It's her wedding day.
Viona had never envisioned getting married this soon. In her carefully guarded fantasies, she would fall deeply in love, propose, and spend years truly understanding her partner before ever walking down the aisle. But her parents' relentless pragmatism had quickly blurred those dreams into oblivion.
At twenty-three, Viona felt entirely too young to settle down. Her mother, however, had soundly rejected that notion.
"You are an Alpha," her mother had commanded with the unyielding authority typical of her rank. "You must marry soon, while you still have the youthful energy to build and sustain your family."
In their world, Alphas held absolute priority—and with that privilege came the crushing weight of responsibility. Because Viona was a female Alpha who historically avoided the company of Omegas, those around her assumed her tastes leaned toward Betas. The reality was far less accommodating: no Beta could ever handle her dominant disposition.
Viona's own family dynamic was proof of how well unconventional dynamics could work. Her mother was a formidable Alpha; her father was a gentle Beta. Viona had literally been carried in and born from her Beta father's belly, yet her mother remained the undisputed boss of the household. It was only natural that her mother wanted to see her daughter command her own domestic sanctuary.
Mothers always know best—or so they say.
For two years, Viona had successfully dodged the matchmaking attempts, but running out of romantic prospects eventually meant running out of excuses. Her mother seized the opportunity and pushed her across the finish line. The matriarch's hope was simple: intimacy would breed affection, love would follow, and a legacy would be secured.
Viona's new husband was a male Omega named Ethan. He was also twenty-three, and he had been shoved into this arrangement just as abruptly, though for entirely different reasons.
While Viona was pushed into marriage out of love, Ethan was pushed out of malice. He was the sole Omega born into a family that utterly despised his sub-gender. To them, his existence was a stain. Desperate to rid themselves of him, they had practically thrown him at Viona's family.
The wedding itself passed in a dizzying blur. They had barely spoken a handful of words before the vows were exchanged. Sitting there as newlyweds, Viona realized with a jolt of anxiety that she didn't even know what her husband liked to eat. It was a chaotic way to start a life together.
Determined to fix this, Viona resolved to establish a baseline of friendship before tackling the heavier expectations of a married couple. To her relief, Ethan seemed entirely cooperative.
"Ethan," Viona began, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the living room of their new house. They were sitting on the couch, the air between them thick with the awkwardness of strangers. "I think we need to take some time to really get to know each other. Everything happened so fast, but... we're husband and wife now."
Ethan kept his gaze glued to the floor, his posture rigid. "I understand. As you wish."
Viona studied the young man in front of her, a quiet fascination blooming in her chest. This was her Omega. Her husband. He possessed the striking, delicate beauty classic to his designation. While he didn't share Viona's commanding, statuesque Alpha height, his proportions were elegant. For someone who had actively avoided Omegas her entire life, Viona found herself incredibly pleased by his polite, quiet demeanor.
Though his eyes never lifted from the floor, Viona caught the fleeting, nervous twitch of his lips—a habit that made him look like he was trying to force a smile despite being paralyzed by tension. A sudden warmth washed over her, and she had to fight the urge to grin. His presence wasn't abrasive or overwhelming; it was comforting. She felt a profound wave of relief. He was a good Omega. She didn't regret this.
In truth, Viona's grand defense of 'waiting for true love' had largely been a boring excuse to mask her deepest insecurity: she simply wasn't confident she could be the perfect Alpha wife. Perhaps her mother had seen through the bravado and forced her hand so she would be compelled to learn on the job.
Now, looking at Ethan, she felt a spark of optimism. They had a lifetime ahead of them to figure it out.
"Thank you," Viona said softly, her smile genuine.
Beside them lay a mountain of wedding gifts. Usually, her parents would be the ones tearing through the wrapping paper with her, boisterous and celebratory. Now, there was only Ethan, hovering shyly at the edge of the cushions. The dynamic had shifted entirely. Looking at his slouched shoulders, Viona felt a sudden, fierce urge to be mature—to protect and guide this fragile person beside her. Alphas were meant to lead from the front, shielding those behind them.
Ethan, meanwhile, remained perfectly silent, nodding in agreement with every syllable she uttered. He was merely executing the strict programming his father had drilled into him. Yet, beneath his compliance, his mind was racing, struggling to process the glaring anomalies in Viona's behavior.
Weren't Alphas supposed to be cruel?
Why was her voice so gentle? Why did she look at him with warmth instead of disgust? Why wasn't she demanding he keep his distance, or mocking his weakness, or using him as a punching bag to assert her dominance?
'Maybe it's just because it's the first day,' Ethan thought, a spark of panic igniting in his chest as he stole a glance at her. She was happily eyeing the colorful gift boxes like an excited child. 'She doesn't know how pathetic I am yet. Once she gets used to me, she'll turn into a monster, just like the rest.'
Conditioned by a lifetime of brutal conditioning, Ethan genuinely believed he was a disgusting burden—a cosmic mistake that the world wished to erase. The moment his second gender had manifested as an Omega, his father's affection had vanished, replaced by bitter resentment. His father wanted an Alpha heir, not a weak, submissive male destined to crave the touch of a dominant partner.
The neglect would have been a mercy. Instead, his father used him as a physical scapegoat, beating and cursing him whenever a business deal went south or anger needed venting. Worse still, Ethan's younger brother—once his sole comfort and ally—eventually followed their father's example. As the younger boy grew into his own dominant traits, he became even more viciously abusive than their sire, becoming the central figure of Ethan's nightmares.
Ethan's life had been systematically dismantled. His father had pulled him out of high school midway through, deeming further education a waste of money for a "useless Omega," completely disregarding how hard Ethan had studied just to earn a single scrap of validation.
In place of a proper education, his father had hammered home a different set of rules: Obey Alphas. Please them without question. Never resist. Do not expect affection. Treat them as your masters.
So, Ethan had treated his tormentors like gods. And today, he had been handed over to a new god who legally owned him.
He loathed Alphas. He was terrified of them—especially male Alphas, whose heavy pheromones made his knees knock together in blind panic. Because Viona was a female Alpha, her presence didn't trigger that immediate, suffocating terror, allowing his heart to find a fragile, unsteady rhythm. Her bright smile was a balm he didn't know how to accept.
But as the initial relief began to fade, the cold, hard conditioning of his past reasserted itself, chilling him to the bone.
'Don't be stupid,' he reminded himself, tightening his grip on his own trousers. 'She is still an Alpha. And all Alphas are exactly the same.'