Aosh stared into the dance studio.
He was graceful and elegant, like he had always been. He moved about on the tips of his toes, the soles of the ballet shoes pristine; he was like a delicate doll. His hair glistened like starlight that swayed with the movement of his body. His eyes were sad like two clouded emeralds that had lost their luster. Cradled in the arms of another Alpha, Tiza was led about the studio.
This person, someone whom Aosh had never seen before, moved with precision across the floor as she twirled about with Tiza. Her gaze upon him was sharp. Like a lion about to pounce on its prey. Aosh must've come right at the end of their dance because in the next moment she is coming to stop right in the perfect view of the window. She has Tiza bent back in a dip, his toes balancing on the floor. A manicured hand comes up and lifts Tiza's chin to look at her. She says something that makes Tiza's skin turn a shade darker, that much Aosh can tell from where he stands. Sapphire eyes flash to the window for a split second to catch Aosh peeping into the room.
In the next moment the other Alpha kisses Tiza.
She kisses him thoroughly, running her fingers through his hair, pulling Tiza close.
Aosh can't force himself to keep looking, surprised he leans against the wall beside the door, out of view.
There are tears that threaten to spill, the first in a long time, and he just barely holds them back. His nails bite into the skin of his palms in a futile effort to calm himself down. But he keeps seeing it in his mind's eye. This wasn't the closure he was looking for.
Still trying to compose himself, the door opens, and Aosh comes face to face with Tiza followed by that Alpha.
There's silence followed by a weird mood that settles in the air.
Tiza looks pale, paler than usual, his jawline sharper, and his eyes a little more sunken in. Details that went unnoticed from the other side of the glass. Aosh doesn't fail to notice how the Omega's clothes swallow him whole or the stunning white collar around Tiza's neck either and how it bites into his skin.
Valencia's hand comes to Tiza's waist, pulling him into her.
"Do you know this person, Prima?"
"..."
"..."
Both men have so many words to say, but neither the courage to do so.
"If not I suggest that he find someone else to leer at." she says agitated, and uses her hand to usher Tiza down the hallway. The Omega looks back at the Alpha's retreating form then continues down the hall.
Aosh was ready to forget. He convinced himself he was. But somehow he found himself crying in the parking lot anyway. He found himself tumbling down into the darkness of his own thoughts once again on the drive home. And he realized in the deafening silence of his apartment that he was alone. And that might just be how it was always meant to be.
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Tiza feels like he's dragging himself down the hallway, opposite Aosh. Like there's lead in his shoes. He chances to look back once more, wanting to get a better look at the Alpha, but Aosh is gone. His stomach is tied in knots. Valencia's hand on his back only unnerving him more. There was so much he wanted to say.
But as usual his words alluded him. His true feelings still stubbornly refused to come to the surface.
The least he could've said was 'sorry'. Sorry for ghosting Aosh for months, and leaving without a word. Sorry for leaving him like so many other friends that preceded him. He was no different than the rest. Tiza had never tried to convince himself he was, until he looked back on his and Aosh's relationship. Now it hurt. And he never felt more compelled to run away from the feeling than he did now. He wanted to forget.
Aosh looked...bad. Tiza knew 'bad' wasn't the right word, bad had never been the word to describe Aosh, but other words like: dejected, miserable, and distressed only made him feel worse. So he chose to ignore them, like everything else.
The Alpha's hair was all out of sorts, not in a 'I just rolled out of bed' kind of way but in a way that screamed 'I don't care anymore'. His posture didn't carry the confidence that draws others in like a magnet, his shoulders slumped in the confines of a white sweatshirt. Aosh's angular features seemed a little softer; rounder. As if he gained a miniscule amount of weight in the last few months. He didn't smile once.
And maybe that's what bothered Tiza the most. Because as much as that stupid, toothy grin annoyed him and made him feel things he couldnt even describe, it was so overwhelmingly Aosh. It was the cornerstone of who Aosh was, it was Aosh's heart, as pure and selfless as it was, manifest. And if Tiza was the one who took that from him…
He didn't know what to do. He...didn't know if he could live with himself.
The duo rounded the corner to the where the gym's offices were and Valencia came to a stop, her hand on his back giving him a gentle nudge.
"Thank you for indulging me enough to give me a dance, now go get the rest of your things. I'll wait here."
A foriegn object caught the Omega's eye as he approached his office. At his feet sat a small pot, in it a cactus composed of several tear drop shapes, white needles that gave it a slightly fuzzy appearance, and a few blush colored buds on the top. Attached to it was a note. Tiza knelt down to pick it up, flipping the card over to read it.
