Something was happening to me. Something bad. Massaging my achingpecs, I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

Were they more swollen today than yesterday? I couldn't tell. They hurt, though. And tingled, almost. It was strange.

It had been almost a week since I started feeling this way. Since Inoticed the pebbling in my nipples, since I noticed the deep ache that spread

from near my armpits inward.

I'd been avoiding my phone since three days ago. That was what I gotfor trying to find out if my symptoms were normal. It wasn't rare for people It

to get breast cancer. Though it was far more prevalent in omegas thanalphas.

It couldn't be ruled out, though, and a chance was still a chance.

Sighing, I refocused on what I was doing. Massaging helped, but not forlong. It basically only seemed to help when I was actively doing it. I'd even caught myself doing it at work.

After a strange look from Taehyung, my roommate and best friend, I had stopped. Or I'd at least tried to be more covert.

But fuck, it hurt. And if the only relief I got was this, then so be it.

The tingling star started back up when I pinched my peaked nipples between my my finger and thumb. It was relief mixed with sweet agony, and I didn't quite know what to make of that.

A knock on the door startled me, making me yelp. "Bro, come on. You're gonna make us late for work. What are you even doing in there?"

"Uh..." I dropped my hands, double-checking in the mirror to makesure that everything looked normal before opening the door.

Taehyung stood on the other side, his hand raised like he was about to knockagain.

His eyes fell to my exposed chest, and he quirked an eyebrow at me."Have you been working out?"

"What?"

His gaze stayed on my chest. "Your pecs look bigger. Have you finallybeen taking advantage of the equipment?"

I shook my head. Unlike Taehyung, who was a personal trainer at the gymwe worked at, I didn't feel the need to spend my days working out.

"You know I haven't."

I tried to push past him into the hallway, but he stopped me. He wasintense. Intense in a way I wasn't used to. Not from another alpha, anyway.

Over the years, I'd just chalked it up to Taehyung being Taehyung crossed his arms over his chest, making the large tattoo stretched around his bicep bulge. "You sure?"

"Why would I lie about working out?" My heart pounded against my rib cage. If my swollen pecs were noticeable to him too, what did that mean?

Maybe I needed to go to the doctor. "C'mon. You're worried about being late, so let's go."

I brushed past him into the hallway so I could go to my room and put a shirt on. His eyes followed me the whole way.

Jungkook seemed... off. Everything about him was off.

He looked different, he was taking longer and longer in the bathroom, and he was a lot more fidgetyabout me being in his personal space and hugging him. And then there was his scent.

8/65

C

Fuck, his scent.

We'd been friends for long enough that I could pick his scent out of a crowd immediately, but lately? It'd taken on an almost sweet undertone. Like an omega's.

An omega's scent was one no alpha could ever get confused about. Though each person smelled different, it was always lighter. An almost vanilla or almond undertone. They made perfumes to try to replicate it in the big stores, selling them for thousands of dollars per bottle.

Jungkook's new scent could sell for hundreds of thousands.

He walked down the hallway and into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. He'd hurried away from me, like he was trying to hide something. I didn't want him to hide. I wanted him to stay right there in front of me so I could inhale the scent straight from the source.

Something in me desperately wanted to shove my nose into the crook of his neck and sniff.

What the fuck was happening?

Shaking my head, I walked to the front door, nodding at Jungkook k as as he he came came out of his room. His uniform was tight around his chest, accentuating the shape of his pecs. It was the proof I'd needed to make sure I wasn't going completely crazy. They'd gotten bigger.

"You ready?" I asked.

He shrugged, pushing a stray blond hair out of his face. "Yeah, we don't wanna be late, do we?"

We were definitely going to be late, but I let it go for the moment. What I couldn't let go of was how overwhelming it suddenly was to be in the car with him. The smell of him spoke to some depraved part of me that was lurking deep in my gut.

I gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter than I usually would, theleather cracking beneath my palms the entire way to the gym.

The moment I parked the car, Jungkook jumped out like his ass was on fire, leaving me behind. He'd never been so eager to get to work before. I grabbed my gym bag and headed inside, nodding at the other trainers and staff.

After dropping my bag off in one of the lockers, I met my first client of the day by the treadmills. Jungkook was already at the front desk, checking people's memberships.

I tried to stay focused. Truly, I did. But it was so fucking hard when all I could think about was my best friend and how nice his uniform looked on him and how good I knew he smelled.

If only I could get closer to him.

Stand right by him and take a whiff, inhaling the scent I hadn't been able to get out of my mind for the last few days.

