Chapter Text
Ben never expected that he would end up as the sole guardian of a teenage girl – an unmated omega teenage girl, no less. It’d been a shock when a random government worker stopped by his office, grumbling over how difficult it’d been to get anyone to bring him up to the executive level before informing Ben that he should expect a home visit from social services in a few days.
Guardian. Him.
His head was spinning as he read through the paperwork that had been shoved at him, confused and curious and a bit sad realizing why this was happening.
Having children was always something he’d wanted – eventually – but so far, the right omega hadn’t come along. But he wasn’t in a hurry. He had plenty of time, even if it was getting harder to ignore the empty nest in his house, and besides, all his work at the First Order took up most of his time now that he was in charge of the company.
Someday, he told himself. Someday, he’d find his mate and have a house full of pups. It just wasn’t supposed to be today.
Raising someone else’s kid hadn’t been part of his plans. It wasn’t like he was necessarily opposed to the idea, per se, but he’d never given it any thought.
Everyone knew alphas could be unpredictable when they didn’t have an omega’s soothing presence, and the longer an alpha went without a mate, the worse it got. And now that he was fast approaching 40, his alpha instincts were becoming stronger – louder – and it was increasingly harder to ignore his urge to dominate – his need to control everything around him.
It was part of what made it so easy to get rid of Snoke when Ben was ready to take over the First Order. Wresting control from his mentor, ousting him from the company, and bringing everyone underneath him to heel was much smoother when they were already a little afraid of the powerful alpha.
But while it might have benefited his career to be so aggressive, Ben knew it’d be a mistake for him to raise a teenager by himself. Really, he didn’t know what the state had been thinking when they’d dropped off an unmated, unclaimed, freshly presented omega at his house because there was no way this wouldn’t end in a disaster.
Probably hadn’t been thinking, he decided, remembering the scrawny beta that practically shook in his boots when Ben opened the door.
He couldn’t help but laugh when he noticed the tiny omega standing next to the beta social worker was glaring at him defiantly. By all accounts, she should have been the one cowering, especially when he’d accidentally slipped into his alpha voice, but instead, he could practically feel the attitude rolling off her.
It was almost adorable how she tried to remain unaffected.
His hands itched to discipline her. To show the omega her place. To give her undeniable proof that he was the alpha here. Her alpha.
Fuck. No. What the hell was going on with him?
Ben might have been more concerned about his reaction just then, but he was too distracted by everything the beta was saying. Tai – his best friend from college – had been in an accident almost two years before. It’d taken a while to process everything, but they’d found an old will that named Ben as Rey’s guardian and had finally tracked him down.
Despite already knowing most of this information, thanks to the packet that had been left in his office a few days before, Ben was still in shock that this was happening. It’d been years since he’d even talked to Tai, and he’d forgotten all about the fact that his old friend had a kid old enough to be a teenager. Though, the more he thought about it, memories started to come back, remembering how Tai had panicked, pacing around their dorm room as he confessed that his beta girlfriend told him she was pregnant.
The whole situation had been messy, and Ben only had the vaguest memory of the girlfriend, but he knew that she’d signed away all her parental rights and disappeared as soon as the baby had been. And Ben recalled sitting with Tai as they waited for the nurse to bring the baby out, nodding his agreement when Tai asked if he would sign the guardian papers – just in case something happened.
But that had been a lifetime ago.
Time must have passed faster than he thought because the last time he’d seen Rey, she’d been just a baby that Tai had been struggling to raise by himself. But his friend had been a good dad. Little Rey had everything she could ever need.
He’d visited Tai regularly that first year, always bringing something with him for Rey – an overly stuffed brown teddy bear that was about the same size as her, a teething toy, some building blocks, and anything that seemed appropriate for an infant – but as time went on, the visits became fewer and farther apart. The friendship slowly faded when Tai took leave from school while Ben was applying to grad school programs, and by the time he’d started working for Snoke, it was completely cut off.
He'd have thought that Tai would have named a new guardian after all these years, but there wasn’t a lot Ben could do about it now.
Sure, he could contest the guardianship, he supposed. The government wasn’t cruel enough to force a minor to stay with a guardian who refused to take responsibility, but his alpha instincts were screaming at him not to let her leave. The little omega might be scowling at him from across the dining room table as the beta went over everything they both needed to know about the custody arrangement – and Ben was pretty sure he’d be dead right then if looks could kill – but Ben knew he needed to take care of her.
Even the idea of letting her go back to the omega group home was enough to make the hair on the back of his neck rise, a growl building in his chest at the thought of her being out there without an alpha nearby to protect her. Without him nearby to scent her and mark her and keep her safe from all the bad alphas out there.
No. Rejecting this little omega wasn’t an option. It was best that he just do whatever this beta social worker was going on about. Besides, according to the documents, Rey was 16. She’d be a junior in high school in a few weeks. There were less than two years left, and then she’d probably be off to college or something, he reasoned.
Two years. He could do this. It wouldn’t be that hard. Right?
The first few weeks were okay enough, he supposed. They weren’t great, though, Ben knew that much at least.
He’d never seen such an angry, feisty little omega before. Ben knew she was still processing all the changes she’d gone through in the past few months, so he tried to give her space, but Rey argued about everything – the new clothes he’d instructed his assistant to get for her after noticing that most of the clothes she’d arrived in were practically worn through to even arguing over the allowance Ben tried to give her.
