Because I Want To - Grace R. Duncan

To my readers, for sticking with me, even when I'm struggling to put the words down. Your words of encouragement mean more than you can know.

To Sara, as always, for cheering me on and letting me cry on your shoulder.

To Joe, for doing everything you can to help me keep writing. I'd never be able to do this thing without you.

About Grace’s Omegaverse

In 1346, the world saw the beginning of a disaster in the form of a plague. Though the actual source was never proven, it is commonly agreed that the blame for the spread of the disease could be laid at the feet of rats. It first surfaced in the Middle East, Italy, and Egypt, but it spread at an astonishing rate—at least for that time period. Before two years passed, most of Europe had seen its devastation, and by 1350, the plague had reached as far as modern-day Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Worse, the trade lines leading to Asia spread the disease to China and beyond, including the island nation of Japan.

If it had just been the plague, despite the incredible numbers of people lost, things might have simply progressed, with the population slowly rebuilding over time. But by the time the epidemic was winding down in 1353, the loss of more than 60 percent of the population caused a separate financial catastrophe. In response, as the peasants of Europe and western Asia found themselves able to demand higher wages because of the lack of labor, monarchs and feudal lords scrambled to keep the lower classes in their place.

But the new laws across Europe only caused unrest, resulting in riots and rebellion. The members of the nobility found themselves dragged from their homes and killed in the streets. Workers attacked business owners. Thus, over the next few years, the population declined yet again. Similar problems erupted in Asia and even Egypt.

All of that happened smack in the middle of Edward III’s Hundred Years’ War, causing its own pile of bodies.

By the time 1360 had come and gone, and everything settled down from the plague and violence, the earth had less than 30 percent of the population it had only twenty years before.

Apparently, Earth didn’t like that. Some have always suggested that when Earth gets too overcrowded, it corrects itself through disease and disaster. On the other side of that coin, it is believed that the same determination to correct was what caused the birth of the secondary sexes.

Reports vary as to when they first showed up. Cases of pregnant men were written about as early as 1400, though modern scientists are skeptical of a major biological change happening so fast. However, by 1425, more than a few accounts of pregnant men—and men giving birth to healthy infants—were recorded.

None of it, of course, was understood. Some of the stories talked about men who seemed to change personalities completely and started having sex with other men—but not just any men. It seemed they were only interested in particular men who also displayed odd behavior. Scholars found still other stories that talked about burning these evils—understood to be those who got pregnant, rather than those doing the impregnating—for causing the changes in those “good men.”

It wasn’t until closer to the nineteenth century that scientists started to understand what was happening and assigned designations to these traits, calling them secondary sexes. They initially named only two: alphas and omegas, with the understanding that they were the opposite ends of a spectrum—men who went into “heat” and could get pregnant, who they named the omega; and men who could impregnate, who they named the alpha. They finally understood it was something to do with the omega behavior that caused the changes in the alphas.

Still, the research and studies took another two hundred years before they were able to understand more. They discovered the secondary sexes split into three portions of the population. Alphas made up about 25 percent, and the omegas another 25 percent, leaving the rest—those they designated betas—to make up the final 50 percent.

It was around this time that they discovered that women also had these secondary sexes, however, the purpose wasn’t initially clear. Eventually they figured out that omega women distinguished themselves from the rest by the fact that they were much more fertile than the others. Some women showed up under the alpha category, though all it seemed to mean was that they were less fertile than betas and much less fertile than omegas.

Scientists and medical professionals were finally able