Myron had spent most of the day driving to and from Mountain Ridge to meet with the representative of the Tribunal Task Force he’d practically had to bribe to give him the time of day. He’d also had to stretch the truth a bit and say he was the head of Charles’ security, but it wasn’t far from the truth. None of them had taken a bullet for the Alpha.

After convincing the TTF to send a special unit to investigate the shooting, Myron finally returned to the pack and hoped Charles hadn’t tried to leave. He’d already made Nicholas agree to stop him if he tried and knew there was a chance that Charles would be pissed if he realized he was more or less under house arrest, but it was worth it if it meant keeping him safe.

Myron’s chest was already healing, and the antibiotics they’d given him at the hospital were helping with the pain. Even his arm was out of the sling. The worst part was knowing that it might happen again. That the next time, he might not be able to stop it.

Not that he was planning on letting Charles out of his sight anytime soon. He’d handcuff them together if he had to, but by far the most traumatic aspect of the whole thing was how close he’d come to losing the Alpha. He wasn’t taking that risk again.

The house was quiet, so he knew Avery and Nicholas were probably out with the baby. Hayley was usually out with her girlfriend on a Friday night, and Beverly always had some fundraiser to attend, so he hoped that he and Charles would actually get the chance to talk. When he found the Alpha sitting at the kitchen table with an untouched cup of coffee in front of him, his relief was short-lived when he saw that Charles was right in front of him but staring a thousand yards away.

“Charles? I thought I told you to lay off the caffeine before your blood turns to coffee,” he teased gently, putting a hand on the other man’s shoulder.

The Alpha jolted. “Sorry. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“What’s wrong?” Myron asked, immediately forgetting about everything he’d been planning on talking to Charles about all day.

“I went to the doctor,” Charles said slowly. “Avery was insistent on it, and…”

Myron’s heart sank into his stomach. “Yeah?” he choked, sitting down because he actually felt in danger of passing out like his mother was always pretending to.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Charles said listlessly. He wasn’t really looking at Myron, or anything in particular, for that matter.

Myron took his hand and squeezed it hard, forcing himself to forget his own terror to be there for Charles, whatever news he was about to deliver. “Baby,” he murmured, stroking Charles’ hand. “Whatever it is, it’s gonna be okay. I’ll take care of you.”

There was confusion in Charles’ eyes for a second before he seemed to realize what conclusion Myron had come to. “No, it’s not that. I’m not sick. I mean, I am, but the doctor doesn’t think it’s related.”

“Okay, you lost me…” Myron admitted, stroking the strands of hair that had fallen out from Charles’ hat. “Where did you get this thing?” It was fucking adorable, but it was a shame to cover up all that glorious hair.

“I’m not an Alpha, Myron.”

Myron frowned. Was this another self-deprecating jab at not being good enough? “Charles —“

“I’m serious. I had an exam. And I mean the kind of exam where I’m pretty sure your doctor owes me dinner,” he muttered, his cheeks flushed.

Myron was momentarily overwhelmed by instincts he would have rolled his eyes at an Alpha expressing. “An exam? Wait, you mean…?”

“It’s not just me not having a knot, it’s everything,” Charles said, pulling his hand away to grab his mug, as if he needed something less intimate to do with his hands. “Reproductively speaking, I’m more like an omega than an Alpha. The doctor even thinks I could get pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” Myron echoed. “Are you serious?”

Charles glared. “Would I make this up?”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to understand.”

“It’s not your fault,” Charles groaned, burying his head in his hands. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. I just don’t know what to make of any of this.”

“It’s okay. Come here,” Myron said gently, pulling Charles into his arms. “It’s gonna be okay. I know it’s a lot to take in, but it doesn’t change who you are.”

“And who is that?” Charles asked hoarsely. “At least when I thought I was just a defective Alpha, I knew what I was.”

“Baby,” Myron whispered, stroking his back. “I know what you are. You’re perfect. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Alpha or a beta or something else entirely, you’re perfect and you’re mine.”

