Chapter Text
SEP Arc
“23! My man!” Aziz called, holding out a fist.
Marcel bumped it half-heartedly as he approached the couch. The common room was lively, as it always was in the evenings, everyone giddy over free time despite being sapped from the day’s training.
“Marcel? What’s up?” Diana asked from Aziz’s side.
“Uh. 76 came by to yell at Reyes about their hand-to-hand spar this afternoon and Reyes, obviously, went from zero to aggro in less than ten seconds and was all ‘Fine. Let’s have a rematch.’ Then 76 was all ‘In your room?’ and Reyes was like ‘Unless you need the cushy gym training mats, boy scout.’ So, yeah, I fucked out of there real fast.”
“Ugh. Alphas,” Jiaming said, eyes glued to the basketball game on the holovid.
“I know, right?” Diana chimed.
An ominous thud, followed by a smash, came from the end of the hall. Marcel looked back in the direction of his room with wide-eyed despair.
“Hope you aren’t too attached to any of your stuff,” Aziz snickered.
“I just don’t get it,” Marcel whined. “The captain called the match a draw. Why can’t they just leave it?”
“Uh, for the same reason all alphas have non-alpha roommates?” Jiaming said. “Alphas just don’t ever get along with each other. Even if they do, the territorial instincts are usually too difficult to control forever. All it takes is like, one beta or omega that they’re both attracted to and bam, rivalry explodes. The best you can hope for is mutual respect.”
“But since that takes maturity and we’re talking about 24 and 76, who’ve been at each other’s throats since Hour 1 Day 1, don’t hold your breath,” Diana muttered.
“I should report this to the brass. Brawling in the dorms has got to be against regulations, right?” Marcel groused.
He stopped at the three horrified expressions on the other betas’ faces.
“Or... I should crash on the couch out here tonight?”
A crunch that sounded exactly like a wooden desk being dropkicked made them all flinch.
“If you treasure your spine and/or your asshole, yeah, 23, you crash out here tonight,” Aziz retorted.
Marcel flopped onto the couch miserably and Jiaming patted him on the shoulder. Diana cranked the volume up on the holovid.
---
The basic desk had buckled in the center when Gabriel slammed Jack into it, fractured with a groan while they grappled, and flipped with a crash when Jack managed to hook a leg behind Gabriel’s ankle and topple them both to the floor. The landing was hard, but they were too busy trying to gain the advantage to take much notice.
Dropping his not inconsiderable weight onto Jack’s stomach, Gabriel finally winded him long enough to pin both his wrists to the floor.
Unsurprisingly, Jack snarled up at him, every instinct grated the wrong way by the submissive position. Rage was emanating from his entire body. Gabriel would have sworn he could smell it – a blend of sweat and smoke. He just barely pulled back in time to avoid a brutal headbutt. It took all his strength to hold Jack in place as he thrashed, their muscles flexing and tensing in response to each other.
After nearly a full minute, Jack stopped struggling. His chest was heaving, eyes dark and flashing wild, blond hair a mess. Bruises were already blossoming on his wrists, yellow and violet. On his bicep was a long scratch from the splintered edge of the desk, the thin red lines stark on his pale skin.
Gabriel’s own bruises and scrapes began to sting, almost like an echo of his opponent’s.
“Get off me,” Jack growled.
Sweat, gunsmoke, fresh mountain air.
Gabriel smirked down at him and watched those blue eyes narrow into a glare sharp as glass. Jack’s numb fingers squeezed into fists above Gabriel’s punishing grip.
“Yield,” Gabriel rumbled.
“Fuck you.”
“Yield.”
Jack clenched his jaw but didn’t look away. They both knew he was too tired to break the hold. Although Gabriel was equally exhausted, he had gravity on his side.
However, he barely had time to bask in the deep-seated satisfaction that came with besting another alpha when another instinct surged up like a fever.
Claim! Mark!
Gabriel’s heart thudded in surprise and his mind struggled to catch up.
