It was out first outing since the theme park. And to be honest, I had been hoping for more rollercoasters. 

I had missed her in the past two weeks, but she had told me over the phone that she had promised Patrick to only see me every two weeks. It was fair, of course, I was stealing her time from her husband. And she was already busy enough with her job and her new niece.

We had spent the drive talking about Chris’ family. Turns out she had a brother, a sister, two half sisters and a half-brother, who was an omega too. Her mother had passed away two years ago, and her alpha dad was, apparently, a dick.

Joanne was her third little niece and soon she’d get a nephew too, since her brother’s omega was pregnant again. It was really nice to hear Chris open up and talk about her little nieces. She looked completely different when she did, caring and gentle. However, it did remind me of Adam and Matt, which still stung.

“Today, I’m going to teach you how to fight.” Chris said, changing the subject when she noticed my discomfort.

I had responded with a well imprinted “omega’s don’t fight”. But Chris had just laughed at me and stated: “you do.”

I blushed at the reminder. Yeah I had attacked Adam, but I wasn’t really planning on doing more fighting. “I won’t anymore…” I said.

“David, I really think it’s good for you to learn some self-defense.”

“Like that stupid omega self-defense thing they do at the omega center?”

“That isn’t stupid.”

“It’s WAAAAAY stupid Chris.” I remembered seeing a bunch of omega’s throwing futile weak punches at air. If that wasn’t stupid, I don’t know what was.

“I used to teach that class.”

I stared at her wide-eyed, feeling like an idiot. I had always thought the self-defence class at the omega center was idiotic, when would an omega ever have to defend themself? 

I had earned that as an unclaimed omega you should at all cost protect yourself by taking heat suppressants and wearing a collar. You shouldn’t go out alone, because that was dangerous. You wouldn't stand a chance against an alpha, especially when you were in heat. Yeah, well... I learned that lesson, but I didn't need it anymore, now did I?

So with the worst out of the way, why teach me to defend myself? It's not as if I would even be able to beat an alpha in a fight anyway.

Then again, if Chris had taught a class on this, it may not have been so crazy. She was like the smartest person ever. There was probably a good reason for the class.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m now suddenly very interested in what you taught those omegas. I don’t see how any omega could….”

“Beat a rutting alpha?” she finished my sentence.

“Yeah.”

“Pepperspray.” Chris said, with a smug smile.

Right… Why hadn’t I thought of that. “But what did you teach them then? To use pepperspray?”

“To get yourself into a position where it would actually do some good, yes., amongst other things.”

“But it’s just, grab the thing and spray, right?” Why the hell did omegas need training to do something so easy?

“Here, see for yourself.” Chris said, handing me a bottle from her purse. It was deodorant. I took it, not seeing the point at all. I pointed it at her face, and I shrugged.

Suddenly everything smelled like gasoline and burning tires… The scent was so thick I couldn’t breathe, I felt like I was choking. I looked at Chris’s face, she was smirking. Not in a good, smug way, but something terrifying, like a predator. A terrifying dangerous predator that wasn’t going to kill me quick.

My legs started to shake. I was the prey. I was unable to move at all. My hands dropped to my sides, and as she stepped closer to me, my arms dropped without me being able to do anything about it. She reached a hand towards my shoulder and before she had even touched me, I crashed to the floor, dropping the can. I had never been so afraid in my entire life.

Then the smell suddenly evaporated, and made place for the warm scent of pinewood burning slowly in a fireplace. The scent that made me feel so safe. The scent of Chris.

As I regained control of my limbs, I looked up at her. She moved down and pulled me into a hug. A perfect hug that made all the leftover terror evaporate from my body. We stayed like this for a bit. When I finally had calmed down enough to look her in the eye, she said: “do you get it now?”

I nodded.

Chris was my friend, I trusted her, hell, she was even my alpha. If SHE could do this to me, what would a strange alpha be capable of?

“I’m sorry. I know this was terrifying for you, but I needed you to get it. I hope you can forgive me for scaring you.”

“I’ll go training with you.” I immediately replied. I sure as hell needed it.

As we walked further inside, I started smelling alarming scents, and I couldn’t help but press myself closer to Chris. She wrapped an arm around me and stopped. “Okay, lesson one: move your shoulders back.” She pulled them back slightly. I wasn’t aware that I had been slouching. Then she put one finger on the middle of my chest. “Chest up.”

