Chapter 1
You slip through the crowd like a shadow. You draw little attention to yourself, wearing plain, anti-scent clothes with a hood over your head, scarf around your neck, and your face tilted towards the ground as you tried your best to conceal your omega-scent. It was safer that way. Less people got involved when they thought it was just a beta passing by them rather than a lone omega. The crowd helped. The crowd filled with betas and alphas, some with the occasional omega. It muddled your scent, and often you purposefully bumped into people to smear your scent with theirs.
It was a cool day, sending the painful reminder that winter was coming. You dreaded the season every year. The shorter days meant less time to find your earnings, the colder temperatures and nasty weather meant less people would be out, less people being out meant you had to change your strategies. You knew you’d lose weight to an unhealthy level – you were too skinny as is – and you knew that every night you’d feel the cold in your very bones, regardless of how many layers you wore in that crappy abandoned warehouse you called home.
You’d been living on the streets since you were seventeen. You’d escaped captivity from the Red Room. They’d experimented on you and given you these weird powers. Even now, you were still finding out things that you didn’t know you could do. You still remembered the first day you’d flown. That had been… well, interesting, to say the least. You supposed the easiest way to explain would be that you could control the elements.
You forced your mind back to the task at hand, scowling at your stupidity as you realised that you’d lost the target you’d been eyeing for a while now. Out of the corner of your eye, red hair caught your attention. You swivelled to see a woman and a man laughing as they made their way through the crowded street. You focused in on them as you snuck up inconspicuously towards their retreating backs, catching up to them easily. You hesitated as you recognised both their scents as an alpha scent. You didn’t usually pickpocket alphas, preferring to target betas and omegas since they were less likely to pick a fight if you were caught. But these two were talking, and laughing, and they were distracted. So, what could go wrong?
You eyed the woman’s bag. You stepped forwards, looking casually to the side as your hand slipped into it. You knew the movement so well you could’ve done it with your eyes shut. You’d done it a million times after all. Your hand slipped out of the bag again, wallet in hand, but it had been free for not even a millisecond before a deft hand grasped your wrist in an iron grip.
You startle as the redhead alpha turns around, eyes shooting metaphorical lasers at you. Your eyes go wide, and you drop her wallet as you jerk your wrist away from her. She doesn’t let go. Your head shoots up, your hood slipping off your head. Damn, so much for keeping your scent out of the equation. Panicking, you use your free hand to grab her wrist, burning her with your powers. She snarls and pulls away with a glare, but when she takes in your omega-scent, she tilts her head, eyes narrowing in thought. Oh God, you think. You knew her face. You hadn’t seen it enough to have been able to recognise it when she was facing away from you, but now that she was looking straight at you… your stomach dropped, and your blood froze. You’d tried to pickpocket the Black Widow. And then you’d proceeded to burn her! Fuck.
And the alpha next to her… Bloody Captain America, you realise as he also turns to face you. You were frozen, unable to move. Your mouth opened and closed uselessly as you backed away, bumping into passers-by as you did so. They complained, but you had eyes only for the two avengers. At least, until you turned tail and ran.
But this time, running away felt strange. You didn’t quite know how to explain the feeling that you’d never felt before. It was as if there was a magnet that you’d left with the couple, and it was trying to pull you back to them. It made you almost not want to leave. But instinct won over, and you ran.
It was dark by the time you returned to the warehouse you called home. The entrance was blocked by a slab of concrete, but you looked over your shoulder briefly before using your powers to slide it aside. You slid it back into place when you were inside and headed over to a makeshift firepit. It was located in a large metal dish. You’d nabbed some wood the previous day, so you pulled out a cold steel SRK from its sheath under in the waistband of your pants and cut the wood into smaller pieces. When it was stacked and ready, you shot a ball of fire at the firepit.
Light filled the space. The warehouse had definitely been abandoned when you’d first set eyes upon it. Even now, dust covered the floor, alongside broken bottles, discarded furniture, debris and old rugs. But the building was still standing strong, and you found something noble in that. Despite the fact that it had been rejected, forgotten, it still stood as strongly as ever. It got the job done, though it may not be pretty.
