Happy Lycanthrope day of the #MonstrousMayChallenge

I love werewolf books and have read so many it would be a very long list of recommendations.

But I’ve decided to go in a different direction. Namely: wolf dicks

Today I’ll be exploring Omegaverse fiction.

First off, Omegaverse: what is it?

OV is a fiction genre set in worlds where there’s a biological hierarchy of Alphas, Betas and Omegas. Each dynamic has certain characteristics related to werewolf elements such as knotting and estrous, or heat cycles.

Omegaverse can be traced back to 2010 in the Supernatural fandom. It was an extension of the werewolf MM fanfic and a writing prompt featuring Jared and Jensen (J2).

From the orignal prompt:
“There are 3 types of men, alpha males, beta males, and omega males. Alpha males are like any ordinary guy with the exception of their cocks, they work just like canines (the knot, tons of cum, strong breeders, etc)...

... The beta male, is an ordinary guy without the special cock. Omega males are capable of child bearing and often called b*tch males.”

Genevieve and the Wolves by Kiki Smith

Omegaverse later expanded to heterosexual fanfic and books.

Most OV stories focus on transfer of power and consent based in mythical biology rather than typical social norms. Alphas are associated with dominant masculinity and Omegas represent idealized femininity and fragility.

How were you introduced to #Omegaverse stories?

Omegaverse canon features a number of tropes that often include but are not limited to:

Knotting
Heat cycles
Scenting
Biting and Marking
Pair-bonds
Breeding
Nests
Copious fluids (slick)
Purring/growling
Sexual dominance/submission

I was introduced to Omegaverse in 2017 via my Kindle. I had been reading an erotic alien romance and Amazon suggested I might like a @NoraAshWrites novella called Taken by Darkness.

The algorithm was correct, I loved it. I immediately started searching for more on Wattpad and read my first MM/Mpreg story there. I was hooked and started reading lots of MM PNR novels in addition to any OV books I could find.

Some Omegaverse books are Sci-fi, set in a post apocalyptic world where civilization has broken down and something has changed human biology to the A/B/O dynamic. They’re often dubious consent & primal.

Here are a few I recommend reading:

Choosing her Alpha by Isoellen. I first read this dystopian Cinderella retelling on Wattpad. Excellent world building and a fairly mild power exchange for new OV readers.

Omega’s Deception, book 1 in the Omegas of Pandora series by Lillian Sable, is set in a dystopian world where rare Omegas have no rights. To avoid becoming an Alpha’s property, Ianthe takes suppressants to chemically castrate herself and present as a Beta.

Working in the slums doesn’t earn enough to take care of her sister and sickly younger brother so she makes a desperate choice and takes a job at Eros house, where she meets Alpha Legion. Who doesn’t appreciate her deception when the truth is revealed.

This is a fairly popular storyline in Omegaverse books: an omega hides their dynamic through inhibitors or magic spells, inhibitor fails and omega is revealed to an Alpha who then does everything they can to mate or bond the omega.

There’s even a famous Omegaverse litigation regarding accusations of plagiarism due to this trope, but I am not touching that story today.

I personally love this trope of the chemically hidden/magically suppressed gender and subsequent reveal and would love to read some transgender Omegaverse interpretations.

Maybe an Omega gets surgically reassigned and becomes an Alpha? So many possibilities...

In Lizzy Bequin’s Quarantine Omegas series, radiation from an unknown attack has forced humans to live inside a walled off city (feeling a bit too familiar, tbh, Lizzy). Lily works as a research scientist and enters the Zone to find her friend Eva, lost on a previous mission.

But her boss betrayed her and brought her to use as bait to catch one of the feral, mutant Alphas who roam the wildness. When her protective suit is taken and she’s exposed to the contaminated air, Lily transforms into an Omega and instantly goes into heat.

This OV book is also a reverse harem: poor Lily has not one but three Alphas chasing after her. It’s also a very sexy, primal story with heavy predator/prey tropes and really interesting Sci-fi world building. There are 3 more books in the series.

Some other excellent OV books that follow the aggressive Alpha, dubious consent, alternate/dystopian world storyline:

• The Controllers by L.V. Lane

• Myth of the Omega by Zoey Ellis

• Alpha Barbarians by Leann Ryans

• Andorra Sector by Lexi C. Foss

Now some less traditional OV: the badass omega.

In Sharilyn Skye’s The Omega Rule, the FMC Eve takes the initiative to approach an Alpha with a contract and a plan. Of course she doesn’t tell him about the secret war she’s fighting at home in the former state of West Virginia.

This book was well written, as were the the other two books in the post-apocalyptic Omegas of New South series. Lots of great character development and world building but it’s also a love letter to Appalachian culture that is romantic and unflinching.

The contemporary Sweet Omegaverse books by Kathryn Moon also flip the script on OV stories. Both Baby and the Late Night Howlers & Lola and the Millionaires are reverse harem stories that explore found family and polyamorous pack love that the A/B/Os build for themselves.

In these comfort-focused books, Alphas form packs and seek out an omega and sometimes betas to ground them. Their bites create empathetic bonds that can help people heal from prior trauma. The sex is deeply romantic and consensual, and everyone is bisexual (jk jk).

Scent is very important here: omegas find potential packs flipping through a scent book. Everyone’s scents sound delicious, like Matthieu’s velvet and rain.

Lucky for fans, Moon makes her own candles based on the characters and they are honestly great. https://moonbookcandleco.bigcartel.com 

One of the more delightful OV books I’ve read this year is called the Alpha of Rickett Hall by Merel Pierce. It’s Regency Omegaverse. Yes, that’s correct.

Take a romance novel about a man coming home from war missing a leg, add a young woman of moderate fortune...

Then add Omegaverse conventions and now he’s a gruff, powerful Alpha with PTSD/depression about his disability and she’s a compassionate nursemaid Omega and they’re so polite & formal with one another despite her heat & his purring and growling.

Slow burn OV is real.

One of the funniest and most delightful Omegaverse books I’ve read doesn’t feature wolves, but it does have dragons.

Clutch by Piper Scott is an adorable MM/Mpreg story about a Grindr date gone very wrong, a big surprise, and how an accidental couple becomes a family.

Equally excellent but on the other end of the angst spectrum, FF/Fempreg and dark Omegaverse book Of Iron and Gold by Lexa Luthor brought lots of amazing drama in an epic fantasy setting. An Omega princess wants to rule alone. An Alpha slave yearns for her freedom...

She-Alpha blacksmith. That’s really all that needs to be said.

Last book of this thread (for now) is the best OV book I’ve read this year. Stolen by the Wolves is an epic, heart-rending, Viking Omegaverse novel set in early medieval Britannia and the Dark Ages of raiding Norsemen.

And there’s a map!