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Castiel didn’t have time for trivialities. He was a busy man who spent most of his time explaining to people that he wasn’t “kind” or “progressive”, he was just someone who didn’t care enough to want to put in the effort of being mean to people and didn’t have the time to be dictating how individuals chose to live their lives.
Now if people could give him the same courtesy, he’d be truly obliged.
He enjoyed his work. He loved his job and he didn’t need anything or anyone else to make him feel validated or "normal" and he was sick of people telling him to go “get a mate, Cassie. It’s life changing!"
How could anyone expect him to give a shit about any of that useless stuff when he wanted to spend as much time as possible communicating with researchers in Canada in order to work on treating Glioblastoma through the targeted break down of OSMR and EFGRvIII genes? How could people not see how much more life-affirming that was?
Why did mating have to define his happiness when it did nothing to make him happy?
Heaving out a large sigh, Castiel walked back to his office deleting another message from Gabriel begging him to take his pregnant mate Kali to a flea market that was in town because “I can’t take the hormones anymore, Cassie. I’m going to kill someone.”
He flinched and shifted uncomfortably when he smelled a distressed Omega and walked into his office to find Dean sitting in his desk chair looking like he was going to have a breakdown.
“Dean?”
Dean Winchester was the only unmated Omega Castiel had ever chosen to interact with willingly.
When he’d met the boy ten years ago, the lanky fifteen year old had single handedly managed to woo the entire Novak clan with his sharp tongue, quick wit and borderline scandalous sense of humour. Even the infallible Michael had cracked a smile, while his brother Luke had dubbed the Omega forevermore “an honorary Alpha”.
But Dean Winchester was Trouble with a capital T. The Omega had no sense of self-preservation, lived life on his own terms and had somehow managed to latch onto Castiel every single time he needed to be bailed out of some weird situation or the other. It was like all he needed to do was think about him and Castiel would land up wherever the Omega was. How he’d ended up being Dean’s go to person for all things chaotic, he’d never know.
Sheriff Mills had practically learned Castiel’s number by heart by the time Dean and Alfie had turned twenty two because of the sheer number of times the two of them had gotten caught for something hooligan-ish. Now the same line of thinking left him reeling at the thought of what could have sent the Omega into such a great level of distress now when nothing ever phased him before.
“Cas.” Dean looked up at him with scared, shamrock eyes.
“What’s wrong? What are you doing here?” he asked trying to ignore the odd level of concern he was experiencing.
“I’m in trouble, Cas…”
Of course he was.
“Dean, if you’re in trouble then you need to go talk to Sam or John. You can’t keep asking me to bail you out of shit-“
Before he could finish, Dean reached up, pulled his collar aside and showed him an alarmingly pale looking mating bite.
Castiel almost felt his heart stop at the sight, knowing full well that the Winchester boy was about as averse to mating as he was.
“What the fuck, Dean?!”
The scenarios running through his head ranged from horrifying to infuriating and his Alpha side seemed so utterly perturbed by this development that he could feel his eyes flash red in rage.
Dean couldn’t have been raped, he could easily fight off four or five full grown Alphas without breaking a sweat, so it could only mean that this happened during sex on one of his bar crawls.
“I know, okay?! I don’t know what to do! I didn’t know who else to go to! I spent the week and a half doing everything I could to get out of this but there’s nothing!”
Castiel pulled back a snarl as he watched Dean open his eyes and silently beg him to do what he obviously hopes the Alpha will do - mate him.
He wondered if Dean realised how completely messed up the situation would turn out to be if they did mate.
In two weeks, Dean would end up being bound to Castiel forever. No take backs. The two people who abhorred the idea of being mated to anyone would end up being exactly that.
Could he really live with Dean for the rest of his life? Could he really put up with all the Omega’s antics and watch as he singularly turned his well-organised life into complete chaos?
Did he have a choice? Could he really allow Dean to be mated to some nobody douchebag who clearly saw the Omega as nothing but an object?
His Alpha ripped at his chest.
Like hell he was going to let that happen.
“You’re a fucking risk, Dean, and one that I seriously need to stay away from if I have the right sense to do it but God help me you’re going to tell me exactly what happened and then you’re going to tell everyone how exactly you and I ended up mated.”
He sighed when Dean rushed to pull him into a desperate and relieved hug, whispering an apology over and over again.
“No more of this, Dean. You hear me? Once we’re mated, you’re going to have to get your head back on straight or else we’re not going through with this.”
He couldn’t have his entire life turned over because Dean decided to go on one of his wild sprees again doing God knows what.
He respected the Omega for being steadfast and strong in the face of immense discrimination, but the second they mated Dean would in every sense of the Law become his responsibility and if he continued with his life-on-the-edge, fuck-the-world lifestyle then it would really fall on Castiel to deal with the repercussions.
He never wants to change the Omega but he's perilously close to begging him not to make things harder for him.
He felt the Omega nod against his shoulder and whisper a quiet “I promise.”
Castiel shut his eyes and drew in a breath, preparing to do what he never imagined himself doing.
He let his eyes flash red before turning his head to the side and nudging Dean’s face away with his nose, inhaling the other’s comforting scent.
He bit down hard against the vile mark left before him and finally sealed their bond.
He knows there's no turning back.