Bending, Bleeding, Breaking

by Vestina

Summary:

After the mysterious death of the Falcon's star reporter Paige Tico, journalist Rey Jackson begins investigating into Kylo Ren, the aloof Republican senator from Virginia, whose actions don’t all add up.

Notes:

So the more I thought about it, the more I desperately needed an ABO fic with Rey as the alpha, and after a couple of weeks of waiting, I realized I was just going to have to put it together myself. Don't ask me how it turned into a political thriller, but I promise there will be porn... eventually...

Chapter 1

Rey can’t stop staring at the television in the break room. She doesn’t really know why they’ve turned it on. They all know that she’s dead.

Paige Tico, the star journalist of the Falcon , was one of eighteen killed by a mass shooter at a White House fundraiser gala the night before. The news anchors aren’t fixated on Paige though. They care that the Vice President is suffering three head wounds and four hits to the chest. They care that he doesn’t look like he’s going to live through the night.

“There’s something wrong about all  this,” her boss, Finn, murmurs next to her. “Where were the secret service?”

Rey just stares straight ahead.

“She wouldn’t have... She knew better than...” Finn tries.

“She was a great journalist, for an omega,” one of the pretentious, alpha interns says.

“No,” Finn snaps back. “She was a great journalist. Period.”

The room goes silent after that until the program finishes and the television switches to a commercial break for footlong sandwiches. “We still have a publication that needs to come out tomorrow,” Finn says softly. “I know this is difficult, so everybody work hard for the next hour, and then leave early tonight.”

The staff files out quietly.

“We should... we should empty out her desk,”Finn says quietly to Rey. “Bring her stuff to her family.”

“Yeah,” Rey says back distractedly.

She’s quiet. And then. “Hey Finn. You don’t think this has anything to do with that story she was working on, right?”

---

 

Rey and Finn don’t end up leaving early. With everyone else gone before four, there’s so much work to do to publish the next day that the sun has set on the clear August night before they lock up.

They’ve packed all of Paige’s stuff into boxes  and stuck them in the back of Finn’s car. “I called Paige’s sister, and she said it was okay to drop these by her place tonight, if you want to come,” Finn says.

“Okay,” says Rey.

Twenty-three minutes later, thay buzz the third floor apartment of a towering brownstone, and slip inside as quietly as they can.

“I’m so sorry,” Finn murmurs to Rose. She looks so small that Rey wants to reach out and touch the girl, embrace her, but Rose is clearly an omega, and Rey doesn’t want to invade her space. There’s not much worse than an alpha who doesn’t understand boundaries.

Rose takes the boxes from their hands. “Thanks for these,” she says softly.

Rey hands her the tray of doughnuts from the 24 hour place. Rose stares down at them for a moment. “Will you... will you stay here and eat one with me?” she asks.

“Of course,” they answer.

So the three of them sit around her kitchen table in silence, pulling apart the sweet dough and shoving it in their mouths, all trying not to think about the girl that they lost.

At some point, Finn huffs, “And they think we don’t need gun laws.”

Rey is about to voice her agreement when Rose says, “That’s actually why I wanted you to come over. Paige wasn’t shot.”

“What?” Rey says.

“Yeah, the police came over a few hours ago with the coroner’s report. She was grazed in the arm, but it wasn’t a fatal shot. But they did find traces of arsenic."

Rey’s mouth goes dry.  

Finn’s in shock. “Do they know what happened?”

Rose scoffs. “Of course not. Nor do they think it’s that big of a deal. They said that the bullets were probably coated with poison. That it got into her bloodstream. But honestly, she was an omega, and nobody gives a flying fuck about us. They're not going to investigate.”

“Shit,” Rey says.

"I need your help," Rose says. “She said something to me, last weekend, about how she found something big, about how her next story was going to blow up. Do you know what she was working on?”

Rey exchanges a glance with Finn. “Wasn’t she looking into Kylo Ren?”

Finn nods gravely. “We were looking into some weird activity out of his office.”

“Weird how?” Rose asks.

“He takes unannounced vacations. Just up and leaves, no explanation. He misses crucial partisan votes, he takes no calls. He’s also super close with the President. Like he meets with Snoke at least once a week.”

“Huh,” says Rey. Ren always been a bit weird, and no one’s quite sure how such an unlikable man got elected in Virginia, but his mother was a senator in California, his uncle the famed CBS reporter from the 70s and 80s and his grandfather the Secretary of State that got them into the Korean War.

But somehow, when he speaks, it’s electric, like his words are actually coming to life.

(Yeah she's probably spent too many evenings watching him on CSPAN...)

“I promise,” Finn says. “We will find out who killed your sister.”

---

 

Rey never anticipated working for an online news company. She had aimed for television. (She had wanted to be like Luke Skywalker.)

But after the economic crash of 2008, nobody was hiring journalists to cover television. She had met Finn in college. He was a beta grad student, and they had worked on the radio station together her freshman year. She was a loner in college; alphas were becoming increasingly rare, and the urban legends about how awful they were had escalated after multiple terrorist attacks and several gang rape allegations.

She may have been an alpha, but she was an orphan, and she was a woman, so even though she couldn’t deny her privilege, she sure as hell struggled through those college years when money was tight and her friends were few.

But Finn, Finn was great. He’s gotten her on the air, granted at midnight on Fridays, but she had gotten to spit out her deep dives into health care and the prison industrial complex.

After graduation, he offered her a job at the Falcon .

She loved it. It was the investigative journalism that she had dreamed about. Even if it was also about the day to day drama of career politicians.

“Rey,” Finn says as they’re climbing into the car. “This could be really big. Like big enough to be dangerous. I mean, Paige is already dead-”

“Let me do it,” she says. “Let me take down those bastards.”

