Chapter 1
"Step aside, shrimp." Steve pushed Prism aside to go through the door first.
"Oh piss off!" she growled, going for the door again only for a vibranium arm to bar her from the door.
She glared at the blonde's mate, Bucky, who smirked and went through before her as well.
Natasha stayed out of it, noticing Prism's sigh of defeat as she stepped aside for her. As Clint, Nat's beta, neared the door she gestured for him to go first.
He shook his head, "We're equals. That leads us back to ladies first." He stopped and gestured for her to go first.
With a grateful smile, she entered the room to see Natasha watching the door- looking over her shoulder to give an approving nod to her mate.
Tony sat at his desk, glancing up at each person that entered. "Thor?" he asked, noticing the one Alpha not present.
"He's with Jane. Probably won't be back for a while." Natasha answered, leaning against the arm of the couch her mate sat on.
"Priz, sit." She said, turning her green eyes on the other woman.
"You can, if you want. Tweedle dee and tweedle asshole over there are pissing me off today."
The red head tilted her head in surprise at her order being denied. Clint glanced over at Bucky who sat on the opposite end of the couch, his mate Steve leaning on the other arm much like the red head.
Both of them were smirking as they felt the tension rise between the women. The alpha's hard look never wavered, the beta gradually looked uncomfortable and shifted her weight a bit as she began to feel a burning sensation in her chest that crawled down her arms. She tried to hold her ground for as long as she could, knowing they had everyone's attention.
"Priz, sit," Natasha bit the words out with a growl, making the other woman's knees buckle a little under the pressure in the air.
Begrudgingly, the silver haired beauty dipped her head and passed by Steve and Bucky to plop into the space between Bucky and Clint.
At Nat's touch on his shoulder, Clint put his arm around the back of the couch casually, letting Prism lean against it a little. He knew all too well that felt like to deny Natasha's command, it was painful to refuse.
Because of that, she'd always been very careful about letting too much of her alpha tone into her voice. He was used to it and being her mate it no longer caused actual pain for him, but being an unmated Beta it was harsh on Prism.
Beta's were known to comfort each other in these situations should a suitable- likely unmated- alpha not feel the desire to.
Though if she'd just do as told, she wouldn't have to worry about it.
Bucky and Steve exchanged mischievous looks that earned a growl from Tony who stood up at his desk. "Don't even think about it." He growled, directing his tone at the men.
Another issue with being an unmated Beta was that there was no one to stand up for her. None of alphas -Tony, Natasha, Steve nor Thor- had much of an instinctual desire to protect her. Especially not when they had to choose between her or their mate.
So Tony had taken it upon himself to step in as her alpha, but not her mate, though he would be open should she approach him first. Someone had to watch her back on missions and the others were busy keeping an eye on their mates.
If anyone had to go unguarded and without backup, it was always Prism. Granted, with her powers she was the most likely to be alright alone so she didn't complain.
In response to the command, Bucky tensed but Steve only glared, placing a comforting hand on his mate's shoulder blade and pressing a kiss to the top of his head while keeping his baby blues on Tony.
"Right, now that that's...settled," he gave a questioning look to Priz who gave a small nod, tentatively scooting farther from Bucky who decided to man-spread just to make her uncomfortable. She didn't realize she'd accidently cuddled up to Clint until she felt him tense behind her.
"....I'm sorry..." She muttered both toward him and Nat who frowned as she immediately went to return to the center of her seat witch would result in her leg being bent uncomfortably to avoid touching Bucky.
The redhead glanced up at Steve, wordlessly asking him to check his Beta but only got a cocky eyebrow raise and a smirk in response.
"It's okay." Natasha stepped behind the couch, gently pulled on Prism's shoulder to lean back against Clint who gave her a questioning look over his shoulder before he relaxed at her reassurance and accepted the contact.
Natasha felt bad for hurting Priz. Her assassin training let her see the small looks of longing and flickers of loneliness in her features when the others would comfort their mates or give affection.
She knew that under her tough exterior, Prism was painfully lonely.
