Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Life had been much less complicated when the world thought Eddie Brock, hard facts reporter, was an Alpha. The medication had suppressed his heat and left him free to move about and do as he pleased. Anne Weying had been more than willing to keep his secret, because she was an Alpha, and enjoyed the ability to have Eddie without having to listen to the snarky remarks about how she was just a bitch who needed a bitch man to control.

Female Alphas were rare, and though respected, society viewed any who settled for an Omega male as a little too strong. A little too power-hungry. Maybe it was something about the fact that they frequently had bigger dicks than the men -- at least, that’s what they bragged about. Maybe it was the fact that a woman in power threatened the patriarchal structure that the men liked to hold so tightly to. Maybe it was just that Anne was one of the strongest people that Eddie had ever met. It was just an accepted fact though -- an Alpha female needed an Alpha male. 

Such were the dynamics of the world.

And then it all came crashing down; Eddie should have known better. He really should have. There was nothing that said trying to bring down the Life Foundation was a good idea; influential and well known Alphas managed it. They put forward a friendly face, tried to pretend that they were doing amazing things for the world... but Eddie knew the instant that he saw them that something was wrong. He could smell it on them. When Annie was put on one of their cases and sent the confidential file, he knew that he shouldn’t have peeked at it. He knew that he shouldn’t have, but Eddie couldn’t help himself.

He had to make sure he was right.

He had to know if he needed to do anything. 

And sure enough, he had all of his suspicions confirmed. The file contained stories of human trials that left him shocked, disgusted, and somewhere inside trembling knowing that he had found not just a story; he'd found the story. 

And once Eddie knew, there was no way that he could just let it go.

That was, arguably, one of his biggest flaws. He had a story; he had to run with that story. He couldn't just leave the world uninformed.

And it cost him everything.

It was bad enough when he lost his job -- Eddie knew that he would have a hard time finding other work, but he could make it happen. He would be okay as long as he had Anne.

But they'd fired Anne, too -- and they'd released to the world the information that he'd kept so carefully guarded and close to his chest. 

The headlines read: Eddie Brock -- Shamed and ousted Omega.

She'd broken up with him immediately, her box of belongings in her arms and her eyes narrowed in fury and distrust. Yes, maybe he'd breached her confidence when he'd looked at her computer, but Eddie knew that it was more than that.

It was the shame of being with an Omega.

And maybe the shame of being with an Omega who couldn't even produce a child.

That was another secret that he kept to himself; he'd shared it with Anne and only Anne. The internal damage had come from a motorcycle accident when he was eighteen -- he'd been nearly eviscerated, and the injuries had left him incapable of conceiving children.

On one hand, that worked out for Eddie just fine. He never wanted anyone to know that he could get pregnant. Alphas didn't get pregnant.

On the other hand... there was a biological part of him that felt broken, something deep inside that cried wounded and incomplete every time he saw a pregnant Omega, swollen but happy as they held their belly. Annie would look at them, too, and then she would look at Eddie and he could almost feel her disappointment. It made him feel less whole; less like a person.

That was something that he did his best to pretend away -- the same way that he put on airs he was an Alpha. 

The same way that he exuded confidence that he didn’t always feel regardless of the situation he was in -- Eddie was very good at pretending that he was not broken when Anne left him and he had no job, no protection from the streets and the unfortunate fate that befell most Omegas that weren't kept things.

No one wanted to keep Eddie Brock once the Life Foundation leaked his personal files to the world.

Anne left him with only enough to get a shitty apartment in the shitty slums. There was government funded housing for what Eddie had once written as "Wayward Omegas". It was a sham. It was housing for Omegas capable of managing the still-too-high pricing, and a way for them to save face for the very real problem of Omegas on the street, forced to sell their bodies and their heats like a drug. There were regulations and safety protocols in place to keep the Omegas of society safe from simply being mauled by the Alphas...

But you had to be a kept Omega to receive that treatment... and, in the end, there were those Alphas who wanted the chance to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, to an Omega in heat. Society didn’t actually want to fix the problem… they just wanted to sweep it under a pretty rug and pretend it away. 

Prostitution was often the only way Omegas could keep food in their bellies; their drug of choices was called Kick; it gave the sensation of being high while triggering your heat.

Eddie's drug of choice was... no longer something he could afford.

When he experienced his first heat since coming off of his medication, he spent the last bit of reserve money that he had to buy a spot in a safe-house hotel, where he could lock the door and keep the hungry, pawing Alphas from coming after him. He’d taken a cheap sedative and slept the entire experience off, and come out the next day a little grouchy, but unmolested.

He knew he wouldn't have the same luxury when his next heat came, unless he found some kind of job that would give him the spare cash to afford it; since he could barely find extra to make rent and keep food in his stomach, it was looking like a definite no. It didn't help that he frequently gave the street-Omegas his spare change when he was capable. Maria was one such woman; he knew for a fact that she'd first clung to him because he'd grown so proficient at pretending to be an Alpha that he still emanated that air, even though he couldn't afford the medication to keep it up on a physical level. After the story of his Omega status had leaked... Maria treated him no differently; she frequently held a paper back for Eddie, but he couldn't help wondering if she could actually read the words in the print.

It didn't matter -- Maria was sweet, and her clinging and clever attempt at finding status under the protective wing of an Alpha (and Eddie never broke the news to her that he was not because it was nice for someone to treat him like he was) soon turned into a soft, expectant friendship. She would keep the paper -- he would give her what was most definitely his grocery money for the next few days. They took care of each other... and Eddie Brock slipped closer and closer to becoming someone just like her; on the street. If he ended up there, then who was going to give Maria money, so she didn't have to sell her body? Who was going to do the same for him?  

That was why, when he received the call from Dora Skirth, Eddie knew that it was an offer that he couldn't refuse.

It wasn't just the need for security and somehow finding his place back in the world -- it wasn't just about getting revenge on Carlton Drake for ruining his life...

It was about doing what was right. 

Eddie was always trying to do what was right. Even if he went about it the wrong way. 

He only had his phone to record with, but as soon as he snuck past the security of the facility and Dora led him to the core of the Life Foundation, he realized that even a grainy amateur video would be enough to expose the Foundation for the danger that they were to society.

There were humans -- Omegas from the street who were expendable; people who Eddie had seen in line to qualify for the housing program, and then he hadn't seen again.

He'd assumed that they hadn't gotten in -- or that they had, and they were relocated to somewhere less densely populated than the city.

He'd never thought that they would be brought here like cattle for experimentation. 

Some of them were prone. Dead. 

Some of them looked like they'd been dead for a long time. 

His fingers trembled as panned the phone around in disbelief. 

Chasing disbelief was slight vindication that he had been right and now he was going to be able to prove it faded away... when he noticed one of the huddled figures in the glass-sealed-chambers.

Maria.

"Eddie?" Her voice was high, afraid. She came to the glass instantly. Her palms pressed against it, banged hard as she yelled for him, her eyes were wide and flared and showing so much white... and Eddie forgot altogether about recording, about bringing down the Life Foundation. For a moment, his world narrowed to one thing; he had to get Maria out of there.

But when he finally broke the glass with a fire extinguisher, her face was twisted and contorted, and her voice growled his name out again.

"Eddie. Alpha." And then she was on top of him... and things were very strange. 

Things were a blur after that -- the alarms were blaring and security was chasing him, and he definitely did not but most certainly did leap to the top of a tree to escape. 

The apartment didn’t really provide him normalcy, though. There was the sharp, spiking hunger and thirst that ripped through him in nearly tangible waves and made everything inside of him cramp and hurt . Even though he was certain that he'd managed to get enough footage to bring the Life Foundation down -- and even though the image of Maria's dead body was burned into the back of his eyelids -- he didn't think he was well enough to actually give the videos to anyone.

And then, when he looked at his reflection in the bathroom, there was a face -- a twisted, contorted face -- and a voice.

"Eddie... not an Alpha?"

He screamed.

He fell.

He fainted. 

---

He could chalk it up to exhaustion; to the fact that he knew he'd nearly died the night prior. Eddie wanted to say that it was anything other than hearing voices in his head... but that voice came back again as soon as he woke, half skewed in the bathtub.

