Chapter 11: Tyler - Wrong Date, Right Mates
By Thalia Flume
I swipe my badge against the key reader and the glass doors part, letting me into the research building. Then I turn on my resting dick face and stomp up the stairs to my lab. The few people I pass dart out of the way.
I shower at the doctor’s lounge, and scrub my entire body twice to eliminate any trace of Elliott. But I can still smell him, and I’m afraid everyone will smell him on me. I feel so possessive, I don’t want anyone to smell the ghost of his scent on me. I debate exfoliating off the first layer of my skin with a surgical scrub brush, but decide against it.
Clearly, I’m losing it.
I paste a scent-blocker patch over my gland because I’m paranoid everyone around me will somehow know the turmoil inside my body. I even take an emergency rut suppressant just in case. I can’t tell how much of my agitation is because I left an omega in heat with another alpha, or because I’m on the verge of the worst rut of my life. I hope to hell I’m not.
I’ve never spent a rut without Alden’s support. It’s not sexual. Just him making sure I’m fed, or calming me with his scent, making sure I feel safe, like I won’t do something I regret. I’m going to have to figure that out soon, I guess. I can’t rely on him for shit like that. I should have stopped a long time ago.
The door to my lab is locked, and when I let myself in, the lights are off. The workstations are vacant, grad students nowhere to be seen.
I exhale tightly. Thank fuck. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked my lab manager to send everyone home before I got there. We’ve all been pretty stressed and working late to make this grant deadline. And some of my alpha researchers walk all over Reese because he’s an omega, which pisses me the fuck off. They should respect him just as much as they respect me.
Omegas are stronger than alphas. I don’t care what society says. They have to battle their bodies even more than an alpha does, and deal with everyone pawing at them.
Maybe today’s the day I make a breakthrough with my research. Hell, I’ll settle for just a little progress. I’m more motivated now than ever to create an effective suppressant after seeing what Elliott’s hormones did to him. He could have drowned from a poorly timed cramp. It’s nonsense.
The door to Reese’s office is ajar, and a beam of light sneaks through. I suppress my irritation. Technically, I didn’t ask Reese to go home too.
He ducks his head out of his office. “Hey, Ty. Everything okay?”
I nod. “Thanks for taking care of things. You should head home too.”
“You look like shit,” he says, following me into my office, holding his messenger bag over his stomach like a pillow.
“I feel like it too.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“Definitely not,” I snap, and tap my keyboard to wake my computer, pressing down a little too hard on purpose to release some tension. “Sorry. It’s me, not you.”
“All good, Boss.”
“Any updates?”
He winces. “Oh, you know, just another beautiful day in science, banging heads against a wall until something works. The usual insanity. But we’ll break through that wall eventually.” He pauses. “Or we’ll give up.”
“Is that supposed to be a pep talk?”
He shakes his head, and his ill-fitting glasses nearly slide off the bridge of his nose. He’s petite, and not very good at taking care of his own needs, too busy taking care of everyone else. “I’m not good at pep talks. Too neurospicy to lie, I guess.”
Something warm unfurls inside me. Reese is cute. Reese is funny. Reese follows my rules like a good little omega. He needs someone to take him to the optometrist to buy glasses that fit his face. And he smells like a flower. A marigold, he told me when I couldn’t figure out the pepper in his floral scent. Maybe…
“Alright, well, I should go,” he says, too loud, pulse fluttering in his neck a little faster, something I’d never have noticed if I weren’t staring so intensely at his neck like some sort of big cat hungry for a meal.
Great, now I’m scaring my omega postdoc with my alpha horniness. I take a deep breath through my mouth. “I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable. I don’t know what’s going on with me today.”
His shoulders relax. “Don’t worry about it. Just alpha and omega things.”
I nod. “Thanks for handling things today.”
“Anytime.” He slings the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “Hey, if you need to take tomorrow off, or the rest of the week, maybe, I can handle it.”
“I know you can. Thanks.”
He heads out of my office.
“Hey, Reese, can you lock up on the way out?”
“You got it,” he says, voice muffled through the wall next door.
I sit in my chair, hands clenching the armrests, tracking the sound of his footsteps until he leaves.
“Fuck,” I whisper, bowing my head and burying my face in my hands.
I feel wild, more animal than human. Maybe I am. Neuroscientists have postulated as much after discovering alpha and omega brain activity resembles that of some animal species during breeding. Which, I mean, I could go the rest of my life without knowing because it makes me feel even more out of control of my body.
Once I’m sure he’s not coming back, I cross the lab and double-check that the door’s locked. Then I run the same experiment my team ran today, but my outcome is the same.
And the entire time, I can’t stop worrying about Elliott. How badly did I hurt him when I left? What if he and Alden need me?
My phone buzzes.
Alden
Your little goose wants to know if you’re okay. I do too.
Tyler
I’m fine.
Alden
I don’t believe you.
Tyler
I am. Go tend to your gosling.