I Want to Be the Place You Call Home (A VegasPete Omegaverse)

Chapter One

A/N: Please check the full list of tags on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/48965155) - they will update. This fic contains mature themes and potentially upsetting/triggering topics. Please take care of yourself while reading. 

    Pete sighed with relief as the breeze cooled his sweaty face. He was finally able to open the window, now that his Rut had died down. He took a moment to sit and listen to the birds, just to acknowledge that the world was still operating as usual. It was hard to remember that, locked alone in a room while hormones drowned everything else out. Pete never 'lost control' during his Ruts as some Alphas said, but he kept the door locked as a precaution. He knew intentions only counted for so much. Once the room stank of Alpha a little less, he forced himself to get moving. The first order of business was to strip his bed. He didn't want Yaai to touch his stained sheets. That would be beyond mortifying, no matter if she had 'seen it all before'. Some boundaries need to be maintained. Besides, he had been raised to clean up after himself.

Once his room was tidied, Pete turned on the oscillating fan to help push the smell from the room while he took a long, cold shower. He scrubbed himself carefully, both to clean off his dried cum and sweat, but also to try and remove as much of his natural scent as possible. Pete had to be careful. He couldn't let anyone else know that he wasn't a Beta.

Once he was clean and had plenty of scent blocker patches on, Pete started the laundry and went to the kitchen to grab another water bottle. His room was littered with empty bottles that he would recycle before he left. He always thought he had enough water, but it never was.

"You made it," Yaai said as she entered the kitchen, smiling. Pete leaned over so she could smack a kiss on his cheek. As she pulled away, she wrinkled her nose. "I can never get used to those patches."

"They are just to help me blend in. Everyone at work wears them."

"But you have such a nice scent. It's just a shame."

Pete nodded, not wanting to argue with his favorite old woman. Pete was an Alpha, but it wouldn't immediately be apparent to others, even without the patches. Instead of the sharp, overbearing scents most Alphas had, Pete's was soft and subtle. He smelled of summer peaches with a hint of bitter almond. It was why everyone had assumed he would present as an Omega.

Children went through a primary puberty as they slipped into adolescence, then, as most children neared young adulthood a secondary puberty would strike and alert others of their secondary gender. In rare cases, a traumatic event could speed up their presentation, which is what happened to Pete. He had only been 16. It had been raining hard enough to cause landslides, and there had been so much blood. Pete didn't like to think about it.

"I'm going to visit Mae," he said, grabbing a banana off the counter to eat. He was ravenous but still too anxious to properly eat. It was very taxing on his whole system to go through a Rut without a partner, but he knew he would never subject someone else to that. It wasn't an option if he were to keep his true classification a secret. Pete glanced over at Yaai's scar where it peeked out from under the collar of her shirt, where she and his Dtaa had bonded. He often wondered if she ever regretted it, but he couldn't bring himself to ask.

"Let me grab my purse, and I'll go with you."

Pete smiled, as he always did. Yaai knew it was a form of self-torture for Pete to visit his mother, so she tried not the let him go alone.

They listened to oldies on the radio as they drove, singing along with the windows down. Pete was still paranoid about his scent, despite the patches and Yaai's insistence that he was safe. They were still in their hometown, after all. It wasn't like word would spread far if it did get out.