Parfait

Chapter Thirty-Two

The knock on the door was a few minutes earlier than expected. Hana opened it to find a male omega on the other side- older than she had expected, a hint of gray beginning to pepper his temples and soft smile lines around his eyes. "Seo Hana?" he asked, smiling kindly when she nodded. "I'm Dr. Bae. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Thank you for making a house call. I'm pleased to meet you, too." Hana inclined her head politely and gestured for him to enter the apartment. Honestly, she was nervous. Her trust in doctors had been eroded recently. But this man was an associate of Dr. Gang's from outside the company, supposedly an expert on packs. She needed to at least try to give him a chance.

He was off to a good start by offering to come to the dorm for Hoseok's appointment, having heard about the alpha's distaste for medical procedures and needles. Hopefully this would be easier to get through in a comfortable setting where Hana could support him. She called out to announce the doctor's presence, and they met in the living room where Dr. Bae began unpacking the supplies he needed for the tests.

"I wish we could have gotten comparative data from before your rut," the doctor said conversationally as Hoseok sat on the couch. "I hear you had a different experience from usual this time around, though. That should be useful information in its own way. Care to tell me about it?"

"You'll have to be more specific," Hoseok chuckled, looking pointedly away from the vials and needles. Hana settled herself into his lap so that he could grip her tightly and ease his anxiety a bit. "A lot of things were different about this rut."

"Oh? I heard that you rejected an omega, but that was the extent of what I know. Would you care to tell me more?" Dr. Bae paused preparations to listen for a moment, even as Hoseok hesitated to organize his thoughts.

"I don't remember a lot of course, but I think acted different than usual during the fever. I was pretty rough," he said, trailing his hand up Hana's neck and resting his thumb over the yellowing mess of bruises he had bitten into her. Even he had been surprised at his own obsession over the place, in retrospect. "But the strangest thing was how short it was. Five days is pretty normal for me, I've gone six before in a rough year. This time I came out after three."

"Fascinating." Dr. Bae's eyes practically sparkled before he picked up an alcohol wipe and gestured for Hoseok's arm. "Multi-alpha packs are already uncommon, but I've never had the opportunity to interact with such a large bonded alpha group before. What surrogate role would you say you play?"

"He's my alpha," Hana cut in, feeling the hair on the back of her neck bristle. "Please don't suggest otherwise."

"Now, now, I'm not talking about biology," Dr. Bae said soothingly, securing the tourniquet on the alpha's arm. "Our subgenders may predispose us to certain roles, but they don't limit us to them. Our personalities and the way we respond to our pack matter more than anything else. My own little pack has no biological alpha, but one of my beta mates leads us well. So who are you, Hoseok?"

"Beta," he answered before Hana could argue, pressing his nose into her collarbone when the doctor picked up the needle. His eyes were scrunched tightly closed, but breathing in her sweet scent kept him otherwise calm. "I'm our pack's beta. And I'm proud of that, finally."

~~~

Dr. Bae asked more questions, but declined to give too many answers, stating that he had more information to gather before he could speak with any real authority. Hana was still a little wary, but Hoseok seemed to like the doctor just fine. "Still worked up about him asking my pack role?" the alpha finally asked when Hana huffed about the doctor's probing after lunch.

"Maybe a little," she admitted. "I don't like it when other people question you that way. But I do need to be better about letting it go." She cringed a little at another recent memory, running her tongue over her teeth.