#alpha!ryland

Continuing to stare out the ship's window, at the stars and the blackness of space you had grown to love, you heard Grace's steps disappear further into the ship. Now that you were alone, now that your main mission was complete and Rocky was so far away, your mind finally had the time to wander to the pressing matter you had been ignoring for days.

You were out of suppresents.

It was only a matter of time before Grace noticed. From the moment you met him on that aircraft carrier, you knew he was an Alpha. Just from the smell of him alone, having to fight everything inside your biology to preen and obey. The same thing happened when you met Stratt, but you were good at fighting it, good at hiding it. A lifetime of practice could make you good at anything.

There weren't many omegas in any scientific field that you knew of. Those jobs were usually taken up by betas, those in Earth's culture who didn't seek power and weren't reserved to caretakers. But you knew what you wanted. Knew what you were good at and what you wanted to study, so you worked hard. Got your degree. Learned to hide everything about you that made you an omega. And maybe that made you lonely, but it also got you on the most important space travel mission in Earth's history - so you weren't being picky.

But now, your hands were shaking in a way only you could notice. Your face felt hot. It was only a matter of time before your heat started. The suppresents had held it off for so long, when you were on the aircraft carrier and the entire time you were awake on the Hail Mary.

It was going to be bad.

"Does it smell like pancakes to you? Man, pancakes sound so good!" Grace called, and you followed his voice silently into the lab where he was looking at a whiteboard. "So, I've triple-checked my calculations for travel to Rocky's ship and put it into the navigation computer. Should take us about fifty days. You ready for me to switch off the centrifuge and get going?"

All you could bring yourself to do was nod, a weight forming in your gut that wasn't good at all. Now that you were off the suppresents, you could really smell his pheromones. Grace's brow furrowed as he looked at you for a second, and you wondered if he had figured it out already. That you were an omega on the precipice of a heat. But then, all he did was turn around and head towards the ship's pilot seat.

Okay. That would give you enough time to gather what you would need. Water, food, rope, a blanket, and an extra set of clothes. Before you could control yourself, you snagged one of Grace's dirty shirts from the pile by his cot and threw it into the bathroom along with the rest of your stuff. It was going to be a cramped couple of days, but it was what needed to be done.

The centrifuge stopped and the gravity was gone; your feet left the ground as sweat began to form on your brow. The ship was moving now, towards Rocky, to save him. But that was the last thing on your mind.

When Grace pushed himself into the bunk room, you didn't give him time to say anything.

"Here are the facts right now. I'm an omega, and we are officially out of suppresents." You drifted towards the bathroom door, Grace staring at you with wide eyes and swallowing thickly. "Whoever packed the ship didn't think I needed that many, apparently. I'm about to go into heat, so I'm going to go into the bathroom, and you are going to lock the door."

"W-What?" he stuttered, hands clenched around the doorway.

"Under no circumstances do you let me out. No matter how much I beg or whine or cry. Do not let me out," you finished, already breathing ragged.

Grace whispered your name, and you bit back a moan. "I can't do that to you."

"Trust me, already ran through every scenario. This is the only option."

The only option where the mission remains top priority. The only option where you could still look him in the eye after. The only option that wouldn't ruin whatever was between you and Grace.

It was certainly more than friendship, out here with no one else around for so long. But it wasn't the relationship that an alpha and an omega should have. Alphas and omegas were not colleagues. They were not friends. This was better. For everyone.

"I can't - " he started, but you interrupted him.

"Please, Grace. Please."

You backed yourself up into the bathroom, prepared to close the door. The muscle in Grace's jaw ticked for a few seconds, then he nodded. The door shut and locked with a finality that made something inside you ache.

Hours later, Ryland was in the lab white-knuckling a table. He thought he wouldn't be able to hear you in there, but it didn't work. If anything, your moans and cries were amplified to him with the distance. And so were your pheromones. That sugary sweet pancake scent called to him. Screamed for him to make you feel better, to make the pain go away, to fill you up with his knot.

