Tim's head spun as he closed the door behind him and dragged himself the remaining distance to his bed. It almost seemed like too much effort, since he had a perfectly hospitable pile of dirty laundryright… everywhere, and he would be perfectly comfortable on the floor.

Mom and Dad are coming in tomorrow, though, he reminded himself. His parents, especially his mother, wouldn't abide by him sleeping on the floor because he was too sick to get all the way to his perfectly serviceable bed.

He dropped face-first onto his mattress with a groan. Was itreallyworth the effort of turning his face? At least suffocating would put him out of his misery.

It had been a mistake not to come home immediately when he'd started to feel bad, but the Gotham night sky had been such a perfect aesthetic, and Tim had wanted to see if Robin was going to turn up and join Batman. He hadn't for a few days, but Tim hadn't seen him get injured, and normally Robin helped Batman every night during the summer. In the end, it had cost him a grueling walk to the bus station once he'd finally realized that he was seriously getting sick, and another grueling walk from the bus station to his house.

He did, eventually, roll onto his side and pull off his camera bag, which landed with a padded thud on the floor next to him, before drifting off to sleep.

Tim was snatched roughly from sleep and his bed by strong hands. The world spun in a fog of blurry shapes and the scent of angry alpha, and a haze of an unfamiliar sweet smell. The biggest blur in front of him shook him furiously.

"What the hell is this!"

Tim blinked a few times to clear his vision, stunned to find his father dangling him by the collar of his night photography hoody he'd fallen asleep in.

"A jacket?" Tim mumbled sleepily.

Jack Drake snarled in a rage and threw Tim to the floor. Tim landed hard, his fall cushioned unevenly by discarded clothes.

Tim inhaled sharply and willed himself to wake up faster. Usually, he knew what he'd done to make his parents hate him, but this time, he was too thrown off by exhaustion, and the pain in his gut, and that overpowering stench of honey that seemed to cling to him. In fact, everything smelled more strongly than normal. His father's fury, his own fear, and the normally slight smell of beta disappointment that wafted in strong enough to alert him to the presence of Janet Drake in the doorway.

"I told you he was never going to be an alpha," his mother snapped, not even looking at him.

Tim winced at the anger and dismissal in her voice, and his own confusion, because nothing made sense and he couldn't understand what was going on or why they were mad, or why everything hurt. He just wanted to curl up in a small, dark place and hide. And what was that smell?

That sweet honey…

Omega.

Where had that come from? Neither of his parents were omegas, so who-

No.

No, no, no, no, no!

It was him.

Tim's heart pounded, and he tried to stand up, but Jack kicked him in the ribs.

"Thirteen years, raising you, feeding you, paying for your goddamn education, wasted! You're fucking useless!" Jack seized a fistful of Tim's shirt and slammed him against the wall. "What the fuck am I supposed to do with an omega for an heir, you stupid bitch!"

"I-" Tim started. His eyes stung fiercely, but his parents would be even more furious if he started crying too. He was an omega?

Tim couldn't be an omega. He'd heard the vitrious gossip and spite his parents had for omegas for years; how useless and pathetic they were, flighty whores ruled by their pendulum mood swings. Tim was pretty sure that he wasn't those things, or maybe he was a bit useless, but he tried his best. The thought of being just an omega to his parents was terrifying. Omegas didn't even have full rights.

"You-" Jack raised his fist and Tim flinched, hard, waiting for the blow.

Janet moved from her spot at the door with an air of utter contempt. "Jack, dear, don't hurt him."

Tim frowned, unable to reconcile her tone with her words. Janet Drake had never been a very maternal woman. She read him financial reports instead of bedtime stories, and had started teaching him how to manipulate his business rivals by the time he was five years old, but maybe, in her own way, she did care about him, and she just had a strange way of showing it.

His heart swelled in hope. If some kind of dormant maternal instincts had been awoken, seeing her pup in danger, she might save him before his dad beat him too much, even if he was a disappointment.

"He might be completely useless as an heir, but there are other uses for an omega in the business world, Jack."

Tim's hope withered and died with a pain worse than his father's kick, and this time he couldn't blink back the tears. "Mom?"

She locked eyes with him just long enough for her lip to curl in distaste.

Her eyes flicked to Jack and pointedly stayed there. "He's worth less if you break him. Set him down."

Jack growled unhappily, but he gave Tim a final shake before dropping his shirt.

Tim's knees crumpled under his weight, and he collapsed in a barely controlled fall. Tears streamed down his face, no matter how hard he tried to stop. This was so stupid, why couldn't he stop? He was acting just like the omegas that his parents hated so much, and his own body was betraying him, because it wouldn't let him stop crying like a baby or an omega.

"I'm sorry," Tim whimpered.

"Don't grovel," Janet said, her voice even and businesslike. "You might be an omega, but you're still a Drake. Act like it."

Tim swiped at his face with his sleeve and didn't sniffle. He lowered his gaze so they couldn't see his face. She was right; falling apart like this was a weakness, and Drakes weren't weak.

"I'm sorry, mother. I didn't mean to be-"

"What you meant doesn't matter. Only what you are," Janet interrupted. "You might be a lost cause as an heir, but there are still…possibilities. You can still redeem yourself."

Tim slowly raised his head so that he could bare his neck in submission. If he just behaved well enough, then they'd leave on their next grand adventure and forget about him for the next six months. He just had to placate them for the rest of their visit. They might pull him out of school, but he could maybe enroll himself in an online school without them knowing.

"Anything, mother," he whispered.

Jack glared at his wife, a question in his scowl. "What are you thinking, Jan?"

Janet raised her chin and smirked slightly. "I think that I've solved the problem we've been having with our…less cooperative business partner."

Realization dawned on Jack's face and settled into a vicious grin. "I see. How thoughtful of you."

Dread curdled in Tim's stomach. He wasn't any use to them as an heir anymore. If they wanted him to deal with a business partner who was giving them trouble- Surely they cared more about him than that. They wouldn't rent him out to solve their problems.

They wouldn't.

They would.

He knew it, just like he knew that the sky was blue and Bruce Wayne had poor coping mechanisms.

He wouldn't let them. He'd run before he let anyone touch him like that. He'd never submit.

But he didn't have a choice. He couldn't run from them. They had too much money; they'd find him wherever he went, and even if they didn't, could he really survive alone on the streets of Gotham? He was helpless.

"I'll set up a meeting. Do you think he'll accept, though?" Jack asked, stepping towards his wife as though his son on the floor was nothing but a broken toy.

"He has a different omega on his arm at every gala. Clearly, he likes their company quite a bit. He'll certainly accept a bride who cannot deny him, even if he tried," Janet said coolly.

Tim shuddered and tried to hide his tears. She wanted to give him to someone she knew would rape him, someone he couldn't escape. How- She was his mother, he knew that she didn't love him, but couldn't she care just a bit?

"I'm being sold?" He tried to say it calmly, confidently, but his voice broke into a strangled whimper.

His mother scoffed at him without even looking down. "Of course. There's no other use for an omega. You'll submit to your husband like a good whore, and your pack will benefit. This is your responsibility."

"Wh-who?" Tim couldn't choke out the rest of the sentence. Who had they decided would rape him?

His father crossed his arms. "You're going to marry Bruce Wayne."