Chapter Text
Male omegas are rare; the fact that Hoseok was one should have led both his life and his family’s to glory, but it did not. There is nothing worse than being a defective omega, and unfortunately, Hoseok is one of them.
Life had always been kind to him, or at least, that is what he liked to believe.
Hoseok grew up as the youngest child of the rulers of the Ulsan Peninsula. His family consisted of his middle sister, a beautiful, intelligent, and charismatic omega, and his older brother, the alpha who defeated the northern wolves twenty years ago when he was crowned king of the realm.
And then there was him.
An omega who left much to be desired…
Hoseok had turned seventeen months before he was diagnosed as a defective omega. He wishes he could say he had expected it, but in truth it shocked him. His body went cold and his heart turned to ash when the doctor explained that his hormones had an irregularity that would not only make conceiving nearly impossible, but that, because they had not developed properly, his omega pheromones were so weak that alphas and omegas would not be able to perceive him as an omega.
On top of that, Hoseok would not be able to react to alphas the way a normal omega would.
That was when everything suddenly made sense. Not only had he taken two extra years to present, but that irregularity explained why, during his presentation, when his first heat began, Hoseok barely experienced the symptoms a normal omega goes through.
His sister, who had gone through it four years earlier, had told him it would be painful. Whether one presented as an alpha or an omega, there were always symptoms everyone experienced, such as the development of the scent gland in the neck, which would make the throat burn from the inside, the skin feeling as though it were on fire; the neck would swell, and speaking would become nearly impossible. His brother had even said he had been able to smell others’ scents from miles away.
But it had not been like that for Hoseok. He had felt feverish, yes, but for the most part he had simply been tired. His neck did not hurt, nor did his body. He had barely realized he had presented as an omega because of the small amount of slick that had dripped from his entrance, it was almost imperceptible, so much so that Hoseok is sure he would not have noticed if he had not been naked when it happened.
What truly frightened him was that, after the five days had passed, his scent was so faint that his family only recognized it when they came close enough to his newly formed scent gland. Hoseok thinks he should have suspected it back then, but how could he, when his mother assured him that with time his scent would surely grow stronger?
It never did. In fact, his omega senses never awakened. To Hoseok, other people’s scents remained dull and emotionless. It was not like it had been for his sister, who had warned him that her nose would sting when she smelled other omegas, while the scent of alphas would overwhelm her with arousal.
Hoseok never experienced that, and now he knows he never will.
Because he is twenty-two years old, and nothing has changed since then. Even if his mother insists on dressing him in the most expensive omega garments, in fine fabrics and feminine designs meant to accentuate his pretty figure and make him look delicate and beautiful.
Always bringing him products to make his skin softer, brighter, his hair more hydrated and healthy.
But the truth is that none of that changes the fact that Hoseok is broken on the inside.
It did not change that every alpha who came from afar to meet him rejected him. It did not stop them from comparing him to a beta. None of it prevented the truth from coming out.
Soon, in fact, the rumor that the third child of the eastern kingdom was a defective omega spread everywhere, until suitors stopped coming altogether.
Though the rejection hurt, Hoseok could understand it. After all, princes are meant for the throne, and it is obvious they need heirs, and what is an omega who cannot bear children?
He is no one, at least not to them.
He is no one in a kingdom where omegas exist to bring babies into the world, so it was no surprise when even the servants began to mock him behind his back. Being in the palace became uncomfortable, difficult, especially when his brother left for an entire year. It was hard having to stay behind, overseeing the nobles his brother had left in charge while he dealt with urgent matters abroad, especially when the alphas there did not take him seriously.
It is not that Hoseok believes the things they say about him; he knows he is more than that.
And yet it still hurts, still stings, and most of the time, locked away in the loneliness of his room, he cannot help but wonder whether all the horrible things people say about him might, perhaps, be true.
Those sick thoughts follow him even now, even though things have improved since his brother’s return. Ever since he came back a month ago, everyone seems happier and also too afraid to spread rumors about Hoseok when he walks through the halls.
Which is exactly what he is doing now, walking through the long corridors filled with guards toward his room, when one of the palace maids approaches him.
“The king requests your presence.”
Her monotone voice pulls him from his thoughts. When he looks up, he recognizes one of the king’s servants, one of the many women who are only allowed to serve him.
