One of Jessies omega friends was throwing a tantrum in front of the door, in a shrill high-pitched voice. 

Fuck me. I hated it. All of it. The stupid babyshower with the pink-and-blue balloons, the baby-obsessed omegas yapping about baby socks and strollers and poo, all the while eying me nervously. I hated the baby-food tasting, the cute baby pictures where you had to guess who was who. All of it. 

Hate.

And yet, I even helped organised that shit. All for my lovely friend Jess. Luckily Aisha was here too. I wouldn’t know what to do without her. She wasn’t the only beta here, but she was the only one with anything else on her mind than babies. I completely understood why most alphas couldn’t stand being around omegas. And it had nothing to do with heat. They were just REALLY annoying.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have much good to say about alphas either. Not in general at least. Most of them are jerks. Some of them are quite nice people. Like my brother Luis, or my friend Finn. I even liked my little sister’s alpha a little bit, since he was good to Angelica. 

But they weren’t here. Finn’s omega Julie was. She was a nice person, but today I couldn’t take her any better than the others. Maybe I just hated babies…

I texted my husband a picture of my agonizing face with the subtext “baby talk”. He sent a laughing emoji back. Of course he did. He had been laughing at me the entire time I was helping to organise this awful day. But Jessie wanted it, and what Jessie wanted, she got.

I scooted over to Aisha and sighed.

“Why do they keep looking at you like that?” she asked.

“You know why.”

“Yeah well, but that’s just wrong. You helped organise this thing, and you’re Jessies best friend. Why can’t they just act like adults?”

“They’re scared Aisha. There’s too much hurt omegas to go around. They are used to having to protect themselves from us. They come here to this safe-space of a babyshower without a care in the world, smell me and freak out.”

“I still think that’s unfair.”

“Nothing’s fair. Being taken as a mate by a shit ass alpha who leaves you pregnant after your heat is over, is something that an omega can’t come back from. If angry stares and scenes in front of the door is the worst I get, I’m way better off than they are. No way in hell I’d want to be in their shoes.”

Aisha pointed at a pair of silver heels. “You’d want to be in Alicia’s shoes though…”

“Oh hell yeah, I’d pull them off way better!”

“You alpha…” Aisha snickered.

I laughed too. She was right of course. I was an alpha sitting in on a babyshower. Completely out of place. 

Yet it had never felt weird to my family, as my father used to have great plans to get me to marry another alpha. With two alphas having babies, you’d get stronger alphas. And there ain’t a lot of alpha females to go around, so there was a market for girls like me. 

We made up less than 2 percent of the population, and most of us were into omega girls anyway. I was straight, which meant I was destined to be with an alpha male and bear perfect little super alphas. Well, according to my dad at least.

The alpha males though… They did that thing when they were hitting on you: the compinsult. They would give you a back-handed compliment that was meant to lower your self-esteem. They tried to dominate you into liking them. 

Well fuck them. I hated that shit, and I wasn’t the least bit insecure or shy so I always had one right back at them. That scared them off most of the time. I’m good at scaring other alpha’s off. And omega’s and beta’s. Maybe I’m just scary.

My parents always told me to play nice, said submitting to a stronger male alpha was, and I quote: ‘in my nature’, that I should give it a try. But I never wanted to. Besides, and this was so much more important than anything else, I don’t want to have a baby. I never wanted that. Ever. And if that’s nature, then nature can go fuck itself.

Yeah, so here I am at a babyshower, checking out baby pics of silly omegas I don’t even know. 

I pick out Aisha immediately, but I’ve known her since she was 4 years old. I pick out Jessie too, but that’s because her two-year-old looks exactly like her. 

Andrew was supposed to be a dead giveaway, since he was the only male, but I picked wrong. I was the only one that did, and Jessie and Aisha laughed a lot about that. Everyone should have, but no one else was laughing at the only alpha present. 

Fuck, I wanted to leave.

Or a drink. But this is a babyshower, so that’s a no-go. I’m not going to be that alpha who asks for alcohol on a babyshower. Luckily, I didn’t have to.

“Hey,” Julie said. “Do you have anything to drink for those of us who aren’t pregnant?” She was twirling her candyfloss pink curls in her fingers, giving Jessie her most innocent of smiles.

“I brought prosecco!” Aisha shouted out. Turns out this party was going to be fun after all.

I was getting a little buzzed, but nothing too much, since Julie had downed about two out of the three bottles Aisha had brought to the party. 

