Chapter Six - Rex

W atching the dark-haired man with the goatee hustle out the door with Damon's coat in hand, guilt settled like a lead weight in my belly. I was well aware of the others in the room staring at me in silent condemnation and I couldn't blame them. Not really.

It was obvious that they cared about Damon. That my kitten was one of them. One of their pack, if I was using the terminology right. And my reaction to his… condition …had hurt his feelings.

I wasn't exactly proud of myself for that, either.

However, in my defense, I wasn't expecting to ever see Damon again. And even if I had hoped that I might, I certainly wouldn't have considered that I might have left him with a parting gift of that magnitude.

I mean, seriously, where I came from, men couldn't generally knock up other cis-presenting men.

Alright, so where I came from, men's penises didn't change shape and lock them inside their lover mid-orgasm either, so I supposed my logic might have required reevaluation.

Nevertheless, I thought I could —and should— be forgiven for floundering a little under the circumstances. Riding a building wave of self-righteous indignation off that thought, I turned back to Beckett. " Tactful , huh?"

"I was getting there," he protested, appearing chagrined. "I was trying to ease into it. I know it's jarring, so…" He trailed off, rubbing his free hand over the back of his head. "I didn't realize they'd be bringing Damon with them." Turning to face his lover, he arched an eyebrow. "What happened to one step at a time, babe?"

Ollie remained completely unrepentant, shrugging his shoulders. He gestured blithely in my direction. "What was I supposed to do? Keep Day in the dark about Matthew McConaughey here arriving on our doorstep?"

For his part, Beck just cocked his head and waited in silence.

Ollie huffed. "Fine," he practically whined. "I may have pushed the issue to get him up here. But you know how I feel about keeping secrets. Put yourself in Rex's shoes: how would you have felt if you were…I don't know…being given a tour of the town and you saw the guy you knotted with a huge baby bump and you realized you were the only person in town who hadn't put two and two together, hmm?" He folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. "Do you really think that was the better alternative?"

"Well, no," Beck acknowledged. "But did you have to spring him on the poor guy without any warning at all?"

" You're the one who was supposed to give him the basic warning about alpha/omega biology. If you'd done that, I'm willing to bet he would have been smart enough to think back to knotting an omega and consider the possible repercussions. "

Beck snorted. "Like we did, huh?"

A chill that had nothing to do with the December weather descended. Ollie's cheeks flushed and his pretty face lost all signs of mirth.

Understanding that he had quite obviously stepped in it dawned over Beckett's expression. He reached towards Ollie. "Shit, baby, I didn't mean—"

He was silenced by Ollie's hand being held up, palm outward, the hurt in the younger guy's green eyes enough to make even me feel guilty. "Just don't, Beckett. You know how stupid I felt…"

Beck closed the space between them within a couple of long strides, carefully repositioning the baby in his arms so he could pull his young partner against him for a hug. He murmured low apologies and reassurances into Ollie's ear, and I averted my gaze, feeling awkward.

This was not the kind of moment I should be intruding on.

The other man who had entered the room with Ollie and Damon made his way past the couple, hardly heeding them any mind. He was tall and blonde, blue eyed and buff. I rose from my seat and extended my hand towards him, considering he was already reaching his out towards me.

"Doctor Eric Weldman," he introduced himself as we clasped hands, and I noted that we were roughly the same height, though I was lankier than him. His handshake was firm, but not in that macho, posturing way. Similarly, his smile was kind while his eyes contained an analytic gleam.

"Rex Murphy," I replied.

His nostrils flared. "Mountain lion," he declared, then cocked his head. "Interesting. There goes my theory about alphas taking on the species of their mate post-bonding… so perhaps the compatibility and fated component is genetically predisposed."

"Fated component?" I asked, blinking in surprise. "You tryin' to tell me this whole mess was meant to be?"

Eric wasn't shaken at all by my sharp, incredulous tone. He just tilted his head from side to side, explaining, "It's a possibility we're considering. Not fate in the sense that you're likely assuming, but that there are specific mates out there who are so compatible with you that meeting triggers a mating heat —or, in your case, a mating rut— and unlocks your previously hidden alpha designation and shifter abilities." He sighed and shook his head. "What we obviously don't know, given that you and Damon are only the second known case of this happening, is how to determine that compatibility ahead of time. It seems to be an instant, unpredictable connection, likely predetermined by pheromones and genetic factors."

"Genetic factors?"

"It's our belief that you surprise alphas likely have at least one shifter parent. I don't know your personal history, but Damon said that you scented human before you mated."

I cringed, both at the reminder of Damon storming out only minutes earlier, and at the word ‘mated'. "That's what he told me after I…" I gestured down towards my crotch. "Y'know."

