Mircea grinned sheepishly. "You know, you can say hi."

"Yeah, where's Lyra? Does she know you're with a...er, a-"

"-nother man?"

Caroline flinched as the stunning redhead stepped out from behind Mircea. With a tight smile, he held out his hand for her to shake. "Hi. It's nice to see you again."

It took a few seconds for Caroline to gather her wits that had been scattered by his mind-blowing scent. "But Lyra..."

"Carol," Mircea growled warningly.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really, really shocked." The little Alpha shook her head, stirring up her electric blue bob. "When Mircea said he was bringing company, I thought he'd bring his girlfriend. Anyway, it's nice to see you too. May I know your name?"

"Hold up." Mircea raised a suspicious eyebrow and turned the full force of his soul-baring stare on his companion. "Didn't you say you two were on a first name basis?"

The omega flinched. "Sort of?" he responded sheepishly. Mircea's glare intensified.

"...he's right, Mircea. Get off his back."

Caroline shrunk away before she'd even finished speaking. Two pairs of eyes, surprised brown and skeptical blue, pierced right through her. "He works at that flowery cafe, doesn't he?" she hesitantly continued. "We talk sometimes."

"But you don't know his name?"

"Who does?"

Mircea continued to scan her, unconvinced. Caroline broke into a sweat trying to meet his gaze, hoping her half-truth would work. After what seemed like an eternity, he blinked and relaxed his tense posture. "Well, that makes sense," he said airily. "I had to climb mountains to earn that privilege. Be grateful you're my friend, Carol."

"Much obliged," Carol retorted sarcastically.

"Evinori, meet my friend Caroline Brixton. Caroline, this is Evinori."

Carol couldn't resist a small smile at the way Mircea cradled Evinori's name. "It's nice to meet you," she said honestly, taking Evinori's outstretched hand. "Your name is beautiful, just like everything else about you."

"What in the dickens is he doing here?"

The group turned to face Senator Brixton, who was standing before them with his forehead creased and mouth turned down in a frown, his champagne glass in danger of breaking in his grip. Caroline rolled her eyes at her father's attitude and turned to apologize to her friends, but paused.

Evinori had gone rigid, eyes flitting warily between the tense alphas and one foot placed backwards, as if he was ready to bolt. Mircea shifted so Evinori was half-hidden behind him, one hand wrapping firmly but reassuringly around the omega's wrist. In his eyes, along with defiance and conviction, were emotions Carol would never have expected him to have even in her wildest dreams: fear.

Her jaw set. Taking a deep breath, she insterted herself between Mircea and her father. "Daddy, that's enough," she admonished. "I asked him to bring someone, remember? So I have company while you two talk business?"

Senator Brixton's gaze softened instantly as it shifted to his daughter. The indignation was immediately replaced by guilt. "But darling-"

"But nothing! I won't have you being mean to my friends, daddy!"

"Friend...sss?"

"Yes, friends!" Carol stepped back and looped her arm through Evinori's, making the man jump a foot in the air. "He's nice and a good talker and he serves the best coffee in the province! Be nice!"

"I don't make it," Evinori mumbled, turning pink.

The senator bristled, but ultimately couldn't stand up to his precious daughter's indignation. "Fine," he grumbled. "Evinori, I owe you an apology. I'm simply unaccustomed to having omegas on my yacht."

"It's alright," Evinori said, gently worming his arm out of Carol's grasp so he could give the senator a handshake. "He isn't exactly wrong. Thank you for having me, sir. I promise I won't cause trouble."

Caroline threw open the doors to the conference room so hard they bounced off the walls. Her father put down his third glass of champagne for the day and sighed as she stomped inside, fuming. "What is wrong with you!" She demanded. "How could you act like that?"

"You should be asking Mircea that," Senator Brixton retorted. "He's the one insulting me. And you, by the way."

"What?!"

"Oh, c'mon, darling. We all know why I brought you along. Yet here he is, implying he prefers to have an omega by his side instead of you. I can't believe I had to let that omega onto my boat in the first place."

"Let him on?" Caroline hissed. "Daddy, you've met him before. What has he done to deserve your attitude? It better not be a stupid 'he's an omega, who knows what he gets up to.' That's so orthodox and pathetic, I could start crying right here in this ugly-arse boardroom!"

"Hey now-"

"And what d'you mean, insult? Mircea's done nothing to insult me: in case you remember, he did want to marry me. I refused him."