---

 

Kylo is bouncing his leg outside the Oval Office.

There are few things he hates more than waiting.

The ginger-haired press secretary walks out the door. “He’s ready for you,” Armitage sneers.

Kylo gives him an obligatory chin jut. Walks through the door.

The fading afternoon light casts dramatic shadows across the room, making everything seem a bit eerie.

“Kylo Ren. Come in. Sit down.”

He does, sitting in a chair across the desk.

“I know,” Snoke says.

“I’m sorry, Mr. President?”

“Ah, you’re playing hard to get. We can get back to that.”

“Of course, sir.”

The President pauses to sip water.

“I have a proposal for you,” Snoke says.

“Is this about the shooting the other night? Because I never asked you to-”

“It appears I have a job opening.”

Kylo stops short.

“The Vice President isn’t dead, sir.”

“But you know as well as I do that he's incapacitated. You didn’t think I would consider you for Vice President? On the contrary, Ren, I’ve wanted you since the primaries, but you were never likable enough to get me elected.”

Kylo’s eyes narrow.

Snoke laughs. “Oh, come on! You really don’t have to pretend that you weren’t praying that was why I called you in here.”

“I suppose not.”

“Tell me Senator, do you like the Senate?”

“It pays the bills,” he says wryly.

“No, you really just like getting to fight with your mother every damn day.”

Kylo gives a stiff smile. “Do we have you talk about her?”

“You, my boy, are such a cliche. Mommy issues on a senator is about as original as pepperoni on pizza.”

There’s a pause in which Kylo really doesn’t know what to say.

“But back to my original point,” Snoke continues, “I know. I know that you are pretending. That you may appear an alpha due to some newfangled chemical concoction, but that underneath it all you are a lowly omega just looking for attention.”

Kylo goes so still that he stops breathing.

“Yes, yes, you can be my VP, but I own you. We have a strong partnership, and, in the end, that will pay out for the both of us. Just know, you take one misstep, and I will ruin your career. I will destroy you.”

He quiet for a moment. "Okay."

"Vice President Ren. It's got quite the ring to it."

 

Chapter 2

Notes:

Chapter Two is here, increasingly proving that I know very little about the intricacies of actual daily political life. However, I'm having fun, so I don't care!

Kylo stumbles rather gracelessly out of the Oval Office. Rounds the corner into an empty hallways and presses his forehead against the wall. Exhales.

Before clenching his fist and sending it through the plaster.

The noise ricochets, and he only has a moment to glance up to the security cameras before the Secret Service is escorting him out of the West Wing.

“Get your hands off me!” he snaps at the men in uniform tossing him out on the front lawn like a common tourist.

And all of this is happening just as Attorney General Phasma, is walking out the doors. “You alpha males are all the same,” she drawls. “Have some class, Senator.” And then she walks away.

He tells himself that it’s the alpha hormone injections making him act this way, that his anger really isn’t his.

Even though it’s really the fact that all his worst fears have come true.

Part of him always knew that Snoke knew what he was.

That Snoke knew his designation, his weakness.

Why else would Snoke have tried to cultivate this relationship, if not for the fact that Kylo was exploitable.

It makes him feel like a child again, and hell knows his childhood was awful. His very existence had been practically illegal. After some particularly bad cases of child abuse between alpha parents and their omega children, Congress had declared that omega children born to alpha parents be separated, put into foster care. His alpha mother wanted none of that, and, thus, had kept his designation a secret from the country. Much of his childhood was spent alone, wandering the mansion, avoiding the sitters who were paid obscene amounts of money to keep his identity away from the press.

By the time he made it to his undergrad, he was a mess: on so many suppressants that he would sometimes not sleep for a week, unable to concentrate, yet desperate for approval.

It was then that he stumbled across the A4V7. He ordered it online, and in the dingy light of his apartment bathroom, he injected into his hip.

It lit his veins on fire and gave his mouth a metallic taste that wouldn’t go away.

But when applications for law school came around, he didn’t hesitate to change his name and check the alpha designation box.

An injection once a month, and he was on track to become a senator.

Until three months before he was about to get his degree, his supplier died up, and he passed out in the office of Professor Brendol Hux. “I know someone who can help you,” Brendol had said. “He’ll make you very powerful.”

The only stipulation was that he didn’t know who his anonymous contributor was. But when he ran for the Senate in Virginia at the age of 30, he won.

Kylo had guessed for awhile it was Snoke supplying him. Why else would the man be interested in the junior Virginian senator? But somehow he hadn’t quite anticipated Snoke would want everything from him.

---

 

“Rey,” Finn says, poking his head around the wall of her cubicle. “I need you to cover for me in the White House Press Briefing today. I’ve got a meeting with Senator Organa’s top aide this afternoon.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Rey murmurs distractedly.

“Rey?”

“Did you know Kylo Ren went to UChicago for law school?”

“... I did,” Finn says. “You are really getting into this, aren’t you? I have a few questions I want you to ask if you get called at the briefing.”

Rey spins around. “Shoot ‘em at me.”

He hands her the sheet. “Now get going so that you can get through the security line before the whole thing is over,” he jokes.

She sticks her tongue out at him.

Thirty-five minutes later, she’s getting patted down by a rather aggressive alpha security guard. “Dude.” She glares at him.

“Just doing my job, ma’am.”

She rolls her eyes.

She finds her seat several rows back, elbowing out the obnoxious cable channel reporters.

There’s a buzz to the air, a hint of nervous anxiety between the various reporters for the Vice President. An uncertainty about whether he’s alive, and able to return to the job.