He groaned at the thought, gripping the table harder as his cock strained.

Ryland wasn't like this. He was able to control his urges. Many of his coworkers didn't even know he was an alpha. He was that good at controlling himself, that good at hiding it. Alphas weren't scientists or teachers; they always strived for something more. Something with more power, more control. But he didn't need all of that to be satisfied. He didn't need power. He didn't need a little omega writhing under him.

Geez oh Pete, he thought with a loud sigh.

When you made your confession before he locked you in the bathroom, he could have sworn you were a beta. Guess you were good at hiding, too. A strong surge of your pheromones entered his nostrils, and Ryland practically growled. Without meaning to, before he even knew what he was doing, he was palming at himself through his jumpsuit.

"Ryland!" you cried from the bathroom, and his head snapped in your direction.

The last time you called him by his first name was when you both nearly died getting that sample from Tau Ceta. And in all that time you had been locked inside the bathroom, you never said anything intelligible. Just whimpers and shouts and moans.

He knew, somewhere deep inside, that this was his alpha taking over. Something he had never allowed before. But he had also never been around an omega in heat before. So when he pushed himself through the various rooms to get to the bunks and the bathroom, he didn't even know what he was doing until he was there. Nose practically pressed to the metal door keeping him from you.

"Ryland!" you yelled his name again, this time through what sounded like tears.

Hand to the door, cold against his burning skin, he spoke lowly: "I'm here."

"S-Something's wrong," you whimpered.

His heart dropped. But he didn't want to open the door. He promised you. He needed to know this wasn't you trying to trick him.

"Like what?"

"I - I don't k-know."

"You're a scientist. Breath - think."

You took a few loud, steadying breaths. "My heart rate is...Irregular and fast. And - And nothing I do is helping anymore."

He gulped, trying to push from his mind's eye the image of you with a hand between your legs, trying desperately to get yourself off. Thinking for a moment, he came to a terrible conclusion.

"How long were you on those suppresents?" he whispered.

"Oh, God," you gasped in realization.

Suppresents of any kind had consequences if someone was on them for too long. Infertility. Pregnancy complications. The first heat off of them becoming deadly if the omega doesn't mate. Ryland bit his lip, fist connecting with the door quietly. There was only one way to fix this. It could ruin everything. But he couldn't just let you sit there by yourself and let you die. Just like he couldn't let Rocky die when the Taumeba started eating the Xenanite. He always considered himself a coward, but maybe he was braver in more of aspects than he thought.

"Is it okay - " He took a breath and started again. "Is it okay if I come in?"

"I can't..."

"To rip off our good friend from another planet," he said, smiling to himself despite the situation. "Ryland fix."

You laughed from the other side of the door. "Ryland fix."

"Yeah. I've got what you need."

He heard your breath hitch, and that was answer enough for him. With a twist and a shove, the bathroom door was open. His mouth practically watered at the sight, his cock leaking into his boxers.

You, floating in the middle of the small room, completely bare from the waist down. Eyes blown out and watery. Sweat floating around you in droplets. His shirt clutched in your hand. Your pussy glistening.

Panting hard and fighting a groan at the sight of him, you watched Ryland push off from the doorway and catch you in his arms. You sighed at the contact, at his soothing pheromones finally filling your lungs to the fullest. You curled into him on instinct, face tucked into his neck and fingers clutching the front of his jumpsuit. His large hands ran up and down your spine and you burrowed into him further, feeling the safest you have ever been in your life.

"Alpha," you whispered.

And Ryland stiffened. Clutched you harder, pushing his hand into the small of your back and you felt the full extent of his desire brush against your stomach. You gasped, pulling your head back to look up into his face. He was already looking at you. Hungry. Dark. More calm than you had ever seen him.

"Say that again," he mumbled, long fingers brushing damp hair from your face. "Please."

"Alpha."

