Ever since Palani had shared his information about that McCain family and how he suspected they all had the Melloni gene, Enar had wanted to dig into this deeper. But the eight days since had been crazy with the wedding and everything, and he’d struggled to even fit all his urgent patients in.

Because of that, he’d also not seen Palani since they had sex five days ago. He wasn’t sure what had meant more to him, the sex or the talking afterward. Palani had only listened, but it had meant the world to Enar. He’d felt so safe, he’d fallen asleep in Palani’s arms at some point and when he woke up, Palani had left again.

They’d texted back and forth, slightly flirtatious but never crossing into serious stuff. Palani’s phone call about Vieno had been short and to the point as well. Enar appreciated that the beta hadn’t pressured him to divulge what he’d discussed with Vieno. He wouldn’t have, but he respected Palani for understanding that boundary.

But today was Saturday, and he’d known Palani was off, and so he’d told him he’d pick him up at nine to go visit the only person who could tell them more about the gene: Ricardo Melloni. The geneticist who had lent his name to the gene had been easily persuaded to meet them once Enar shared a little of Palani’s discoveries with him. He’d indicated he’d found some new information of his own, so it seemed well worth the two-hour ride. Enar considered the fact that he got to spend a whole day with Palani a pleasant bonus.

Palani was waiting outside when Enar pulled up at his apartment complex, and he got into Enar’s car.

“Hi,” he said, dropping his messenger bag on the backseat.

“Hi,” Enar replied, then mentally slapped himself for his asinine answer.

“Coffee?” Palani asked, holding out a thermos and a cup.

“God, yes. Thank you.”

He waited till Palani had poured them both a cup before driving off, studying him in the meantime. Fuck, he looked as crappy as Vieno had. Was he suffering under their separation as well?

“I figured you could use the caffeine,” Palani said.

“I sure can, but how did you know I didn’t already grab some along the way?” He shot a quick glance sideways and caught Palani trying to hide a grin. “What?”

“Dude, you’re always running late. There was no way you would’ve had the time to stop for coffee. Plus, you tend to forget things like that.”

Enar let out an amused sigh. “You’re observant.”

“So are you, just in different areas.”

“True. For instance, I seem to notice you lost some weight…and you’re paler than I like. Are you having trouble sleeping?”

This time, the look on Palani’s face wasn’t so amused. “You’re not my doctor.”

“No, but I am your friend, who also happens to be a doctor. And I’m telling you that I don’t like how you look right now. What’s going on?”

Palani was quiet for a bit, but Enar could wait. For an alpha, he had an uncharacteristic amount of patience.

“I need to eat better. It’s harder when you’re on your own.”

There was a world of hurt in that simple statement and Enar had no trouble recognizing it, not after Vieno’s heartbreaking admission. “You miss Vieno?” he asked softly.

Again, it took a while for Palani to answer, but when he did, his voice broke. “So damn much.”

“I can imagine,” Enar said.

“We’ve been together for so long, you know? And I’m happy for him that he’s safe and taken care of, and I like Lidon and I think he’s doing an amazing job, but I miss Vieno. It’s like a part of me has been ripped off and it won’t heal. Like, it physically hurts...”

Enar frowned. What Palani described went way beyond what he’d expected to hear. “When you say it physically hurts, where do you feel that?”

“My heart. I always thought heartbreak was an emotional thing, but at night, when I’m in bed, there are these stabs in my heart because Vieno’s not close and I feel those, like in actual pain. And I’m not hungry at all, because of this slight queasiness in my body. It’s all in my mind, but it’s fucked up.”

What he described sounded exactly like what Vieno was going through. Emotional stress could manifest itself in the body, so the loss of appetite could be a prime example as well as the lack of sleep. But something didn’t add up, though Enar couldn’t put his finger on it.

“How long has it been since you’ve talked to Vieno?” he asked.

“We talk daily,” Palani said, his voice miserable. “But I haven’t seen him since the wedding.”

Enar sure hoped that Lidon wouldn’t change his mind, because there was no easy way to walk back this invitation. “Lidon has asked me to be present during Vieno’s heat to keep an eye on things. If you want to, you can come.”

