The ABO Serum

(Part 2) You did what?

"Thanks for the wine. It was good," Daryl said to Dr. Martin as they stood in line for coffee on their way into work Monday.

"Oh, I'm glad you liked it. Did you drink it all?" He asked, a little nervously.

"Of course, with my neighbor, the proprietor of this coffee shop." Daryl answered as he reached the register. His coffee already sat on the counter and he leaned across it to kiss the older of the two men working there. "I'll be late tonight. Can you come over at eight?"

"Just come to my house. I'll have dinner ready," the kissing proprietor answered.

"Okay. I'll come down and get you for lunch. Around ten, right?" Daryl confirmed.

"You don't have to eat that early just because I do." Carey blushed.

"It's fine. I'll be ready for more coffee and a break." Daryl assured his lover.

Dr. Tom Martin's eyes followed their conversation back and forth like it was a ping pong match and the player he'd bet his house on was on losing. He was losing. His alpha drank the serum with this neighbor. The neighbor looked suspiciously omegan and they were clearly already bonding.

The heartbreak felt physically crippling. He stumbled a little as his boss left for work and he stepped up to the register.

"You alright there?" The other young man working at the shop returned to the register. Apparently, the boss only came up to kiss his sweetheart then went back to brewing. Tom nodded. "What can I get you?" The young man asked.

Tom squinted at the fellow's name badge. "Thank you, Ryan. My shoe caught but I'm fine. Whatever you call a large iced coffee please."

"Coming right up. That's $3.16." Ryan had a solid manly voice. The kind they used in movie trailers.

The boss whistled as he worked and had Tom's coffee on the counter before he finished fumbling with his wallet. "Someone's having a good day," Tom tossed out. Was that casual enough?

"Seems like it," Ryan answered with a slightly perplexed expression.

"I take it this is unusual behavior?" Tom continued, handing over his credit card.

"To say the least," Ryan answered as he ran the card. He didn't volunteer any more information and Tom couldn't keep questioning him casually so a slightly awkward silence grew between them. But only for as long as it took the credit card to go through. Tom took his card, his coffee, and his broken heart back to his lab.

The large coffee didn't help his racing heartbeat as he tried to think through his panic. Especially since he accidentally drank the brew all down at once in a stressed rush without realizing it. He'd gotten ahead of himself over the weekend and taken the first dose of serum himself. He was just so certain he wanted this. But his alpha...

First things first. Was he showing signs of changing? He'd guessed himself to be omega material. Was he right? One blood test later, of course, he was right. When the lab started betting on outcomes he'd amassed a small fortune. He was closest to the critters and always seemed to understand them. Most critically, he'd seen the way the little omega rats suffered through heat when there weren't enough alpha rats to go around. Love was important but not suffering was important too. He needed to make more alphas to ensure a mate for himself. How could he discreetly distribute the serum to a large pool of potential mates?

The water system seemed the obvious method, but for the lab, the whole building, or the town? Where were filters located that would just take it back out? They didn't bother with bottled water because the whole building had filtered water to serve the labs. So, if he put it in the town water system it would be filtered out at the building.