Mate. A phenomenon that was so common in the past centuries, but now contains something fabulous, about which fairy tales are read and romantic films are made. A person who fits you perfectly, not only from a physiological point of view, but also in terms of later life, forever life.

Simon knew better than to believe the rumors that someone from a neighboring unit had found his mate. In the world of alphas, omegas, and betas, it was as rare as finding a four-leaf clover. Although, even this happened more often. People met and started families without the interference of nature or fate.

Fate is for children in a bloody fairy tales, the real world is cruel.

The mission, which the team had been preparing for for several months, finally took place and ended favorably. One of the bases under Makarov's control was seized; the hostages were released, and the participants were sent to separate rooms for further interrogation.

Price was pleased, nodding contentedly as he watched as one by one people gave away secrets. He couldn't blame them, most of them weren't military people, but just people who clung to a good salary and housing. They didn't even think about the moral side of what they were doing, or preferred to ignore it.

Simon walked down the hallway, returning to the building after a cigarette break. A fleeting weakness that he allowed himself only when he knew that everything was under control. And when he passed by another locked door that looked like the entrance to a prison cell, he suddenly froze.

That... scent.

He took a couple of steps back and peered into the room through the iron bars of the window. Soap interrogated one employee, omega. You were sitting on a chair, your hands clutching your knees, which you could barely keep from trembling. Omega, in the service of the enemy. The enemy is a priori.

But when you tensed up and turned towards him, your scent intensified. Simon realized that his body was starting to spew out more pheromones, and his limbs were starting to heat up again, while his gut, the gut of an alpha inside him, was screaming at the top of its lungs. "Mine! Mine!"

All the fairy tales he had heard as a little boy, and the stories he had turned away from as a thirty-seven-year-old soldier... all this was sitting in front of him, through the door.

You. His mate.