“My brother is looking for me?”
He cannot help frowning, confusion creasing his brow. It is night, just after dinner, when his parents had been talking about his sister’s second pregnancy and how she had been unable to join them because, in her condition, long carriage rides were dangerous. It makes no sense that his brother would be calling for him now.
“Yes, His Majesty awaits you in his office.”
Hoseok looks at her for a few seconds, perhaps searching for some sign that she is not serious, but of course he finds none. He never would, not when most of the people who work for the king are more like puppets than human beings.
Hoseok nods slowly.
“Then please, follow me.”
He does as he is told, walking after her, wondering why his brother has summoned him.
With every step, his nerves grow worse. Because… because…
He stops abruptly, nearly colliding with the woman in front of him, surprised to realize they have already arrived. They stand before the closed door to the office.
The woman knocks twice, announcing Hoseok’s presence.
From inside, his brother’s voice answers, slightly muffled by the door.
“Come in.”
She opens it, and Hoseok steps inside, taking two steps forward. His brother, seated at the far end of the room, looks up.
“Leave us alone and close the door on your way out.”
The coldness in his voice only makes Hoseok more uncomfortable, like when he was a child and his parents called him in to scold him, just that this feels different. Because his parents are not as cruel as he is…
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Hoseok has been sitting there for some time now, in his brother’s office, while the older alpha signs papers as if Hoseok has not been waiting there for nearly fifteen minutes.
Not knowing why he is there does nothing to calm his nerves.
He digs his nails into the soft flesh of his palms.
He has a bad feeling.
He has had the same sense that something terrible is about to happen ever since his brother returned to the kingdom. It is not that he does not love him, but he is not the same. He is rougher now, impatient, cruel. He always has a cup of wine in his hand, and somehow it is as if he no longer has a heart, much less feelings. He even had a man beheaded just for speaking to one of his concubines.
“Hoseok.”
His brother takes his hand. The cold touch startles him, pulling him from his heavy thoughts.
“Yes?”
Hoseok wonders if he can feel how damp his hands are, how afraid he is, but of course he cannot. In a world where scent is the main way of reading emotions, Hoseok is blind to them, just as others are blind to him.
His brother releases his hand and sets the papers aside. When their eyes meet, Hoseok feels his throat go dry.
“You know your duty is to create alliances that benefit our kingdom through arranged marriages.”
He has barely begun speaking when Hoseok already feels sick.
“But it seems you are incapable of attracting an alpha.”
His brother looks at him with eyes colder than ever. The words hurt. The look hurts. It hurts because it was never Hoseok’s choice that those stupid alphas do not want him.
And it is not as if he has not tried, because he has. He tried with everything he had to make that alpha like him. He truly thought that this time, the trace of makeup the omegas had painted onto his face would finally make an alpha accept him, but it did not. Neither the beautiful hanbok he wore nor how much he smiled and worked to please changed anything. It was the same thing that has happened ever since he turned seventeen.
He was rejected.
At this point, Hoseok has given up.
Trying to win the hearts of alphas who clearly have no feelings, not even a shred of conscience, is an impossible task and one he is simply tired of doing. He no longer wants to. Three days ago, when that alpha said he did not want to be with him, Hoseok was almost grateful. He realized he no longer wants to waste his time listening to people who only make him feel awful.
“I cannot keep you here any longer, not when you cannot do what you are meant to do.”
Hoseok’s chest tightens. Something ugly spreads inside him, so terrible he thinks he might vomit.
He has always been ready for rejection from others, but not from his own family. He was not prepared to hear those words from him. After all, his brother and his mother were the only ones who always told him he would someday find someone.
But now he is the one looking at him like trash. Now he is the one saying he cannot stay, that he will not make an exception and let him remain in his own home, locked away in a room.
“Unless you make an effort and do something about it.”
Hoseok frowns, confusion flooding his system for a split second before the meaning hits him. Do something about it? The bastard in front of him has no idea how hard Hoseok has tried to make those brainless alphas see something in him. He was never there when they made sexual jokes about him, when they tried to touch him.
What is he supposed to do? Marry someone who does not love him, who will treat him like garbage, just to fulfill some stupid tradition?
He is furious, his steady gaze fixed on the dead eyes of the alpha before him.
