Chapter Text
The F1 paddock was alive with activity.
Mechanics worked tirelessly, fixing the cars that had been crashed the night before and hastily adding on upgrade after upgrade in a desperate attempt to find those missing few milliseconds. Engineers argued with the strategy team, one group desperately hoping for rain and the other on the verge of threatening the clouds in the sky. There were teams praying that their drivers so much as make it out of Q3 while others were going for grand slams and two drivers on the podium.
And the drivers? The tightly knit pack of alphas and betas arrived to the grid in small groups, pushing and shoving at each other, falling into their easy rhythm of bickering as they met each other. Their playful growls and snaps echoed around the paddock, much to the glares of their respective PR departments.
Yet even with this easy camaraderie, even with the comfort in the way the pack moved around each other, something still felt… off .
See, almost every pack has an omega. They are the cornerstones of the second gender dynamics, the ones around whom a pack forms. An omega shows an interest in a group, and the alphas and betas fall around them, working on pure instincts, the hierarchy falling into place naturally. It is a common belief held by many high-level psychologists that in order for a pack to function properly, there must be an omega to lead…
But the Formula One drivers pack?
No omega.
Not currently. Not ever.
Now, this is not a completely impossible thing to happen, especially when you take into account how the pack formed. Usually, packs had nothing to do with work, or if they did, it was a couple of colleagues who happened to be exceptionally close outside of the work environment. A pack could be family. It could be a very close group of friends, perhaps who all live together. There is usually a very strong, very close bond between these people before the pack starts
But in Formula One?
With how much the drivers were only around each other, with how much it was difficult for the drivers to relate to others given how different their lifestyle was to everyone else? With how little they were able to be around their family? Their friends?
There are only twenty drivers. In the world. Of course it was going to be difficult to relate to others! And this very quickly pushed them from uncomfortably close colleagues to a somewhat functioning pack. The first grid pack in it’s official format had formed in the late 1980s (though that one was fairly messy, what with almost all the drivers being alphas and only one poor beta desperately trying to keep the peace), and had quickly become as synonymous with F1 as the teams are. It is one of the things that the rookies look forward to when joining their new team, making the change from the F2 pack to the F1 pack is like a coming of age event in a drivers career. Not that everyone gets added immediately, of course. There's a degree of privacy in the pack that means they don’t respond very well to outsiders, so it sometimes takes a few races for the rookies to be added. Especially if it's an older driver, or one with a grudge against someone else currently in the pack.
And in the Grid Pack, there are only alphas and betas. So naturally, a hierarchy establishes, the same as it does in any other pack, only minus the omega who usually leads everyone. And the drivers try their best to keep on track issues, and driving ability out of the pack… but there is some level of crossover, what with a large number of highly competitive individuals all around each other for large amounts of their time. And especially without an omega to lead the pack… Or at least, without an omega leading the pack.
If you ask any driver, they would tell you that Max does a very good job of leading the pack without an omega. After taking over as the Red Bull driver pack leader at the very young age of seventeen (Daniel was a beta, Daniil had no interest in fighting Max again and Carlos had befriended Max enough to trust he was the best to lead) he slowly joined into main pack in a very turbulent time.
Pack Alpha Lewis was far more interested in fighting with alpha Nico that he was in leading the pack, and none of the others were quite ready to challenge either of them, concerned of the anger being turned onto them. (Fernando wasn’t concerned. Fernando was just a beta. Fernando was very sad by this fact.). And so when young Max Verstappen joined the grid pack, when he easily made himself comfortable in Red Bull, when he started challenging the other drivers enough on track… it was a completely sensible decision for Max to take over as the grid alpha.
And over they years, he proved himself better and better at the role than anyone thought he would be, when he joined the pack only seventeen. Of course Max was a good pack alpha. Why wouldn’t he be?
In the Ferarri garage, a disagreement was going on. Charles was perched on a stack of tyres, arms crossed as he glared down at Carlos who was looking vaguely uncomfortable in his Williams team shirt while completely surrounded by red. “No I am serious! There must be a beta who’s taking on the omega role,” he insisted, hands waving everywhere (almost taking out a mechanic that happened to be passing by).
Carlos rolled his eyes. “There is not. We would know, yes? Max would be acknowledging them, even without knowing. Besides, if there were, who could it even be?”
At that, Charles hesitated, a moment of confused frowing as he tried to collect his thoughts, his fresh rain scent tinged with an irritation that had a few of the mechanics looking over with worry. “I don’t know… it is just… my mind is yelling at me that I am overlooking something. And I know my instincts.”
