I took a bath after tucking Aahmes in bed. I needed it to cool off and clear my mind. After that, I went back to watching the last couple of hours of Pedro's orientation.
'Sir Eric, how's the Doc doing? Is his fever gone?' asked Pedro after the participants left.
"His temperature's gone down, but I made him get some more rest. I wouldn't want his fever to return. We need to go back to work tomorrow, after all."
'No need to worry, Sir, we're doing just fine without you,' Pilar piped in with a big sleazy grin on her face. 'Just take good care of Dr. Abdel to make sure he recovers well. Besides, we still have two batches next week.'
"What are you sneering at?" I grunted back at her. "I'm coming tomorrow, and that's that. How can I be absent for three consecutive days on my own project?"
'But Sir, you two looked so sweet together earlier!' the two told me with a grin. 'We had no idea Doc Aahmes could be so cute when there's just the two of you!'
I frowned at the two idiots. "He was just sick, that's why he's so clingy," I mumbled. "Anyway, how's the parent's feedback? Did anyone else back out? Were they able to answer the questionnaires properly?"
'Yes, sir, I've got them all right here,' Pedro replied in a serious tone. 'Only five parents backed out this time.'
"Good. Can you bring me the questionnaires right now?"
'Sir?' Pedro's eyes widened.
"Bring them to me. I want to check them, asap."
'Okay Sir!' a grin broke out in his face. 'Can I really bring it to you? May Ihave your address? Is it really okay to go there?'
'I wanna come, too!' Pilar exclaimed. 'I wanna visit Doc Abdel, too!'
"No. Visitors are not allowed! Habibi needs all the rest he can get." I quickly said.
'But, Sir...' Pilar pouted at me.
"I only asked Pedro. You're not included in the invite. You can see Aahmes tomorrow when we get to work."
I messaged Pedro my address with strict instructions not to give it to anyone else. He then asked if he could take his fiance with him. Well, Dona owns the car, after all.
I was typing my daily report when the doorbell rang about an hour later. I was about to leave the room when Aahmes woke up.
"Where are you going?" he asked me.
"Pedro's downstairs, I asked him to bring me this day's questionnaires."
"I'm coming, too..." He sat up from bed with only his boxers on!
"`Oy, put some clothes on first!" I told him.
"Wait for me."
"He's just gonna hand me the documents, I'm gonna send him away right after."
Still, Aahmes hurriedly put some clothes on and held on to my arm as we made our way downstairs.
"Really, Habibi, are you afraid Pedro might grab me and take me away?" I jokingly asked him with a grin.
He didn't reply, but I seemed to have guessed it right, since his pouting lips got even longer and his hold on me got even tighter as we went out the front door.
"O, what's wrong?" I asked when he stopped on his tracks.
"I smell an omega."
"Ah, Pedro did say his fiance Dona was going to drive him here," and sure enough, I opened the gate and saw the three of them grinning at us.
Wait a minute... why are there three of them?
"Dr. Abdel! Good evening! How are you feeling right now?" Pilar greeted us before I could say anything in protest!
"Good evening po Sir Eric! We've brought you some food and fruits!" Pedro's fiance, Dona, said with a sweet smile, while a nervous looking Pedro looked awkwardly at me.
"S-sorry po, sir, Pilar insisted on coming with us!"
"Please come in," Aahmes welcomed them as if he owned the place.
"Wow, your house is so cool, Sir Eric!" said Pilar as they entered the living room and sat themselves on the sofa.
"Sir, here are all the documents from this day's event," said Pedro, trying to pacify me. "I've already chosen five additional participants to replace the ones who withdrew from the program."
I was about to take the documents from Pedro, when Aahmes suddenly leaned heavily on my shoulder.
"Habibi, can you sit properly for a bit," I asked him.
"Are you still feeling under the weather, Doc?" Pedro asked him. "Dona brought you some soup to help you get better!" He looked at his fiance who blushed slightly. He was wearing men's clothes this time, with his long hair tied in a loose ponytail.
"Thank you, I'll eat it later." Aahmes sneered at the two.
"Actually, Dona works as a cook in a 5-star restaurant," Pedro told us proudly. "I assure you, it's really delicious!"
"I hope you like it," Dona said shyly. "That's JP's favorite, too."
"JP who?" I asked.
"John Peter, Sir..." Dona blushed even deeper.
Ah, that's right, that's Pedro's real name.
"My Dona calls me JP," said Pedro with a silly looking grin.
"You seem so close," said Aahmes, still leaning on my shoulder. "How long have you been together?"
"We've known each other since senior high..." Dona replied.
"That's right, Doc, we were both 17, I saw him for the first time during a mixed PE class, and just like that, the world seemed to stop and the school gymnasium was filled with the scent of buttered popcorn!"
