The ABO Serum

Exorcising Doubt

Mitch didn't have time to do anything more with Auggie than hold onto him and cry. As soon as he mellowed enough to notice the time, he had to excuse himself to go back to work. Auggie extracted a promise from him that he'd come back after.

It was an easy promise to make in the moment, with Auggie's arms around him, but as soon as he left the building, he began to feel embarrassed and ashamed to return. Auggie was only the first to find him of the seven still conscious partners he'd infected. Could this weird attachment thing happen with all of them? He had to find out.

As CDC liaison he had flexibility in his job description. And he had access to the database of subjects. He abused that flexibility and access this day to track down the other six partners. One Alpha who was not terribly disappointed by the change. One omega who was ready to skin him alive as soon as he could get out of quarantine. They were easy to find because of their restricted movement. Connecting with the four remaining betas took the rest of his shift.

Clint cried into his coffee as he accused Mitch of rape. They were both drunk. It was possible Mitch had been oblivious to his partner's attempts at rejection. He apologized profusely and felt even worse. He had no idea how to make amends. Clint asked that he never try to speak to him again. And that he never drink again. A week ago, he'd have laughed aloud at such an audacious request. He was twenty-seven and single. Bars were his living room. But in this moment, he felt like the mere sight of alcohol would repulse him for the rest of his life. He'd done so much damage in eight days. He promised.

Mario was so adorable Mitch was surprised he didn't turn omega. He wasn't a wildly flamboyant gay man, but there were definitely signs in his behavior. He didn't mind growing a womb and hoped it would be functional. Forgiveness was unnecessary as he didn't feel wronged. They'd had fun and gone their separate ways. That's all he'd ever expected. The womb thing was a fascinating development. A student majoring in wildlife biology, he had a fascination with oddities of the animal kingdom and accepted himself now as one of them. He flirted with Mitch when they met up, but there was no connection.

Alexis opened the door of his dorm room, saw Mitch's face, and slammed it closed. "You can talk to my lawyer," he yelled through the door. Mitch had enough sense to walk away immediately without another word. Back at the follow up appointments, GenLife promised to cover all their employees' liability for unknowingly spreading the change in exchange for supplying a comprehensive list of their partners at once. GenLife would probably face the brunt of any litigation anyway, but it helped calm the employee's fears.

Five minutes before his workday officially ended Mitch managed to track down Pedro. Auggie was cute, but Pedro was hot. Mitch caught up to him in the weight room working out with the remaining members of the wrestling team. "Mitch!" Pedro exclaimed as he caught sight of him across the room. "Where you been?"

"Working. Maybe you haven't heard but all hell broke loose at GenLife and we're trying to put the devil back in his hole." Mitch tried to echo Pedro's easy-going tone, but it felt flat.

"Yeah, yeah," Pedro sighed as he reached Mitch's side and pulled him in for a hug. It was a back smacking bro kind of hug, but it went on just a little bit longer than a regular bro would like. "You come back for more?" Pedro whispered in his ear and then grabbed his ass for a quick squeeze before letting go.

"Um, no," Mitch answered, a blush staining his cheeks. "Just checking the damage I've inflicted. I'm really sorry. I didn't know it could be passed."

Pedro waved his words off like flies. "You didn't know man. What's done is done. The rest of the world is gonna be freaking out about this when they hear, but I ain't gotta worry. It's already done for me. I don't have to worry about bein' no alpha or omega and getting confined or losing my choices. I can be me. It's all good."

For Pedro, this speech flowed off his tongue like an obvious truth. For Mitch it felt revolutionary. "I can be me," he echoed.

"Yeah, man. Be you." Pedro took Mitch's hand and tugged so he fell into the muscular wrestler's side. He looked into Mitch's face and smiled. "I like you. Especially in my bed," he teased and followed up with a sassy stroke of Mitch's already stiffening member.

In the midst of this audacious flirtation Mitch kept thinking of Auggie, comparing the two men. Pedro was hot, oh so hot, and Mitch's body responded. But when he thought of Auggie his heart felt gripped in a fist and he knew giving that sweet man pain would directly hurt himself. Pedro would be more fun, but it would end before long and he'd be empty again. Auggie...well, Auggie would make him face himself honestly and it wouldn't be fun at all to begin with, but he would stay by his side through it all. He felt that instinctively. If he chose Auggie he'd never be alone and empty again. Would he?

There didn't seem to be any fated mates for betas like the alpha and omega pairs had so far. There were only regular people trying to figure out how to be their best selves in this insane new world.

"I'm sorry," Mitch said as he moved away from Pedro. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm not looking for anything more. But thank you for being cool with this. I've been pretty messed up and I really am sorry, even though you don't want to hear it."

"Naw, I understand man. Some other time." Pedro waved and started back to the weights. Mitch waved back and turned to follow his heart back to Auggie's dorm room.

Standing outside the door to Auggie's room, Mitch felt awkward and still uncertain. All the meetings he'd rushed through today flashed through his mind in bits disassembled and reconstructed randomly. This was a rash decision. It happened too fast. He should go. But his feet were rooted to the spot. Someone walking by laughed at him and knocked on Auggie's door before walking on. Mitch panicked and tried to run, but he still couldn't move.