Avery POV

"I can't stop thinking about him. How it felt to be with him. That night I felt this overwhelming need for him to be mine. I can remember what he said to me when I was begging not to be taken home, how it was better that way. It doesn't feel like a mistake to me, Micah. This drawing that you're holding, I enjoyed creating it. It is a visual representation of how I felt when I was exposed to his pheromones."

 "Avery, listen. That was your first time being around another alpha's pheromones while you were in heat. What you're remembering… They're fabrications that your mind created because you were in heat. You may have truly felt that way, but it was purely because of your instinct to need an alpha."

 "…Why don't you get it? I can't think of anything other than wanting to see him again. To touch him, to smell him, to be held by him. It's driving me crazy, Micah!" Dammit, I can't stop myself from crying. "And every time I remember what he said, or I think about what you told me earlier today, it feels like my heart is being ripped to pieces."

 He stood up and walked over to my bed, sitting down next to me. He wrapped me in a huge hug and let me cry for a few minutes before speaking again.

 "Why don't we go get some ice-cream? Something sweet always seems to help you calm down. We can invite Emette too."

 "O-okay," I choked out, "I-I'll go wait for you two in the car."

 I managed to stop crying right before Micah and Emette got in the car.

 "I'm going to take us to this ice-cream shop that opened up down the street from the restaurant I work at. I heard their menu is filled with variety, and a lot of our regular customers have talked a lot about it being their new go-to place for dessert."

 Leave it to Emette to act like everything is fine, I suppose.

 "Sounds good to me."

 We parked in the employee parking area of Emette's workplace and then got out and started walking down to the ice-cream shop. It was a rather cool night despite it still being mid-August, and the three of us walked in an awkward silence. As we got closer to our destination we could hear a commotion going on inside. Just as Micah and Emette were about to go in two men came bursting through the door to head outside.

 One of them seemed out of breath, and he looked over to the guy he was with and started talking.

"Dammit, I hate having irregular rut cycles like this. Let's hurry home before it gets bad."

No wonder they seemed to be in such a rush. Well, at least they're doing the responsible thing and going home before something happens. The two men barely avoided running into my brother, and it wasn't until the front door had fully closed that I got their attention.

"Uh, guys? I was promised ice-cream, so can we go in now please?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. We were just surprised; they came out so fast."

I entered the shop last, and as soon as I stepped inside I felt nauseous and light-headed. I could smell the pheromones of the alpha that was just here, and though they weren't strong, it felt like I was being violated every time I took a breath. I tried to make it outside as fast as I could, but I wasn't able to reach the door in time before I started throwing up.

"Avery! Are you okay?"

My brothers came over to my side and helped me outside. I couldn't get rid of the sickly stench of these pheromones that seemed to cling onto me. It felt as though someone locked me in a room without ventilation that was filled with the cheapest smelling lavender you could find. It was absolutely suffocating.

They decided to take me to the hospital after grabbing some to-go bags from the store, and Micah held the bag for me as I continued getting sick.

"I thought his heat was over?!" Emette yelled at Micah.

"He said it was! I don't think this is his heat. I'm not sure what's going on!"

"…Windows. Roll… Down the windows" I managed to say between moments of heaving.

"Got it!"

Emette rolled down all the windows in the car, and while the cool air did feel good, nothing helped me escape this horrible feeling. I was terrified, and the one person who I felt like I needed most right now doesn't want anything to do with me.

Emette ended up carrying me into the emergency room, and the nurses got me back into a room right away.

"Shower, I need a shower, please!" I begged. I needed to wash my body and get rid of this smell as much as possible, but every time I moved would throw up.

"Hi Avery, I'm Dr. Cole, can you tell me what happened?"

As I was about to open my mouth to answer I was tormented by another wave of nausea and buried my face in a bucket instead.

"We're not sure" Micah told the doctor. "He was fine, and then we decided to go out for some ice-cream, and as soon as we entered the shop he got sick."

"Alright. I am going to give him something to help with the vomiting, and then we are going to take some blood work and see if we can figure out what's going on. We're going to start and IV and hang some fluids just to make sure he stays hydrated. If you need anything hit the call light, and one of the nurses will come help you."

"Thanks Doc."

About twenty minutes after they gave me that medicine my vomiting stopped, but I still felt extremely uneasy. I tried to get some rest and managed to doze off a few times while waiting for some kind of news. My brothers squabbled over the TV remote, arguing about what channel to put on. About two hours later Dr. Cole came back in with someone else we hadn't met yet.

"Okay Avery, I do have some answers for you. I paged Dr. Heidi; she is an endocrinologist here at the hospital. Endocrinologists specialize in hormones and pheromones. We took a look at your test results, is it okay to share them with everyone or would you like your brothers to step out?"

I suddenly felt even more uneasy than I did before.

"They… They can stay."

Dr. Heidi sat down on a stool and rolled herself over to my bedside.

"You have heard of imprinting, right?"

"Um, yeah. It's something that can happen between two people who are mated, right?" I answered.

"Generally, yes, that is the sequence of events. Nothing bad will happen if only one partner imprints on the other, because they are already mated. In fact, it can be hard to determine if someone in a mated relationship has been imprinted on, or if they imprinted on each other. Especially because imprinting is done subconsciously. However, in rare instances someone can imprint on another person without being mated. If an alpha imprints on an omega, and that omega has not been marked, then the alpha will have a violent reaction when exposed to other omega pheromones. If an omega were to imprint on an alpha, and that omega has not been marked, then when exposed to other alpha pheromones they will also have a violent reaction."

"Wait… What are you saying?"

This is a whole lot of information being thrown at me, and I am not sure how I am supposed to take it.

"What I'm saying, Avery, is that it seems like you imprinted on your partner. Since you aren't marked, your body is reacting this way to any pheromones that do not belong to your alpha. We ran various tests on your pheromone levels to confirm it. It's rare, but you are an unmarked omega who has imprinted. Unless you get marked by your partner you will experience these symptoms every time you're exposed to other alpha pheromones."

I could hear Micah talking quietly in the corner of the room.

"I… I thought it was just because that was your first time being around an alpha during your heat cycle. I thought the memories of your instincts were making you feel this way towards him."

He seemed to be mostly mumbling out loud, rather than talking to me directly, but we could all hear him.

"Avery, you are in a relationship, aren't you?" Dr. Heidi looked slightly shocked while asking me this question.

"Um, no. I went into heat and an alpha I never met before found me. He helped me until my brother could come take me home."

"How interesting. It seems as though you not only managed to imprint on him without being marked, but on the first meeting no less. Either way, the only way to fix this is to be marked and become mated to him. You'll be fine at home, since family can't sense each other's pheromones. But even if you take inhibitors you will still react this way in future situations."

After being given quite the bombshell the doctors said their goodbyes, and a nurse brought us my discharge paperwork. A few minutes passed, and the silence in the car was suffocating. I was scared to say anything, even though I didn't mean to do it, it still felt like I had done something wrong.

"…Are you still going to keep me away from him?" I asked Micah.

"I can't guarantee anything on his end, but I won't withhold his information from you anymore. Let me just call him after I drop you back off at home, and then I'll send you his number."

I am not sure how much information Emette had about my whereabouts last week, but I think he was able to put two and two together by now.

"The doctor was also saying that this is probably why my inhibitors wouldn't work either. My pheromones were in overdrive after imprinting, and because of that they were ineffective. I feel a little better knowing that there was a reason behind it, at least."

"Avery, you seem a little too calm given the information you were just given."

"I don't know how to explain it, but it just makes sense. It feels right. I'm not scared or anything, more than that I'm… Excited that I might be able to see him again."