Charles had been in the shower for almost an hour, and Myron was trying to talk himself out of knocking to check on the Alpha again. Charles had refused to go to a doctor as adamantly that morning as he had the night before, but Myron still felt guilty for what had happened even though he’d had no control over it and no way to predict it.

A knot. A fucking knot. Thirty-four years and he’d been sure he knew his body like it was… well, his body. There had never been any sign that he was a genetic outlier when it came to the trait that supposedly only Alphas possessed and he sure as hell wasn’t one of them. Yeah, his heats were a little strange, and he didn’t have the lust for Alpha anatomy—with one notable exception—that other omegas did, but he wasn’t that weird. 

Except apparently he was. The thought of how much worse he could have hurt Charles horrified him. If he hadn’t prepped the Alpha as much as he had, he wouldn’t just be dealing with a sore ass. He’d be badly injured and potentially put out of work while he healed. As it was, Myron wasn’t convinced Charles was fine, despite the Alpha’s insistence. What if he was just being his usual dismissive self and refusing to take proper care of his body?

When Charles finally came out of the shower, dressed and drying off his long damp hair, Myron breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey. How’re you feeling?”

“Sore,” the groggy Alpha answered flatly. “But the good news is I won’t be doing a lot of standing today, so I think I’ll live.”

“I think you should cancel your meetings,” Myron said, standing to join him. 

“What? Why on Earth would I do that?”

“So you can stay in and rest. Or, better yet, let me take you to a doctor. Or I’ll bring one here.”

Charles gave Myron the same look he was used to giving to the annoyingly overzealous Alphas in his life. Weird to be on the other end of it. “I’m fine. I’m not going to call out of the most important day of work all year because of… that.”

“We still need to figure out what ‘that’ was,” said Myron. “And I’m not just talking about the knotting.”

Whatever had happened between them the night before, Myron still felt it working toward something and knew it was far from over. He also knew that he didn’t want it to be. It wasn’t just the way his body responded to Charles that had him hooked--it was the way he could feel the Alpha in his soul. It was almost like a mark, even though they’d yet to exchange a mating bite. Christ, that was thinking way too far ahead.

Charles’ gaze grew distant. Myron could already tell he was going to take the scientific approach to this thing that defied logic. “We should speak with someone in the lab when we get home,” said the Alpha.

“The lab? Seriously?”

“There are a couple of researchers I’d trust to remain discreet. I’m sure there’s an explanation.”

“And if there is?” Myron folded his arms in challenge. “If you can explain this all away and there’s a ‘cure’ for whatever makes us different from other Alphas and omegas, would you want to take it?”

Charles seemed taken aback by the question. “You wouldn’t?”

Myron stopped to think about it. He’d never been into the idea of being with an Alpha, no—but now that he’d experienced the indescribable feeling of his shaft swelling to knot a partner, he didn’t care if the ass he was buried in belonged to another omega or not. It suddenly didn’t matter anymore. At least it was Charles, and if Myron was being honest with himself, Charles was all he could think about anyway. The situation sounded pretty fucking perfect to him.

“I wouldn’t,” Myron said.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” sighed Charles, looking over at him again. He was pretending like he was just getting ready, but Myron could feel the other man pulling away again. “We barely know each other. One night doesn’t change that.” 

“The hell it doesn’t.”

“What about Andy?” the Alpha shot back. Myron wasn’t expecting the bitterness in his words, and he realized that Charles hadn’t quite gotten over the incident. “Why should what happened between us be any different from that fling you had on my desk?”

“Because what we just had wasn’t a fling,” Myron insisted. “It wasn’t to me, at least. It was—“

“It was what? Different because I’m your fated mate? We both know the novelty of that is going to last as long as it takes for this tour to end. When you go back to your family, are you going to want to take an Alpha home to meet them?” he demanded. Before Myron could answer, the stormy rant raged on. “I didn’t think so. And what if your ex decides she’s had a change of heart and wants you back now that you’re famous, hm? Are you going to turn her down just because we fucked once?”

“Inara doesn’t have shit to do with this,” Myron growled. “This is about you and me, Charles.”

“You’re right. That’s exactly why I refuse to get my hopes up or pretend like this is anything other than what it is,” he snapped. “At the end of the day, you’re still you and I’m still me.”

The way his voice broke when he said “me” made Myron want to go to him, but the Alpha stepped back when he tried. “I need to go. I have a meeting.”

“When can we talk?” Myron pleaded, trying to force himself to take things slow. Maybe Charles was an Alpha, but he put up walls like an omega who’d been hurt and Myron knew he was the one who’d done the damage. 

Charles hesitated by the door. “I don’t know.”

“Please.”

The Alpha frowned, pulling on his coat. “I think it would be better if we don’t talk about anything unrelated to work until the summit is over. Can we do that?”

Myron clenched his jaw, but as much as he was tempted to snap back to his old ways and argue, he held back. Charles was too fragile for that, and he was only just beginning to realize it. The Alpha had walls up for a reason, and it wasn’t just about keeping his trade secrets to himself.

“Fine. It can wait until we get back to London.”

“Thank you,” Charles said softly. Little did Myron know, those would be the last words the Alpha spoke to him at all until their return.