by Aiden Bates
Elias examined his conscience, and then he peeled off his pajama bottoms. "I'm all yours, Alpha," he said. "Forever."
***
"I'm all yours, Alpha," Elias said, as he stood naked before Pat, his brown eyes shining with reflected light. "Forever." Pat's eyes trailed over his long, tan body and his mouth watered. To hear such trust, and such love, from Elias was something he'd never dared to hope for. He didn't deserve it, but he wasn't going to waste it.
He reached out and ran his fingertips along Elias' skin. Elias had always had such beautiful skin, smooth and tan and sensitive to the touch. Right now, that skin was warm under the pads of Pat's fingers. He could elicit shivers of delight from his mate if he touched him in just the right places, and Pat had been busy re-learning just where all of those places were.
Every detail seemed sharper to Pat, or at least every detail that mattered. He couldn't hear the rain that splattered down on the pavement outside the bedroom window, but he caught every nuance of Elias' breath. He couldn't feel the slight chill in the air, but he could bask in the rising heat from Elias' beautiful body. The light caught on Elias' brown curls just so, and the sight of his cock slowly filling and hardening would have been a true distraction if Pat didn't have those alpha hormones urging him on.
But it was the scent that Pat would remember. Lilacs overwhelmed everything else. He couldn't smell the coffee, even though the coffee pot hadn't turned itself off yet. He couldn't smell the neighbors' dinner from last night, even though they'd been on a "fusion" kick lately that was threatening to peel the paint. All that he could smell was lilacs, and those lilacs pulled him forward and propelled him to act.
He'd always been the kind of man to take his time in bed, and he tried to do that now. It was important to him that his partners enjoyed the experience. In fact, he got off on their pleasure more than he did his own. Somehow, the alpha part of his brain had been kicked into overdrive today. His body knew that something was different, even if there was no physical difference in their coupling until the end. He found himself being much more aggressive than he would ever be, if he were in complete control, and he was ashamed.
Elias was having none of it. He put his hands on either side of Pat's face. "It's okay, Alpha," he said, and touched their foreheads together. "We're supposed to be a little extreme right now."
Pat wasn't sure he agreed with that. How would Elias know that, anyway? He'd never been claimed. He wasn't feeling this loss of control, this complete sense that some other force was taking over his body.
Elias slammed their mouths together. Pat could only hold on. "You're not going to hurt me, Alpha," Elias told him. "I trust you."
Pat was lost after that. He nibbled his way down Elias' side, stopping to lick or suck or even deliver a playful nip as the spirit moved him. His hands ran the length and breadth of his mate's body. He knew this body, and he still knew it fairly well, but the animal side of him wanted to know it too. Having been given permission, he sought out all parts of Elias and learned them anew.
Maybe, later on when cooler heads prevailed, Pat would try to think about and unpack that. Right now, he could barely manage conscious thought. He reached for the lube and teased his omega into openness, and then he slicked himself up and slid inside.
Pat wasn't in the habit of going bare. That hadn't even been something that he and Elias had done when they'd been together the first time, in case it triggered a claim or in case Elias got pregnant. The thin, synthetic membrane of a condom wasn't really much of a barrier to sensation, but somehow it seemed like a world of difference right here and right now.
There was no part of Elias that Pat couldn't feel, and he loved it. He relished every inch as he pushed slowly inside, unwilling to miss a thing. This was Elias. This was all of Elias, this was Elias from the inside. Those were Elias' hands clutching at his back. That was Elias' voice, panting out obscenities until Pat bottomed out inside of him. "So good," Elias whispered into Pat's ear. "So full!"
Pat restrained himself as best he could. All of his instincts demanded friction. He wanted to pull back and slam himself home, but he waited. The animal side of him chafed, but he couldn't hurt his omega. He clenched his jaw and waited as Elias' impossibly tight body relaxed around him. "Move," Elias ordered him.
Pat was more than happy to obey. He set up a vigorous pace, one that brought a good sheen of sweat to his skin in no time at all. Underneath him, Elias groaned with delight. His clear pleasure, vocal and visible, buoyed Pat to new heights, and he thrust into his omega again and again.
He had no idea how long he lasted. All that he knew was that instinct drove him to duck his head. He wrapped one hand around Elias' cock and jerked, even as he bit down at the spot where Elias' neck met his shoulder. Elias cried out as he came, and Pat finished deep inside of his mate just as the first drops of blood crossed his tongue.
It was finished. The haze of the mating frenzy left him, and he collapsed on top of Elias. He lay there, panting, for a long moment before pushing himself up. "Are you okay?" he asked, trying to meet his omega's eyes.
Elias looked up and met his eyes squarely. Elias could see only devotion and adoration there. "Never better."
Pat pulled carefully out and helped Elias to the bathroom. They both cleaned up, despite the close quarters, and then headed back to the bedroom. Pat tucked them back into bed. He thought that they would only doze, but he quickly fell into the most contented sleep that he'd ever known.
They woke up together a few hours later. Pat's bite mark was already starting to heal. "I hope you aren't already regretting this," he said.
