Chapter Text
The Wilkerson household sat at the dinner table like any other night. Dewey pushed a mountain of peas into a defensive perimeter; Malcolm ate with a practiced, efficiency; and Reese was shoveling food into his mouth as if he were trying to hide the evidence. At the head of the table, Hal was happily chattering away about his day, oblivious to the storm brewing in the opposite chair.
Lois sat perfectly still, her nose scrunched in a rhythmic, predatory twitch as she glared at the steam rising from her plate.
“So, boys...”
The table went dead silent. The four of them—Hal included—snapped to attention, staring at her with wide-eyed terror.
“Who’s going to tell me what Alpha you’ve been hanging around?”
A collective groan erupted from the boys, a reflex born of years of interrogation.
“Mom! It’s not me,” Dewey chirped, leaning back with a rare sense of immunity. “I haven’t even presented yet. I’m literally scentless!”
“It’s not me either,” Malcolm added, his voice dripping with more exasperation than fear. “Trust me, no Alpha wants to be within ten feet of an ex-Krelboyne.”
Lois’s gaze swiveled slowly toward Reese, the last man standing. He looked up from his nearly empty plate and let out a high-pitched, nervous chuckle.
“No, no, no way. It’s not me! There isn’t an Alpha at school who can even stand the sight of me!”
Lois raised a skeptical eyebrow at her second-oldest. “Is that so? Then who is it, Reese?”
“I don’t know! Maybe Malcolm’s lying!” Reese shoved the final heap of mashed potatoes into his mouth and bolted upright, desperate to reach the sanctuary of the kitchen sink.
“Sit. Down. Reese.” Lois didn’t raise her voice, but the command was absolute. He froze mid-step. “Before anyone goes to bed, we are doing a full smell test.”
The room filled with another round of groans. The Smell Test was a grueling Wilkerson tradition—a slow, agonizing process where Lois sniffed them down like a bloodhound to weed out any outside influences.
Reese caught his father’s eye and frantically mouthed the words: You Owe Me Remember?
“Well, now, honey,” Hal chimed in, attempting a charming smile to shield his son. “Don’t you think that’s a bit much? Maybe the smell just drifted in from an open window?”
Lois turned her scowl toward her husband. As a Beta, Hal usually provided a calming influence, but today his scent was just white noise. Lois’s own pheromones soured, filling the room with the sharp, acrid tang of a protective omega.
Malcolm and Reese both winced at the shift in the air, shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
“Since you’re so eager to defend them, Hal, you can go first,” Lois snapped. “BOYS! To your room!”
They didn't need to be told twice. The three of them scrambled away from the table, a blur of limbs and panic, leaving Hal alone to face the gauntlet.
...............
“Hal, you're sweating.”
Lois didn’t move; she just sat there, her eyes locked onto his, watching as a single bead of sweat rolled down his temple. The silence within the kitchen was heavy, broken only by the frantic whispering happening inside the boys' bedroom.
“Sweating? Me? Ha!” Hal laughed only about three octaves too high. He reached for his glass of water, his hands trembling so much that some of the water spilled over the sides. “It's just all this delicious food you cooked! The steam of the pot roast seems to be really getting to me!”
“It's lukewarm peas, Hal.”
Lois leaned forward, her chair scraping against the wooden floor. “I don’t even need to smell you. I know you're just covering for one of them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hal whimpered. “Y'know, I just wanted a nice fa—”
Lois grabbed the top of his ear and dragged his head back.
.............
“Reese! What did you do?” Malcolm whispered-yelled. He didn’t want to get Mom more mad than she already was.
“I didn’t do anything! I haven’t even talked to a-..” Reese frantically ran around their room, trying to find deodorant, cheap cologne, or really anything of the sort to cover himself up with. While doing so, his voice went quiet mid-sentence as the realization hit him.
“What? Why’d you get quiet?” Malcolm pushed Reese as soon as he heard the sudden silence.
“Oh my fucking god.” Reese groaned and put his hands in his hair, tugging on it slightly. “You know that Alpha I got into a fight with that ended in a draw?”
Malcolm nodded his head, mostly just remembering Reese coming home throwing a tantrum because he didn’t win.
“He… He felt bad about it. He was walking me to all my classes today! He even skipped fourth with me!” Reese started to get excited just thinking about skipping class, letting the problem at hand disappear from his mind.
“Reese, you are a dead man. If Mom even hears that last part, you are gone.” Malcolm flopped onto his shared bed, clearly done with the whole thing.
“How was I supposed to realize he scented me!?” Reese pulled out a stick of deodorant and quickly rubbed it all over himself, trying to mask his scent.
Malcolm sat up and looked over at Reese’s side of the room. “Anyway, I’m thinking we can get a hold of some Spider-Man posters to replace whatever garbage Reese has on his wall. What do you think, Dewey?”
Dewey nodded his head eagerly, content with being silent.
“Malcolm, smell me!” Reese ran up to the bed, not even waiting for Malcolm to say yes.
“Ew! You do smell like shitty Alpha.” Malcolm gagged, pushing Reese away from his nose.
I thought he had a pretty nice scent, Reese thought quietly to himself.
Reese began to pace around the room, trying to think of another way to get out of the smell test. His scent began to fill with sharp hints of panic. Then, the heavy footsteps started. They were heading straight for their door.