You are not an Alpha . 

Eddie's brows snapped together, and he pushed himself from the tub with a low groan. His hand flew to the back of his head and he moaned again; he hadn't hit anything too hard as far as he could tell, but there was obviously something wrong. He was hearing a growling, demanding voice in his head... and his stomach was killing him. He dashed to the refrigerator, jerked open the freezer with the intent of cooking some tater tots...

But that voice again.

You are not an Alpha.

"God damn it, I know that." Eddie grumbled the words aloud; why was his head affirming the thing that he was starkly aware of? 

This is... not what I expected. And there was the strangest sensation. Something sliding along the length of his spine, slipping up to run his neck, tickle his ears. His hands came up to bat at the feeling, and he touched something warm and wet.

He screamed again. 

"Stop that." This time, the voice wasn't in his head. It spilled directly behind his left ear, and Eddie's eyes flared wide as he jerked around to try to see who was in his apartment.

There was nothing there.

His brows knit together, confusion washing through him in waves that followed that dizzying hunger. He wasn't sure if he wanted to continue his quest to find something to eat... or if he wanted to figure out why he was going crazy.

"Not crazy." That voice again, firm and demanding, and this time when Eddie twisted around, he caught a flash of black out of the corner of his eye. That slipping, sliding feeling poured up along his spine again, and he shuddered -- it felt like it was on the inside of his skin, roiling along his nerve endings. 

Something in him twinged , and Eddie couldn't stop himself from letting out a small little whimper -- a moan. "Wh... what's going on?"

The confusion was a thing burning through his mind, but worse was the heat that was trailing along the lines that that wet-heat had touched. Warm and uncomfortable and so very like something that he shouldn't have been feeling for at least a few more months.

"Omega..." The word was a whispered hiss in his ear, but for the first time, it wasn't said in a disgusted tone, or with lecherous expectations. It was said with a measure of possessive surety that made Eddie weak at the knees, made him nearly slide to the floor. 

He gripped the table and kept himself upright, but that sensation didn't stop. The voice shifted between audible and internal. 

Your mind is different from the other Omega. Strength -- fear. But strength. And... so... delicious.

Eddie groaned again; it felt like something in his head was being slowly unwound, a spring that he'd kept tight and coiled. He was getting dizzy and hot , and everything inside of him was trembling.

"What's going on?" He finally managed to gasp the question aloud, his knuckles on the table now white with the confusing cacophony of sensation that was wreaking havoc on his mind. 

"I want to see who you really are ." The voice, the growl, the demand. 

Something strange was happening in his head. Eddie couldn't tell what it was, but he could tell that it wasn't a natural thing. He twitched and he swayed on the spot, and then a low whimper poured from his throat as that heat along his spine slowly spread through his entire frame. 

With that heat came a wave of black; it took Eddie a moment to realize that it wasn't his vision swimming. Something was spilling forward, wrapping out of his chest and coalescing in front of him in the figure of... something. The hulking figure was tall, muscular, smooth and black with streaks of white spilling through his frame -- Eddie was fairly certain that the thing was a he. 

The bold, brawny chest and the deep, masculine voice told him that much.

The way that he was making Eddie's body burn just with his presence told him that he was an Alpha if he'd ever met one. It made him sway in place, but the creature held him upright; in fact, he was spilling out of his body and keeping him firmly in place.

"You've done something..." The creature's voice was curious, slightly irritated. "It's... not..." And then a low humming noise, "Here." That black liquid flooded back up along Eddie's jawline, spilled into his ear, and then Eddie felt it.

That heat that had been bubbling along his skin spilled into his very center. He did sway forward -- he fell against the black beast that he wasn't altogether convinced wasn't a figment of his imagination. The thing caught him in strong arms, and inhaled deeply.

Omega… we do not have Omegas in my species. 

The word was in Eddie's head. The creature's tongue, however, was sliding against the side of his face, dipping against his jawline and the soft, sensitive pocket behind his ear. Eddie keened in his arms; this didn't make sense.

The thing wasn't a human.

It wasn't a man.

It was...

"Venom." It spoke the word aloud. A name.

A name. 

There was something about how he said it that almost made it a demand, as though he insisted that Eddie hear it, know it.  The omega's head was swimming with what was happening in front of him, almost too caught up and carried away in the creature's scent that held him upright to ask any pertinent questions.

But he did manage -- he stuttered and stumbled over his words like his first year in school when he took public speaking. "What are you?"

"Alpha." Venom spoke the word, confident and demanding yet again -- just as demanding as when he'd said his own name, as though he wanted Eddie to consider the two synonymous in that moment, he couldn't think of a reason to ignore that demand; there was nothing but his presence, so huge and overwhelmingly there . He couldn't breathe around it. It probably had something to do with the fact that he hadn't been in the presence of an Alpha while in heat since the very first, when he went through puberty. Back then, it had been a group of boys in the neighborhood who'd chased Eddie down after he'd gone into heat for the first time during the middle of football practice. 

He'd managed then to keep his head enough to know that he needed to run , and that he didn't want the Alpha's who were playing beside him to know the unequivocal truth about what he was.

Only three of the boys had noticed, and those three had followed him. 

Walking home the next morning with his clothing torn and his body sore, Eddie had promised himself two things. One, he would make the boys pay by exposing who and what they really were... and two, he would do whatever it took to make sure that he never had to go through that again. 

The first was simple enough; even though he'd been more focused on sports and academics in high school, he'd still been a very good investigative reporter, even then. He found the drugs that the boys took, and he published an anonymous letter to the school board.

They were kicked off of the team and out of school.

The second wasn't as easy. He didn't have Anne to support his habits back then. Instead, he'd spent the first few heats after that initial moment holed up in his basement with the doors barricaded. When he started college, he'd spoken with the campus Clinic, and they'd told him about a medication that he could take that would stop the heats altogether. 

Eddie didn't hear that, though. He heard the fact that there was a medication that could make him appear to be an Alpha.

He'd worked every free hour that he had in order to get that medication; he'd done other student's papers for them, there had been a few times when he'd actually sold himself for it... but he was in control of himself when that had happened. That was what it was about -- control, and the ability to appear like someone who would be taken seriously.

Someone who would be respected.

Not someone's toy.

"Eddie," that growling voice snapped him back to attention, demanded that he pull himself from the past and take stock of what was right in front of him... and what was right in front of him was a hulking beast with a tongue that slipped out of its mouth like a snake to lick another line up the side of his neck.

He shuddered at the touch, face flaming crimson at the fact that it had felt so good. Eddie groaned, his hands wrapping around his stomach as though he could somehow take all of the sensation that he was feeling and stuff it back into the box that he'd kept it so neatly put away in for the majority of his life.

"No more hiding, Eddie." The voice drawled out, that tongue slipping to wrap and squeeze around his throat for a moment. He scrambled back, but the touch just moved with him; the black thing was spilling out of him, it was--

"I am not a thing."

"Fuck!" Eddie cursed in response. It was in his head. There was a stark possibility that he was going insane. His body was burning up from the inside out. He needed to do something. He needed to find help.

He needed--

"Only me." The growl demanded his attention, and Eddie snatched his phone off of the counter and bolted out the door instead. He needed to find Annie.

Chapter Text

The problem with hunting down Anne came in triplicate. First, Eddie didn't actually know where she was anymore. They hadn't spoken in nearly a year, and he knew for a fact that she'd managed to get another job and get on with her life after their fall out. The second problem came in the fact that the voice in his head was a growling insistence of hunger.

The third was the fact that his body was, against all odds and proper nature, going into heat. Eddie could feel it boiling in his stomach and making him weak in the knees and so needy.

That was part of the reason that he needed Annie. It was a comfort thing, and something that he'd trained himself for. Even though Eddie took medication to stifle his heats, he could still feel those urges roiling and boiling just beneath this skin. They were tucked away in some neat corner of his mind, but his body still craved the presence of an Alpha to fulfill some biological urge that he couldn't deny.

Thankfully, her assistant was helpful enough for the first problem; he told Eddie that she was at some fancy uptown restaurant with a doctor named Dan Lewis. That only stung a little -- the position of Doctor would, of course, be held by an Alpha.