"Knotted him," Eric supplied clinically. "Yes; it was the same for Beck and Ollie. Beck didn't begin to scent as shifter until after they'd mated and bonded. However, you didn't bond with Damon, and you still scent like shifter, so it's likely the bond itself plays no part in bringing out one's alpha after all." He brought a hand up to stroke his hair-free jaw. "Fascinating, really."

I frowned. "What's the difference between bonding and mating?"

"Mating is just his fancy science-y term for the sex and knotting and breeding," Ollie supplied as he wandered over and joined the conversation, bending to pick a pink mug from the tray Jazz had set down earlier. He poured himself half a cup from the coffee press and then added creamer and sugar while he chatted casually, "Bonding is where shit gets really weird." He paused while stirring his spoon in his cup, the metal tinkling pleasantly against the ceramic. "Whoops. Sorry," he looked over at the two babies in Beck's arms, "don't repeat Papa's bad words, kids."

I shared a conspiratorial glance with Beck and smothered a snort. But then what Ollie had been saying caught back up with me and I prompted, "What do you mean bonding is where it gets really weird? Because my cock changing shape? Kind of what I'd call really weird ."

"Did you have the urge to bite Damon when you achieved orgasm?" Eric prompted and I was glad I wasn't drinking my coffee, because I would have spat it all over him.

"What?!" As it was, I was choking on my own spit. "What kind of fu—er—fudged up question is that?"

Ollie cackled gleefully. "Oh, you're kind of vanilla, huh?"

If only he knew.

" Oliver …" Beck warned.

The youngest man in the room held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry," he was still giggling to himself, so I didn't think he really meant the apology. He cleared his throat. "Anyway," he tugged at the collar of his sweater and tilted his neck, showing off a shiny scar in the shape of a bite mark. " This is what happens when an alpha bites an omega when they're mating. Beck's got one, too. It, um, it kind of tied us together in a magical kind of way. Like…a mystical connection."

"A mystical connection?" I tried not to sound too dry when I repeated his words.

"I know how it sounds," he took a sip from his coffee and then sat on the armrest of Beck's chair, one hand draping behind Beck to toy with the hair at the back of his head, their earlier disagreement forgotten, "but we can feel each other's emotions, sometimes physical sensation," his cheeks pinked a little as he admitted that, "and proximity."

"That sounds…" Invasive. Frustrating. Terrifying.

"Yeah," Ollie agreed, nodding. "But we've been working on controlling it so it's not constantly ‘on', you know? It's all hit and miss, but…yeah. That's what we call bonding."

"Well, I didn't feel inclined to bite him, no," I shook my head.

"I wonder if other conditions need to be met, then," Ollie mused as he looked towards Eric. "I mean, Beck and I did it on instinct, but we were so far gone with the mating heat…Do you think the weeks between meeting and finally satisfying the heat and rut cycle contributed to the spontaneous bonding?"

"Possibly," Eric said with consideration. "Then there's the fact that you bit each other, so the physical position must play a part in it as well." He glanced at me. "When you and Damon—"

"Nope," I held up an index finger, already guessing where his question was heading. "That's taking things a bit too far."

"We'll circle back to it," he shrugged, then asked, "would you mind if I conducted some tests? I just need some basic samples. Hair follicles, blood, semen: the usual."

"Semen?" I backed up a step. "Why? Isn't Damon's condition proof enough that everything down there's in working order? "

"Well, I'd like to compare your semen to Beckett's. Comparing a bonded alpha to an unbonded one. It may hold the answers to questions we have about inter-species breeding."

"Inter-species breeding?" My voice pitched higher with the question as my head swam.

"He's not going to use your sperm to impregnate any other omegas," Ollie said, but the words did little to reassure me.

" Other omegas," I repeated.

The fact that I'd knocked up anyone at all was still freaking me out.

I sat down heavily in the armchair I'd started in and ran my palm over my face. "Christ, this is actually happening, isn't it?"

"Let's steer away from talking about pregnancies for now, yeah?" Beck suggested. The comment itself was laughable coming from him, given that he was bouncing two babies in his lap. Babies that he had put inside Ollie.

"Here, hon, drink some more coffee," Jazz suggested, pushing my mug into my hands, and I startled at the sound of her voice. I'd forgotten she was even in the room. "Don't go passing out on us now, okay?"

I drank because it was easier than talking. Who would have thought that at forty-two years of age, I'd be panicking over knocking someone up? Plus the whole ‘I'm not human' thing, but I'd pretty much already come to terms with that.

"Have you shifted yet?" Beck asked me gently after I'd taken a few deep gulps from my cup.