But when Armitage Hux, the smarmy press secretary leisurely strolls to the podium, he uses only one sentence to announce that the Vice President will not be returning to his position, and then promptly moves on to brag about the administration's incredible tax reforms. The floor opens up for questions, and it’s a deluge:

“Is the Vice President still alive?”

“Is there any more information about the shooter?”

“Have there been considerations for a replacement?”

And Hux, in his typical fashion, uses a lot of words to say absolutely nothing.

That’s when Rey raises her hand, and uses her fiercest gaze to get called on.

“Why,” she asks, “does this administration not give a damn about its own? The Vice President is presumably dying, and you give us one word answers? There were eighteen people murdered at that gala, twelve of whom were omegas. Is there a reason that these deaths have not been investigated any further? Or is it because this administration is just as prejudiced as it has been made out to be?”

Hux’s eyes narrow at her. “You think we don’t care about our own? It is the FBI that is investigating-”

“And according to reports from the New York Times , the case is has been abandoned.”

Hux stares at her. “Ms...”

“Jackson.”

“Ms. Jackson, if you cannot hold your insolence, you will be escorted out.”

“Insolence? haven’t even raised my voice.”

“And yet, Alpha , you are causing a disruption.”

“Disruption! All I’ve done-”

He juts his chin at the guards. “Please escort her out.”

The press room explodes, calls from the first row about the silencing of free speech. But Rey is already being led out of the room, her chin high.

---

 

Finn is set to meet Poe Dameron at the senator’s office.

“Hey,” Poe says, after Finn’s cleared the security line.

“Uh, hi,” Finn says back, not quite sure where to put his hands.

“Take a seat.”

“Uh, perfect. Thanks.” Finn tries to offer this adorably handsome man a smile, but he’s pretty sure it just comes off as weird.

“So,” says Finn. “What’s Senator Organa been up to?”

“Nothing that doesn’t come out in her daily press reports. No, I’m here for a different reason, not for the senator. Or, well, more exactly, I’m here because of something that the senator knows."

“And that is...?”

“Kylo Ren. He’s not what he says he is.”

Finn stares at Poe. What are the chances... “How exactly did you find me?” Finn asks.

“Oh, perhaps I should have mentioned our mutual friend, Rose Tico. She informed me the Falcon was interested Ren, perhaps in connection to her sister.”

“...Organa wants to take down Ren?”

Poe laughs. “Not exactly. But the senator does want to meet with you.”

---

When Kylo sees the footage of the young reporter dishing Hux’s shit right back to him, he laughs out loud.

He looks up where she’s from, and his face goes pale when he realizes it’s the Falcon . Rumor had it they were investigating his suspicious activity until Paige Tico died.

And then he finds her email address. Their conversation takes the following approximate path:

Can we meet?

Why?

I want you to interview me.

Ha. Really? Somehow I don’t believe that.

I know who’s going to be the next VP.

Have you ever been to that sandwich place on 8th?

 

The next day, he strolls into very hipster, gluten free sandwich shop where all the bread has been replaced with lettuce.

“I’m pretty sure none of these constitute a sandwich,” he mutters as he tries to order.”

“Maybe you should try using your imagination a bit,” comes a distinctly British voice from behind him. “Two southwest chipotle chickens,” she tells the teenager at the cash register.

Kylo slaps the money on the counter before she can pay for it.

They bring their sandwiches to a small booth in the corner, her eyes searching his like a cat’s. He takes a bite into his food.

Promptly spits it out. “The fuck? That is not chicken.”

“Yeah,” says Rey, her eyebrows raised. “Everything’s vegan here. It’s on the door?”

He rolls his eyes.

They sit in silence for a few more minutes.

“You’ve got chipotle sauce dripping down your chin,” she says.

He swipes at it, succeeding only in smearing the peachy sauce down his hand.

This is why he hates alphas. Everything’s a power play.

“Okay,” she says. “Who is it? Who the Veep?”

“You’re looking at him.”

She rolls her eyes. “Sure, dude.”

He stares at her for a long moment. “It’s true.”

She presses her lips together. “What do you want?”

“I need leverage. I need you to publish insider stories.”

“You do know I work for a fairly liberal outlet, right? None of your supporters are reading what I’m publishing. I literally just got into a fight with the press secretary.”

Kylo scoffs. “Everyone hates Hux. Besides, the Falcon’s always been pretty moderate, pretty objective.”

“And your party has swung so far right that moderate now looks liberal.”

“You’re reputable.”

“But you’re scum.”

He leans in. “Do you want to take down Snoke?” He grins at the spark in her eyes, but her face slowly morphs into confusion.

She’s quiet for a long moment, scrutinizing him. “Become VP first. Then we’ll talk. But ultimately, I’m here for journalism, and if you just start giving me Oval Office gossip, I’m out.”

But her hands are twitching. He gets the feeling she’s hiding something.

“Fine,” he says. And then he gets up, and doesn’t look back.

Notes:

Don't worry, the ABO dynamics will get more prominent soon. I really don't know how this fic got so world building heavy...

Leave a review?

Chapter 3

Notes:

In which we encounter both Rey and Kylo being angsty about their meds.

Rey doesn’t really know what to do after after Kylo gets up and leaves. She downs the rest of her Diet Dr. Pepper.

She grinds down her teeth. The scent glands behind her jaw ache, like she’s eaten too much frosting off a sheet cake.

His scent.

She’s never smelled anything like it.

It was bitter alpha.

But something more. Something she wanted. Something that makes her skin prickle and her scent glands tingle.

She knows she better than to trust him. That that line about taking down Snoke was only to throw her off. That he’d gain just as much by having a news outlet in his palm.

But she wants to find out the truth about what happened to Paige. And she is becoming increasingly convinced that Kylo Ren is involved.