Nothing made her happy.
His instincts urged him to correct her. Bring her to heel. Scent her. Bit her. Bury himself in her peachy little ass until she recognized him as her alpha.
God. He shouldn’t even be thinking such things. She was too young. Still a minor. And more to the point, he was her guardian.
But there was just something about Rey that fascinated Ben – no omega had ever drawn his attention like this – and nothing he did to distract himself worked. He tried to justify his interest by the fact that she wasn’t afraid of him like everyone else was, but he knew the truth.
It was far more than her attitude – her unexpected defiance – because the little omega’s scent was intoxicating – enthralling – almost overwhelming – as it tempted him. And now that her scent was starting to mingle with his throughout the house, Ben was afraid that when the time came, he wouldn’t be able to let Rey go. He wanted to keep her.
It was bad. About a week after she moved in, Ben resorted to stashing emergency blockers and rut suppressants all over the house – just in case – and he’d even gone to his doctor to get the strongest thing on the market.
That had been a nerve-wracking experience trying to come up with a believable excuse for why he needed his suppressants increased. Ben didn’t want to raise any suspicions, and really, his doctor didn’t need to know that he didn’t trust himself around Rey, so he lied about the pheromones at work, claiming that the mix of scents from some of his employees was causing an issue.
It worked.
The doctor had just nodded and wrote him a script. And Ben didn’t even wait until he left the pharmacy parking lot to take his new suppressants – his hands almost shaking as he opened the bottle, desperate to get some relief. But as soon as he got home, he knew they would be enough.
He could still smell Rey’s delectable little scent everywhere. The living room. The kitchen. The bathroom. Even his bedroom had traces of her.
God. He was so fucked.
Ben knew he was going straight to hell the first time she pranced out of her room with just a t-shirt and panties on, the tiny hint of lace peeking out around the bottom of the shirt.
“Morning,” Rey grumbled, not bothering to glance in his direction as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. He’d learned that first week that she was decidedly not a morning person.
“M… morning, Ome – Rey,” Ben stumbled over his words, absently starting to scratch the gland on his wrist as she brushed past him.
It was torture watching as her little tits bounced under the thin shirt she wore while she moved about the kitchen – god, he wanted to find out if they tasted as sweet as they looked – and just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, she stretched up to grab a bowl, and the shirt rode up, revealing the bottom of her ass.
Fucking hell…
It was peachy and round and perfect, and Ben had to swallow a groan, realizing her lacy pink panties barely covered anything. His cock was already rock hard, aching as it rubbed uncomfortably against the zipper of his pants. It took everything had to stay still – to not press Rey against the counter and discover all the little secrets that lay between her thighs – even as his hands itched to raise the shirt a little more, wanting to reveal all of her glorious ass.
Fuck.
He wanted to feast on her. To discover if his omega was just as feisty in bed as she was with everything else or if she’d surprise him. Maybe if he bit her. A tiny nip of the mating gland resting at the base of her neck. Just enough to mark her as his…
Hell. Straight to hell. There was no doubt about it now.
Ben knew he’d never be the same again when he rushed back to his room once she was safely in the shower. Work could wait, he decided, almost ripping his pants in his haste to get them off. He hardly noticed how the front was already stained with pre-cum as he tossed them across the room, sighing in relief when he wrapped his hand around his aching cock.
Fuck. He hadn’t been this on edge since high school.
He pumped his cock, imagining that his omega was here – that it was her hand wrapped around his cock – but it wasn’t enough to relieve his growing ache. He needed more. And even though he knew he shouldn’t – knew what he was doing was wrong – after another futile stroke of his cock, Ben caved and grabbed the stolen scrunchie hidden in the back of his nightstand.
He hadn’t planned on taking it, but in a moment of weakness the other night, he’d spotted it on the counter after Rey had gone to bed, and he’d grabbed it, burying his nose in the smooth, silky texture as he huffed the omega’s scent. Oh god.
Guilt weighed on him when he’d hidden it in his room, but now, as he took a deep sniff of the scrunchie, a deep groan escaped him. Fuck, it still smelled just like her.
After a moment’s indecision, he moved it down, dragging the scrunchie across his skin before going even lower to run it along the length of his cock. And then he repeated the motion, his hips bucking up into his hand as he pictured Rey wearing the scrunchie while she played with his cock.
Teasing him.
Licking him.
Sucking him into her mouth.
Over and over and over again, he repeated the movement, grinding against the scrunchie as he struggled to keep from crying out his omega’s name.
With every stroke, his mating gland felt like it was on fire, and Ben knew that he was playing with danger as he hovered right on the edge of a rut. But it didn’t take much before he was coming – his knot popping as he spilled hot, sticky cum all over his hand, staining her scrunchie.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
A minute or two passed as Ben lay on the bed, sweaty and breathing hard while his mind raced, trying to come to terms with what he’d just done. Coming might have provided a brief moment of relief, but he slowly realized that it left him feeling unsatisfied even as his stomach churned with guilt.
He’d never – never – popped a knot outside of his ruts, but he’d somehow just popped while masturbating to the thought of Rey. Why the fuck did the state think it was okay for him to be alone with the little omega?
He was going to fucking ruin her. He just knew it.