Chapter Text
When the twins learned of their secondary gender each brother had his own reaction.
Brandon was catatonic. Didn't sleep, hardly spoke, he just held Landon's hand with an iron grip as his brother moved around. Some might mistake his lack of reaction as acceptance. But he was just as upset as his brother, his emotions just remained projected inside.
Landon on the other hand, he was explosive. Shouting and screaming at everyone. He was down right offended, not only by being an omega that would be viewed as weak and helpless without an alpha. But his stupid asshole of a cousin had continued the King alpha legacy and Landon had not.
They are the first and only King men to be omegas. Betas were here and there, but even then there were a few generations ago. There'd been one of two omega women but even they were rare.
Levi King did was any responsible alpha father did and he set rules. He protected his vulnerable omega duo. Or that was the plan.
Landon rebelled at any suggestion of being controlled. He wore as many scent blockers as he could stick onto himself, doused himself in colognes to fake any scent he could. He presented to the world as an alpha without directly saying as much since being caught lying about your secondary gender is outlawed. Especially if you're caught lying as an omega to an alpha themselves.
Brandon presents as a beta, not only because an alpha and omega twin set is simply unheard of. But also for his own safety, he has enough quiet confidence to pass. He also chooses to block his scent, he didn't at first but when he started to miss Landon's scent, he decided to block his own too.
Though it's also taboo to really talk about secondary genders outside of one's own pack and even then with them so frequently being family, it's not really something all that common.
University presented itself as a whole new problem. Eli was already attending REU, Levi took some convincing but he eventually agreed to give Landon and Brandon their opportunity to spread their wings a little, on the condition they obey rules that Levi set. Not something Landon was easy to agree to, but he eventually agreed if it allowed him more freedom. Not to mention as soon as they got to university, he ignored most rules with only a few that Eli bothered to enforce which were mainly during their heat cycles that were when they were particularly vulnerable and he was particularly protective.
-
Landon knows-he knows-that he shouldn't be at the Heathens initiation.
Levi, Eli and Brandon King would all explode at the suggestion he's here. But he managed to pay some poor King's U student to sign up and then give him his invitation into the initiation.
He's bored and the rumours about this whole night is diabolically chaotic.
He also just so happens to be the enemy and the leader of the opposing universities high ranking society.
Despite Eli's alpha role and his senior. Landon is viewed as the leader of the elites since Eli takes a much more hand off and absent approach to his position when it comes to the public eye. He has other priorities to showmanship and Landon is more than happy to take up the mantle.
Brandon would be a whimpering mess here.
The 5 heathens step up to the balcony. Red, green, orange, yellow, white. The sequence of masks. Red holding a baseball bat that rests on his shoulder, green holds a bow and arrow, orange a golf club, yellow has no weapon and white has chains. The last two seem like the oddest choices but Landon doesn't dwell on that.
Landon narrows his gaze trying to decode which one is which. He knows the identities of the five but which is behind which mask is not so easy. Apart from Nikolai Sokolov. None of the others would go with bare fists into a brutal initiation that they literally threaten participants with injury and possible death.
From what he knows among the 5 at least two are alphas. Jeremy, the man Landon would like to turn this night on and Nikolai, who Landon really has no interest in crossing paths with. Landon can and will fight if he has to, or admittedly sometimes just for fun. But fighting that mountain of a man is not something he's interested in.
Since Nikolai is obvious, Landon's gaze falls on the man standing at the front of his pack. He practically feels a zap up his spine of excitement. The thrill of this night is increasing by the second.
Not because Landon has any interesting in participating for more than a few minutes, he'll enjoy outsmarting them but he's here to explore enemy territory. He'll find a way to get inside the heathens mansion.
They get an alarm making the crowd disperse and Landon being Landon, he can't help but have some grandiosity as he stands, feet planted as he looks up at the five from behind his mask. His eyes lock onto the stormy grey pair. Jeremy's eyes narrow with intend before Landon walks off with his arrogance in tow.
He navigates the woods and admittedly he gets lost trying to circle back. The sun was setting at the start but it's now dipped below the horizon, blanking the forest in darkness. He's successfully dodged the maniac heathens chasing people down but when the green mask shoots an arrow at Landon he does start actually running to find a safe place.
Only he trips, hissing as he crashes into the muddy ground, groaning in disgust as he scrambles against dead leaves and twigs. But just as he finds purchase a foot comes down on his back, the alpha scent shrouding him in a cloud.
"You're almost out the limits."
Speaking will giveaway that Landon is someone who absolutely shouldn't be here but not only that, Jeremy knows Landon's voice, he'll snap his neck if he realises who he is.
"You think I don't know what you're trying to do?" Jeremy continues as Landon fists a the ground in anger that he has been caught so easily. "Talk."
Landon bites his tongue as he feels the alpha force of that one instruction. Jeremy did it intentionally to test the contestants resolve.
"Fine, King. You don't want to talk? Then let's make a deal."
"How did you know?"
"I knew as soon as you remained planted when everyone else ran. You need to make yourself a little less obvious." Jeremy states pressing his foot further into Landon's back making his vertebrae crack as if the joints needed loosened, though that obviously wasn't the intention.