And maybe I haven't come to terms with not being human after all , I thought to myself.

In response to Beck, I just sighed and shook my head. "I wouldn't know how, and it'd be just my luck that I'd get stuck in my animal form or somethin'."

To my surprise, Beck didn't laugh at me. He nodded and hummed his agreement. "I had the same concerns. But after I shifted that first time, it was just instinct." His brow furrowed. "Of course, I kind of followed Ollie's example through the bond. You don't have that."

Ollie giggled and then clamped his hand over his mouth when everyone turned to frown at him. "Sorry," he offered sheepishly. "That just reminded me of earlier, when Day…" Expression falling, Ollie looked to his feet. "Never mind."

"Anyway," Beck redirected, "you should consider trying to shift. When I shifted, it was like…like missing pieces had all been put together inside me. I stopped freaking out about being a shifter because it felt natural, like it had been a part of me all along."

"Technically," Eric interjected, "our running theory is that it was a part of you. Just hidden, or locked away, or whatever analogy you'd like to use."

"About that," I said, allowing my mind to go back over the conversation so far, "you said something about having a shifter parent? How would I even go about finding out if that's the case?" When they all looked back at me blankly, I sighed. "I was adopted when I was three. My birth mom died from a suspected aneurysm, and I didn't have any other biological family. My father was never in the picture, he's not even on my birth certificate." My brain-to-mouth filter proved itself inactive as I turned to Eric and asked, "How do birth certificates work for alpha and omega pairings?"

"The same as any others," he answered easily. "Ollie's listed as Rory and Duke's mother, Beckett as their father."

"Right," I stretched the word out as his answer tumbled about in my head. My stomach clenched at the thought of my kid —or was that possibly kids? I hadn't even thought to ask Damon— having a blank space on their birth certificate. " Okay."

"So you didn't really know your birth parents?" Beck asked, shaking me from the dangerous path my mind was traveling down. I shook my head and he offered me a small, commiserating smile. "Me either. I grew up in foster care."

I winced. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"I survived," he brushed my words off, but I didn't think it was because he didn't appreciate them. "But it only seems to back up the idea that our parents, or at least one of each of our parents, could have been shifters."

"Anything's possible."

I didn't think I'd spoken truer words that day. I'd gone searching for answers about what I was, already uneasy with my body being other than human, and I'd walked into even more impossible surprises.

Speaking of which…

I cleared my throat. "I, uh, I think I should talk to Damon."

Ollie sat up straight and glared at me. "Why? So you can hurt his feelings some more?"

"Ollie," Beck nudged his side with his shoulder, his hands still holding their gurgling children in place on his lap, "that's not fair. Do you remember freaking out about the twins? 'Cause I sure as hell do."

"You weren't an ass about it," Ollie muttered, still sounding a little petulant.

"Damon didn't really give Rex much of a chance to talk, though, did he? And I'm not saying his feelings weren't valid, because they totally are, but I do think giving him and Rex a chance to talk privately about everything might help more than us meddling any more than we already have."

Ollie leaned his head back and remained silent for a long moment before he eventually exhaled and nodded. "Fine. You're right."

He climbed off the armrest and set his half-empty mug back on the coffee table. Jazz bustled about, collecting the rest and taking them from the room.

Ollie reached down and plucked a baby from his lover's lap. "How about I take this pair to their aunts, and I can show you how much I appreciate your level-headedness?"

Beck's cheeks flushed and he looked at me with apology written across his features. "Sorry. We, uh, don't get a lot of childfree time."

"Don't forget," Eric told him before I could say it was fine, "we're still monitoring Ollie for signs of a heat cycle starting again. I'm estimating he'll be fertile again any time now. It's been just over four months since he gave birth, so—"

"Lalalalala," Beck clenched his eyes shut and shook his head. "Nope. No. We're using condoms."

Eric sighed heavily. "Beckett. How will we know that the birth control we've developed will even work if you don't allow us to try it?"

"I have four-month-old twins, Weldman. Could you imagine throwing more babies into the mix?" He shuddered. "Hard pass for now."

"As offended as I think I should be," Ollie added, "I'm with Beck on this one. When the kids are a bit older, we might risk it, but for now…" He booped the kid in his hold on the nose with his free index finger, grinning at the baby gurgle the action elicited. "I love them, but they're enough for us."

"We'll see if you're still saying that during your next heat," Eric snarked back at him, but the smirk on his face, as well as the answering exasperated smile and eye-roll from Ollie, told me that this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation.

Eric turned his attention back to me. "Come with me. We'll head to the clinic, I'll get those samples, and then you can go and make amends with Damon."

My heart hammered in my chest at the thought of that conversation, but I followed the doctor out the door anyway.