The ABO Serum

(Part 11 extra) The World Transformed

When the Sheik gave birth to his own son it changed global politics, and not in good ways everywhere. Where women were still subservient, they became even less valued. In small pockets of the planet, there was mass femicide. In other places where a preference for male children had already distorted the population balance, the 'ABO Miracle' was the cure. It was not a safe time to be a woman and poor.

In other places, alpha females became prominent and raised the standing of women overall, but in those places, omegas often fell into disfavor. They had certain natural weaknesses and the qualities of a nurturer have always been undervalued.

With the global elite leading the change, it became increasingly popular among the masses. The Sheik's small kingdom was among the first to completely transform, but others headed that direction. Larger countries held out longer, but it was plain to see that the entire world would one day be alpha, beta, or omega.

Naseer stood behind his husband, usually bending the world around the Sheik to his will. But occasionally toting a happy toddler. The Sheik set about filling the palace with his offspring and his alpha servant obliged. He had confidence in his legacy and continued to give birth into his old age.

They were a happy family, but the world around them was changing too quickly. The children didn't go to school overseas and come back to serve their country as their father had. Many of them left, found their mates, and never returned. When his eldest son found he was reciprocal with the son of his father's neighbor, the nations merged, and his father's kingdom was swallowed up.

While it did not materially change his life much, as the Sheik still lived in the same palace and enjoyed obscene wealth, it broke his heart that his son valued the neighbor's child more than his own inheritance.

In those moments Naseer held him close and reminded him how impossible it was to live without his mate, how he himself valued his servant over an entire harem. That was the way of things now.

Unhappy with the way of things, the Sheik invested a great deal in GenLife, and it was a sound investment. The return was not only monetary due to the success of their suppressants, birth control developments, sub-gender tests, pheromone substitutes, and other in-demand products, but he achieved a greater degree of freedom as an omega because of the products themselves.

They failed in breaking a reciprocal attachment, but they did find ways to alleviate the compulsion of alphas. Not completely, but if the omega were on a well-matched suppressant, it would overrule any alpha but their reciprocal pair. So far, the compulsion issue was the stuff of rumors. Omegas naturally hid their responses well, so alphas could never be certain. It came up rarely enough that they could easily cast doubt on it.

When legal issues arose again around the responsibility of alphas for their behavior around omegas, the results were mixed, but favored the alphas more often than not. Alpha suppressants were needed, though alpha enhancers were more popular.

There weren't hard lines between alpha, beta, and omega. It was more of a gradient, with more dominant and recessive versions of each and black markets medications designed to push the taker in either direction. For some, to suppress their nature and pass as a beta. For others, to be anything more special than a beta.

It was a chaotic and dangerous century. But in the long view of history that could be said of every century. Humans had a knack for making trouble for themselves.

When the Sheik lay in Naseer's arms after giving birth to his forty-second  child, and it seemed he might not fully recover this time, he thanked his servant for loving him so completely for so long. "I didn't want them to find a way to break this bond so I could leave you," he whispered. "Well, maybe I did in the beginning." He laughed. "But I persisted because I wanted to be able to show you that it's not our bodies forcing us to be together. My heart would never let you go."

Hot tears fell on the Sheik's neck as Naseer held him tight. He knew he was loved but the Sheik did not often say it. He would gently nurture his omega back to health one more time, but that would be their last child and their last decade of life together they would spend quietly.

Their eldest son was already going gray when the youngest was born, and when their parents died, Naseer following his master closely one last time, he finished raising their last five children. There would be love in their family no matter what went on in the rest of the world.

That was Naseer's legacy. All forty-two children were raised with the clear understanding that their alpha father loved his omega with every fiber of his being and would willingly serve him in death as in life. To see the more powerful man serve from a place of love was an example that could not fail to influence them, and by extension influence their corners of the world. In centuries to come, in most places where omegas were honored, historians could trace a clear line back to the Sheik's family.