Chapter Text
Orm noticed the new Alpha before the professor finished introducing her. Not because she was an Alpha. That part was obvious enough. She was tall, taller than most of the people filtering into the seminar room, with broad shoulders beneath a dark button-down and sleeves rolled neatly to her forearms. Her hair was short and black, parted carelessly enough that a few strands had fallen across her forehead. There was something reserved about the way she carried herself. Not shy exactly. Just quiet.
The sort of person who looked at a room before deciding where to stand in it. No, what caught Orm's attention was what the woman wasn't doing. She wasn't reacting. At all.
"Everyone, this is Lingling Kwong," Professor Chantarangsu said from the front of the room. "She transferred into the program over the summer. Be nice to her for at least a week."
A few people laughed. Lingling gave the professor a dry look.
"Only a week?"
"Graduate students have limits."
That earned another small laugh. Orm smiled despite herself. Lingling glanced across the room while the professor continued speaking, taking in the semicircle of tables and the dozen or so students already seated. Her eyes passed over Orm. Then came back.
For half a second, Orm prepared herself. It was automatic by now. Shoulders straight. Expression neutral. Don't encourage.
Don't challenge. Don't make eye contact too long. Most Omegas learned some version of it after presenting. Maybe Betas thought it was paranoia. Alphas usually insisted they could control themselves. Orm had spent enough years around both to know that control and reaction were two very different things. An Alpha could behave perfectly and still react.
A hitch in the breath. A slight flare of the nostrils. Pupils widening. Shoulders tightening. Attention sharpening like a blade.
Orm's scent wasn't especially unusual for an Omega. At least, she didn't think it was. Warm and sweet was how people described it. Someone she'd dated briefly had once compared it to orange blossom and honey. She had hated that description ever since. It made her sound edible. Lingling looked at her. And did absolutely nothing.
No change in posture. No visible inhale. Nothing. Her gaze moved away again. Orm frowned.
Maybe she was a Beta. The professor had said transfer student, not designation. Then Lingling moved toward the only open seat in the room. The one beside Orm. Orm stared at it.
Of course. Lingling stopped beside the chair. "Is anyone sitting here?" Her voice was lower than Orm expected. Calm.
"No."
"Thanks."
She pulled the chair out and sat down. That was it. Orm waited. Lingling opened her laptop. Orm waited a little longer.
Lingling took a pen from her bag, set it beside the keyboard, then frowned at the slide projected on the wall. Nothing. Orm looked down at herself. She had showered. Used scent-neutral detergent.
Her suppressant patch was where it was supposed to be, hidden beneath the collar of her blouse. Maybe it was unusually effective today. She resisted the urge to touch it. Professor Chantarangsu began talking about the week's reading, and Orm forced herself to look toward the front. Three minutes passed.
Then five. Beside her, Lingling took notes. Normal notes. Actual academic notes. She wasn't shifting closer.
She wasn't angling her body toward Orm. She hadn't once looked at Orm's neck. Orm was so distracted by the complete absence of distraction from the woman beside her that she missed the professor asking a question.
"Orm?"
Her head snapped up. Professor Chantarangsu raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry?"
A few people laughed. Not cruelly. Orm had known most of them for a year. The professor tapped the book in front of her. "Do you agree with the author's argument that identity formation is primarily social rather than biological?" Orm glanced down at the highlighted page she had read twice the night before.
Usually she could answer these questions half asleep.
"Not entirely."
"Go on."
She straightened in her seat.
"I think the argument creates too clean a separation between biology and social structure. Especially when biology affects the way society responds to you before you have any control over that response."
A few students nodded. Professor Chantarangsu leaned against the desk.
"So biology creates the social identity?"
"Not exactly. But it affects the conditions under which that identity develops."
"Example?"
Orm almost laughed. Half the class glanced between her and the professor. In a program where Alphas, Betas, and Omegas studied behavioral systems together, the example was hardly mysterious.
"Designation."
The professor smiled. "Predictable."
"Relevant."
"Fair."
Someone across the table spoke up. "But designation isn't destiny." Orm turned toward him.
"I didn't say it was."
"You implied it."
"No, I said people react to it."
"They don't have to."
Orm felt irritation stir. There was always one. Usually an Alpha who wanted everyone to know he was personally above Alpha stereotypes.
"Whether they have to isn't the point," she said. "They do."
The student opened his mouth. Beside her, Lingling spoke for the first time.
"Both things can be true."
The room shifted toward her. Lingling seemed mildly surprised by the attention. She glanced at Orm, then at the student across the table.
"Biology can influence someone's environment without determining who they become inside it."
Professor Chantarangsu tilted her head. "Explain." Lingling tapped the end of her pen against the notebook.
"If people expect certain behavior from you because of your designation, you develop in response to those expectations. You might conform. You might resist. Either way, the expectation mattered."
