When she sniffed the sweet scent in the elevator this morning, Darcy realized one thing; for some reason her suppressants were making her body all wonky because she never felt this way in her entire cycled life.
Apparently an alpha - no, not just an alpha, but seeing as how she started what appears to be a spontaneous heat, The Alpha. Hers, biologically speaking, must have taken the same elevator as hers right before she did and now she was becoming sleek with pheromones and vaginal fluids, making her body on high alert and heady with expectations.
"Just my luck," she said in the empty air, "At this rate, I'm going to attract all the weirdos in the tower, urgh." She was on her way to the labs. Just fresh off her shower. Darcy was sharing an apartment with Jane (and Thor, let's face it) at Stark Tower (well Avengers tower) and, between her finishing her degree in Political Science and working as a scientist herder, she was overbooked and overtired. Not really looking to mate. Seems fate had other ideas that morning though.
The Heat was something she never experienced. Her parents got her on hormones suppressants when she was a teenager, fearing for her sanity. She had friends who ruined their health and future with Heat. Other friends scared her with tales of absolute loss of control, while her BFF Alice told her it was the best moment in your life. That just confused and intrigued her even more about this whole business of mating. The Big "H" was both revered and taboo for a lot of people.
Finding your True Mate was very rare and spontaneous heat or rut were the only sign it was happening to someone. Alphas and Omegas only goes in those one to twice a year at the most, when it happened, you knew.
So, having found yours in the middle of Stark Tower, said tower full of superheroes and badass agents? Frightening and exciting for Darcy Lewis, lowly intern.
"Welcome back."
When Hill spoke, Natasha and Clint nodded to her. They had been away for a while now and just wanted to relax and do nothing except for watching trash TV and sleep for a week.
"Thank you. How was Tony?" asked the red head. Her friend grimaced.
"A childish genius pain in the ass billionaire."
Clint snorted, already making his way towards the fridge of the communal kitchen. "The usual then." He said, one beer in his right hand, the left reaching Maria's chin and kissing her lovingly.
The two betas were mated and so, always happy to reunite.
The thing is, Natasha isn't as young as she appears and she thought she would have found her omega by now, at least an omega whose scent would tell her that this was it, but no. Even when she was an assassin, she didn't find the need to mate and bind herself to another. She had lovers, omegas, alphas (too dangerous when you were one yourself) and betas (they made great fuck buddies FYI). But, that didn't really matter anyway. The Red Room changed her, made impossible for her to reproduce. She wasn't any use to any omega without the ability to offer pups. The Mating ritual would be a waste of time and maybe, she thought, that's why she never found her mate.
Of course, the experience of the knotting always seemed something wonderful to live, but what could she do?
She suddenly felt something...like a punch to her stomach.
"Do you...do you smell that?" She doesn't have words for how she feels right now; she's swimming instead of walking, everything is slow and sharp at the same time. She starts sweating abundantly and her breathing becomes faster.
When a concerned Clint comes to touch her forehead, she starts growling.
"Wow, someone's in Rut!" He then shared a worried look with Maria.
"That's ridiculous! My rut doesn't come until three months from now and I'm taking suppressants!" A wave of pure want comes and she has to grasp the edge of the kitchen counter. She nearly destroys it with her Alpha strength, a clear telling of her altered state and Maria starts scolding her.
"Hey now! Careful! I was the one in charge of the kitchen renovation!" Clint comes to touch his mate gently on one of her shoulder, his chin grazing her neck.
"Babe, I think Nat has a spontaneous rut." Hearing this, the red head spy whimpers.
The other woman approaches her distressed friend and calmly tells her "I think you smelled your intended Omega. That much is clear. The bonding Ritual started and you can't ignored it or you'll end up, well, crazy." She grimaced at the thought of Natasha as a crazy rabid Alpha and how the new kitchen counters would look like if it went that way.
"Nooo, I don't have an Omega." The steely tone in which Natasha answered made Clint visibly gulp. Even though Natasha stiffens when Maria touches her lap by accident.
"Stop being stubborn; you are already expending, you are ready to mate. Accept it and go find that Omega, jeez!" Then she smiles fondly at her friend, "I'm happy for you." Black Widow just groan and hit her head against the already damaged counter.
"Here? Right now?" The Rut was making her feverish; the two betas, feeling her anxiety, decide to soothe her.
"We will prepare your apartment, stock food and everything you'll both need for the week. Okay?" Informs Clint, not daring to touch her now that the fever started.
Natasha nods, licks her sweaty lips and tries to stand a little bit straighter on her legs.
"Just follow the scent and try to be not too scary." She had to laugh at that.
"No promises." She answers.