Chapter 2: Danuja

The buzzing sound of a tattoo gun and the light sounds of melancholic jazz fills the parlor, the female alpha who owned the shop listens to the sounds focusing on her client's newest ink. The colors vividly paint the skin while the client wincing through the pain of the final touches added with white ink.

This specific piece was quite large compared to what most people get. Most people on social media get simple line art hearts or maybe a little intricate flower, but right here this client was a trooper for suffering much more pain for a stunning art piece rather than the lousy expensive lines all over social media. The client commissioned a piece that covered most of the back and its entirety, of course based on its size and the depth of detail in it, multiple sessions were needed in order to perfect the beauty of the client's back. Luckily, this session today was the final one after having added colors, shading, and precise highlights. The eye-catching piece was a gorgeous peacock surrounded by pale golden chrysanthemums.

The last highlight was added on a pale chrysanthemum petal, and finally, it was finished and the clent loved it. As beautiful as it was, who would not be satisfied?. Seeing the reaction, the tattoo artist was quite content with herself, Danuja take pictures of her work to broaden her portfolio for future clients—when suddenly the renowned assistant, Rai, arrived with a letter of demand from her boss. The alpha looked at the beta with a glint of hatred and disgust filling her violet eyes while face, unreadable.

"It's an order from the higher up," that's all Rai says with a smirk to the alpha then exiting the door and leaving in a sleek black car immediately.

Looking back at the letter in her hand The paper was rather fancy, folded into three and sealed with wax. With a slight click the red wax and envelope parted, not knowing what to feel while her eyes skimmed she read, "In a week, Akira Danuja will be joining the mating candidates for Ja Kang-Dae, best of luck," is what it read. This was not an ordinary invitation, but it was a demand from the man himself demanding she take his hand as a prospecting suitor. He is the leader to the Ja group, of course she has to obey; afterall, her family lives to serve the Ja family.

The Akira Clan was known to be one of the two clans that have followed the Ja Clan alongside the Amos Clan, earning themselves the recognition and riches they have racked up through loyalty. While also being lone of the main confidants of the major family they have had the chance to oversee both prostitution and handling the needed dirty work silently behind the scenes for decades. The entire family had skills in killing people as assassins and have grown to protect themselves for years since they were old enough to piece sentences together.

The gruesome process to even get to the level of a competent serving assassin was horrific, but omegas were treated gently because they are important to keep the line in the family going and thought of as capable of anything at all. On the other hand, alphas were taught to obey given orders by omegas without a say whether they wanted to or not. The entire family followed the rules of silence, and much more to limit them to people of a few words, of course exempting the omegas, prejudiced as it is, the alienation of alphas and betas was severe blatant sexism.

And from a young age, Danuja bore these responsibilities, to always obey the orders given no matter what they may be. They are to be loyal like dogs serving omegas and cater to their needs without so much as a word. Not only were they silent themselves, but they were strict about who was worthy and who was not, judging constantly based on the ideals imbedded into their minds after torturous childhoods filled with relentless training up until the point of marriage or escape into freedom.

Escape was one way to put it, but for betas this "freedom" was abandonment. In the eyes of the Akira group betas were unacceptable, alphas were frowned upon but they could eventually help produce more omegas, and omegas were prized as the elite secondary sex. As said before, Danuja was an alpha, alphas like those in the Akira Clan underwent strict upbringings. Having been brought up in such a way, an unrestrained life was never a promise, the most freedom they had was to choose their career until they were required to give their service. In this case even Danuja's only form of freedom would be suspended for the reason of potentially mating an omega. It's truly upsetting.

The very thing that caused a harsher upbringing expected her to actually be a potential mate to them? Preposterous. She thought as she folded the letter, putting it into her bag. It's something to worry about later, anyway it was inevitable.

She continued about her day, but in the following hours things would sour. She was called to the Akira estate to meet with her younger brother. Her younger brother, Reza, was an omega and the head of the family, yet still had authority while their parents were very much alive.

Everyone in the family knew how alphas were brought up in the Akira family, and out of pity her younger brother always treated his sister as a charity case. It was a way to relieve his guilty conscience over the fact that he was raised in a better environment than she was. Their upbringings both were different and because of it one was looked at in pity and guilt.

Danuja knew this and kept Reza at arm's length like everyone else. Don't let anyone in.

No one will ever have my trust. After all, trust is only the idea of having faith in someone other than yourself. All that is needed is Danuja and herself alone. Alone nothing is impossible.

Just then lying face up on the bed, staring blankly at the wall, a sudden buzz comes from somewhere, it's from the device in her hand. Someone's calling her. After a few rings, she takes it up to see the displayed name, it is in fact, the despised omega leader, Kang-Dae.

"Hey, Sweetheart. I hope you've gotten the news on the courting things."

"Mm,"

"Come on darling, you can't just say 'Mm', cuss me out, yell at me, hang up. You're such a fuddy-duddy alpha so monotonous.."

…

…

…

In response; silence.

It was the response Kang- Dae got. Every. Single. Time. After hearing nothing for a while he hung up with a sigh. For years the man has wanted Danuja to show her emotions and vent her feelings, but seeing she was like an impenetrable wall, it was quite hard to coax her out of the shell she was in to tell Kang-Dae about literally anything.

It's as if she would die if not composed. All of this hierarchical shit is getting tiring.

With the beep concluding the call, the silver-haired female alpha continued to gaze at the white ceiling overhead. Thoughts filled the head of the Akira, but never once have her thoughts painted her expressions. Dull as one can ever be. Monolithic.

Kang-Dae on the other end sighed into the papers sprawled over the desk. The thought invaded his mind, the thought and fact that everyone blamed her because she could never carry out her duty to mate and carry on the Akira name, but no one ever liked her monotonous demeanor causing the alpha to never find a mate.

The only one who never minded the cold and concrete exterior was the well renowned Kang-Dae. He was the only one who would willingly take her in as one of the contenders for his hand.

Might this be good or bad? Forever alone is the only thing known to the monolithic and rigid woman, raised on such ideals on only being servants and second to the greater sex. They were engraved into her making sure to never go against them. Maybe it's a way out of the demeaning cycle?

Who knows.

Only time and effort into this courtship will know, competing for the very thing that put her in this position, quite ironic isn't it?

-

She rubbed her eyes and dove into the sweet escape of a dream beyond gender roles.