When Beth initially meets Sean, she thinks she's cracked.

Maybe she skipped a dose of her suppressants without realizing it, or maybe he hasn't taken his. Anything is possible. At any rate, she certainly doesn't expect him, when she presets his costume.

“Did you get the sub list for tonight?" From his seat by the tech desk, the audio guy, Josh, lowers the phone from his ear. “Cosmo's calling from downstairs."

“Yeah," Beth says, as the green room door swings shut behind her. “It's just Sean B. The girls are good to go."

“Thanks, babe." He relays the message to the cosmetology team, and then hangs the phone up. “Nice to only have one sub, for a change."

“You're telling me." With a grunt, she hoists Sean B's overstuffed garment bag higher onto her shoulder. “I don't think I've ever met Sean."

Josh shrugs. “He's your run of the mill, attractive male lead. Typical theater Alpha."

“Great, just what I need," Beth says dryly. “Another Alpha riling all of the girls up with his obnoxious scent." It's been so long since he's been here, though, that his garment bag only smells of cleaning chemicals and the musty, stale air of the costume trailer.

“At least you're not one of the performers," Josh shouts into the dressing room.

“Yet," she shouts back tersely. Not that she's getting anywhere with her auditions so far, but that's beside the point.

When she sits on the green room couch with her sketchpad, she doesn't expect to catch his scent before he even reaches the door. She doesn't expect to look up at the sound of a rich, deep voice, and feel the world recede around her.

In hindsight, maybe she should have had some suspicions. His costumes are made for someone downright enormous. Which, as it turns out, Sean is. Enormous, in an Alpha way, all broad shoulders and muscles, sharp angles and smooth skin, and—

God, his scent. Musky and a little spicy. Like autumn, like something she would gladly live in.

Beth's pencil creaks in her hand.

You, her brain says when she sees him. And then— Oh, no.

It isn't like she hasn't worked with Alphas before. Performers run the gamut; it's like a catch-all for everyone who isn't comfortable in their designation, plus all the people who are so comfortable with their designations that they use them to get type-cast, and— well, it really is just a catch-all. Which means she has certainly smelled other Alphas who have pleasant, even attractive scents.

Then again, her suppressants are so high, she shouldn't be able to smell anyone this much at all.

Fascinating. And terrifying.

Sean smiles at her when he comes in, and Beth returns it on autopilot, while trying to backtrack through her morning routine. She remembers taking her pill. She remembers the little green circle leaving her hand and going into her mouth.

Minutes later, Sean walks through the green room in just jeans and a deeply V-necked tee, cut so low that Beth can see… basically every inch of his torso.

Her pencil snaps in half.

“You good?" Josh turns his head toward her, frowning.

“Yeah," she says, already pulling another pencil from her bag. “Just… may need to up my suppressants."

“Ah." Josh nods his head in understanding. “I have to, around some of the Crew Chiefs. No biggie."

Kind of a biggie, Beth thinks, since she's on the highest dosage of her current suppressants. Even Josh, an Omega like her, smells bland. Clearly, she's starting to slip into madness.

Beth can't stand Alphas. She can't bear their aggression and power plays, and that tone they get, that push that makes her want to give in and be obedient and submissive and good. Stupid Omega lizard hindbrain.

Watching the show from backstage that night is torture. Being in the green room with him is worse. Beth curls in on herself during intermission with her sketchbook, her circles and spirals rapidly taking shape into something she doesn't want to recognize. Sean's scent is somehow everywhere, and if she focuses on it for too long, all she can think of is—

“Whatcha drawing?"

“No idea," Beth shrugs without looking up at Sean, already covering the vaguely humanoid shapes with more spirals, until it clouds out. “Just warming up right now."

“Ah." Sean smiled at her again, and then vanished into the men's dressing room.

When Beth left that night, she felt like she could breathe again.

***

The second time she sees Sean, she knows she's cracked.

She's not sure what happened, honestly. She went to the local combo arcade and bar for their annual Halloween party, and caught his scent instantly. Moments later, he was handing her ass to her at MarioKart, then Brawl, despite her valiantly putting up a fight for each game. They both had… probably a little more alcohol than they should have, and somewhere in the darkness of the bar and the drunken haze, he catches her scent.

Or maybe he just forgets to filter it out. Hard to say.

It doesn't matter now, really. One thing led to another, and, well. Here she is.

In his apartment.

Naked.

Her suppressants may as well have taken a vacation. Sean's scent soaks into her, pulling her deeper into that Omega sub-space she detests, and she honestly can't be bothered to care. It's been years since she's slept with an Alpha; a decade, almost. It's been months since she's even had sex. Her inner Omega is begging for attention.

Sean's more than happy to give it to her. He gets bored with the movie he turned on

probably to relax her

, and he shifts beside her, a rolling of Alpha muscles that has her immediate attention. His lips meet hers from out of nowhere, and has her naked and over his shoulder moments later. Beth laughs, her mind fuzzy from the alcohol still lingering in her system.

They tumble onto his bed as a unit, Sean kissing down her throat in a hot, wet blaze. Beth arches up to meet his lips, keening. She must seem embarrassingly eager, and yet, she's already so far gone, she can't care enough to stop.

“Steady, Omega," Sean purrs.

