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Logan is, undeniably, the perfect all American alpha. He’s got the blond hair, the blue eyes, the perfect chiselled jaw line. He’s funny, but not too funny. Humble, but not too humble. Confident, but not too confident. Oscar still isn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t in the ‘You Belong with Me’ music video actually, because that just seems like the kind of thing Logan would be picked for.
And Oscar is, well, Oscar.
He knows he’s far from the perfect omega. He’s too quiet, too off putting, he’s lanky but somehow also short and his hair always sits weirdly on his head despite how he styles it. He tries to be funny, but it comes out as this odd, half sarcastic half uninterested tone that no one really seems to get (except for Logan, Logan always laughs). He makes a good nest, he knows this, except he’s too pedantic about it and finds himself tearing up the moment anyone moves anything in the nest. What good is a nest when he can't bring himself to let anyone one in? (Except Logan, Logan never moves anything).
He's someone who is supposed to be a beta. He makes sense as a beta, he’s strong but not too strong, he’s quiet but independent. He doesn’t need an alpha, and he certainly doesn’t need an omega. He’s supposed to be a beta.
Oscar says he keeps his status a secret because omegas aren’t given as much respect in motorsport, and he needed to be taken seriously. While that’s true of course, the real reason he’s kept it a secret is that he’s just undeniably not a good omega. He doesn’t make sense as an omega, so he doesn’t let people know he is. People assume he’s a beta, and he doesn’t correct them because the undeniable truth is that he makes considerably more sense as a beta. So that’s how he lives his life.
The only issue with this is Logan.
Logan, who was there when he presented. Logan, who held him through his first heat and kissed him through his second. Logan, who spends every night curled up in his nest and fucks him into the mattress and scents him through the night until morning comes, and Oscar has to scrub himself raw with scent neutralising wash and put on scent blockers and pretend like he isn’t Logan’s.
Logan is, of course, an angel about this.
“I don’t care about what people think or know,” he says multiple times a day, whenever he gets a moment alone with Oscar, “as long as we know the truth, I’m happy.”
Is Oscar happy? He isn’t sure anymore.
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Oscar is waiting in his nest, shuffling random pillows and clothes around pointlessly as he waits for Logan to finish in the bathroom. It’s been a stressful day, neither of them qualified particularly well and their race hopes don’t seem much better. On top of that, Logan only managed to get to his hotel much later than normal, leaving Oscar to make his nest without the comfort of his alpha’s eyes on him.
(Yes, Oscar knows it’s an odd to remake his nest every single night, but Oscar can't help it.)
He should be more comfortable now that Logan has finally arrived, but Logan dived straight into the bathroom to wash away all the paddock scents. Normally, Oscar would be grateful for Logan’s awareness and understanding of how sensitive Oscar is about foreign scents on him. But now, with him already feeling unsettled, he’d much rather have Logan in his nest already.
Logan comes out a few minutes later, hair dripping wet with his towel obscenely low on his waist, low enough that Oscar can see a hint of pubic hair and Oscar feels himself purr. Logan smirks at him, standing there a little longer to let Oscar look his fill.
“Come here,” Oscar says eventually, folding the blanket open so Logan can join him in the nest.
He whines when Logan walks to his suitcase, and Logan chuckles, “Can't I put some clothes on?” he asks, and even though his back is to him, Oscar can hear the smile in his voice.
“No,” Oscar finds himself saying.
Logan rumbles this time, the sound making Oscar relax into his nest. Logan drops the towel and turns to him, walking over to the nest and climbing in.
He settles back against the pillows and opens his arms, giving Oscar a small smile to encourage him to crawl into his arms. Oscar does just that, throwing his legs over the side of Logan’s lap and resting sideways against his chest, hiding in his neck, nose right against his scent gland.
“So,” Logan says, kissing the top of his head, “you get to have a hoodie on, but I can't even have underwear on?”
Oscar nods, not even bothering to speak. He’s warm and comfortable in his alpha’s arms, he’d rather not have to speak whatsoever.
“Alright then,” Logan says, “let’s get some sleep.”
It’s times like these that Oscar feels like a good omega.
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Logan wakes that morning before Oscar, and immediately notices that something is off about Oscar’s scent. It’s sweeter than normal, and much more noticeable than it usually is this early in the morning.
