Chapter Text
They were arguing. That's the last thing that really felt real.
There was some stupid thing that Aloy wants - she always wants - and Beta doesn't really remember what she said to set her off, but it was bound to happen. Aloy shoved her, her back had hit the servers, and from there it all unravelled.
"What is wrong with you?" Aloy jeers, and there's a disgust in her voice that registers with a familiar sting. "We need your help, and you don't even want to try? What kind of alpha are you?"
"I'm not-"
"You are!" Aloy has her caged in, the buzzing machinery behind her becoming louder and less comforting the closer she advances. "I can smell you! The others can smell you! Stop lying to me." She seethes. Beta recoils from the onslaught, turning her face away, but that's not right. Aloy growls like a wild animal, close enough now to feel the white hot anger pouring from her. The room stinks of it.
"I haven't-"
There's a flicker of movement, and Beta flinches for the attack that doesn't land like she expects it to. Aloy pins her against cold metal, her forearm just as unyielding and hard on her chest, and Beta has no idea what to do to cool her down.
"It's been weeks. You're healed, you're fed, so explain why you're still cowering down here?" Aloy spits. Her fist collides with the servers, and it takes everything Beta has not to jump at the clang. "Fight back! Why won't you do anything?"
The air is thick with Aloy's fury; her pheromones, Beta mind supplies. Chemicals that she is secreting subconsciously to assert dominance, partially the reason people award her so much respect. It drips down Beta's throat like syrup, choking and sweet. She can't make the corresponding hormone that might calm the situation, or a reliable enough competing one that might at least give Aloy what she's looking for. An injection twice a year had made sure of that - kept her instincts mostly at bay so she could focus on her work - but Aloy doesn't know that. Aloy doesn't know anything.
Her legs shake. Aloy's teeth are bared, and Beta supposes that she might have had this coming, or at least should have sensed it bubbling up. They've fought before, and it's never gotten violent, but she's seen who Aloy is out in the world. She's lucky it's taken this long. She's lucky Aloy hasn't killed her.
(That's not true. Beta isn't scared of her. She wouldn't be here if she was.)
Aloy may have been outcast, but she was still an alpha, and acted as such. Beta doesn't have the same story, and submission is a learned response. It has gotten her this far. She shakes her head when her voice fails her. Aloy doesn't like that either.
"I'm so sick of looking at you." Aloy says. It doesn't hurt, Beta's heard it all before. She's always known that she existed in a body that was designed for someone else, to react as someone else would, and that disconnect had only become more apparent when she met Aloy. She doesn't seem to fear anything, while Beta is still getting used to just using her words in a fight. She swallows around what little air she can get.
Beta doesn't believe in anything - not souls or ghosts or an afterlife - but she does think something went wrong somewhere. It's easiest to blame the cloning process than consider the rest.
There's something hard pressing against her thigh. Beta feels hazy, overwhelmed, and uses that as an excuse for how long it takes her to realise it's Aloy's cock. Another assertion of her power, the difference between them. Beta's hands curl into fists at her sides.
Aloy is large, probably larger than her which makes no sense, with instincts to boot, which have not been dulled by years of medical intervention and general separation from the natural. Beta isn't sure how natural any of this is. Her face feels hot, but maybe that's just Aloy's panting, and not the much more likely blush she always ends up wearing when they're together.
It's probably not sexual, but that doesn't change the reaction she has to it. She never had the chance- she never learned-
"Aloy-" She doesn't respond to her name, but makes a low sound at the back of her throat when the silence stretches a beat too long. Beta rushes the words out before they can burn her. "Aloy, you're hard."
She shakes her head, baffled. "Yeah?"
Of course, it's normal. They've gone a step further than usual, and Aloy is reacting normally. She's the one not rising to meet her.
As the seconds tick by and Beta says nothing, Aloy's frustration crests another wave. "You're just a shadow."
(An inferior copy)
Beta's eyes itch with effort, so she squeezes them shut. Aloy's broken nails chip into her skin through her shirt, the fabric screaming under the pressure.
