving his office.

When I did, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, it felt like this giant weight was off my shoulders. I wasn’t the only one with all the info. It had been passed on, and it was going to be used. This would make everything so much easier for me.

I walked down the hall to find Jesse waiting for me, anxiety on his face.

“Well?” he asked nervously. “How did it go?”

“It went really well!” I smiled. “He believes me, finally. Or, at least, he thinks the info is useful.”

“Holy shit!” Jesse said excitedly, as he hugged me tightly. “That’s great! We might actually be able to start doing something about this!”

“I hope so!” I answered. Though, in all my research, the one thing I hadn’t yet figured out was a plan of action.

He gave me a quick kiss, and, for a second, I pulled away.

“What? What is it?” Jesse asked.

“Nothing just… we’re, like, totally in public,” I muttered.

Jesse laughed. “You know a lot of the guys already know about us, right?”

“I mean, I know,” I wasn’t even sure why I had a problem, because I actually didn’t really care if anyone saw us. It wasn’t like I was ashamed to be with him. “We just haven’t talked about, you know, how we’re going to deal with this publicly.”

“Oh, right,” Jesse said as we began to walk down the hall together. “I mean, honestly, I was so distracted with this anomaly that I hadn’t really had time to think about it. Though, I feel a little more relaxed now that we’ve passed the buck.”

“So… what do you think? Should we tell people about this? I mean… it does feel serious enough to tell people, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Jesse said emphatically. “Of course, it does! I mean, we’re pretty positive we’re each other’s fated mates, right?”

“Right,” I agreed.

“Well, that’s not the kind of thing people keep secret. Once you know who your mate for life is, you tell people. That’s how things go.”

“So, do you think it’s time to… tell our families?” I asked.

I could see stress cross his face when I asked this, and I knew why.

Jesse’s family weren’t exactly the most open minded of people. And that was putting it lightly.

They were completely homophobic. I’d heard them say blatantly homophobic things about famous actors. That they were too flamboyant, that there was no need to show off that much, stupid stuff like that. I’d always held my tongue at everything I’d heard because I hadn’t thought it was my place to fight with his family. Though, Jesse had always tried to tell them how gross those thoughts and behaviors were, they just had never been too keen on listening.

But he was right. We knew that we were likely going to be together for the rest of our lives. And we couldn’t exactly hide from his parents forever.

“Yeah… yeah, we should tell them,” he answered.

“It doesn’t have to be now, you know,” I told him, trying to be supportive. “I know it’s probably hard for you. We can tell them whenever.”

He shook his head. “No, no. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want it to be like that. You’re not a secret. Even if my parents react badly, even if things go wrong… I won’t let you be a secret. You’re the love of my life. We’re going to tell them.”

I smiled softly. “The love of your life, huh?”

He kissed my cheek. “Of course. I mean, besides, how bad can it really be? They love you, right? They’ve always cared so much about you.”

I knew he was trying to talk himself out of his anxiety, but honestly, I didn’t necessarily agree with that line of thinking. Sure, they loved me as his best friend. But, based on how they’d always behaved, I didn’t think they were going to like me as his boyfriend.

But I absolutely could not tell him that. He was stressed out enough.

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too bad.” I tried to remain positive.

“And it shouldn’t be a problem with your parents at all.” He patted me on the back.

I mean, my parents weren’t homophobic. They were pretty supportive of the gay community. But still, I wasn’t so sure this was going to go over well.

Particularly because all my life, they’d thought I was a beta. It had been something we’d known since childhood. How were they going to react if I came home and just said, Hey, Mom and Dad, the identity you’ve known all my life is a lie… I’m an omega now.

I wanted to believe that they’d be understanding. That they’d appreciate me no matter what I was. But, in the back of my mind, I thought about how traditional they were and how much traditional shifter roles mattered to them. My father was a beta, and he took great pride in the fact that he had a beta son. And, while betas weren’t exactly alphas, there was a stereotype that they were still more masculine than omegas.

It was a stupid stereotype, frankly. Masculinity didn’t really translate to those roles that well. That was something that most young shifters and I had realized, but the older generation was still stuck on these ideas. Omegas were the child rearers—they were the ones who usually stayed home with the kids, and they were more of the ‘feminine’ partner.

But that was bullshit. And being an omega didn’t change anything about me other than the fact that it’d proved I could be mated to an alpha. I was still the same person. I just hoped they’d see that.

I wanted to bring this up with Jesse, talk through these concerns a bit, but I stopped myself. Because, at the end of the day, this was going to be a lot rougher on him. I was probably overthinking the whole beta-omega thing anyway.

But for Jesse, this was a real concern. His parents likely would react very badly. I didn’t want to stress him out any more than that or make him comfort me. I needed to be comforting him.

I put my arm around his waist. “Look, this is going to be a good thing, okay? At the end of the day, we’re finally going to tell the world how we feel about each other. And that’s a huge, important, monumental step in our relationship. This is going to be great. We’re taking a big step.”

He kissed the top of my head. “You’re right. And I’m so ready to take that next step. I’m ready for the world to know how deeply I feel about you.”

I smiled up at him. “So am I.”