When Kotetsu made it to Sternbild, he found many, many more Alphas living there. As a mega-metropolis, statistically, there would be more Scented people born there than anywhere else, but birth rate didn't account for all of it. Scented people from small towns often voyaged to the City to take advantage of this larger mating pool, which inflated the Scented population even higher. All those Scented people living together invented their own subculture, with entire bars, clubs, and even shops dedicated to letting them mix and mingle, claim and be claimed.
Kotetsu avoided those Scented centers like no tomorrow, but gay Alphas didn't only exist in specialized social haunts. They went everywhere that normal people went: grocery stores. The dry cleaner. The bank. Restaurants. They worked for TopMag. The absolute worst was whenever Kotetsu passed an Alpha walking on the streets. He'd catch the Scent, then immediately close his mouth and hold his breath, swallowing down the Scent in his nose before it bothered him too much. Meanwhile, every time an Alpha passed, Kotetsu felt him stare, and in many instances do a double-take. And Kotetsu wanted to punch them for checking him out like that.
In fact, in Sternbild, Kotetsu found two different kinds of Alphas. One of them was the normal kind, strong-smelling and pushy, willing to approach Kotetsu for any reason, sometimes with more plausible conversation starters ("So, you work in the TopMag building?") to the frankly ridiculous ("So… these carrots look good.") They'd use these openers to follow a very predictable script: approach Kotetsu, call him single, ask him out. Kotetsu practically got bored with turning them down.
And then there was the second type of Alpha. They smelled normal, for the most part, but with a hint of an after-Scent that reminded Kotetsu of the way milk smells right before it goes bad. His brain read that signal surprisingly clearly, and each time Kotetsu was near one of these Alphas, he could feel the Scent telling him, This one is not for you. This second category of Alphas still checked Kotetsu out and did most everything normal Alphas did, but they never approached Kotetsu for conversation. They just hung in the background, leering.
Kotetsu described the off-smelling leer-ers to Tomoe once, on the couch after dinner, and she put the pieces together pretty well.
"Those have to be the claimed Alphas," Tomoe explained. "Since they've already chosen an Omega to mate with, they aren't going to smell the same as single Alphas. It's a sign that they aren't available—a biological wedding ring."
"Good for them," Kotetsu scratched at his beard. Why anyone in his right mind would choose to marry an Alpha, he couldn't say.
"Do the paired ones give you any trouble?"
"No, but they'd probably be in a lot of trouble if their Omegas saw the way they looked at me…"
"My poor Tiger," Tomoe slid a little closer and wrapped her arms around Kotetsu's middle. "I hadn't been thinking about Scenting in the city. This isn't fair to you at all."
"I wasn't thinking about it, either," Kotetsu shifted an arm and held Tomoe back. "Still, none of it's so bad that I want to go back."
"Alphas won't stop you from being a hero, will they?"
"Never."
"And hey," Tomoe looked up and grinned. "Next time you have an Alpha on your case, give them my number. I'll scare them off."
Kotetsu smiled a little bit. "Thanks."
He appreciated the offer, he really did. But Kotetsu had already tried to dissuade the single Alphas, the ones who hit on him, with his relationship status. He got faster and faster at giving the response, "Sorry, I have a girlfriend" any time an Alpha approached. He updated that statement to "Sorry, I have a fiancée" and "Sorry, I'm married" in due time.
But he kept getting the same counter-point. "Well, so long as it's not another Alpha, it's okay."
The first time he heard that, Kotetsu couldn't believe his ears. He just stared blankly as one Alpha—a man with a Scent vaguely like a fruit bowl—explained his point of view.
"It's fine if you're in love with someone else. I don't mind," he said. "But you're ignoring your own body. No one can replace what an Alpha does for an Omega."
The Alphas all brought their own reasons. They tried to tempt him with the stereotypes of being paired: having an Alpha guardian, living worry-free, good sex. They claimed that Tomoe wouldn't mind if an Alpha claimed Kotetsu, because she "knew what she was getting into." There were a few who, when Kotetsu told them he was married, responded, "So am I." They told him he needed to obey his biology. Obey his Scenting. Submit.
When the rhetoric started getting that intense, Kotetsu couldn't stand it any more. With a few swift moves, Kotetsu would grab the Alpha and bend him into a headlock, and with the jerk trapped and forced to listen, Kotetsu would tell him something very important.
"I've never had an Alpha in my life, and I don't need one now. Back off."
