Eight years.

It took eight years for this moment and when it was finally upon him, Azaki found himself surprised that he felt nothing. He should be brimming with pride and excitement at his future.  With this, this like would now be filled with more vibrant and exciting opportunities in his field than before. He’d won the national championship, and yet, there was a lurching terror in his gut that it would be all for naught. The grip on his hand tightened on the document he’d been handed, practically a one way ticket to whatever job he could possibly want, on whatever terms he could desire.

Shouldn’t this moment feel more exciting? Freeing?

Something more than the burning numbness that had been coursing through him for years now. Something more rejoicing than the aching terror within his gut...

They’d told him if he could make it past his twenty sixth year then he’d probably stay dormant for his entire life. Later today, they would take the last measurement of his dwindling pheromone levels. This meant that if he could get through today, he’d finally know for sure that he’d never present as an omega. The trend of his pheromone depletion implied that the measurements taken today would come out low enough for him to register as a conditional beta and then he’d no longer have to pretend that he was an omega.

The idea of being an omega made him feel sick.

He sighed and pushed his free hand through his hair to slick it back out of his face. The light silver locks fell back and to the side before slowly sliding themselves right back to where they had been almost mockingly. It was a futile attempt to keep the silky tendrils out of his face but he couldn’t stop the compulsion.

Azaki was objectively beautiful. His jawline was soft, yet sharp at the same time, while his lilac eyes had a striking contrast to his milky and delicate features. Though for someone like Azaki, being beautiful was a huge hindrance. The boy wanted nothing to do with being stared at, or being noticed in any capacity.

He didn't want people to know that he was an omega. Yet, one proper look at his face and anyone could see what he was without a doubt. So, as a defense against the world, Azaki pulled his oversized hoodie tightly so it hugged against his body, zipped it to the top, and then pulled up the large hood so it properly covered his face. Azaki then took a moment to retrieve and slip on his oversized and extra-thick glasses.

His hand then slipped into his pocket and grasped at a face mask out of habit but, since he was just going straight to his doctors office,  Azaki decided to skip on that particular part of his disguise. Finally feeling safe beneath the hood that sheltered his omegan beauty from the world, Azaki could relax.

He walked out the door in a hurry, keeping his eyes pointed to the ground sharply and his body language slumped in an attempt to make himself as unassuming as possible. Azaki never made eye contact or wanted any sort of attention on him whatsoever, especially when there were Alphas around.

It had been seven years since a doctor brought Azaki into his office and explained the massive drop in his pheromones. He’d been overwhelmed by the news, hoping that the development would keep his omega genes from ever revealing themselves and allowing him to live a normal life.

His doctor at the time flinched at his reaction, attempting again and again to assure the boy that this wasn’t a good thing. ‘Regardless of how you feel about it, you are an omega. Your body is still producing pheromones after all this time, and if you never present properly you’ll only be living half of your life.’ That fucking quack, Azaki much preferred his current doctor.

The truth was, that Azaki would take half a life over the daily nonsense that proper omegas had to go through any day. Suppressants, scent blockers, safe rooms for heats, the pain of actual heats, nesting, smelling people's emotions, hiding from crazy alpha’s, the threat of a forced mating. Sure, society wanted to pretend that omegas had finally gotten rights and were no different than anyone else.

Nope.

Bullshit.

Lies.

Maybe an argument could be made that a Prime Omega was considered an equal, but the reality was that in this world regular omegas were still treated like property and breeding stock. Alpha were just too possessive and animalistic when it came to claiming mates. Azaki was fine with living his life as a beta where things were simple. Azaki preferred simple. He also knew that his life would only stay simple if he could just get through this year without presenting.

Though he’d been diagnosed as an omega in his early childhood, he never showed signs of manifestation nor presented properly during puberty like his classmates did. Doctor after doctor called him a late bloomer, an enigma, tried to prepare him for the inevitable moment that his first heat would trigger. And yet, here he was, twenty six years old and still no heat.

About two years ago, his most recent doctor leveled with him and said that chances were that he’d never present. That he would never sense pheromones. That he barely even released pheromones anymore himself, but his body continued to produce them en masse. 

That doctor gave him pitying eyes while he tried to explain the seriousness of his situation. Waxing poetic about he’d never be able to produce offspring like it was something that mattered to him.

The Doctor pleaded to the omega, trying to make his point clear. If Azaki didn't start to take steps to avoid it, only some kind of outside force like intense Prime Alpha pheromones or a true mate would be able to trigger his first heat.

But outside of a miracle like that, his chances of ever presenting were almost none and he should try his best to accept the possibility that he’d never present. Hearing those words send waves of euphoria through Azaki. In that moment, he truly believed he’d never been so happy.

All he had to do was never meet his true mate.

Well, even easier than that. He could meet his true mate all he wanted. Just as long as they never made eye contact there would never be a bond. Especially since he could not sense and barely released pheromones. Finding his mate or attracting an alpha with pheromones strong enough to trigger him were slim to none. He was far too unassuming to catch the attention of the elite class of Prime Alpha and as far as true mates went, such things were almost the work of fiction. Something so unlikely, it was generally considered an actual miracle when true mates came together.

The idea of making eye contact with a stranger and the pheromones intensifying to the degree of forming a bond in seconds sounded absurd. There were loving couples who tried for years to get a bond to form and never succeeded. Stuck forever being mates that had to continually reforge their connection by marking each other over and over again. The whole process made him feel nauseous. The whole system did.

He just needed to get through today.