Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dry, cracked fingertips drag along skin, tracing the groove between the edge of his final rib and the concave of his stomach. His hand comes to rest on the dip of his abdomen, his palm flat against his body, his thumb pressed into his belly button. 

Nothing grows beneath his hand. There are no cells dividing, no being stirred, no life coming to save Charlie from the nightmare he’s been living for the past seventeen months. 

There is no part of him that wants a child. His logical brain doesn’t want to bring another soul into the fucked-up world that he’s existed in for the past eighteen years. Not when there was a chance they could be born like him, born into a life that would never truly be its own. 

If he knew the baby would be an alpha, or even much more likely beta, it would weigh less heavily on his mind. But there was no guarantee. No way to know. The baby could be like him; he could be born to be owned. Not that he’d ever know the child.

No. Charlie didn’t want a baby. 

But the small part of him that still held onto a shred of selfishness and self-preservation prayed every night for the weeks following his heat that something would twinge inside of him, that finally a seed would have been planted. What he was really praying for was an end. 

When Charlie had presented as an Omega at the tender age of fourteen, he hadn’t really known what it meant. He knew the basics of secondary genders and the way all children grew up knowing of them. 

Alphas were in charge. 

Betas lived in the middle, and omegas…..omegas were special. 

Charlie just hadn’t known what 'special’ had really meant. 

The state of the world lived in Charlie’s peripheral vision during his childhood. 

Everyone knew that fewer babies were born than before. They all sat in classrooms that had been built to educate a few dozen children, surrounded by empty desks. 

Only a handful of Charlie’s classmates had siblings, and of those who did, only three had more than one.

Having two sibilings of his own, Charlie had always felt like a bit of a school celebrity. 

“The Spring line is so fertile,” he’d heard a teacher muse in the hallway one day during his fifth year. He’d not known what they’d meant at the time or how his family's supposed fertility would change the course of his life erepriably. 

When he’d entered secondary school, he’d noticed some of his classmates begin to change. Some would miss school for a few days only to reappear as a new person, unchanged on the outside but unrecognizable in aura and demeanour, their heads held high in the sky. 

Others would be gone only a day and return with their eyes trained forward, falling into step behind another student or teacher without realizing that they’d done it. 

Alphas and betas that had presented as they came of age. 

Charlie had assumed that when his own presentation came, he’d be among the seamlessly endless betas. He was no alpha. He didn’t need to present to know that. His sister had presented the year before, yet another beta. Charlie had thought he would follow in her footsteps the way he had his entire life.

When he’d woken in a sweat, three months after his fourteenth birthday, with a white hot pain in his stomach and a blanket of heavy anxiety encasing his entire body, he’d never dreamed what the truth of the situation was. 

He’d thought he’d been dying, that his appendix must be bursting or some other organ was shutting down. He’d only learned the truth of his situation when his mother poked her face into the room; her nose turned up, scenting the air. 

“Oh Charlie,” she’d murmured. 

“Stay there. I’ll see what I have for you.” 

She’d disappeared, closing the door behind her, and Charlie writhed on his mattress, clutching his stomach. He was going to die. He was sure of it. 

The room around him felt too big, like it might swallow him whole. He pulled his blankets around himself as tightly as he could muster, tucking in the edges and shoving pillows around his body, all the while doubled over from the pain in his abdomen. 

“Take these,” Jane had appeared back in his room, a handful of pills in one hand and a water bottle in the other. 

“They might be expired, but they’ll help until we can get you in to see someone properly. God knows I’ve not had a heat since your brother was conceived.Your father is getting extra bedding from the basement. I’ll help you move your mattress onto the floor. It’ll be easier to canopy that way. That’ll help too. We’ll get you a kit before your next one; from what I remember, you don’t need a knot for the first cycle.” Jane seemed to be talking mostly to the room at large rather than specifically to her son.

“What’s happening?” Charlie had whimpered, clutching his blanket closer to him as his mother tried to prod him out of bed so she could shift the mattress. 

“Come on, dear, you must know.”

Charlie let out another meek sound.

“You’ve presented, and you’re, well, you’re an omega. No one is going to believe it. Although I suppose they’ll all smell it in due time. Now really Charlie, up, off the bed. I promise getting it on the floor will help.”

Heat. 

His mother had said the word heat. 

The pills she’d pressed into his hand were suppressants. 

She wanted to move the mattress onto the floor so that he could more easily nest.

Charlie had thought that he was dying, but now he knew better. Now he knew that his life as he’d known it was really and truly over. 

Charlie returned to school a week later, his eyes firmly fixed on the floor. 

He’d been naive enough to believe that people might not be able to tell. That the suppressants and the scent patch would be enough for him to pass as a beta. Charlie could never have guessed how incorrect he’d been. 

Charlie had only made it a month before the school seemed his presence too much of a "distraction.”. 

The distraction being Charlie being harassed by every alpha he came across in the hall and herded by the betas towards which ever Alpha they’d fallen into flank with. 

His body had been covered in bruises from how many times he’d been forcibly pressed into a bank of lockers and scented by an alpha who prior to that day he’d never even spoken to. 

There was only one alpha in the entire school, teachers included, who had never made Charlie feel uncomfortable or unsafe. 

Charlie cherished the first and last class of the end of the day when he could spend fifteen minutes seated next to the alpha, who never did anything other than offer him a soft hello and a gentle smile. Those fleeting minutes were the only times in the school day when Charlie felt even slightly safe. 

The school had no idea how to handle him; they hadn’t had an omega, let alone a male omega, in the past decade. It was uncharted territory. They had no policies in place, no structure to follow, and no safe guards. As his first real heat approached and his scent shifted, it became abundantly clear that staying in school would not be possible. 

So Charlie had moved to independent home study, watching mournfully as his brother and sister walked out the door to school each morning. 

It wasn’t the intuition of higher learning that Charlie missed. It was those fifteen minutes at the beginning and end of the day. Those fleeting seconds of safety. 

But even that shining time in form wasn’t worth spending the rest of the day cowering in fear, a feeling that had only grown as his heat approached and the attitude of every alpha had shifted around him, the aggression and interest suddenly overwhelming. 

“Maybe we should look into sending him to a specialty school?” Julio had suggested to his wife one night a conversation that Charlie hadn’t been meant to overhear. 

“Somewhere he could be safe with people... like him.” 

“I didn’t have to go to a specialty school,” Jane had snapped back. 

"Yes, well, times have changed a lot since we were in school. You weren’t the only Omega for miles around.” 

The decline in the omega population directly reflected the decline in the population of the country. There were fewer omegas in Julio and Jane's day than their parents, and the omegas in their generation greatly outnumbered those of their children. The shift had been subtle at first. Fewer omegas are born in every generation. It hadn’t been a real concern at first; after all, it wasn’t as if Omegas were the only members of society that could fall pregnant. 

Only as infertility rose as a whole, Omegas seemed to be the only ones who maintained a steady level of fertility. 

Omegas could still fall pregnant easily, a simple solution to the nation's falling population; only the omega population had fallen faster than any other. 

Charlie had read what felt like a few dozen think pieces in various publications, pondering if it was the remaining Omega's societal responsibility to produce as many children as possible.