---

 

He can’t get her scent out of his nose, sharp and tangy, like the first hint of autumn. He hasn’t been this enraptured by an alpha scent since his freshman year of college when a black haired goddess sat in front on him in Intro to World Geography.

He realizes, after he parks in front of his apartment and the cold air hits his nervous system, that he’s still thinking about the way she licked her lips. Yeah, he needs another update of the A4V7. His glands tingle, and his brain feels foggy. Somehow, it already been a month since his last dose.

He rifles through his medicine cabinet for the vial, his hand seizing around the last one.

His brows narrow. Usually he’s received a refill on his doorstep before he gets this low. He shoots a text to Brendol Hux:

I haven't received the next six months of shipment

The boss is making sure you can perform before he gives it to you

Can’t fucking perform if I’m not on the drugs

Do your job, and they’ll show up

He chucks his phone at the floor with everything he’s got. It bounces unsatisfyingly on the carpet. He grits his teeth, fills the syringe with the bluish liquid, and injects it straight into his hip. His vision blurs, his tongue goes numb, and a crackling feeling courses through his blood as the drug skirts through his veins.

He bolts out of the room, collapsing in front of the toilet where he heaves the last of that gluten free sandwich.

It all subsides after a moment, leaving only a dull pain thudding in his temples. He breathes in a ragged gasp. Wipes the slime from his lips.

But then his muscles shutter once, and he feels all the weakness leaving his body.

It’s that simple. He’s not an omega anymore.

Once, when he was eight, his mother had come home with an experimental drug. It had pinched his skin when she stabbed the needle into his inner arm, but she had taken him out to the beach after that. The sand, the water, the endless sky.

It was terrifying, after years locked in the Organa-Solo mansion, to leave and smell the salt in the sea.

But the drugs made him feel like his skin was stretched too tight, made his scent weird and fuzzy.

His mother had tried to be nurturing, but she was busy running campaigns for the Senate, and didn’t quite know how to relate to a son who didn’t have enough human interaction to articulate his feeling, prone instead to fits of violent rage.

The month before he turned fourteen, he went into his first heat in the midst of an empty house.

His father came home to the house in shambles, curtains ripped off the walls, holes punched in the television, light bulbs dangling from their wiring.

It was then that he’d been sent to recently retired Uncle Luke’s.

Luke sent him to an all boys, omegas only, private high school. And while he didn’t have to be worried about being ripped away from his parents, the overwhelming air of omegas in their first heats was a stifling hell.

He stops. Because he does not allow thoughts of his uncle now. 

---

She comes home late that night.

It’s been thirteen hours.

And she still can’t get his scent out of her nose. Her panties have a damp patch from the tense arousal eating at her.

She strips off her clothes, grabs her conveniently waterproof vibrator, and sets the shower to a scalding temperature.

Steps in gingerly, lets her fingers skim her thighs, trembles at the buzz of the vibrator. Arches her back into the cool tile.

Her fingers desperately pump into her pussy, Her other hand keeping the vibrator near her clit.

The pleasure builds, but it’s not enough. Her walls clench, her head buzzes, but her body won’t orgasm. Won’t pull her pussy into a vice-like knot that would keep an omega inside her, pulsing cum into her belly.

She drops the vibrator. It wiggles on the floor of the show, spraying water everywhere. She knocks her forehead against the tile. It’s the alpha hormone blockers. She’s taken them as long as she can remember. They reduce the incessant drive to mate, but mostly she takes them in solidarity with omegas, a stand to say that they are level, that they are equals who shouldn’t be afraid of being raped.

Unfortunately, the blockers won’t let her come easily.

She takes a deep breath, squats down to pick up the vibrator, and slowly, slowly brings it back to her clit. Let her mind wander to images of Kylo Ren on his back, his dick easing into her cunt.

Twenty minutes later, her body graces her with the smallest, most unsatisfying orgasm. She feels her walls unclench after about ten seconds.

With the water pulsing out of the shower head, she can pretend that the water on her face isn’t tears.

---

 

Kylo’s announced as the new Vice President the following Tuesday. By Friday, he’s been sworn in.

Finn’s led into a small room to meet Senator Organa by none other than Rose Tico.

“I didn’t know you you worked with the senator,” Finn says rather dumbly.

Rose smiles sadly. “I just applied here, actually. This is only my second week.”

“Cool, cool,” Finn says, wishing he knew how to just shut his mouth.

He sits down at a round table.

Poe and Leia soon join him, accompanied by the other Californian senator, Amilyn Holdo.

“Finn’s working on a piece on Kylo Ren,” Poe says. “An exposé of sorts.”

Finn coughs. “Er, well, it’s more that we at the Falcon found Paige Tico’s death rather suspicious, and Ren may be connected.”

Leia and Holo exchange a look.

“We can’t help you directly,” Holdo says. “But Leia’s known Kylo forever.”

“What can you tell us about him?” Finn asks.

She doesn’t speak for a long moment. “He was quiet as a kid, but intense, prone to fits of anger. But he could be sweet too, when he wanted. He’s whip smart. Got to the top by making unsavory connections.”

Finn stares at her, his brows furrowed. “You knew him as a kid?”

“I should hope a mother would know her own child.”

When their meeting is over, Poe stays behind for a moment. “I think you dropped your pen, Finn says, and then, with only a little bit of shame, watches Poe’s ass as he bends down to pick it up.

He sighs when he gets to the glass paneled doors. It’s raining, and he has to make it all the way to to the bus stop, two streets over.

“Here,” Poe says, coming up behind him. “Take my jacket. It will look better on you anyway.”

---

 

There’s an alert on Rey’s phone when she wakes bleary eyed Saturday morning. An unknown number.

I’ve been sworn in. Meet me at the Natural History Smithsonian .