Landon feels Jeremy's foot lift and he can finally take in a full breath of air, but his freedom is short lived as he's dragged up to his feet and slammed against a tree. That alpha scent once again drowning him and making his inner omega whine in submission. Not that he even lets a flicker of that show. Instead grinning like a maniac at the mafia heir.
"What are you doing here Landon? And why did you steal some random kids invitation?"
"Call it morbid curiosity. I've heard the stories. I wanted to see if the heathens are really as big and bad as they pretend they are. I have to say, I'm severely underwhelmed, Volkov." Landon taunts while Jeremy looks at him almost bored. How annoying, Landon is not supposed to be provoking boredom. He wants anger and seething, unrestrained rage.
He wants to challenge an alpha as an omega, even if Jeremy has no idea.
Though as Landon restrains a reaction over Jeremy's lack of reaction, he notices something snag the Heathen's attention.
"You wear scent blockers." Jeremy comments while Landon snorts, not at all intimidated by the fact Jeremy knows.
"Some of us aren't rabid animals. We're properly socialised and don't flaunt our scents out for the world to smell." Landon laughs coldly then grunting when he gets pulled forward and slammed into the tree.
"I think you're a liar."
"Excuse me?" Landon laughs not falling for the bait. He's been suspected of not being an alpha before, and while it's the right intuition, he's never let them leave the conversation continuing to believe that. "Are you so uncivilised you're going to discuss genders with me?"
"Landon King, you are the definition of uncivilised. You're disgusting."
"If I'm so disgusting get your hands off of me." Landon challenges before hearing movement nearby which seems to remind them both that they're not alone.
Landon takes the momentary distraction as a means of kneeing Jeremy as hard as he can in the dick and while it doesn't do the damage that he's hoping for. It's enough for him to get away and run as fast as he can out of Jeremy's reach. He runs and only when his lungs start to burn does he look back to see if he's on his own only to crash into another body.
"Fuck-"
"L-Landon?" Brandon chokes out before launching onto his brother. "I-I thought they'd taken you."
"Brandon, what the fuck are you doing here?" Landon hisses grabbing his brother and beginning to run.
"One of the heathens forced me to come, they said they h-had you here. I couldn't let you get caught up-What are you doing here?" Brandon questions breathlessly, though admittedly Landon is panting more heavily. Clearly that morning running does Brandon more favours than Landon's preference of lying in bed till midday after partying all night.
Eventually they break out the tree line and Landon finds enough vague recognition to get out of there.
After his run in with Jeremy, he had still intended to find a way to circle back. But finding Brandon there cut those plans out the picture. Brandon's safety takes precedence.
"Are you stupid? Why did you think to go there?" Landon questions hitting his steering wheel as he drives them back to the Elites mansion.
"You weren't answering your phone?! Landon-I-I don't know what I'd do if you got hurt or-or they cornered you and killed you." Brandon stutters, the fear laced in his voice doesn't soften his stubborn and prideful brother.
"If I get cornered and killed. You avenge me by telling Eli to bring out his inner psychopath. You don't throw yourself in the corner with me so we both die-Not that I would've died. I outran that stupid Russian."
"You what?! You got caught by one of them?"
"Only momentarily."
Landon decides he'll not be informing Brandon that Jeremy knew exactly who he was. Instead he'll make a new plan and he'll take down Jeremy.
By the time they get back Eli is waiting at the door with Creighton, who may not be biologically a King but he is an alpha and a King in every meaningful sense of the word.
Remi Astor is there too, the house beta who is usually the comic relief in an otherwise tense household and somehow he strings Creigh along for all the "fun" that university has to offer but the youngest King seems uninterested.
"Where the fuck have the two of you been?" Eli questions while Landon pushes Brandon in ahead of him to avoid him saying anything stupid. "The two of you are-"
"We don't need your fucking OCD in our cycles!-and for the record it's another two weeks." Landon growls shoving Brandon towards the stairs before pushing him into his room. "You cannot and will not tell them. Do you understand?"
"I don't want them to know either, Landon. Eli would tell dad and we'll be pulled out of university for this." Brandon huffs crossing his arms.
"Then we're on the same page. No telling Remi either, he runs his mouth too much-and especially do not, for the love of all that is good in this world, tell Glyn. She's like a fucking parrot. Tells mum everything, she's worse than you."
"Hey."
"At least I can rely on your to keep a secret." Landon shrugs then throwing clothes for Brandon to change into. "But I'm not letting one of those animals we live with corner you tonight while you're still shaken."
Brandon makes a weak protest but he so rarely is allowed in Landon's space and annoyingly his brother's scent surrounding him aids to comfort him. So he falls asleep after changing. Landon lies next to him, staring at his ceiling as a million ways to bring down Jeremy Volkov race through his mind. Landon King is a genius in more than just art. He's got resources and people who will bed to his whim. Sneaking into the initiation was just the start of it all.
The more he thinks about it, the more disappointed he is in Jeremy for not feeding his need for thrill and being more violent. Instead he practically gave him a free chiropractor treatment by cracking his back then let him run away. Though admittedly Jeremy is perhaps not made for speed like Landon. He's heavier and more muscular and annoyingly taller.
However, Landon thinks for long enough that he realises someone like Jeremy would relish if Landon made a move that gave right for Jeremy to declare a war on him. So instead he'll be doing everything to dodge the Russian American. He'll keep away because he can't risk his carefully curated image.