Where the hell was this coming from? Alphas didn’t claim other alphas, and they certainly didn’t mark them. He shook his head, trying to clear it.
Jack frowned up at him in confusion.
Gabriel clamped his molars down on his tongue, trying to squash the nonsensical impulse. But the want was powerful, physical, prickling over his skin. He couldn’t stop looking at the smooth curve of Jack’s neck, envisioning a bite there. His bite.
His mouth watered.
He sucked in a breath.
Sweat, smoke, mountain air.
Gabriel’s eyes widened as he realized what he was smelling. It was Jack’s heat, arousal pheromones rising from his skin in soft waves.
That couldn’t be what it was.
There was nothing else it could be though.
“Are you doing that on purpose?” Gabriel asked, voice low.
Still frowning, Jack shook his head.
Jack could feel his own arousal at the base of his spine, no different from the times he’d felt it before. Except before he’d always been unequivocally in the dominant role. Hell, he still wanted to be in the dominant role. Badly. Every fiber of his being was quivering, aching to yank himself free from the powerless position he was locked in. If Gabriel gave him an opening, he’d take it without thinking. But the arousal was unexpectedly, undeniably there too.
Its presence wasn’t nearly as unsettling as the fact that Gabriel was picking up on it.
Because barring the incredibly rare exception, alphas couldn’t smell other alphas’ heat.
Without realizing it, Gabriel had started drawing in long breaths through his nose, trying to inhale more.
He was no stranger to the smell of a person in heat, the warm and citrusy tang of betas, the sugary fragrance of omegas. But this was something new, something rougher, something oddly enticing. The masculine smell of Jack’s sweat undercut with smoke on the wind or impending rain. The instinct to chase that scent was like a hook through Gabriel's gut. It invaded his senses like a warm fog. He was blinking more rapidly, a sure sign his eyes were dilating.
Gabriel knew he needed to release the other man, to pull away, to stop whatever was happening before he got (rightfully) punched in the face.
But — and Gabriel thought he was imagining it at first — slowly, infinitesimally slowly, inch by inch, Jack let his head tip backwards. Still holding Gabriel’s intense stare, he began to tilt it to the side, baring the column of his pale throat. There was a tense moment. And then, Jack closed his eyes, relinquishing the contest of wills.
The yield signal shot through every nerve in Gabriel’s body. That should have been his cue to release his opponent but instead he lowered his face to the crook of Jack’s neck, where the scent was stronger. Gabriel could taste it in the air. It was clouding his mind, making it impossible to focus on thoughts like, How is this happening? This is a bad idea. We’ll kill each other.
He couldn’t breathe in enough of it. It was intoxicating, nearly overpowering. Without fully intending to, he found himself lapping at the skin, hungry for more.
Jack noisily exhaled, his body stiffening at another alpha’s teeth so near his throat. He needed to defend, retaliate, reclaim his space. His muscles flexed in preparation.
But then he inhaled.
Fresh earth. Summer breezes. The salty bite of the sea.
“Jesus Christ, you smell good,” Jack rasped in shock, pressing his forehead into the side of Gabriel’s face.
Gabriel shuddered at the admission that Jack could smell him too.
Adrenaline kept them hyper aware of the other’s closeness, attuned to the smallest movements to predict attacks, but now they were noticing how short the distance between their groins was, the temperature of their skin where it touched, how openings for jabs could be openings for more contact, how there were other things besides blood they could spill.
Gabriel’s toes curled in his boots and his cock twitched as Jack gave a slow, curious lick to the skin below his ear. Though in the back of his mind, Gabriel sensed the danger in the nearness.
Their instincts ricocheted between fight and fuck, as their predatory natures tangled with the powerful allure of each other’s heat, their two strongest primal impulses bombarding them with a confusing litany of resist submit claim retaliate mark challenge take yield.
The conflicting sensations should have been jarring, off-putting, but there was something addictive about the clash, like the blend of salt and sugar, sour and spicy. The contrast was heightened even as the flavors combined into something delicious.