"Don't you- Fuck! Where is your drive?" Aloy hisses. "Why aren't you anything like her?"
Elisabet. Everything always comes back to her; as if either of them ever really knew her. She's still an enigma even to Beta, with all the first hand accounts in the world; Tilda's stories, telling her how Elisabet would act, how Elisabet would touch her. She thinks she might hate her. Aloy doesn't know anything.
"What was that?" Beta's eyes shoot open. She couldn't have said that, but she certainly has. Aloy reeks, and her eyes are bloodshot, like she's carrying herself under massive strain. For the first time since she's willing to remember, Beta's chest rumbles.
"You didn't know her." She means for it to come out stronger, but Aloy hears it all the same. She pulls up her arm, and Beta realises that she's actually a little taller when she's pushed to stand to her full height. It doesn't give her much confidence; Aloy's body ripples with muscles Beta has probably never even stretched before, but she still finds herself reaching to grab her wrist, to try and ease the pressure on her neck.
Aloy reacts immediately, aggressively, and too quickly to counter. Beta isn't sure what has happened until her chest hits the servers, her left arm twisted harshly behind her back. It knocks the breath right out of her, and she struggles to get it back when Aloy's alpha musk is all consuming, like spores sticking in the back of her throat.
She whimpers, and Aloy whines in her ear, deep and almost pained. She's so close to her neck, and Beta has never felt so exposed while being fully dressed. Aloy can probably smell her like this, the reaction she's having to a cock pressing to her ass, and the idea is beyond humiliating. She already doesn't believe her to be much of an alpha - that part is okay, because neither does Beta - but she can't imagine what she will think if she scents this kind of submission on her. Aloy hates weakness. She hasn't known her that long, but that much has been made more than apparent.
The Zeniths - Tilda - always said she was paranoid, but Beta always found she had good reason to be; her intuition rarely led her wrong. Naturally, this is no exception.
It's probably just instinct, proximity fed by access, but one moment Aloy is hissing in her ear, some insult she doesn't care to hear, and the next is dead silence. If she hadn't been holding her in place, the entire length of her body pressed to her back, Beta might have thought she had disappeared into thin air. She is not brave enough to look for herself, but Aloy doesn't leave her curious. Whatever had come over her swings its typical direction, and Beta's skin tingles as Aloy's nose glances along her shoulder.
Oh right. Aloy is probably in rut. That would explain a lot.
For a moment, Beta thinks she might bite her. It's a ludicrous thought (backwards, disgusting, maybe even narcissistic), but it's not unfounded. The wet sound of saliva gliding across teeth echoes around her head; Aloy's lips curling back as she breathes, deep and hard. She's scenting her, and Beta is letting her, and neither of these things makes any more sense than the other. There's a quiet rumbling coming from behind her, running up her spine. Her chest burns.
Her arm slips out of Aloy's grip, and Beta almost falls rushing to brace herself on a server. Or maybe she let her go on purpose, as her hands take up residence on her waist instead, nails curling into the swell of her hips. Beta thinks she might be shivering, but she's never felt hotter.
Aloy takes deep breaths, nose buried where her neck meets her shoulder, and Beta doesn't mean to react - the huffing sound shouldn't force it out of her - but she certainly does. She pushes back into Aloy's body, and Aloy snarls, her stance hardening to hold Beta in place as her own hips buck to meet her.
It's a weird moment. There's no better word for it. Beta keeps her eyes locked on a particular green light amongst the others, terrified that if she moves, Aloy might snap back to mindfulness and she will have to explain that away. Aloy's engorged clit is rock hard, and there's something wet and warm gathering on her lower back, where the tip is riding her shirt up. Aloy's slick, presumably. She won't be the only one with explaining to do.
Beta has felt out of control many times, throughout a life of micromanagement and isolation, but never quite like this. She was always quiet, as compliant as her thousand year old companions needed her to be at any given time, but now she's growling. Like some kind of animal.