There was a loft area at one end, where you knew rats would gather in the cardboard boxes and old garbage bins, and above you, you could hear flapping as the bats made their way out into the night via one of the many broken windows. That was another thing you loved about the place you called home. At first it looked desolate, a dead place, but really, it was full of life. The life may not be pleasant, regarded as pests and strays by many, but life was life, and pleasant or not, it provided a sense of comfort. If the stray dogs, cats, mice and rats could survive, surely you could too.
Some of the dogs and cats you’d befriended long ago wandered hesitantly towards the warmth of the flames. They were pretty much your family. You’d ignored them at first, but you’d treated them fairly, given them bits of your leftovers when you could spare them and bribed them to sources of food that were inedible to you but not them, and you supposed that that was more than what they’d gotten from the rest of humanity. Slowly, you’d become closer to them. And soon they’d allowed you to pet them, and petting was followed by playing, and sure, you knew they were going to die at some point, but you couldn’t help but become attached to them. You’d even gone as far to name some of the most frequent visitors that you’d had around for a while.
A human figure sauntered out of the shadows, breaking you out from your thoughts, and you flashed him a grin.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, luv,” he said, strutting towards you like he owned the place. “Good day?”
“It was alright. What’re you doing here?” you question the alpha, standing to greet him.
“Just checking in on you. You know how troublesome you can be.”
You rolled your eyes. “Shut up.” The small smirk on your lips, however, counteracted your words.
You knew that to any outsider that it would look like you and Bullet would look like a couple, but that was just Bullet’s nature. He was a flirty little bastard, and despite him being an alpha and you being an omega, nothing had ever come from the two of you – and you severely doubted anything ever would.
Besides, it’s not like the two of you were soulmates. You’d checked, of course, but your marks couldn’t be more different from one another. The both of you had two marks alongside your own, but the marks themselves were vastly different.
But just because you weren’t together doesn’t mean you didn’t use each other. Life was hard on the streets, especially for you, being an unmated omega. So, every now and then, Bullet would drop by to check on you, to see if you needed to drop, to give you an item of his clothing so that you smelt more like alpha when you went outside. He lived with his pack just around the corner from you. Unlike you though, he actually had an apartment, whilst you lived in an abandoned building. He’d offered for you to stay, but you preferred the warehouse. You had your own space here and you didn’t want to intrude on his pack. Besides, you knew Bullet always stayed near enough to you. Always close enough that you could reach him if need be.
“How come you didn’t come visit yesterday? Too busy for your favourite gal?” you asked jokingly. Bullet shifted, bringing a hand to the nape of his neck. Your eyebrows furrowed, and coldness settled in your heart as you realised what he didn’t want to say. “You’re moving to the other side of town,” you say dully.
“Yeah,” Bullet said. “We finally saved up enough to get a place away from the gangs in a fairly safe neighborhood. It’s small, but you can come if you want.”
“No,” you sighed. “No, I can’t. I’m not- I’m not a part of your pack. And as much as I love Jake and Nightshade, I just wouldn’t fit in. Besides, it’s not my place to pull you guys apart like that.”
You slump to the floor with your knees to your chest as you stared at the flames flickering not even a foot from your face. You’d known this day was coming for a long time now – he’d been talking about getting a place in a good neighbourhood for months. It was fair, you thought, that he wanted to get away from a place where so many gangs roamed the streets. Still it felt kinda crappy that he was abandoning you, though you knew he wasn’t really.
You could go visit him, of course, but it was tricky. You’d have to walk, and with winter coming you doubted you’d have much time to do anything other than pickpocket and work. Occasionally, you’d go have dinner with Bullet and his pack, but they were barely scraping enough income as-is. They didn’t need an extra mouth to feed, much less an omega one. After all, if you lost the job you had currently, you doubted you could get another. People didn’t like to hire omegas. In all fairness, technically it’s illegal. Bullet had had to pull a lot of strings to get you the position.
“I’m sorry, Phoenix,” he said, using your street name.
“It’s- it’s okay,” you force out, taking a shuddering breath. Bullet had been by your side through thick and thin since you were seventeen. He’d helped you drop when you needed it most – when you’d run out of suppressants and couldn’t handle the drops yourself; he’d found ways to get you suppressants, despite the drug being highly illegal. In all honesty, you didn’t know what you’d do without him.