Oscar is still plastered to his side; Logan can feel his breath against his chest, and it makes Logan smile just thinking about it. These are his favourite moments, with Oscar completely carefree against him, letting himself be held.
Make no mistake, Logan loves Oscar just as he is, and he would never try to get Oscar to act more like a stereotypical omega. He knew exactly what he signed up for when he held Oscar through his first heat and has never wanted anything more. He has Oscar, and that’s more than enough for him.
But it’s times like these, with Oscar asleep in his arms, that Logan feels his chest ache with how much he wishes Oscar could be more comfortable with himself. Not for his sake, but for Oscar’s. Logan knows Oscar better than anything else in this world and he knows that no matter how much Oscar claims he’s happy with this weird middle ground he’s reached with his instincts, Logan knows that’s not as true as he makes it out to be.
It's why he takes his time, slowly tracing patterns against Oscar’s arm and taking deep breathes of his sweeter scent, like somehow, he can get Oscar to feel this even when he sleeps.
Oscar starts to stir in his arms and lets out a little whine. He cuddles back into Logan’s chest, pulling the blanket up over his head. He’s never been a morning person.
Logan pushes the blanket down just enough to press a kiss to the top of head and tightens his grip on the omega.
“We’ve got half an hour before I have to go,” Logan tells him, expecting Oscar to promptly fall back asleep for a little while longer.
Instead, Oscar shoots up and frowns, “Can't you stay longer?” he asks, words a little slurred from how tired he still is.
Logan shakes his head, “My uniform is at my hotel.”
Oscar whines again, ducking his head down under Logan’s chin and tightening his grip on. Logan rumbles, trying to sooth his omega and rather than help, the sound seems to make Oscar’s scent become even stranger.
“Your scent is off,” Logan tells him, hoping Oscar can provide some clarity as to what’s going on. He knows Oscar can't pick up changes in his own scent, but he may be able to feel something is off. He’s worried about his omega, and he wants to figure out what’s wrong.
To his surprise, the question makes Oscar sit up entirely.
“Off?” Oscar asks, frowning, “You don’t like my scent?”
His scent turns from the sweeter notes it had before to sour, the change so quick it makes Logan’s head spin. Logan finds himself letting out a half rumble, trying desperately to sooth his omega.
“No no no,” he says quickly, trying to reach for Oscar but he moves away, slipping out of his arms entirely, “I never said that, but it was sweeter than normal, and I got worried something might be wrong.”
Oscar sniffles, “Don’t try to make excuses now, you don’t like my scent. I think you should go to your hotel room now.”
Logan has no idea what just happened. In the span of a few minutes, he went from having a sleeping omega cuddled in his arms to severely upsetting his omega and being kicked out.
“Let’s talk about this,” Logan tries to say, desperately trying to make this better.
Oscar shakes his head, “I don’t want to talk, I want you to get out of my nest.”
There’s nothing Logan can do then. He had never been kicked out of Oscar’s nest before, not once. In fact, Oscar always said his nest was as much Logan’s as his, and so being kicked out felt like a slap in the face. But of course, he would never argue about it. A nest is an omega’s safe space, and Logan can't take that from him.
Logan knows Oscar well enough to know that pushing back on this will only serve to make him more upset, which is the last thing Logan wants to do. So, he simply nods and leaves, hoping Oscar will reach out to him when he’s ready.
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Oscar starts crying the moment Logan is out of the room. He doesn’t know what happened, doesn’t know why he felt so offended and why he had to kick Logan out of this nest. Logically, he knows Logan’s comment probably came from a place of genuine concern and wanting to help, but that didn’t change how he felt.
This is one of those things that Oscar can't stand about being an omega. He hates these random emotional outbursts, and he has no idea what caused this one. He wants to call Logan back and ask for forgiveness, but he can't do that. Logan already has to take the brunt of all of Oscar’s omega outbursts, and he can't make him even more confused now and expect comfort after kicking him out.
Oscar goes through the whole day feeling slightly off. His reactions are a little off, he feels more skittish than normal, flinching at loud sounds and by the time the race rolls around he’s nursing a headache and body aches. He thinks he must be getting sick, but it’s not bad enough to warrant missing the race so he just pushes through.