Beth jolts back to lucidity, only managing not to cringe by sheer force of will. She hates being— being called that. She won't call him Alpha, even if he smells like heaven and uses his mouth on her skin in ways that should be illegal. Even if the Omega side of her screams for it.

His hand distracts her from her thoughts, drifting down over her hip and thigh. It reminds her of why she's here, of what she wants from this.

A little more grounded, now, she reaches up, pulling his face down to hers for a kiss. She could honestly kiss this man forever. He's damn good at it, all gentle nips and sweeping tongue.

His hand finally settles where she wants it, and she moans into his mouth.

“F*ck," he murmurs against her lips. “You're so wet for me."

God, yes. She is. And it's wonderful.

She's wet enough that he can already push two fingers into her. Beth gasps at the sensation, the delicious pressure, not quite enough but amping her up nonetheless. Sean groans and adds another finger mere moments later, his lips brushing over the scent gland on her neck. Beth can only hold onto him for dear life, quickly falling back into that dizzying, distant sub-space.

“God, I…" he doesn't finish his sentence. He just pulls his hand from her, to her dismay, and tries to undo his fly with one hand. “Could you…"

It's hard to track his words, when they ghost over her gland like this. Beth manages to catch on after a minute of staring dazedly at him.

Oh, god, she thinks, when she helps shove his jeans down. Clearly, she's forgotten how very large Alphas were.

Will he even fit?

She's panting, when she wraps her fist around him. Her fingers don't even close all the way. It should terrify her, and yet, she feels the rush of heat between her legs, and finds herself stroking him slowly, watching for his reaction.

Sean's face is drawn and tight, his breathing heavy. It only takes a few strokes for him to pull her hand into his own, brushing his lips over hers. “Condom," he announces, before leaning away from her.

At least one of them is being safe, she thinks mildly.

He rolls it on with practiced precision, and then bends down to kiss her again. She gets so caught up in what his lips are doing, she doesn't even notice him lining up at her entrance, until—

“F*ck!"

There's a split second of panic as she goes from empty, yearning, almost desperate, to completely full. Her mind stutters in that second, until the full force of Sean's scent hits her. Beth feels her body go pliant, allowing him millimeters of give.

Sean pulls her wrist to his lips and kisses the gland there, and she sighs, wrapping her legs around his waist. This is so much better than being with a Beta or another Omega. This is something right, something good, something she was made for.

“I wasn't sure it was you," Sean murmurs, guiding her arm around his neck and kissing the gland in the crook of her elbow. “The day we met. I thought I'd lost it." He kisses her shoulder, her collarbone. “I thought about going home early. I thought about dragging you into the dressing room to find out if it was really you."

Beth whimpers. Sean bites down softly on her neck, around her scent gland without actually biting it. The sensation is staggering. Her entire body tenses.

With a groan, Sean begins to move. Beth feels the air leave her lungs in a rush. This is incredible. This is better than any sex she'd ever had, bar none. In seconds, her Omega is running the show, her mind going hazy from the pleasure.

Sean leans forward as he moves, pressing a kiss to her temple. Beth is too far gone to register it, to do more than arch her back and tighten her legs around his waist.

“I don't have to knot you," He says, his lips still against her skin.

Beth's eyes snap open. “What?" Her Omega is screaming under her skin, her glands pounding. “Why not?"

He leans back again, eyebrow arched. “Oh? You want me to—" he thrusts again, harder, and she whimpers— “knot you? To fill you up and—"

Beth's mind whites out from the intensity of her orgasm.

“God— f*ck—" Beth doesn't have time to ground herself before another wave of pleasure washes over her, and Sean seems to get bigger inside her, his knot swelling up until— until—

He's impossibly large, and something in her screams that no, no, it's too much. There's another split second of panic, and then gone again, washed away by the waves of pleasure.

She can feel Sean's lips by her ear, slipping down to her gland, bringing her right to the edge again. “One more. Can you give me one more?"

She doesn't think she can. This is already more than she can usually manage during a hookup. Though this doesn't feel like a standard hookup, anymore.

Sean drags the flat of his tongue over her gland. The noise she makes is mortifying. She clings to him as her thoughts scatter, incoherent, and her nails dig into the solid muscles of his shoulders.

“Just one more, Sweetheart," he begs, and isn't that interesting— Beth hadn't known she could get amped up any further. And yet.

“Please," she whimpers. “Please, I— I can't, —"

“I've got you," he purrs. “You're okay. I've got you."

It's too much. He's filled her beyond sense, locked tight and throbbing. Beth can barely breathe, she's going to die like this, she's— she's—

Sean scrapes his teeth over her gland.

Her entire body just dissolves into pleasure. There's an overwhelming sense of rightness, and then— nothing. Just empty sound as her thoughts shatter before they can even form.

“God," Sean grunts. “Good Omega." He kisses her cheek, her temple. Even her lips, parted and slack underneath his. “Good girl."

She would love to kiss him back, but her body goes limp at his words, something age-old and bone-deep inside her sated into silence.

He rolls them both over, cradling her on top of him, where she sprawls out. Her body hasn't been this relaxed in ages. She's never had an alpha hookup, and rarely repeat hookups, but damn. She'd love for this to happen again.