In her defense, she hadn't had a drink in over a year, with the pregnancy and breast-feeding going on. So this was kind of her party too. Finn would probably pick her up later.

Unfortunately for me, this level of drunkenness brought on her ‘fairness in the world’-state, as she started to address the omegas who had been avoiding me and talking about me behind my back. Aisha didn't need an extra cue to join in.

I didn’t care about those things, I was used to them. My friends were my friends, and they knew exactly what I was worth. I didn’t need to convince other omegas that I was a responsible person. I knew I was. I saved enough of their kind from rape and worse to be sure of myself and I didn’t need them to know that to boost my confidence either. 

Unfortunately, Aisha was out of control and had taken offence at the way they’d been treating me.

“You know…” she started, giving me a look that said ‘I’m gonna fix this for you’, but I knew it wouldn’t.

“Please don’t.” I said. I knew where this was going, and I didn’t need to hear the story again. Three omegas pushed their chairs back at my tone of voice. God, I hated those pitiful girls. Too fragile to exist. But apparently Aisha took notice of this too, turned to the three little dolls and kept talking.

“Hey! Chris is a really good person!” 

Oh, fuck me sideways. I sighed and leaned back, sipping my drink.

“Yes!” Jessie chimed in. “She’s a hero! You know I told you guys about my first heat? That I wasn’t prepared at all and I was in the middle of a high-school party and totally blacked out? Well, Chris saved me. She fought off all the other alpha’s and got me home in one piece. And she didn’t even do it because she wanted to be with me, she did it because I am her friend. So don’t be a bitch and be nice to her, because she’s my best friend in the universe!”

Now they were all looking at me. I didn’t like it one bit. 

The story was true, I had done exactly that. And yes, I had been proud of myself. I had smelled her of course, and it had made my mind blurry, but not enough to make me lose myself. I was only seventeen years old at the time and I had still procured Jessies safety. 

The alpha men had been older and no doubt physically stronger than me, but they still had been scared shitless. I only had to fight two of them, the rest had whimpered away at my voice only. In that moment I had been truly invincible. It had marked my life.

“Well yes and that one time we found the little lost omega on our surf vacation!” Aisha stared marking the beginnings of a new heroic story, but I really didn’t want people to be talking about me the entire evening. 

Yes, I was an alpha, yes I was proud, vain even, but that doesn’t mean I like it when the conversation is suddenly all about me. Okay, maybe better than about babies, but still. Any other subject would do.

“Hey, any of you heard about that abandoned goldmine they found in Virginia?” I tried.

It didn’t work. The subject went back to babies, then family. I was totally spaced out in my own thoughts when suddenly Andrew asked me about mine.

“Hey Chris, do you have any kids with your omega partner?” he asked.

There it was... I had been dreading the questions that I knew would come at some point.  

“No, I don’t. Besides, my husband is a beta.” 

I sincerely hoped that my turn in the conversation was over now, but others were seemingly surprised by my answer and started asking more questions I didn't want to answer. Not because I was ashamed of the answers, but because I was sick and tired of having to explain my lifes choices to everyone.

I tried to answer them all at once to shut them up.

“Yes, I was originally supposed to marry another alpha. My dad thought it would be a good idea, since I was only good as a broodmare for alpha superhumans. But he fucked up his marriage to my beta mum after twelve years, by impregnating an omega. Before you ask: yes he’s still with her and their three children. So I thought fuck my dad and his opinions, I’m gonna do what’s right for me. And Patrick is right for me. I love him. Yes, my brother is an alpha too and he got his omega woman and two cute little girls who call me auntie. She's expecting the third soon. No, we’re not all alpha’s, my sister’s an omega and she’s also pregnant by her alpha, same as some of you. Yes, I like being an aunt and NO, I don’t want any children for myself, so it’s okay. Did that answer your questions?”

Hearing my own harsh tone, I wasn’t surprised no one said anything. Damn I killed the mood, again. 

Lucky for me I was saved by the bell. The pizzas had arrived and the whole lot went into some sort of motherly drive trying to get everyone to eat as much as they could. Well it was better than tasting baby food, I assure you.

After the entire farce of a party was over, I got my sneakers out of my car. I wasn’t driving. 

I wasn’t drunk, but drinking and driving is irresponsible, which was something no one should ever be able to say about me. So, I decided I’d use the opportunity get some exercise in and run home. 

It was a nice clear evening, warm considering it wasn't even May yet. And if I went across the campus of the community college, the route would be full of trees and parks. If I picked up the pace, I’d be home with my hubby in under forty minutes.