People proposed mandatory birth quotes for confirmed omegas, government-run breeding centres, forbidding omegas from bonding until they’d produced a certain number of pups for a predetermined number of alphas. 

Every word made Charlie want to curl up and die. 

In every article and every debate, never was the welfare of omegas discussed. Never were their wants considered. They were a valuable commodity first and a person second. Maybe not even that. 

What would a school of omegas even be like? Would it be a school at all or just a holding pen until they could be bred? 

Charlie never wanted to find out. 

When he saw the pamphlets for these schools spread across the kitchen table one day, he had scooped them all up and stuffed them into the bin. 

Whenever his parents tried to broach the conversation, Charlie would go offline, reclining to respond or even acknowledge his parents when they tried to speak to him. 

“Leave him alone.” Tori would snap at her parents any time they started in on the topic, her hand instinctively stretching out to take her brother's hand. 

“What’s an omega?” Olly had asked one night after their parents had gone up to bed, the Spring siblings left to crowd together on the sofa downstairs, the blue light from the television the only thing brightening the room. 

“Nothing you need to worry about,"  Charlie had soothed, pushing Olly's hair back out of his face. He hoped that was true. He hoped that Oliver would never have to know the specifics of what being an omega meant in the world that they lived in now. 

Charlie was homeschooled for a year before something changed.

An entire year of being an omega. 

Of learning what it meant to be in a body that wasn’t entirely in his control. 

He got through it. 

Suppressants and scent patches kept his symptoms at bay.

“You’re lucky, really. When I first presented, suppressants weren’t popularized. I had a heat every month.” His mother had reminded him when she thought that Charlie was being a little too moppy. 

A heat every month? Charlie couldn’t imagine it. He never wanted to find out what that was like. 

A year at home before everything changed. 

“Charlie, can you come down here?” His father had called up the stairs a few days after Charlie had turned fifteen. 

“We’ve got something we want to talk to you about.” 

Charlie had immediately blanched. Whatever this conversation was going to be, he had a feeling it wouldn’t end well for him. 

“Charlie, we’ve been talking with your doctor, and we think it might be best for you to...” 

“You’re going to go away for a while, dear,” his mother cut off, sensing that her husband was going to take too long to get to the point. 

“Go away? Where?” 

“An institute” 

“Like a school?” 

Jane wrinkled her nose. 

“Sort of. It’s a special place; they’ll know how to better take care of you.” 

“I’m fine here." He protested. This wasn’t happening. He wasn’t going to let it. 

“You might be fine, but we want more than that for you, son.” 

“We want more of you. You’ve got a lot of potential, Charlie, and you’re not going to fulfill it hiding in your room for the rest of your life.” 

“Potential to do what?” He questioned. His marks in school were good. He was scoring well on every assessment test. 

“You’re very special, Charlie." 

You’re an omega. 

He knew that that was what his parents meant. 

Long ago, being an omega wasn’t all that different from any other secondary gender. Now. Now there was an expectation, a duty. 

But his parents couldn’t mean... no.

He was too young. 

They couldn’t be sending him somewhere to do... that? 

“They’ll take care of you. Get you ready for your-” 

For his what? 

“I don’t want to go. I won’t go.” 

“Dear” Jane reached over and placed her hand on his knee. 

“It’s not really our choice.” 

…..

That was nearly five years ago. 

Five years since Charlie had seen his family. 

Had they wondered why he’d never come back? 

Were they worried? 

Or did they even think about him anymore? 

Maybe they’d been told he was dead? 

That would make sense. 

If everything had gone correctly, Charlie would have been home years before. 

Looking around at the cell that had been passed off as his room for the past months, Charlie felt sure that death would be the only way he’d ever see the outside world again. 

His stomach remained flat. 

The experiments inflicted on him to try to change that were getting more and more strenuous. If one of them didn’t kill him soon…not to mention the extracurricular ‘tests’ he was put through. 

Not for the worst time, Charlie wished for sharper teeth. If he had the teeth of an alpha, he could take matters into his own hands. He could pry open the vines on his wrist with his canines, and it would all be over in a matter of minutes, seconds even. 

Instead, his teeth were rounded, nearly dull. 

Charlie heard the clatter of bodies in the hallway, causing his body to tense up in alarm. 

There were multiple people in the hall. 

Groups were never good. 

If more than one person walked into the room... dear lord. 

Charlie shrunk back into his small bed as if he could be absorbed into the wall and hide away. 

He heard the whoosh of the electric door sliding open. The door could be only opened with a code. A door that Charlie, in a fit of delirium, had once tried to pry open until his fingernails started to bleed. 

Laughter and jeering sounded. 

Guards Charlie thought to himself. 

There must be a new hire. 

An initiation gift. 

Charlie was going to be sick. He glanced hurriedly around the room, his eyes searching for the sleep aid concoction that a sympathetic member of the medical team had slipped to him. 

It would be much easier on Charlie if he didn’t remember whatever was about to happen to him. He had enough bad memories already. 

Where the fuck was it? 

A bulky body was pushed into the room. 

“Have fun!” someone called before the jeering was cut off by the whoosh of the door closing once again. 

A new scent coated the air around Charlie. Against his better judgment, his shoulders untensed just slightly. 

He knew that scent.

It was familiar even if the memory felt distant. 

Something about it made Charlie feel; it made him feel almost safe. 

Safe in a way he hadn’t felt in years. 

Safe in a way he hadn’t felt since stolen moments in form, sitting next to an Alpha who was so different from every other he had ever met. 

“Charlie?”

Chapter Text

Charlie hadn’t thought that his parents would go through with it, not really. They wouldn’t send him away. They couldn’t. He was their son, and for all the communication issues they’d had over the years, they wouldn’t just ship him off to some institute when they actively knew that he didn’t want to go. 

Only it turns out that they could. 

“It’s for the best, Charlie.” 

“It’ll be good for you.” 

“They know how to take care of you.” 

“They know how to keep you safe.” 

Charlie didn’t feel very safe when two alphas showed up at the house in the middle of a random weekday to haul him off into an unmarked white van, only giving him minutes to say goodbye to his siblings. 

If Charlie had known he would go years without speaking to either of them again, he would have fought tooth and nail for just a few more seconds. All he wanted was to hear Tori’s voice one more time or get to pick Oliver up and carry him around the house, making airplane noises. 

Oliver was probably too big for Charlie to pick up anymore. He might never know. 

Charlie had sat in the back of the van, completely terrified. Bars were separating the back of the van from the driver's seat, and his fear-rattled brain wondered for whose protection they were for. 

Was it to keep Charlie away from the alphas or the alphas away from him? He’d felt sick to his stomach. 

It seemed like they drove forever. The town fades away into country lanes and then to a thick forest. 

When Charlie had been driven through the gates of the Truham Institute, he’d been confused. It didn’t look anything like a school. The building was large and sterile, appearing more like an office block than a place of education. 

Charlie had been hustled out of the back of the van and deposited into a bland white room. It only took a second of looking around to realize that it was an examination room. 

Oh god. 

Was this place exactly what Charlie had thought that it was? 

Had he only been sent here to fulfill his ‘biological duty’? 

Had his parents sold him off to be bred? 

He had heard horror stories like that. 

Seedy places that paid parents atrocious amounts of money for the rights to their children's bodies for a short periods of time. 

