“Kai, could you leave us for a moment?” Maynard questioned the Alpha quietly, not taking his eyes off Azaki who hadn’t moved from his place in the corner. Under other circumstances, it would be adorable to see a fully grown adult man hiding with his nose pressed in a corner like he’d been put into time out, but right now all Maynard could concern himself with was the potential that Azaki was regressing due to stress.

“Of course,” Kai said stiffly, taking a deep breath to steady himself before promptly exiting the room without another word. The sound of the heavy door slamming shut caused Azaki to jolt in place before sinking onto himself.

“This is a mess.” He mumbled so quietly that Maynard almost didn’t hear it. The doctor hummed in acknowledgement, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before he could reply.

“Azaki, please get out of the corner so we can talk.”

Azaki made a childish mumbling sound, defiance painted over his entire body language for a single moment before he relaxed and relented to getting up and moving back over to his bed. Silence rang between the two of them while Maynard glanced over the papers in his hands and tried to figure out how to start.

“I’d ask you how you were feeling, but I’d bet that even you aren’t sure.” Maynard mused, trying to lighten the mood.

“You would be correct in that assumption.” Azaki answered plainly, still keeping his eyes pinned to the floor. Maynard wondered if it was just instinct for him to do that now, or if he was still intentionally hiding himself.

“You know you cannot run away from this.”

Azaki huffed and crossed his arms across his chest like a petulant child. “I know.” His voice was reminiscent of a whine, which would be adorable in any other situation. “I hoped to avoid it a bit longer though.”

“It’ll only hurt yourself and your mate. I know you can feel how rejected he is feeling right now.” Azaki flinched and Maynard knew that he was right.

“I’m not rejecting him,” Azaki paused and tried to gather his thoughts, “I’m rejecting this situation. W-what am I supposed to do? I have no idea how to handle all this.” His voice broke and the last bit came out as a whisper, “It’s too fast.”

“I understand.” Maynard put all the sympathy he could muster into his voice when he spoke, trying his best to be understanding of the life-altering situation Azaki had found himself in. Regardless, this behavior couldn’t continue, for both of the pairs’ sakes. “I really do, Azaki, but there is more to this situation than you understand and we need to discuss it.”

“Okay.” The omega mumbled in response. “What do I need to know?”

“Well first,” Maynard reached into his lab coat and pulled out two bottles of pills. “This one is for anxiety. Please take one now.”

Azaki didn’t respond and just moved to take the bottle and examine the label. “This is for extreme anxiety.”

“Would you like to try to argue that your anxiety hasn’t been extreme?” Maynard mused while Azaki popped open the bottle and took one of the pills.

“Well no.” He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I would say it was very extreme.”

The doctor gave a small smile of acknowledgement before handing over the second bottle. “These are your new suppressants. They’ll help manage the symptoms of your late presentation. Hopefully make things easier on you. You wont need to start these for forty eight hours, okay?”

“Okay.” Azaki mumbled and pocketed the medication. A moment of awkward silence followed while Maynard considered his next words carefully.

“Next, we need to discuss Kai.” The doctor looked as uncomfortable as he felt and Aki had to stifle a small chuckle.

“Why?”

“There is a lot to this situation that you don’t understand. And I fear my cousin will not do a very good job of explaining things to you. That, or you’ll struggle with actually listening to what he is saying.”

“I wouldn-”

“You would.” He smiled and tapped absently on the paperwork he’d organized. “All of this stuff is your basic dormant transition information. I trust that you can go through all of this yourself and ask questions if you have any.”

Azaki took the paperwork with shaking hands, but Maynard noticed that a lot of the tension in his shoulders was dissipating. He hoped the anxiety medication was doing its job quickly and decided to just rip the band aid off and explain bluntly.

“Regarding Kai. I think there’s a lot of context you need to understand this situation you’ve found yourself in.” He leaned forward in his chair, trying his best to express the importance of what he is saying to Azaki. “Malakai Fedrov is the head Alpha of Halcyon A.I.”

A look of pure shock and a choked sound were the only responses that Azaki could muster to the information he’d received. Maynard almost laughed at how dumbfounded the Omega looked in this moment. He paused long enough to allow Azaki to reign himself in before he continued.

“I see you’ve heard of it.” He noted in jest. Azaki wheezed.

“Shit.” The Omega ran his hands down his face and swallowed a few times. “Shit.”

“Yep.” Maynard smiled as he watched the brilliant man in front of him putting the pieces together in real time. He sat back and allowed Azaki to process the information and respond.

“I’m in danger, huh?”

“Yep.” Maynard nodded gravely.