He stepped back started and then happened to notice the pretty pink collar upon her neck. Was she an Omega... but he had only ever met one other Omega before and that was during university. "Eiko?" ***** Eiko wasted no time taking her old friend upstairs to her apartment above the florist. The property was cramped, more so as there were cardboard boxes stacked in many corners, but the feel of the property, it's homeliness and warmth could still be felt. She served him a cup of tea and sat with him at the table as she began to pry from his lips his whereabouts all these years. "Where did you disappear to?" Eiko asked him. "Half way through the year and with rumours flying around about you and Ryder and no you to confirm or deny! What happened? I know it wasn't as Ryder claimed, you simply weren't like that!" A sickened feeling rose in his gut as he asked; "What did Ryder tell you?" "Nothing to me, you know I never really liked him," she sighed, "just that you did so I tried to get along with him. But the rumours, well they were not pretty." Jun said nothing for a while, he had buried those memories down deeply and in a way, what had happened to him then meant little when he considered what had followed. He was just thankful that Keiichi was not that bastard's. Kei was already developing into the spitting image of his actual father, the stranger he had slept with while in heat. Eiko sighed, realising that Jun was reluctant. "I didn't end up finishing the degree either. Those arrogant idiots made things intolerable and without you, I didn't really have the heart to continue. And then my grandmother passed away of a sudden heart attack. She left me this shop." A smile came unbidden to her lips as her eyes became distant for a moment. "I met someone." "Really," Jun smiled with her. Eiko had always been determined to be independent, as unlike him, she had fully accepted her gender and had decided to live to the fullest, even if that meant being alone for the rest of her life. Jun, at that time, still believed in love. "Hmm, Hideaki is the most wonderful man," she sighed. "Its not been easy; he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and that was removed when he failed to live up to his parents expectations. I always felt guilty about that, but he reassures me over and over that it's all okay." "So the baby..." "This little one is our honeymoon baby!" She said proudly. "No heat required!" Jun chuckled. He then glanced down at his cooling tea and finally admitted. "I have a son. He is four years old and so very amazing." "Four years..." he could almost see her calculating within her head and he confirmed her suspicions. "I left university, as I found out that I was pregnant." "Is he Ryder's," Eiko dared to ask, but Jun shook his head. "Then... the best friend...?" Jun frowned. "What exactly did Ryder say about me?" "He said that you had seduced his best friend in front of him," Eiko replied, "and that was why he had dumped you and why he had had a fight with that person." "That isn't what happened at all," Jun shook his head and shuddered. How he wished he could have reversed time and warned himself that Ryder was never to be trusted. But the Beta had always seemed like such a gentleman, he had taken care of him, shown him the love that he had been so desperate for. Jun had even lost his virginity to him. But it had all been a lie. "Ryder... Ryder tried to get me to sleep with him and his best friend. They drugged me with something that is supposed to stimulate a heat, only it didn't work properly, not that it didn't stop them from trying to rape me anyway." Eiko covered her mouth with both hands in shock, her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head in denial. Jun reached for her hands and squeezed it softly. "It's alright, they were stopped. The Landlady of the student accommodation that Ryder stayed at, heard my screams and stopped them. She kicked them out right there and then and comforted the hysterical me. She tucked me into the bed of a spare room and only left me when I fell fast asleep. However, at some point in the night, my true heat kicked in. I was due to enter it in a week, but the drug somehow stimulated it, brought it forward and I attracted the only Alpha occupant, a student that I found out later was a year ahead of us. My Keiichi is his child. But... that's not all." Jun admitted as he touched the back of his neck, where the mark of that Alpha's claim on him lie.