The headlock technique proved astoundingly effective. Some ran away out of fear for their own lives, and Kotetsu had no problem with that. Others just lost interest once Kotetsu proved he had no intention of being submissive—a dominant Omega grated against every neuron in their biology-locked brains, and practically negated their attraction. A few got upset, threatening that Kotestu would never get a mate with an attitude like his. And Kotetsu was absolutely okay with that.
He rarely had to headlock a man more than once. And even if repeat offenders didn't get the message, Kotetsu had no qualms about driving his point as deep into their thick skulls as it could go. He had no interest in any Alpha. He never had, and he never would.
When Kotetsu made it to the hero scene, Wild Tiger enjoyed a vacation from the usual harassment. Not many people spent a lot of time sniffing him while he was fighting crime, and the masses of Sternbild's population stayed on the other side of a smell-proof screen. As an unexpected bonus, sometimes fans would theorize about Kotetsu's potential Scenting, and using his strong Hundred Power and aggressive property damage as evidence, most people assumed that Wild Tiger was an Alpha. Rumors circulated every so often with untraceable friend-of-a-friend sources that "verified" Wild Tiger was an Alpha, but since the whispers contradicted each other over whether he was cued for males or females, the general population agreed he was probably just a Beta, not about to dominate or submit to anyone.
Then, there was The Story. And Kotetsu's Wild Tiger shelter crumbled into dust.
Kotetsu had an interview for Hero Monthly with an oily-haired reporter who turned out to be a gay Alpha. Though the odor of Alphas was always heavenly, this reporter smelled rather average when compared to others Kotetsu had met before. His Scent seemed kind of teal-colored, and even sitting very close to the man, the pheromones never achieved overpowering levels. The Alpha reporter definitely checked out Kotetsu, looking him over from head to toe, but drew no attention to Kotetsu's Scent. Kotetsu supposed that Alphas could be professional, too, and leave Scenting aside for the sake of their job.
The interview itself was very routine: Wild Facts about Wild Tiger. Ben had already shown Kotetsu all the questions beforehand, so he breezed through the answers even with a bit of cottony Alpha fog in his head. The story ran in Hero Monthly just as expected, but the story that didn't appear in Hero Monthly—the one that the reporter sold to a celebrity gossip magazine for God knew how much money—caused a much bigger stir.
Wild Tiger: A Wild Omega with male cuing.
The article was short. There wasn't much the reporter could do to drag out his story. He introduced himself as a gay Alpha, gave a bit of personal history, and then recounted his experience at the interview, walking into the room and coming face-to-face with Wild Tiger's Scent. Which he then described in more detail than Kotetsu ever wanted to hear.
"Just sitting in the same room with him is a paradise, a dream. He's literally hypnotic, and it took all of my professional willpower to stay on task. I've never met an Omega with a Scent equal to his, and I can only describe it as miraculous that he—as of the publication of this article—is completely unclaimed. There exists somewhere one very lucky male Alpha, possibly even unknown to Tiger, who will claim him. That Alpha will have both the privilege of enjoying his unique and luscious Scent and the pride of conquering a high-powered hero."
Kotetsu didn't want to leave the house after The Story ran, but he still had to go into TopMag. Ben consoled him as best he could; they couldn't get the secret back under wraps, and in hindsight they should have had a press conference of their own earlier, but they can sue. Not only did the reporter break the trust of his contract with TopMag, but they had a very strong case against him, since they could claim he compromised a hero identity in addition to his contract breach.
"We can't undo the damage," Ben summarized. "But we can still take a stand."
"Wild Tiger, how do you respond to allegations that you are an Omega?"
"Ah, they're… they're true. I, Wild Tiger, am an Omega cued for males. This does not in any way affect my ability to protect the peace of Sternbild. I will not allow my Scenting to prevent me from protecting this city. An Omega is viewed as a naturally submissive person, but I reject that. Being an Omega does not make me weak, and I don't need an Alpha to be complete. Omegas are not inferior at any job simply by being an Omega. I will continue, as I always have, to defend Sternbild against any and all danger."
"Does this mean you will never mate?"
"Basically, yeah. I've never had an Alpha in my life, and I definitely don't need one. Stop asking about it."
That bold statement turned out to work against Kotetsu. Well, the part that Ben and the publicity team had scripted was perfect, eloquent, inspiring even. But Kotetsu's ad-libbed statement, vowing that he didn't need an Alpha, caused a stir almost as bad as The Story that outed him.