The Zeniths - Tilda - would probably be horrified to see her like this, letting this happen. It's primitive, beastial- nothing like them.
The air is thick, and Beta doesn't know what exactly she wants to happen, but she knows she wants… something. She wants to sink her teeth into Aloy's flesh and rip. She wants to yell and scream at her to just do something, and that all comes out in a high pitched warning of a sound. The same is echoed back to her, and for a moment she forgets herself, and risks a glance from her peripherals. It does nothing for the pressure building up in her gut.
Aloy isn't looking back at her, but down between them, like she's as shocked at this development as Beta is. Beta turns her eyes forward. Looking at her makes her stomach hard.
Her mouth feels weird, like her jaw refuses to fit around words anymore. Beta bites around one anyway.
"Aloy-" She manages. She doesn't recognise her own voice, but Aloy does. She's rumbling behind her again, taking handfuls of fabric like she might rip it all off. Beta's skin is on fire, so keenly aware of the one place Aloy is actually touching her, of how much slick has dripped down her ass. She's going to explode if something doesn't happen. The growling is building up to guttural, but which of them it is coming from isn't easy to decipher.
Beta has always been an impatient person, and while it is not a conscious choice, her back arches, chasing more. Aloy keens in her ear. It's the most contented sound Beta has heard her make yet, but that thought does not lingur.
Her nose bumps up against Beta's glands, and it sends a shiver down her body that sets everything into sudden motion.
Aloy snarls at the friction, and in a display of strength that in any other situation would be frightening, forces Beta down for better access. Beta doesn't squirm, even widens her stance to accommodate, and tries not to think too hard about what is happening. Aloy has bent her almost in half, and with all this space it's all she can do to not pull down her pants herself. Thankfully, Aloy has found her rhythm, and tears them down of her own accord.
Beta whines, clawing at those little green lights as cold air hits her thighs. There's a beat where fabric rustles and Aloy shifts behind her, reaching between them to fully free herself from her complex outfit, and Beta feels another deep, furious sound building up in her chest. It's infuriating, because she wants, and she's scared, but her hips roll with a mind of their own. She won't back down now.
Aloy slips her hands under her shirt, spreading her fingers wide across her back, and - finally - grinds her crotch against her. Her cock slips between Beta's legs, long and hard and slippery with arousal. Beta feels dizzy, but it's easy to let her body just react, to push back into Aloy and try not to scream her frustrations.
There's slick dripping down her thighs from the both of them, cooling rapidly in the cold basement air and grounding in its own way. Beta has never felt anything like this before. Aloy is whispering something she can't quite make out over the blood rushing in her head, but she wants to reach behind her, take hold of those braids and pull with every bit of strength she has. She wants to bite her.
It takes a lot, because it feels like she's mutating with how much she wants something she doesn't know how to ask for, but she breathes her name again, and Aloy whines like she's hurt her.
"Aloy- more."
She doesn't need to be told twice. Aloy's teeth are wet and sharp at the nape of her neck; distracting, but not enough to make her unaware of Aloy's angle changing. She thrusts up, her cock sliding up between Beta's ass cheeks, where she's also soaked in slick. Beta thinks she might rip something from the servers if she doesn't calm down, because she's starting to get it and the idea is mind quaking.
Aloy nuzzles just behind her ear, and Beta finds herself nodding along to a question that wasn't asked. Aloy lines herself up, rumbling loudly, and thrusts into her like a bowstring being released; suddenly and all at once.
Beta roars. It's too much. Aloy is inside her, taking her like an omega. Her chest feels tight.
Aloy is inside her and it hurts. Beta breathes hard, fighting panic until Aloy… doesn't move, and lets her adjust. Beta doesn't understand her at all.
It takes a minute, but this must be normal as well, because she does in fact relax around the intrusion. Analytically, this all makes sense. Alphas get hard all the time, they probably have sex with each other, blow off steam together. It's probably the reason she's producing so much precum. Aloy's Focus always cuts out after her bigger wins. Beta has seen so little of this world, only what Aloy has allowed her to witness, and the realisation of her own naivety is more humbling than she would like it to be.
