Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian went to Phoenix Mountain for the night hunt, unable to predict that the low burn would start then, as he perched in a tree, blindfolded, lips captured. He never found the identity of the thief, for that had been his first kiss. He couldn’t determine whether they were an alpha, beta, or omega, whether man or woman. All he knew was the trembling, strong arms that had pinned him. Afterwards, he wondered if their scent was sharp or soft or whether they had one at all. Though even if they did, he couldn’t have detected it.
Until some weeks ago, Wei Wuxian had lived his life as a beta, unburdened by heats or ruts. Then the kiss came, drawing out a latent biology. Presentation began with a false heat and stickiness between his thighs, some hours later. He had been confined to the Jiang quarters in Golden Carp Tower when Jiang Yanli first noticed it, his plain scent rounding, expanding. They couldn’t allow Wei Wuxian’s presentation to occur on the mountain, surrounded by alphas whose blood boiled following the slaying of a beast.
It was a silly thought, likely a coincidence, that a kiss could transform him into an omega, but Wei Wuxian was certain of it. The craving had been planted, deaf and blind. He should’ve been angrier that a cultivator had his way with him, but his body wouldn’t allow it. So a piece of himself, just like his golden core, was missing. His mate was missing.
Mate.
He tried not to think of the word.
*****
Silk sheets caressed his warm flesh, sweat dripping from the crooks of his knees and elbows down his legs and arms. His wrists were bound above his head, or rather, captured and pinned by a large and calloused hand. The other stroked him gently, adoring and worshipful. The faceless man above him stared, watching his every squirm and twitch beneath a touch that burned, but he couldn’t make out his eyes. Deep within, he sensed a love—had that alpha on Phoenix Mountain fallen in love with him? He was certain now that it was no beta who’d struck a claim on him. The certainty of it grew in his belly.
Alpha. My alpha.
“Please, let me see you,” Wei Wuxian said. “I want to see your face, gege.”
“Wei Ying,” the alpha breathed, but try as he did, Wei Wuxian couldn’t hear his voice.
The air was frigid against him, his sleeping robes wet and clinging to his body. He gasped for air, and then the ache stirred. It had only been a dream. There was no alpha here to soothe him. Again, he would have to endure another false heat alone. The healers said it might take months for the false heats to settle, for his normal cycle to begin. Finding an alpha might regulate him sooner, but Wei Wuxian wouldn’t hear of it. He kicked the blanket into a corner, resisting the urge to nest.
*****
Wei Wuxian wasn’t the only one to change after the night hunt on Phoenix Mountain. Jiang Cheng first ignored him, creating a chasm between them. The beta he could be comfortable with, who he always thought would become his servant, was now something entirely different. Unsuitable as a right hand, but a powerful cultivator in every right.
Gifts began popping up outside the door of Wei Wuxian’s quarters the day his presentation ended. It began with a hairpin in onyx and silver, its tip forged into the shape of a lotus. There were dried chilis, despite the many concerns that one day Wei Wuxian would add one chili too many and finally recreate the recipe of molten lava. A pile of lotus seeds, all peeled, some crumbled in a silk pouch, was left at the windowsill one morning. He couldn’t turn in time to catch the offending alpha, but the scent of petrichor and orchids lingered.
And caught, Jiang Cheng furthered his advances, taking Wei Wuxian to the market. Buying him every snack at every stall his eyes settled on. But the omega’s cheeks strained to contain all five hawthorn berries from a stick of tanghulu, Jiang Cheng crossed his arms, thoroughly disapproving.
Wei Wuxian swallowed the half-chewed treat thickly. “Finally! You’ve done something normal for once.”
“Normal? What do you know about how I normally am?” Jiang Cheng spat.
“In the past three weeks, I’ve made a mess of my room. I flirted with three girls because you don’t bargain well enough, and told you as much. When a Nie cultivator came to ask you a question, I spilled a cup of tea all over their lap. I mean, he deserved it. Leering like that.” Wei Wuxin raised a finger, as if in the middle of an impassioned lecture. “I’ve given you a hundred reasons to blow up. I don’t know how you’re holding it in.”
“Maybe I don’t need to hold it in.”
“You don’t have to do this. We don’t need to, you know… Maybe you think you’re protecting me by being this—this alpha hero. But I can take care of myself.”
“Would it be so wrong?” Jiang Cheng asked, uncharacteristically quiet. “You already promised we’d spend our lives together. And this is the same, but more.”
Wei Wuxian found himself laughing. It wasn’t that he couldn’t imagine being with Jiang Cheng; rather, the picture of being mated to the alpha was crisp in his mind—the shouting and constant irritation. The popping vein on his forehead. A lifetime of bickering, which he never quite minded as a friend and accepted as family. “Oh, it’s not that, I—” he dipped his head back, choking on his own laughter. “I’m so sorry. Oh, look at your face. I’m so sorry. Jiang Cheng!”
But the alpha was already twitching. “Is it someone else? Another alpha?”
“What?”
“It is, isn’t it?” Jiang Cheng sneered. “Is it Lan Wangji? You’ve always been so weird about that guy. Constantly all over him.”
“Are you being serious? You think…” Wei Wuxian bit his lip, suppressing a fit of laughter. He’d already tested the full bounds of Jiang Cheng’s patience. “Of all people, you think it’s L–lan Zhan?”
“I can’t believe it. You’d choose him over me. That boring guy you liked to prank. Those are your standards?”
There’s no world where Lan Zhan would’ve kissed me on Phoenix Mountain. Wei Wuxian would’ve said, but then, he’d never told a soul about what had happened to him. Even Jiang Yanli was none the wiser to the reason why Wei Wuxian, beta bachelor, had become a yearning omega. No one knew he’d found and almost instantaneously lost track of his mate.
No. It can’t be Lan Zhan. Just imagine. The peerless Second Jade of Lan succumbing to vice like that. I’d sooner regrow my golden core.
*****
The jade phallus was wet with thin slick, thick as a bamboo cane and slightly curved, though too small, plunging in and out of his hole. But Wei Wuxian could forget its inadequacies if he focused enough, recalling the angry line between Lan Wangji’s eyebrows. The fury of the alpha that day when he’d tugged the forehead ribbon off his head. It shouldn’t have thrilled him so much. Yes, he’d been regretful. Apologetic, even. So much so that the delight had stung.
He wanted that same virility now, the viciousness, a brutal pace, the slapping of their bodies against one another, and bruises marking his hips. Lan Wangji had large hands and strong fingers, well-conditioned by the guqin. And so, as yet another false heat ravaged him, Wei Wuxian had a substitute. He wished he knew how Lan Wangji smelled. The omegas in Caiyi, tossing loquats, all commented how sweet it was, a fragrance beyond compare. But without truly knowing, the image of Lan Wangji biting his shoulder blade had to be enough. The alpha had sharp teeth. They would leave an attractive bonding mark.
Mate.
Biting his tongue, Wei Wuxian came unsteadily, his muscles clenching around the inadequate toy. And his body trembled as another wave, almost immediately, festered in his lower belly. He wanted to ask for someone, but he knew only a single name. So he buried his head in a pillow. It was better if no one overheard him choking it out.