She'd finally gotten what she actually deserved, and Eddie couldn't even put forth airs that he was still the Alpha that he'd been pretending to be for her. Well, his Omega status was already public record... and he could feel sweat forming on his skin, could feel his mind starting to slowly slip.

Hungry. Stop. Eddie, stop and hide . 

The words were a demand in his head, growling so deeply that he nearly listened. But the door to the restaurant was in front of him, and a part of him could sense that Annie was inside.

He needed her. 

He burst into the open room and instantly heads snapped in his direction. Eddie couldn't stop himself; he stripped out of his jacket with a low little grunt... the room was so...

Hot.

It only took him a moment to push past the waitress and make his way to the table where he saw Annie's blonde head bobbing in agreement to something that a handsome man was saying in front of her. He wanted to be angry about it, or jealous, or unhappy, but he couldn't work past the warmth that was spreading across his skin and the panic that was slowly rising in his chest. Something was wrong -- something was very wrong, and he couldn't deny that it was happening quicker than he'd thought it would. He should have had more time than this. But… it didn’t really matter, did it?

"Annie. Annie!" He shouted her name and came down on his knees at the table beside her. "Annie!"

"Eddie?" Her voice was full of shock, and then again, punched with irritation. "Eddie, what are you doing here?"

"Annie... oh..." He wavered for a moment, his hands jerking at the collar of his shirt as the warmth continued to spread. He felt like he was burning up -- like he was on fire. "Annie, I think there's something wrong with me." He moaned the words out, and he saw a flash of concern cross her features. Her eyes took in the sight of his face, and her nostrils flared. 

"Eddie... you..."

Her pupils dilated a noticeable fraction -- if the only thing that he got out of this was proof that the scent of his heat could turn Annie on, at least he'd go out with that blessed knowledge. "I broke into the Life Foundation."

The anger that instantly snapped across her face broke the spell of her arousal, but only just. Around them, Eddie was slightly aware of the mulling voices, the shifting of chairs. The restaurant was a high end one, one where Alphas frequently came to dine.

Eddie should have known better -- but at that moment, all that he could do was tear at his shirt, rip it off over his head to try to get some cool air to kiss against his skin so he could breathe around the warmth ripping through him.

He slapped his phone on the table, quickly flicked through the pictures. "They're doing things... Annie, they're..." But he couldn't concentrate to tell her. He stood, his muscles quivering. Four chairs scraped behind him. Eddie was swaying on his feet -- the heat was pooling in his chest now, roaring through him and threatening to take away his mind.

But he needed to tell her what was happening; someone needed to know what Drake was doing and--

Eddie, this is not good.

"Shut up." He muttered the words aloud, swayed again, flicked through more pictures. "Annie, they're taking Omegas off the street and..."

A hand on his shoulder -- strong lean fingers, turning his body around. Eddie didn't know the man, and the man certainly didn't know him. But his eyes were full of lust and want, and his hand slid along the reporter’s sweat-soaked chest in a proprietary manner. 

No. 

"Annie," Eddie was trying to take deep breaths, to stop the panic that was welling in his chest. Was it worth losing everything that he'd fought so hard to keep for himself if it meant that he could save the people who the Life Foundation was killing? 

Maria's blank, dead eyes stared back at him from behind his fluttering lids, and the answer was clear.

Of course, it was. What was his pride worth in comparison to their lives? 

No. Mine. That voice in his head, a low snarl of confusion and anger. 

"Eddie..." Annie's voice was careful; her eyes were looking over the pictures, but he could tell that she wasn't focusing. She'd never smelled him like this, never seen him like this. He jerked back from the man touching him, and a low growl poured from the Alpha's lips. 

"Get back here, Omega." The snap of his voice was sharp and nearly enough to bring Eddie to his knees in front of him; the feeling of a heat after so long of not having one...

He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't think.

He was so hot. 

He stepped back, grabbed his phone. Stepped back again. "Annie, we have to help them."

"Eddie," her voice was slow, "We have to help you ."

But even Annie was looking at him like he was something to eat.

No . That voice in his head again, louder this time. 

Eddie backed up another foot, stepped towards the tank in the middle of the room. Cool water -- if he could just quench the fire burning inside of him, maybe he could think straight long enough to convey the information that he had so he could help the people that he'd seen.

If he could just do that...

Did it matter what happened after?

Yes. It matters. 

Eddie couldn't see it, and he couldn't be bothered to listen to the voice in his head. He kicked off his boots and stripped out of his pants; more chairs scraped around him, but he kept talking through the pulsing pound in his head. "Listen, someone has to stop him. He's going to keep hurting people if," a low hiss poured from his throat as he dipped into the water -- it cooled his skin but it couldn't take away the biting sting of hot inside of his chest, in his pelvis. "If someone doesn't do something." He flipped through his phone, punched in Annie's email, and sent her the pictures. "We have to do something."

Annie was staring at him with wide eyes. 

The rest of the room was staring at him like they’d finally found something good to eat. 

Eddie Brock submerged himself in the water before he could beg Annie to help him, too. 

She wasn't his Alpha anymore.

No, but I am.

The voice was angry now, and it turned into a snarling growl when hands stretched into the tank of water and pulled him out. Eddie just closed his eyes; he'd done what he could do, and if he tried to fight the damn near pulsing wall of Alphas now, he'd probably just get hurt.

Fingers were greedy, just like the boys back at school. They tore at his shorts, stripped him down, and hands wrapped around his prick and left him instantly panting, and then--

"Back. Off ." The voice was audible now, and there were screams... and Eddie felt something cool and liquid spill around him, and then he was moving. 

There was a brief moment where Eddie giggled because this is exactly what he wished could have happened when he'd been in school and those boys had followed him; he'd imagined it... someone showing up and just carrying him away from the situation. Maybe, now that he was older and a little more jaded, his mind was just being kind enough to fill in the blanks that he'd tried too hard to find back then.

But the cool liquid around him felt so real, and he was more than happy to ride away on this dream, if that's all that it was. It was better than the alternative; he just hoped that Annie wouldn't hate herself too much if she joined in on the--

"Nothing is going to happen." That growling voice again, and Eddie was aware that it was coming from his own mouth -- that his voice, in turn, was the one that was speaking in the head now.

You can't really stop Alphas once they get the scent. It was worth it though.

"No. It is not. And maybe you can't, but I can." 

That flying sensation was still around him, but Eddie couldn't concentrate on it. Even in the cool wrap of the liquid, the warmth in his stomach was beginning to boil through, until that growling, snarling voice was muttering low about it, and he felt more than heard it when they crashed through his apartment door. 

Eddie had a sense of falling, and then he was flung on the bed. His eyes opened slowly, and...

In front of him was that hulking, black creature again. But it's maw was open, and those eyes (at least he thought they were eyes) were fixated on Eddie's lean, nude frame.

"Omega..." It hissed the word out again, and Eddie Brock vaguely recalled that it had called itself Venom. 

"Why..." His voice sounded dazed, and just laying against the sheets was torture to him. Something had triggered in his head, and it was worse than anything that he'd felt before. He was only just aware of the fact that those black tendrils that allowed Venom to stand upright were spilling from his thighs, his chest. It stepped forward and crawled onto the bed, nearly laying on top of him. Instantly, he hissed out, his body bucking up of its own accord and his eyes rolling at the thing’s presence. Eddie had never felt something so strong, such a powerful Alpha presence, as he did in that moment. 

The thing laughed. "Too much?"

"No." Eddie gasped the word out, because for just a moment, that beating wave of power started to spill backward. His hands flashed out, gripped that slick, cool flesh, and dragged the creature back down. "No. Don't go." 

He was going to boil alive. That was just all that there was to it. The only reprieve he'd had was when that black liquid had wrapped around him; maybe he was going crazy. Maybe he was in the middle of getting gang banged by the city’s most pompous and influential Alphas.

Whatever it was, he couldn't let go of the moment right now.

"No. No other Alpha but me ." That voice was a hissing demand, as though he could somehow force Eddie to believe that, to agree with it just from his words alone. 