“What’s one year when it could set our family up for life?” One parent of an omega had been anonymously quoted in one of the articles that Charlie had read. 

Ah yes, what’s a year of your child being assaulted if it meant that the family could afford a vacation home in Kusadasi? 

But no. 

No, his parents wouldn’t do that. 

Then again he had thought that they’d never send him away either.

“You’re Charles, correct?” 

His head had snapped up in surprise. He’d been so lost in the worries of his own mind that he hadn’t even heard the door to the room open and a woman in a white coat step in. 

“Y-yes” 

Charlie was mortified that his voice was shaking, but he hadn’t been able to help it. Fear seemed to have taken over his body and was making all the decisions. 

“I’m Dr.Range. Very pleased to meet you.”

“W-why am I here?”

The woman offered him a soft smile. 

“I’m here to do your intake. Nothing to be frightened of. Just a few questions and a quick exam to make sure you’re healthy enough to join the population.” 

“Population” 

The woman shook her head. 

“My apologies. I forget sometimes that you new students aren’t familiar with the lingo of Truham.” 

Students. She’d called him a student. That seemed like at least a little bit of a good sign. Charlie was likely just overreacting. This was just a school—a school for Omegas to be educated away from the intimidation and influence of being surrounded by Alphas and Betas all the time. 

This was a school. Not a breeding farm. 

“Population is just slang for our student body. We do a physical exam on intake just to make sure no outside disease is entering campus. You’re a delicate lot, and we like to keep you as healthy as possible.” 

Charlie winced. 

Scientifically, there was nothing about omegas that made them ‘delicate’ or ‘fragile’. It was alarming for Charlie to hear a doctor use that sort of stereotype as if it were fact. 

“I’ll also just be asking you a few questions to assess where you are in your transition as well as your education.” 

“Transition?” Charlie was lost again. 

Dr. Range smiled sweetly. 

“My apologies again. Your transition to a full omega. The first few years after you present are a difficult time. It’s a lot of change for your body to go through. We like to do everything here to support that.” 

That seemed like another good sign. Support for his struggles being an Omega? That was certainly something that he could use. His mother was such an old-school omega, extraordinarily secretive and demure when it came to speaking about her experiences. It had made Charlie feel like his body and everything that was happening to it was taboo. The internet had been his only resource. Which was terrifying. 

“So Charles,” 

“Just Charlie is fine.” 

“Charlie, you’re fifteen?” 

“Yes” 

“And you presented when?” 

“A few months after I turned fourteen.” 

“And you’ve been having regular heats since that time?” 

“Every few months.” 

Charlie heard a click of the doctor's tongue. 

“Is that due to the use of suppressants?” 

“Yes” 

“How long did those heats last?”

“Two days”

“And do you ever wear a scent patch?” 

“I wore one daily when I was going to school, but now it’s only when I leave the house, which isn’t often.” 

The doctor made an approving sound. 

“And have you spent any of your heats with an alpha?” 

Charlie let out a surprised squeak. 

The Dr. Range gave him another reassuring smile. 

“I’m sorry, I know it’s a personal question, but it is important I ask. Please know that there isn’t any judgment.”

Charlie shook his head fiercely. 

“No. No, never!"  he was only fifteen! He’d never even been kissed before, let alone knotted. 

“Thank you, Charlie. When was the last time you had a physical examination?” 

Charlie shrugged. 

“I guess right after I presented,"  he grimaced, remembering the way that the same doctor who had delivered him had asked him to put his feet into a pair of stirrups so that he could confirm that Charlie had presented as if there was any doubt.

“Alright. I’ll just get some updated information.” 

The doctor took his blood pressure and his temperature. She had Charlie mark on a calendar the date of his last heat. 

Between all this, the doctor talked animatedly about the school and how much she was sure that Charlie would love it there. 

“Being with other Omegas is so beneficial. I wish I’d been able to spend my youth in a place like this after I presented. The teachers are fantastic. You’ll get much more individualized attention than at any school you’ve been in before.”

The doctor's words did put Charlie slightly more at ease. Maybe this was a specialty school like any other of its time. 

Charlie had hesitated when she asked him to get on the scale. 

He didn’t want to hear any comments about his weight. He had his eating thing under control. He knew he did. He was fine. He was in control. 

“Your weight is quite low, Charlie.” 

He said nothing, pointedly not looking at the number in front of him. He didn’t want to know what it was. It would only make things worse. 

“We will have to get that up before your birthday.” 

Charlie's brows knitted together, not following the doctor's line of thought. 

“Why?” 

“You’ll start the program when you turn sixteen, and they’ll want you to be as healthy as possible for that.” 

Charlie’s stomach dropped. 

“The program?” 

She cocked her head to the side slightly, as if surprised by Charlie’s confusion. 

"Yes, dear, did you have any questions about it?” 

“I don’t even know what that means.” 

Her face dropped. 

“Ah. Alright. It might be best to have Doctor Reid explain that to you. He’s the head of the program after all.” 

“But, what is it?” 

The look on the woman's face told Charlie everything he needed to know. This place was exactly what he’d thought it was. 

It didn’t matter how good the classes were or how wonderful the teachers were. They only wanted Charlie here for one thing. 

……

Charlie couldn’t breathe. 

He couldn’t think.

He didn’t trust that his eyes were telling him the truth, but there was no way for his nose to lie to him. He knew that scent. 

Nick Nelson was standing in front of him in the doorway in a pair of medical scrubs and a lab coat. Very much not the guard that Charlie had expected. 

Not that it was only guards that liked to ‘have fun’ with members of the program's upper levels.

“Charlie Spring?” 

“Stay away from me,” Charlie spat. It didn’t matter that it was Nick in front of him; once upon a time he had almost known him and had once felt safe around him. 

Nick was an Alpha. Alphas took. Alphas used. 

Charlie had been in the upper levels of the program long enough to know that. 

“I’m not here to hurt you." Nick raised his hands up as if in surrender. 

“You shouldn’t be here at all.” 

Charlie knew he was playing with fire. Talking back to an Alpha had only gotten him punished in the past, but despite all the torture that Charlie had taken in the past few years, it seemed impossible to beat the spirit out of him completely. 

“I don’t know why I am! A couple of the guards offered to buy me a beer after my first day, and then suddenly they hustled me down the hall, saying they had a gift for me.” 

“That would be me,” Charlie snapped. He had been a welcome gift more times than he’d like to acknowledge. His stomach churned at the thought. 

“What? What the fuck is this?” Nick was looking around the room wide-eyed. Charlie saw him clock the restraints that hung loosely at the edge of the bed; he saw him see the breeding post that had been pushed into the corner. He saw Nick take in the electric cuff that encased Charlie’s wrist. 

“If you work here, you obviously know.” 

“I’m a summer student in a lab downstairs; I’m supposed to be studying the genetic mutation that dictates how we present not-” Nick looked around, lost for words.

“Not whatever this is.”

Charlie didn’t know if he believed it. He didn't know if he believed that Nick had no idea what else Truham Institute was actually in the business of. Did Nick really not know the price that a couple would pay for a baby? Did Nick not know the price that Omegas paid for places like Truham to collect that cost?

“Do you really not know?”

“I don’t! I can't. Charlie, are you, are you alright?” 