Palani’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious? Lidon is okay with that?”

“Yeah, he called me last night, asked me to tell you today since he knew we were spending the day together. Vieno wants you there…if you want it.”

“Yes.” The answer came fast, without any doubt. “If he wants me there and Lidon is fine with it, I’ll be there.”

Enar put his hand on Palani’s knee. “You do realize it means you’ll have to watch once again as Lidon fucks him, right? I hate to be blunt and I’m not saying this to hurt you, but I want you to be aware of what you’re saying yes to.”

Much to his surprise, Palani covered Enar’s hand with his own. “I’m not saying it’s not gonna suck, because it will, but I can take it. I’ll do whatever Vieno needs. That’s all that matters to me.”

The man was a saint, Enar thought not for the first time. His devotion to Vieno really was something else. He was way more than a mere best friend or even a lover. In fact, he showed the same care toward Vieno as…

Oh, fuck.

A realization hit him that left him almost gasping. Was that even possible? It was in the old days of the wolf-shifters, right? He’d have to ask Melloni, as the man was an expert on this and had studied it before discovering the Melloni gene. But he’d have to find a way to not share too much with Palani, because he was smart as a whip and would figure it out in no time. But holy fuck, if what he suspected was true, it meant that…

Oh, fuck, all over again.

If he was right about this, it meant Enar would lose Palani as well. He pushed down the slight panic this brought. No, this was not the time to be selfish. He’d find out and then he’d test his theory. With Palani showing up at Vieno’s heat, this would be easy enough to test.

“Enar?” Palani asked, looking at him strangely.

“Sorry, lost in thought. Yeah, okay. I’ll text Lidon later to let him know you’re coming, okay? Now, let’s discuss what we want to ask Melloni.”

The rest of the drive, Palani shared more details about what he’d discovered in his investigation so far and managed to take Enar’s mind off his discovery. Enar was impressed with what the beta had found out already, as well as his analytical skills in organizing the information. He had a talent for separating important facts from details, but also for connecting details to lead to a pattern.

“You excel at this,” he complimented Palani.

“Thank you. I love investigative shit like this. It’s like a puzzle, trying to find where each piece goes.”

Enar hmm’d in agreement. “I feel we’re still missing some crucial pieces, though. Corner pieces. Let’s hope Melloni can help us with that.”

Ricardo Melloni turned out to be a grey-haired, thin man in his early sixties and—much to their surprise—a beta. He had to have fought one hell of an uphill battle to get this far in his field amongst mostly alphas, Enar thought.

After introductions and more coffee, they got down to business.

“The gene,” Melloni said. “You said you had discovered information about the gene.”

Enar looked at Palani and nodded. When he turned his head back, he caught a surprised expression from Melloni. “It’s not often an alpha defers to a beta,” the scientist explained.

“He’s the one who got this whole ball rolling,” Enar said. “Plus, he’s discovered some pretty interesting things you should hear.”

He listened as Palani laid out what he’d discovered about the McCain family in rich, but clear details. Melloni listened without interrupting him, his eyes widening at times.

When Palani was done, Melloni leaned back in his chair, shaking his head. “This confirms some of what I’ve discovered, but it adds new dimensions as well. I’ll need time to analyze how it fits together, but this is incredibly valuable information. The fact that one family has so many carriers of the gene is especially interesting. We’ve seen omega siblings with the gene, but not cousins. This suggests it’s hereditary, which makes little sense considering how new this gene mutation is.”

“What have you learned about the gene, other than what you published in your most recent scientific journal articles?” Enar asked. “I’ve read those and have explained them as best as I could to Palani, considering I’m not a geneticist and he’s not a doctor.”

“He’s smart, though,” Melloni said, then turned to Palani. “You are. I doubt many people would have discovered the common element in these suicides other than that they’re from the same family.”

Palani shared a quick look with Enar, then sighed. “It’s because my best friend has the gene, so I recognized some of the symptoms they described.”

He gave Melloni a quick rundown of what had happened to Vieno.