Charles broke down in his arms. It was the first time Myron had ever heard him cry, and the sound was absolutely heart wrenching. He held him tightly until he stopped, even if it was only because he seemed to have run out of energy.

“Come on,” Myron said, kissing his forehead. “There’s somewhere I want to take you, if you’re up for a short trip.”

The nod Charles gave him was less than enthusiastic, but Myron took it. He led his mate out to his car, since he didn’t want Charles to have to walk after what he’d been through.

“Where are we going?” Charles finally asked once they’d been on the road a few minutes.

“Not far,” Myron answered. Southbend wasn’t a large town, but even it had its abandoned areas. The old bookstore at the end of what was now a dead end was one of them. One of the windows had been broken out since the last time he’d been there, probably by one of the kids who played softball in the nearby lot, and the place had certainly seen better days.

Charles looked up at the building warily. “Is this your attempt to make me feel better by taking me somewhere that’s even more broken down than I feel?”

“No,” Myron laughed, taking his hand to lead him inside. “I’m not that deep, babe.”

He wondered when he’d started calling Charles by the term of endearment. It rolled off his tongue so easily, and the other man didn’t seem to mind.

“Is this place even safe to be in?”

“It’s structurally sound, but it took a while to get it that way,” Myron admitted, feeling around for the lights. The whole town was on the same grid, so they turned on even though it had been more than a year since he’d stepped foot in the place. The inside wasn’t nearly as bad as the outside, even though the old shelves had seen better days. The interior walls were still freshly painted, but the newly built loft was still unfinished.

“What is this place?” Charles asked, looking at the old books on the shelf. Most of them were antiques, so they fit in well with all the dust.

“It was a bookstore, but the owner died and his kids had no interest in keeping it up,” he explained. “When I dropped out of my doctoral program and came back here to help my family and start teaching, I bought the place for a steal at auction.”

“No offense, but… why?”

Myron grinned at his mate’s incredulity. “Believe it or not, I do have some appreciation for the dignity of old institutions. I didn’t want all this to go to waste, and I realized the kids I was teaching didn’t really have anywhere they could go to study and stay out of trouble, so I thought it’d make a good spot if I renovated it.” He shrugged. “As you can tell, it’s one of about a million projects I never finished, but I still used to come here sometimes when I needed to get away from my family.”

“I can see why. It’s… relaxing in a sense.”

“Not this part. Come on.” Myron led him up the stairs, amused at how fearfully Charles took each step. “You can relax, it’s not gonna collapse. I’m halfway decent at craftsmanship.”

“You built this?”

“Mhm. I wanted to be an architect for a while before I decided to go into applied mathematics instead.”

“That’s nerdy, even by my standards.”

Myron grinned, pulling Charles down onto the giant beanbag in the corner of the loft. The window had a perfect view of the sunset and the mountains in the distance, but there was no way of looking in, so it had always made the ideal reading corner. “Comfortable?”

“Very,” Charles admitted, pulling his feet up onto the plush bed. He looked over at the small shelf of books. “Are those your favorites?”

“Yep.” Myron reached past him, pulling a book off the shelf.

“What is that, a book of formulas?” Charles teased.

Myron nudged him playfully, draping an arm around Charles’ shoulder as he flipped through the pages. “This is my favorite book, actually, and it’s a classic, so pay attention.”

Charles looked up at him with great curiosity, but he nuzzled in to listen. Myron cleared his throat dramatically before beginning. “There once was a most unusual mouse, who lived in the forest with all the others. The other mice were unkind to him because he was very fluffy and had no tail.”

When he looked up, Charles’ eyes were glazed over. “Seriously? Your favorite story is a cheesy ripoff of the Ugly Duckling?”

Myron laughed. “Okay, I’ll skip to the end. Here. ‘The tailless mouse realized, upon finally breaking into the pet store, that he wasn’t a defective mouse at all. In fact, he was the cutest hamster in the entire store, and all the others loved him. The end.’”

Charles was laughing so hard he was wheezing. “You are the worst storyteller I have ever heard and I see why you’re not a teacher anymore.”