It was hard for Charlie to believe that Nick even remembered his name, let alone that he cared for his well-being.

“Ha” What a stupid question. Charlie didn’t know the last time he had been okay. 

……

Charlie joined the ‘population’ the day after he arrived at Truham. He’d been taken from Dr. Range's examination room to a dormitory that was outfitted with four beds. None of them claimed. 

“You’re the first male we’ve had here in a long time, so you’ll have your privacy,” the attendant who had been tasked with escorting Charlie gushed, as if he should be pleased that at least he got his own room in what was sure to be hell. 

“Breakfast is at seven. Please refrain from being late,” and like that, the woman was gone, leaving Charlie alone with only his terrifying thoughts for company. 

Charlie lay on one of the beds, staring at the ceiling for who knows how long before a knock sounded at the door. 

A head peeked in, a girl who looked to be around his age, if not a year or two older. 

“Hi, first night?” 

Charlie nodded, not lifting his head off the mattress. 

“Can I come in?” 

He nodded again. 

She stepped into the room, and Charlie’s eyes went wide. 

“You’re pregnant”

It was the final nail in the coffin. There was no way for Charlie to deny now what this place was. 

"Actually, I’m Imogen.” 

How could this girl joke and tease when she knew the kind of place they were both trapped in.  

“Sorry, I remember how freaked out I was when I got here. I should be more sensitive.” 

She came over and perched on the edge of the bed. 

“Did you know you were coming here?” 

Charlie shook his head. 

“I don’t even really know what here is.” 

She gave him a sad smile. 

“It is a school; they don't lie about that. The program just takes precedence over it.” 

Charlie couldn’t speak.

“How long until you turn sixteen?” 

“Six months,” he choked out. Six months until what happened to him? Until the program started? Until Charlie lost the right to decide what would happen to his body.

“It’s not as scary as it sounds. I promise. No one touches you.”

Charlie's head whipped around to stare at her, looking pointedly between her belly and face. 

“How is that possible?” 

“You start the program, and once a month, during your heat, you’ll be artificially inseminated. It doesn’t hurt, you don’t feel anything, and they give you the syringe to do it yourself.” 

“And that’s it?” 

It was awful still. Terrible. But it wasn’t as bad as Charlie had been imagining. 

“There’s a minimum of one mandatory breeding cycle to enroll here. Which equates to a year. So after your first pup, they won’t make you do it again, but this is my second.” 

“You’ve done this before?” Charlie couldn't keep the shock from his voice. 

Imogen nodded. 

“The first cycle got me in the school, and then after I had the first one, they offered to pay me directly for the other,” she shrugged. 

“I don’t come from a lot. When I leave here, I’m on my own. So it wasn’t money I could leave on the table.”

“What happened to your first? The first baby.”

She shrugged. 

“It’ll be with some rich family somewhere, living a better life than I ever did.” 

“Wasn’t it hard? To go through all that and then just”

She shrugged again. 

“You just can’t think of it as yours. Whatever grows inside of you, it’s not you. Just try to remember that.” 

Charlie rolled over onto his back again. 

“I’ll let you get some rest. I’ll drop by in the morning, and we can go down to breakfast together. I’ll introduce you around.” 

"Thanks,” Charlie murmured. 

“Imogen?” 

“Yeah?’ 

“What happens? If I don’t get pregnant in the first cycle? If after a year I’m no-t," he gestured down to his body.

She gave him a soft, amused smile. 

“I couldn’t tell you. I’ve never seen it happen. There's a reason we’re such a valuable commodity, you know. Most of us get pregnant within the first three months. The longest I’ve seen it take was ten. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, Charlie.” 

“Right,” he murmured. 

A year. 

He could survive a year.

Chapter Text

True to her word, Imogen showed up at Charlie’s door first thing in the morning on his first full day of Truham. 

“Come on, breakfast time. I’ll introduce you to a few of the others. Becky has only been here a week. She’s a newbie like you. Then there’s Mia; she got here a few months ago and her latest heat took, which is exciting! Um, then there’s Clarie and... 

It was strange to Charlie to hear Imogen speak so casually about how exciting it was that one of their numbers was having a pup. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Imogen herself was rounded with a child, her second apparently. 

Charlie’s stomach was tied in knots. The idea of something growing inside him made him feel ill. He wasn’t ready for all this. He was too young. 

“Oh, I forgot to tell you we have to stop by the infirmary window for daily check-in before we eat.” 

“The infirmary window?” Charlie questioned as Imogen led him down the stairs and in the direction of a large green cross affixed to the wall down the hall. 

“They’ll just take your temperature and hand out daily meds.” 

Imogen must have seen his startled expression because she hurried on with her sentence. 

“Just vitamins and stuff.” 

“I was on a few different things back home.” On the outside, “do they supply that?” 

Charlie would go into withdrawal within forty-eight hours if he didn’t get his antidepressants or hormone suppressants. A spontaneous heat mixed with a severe drop in serotonin? That was a party Charlie didn’t want to attend. 

"Yeah, they’ve got all that,” Imogen reassured. 

She stepped up to the window and presented her wrist. Charlie hadn’t noticed the silver chain link bracelet there before, but he took note of it as the window attendant scanned the code on the metal plate, reading her temperature out and then presenting her with a small plastic cup with a few pills rolling around on the inside. 

“I hate these prenatals. They’re like horse pills. Total shit to swallow,” she complained as she took the glass of water offered to her and threw back the pills. 

Charlie felt incredibly awkward as he stepped up for his turn at the window.

"I, um, don’t have a bracelet.” 

The attendant grunted something about him being ‘new’ before barking out an order requesting his name. 

“Charlie Spring” 

“Right” The attendant disappeared for a minute before returning with a bracelet that matched the one on Imogen's wrist. 

"Arm,” they commanded. 

Charlie hesitantly offered his arm, which the attendant grabbed firmly before pressing the metal plate into his skin. 

A surprise flash of sharp pain made Charlie yell. 

“It’s fine,” the attendant promised. 

“Only hurts for a second.”

“What is it?” 

“Never you mind. Here,” the person behind the window handed Charlie his own cup of pills. 

Charlie glanced down, his eyes scanning the contents of the container handed to him. 

He recognized the markers on his antidepressant. He saw the familiar grainy brown colour of a multivitamin; there was a tiny white pill he didn’t recognize, but 

"Um, excuse me.”

“Keep the line moving, love." The attendant tried to hurry Charlie forward, but he stayed glued to his place.

“I’m missing my suppressant. I should have 200 mg of o-meg.” 

The attendant gave him a sympathetic smile. 

“Happy first day, dear.” 

“But what-” 

“Come on, Charlie.” Imogen had hooked her arm through his and was hauling him away. 

“But I-” 

“I’ll explain at breakfast just; let’s go.” 

That sinking feeling was back in Charlie’s stomach again. 

…………………

Nick stood against the far wall of Charlie’s personal prison, his eyes flicking around the room and trying to access what was happening. 

“How, what, I mean, who did-?” 

“Are you going to complete a sentence?” 

Charlie was tired. He didn’t have time for this crisis of ethics Nick Nelson seemed to be having. If he worked for Truham, ethics couldn’t be all that important to him. 

But what if? 

What if Nick really didn’t know what this place was?

What if Nick wasn’t lying?