Instead, I was forced to steal glances when he wasn't watching or when he was talking to a member. I just couldn't keep my eyes off him.

My client was running g on on the treadmill, giving me time to look over at the front desk. Jungkook lifted his head, glancing from side to side, not seeming to notice that I was staring. When he looked back down, his hand cupped one of his pecs, gently massaging it.

I furrowed my eyebrows. Did his chest hurt or something?

It'd make sense if he'd been working out, but he claimed he hadn't. I tilted my head, watching as he squeezed and poked around. Right in the

center, a dark spot started to form on his light blue shirt. It looked like it was right over his nipple.

As my client started to run faster on the treadmill, his feet pounding against the machine, Jungkook shot up from his chair at the front desk and started to run toward the employee bathrooms. He looked frantic and confused, and I wanted to go after him. I wanted to see what had startled him so badly. I was just about to step forward to run after him when I heard a yell and a thump.

I turned to see my client on the floor, having fallen from the treadmill while I wasn't looking. When I looked back over my shoulder, Jungkook was gone.

Holy fuck. Holy fuckity fuck fuck.

I barreled my way into the bathroom, heart pounding.

The only thing that had kept me from losing my absolute shit over the ache and tingling in my chest had been the knowledge that I didn't fit all the symptoms.

But as I stared down at my blue shirt, taking in the darker blue stain around my right nipple, my heart sank.

What did this mean? Nothing? Everything? Was I on the verge of death?

I ran into the singular stall in the back of the room, slamming the door shut behind me and locking it before slumping against the wall and sliding down until my ass hit the ground.

I lifted my shirt frantically, trying to see what was going on. After touching my nipple, I pulled my hand back, examining the almost clear fluid clinging to my fingertip. My heart slammed against my ribs, echoing in my ears so loudly that I could

barely even hear my own thoughts.

Rubbing my finger and thumb together, I tested the liquid, trying to figure out what it was. It sank into my skin quickly, absorbing before I could come to any logical conclusion, which, of course, just made me panic more.

I reached down, pulling and squeezing until another burst of fluid bubbled to the surface. Staring down at my chest in shock, I watched the way it beaded up, then rolled down the underside of my pec and toward my stomach.

It felt kind of... good. Which really didn't make any sense if it was indeed something like breast cancer.

I squeezed again, blinking at it in fascination as more fluid welled up.

The door to the bathroom opened, slamming against the wall, and I froze, holding my breath. It felt like a lifetime before they finally left- without washing their hands, which was fucking gross-and I breathed a sigh of relief when I was alone

again.

The liquid that had been clinging to my slightly puffy nipple had dried, but my shirt hadn't. I couldn't go back to work like that, but I also wasn't

sure how I could leave like this either. There wasn't a way to hide it, and I didn't have a change of

clothes with me.

Taehyung might, but that would mean seeking him out and asking him. It would mean telling him. And I couldn't do that. I wouldn't.

I needed a doctor and to not tell another soul about this outside of that.

Pulling my shirt down, I stood up and left the stall, then paused in front of the mirror and looked at myself.

Fuck. There really was no way I was going to hide whatever was happening to me.

If we had black uniforms, it might be easier, but the shirt we had was so light that any staining was easy to see. And to make matters worse, this one had shrunk in the dryer or something because it was stretched too tightly across my chest.

I knew my pecs had gotten bigger, but surely not so big that they'd made my shirt fit like this.

Grabbing some brown paper towels, I tried dabbing at my shirt, but it didn't help anything. It almost made it worse. I needed to leave. There was no way I could stay like this.

Mind made up, I crossed my arms over my chest and walked out of the bathroom.

Taehyung's eyes found me almost instantly, and I made a beeline across the room to him.

"Hey," I said quietly, trying not to let the client he was working with overhear me. "I need the keys. I need to go home."

His nostrils flared, and he eyed me up and down. "Why do you need to go home? Our shift just started."

There was no way in hell I was telling him that some mystery fluid was coming out of my damn nipples, so I shook my head. "Just not feeling well. Can I have the keys or not?"

He nodded. "In my locker." I was about to walk away when he caught my arm in his grasp. "Do you need me to come with you?"

"No."

I tried to pull away, but he held firm, not letting me go for a second. He inhaled deeply, and for a moment, I could have sworn I heard him groan under his breath before he released me.

"Don't forget to come back and get me," he grumbled, his voice gritty and raw.

I shook him off and darted toward the lockers to get the keys. I managed to keep my chest covered until I made it to the car, and when I sat down in the driver's seat, I realized with horror that the staining on my shirt had gotten worse, the spots growing.

Fuck. What was happening to me?