Lois opened the door, her eyes quickly scanning for Reese. “Reese, your turn.”
Reese looked behind him at his two younger brothers, who shrugged helplessly. He quickly followed behind her to the kitchen.
.............
Doing everything he could to avoid her eyes, he turned toward the couch. There sat his dad, red-faced, teary-eyed, and cupping his ear for dear life. They met eyes, and his dad gave him an apologetic look.
“Sit down,” Lois said as she pulled out a chair for him.
She didn't lean in for a gentle sniff. She lunged, her nose hovering millimeters from Reese’s neck like a heat-seeking missile. Reese squeezed his eyes shut, praying the "Mountain Spring" deodorant would hold the line. It didn't.
Lois recoiled, her face contorting in a mask of pure disgust. "Pine? You smell like a cheap car air freshener, Reese. What are you hiding?"
"Nothing! I'm just... practicing hygiene!" Reese squeaked.
"You don't practice hygiene. I have to threaten you with a garden hose just to get you to use soap," Lois hissed. She grabbed his chin, tilting his head back. She took one deep, investigative breath. Her eyes snapped open, turning a predatory shade of blue. "Heavy citrus. Traces of wood. And... is that burnt rubber?"
From the couch, Hal let out a whimper. "Honey, maybe it's just a very masculine cologne?"
"Shut up, Hal!" Lois turned back to Reese, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. "You didn't just 'hang out' with an Alpha. You let him claim-scent your jacket. Who is he, Reese? And why does he smell like he spends his weekends at a dirt bike track?"
"It’s nobody!" Reese blurted out, his voice cracking. "I mean, it's just some guy! He was just... standing near me! Alphas are loud, Mom, they leak scent everywhere! It’s like secondhand smoke!"
Lois’s eyes narrowed until they were just two burning slits. She didn't buy it for a second. She leaned in even closer, her nose grazing his collarbone. "This isn't 'secondhand,' Reese. This is intentional. This is a marking. You smell like you’ve been rolled in his laundry."
"I haven't!" Reese shouted, his bravado finally snapping under the weight of her terrifying demeanor. "Okay, fine! We were hanging out! But it’s not like that! We’re just... associates!"
"Associates?" Lois repeated the word like it was a piece of rotten meat. "You don't have 'associates.' You have victims and people you haven't caught yet. Name. Now."
Reese looked at Hal, who was busy examining a very interesting freckle on his own arm to avoid eye contact. He looked at the kitchen door, where he could see the faint shadows of Malcolm and Dewey eavesdropping. He was trapped.
"It’s Kade Miller, okay?!" Reese yelled, throwing his hands up. "There! Are you happy? It’s Kade!"
The silence that followed was deafening. Even Hal stopped fidgeting, his jaw dropping so low it nearly hit his chest.
Lois didn't scream. She didn't move. She just stared at Reese as if he had just admitted to joining a traveling circus. "Kade Miller?" she whispered, her voice trembling with a new, much more dangerous kind of rage. "The Alpha who sent you to the emergency room a month ago? The one who nearly took your eye out?"
"I gave as good as I got!" Reese defended, his chest puffing out with a sudden, misplaced pride. "I got a piece of his ear! I broke his nose in two places, Mom! The nurse said his x-rays looked like a jigsaw puzzle!"
"Reese, you had a Grade-2 concussion and a ruptured spleen!" Lois’s voice finally broke into a roar, her scent turning so sharp it practically stung the back of Reese’s throat. "You are hanging around an Alpha who tried to dismantle you? A boy who treated you like a punching bag?!"
"It was a mutual beating!" Reese yelled back, standing his ground even as he backed his chair up. "He’s the only guy at school who doesn't run away when I swing! We respect each other! He said he’s never had an Omega—or anyone—land a left hook like mine! He’s actually really cool once you get past the part where he tries to break your ribs. He even shared his protein shake with me today!"
"I don't care if he shared his kidney with you!" Lois slammed her hands onto the table, making the silverware jump. "You are an idiot! Do you have any idea what it looks like for you to be walking around smelling like a boy who sent you to the ER? It means he owns you, Reese! It means he won that fight!"
"He doesn't own me! We're equals!" Reese’s face turned a brilliant shade of crimson. "And for your information, he smells like that because we were wrestling in the parking lot! It's a bonding thing! You wouldn't understand because you just shout at people until they give up, but Kade and I... we speak the same langue!”
"The language of brain damage?!" Lois marched around the table, pointing a finger directly between Reese’s eyes. "You are grounded! For life! You are never to speak to that thug again, you are never to go near the dirt bike track, and so help me, if I smell so much as a hint of 'burnt rubber' on you tomorrow, I will scrub you down with steel wool and bleach in the front yard!"
"Mom, you're overreacting! He's the first person who actually can stand to be around me!”
"HAL!" Lois barked, not breaking eye contact with her son. "Go to the garage and get the industrial degreaser. Reese is going to take a three hour shower, and then he’s going to burn that jacket!"
"But I love this jacket! It’s the only thing that smells decent!" Reese wailed.
"Burn. It!" Lois turned her gaze toward the hallway. "MALCOLM! DEWEY! If I find out either of you knew about this, you're next!"
The sound of two pairs of feet sprinting back toward the bedroom was the only answer she needed. Reese slumped in his chair, defeated, ready to accept his fate.