The race itself is about as bad as he expected, and when it’s over he just wants to head back to his hotel and cuddle with Logan until they have to go home. He knows that Logan deserves some sort of explanation for his behaviour this morning, but he can't bring himself to think of what to say about that. He just wants to curl with Logan and forget about the weekend. So, he texts Logan, taking the cowards’ way out and confirming that he’s still coming to his hotel room that night. Logan, bless him, immediately says yes followed by several heart emojis and a promise to bring hot chocolate.
Oscar can't even be bothered to remake his nest when he gets back to his hotel, and he ends up collapsing into it before he can even take his track clothes off.
That’s how Logan finds him.
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Logan takes a moment before he enters Oscar’s hotel room, waiting outside with two hot chocolates as promised, trying to amp himself up to using his spare key card and seeing Oscar. He knows Oscar well enough to know what whatever happened this morning wasn’t really about him, but despite that it still hurts.
Being kicked out of your omega’s nest is never something an alpha wants to experience, especially Logan who has always done all he can to make Oscar feel safe and comfortable around him. But he has to go in, he knows Oscar’s text was his way of showing he regrets his actions, and that’s good enough for Logan.
So, he enters the room.
Immediately he knows what’s wrong.
Oscar’s scent is sweeter than it was this morning, but there’s something else too, something richer behind it that Logan only ever smells during a heat. That’s what this is, all the stress of the season must have messed with his body’s clock because he’s going into heat early. That’s why his scent was off this morning, that’s why he got so emotional when Logan pointed it out. Oscar’s instincts must have been his comment as rejection.
Logan rumbles, trying desperately to calm his omega.
The sound makes Oscar shoot up off the bed and when he spots Logan, he relaxes and makes grabby hands for him.
“Don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Oscar says as Logan approaches, “just feel… feel so much.”
“You’re going into heat,” Logan tells him, sitting on the side of the bed and handing Oscar his hot chocolate.
Oscar cradles it in his hands, looking down at as he mumbles, “No, no. I’m not? No I can't be, still have two months.”
“You are,” Logan tells him, trying to make his voice as gentle possible, “I can smell it.”
Oscar whines into hot chocolate, shaking ever so slightly. Logan wants to gather him in his arms and never let him go, keep him safe and comfortable and make sure this heat is good for him. But he can't do that yet, he needs to make sure everything is organised.
“You gonna let me take care of you?” Logan asks him, cupping his cheek so that he has to meet his eyes, “I know you hate this part, but I’m right here, okay?”
Oscar nods, turning his head to nuzzle against Logan’s palm.
Logan smiles at him then, leaning forward to press a kiss onto his forehead and then standing up. He ignores Oscar’s disappointed whine.
“You remake the nest, okay? I’ll call our teams and get the hotel room extended for us. I’ll order some snacks and bottles of water too, okay? You just remake the nest and wait for me.”
Oscar nods, sipping his hot chocolate and looking around the nest, clearly beginning to plan how he wants his heat nest to go.
Logan makes sure to close the hotel room door before he begins to freak out, a fact which he is very proud of.
He knows Oscar isn’t thinking clearly at the moment and so he hasn’t realised this, but Logan very much has. The undeniable truth is that Oscar shouldn’t be going into heat two months early. A week or two early could be expected, but two months? It isn’t normal at all.
The first call he makes is to James, because he has no idea who he is supposed to call about this and he figured James would know.
“Well, it’s about time,” is the answer James gives him when he hears the news.
“What’s that supposed to mean? His heat is two months early, it is NOT about time.”
He can hear James’s chuckle over the phone before he continues, “You and Oscar have been sharing a room the entire season, you spend all his heats with him and all your ruts. How long did you think Oscar’s body would go without a mating mark before he went into a premature heat?”
Logan feels as though cold water has just been dumped on him. He knows what James is talking about, knows it’s a very real possibility. But it can't be. It can't be because Oscar won't allow it.
“Oscar doesn’t want to be mated,” Logan answers, saying the words like a prayer, like they can somehow save him.
“Tell that to his body,” James answers, “he wants it, he wouldn’t be in heat if he didn’t.”
“It’ll pass though, right?” Logan asks, clinging to anything he can find, “it may have been caused by him wanting me to… by him wanting that, but it’s just a normal heat, right? I just have to see him through it like any other heat.”
