Another Weird Day
(3.3 Free Choice)
AN: I had a Worm fanfiction Bingo Card sitting on my computer for a while so I decided to start using it.
/Continues from Taylor's Weird Day/
Taylor played with her new bracelet uneasily as she walked out of the public library. The blue and gold banded bracelet on her right wrist was pretty glittering in the sun, she thought as she looked it over. It was an obvious mark of her new status as a presented omega.
Well, she grimaced thoughtfully, not fully presented yet. She still had her first heat to go through and she'd had to tell her dad that yesterday. Awkward didn't even begin to cover how she'd felt trying to talk to him about it. Still, the upside of yesterday was that she now had restraining orders on the trio and as such the school had to rearrange the other girls' schedules as they could no longer share any classes with Taylor. Sophia would also be facing charges for assault and would likely be getting expelled from school.
A passing alpha, an older business man in his late thirties, nodded to her as she waited for the bus. She gave him a small smile back. Her sharpening sense of smell told her that the alpha carried the ginger-tinted doubled scents of a mating bond. It was the first time Taylor was close enough to a mated alpha to smell it since Gina had mentioned it to her the day before after the police had left. The other omega was right that it dulled the alpha's scent a lot; he didn't smell even a quarter as appealing as other alphas she'd run into in the past twenty-four hours.
The bus Taylor was waiting for pulled to a stop in front of her, screeching and hissing noisily as the doors opened. A couple of adults, betas from the smell of it, got off before she could enter. She paid her fare and found herself being offered a seat by a young asian alpha, a man in his early twenties, who had stood when Taylor entered. She thanked him politely and noticed another older alpha standing to the side, his salt and pepper hair cut short enough to show a small E88 tatoo on the back of his neck.
The older alpha still gave her a polite nod though he seemed to choose to ignore the fact the younger alpha was even there. She merely nodded back and relaxed, thankful she wouldn't have to deal with aggressive alphas. All in all, it was a short and peaceful ride to the docks, where she would be meeting up with the Undersiders.
She'd found that message from Tattletale last night when she'd finally gotten to go on PHO after everything that had happened. Taylor thought about it all last night before deciding to answer it. So she'd asked her dad to drop her off at the library after he took her to get her bracelet that morning. She'd also put on her costume under her clothes on the chance that Tattletale wanted to meet, she did offer to get Armsmaster information of the villain capes if she could.
And she was right, Tattletale offered to meet her with Grue and Regent.
Getting off the bus and trying to find a place to disappear long enough to change was a challenge as alphas always turned to look at her when they smelled her coming. But finally she manage to slip into an alley and change, slipping on her mask first as she sent a dozen flies ahead to scout. She took note that the bugs touched down on bare skin on all three figures waiting for her as she climbed up to the rooftop. The villains stood there, dressed in causal clothes and unmasked as she approached them warily.
The blond, green-eyed girl's face slipped into a surprised expression as both boys leaned forward in interest. The pleasant crisp scent of two healthy alphas surprised Taylor in turn as she took in the gold and red bracelets the men wore. The bracelet on her own wrist was under her costume, but that didn't matter to the two alphas subtly taking in her scent.
"Well, congratulations on presenting, Bug," Tattletale grinned, a teasing look towards her teammates. "The past forty-eight hours seems like it was even more eventful for you than I was aware. Did you know that there are ten capes currently active in Brockton Bay who are also alphas? You, however, will be the first omega cape to pop up here."
Taylor winced, not sure how to take that tidbit. "Oh, huh. . . who-"
"Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Crusader, Lung, Armsmaster, Dauntless, Aegis, Shielder, Brian and Alec. You're probably pretty lucky you didn't present until after you took Lung down a couple of nights ago. I don't know what he'd try to do with an omega cape." Lisa answers before Taylor can finish asking. She finds herself feeling somewhat off-kilter at the blunt way Lisa delivered the information. And thinking over that last part Taylor decided she was pretty lucky there, a shiver running down her spine.
"That's enough, Lisa," the taller alpha cuts in before smiling gently at Taylor. "I'm Brian."
"Alec," the pretty alpha says bringing Taylor's attention to himself. He looked slightly uncomfortable under her gaze and cleared his throat, "And Bitch is Rachel, but she's not here."
"Hey, Alec," Lisa holds a hand out to the alpha. "I win."
Alec reluctantly pulled out and tossed a wad of bills over to the grinning beta. Lisa chirped a quick thanks and tucked it away in her purse. Brian let out a sigh, exasperation on his face.
"You bet on me?" Taylor asked, tilting her head thoughtfully, "On if I'd show?"
"Nah," Alec shook his head, picking up a bottle of cola from beside his feet, "It was on if you'd come in costume."
"And I won," Lisa repeated. She glanced at Alec then back to Taylor, "You can just ignore him. He's kind of weirded out over feeling sort of protective over you, but he'll be fine. It's the instinct thing, you know."
"Oh," Taylor looked back at Brian, "I can get that. I'm trying to get used to it too."
"Now, back to business," Brian said. Taylor looked over the other teens thoughtfully and gave a small nod at the taller alpha. Lisa smiled at her and Alec seemed torn between leaning closer and ignoring them.
"Sure, why not." Taylor agreed, "Why did you ask me here?"