I was surprised when Aahmes suddenly sat up straight. Even the couple were taken aback as he leaned closer to them.
"You smelled buttered popcorn?"
Aahmes looked as if he had never been sick in his entire life.
"T-that's right, Doc..."
"And you? What did you smell?" he asked Dona.
"I-I smelled newly baked bread," Dona replied with his eyes wide open.
"Ha! Do you know what that means?!"
The two shook their heads.
"That means you're fated pairs!"
"Fated pairs?" we all said in unison while Aahmes sneered at Pedro and Dona.
"What's that? Fated pairs?" asked Pilar.
I, on the other hand, felt a deep sense of dread sinking down from my chest towards my abdomen.
"Why are you so obsessed about fated pairs?" I asked him.
"Don't you see, professor?" Aahmes faced the couple once more. "You were attracted to each other because of the call of destiny! Two people, an alpha and an omega, who have never met before, suddenly felt an undeniable pull towards the other. A pull that they could never fight against!"
He turned back to me, still with the mad sneer on his face.
"Isn't that the same thing your brother told you when he met his fated pair?"
The dreaded feeling of foreboding stabbed at my chest.
"That has nothing to do with this," I told him.
"Wait, just what is this 'fated pair' thing?" Pilar asked once more. "Is it like, love at first sight?"
"It is much deeper than that," said Aahmes. "It is the connection between a unique alpha and a unique omega who are brought together through some unknown force that can only be broken through death," he explained. "Researchers have tried to unlock the secret behind this phenomenon, but none can really explain how an omega and alpha fated pair are brought together, much less, why nothing can seem to drive them apart. In some experiments, the pairs would lose their senses or even go crazy when they are forcibly separated for a prolonged period of time."
"R-really?" Dona looked alarmed as he held on to Pedro tightly.
"That's true. You may ask the professor, he had experienced it first hand."
The three looked at me expectantly.
"T-that's too personal! I can't just share that to other people!" I told him angrily.
"Ah, then take it from me. I am currently conducting a research about fated pairs, and have also met couples in the past who had the same experience."
"D-did they smell something special from their partners as well?" asked Pedro. "Whenever we tell our friends about our first meeting, they tell us that we were just exaggerating. They say the scent only we can smell was just a psychological phenomenon. An olfactory hallucination that stemmed out of our over-active love affair. But Dona still smells like freshly cooked popcorn to me..."
"And I can still smell freshly baked bread from JP even now!" said Dona who places a hand on his mates arm.
"And you have bonded?" asked Aahmes.
"O-of course..." Pedro's face turned red. "We plan to get married next year... we were hoping to get you both as principal sponsors!"
"May I see the bite mark?"
"H-ho?" the two looked flustered.
"Habibi, you're asking something too personal," I told him off.
"I would just like to check on something."
"W-well, it's not really a big deal..." Dona pulled her hair to one side and turned around for us to see his nape.
"See, the scar has turned red!" Aahmes exclaimed. "A regular mark would turn darker, like a regular scar or a birthmark, but the mark of a fated pair would have a reddish hue, like a red birthmark."
"Really, doc?" asked Pedro who looked at Aahmes with respect.
"Tell me, do you experience copulatory tie1 when you mate?"
Pedro's face seem to catch on fire. Dona, on the other hand, stared at Aahmes with his mouth ajar.
"It's when you get stuck together when you have sexual inter–"
"Habibi, that's going too far," I tried to stop him.
"W-we call it knotting2," said Pedro. "I-it's actually one of the reasons why we don't have kids yet..."
"W-we're waiting `till after the wedding!" Dona piped in, his face now as red as Pedro's.
"Well, it is true that knotting could be very painful for the omega, but they say that it gets very addictive once you get used to it," Aahmes kept on going.
"R-really?" Dona looked interested.
"Okay, my patient is getting too excite, you guys better leave before his temperature rises once more!"
"Wait! I still have a lot of questions to ask!"
"No. You need to eat and get more rest, we still have work tomorrow."
"Actually, I'm so much better now," Aahmes stood up, did some stretches, and looked back at the two. "I can interview you today, if you're free..."
"They're not free, in fact, they're about to go home!" I glared at Pedro. "Right, Pedro?"
"Ah... that's right!" he quickly stood on his feet. "Sorry, Doc, I'll take a rain check for that interview."
"Please take some more rest," said Dona who seem to have caught my drift as well. "And please try the soup while it's still hot."
----------
1Copulatory tie or 'knotting' – an occurrence on dogs and other canids where the couple gets 'stuck' together during ejaculation.
2An alpha may knot his omega during copulation when the pair are in a state of intense pleasure or ecstasy. The alpha's knot will remain for several minutes until he has released all his sperm.