I see alpha/beta/omega in the descriptions of stories everywhere too, and generally just back away. I'm not entirely sure I understand what it means, other than in the Teen Wolf way of the alpha being the person in control -- what is the difference between a beta and an omega?

I'm only familiar with omegas from Patricia Briggs books and Criminal Minds fanfic.

In Patricia Briggs world omegas are outside pack heirarchy and really rare. They aren't really passive, but they have a calming effect on wolves and also make wolves more protective of them.

In the Criminal Minds fanfic it just seems like another way to introduce mpreg. I don't think I've read any of the stories, but there's one that has omegaverse as a tag and the summary is the team is in a plane crash and Omega Reid is going into heat for the first time (Reid is almost always the omega) and another where the summary made it sound like he was omega and kind of genderless and also asexual until he bonded with an alpha.

In general, alphas are bigger and badder than normal and may go into rutting heat, betas are normal and get to make choices, omegas are smaller and weaker and more pliant and go into fertile self-slicking heats. Alphas and omegas bond with each other, but betas can choose to have sex with who they want.

Alpha-alpha or omega-omega sex is where the usual taboos live, more than homosexuality, since mpreg is usually possible. But male omegas may be rare depending on the universe.

But I've read A/B/O stories where the alphas and omegas switch, or where the omegas are the ones who get pregnant but aren't in any way subordinate, so there's no hard and fast--the key part seems to be heat--the omegas go into heat and alphas can't resist it. Also, there's a lot of room for "true bonding".

The Alpha Omega (story title, can't google that bitch) I'm reading now is a boarding school AU in a world where there's a wolf-heart where an alpha can go beserk for an omega and they can't even entertain the idea of harm coming to them and it's something that happens to their wolf and not their human. I like when they play with possibility like that, as opposed to using it as a way to lock in the top/bottom into their pairing.

Is this based on something in the natural world, or is this something fanfic authors created? Because I'm not seeing the purpose of having both a beta and an omega, unless you're creating a three-way relationship and want three distinct roles.

God, I hope there's not a self-lubing male animal capable of bearing ass babies in the natural world...

That's not fair, making me choke on my tea....

God, I hope there's not a self-lubing male animal capable of bearing ass babies in the natural world.

If there is, it's in Australia!

Honestly, and I've only become exposed to this as it's taken over D/C, betas are supporting characters, and probably the padding to say "if everyone was as slave to their impulses as alphas and omegas no work would be done".

I don't know where the genre matured, but it didn't come fully formed into D/C--at first there were no omegas or no betas, and at the very first at least one author admitted they didn't know what the butt lubing was for since they couldn't have babies!

It always seemed to be tangled up in werewolf fic and knotting and such. Some stories have them transform into animals, and some have them as men, but the alphas produce knots when they're mating and then it all got so complicated that I got tired of trying to figure it out, I guess. It seemed like people were trying to find a way to pretty-up bestiality, really.

Which is okay if that's their particular kink. I'm still just trying to figure out the difference between betas and omegas, and their relationship to the alpha. Most stories have 2 main characters, and I was puzzled as to what the choice was between the two.

Alphas are pack leaders, and betas seem to be us, pretty much--we can choose who we want to sleep with, our butts don't lube, etc. But omegas will go into heat, become overwhelmed by their wolf sides, need to present to their alpha, go slick with want, etc.

And no, I've never seen it outside were-ing, although werecats don't knot, they barb. Some worlds have lots of animals, some stick to the wolf. Some play with the idea, some seems to want a knot and no Astroglide. The bad is no worse than "vanilla", and the good is fascinating in that speculative fiction way.

More importantly, though:

TONIGHTTONIGHTTONIGHT!

Poor babies...