There was a hum of acknowledgement from Carlos. Charles was known, both in the pack and the wider world, for having remarkably good instincts. He could predict when people were going to present down to the hour, could spot pack arguments before it even bubbled out into the driver's scents. If Charles’s instincts were saying something, then there was something going on, surely.
The pair were soon joined by Lando (Who’s happy lemon soda scent they could smell far before he appeared, the faint whiff of bubbles catching in the back of Carlos’s throat, making him splutter out a few coughs), who draped himself over Carlos, playfully headbutting the other alpha.
“Come on man, your just being desperate at this point,” he grinned, waving Charles off, “You’re just reading into things. But if you want an omega so badly I’m sure the’ll be one out there who’s more than happy to have a mate bond with you without joing the pack. Maybe you’ll even find your true mate or something? You seem like the kind of person to have one.”
Charles didn’t respond beyond rolling his eyes. He’d knew what he’d been feeling, and it wasn’t just desperation. And he knew that the idea of a mate bond made his inner alpha all but growl in rage… (Perhaps he was one of the many alphas who didn’t have one? With so few omegas it wasn’t certain that everyone had a true mate, after all… and that’s not even taking into account that it’s rather rare for omegas to have a true mate in the first place!) So he must be missing something. It had to be one of the betas stepping up…
Right?
Right?
Max is not, in fact, an alpha. (As i’m probably sure you might have guessed by the tags, but it you didn’t read them… surprise?).
Max is not a beta either.
Max is an omega.
And he is painfully aware of what would happen if others found out. Now, this isn’t one of those stories where omegas are downtrodden and seen as lesser. In this world, to be an omega means to be granted all the privileges and special treatment because - and this is where you may need to just accept this statement and move on, and not think too much about it - there are just over 10,000,000 omegas in the world, with a to total population of upwards of 8.2 billion.
And with this rarity? With such a natural a natural talent for leading, for caring, for ruling? With instincts that call for people to rally around them, to adore them, to care for the omega at all costs?
An omega - from the moment they were born - could expect everything they ever wanted to be handed to them on a silver platter.
No.
Scratch that.
A diamond-encrusted platter served by a team of personal butlers! Omegas never even had to work - getting a more than substantial paycheck from the government each week for simply existing. Even in the poorest of countries, the government payout was at least double the average wage. Simply put, an omega never had to fight for anyhting.
But this is where the problem starts.
See, Max desperately wanted to fight.
He was a racing driver, after all, and the thrill of the race was in the competition. If he was to just win? If he was to just turn up and be gifted the title?
Where was the fun in that?
All the privileges he would be given… all the privileges he didn’t want. Yes, he would win, but he would’t win , you know? He’d fought for that place, fought for his seat… and he deserved to be rewarded for his hard work, not just his second gender!
Having spent his entire career perfecting the art of hiding his omega status, of hiding his instincts, pretending that he was an alpha… Max had almost managed to convince himself.
Almost…
But it wasn’t easy. Every race was a challenge, not just to try and win, but to keep his instincts under control. His liberal use of scent patches, and suppressants and very careful control over his instinctive reactions were effective, but god was it exhausting. Mentally and physically. And hiding his second gender wasn’t even the toughest part!
Although, that is more because Max didn’t know about the other secret he was hiding than it was about the difficulty of the secret.
See, all omegas had a true mate. This isn’t something thats commonly talked about, more something passed down from parent to child, a fairytale come true, the rare possibility that the could be a true mate bond… and Max was one of the rare few to have such a bond. Not that he knew it.
Max had a true mate bond with Charles.
And neither knew.
(It is important to note here, that Jos was so convinced Max would present as an Alpha (as was everyone else who ever met the young boy), that when homeschooling him, he only taught Max about alpha puberty and instincts. Though Max has managed to secretly learn most things about his own biology and instincts over the years, there are some topics that you simply can’t read in a book. Thank goodness Charles also hadn’t been paying attention when his mother had explained true bonds. This would be a rather short story if he had…)
The mate bond was the hardest part to hide. Especially as he didn’t know what was happening. Those occasional longing pangs he felt when he was around the Monegasque? That was their rivalry, of course!
And every time Charles looks at him with those piercing pretty-pretty-pretty green eyes, and something inside Max’s chest flutterers? Natural competition, a healthy rivalry with another driver!
The desire to reach out and curl up next to him? To drag the alpha into a nest and scent him until their scents cannot be distinguished from one another? Just the natural instincts of an omega with any old alpha, obviously! (Here, Max has very cleverly ignored how he hasn’t responded like that to any other alpha. Max has done rather a lot of clever ignoring over the years.)