Wont that be on camera? What if you’re recognized?

Isn’t the NSA watching us now?

 

Fair. 2 pm. I want to see the Hope Diamond.

Isn’t that cursed?

Only for white men and alpha colonizers

Which isn’t entirely true, but she likes goading him.

They meet early that next Monday morning, standing in front of the glittering gem, his secret service agent tailing them at a distance.

She specifically does not notice his extremely soft hair, his ridiculously broad shoulders, and the fact that he’s wearing a pair of thick framed glasses that she finds inexplicably sexy.

“Hi,” she says. She gets a chin jut in response. “I haven't seen the glasses before,” she tries again.

“It’s supposed to be a disguise,” he grunts.

The crowd pushes them together, and she definitely does not notice how her shoulder collides with a very modestly covered, but also very defined bicep.

But he definitely smells alpha. Perhaps she had been mistaken the other day. Perhaps it was another omega’s scent lingering on his skin.

Perhaps the purplish matte lipstick she applied that morning was too much.

“So how will I be defacing democracy today?” she starts, but he shoves her a file folder at her.

“This is the new health care bill they’re proposing in the Senate. It specifically addresses a regulation on suppressants that your deceased colleague was quite in favor of.”

“Paige? Why-”

“Snoke won’t sign it. I need the media to pressure this into a bipartisan vote. We need a two-thirds override.”

She narrows her eyes. “What is your game, Kylo Ren?”

But he’s already walking away.

Notes:

Thanks for reading! Review?

Chapter 4

Notes:

Check out this awesome mood board by Janaitziar!

Moodboard

---

 

Finn stops by her office early Thursday morning. “What the fuck did you just email me?”

“Article for this weekend.”

“And where the fuck did you get a source telling you exactly what’s going to be in the Senate’s new Omega proposal?”

“If I told you that, they wouldn’t exactly be anonymous.”

Finn narrows his eyes. “Can you trust this person? That’s some pretty secret information you’ve been given.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“You aren’t really offering a sound endorsement.”

Rey turns from her computer and looks Finn directly in the eye.

“You have to trust me. This could make us big. Like really big.”

“You better be right about this, Jackson.”

To Finn’s utmost astonishment, the article gets three hundred fifty-four shares in the first hour. By the time the evening news airs, David Muir is reporting that the new, Republican proposed bill might have enough protections for Omegas that it could pass with bipartisan support.

The Falcon’s email account blows up.

“Is Rose Tico still looking for a job, other than her one with Leia Organa?” Rey asks.

Finn shrugs. “Haven’t seen her in a few weeks. We haven’t found anything new on Paige, so I haven’t had a reason to contact her.”

“We should call her in to respond to these emails.”

Finn shrugs. “I mean, we can’t pay her.”

Rey shoots him an exasperated look. “I have six hundred eighty-five unanswered emails. I’ll pay her fifty bucks under the table.”

Rose is in the office an hour later.

And Rey slips out to meet with Ren, this time at a bench in front of the Washington Mall.

She picks up a box of Andes Mints, her favorites, from the CVS on the way. Offers Kylo one when he shows up ten minutes late.

“No,” he says curtly. “I don't eat chocolate.”

Who the fuck doesn't eat chocolate?

“Does your friend want one?” she asks, gesturing at his Secret Service agent.

“Who? Mitaka? Ignore him.”

“Oh, alright...”

There's an awkward moment where they both stare straight ahead.

“So,” she says. “I did it. I published your story.”

“You did,” he says.

“And your plan worked. Everybody is talking about these new potential regulations for Omega healthcare.”

“That remains to be seen. The bill hasn't been passed yet.”

She noisily unwraps another Andes Mint in a furious, but futile attempt to cut the tension

“Why do you even care if this bill passes?” she asks.

“That isn't your fucking business.”

“No? It's not my fucking business, but I'm just supposed to follow your orders ? Well, fuck you, Ren! Fuck you.”

He shoots her a withering look.

“You know what I think, Kylo Ren? I think that you secretly have a heart. That you actually care about Omega rights.”

“Don’t be absurd.” But she watches as his Adam's apple bobs in his throat.

He stalks away before she can respond.

---

 

The weeks pass grudgingly for him. He does his duties. Goes to press conferences, national security meetings, presides over the Senate. But he doesn’t care.

The longer he goes without his suppressants, the longer Rey’s Alpha scent linger in his nose after their meetings. He feeds her snippets of what he knows: the contents of meetings, conversations with foreign dignitaries.

He knows he’ll be caught.

And somehow he doesn’t fucking care.

One day crisp in early March, he’s in the middle of sharing a particularly juicy detail about the bubble of Snoke’s advisors who have started to distrust him, when he catches her staring at the profile of his face.

“What?” he says, interrupting himself.

“All you been giving me for weeks is gossip. I thought I said no gossip.”

He exhales loudly.

“You look...” she says softly, “lonely.”

She’ll do this sometimes, he’s noticed, attempt to psychoanalyze him. He doesn’t know if she is just trying to throw him off his game or just genuinely is curious about his mental state.

“That’s what they say about D.C, right? That we are all the loneliest people, alone together.”

She makes a face. “I’m pretty sure that’s New York.”

“Well,” he sighs, “It’s not like I have ample opportunity to make friends.”

Rey stares at him again. He averts his gaze.

“Would you like to come over to my place? For coffee?”

“I’m not going to sleep with you,” he says probably too quickly. She smells fucking amazing now that his alpha hormones are wearing off.

“Good,” she replies cooly. “Alpha on alpha sex is the worst.”

“Uh, right,” Kylo stammers, which is a much better excuse than his fear she’d find out about his Omega status.

