"That's... not the usual response," Dr. Elias murmured, studying the displays. "Your fight-or-flight response activated, but it skewed heavily toward fight rather than flight or freeze."
"Is that bad?" Noah asked from his position near the door.
"It's unusual. Most omegas either submit to alpha pheromones or panic. Combat readiness is... rare."
Levi felt a flicker of unease. His assassin training was bleeding through the omega biology in ways that might raise questions he didn't want to answer.
"Let's try one more test," Dr. Elias said, reaching for a different device. "Type B alpha pheromones, very low concentration. Just to see how your body responds to familiar stimuli."
The moment the scent hit the air, every nerve ending in Levi's body came alive. But not with fear or submission – with recognition. His borrowed body knew this scent, craved it on some cellular level that had nothing to do with choice or logic.
Heat pooled low in his stomach, and he could feel his scent shifting in response, becoming richer, more appealing. The monitoring equipment went wild, displaying cascading data that made Dr. Elias's eyebrows rise.
"Now that," he said quietly, "is compatibility."
Noah's scent intensified in response to Levi's pheromonal shift, creating a feedback loop that made the small examination room feel like a pressure cooker. The nurse stepped back slightly, her own alpha biology responding to the sudden surge of pheromones.
"Enough," Levi said sharply, fighting against the heat building in his system. "Turn it off."
Dr. Elias immediately complied, but the effects lingered. Levi's skin felt too sensitive, his borrowed body too aware of Noah's presence across the room.
"Well," Dr. Elias said, studying his readings with fascination, "I think we have our answer about basic compatibility. The question now is why your body can handle Type B intensity when others can't."
From the waiting area, raised voices filtered through the door. Junior was complaining about something while Ethan's measured responses showed a mix of patience and mild irritation.
"completely unreasonable to expect me to sit here for hours without decent coffee.."
"told you to bring a book…"
"don't want to read, I want caffeine that doesn't taste like it was filtered through sawdust…."
Despite everything, Levi found himself almost smiling at their banter. There was something oddly soothing about their predictable dynamic, the way Ethan's steady presence seemed to anchor the junior's scattered energy.
Dr. Elias began removing the monitoring sensors. "I think that's enough for today. Your body is showing signs of fatigue, and pushing further could skew the results."
Levi slumped back against the examination table, suddenly aware of how drained he felt. The combination of medical procedures, pheromone exposure, and constant vigilance had taken more out of him than he'd expected.
"The blood work results should be ready in a few hours," Dr. Elias continued. "Some of the readings we got today are... intriguing. I'll want to run additional tests tomorrow, but for now, you need rest."
As if summoned by the word 'rest,' exhaustion crashed over Levi like a wave. His assassin's conditioning had trained him to push through fatigue, but this omega body had different limits, and different needs.
"The room I've prepared has everything you'll need," Dr. Elias said gently. "Food, comfortable bedding, and privacy. Noah, I assume you'll be staying as well?"
Levi started to protest, but Noah's response cut him off. "Yes."
"Fine," Levi said, too tired to fight about it. "But I want those blood results the moment they're ready. No matter what time."
Dr. Elias nodded. "Of course. Though I will say, the preliminary readings suggest your survival wasn't just luck. There's something genuinely different about your physiology."
As they prepared to move to the overnight room, Levi caught a fragment of conversation from the waiting area.
"swear, if you don't stop bouncing that stress ball, I'm going to confiscate it.."
"helps me think, you know that"
"thinking isn't the problem, it's the constant fidgeting.."
The gentle domestic bickering followed them down the hall, a strange comfort in an otherwise clinical environment. Whatever else happened, at least some things remained predictably normal.
***
The MRI machine loomed like a mechanical coffin, while it's opening was barely wide enough for a human body. Levi stared at it with the kind of assessment he usually reserved for every potential point of failure.
"Claustrophobic?" Dr. Elias asked, noting his hesitation.
"Just thinking," Levi replied, though the truth was more complicated. The enclosed space triggered memories he didn't want. Not just from his own life, but from the original host's final moments. The sensation of being trapped, helpless, while someone else controlled what happened to his body.
The technician, a young woman with a bored expression, guided him onto the sliding table. "You'll need to stay completely still for about forty minutes. Any movement will blur the images and we'll have to start over."
Forty minutes of enforced stillness in a confined space while machines mapped every secret his borrowed body might be hiding. Levi lay back, closing his eyes as the table slid him into the machine's belly.
The noise was incredible happening inches from his skull. Through it all, he forced himself to remain motionless, drawing on years of training that had taught him to endure worse discomfort than this.
But the omega body had different responses than his frame had possessed.
Halfway through the scan, claustrophobia hit like a physical blow. His heart rate spiked, palms growing slick with sweat despite the cool air.
When the ordeal finally ended, Levi emerged from the machine feeling wrung out and raw. Dr. Elias was studying the images on a computer screen, his expression unreadable.
"Everything looks normal?" Levi asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
"Define normal," Dr. Elias replied, which was exactly the kind of non answer that made Levi's instincts itch so bad.
The CT scan was mercifully shorter, though no less invasive. More images, more data, more pieces of a puzzle that Levi wasn't sure he wanted solved. By the time they moved on to the specialized compatibility tests, his patience was wearing thin.