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“I did.”

“Would you be able to provide a semen sample? I assume Hiroshi was knotted by his alpha, too. So any sample there would be mixed.”

Fuck my life. “Why do you need that?”

“It is uncommon for omegas to be the dominant partner, is it not? Therefore, your mating of Hiroshi suggests there are traits in you that need to be explored. Perhaps you are not a full omega.”

My face flushed hot. I’d been an omega a day and was already a fuck up. “Is there any way I could go back to being a beta?” It wasn’t until the words were out that I realized that was what I wanted. Being an omega was strange and scary. Being a beta was all I’d ever known. It was familiar and safe.

Ívarr’s face was full of pity. “That is unlikely.”

***

Taking the semen samples from me was about as uncomfortable as you could imagine. I was swabbed and then sent into a room to jerk off. It was almost impossible to get hard under the circumstances. My surroundings were sterile and just the wrong side of cool.

I must have stood there for a long time with the cup in one hand and my phone in another as I browsed some porn sites.Need a hand?Hiroshi’s mental voice was cheeky.I’d give you my mouth, but I think they want a clear sample.

Get in here!I urged.

Hiroshi joined me in the closet sized room, pressing close to me to get the door closed. He ran his hands over me, his healing light doing a cursory scan. “I’m fine,” I whispered.

“Just checking,” he said before he pulled my head down to take my lips in a firm kiss. “We need to be quick,” he whispered against my mouth. His fingers worked on the button of my jeans, slipping his hand into the gap he’d made and stroking my cock to full hardness as we made out against the wall.

It was easy with Hiroshi in front of me, jerking me off, to just focus on him and push all thoughts of Asher aside for a while. Hiroshi was my Sunshine. He chased those dark clouds of anxiety and fear away. This was why I loved him.

I kissed him harder, wrapped my arms around him, just enjoying the feeling of his touch, the taste of him on my tongue. I tried to push a hand between us to return the favor, but he batted it away. “Later,” he rasped against my neck.

Hiroshi’s mouth met mine again, and I sank into the feeling. Just shut out the rest of the world and concentrated on my omega mate. Here it didn’t matter that things had gone to hell, I’d done what I’d wanted, and that was mating him, being able to be bonded to him properly.

All too soon, he had me spilling over his hand. I helped him get a decent amount into the cup and cleaned him up before wiping myself down.

“Thank you, Sunshine.” I pressed a quick kiss to his swollen lips. It was blatantly obvious what we’d been up to in here.

“No need to thank me for a handjob, Tate.”

“No, not for that. For treating me like I’m still the same Tate I was two days ago. For not acting like I’m fragile now that Asher is gone.“ He squeezed me. “Asher will be back in a few days.” Hiroshi said with a bright smile. He was acting like it was no big deal that my mate had attacked his alpha and threatened me. Maybe to him it wasn’t, but it was more likely that he was just looking on the bright side. He probably believed that it was just Asher’s new alpha nature playing havoc with him. I wasn’t so sure.

There was a knock at the door. “Hiro? Tate? Ívarr is looking for you. I’m finished with all of my samples.” Roan said from the other side in a soft voice.

I opened the door after checking we were decent, not that shifters really cared about that, but still. Roan moved out of my way quickly so that we didn’t even brush our arms. He gave me a sympathetic look. I felt grateful there was no ire there. It would have been all too easy for him to blame half of this on me. Both me and Hiroshi had pushed for this mating and caused all of this trouble.

Roan reached for me like he was going to squeeze my shoulder, but stopped. “Hey, it’s okay, Roan. We might not be mates anymore, but we’re friends, right? Close friends.”

“Of course.”

“Then we can do friend things, like hug, right? I feel I’m going to need one of those by the time this day is over.”

Roan hesitated, then pulled me into a hug, resting his head on top of mine, holding me close. The man gave the best hugs. “I hate how things turned out, Tate. I wanted better for all of us. Us all bonding was great.”

“Yeah,” I said sadly, “it was at first. This is just how The Luna wants it.”

“Maybe. I just feel like I failed you.”

“Failed me? How?”

“Maybe I didn’t try enough. Didn’t want it enough for the goddess.”

I pulled away from him. “You can’t take all the blame for it not working, Roan. We all tried. We all wanted this.” The words rang hollow. “No, that’s not true. Ash wasn’t as invested in this as I was. He tried it for me, because he knew how much I wanted to stay with Hiroshi.”