Elias blushed. "Never, Alpha," he hummed. "I see why they give time off for new claims now."
"Why?" Pat stretched and tried not to jostle Elias. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. Nothing at all." Elias smiled up at him. "I'm just so blissed out, I feel like I'm high." He giggled. "Ryan's going to be pissed."
"Ryan can bite me. I've had to sit there and look at him and Robles, the least he can do is put up with me and you." He shook his head. "I mean, at least you're amazing. And not hairy like Robles. I mean, come on."
Elias laughed, and they headed into the kitchen in search of a snack.
By the time that Sunday night rolled around, neither one of them was willing to separate for the week. Pat hesitated to go to Rhode Island for very long, but at the end of the day he knew that it had to be done. Elias hadn't brought enough clothes to Boston. Maybe they could alternate weeks; they could discuss it later. Either way, there would be no more lonely nights.
They packed up some of Pat's clothes and headed back to Providence, where Elias proudly introduced Pat to the doorman as his alpha and gave him a key. The next day they headed in to the office together. Pat put in for his alpha leave, to begin as soon as the Nixon case concluded, and that was all there was to it.
The warrants they were waiting for started to roll in on Monday morning, along with a nasty note from the judge wanting to know why they hadn't emphasized that there was a possible infectious disease outbreak at stake. Ryan just made a face and made sure that all of his documentation was in order. Pat wouldn't put it past the judge to hang them out to dry if things went south.
They started their search on the eastern side of Westfield, because it was closest to Feeding Hills. If Nixon was stealing medicine and supplies from a local big box store, she had to be desperate. Desperate people didn't travel far.
The first property they searched had been a working family farm in the 1860s. It had been left fallow when the property owners decided to go west. The land had simply been abandoned for decades until the electric company needed it for transmission lines. That kind of land would be perfect for Nixon; no one went out there, unless there was a problem. The existing buildings were still there, and there was still some agricultural capacity.
Elias wanted to come on the visit. Pat didn't even have to think before telling him that there was no way in hell. Ryan snickered before back
ing the alpha "one time only." "You're not a cop," he explained. "I can requisition you a vest, and that's great, but I'm not legally allowed to hand you a gun. You can come and wait with the backup crew. You can hang out and wait in the car. But, Elias, you're a civilian. I can't bring you into a potentially dangerous situation. Never mind that you're my civilian friend, and my friend's civilian omega."
Pat hadn't realized that Ryan thought of him as a friend. Huh.
Elias grumbled about the restriction, but it wasn't something he wasn't used to. "I just don't want you to be out there on your own," he admitted. "Please be safe."
Pat couldn't make any promises, but he agreed to try, just for his love.
They went into the site. They did find someone living out there, and that someone was trying to live off the grid by hiding from society. The recluse turned out to be a homeless person who'd found a way to keep himself safe and satisfied, though, instead of a kidnapper with a brood of sick kids. Ryan and Pat conferred. Technically, they should have arrested the homeless man for trespassing, but he wasn't hurting anyone. He said that he'd been living out here for years.
They didn't need words between themselves to come up with a conclusion. "At the end of the day, buddy, enforcing vagrancy laws or whatever isn't our job." Pat gave the stranger a grin. "You're not a danger to anyone out here, and as long as you're safe and you have everything you need, I can't see why you shouldn't be left alone."
"Thank you." The man crossed his arms over his chest. He knew that they had an angle, and that they hadn't come out all that way just to demonstrate their magnanimity.
Ryan pulled out a wanted poster. "Have you seen this woman?"
The homeless man nodded. "Seen her hunting, a time or two. Last time I saw her, she wasn't looking too good. I kept my distance."
"That's a good plan, sir." Pat fished out a card and passed it to the man. "She's got an unpleasant disease. If you see anything, please find some way to let me know. Or, more importantly, if you need anything. There are lots of guys around who can come out and give you a hand."
They made their way back to the car and headed back into Framingham. The visit had been a bust, but at least they could cross the site off their list.
The next day's site visits were to the grounds of an abandoned church a little farther south of the first site and to another location with its own graveyard, just beyond it along a dirt road. Pat had almost liked the little church. He would have liked it more if their suspect had been there. Instead, all that they found was graffiti and empty beer cans.
The graveyard site had a little bit more promise. They found snares set up, one of which had a rabbit caught inside. Pat released the rabbit, pleased to note that the poor thing was none the worse for wear for its ordeal. They found a few used tissues as well, which they carefully collected into evidence bags to be tested for diphtheria.
The week went on the same way, and the weekend brought no respite. They weren't going to let more than a night go by without checking out a potential hideaway, and if that meant missing out on a weekend then that's what it would take. Pat tried to tell himself that he didn't mind. That was just time that he would get to use for his alpha leave with Elias, more paid time off.
That didn't make it any easier, as the days got cooler little by little and the rain poured down. The commute from the far western part of Massachusetts down to Providence was even longer than the commute from Jamaica Plain to Providence. Fortunately, at the end of it there was an incredible omega waiting for him with open arms.