All that, coupled with the fact that she could sense absolutely zero arousal from the female Beta right now told her she had no interest in her mate in any sort of non-platonic way so there was no need to get possessive of him.
Plus, a beta and a beta? Crazy.
As Tony began the meeting, clicking a remote to make a hologram appear, Prism bit her lip and tapped her foot soundlessly against the floor.
Steve began to lightly stroke between Bucky's shoulder blades in a lazy, passive way that made contentment radiate from the metal armed soldier. His eyebrows rose a little as he noticed the position Prism was in with Clint who was completely engrossed in the topic of the meeting- eyes focused on the alpha at the head of the table.
Natasha crossed her arms over her chest, still standing behind the betas as she listened as well.
For just a second, Steve saw Prism's eyes flash over to where his hand caressed Bucky's back and an emotion he couldn't read flickered in them.
He felt tension rise as he looked over to see the redhead giving him a dirty look - not having missed his head turn even as little as it did.
"Excuse me, is this very important meeting distracting you from your weird turf war over a beta?" Tony spoke loudly, looking between the alphas with anger in his eyes.
"Priz is being miserable and distracting." Steve spoke up like he was tattle tailing, hand stopping its movement making Bucky look over at her, knitting his brow as he saw her tucked under Clint's arm and looking not very comforted by it.
The beta in question leapt to her feet and hissed at Steve, "Fuck you, Rogers! I haven't done anything."
Bucky was about to stand and argue with her but Steve put a hand out to stop him, standing in front of him and glaring harshly at Prism who met his gaze head on.
"You never do, do you? Why don't you just be a good girl and sit down." The last two words were a command, making her knees shake but she stood straighter.
"I'm sorry, who saved your ass in the last mission? Me. So don't you dare say I don't do anything. Without me, your ass would be grass! Maybe you should sit down." She dropped her voice to mock his alpha tone.
The air got palpably tense as she did that, making Clint climb backwards over the arm of the couch and Natasha step closer to him.
"Don't you ever," Steve's eyes glowed like blue fire as his voice rumbled in his chest, she held back the wetness in her eyes as she struggled under his dominant rage.
Prism clenched her fists at her sides but they shook, "Just take it back and we can get on with the meeting." Her voice quivered slightly as she could feel her lungs squeezing as she disobeyed an alphas command.
"You..." He growled, ignoring Buckys touch on his arm "...Steve..."
"You bitch." At the word, her knees buckled and she dropped to them, gasping for air as her face turned red.
"Steve that's enough." Bucky shoved him with his vibranium arm, sending him across the room and smashing into a bookshelf. Still radiating fury he stood and dusted himself off, ignoring his mate who now stood and tried to body block him from the gasping female that was now on her hands and knees.
"I just want her to apologize properly. Bow to me, Priz."
"Steve!" Natasha growled, sensing Clint's growing discomfort just being in the room. "That's too much. Don't make her do that."
"If she keeps fighting me Ill make her roll over, too. All the sweeter victory when I win."
Her arms wobbled as she fought tooth and nail to keep her elbows locked, her veins began to burn under her skin like they were full of acid.
"Steve you're being cruel." Bucky pushed on his mates chest, a bit of fear entering his own eyes as he recalled being forced to bow to Alphas when he was the Winter Soldier. The pain and humiliation.
Prism desperately looked to Natasha to help her, finding her busy comforting Clint, her heart sank as she fought against the crushing sensation on her back to give Tony a pitiful look.
He frowned and quickly dawned one of his suit gloves, launching forward and shoving Steve again this time right into Thor's chest as he stood just inside the door.
Reading the situation immediately, the God of thunder put him in a sleeper hold until he was out, dropping him with a thud.
Bucky glanced down at Prism sympathetically and was about to gently caress the back of her head when Tony's growl made him freeze.
She looked up at him with teary eyes and he sighed, going to collect his mate and drag him from the room.
"Meeting adjourned, I guess. Good catch Thor, sorry Clint." Tony scooped the gasping and exhausted woman into his arms and took her into the room in the back as the others filed out.
