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Can be read as a stand alone but will contain spoilers.
Talia Voss has spent fourteen years pretending her body never made an impossible choice.
She was sixteen when she presented as an omega-too young, too violently, and with one problem no specialist could explain.
She recognized her mate.
Adrian Rourke.
Her best friend's older brother. Her favorite argument. The boy who had spent half his life dragging her down from dangerous places, patching up the injuries she tried to hide, and informing her-with infuriating regularity-that being brilliant did not make her indestructible.
And a beta.
Betas do not have mates.
So Talia did the only thing that made sense.
She said nothing.
Fourteen years later, Dr. Talia Voss has built an entire life around surviving what her body insists is true. She became a trauma surgeon. Learned everything medicine could teach her about designation biology. Discovered that blood, speed, pressure, and adrenaline are excellent ways to silence an instinct that refuses to die.
Adrian is still there.
Still beta.
Still the person who knows when she is lying about an injury, remembers how she takes her coffee, and can stop her with one look when everyone else has learned to get out of her way.
Still taking care of her in every way that matters.
Still not hers.
Then Talia accepts a position in Pittsburgh at County General, Adrian follows for a veterinary emergency and critical-care job of his own at PetER, and the carefully controlled life they have built begins developing cracks.
Talia knows better than to mistake devotion for destiny.
She knows biology does not change simply because she wants it to.
And after fourteen years, she knows exactly how much it costs to believe her own body over every piece of evidence telling her she is wrong.
The problem is-
her body has never changed its answer.