Birds of a Feather

Chapter 19

Cas's heat went decently well. There were surprisingly no hickups. She was sent into a cuddle heat by the three betas, Namjoon specifically being warned by JB that if he even tried to start lecturing someone during this, he'd be getting introduced to the gag collection they have for BamBam.

Cas slept almost the entire heat, only waking up when pack members were rotated out. They did it quickly so the heat only lasted 7 hours. When the fever broke, everyone held their breath, waiting for a tantrum to start like the end of her first heat. Instead, she woke up, walked past her entire pack, scented Youngjae, and then made a bowl of ramen. The BTS members took this as a success on their end, showing that what had happened hadn't affected her too bad.

--

Cas was sitting in the HR office at her work, waiting for the Omega Employee specialist to come in. She had set up this meeting as soon as she walked into her office this morning. Her knees were bouncing up and down with the nerves of what she was about to do.

A woman walks in, sitting behind the desk and offering Cas a smile. She holds out a bowl of candy. Cas shakes her head and the woman's smile takes on an edge of emotion that Cas can't quit place, "It's okay Ms. Smith, these are omega heat candies, they're meant to help with recovering from the toll a heat has on our bodies."

Cas stares at her wide eyed before taking a lollipop and sucking on it. She looks up at the woman and says shyly, "Thank you for meeting with me, ma'am."

The HR rep laughs, "Call me Kimiko. I've been meaning to meet with you for a while now. It's not often that you see an omega in such a high-ranking engineering position. I've been wanting to set up a meeting to make sure you're doing okay and that we, as a company, are supporting you to the best of our ability, but you beat me to it when you scheduled this one."

Cas flushes under the woman's praise, "To be fair, I was hired on before I presented."

Kimiko waves her hand, "Oh please. Don't your downplay your achievements. The patents you have and the work you do is astounding. You're literally running an portion of our department single-handedly. If we ever lost you we'd have to hire on at least 10 others to do your job effectively." She leans back in her chair, pulling out a pad of paper, "But, I'm assuming this meeting isn't for a quick chat."

Cas shakes her head, "No, I've been having an issue I need help with and it was recommended by one of my omega friends that I try reaching out to the HR Omega Rep to see what options I have."

Kimiko nods, her face morphing into a a more serious expression as she poises the pen over paper, "Okay. Why don't you walk me through what's happening?"

Cas takes a nervous breath in, eyes shifting aroudn the room, before glancing back at Kimiko, "Can we start off the record first? I just want to make sure there's something you can actually do before I get into too much detail."

Kimiko puts the pen down and folds her hands into her lap, "Of course," she smiles, "We're going to speak purely in hypotheticals."

Cas nods, "Okay, so hypothetically, if an omega was having issues with their pack would the company be able to make accommodations?"

Kimiko frowns, "Well, it would depend on the situation and what the issues were."

Cas nods again, "So, let's say, entirely hypothetical, you had an omega who was a get deported. So, they're platonically bonded with a pack, but that pack isn't able to meet the needs of the omega's heat."

"And getting a new pack is not possible, in this purely hypothetical situation?"

Cas shakes her head, "Hypothetically, the omega isn't even declared as part of a pack. There's a loophole in regulations where a pack doesn't need to announce themselves to be a pack, they just don't get access to resources without registering themselves."

Kimiko's eyes widen and she nods, "Okay, and the current pack doesn't want to be known because..."

Cas glances down and mutters, "Because hypothetically the rest of the pack is made up of members of a kpop group and announcing they have an omega who is not part of their original group can kill any chance of a career for them."

Kimiko just looks at Cas, a sad smile on her face, "Okay, I think this we can work with."

--

3.5 months later

Cas looks at the calendar and that her preheat should be starting within a day or two. She sends a quick message to Kimiko and gets a reply back that she'll be up to the office shortly.

Cas waits in her new office, up the door behind her desk that hasn't been opened since she got here. She sighs, frustrated that this is what it's coming to, but it was the only compromise she could reach when negotiating with her inner omega months ago.

There's a knock at her door and Kimiko walks in followed by 6 security guards. Cas's proverbial hackles raise as she eyes them up, but Kimiko smiles at her, "These are the 6 mated alphas whole will be on security rotation for this floor during the next two weeks. They know about your heat happening and will make sure that no one gets into your office during that time. One will be stationed outside your office door, one inside your office. As far as anyone else in the company is concerned, you working on top secret that needs to be guarded 24/7. All 6 of them have signed aggressive NDAs, so you don't have to worry about breaches either."

Kimiko dismisses the guards and walks over to sit on the couch in the office. She smiles at Cas who just grimaces, "When are we expecting this to start?"

"Pre heat most likely tomorrow or the day after. Actual heat, after that and it'll go for about 3 or 4 days."

"Okay," Kimiko says, taking some notes, "We'll have food delivered into the room to prep for that. Do you need anything else?"

Cas thinks for a minute, "Would I be able to be escorted home and back? That'll make my excuse of work project more ."

Kimiko nods, "Of course, Cas. Whatever I can arrange to make this easier I will."

Cas sits down next to the older omega, sighs and mutters, "Thanks."

--

Getting escorted home by three very large alphas in matching suits definitely drove the message home.

She walks into the dorm to see all of the pack crowding around the kitchen table, "You're home late." Jin calls out from where they're eating.

Cas waves him off, though all four alphas stand when the enters the room. One of them places a finger to his ear before muttering to her, "Quickly Ms. Smith. We need to get you back."

"Cas...?" Namjoon asks.

Cas smiles at him tightly, chuckling a little, "Sorry, new security parameters. Working on some project at the moment. So you're looking at my security detail."

"They're going to be staying here?" Hobi asks, while eyeing up the 3 men.

Cas shakes her head, "No. I'm only home for a little bit to grab some clothes and things. Then I'm back to the office. New regulations require me to be on site for the duration of the experiments being conducted."

"And how long is that?" Yoongi asks.

"Probably the next two weeks or so." Cas answers, quickly moving the nest and packing a bag. She shoves the bag of scent items from her pack that she hid earlier into the bottom of her duffle bag, adds a couple of the heat items she'd been given, and then a bunch of clothes and toiletries on top.

She walks out of the nest, seeing that security had kept the pack members away from. She makes quick rounds, giving each member a hug and a kiss. "Don't worry." She says at the door, " be home before you know it. You won't even notice I've been gone."