The Bond of Red and White

Firsts

"Isn't your heat due any day now? Be careful," Jiang Cheng asked his adoptive brother as they got off their two hour flight to Suzhou. They were transfer students to the Gusu Academy and were supposed to attend two semesters here.

His brother looked up through his long lashes. He smiled to himself before raising an eyebrow. "How is it that you always remember my heat?"

"Someone has to till you get your own alpha." Jiang Cheng joked.

"I don't need an Alpha. Wen Ning is good to me. We have been going steady for almost a year now," The brother joked.

"Wen Ning? Are you serious? He is a distant cousin of the Wens and a beta. You will never share a bond if you end up with him," Jiang Cheng shouted.

"Calm down. It was a joke."

"Wei Wuxian, you need to get serious about your marriage. You may be the most exceptional student in the country but you are an omega," Jiang Cheng reminded.

Wei Wuxian looked down. If it weren't for the ultrasound proving the development of his uterus he wonders if he was even supposed to be considered as an omega. An omega gets his first heat at the age of twelve and starts releasing pheromones to attract alphas. Wei Wuxian never had a heat. Not in the past eight years. He fakes it to his family and friends. He has no idea if he will ever produce pheromones. Neither can he react to the pheromones of another. The only one who knows his secret is his adoptive mother, Madame Yu. She knows that he is an abomination and helps him to appear normal.

"I am not in any hurry," Wei Wuxian declared, which was true.  Betas without pheromones may have a chance but an omega without pheromones do not have any, not at falling in love, finding a mate or getting married.

"You're older than me. So, you better find your Alpha before I find my mate," Jiang Cheng warned.

"Ah, my baby brother," Wei Wuxian teased, pulling Jiang Cheng's cheek and running off. The younger brother chased him all the way till the pick up spot where the Gusu Academy bus waited to pick them up.

"Stop stop stop" Wei Wuxian begged.

"Behave," Jiang Cheng warned.

Wei Wuxian raised his right hand with three middle fingers extended and left heard on his heart. "I swear," he promised.

Jiang Cheng scoffed as he boarded the bus. He was startled to hear the door close behind him as Wei Wuxian ran off again. He was going to be in trouble on the very first day.

***
Lan Wangji felt restless. His head band was biting into his flesh. For feral alphas control was often conditioned into something external. For the Lan family, cursed with a feral alpha in every generation, the forehead ribbon was the control, just not now. Lan Wangji wanted to reach out to his brother for comfort but Lan Xichen wasn't in town.  Lan Xichen wasn't born with the curse. He was. But his brother had witnessed what the curse could do.

A feral alpha's pheromones can kill. It killed their mother. When their father realized that his pheromones were harming his wife it was too late. She had lost her sanity and killed an elder. She was sent to a padded cell for her own protection where she died. Their father went into isolation, never meeting anyone for fear of harming them. Lan Wangji had been taking suppressant the moment his second gender was revealed at the age of five. But now even those have stopped working. He had been going by sheer force of will but even that was crumbling now. Lan Wangji decided to leave, run away to a mountain top and embrace a life of seclusion like his father.

The bag he packed was small, mostly protein bars and electrolytes. He was mentally prepared for a long journey. He waited till the entire gated community was fast asleep, which was only 10 in the evening. Everyone in Gusu slept at 9 pm.

He cautiously approached the gate when a boy dressed in black jeans and a leather jacket crashed into him immediately triggering a burst of his explosive pheromone.

He wanted to tell the other person not to breathe but it was too late. The boy had already taken a whiff and his eyes glazed over. Lan Wangji realized that the boy was actually a beautiful omega who purred with pleasure at his scent. Soon the omega released his own sweet pheromones smelling of lotus and cinnamon. Lan Wangji started to shake as he realized what was happening to him. He grabbed the Omega by the hand and headed for the abandoned cave behind the Community. Once there the two started undressing with a sense of urgency neither had ever known. Lan Wangji failed to stop his own body from reacting to his first rut. Unknown to him, his pheromones had brought about Wei Wuxian's very first heat.

Soon Wei Wuxian was on all fours, his slick running down his thighs as Lan Wangji placed himself behind him. Only at that moment did he regain his senses.

"What? No..." He had barely uttered when Lan Wangji speared him. At the same time he pulled his hair, arching his neck, where Lan Wangji bit his scent gland. He continued thrusting as slick and blood intermingled down Wei Wuxian's thighs. He cried, tears flowing freely but Lan Wangji didn't stop.

Wei Wuxian felt himself hardened despite himself. Once the initial pain subsided he started finding pleasure in the strangers hard thrusts. Lan Wangji continued to nibble his nape and neck, releasing the overpowering scent of sandalwood.

When Wei Wuxian could speak again his words surprised Lan Wangji, "Don't stop," he begged. That was when Lan Wangji realized that the omega was in heat. The realization made him push harder. Wei Wuxian accommodated him by opening his inner channel. Lan Wangji reached forward and started  stroking him. Wei Wuxian's eyes widened when he realized that the alpha was growing inside him. He was knotting. Fresh tears threatened him in the realization that Madame Yu was wrong. He wouldn't die unclaimed. "Bite me please," he begged his alpha who obliged him wordlessly. When the knot went down Wei Wuxian fell asleep with a limp alpha still inside him.