They looked at more sites. There was an abandoned school out in the middle of nowhere, that turned out to be so contaminated with asbestos that they had to call in Hazmat to check it out. They found a family of undocumented farm workers living in another old abandoned farm. Once again, they decided that they weren't there for immigration law. Pat warned the family about Nixon and the diphtheria, which the family seemed to appreciate. They also reported having seen Nixon, in company with a couple of older teens.
The older teens' descriptions were new, and Pat scribbled them down as fast as he could. There was no way to be sure, because he couldn't exactly bring a sketch artist out there, but if he was correct then those teenagers were Asra Randall and Jonas Arena. The age was roughly correct, and the ethnic background fit two of the missing kids.
He didn't even want to think about losing a kid, learning to move on, and then finding out that the kid had been raised by a madwoman. Oh, and might be in danger due to lack of medical care.
Knowing that she was traveling with the two teenagers just tightened the net around Nixon. They would catch her soon. And when they did, Pat was going to spoil his omega the way he deserved to be spoiled.
Chapter Eleven
The next week started out pretty much the same as the first. Elias and Pat stayed in Providence, because it was just easier with the long days and constant setbacks. Elias stayed back from the initial encounters, just as he'd been told, but he hated it. He didn't want to be apart from his alpha, and he didn't want to think about what could happen if things went awry.
On Monday, they explored an abandoned train station in the little notch of Massachusetts that dipped into Connecticut, just south of Southwick. There they found more evidence of local teens partying, but not much else. On Tuesday, they checked out a few old ruins in the Granville State Forest, but the only thing that panned out was more evidence of poaching. Anyone could have been guilty of that.
On Wednesday, Elias stayed back at the office. He'd gotten a message from his boss at the agency, Dagmar. HomeSafe wanted an update, and Elias figured that he might as well stay back and get that out of the way since he couldn't be useful out in the field. He dialed into the videoconference, which he hated, and smiled at Dagmar. "How's it going, Dagmar?"
Dagmar grinned back at him. "Not too bad, Elias. It's been what, a month? I just wanted to check in with you and see how things were going. I know you've been sending a few emailed updates, but it seemed like a good time to touch base and check in. Especially since it sounded like this case was a little bit more complicated than the usual."
Elias blew out a long sigh. "You have no idea." He explained their current theory about Nixon, the missing kids, and the diphtheria. "It's hard, you know. It's already spread to one kid who couldn't get the vaccine, just because the suspect was out and about. The local agency is desperate to try to stop her before there's a full-blown outbreak, but they have limited resources and a lot of ground to cover. And, of course, they don't want to spook her into doing something rash."
"That's a legitimate concern." Dagmar grimaced. "I'm going to try to rustle up a team of counselors and have them sent to Boston. When you find those kids, they're going to need a lot of help adjusting. So will their parents."
Elias groaned. "Tell me about it." He rubbed at his temples and yawned. "Sorry, it's not the company. The case is taking a toll on the investigators, you know? They're all worried about an outbreak, and about the kids themselves. And they're worried about the suspect, too."
"Really?" Dagmar wrinkled her nose. "That's a new one."
"They both recognize that she's not entirely right in the head, and that she's a trauma victim." Elias frowned. "That's her whole motivation. She thinks that the State can't protect abused kids, so she has to take it upon herself to do it. The kids weren't actually being abused, but that's a different story. Ryan, the lead detective, works in Abused Persons. And Pat, the other detective, has seen this kind of thing before. He works in Cold Case." Elias rubbed absently at his claim scar.
"What is that?" Dagmar straightened up.
"What?" Elias sat up straighter.
"On your neck. Is that a bite?" Dagmar turned her head, as if looking at him sideways would somehow make the image clearer.
Elias' cheeks burned. "Um. Right. About that. I might have—" He stopped himself. He had nothing to be ashamed of. "I got mated about a week and a half ago. To Pat, the detective from Cold Case."
&nb
sp; Dagmar sat back, her jaw hanging open. "I'm shocked. I don't even know what to say right now. I just… that's not like you. You're not usually that impulsive. How long could you have known the guy? A couple of weeks?"
Elias held his head up, even though his insides quaked. "Ten years."
Dagmar's eyes bulged. "You've been seeing this guy for ten years and you just now got around to doing something about it?"
"No." Elias huffed out a little laugh. "No. We used to date. We broke up, for stupid reasons. But, ah, we've reconsidered our positions. We don't want to be apart anymore. We want to be together, and we're going to be together. We've got some logistical issues to sort out yet, but we've agreed to wait until after this case closes to worry about it." He ran a hand through his hair and smiled. "We're going to be very happy together. Also, I'll be putting in for some time off for claim leave after the case closes."
"Yeah. Yeah, you will." Her face brightened as a smile threatened to take the whole screen over. "I'm so happy for you. Really, I am. Elias, you're such an incredible man. I'm thrilled that you've found someone to share your life with. You deserve to have someone who will adore you and cherish you, and you have so much love to give. I've seen you with the families you work with, and with the kids you save. Elias, I hope that he realizes just how lucky he is."
