Disclaimer: I don't own Netflix's "The Rain" or any of its characters, wishful thinking aside.
Authors Note #1: I recently got into "The Rain" and fell in love with the Martin x Simone pairing and the Jean x Lea pairing. This was mostly inspired by 1x08/post season credits, in an a/b/o universe setting. - This will be part of my Alpha/Beta/Omega series for this fandom, The "Pakke Series."
Warnings: alpha/beta/omega dynamics, care-taking, hurt and comfort, animal traits, scenting, language, drama, romance, alpha/omega pairings, dominance, pack dynamics, alpha!Martin, omega!Simone, alpha!Jean, omega!Lea, nudity, mildly dub-con due to trope, sexual content, references to knotting.
Uventet
Chapter One
It didn't take long after their escape from Apollon's headquarters for Jean to start shaking apart. He'd smelled it in the bunker when they'd been reunited. But now it was rank and tickling his nostrils. Overdue and sullen-thick.
Alpha rut.
A first rut.
Jean was presenting.
It'd taken him a moment, in all honesty. Because Jean was so leggy and colt-like. Young, quiet, but also mouthy. More like a beta than an alpha as he ranged around - shadowing Lea. Sulking. Determined. Grinning. Careful. Always eating. Rash. More to the point, he'd never challenged his authority like most alpha's would have by this point. If anything he'd been as predicable as a metronome, save for that moment at the doctor's house when he thought they'd lost him.
But the scent was unmistakable. And it had only gotten worse as time had gone on. With Simone and Lea watching wearily as Jean collapsed into his sleeping roll when they'd stopped for the night. Dead asleep before he could even put someone on watch.
Patrick had just given him a look and unfolded himself from the chair by table. Wandering up towards the mouth of the bunker with a look that clearly said 'deal with it, I've got this.' The echo of the safety flipping off one of the Stranger's guns they'd found in the trunk was more reassuring than he figured it should have been.
It'd only gone downhill from there.
Because soon enough Jean's skin was sheened with sweat, restless and uneasy as he twitched through the next handful of hours. Too out of it to know there was anything wrong when Lea woke him later. Coaxing him to drain a canteen and a couple packages of food as the others looked on. Painfully aware that while Lea had him eating from her hand, keeping him upright and steady as he struggled to sit up, he was growling under his breath at the rest of them. Warning them to keep their distance.
Lea's scent changed not long after that.
Receptive.
Open.
Omegan-sweet.
Christ.
They didn't have time for this.
He thought he'd gotten off lucky. Patrick, Rasmus and Beatrice were all firmly beta. Simone and Lea were omegas- which had been half of the reason he and Patrick had found the three of them in the first place. Lea's scent had been like a beacon. At first it had been because of her sex. Because he was an alpha and she was an omega. Because he was wired to be weak for the comforting smells she gave off whenever tensions mounted high. He hadn't realized he missed that subtle sweetness until there was no one left. It reminded him of home. Of what his mother and brother smelled like. That one teacher in senior year. The old lady down the street who always had cookies for the neighborhood kids - sitting in her ancient front porch swing, smiling as the world continued on around her.
Lea hadn't been interested in him. Not like that anyway. But the truth was, just having her close kept that part of him fed. At least until Simone came along. Because unlike Lea, Simone was his. He knew how it sounded, but it was true. He'd tried to run from it in the beginning. When everything was raw and new and he'd found himself herding her behind that thick steel door just to be able to think straight. He'd tried to push it away. To push her away. But she hadn't let him. Forcing him to face it before she even knew what 'it' was.
The truth was he'd never smelled anything like her. He'd never connected and clashed with someone so effortlessly. She'd been made for him, just like the stories said, nothing else made sense. It was the kind of draw that would have pulled them together sooner or later, even if the rain hadn't come.
But Jean hadn't scented as anything.
