Chapter Text
Regulus had always known that his life would be complicated. How could it not? Abusive parents, absent brother, repressed sexuality- all coming together to form the one and only Regulus Black. He wasn’t quite sure which of these factors got him to a grungy bar in the lower part of town. All he knew was that the itch under his skin was slowly increasing, his teeth were starting to ache, and a solution needed to be acquired sooner rather than later.
In addition to everything else in his disastrous childhood, he had presented as an omega at the age of fourteen. This had come with complications; his beta mother and father being vastly disappointed in him at the top of the list.
**
He remembered the night it happened, how he had woken with what felt like a hot poker stabbing into his stomach. He had crawled, crawled, to Sirius’s room through a haze of pain and delirium, hoping his brother would know a way to make the pain stop. To his horror, he had found an empty room and an absent suitcase. That was the night Sirius had left the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black for good. But Regulus didn’t know that. All Regulus had known was hot, sweaty pain that made him want to rip his stomach out of his body, and that Sirius wasn’t there to help.
Weakly, Regulus had called for Kreacher, and upon seeing his condition, an appalled Kreacher had fetched his parents. He would never forget Mother’s disgusted face at his writhing on the floor of his brother’s empty room. With a snarl to her lip, Mother had leveled a look at Father and stated that he would have to be handled in the morning, then turned and left the room as quickly as she had arrived.
Regulus, confused and aching, had reached out to his father’s ankle with a shaking hand to prevent him from walking out behind her. Looking back, he isn’t sure why he sought comfort from Father in that moment. A moment of weakness. A fog of pain so heavy he couldn't stop the weak moans from leaving his lips. Father had snatched his foot back like he had stepped too close to a venomous snake, rather than his fourteen-year-old son. The kick delivered to Regulus’s ribs afterwards shattered any illusions he had about receiving help that night. Two of his ribs had cracked, he found out later. At the time, he hadn’t even flinched from the fetal position he had taken due to the pain low and deep inside of him.
“You have always,” his father had spat from above him, “and always will be, a disappointment to this family. This just further confirms what we already knew about you. A disgusting leech to the Black name.”
At this, Regulus had finally begun to sob. He remembers wanting the hot, searing sensation to stop just for a second, for him to catch his breath and process the events falling into catastrophic pieces around him.
“I don’t understand, Father, please,” he had choked out, trying to look at the man looming above him through his tears.
His father had taken a step back, smoothed his hands down the front of his pajamas, and stated, “We will address this in the morning.” With that, he had walked out and left Regulus to his pain.
He doesn’t know how long he stayed on the floor, trying to breathe through the horrible, burning pain that wouldn’t relent. He vaguely remembers Kreacher, that angel of a house-elf, quietly stating, “Master Regulus must be returning to bed.” With strength unknown to Regulus, the house-elf had painstakingly aided him in returning to his room, to his bed. As Kreacher had turned to leave, Regulus had begged for the second time that night, “Please tell me what is happening, Kreature. What is happening to me?”
The house-elf had grabbed his ears and began pulling on them in distress, “Master must be knowing. Master smells like one. Master must be knowing he is.”
With the small amount of cognition he had left, Regulus had desperately tried to process what Kreature had said. “Smells? Kreature, what -” he had cut himself off with a gasp. No. No, that couldn’t possibly be what he meant-
“Kreature,” he had whispered, his voice so, so weak, “do I smell like an omega?”
At this, Kreacher had yanked his ears down in front of his eyes to prevent him from looking directly at the house-elf and had almost wailed, “The first, Master Regulus. You’s be the first Master smelling like omegas.” He had turned and run out of Regulus’s bedroom at that.
Regulus had, on the cusp of unconsciousness, thought to himself, No, he’s wrong. I can’t be a monster. I can’t be worse than I already am; I won’t survive it. And with that thought, he had finally succumbed to the pain- small, helpless, and alone.
**
Now, Regulus glanced around the bar from where he was leaning against one of the more shadowed walls. He subtly took a deep breath in, trying to see if it was worth the effort of fighting his way up to the bar to grab a drink before leaving.
