“Really?”
“Yeah. She’s the reason I could even petition to join the Divergence Theory course. She wrote a personal recommendation for me.”
For the first time since the exam, Jackson truly considered the backlash that Micah might have to face over this entire stunt. Though Jackson felt biased, he had no problem saying that Micah was the smartest omega he’d ever met. The class had spent an entire semester silently fawning over him, watching him take notes and ask questions. Watching him push for omega rights without so much as batting an eyelash at the occasionally combative nature of his peers.
Micah had always been something special, and that was unquestionable.
“It has to be mutual, you know,” Micah continued. “And the alpha has to exhibit the symptoms first. Omega heat symptoms are really varied, so it’s hard to tell if there’s something wrong with us. That’s why we have to track everything and report to our advisers or we’ll get suspended. With alphas, it’s… a matter of control. You’re taught much earlier how to control your prerut, and so as an adult, it’s a big red flag if you can’t. They test both of us - you first, and then me. If we’re highly responsive to the testing, then the doctor overwrites our permissions.”
“That sounds a bit…”
“Weird?” Micah asked. “Yeah. I know. But it’s dangerous for mates to be without each other during their mating week. It’s a huge stress on the body if you already subconsciously have an alpha. I might’ve… well, I might’ve starved to death. Or exhausted myself to dehydration. It’s better if you’re here. Heats pass a lot quicker with a mate.”
Jackson tightened his arms around the small of Micah’s back and squeezed. “You won’t get in trouble, right? For not tracking your heat?”
“No, because I do track my heat. I have a whole notebook for it. It’s logged in my phone and in my planner, too. Everything should be okay since I have a doctor’s note explaining my situation.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“I’m assuming they’ll move me to independent study, though.”
“What? Why?”
Micah huffed, the soft warmth of his breath ghosting over Jackson’s chin as he looked up at him. “It’s in the rules. For segregated classes, none of this would matter, but for all integrated classes, there’s a clause. Mated alpha and omega pairs can’t be assigned the same course. It’s a liability.”
Jackson felt like an idiot. It took everything in his power to swallow his pride and avoid the instincts that were begging him to backtrack or change the topic. He’d never learned about any of this. It was a shame that his new mate was educating him while sitting on his cock. Omegas were a special breed. A new type of physiology that was so much more attuned to the world than the alpha that sat on top of it.
Jackson looked back at Micah, eyes running over his face. The sharp bridge of his nose, the gorgeous shape of his eyes, the plump fill of his pink lips, and even the soft, dampened curls on his head.
“You deserve to be in that all-alpha class,” Jackson said quietly. It pained him to admit it. He didn’t particularly want his omega surrounded by a bunch of young, jackass alphas with a superiority complex. But Micah truly appreciated the lessons and the teacher, so if anyone deserved to sit in those seats, it was him.
“It’s not about the class being all-alpha,” Micah soothed. “I’m not trying to be a political statement or anything. As long as I get the information from somewhere, I’m happy with that. So alpha or no alpha, if I’ve got a book and a teacher, I’m not bothered. Also, I’m sure being in Dr. Jemma’s office will be easier on my pride, anyway. Half of the students in that class just watched me begging for cock in the middle of an exam. Not so sure I want that reputation to follow me.”
“I know. I’m still sorry that you have to leave.”
“Jackson,” Micah said, gripping Jackson’s chin and holding it still. It was the first time Micah had ever heard his own name aimed at him so sweetly. The omega leaned up and kissed the sharp line of Jackson’s jaw. “I’m not leaving. I’m still in the class. I mean, we fucked up, but we didn’t fuck up that badly. We can probably fix it.”
“We set omega education back ten years,” Jackson said.
“Oh, good,” Micah responded. He leaned up and pressed his lips to Jackson’s lips, kissing him warmly. When he pulled away, his cheeks were pink again and he was still smiling so widely. Jackson tried not to think about it, but the thought assaulted him into submission. He was probably going to fall so hard in love with this omega that it split him in two, and whether that was hormones or some godly contrivance talking, it was the complete and unabashed truth. In either case he was completely, totally fucked.