"T-thank-"
"Shhh...." He laid her down on the bed he kept back there for his late work nights and slid on next to her. He put his arm around her and felt her shaking form melt into an affectionate touch, even a platonic one like this.
Her body was in shock from Steve's commands, she needed more than a beta's comfort. It needed to be reminded that she was still a good girl and she didn't deserve to be punished like she was.
Everyone that witnessed it agreed that Steve was just being sadistic and cruel- even his own mate was starting to crack from the pressure he was exerting.
She shivered and cried into Tony's side as the acid feeling in her veins left her feeling internally burned everywhere.
Her strong façade had fallen away and Tony's nose twitched as he detected an actual scent from her for once.
Unlike everyone else, Prism had never presented at all. At puberty, people would be an Alpha, Beta or occasionally an omega. Prism's past was somewhat of a mystery to the team but none of them had ever picked up on pheromones of any designation from her.
They chalked it up to her not being from their universe, having accidently entered 913 after the age of 16. For the public eye they'd managed to make her appear to be a beta- since alpha pherormones were recognizable immediately where betas could control theirs more and they were naturally more subdued.
In public, they had her stand between Clint and Bucky to hide her lack of scent in their Beta pheromones and use them to blend in.
But this didn't smell like any Beta he'd met before.
Actually it didn't smell like Beta at all.
It smelled like...
Worry crossed her teary eyes as she realized he knew.
"T-Tony please..." He looked down at her with a confused look. "Don't tell them. Please."
Her tone broke his heart in a way only an Omega's begging could.
"I wont, Priz." He murmured, rubbing her arm softly. "And you don't have anything to fear from me, I promise." He was aware the implications of an Alpha and omega in a bed vs an Alpha and Beta.
Ordinarily, this would never safely happen between an unmated pair- alpha and omega. They would leave the bed mated, weather the omega wanted to or not.
Omegas were rare and sought after. They were also seen as weak, and property by some. Being surrounded by alphas at the Avengers Compound really put Priz in the lions den, and constantly challenging Cap and bickering with Bucky was putting her right in the lions mouth.
But he knew she did it to maintain the façade of being a beta.
A lot of things about her suddenly made sense.
She was always the first to try and mediate arguments that didn't concern her, she'd comforted Clint several times when Natasha was in medical, Thor was protective of her but he already had his Omega, Jane- she'd softened him a bit so he may have a suspicion being the only one with personal experience.
He considered how Prism always went to civilians first, children adored her and her fierce loyalty to the entire team including that blonde jackass- who she definitely did save on their last mission.
No matter how much she loathed Cap and Bucky, she still had a strong sense of family-even the found one she'd made with the Avengers.
When she denied Nat's command earlier, it wasn't direct.
Come to think of it, he wondered if the red head had picked up on any of these signs.
She must have, with how much time Priz spent with her Beta. He knit his brows as he realized this meant she could complete the ideal triad for any of the in house Avenger pairings.
Boy she really was living in the lions den.
Tony was the only lone Alpha, he could pair with a beta or omega and no one would question it. But she never showed any interest in him in that way...nor anyone for that matter.
He suspected if her secret got out, Natasha and Clint might be open to add her, his mood darkened as the thought about the super soldiers who would probably love to tear her down and make her bend.
His will to keep her secret strengthened as she whimpered into his chest.
Comfort. Right.
"You're such good girl, Priz. You're so pretty and kind." He tried to be sweet but found that the words didn't seem to help her, and they sounded awkward and insincere from him.
Alphas weren't the best at verbal comfort and reassurance, Betas were. But he didn't have a beta.
So he'd just have to do this. He sat up against the pillows a bit and pulled the rag dolling omega to lay on him fully, her head under his chest. She wished she could listen to his heart but instead she felt the metal of his arc reactor against her.
Nonetheless, Tony freed her hair from its elastic and softly ran his fingers through it, giving an instinctive gentle purr specifically reserved to comfort Omegas. One he didn't think he'd ever hear from himself.
Her shaking subsided as his alpha aura soothed her veins and reassured her, making her feel safe. Soon, she let exhaustion take over.