Here hindsight was at its most powerful. Because when he'd imprinted the kid's scent in the months that followed, there had been nothing obvious. It had been flat and anxious and uninteresting. But he could still remember having to hold back a sneeze. It had been spring and easy to explain away as allergies or dust. Especially considering Jean had never reacted to his alpha scent or challenged his authority. But now?
"Hey," Simone greeted softly. Startling him out of his thoughts as she closed the door to the store room behind her with a soft click. Padding over to where he was sitting on the floor, back against the wall. "You okay?"
"Yeah," he lied. Scrubbing at his face tiredly as he inhaled without filter. Taking in her scent as the recycled air slowly thinned Jean's scent into something a bit more bearable. Hating the part of him that couldn't control the need stalk out there and snarl a challenge. "Did you find anything?"
Jean was pack.
His pack.
He wasn't a threat.
Cool it already.
Simone waved a pack of suppressants mutely, before handing him a different box. He turned it over in his hands as he thumbed the label. Fingers skittering over Apollon's logo distastefully. Like even that could somehow be dangerous.
"Too little too late, I think," she hummed. Hair damp from the shower and clumping in endearing strings that framed her cheekbones.
He nodded. Even in the best circumstances trying to stop or delay an alpha's first rut was dangerous. If they tried now, after everything that'd happened, Jean would probably die. It happened sometimes, your heart just gave out. Unable to take the stress. It was the same with an Omega's first heat. There weren't enough pills in the world to make messing with that kind of biology worth it.
"Thanks," he murmured gratefully. Tearing into the packaging and carefully easing the capsule open. Dumping half the powder into the glass of water she handed him before easing the rest back into the dip in the cellophane. Half would be enough to take the edge off for a few hours. More than a few hours, probably. He hadn't been able to find scent blockers for years.
She just nodded, folding down next to him as their shoulders brushed. Invitation enough for him to lean in and bury his nose where her shoulder met her neck. Content to stay there until Simone finally broke the quiet.
"One of my friends...at school. She presented early. The first alpha in her family for five generations. Her parents were very proud. But the smells drove her nuts. She had to be nose-blind just to cope walking the halls everyday. I can't imagine what it's been like for you without them."
He pushed back the urge to reply. To tell her he'd been one of the lucky ones. That the military had handed out packs to all the alphas before they'd been sent out. He'd made his last. Figuring out how little he could use to get by. It was worse in the beginning. The stink of blood and sickness had made him empty his guts more than once behind the cover of the trucks. It was the smell of distressed omega that had been the worst. Like the woman on the highway. The scent had clung in his nostrils for days after - long after the stink of vomit and the faint tint of Per's betrayal had faded.
"Did you let her through? Martin? She was infected. Did you-"
Biology was cut throat and vicious like that. Omegan distress was a scent alphas were designed to respond to. Compelled to protect them, to get them through a heat. To make sure they were safe and provided for. But the rain had twisted it. Turning instincts into pitfalls that could kill everyone you cared about, on top of yourself.
The stink of alpha rut was just a bad smell on the best of days. Something that might rankle him if it popped up from the house next door or skirted the edge of his territory. But Jean coming into his first rut here? Like this? From someone he'd claimed as part of his pack? So close to Simone and the others - specially when food and space were in short supply? Well, it felt dangerously close to a challenge.
It wasn't Jean's fault.
Hell, the poor kid probably had no idea what was happening.
But none of that made it any more palatable.
"How is he?" he asked instead, already knowing the answer. He remembered his first rut. Even the parts he hadn't been lucid for. It felt like your skin was sloughing off. Like you wanted to bite and snarl and tear and fight your way into something that made sense. Something that was just outside your reach. Pulling desperately at your cock until you were raw and hurting, but you still couldn't stop. Knot heavy and swollen- twitching like new skin as your fingers squeezed over the bulge again and again. Desperate to take the pressure off even though you knew it was useless. Overwhelmed by a rush of scents, smells and tastes you'd been ignorant about until they were exploding through your senses. Tipping the line between losing control and blacking out until one of two things happened. You toughed through it alone or you found your mate.