All of this flits past in Beta's mind quicker than she can sort through it, wires crossing in the chaos between how this feels and how exactly it even happened. The feeling wins out in the end.
"Move." She grunts. The sound Aloy makes is undecipherable, but she doesn't need anything repeated. Her hands are rough on Beta's hips, holding her steady as she pulls halfway out of her. The loss is bone deep and worse than the pain, and there's a snarl peeling its way out of Beta's throat before she can stop it, building up in her chest the longer Aloy leaves her without.
Beta has little experience with wanting anything that she could ever actually have. She has desired concepts, ideas, but never anything concrete; never with any surity. She wants this.
She's breathing hard, but so is Aloy, so she tries not to out pace her. It keeps her brain in check when Aloy finally follows her basic instruction, and rolls her hips. It knocks any semblance of oxygen right back out of her, and Beta summons every bit of strength she has to stay quiet. Her lips curl over her teeth.
Aloy fucks the same way she fights; precise and with purpose. She winds her arms around Beta's middle, holding her close as she thrusts, maddeningly careful despite everything. Her pheromones clog the air, and she hides her face in Beta's neck until she finds a gait that works, that forces the moans from Beta's throat despite her effort. She is licking around her pulse and the lump of her glands like she's trying to flay her alive, and it feels good to be this close to her. She's wanted it in one way or another, but even with her shirt hiked halfway up her back, even as Aloy cups her chest, Beta craves more contact. More touch.
She arches into Aloy's hands, trying to get as much from this as she can while Aloy is still slow. How she didn't sense her rut is a mystery, but with Beta's limited knowledge she understands that she's making an effort to be gentle. Most alphas would keep to themselves during theirs, but Aloy is always moving, always busy. She probably doesn't have time to sequester herself away.
Her mouth is hot, lavishing attention wherever she can reach, and Beta's head swings to give her more room. Each thrust it's starting to feel better, a little less like she's being ripped apart and more like euphoria. Aloy's cock pulses inside her like a heartbeat, like a constant reminder that shes a real person - another Sobeck clone - living and breathing and fucking her. Tilda would have a field day.
There's a scar on the back of Beta's neck, where her implant once was, spreading along to her right ear. Aloy can probably see it. The pod healed the worst of it to a fine pink line, but it's very much there and itches under Aloy's attention, because they just can't let her go. Can't let her forget. Beta tries to push it aside, because there's something she can't ignore anymore, and it's the perfect distraction.
Shifting her weight to one hand, Beta reaches between her own legs, where her clit has already grown to its full girth, and drips with precum. It's more than she's ever produced, gathering substantially in her palm as she wraps her hand around herself and attempts to match pace.
If she had had time to consider it before now, she never would have thought this would feel good. Better than good; Aloy seems to have stumbled upon the right angle or the right motion that's making her see stars, and all she wants is faster. She tries not to clench, but she's sensitive, and bucks into her hand with a humiliating sound she will demand be forgotten if Aloy can even look at her after this.
(That's a frightening thought. There's nowhere else for her to go.)
She mewls. Aloy rears back. Beta almost cries out at the loss, but bites her tongue before the pressure builds in her chest. She can't afford to bow any further than she has, lest her spine completely give out; Aloy wouldn't like that. There's a flicker of pain - fire dancing across her ribs - but Beta is too far gone to register it. In fact, it spurs her on.
Her body isn't really following commands anymore, but internally every response she gets from Aloy makes Beta quiver. She grinds her ass back as far as that calloused grip will allow her, trying to take as much of her as possible, and Aloy melts back to her like lava down a mountaintop. Her groans drown out the growl Beta is sure is still escaping her gritted teeth.