The conversation between Charles and Carlos (with the useful contributions from Lando) must hav made it’s way around the rest of the pack, as late one evening after a few debriefs had run over, Max found himself in conversation by Lewis and George - the previous lead alpha and the current lead beta approaching with concerned looks upon their faces.
“Hey Max, got a moment?” Lewis said, his tone quiet enough that no reporters would be able to overhear.
Max sighed, eyes trained down onto the data in his lap though his shoulders dropped as he relaxed slightly, “Yeah, I am not doing much. Just trying to think about the next race. Red Bull’s been demanding results, what with the constructors being all but gone.”
George huffed, a cheeky smile twitching onto his face. “Oh please, like you won’t win your fifth. You’ll be there before summer break at this point.” There was a moment of pause in which Max and Lewis let out polite chuckles, “Anyway, did you hear what Charles was talking about?”
Charles was talking about something? And Max was one of the last to find out? He carefully pushed down the bubble of resentment growing in his heart and turned to George, tucking away his racing data. They may be pack, but there was no way Max was going to share his data with a Mercedes driver…
“No? I haven’t heard. What’s Charlie saying?” He forced a smirk, leaning back further in a way that looked oh so casual and oh so alpha-like. It was almost impossible to hear the tremor in his voice, and the scent patches hid the way his sweet caramel scent turned burnt for the briefest of moments.
“You know how he’s got that thing about how his instincts are really good? Yeah? Well he’s convinced that one of the beta’s has taken over the omega role in the pack!” George laughed, but Max felt his blood run cold.
Charles did have very good instincts. And while he was currently locked in on the idea of a beta, how hard would it be for him to change his mind and start looking too closely at the alphas? At Max?!
Lewis opened his mouth to speak, (maybe he was going to agree with Charles? Did he also think that there was someone trying to fill the omega role?) but before the conversation could continue, Charles appeared, the smell of storm clouds rolling into the room.
“What are you all talking about?” Charles asked, his gaze locking onto Max’s for a split second longer than he did with the others.
No one noticed (or perhaps they simply didn’t bat an eyelid anymore at it was such a common occurrence) the way that Charles positioned himself, moving from the doorway to stand just behind Max, his eyes trained on Lewis as Charles hooked his chin over Max’s shoulder, nuzzling into the Dutchman’s neck ever so slightly .
The Lewis and George exchanged glances but said nothing. “Nah man, we’re just talking about how you thought there was an unbalance in the pack that meant a beta was feeling the push to step up,” Lewis nodded, before ushering Geroge out of the door - the pair knowing better than to be in a small room with Max and Charles, as you weren’t ever going to get a word in that conversation.
Charles didn’t move even once the others left the room. If anything, he wrapped his arms around Max tighter. “I know my instincts are right,” he said quietly, his voice tinged with something Max couldn’t place.
Max huffed, pushing Charles away from his neck and slipping out of his arms. “I know, Charlie, I believe you. There is an imbalance in the pack.”
Charles seemed relieved that Max was agreeing with him… had the other’s not been? It had certainly seemed like Gerorge wasn’t totally convinced but surely some of the others had been feeling the lack of an omega? Max surely was, and he wasn’t even an alpha!
As whilst the drivers worked well together, and the pack was functional, there was always a lingering sense of imbalance, a void no one could quite articulate. And at a mid-season meeting (by which point Max had already cinched his fifth title with ease), the FIA decided that the matter was severe enough to be the subject of an official meeting.
The drivers had no idea what the meeting was about, only that it was concerning the future of the pack, and so going into the meeting room, everyone was suitably nervous.
“After careful observation,” the official began, their tone professional but firm and their nose wrinkled at the sour scents filling the room, “it’s been noted that the drivers’ pack lacks an omega. While this isn’t anything new, recent data suggests packs that gain an omega at a later date - when they don’t found around one - achieve higher cohesion, lower stress levels, and better overall performance.”
The drivers exchanged puzzled glances, murmurs rippling through the room. A few eyes widened as people realised where this was going.
“We intend to introduce an omega to the pack,” the official continued. “This will ensure you operate at your peak potential. Consider it a safety measure, if you like. Preparations will begin immediately for the introduction.”
The announcement sent shockwaves through the drivers. Yes they’d been starting to feel the unbalance, but an outside omega? Into their grid pack? Everyone was feeling just a bit uncomfortable. And none more so than Max.
They were going to bring an omega - an outside omega - into his pack… no Max was not happy at all. But what could he do about it?
Nothing.