What if Nick could help him?

What if Nick could get him out?

No. 

Charlie pushed all those thoughts away. 

Hope was the enemy of survival.

Charlie used to think it was the other way around. He used to think that hope was the thing that would keep him going. Having hope that one day this would all be over and that one day he might see his siblings again. Having hope that he might return to a normal life. 

But hope was pointless. 

Hope only made the days longer. 

Hope only reminded him of everything he’d already lost. 

Charlie didn’t hope anymore. 

Especially not when he’d had to stare at the word Hope on the name tag dangling off the white coat of one of the doctoral students who liked to pay Charlie special visits to see how his ‘experiments’ were going. 

So no. Charlie didn’t hope. 

……………

“Imogen, We need to go back; I need my suppressants.”

“I can take you back there, Charlie, but they won’t give you any blockers. They’re banned on campus.” 

“What?” Charlie hadn’t meant to, but his nails had dug into the inside of Imogen's arm, causing her to squeak. 

“The forbid anything that interferes with your heat pattern. No suppressants, no scent patches. They want you to have a heat every month so you have the highest odds of conceiving a pup.” 

Charlie’s throat felt like it was closing as he stuttered out a few words. 

“But I’m not sixteen yet!” 

Charlie had months before he was meant to start this 'program,’ so why did they care about his heat?

Charlie didn’t know if he could survive a heat every month. Two days every few months had been difficult enough to deal with to begin with, but without suppressants? 

Without suppressants, Charlie’s heat would come once a month and last anywhere from five to seven days. 

No. No. No!

Charlie couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t survive. 

“They want to get your cycle back to its natural form before you officially start the program.” 

“Imogen I don’t think that I can.” 

“You’ll get used to it. I did! My mom had me on these black market suppressants when I was living at home. They were so strong I only had a heat every six months. It was hard going back to a traditional cycle schedule, but I got used to it quickly, and in a way, it’s better.” 

“How could it be better?” Charlie didn’t mean to be rude, especially when Imogen had been so kind to him, but he felt like the ground was spiralling out from under him. 

“Supressants are terrible for you. They mess with your thyroid or your pituitary gland or something, and they can permanently change your scent!” 

Charlie didn’t give a rat's ass about his scent changing. He did care about losing control of his body for a week every month, of being scared and feverish and in pain. 

“It’s going to be ok. We’ve all been through it, and they’re really good at managing heats here. The facilities are incredible. Back home I had a single sheet to nest with and almost no tools, but here they’ve got it all.” 

Charlie nodded, just wanting the conversation to be over. 

“I know this is scary. I’m still scared sometimes, but everything is going to be okay. Come on, I'll introduce you to the others.” 

Charlie let himself be led by Imogen into a dining area. Charlie had never seen so many Omegas in his entire life. 

“Hey everyone, this is Charlie. It’s his first day.” 

There were six or seven Omegas seated around the table that Imogen had led him to, and they all looked up with cautious smiles.

None of them looked traumatized. Maybe a little meek, but Charlie could still see life behind all of their eyes. 

He tried to keep up and memorize everyone's names as Imogen introduced him around, but he struggled. His brain was working on overdrive, trying to process an abundance of new information at one time. 

Three of the people at the table were pregnant, not including Imogen. Most of the others had just begun the program, other than Becky, who was nearly as new as Charlie. 

“Have you met with Doctor Ried yet?” Imogen asked, tucking into the tray that had just been placed in front of her. 

“Um, no, not yet.” A tray was set down in front of Charlie as well, but he couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be an awful lot more food on his than anyone else's. 

His stomach curdled, and he pushed the food around the plate. 

He didn’t think he’d be able to eat. 

“He’s the director of the program, and he’s a little odd.” 

“Sort of intimidating,” someone else piped in. 

“But nice!” 

“If you’re good,” came a clarification. 

If he was good? What was that even supposed to mean?

…………

“How long have you been here?” Nick looked like he wasn’t one hundred percent sure where here was but that he desperately wanted to know. 

“In this room? Or at Truham?’ 

"Both, I guess.” 

Charlie let out a sigh, circling his knees up to his chest. 

“I got sent to Truham when I was fifteen. I was in the general population doing stage one of the program from 16 to 17, and then from 17 to 18, they had me in the special population for step two, and after that didn’t work, I became the lucky third-ever participant in step three. Which was when I got these lovely accommodations. I’m not sure exactly how long it’s been. I tried to track heats for a while, but—”

But it became too painful.

But I wanted to forget. 

But for a while, they kept me so drugged that years could have passed and I never would have noticed. 

“I always wondered where you went.” 

Charlie raised his head slightly to look across the room at Nick, who had slid down the wall and was now sitting with his knees to his chest, similar to the way Charlie was. 

“What?” 

“When you disappeared from school. There were rumours, obviously, but I didn’t listen to any of them. I tried to ask your sister once, but” Nick shrugged. 

Nick had asked Tori about him. 

Why did he care? 

“Why did you care?” 

Nick’s head snapped up, and their eyes met properly for the first time since Nick had entered the room. 

“I don’t know. I just know that as soon as you stopped coming to school, everything felt wrong. I had been trying to work up the nerve to talk to you, but then one day you were just gone. ” 

Hairs rose on the back of Charlie’s neck. 

Nick had noticed him?

Nick had noticed him the way that Charlie had noticed Nick. 

Did Nick used to get that same strange sense of calm and safety around Charlie as Charlie did around him? 

Did Charlie’s scent call to him? 

Did Nick used to look forward to Form for the same reasons that Charlie did? 

No. It didn’t seem possible. 

Yet something about the way that Nick was looking at him now told Charlie that it was.

Chapter Text

Charlie was watching Nick warily. 

The Alpha was still across the room, his head in his hands, his knuckles white from gripping so hard on his hair. 

Nick’s scent had changed; Charlie could smell it in the air. He could smell the alpha's anxiety, his confusion, his... fear? 

“I don’t understand what this is. I don’t understand what you’re doing here.” 

“If you really think about it—" Charlie started, waiting until Nick raised his head and met his eye before continuing.

“I think that you do.”

……

Charlie learned slowly over the next few days exactly how Truham must have brainwashed his parents into thinking that they had no choice but to send him here. 

It seemed that Truham was manufacturing a mass amount of propaganda. 

During his first class, Charlie had to sit through a 45-minute video outlining the dangers of unmatured omegas living in every-day society. 

Some statistics seemed impossible, making it seem like it was inevitable that freshly presented omegas would be attacked, often at mixed second-gender schools, and that many of those instances ended in non-consensual claiming and, in some extreme cases, death. 

The numbers seemed impossible. If the omega population was really as low as they claimed, how could there be these massive amounts of attacks? 

And how had Charlie never heard of any of them? Surely they would have made the news. 

Yet no such story had ever appeared in the newspaper or on his TV screen.

Keeping newly presented Omegas at home was dangerous, the video stated, because they posed a threat to every member of their household. 

Their scents would draw dangerous and uncivilized alphas, the kinds that lived on the fringe of society, to their homes, and anyone else in the house would be at risk. 

Next came graphic images of new omegas who had inadequate supplies for their heats and became so sick that their internal organs had started failing from their temperature remaining so high for so long. 