Orm watched her. Lingling continued.
"But saying it mattered isn't the same as saying biology dictated the outcome."
"Exactly," Orm said before she could stop herself.
Lingling looked at her. For the first time, there was something in her expression. Not Alpha interest. Just recognition. Like they'd reached the same conclusion from different directions.
Professor Chantarangsu smiled.
"Good. Now we're doing something useful."
The discussion moved on. Orm didn't. Not mentally. Because Lingling was still sitting beside her. Still completely unaffected.
By the end of the seminar, Orm had developed three theories. One, Lingling had taken a suppressant strong enough to flatten an Alpha's scent response. Two, she was somehow lying about being an Alpha, though Orm had no idea why anyone would bother. Three, something was wrong with her. Orm immediately disliked herself for thinking the third one.
She packed her books into her bag while students drifted toward the door. Lingling was slower. She closed her laptop, slipped it into a plain black case, and tucked the pen into the spiral of her notebook. Orm stood. Lingling looked up.
"Do you always argue with people in class?"
Orm blinked. Then she laughed.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm trying to figure out if today was special."
There was no teasing edge in Lingling's tone, which somehow made it funnier. Orm folded her arms.
"He was wrong."
"I didn't say he wasn't."
"So you agree with me."
"Mostly."
"Mostly?"
Lingling stood. Up close, the height difference was more noticeable. Orm hated that she noticed. Lingling slung her bag over one shoulder.
"You said people react to designation."
"They do."
"Some people."
Orm narrowed her eyes. Lingling's mouth moved slightly. Not quite a smile. Orm gestured between them.
"You're literally proving my point."
"How?"
"You're an Alpha."
Lingling nodded.
"And I'm an Omega."
Another nod. Orm waited. Lingling waited too. Orm stared at her.
"That's it?"
Lingling looked genuinely confused.
"Was there supposed to be another part?"
Orm's mouth opened. Nothing came out. Lingling's almost-smile appeared again.
"I'll see you Thursday."
Then she walked away. Orm stood in the nearly empty seminar room with her bag hanging from one shoulder. Professor Chantarangsu passed behind her carrying a stack of papers.
"Everything all right?"
Orm watched Lingling disappear through the doorway.
"Yeah."
The professor followed her gaze.
"Interesting, isn't she?"
Orm looked at her sharply.
"What does that mean?"
"Academically."
"Oh."
Professor Chantarangsu's eyebrows rose. Orm ignored her and left.
---
Lingling was already in the café when Orm arrived ten minutes later. That shouldn't have bothered her. It did. Orm had spent the walk across campus telling herself she wasn't going to think about the strange Alpha again. Then she stepped inside, saw Lingling sitting near the window with a cup of coffee and a sandwich, and immediately changed direction.
This was ridiculous. She knew it was ridiculous. She kept walking anyway.
"Can I sit here?"
Lingling looked up from her laptop. Her gaze moved to the empty chair across from her.
"Sure."
Orm sat down. Lingling went back to reading. Orm waited. Nothing. Again.
The café was crowded enough that the combined scents of students hung heavily in the warm air despite the filtration system humming overhead. Orm could distinguish them if she concentrated. Coffee. Sugar. An Alpha somewhere near the counter carrying a sharp, peppery scent.
Two Omegas at a table by the wall. Something citrusy from a Beta's perfume. And Lingling. Orm frowned. She couldn't smell her.
Not really. Alphas normally carried something. Even heavily suppressed ones had a baseline. Orm leaned slightly forward. Lingling looked up.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You just leaned across the table and stared at me."
"I was looking at your laptop."
Lingling turned the screen toward her. A journal article filled it. Orm stared. Lingling stared back.
"Interesting?"
"Very."
Lingling turned the laptop around again. Orm hated the tiny smile that followed.
"You're weird."
"I've been told."
There. An opening. Orm folded her hands around her coffee.
"So what's your scent?"
Lingling stopped reading. Orm immediately regretted asking. It was personal. Not deeply personal, but more personal than asking someone's hometown or favorite color. Especially between an Alpha and Omega who had met less than two hours ago.
But Lingling didn't seem offended. She just looked puzzled.
"My what?"
"Your scent."
"I don't know."
Orm blinked.
"How do you not know?"
Lingling picked up her coffee.
"I can't smell."
Orm thought she'd misheard.
"At all?"
"No."
"Like right now?"
Lingling nodded.
"The coffee?"
"No."
"The food?"
"No."
"My perfume?"
"No."
Orm stared. Lingling took another sip. Orm leaned back.
"Oh."
There it was. The answer to the mystery. Lingling watched her process it.
"I have congenital anosmia."
"You've never been able to smell anything?"
"No."
"Ever?"
"Not that I remember."
