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I spent most of my life believing that if I worked hard enough, controlled myself well enough, and kept enough distance between who I was and what I was, then being an omega would become irrelevant.
So far, it had worked.
As Dr. Amara Valkova, veterinarian at PetER, I had built a life carefully designed to avoid attention. A life where my Russian family's expectations, my biology, and everyone else's assumptions stayed neatly locked behind professionalism, suppressants, and sheer stubbornness.
Then there was Damon Norak.
My oldest friend. My safest place. My greatest complication.
We grew up together long before designations meant anything, before society started pretending Alpha-Beta-Omega dynamics no longer mattered. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, Damon became woven into every version of my life so completely that I stopped noticing where he ended and my sense of home began.
Now, as doctors working across the street from one another, our lives collide almost daily through shared emergencies, impossible hours, and the kind of exhaustion that strips away carefully built walls. And no matter how hard I try to ignore it, some part of me always seems to know when he's near.
Thankfully, I'm not facing it alone. Lily Norak-Smith-Damon's sister and my best friend-has spent years offering unwavering support without judgment, while her mate, Cory Smith, somehow manages to see straight through every excuse I make. Together, they've become the family I chose long ago.
But family doesn't make things simpler.
Because in a world that insists biology doesn't define us, I'm beginning to realize that the hardest thing to outrun isn't instinct.
It's history.
And no matter how far I run, Damon has always been waiting at the finish line.