“I suppose,” James says, and Logan can hear the hesitancy in his voice, “but you’ll have to have a serious conversation with him after, this can't continue.”
Logan nods, despite the fact that James can't hear him.
“I’ll call McLaren and sort out the logistics, you just get back to Oscar, yeah?” James says, not even waiting for Logan to talk to Oscar.
“Yeah, thanks,” Logan says, and then James is gone.
It’s okay, Logan says to himself, it’ll all be okay. Just don’t bite Oscar, simple.
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Oscar can no longer deny what Logan said. He can feel the heat building inside of him, can feel the dull ache between his thighs, the thin sheen of sweat over his body, the way his bones are starting to ache. Even the soft sheets feel too rough on his skin, like he’s been rubbed raw. This heat will be bad, he can feel it.
Logan comes back a short while later, by then Oscar has already remade his nest and was contemplating fingering himself to take the edge off. But now he doesn’t need to worry about that, now Logan is back.
The way his mind can shut off is the one thing he enjoys about heats. He’d never admit it to anyone, not even Logan, but he loves the moments where he can be nothing but Logan’s omega, where he can just let Logan take charge and allow his mind to clear. He doesn’t allow himself that luxury often, but during heats he has no say in the matter.
Logan rumbles at him, taking off his shirt and shorts before gently climbing into nest.
Oscar bundles himself against Logan’s chest, taking deep breaths against Logan’s neck to get as much of his scent as possible. He feels himself calm down, feels the ache in bones diminish. His alpha is here. It will all be okay.
“How do you feel?” Logan asks him, kissing his head.
Oscar tries to answer, but he’s distracted by the feel of Logan’s hand moving up and down his back. The soothing motion feels like he’s been rocked to sleep, and he lets himself drift. He knows Logan will take him falling asleep as proof he feels safe and loved, and so he lets his instincts take over.
When he wakes, he’s drenched in sweat and Logan is between his thighs, lapping at his heat. He cries out and cums, thighs clenching so hard around Logan’s head it must hurt.
The last thing he remembers is Logan’s smirk, his slick dripping down his chin.
It’s all a bit blurry from there. He knows Logan fucked him and fed him and carried him to the shower between waves. He knows he woke a few times to Logan kissing his head, Logan hand feeding him, Logan fucking him slow and deep just how he likes.
He truly becomes conscious again during the last wave of his heat. He finds himself laying on his back, his legs wrapped around Logan’s waist. Logan’s arms on either side of his head and he can feel Logan breath against his forehead as Logan pants above him.
Logan looks down and seems to realise Oscar is more lucid because he smiles and stops fucking him, settling down between his legs and placing a soft kiss to his forehead.
“Welcome back,” Logan says.
Oscar smiles, groaning when Logan gently starts fucking him again. It feels so good, just the right side of oversensitive and Oscar knows this is the last wave, that after this it will all be over.
Somehow, that thought strikes fear into him. He feels incomplete somehow. Logan is right there, fucking him exactly how he likes, holding him close. He should be enjoying this, enjoying the last moments of his heat but he can't. Something isn’t right, his instincts are screaming that something isn’t right.
Logan groans above him and drops his head beside Oscar’s. Oscar cranes his neck upwards to place a kiss on Logan’s neck, trying to calm himself but it doesn’t work and instead he feels an even greater sense of longing.
He doesn’t think, he just bites.
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Logan cums so hard he blacks out. He doesn’t know what happened. One second, he was fucking Oscar, hearing whine and cry beneath him, and then the next he was cumming out of nowhere. He didn’t even feel close, couldn’t even warn Oscar.
When he comes to, Oscar is purring beneath him. His head is against Oscar’s chest, Oscar’s legs wrapped around his waist. The first thing he feels is contentment. His omega is happy underneath him, his heat clearly sated, and Logan is so so comfortable resting against his omega’s chest.
The nest thing he feels is pain in his neck. It feels like a dull ache, and when he lifts his head up there’s blood on Oscar’s chest dripping down from his neck.
Oscar whines and pulls him back down, pushing Logan’s head against his neck and mumbling, “Bite…”
That’s when what happened finally hits Logan, and he feels his stomach drop. Cold drips down his shoulders, and panic seeps into his mind. Oscar bit him.
