“You must never reject an alpha’s advances, or they will force them. Or direct them elsewhere and sully your name with whores and bastards,” Alicent explains to him, in the days following Aemond’s first heat at the age of 12. Explaining his added duties, his unexpected new place in society. “After enough times an alpha may let you prepare with oil. But at first you must endure the mating bite, and then the pain of every encounter after.” Or: The world teaches Aemond what it means to be an omega. And then, with much time and healing, his new husband helps him unlearn it.