A wave of Omega hatred had begun to brew. A certain florist ran by an Alpha/Omega couple were vandalised, as well as a handful of other businesses owned or employing Omegas. The voices of a few powerful individuals with Omega spouses or children only quelled a little of the noise on the internet, where faceless trolls bred aplenty. After all, not all of these words came from actual bias, just attention seeking individuals who thrived in darkness and were seldom shamefaced by their malicious actions. "Yes, I understand that, however, I don't agree," Zandre's agent was yelling down his phone even as Zandre gloomily glanced over the comments and condemnation on his social media page. Honestly, he didn't give a shit what these people said; he had never cheated on Elani with Ichiro and he would never get back together with the woman. But thinking of Ichiro, thinking that his past could be... his heart was a little torn. He still wanted Ichiro, still longed for him with every cell of his body. It wasn't right to assume that Ichiro had no past in terms of sexual relationships, just had he really exploited women that way? "There is no evidence that my clients' boyfriend was an escort being paid for sex," the other man continued as he paced the twin bed hotel room. "If you allow Ms Van Zyl's manager to use this rumour to whitewash her, it could not only ruin my client's reputation, if the slander is proven to be false, then surely it will only harm her as well!" Zandre tossed his phone onto the side and rose from his bed. Fuck this shit, he was going to the gym. The game was tomorrow, he was due to play, so he and the other players and substitutes were meant to be resting so not to over tax their muscles and burnout mid game. But right now, his mental state was not straight, he couldn't think about tomorrow's match let alone focus. He was torn between wanting to step on the field or asking the team's coach or manager to pull him out so not to drag down the team. Tomorrow was the quarter final's match, if he messed up, not only would he kill his country's dream and expectation for them to go further, he'd hurt his own career as well. As it happened, he was not pulled from the game, he played excellently for the first half of the match, pouring his frustrations into his tackles and throws, if the team's coaches had any complaints it was that he was just a bit too aggressive so they pulled him out before the start of the second half so that he didn't cause himself an injury. He didn't argue, he had exhausted himself out, pushing hard and focusing strenuously, until his mind could no longer hold back from wandering. And all of his thoughts were centred on his Omega. Ichiro was back home after all, likely facing all of this head on and he'd told Zandre that he was due to go into heat this week, around this time and Zandre was here not there with him, helping him out maybe even... But then again what if those rumours, that had yet to die down, were actually true? Was Ichiro repentant, ashamed? Did he even care? Was he angry at Zee, even; it would have never come to light had Ichiro not been with him and although the term 'exploitation' had come to mind, in actuality not a single woman (for knowing Ichiro's aversion to being with men, he never though Ichiro would prostitute himself to one) had come forward to confirm the rumours. Of course, that could be due to embarrassment or shame, but at the same time, it could be because these rumours were entirely false. And then he recalled what Olivia had said to him. "Please, whatever you learn about him, be open minded. Don't be too harsh on him and don't you dare hurt him. He had his reasons." Olivia... he frowned, a sudden notion coming to him. He wiped off the sweat from his skin before rushing back, having hit the gym once more the day after the match, despite warnings from the team's coaches to take a break. But it was only when working out did he not dwell on things, such as Elani's P.R team's decision to use these rumours to help suppress discussions about her Elani's mental state; wearing an engagement ring with no fiancé nor boyfriend to marry and not accepting breaking up with himself. Using the elevator to get to the ninth floor of the hotel, he headed to his bedroom to speak with his agent. "I promised an exclusive with the editor of a newspaper," he named the title of a more respected print. "I owed her a favour. Could you get me her direct telephone number?" He'd never added her number to his phone, just taken her card. But naturally, he did not bring that out of the country with him as there had never been a need. "I don't think that this is a good time for that..." his agent protested, but he was interrupted. "It's fine, honestly," Zee reassured him. So the man could only make the enquiries then pass him the information. Zandre turned on his phone, wincing at the numerous new messages from his family. He'd informed them about his new number, once he'd reprogrammed theirs into it, just explained that his phone met an unfortunate accident and he had a new one. Plus everything was fine, he was well. Otherwise, he'd not mentioned a thing, about Ichiro and the rumours. It's not that he didn't want to reassure them, just that he couldn't reassure himself yet. So he could only selfishly ignore them for the time being. With a deep breath, he dialled Olivia's telephone number. "I was wondering when or if I would hear from you," Olivia's voice had a slight sneer to it. He heard the door shut in the background before a sudden tirade spilled from her lips. "What do you want to know? Whether the rumours are true? Would you despise him for it if they were?" Zee hesitated; would he? "I..." "Who was it that claimed to be his 'Fated pair'? If I knew your conviction was this weak, I never would have taken you to see him!" Better he lived with impotence and without a partner in his life rather than this sort of see-sawing man! Shame filled him. She had tried to warn him at that time, but he'd been so adamant to see the man that fate had created to be his. Just, wasn't it too much to accept this sort of thing so readily? She sighed when he did not respond, shaking her head. She had warned him, warned Ichiro not so long ago. This pair...! But she'd also seen with her own two eyes how they had looked at each other, scented with her own nose how their pheromones called to each other. She had heard the carefree tone in Ichiro's voice the other day when she had spoken to him about the scandal and the blurriness of the stolen photograph could not detract from the ambiguous embrace of the pair. "I won't confirm or deny those rumours, there's no evidence, I won't create some. However, let me ask you this; if you found yourself raising two brothers without a job and regardless of your qualifications, no one will give you a job because of a collar around your neck, what would you do?" "The state..." "Pfft," Olivia laughed as if he'd made some great joke. "If he can't support himself, he can't support his brothers; there's a high chance they would have been separated and put into foster care. Not to mention, they are also Omegas. Do you know the suicide rates of young Omega boys in ordinary families? Now tell me he was wrong." Zee thought of his own family, his brothers and sisters. He was a middle child, he had two brothers and a sister above him so he wouldn't have actually needed to make such a decision, not to mention, he was an Alpha. The world loved them as much as they disliked Omegas. So he could only shake his head. He didn't have to like it; but he couldn't not understand it. Plus, since Zandre had waltzed into his life, Ichiro had worked a ridiculous number of hours every day as well as almost every day; when would he have had time to escort women on top? "There was no exploitation of women," Olivia murmured, softly in the background, "if anyone was exploited, it was probably him." She cut the call short, leaving Zandre deeply in his own thoughts and resignation. It would not take long for Zandre to finally make a call that he had been evading.