Micah licked his lips, and then he said, “Maybe now you’ll all have a chance to catch up with us.”
Jackson’s mouth dropped open and before he could complain, Micah leaned in and effectively sucked the words right from his mouth. The omega was comfortable with him, trusted him enough to eat the words that sat on the tip of Jackson’s tongue.
Jackson was sure there’d never been a better feeling than this.
3
Micah
When Micah woke up the next morning, his heat had faded. His skin was no longer damp with sweat, his legs weren’t sticky with slick, and he could digest the entire week with a precision that he’d missed since falling down the rabbit hole in the days before.
He was aching in so many places; his tailbone felt like it’d been hit with a hammer and his thighs seemed to creak with pain every time he shifted position. Beneath him was the steady heartbeat of an alpha - his alpha - and Micah took a deep breath until his nostrils were soaked with his and Jackson’s scent. He didn’t want to move. The only warmth he could find was in the body pressed up against him. The blankets had all been doused in fluids, ripped to shreds, or otherwise lost down the crack of the mattress itself, and the flimsy sheet that covered them now did nothing to hide the chill of the room.
Without much thought, Micah burrowed a bit closer to Jackson’s side.
Jackson’s heartbeat was a slow thrum in his chest. Like a drum, it pounded out a staccato rhythm and Micah rubbed his ear against Jackson’s chest to try and get impossibly close. Maybe it was a weird thought, but he wanted for his heart to beat at the same speed, singing in the same soft cadence until their bodies were in sync, blood harmonizing as it traveled through them.
What were these thoughts? They were so silly, but they made Micah’s chest flutter. Micah set his hands on Jackson’s warm skin, tapping his finger against the man’s sternum in time with his heartbeat.
Jackson rumbled quietly. His hand flexed against Micah’s hip and Micah tried to keep himself from moving. Until Jackson had resettled and fallen back into a deep sleep, it was hard. He wanted to wake the alpha up and chat to him about… anything. He just wanted to talk and wanted to hear Jackson talking back. Wanted to hear every one of the alpha’s thoughts and wanted to share what was on his mind.
Micah had never felt like this in his life.
It was the bond, still so fresh and so raw. Micah knew it because he had read about these. Hell, he’d even seen them in action with his own parents and friends. But the weight of the bond was so foreign inside of him, and now he felt vulnerable in a way he wasn’t sure he was equipped to handle.
The truth was that before now, Micah had never wanted to change in this way. He’d never made his bond a goal or a dream. He only wanted to be better than people’s worst expectations. He wanted to be a level-headed, motivated, educated omega, and what ground could he preach from if all he could think about in the morning was making Jackson smile or keeping his alpha happy? It was contrary. Mating felt a bit like loading a bullet in a chamber and playing Russian Roulette with his reputation.
Still, Micah’s soul reveled in the bond. He felt warm and loved, and with every twitch of Jackson’s hands against his body, Micah fell a bit deeper in love with the weight in his chest.
It was a slow
morning. The hours trickled on and Micah kept himself busy, categorizing his new thoughts and feelings while playing with the hairs on Jackson’s chest. Eventually, he began to doze off, listening to the thrumming of the nurses right outside of the door, busying themselves with chatter and paperwork. He was half way asleep when Jackson’s gruff voice cut through the silence.
“You awake?”
Micah startled. His heart skipped a beat and his omega immediately puffed up in excitement.
“Yeah,” Micah said too quickly, clearing his throat and trying not to feel bad about how cherry pink his cheeks turned. “I was waiting for you to wake up.”
“Yeah? Were you thinking about me while you were waiting?” Jackson laughed. It sounded like a joke, but there was so much truth to it that Micah forgot to laugh. At the lack of response, Jackson’s own chuckle tapered off and he said, “Sorry. That was rude. I shouldn’t have joked about it.”