The senator harrumphed and turned away. "And I still don't see why," he grouched.

Caroline groaned in frustration and sank into a chair. "We're back to the same damn point as usual," she pointed out, running her hands through her hair and pulling at the strands as she did. "Look, Daddy, Mircea and I are better off being friends. He's allowed to move on and be with whoever makes him happy. And if that person happens to be Evinori, so be it! Even if you don't trust him, don't you trust Mircea? Do you think he, who has everything, would stoop so low as to pick up a gold-digging whore off the street? He clearly sees something in that omega, or he wouldn't risk being out and about with him. Tell me I'm wrong, Daddy."

Senator Brixton glared at Carol for a moment, his obstinacy putting on one last fight. Soon enough, however, he found himself nodding reluctantly in agreement. "The boy does have poise," he acknowledged.

Her irritation gone, Carol gave a nostalgic sigh and slumped. "It's not like I'm not bothered by Mircea bringing an omega with him," she admitted. "It's the final nail in the coffin: I've lost Mircea once and for all. When it comes to being his partner, I'll lose against Evinori every single time. And I envy Evinori for it. I even resent him a little. But I'll be damned if I get sexist because of it. Do you get it, Daddy? I'm not defending that omega because I like him. I'm doing it because I'm looking at the facts."

Defeated, the old Alpha slouched even further and gave a reluctant nod. His daughter only huffed and swept out of the room, leaving him to sulk alone until Mircea joined him to begin their discussion.

Caroline found the omega standing in the middle of the main deck looking around with a confounded expression on his face. In his hand fluttered a sheet of paper which he kept glancing at repeatedly.

"You lost?" Carol called out in way of greeting, eliciting an embarrassed smile. "No," replied Evinori. "I'm just confused. Mircea was teaching me sailing jargon and he drew me this diagram, but..." he held out the paper to her. "Well, see for yourself."

Carol took one look at the unintelligible scrawl and burst out laughing. "Oh my goodness!" she guffawed. "Did he draw this with his eyes closed?!"

"Might as well have. He'd vomit every time he straightened up, so I think he drew it while dangling over that railing over there."

"Right, right, he gets terribly seasick if the water's even slightly choppy. Don't you worry, he gets over it prettty quickly. I'm no sailor, but I'll tell you what little I know. Come along."

The half hour spent touring the boat was as strange as it was fun. Caroline wasn't prone to profiling, but Evinori's unexpected sophistication bothered her nevertheless. For an omega, especially a male one, he was extremely intelligent and well-spoken. He charmed the pants off of every crew member he met and easily kept up with whatever tangent his conversation with Caroline took. Never one to keep her questions to herself, she immediately probed Evinori about it.

Much to her surprise, he laughed. "You can call it what it is," he said. "I'm too smart for an omega, and you want to know why. I'll take it as a compliment. Officially I'm offended, but oh well."

"If that's how it is, then tell me why you're impressed by all the wrong things, too," Carol retorted shamelessly. Evinori frowned in confusion, so she rolled her eyes and explained. "It's not the yacht that wows you; it's the boat. You're perfectly at home in all this opulence - you didn't spare a second glance at the hot tub or the artwork or the lounge...you're more wowed by the fact that you're on a boat."

"Well, I've never been on a boat before."

"But you've experienced similar luxury?"

"I have."

That's all he had to say about that. Caroline raised an eyebrow in expectation for more, but he simply shrugged and changed topics. "As for my being smart: I'm just well-educated."

"How well?"

"Very well."

"That's not the answer I'm looking for."

"Too bad. That's all you're going to get."

Carol's smile faded. She made to grab Evinori by the wrist, but he quickly sidestepped her, his eyes flashing. If his tense posture was anything to go by, he wasn't above throwing her if she tried to touch him. "Just get inside," she barked, pointing imperiously at the game room next to her.

He complied, but didn't take his eyes off her for a second. "Listen," she ordered the moment the doors were locked behind her. "I love Mircea, do you understand? I want him to be happy, so I am okay with you. What I'm not okay with is you being secretive and shifty, because let's face it: you are an omega and there's no shortage of that kind buzzing around Alphas with the wrong intentions. Mircea thinks the world of you and if you do anything that proves him wrong, I will destroy you."

Evinori, who'd been leaning casually against the pingpong table with his limbs crossed, didn't say a word for a good minute. He only met Carol's fierce glare down the length of his nose with an icy one of his own, his jaw ticking. The Alpha's bravado began to fail. She swayed slightly, her self-preservation screaming at her legs to back away but her resolve keeping them planted in place.