There we go, he thought with satisfaction as he picked up at least three alpha scents. They were weak, obviously being covered by some sort of scent blocker. But if someone frequents bars like this, they certainly can’t afford the quality of blockers that would prevent him from smelling them completely.
Contrary to popular belief, money can solve the majority of problems people face. For example, the scent blocker he had routinely applied this morning. His parents, deeply embarrassed by their now only son, had dished out only the finest to hide his faults. A well-paid, discreet healer visited yearly to ensure that his customized scent blocker worked efficiently, never allowing for anyone to doubt for a second that he was a beta, just like the rest of House of Black.
However, even with the best that money could buy, he still couldn’t buy himself a solution for his heats. Once a year, he holed himself up in a secluded mountain cabin and suffered them alone, with strong alcohol and stronger painkillers to keep him company. That’s what his parents believed, anyway.
At twenty-three years old, Regulus had this down almost to a science. This was his fifth year finding an alpha to unknowingly help him through his heat, and finding the actual alpha was always the most difficult part. They were so good at hiding themselves nowadays.
Before Regulus presented, he had very little knowledge about alphas and omegas. He knew omegas were horrible creatures, and he knew alphas were far and few in between. Omegas were vile; they murdered alphas to survive. Alphas were forced to go into hiding as soon as they presented, and if they claimed to be betas as they wore their scent blockers, no one was the wiser.
But Regulus didn’t think he was bad. He was handed a hard life, and he knew that from the beginning. But he wasn’t bad. He wasn’t vile. Before he presented, he had wanted to start a charity focusing on preventing child abuse and neglect once he was older. He still wanted that. That was one of the many complications of his new life that he would have to revisit another day.
**
After his presentation, while speaking to an extremely nervous beta healer, he was told why omegas were horrible. “You have to feed from the alphas you mate with, sir,” the healer had stated in a hushed tone, nervous around him and of his parents in the next room over. “Most of the time, omegas get… carried away during the act, and the alphas aren’t strong enough to handle the mating and the blood loss in tandem.”
At Regulus’s struck expression, the healer had hesitantly continued, “It is an instinct. I’ve been a healer for a long time, and the amount of alphas I’ve seen be rushed into the hospital far too late by omegas who thought they could control their bloodlust is monumental. They can’t help it, no matter how hard they try to fight the urge. It's in their biology. To only allow for the strongest of the alphas to reproduce. But… I’ve never heard of a successful coupling between an omega and an alpha in all my years. Not where the alpha comes out on the other side.”
Regulus had sat there, trying to process what was being said to him. “Why do we even have to do that? Why can’t I just not drink blood? I don’t-,” he had paused, searching for a solution in his fourteen-year-old mind, “I don’t think I need to do that now. I didn’t feel anything like that when I went through it last night.”
The healer had looked at him pityingly and glanced at the door, perhaps to see how open she could be. “You weren’t around an alpha or their pheromones. The smell of an alpha, combined with an omega being in heat, activates the omega’s bloodlust. We aren’t sure why omegas require blood during matings. It's hard to research it due to the circumstances, but we think it has something to do with omega vitality and lifespan. That was also your first heat, it wasn’t nearly as intense as the ones to come.” She had flicked her eyes once more to the doorway, “My best advice for you is to stay away from alphas during your heat and endure it alone. It will be the most painful action you ever perform, but it will save lives. No matter how strong-willed you are, no matter how hard you try, you can’t fight instinct. This is the only way to prevent death at your own hands.”
After this, the healer had stepped out and addressed his parents, stating she would have his scent blocker delivered by the next day. Regulus had doubted her claims, but he had kept them tucked away, silently acknowledging the possibility that she could be right.
“It wasn’t nearly as intense as the ones to come” was the statement he kept circling back to as his fifteenth year had progressed and he had approached his next heat.
She was right. He had been miserable. His first heat was almost laughable compared to the two days of indescribable, soul-changing pain, alone in a tucked-away mountain property. This had gone on for three more years, and on his eighteenth year on earth, after he endured yet another heat alone and screaming, he had decided he was done.
**
Regulus surveyed the bar, trying to find someone who looked like they could be an alpha. Usually, they were just a bit more muscular, a little bit taller than most betas. Scent blockers helped, but they were alphas for a reason.