Then they outlined the supposed danger of suppressants. The words that Imogen had said to him that morning were essentially a direct quote from the video Charlie was watching. 

Suppressants messed with his hormones (Which was the point? Charlie thought). Suppressants would change his body chemistry, impact his thyroid, and change his scent (which again, Charlie had thought was the point), maybe permanently. 

What they hammered home the most were the long-term effects of suppressants. 

They impacted an Omega's ability to fall pregnant in the future. 

They impacted an Omega's ability to have a healthy pregnancy. 

Charlie had wined at photos of deformed pups, stillborn, allegedly due to the use of suppressants in their gestational carriers' past. 

Charlie wasn’t sure he bought any of it. 

What he did believe was that his parents would have fallen for it, hook line and sinker. His mother's anxiety was so high at all times and had only heightened when Charlie presented. It seemed rather likely that Jane could have latched onto the supposed danger of having a newly presented omega in the house. 

She would have worried deeply about Tori and Oliver. She would have worried about Charlie. 

He wished now that he’d picked up those pamphlets that his parents spread across the table and read them instead of throwing them out. At least then he could have known what was going on inside of his parents head and been able to dissuade them. 

Maybe then he wouldn’t have ended up in this place. 

……

“What?” 

“Think about it, Nick. Think. ” 

“I don’t-” 

“But you do!” Charlie snapped. He was walking a very fine line. For all the sympathy that Nick was seemingly showing him now, he was still an alpha, and when an alpha felt challenged? Well…

“Why would someone want to round up a bunch of Omegas into one place? What benefit would that have?” 

Nick’s brows grew together. 

He looked again between Charlie on his shackled bed and the breeding post that was shoved into a corner. 

The instrument was midevil. They used to be in fashion back ages ago, when formal claimings happened in public and the initial knotting of the omega happened in front of a crowd, so that there would be no doubt whom they belonged to. 

Belonged. As if they were something to be owned. 

Charlie had only been on the post once. It had been terribly uncomfortable. He’d been draped over the inadvertently padded post, his wrists attached to a rope connecting to his ankles. It gave him very limited mobility, and the presenting position wasn’t practical. There was a reason that they’d been done away with centuries ago, but years into experimentation, the team assigned to Charlie seemed willing to try anything. 

He hadn’t been forced to spend an entire heat on what amounted to a torture device, but one knotting had been more than enough. Charlie wished they’d take the evil thing out of the room, but Charlie theorized that it had been left behind by a certain researcher as a form of psychological torment. 

“But it couldn’t be—it’s not legal to.” 

“You’d be surprised what the government turns a blind eye to,” Charlie said with gritted teeth. He’d had the same thought once. That surely what was happening to him couldn’t be legal, and it wasn’t. But according to the singular member of the health team, the government adopted a'see no evil’ stance as long as birth rates across the nation were rising. No team of police would be breaking down the door to save him. 

Charlie was on his own.

Until now. 

………………

“Mr. Spring, please come in, sit.” 

Charlie had made it four days at the Truham Institute before getting cornered into a meeting with the aforementioned 'Dr. Ried’. 

He’d been putting it off. 

Charlie had no interest in meeting with anyone who was the head of any kind of program. 

Taking a seat in the office he’d been called into, Charlie glanced around, taking in the certificates on the wall and wall of leather-bound books. 

“How have you been settling in your first week here at Truham?” 

“Um, ok?” 

Ok, except that I want to go home. Now. 

“I’ve been told it can be quite overwhelming at first, but trust and believe that by the end of your time here you’ll feel as if your fellow cohorts are your family and the staff are your guardian angels.”

“I don’t want to be in any programs.” 

Charlie choked the words out before he chickened out. 

“Ah” Dr. Ried folded his hands on the desk in front of him. 

“I understand your hesitation, Mr. Spring. Many of your fellow students hold misconceptions about the program before they actually take part. Outside influence, I’m afraid. But rest assured that any horror stories you’ve heard are completely fabricated.” 

“I just don’t feel-” 

“You don’t feel ready to conceive? Put those concerns to bed, young man. Truham has an intricate support system available to you. We’ll prepare you for the program mentally and physically. You’ll be in peak physical health. If you have concerns about your heat, be reassured that there is no physical component. No won’t be touched.” 

“But-” 

“And I know you likely believe you’re too young for a pup, but think of it this way. You are merely priming your body for the future. Any future pups you have with your alpha will have had a clear path paved. In addition to serving your nation by doing a service that only you and your kind can provide. It’s a true gift that you’re giving to the world.” 

“But-” 

“It’s only a year, Mr. Spring. Just a single year of your life. Youre mature enough to understand how small a sacrifice that is, don’t you?” 

“Um” 

“We appreciate your service, Mr. Spring. We really do. I’ll meet with you again once you’ve begun the program.” 

“Dr.Ried-” 

“That will be all, Mr. Spring." Thank you”

Charlie was dismissed. Not just his body from the room but his concerns as well. 

A year. Just a year. 

……

“Are they... are they breeding you?” Nick said it as if he didn't quite believe the words.

Charlie let out a harsh laugh. 

“They’ve been trying; it’s not exactly been successful.” 

God, how many years had passed since Charlie had first come to Truham? How many failed cycles? He could do the math, but he knew it would just depress him. 

“But who knows? Maybe the last time took.” There was malice in his words. Charlie knew it wasn’t true. His womb remained empty as ever. If he didn’t have to see the stupid fucking thing every week on the mandatory sonogram, he would almost believe that it didn’t exist. 

“So they’ve just been what... keeping you here? Forcing you to-?” 

“Do you want to say it?” Charlie challenged. 

“Can you say it?” he continued, seeing how Nick got impossibly paler.

“Because I can't, and I’m the one it’s happening to.” 

Charlie swallowed around the word that stuck in his throat. 

“Why? Why are they doing this?” 

“It’s what I’m meant for; at least that’s what they tell me; only I can’t seem to get it right, can I?” 

If Carlie’s body had just done what it had been supposedly designed to do, he’d have been out of Truham's clutches ages ago. 

If he had only been able to produce a pup at level one of the program. He never would have had to endure the intensity of level two or, finally, the current torment of level three. 

Charlie couldn’t imagine there being a level four. The team already seemed to be making up level three as they went along, trying anything and everything to force a conception. 

What would be next? 

Elimination? 

Was it wrong for Charlie to almost want that? His family likely already believed him dead, so what would be the difference if he actually was? 

The only difference would be that his pain would stop. 

"Charlie.” He was snapped out of his line of thought by Nick getting to his feet and walking towards him. 

“This isn’t right.” 

“You think I don’t know that?” 

“I want to help you." 

Charlie had dreamed of those words, and yet now that he was hearing them, they had no weight. 

“You can’t” 

“I can try." The earnest look on Nick’s face and the scent of his scenarity in the air reaching Charlie were nearly enough to sway him. 

“How?” Charlie’s voice was so small that it was nearly a whisper, as if he were afraid that the demons all around would hear the tiny shred of hope in it. 

Nick let out a long breath, pushing his hand backwards through his hair. 

“I don’t know yet. But I swear to God. I’ll try everything. Anything.”

Charlie wasn’t sure what was more dangerous, letting Nick help him or believing that he actually might. 