Cold fingertips dug into the ceramic pot. The note bent under the pressure. The picture attached became wet with stray tears, blurring the faces smiling on it.
'Goodbye'?
Yes. He guessed this was goodbye. It wasn't until now that he realized it. He did this, this was caused by his weakness, his decisions. And yet he wondered why it hurt so much.
A few minutes pass and Tiza is returning to her, the bag they had came for in hand and a plant held close to his person. Her eyebrows quirk, in question, but before she asks a scent wafts around them as he comes to her side.
Spiced ginger and soothing chamomile. A nostalgic smell that makes the corners of her lips upturn. Somehow things always worked in her favor and at this point she expects it. Her prized Omega was in her grasp once again and tonight, before she whisked him away for good, Valencia would thoroughly mark him as hers.
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There's a banging at his door hours later. A banging that won't let up so the dejected Alpha is forced to peel himself off of the couch and away from the cheap, grocery store cake he has been eating himself through to see who is making all this noise so late at night.
He opens the door, the dull hallway light almost blinding to him after such a long time spent in the dark moping. Before his eyes can adjust the figure at his door brushes past him and into his apartment.
"Where is he?! He's here isn't he!"
The sudden shouting alarms Aosh so much so that he scrambles for the closest light switch to see who just burst into his home. When the lights flicker on Sean comes into view, storming about his living room, then into his bedroom. The Alpha runs in after him.
"Tiza! Tiza!" Sean yells, yanking the closet door open, then going to the bathroom.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!"
Sean turns and immediately grabs Aosh by the collar of his shirt. Although Sean sits a couple inches shorter than Aosh, the action is still threatening.
"Don't play dumb with me! Where is he!? He has to be here!" Sean yells, frantically. His grip tightens and he shakes the Alpha. The Beta's knuckles turn as white as the sweatshirt in his grasp.
"Calm down and get off me!"
Aosh is able to shake Sean off with a single push, he continues.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but he's not here." Aosh heaves a sigh, "I haven't even seen him in months until today. Now please just get out." he says, strained.
"You saw him!? Where was he?!" The frantic tone in the Beta's voice is yet to leave and this only makes Aosh's eyebrows furrow.
"Yea…? I saw him leaving the dance studio with a woman. I don't know where they went."
The confused look on Sean's face gave Aosh a sinking feeling.
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Ginger and chamomile filled up her senses. Exciting her. The thrill of it fuelled her Alpha instincts to press her Omega into the mattress. Tiza's hand came up to push at her, a futile attempt to get space between them. An open palmed shove soon turned into a closed fist clinging to her sleeves. Valencia's pheromones seduced him, calmed him, and made him pliant to her will.
His grabbing at her becomes impatient, ready for her to just take away the painful heat inside of him. But she is not as benevolent as Tiza suspects. The Alpha wants to draw this out. She wants him to beg for it. She wants him to remember the feeling of her and understand why he was wrong to leave.
Valencia slowly peels Tiza's clothes from him, then lets her fingertips roam his body, reclaiming it as her own. They run across his heated and heaving chest, over the ridges of his ribcage, and down to the concave of his stomach. A weak plea comes from Tiza, asking her to stop, but she doesn't relent. Although when her touch reaches his hips it falters.
A small koi fish grabbed her attention.
"What did she look like?"Sean pushed further.
"She had a fair complexion, brunette hair, blue eyes, was about your height...and an Alpha."
Sean became quiet as he thought, his expression becoming darker and darker as time went on.
"Oh...oh my god."
There was really only one person it could be. Sean's hands, shaky from anger or anxiety, Aosh couldn't tell, came up and cupped his own face then ran through his short bangs.
"What?' Aosh asked, concern becoming evident in his voice.
Sean began to pace back and forth in the bedroom, worrying his lips, eyes distant.
"Sean? Sean, what's wrong with Tiza?"
"Somehow she found him…"
"She? That woman?"
"Yes! That had to be her...Tiza's ex girlfriend, Valencia Lefèvre."
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"What's this?"
Tiza is barely able to lift his head from the pillow to see what she is talking about. Her fingertip lightly traces Violet, and a new wave of heat settles itself deep in his stomach.
"...Aosh…" he mumbles out, then turns his head into the pillow seemingly embarrassed.
Aosh? Valencia goes silent. She wasn't a fool and she prided herself on her observation; because of that she hadn't failed to notice the same type of tattoos on the man that they ran into earlier. Lips turning upward, her thumb rubs small circles over the fish.
"Is that his name? Your real fated mate, Aosh?"
"..." Tiza's breath quickens.
"How is he? A beast in the bedroom I'm sure."
Tiza groans and tries to close his legs, but Valencia doesn't let him. He's getting more aroused.