"I--" Eddie squirmed, his body writhing up. The sheets beneath him were too hot. Everything was too dizzyingly scorching, and his body surged up again to meet that cool presence above him. "Fine. Fine. Just..." His eyes wrenched shut tight again and he moaned, "Please, make it stop."

"I can do that." 

There was no other warning -- a long, slick tongue licked along his sweat-soaked chest, and Eddie cried out when that weight shifted from him for a moment. It was just a moment though because just as quickly as it had, it flipped his body over and fell back against him. 

He was already so slick, so wet and eager for something to fill him that there was no need for preamble, no need to prepare him -- the thickness that laid against his ass was a welcome one, and he screamed so violently that he bit down on his pillow to stop from tearing his own throat when it thrust inside of him.

It wasn't like anything that he'd felt before; it wasn't just a cock. It flooded into him, filled him to his very limits -- it pulsed inside of him and Eddie shouted again, an orgasm instantly ripping through him.

That was one -- Eddie had been suppressing his heats for years . One was not going to be enough.   

"Greedy." Venom's voice was roiling and rich, and Eddie wanted to fall into it -- those powerful hips thrust again, and he felt the black liquid surround him, hold him steady as the creature bucked inside of him, pulsed and filled him and left him panting beneath him. He'd never felt anything so good as what was happening to him, and it left him thinking that this must be his imagination.

In response, there was a sharp bite on his shoulder -- wicked teeth leaving prickling dots of blood.

"Not your imagination. I am real ."

Impossible. Eddie wanted to say the word, but his tongue felt so thick, his body felt so needy. He couldn't think past how much he just needed to be filled until he was dripping with it, until he was certain that he would be able to breathe again. 

There was nothing rational about his mind, nothing that told him maybe this was a bad idea. Eddie probably would have been at least a little inclined to argue about having sex with a giant black and white monster if he'd been in his right mind.

Probably.

There was the fact that the thing above him put off an air of Alpha more than anything that Eddie had felt in his life. Whatever had happened in his mind might not have even been necessary; just being in his presence might have triggered past every defense he'd put up and sent him into the same kind of spiral that he was on right now. 

Whatever it wasn't, it didn't really matter. All that he could concentrate on was the feel of the thick cock in his ass, and the need for the beast atop him to keep going, please  until he could figure out how to concentrate again.

For the first time since he'd thought about sex, there was no guilt in the fact that he was fucking someone other than Annie. There was no thought of his Alpha, because any time that he dared to even allow his mind to trickle in that direction, Venom's teeth would set in his neck and he would snarl words into his head.

"I am your Alpha."

And he was so sure of himself, so demanding and present that Eddie could do nothing but whimper and agree. 

He was a messy puddle of pleasure and nerves, and the warmth and heat streaking through his head still hadn't quelled. Venom surged again, his arms wrapping around the weak human body that was Eddie Brock and lifting him up. He flipped him around so Eddie straddled his lap, and for a moment he couldn't help but be overwhelmed by how large he was, how strong. Those dark arms wrapped around him, liquid flowing and holding tight. He moved Eddie's body like a rag doll, fucking him hard and fast from beneath him and surging forward to capture his lips against that pointed, sharp mouth.

It should have been painful. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Eddie was expecting the kiss to be painful.

What he wasn't expecting it to be was warm; that tongue, so slick and long and snakelike spilled into his mouth and licked hungrily -- it lapped at the taste of him like it had never eaten before, and the low, rumbling growl of satisfaction told him that Venom liked the flavor. He tried to scramble, to hold tight to the beast holding him, but his arms couldn't move. He was wrapped tight in that dark grasp and there was nothing that he could do but open his mouth and invite Venom in further, suck on his tongue, writhe and roll his hips, do whatever he could to let him know that yes, please, just keep filling me was the only thing on Eddie's mind. 

He was well and truly a mess.

He was a puddle of pleasure and hormones, and worse was the fact that it didn't seem ready to stop any time soon. That tongue was greedy as it invaded his mouth, and the hands that held him seemed even greedier. They lifted his body up and brought him down on Venom's thickness over and over again, until the creature in front of him was shuddering, shivering, until Eddie felt a burst of pleasure as heat shot into his core and painted him on the inside -- it was more scorching than any human could have given him, more a burst than a gentle little ebb and flow; it made Eddie scream, made his body writhe and rock again -- the sound of it was muffled to the kiss, but it was there nonetheless.

Eddie's body rocked; orgasm ripped through him again, causing his stomach muscles to clench, his body to feel like it was flying apart. He was dizzy -- he couldn't breathe -- he couldn't think.

And the need was still there, just as hot and heavy as it had been before, until Eddie felt tears springing into his eyes for the fact that it hadn't quieted at all.

"More? Humans are... intriguing." Strong arms laid him on the bed, and the slithering tongue that had been in his mouth moved down to lap across his chest, to taste the flavor of Eddie's pleasure that was soaking into his muscled torso. "Hmmm, no. Not humans... maybe it is just you, Eddie."

"What are you?" He managed to croak the words out, but his hands were already reaching again. 

He needed--

He needed --

"Symbiote." And then, a feral flash of a grin. "Alpha."

Eddie didn't know what a symbiote was... but he couldn't deny the latter. And honestly, in the wake of what he was feeling, and when that snaking, snarling tongue wrapped around his cock and started to pump, caused Eddie's body to arch up in pleasure, he didn't want to.

He would have given up his soul to keep the thing above him as his Alpha, as his Alpha.

"I am. " Hissed words of greedy pleasure, and then that mouth of teeth closed over his prick and sucked down hard. 

Chapter Text

It was as he was working up to yet another orgasm that Venom stopped moving above him... a low grumble poured from his chest and his head whipped around just as a knock sounded on the door.

"Stay. Still."

But Eddie's body had already started, and he couldn't stop it when the orgasm ripped through him and send him crying out again, sent his fingers scrambling and his body bucking.

And sent another wave of his heat-pheromones pulsing off of his frame. He heard low conversation... and suddenly his door exploded.

Eddie felt that flowing, liquid sensation again as Venom wrapped around him -- his eyes were open enough now that he realized what was happening. It was almost like a second skin sliding over his body, cool and constricting and powerful . He'd never felt so much strength before, and for just a moment, the essence of the Alpha, his Alpha , rippled through him. It didn't matter that he was a symbiote. Nothing mattered, except for the way that it felt for that strength to encompass him; and what was more, there was a flooding sensation at his core; his ass was still filled with Venom's thickness, now from the inside. The pulsing around his cock was a quick, working, squeezing sensation. Venom darted forward and his great arm stretched out - grabbing one of the men by their head and throwing him against the others; bullets pelted his chest, he bit off a man's head... and he fucked Eddie all the while.

On a list of things that had happened to him that were strange, Eddie was going to put this up on the number two spot. 

Still, he couldn't concentrate on the fact that Venom was fighting with a lethality that was completely stunning, or the fact that he'd just eaten someone's head , because the only thing that he could think of, could feel was that flooding sensation of warmth that rocked through his body -- the pleasure that the symbiote was still managing to rock through him even while he defended him.

And that's what he was doing -- protecting him. Again.

It was hard to be afraid when such a sense of peaceful safety radiated through you at the same time. Eddie didn't know Venom well -- and there was the small fact that he was a body invading creature -- but being wrapped up in the cocoon of his warmth, he knew that nothing was going to hurt him. Not as long as he was there.

"That's right, Eddie," Venom's voice was a possessive croon, and his hands stretched out like great claws and grabbed a gun that was shooting at him -- he sent that black liquid pulsing into Eddie's body again and brought him to an orgasm that was so achingly good, "I will protect you. Keep you safe."

Safe.

Had he ever actually felt safe since that first time when he was young? Sure, he'd had moments with Annie, when it felt like he was protected by her status as an Alpha, by his pretend status... but even then, there'd been a part of him that was afraid, probably because he was a broken thing.

"Broken?" Venom's arms came out again, grabbing two more men and throwing them out of Eddie's apartment window before he loped down the stairs and out onto the street. More people were flooding, and Eddie at least had enough sense to know that they were from the Life Foundation, that they were coming to get back what he'd accidentally stolen.