“Come here, you,” Myron growled, throwing the book aside to start tickling his mate. Charles yelped and tried to get away from him, but Myron pinned him easily. The other man’s eyes were still dancing with amusement as he struggled to catch his breath. “Someone clearly missed the moral of the story.”

“I’m a hamster?” Charles asked dryly.

“Nope,” Myron said, kissing him. “You only feel like you’re inadequate because you’re holding yourself to standards that never applied to you in the first place.”

“Except that I’m not an omega, either,” Charles reminded him. “At least hamsters are a thing.”

“You’re something else,” Myron said, shrugging. “So am I, for that matter.”

“It’s different and you know it. An omega who can knot his mate is just a better omega. Someone who seems like an Alpha and isn’t in any of the ways that matters is just… less.”

“Says who?” Myron challenged. “You think Alphas are better than omegas?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay, so why is an Alpha who can do something omegas can deemed less than an omega who can do something only Alphas are supposed to be capable of?”

Charles didn’t seem to have a response for that. “Myron…”

“You know I’m right. You’re not broken or less than, Charles. You’re just different. You’re not an Alpha or an omega or a beta, but it doesn’t matter.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because you’re still you,” he answered, brushing his lips over Charles’. “You’re all I want, and it kills me that you’re so brilliant you can see the potential in all these theories and concepts that most people can’t even wrap their heads around, but you can’t see how amazing you are.”

“I wish I could see myself the way you do,” Charles said quietly.

Myron smiled, sweeping the hair away from Charles’ face. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”

Charles raised his head to kiss him again, and Myron felt the stirrings of lust once more. In the beginning, it had bothered him that he felt so intensely for the man beneath him, but it had ceased to matter long before he’d realized Charles wasn’t an Alpha in any true sense of the word. Whatever he was or wasn’t, he was captivating and Myron had never longed to get lost in any book the way he longed to become lost in his lover’s body.

He took his time even though the blazing fire in his core demanded sustenance, sliding his hands up underneath Charles’ shirt and touching his flushed skin. He slowly undid each button and pulled the other man’s slacks down. Charles was already writhing under his hands as Myron took his shaft into his mouth. He tasted so pure and heady, like a fine wine, and the way he gasped with every flicker of Myron’s tongue…

The omega took even more care exploring the other man’s body than he had the last time, redefining every plane with his touch. He finally sensed that Charles could take no more teasing and lowered himself between his mate’s trembling thighs.

Myron kissed him hard, making him taste himself, and drank down the moan on Charles’ lips. “Fuck,” Myron groaned into the kiss.

“What is it?” Charles asked breathlessly.

“I should prep you, and I didn’t bring lube.” Surprisingly, he hadn’t brought Charles out with the intention of seducing him, even if he should have known where it would lead.

“I think the speculum did enough of that,” Charles mumbled, his face heating up again.

A growl escaped Myron’s throat. “I don’t know whether to be turned on or pissed off.”

“Neither,” Charles said flatly, kissing him again.

“I might just have to give you an exam myself,” Myron teased, positioning himself at Charles’ entrance. He eased in carefully, not wanting to tax his already stretched hole any further. Charles was still tight, so Myron pushed in slowly, being as gentle as he could.

“Oh, God,” Charles whispered, gripping his shoulders tight. His nails dug in, but Myron was enjoying the reminder that he was capable of making his mate forget himself. Thrusting into Charles the way he liked was making the wound below his heart ache, but it was so worth it.

“You’re hurt,” Charles said suddenly.

Myron cursed himself for not hiding it better. “It’s fine.”

“Let me ride you.”

Now that was a request Myron couldn’t think of a reason to turn down, even if it did mean having to pull out first. At least it would be easier to make sure he didn’t knot Charles by accident again. He sat up against the wall, enjoying the view as Charles climbed on top of him, sinking down onto his lap. Rather than taking him in again right away, Charles pushed his own stiff rod up against Myron’s and bucked into him while stroking them both.