It wasn’t in either of their natures to fuck passively. Jack wasn’t going to present his ass like a beta just because Gabriel had managed to pin him and for some reason they could smell each other’s heat. Even if they had been almost immediately triggered into a rut by it.
He twisted his wrists free and Gabriel felt nails dig into his shoulder blades: an assertion that the fight wasn’t over, even if the fight was evolving into an unexpected form. Gabriel ground his hips down and Jack pushed up into him with equal aggression.
While yanking Gabriel’s shirt over his head, Jack swiftly took the opportunity to reverse their positions.
Gabriel’s hackles rose, rage zinging down his spine as the urge to reassert dominance was met and butted back by the solid body on top of his. Jack returned his show of teeth with an arrogant grin that made his blood boil. Gabriel’s hands were back on Jack’s bruised wrists, this time clinging as Jack pinned him to the floor by his shoulders.
Jack pressed a knee into Gabriel’s solar plexus and bent forward, invading his space further. The possessiveness of the kiss was infuriating even as lust pooled hot in his groin. Gabriel bit Jack’s soft bottom lip hard enough to draw blood and Jack snarled vocally.
They breathed hard against each other’s mouths, bodies taut and unmoving.
Then, slowly, gently, Gabriel’s tongue emerged and licked over the cut, soothing it, tasting iron.
And this time when Jack kissed him, Gabriel met him with an open mouth and a moan.
He tastes like Christmas, Gabriel thought deliriously.
He tastes like my birthday, Jack thought giddily.
Jack slanted his head, deepening the kiss, sucking on Gabriel’s tongue. For a few seconds, Gabriel could only lie there, his senses flooded – smoke, thunderstorms, mountain air.
Jack was burning up, July sunshine rolling over his body in waves. The tiny taste of submission from the other alpha was like an injection of ecstasy straight into his veins and it was not even close to enough of what he wanted.
What he wanted was to make Gabriel howl. From pain or pleasure, either would satisfy.
As though sensing his intent, Gabriel growled into Jack’s mouth. Goosebumps rose on his arms when he got a growl in return.
Instincts urging him to take back some control of the situation, Gabriel stripped Jack of his shirt before undoing his button and fly. He palmed the bulge he found there, pulsing with body heat, and was rewarded with a sharp gasp. And another one when he gave it a rough squeeze. He unexpectedly withdrew, looking smug at the vexed noise Jack made in the back of his throat.
They glared at each other as they each dragged off their shoes and pants, because even that was a competition. And then Jack was back to sitting on Gabriel, nothing but thin briefs between their achingly hard cocks.
Both their mouths fell open at the contact.
Their rhythm didn’t settle, as it would have with a beta or omega. It was jerky, unpredictable, with one of them leading only until the other regained the upper hand. Neither could stop struggling to win even as their bodies warmed for each other. Neither could tell who was going to end up on top.
It was making Gabriel harder than he’d ever been in his life.
Judging from the rigid length now rubbing maddeningly against his, Jack was equally affected by the unforeseeable outcome and the warring sensations. Fight. (Claim?) Fuck. Win. (Submit?)
Jack’s knees scraped against the cheap carpet as he nipped and licked across Gabriel’s broad chest, inhaling long draws of his scent – earth, summer breezes, warm seawater. His mind was getting hazier by the second. He took his time with each dark nipple, teasing the hard nubs with the point of his tongue, blowing cool air over them and then sucking them into his hot mouth.
The breathy noises this pulled from the other alpha were incredibly gratifying.
Despite being in a lower position, Gabriel was fiercely gripping Jack’s hips with his large hands, adjusting the angle of their groins to what he wanted, holding Jack in place as he ground up into him, a reminder that the fight wasn’t over.
Jack moaned at the friction and brought their mouths together again, in part to avoid the alarming impulse to sink his teeth into Gabriel’s neck. Fight. (Claim?) Fuck. He couldn’t stop kissing Gabriel, kept his callused hands on his face to prevent him from pulling away.