Orm's eyes dropped briefly to the table.
"But you're an Alpha."
"I've noticed."
Orm gave her a look. Lingling's expression remained innocent for exactly two seconds before she smiled. It transformed her face. Not dramatically. Just enough to soften the severity of it.
Orm looked away first.
"So you can't smell pheromones either."
"No."
"Omega scent?"
"No."
"Alpha scent?"
Lingling shook her head.
"Nothing."
Orm's mind began rearranging the morning. No widened pupils. No sharp inhale. No shifting closer. No territorial response.
No attention snapping toward her neck. It wasn't control. Lingling genuinely hadn't known.
"You really can't smell me."
Lingling's brows pulled together.
"No."
The answer should have been simple. It should have been nothing. Instead something strange moved through Orm's chest. She couldn't remember the last time she'd sat this close to an Alpha without being aware of her own scent. Even with friends, it was there.
Something managed. Something considered. How strong was she today? Was she nearing pre-heat? Was her suppressant working?
Was the Alpha uncomfortable? Interested? Distracted? Lingling had sat beside her for nearly two hours and had known none of it. Orm looked at her again.
"What's that like?"
Lingling shrugged.
"Normal."
"I mean being an Alpha and not..." Orm searched for the word. "Feeling it."
Lingling's expression changed. Not offended. More thoughtful.
"I feel like an Alpha."
"But you don't have the scent instincts."
"I have some of the biology."
"Like?"
Lingling raised one eyebrow. Orm's face warmed.
"I didn't mean that."
"You definitely did."
"I meant instinct."
"Right."
Orm covered her face briefly with one hand. Lingling laughed. It was quiet. Unexpected. Orm lowered her hand.
Lingling looked toward the window.
"I don't really know what I'm missing," she said after a moment. "People describe it to me, but that's like describing color to someone who's never seen it."
Orm's embarrassment faded.
"You've never gotten territorial?"
"Not because of scent."
"Never smelled an Omega in heat?"
"No."
"Never had that..." Orm hesitated. "Pull?"
Lingling looked back at her.
"No."
Orm sat very still. There were a dozen things she could have said. Most of them felt too personal. Instead she asked, "Does it bother you?"
"Sometimes."
Lingling closed the laptop.
"Mostly when people act like there's something I'm supposed to understand automatically."
Orm knew that feeling better than she expected. People had been telling her what an Omega was supposed to understand automatically since she presented. Nesting. Submission. Heat.
Bonding. Alpha attraction. Motherhood. As though biology arrived with an instruction manual.
"What do you do instead?" she asked.
"Instead of what?"
"Reading scent."
Lingling glanced around the café.
"I watch."
"People?"
"Mostly."
"That sounds creepy."
"It probably is."
Orm laughed. Lingling leaned back in her chair.
"You touch your necklace when you're uncomfortable."
Orm's hand immediately dropped from the chain at her throat. Lingling's smile widened slightly.
"You tap your foot when you're impatient."
Orm stopped doing that too.
"And you look to the left before you disagree with someone."
"I do not."
Lingling waited. Orm thought about the seminar. Then looked left. Lingling laughed.
"Okay, shut up."
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to."
Orm tried to look annoyed. It didn't last. For the first time in years, maybe ever, sitting across from an Alpha felt uncomplicated. Not completely. Lingling was still attractive.
Annoyingly attractive, now that Orm had noticed. And she was still an Alpha. Orm's body knew that even if Lingling's nose didn't. But the usual calculation wasn't there. Orm didn't have to wonder what her scent was doing to the person across from her.
Lingling didn't know. Couldn't know. And something about that felt... Quiet. Safe wasn't the right word.
Not yet. But quiet was close. Lingling opened her laptop again.
"You have another class?"
"At three."
"Same."
Orm stood. Lingling glanced up. Orm picked up her coffee.
"You're going to the library after?"
"Probably."
"I need the article from today's seminar."
"I downloaded it."
Orm smiled.
"So I'll sit with you."
Lingling paused. Something flickered across her face. Small. Warm. Entirely human.
"Okay."
Orm turned before Lingling could see how pleased that made her. She made it three steps before Lingling called after her.
"Orm."
She looked back. Lingling gestured toward the table.
"You forgot your phone."
Orm stared at it. Then at Lingling.
"That didn't happen."
Lingling picked it up and held it out.
"Of course not."
Orm walked back and took it from her. Their fingers brushed. Lingling's expression didn't change. No instinctive Alpha response. No pheromonal shift.
Nothing. But her eyes dropped briefly to Orm's hand. Then returned to her face. And for some reason, that tiny conscious glance stayed with Orm for the rest of the day. Because Lingling hadn't smelled anything.
Hadn't been compelled by anything. She had simply noticed. And Orm was beginning to think there might be a difference.