Ashley King passed from beneath the sheltering arch of the Alpha walkway tunnel that wound its way above the vast ecosystem of the Lindon family’s front lawn and into the budding sunlight, batting her eyes as her pupils readjusted to the midday glow. Keeping her hand level to her chest, she instinctively curled her fingers over her palm, shading the three-inch eighteen-year-old who happened to be reclining within.

            Appreciatively, Jack Potter bowed his head beneath the cooling cover of his girlfriend’s fingers and leaned back deeper into the plush give of her skin. Luckily, their time in the sun was short-lived, as they soon found themselves above what served as a porch for the Omega-sized habitat, standing in the shadow of the tremendous front door. It was a bizarre enough standing this high above the ground when most Alpha platforms were designed to run along the earth, but evidently the Lindon residence was a special case. As the Omega passageway itself was well out of the pair’s reach, a control panel with an intercom and a bright red doorbell awaited their use, but Ashley didn’t hit the button just yet.

            Coming to a stop, the youngest King shifted her weight from heel to heel, arching her soles up in the sandals absentmindedly, and drew out her phone with the hand not currently cupping her much more precious cargo. She clicked on the power and popped open the correct application; noting this shift in her other arm, Jack pulled his own cellular from his pocket too.

            “You’re sure everything on this list is how you want it, Jack?” Ashley whispered into her palm as she swiped through the words onscreen, reviewing lines that had been proofread and revised by the couple to a precocious degree during the past week. She’d probably asked this question close to one hundred times throughout the entire process

            “Yeah. Yeah, I think so,” Jack confirmed as he studied the list, despite having already memorized every word. It felt more than surreal to be looking at a “wish list” of intimacy lessons for a mixed-size couple such as themselves, one that he himself at contributed to in equal measure. Even stranger was that its number-one item represented an act that, a mere year and a half before, had been no less than the most traumatic experience of his life. When Ashley had entrapped him in her shoe and delivered an unintentionally sound thrashing beneath her pounding toes, as a supposed reward for his accidental ogling of her pretty peds, he’d never have dreamed of not only asking to repeat the process, but receiving a practical demonstration of it.

            Yet here he was, sitting in his girlfriend’s hand before the veritable fortress of an Omega’s house, about to do just that.

            “I texted it to Claire last night and she says she has everything ready to go. But you know if we think of something else for the list or change our minds in there, she’ll be totally cool with it,” Ashley noted. She affectionately tousled the boy’s shaggy brown hair with her pinky finger as she locked the device and slid it back into her shorts.

            “I know,” Jack said, gulping from anxiety that lingered nonetheless, then lied: “I’m not worried.”

            “Hey, you… know I’m really happy you decided to come with me for this, right?” Ashley offered sheepishly, again repeating herself after dozens of preparatory conversations. She twirled a strand of honey-blonde hair around her index finger, pinching it at the end.

            “Sure. You know you didn’t make me do it.”

            “Yeah. But I still… well, thank you.”

            “Of course.”

            He gawked at the tinted surface of the ovular peephole came far above, its blackened glass looking to Jack like it would've fit perfectly well onto the side of a clock tower rather than someone's front door which, if the glances he'd taken were accurate, was among the more modest facades in the Omega neighborhood, constructed of simple white-polished wood. Still, the thing was big enough to make up the side of a skyscraper.

            Ashley, apparently satisfied at last with Jack’s contentment level, reached out for the control panel. However, she didn't even need to lay a hand on the bell before the door swung open, giving way to a cool gust of refreshing wind that chilled the Beta’s cheeks and watered his eyes as he gazed into the yawning space that served as the Lindons' front foyer. And of course, there stood all one-hundred-forty feet of Claire Lindon, clad in a sky-blue sleeveless top and black workout shorts that displayed her bronzed thighs in all their toned glory. She lowered her hand away from the unlocking mechanism high up on the wall, advancing a single fingertip that by rights would've been capable of covering Jack's entire body twenty times over if she were to reach for him now.