His eyes locked onto an overly loud, intoxicated man standing in the middle of a crowd, regaling them with animated gestures. His beer slightly spilled over his hand each time he spread his arms out wide, his toned arms flexing with the movements. He was easily over six feet tall, his blonde hair had slight waves to it, and the confidence exuding from him screamed at Regulus.
He straightened his back, trying to hype himself up for what came next. He hated this part, the deceitfulness of it, but he hated going through heats alone more. He could feel that steady itch under his skin increasing, could feel his center becoming steadily warmer, telling him he needed to move this along.
He pulled every bit of omega flirtatiousness forward within himself; let his lips form a relaxed smile, kept his chin slightly tilted down in subtle submissiveness. He walked, smoothing his movements, made himself look like he was confident as he approached the man.
He had been to plenty dirty, crowded bars at this point. He knew the drill. He navigated through different groups of people, making it over to the man slow enough not to be obvious to a wandering eye. As he approached him, he slid in between two people in the crowd surrounding the man. Then, walking in front of him, Regulus lightly brushed his fingertips along the man’s defined stomach, and then continued to walk past him.
As he tilted his head over his shoulder to glance back, he found the man was already looking towards Regulus, searching for the source of the soft touch he had received. Regulus let himself tilt one side of his mouth up in a teasing smirk, let his eyes crinkle with amusement, and then turned forward and continued on his path, heading to the restrooms.
Once there, he stood at the sink and splashed cool water onto his face. He was starting to overheat from the press of bodies in the bar and the ever-increasing sensation of the beginning of his heat. As he stared at his reflection, the door opened behind him. Regulus glanced up at the mirror and locked eyes with his alpha of the night.
Have to make sure, he thought to himself, even as he allowed his smirk to grow and he turned around to face the man.
“Hi,” Regulus breathed, propping his hands up against the sink behind him and tilting his head, just so. He took a controlled breath in, and alpha pheromones hit him so hard that his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head.
“You’re beautiful,” the man stated in a hushed tone. Forward, Regulus thought briefly, as he let his mouth shape into a full-blown smile. This was the part he enjoyed. He didn’t even think the alphas knew how gone they were for him once they interacted. Despite his scent blocker, something in the alphas knew that Regulus was something they wanted, even if they didn’t understand why.
“You’re one to talk.” Regulus leisurely moved towards the man, stopping right before their shoes were touching, “What’s your name, handsome?”
The man took a sharp breath in, almost like he could smell the omega pheromones coming off of Regulus. “Sam,” his hushed tone creating an intimate moment between the two. “But you can call me whatever you’d like.”
Regulus laughed quietly at this, stealing another deep inhale of the alpha. He was almost drunk on the scent. “I’m Nick. What do you say we go back to my hotel room and get to know each other better, Sam?” His eyes traced Sam’s muscular bicep, and he reached up to follow the path with his fingers, ending at the juncture between his neck and shoulder. His hand wrapped around Sam’s nape, and Regulus looked up at him through his lashes as he waited for his response.
“Yeah! Yeah, okay, we can-” Sam’s voice lowered a bit, excitement showing in his features at the implication. “I have to- let me close my tab and we can go, yeah? Are you close by?”
“Right around the corner,” Regulus smiled, “I’ll wait outside for you.” With that, he walked past Sam and continued until he was outside again, where it was cool, where he could breathe without choking on body sweat and the smell of alcohol. He could feel himself slowly slipping into that uncomfortable heat sensation, bearable but inching towards the pain that was coming.
He leaned his shoulder against the cool bricks, wishing desperately that it would provide some slight relief to his warm body. His mouth ached and he did his best to ignore it as he waited. Glancing up at the sky, he tried to find his star through the city smog. His eyes squinted in concentration, searching. He immediately found one star and his eyes flicked away, annoyed that he was always drawn to it. It was the brightest star in the sky, after all.
Strong arms wrapped around his waist from the back, and Regulus could smell the alpha before he spoke. “Lead the way, gorgeous,” Sam whispered into his ear. He shivered, lacing the fingers of his hands through Sam’s where they rested on his stomach, and gently pulls him to follow down the street.