Oscar bit him.
He tries to pull away but Oscar cries out, and he realises his knot is still in Oscar, and he can't move, or he’ll hurt him. He stops trying to move, but he keeps his head up and turned away from Oscar. Oscar, thankfully, doesn’t seem to have realised what he’s done yet.
He stays like that until the knot goes down, thanking whatever lord is up there when Oscar falls asleep.
As he waits for the knot to deflate, his instincts scream at him to bite Oscar. He can feel the bond trying to form. He feels vulnerable and exposed, like his soul has been scraped raw. His body is calling for him to bite Oscar back so the bond can form, but he can't do that. Oscar doesn’t want this. Oscar has never wanted this.
It doesn’t matter how much Logan wants this. He pushes down that part of himself that’s ecstatic, the part of himself that he has to restrain every time someone asks him if he’s single, the part of himself that wants him to get down on his knees and beg Oscar to let him bite him.
And now… now Oscar has done it, and he can't reciprocate it.
His knot deflates and he slips out of Oscar.
He gets up as quietly as he can and makes his way to the bathroom, locking the door behind him so Oscar can't get in.
When he sees himself in the mirror, all hope that the bite didn’t do the job goes out the window. Oscar bit him deep and right into his scent gland, his teeth forming perfect bite marks over it. It’s stopped bleeding by now, and Logan can take a facecloth and gently clean the blood.
He’s left just staring at himself in the mirror, looking at the mating bite and feeling it throb. The bite gets more and more painful as time goes on, and Logan knows his body is starting to reject the bite.
That’s what happens when only one person is bitten and the bond can't be formed, and he knows it will be a very painful experience. The fever will start soon, and then the body aches and nausea. It will feel like the worst infection of his life, but it will end eventually.
He just hopes Oscar won't leave him.
He can take the pain of a rejected mating, he has to. But he can't handle losing Oscar.
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When Oscar wakes, Logan is nowhere to be found. He whines, still feeling weak and vulnerable. He hasn’t even had a chance to start recovering from his heat, and to have Logan nowhere in sight doesn’t make any sense. Logan never leaves him like this, never.
He sits up, looking at the bedside table to see if Logan left him note. He looks down, and that’s when he sees the dried blood. It’s all over him, on his neck and chest and on the pillows and sheets.
He jumps up off the bed, stumbling away from the bloody sheets. It’s then that he spots himself in the floor length mirror and sees just how much blood is on him. It’s on his neck and chest, some even down to his navel. And… and there’s blood on his lips and down his chin.
Logan is still nowhere to be found, and he needs to find him and find out what the hell happened. But first, he has to get this blood off him.
When he tries to open the bathroom door, it’s locked. He tries the handle again, but it’s been locked from the inside.
“Logan?” he calls, knocking on the door, “Logan are you in there? What happened?”
There’s no response, but he looks around the room again and sees Logan’s phone, hotel room keys and rental car keys still on his bedside table. He couldn’t have left.
“Logan?” he calls again, banging on the bathroom door. There’s still no answer, and now Oscar is really starting to panic.
He’s just finished his heat, still feeling extremely vulnerable and weak, he’s covered in blood and his alpha seems to have locked himself in the bathroom.
He can't let himself panic. He has to get into the bathroom and find out what happened.
So, he calls the hotel reception, telling them that he can't find the key the bathroom door and they tell him there’s a spare key in the hotel room safe. He grabs the key from the safe and it takes him four tries to get the key in the lock because he can't stop shaking.
When he opens the door, his heart breaks.
Logan is curled up on the floor on the bathmat, shivering. He looks up when Oscar opens the door, putting his hand up to try and shoo him away.
“Go away,” he mumbles, “go.”
His hair is stuck to his forehead and his cheeks flushed.
Oscar doesn’t even consider listening to him, and instead steps into the bathroom and gets down on his knees beside Logan.
“Logan?” he asks gently, “what happened? Are you okay?”
Logan whines and turns onto his back. That’s when Oscar sees it, the bitemark. He bit Logan. It’s raw and bright red. It looks so painful, almost infected. Oscar winces, realising that Logan’s body must be rejecting the bite.
“Did I bite you?” he asks, though he already knows the answer.