“I’m still half asleep,” Micah said in explanation. Fuck. He hadn’t meant to change the mood. He shifted up and kissed the underside of Jackson’s jaw, lips pressing gently against the sharp stubble that was starting to grow. Jackson hadn’t shaved since he’d arrived, and he was starting to look more rugged. For such a minor change, Micah was savagely pleased about it. Soon, Jackson would look like a proper mountain man.
“Ready to get your bracelet back, then?”
“No,” Micah said immediately, chuckling. “God, no. They’re so ugly.”
Ah. The bracelets. He’d forgotten about them. In theory, Micah understood the reason for them, but it was still an embarrassing piece of jewelry; just a thick chain that fastened around ones wrist, and it was the dusty color of rusted metal. It looked dated and old, and the only time that Micah ever saw them was on the body of a newly mated student. They were about as attractive as an old chain-link fence, and any time Micah imagined himself with one of them on, he’d just as easily imagined himself sneaking it back off again. But he was an omega with a new bond now, and so the nurses were sure to bring him one of those hideous little trinkets.
“I always used to laugh at students who had to wear ‘em,” Jackson admitted. “It’s like a name-tag that says, hi, i’m Fred and I just spent the last week getting fucked.”
Ah, shit. Micah hadn’t thought of it like that.
“Seriously? That’s gotta be an alpha thing,” Micah choked. “I don’t ever think about people being fucked when I see it. I just think it’s ugly.”
“An alpha thing? You really think so?”
“Yeah, I do. Alphas are ridiculous when it comes to sex. It’s all you guys think about.”
“Oh, really,” Jackson rumbled, rolling a bit and nudging Micah onto his back. Micah spread his legs to accommodate, aware that a nurse might walk in at any second and throw a bundle of clothes at them. Micah’s omega was preening, almost savagely pleased that its alpha was still physically commanding, but Micah himself was fighting that instinct to wrap his arms around Jackson’s waist and pull him down. Instead, Micah tilted his head to the side and let Jackson bury his nose in the juncture. The alpha mumbled, “Then tell me - seriously, what is it that omegas spend all day daydreaming about, hm?”
Micah’s breath caught in his throat as Jackson’s teeth nipped at the soft skin of his neck.
“Don’t,” Micah warned softly. “The nurses…”
“They’ll come in and see it, and they’ll go right back out,” Jackson promised. “That’s what these rooms are for.”
Micah wasn’t nearly as shameless off of his heat. The omega was undoubtedly happy about having an alpha between his legs. Who wouldn’t have been aroused by the possibility of a mid-morning fuck - especially with an alpha like Jackson, with his sharp gaze and his five o’clock shadow and his gruff voice and… fuck. Micah could’ve waxed poetic about all the ways the man got to him. But Micah’s face flushed hot at even the thought of a nurse pushing open the door and finding him in an indecent position. The omega had spent a lot of his life shying away from attention that wasn’t necessary; even the bond couldn’t get him to commit to exhibitionism.
“Jackson,” Micah moaned, putting his arms between their bodies and nudging gently against the alpha’s chest. “I don’t want them to see me like that again right now. Please.”
Jackson moved back, face gone soft with apology.
“Sorry,” he huffed. “Guess I still got a little bit of juice in me.”
Micah touched Jackson’s jaw gently in understanding, and then he began the slow process of extracting himself from the man’s body heat, slipping from beneath him to sit up properly. Jackson moved aside, though his eyes trailed the curves of Micah’s lean frame before he settled comfortably on the mattress beside him. Micah looked him up and down briefly, scared to egg the alpha on if he was caught looking for too long.
“At least it’s break,” the alpha said happily.
Micah had almost forgotten. Exams would be finished by now. He hadn’t turned a single thing in after his botched presentation, and so he was a bit behind. There was no doubt that he’d spend the next few days coordinating with his professors to do an additional sit-in for the exams he’d missed. With a long, drawn out groan, Micah opened his mouth to complain a bit, but a soft knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
“Alright boys,” A voice hummed. “I’m coming in!”