Gabriel blindly clawed at the contents of the desk drawer that had smashed to the floor earlier. As soon as the small bottle of lube was in his hand, he felt Jack’s fingers attempt to close around it. While their tongues fucked, their hands fought.
“Let me,” Gabriel snarled.
The hairs on the back of Jack’s neck rose at the commanding tone.
Challenger, rival, resist, his blood whispered. But his cock, needy and pressed against Gabriel’s and traitorous because of it, whined (Submit?)
Gabriel knew Jack would disobey before he even opened his mouth.
“Make me.”
This wasn’t the coy ‘Make me’ of a beta playing hard-to-get before inevitably surrendering. This was an actual challenge, one where Gabriel may or may not triumph. Intimidation and commands weren’t going to get him very far against an alpha whose strength so closely matched his own. But there were other tactics on the field now.
“My pleasure, 76,” he said with a toothy grin and a voice like honey.
Gabriel flipped them with one forceful shove and Jack’s shoulder blade stung with a rug burn. The lube hit the floor, free for the taking. But that didn’t matter because Gabriel hooked two thumbs into the waistband of his briefs and, with no warning, took Jack’s entire length in his wet, hot mouth.
Jack slammed a hand over his mouth to stifle a loud groan. His spine arched at the sudden pleasure. His adrenaline spiked at the vulnerability of his position but the potency of his scent spiked too, smoothing over Gabriel’s senses like catnip.
But even without that, it was evident Gabriel took satisfaction in being able to dominate others this way. He could bring people to their knees and keep them beneath him without even needing his impressive strength.
“Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,” Jack chanted into his palm.
He felt his face and chest flush. Even though it was Gabriel sucking him off, even though Gabriel was moaning around his cock, Jack knew he was the one submitting. And it grated, sent cold fire up his spine, but it felt so damn good too. And maybe he wasn’t fully submitting? Because this wasn’t a perfunctory blow job. Gabriel was lavishing attention on him, noting every small movement with beautifully dilated eyes, tracking what Jack was most responsive to and doing more of it.
Gabriel swallowed down, and Jack barely stopped himself from flinging his head back and giving himself completely over to the velvety sensations.
Their combined heats saturated the room. Every breath was like a drug hitting their bloodstreams. They couldn’t stop things now even if they wanted to.
While a beta or omega would be wet and mewling by now, Gabriel could tell from his own physiology that an alpha wasn’t going to slick up enough for what he wanted to do. Keeping Jack distracted, he retrieved the small bottle. Their briefs ended up somewhere.
Two lubed fingers pressed up against Jack’s asshole and before he registered what he was doing, he bolted up and slammed Gabriel backwards into the wall hard enough that he saw stars.
When Gabriel’s vision cleared, he found a very pissed off alpha in his lap, snarling into his face and squeezing his throat enough that his pulse picked up. There was nothing of Jack in the unwavering stare, just animalistic instinct.
Gabriel went completely still.
Enemy, rival, resist, his blood whispered, preparing to reroute his thoughts towards countertactics. But Jack’s cock, hard and wet from Gabriel’s mouth, was flush against his and pinned between their abs, and by the time (Submit?) crossed his mind, he was already mimicking Jack’s earlier, infinitesimally slow yield.
Jack felt the other alpha’s muscles relax under his grip, and when Gabriel had fully tilted his head back and broken eye contact, he took a shuddering breath – fresh earth, June breezes, seashore – and seemed to come back to himself.
He stroked a callused thumb up the soft skin and Gabriel swallowed hard, his gaze flicking back to Jack’s. Gabriel felt a hand around his wrist and couldn’t stop the throaty groan that escaped him when Jack guided the lubed fingers back to his entrance.
Jack smirked at him and ground down.
Gabriel’s mouth went dry at how slick and tight he was. The noises of satisfaction the blond made when he began moving his hips were as heady as his scent. The feeling of Jack’s inner muscles squeezing and fluttering around his fingers drew beads of pre-cum from Gabriel’s cock.