“I’m sorry about your friend, Palani. Sadly, stories like his are all too common. But you asked about my recent discoveries… At first, my theory was that this mutation was connected to the loss of our ability to shift. Something happened to our DNA that made our shifting abilities weaker and weaker, until they were gone. My theory was that that same process had affected certain male omegas in another way, causing that mutation. After all, we do know that male omegas are becoming less and less fertile.”

Palani raised his eyebrows. “I knew they were less fertile than women, but I didn’t know it was a decline over time.”

“Oh, yes. Very much so. In fact, statistics suggest that fifty years ago, fertility was about the same between male and female omegas. For some reason, it’s been going down ever since and we were at a record low about twenty-five years ago.”

“It’s been stabilized ever since?” Enar asked.

“Yes, more or less,” Melloni answered. “There are some variations, but it seems the tide has at least been stopped.”

“But you no longer think the gene mutation is caused by a natural process?” Palani asked.

“No. The primary reason is because it’s too abrupt. We had incidents of teens not being able to shift for years before it slowly became more common…and then it became the norm and those who could still shift were the exceptions. With this mutation, there’s a whole lotta nothing, and then all of a sudden we have multiple cases. Ten years may seem like a long time for a mutation like this to grow, but it’s not. It’s super fast, and that’s what made me believe this is not a natural process.”

Enar leaned forward. “You’re saying this was deliberate? Human intervention of some sort?”

“Human intervention, yes. But I can’t say with certainty they meant to cause this mutation. Most likely, it was an attempt to fix something else, and this was the unintended byproduct.”

“With what you have learned so far, are there any leads or developments toward a cure?” Enar asked.

Melloni exhaled. “A cure? No. Amelioration? Yes. As I wrote in one of my last articles, alpha hormones and proteins seem to positively influence the symptoms, so knotting without a condom is beneficial. But even the continuous close presence of an alpha partner—not necessarily a mate, but someone with whom the omega has sexual relations—has shown to be effective.”

Melloni shifted slightly in his chair, clearing his throat. “More recent research suggests that some omegas with the gene have benefitted from their alpha partner ejaculating on their skin… Apparently, the hormones in the…sperm…can be absorbed partially through skin contact as well.”

“That’s valuable and practical information, Doctor,” Palani said, hitting the right tone to ease the awkwardness of the information.

“We’re grateful for your time, Dr. Melloni,” Enar said.

Melloni rose to his feet. “If you discover anything else, I would appreciate it if you could let me know. As I explained, many aspects of this mutation are still a puzzle to us, so any small detail could help.”

“Absolutely,” Palani said, shaking the hand Melloni extended to him.

Enar did the same, and they were almost out the door, when he remembered something. “One last question. Before you focused on this mutation, you researched alpha-claiming, correct?”

Melloni nodded. “Yes. I studied the effects of alpha-claiming on both partners.”

“You traced back many of these effects on the relationships wolf-shifters had, right?”

“I discovered that many of the modern-day effects of alpha-mating were common with all wolf-shifter partnerships back then. My theory is that a high percentage of modern alpha-claims is comparable to what was then known as fated mates. It’s an instant knowing someone is the perfect partner.”

“What were some of the effects you discovered?”

Melloni ticked them off on his fingers as he spoke. “Longevity, correlated health, sensing each other’s needs and sometimes strong emotions. Partners would suffer from being separated, even temporary. And of course, the death of one partner meant the other partner would pass away within hours, days at most.”

“These fated mate relationships often included betas…” He didn’t say more, hoping Melloni would provide him with the information he wanted.

“Yes. If there was an alpha-beta-omega partnership, all three wolf-shifters would experience the effects of the partnership. Even when a beta and an omega had formed a partnership before adding an alpha, they would already exhibit symptoms of being mated, though to a lesser extent than when the alpha was added. Why are you asking?”

Enar merely smiled, his head storming with the implications. “Personal interest. Thank you for your time, Doctor.”

Palani didn’t say a word until they were back in the car, when he turned toward Enar and asked, “What the hell was that about?”