He wasn't sure that he was willing to give it up.

In fact, he was pretty certain that he wasn't. 

"You are not broken." Venom's words were not comfort -- they were a demand for Eddie to think better of himself, to think more of himself. He was too besotted with the need and desire and the slight chase of fear at the fact that there were cars speeding after them and guns firing at their back to really explain to Venom why that wasn't true, no matter how much he wanted to think it. 

Maybe after they were somewhere safe... and he was certain that Venom was going to take them somewhere safe. If he was sure of nothing else, he was sure of that -- maybe it was the creature's presence in his mind, that self assurance that he was right and he was strong enough and he was going to keep what was his. 

Eddie realized starkly and suddenly what about this situation was so appealing to him, what was so right that he was willing to look past all of the freakish circumstances around it... like the fact that he was biting off another person's head . 

He actually felt like he belonged to someone, to something. Even when he'd been with Anne, he'd felt like he was kept by someone. He didn't feel like he belonged.

With Venom, he felt wholly, completely, utterly owned.

It was what he'd needed for as long as he could remember. What his body, his biology craved. 

So it didn't matter -- none of the rest of it mattered, because he had that.

The near purr through Venom's chest made Eddie's entire body shiver, and after completely upending a black car, Venom took off at a near gallop and then dove straight into the water that spanned into the ocean.

Eddie was carried by that cool wave for a while, wrapped in the sensation of Venom still working over his body until the spasming of his muscles was almost starting to become too much effort. His hormones were still going wild, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could physically hold out for what was happening.

They came to shore a few minutes later, in the middle of the ocean, away from the prying eyes of the Life Foundation and hopefully safe for the moment. Venom pooled out of Eddie's body again, holding him firm against his chest, his hips never breaking stride as he thrust into him again and came hard, fast, bringing the man to orgasm yet again until he collapsed against that muscled frame, his body swimming in the liquid heat and the symbiote’s spilled pleasure that was filling him to the brim. 

He was lowered to the ground, gasping, panting... still burning.

"Your human body needs a break. So... fragile."

"Mmm..." Eddie tried to form coherent thought, but he could hardly open his eyes to look at the hulking beast that was holding him. he was lost in the cool calmness of his touch, in the fact that things were so quiet around them. Eddie actually hadn't been anywhere quiet for a long, long time. His apartment was constantly full of noise, the city was constantly full of noise.

The only thing that he could hear now was the pounding of his own heart that the sound of Venom growling softly as he held him. It was... soothing -- Venom's cool presence was soothing... and for just a moment, he had a bit of a reprieve. For just a moment, he felt peace.

And in that moment was all that his mind and body needed -- he fell asleep in the arms of what he was fairly certain was an alien, and he did so gladly.

---

It was dark when he woke, and Eddie wasn't sure if he'd slept through the day and the night, or if he'd only gotten a few hours. Whatever the answer, his body was still burning, but it wasn't as bad as it had been. He could think around it now, the last vestiges of the heat coming in full force but... more manageable.

He didn't have any time to think that maybe it had been a dream, because there was still a great form wrapped around him, half holding, half engulfing his nude lower half so he wasn't exposed to the air. As soon as he stirred, that voice was there.

"Eddie... is this how all humans go through.. heat?" 

Eddie's brows snapped together, and he twisted his head around to look at Venom. Now that he could think a bit clearer, he realized that maybe this situation was a little stranger than he thought... but he was still wrapped in that cool protective ring, and he couldn't seem to push away his clinging need to have that, yes, please, always. 

"No. I... something happened in my head. It's... like all of it came rushing in at once." 

"All of it?"

Eddie frowned. This was a situation a little more complicated to explain than he liked, not to mention the fact that it was still strange talking to a big... black... symbiote.

Whatever that was.

"I took medication to stop it before. It's fine, I..." he frowned, tried to shift a bit, but the liquid around him just roiled to follow the motion. "What are you?"

And it turned out that what he was was an alien, roaming across the universe, here to eat the planet earth. But...

"But I like you. You are mine, Eddie ," he said the word so forcefully that Eddie felt his body flare hot again for just a moment. "I will keep you safe, and you will keep me with you." There wasn't a question, it wasn't an agreement. It was just fact, and he was so enraptured in the way that Venom spoke that Eddie could do nothing but believe him.

"But what if I like Earth?" Eddie finally managed to strangle the words out of his throat; he was already getting distracted again by the way that Venom's body was cool and moving against him. Teasing him, just slightly, as though to distract him from the fact that he'd just declared he and his kind were scouting for a planet to eat .

"Do you?" Venom's question seemed to be loaded -- but it held weight, like Eddie's answer actually mattered.

"Yeah, of course. I..." 

"Earth treats Omegas like things."

"They do, but..."

"They treat you like a thing."

"It's not always like that, it's--"

"You are not taken care of here."

"But that doesn't mean that--"

"You still care."

The weight of that was there, and finally Eddie took in a deep breath and sighed.

"I do."

"Enough that you were willing to give up your body to save Omegas from the street." Venom said the words with a bit of wonder, and a bit of pride. 

"You stopped that though, didn't you?"

"No one else would have."

He didn't say it, but Eddie could almost hear the accusation in his voice. Anne didn't even try.

"It's not her job to take care of me." Eddie finally managed to get the words out, though it hurt something inside of his chest to actually say the words aloud. He wasn't good enough for her, he was broken, he--

"Why do you keep saying you are broken?" Venom sounded irritated, a bit defensive of his host, even.

"I'm not... I can't..." How did he put it into words so that Venom could understand. Did aliens even have babies? Did they... Eddie brought one hand up and ran fingers through his hair, shivering slightly because he could feel the symbiote thread claws through the strands in tandem in a comforting gesture. "Something inside of me is broken. I can't give her children, and she wanted them."

"That is stupid ." Venom's voice was instantaneous and matter of fact. It was a slight blow to Eddie's chest, made his heart constrict.

"No, it's not. It's something broken in me and it can't be fixed, and I--"

"No. Humans cannot fix it." Venom sounded only slightly self-satisfied. "But I can."

"Wh--" A small scream pooled out of Eddie's chest. He felt what he couldn't see -- the black liquid of Venom's body slid inside of his pelvis, pooled beneath his skin. Something shifted, something burned and hurt... and then all at once, a soothing balm of coolness. 

Something had changed. 

Eddie's hands flew to his torso, and the black liquid that was Venom spilled aside long enough for him to touch what had been scarred flesh.

What had been scarred flesh, because even that ragged tear wasn't there anymore. He'd practically scraped his guts out... but his skin was smooth and soft and warm. He sat up instantly, his eyes wide. "What did you do?" And then, again, because he couldn't stop touching that smooth, clean skin. "What did you do?"

"I fixed it." Venom's voice still held high annoyance. "Humans are strange, to let such a small thing stop them from being with someone who is so..." He slid in close, his face nosing along Eddie's jaw and almost driving him to instant distraction, "Delicious. You are worth keeping, Eddie. And now you can think so yourself."

You are worth keeping.

No one had ever said that to him. Annie certainly hadn't, and...

"How?" His voice was breaking, and he was damned if there weren't tears in his eyes. That thing that had made him feel so unwhole was just gone -- it was impossible, but he believed it, because there was something inside of him that could feel that it was true, because that scar that was a constant reminder every time he looked in the mirror to the fact that he was incomplete and broken had disappeared in the wake of the symbiote's touch.

"Human anatomy is not complex. I gave you my strength. That is all." Venom was still nosing at his jawline, and Eddie couldn't stop it when a tear slipped to the symbiote’s head. He instantly twisted his gaze up to his face, and there was something there. Even though he didn't have proper expression, Eddie could still sense it. "And you want to save this world that would make you feel this way?" He was bewildered, shocked.

And yet...

"Yes." His hands couldn't stop smoothing over his stomach, feeling the skin there, feeling the potential beneath. "It's a fucked up place, but sometimes you have to look at it through different eyes."

Venom sat back, paused. He hummed softly to himself for a moment, as though thinking. Finally, he shook his head and muttered to himself again. "Humans. Are strange."

