Beast Within - Sneak Peek - Patron Prompt

Rating: Explicit, ABO, Alpha Kara, Omega Lena.

Description: ["Mating run" won the prompt poll].

One night every year, those of age participate in a Mating Run to determine who they'll be bound to for the rest of their lives. It's an honored tradition that Lena Luthor can't stand and now it's her turn to run. With her family's legacy on the line, and a life of loneliness awaiting her if she doesn't join in, Lena can't be sure what to expect, but she's certainly surprised that the mild mannered alpha Kara Danvers has shown up.

Tags: First time mating, more tags to come.

 

On the darkest day, of the darkest month, the elders held a gathering by the Hollow Woods at the outskirts of town. It was a rite of passage to attend and observe the traditions that had long been upheld since the settlers of the land formed an alliance.


Lena knew this, because the Luthors had been one of the first families to take part more than one hundred years ago. Her father had taken pride in telling her stories of how, when she came of age, she would participate in this most important custom: the mating run. It would ensure the legacy of their family and make a woman of her.


Her father had died when she was young, and though Lena could recall his stories word for word, she held no romantic notions or wonder over what was to come. At the age of nineteen, Lena understood it for what it was, and that could be summed up with a single word. Barbaric.

The moon hung like a sliver of glass in the black sky, and all the stars scattered around it like shards. She tried to calm the erratic beating of her heart by staring at the vast void above, but it did little to stop her panic.

All around her, families huddled in groups, and the sickening potency of alpha pheromones mingled with the excited perfume of a few omegas. The sharp scent of fear clung to the rest of them and Lena wondered how, in this day and age, something like this was still heralded as the best way to pick a mate.
 

“Can you believe that on the most important night of their lives, the majority of them are still glued to their smartphones?” Lillian muttered under her breath scathingly.

“It’s almost like they might be distracting themselves from what’s about to take place.” Lena drawled back, and quirked a dark brow at her mother, who pursed her lips together in an amused, though cold smile.
 

“Let’s hope your legs are as fast as your tongue, or you might end up with one of those buffoons for the rest of your life.” Lillian stuffed her gloved hands into her pockets and looked around at the alphas that congregated to the left.
 

Lena laughed mirthlessly and crossed her arms in indignation. “If you all just abolished this rule, we could actually date each other and pick a mate that we like, instead of taking a gamble on who would be the best suited for us.”
 

Lillian rolled her eyes.
 

This wasn’t the first time Lena had brought this up and it seemed her mother was growing tired with the same old argument.
 

“I know what you think, Lena. You’ve certainly been vocal about it, but the truth is, who we are standing here isn’t who we are at our core. When you strip away the civility, it’s the beast within us that reigns supreme and it’s a primal spark that ultimately fuels us all. The brighter the spark, the better the alpha, as your Father would say.”
 

Lena curled her lip in disgust and tore her eyes from her mother. The Mating Run was something everyone participated in, and if they didn’t, they never got a second chance at finding a mate. Only a few had ever sat it out over the decades, much to their family’s disgrace, and Lena wondered if a lifetime of loneliness would be better than being stuck with someone she couldn’t stand.

“Don’t look so tormented,” Lillian sighed, her warm breath drifting like fog. “You’re a Luthor, and Luthors can endure anything. Besides, after a few children, if you truly despise the alpha you’re with, I can take care of them. Your father had always planned for that.”
 

“Why is murder always on the table in our family?” Lena hissed, distraught by the idea of it. Even if she was with someone she loathed, she couldn’t stomach the idea of doing that.
 

“Power has its privileges. You know that.” Lillian sounded amused, but a trace of seriousness was in her words as she regarded her daughter. “We’d never let someone treat you with disrespect.”
 

Lena narrowed her eyes, the tip of her tongue pressed against her teeth as she sneered, “You mean we have a reputation to uphold and you wouldn’t have our name dragged through the mud if my alpha mistreated me or was lacking in any way.”
 

“Semantics.” Lillian huffed out, and then did a double take as she choked on a laugh upon noticing one of the alphas. “I can’t believe she actually showed up.”
 

Lena shifted to peer in the direction her mother was staring and spotted Kara Danvers.
 

Kara stood nervously at the side with her sister, anxiously fiddling with her glasses. She appeared to be gasping for breath.
 

“She’s a good person,” Lena absently stated, recalling all of the classes they had shared in school and college, and more often than not, the awkward interactions that had transpired whenever they spoke, which was only a handful of times.
 

“Mark my words, the only thing that poor fool will catch out here is a cold. Not an omega.” Lillian asserted, her shrewd eyes taking Kara in while she stretched. “How she ever presented as an alpha when her older sister didn’t just shows that nature has a cruel sense of humor. All that potential wasted on a simpleton. I pity the omega that lands with her, though I suppose anyone stupid enough to be caught by Kara Danvers deserves her.”

Kara glanced Lena’s way sharply, as if she sensed her eyes on her, and Lena dropped her gaze and moved a few paces so that she was out of Kara’s line of sight. Her cheeks warmed from embarrassment, but she shrugged it off and snarked sarcastically, “We’ll all be lucky if we don’t catch hypothermia. Why couldn’t we have tents, or do this in a wooded area with cabins?”
 

Lillian laughed loudly and a few other families glanced their way, much to Lena’s chagrin. “Wild things don’t need tents to mate and you’ll have the rest of your life for creature comforts. You’ll understand once you’re out there, when the heat takes over, that you’ll want to be at one with nature. The very blood in your veins will demand it.”