He kissed you then. All-consuming and starving and clumsy. It was nothing like what you thought a kiss with the doctor would be like. You pictured awkward and almost missing your mouth and apologizing right after. But there was no apology in this. No awkwardness. And he certainly did not miss. He claimed you with his lips, with his tongue, with everything. He devoured you, and you melted right into it. Let him have all of you that he wanted.

Both of you made quick work of his clothes, freeing him just enough to release his cock. Hard and aching and leaking from the tip. You swallowed when your eyes caught on the fat ring at the base. His knot. Your body screamed for it. But at the back of your mind, the part that was still you, didn't know if you would be able to take it.

Ryland distracted you with his fingers brushing through your folds, making you gasp and dig your nails into his shoulders.

"Gosh, you're so wet," he whispered.

When the pads of his fingers caught on your clit, you whimpered. Let him circle it a few times, let him kiss down the column of your throat and suck at your pulse point. But your heart felt like it was going to beat right out of your chest. It pounded in your ears. In your fingertips. Behind your eyes. The more he played with you, the less you could take.

"Ry - alpha, p-please," you breathed, fingers in his hair. "I - I can't. I need..."

"Sorry. Sorry. I know what you need." He glanced around the room, at your bodies floating in zero gravity. "How're we gonna do this?"

The best option, after a lot of maneuvering, was this: Ryland, wedged between the base of the toilet and the wall with his legs, pulling you down on top of him. Not the sexiest image in his head. Not what he really wanted to do. But it was the best you were going to get. So, he got into position, put his hands on your waist, and started to guide you.

"There you go. Almost there," he encouraged as you wrapped a hand around his base to help him inside you.

Unintentionally, he was sheathed to the hilt in one thrust. You choked on your next breath, hands shooting out to hold onto his shoulders to help keep you from floating away. Ryland's heart shattered at the sight of you on top of him. Blissed out. Eyes half lidded. Mouth hanging open. Your chest heaving. He could see the imprint of himself in your lower belly, and it made him growl - already able to picture your belly swollen with him in a different way.

"You okay, little omega?" he asked quietly after a few moments.

"D-Don't call me that," you replied despite the smile on your face.

"Alright." He knew well enough what you meant. You worked hard not to be demeaned for what you were. "You okay, my omega?"

You keened at that, hunched over him as you started swivelling your hips as best you could. "Please."

He knew what you meant. Using all those muscles he was still unsure he always had, he lifted you up and then brought you back down onto his cock. You cried out, already begging him to go faster. Ryland felt amazing. He filled you in the best way, the plush tip of him hitting that spot inside you that made you see stars every time he brought you down to meet his hips.

It didn't take you long to be on the edge, after so long trying and failing to get yourself there. You were wound up tight. With one last hard thrust, you were gone. It hit you like a freight train, a scream crawling its way from your throat as you writhed on top of Ryland.

He gripped you all the tighter, moved you faster, as he pressed his face into your chest and breathed, "Fuck, shit, wait - I'm - uh - "

Ryland spilled inside you with a whimper, hot and all-consuming and you sighed in relief. But then you felt the nudge of his knot against your entrance, and you threw your head back with a whine.

"Ry...Can't..." you gasped as his knot continued to push inside.

He looked up at you, hands sliding up to cradle your ribs. "Yeah, you can, omega. You were made for this. Made for me."

When his knot finally, finally, settled inside you, you let out a strangled little sound. You wriggled and breathed, trying to adjust and take it. Ryland just hummed, pressing a hand to your belly where he could feel his knot. He released his legs, knowing that he was secure inside you, and the two of you floated into the middle of the room, tangled up in each other.

"Does it hurt?" he questioned quietly.

"No," you replied, just as soft. "Feel...Feel so full. So...Happy."

He cocked his head. "Happy?"

"That it was you. I don't think I'd want anyone else to be my alpha."

"Do...Do you want that? To be mine?"

You smiled and cupped his cheek. "Back on Earth, before this - I would have chosen you. I choose you now."

You fell asleep like that. Curled into each other. Suspended midair. His knott locking you in place. A bite mark on each of your necks. Together.