But he didn't say anything else, and Eddie could do nothing but lay back against the warmth that was holding him and keep his hands over his pelvis, because things had changed. 

Chapter Text

For a while, Eddie laid there. The warmth that was still spreading in his body was a wild thing, and he couldn't deny the fact that there was still some of that heat pouring through him. It was different though -- it meant something so much more, because Eddie knew now that it wasn't just sex that could come from it.

It was a whole new life, a whole new reason . It was every reason that he wanted to save this world to begin with. His hand swept over his stomach again, and when a brief flash of telling Annie about this swept through his head, Venom's teeth clamped down hard on his shoulder, leaving another pin-prickling of marks.

"No."

"Wh--"

"No. I did this for you." Not her. You. And me . The last part of the sentence was there in Eddie's head, and it swam around, made him a little dizzy... because maybe the big guy was right, and maybe Annie didn't have any business knowing. If you really cared about someone, something broken inside of them... especially something that wasn't even their fault... shouldn't have influenced her to begin with.

"You are worth more ." 

Everything .

The words again, in his head as though they couldn't be spoke aloud. Eddie laid there against the warmth of the Alpha and for a time he felt... content. He felt safe. He felt good in knowing that he didn't have to be afraid of the street... 

Of course, there was the small fact that Venom was talking about eating everything.

After a while, Eddie couldn't help himself.

"But what if you didn't?"

"Hmm?" Venom's voice was curious, his head spilling around to look at Eddie again. He'd been distracting himself with running his clawed hands carefully across Eddie's body, as though trying to explore every facet of it while the man beneath him recovered from what had obviously been an exhausting experience. The touch didn't help Eddie to think clearly, but the prospect of a baby helped him to think bravely. 

"What if you didn't.. you know... eat the world?"  

Venom sat back slightly, his head sliding serpentine to look at Eddie -- he couldn't tell if the thought was an audacity to him, or if it was something that he was actually considering. He frowned. "This world is..." Words seemed to evade him, until he finally spoke, "There is beauty here." And then, a pause, "And you. You are here, Eddie. And you would not leave, would you?"

"No." Eddie answered right away, felt that the answer was something important, meant something important.

"You would die for it?"

"Yes."

"That is... a problem." Venom grew quiet after that, and Eddie simply settled back into the cool embrace of his overly large frame. He hoped -- he really, truly hoped, that maybe the symbiote would take what he said to heart, that he would realize that if he wanted to keep Eddie, he was going to have to keep the world that he was in as well.

And maybe that would be enough. 

He hoped it would be enough.

He didn't know how long they laid there, with Venom occasionally shifting to run his nose along Eddie's jaw, to lick the bitemarks that he'd left on his body. Each touch of that long tongue made him shiver, made the heat that was trying to slowly die down flare back to life for a moment. He had to breathe around it, had to try to control it... because he wanted Venom to be thinking clearly .

He didn't want to get distracted again until he was sure that he'd done everything that he could to help, to--

"Fine."

Eddie's eyes shifted to that head that had formed in front of him again. "Fine?"

"We will save this world." And then, darker, deeper, his voice roiling and his tone an echo that made Eddie's entire body clench. "I will save you."

He couldn't stop the giddy giggle that ripped from his throat. He was exhausted, well fucked... and infected with an alien. 

And somehow, Eddie felt safer than he had in his entire life.

It made no sense. 

"It makes perfect sense." Venom contradicted him immediately, and then stood. Eddie stood with him, and was made starkly aware of the fact that he was still naked by the way that the cool air suddenly stung at his skin.

Venom looked him up and down, appreciative and lusty, and even in the chill, his cock gave a little twinge of want this. Instead, he grumbled softly and dropped his arms to his side. "We might need to get me some clothes before we save the world." And then, because he wasn't sure at all on what was happening, "How are we even going to do that?"

"We must stop Riot."

That was the first that he'd heard of that name, and he wasn't sure what a Riot was, aside from the conventional term for it that he was aware of.

Something told him that it wasn't going to be ruckus in the streets. 

"What's..."

"He is the mission leader. He is..." The symbiote seemed to pause, "Alpha." And then, as though the word wasn't enough, he continued. "We do not have Alpha and Omega like your species. We are all Alpha -- we can shift our bodies to be omega when needed..." And then he paused again, as though trying to figure out how to phrase what he was thinking. "We became Alpha when we were brought here, because it was strength. Dominance. Because it would get us closer to our food." He leaned in when he said that, his tongue licking up along Eddie's body, from his hip to the shell of his ear.

Eddie's knees only went a little weak. He swayed on the spot but he managed to stay standing, even though his entire body fought him for a moment to collapse against that purring tone.

"So you... just... get to be..." His hand gestured towards, Venom, the strength, the musculature, the very essence that was dribbling off of him so thick that Eddie wanted to choke on it. "You get to be this of your own free will."

"It is stronger because you want it like this." He leaned in close, and the overwhelming presence of Alpha stole away all of the willpower that he'd been trying to exude and made him sway again, collapsing against Venom this time. "It is strong for you because in your head," the symbiote leaned close, "You have the same strength."

Eddie didn't feel it. 

"So there's someone stronger than you out there?" He spoke again after a moment, and he could see when Venom nearly tch'd in front of him. 

"Riot is our leader. On our planet..." Venom swayed back and forth for a moment in front of him, his head moving like a cobra and making Eddie follow the motion. "I am like you , controlled by the Alpha." And he shifted closer to Eddie, "But with you... we will be stronger. We will save your world." 

I will save you . Those words again, whispered in his mind even though they weren't said aloud. So determined, so full of assurance.

Either they would save the world, or they'd die trying... and in the end, Eddie supposed that it would have to be good enough, because there wasn't much else that he could do than to try. 

---

Riot, it turned out, wasn't hard to find. There had been a plan from the beginning, and Venom had been privy to it. When they'd been brought here, they were made aware of the fact that there was a rocket, and that rocket would be ticket for the symbiote's to get home. It was fortunate, really, that they'd only sent a small scouting team. It was extra fortunate that it seemed that all of the others had died while Drake was trying to figure out how to achieve symbiosis. 

What would he have thought, to know that the person whose life he had single-handedly ruined was the answer that he'd been looking for all along. Eddie would have been anything to be a fly in that room when he'd learned who had taken Venom and what had happened between them.

It would have almost made it worth the fact that he was fairly certain that there was a big chance of death in the battle that they were approaching.

He hadn't heard from Annie -- it seemed that the emails that he'd sent her meant nothing, because she didn't contact him.

She didn't say that she'd help. 

She didn't even call to see if whatever giant monster had spirited him away had eaten him.

That, more than anything, let Eddie know where he stood in her eyes. She'd seen him in his real state, a complete Omega... and she'd decided that he wasn't worth helping.

It only hurt a little.

Venom's warm, insistent tongue stroking along the side of his face took away that aching sting and made it just a little bit better.

They didn't go back to Eddie's apartment -- instead, Venom took them to a department store. It was still early in the hours of the morning, and he punched through the glass before Eddie had a chance to suggest that there was a better way. Alarms blared, and Eddie was at least pleased that the symbiote had covered his entire body again long enough to run into the store, so that his naked frame wasn't recorded streaking through a Sears; he didn't think he could handle it if that was plastered all over the news, too. 

Of course, a giant black creature stealing a pair of jeans, boots, a shirt and motorcycle jacket probably wasn't that much better... but at least Eddie didn't have to worry about people seeing his face?

He told himself that, at least. 

And honestly... if it ended up that Riot killed them and they weren't able to save the word, did it really even matter?

In the end, he guessed that it didn't.

He never thought that he'd be going back to the Life Foundation after the last time that he'd been there, but Venom ran with a loping grace and hard determination that left him just a little in awe of the power that his body seemed to hold. It didn't help that the heat was still burning in the back of his mind, and it was only his determination in the face of the end of the world 

It made Venom all the more protective though, that fragility that was still spilling across Eddie's entire mind, make him tremble when he would have otherwise stood tall.

He could do this, though, and he would.

He took a deep breath as they got to the foundation -- the great rocket stood off in the distance, and if he wasn't mistaken... there was something going on with it. Some kind of light, some kind of motion.

