Notes:

Warnings: A/B/O dynamics, Alpha/Omega, phobias, panic attacks, accidental mating, biting, minor injuries, cuddling and snuggling, implied/referenced sex, marking, alcohol, minor or background relationships

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Heath was woken up by Tom Petty's "Learning to fly". He grunted and turned over in bed. Even though he couldn't remember the dream he'd had, he was sure it had been a good one, and he wished he could've stayed asleep a little longer. He still felt so tired. But in the end, it couldn't be helped. So he rolled out of his bed and dragged himself to the bathroom.

After relieving himself, he washed his hands and looked in the mirror. He looked just as tired as he felt. Sighing, he opened the medicine cabinet above the sink and – as every morning – took his heat suppressant pill. He didn't like them very much as he was sure they had a negative influence on his mood, made him less optimistic, more sensitive or – as Rhyno liked to say – soft. But he had to take them because Rhyno thought it wouldn't be a good idea if they got too close as a tag team.

It had been different with the Social Outcasts. He hadn't had to take suppressants back then. Alpha Curtis and Omega Bo had found each other pretty quickly. They'd had their quarrels, but, after all, they seemed to belong together.

Adam was an Omega, just like Heath. They'd always known that they couldn't become lifemates. That privilege was exclusively for Alpha and Omega pairings. But that hadn't stopped them from having fun together. They'd had a lot of sex – without risks or obligations. It had been good while it lasted. Sometimes Heath still missed Adam, but he had to move on.

Now Rhyno was his tag team partner. Heath liked him. Rhyno was a strong Alpha, a good friend, his best friend. But he didn't feel more for him, couldn't because of his pills. Maybe he would've felt more without his suppressants, maybe not. He just had to accept things as they were.

Heath looked at the clock and realized he had to hurry if he didn't want to arrive too late at the airport. He was looking forward to the house show later on, and he hoped he would have a match tonight.

"You've booked us in a haunted hotel again!" Rhyno already got goosebumps reading the article on his phone while he was sitting on his bed. Someone had been murdered with an ax in one of the rooms on this floor 46 years ago.

"I'm sorry." Heath came out of the bathroom, only dressed in boxers and rubbing his hair dry with a towel. He'd waited to take a shower until they had arrived in their room as they hadn't had a match earlier. "It's a small town. I couldn't get a room in the less haunted hotels."

Rhyno sighed. "Maybe I should book the rooms for us from now on..."

"No!" Heath said, almost shocked. "You drive, I book. That's our deal." He wanted to do something useful for their team, too. He wasn't one of those Omegas who couldn't do anything on their own.

Rhyno sighed again. "Fine." He put his phone on the nightstand before he got up to go to the bathroom. "One day I'll be killed by a ghost, and it will be your fault."

Heath chuckled. "That won't happen." He went back and put the towel on the rack, then grabbed the rest of his clothes from the floor.

Just when he passed his friend on his way to the bedroom, the lights started to flicker. Rhyno stopped dead in his tracks. "Fuck..."

"Calm down. It's probably nothing." Heath briefly patted his shoulder. Then he walked to his bed and put his clothes on it. When he turned around to have another look at Rhyno, the lights went out and they were standing there in complete darkness.

"Shit..." Rhyno felt a panic attack coming on. Why was this happening now? He tried to convince himself that his fears were ridiculous. There were no mice in a hotel like this and there were – probably – no ghosts either. It was just irrational. But knowing all of this didn't stop his throat from becoming constricted, it didn't stop him from breaking out in a cold sweat and gasping for air. He felt dizzy. His body was preparing for the fight-or-flight response – and Rhyno wasn't someone who ran away.

Heath noticed his panic and tried to get closer to him but tripped over his own bag.

Rhyno felt a touch on his shoulder. A ghost! He snapped; his teeth pierced through skin; he tasted blood. Heath screamed, and a weird scent filled the room. The lights went back on. It had obviously just been a short power outage.

"You bit me!" Heath was standing in front of his friend and pressed his right hand on his trapezius muscle. Blood squeezed through his fingers.

Rhyno stared at him. "I'm sorry! It was a reflex."

