Loki kept his mama's words and lessons in mind, filing the information away for when it would be needed again. He learned so much from her and knew it would all come in useful in time. He had learned from a young age to be patient, to wait and watch and learn before making decisions. Unlike his rash idiot brother. He loved Thor dearly, but Thor was such a moron that it was hard to believe they were related.

The fateful day that Frigga's words came to be important was a blistering day in the middle of summer. Loki loathed summer. It was always so humid and gross. Though he noticed that he seemed to be the only one who was affected so much by the heat. It was just another thing that made him different.

"Why do we have to train in this heat?" He grumbled at Thor as they headed out to the training yard with the others in their age group. Most of the group had already presented, either Alphas or those who hadn't presented officially, but who were clearly destined to be an Alpha because of whatever instincts they had shown in childhood. Odin had insisted that Loki be in this group as he was expected to present as an Alpha.

"It's a nice day," Thor replied in his loud, jovial way. He was always a ball of sunshine, much like Baldur, and Odin's favorite, also like Baldur. "At least it's not raining," he added.

Loki groaned. That would make it even more miserable if it were raining. "Don't you get any ideas," he added before Thor could decide it would be fun to make it rain.

Thor laughed, but at least he didn't make it rain.

Loki fought back another groan when he saw that the instructors had a rack of training swords for the day. Swords were not his strong point. He preferred daggers. At least it wasn't Thor's specialty either. Thor preferred Mjolnir, or he would one day. He was still in training, so he had to use a non-magical practice hammer.

"Don't let me hear any groans from you lot!" The instructor called as the students picked up practice swords. "Asgardian warriors need to be skilled in all weapons, not just your favorites,"

The trainees took up their places and the drills began with the instructor going up and down the lines making corrections. Loki felt like he was fighting against the training sword the entire time. It was heavy and his arms felt like jelly as he tried to keep up with the speed of the drills while also lifting the stupid heavy sword as high as it needed to be, or swinging it with enough 'snap', as the instructors kept correcting them when they didn't move with enough intention, speed, strength, whatever magical quality made up 'snap'.

The drills continued and Loki soon found himself drenched in sweat. He didn't know why it was so hard for him, why all the others seemed able to keep up. The sun beat down on him and his breathing was ragged as he worked.

His mind was so focused on the drills, on the heat, on the work, that he didn't notice the change until it was too late. His psychic scent, physical scent, and aura all shifted. All at once, that mark of puberty hit, taking him from child to teen.

And that scent was undeniably Omega.

Loki finally realized that something was wrong when the drills stopped. He paused as all eyes turned to him, as everyone turned to stare at him. Their senses were all heightened with adrenaline from the exercise. Loki saw their eyes widen, nostrils flared as gathered Alphas took in the scent of an unmated Omega, of the stronger scent of an Omega who was presenting.

They were staring at Loki like he was a piece of meat. No one dared move, dared speak, dared break whatever held them all still. Had Loki been older, he would have thought the looks in their eyes was lust. But he wasn't old enough for them to be lusting after him, he was barely a teen. It was the scent of Omega they were being drawn to.

What truly spiked Loki's fear and killed any hope he had of getting out of this situation unscathed was when he looked to his older brother for help. Instead of Thor coming to help him, as any sibling would do (family being immune to the psychic scents of Alphas and Omegas among family members), Loki saw that Thor was frozen in place and staring at him with that same lust-like expression in his eyes.

Thor wasn't immune.

Thor wouldn't come help him.

Loki was on his own, an unmated Omega surrounded by overly excited Alphas.