Something that told him they'd gotten there just in the nick of time. 

"Is that..?" 

"That is Riot." Even from a distance he could tell that he was bigger than Venom... and even from a distance, Eddie could almost feel the waves of strength and the near tone of what kind of creature he was coming off of him in palpable waves. 

"We're going to... fight that..?" Eddie's voice was small, and Venom gave a quick nod. 

"We will have to, if you want to save this world." 

He did. But... being actually faced with the prospect of having to fight something so large... it wasn't that he didn't have faith in Venom; of course he had faith in him.

But...

Still.

The rocket was already starting to flare to life, and Eddie realized that he didn't have time to be afraid. He didn't have time for anything, other than the motion that was suddenly propelling them forward, and the fact that if he had to die, dying with his Alpha wasn't the worst way to go.

That squeeze of emotion seemed to give Venom all the more strength; the waves of it poured off of him and made Eddie's body clench, made the heat that he'd all but beat back start to flare back to life. It caused the slightest break to his stride.

Which... caused Eddie to have an idea.

"Venom." 

"No." He was in Eddie's head -- he already knew what he was going to say. 

"Look, it would just be for a little--"

"No!" Again, a harsh denial.

"If we waited until the rocket was ready to launch, he wouldn't be able to get anywhere if it was in the air. Look at the way that the jets are burning..." 

"I will push him into the jets and set him on fire. I will not let you--"

"I'll be fine."

Maybe being a sexual sacrifice wasn't the best idea in the world, but wasn't it better to be fucked than to completely get fucked up by something with as much prowess as Riot had?

"No. We will fight." And that seemed to be that. Eddie couldn't keep the idea from the back of his mind though, like some kind of backup plan that he was going to insist upon unleashing if things came to a head. Venom's blatant denial was strong now, but...

"It will not happen."

And he threw himself onto the side of the rocket just as Riot started to climb up the edge. 

And even though Eddie was starkly aware of the fact that they were going to attempt to fight Riot, he was already planning in the back of his mind for contingency plans -- Venom was so focused on the thing ahead of them that he didn't seem to be delving into those backward depths.

The problem was, he wasn't sure how Venom had triggered his heat to begin with -- it wasn't exactly something that he would be able to easily replicate on his own. He could only hope that there was enough of it lingering, enough of what had happened before still thick in his head that he would be able to figure it out. 

Otherwise, he had a sinking and painful suspicion in his chest that things were going to turn out messier than he wanted them to. 

The last thing that he needed was to die now that he finally felt like he'd found a place to belong. And truly, he realized in the presence of the Alpha, he did feel like he belonged somewhere.

Of course it would take a fucking alien to make those emotions pour through his mind.

Riot drew himself up when Venom clawed his way up the side of the rocket, his voice calling out for the other symbiote as they came nearly level with him.

"What are you doing, Venom?" The voice was deeper, an even more wicked growl, and Eddie had a brief moment to wonder who the bigger creature was riding -- there was obviously a human beneath the suit, but there was no indication of who that person might be. 

"I've come to stop you." Venom seemed to have no subtle abilities, no plan for being coy. Eddie might have had a slight talk with him about being a bit tricky when it came to trying to beat an opponent bigger than he was... but it was clear to him that the protective way that he drew himself up had nothing to do with being clever and everything to do with protecting the man that he had wrapped himself around. 

If they weren't in a situation that was literally life and death, Eddie might have felt something warm spreading through his chest. 

As it was, Eddie felt the heat still rolling somewhere in the back of his mind kick slightly. He could see it the instant that Riot noticed, see the way that the symbiote's body instantly jerked at the scent. Only then did his face roll back to reveal that, of course, it was Drake beneath the muscled flesh. "I knew that you were an Omega, Eddie, but I didn't know that you'd smell so--" But Riot was already pooling back over the man's face, as though he was completely unwilling to share the moment, the scent, with someone else.

"Venom, you bonded with something weaker? Of course," Riot barked the words out in a taunt, but Venom pulled himself straighter, wrapped himself all the tighter around Eddie. 

For someone who was not keen on the plan of Eddie sacrificing himself as a distraction, Venom was pushing his buttons left and right with the protective sensation that was flooding through him. He could almost feel where that trip was in his own mind now; almost reach for it himself.

"Eddie, do not."

Riot leaned forward though, his face close, his tongue lolling out hungrily. "Do not... what?" 

"Get away." Venom snarled the words out, and his arms instantly lashed forward, hitting out as though that simple maneuver would be enough. Riot laughed, grabbed them both, and there was a flurrying of motion that made Eddie's head spin as the two began to fight. It was unlike anything that he'd ever seen or experienced -- worse, the more that the visceral strength poured through him, the more that trigger in his head threatened to flip. 

Worse -- the more that they fought, the more that Eddie realized that allowing that switch to flip might have been a better idea. Venom was trying -- so savagely, so fiercely, so protectively -- but he was not going to win. Eddie had been the underdog enough to realize when there wasn't an advantage to be had by fighting fair.

And worse... the thought of something happening to his Alpha now that he had finally found him was more than he could stand. Venom had been showing him all afternoon where the pieces of the switch that he'd flipped where -- there were lingering waves of his still around to make it all the easier to find.

So he gave himself over to it, and he felt it when the body wrapped so carefully and protectively in the shell of Venom's frame began to scorch yet again.

Venom snarled, but Riot stopped completely -- so starkly and so suddenly that the symbiote that was riding Eddie actually got a good hit in on him, fist connecting, sharp teeth tearing.

But that didn't matter.

Riot launched himself at the two of them, because as much as Venom was radiating the scent of Alpha , and it was more now than ever... it wasn't enough to staunch the waves of Omega that were rolling so thick through the air that neither of the aliens could ignore it.

Venom was furious -- Eddie could feel it pulsing through ever nerve in his body. But that didn't matter, because Riot was distracted. Besotted.

There weren't Omegas on their planet -- isn't that what Venom had said? And now Riot was forced to exist face to face with an Omega who was still trying to work out far too many years of denied desire.

He would worry later at the fact that his body reacted nearly violently when the two aliens began to posture, their sense of Alpha being thrown hard and fast, just as true as their punches and bites. 

They were no longer fighting for Earth. Riot seemed completely distracted from the rocket whose engines were starting to fully warm up, so that Eddie could hear the distant rumble of them.

His focus was laser.

Rapt.

On the man beneath Venom's frame.

Chapter Text

Eddie’s head felt like it was going to explode in desire and yes, please, want from the presence of not one, but two of the strongest Alphas that he’d ever sensed in his life. It was overwhelming to his senses, nearly enough to make him lose his mind and what he was actually aiming for in all of this. It was only Venom's presence, so strong and wrapped in his mind that let him know that he wasn't doing it because he was a horny little Omega.

He was doing it to save his Alpha.

Even if his Alpha was furious at the prospect of what he intended to do, what he was allowing to happen to his body... it would be well worth it if it ended up saving him.

And the world -- Eddie couldn't forget that he was doing this to save the entirety of humanity as well.

"Omega," Riot's voice was a low, purring sound. He slipped in closer, and Venom's flailing arms seemed to do nothing to deter the motion. He pushed until his limbs wrapped around them both, until his slick and groping tongue could slide along the side of Venom's face. "You smell like an Omega on the inside, Venom. I will take it."

A savage growl ripped from the symbiote's chest, but it seemed that Riot wasn't bothered by it. He flipped both Eddie and Venom over in such a violent motion that the man felt his body rock with it, felt his head go light for a moment. Just as quickly, he was ripping and tearing at the black that surrounded his body, at the clothing that they’d just stolen, until Eddie felt his skin kissed by the cool air around them.

That was the only warning that he got before a vicious thrust tore a scream from his throat; where Venom had been careful, sure that everything that he did, every motion of his body was something that Eddie would want and desire, Riot seemed unbothered with such needs for formality. 

Instead, he shoved into Eddie's wet and waiting hole as though he owned it simply because of the strength of his presence, and his mind instantly went blank and numb again -- overwhelmed by that burning, weighed down by the weight of Riot as he began to buck and thrust hard and fast in his body.