“Hey, it’s not like I’m dying,” he said with a chuckle, nudging your shoulder in an attempt to make you smile. You didn’t. He lowered his tone slightly to a concerned and gentle one, “Hey. You haven’t had your suppressants recently. I can tell your scent’s off. Do you need to drop?”
“No,” you said quickly. “No, I’m fine. I just… I’m sorry. I knew this was coming, I just didn’t want to accept it. You should go- go be with your pack.”
“Y/n,” he started.
“Go, Bullet,” you repeated, firmer now. “I’ve got to go to my shift at The Dirty Robber, anyway.”
New York was a big city. Huge, actually. You couldn’t remember once when you’d seen the same person you’d pickpocketed twice. So why is it, that as you exit the bar you have a part-time job at later that night, you see none other than Black Widow leaning against the brick wall? You still and stiffen. It was past midnight. Why the hell would she be here?
There was a strange sensation in your chest, almost like you were being tugged towards the woman. You wanted to be near her, to let her scent sink in. You forced yourself to stay where you were, however much it hurt you to. Maybe you were closer to a drop than you’d thought. You never felt this way around alphas that may as well have been strangers. Maybe it was because you hadn’t taken your last dose of suppressants. Your dealer had been out. He’d actually met you whilst you were working. You had the bottle of pills in your pocket now. Yes, that had to be it. The suppressants.
She’d changed a lot since the two of you were kids. In fact, you doubted she’d remember you at all. After all, she’d been a couple years your senior in the Red Room, and hence you hadn’t had any classes together. Besides, she’d been Madam B’s star pupil. The girl who never missed a shot, never broke her cover, never screwed up in language classes. In fact, the only flaw you’d heard her have in the Red Room was her hesitation, and to you, that only showed that she had a soul. That wasn’t a weakness in your eyes. You’d looked up to her. Plain and simple.
She’d presented as an alpha, of course, but when you presented at thirteen, you’d been an omega. Your life at the Red Room had only gotten worse from there. You were constantly bullied about being an omega, but that wasn’t even the worst part. No, the worst part had been the alphas who’d used it against you. You’d been given suppressants, but the girls there who were alphas – which was most of them – would force you into stress-drops by ganging up and berating you, telling you how you were such a ‘bad girl’ and how you were a waste of space, and how they despised you, and wished you were dead. They’d told you time and time again that you weren’t worth it, and some days… some days you’d believed them. Even with the suppressants you hadn’t been able to fend off the drops, not at first, at least.
The Red Room had taken you into private classes, so whilst the other girls would be taught about being an alpha, you’d go through gruelling sessions of the alpha teachers trying to force you into a stress-drop. If you made it the entire way through the session without breaking down – at least visibly – they’d praise you and tell you what a good girl you were. If not, you were punished. You still had the scars from their belts on your back. Cuts that had been created, healed, reopened, healed, reopened, only to eventually heal into ugly scars.
You’d been fifteen when the experiments had first started. Men from a place your instructors called HYDRA experimented on you. It was some part of a deal, they’d told you. If HYDRA could give you powers, you supposed that the Red Room would pay them to create more Widows like you. At the time, you’d supposed that they’d chosen you to be experimented on because you were an omega. Later, you realised that it was probably less about your bearing and more about the fact that your bearing made you more controllable.
You’d graduated at fourteen, weeks before the rest of your classmates. To this day, you didn’t know if it had been so the instructors could get the other girls to hate you more than they already did and hence bully you more or because you were actually better than them. You liked to think that it was the latter, but in truth you didn’t know.
“I was told I’d find you here.” Natalia’s demeanour hadn’t changed a bit since the last time you’d talked to her, though her accent sounded much less Russian and much more American. Then again, you supposed yours was the same. You knew that your own accent was in there sometimes – it came out when you were angry or scared – but you’d learnt to hide it, to try and fit in just that little bit better. But hey, some Russian traits stuck. You could still drink any ballsy alpha that dared challenge you under a table.
You eyed her warily, “What do you want?” you forced your voice to sound strong as you pressed away your inner omega in favour of presenting a courageous front. She may be an Avenger, but she was still an alpha. An alpha that you were alone in a dark alleyway with. You knew the sort of training she’d had – of course, you’d done it yourself – but you’d never actually seen her in action and didn’t know if you’d be able to keep up. And in all honesty, you didn’t really want to find out. You’d never truly been a confrontational type – your confrontational side had been beaten into you by the Red Room, despite it going against an omega’s very nature to avoid conflict. Your best bet for now was to act confident and not let her get the upper hand. However, your hand still positioned itself just below the hem of your shirt, so you could grab your SRK at a moment’s notice. It would be a better bet than creating flame in the dark alleyway – much less noticeable.