Hope was the enemy of survival , but was surviving what Charlie even wanted anymore? 

What sort of life would he lead on the outside? His hand drifted up to his neck, to the mass amount of scar tissue that spread across his neck and the junction of his shoulder.

He was unclaimed, but he bore the marks of his past and present. 

What was out there for him now? 

Charlie really wasn’t sure. 

Chapter Text

Charlie ended up having to meet with Dr. Ried before the program began. When Charlie had been handed a card ‘inviting’ him to the doctor's study, he’d felt a lump grow in his throat. 

He had been at Truhum for a few months and felt like an anvil was hanging over his head with a ticking clock counting down to the beginning of the program and in Charlie’s mind (his inevitable demise). He might have been being a little dramatic. None of the other students in his cohort seemed traumatized by the program. Several of them did seem rather relieved when they fell pregnant, but maybe that was because the pressure to conceive had been backed off. 

Still, Charlie had been filled to the brim with anxiety from the moment that he’d been hauled from his parent's living room and carted off to this place. It bubbled up inside him throughout the day, a constant reminder of his lack of security and of how precarious his situation was. 

“Mr.Spring. Mr.Spring, please sit down.” 

Charlie sat down on his hands, grounding himself into the chair, digging his nails into the wood. 

“I’m concerned, Mr.Spring.” 

Charlie stayed silent. 

“You came to us underweight.” The doctor looked at Charlie over the rims of his thick glasses. 

“And that situation seems to have only worsened.” 

Silence. 

Charlie had nothing to say. 

It didn’t matter how much extra food was loaded onto his plate at mealtime; Charlie didn’t have the appetite for it. 

If he had eating issues before this entire mess started, they have only escalated. Charlie had craved control before, but now? Now when he didn’t even have bodily autonomy? 

“How are we going to rectify this?” 

Charlie didn’t know if that was a rhetorical question or not. He stayed quiet regardless. 

“Your body is a gift, young man. You need to nourish it so that it can be healthy ground for new life to sprout.” 

We need to fatten you up so that you’ve got enough strength to be bred for profit. Dinner is at six!

“I’m afraid that if we aren’t able to pull this issue around naturally, I may need to implement medical intervention.” 

What did that even mean? 

Charlie would learn what that meant two weeks later when, after another dinner of barely touching anything on his plate, he was man-handled back to the medical ward and strapped down onto a bed. 

One needle prick. 

He didn’t know how much time passed, but when he next woke up, there was a tube snaking from his nose to his stomach. 

….. 

A loud banging sounded on the door to Charlie’s room. 

“Better wrap it up, Nelson!” came a jeering voice from the hallway, a bunch of other rowdy voices laughing around it.

“Make sure you don’t knot him!” Called a different voice, just as full of cruel amusement. 

“We don’t have the time to wait for it to deflate!” 

Nick was looking between the door and Charlie, looking like he was experiencing physical pain. 

Charlie knew that look well. 

"Char,” the term of endearment, struck Charlie like an electrified arrow to the heart. It was so very rare in his new life to ever be addressed with any kind of tenderness. 

The one kind medical team member would sometimes call him dear, but other than that, he was almost always addressed as Omega,   Omega Spring, or #3. 

Sometimes Charlie wondered where numbers 1 and 2 were. 

Had their time in level 3 come to an end? 

Had it been successful? 

Had they been released? 

Were they still alive? 

“Char” was so different. It was humanizing. Somehow more so than when Nick had said his full name. 

“Look at me." Nick sounded a little desperate as he knelt by Charlie’s bed, looking up at him with eyes that spoke of honesty. 

“I swear we’re going to figure this out, ok?” 

Charlie swallowed, wanting to believe but holding back, afraid of what that would mean. 

Nick must have seen the hesitation in Charlie’s eyes and felt the fear that radiated off of him. 

“I promise. I’ll keep saying it until you believe me.” 

Nick’s scent wrapped around him like a heavy blanket, wave after wave of scent tinged with trust, with honesty, with... what was that?

If Charlie didn’t know better, he would have thought that it felt a little like affection. 

Another bang on the door. 

"Seriously, Nick, we can’t hang around much longer. Blow your load and let fucking go.” 

Nick’s skin looked tinged with green, and his scent changed, turning sour with disgust. 

“Please believe me,” Nick repeated, offering a handout to Charlie. Nick hadn’t put his hand in Charlie’s personal space. He’d left it up to Charlie to decide if he wanted to initiate any physical touch. 

Charlie reached out and very softly placed his hand in Nick’s. 

“We’re going to figure this out.” 

Charlie wasn’t sure if Nick was trying to reassure him or himself. 

“If we could figure it out before next Thursday, that would be great." Charlie had been trying to tease, but the way Nick nodded seemed to indicate that he had taken the request seriously. 

Wouldn’t that be a miracle if Nick could somehow get him out of there before next Thursday, before he had to suffer another heat in this place? 

Who knew what fresh round of torment that Truham would have cooked up to try to force him to conceive this time around? They’d already worked through a long list. 

“I’ll see you soon. I promise” 

There was that word again. 

Promise. 

Nick Promised. 

Promises were made to be kept, but they were also made to be broken. 

…………..

By his sixteenth birthday, Charlie had gained seventeen pounds. The NG tube was uncomfortable and humiliating and made Charlie feel as if his skin was crawling. He’d wanted to yank it out and hold onto some tiny bit of control over his life, but he knew it was a useless endeavour. It would just be replaced. 

When it had finally been removed, Charlie had felt a moment of pure alleviation that quickly spiralled into shame. 

“It’s not enough, but it’s a start,” one of the medical staff members murmured as they updated his information in the ever-growing chart that had been assigned to Charlie. 

His sixteenth birthday. A day that should have been a celebration but instead felt like the end of Charlie’s life. He wasn’t his own anymore. His body now belonged to these people. 

“I promise you it isn’t that bad,” Imogen had encouraged the night before his first heat in the program was due. 

“Your heats haven’t been bad here so far, right?” 

Imogen wasn’t wrong. 

While his heats had been much more frequent and extended than when he had been on suppressants, they’d been manageable. 

The heat rooms at Truham were well-appointed. They were temperature controlled, and Charlie could adjust the level of light and heat in the room by remote. He’d had more nesting supplies than he could have ever dreamed of and every different type of toy required for his different phases of heat. 

Three times a day, a beta would enter the room to deliver supplies and scan Charlie’s bracelet to collect data. 

Charlie hadn’t been sure at first why they wanted the information when he wasn’t in the program yet, but Imogen had explained that they were just getting baseline data to track any changes once he entered the program. 

“It’s not really different once you start the program, in all honesty. Just that the knotting toy has... the substance in it, and when it inflates it,” Imogen blushed as she made a hand gesture to indicate her meaning. 

‘And maybe you’ll get lucky, and it’ll take the first time! It happens quite often.” 

Charlie knew that Imogen was trying to be comforting, and in a way she was, but at the same time, every word that she said made Charlie want to throw up. 

He didn’t know if he’d consider himself lucky if he became with a pup on his first heat. Sure, it would put an end to his heats for at least a year, but then there was the whole part of actually having a pup. The idea of it was too much. 

Maybe he wouldn’t get pregnant. 

It was possible. 

Maybe he could make it through a year of heat without conceiving. 