In a way he was almost jealous.
How many alphas fell into their first rut with a willing omega at their side?
"About the same," she answered delicately. Enough to give him the impression she'd seen way more than she wanted too. Which made sense considering the last time he'd seen him Jean had been buck-naked and moaning into the floor tiles. Probably the only thing that didn't feel like a furnace on his overheated skin. "His fever is still spiking. He seems more lucid though. Lea is with him."
He snorted into her skin.
Of course she was.
"I talked to her, I think she's known for a while," Simone told him quietly.
That got his attention.
"Why didn't she say anything?"
Simone shook her head. Giving him a look that reminded him of every ex-girlfriend he'd ever had, plus a few friends. The one that clearly said- "Martin, how can you be so dumb?"
"I mean that she probably knew in that way a lot of us do if we listen to our instincts. He's already made his choice. He keeps reaching for her. He is tolerating me, barely. But he won't let Rasmus or Patrick within ten feet of the med bay. Rasmus and I haven't been around as long as the others, I get that, but are you really surprised they chose each other?"
No. Of course not.
Lea had been tuned into Jean from the start. Teasing him. Spoiling him. Looking out for him in more ways than one. The day he and Patrick had come across them in the woods, Lea was the one who'd stepped in front of Jean when he'd fallen. Looking into the barrel of his gun with her arms flung wide as the yellow of the kid's coat wavered behind her like a frightened beacon.
He'd just figured it was one sided.
More to the point, he hadn't really thought about it.
He cleared his throat. Something easing in his chest as the thought grew roots.
If it was mutual, that would make what came next easier.
"He doesn't know," Simone imparted softly, leaning her head into him. Hair damp against his shirt. "He asked Lea if he was sick. If the Strangers had done something to him. How could he not know? Didn't he get tested? More to the point- why is this happening now? He should have had his first rut years ago. Or at least when he met Lea… I think she's his, you know? And I think she knows it."
He shook his head, storing the last part away to chew on later.
"Not all of us have been in a bunker for the last five years, Simone," he said gently. There hasn't been enough food to go around for a long time. A rut – especially a first rut - requires a lot of energy. It wasn't until the bunker that we had not just enough to eat, but a surplus."
Still, it wasn't an unreasonable question. Most alphas presented in their late teens or early twenties. But Jean had never shown any sign he was anything other than a beta.
Until now.
Everything was going to change for him now.
They'd all heard of cases where a presentation was delayed due to extreme circumstances. Presenting early in a stressful situation wasn't unheard of either. Both were equally well documented. Especially in terms of the alpha rut. If there wasn't enough food or the alpha wasn't in a defensible location, somewhere he or she was comfortable with, the rut could be held off. At least for a little while.
When the rain came, it'd gone one way or another.
Either you were shocked into presenting early or the entire thing was delayed.
Still, he wasn't stupid enough not to assume that the Strangers didn't have something to do with it. Jean had snapped at the doctor's cottage. There was history there. Something he wasn't privy too. Something Jean had kept close to the chest. Hidden.
"What are we going to do?" Simone asked. "We don't have a lot of time. His fever is going to break and when he comes out of it and senses Lea-"
The reality of their situation was left unspoken. That they couldn't stay here. That Apollon would be coming for them, sooner or later. That the bunker was too close to the boundary wall. That they didn't have a choice. That Jean needed time they didn't have. That-
"We can't leave until his rut is over," he answered with a sigh. Hoping the decision wasn't going to bite them all in the ass later.
He leaned back against the cool metal wall. Lacing his fingers together with Simone's as he concentrated on just breathing. Mentally preparing himself for what happened next until Simone squeezed his hand gently. Courting his attention.
"But there is something I need to do first," he finished, finally. Feeling the strain trickle back into his muscles like saying it out loud made it real somehow.
Simone just nodded.
Like she already knew.
He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to that.
A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. There will be more to come.
Reference:
- uventet: Danish for "unexpected."