Logan tries to sit up, and it takes him 3 times before he can eventually sit up. He leans against the wall, his head falling back against the wall. More blood oozes from the bitemark.
“I did, didn’t I?” Oscar prompts.
“My body is already rejecting the bite,” Logan says, his voice weak, “I can go through the rejection. It was a mistake, just don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”
Oscar pauses, “What?”
Logan leans forward, trying to reach Oscar, “I’ll go through the mating rejection,” he says again, “I know you don’t want to be mated, that’s okay. Just don’t leave me, please don’t leave me.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Oscar says immediately. He moves next to Logan, sitting side by side leaning against the wall. He takes Logan’s hand, cringing when he feels the thin sheen of sweat all over Logan’s body.
“Thank you,” Logan mumbles, curling up against Oscar. Oscar moves Logan’s legs across his lap, wrapping his arm around Logan’s shoulders to pull him closer. Logan’s head falls onto his neck, and Oscar can feel the heat from Logan’s forehead.
“I’ll go through the rejection,” Logan mumbles again, “we don’t have to be mated.”
Oscar just holds him and thinks.
Logan is in his arms right now with his bite. Logan has his bite.
And Logan is going through rejection because he knows Oscar doesn’t want this. He didn’t even stop to consider that Oscar might want it, didn’t even try to make a case for it. Logan discovered Oscar has bitten him and his first move was to lock himself in the bathroom and try to ride it out.
Oscar’s alpha is whimpering in his arms, going through what most consider to be the most painful thing anyone can go through, and he can stop it right now. But he won’t because he knows Oscar said he didn’t want to be mated.
But that’s not as true as Oscar always made it out to be. The truth is that despite all his efforts to keep his true dynamic a secret and all his shame and repression, he still wants to be Logan’s. He will always want to be Logan’s.
And he’s treated Logan so badly, pushed him down so much, that Logan didn’t even consider the option of letting this mating happen. Oscar was the one who fucked up, but it was Logan begging for forgiveness and trying to make amends.
This is not how an omega treats their alpha.
“Bite me,” Oscar says, breaking the silence.
“What?” Logan mumbles, lifting his head from Oscar’s shoulder.
“The rejection process isn’t too far along,” Oscar says, “bite me back.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Logan says.
That’s what breaks Oscar. He’s asking Logan to bite him, and Logan immediately assumes Oscar is doing him a favour. He doesn’t assume Oscar is in love with his alpha and wants to be with him.
He placed protecting his secret so high that his own alpha thinks he isn’t as important as that.
“I am yours,” Oscar says, “I have always been yours, even before I presented, and I won't let you go through this to prevent something that we both want. Bite me, please.”
Logan tries to turn away, but Oscar holds him tight.
“Alpha,” he says, “bite me.”
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The next thing Logan remembers is waking up again in the hotel room. Oscar is awake beside him, scrolling on his phone.
When Oscar sees him awake, he practically throws his phone down.
“Logan!” he says, “are you okay? How are you feeling? Is the bite okay?”
Logan feels concern and worry, but it feels foreign, like it’s not his own. He looks up at Oscar then, sees the bite on his neck and realising what he’s feeling isn’t his own.
It’s Oscar’s.
“I bit you?” he asks. He doesn’t want to let himself believe that Oscar wanted this.
“I asked you to,” Oscar says, “begged you to, actually. Don’t you remember?”
He shakes his head, “Last I remember is sitting on the bathroom floor, then it’s black until now.”
Oscar whines and shuffles down the bed, burying himself in Logan’s chest. Logan wraps his arm around Oscar, holding him close.
It’s then Logan really starts to feel it. He can feel Oscar’s worry and relief like it’s his own, but under that he can feel love and connection. There’s none of the pain and vulnerability from before. Oscar doesn’t regret the mating. He can feel it, can feel Oscar.
“You wanted it,” Logan says, and it’s not a question.
“I did,” Oscar whispers, “I always have.”
“But the world will know now,” Logan says, because he has to, “everyone will know you’re an omega.”
“No,” Oscar corrects, “everyone will know I’m your omega.”
Logan doesn’t know how to respond to that without crying, so he doesn’t try. He just relaxes against the bed and let his love shine through the bond.
Oscar’s love shines back just as bright.