"You bit my neck!"

"I know. I told you I'm sorry." Rhyno wasn't sure if Heath was about to cry or scream at him – until he realized why his friend looked so horrified. "Fuck..."

"My scent gland... You marked me," Heath said.

Now Rhyno understood what that fragrance was. He felt a tingling sensation in his entire body.

Tears streamed down Heath's face. "You know what that means. I'll have to stay with you for the rest of my life. You took the choice away from me! You made me your bitch..."

"Hey now!" Rhyno knew that Heath didn't mean it like that. He was in shock. But it still hurt to hear him say something like that. He stepped forward and hugged the Omega. Heath dropped his arms and didn't resist. "You are not my..." Rhyno didn't repeat the word. "I promise you I will always treat you with respect."

Heath lifted his arms and wrapped them around his friend. He sniffed.

There were possibilities to undo a mating. But a surgery was risky, and in the worst case, Heath wouldn't survive it.

"It could've been worse, right?" Rhyno tried to lighten up the situation which was a bad idea. He knew he wasn't good at things like that.

However, Heath made a noise that sounded a bit like a chuckle. "Yeah, maybe you're right."

"Come. Let me take care of that." Rhyno led his friend to the sink and made him sit down on a chair. Then he grabbed a washcloth, soaked it in warm water and carefully cleaned the wound. "It doesn't seem to be so severe that we have to go to a hospital. But you should let a doctor have a look at it tomorrow. For now we have to improvise. Wait a moment..."

He went to the other room and soon came back with a few things. At first he opened a bottle of vodka that he'd taken out of the minibar. "This is gonna hurt a bit." He used the alcohol to disinfect the wound. Heath winced and sucked air between his teeth. "I'm sorry." Rhyno stroked his back soothingly, making him whimper. Then he put some tissues on the wound and fastened them with tape. "That should do for tonight."

"Thanks." Heath was unusually calm. He thought he should freak out about the situation, but he didn't. Instead, he felt safe with Rhyno. Since they had mated, there seemed to be a strong bond between them, and even the effects of his suppressants had weakened. He had the urge to be close to the Alpha and grabbed his hand. Rhyno jerked lightly. Heath was sure that Rhyno felt it, too. "Can I...?"

His friend nodded, and they returned to the bedroom where Heath let go of his hand. He went to his bed and put on his T-shirt.

"I'll just take a quick shower," Rhyno said and left.

When he returned a bit later, Heath was lying in Rhyno's bed. The Alpha only hesitated a moment before joining him. Heath smiled at him. "You're so warm." He'd never shared a bed with his friend before, but this felt so right. He pressed his nose against Rhyno's chest, against the blue-striped pajamas he was wearing. Had Rhyno always smelled so good?

The Alpha wrapped his left arm around him and pulled him closer. Heath snuggled up to him, realizing how much he'd needed this. He felt so protected. This was how it should be. But he also knew that it wouldn't be so easy.

"We gotta tell the others. They'll see my mark anyway. If we don't tell them that it was an accident, they'll get mad." Vince didn't like it when his employees kept their affairs secret. "And if we tell them about the accident, they'll think we're idiots." He sighed.

Rhyno stroked Heath's hair and then cupped the back of his head. "I can tell them alone if you don't want to do that. It was my fault after all."

Heath softly shook his head. "No, I want to do it together with you."

"Okay." Rhyno kissed his forehead before he even thought about it. Quickly, he pulled back and hoped he hadn't gone too far. But Heath still had a smile on his face. Almost lost in thought, he stroked Rhyno's belly with his fingers. "You know, I've always been afraid that I would fall in love with you if you didn't take your suppressants, and that you wouldn't reciprocate my feelings," the Alpha explained.

Heath stopped his hand and pressed it flat against Rhyno's belly, feeling the warmth of the other man, soaking it in. "Now I don't have to take my pills anymore, do I?"

Rhyno swallowed. "But that..."

"I've always wanted to have kids," Heath interrupted him. "I'm almost too old now."

Unlike him, Rhyno had never seriously thought about something like that. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Heath looked up and smiled at him. "You would be a great dad."