Finally, the omega unfolded one arm and pointed one long finger at her. "First of all," he began, tone disconcertingly calm, "back off." He jabbed her hard in the shoulder, pushing her away despite her attempts to resist. "Second of all, get those pheromones under control. You don't want to get into that battle with me. Now listen well: I'll give out whatever information I please to whomever I please."

"Tell me why." Carol's hands balled into fists at her sides and her voice shook. "Give me one good reason you're being secretive about something as mundane as where you went to school."

"You want to know why? I'll tell you why." In a flash, he was right in her face, looming above her like a cobra about to strike. "Look at me. Look at this face. Smell my scent. Hell, you're this pissed off and even then you look like you want to throw me onto this table and plow me. Let's face it," he said mockingly. "I am an omega and there's no shortage of your kind circling like vultures around me with the wrong intentions. I'm not secretive, I'm cautious. There are plenty of Alphas with obscene amounts of money and power and disturbing proclivities, and as an omega there isn't much I can do to protect myself. Do you understand?"

For the first time in her life, Carol was afraid of an omega. She gulped and nodded, her moxie nearly gone. A satisfied Evinori stepped back, his anger softening into intense vulnerability. "And nobody's more afraid of hurting Mircea than I am," he continued. "You have no idea how much he's changed my life. I will never, ever betray him, no matter what the cost."

Mircea didn't see Evinori and Carol until dinnertime. Even then the two of them ignored his existence completely, leaving him to sulk along with the equally grumpy senator. He was happy to see the omega get along so well with another Alpha - he'd even caught Senator Brixton shooting smiles in Evinori's direction - but then Evinori threw his head back and laughed the way he'd only done with him so far and he was nearly overcome with jealousy. Shoveling his food into his mouth, he excused himself and slunk away before he let slip something troublesome.

He was grimacing at the sour taste his latest burp left in his mouth when Caroline sidled up to him. "I knew you'd be here," she began. "Threw up your dinner, didn't you?"

"No."

"Don't tell me you were contemplating a nighttime dip."

"The heck? Absolutely not."

"Then what's got you looking like you swallowed a lemon?"

"...I've got gas."

Caroline chuckled knowingly. "Of course you do," she said. "I think you chewed your food maybe once during the entire meal. That omega's got you all bothered, hasn't he?"

"Can't you be decent and call him by name?" Mircea snapped with a scowl.

"Oh, lighten up. Fine, fine, I'll apologize for stealing your precious Evinori from you for a few measly hours."

"He's not mine."

"But you want him to be."

That got Mircea's full attention. He stared at her like a deer in headlights, for once too unsettled to counter her. "Why are you so surprised?" Carol continued, far more relaxed with her back against the railing compared to the pillar-like Mircea. "He's an omega. Of course you want him."

"That is not true," Mircea snarled, suddenly so angry his eyes seemed to glow with blue fire. "What, just because he's omeg-"

Caroline held up a finger. "I'm not saying that's all it is. I know you see something in him that's so compelling, it's driven away every single thing our upbringing hammered into us in a heartbeat. But only you can tell what it precisely is."

Mircea's anger flickered away. "And what if I don't know?" Mircea asked, now very lost and vulnerable. Like he couldn't tell right from wrong, or at the very least was afraid of being wrong when his intentions were right. "What if there isn't anything? Is what I feel the thrill of chasing something noone else has been able to secure? Being with him isn't going to be easy. Is he worth the risk, or am I drunk on an omega's allure? I can't tell - I've never been around an omega before. I have no idea how much one can affect my reason. I don't want to lose everything I've worked so hard for because I was thinking with the wrong brain. If I like him because he's omega, even a little, I risk clouding my judgement and I need to let him go."

"What nonsense. There's bound to be an element of instinctive attraction, Mircea. Wanting omegas because that's what they are, is the most natural thing in the world. Embrace it." Carol took her nervous friend's hand in her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "If either of you were driven solely by instinct, you wouldn't be tiptoeing around each other the way you are. It's okay to like both the man and the omega in Evinori. And it's natural to not know where the line lies: it's a new love!"

All the thoughts in Mircea's head came to a screeching halt. His stomach began to mimic the lurching of the boat underfoot. "Hold your horses," he said. "What do you mean, love?"