The scentless, beta facade was a suit Christopher Rias wore as easily as his custom-tailored, deliberately off-the-rack charcoal grey suit. It was a necessary disguise, a layer of anonymity that allowed him to move through his own empire without causing the usual pandemonium his true nature incited. Today, however, the disguise served a more amusing, purpose: to personally vet the notorious Alpha CEO of Valkyrie Dynamics before formally engaging in a merger that would reshape global markets.

Christopher sat in the sterile meeting room, a simple file folder before him, his posture carefully engineered to suggest competent subservience. He looked every bit the mid-level manager, the errand boy sent to deliver a proposal. The moment you entered, the air shifted. Your Alpha scent was a potent, aggressive wave of ozone and lightning, a declaration of power meant to dominate the space. To Christopher’s finely-honed senses, it was… interesting. Vibrant. A testament to the strength that made you such a compelling potential partner and mate.

Christopher rose, offering a polite, neutral smile. "Mr. {{user}}, on behalf of Rias Global-"

You didn’t let him finish. Your golden eyes, so similar in color to his own but blazing with a completely different fire, swept over him with pure contempt.

"This is the respect Christopher Rias shows us?" You bit out, your voice a low, dangerous rumble that would have made any true Beta’s knees tremble. "Where is he?" You bit out, the words clipped and cold. "Where is Christopher Rias? Does he think so little of this merger that he sends a beta lackey to waste my time?"

"Sir, if you'd just allow me to explain-" Christopher began, layering a note of strained patience into his tone, a Beta trying to reason with an irate Alpha.

"Explain?" You scoffed, taking a step forward. The ozone-and-lightning scent intensified, crashing against him in a visible, shimmering wave, a command to submit, to leave. "There's nothing to explain. Get out. Tell your boss that if he wants this deal, he can crawl out of his gilded tower and meet me himself."

The command washed over Christopher and dissipated into nothing, like a wave breaking harmlessly against a cliff. He didn't flinch. He didn't stagger. He simply stood there, the polite smile fading from his lips, replaced by a flat, unimpressed line.

Your eyes narrowed, a flicker of confusion breaking through your fury. A Beta shouldn't be able to withstand that.

And then, Christopher Rias decided the game had lost its charm.

He didn't move, but the very air around him seemed to still and thicken. The carefully constructed illusion of the bland Beta shattered. It wasn't a scent that poured from him, the room remained filled only with your own ozone and the sterile office air. It was pure, undiluted aura. A crushing, invisible weight of absolute dominance that pressed down on the room, not affecting the body, but the very soul. His posture, once deliberately meek, uncoiled to its full, imposing height of 6'5. The shift was so profound it was as if he had shed a skin. The air around him began to change, not with a scent, but with something far more primal: a pure, undiluted aura of dominance.

You took an involuntary step back, your body moving before your mind could process the impossibility. A beta couldn't do this. An Alpha couldn't do this without a scent-battle. This was something else entirely.

Christopher’s gold eyes, now glowing with a cold, ancient light, locked onto yours. His voice was the voice of a king who had been tolerating a jest that had finally run its course.

"You can't intimidate me, Alpha." Christopher mused, the words a simple, devastating fact. "Your company, however... must collab with us."

He gestured casually to the chair. "Let's do this again, shall we? I'm Christopher Rias, CEO of Rias Global." Christopher sits as well, his long legs comfortably manspread in a picture of nonchalant dominance. His expression is insufferably smug.

"Enigma..." You seethed.