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Sat on her bed, with the room still a mess as she procrastinated packing, even though she was out of the Slam for a few days already, Iga heard a knock on her door.
She stood up, and without looking who it was, opened them.
"I don't know if I'll be able to play against her."
Iga was surprised to see her friend in front of her hotel room door instead of someone from her team or her dad. Yes, they did have good contact. Yes, they agreed they could speak to one another whenever one or the other needed to, but seeing Maja almost crying, with her muted by patches scent coated with fear, was not something she was prepared for.
She was still wearing the same clothes that she wore after the match, at the press conference. She clearly came here first thing after getting back from the tournament grounds.
"Hi, first of all." The taller one made space for Maja to come inside her room. She just hoped that her scent would not be too overwhelming for the omega, as in her privacy she preferred her patches off.
"Yeah, hi." Maja still hadn’t looked at her, her eyes glued to the floor.
"What do you mean you can't play against her?" Iga sat down on the couch, which by this point of the tournament, was the only moderately clean space in the room.
Noticing Maja was still standing, she patted the space next to her with a warm expression on her face.
"She's an alfa." The girl seemed on the verge of crying. She rested her elbows on her knees, burying her hands in her hair.
"Why is that a problem?" Iga was feeling bad about her own designation now. She became conscious of her unblocked scent, and felt even worse; her hands going up to cover the glands on her neck automatically.
"Really?" Her voice was coated with so many emotions, just like her scent, the disbelief the most detectable.
"Yes, really." Iga laid a hand on Maja's knee, just like they always did, when one of them needed comfort, but the omega shimmied away.
"Sorry..." her voice was now hushed, she still didn't look at Iga, and that started to get concerning.
"Tell me, please, what is happening, I seriously don't know." Iga felt her own scent going towards the more sour notes, but before she could say anything about it, Maja sprung up and looked directly in her eyes, saying, "No, please, don't be upset with me, I will be good, I promise-" before she drastically cut herself off.
Just now, Iga noticed the unusually thick layer of patches on Maja's neck.
She took a precautious look at her wrists, and saw the same thing.
"You're going into heat, right...?" Iga tried to calm her feelings and scent down, maybe even getting out some calming tones, so that Maja would feel a bit better, but since they weren't mated, the task was not so easy.
Maja only nodded.
"Can I ask how that happened? Your heats are scheduled, so I'm just wondering-" She cut off before she said something that she would regret later.
"I did not expect to get so far into the tournament," Her voice got shaky, and even through the multiple patches, Iga could feel the sadness and fear, before she could see the tears "It's always scheduled around this time of the year, but I never play here for so long." She sounded tired, and she definitely was, Iga played four matches before losing, while Maja just won her eighth.
"Help me, I have no idea what to do..." The tears were harsh on the omega's breath.
Iga stood up and fetched some tissues from one of her bags, and passed them to her friend.
She sat back in her spot and started thinking. The thinking was much harder than usual. God, she actually never had to think when she was next to an omega who's going into heat, to try to ascertain her focus from the luring scent. Not that she really was next to any at all...
But an idea finally came to her.
"I think I know who I can ask about that..." The grin on her face widened, leaving Maja confused.
Iga rapidly fished her phone from her pocket, and picked the designated contact on her list.
Carlos
Hi, can I have a weird and kinda personal question?
She waited for a moment hoping that the answer would come quickly. She had no idea what he could have been doing, as he was not playing due to injury.
go for it
She let out a sigh of relief, and just then noticed Maja's confused expression. "Give me just a sec, ok?" Before she let the other answer she typed out her next message.
How do you deal with playing against alphas when you're in pre-heat?
Asking for a friend
She added instinctively after a moment.
no shit
why would you ask for yourself if you're an alpha
Can we get back to the point?
sure
that doesn't really do anything to me after we mated with Jannik
but before that I usually tried to schedule my heats outside of tournaments
She didn't think she'd get this far, the heat was scheduled for a free week, but it's not free anymore
that's a different story
your friend could stuff herself with suppressants
but that would negatively impact her performance
Then it's not a good option
I can't really think of anything
Nothing?
Iga felt terrible. If there really was no help for Maja, she would feel like a terrible friend for failing to find a way out of this.
well...
there's one other option
Iga thought she knew what Carlos meant by that. She just really hoped that there was some other backup plan, or a different way of getting out of this, but the text she saw next only confirmed her worries.
she could get mated
Iga looked up at her pretty much lifelong friend and for the first time in her life, felt bad about something she was about to say to her.
thanks
She typed with a shaky hand and looked up at the omega next to her.
"You have two options-" before she could voice them, Maja interrupted her.
"Who did you talk to?"
"Carlos." Iga shrugged.
"Alcaraz?" The omega was clearly in shock, probably not expecting the two of them to have any sort of an informal relationship, but what could Iga say? Both of them had designations that made them parts of minorities on tour.
That got a bit of the negative notes out of her scent, replacing them with something more pleasant, sweeter, much to Iga's delight.
Oh no... Thoughts like these were not appropriate right now and Iga knew that, she already represented them several times in her life, and this was just another one of them, they were going to pass just like the previous ones.
"Yeah." Iga smiled, but the smile wasn't as warm as it tended to be. "And as I was saying, he said that you have two options. One is stuffing yourself with suppressants, but that won't be good for your performance, not mentioning your health. And two," she hesitated, wishing to just get over it, because if Maja was to choose the mating option, Iga would most definitely not be her alpha of choice. "You could mate with an alpha."
Iga felt terrible saying those words, mating was supposed to be magical, thought about, and done out of love not out of necessity.