Rey’s still looking at him. “So... yes? You’ll come over for coffee? I mean, you are busy. Being Vice President.”

Kylo glances at Mitaka before responding to Rey. “I’m done for the day.” He doesn’t understand what it is about her that fascinates him so much (besides her scent), but he wants this. He wants to spend time with her.

And so he gets in his car, and Mitaka drives off, following her.

---

 

She can’t believe she’s lured the Vice President to her dingy little apartment.

Especially when he’s the subject of her investigation.

“You could have invited Mitaka in,” she says playfully.

“And you know as well as I do that I’m only where I am because the last VP was shot. Mitaka needs to be alert.”

“Kill joy.”

She watches him suppress an eyeroll. Pulls her container of instant coffee out of the cupboard. Sticks two cups of milk in the microwave. Like her roommate in college used to make it. The microwave beeps, and she dumps two heaping spoonfuls of sugar into both cups. Sets the frothy liquid in front of Kylo.

“Are you trying to pass this shit off as coffee?” he asks dubiously.

“Tastes just like the real thing. Be grateful I used actual sugar instead of Splenda.”

He takes a sip. She watches his Adam’s apple bob. “Absolutely disgusting.” But he’s smiling. He takes another sip. “Worst coffee I’ve ever had.” Another sip. She wonders if this is what a human like him thinks is flirting.

If only she didn’t have a strict no alphas in bed rule. After her experimental phase in college, she decided she didn’t like the obnoxious grabs for power that ensued. Maybe, for his smile, for those dark eyes, and for those glorious biceps, maybe...

But she has business, recon, to do. “So,” she says. “Are you really afraid of getting shot? You really think that same person who killed the last VP is also after you?”

And odd look passes through his eyes before he says, “I dunno. I guess, yeah.”

She presses her lips together. Stares him in the eyes. “That must be terrifying,” she says quietly.

He looks down at his coffee. “Yeah, I guess. It’s just part of the job.”

“Did they...” she starts. He looks up again. “Do you know if they ever found out who was responsible...”

“I... You’re a reporter. Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you.”

“Hasn’t stopped you in the past.”

He gives a half hearted laugh. “I made a deal with the devil, didn’t I?”

---

 

Somehow, the conversation finally shifts, and their talking about random stuff, dumb stuff. The TV shows they watched as kids, how he’s never been up in the Washington Monument because he’s afraid of heights, and how she likes driving out to the mountains on the weekends because after awhile she can’t stand all the concrete.

He doesn’t know if this makes them friends.

By the time he leaves, Mitaka in tow, he feels like her scent has enveloped him, swallowed him whole.

And that, that is very bad.

Because it means the A4V7 isn’t as potent in his bloodstream. He fucking needs that drug.

As far as he can tell, he’s still in the clear. His scent hasn’t started to change. He doesn’t feel a heat coming on.

But he was always a child who pushed his luck. And it turns out that was a habit he never grew out of.

He tells her about an addendum that got snuck into the Omega Healthcare Bill, one that would allow companies to arbitrarily deny coverage to Omegas.

An addendum that Snoke pushed hard for behind closed doors. The only reason he might sign this bill.

And Kylo gives the go ahead to publish.

---

 

She’s so ready to be back in the White House Press briefing after her month suspension.

“Yeah, you keep your mouth shut,” Finn says. “Can’t have Hux kicking you out after you’ve waited so long to get back in.”

“Oh Finn, how else will we get our names out there?”

“You get your anonymous source to fucking give us another lead.”

“They fucking gave us shit a week ago! It was published yesterday! Back off.”

“You really won’t tell me who it is?”

“I really won’t. You don’t want to know.”

“You keep saying that, but you’re only making me want to know more.”

---

 

“What the fuck is this?” Snoke snarls at him, shoving a tablet in his face. Snoke has called him into the oval office, shoving the Falcon’s newest headline in his face.                     

“You can pretend all you want that I don’t know that it was you that leaked this to the press, but there are fucking consequences to your actions, Ren. You do as I say. You are mine to manipulate.”

Kylo stays quiet. He can barely speak at this point, his entire body is shaking with the absence of the A4V7 in his veins. His mind is a mess.

He vaguely wonders if his blood will just burn through his body.

“You disgust me, Omega,” Snoke spits out. “I can smell you heat through my suppressants.”

“Help me...” Kylo chokes. “Give me... the drugs.”

“You haven’t done much to deserve them.”

This is worse. This is so much worse than the momentary pain of injecting the A4V7. This is like being ignited from the inside out. This is like touching the sun.

Snoke only shoots Kylo a disgusted look as he stands and saunters out of the oval office. “Remember, Solo , you only brought this on yourself.” And then to Mitaka: “If he ejaculates in this room, I will end your career.”

The door clicks behind him.

---

 

There’s a subtle smell of an Omega in heat as she walks into the West Wing, but she ignores it because it’s probably just an oblivious middle schooler on a tour.

Hux glares at her when she walks into the briefing room. She almost considers giving him the middle finger, but decides that would probably be in poor taste.

The briefing starts normal, but then the door behind her opens, and she realizes it’s Mitaka.

“Ms. Jackson, I need you to come with me now,” he whispers rather urgently.

“But I’m-”

“Now.”

She glances up at Hux who seems to be too absorbed in the sound of his own voice to notice the commotion in the back.

So she follows Mitaka, who is walking a pace slightly too brisk for her. The Omega scent is getting sharper, and she finds herself oddly aroused by it. Mitaka sharply rounds the corner, and she almost crashes into him when he pauses to open the door.

Whatever she thought this was, she was utterly wrong.

Because on his knees, in the center of the fucking Oval Office is Kylo Ren. A Kylo Ren that is very clearly in heat.