Jackson sighed and flopped back onto the mattress, burrowing himself in the stained and soiled sheets. Micah fumbled for a pillow and shoved it over his lap, and then he quickly grabbed a loose corner of the crumpled sheets and tossed it over the alpha behind him. It wasn’t as if the nurse hadn’t spent her entire career dealing with omegas in heat and alphas in rut; honestly, she was probably desensitized to the whole dick-in-hand thing. Still, Micah didn’t want to expose her to it unnecessarily.
Also, another omega looking at his alpha’s dick? No. He didn’t like that.
The nurse flitted in with a collection of plastic bags in her arms. She was the same older, sweeter woman from before. Mel, her name was. She fixed them both with a curious gaze that had Micah curling in on himself, and then she nodded her head and moved towards them with the bags.
“Your clothes, my dears,” she said, not an ounce of judgement in her tone. “Get dressed and then we’ll have someone come in and do a checkout exam.”
“Okay. Thank you,” Micah responded.
No matter which way he looked at it, these next few weeks were going to be an adjustment. He couldn’t wait for the hormones to stabilize. Right now, Micah felt jittery and needy, and the worst part about it was that he didn’t hate it. He’d read about these changes in books and had decided a long time ago to abstain from mating and bonding, and every sticky little inch of transformation that came with it.
But then all it took was a soft touch to his shoulder from the man behind him, and he forgot, again, what he was supposed to be abstaining from. Micah turned a little bit, trying not to melt under the smile of the man laying in the bed behind him. Where had this stupidly perfect man come from?
God, he was a shock to the system if Micah had ever heard of one.
Micah would just have to learn to deal with it.
* * *
There was a place on campus that was off the records.
Every student knew about it. It was a small, isolated corner of campus grounds that was covered by thick oak trees and neglected shrubbery. Somewhere in the midst of the foliage was an opening to a small field that was no bigger than a baseball pitch, and the students used it as a place to stow away. It was beautiful there; between seasons, it was maintained differently. In the summer, there were lawn chairs and a basket full of blankets for picnics. In the spring and fall, there were always umbrellas hidden beneath bushes, or raincoats left abandoned in the shrubs. In the winter, there were small fairy lights hanging from the branches that would sparkle discordantly when the batteries were running low.
Though there were times of year when the land beyond the shrubs was
packed full of bored or exhausted students, the holidays had cleared out the campus, and now it was empty. Micah slipped his way through the trees and the bushes only to find a desolate field. It was still beautiful. The ground was covered in an unmarked blanket of snow, the bushes were dusted white as if someone had spread powder over them, and the brown, uneven lines of the branches were a small bit of color in the otherwise beautiful monotony.
Micah adjusted his coat around his body and shoved his hands into the pockets of his thick coat. Then he stepped properly into the clearing.
The snow had started to fall ten minutes back and Micah walked as slow as a snail, no real purpose to his steps. It was as if he’d fallen into a snow globe, trotting his way to the center so that he could look up at an endless sky and feel the snowflakes melting against his skin. After finding a good spot, Micah laid down on his back and dropped his hands at his sides.
It’d been four days since Micah had left the heat room. Four days since he’d laid in a bed with an alpha - a stranger - and wrapped his arms around the man’s body for warmth. Each day since then had been a new type of whirlwind. Between the pining and the butterflies, Micah wasn’t sure what to make of it all. Did he hate it? Did he love it? God, if only he knew, perhaps then he could remove his boots and stop climbing the jagged hill of uncertainty.
The thing was, Micah had sworn off of love stories like these. Love, for an alpha and omega, was a tall tale. A white lie that people used to cope with their uncontrollable hormones. And these love stories, they started the same: with a hint of truth. The omega was sized up by a ruffian, an alpha that was larger than life, had the body of a god and the confidence of a king, and that omega fell to their knees for the attention. They were always so happy to spread their legs and be mounted, paying no mind to the burning beneath their skin that was forcing them to do it. In the end, they were bitten. Then, they were happy. The alpha was always on top, the omega was always pining at his feet.
The Omega Awakened: A M/M Omegaverse Erotic Short Fiction (Omegan Tales Book 1) Page 6