"I'm sure you loved being underneath him, loved seducing him with your wickedness like you've done with countless other Alphas," she crawls up and forces her Omega to look at her, his tears smearing onto her hand.
"In the end, no matter what you or any other Alpha who tries to take you from me has to say, you are mine," her hand trails down Tiza's face and grips his collar, " What a shame he wasn't Alpha enough to mark you. But with how unfaithful you are I doubt anyone will."
Their lips crash together, messy and carnal. She was going to make her Omega forget. Forget about any Alpha that had ever touched him. She finishes undressing herself, her rut getting the best of her, and enters him. Tiza's moans are muffled by her mouth as Valencia mercilessly pounds into him. She would break Tiza as many times as necessary, she would hold him down and take him repeatedly, until the only name that came off his tongue was hers.
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Tiza's...ex-girlfriend? All the touching and kissing Aosh had seen earlier made sense now,even though he tried not to think about it.
"I'm such an idiot!" Sean yells, pacing again, " I should've known she would try to find him. Oh god…"
Sean looks like he is about to pass out so Aosh tries to calm him down.
"What's so bad about him being with her? If he wants to, he should be able to see her without you butting in." Aosh says defensively, he doesn't like the idea of Tiza being with another Alpha either but that wasn't his place to worry about. Just like it's not Sean's place to act like...this.
"You don't get it! She was one of the reasons why we even came here! Tiza isn't safe around her!"
At this point Aosh was getting the sense of urgency of the situation. But Sean getting more worked up was going to get them nowhere. Aosh led him to the living room and sat Sean down on the couch.
"Have you tried calling him?"
"Of course I have but he won't pick up."
"Well let me try then."
"You can't. I blocked your number on his phone."
Aosh looked at him incredicously but chose not to say anything, now wasn't the time. He went to his closet and rummaged around until he found his spare phone, the same one he had used months prior. Coming back into the room, he punched in Tiza's phone number and called it. Sean quickly came over leaning in close so he could hear.
Ring… Ring...Ring...Ring...Ring…
"..."
A frustrated sigh comes from the other end of the phone.
"Tiza is not available right now. Now quit calling, the incessant ringing is ruining the mood." a female voice says hotly.
"We just want to know where he is and if he's ok." Aosh says warily. Sean nudges his ear closer to hear.
"If he's ok?" the voice chuckles and there's a rustling that can be heard, "Prima, how are you? Are you doing ok?"
Quiet panting can be heard, followed by noises Aosh can only guess are...moans. There's more rustling and what sounds like the slapping of skin on skin.
"Tell them you're ok." comes that female voice.
"...Ah...I...I'm...ahhh...o-o-kay. Ah! Valencia...p-please..!"
"I hope that appeased you. Now don't call again, as you can hear," theres a another pronounced slap of skin, "we have a long night ahead of us." the woman chuckles as the Omega moans loudly once more.
Then the call ends.
Somehow Aosh isn't convinced that Tiza is...ok. And by the look on Sean's face neither is he. The two look at each other both at a loss on what to do. Until Sean's eyes go wide with a sudden realization.
"Fuck!" he says scrambling to get his phone out of his pocket, "I forgot that I can track his phone!"
Aosh didn't bother hiding the distaste in his face. Sure it was useful now but Sean tracking where Tiza was on his phone was pretty shitty altogether. They were able to find the last location his phone had been at, a hotel a few towns over, in Stilton. Sean went to leave the apartment followed quickly by Aosh.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm coming with you." he looks at Sean, his eyes pleading, "Please."
Sean huffs, too worried about getting to Tiza in time to argue, and the two make their way to Sean's car.
It took them a while after they arrived at the rather lavish hotel, to get the front desk to give them the room number Valencia was staying in. Their pleas and persuading fell on deaf ears. The receptionist had a job to do and not disclosing guest information was one of them. However the rather disheveled and desperate Alpha and Beta must've reached her in some way, as all she said she could do was call the guest in question.
After a minute or so on the phone, the receptionist was given permission to disclose Valencia's room number, and even gave them the message that 'Miss Lefèvre is expecting you.'.
And so the duo came to the room at the end of an ornate hallway, on the fifth floor. The smell of ginger and chamomile mixed with plum and cloves was strong and it seeped from behind the door saturating the air. Aosh felt glued in place, the air was so saturated with pheromones he found it difficult to even breathe. The fact that it was partially Tiza's scent made it...even more difficult. Maybe he shouldn't have come, if Aosh goes into a false rut he'll be of no help to anybody. Before he can even think about leaving Sean bangs on the door.
A moment passes and Tiza opens it.