Jack’s heat was steadily climbing, fire under both their skin, as he fucked himself on the two fingers harder, faster.
“Add a third,” Jack growled.
“Make me.”
Jack grinned, spat in his hand and wrapped it around Gabriel’s neglected cock, making him choke on a gasp. He was glad he had the wall at his back to hold him up. His hips bucked up without his permission into the firm, wet, rough, perfect strokes.
Which then abruptly stopped.
“Add a third.”
Gabriel was panting into his face, eyes lidded, nearly drunk off Jack's scent – sweat, gunsmoke, alpine air – and did as he was told. But he didn’t do it gently, and Jack grunted at the sudden stretch.
He nipped at Jack’s bottom lip as he pumped his fingers in and out. When he adjusted his angle a fraction, Jack let out a gruff cry, a spasm of pleasure rippling through his entire body. Had Jack’s hand not compulsively squeezed around his cock at that moment, Gabriel would have chuckled.
Gabriel’s primal instincts crashed into each other. Was he winning at fucking but losing the fight? Was this dominance or submission? Jack’s thoughts were equally incoherent, boiled down to chasing the ecstasy building inside him. His breathing ran ragged and his head fell forward. He braced both hands on Gabriel’s strong shoulders, grinding himself down.
It took every ounce of willpower he had not to keen when Gabriel pulled his hand away.
“I swear to God, Reyes.”
And then Jack’s breath flew out of him as Gabriel tugged him down and he found himself suddenly, deliciously, entirely filled.
For a moment, neither moved.
“Oh fuck,” Gabriel whispered, in awe at the way Jack’s face flushed as his body registered the intense sensation of having Gabriel seated inside him.
Those blue eyes, still fixed on his own, were nearly black. Jack was breathing hard, mouth open, instincts short-circuiting. Counterattack. Fuck. Rut. Fight. Jack himself wasn’t sure what he was about to do.
Rising up on his knees, Jack felt the hold on his hips falter, the only sign of uncertainty the other alpha had displayed this entire time.
He gripped Gabriel’s shoulders hard enough to bruise.
Inhaled.
Slid back down.
The unreal sensation of Jack, an alpha, impaling himself on his dick dragged a low, needy sound from Gabriel’s throat. His face felt hot under Jack’s unwavering gaze, piercing and hazy at the same time.
After a few more tortuously slow rolls of Jack’s hips, Gabriel surged up and Jack found himself on his back, a rug burn scraped across his other shoulder blade.
Jack let out a low hiss of irritation and once again, they were grappling for control, Jack launching himself up as Gabriel struggled to hold him down, their grips slipping on sweat-slicked skin, teeth bared, exhaling steam into each other’s faces, locked in another staring contest.
“Yield,” Gabriel panted.
“Fuck you,” Jack breathed.
Gabriel couldn’t help loving that answer.
And then fight was thoroughly drowned out by fuck.
Neither caught whose eyes closed first as their mouths met in another hungry, searing kiss. Christmas. Birthday. Infuriatingly possessive but they both were and that was balance enough for now.
Gabriel started to thrust, a slow pace that picked up speed as Jack rocked up into the movement, heels digging into Gabriel’s ass cheeks to pull him in deeper, desperate for more friction.
“That all you got?” Jack goaded, voice thick.
“Just don’t want to break that pretty ass of yours.”
Gabriel’s coarse palms pressed Jack’s thighs a bit higher and wider; Jack let him.
Jack gripped the sensitive scruff of Gabriel’s neck to keep him close; Gabriel let him.
A little territory lost, a little pleasure gained.
And then Gabriel started to pound into him.
Jack let out a hoarse cry, hating and loving Gabriel’s heavy weight on top of him, the feel of his body opening, being filled, over and over.
Gabriel was soon lost, rational brain buried beneath mind-numbing surges of pleasure, the haze of Jack’s heat, and the intense animalistic satisfaction of fucking into something hot and wet and tight and willing.