* * *

Palani couldn’t wait to see Vieno again. There was a hum in his blood, a buzz in his head with every mile they got closer to Lidon’s house. Enar had texted Lidon, and the alpha had reaffirmed his permission to bring Palani over. For that alone, Palani wanted to kiss him. 

Enar had not been willing, however, to explain the last questions he’d asked Melloni. Palani had kept turning around the information in his brain, but he couldn’t make sense of it. Where was Enar going with that? He’d figured he’d be able to make him change his mind, persuade him to share more, but Enar had not only clammed up, but had put his foot down. 

The latter had been hot as fuck, though Palani would never admit it. He loved the little verbal matches he had with Enar, but it hadn’t happened often that Enar had gone all alpha on him. Not like Lidon, for instance. Man, when Palani had almost kissed Vieno the morning after their alpha-claiming, that had been scary as all get out. 

Again, that had been seriously hot, despite Palani’s real fear that Lidon would rip him a new one. Something about that alpha domination got to him. Fuck knew why, and he was a sick fuck for that reason alone, but he loved it. Not that he wanted to be told what to do all the time—hell no. He was so not into that. But the occasional alpha-as-fuck attitude, yup, he was down with that. 

Right now, he didn’t want any alphas, however. All he could think about was Vieno. He hadn’t exaggerated when he told Enar how much it hurt to have lost him, if anything, he’d downplayed it a little. He’d never thought it would be so painful, like a part of him was missing. He was unsettled, restless, unable to sleep and barely functioning. 

It wasn’t about sex. It had never been. Palani had quickly established a no-sex rule in between Vieno’s heats. First of all, because he didn’t want Vieno to ever think it was about sex, or that he had to pay back Palani by having sex. 

But he’d also done it to protect them both. He’d known that eventually, Vieno would marry an alpha, would move out. And he’d figured that if they pretended to be friends and roommates in between in the heats, it would be more bearable. That, obviously, had been wishful thinking. 

“I need you to stay in the car for a minute,” Enar said when he turned into Lidon’s driveway. He opened his window to put in the keycard that would open the gate. “I need to speak to Lidon for a minute before we go in.”

Palani bit his tongue to swallow back the snarky reply that wouldn’t help him at all. He wanted to see Vieno, so he’d better be on good behavior to make that possible. Enar shot him a look when he said nothing, so he quickly said, “Okay. I’ll wait.”

Enar parked in front of the garage, then shut off his engine. “Yeah, I figured you would,” he said with a small sigh. “I’ll be right back to get you.”

Palani observed as Lidon stepped outside and after a brief hug, the two alphas conferred with each other. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but a few glances his way made him suspect he was the topic. 

Was Lidon concerned about his behavior toward Vieno? He’d have to show him he could refrain from touching him, then. It would be hard, since they were both so used to touching each other, but he’d do anything to keep having access to his friend.

At first, he’d thought it would be better if they didn’t see each other for a while. Just till things got settled. It had only taken a few days to realize the stupidity of that plan. His skin was literally itching now, knowing that Vieno was close. He could almost smell him, taste him, which was ridiculous. He couldn’t, not from a car outside, but if he closed his eyes, he could feel him.

He jumped when Enar opened his door to let him out. “Lidon wants to say something,” he announced.

Palani’s stomach cramped. Had Lidon changed his mind? Or did he have rules and restrictions? He’d agree to anything and everything, as long as he could see Vieno—even if it was just for a short while. 

“I’ll agree to any rules you have,” he said as soon as he was standing in front of Lidon. “I’ll stay across the room or whatever…I just…”

Lidon’s eyes were more puzzled than stern, he noticed. “You just what?” the alpha asked.

“I just really would like to see him,” Palani finished his sentence, almost whispering.

“It’s okay,” Lidon said to his surprise. “Vieno has missed you, too. You can hang out with him, even touch him and hug him if you want… All I ask is that you respect me when I tell you something, okay? I know that sounds bossy, but—”

“Whatever you say, alpha,” Palani said, meaning every word.

Lidon studied him for a few seconds more. “Enar was right,” he said. “You do look like crap.”