He raises his chin slowly, his forehead beading with sweat and his eyes desperate. “Alpha,” he gasps. “Help me.”

Chapter 5

Notes:

Hiyo! Guess who back and bearing the gift of a chapter full of suffering? *points finger guns at self* This girl.

Alright, so just a heads up here- this chapter does not have dubcon, but it does have some sex that goes very poorly and could be triggering. If you would rather not read, there will be a summary at the end. Care for self, kiddos.

Anyway, I love you all dearly, and I am so excited to be back. This chapter has been in my head for months, and even though it may make your angsty Reylo hearts cry, know that you will deserve that HEA.

She’s frozen in shock for a moment as she stares at him, kneeling in front of her. Mitaka nudges her with his elbow, and she tentatively takes a step forward. There’s a lot she’s not comprehending but she’s a little blitzed out of her mind, distracted by his scent.

“Kylo,” she whispers.

“Help me,” he repeats, his eyes meeting hers. His shoulders visibly shake. His forehead is covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She reaches out her hand to brush the hair from his forehead, but she stops short.

“Is this okay?” she asks. “Can I touch you?”

“Please,” he gasps. She lets her fingers trail through the locks of his hair. The agony on his face relaxes one iota. “Fuck,” he hisses under his breath. “I’m such a fucking

“How can I help you?” she asks.

“The pain. Make the pain stop,” he whimpers. And then, to himself, “Fuck, I’m trash right now. Can you just-”

Her jaw hardens. Her fingers caress down the side of his face, tilting up his chin, cutting off his words. She doesn’t break eye contact as she leans his head to the side, exposing the swollen glands at the junction of his neck and jaw. She raises her eyebrows, looking in his eyes for confirmation, looking for consent. He nods, and she leans in to run her tongue around the sensitive skin. His skin tastes salty with sweat, sweet with the aroma of his hormones. She feels him swallow under her lips.

“Relax,” she murmurs. And then moves to the other side, mirroring trail she just tracked. “Better?” she asks. “You have my scent now.”

He inhales a shaky breath. “I have your scent now.”

She looks back at Mitaka. “We need to get out of here before this gets worse. Can you get us out unnoticed?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I can go grab the car.”

“We should come with you. We can’t stay here,” she says. Turns to Kylo. “Are you okay to move?”

“I’m in heat, I’m not an invalid.” She stares at him, a long moment, taking in the sweat being down his brow but his features contorted in a sad attempt at control. “What’s the holdup?” he asks snidely. “Mitaka is anxious to leave, and I’m not getting any better.”

“Damn, you really are an ass.” But she laces her fingers through his, pulls him to his feet, and they rush after Mitaka.

When Mitaka he pulls him into the backseat after her. “Where to, Miss?” Mitaka asks spinning the car into traffic, and Rey stops short. Because she has no plan.

“My place,” Kylo grits through his teeth.

“With all due respect, Mr. Vice President, I’m not so sure that’s a good plan.”

“Fine,” Rey decides, resolute. “My apartment then.” Where she can protect him. Keep out prying eyes.

“Kylo,” she murmurs to him. His head is tilted back against the headrest, his pupils blown wide. She scents his arousal through her suppressants. She presses her thumb to the gland on the side of his neck, hoping to clear his head of the pain just a little. His hands jerk a little, but his breathing evens out. “What do you want?” she asks him.

“Shut up,” he says.

“No,” she interrupts. “You called me here. You mixed me up in all this and I need to know your plan.”

“I don’t have a fucking plan! Do you think I knew this was going to happen when I woke up this morning?”

“No. What do you want? Ignore biology for two seconds. Do you want sex with me?”

He groans. “I want the pain to stop. It feels like my skin is boiling.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

He’s quiet a moment. “I don’t want to pressure you.”

“But you haven’t even asked. You’re just assuming I’ll say no.”

He looks down at his tremblIng fingers. “Will you have sex with me?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I will.”

“Please not in the back seat,” Mitaka calls from the front.”

Shit.

Shit.

Shit...

She doesn’t fault Finn for her shitty health insurance. She knows that a small start up doesn’t have a way to pay for that. But it means that her suppressants are the cheap kind. The kind that make it hard for her to orgasm and impossible to rut.

And if she can’t orgasm, she can’t knot. And if she doesn’t knot her body doesn’t release the hormones to calm his system.

“Fuck, Mitaka,” she calls from the backseat. “Can we make a stop at Walgreens?”

Kylo looks at her curiously. “You have to know condoms are wildly ineffective during heats, right?”

“Not condoms. I’m on a pill for that. Antisupressants.”

“Well, fuck.”

“Well fuck, indeed.”

He thrusts fifty dollars into her hands as she scrambles out of the car. She stares at it a moment before rolling her eyes and muttering a quick, “Thanks.”

---

 

The second she’s out of range, the burning pain is back, this time worse.

“Mr. Vice President?”

“I’m alright.”

A beat of silence. “I’m sorry to drag you into this, Mitaka. Wasn’t exactly in the job description.”

“We all have secrets, Mr. Ren. Yours just happens to be more valuable than others.”

It takes his breath away, seeing her jog out of that store, her hair billowing behind her. His cock throbs. He wants to punch something.
“How’re you feeling?” she asks once she’s back. She opens the package, punching four of the green pills out of the foil.

“Four?” he asks. “Are you going to overdose?”

“This is the over the counter shit. It’s not that strong. Remember a couple years back when there were all those lawsuits about alphas using them as date rape drugs?” She unscrews the cap of the gatorade to wash the pills down. She hands him the last half of the bottle. “Drink it. It’ll give you a little bit of energy.”

“We’re here,” Mitaka says.

