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“Enjoying yourself?” Sidney asked as he joined me in the bathroom and sank into the water across from me.
“I absolutely am, and also you are way too far away.”
The water swished as he crossed it and pulled me onto his lap, giving Prince a scratch behind his ear. “Mind he doesn’t fall in.”
“You make me sound like a neglectful mother.”
“We both know our temporary son is a wiggle worm.”
“That’s true, but right now he’s a sleepy bun so I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”
“He gets it from his daddy.”
“Oh my god. Quit being so cute.”
“Can’t help it.” He sighed and held me tighter. “I feel like I could sleep for a week, but I’ll settle for an hour until it’s doggy dinnertime again.”
I tucked my head under his chin and kissed Prince’s forehead. “We could take shifts and then we get way more sleep in one stretch.”
“That’s not fair to you,” he said. “I’m the one who signed up for fosters.”
“We signed up for fosters, and I’m offering. We’re partners, right? If I can help, I want to. I already know what to do and I think I could handle a feeding or two overnight so you can rest more.”
“What did I do to deserve you?”
I laughed. “I’ve been asking myself the same question about you since we met again.”
“Obviously, every omega is a unique individual and you’ll have to tailor your care to them as a person, but there are consistent standard skills and procedures when it comes to getting an omega through their heat. Please take a moment to read through the syllabus before we continue.”
Allie stared at me, her smile beaming. She’d volunteered to listen to me practice my first class and hadn’t stopped looking at me like she was absolutely delighted. “You have the cutest fucking professor voice. Keep going.”
I had practically memorized the syllabus at this point. Everything was organized into categories to break down all the basics of heat helper knowledge: biology, nutrition, hygiene, safety, medical intervention, emotional care, legalities, and self-care.
“Everything we cover in this course is a necessity for you to know inside and out. The omegas you’ll eventually care for deserve your best, and you will not move on until you’ve satisfied the standards of care. Once you’ve completed all of the material and testing, assuming you did well, you will progress to shadowing.”
“How many students do you have to do this with tomorrow?”
“Thirty on the list. I’m hoping for a solid two-thirds to progress.”
“That’s it?”
I shrugged. “Some people have a misguided view of what heat helping is. They come for the sex and they don’t want to be bothered with all of the rest.”
“I guess that’s fair. I feel like that happens in most careers, where people have no idea what they’re getting into until they’re in it. Oh, you should totally point out that’s how it works with the heat haze. If you’ve never experienced it before, you literally cannot comprehend what it’s like.”
I jotted that down into my notes. I walked her through the basic biology, and it helped that she was actually interested in what I had to say. A ton went on in alpha and omega bodies during a heat, and while my students wouldn’t necessarily need to know the intricate details, they did need to know how it was going to affect them and their partner. Once we got through the in-class portion, they would all be put through their paces. It wouldn’t be quite the same, but with samples taken from an omega volunteer, we could create a vague approximation of the hormones they’d encounter.
Some alphas had so little control of themselves around an omega in heat that we couldn’t in good conscience allow them to become a heat helper. Others got better with time and practice, and some relied on assistive devices like respirators.
“How did your own training go?” Allie asked. “I know you were eventually successful since you became a heat helper, but what was the early part like?”
“To be honest, I was one of the ones who originally got interested in the concept because of the sex, but the trainer put such an emphasis on societal good and patient care that I realized how much more it could be. I did a lot of exposure therapy to get comfortable with managing myself around omega hormones.”
“How do you do exposure therapy for that?”
“Basically there’s an omega version of the scent canisters we have at the clinic, but the samples were all taken from omegas during their heat haze. At the end of every shift I would take one of them, lock myself in one of the empty offices, and do practice exams. I failed a hell of a lot of them at the start, but eventually I was able to keep hold of some mental clarity.”
“I don’t know why I’m surprised you were so dedicated. I feel like that’s going above and beyond.”
