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Being an omega was supposed to be the one thing no one ever learned about me.
For twelve years, I made sure of it.
Suppressants. Scent blockers. Compression layers. Professional distance. A carefully built reputation as Dr. Amara Valkova, emergency veterinarian at PetER, where blood, chaos, and impossible cases were easier to handle than my own biology.
Everyone thinks I'm a beta.
Everyone except my body, apparently.
Because no matter how controlled I am, no matter how much distance I put between who I am and what I am, some part of me always knows when Damon Norak is near.
My oldest friend.
My roommate.
The alpha ER doctor across the street who has been woven into my life since before designations meant anything. Damon is steady where I am stubborn, calm where I am chaos, and infuriatingly good at noticing every crack in the walls I've spent years building.
He thinks his concern is friendship.
I let him.
It is easier that way.
But when long shifts, shared emergencies, and the quiet gravity between us start pulling everything closer, the life I built on control begins to fracture. Damon doesn't know I'm an omega. He doesn't know what I've been hiding. He doesn't know that the safest person in my life might also be the one person capable of destroying every lie that kept me safe.
And the worst part?
I'm starting to think he was never just my best friend.
In a world that insists biology doesn't define us, I have spent my whole life outrunning instinct.
But Damon has always been waiting at the finish line.