“You know I have tried,” he says, his voice rough, hollow, almost rude. “I have done everything. So what do you want? Do you want me to become a prostitute? Or to be with that king whose age is three times mine? You know neither my parents nor I agree with that.”
The king looks at him. If his gaze was dark and arrogant before, now his chest seems to puff up, his ego flaring as he takes on a dominant stance.
“Do not speak to me like that. Hoseok, you are my cousin, but even you cannot talk to me that way just because we are family.”
Hoseok inhales deeply, trying to calm his anger and his urge to scream at him. It is not that he does not want to marry, but he wants to do it with someone who loves him, someone who does not despise him, even when it is hard for him to love himself.
“I’m sorry.”
Even saying that costs him, and when he looks up again, the other is staring at him with disgusting contempt, as if he does not believe him at all. Hoseok suddenly remembers how ruthless he has become.
“But I’ve tried everything… I don’t know what else I can do. Besides, no alpha wants me.”
And he no longer even wants to go out with one of them. He is not excited at all. It is not that he does not want to be loved. It is not that he chose this.
It is not his fault.
His brother sighs, standing up from the chair, which creaks as it rolls back. He walks over and stops in front of him, extending a hand for Hoseok to take.
Hoseok does so hesitantly, standing when he is prompted.
“I am an alpha, and I want you,” his brother says, trying to sound gentle, but he does not. It comes out strange, forced, not matching the deep, unreadable look in his eyes.
“You’re my brother, so that doesn’t count.”
Hoseok says it without thinking, but his brother snaps, clicking his tongue. His eyes darken, his voice sharp.
“I am your cousin, not your brother!” he corrects him with a furious shout.
Hoseok flinches.
It was true that he was not his blood brother, but since that incident so many years ago, to him and to the world they were only that: brothers.
So why get angry? Why? When, for as long as Hoseok could remember, his parents had taken care of him. After all, they had adopted him after his parents died, so he had always treated him like a brother and vice versa.
Besides, what was the difference? In the end, he was family.
“But to me, you are my brother.”
“What did I just say?!” the other demanded, his irritated tone making Hoseok feel as if he had made some terrible mistake, even though he knew he had not.
“You are my cousin,” Hoseok repeated in a flat voice, staring up at the king with wide eyes, silently wondering if the other would strike him for his supposed mistake.
“Good.”
The other smiled for reasons Hoseok could not understand; his face softened or at least it tried to. He could not really tell, not when the expression on the man’s face was so strange.
“I’m sorry, don’t be afraid, Hoseok.”
His brother lifted his right hand to his face. Maybe it was the roughness of his fingers, or maybe the strangeness of the situation itself that made Hoseok gasp softly.
“I only meant to say that I see you the way an alpha would see an omega, and I don’t care if we are family. I don’t even care if you cannot get pregnant or if you are a defective omega.”
Hoseok did not even have time to control his expression. He was sure the shock and confusion were written all over his face. His body went rigid, and the air in the room grew so heavy that breathing suddenly became difficult.
He could not even smell the emotions in the room, beyond their flat, empty scents. If only he could recognize how others felt through their scent, like everyone else, he could tell whether this was a joke or not, but since his nose did not work the way it should, Hoseok had to ask.
“What?” he stammered, his voice a thin, terrified thread, as fragile as he felt.
“I want you to become my omega.”
He smiled, a yellow-toothed smile that could not be real. None of this could be happening. Why was his brother playing with him like this? What a cruel joke.
So Hoseok did the only thing his disconnected mind allowed him to do.
His lips parted in a laugh that burst from his throat.
“What a good joke,” he said, laughing nervously, lost and terrified all at once.
His smile froze the moment he felt the rough grip around his waist. His trembling eyes lifted to meet his brother’s. The man before him was looking at him like an object, something to own, looking at him with desire.
It was a look Hoseok had never received before, one even worse than the disgust he was used to.
His heart began to race. He was so afraid that sweat started to gather at the back of his neck. He thought of Jungkook, his best friend and personal bodyguard. On any normal day, Jungkook would have been waiting outside for him, but today he was not, because his brother had ordered him to escort one of his friends to another city. Even if Jungkook had not wanted to, he could not refuse.
No one can refuse a king…
“What do you say?”