“Ah, hell,” Myron growled, placing his hands on Charles’ writhing hips. The sunset danced in the man’s piercing blue eyes like streaks of gold against the sky.

“Good?” Charles asked knowingly.

“Mmh.” Myron wasn’t with it enough to form a more intelligent response. Charles had a way of bringing out the wolf in him, making him far more instinctive and driven by touch than thought. He felt more wolf those days than he ever had, even if the thing he shifted into could hardly be called that. “God, it’s sexy when you move like that.”

Charles’ breath came in puffs, his face already reddened with exertion as he ground into his mate’s cock. “I’ve never felt this way. With anyone.”

“Me either,” Myron admitted, stroking over his mate’s chest. Smooth and velvet, just like that voice of his. He leaned in, kissing the curve of Charles’ shoulder. He lifted him because if they didn’t get to it, they were both going to explode, and Charles squirmed down onto his cock with a moan.

“You fit me like a fucking glove,” the omega growled, pulling his mate closer. He tasted the hunger on Charles’ lips and kissed deeper as the other man rode him.

Charles groped his hair and his cock rubbed up against Myron’s chest as he bucked into him. He moaned at the friction, but Myron finally put just enough distance in between them to stroke Charles’ shaft. The cry of pleasure he gave as his fingers clenched in the omega’s hair made it clear that it was appreciated.

“Myron,” he whispered, looking up at his mate with an expression that made Myron want to tear into him and devour whatever rare thing inside of him made his eyes light up that way. He’d never believed in magic, but he felt it every time Charles was close, under the man’s smooth skin. “About what you said earlier, I… I love you, too.”

Those words weren’t the kind Myron had ever said during sex. Not even with Inara. The intense emotional connection one omega felt in the arms of another was one thing, but those words went much deeper. They were raw and intense and the sincerity with which Charles said them made them all the more dangerous. If he had simply returned them the moment Myron confessed the way Inara once had, it would have felt like an obligation, but he hadn’t. He had thought about it, considered it, waited on it, and now, he was certain.

Myron was used to being an experiment. A backup plan. A contingency. He’d never before been someone’s certainty, and the weight of it was liberating. He kissed Charles with feverish need and wrapped him in an intimate embrace that seemed to erase the seams between them.

He realized only then what had triggered the appearance of his knot the first time, a phenomenon that had never happened before and one he had no reason to believe ever would. The bond he’d felt with every other lover might have been emotional, but it was shallow compared to this. The chemical response in his brain wasn’t just wired to pleasure or physical contact with another, it was a direct response to something much more intense. Something real.

Charles moaned and stopped rocking on his lap as his mate’s knot filled him, but this time, he’d been prepared for it, and the look on his face was one of pleasure. He swept his hands down Myron’s face and for a moment, they only gazed at each other. When he was with Charles, he didn’t feel like an omega or an Alpha or whatever strange variation either of them had become. He just knew it was right. That they belonged like this, and he belonged inside of his mate, inside those sky blue eyes that were always so full of brilliance and wonder.

He knew Charles was close, and so was he. He wrapped his hand around his mate’s cock again and stroked him, burying his face in the omega’s neck. His fragrant scent was maddening and Charles tilted his head with a soft gasp as Myron’s tongue came out to taste him. Myron held him close and growled, overwhelmed by the need to plant his teeth in his mate’s neck as he came. It was an instinct he had only ever felt with Charles, and they both came at the realization of it.

Charles’ blood was sweet and full-bodied, a perfect representation of his enticing scent. His fingers dug into Myron’s hair, but he wasn’t trying to push him away. He was pulling him closer. “Myron,” he whispered in awe as the omega licked his wound. Charles shivered, but his hooded eyes betrayed his fascination. “I’ve never known an omega to place a mating bite.”

Myron laughed huskily, starting to return to his senses. “Tell you what, you can study me when we get back to London.”

“Careful, I’ll take you up on that,” he purred, kissing the omega’s lips that were still wet with his blood. “You would make a beautiful subject.”