The sponsors loved it. The Unattainable Omega slant captivated public interest, and they could net a huge profit if they played their cards right. But, the right cards meant throwing Kotetsu to the Alphas like a steak to a pack of wolves. No one would stay interested in an Omega who foreswore Alphas and then never had any contact with them (forget that the public had no view into Kotetsu's ordinary life as it crossed paths with the ordinary lives of Alphas). They needed to test Kotetsu's resolve, expose him repeatedly to Alphas and see if this time, he'd fall.
They wanted to shoot a dating show.
"Mr. Ben, I can't do it!" Kotetsu protested. "My wife is pregnant! I—I have a wife! I can't be on a dating show if I'm not single!"
"I know you don't like it, but if you want to keep causing property damage the way you do, we need the sponsors to like you. They're the reason you're able to be a hero."
Kotetsu ran a hand through his hair and chewed his tongue. I just had to open my big mouth…
"Besides, I know they're playing up an angle, but this is a good chance for you to walk the talk. We can't, and won't, force you to let the show winner claim you. Having an Omega that resists unsatisfactory partners as a public celebrity sets a great example, if anyone else is struggling with what you're facing."
Kotetsu chewed his tongue a little harder.
"I won't green-light anything until you've talked it over with Tomoe, okay? But the studio needs an answer, yes or no, by the end of the week."
He had no idea how to even bring up the subject. When he arrived home, they kissed hello and settled in for the evening, but Kotetsu couldn't relax. He channeled his nerves into attention toward Tomoe, offering massages for her shoulders and feet, checking that she had a full glass of mango-limeade (an inexplicable craving of her pregnancy) fluffing pillows for her, and trying to keep the conversation focused on Tomoe and her day.
But Tomoe, as usual, proved a little too smart for that. "You're acting strange," she told him.
"It's strange when I take care of my wife?" Kotetsu asked, and he forced a chuckle. "I need to work harder at being a good husband, if you think that."
"It's not weird that you're taking care of me. It's weird that you won't look me in the eye."
Oh. Oops. Kotetsu needed to work on getting rid of that tell.
"What's wrong?"
"Um… It's…"
"Don't make me play twenty questions. What's wrong? What happened?"
"Something Mr. Ben told me at work," Kotetsu began. "The sponsors… really like that I'm an Omega."
"Really?"
"Well, they like that I'm an Omega and I said the stuff that I said," Kotetsu continued, words falling out of his mouth in a rush. "They think it's exciting that I don't want to mate even though Alphas like me so they think it's just a matter of time and if I meet enough Alphas then I'm gonna be okay with at least one of them and they want to sponsor that and show it to the TV audience—they want to make a dating show!"
The confession ended the flood. Silence stood in the Kaburagi living room.
"They… want me to be on a dating show," he repeated. "If I do it, Mr. Ben says I'll get more sponsors, which will help with all the damage fines… And it could send a good message if I don't pick a winner…"
Tomoe still didn't say anything. Kotetsu stared at the floor.
"I'm sorry to put you through all this. You deserve better than a pathetic, gay Omega."
"Hey now," Tomoe stood up from her pillow-nest and approached Kotetsu. She smoothed his hair aside and kissed his forehead.
"Kotetsu T. Kaburagi," she said. "You are a kind, strong, loving, funny, and handsome man. You are not pathetic. And never for a single second do I regret marrying you. Do you understand?"
He nodded, a bit sheepish.
"And none of this situation is your fault. You didn't choose to be an Omega, and you didn't choose your cuing. Maybe a comment or two made people think in a certain direction, but you're brave and strong for speaking your mind. I'm proud of you."
"Okay," Kotetsu agreed. Even if he still blamed himself, knowing Tomoe didn't blame him eased his mind a little.
"You said it yourself—the dating show would help bring in sponsors, and sponsors let you continue being a hero. That's the most important thing. For everything else… I trust you."
Kotetsu blinked. "Eh?"
"You said that you have the option to not pick a winner, right?"
"I—I think so. At least, Mr. Ben said they can't force me to hook up with him. But they might just decide to do it all over again, make another contest!"
"I trust you to choose me," Tomoe smiled, and she kissed him again, this time on the lips. "Okay? I believe in you."
Kotetsu hugged her around the middle, and kissed her growing belly for good measure. "Thank you, Tomoe."
In the moment, part of him wished Tomoe had put her foot down and refused to allow the dating show. But a larger part felt relieved, calmed, and flooded with love that Tomoe understood and accepted him for who he was, Omega and all.