            The Beta was absolutely dumbfounded, as though he'd been walloped upside the head and spun a tumble dryer before being made to stare into the eye of a hypnotic storm.

            God, she was massive. In fact, there wasn't a good enough adjective for Jack to grapple with in comparison, and so he simply let his eyes make the long voyage up the mountainous contours of the Omega's hips and chest, along her neck, up to her jawline and the cascading canopy of brunette locks. Even though the walkway leveled off at the level of Claire's stomach, the rest of her was still too much for the Beta to drink in without craning his neck up. Ashley had given him several pep talks before this meeting, knowing he'd never been quite so up close and personal with an Omega, but even his girlfriend's soothing comparisons to ready him for Claire's sheer scale did not at all do her justice. She was a living landscape, with a shadow that could turn day to night in a blink, who just happened to be benevolently looking down upon them with a disarmingly sweet smile.

            “Hey, Ash,” Claire greeted cheerfully, then turned her gaze to the Beta in Ashley's palm, her titanic hands planted firmly on her hips. Her voice lowered several gracious decibels as she addressed him, pursing her lips into a whisper: “Hi there, Jack. It's good to finally meet you in person.”

            “H-Hi, Ms. L-Lindon,” Jack sputtered with all the cordiality he could muster, waving a hand up to her that at this particular moment felt startlingly pathetic. It wasn't fear that gripped his throat, but somehow, being so near to this girl who he understood had once participated in a thirty-minute session of domineering vigilantism to put his already-towering girlfriend in her place, confidence wasn't coming so easily. Being around that much power, even if it was being gifted for the betterment of his relationship with Ashley, was still a lot for his apprehensively churning stomach to handle.

            Batting the chocolate pools of her irises, Claire regarded the Beta before releasing a snort of surprised laughter like the burst of a thunder cloud. Jack flinched, noting how easily he would've been floored by Claire's breath if he'd been anywhere near her lips when that gale-force chortle was unleashed.

            A broad grin stretched with seemingly infinite goodwill over the smooth bridge of Claire's lips. She covered her mouth, hoping to recover after noticing how her involuntary reaction to what she at first assumed to be a joke had affected her gravely formal new acquaintance.

            “Sorry, I didn't meant to laugh, it's just...” she proffered meekly, clearly a little embarrassed for the both of them. She shot a glance to Ashley, who only grimaced, not at all shocked by her tiny partner’s salutation. “...it's gonna be a loooong afternoon if you decide to call me Ms. Lindon instead of Claire. We're just here to make sure everybody knows how to be have fun and be safe at the same time. C'mon. It's okay.”

            Sighing with relief to have the ice not only broken but melted, Jack released some of the tension in his shoulders and sank even lower against Ashley's fingers, which provided him with a supportive embrace around his shoulders. She plopped her thumb into his lap and he squeezed it against his stomach like a plush toy.

            “Right. S-Sorry,” the Beta chuckled. “Claire.” His voice had never felt so quiet, even though he was wearing a voice tag to amplify it. The teen was having difficulty believing his miniscule voice was not only reaching Claire's ears but also registering as anything more important to her than the buzzing of a lost gnat, yet the girl's brown eyes were trained directly on him, focused to his person so long as his lips were flapping.

            “That's more like it,” the young Enforcer said with another smile.

            Jack blinked, still struggling to comprehend the magnitude of this tanned goddess who, from what he'd heard of her through his girlfriend, was the closest thing Ashley had to a second sister. It was almost unfathomable to conceive of getting to know such a monumental being on a level of equality where they might be regarded as siblings. Such a thing frankly boggled his mind.

            In the next moment he felt Ashley's comfortingly warm breath against the back of his head, breezing through his hair. He straightened up, hugging her thumb tighter up to his chest, and began to gently stroke the grooved curve of her thumbprint.

             “Are... you gonna be okay?” she questioned softly into his ear, her hair draping loosely around him as she leaned in closer to her cupped palm.

             “Uhh...” Jack gulped, unsure of just how serious his own follow-up query was. His voice dropped to a mumble. “Is it too late to back out of this?”