She helps him out of the seat, making sure his shaking legs don’t crumble beneath him. It’s all he can do not to run his fingers up her sides, pulling at seams and tearing her clothes.

She lives on the second floor a townhouse, and as they pass the lower level, he get a little anxious.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “Nobody lives down there. College kids moved out during the summer, and nobody ever moved in.”

“Are you hungry?” she asked after they walked into her living room.

If he weren’t so desperate for her, he would have laughed at that. “Of course not,” he manages.

“Okay,” she says softly. She approaches him slowly, like he’s a wild animal, and carefully, without touching his skin, she begins to loosen his tie, undo his buttons. He feels the air stutter in his lungs, sees his vision fade in and out.

“Why are you stalling?” he asks. Because he can’t think past the idea that she’s backing out, that she doesn’t want this. “We don’t have to...”

She bites her lip, and he feels his whole world spin. “The antisupressants, they haven’t kicked in yet. We cant- I mean, I can’t knot yet. Come on.” And then she’s pulling him into the bedroom, pushing his back against her pillows. His legs dangle off the bed, and she’s undoing his fly. Blood thrums in his ears, and he nearly chokes when he feels her tongue against his cock.

“Fuck,” he hisses through clenched teeth. “Too much, too much. Fuck, everything is so sensitive right now. I just need-”

“Breathe,” she murmurs, pulling away. “I want you to come first. And then we’ll try penetration.” He looks down and sees a crease of worry between her brows. But he doesn’t have time to think about it before her mouth is covering his cock again.

His hips thrust a few times out of his control, and he clenches his teeth so hard his jaw hurts. He has no idea how much time it takes him to get to the precipice of orgasm, but all of the sudden her tongue is doing something fantastic, and he’s coming.

She pulls the hair out of her face when she’s done, tying it in a knot on the top of her head. He doesn’t know when her clothes came off, only that her breasts look fantastic with her arms stretched over her head like that. She juts out her chin at him, holding his gaze, urging him back against the headboard.

She crawls up his body, not letting him break the eye contact. For a brief moment, he thinks she might kiss him, but her head turns at the last moment, and he feels her tongue against the scent gland at his neck.

“I know it’s the last thing you want to hear,” she says, but if you want me to knot, you’re going to have to be patient.”

“Okay.” His hands skitter down her body, over the curve of her ass. She gasps a little when his fingers brush against her cunt. He pulls one of his hands back in front, toying with her clit until his fingers are wet.

“Are you ready?” she asks tightly.

“You haven’t come though.”

“I don’t want to risk knotting before you’re inside me.” And before he can protest, she adjusts her weight, hovering over his cock before sinking back on her heels.

---

 

She doesn’t remember sex with an omega feeling like this. She feels so full, but not really in a good way; more like she’s not quite turned on enough. These fucking supressants. She can feel their grip vaguely relaxing under the influence of the antisupressants, but it’s nowhere near enough.

It’s excruciating because she’s not sure how much longer he can last. Not with his eyes rolling back into his head and his fingers tight around her hips. She can’t keep a rhythm, not with the irregular spasming of his hips. Fuck, he’s going to come before her, and it’s all going to be over before she can orgasm to release the hormones that will settle his sex drive.

“Kylo!” she gasps. “Wait, hold up.”

His eyes flutter open, and he looks so small, so helpless laying there beneath her.

“You’re doing so good, Omega. So good. But you need to stop for one moment. I want to help you. I’m going to get you through this. I promise.”

Very carefully, she lifts herself off him, reaching over to her night stand, and yanking out her vibrator from the drawer.

“What are doing?” he asks, and she watches in his eyes the instinctual fear that he’s not satisfying an alpha.

“It’s not you,” she promises. “You’re doing perfectly.”

She flicks the on button, pressing the device to her clit in soft circles, letting her arousal flare before sinking back down onto him.

It’s a horrible idea. Her vibrating cunt is clearly too much for him, and she’s only a few thrusts in when his back arches off the bed, and she feels his cum drench her walls.

“Rey,” he gasps.

“No, no, no,” she mutters, pressing the vibrator harder against her clit, willing her body to come. “Please, please, fuck.”

She feels his fingers wrap around hers, guiding the vibrations in patterns she can’t predict.

It’s just enough to throw her over the edge. She squeezes her eyes shut, and forces the vibrator steadily against her clit. She feels herself knot around him, too late by a dozen seconds. She hopes he gets at least some relief from this.

“How do you feel?” she asks when she catches her breath.

He’s staring up at her, horrified. “Are you okay?” he asks.

“What?” But even as the word comes out of her mouth, he’s swiping away at the tears on her cheeks.

She swats his hand away. “I’m alright. That was just...”

“A lot?”

“Yeah.”

They’re both quiet for a moment. Not making eye contact. She feels him squirm underneath her, but his dick is still trapped in her cunt.

“You should try to sleep,” she says. “We’re going to have to try again in a few hours.”

Notes:

Wooh boy...

For those who need a recap-
Snoke forced Kylo off his meds, which sent Kylo into heat. Rey shows up, and decides the best course of action is to help the poor little omega through his heat. They go to Rey's apartment, (Mitaka, the secret service agent driving), but on the way, Rey realizes her meds are going to prevent her from knotting while having sex. She picks up some anti-supressants from the store, but they don't really do the trick. After a conversation where they both consent to the sex, they try it out. Rey has a hard time getting aroused due to the meds, and thus, the penetration is really difficult for her. Eventually, she is able to knot Kylo, but not before a whole lot of mental anguish.

Thank you so much for putting up with this fic. Is this really what anyone signs up for when they read ABO?

Notes:

Thanks for reading!

I would absolutely love a mood board for this fic, if anyone is interested in making one *wink, wink*