When I stuck my chest out like an idiot, she moved her finger to my chin. “Chin up, clench your teeth a little.” I did what she told me. “Now stick your arms out to the side, not to high, just like this”. She moved my arms a little outward. “Palms open and forward.” She turned my hands. Then took a step back.

“Right, now breathe normally.”

I took some deep breaths, standing in this strange position and I felt my body calm down. The scents were still there, I could smell them even better, but they didn’t affect me as much.

“Right. You’re doing great. Now you’re going to go and walk in there. If someone comes up to you, look them straight into their eyes and ask for Gregory.”

“Why? Where will you go?”

“I’m going to be right behind you. You got this.”

“Chris, what are we doing? Where are we?” I was suddenly very insecure.

“No, no, no… don’t doubt yourself David. You can do this, come on. Shoulders back, chin up, you got this. Go.”

And I did. I walked over to the double doors and opened them. The dominating scent smacked me right in the face and my knees almost buckled. As I desperately clung to my posture, I looked around and saw a boxing ring were two alphas were fighting. Next to it were more people. All men. Probably all alpha’s too. The scents were so thick in here, I couldn’t really tell which was whose.

As the door fell closed behind me, the fighting suddenly stopped, and everyone was staring at me. Part of me was screaming, ‘get out!’ But I didn’t. I just stood there as three large alpha males made their way over to me. I knew I was tasked to say something, but I was frozen in place.

“Scent blockers?” one said, turning up his nose and smelling the air. "Could it be an omega wandered in here all by his lonesome?" It sounded like a threat.

“Oh, he’s shaking. Must have accidentally entered the wrong place.” A large dark alpha said. His voice wasn’t as threatening as the other guy. But his appearance surely was. He must have been at least 6'7" tall, and as massive as a brick wall.

The third guy didn’t speak, but he was emitting a sharp scent that made me squirm. He was staring right into my eyes as he walked up, and I was doing everything I could not to look down in submission.

“I… I’m….” I stammered, giving it my all not to look away. “I’m looking for Gregory.” I finally said. Immediately dropping down my head from the sheer effort of getting the words out. Chris would come now. I did it, she’ll save me.

“Why are you looking for me?” The enormous black man said, reaching out and lifting my chin with a finger. His touch didn’t feel like a threat, for some strange reason.

“Chris...” The first alpha hissed. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair and scratched the back of his head. His scent was overwhelming, it was thick like a poisonous cloud, attractively musky in a way, but laced with sulphur.

The alpha that was supposedly Gregory shot him a glance and looked back at me, wide eyed. “You’re with Chris?”

At that moment the door opened, and the scent of fresh bread baked on a campfire rolled in. I spun around and there she was. She looked incredibly proud.

“Hi Greg, Lucian, Fahrid…” Chris drew out the last name with what sounded like a slow growl. “This is David. We’re going to teach him how to fight.”

The smelly guy called Lucian started laughing. The one that was apparently Fahrid took a step back and glared at Chris, returning her growl with one of his own. He showed his teeth too.

But the mountain before him just looked me up and down, his eyebrows raised. As if he was scanning me to see if I was boobytrapped. “Alright.” He said, then looked back at Chris. “What do you want him to learn?”

“He’s an omega!” Lucian shouted out in disbelief.

“Yeah I can see that. He's even wearing a collar.” Gregory said. “But I don’t want any discrimination here. If he wants to fight, we’ll teach him how.”

Wait, what? The huge black guy WASN’T an alpha?

He must have caught my confused look, because he turned to me and said: “Not all alphas are big and strong, not all betas are boring and not all omegas are helpless. If Chris brought you here, she knows you’re not. Now let’s help you prove her right.”

I was expecting to be immediately pushed into the ring and I wasn’t ready. I looked sideways at Chris, but she returned my gaze with a smile, jerking her chin up and winking at me. I regained the posture she had just taught me and let Gregory lead me to the dressing room.

There I changed into the sweatpants and T-shirt Gregory gave me. The room smelled frightful. Not like gym-class at all. Well, the stench of sweat was there, but it seemed as if there were only alphas using this one. Well alphas and Gregory apparently. I had half a mind to stuff myself into a locker to hide from them all.

