Peyton’s knot. “Wait, can you not knot or something?”
“I honestly don’t know since I’ve never been with an omega in heat. I hope so, for both our sakes. If we choose to mate.”
“If you do want children, then why wouldn’t we?” His concern was swiftly shifting into annoyance that bordered on anger. He preferred directness over vagueness, and he was on his second-to-last nerve. “Please, just tell me.”
Dorian’s expression seemed stuck between miserable and determined. “For the last few years, once a quarter for about eight hours, I’ve been…producing slick.” Before Hyatt could properly wrap his brain around that statement, Dorian continued. “My family doctor identified it but a specialist confirmed that I have the traditional omega gland that produces slick during heat. It triggers every three months the way an omega’s heat triggers, but because I don’t have a uterus like an omega, the sort-of heat only lasts long enough for the gland to expel its slick and then it stops.”
Hyatt stared, belly tight, unsure what to think about such absurd statements. How on earth did an alpha have a slick gland? It made no sense. Biology simply didn’t work that way. Did it? “I…um…does that mean you’re actually an omega?”
“No, I had the alpha birthmark, I was just born a little different.” Dorian looked like he wanted to burst into tears and fight someone at the same time, and the naked emotions did not pass Hyatt’s notice. He longed to assuage his alpha’s feelings but didn’t know how. This was all too confusing.
“But how?” Hyatt needed desperately to understand this before he burst out of his skin.
Dorian inhaled and released a deep breath, hands still tight in Hyatt’s. “The specialist calls it intersex. Believe it or not, according to advanced research all embryos are genetically omega during the first month or so after conception. But as they grow, if they absorb the uterus and slick gland, they develop as beta and are naturally infertile. Otherwise—and I’m not totally clear on the science here—those parts help make those born alpha able to produce fertile sperm and a knot.”
Well, that was a lot more than Hyatt had ever known about biology before, and his mind spun with the new information. “You’re being deadly serious, right? You aren’t fucking with me?”
“I’m perfectly serious. After everything my family has put yours through, I would never lie about something this huge. As I said, I’d kept my bouts with slick a secret from everyone except my brother, and to be honest, I had resigned myself to never mating. I wanted to stay secret and stay single. And then I met you. You, Hyatt Lee, who smells like the sweetest cherries in the world. You with your kind heart and zest for life, and your immense courage. I know I could love you so I found my own courage in you to see my doctor. To face this instead of hiding from it. I know why my body does what it does, but if this repulses you…if you see me as less than alpha, I will accept that and walk away.”
“I don’t know what I think.” Hyatt’s brain was a whirling dervish of confusion, but he also felt no revulsion. No anger toward Dorian for keeping this secret from him when they’d known each other as bondmates for two weeks. “I’d be a hypocrite to see you as less than alpha, when my own nephew’s bondmate is gamma-omega.”
Dorian’s head tilted. “Gamma-omega?”
He briefly described the designation, which was still widely unknown across the territory, and Hyatt was trying to change that by educating the betas and omegas who came through Light House. “Layne was so upset when he found out, but he and Peyton can still have children. They just won’t ever experience heat. And since heat is triggered by the omega’s hormones, I’m guessing we won’t have that issue?”
“As far as I know, we won’t. The only thing I don’t know for sure is if I’ll knot, since I’ve never been with an omega in heat. Medical scans showed signs of that particular bit of skin and veins at the base of my, erm, penis, but there’s always the chance it won’t expand.”
That would kind of suck for Dorian. But no knot wasn’t a deal-breaker for Hyatt. He was actually pretty nervous about the idea of being knotted but couldn’t bring himself to say so. “Who else have you told about this?” Hyatt asked, his voice so soft he almost didn’t hear himself.