Hoseok hesitated. What was he supposed to answer? He could not even understand how his brother could be suggesting something like this. He wished he were drunk, that he would laugh and say it was all a joke, but that was not the case. Not at all. The alpha was watching him closely, his dark gaze fixed on him.
It made his skin crawl.
“I—I can’t have children.”
He did not even know where the words came from, or where he found the courage to say them, much less to hold his gaze, when all he really wanted was to hit him and then disappear as if none of this had consequences.
He genuinely expected the other to start shouting, but he did not. Instead, his brother simply smiled in that strange way that made Hoseok tense his jaw and bite the inside of his cheek.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” his brother said, placing a hand on his shoulder with a wide smile. “I’ll have a concubine conceive it and I’ll say it is our child. No one will dare contradict me if I decide so.”
If Hoseok had thought he was insane before, now he was certain he was completely mad. How could he say something like that with such pride and happiness? How could he smile while proposing something so monstrous?
“But we’re family—”
Hoseok shrieked when the table beside him was slammed. The sound boomed through the room. He froze in place, raising his hand in front of his face in a futile attempt to shield himself from the other’s rage. His eyes squeezed shut, his heart pounding so hard with terror it hurt his chest.
It only reminded him of the power that man held. He knew that even if he screamed, no one would help him. No one. The only one who could was Jungkook, but the alpha was not there. He was not behind that door waiting for him.
His hand trembled when his brother grabbed his wrist, forcing his arm down and making him look at him.
“Come on, Hoseok, be smart. You only have to spend the night with me, become my spouse, and everyone will stop mocking you.”
It was in that exact moment that Hoseok understood: anything he said would be denied. Every word would be ignored, brushed off like a joke.
His brother would not accept no for an answer.
“So, what do you say to that?”
Hoseok wanted to laugh at his hypocrisy, the way he asked as if Hoseok truly had a choice, as if he were really being given the right to decide.
And yet he already knew the answer the other wanted to hear, the one he would never give.
Hoseok did not respond. He thought that if he stayed silent and ignored him, the king might get tired and leave him alone, maybe he could find a way to escape.
But he was wrong.
He knew it when rough fingers gripped his chin and dry lips pressed against his. He jerked back, or tried to, but he could not, not when the other held him so tightly it hurt.
When he felt his lip being bitten and a tongue forcing its way into his mouth, Hoseok could not take it anymore. In a desperate act fueled by rage, fear, and above all the need to make it stop, his instincts took over. The next thing he knew, his teeth were clamped down on that filthy tongue.
The scream that tore through the air was accompanied by foreign blood sticking to his lips, dripping from the corner of his mouth. Then came a shove that sent him crashing backward onto the wooden floor.
The taste of iron filled his mouth. His wide eyes watched the alpha groan, hands over his mouth, as their gazes met.
Frozen, Hoseok felt his hands being grabbed with a grip that made him cry out. Maybe he was on autopilot when he struck the other between the legs to break free and then shoved him with all the strength he had.
What happened next was something he never expected. The fire from the fireplace caught the king’s hanbok, the golden-and-ochre fabric going up in flames so violently that Hoseok was horrified.
He only needed to see his brother screaming and trying to escape the fire before stepping back and running. He nearly slammed into the door, his hands shaking as he grabbed the handle, but he did not care. He did not stop when the king’s broken insults reached his ears. He did not stop when he passed between the two guards who always followed the king everywhere, the same ones who rushed to his aid while ignoring Hoseok.
Hoseok just ran.
His chest heaved as he threw open the door to his room and locked himself inside.
Only when he collapsed onto his bed did he realize something terrible was about to happen, and he was proven right when, minutes later, the guards began pounding on his door with such force it might give way at any moment.
Hoseok closed his eyes, his shaking hands on either side of his head, listening to the chorus of men outside demanding that he come out like a criminal.
The last thing Hoseok thinks, amid the chaos and the noise, his breathing still ragged, is that he feels no guilt for what he has done.
No, instead, he finds himself reaching for one of the gold hairpins he usually wears.
He studies its long, sharp point, perfect for defending himself when the moment comes.
Hoseok hears the door burst open. He grips the pin and thinks to himself:
“Blood will be spilled, probably mine, but also the blood of anyone who dares to touch me.”