He bore down. The velvety slap of his balls against Jack’s ass grew louder.
Jack was gulping air into his lungs, drinking in Gabriel’s scent, beyond drunk off it, mind melted by the rigid heat glancing off his prostate with every powerful thrust. He was so deep. He was so big. It was so good. Jack clawed at Gabriel’s bare back and the coppery tang of blood spiced the air.
Between gravelly moans, his teeth left shallow imprints up the side of Gabriel’s neck. Claim. Mark. (Mate?) He grazed over the spot a mark would go.
Gabriel growled. His whole body shivered and he thrust up hard.
Jack’s eyes widened. Was that… permission? His heart pounded. He could taste the erratic pulse point against his tongue. Wanted it.
Gabriel whined deep in his throat, achingly close to orgasm, and Jack felt the approach of his own finish burning up his nerve endings.
Clinging to the very last threads of lucidity, Jack forced his mouth away, forced it higher to suck at the soft skin below the ear. His hand slid from the scruff of Gabriel’s neck into his dark hair.
Gabriel’s breaths shortened tellingly. His thrusts grew erratic. Jack tightened his hold.
And sank his teeth in.
Gabriel howled into the crook of Jack’s neck as ecstasy tore through him.
Those punishing final thrusts, the blood on his canines, the twitching of Gabriel’s dick as he shot thick semen inside him — Jack’s orgasm hit him like lightning, drawing him taut as a bowstring, whiting out his vision. His own ejaculate striped over his abs. Convulsions wracked his entire body, every muscle quaking from overstimulation.
They came back to their senses in bits and pieces as the reverberations slowly abated. Like an unsteady descent from the clouds, like water growing clear as the sand settled, like hot sun melting mist.
Gabriel pulled out on autopilot and practically collapsed onto his side, breathing harshly, indifferent to the scratchy carpet. Jack rolled over bonelessly and snagged a nearby towel with a clumsy hand.
Their scents were dissipating, the atmosphere between them becoming uncertain and tense. They lay with a few feet between them, waiting for their heartrates to come down, eyeballing each other warily. The fight instinct had returned to prowl in their veins, though they sensed the other was far too exhausted to be considered a threat.
The cuts and bruises made their presence known once again. Jack had a smear of blood at the corner of his mouth. The long scrape on his bicep itched. The bruises braceleting his wrists darkened. Gabriel’s throat was raw. The back of his head throbbed from that slam into the wall. The bite below his ear oozed a slow trickle of blood.
He gingerly poked at it. They both knew it wasn’t a claim, that it would heal and fade. A few inches lower and they would have had a permanent situation to deal with. And if Jack had bitten to claim? Would he have offered his neck to Gabriel in return? Their very natures made the idea of another alpha’s mark on their body intolerable.
And yet.
Neither could deny they had wanted it. Badly.
It shouldn’t have been possible. But it was.
They became aware of the din from the common room, thankful it blanketed the sounds they’d been making, thankful Gabriel’s roommate probably told everyone they were fighting and kept them all away. They had no idea how to explain this to themselves, let alone others.
Fully aware neither had the answers, they didn’t voice the concerns and questions flying through their minds. Their breathing was the only sound for a few minutes.
“I won,” Jack said, voice husky.
“Like hell you did,” Gabriel coughed out. “My cum’s leaking out of your ass. I won.”
“Uh-huh. My bite’s in your neck. You howled. You would have done anything I wanted in that moment.”
“Except you couldn’t ask anything while you were too busy panting my name.”
“But you acknowledge that I could have asked.”
“A hypothetical victory is not a victory.”
“You wanna call it a draw?”
“Like a pair of omegas? You serious?”
“Just thought it would save your feelings from being hurt.”
“Asshole. Just admit that you lost.”
“Go to hell.”
“You realize if neither of us concedes, it’s technically a draw, right?” Gabriel drawled.
“Man, fuck draws.”
There was a pause.
“Guess we’ll need another rematch then.”