She held up her hand. Her burnt hand, “Second degree burn. You touched me for what, half a second?” You could have done worse, you knew, but you hadn’t wanted to badly harm her. You hadn’t even meant to make the burn second-degree; you’d just wanted her to let go. You supposed you may have panicked a little, despite the emotion having been beaten out of you from a young age. You were slipping. You’d have to watch yourself. Slipping was dangerous. Especially for someone who was enhanced like you, and especially for an omega without an alpha to protect her. You didn’t want to need to be protected, but people didn’t take unmated omegas seriously. They’d come one after another to shoot their shot, and time after time, you’d turn them down. You didn’t want a mate. You didn’t need a mate. If there was one useful thing the Red Room had taught you, it was how to be alone. Besides, if you really needed something, you had Bullet.
“You startled me,” you say, if only to fill the tense silence. You’d long-since learnt from experience that when there was a tense silence, it was best to get the other person to talk – it gave you a chance to figure out whether they intended to throw hands.
“Yes, well, you tried to pickpocket me.”
“I didn’t realise you were Black Widow,” you muttered. You wouldn’t have pickpocketed her had you seen her face. Looking back, that was another slip up you’d made that day. You’d hesitated in getting away too, like something was drawing you back to her, even now.
“Hmm.”
“What?” you asked. You didn’t like it when people were clearly thinking but didn’t share. The lack of knowledge – knowledge being power – made you feel unnecessarily vulnerable. And being vulnerable was dangerous.
“You really have no idea, do you?” the woman raised an eyebrow, and you kept your expression carefully blank. “You’ve never met your soulmate before.”
Your entire body tenses as her words sink in. “What?”
She reached into her back pocket, and your heart skipped a beat. In an instant, your knife was in your palm. Natalia stilled, eyeing you carefully as if she was curious as to whether you knew how to use the weapon and had the balls to use it. You met her gaze sternly.
“I was going to grab my phone.”
You observed her carefully. If she wanted to hurt you, surely she wouldn’t have bothered with all that conversation. Black Widows were efficient. They – you – didn’t waste time with pleasantries as Natalia was now. You nodded sharply, sheathing your weapon hesitantly but keeping your hand obviously close to the hilt in silent warning. True to her word, she pulled a phone from her back pocket. She put the flashlight feature on and held it to the wrist you’d burnt. There it was. A star in a circle, at each point of which was a small symbol. One for air, one for fire, another for water, another for earth, and finally, metal. Your symbol.
“That’s what that mark is,” you say, realising what her symbol was. You’d always thought it was a pointy 2D hourglass or something. Now you realised it’s a black widow’s mark. As in, the spider. You stand there speechless for a moment before out of the corner of your eye, you see Natalia move towards you.
You take a few hurried steps back, body language purposely defensive rather than afraid, and she raises her hands in mock-surrender. “Easy, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I doubt you could if you wanted to,” you lied. She’d done the same training as you, except you reckoned she had better conditions to practise in on the daily, not even mentioning that you were constantly malnourished, and that put you at a disadvantage. “Look, I don’t know what exactly you expect me to say now that you found out that I’m one of your soulmates, but I’m fine as I am.”
“You should come back to the Avenger’s Tower.”
“And if I say no?” you push. The alpha bristles, and you stand in wait, wondering what she’ll do.
“Then you can go, but trust me, the longer you stay away, the shittier you’ll feel.” Now that she’d mentioned it, you’d felt kind of crappy all afternoon, like you were getting sick.
“Look, I’m going. You are not welcome to follow me.” You just wanted to go home and sleep. You walked past the alpha, but as you did so, she grabbed your arm. Fear paralysed you as her alpha pheromones assaulted your nose. You swallowed a whimper of fright as your feet rooted themselves to the ground. You forced yourself to raise your chin in faux confidence and you looked her in the eye.
Natasha tilted her head slightly as she saw your initial reaction before you could cover it up and let you go. You backed away from her, chest physically aching as you turned your back to her and walked away.