"I don't even have an alpha to spend the heat with, and now we're talking about mating?" Maja's scent plummeted the other way. She was pissed and in disbelief. Iga was surprised she could decipher the other's scent so effortlessly. That didn't really seem to happen with other omegas.
"You really don't have anyone?" The alpha's voice lowered in volume, a bit surprised to hear that.
"Why would I lie about something like that?" She grunted, the sound edging on a growl. And Iga did not want to get anyone to the point of growling, especially Maja in pre-heat.
"Okay, I'm not saying anything, I'm still trying to help you, remember?" Iga said shyly, gesturing for the other to take a few deep breaths.
"Yeah, right." Her scent got a slight bit more neutral.
The alpha looked around for a moment, trying to find the right thing to say. She took a breath twice, before she got herself to finally ask “Do you have any candidates in mind?” That sounded bad. But Maja didn't look like the question fazed her.
Instead she took a deep breath and quietly said "Well... I could have you..."
Iga's brain lagged a bit for a moment. She was not expecting that. Not at all.
If she was reading the situation correctly, then maybe this time she didn't have to get over the feelings?
"Yeah?" Was all she could get out. No eager questions, no bursts of happiness or throwing herself onto the omega.
"Yeah." Maja looked at her with a warm, but shy smile.
"Is that a confession?" Iga had to ask. Maja only rolled her eyes, and whiffed her nose before saying:
"Yeah, idiot. But could we now get to the part where you rip flesh out of my neck, so that I could win this match?"
The alpha was surprised by her eagerness, even though she still had tears in the corners of her eyes and looked a bit like a mess from the whole cocktail of emotions that went through her in the last thirty minutes or so.
"Confident." Iga commented briefly, her sheepish smile both visible on her face, and detectable in her scent.
Maja smiled at her and lightly licked her lips. Okay, now that was hot.
"Just don't expect me to have your pups immediately or something, I have a carrier in front of me." She said quickly, getting one of the more important conversations out of the way.
"Yeah, I understand that, it's totally not a moment for kids in my opinion either, even though I'm not the one who'd be carrying, and it's your body, so even if anything happened, it would be your decision."
"Good thing we agree on that, now bite me, let me win this tournament, and then you can fuck me through my heat." She smiled cheekily as Iga blushed at her words, and arched her neck, to reveal the covered up by multiple paper-thin layers scent glands. The unmarked skin called for her, but a thought stopped her from immediately sinking her teeth in it.
"Why don't you bite me first?" The alpha said quite suddenly, leaving Maja in a bit of a physically uncomfortable position, as her eyes glared at her with confusion when she straightened back up. "You know I'm not really a traditional alpha, I don't really care what others usually do. I want my omega to be happy, and I know that you always talked about biting first if it ever came to mating, so yeah, bite me first." She genuinely smiled, and Maja did the same as she felt seen. Most alpha's wouldn't even think of that as an option, but this particular one actually cared about her, and her desires.
What Iga didn't expect was that after reaching for her, Maja would kiss her first instead of ducking for her neck.
The kiss was sweet, slow and careful. Like they weren't in a rush of any sort, like just showing up to the next match with a mating bite would not stir a media hurricane.
Maja was taking her time. Taking her lips on a journey from the alpha's lips, through her jaw, to her scent glands, where she stopped for a minute, and took a deep whiff, even though the whole room smelt exclusively of Iga.
"Alpha." Maja's voice had gone primal, both deeper and higher at once, and then she finally bit.
A small moan slipped past Iga's lips, while a strange warmth stretched throughout her. She felt full like she never did before, she felt like this was the perfect state to stay in. It ended too quickly.
Iga looked at Maja as she detached herself from the taller's neck and her brain went feral, almost as if she herself was in pre-rut, even though that wasn't scheduled until after Wimbledon.
She kissed her eagerly, drinking up all of her own blood that she could taste on the omega's tongue. Her omega's. She corrected her thoughts and dived into the crook of the girl's neck.
Just that when she tried to take a lick, just a little taste, a patch stopped her from it. Yeah, they forgot to take these off.
Iga reached to the edge of the patch with her finger, and glanced up at Maja looking for permission in her eyes. A small nod was all the confirmation she needed.
The scent that filled the room was delightful but so intense, it could have been suffocating.
Maja smelt like a local bakery, sweet with all the sugar and chocolate. All the baked goods blending into one perfect scent. As she licked the gland up and down, the scent got even sweeter, almost like a chocolate cake.
Maja pressed her closer to herself, almost climbing onto the alpha's lap, and Iga let her, because why not, this was their moment, and they could do it however they wanted to. And Iga wanted Maja as close as physically possible.
When Maja settled herself Iga had one last thing to do.
Maja let out a whimper as the alpha's teeth sunk into her skin.
Now Iga felt as if her blood was going to boil, but it wasn't a bad feeling. It somehow made her feel complete.
She couldn't get herself to stop, so she didn't, she moved away only for a few seconds, just to look at Maja, at her mate, and then bite again.
When she finally got herself to stop, to pull away, she took in the view in front of her like fine art.
Maja looked beautiful even though she had blood smeared almost all over her neck, even though her eyes were still a bit swollen from crying not so long ago. But it all didn't matter, she was beautiful, and she was Iga's.
A knock on the door paused their little moment together.
"Come in!" Iga said happily, knowing that it could only be one person, coming to check up on her everyday at the same time, and that person possessed a key card to her room.
After barely crossing the threshold Daria asked "Why does it smell like omega in here?" But when she looked around the room it all became clear.
Maja was still seated on Iga's lap, as the newly mated pair giggled at Daria's expression.
"I think you two owe me an explanation."