Two sparkling eyes, the eyes of a child, stared filled with wonder and amazement.

She was graceful and elegant. She moved about on the tips of her toes, the soles of the ballet shoes worn but she was like a delicate fairy. Her hair glistened like starlight and was kept neatly atop her head and her eyes reflected her child’s, like two emeralds. Her feet moved with precision across the floor as she twirled about coming to stop in front of the enraptured child.

The child sat up excitedly.

“Is it my turn Maman, can I try?”

The little one wore a pink leotard with white tights underneath.

“Of course, my little Alpha.” 

She picked them up off the floor, their body small and light like a four-year-old would be.

She warmed them with a hug and kissed soft hair before setting them back on the ground. Her little one was still young but yearned to be taught to dance just like their mother.

The two danced together, clumsy feet following well-trained ones to the soft orchestrated music within the dance studio. She was graceful like a swan and her child was like a little cygnet chasing after their mother.

It wasn’t long until the two were interrupted by the ornate wooden doors opening.

In walked a brunette-haired Beta male, young like the woman, and with him his child of the same appearance dressed in tights and a leotard as well, but a few years older.

“Tata! Tiza! Papa said to ask you if we can come over for dinner tonight, can we please?”

The boy ran over to her and hugged her tightly around the waist. She wore a complicated expression and her eyes shifted to the man still in the doorway. A single parent with their hands full, just like her, although his brother was the reason why she was raising her child alone.

A delicate hand patted the boy attached to her.

“That would be the third time this week.”

“Sean says your food is better than mine,” The man sauntered in, he was clean-shaven and his short chocolate locks weren’t a hair out of place, “I hate to intrude Melody but you know how picky he is.”

“Sean! Sean! Look what Maman taught me!” Tiza copies what they had seen their mother do before the two were interrupted. They spun around and bounced about the floor, the only correct part of the dance sequence was when they returned to first position.

“Tiza you have to do it like this!” Sean repeated what the young child tried to do but with a little more poise.

“She’s too young to do something that advanced correctly, don’t push her.”

Melody looked at her child and reassured them that what they did before was perfect.

“Tata, why do you keep calling Tiza a girl before you even know if they’re an Alpha yet? My teacher says you’re supposed to use ‘they or them’ for Alomegas. It’s polite.”

She laughed at the mild scolding from her nephew.

“It’s because Tiza will be an Alpha. If you say something enough it’ll come true. Besides, Omega males are very rare.”

  Alpha females and Omega males were impossible to tell apart from birth. Both had dual genitalia and reproductive systems, but as they matured one genitalia would become more prominent. Alphas by nature were breeders and Omegas could give birth, so the way their bodies matured would reflect this. These babies are dubbed Alomegas until they began to mature around the ages eleven to thirteen.

  Melody scooped up Tiza into her arms again.

“Tiza’s going to be the most beautiful and elegant Alpha. She’s going to be a prima ballerina, right my little Alpha?” Her lips pecked Tiza’s nose and they smiled.

  Melody named Tiza after her idol, Tiza Rees, a world-renowned prima ballerina, and Alpha. She was positive that her child would have the same success and commanding prowess as her. Melody herself was a prima ballerina for some time but ultimately retired from the theater after having Tiza. Her company adored her and she was widely popular as far as Beta ballerinas go, her face was easily recognizable around the European dance scene.

For being so young and talented some admonished her for foregoing her career to have a child, but the child was the last thing her husband gave her before he left. Her love for him transcended the betrayal he gave her in return. So she cared for her child, seeing a little bit of her lost love in them. She now worked as a ballet instructor for the company that adored her so much that they couldn’t let her go, hiring her in hopes her talent would rub off on the hopeful pupils she taught.

Her most devoted fan had been her child. Tiza loved to watch Melody’s ballet recitals, bouncing excitedly in front of the television whenever she would put the DVDs in. Usually, children wanted to watch silly tv shows filled with crazy characters and colors but not Tiza. This drive for ballet gave Melody hope for Tiza’s future. She had given up her career to be with her child, but maybe one-day Tiza would take their place in the limelight and do what she couldn’t; have the long fulfilling career she had wanted.

The little Alomega nuzzled into their mother’s neck feeling safe and at home. Every waking moment was filled with her. Her beauty, her voice, everything about her was the center of who Tiza was as a person, they truly idolized her. Truly loved her more than anything.

A year later and that love would only grow stronger but only due to being painfully ripped apart from each other. Tiza, being so young, couldn’t understand anything. Why did Maman have to be in this place? Why did she have to stay in that pretty box in the ground? If those men kept putting dirt on the box they were going to get the dress she wore dirty!

The little Alomega kept screaming at them to stop, that they were going to get her dirty and she was too pretty to be dirty. Sean held onto Tiza in a vice grip, worried that the other would run over and fall in the deep hole by accident. The Beta’s consoling words didn’t reach Tiza, but in reality, they were empty to him as well. His Tata was the closest thing to a mother that Sean had and she was his idol as well. She was the dancer he wanted to be when he grew up, he in turn felt like a hole had ripped through his chest seeing her being lowered into the ground.

Behind them stood Sean’s father. His eyes glazed over and distant, he paid no mind to the children. He didn’t care about them, the only thing he cared about was now six feet under him.

Tiza lost a loving mother and with no other family besides a deadbeat father that walked out on them the day Tiza was born, they went to live with their uncle and cousin.

As children tend to do, Tiza remembered nothing but happy memories about their mother. Glimpses of her played out in their dreams often after her death. Tiza would see her dancing on stage, her outfits sparkling like her hair under the stage lights. They would see her smile while she watched Tiza dance and hear her laughter when they were at home playing games.

Tiza saw her get stabbed.

They heard the words, ‘This child is the reason you quit the ballet? Then I’ll get rid of them so you can come back!’ ‘I’m your biggest fan, I love you!’.

Tiza saw the tears roll down her cheeks as she held onto her child for dear life and could feel the warmth of her blood seep into their clothes. Tiza could hear the blade of the knife clatter onto the cobblestone and footsteps running away, but the words ‘my little Alpha’, barely a whisper, were louder.

Tiza woke up to warm tears trickling down his face. He rubbed at his eyes in a sleep-induced frustration. How could he still be so upset about something that happened so long ago; about someone he spent so little time with? He felt weak and like a failure to her. He wasn’t that beautiful and elegant Alpha his mother wanted him to be or a prima ballerina to a big dance company, but this mess of an Omega instead.

‘What high expectations to put on a child’, he thought morosely.

It had been a while since he thought about her; since he saw her angelic face in his dreams. The Omega drifted back to sleep thinking that a lot of things from his past were rearing their way back into his head. After spending years locking things behind doors in his mind, the appearance of a single person could start to pick at the locks he so carefully put in place. He spent so long separating himself from Alphas but now that one was in his life again his mind decided it was time to relive this trauma that plagued him.

He blamed Aosh. He blamed him because he was an Alpha, he was what Tiza was supposed to be, but deep down he knew it was his own weakness that kept letting all these skeletons out of his mental closet. The Omega tossed and turned all night unable to sleep, the weight of the past, and seeing the Alpha later that day keeping sleep at bay.