Yet I managed to keep it together and get myself changed. When I was ready, I moved back outside, and saw the dark mountain standing right beside the door. Had he been guarding it? His face gave me no answers, as he smiled a broad smile at me that showed his teeth. One of them was gold.

When we came back to the ring, Chris was in there, chatting with a guy at least the size of Gregory. He had a platinum blonde crew-cut, and his naked upper body was littered with tattoo’s. He was hot.

Chris however, looked amazing. She was clad in tight black leggings and a cropped tank top. All her muscles showed. She was at least a head shorter than the huge blonde guy, and about half his width, but her shoulder and back muscles were more defined than I’d ever seen on any woman, and her slender hips and waist accentuated a perfectly toned ass. I couldn’t help blushing as I stared at her, my heart racing.

“Hah, she’s hot huh.” Gregory chuckled, which made my face flush even brighter. “Well, she’s married, man. None of us can have her. Maybe that's for the best though. I think if she was single, we'd all be fighting over her.”

I yelped at his words. Couldn’t help it, it just came out. Some small part of me had immediately imagined me fighting all these guys over Chris, which was freaking me out for multiple reasons.

“You see, that’s why I hate stereotypes. They’re wrong all the time. Here I am with a straight omega man who wants to learn to fight. You know everyone thinks all omega guys are gay, right?”

That took me by surprise. Not that people thought all omega guys were gay, but the fact that he called me straight. That was definitely wrong, but I was reluctant to correct him.

“Are you still in there or did your brain drown in Chris’ ass?” Gregory snorted.

“Yeah… um no I…” Now he was just laughing at me.

“Let’s have a seat. Chris and Yuri are going to demonstrate some things and I’ll explain. Then you and I have a go so you can try the same techniques Chris uses. It’s all about using the height difference to your advantage.

“Why can’t I train with Chris?”

“You could, and you will, but the most important thing is to teach you how to defend yourself against big strong alphas. Chris hardly has an inch over you.”

I thought about that, when Yuri suddenly charged Chris.

“Chris look out!” I yelled. Which was met with laughter from the entire crowd.

Like lightning, Chris ducked at the last moment, grabbing Yuri’s foot, then jumping back up. Yuri crashed down and hardly caught himself with his hands. To make light of the situation, he started doing push-ups as Chris triumphantly held up one of his feet. She beamed at me. It was magnificent.

“Okay, Yuri, stop showing off. We’re going to do this in slow motion!”

Gregory beckoned me into the ring, so I could see it from close up.

Gregory explained all the movements and then had me try it on him. It was way harder than it had looked when Chris was doing it, but I did manage some techniques. They were all meant to take advantage of being smaller and lighter than my assailant and subdue him long enough to get away. Some moves were incredibly cool.

After a full hour of training, I was completely drained and went to the dressing room to take a shower. The alpha named Fahrid had growled something about getting me some soap, but I had figured that was still part of the training, so I looked him in the eye and told him to get some for himself, since he stank. Chris and Gregory had laughed their asses of at that, but Gregory had accompanied me to the showers anyway. Locking the door behind us, just in case.

“Mind if I take a shower too?” he said.

I didn’t have any objections and politely looked away as I stripped and positioned myself under one of the showerheads. It felt really good. I was still repeating the techniques I learned in my head when I was suddenly startled by a worried voice.

“Who did that to you?”

I immediately reached for my neck. Oh shit.

“Don’t know.” I lied. I couldn’t expose Chris to her friends, now could I?

“Fuck, that’s harsh man. If I ever met an alpha who’d do such a thing, I’d beat his ass to pulp. Are you okay? Do you know Chris from the shelter? Is that why she brought you here?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded. Gregory handed me a towel and I dried myself off. I cleaned my collar too, and after re-applying my scent-blocker, I put it back on, hiding the mark. Gregory was looking at me with a worried expression. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the pity.

“Stop looking at me like that, or I’ll hit you in the face so hard, you’ll be sorry you taught me how.” I snapped.

“Sorry.” Gregory said, throwing his arms up in defeat. “I just hate people that take advantage of others, you know.”

I nodded, feeling dread in my stomach about lying to Gregory, who was such a nice guy. But then again, he couldn’t ever know it was Chris who did it.

After we left the boxing ring, we went to the arcade for some less physical excitement. I beat Chris at a racing game, and spent the rest of the afternoon being childishly proud over it.