HEATWAVE

Vivianne Sinclair isn't meant to stay in Bangkok forever.

She lives quietly in the pavilion behind her father's old friend's estate, a temporary arrangement, practical and convenient, close enough to the city for client meetings and far enough to keep her life contained. Work, deadlines, distance. That's all she needs.

The main house belongs to the Vongphiphat family. And to Miriya.

Vongphipat is an only child. Private chef. Her soft laughter drifts across the garden in the evenings or whenever she brings Vivianne some food. Her jasmine scent lingers in the humid air long after she's walked past.

Then the meteor falls, ruining all peaceful life for most of humanity. The meteor isn't supposed to change anything.

It shattered over the Pacific, burned through the atmosphere, and dissolved into dust. Scientists called it harmless.

Within 72 hours, humanity split into Alphas, Betas, and Omegas.

Married couples stabilized as Betas, untouched by the chaos. The rest of the world isn't so lucky.

Vivianne is a graphic designer who likes control, routine, and keeping people at arm's length. After the Shift, she wakes up an Alpha, stronger, sharper, and driven by instincts she doesn't recognize and doesn't want.

And Miriya, her sweet Miriya, becomes an Omega, and when her first heat arrives without warning, it doesn't feel real or scientific. It feels immediate. Overwhelming. The air is thick with scent. The world is shrinking to breath and instinct and something neither of them understands yet.

One night.

One mistake.

One bond they didn't understand.

In a society scrambling to regulate second genders, where Omegas are suddenly vulnerable and Alphas feared, Vivianne and Miriya are bound by something neither of them understands and a pregnancy neither of them planned.

Was it biology?

Or was it a choice?