Whatever it was slowing her down snaps apart, and one of Aloy's hands winds into her hair. Her thrusts become mistimed, rutting into her the way animals do. Mindless. Natural. Beta's heart is thumping heavily, and she has never wanted to do this to anyone before, but being on the receiving end feels good. Where exactly that knowledge puts her is something for later.
She's close, and less okay with it than she's ever been. Aloy is hitting that sweet spot with each thrust, burying herself as deep as she can, and the wet, slapping sound of it is obscene, echoing around the room.
Aloy shouldn't knot without the presence of an omega, but for once something that seemed scary in theory doesn't seem the same in person. Beta knows that arousal is clouding her better judgement, that she's high on hormones and pleasure and should take her idle thoughts with a pinch of salt, but it's thrilling all the same. Just the concept.
Beta's legs are shaking, so she closes her eyes and puts all her strength into just staying upright, even though she's sure Aloy is already taking on the brunt of her weight. She's fucking her so viciously that she probably wouldn't even have time to fall, and Beta learns that the imagery isn't helpful.
If her hold on her hair is anything to go by, Aloy isn't far behind her. She's jackhammering her hips, so slick that the force isn't necessary anymore, but Beta hopes she doesn't stop, does not slow down. She's so close-
Aloy's teeth clip her pulse and Beta cums biting down on her own wrist, trying to stifle the groans as much as possible. Her eyes roll back. She's faintly aware of the hot ropes of cum hitting her stomach and painting the servers, but it's all secondary to the fire burning through her limbs and into her hackles. Aloy groans, her grip surely hard enough to bruise now, as Beta's body fights to keep her inside.
She's never felt more tired in her entire life, physically or mentally, and that last one is impressive. She expected some relief with her orgasm, some kind of mental awareness that would push her to disgust, but no. Nothing comes to her naturally here.
"Fuck, I'm gonna-" Aloy doesn't have time to finish the warning before she follows her over the edge. Her forehead presses hard to Beta's shoulder and she cums with a hiss, but Beta is only focused on the heat. Aloy's seed is hearty with her rut, and shoots into her guts with the same strength as its creator, until Beta is sure she can taste it in the back of her throat. This is fantasy, but it feels real all the same.
They hang there for a moment, locked together and breathing, and as the milliseconds tick by, Beta knows she's out of time. The inevitable is coming. Aloy is less fearful. She's still holding them up by some miracle, but her head is heavy, and her lips graze along Beta's neck like she doesn't see the scar, or even realise what she's doing. She probably doesn't. It's nice when they are on the same page.
Reality comes crashing down fast after that.
Aloy recovers her wits quickly, and the new clarity sends her springing back fast enough for it to hurt in brand new ways. Beta has never felt empty like this before, and the cum dripping down her legs is chilling fast.
Beta knows better than to look at her. To see that horror written all over a face that is a little too familiar, and have it directed at her. Instead, she carefully eases herself down to the floor, her thighs aching when they are finally allowed rest, keeping her eyes low the entire time.
She's waiting for the explosion, but it doesn't come. She really doesn't understand her at all. Aloy stumbles over a few false starts, spluttering before she gives up and just leaves without saying anything. It's the best possible outcome, but the scent of her lingers in the air and on Beta's skin, just in case she could ever forget what just happened.
A shower would be nice, but she can wait. Aloy will probably leave. She never hangs around for long anyway, and Varl will come looking for her-
Beta drops her head to her knees, curling up in herself, because the others couldn't have missed that. How can she show her face again? Her head spins.
If she were more lucid, she might have gotten up and locked the door, but her body is demanding rest. Beta curls up in her bedclothes, once again regretting not taking up the offers for a proper bed, and cringes when everything just smells like Aloy. Like she herself was never there. Agitation flares.
Aloy can explain it. They're her friends. It's not Beta's responsibility. None of this is.
She'll be back soon. To fight with her again. Beta is torn between vicious satisfaction and the usual trepidation, but not fear. She's not scared of Aloy, but maybe Aloy is scared of her. Maybe that's a good thing.
Sleep comes easier than usual, and Beta does not dream.