Eddie . It was Venom's voice in his head, liquid and velvet and furious at what was happening. You are mine, Eddie. We could have found another way.

Eddie was having trouble wrapping his head around his thoughts enough to even think of a reply. Every time that Venom tried to reform around the lower half of his body, Riot would tear him away again, sending what Eddie was sure was streaks of pain through his frame and forcing stark awareness to the fact that there was nothing that he could do to stop him on this kind of physical level.

Riot was simply stronger.

There was no arguing the fact, even though it was Venom's presence that was still pounding and pulsing in his head, it was Riot's thick cock that was ripping through his wet core, beating into him with such fervor and strength that Eddie felt like something inside of him was breaking.

"Mate." Riot's word was snarled from his lips, and it only made Venom attempt to fight back all the more -- he flung them forward, slapping them against the side of the rocket. Still, the stronger of the two never stopped in his stride, never quelled the bucking rage of his hips that was filling Eddie so hard and so deep that he could almost taste it on the tip of his tongue, it seemed. It was impossible, of course, but it almost felt as though Riot was riding him from the inside in the same way that Venom rode him from the outside, until his head was spinning and he could barely breathe around the sensation of it.

No. My Eddie . Venom's voice was another savage growl in his head, that black liquid pooling and spilling into his mouth so that for a moment it was Venom that he could taste on his tongue, the thickness of him there and reminding him the truth of who his Alpha was.

But his body wasn't listening to that response. 

His body was screaming the word Alpha in his mind over and over again at such loud volumes that Eddie was surprised his ears weren't bleeding from it -- and more, his mind wasn't even stopping to wonder if it was Drake's seed that would spill into him, or if it was Riot's that would be squirming in his belly.

Could a symbiote impregnate a human?

No! Venom's shout of fury wasn't an answer so much as a denial of the question at all, because it was clear that he wanted to be the only one to discover that, wanted to be the only one that Eddie was with regardless of the circumstances. The ferocity and fury was something that drove deep into his center, made him warm from the inside -- made him think that maybe sacrificing his body this was wasn't as horrible as it might have been otherwise, because he was doing it for a reason.

Not that his body was saying that it was horrible. The thickness of the length sliding and pounding inside of him was backed by arms that grabbed him tight, pushed through the black liquid that was Venom to try to claw at his skin, to try to lay marks on him. 

Venom fought it away every time, though Eddie was a bucking, writhing, whimpering mess held inside of him that couldn't do anything but lay and be fucked. His mind was becoming completely overwhelmed with the need of it again, his body shivering. 

He wanted -- he needed -- and there was no denying it any more. He let go of any fight that he might have had and he just let himself drift in the waves of the heat's that he'd denied over his entire life. 

So many -- so much -- and he wanted all of them to be filled now, in that moment. He needed all of them to be erased by the violent pounding that was roaring through his body and setting every nerve ending that he possessed on fire. 

There was nothing else but that need -- there was nothing else but the sense of Alpha that was surrounding him on all sides. There was nothing but supplication to the greater force that he couldn't control, couldn't deny, couldn't and wouldn't want to fight. 

There was just heat. 

Eddie gave him over to that even as Venom was roaring his displeasure -- and Riot seemed to sense it as well, because he thrust his hips again and the Omega felt it as liquid head spilled inside of him, surged through him once more, tried to find a place and permeance in his body. Even though there was a chance that this false-triggered heat wouldn't and couldn't result in pregnancies, Eddie had the sinking feeling that whatever was happening would result in a change.

Some kind of change.

Something was going to be different.

His body ached, and he heard the words more than he actually processed them.

"The rocket is almost ready. I see your fascination, Venom. I will take this one with me. It is mine." 

And there was a tug at Eddie's lower body, while a prick was still slicked and hard inside of him. Riot, trying to pull him away, trying to take him for himself.

"He is mine."

Venom, so strong, so furious.

"You are weak. Nothing is yours." 

And then they were moving -- Eddie's body was wrapped in the heat that was Venom and being pulled by the strength that was Riot, and they were clambering towards the rocket -- he could feel his body going up, up, up... and then there was a screeching squeal of metal, of claws... and then they were falling.

"You will not take him." A scream of pain, "You will not take this planet." A roar of fury, and Eddie managed to open his eyes through the thick haze of pleasure and warmth that was spreading through him when the sensation of Riot's body against his was suddenly gone, and he was enveloped once more in the cocoon that was wholly and fully Venom.

Riot, besotted and eager and focused on Eddie, shifting his body to try to push Venom off of him completely. Riot, who didn't realize that the thrusters of the rocket burned hot.

Riot, who Venom had slung forward with both of their bodies, wrapping himself protectively around his Omega so that the jets of the machine could burn away the symbiote. 

It burned Venom, too. 

"No! Venom!" Eddie screamed the words, his panic coming hard and fast through the heat like a sharp clarity that cut to the bone. He scrambled, because he could feel him burning away -- Riot had long since gone in a scream of fury and pain, taking Drake with him in an unceremonious death that Eddie hadn't even had the chance to enjoy.

But Venom...

Venom wasn't directly in the flames. Just close enough to burn. Close enough to keep Eddie safe.

Close enough that he was leaving, too.

And Eddie wouldn't have it. 

It took everything he had to wrench control, everything he didn't know he had in him to throw them both back into the water, so little pieces of Venom drifted off of his body at the hard impact, left him aching and in pain... but left him surrounded in a soft, cloud of the symbiote. 

He was hurt.

He was torn apart.

But he was still there.

"You can't leave me." Eddie gasped the words as soon as he spilled to the top of the water, pain in his chest, his hands scrambling for the black bits that were floating around him. "You can't. I'm yours, right?" Eddie didn't feel the tears on his face; the terror and pain that he was experiencing had washed away the heat in a way that nothing else had. "Venom. Please..." 

He gathered as many of the pieces as he could and swam for shore.

---

Eddie was fat. There was no getting around it -- his stomach was swollen, and there were times when it squirmed in a way that made him wonder exactly what was inside.

"I could always look." That cool little voice, Venom at his shoulder. It had taken a week for him to recover, to pull himself together. More food than Eddie would have liked to admit before he'd started to be what he had once been. But he was alive. Whole. Surrounding Eddie again. 

I t was exactly where he needed to be. Eddie's hand came to his stomach and the baby that was squirming in there, and then he swatted at the little head at his shoulder that was trying to steal the bite off of his fork.

"No. We'll figure it out when it gets here. It doesn't matter." He pressed his palm to the swell of his stomach and let out a soft smile. "I know whose it is."

"Mine." Venom's word bit out quickly, and he slid along Eddie's frame to swirl black around his stomach, rest his head there and feel another kick. 

Annie had seen him a few weeks back, fat and swollen and happy. Though there were questions about the rocket that had tried to launch, the entire staff that had been slaughtered... in the end, The Life Foundation had been taken down. Annie had sent the emails off to some higher-ups, and the information coming from an Alpha had been helpful.

The fact that Drake was nowhere to be seen, couldn't defend himself, was also a big help.

Eddie's reputation, though still tarnished by being an Omega, had been cleared of all else. He was working again, though writing more now than reporting... and there was a fullness to him that he'd never had before.

Annie had seen it on his face -- she'd seen it in the swell of his stomach.

She'd wanted him back.

And Eddie had said no. Not with the baby growing in his belly -- not with an Alpha who was with him at all times. His world, though it had seemed so chaotic, had fallen in to place. 

"Hungry," Venom grumbled the words out, still pressed to Eddie's stomach. He looked down at the petulant voice. Being joined with Eddie had caused one of the oddest things to happen -- Venom was being affected by his hormones. It showed in his petulance, in his extra demands for food. In the way that he would sometimes surge and roll and ride Eddie into the mattress with such vigor that both of them were left breathless.

"We just ate." Eddie took the last bite of his lunch and looked pointedly at the empty plate.

"I want more." 

Eddie couldn't stop himself from smiling -- from pushing to a stand and patting his swollen stomach one more time, feeling the responding kick from the baby. "You always want more."

And he knew that a part of him was hoping that he always would.