Why would Enar say that about him to Lidon? That made no sense at all. Still, he wasn’t gonna bring it up.

“Go on in,” Lidon said. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

“You’re…trusting me? To be alone with him?” Palani asked, shocked. 

“I’ve always trusted you. Your heart is in the right place, Palani. Now go, before I change my mind.”

Palani didn’t wait a second longer but ran inside. He could smell him as soon as he set foot across the threshold, that sweet, unique smell that was all Vieno. He found him in the living room, dozing on the couch. His face was illuminated by multiple soft lights.

Palani gasped when he saw him. He’d expected him to appear radiant, alive, healthy…that was what was supposed to happen when you alpha-mated. Instead, Vieno looked pale again, those awful dark circles under his eyes. And his cheeks were sunken, like he’d lost weight. How was this possible?

He carefully sat down on the couch at his feet, putting his hand on Vieno’s ankle. “Hey baby,” he whispered, then caught himself. He needed to stop calling Vieno that. Lidon wouldn’t appreciate that nickname. “Vieno…” he whispered. “I’m here.”

One second Vieno was asleep, the next his eyes flew open and he spotted Palani. The sound coming from his mouth sounded like a wounded animal, and before Palani realized it, Vieno threw himself at him, his too-thin arms tightly around Palani’s neck. He breathed him in, that sweet smell invading every pore of his being, tears filling his eyes.

“I missed you,” Vieno said, his voice breaking. A sob tore through his body. “I missed you so fucking much…”

Palani held him, not even considering pushing him away when Vieno climbed on his lap to hold him, burying himself in Palani’s arms. His face was pressed tightly against Palani’s neck, his skin soon wet from tears. 

He couldn’t speak himself, a whirlwind of emotions storming through his body and mind, unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. What the hell was happening? He could barely think, all he could do was feel. 

How amazing it felt to hold Vieno again. 

How his skin had stopped itching and that buzz in his head had evaporated.

How his heart seemed different now Vieno was in his arms. Like it was whole again, somehow. 

And then Lidon spoke and Palani’s high came to a rushing halt. “You were right, Enar.”

Palani’s eyes flew open, and he found Lidon and Enar staring at him, at them, because Vieno was still very much on his lap, plastered against him, sobbing his eyes out. 

Oh, fuck. This was about to get ugly. He needed to get Vieno off him as soon as possible. 

“Test it,” Enar said.

Palani’s eyes widened and he froze. Test what?

“Vieno, come here,” Lidon said, and the alpha power roll through those words into Palani. He released Vieno on instinct, not wanting to step between two mates. But Vieno only lifted his head to gaze at Lidon through tear-streaked eyes. 

“I can’t…I can’t let him go yet.”

What the hell? How was a little itty-bitty omega like Vieno able to resist the alpha compulsion of his mate, when even Palani staggered under the force? This made no sense at all. 

“Vieno, you have to go. He’s your mate…” Palani urged him.

“I can’t… God, I’m being ripped apart inside…” Vieno sobbed.

“Lidon, release him,” Enar urged, and it took a second for Palani to realize it wasn’t directed at him, but at the alpha. 

With two big strides, Lidon sat down on the couch next to them and his arm came around them both. “Sshh,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to Vieno’s hair, his face close to Palani’s. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Stay right where you are.”

Palani sat frozen to his spot, his mind doing desperate attempts to understand what was happening. How had Vieno been able to resist his alpha? And why the hell had Lidon let him get away with that…why had he even allowed Palani and Vieno to be alone in the first place? 

Yet despite his mental turmoil, there was a remarkable peace in his emotions, a sense of right-ness. He was holding Vieno again and despite the implications this could have, it felt so wonderfully perfect…as did Lidon’s arm around them both and the calming alpha waves he was emitting. It was almost as if…

Lightning struck his brain. This was what Enar had been asking Melloni about. He sought his eyes and found the doctor studying them with sadness on his face. Almost like…jealousy? But that didn’t matter right now. Far more important was the staggering conclusion Palani had reached.

“Tell me the truth,” he told Enar. “Vieno and me, did we somehow become mates?”