elaborate on alpha fem ness pls 🤤
anon she's been HAUNNNTING me
i don't think she comes off as an alpha right away. she's really cute!! and huffy when she's upset which makes you think she's an omega, maybe. at best a beta!! it doesn't help that she hangs out with michaela kaiser who is CLEARLY an alpha (not true but you don't know any better). reader is a beta and bit noseblind to scents, so they can't discern the nuances of their scents between sweat, scentblockers, and perfumes.
and perhaps our beta reader isn't as.... versed in the specific instinctual impulses of alphas and omegas up close. you were raised with beta, around betas, etc etc. so when alexis starts lingering around you whenever she gets the chance, you figure she just wants to be friends!! when she gives you one of her sweatshirts on a cold day, she's just being kind. the little gifts (snacks, sweets, bits and bobs she finds on her off days) are just her being REALLY nice... right?
you think that alexis hasn't put together that you're a beta. so you invite her out for coffee and make your secondary sex known (not like you're hiding it, but she's so busy with her soccer career (and michaela) that maybe she hasn't fully realized it!!)
she doesn't seem... surprised when you tell her. you expect her to be or maybe to seem a little mournful. omegas going after betas isn't all that common, even if it's socially acceptable. you don't have a knot to give her.
"i'm... sorry," you fumble over your words. "i should've told you sooner. it's totally my bad—"
alexis interrupts you, sweet in tone but her gaze is... unusual. you feel pinned by it. "i've known that you're a beta."
"... you have?"
"of course," she adds. "i've always known."
you swallow. she looks at you, brows pinching, her bottom lip tucking between her teeth. she shifts around in her chair, antsy.
"oh!" you feel caught off guard. "i just— i figured that maybe you thought— i was, uh— a prospect."
"can't you be a beta and a prospect?" alexis asks. she's still looking at you, it's so intense. her hands, prettily manicured, are tight around the coffee cup in her hands.
"... i don't think i'd suit an omega very well, to be honest." you laugh, high and tittering. god, you're sweating. you're nervous.
alexis's grip on the cup gets tighter. she looks and looks and looks at you, seemingly frozen. your heart is high in your throat.
"it's not—" you rush to add. "it's not that i don't think you— wouldn't be a lovely partner, and you're b-beautiful, just, for an omega, i don't know what i can... provide?"
alexis swallows, shifting her hair to gingerly reach up to the translucent scent patch on her neck. "i think i get it now."
you feel momentary relief. "thank god, i'm glad you understand. i was worried—"
she peels off the scent patch, and even with your muted sense of smell, you're bombarded by the scent of vanilla and myrrh, sweetened. it fills your mouth like a treat and you just know—
"you thought i was an omega, didn't you?" alexis laughs, way too cutely for the strength of her scent. "it's not the first time that it's happened, but i thought you were keen enough to understand, especially with all the courting gestures."
it all makes sense now. every touch and kindness, the specific way she came to you, it does scream alpha. you kick yourself for your own stereotyping of her.
"i'm sorry." you swallow, your hands shake around your coffee cup. "e-even still, i'm still a beta."
"and i like betas, too." alexis bats her lashes, hands twitching.
"oh."
you feel— silly. you're so warm in the face, mouth dry. alexis went from looking nervous to... pleased as punch, really. her smile is that same wobbly kind that she always wear, but her scent is (you think) quite happy.
half of you wants to ask about michaela, but you're realizing now that you were, perhaps, stereotyping her incorrectly as well. you choose to keep that thought tucked away to yourself, lest you humiliate yourself further.
you put your head on the table, cheeks too hot to face alexis. it's a move of cowardice.
a hand, her hand, comes to rest on top of your head. she pets, thumb running over the curve of your skull. it's gentle— more gentle than you'd think for an alpha.
"it's alright," she coos. "i think it's really cute, you're really cute."
you should more embarassed, more shame-filled, as her hand glides to the nape of your neck. her hands are warm and so soft. her scent engulfs you as she rubs her wrist over the side of your neck, where undeveloped scent glands lay under the skin.
you're not an omega, you're not meant to instintually react to an alpha's scent. it's just stimuli. pleasant-smelling stimuli, but nothing more than that. yet, the contact... her scent. it has your thighs squeezing together and you squeezing your eyes shut.
you're very, very glad that you're not an omega— or an alpha. you can't imagine the scent that would be pouring off you. your interest would be given away so swiftly, how mortifying—!!!
(as if alexis hasn't taken notice of the warmth of your neck, the thundering of your pulse against her own wrist. and she's simply delighted that her future-beta mate is so receptive and reactive <3)