Maybe Charlie could make it out of Truham without the trauma of carrying a pup and then having said pup taken from him. 

Charlie didn’t want a child, but he knew instinctively that any pup that came from his body he would love. It was only natural. 

It might be the only natural part of this entire god-forsaken place. 

……

The first day after Nick came back into his life, Charlie felt uneasy. 

Had that actually happened? 

Had Nick Nelson, the comfort Alpha from his time in grammar school, really appeared in this medical prison and promised to be his saviour? 

Had Nick Nelson really taken his hand and asked for his trust? 

He had the proof in the air in his room. Nick’s scent still lingered all around. A very embarrassing part of Charlie’s mind wished that he’d asked Nick to scent something so that he could hold it to his face and find comfort. 

When one of the researchers entered the room the next morning to do Charlie’s daily chart update. Their nostrils had instinctively flared when they opened the door to his room, taking in the scent of an unfamiliar alpha. They hesitated for only a moment before stepping inside. 

It wasn’t altogether unheard of for there to be the scent of a stranger in Charlie’s room. There had been all kinds of uninvited visitors in his quarters over the years. Guards having their fun, researchers doing ‘after hours’ work. The team seemed to turn a blind eye to all the ‘unauthorized’ visits to Charlie. 

The first year in level three, everything had been extraordinarily regulated. The scientific process was of the utmost importance. But slowly that rigour had faded into the background. The team no longer cared about the specifics of how Charlie would become pregnant, only that he did. 

So while the actual experimentation occurred during his heats with a team observing and making adjustments, anything that happened the other three weeks of the month... that was none of their business. 

No one at Truham would care if it was an assault by a guard that got Charlie pregnant, as long as it happened. 

At this rate, Charlie believed it wouldn’t happen at all. 

He laughed at the child he had been when he first started level one of the program. How he had hoped he wouldn’t get pregnant so that after a year he could just go home. 

Ha. 

If only. 

……

When Charlie still hadn’t become with Pup by the end of his tenth heat of the program, people had started to whisper. 

Imogen whispered to him that in the three years she’d been there, no one had taken longer than ten heats for a pregnancy to take. 

“It’s strange,” she mused in class one day, her hand resting over her rounded belly. Imogen had given birth and gotten pregnant again all in the time since Charlie had arrived at Truham. 

While Imogen talked a big game about the advantages of the program and how the money was going to change her life, Charlie could see how the light was fading behind her eyes.

She seemed sadder during this pregnancy than she had during the last. 

“Not that you’re strange." She rushed to clarify, placing her hand on top of his. 

“It’s not unheard of. One of the girls who was a few cohorts ahead of me told me when I first arrived that she knew three people who didn’t get pregnant and left after their year. I think they changed the prenatal care around that time and numbers went back up, but” she shrugged. 

“Maybe it just won’t happen for you.” 

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed, his hand instinctively going to his flat stomach and resting there. 

“Maybe”

…………….

When Charlie heard the door to his room beep as the correct code was entered, his heart leapt. 

It’s Nick! His traitorous heart called. 

He’s back! He said he’d be back, and he’s back! 

As soon as the door opened, Charlie knew he was wrong. A familiar and unwelcome scent slapped him in the face. A sourness like curdled milk wafted through the air, so thick that Charlie could have choked on it. 

“Hi pet. Have you been a good boy?” 

If Charlie had had anything in his stomach, he would have thrown it up. 

Ben Hope had been a researcher assigned to Charlie’s team for the past eleven months, and for eleven months he’d been sneaking into Charlie’s room after hours to conduct what he called ‘independent experiments’. 

Charlie had seen a wolfish glint in Ben’s eye the second they were introduced by the main researcher assigned to his team, a horrid woman he’d only heard addressed as "Dr. Greene.”. 

“Why does this room reek?” Ben hissed as he moved closer to Charlie, shrugging off his lab coat and hanging it off the railing of Charlie’s bed. 

Any scent of Nick that had been left in his room vanished with the stench of Ben. 

Charlie remained silent. He wasn’t in the mood for Ben’s games. 

At the beginning of this twisted experiment that Ben concocted, Charlie had been almost enamoured by him. 

Coincidentally that time coincided with the phase of the experiment where Charlie was being kept pliant with daily doses of potent benzodiazepines. 

Charlie was so zonked out that he hadn’t noticed the sourness of Ben’s scent. 

He’d been so high that at first, he’d found Ben referring to him as ‘Pet’ as something sweet rather than condescending. 

He’d been so out of his mind that he hadn’t realized at first that when Ben crawled on top of him, he was no longer doing ‘a wellness exam’. 

Eventually, the truth came back to him. As the benzo doses decreased and Ben’s visits became more frequent, Charlie realized that Ben was no angel sent to protect him but merely another demon to add to his circle of hell. 

“Show me those pearly whites,” Ben coaxed, roughly taking Charlie’s jaw in his hand and forcing his mouth open. 

“So cute,” Ben had cooed, running a finger over Charlie’s canine. Ben had always liked to compare his own razor-sharp canine teeth to Charlie’s much duller ones. Ben had bitten down hard on the skin of Charlie’s stomach and thighs countess times, claiming he was trying to stimulate his womb. 

Charlie suspected that Ben just liked the taste of his blood in his mouth. 

Charlie, who had taken Ben’s abuse for so many months, felt something snap inside of him. For months now, he had been nearly comatose trying to block out what was happening to him. 

Then he’d seen Nick, and a tiny flicker of fire had sparked inside of him. 

Charlie snapped his jaw closed, biting as hard as he could on Ben’s finger. While he may not have the sharpness or strength of an Alphas tooth, he could still inflict pain. 

Ben had roared in pain and fury, and Charlie braced for the red-hot slap he knew was coming.

“How fucking dare you?"  Ben spat; he jumped on top of Charlie, wrapping his hands around Charlie’s throat and squeezing hard enough that Charlie couldn’t draw in breath. 

“You forget your place, pet,” he hissed, leaning in close and pressing his thumbs even harder down on his windpipe. 

“You are nothing ” dots were appearing in front of Charlie’s eyes. 

Maybe this was it? 

Maybe this was the end. 

Hadn’t Charlie been fantasizing about just this only days ago? About finally being free. 

Only…..

For all of Charlie’s talk about having given up, there was still a part of him that believed. 

Nick said he’d help him. That he’d get him out. Somehow. 

Ben spit directly into Charlie’s face, finally slackening his grip on Charlie’s throat. 

He gasped for air, Ben’s saliva falling down his cheek. 

“Don’t forget what you are." Ben sneered, man-handling Charlie’s body into the position he desired. 

Charlie knew what Ben meant. 

He meant that Charlie was an Omega. That he was owned. 

But that wasn’t what Charlie heard. 

For the first time in a long time, Charlie remembered that he was alive. 

Charlie fought back against Ben’s touch, trying to buck him off of his body and wrestle away from his touch. 

Ben grunted with effort, surprised that his patient doll was resisting. 

“What the fuck are you doing you little-?”

But before Ben could finish his sentence, the lights flickered out and cast the entire room into darkness.

Chapter Text

Emergency lights flickered on around the perimeter of the room and illuminated an exit sign above the door. 

The darkness had taken Ben by surprise and paused his assault long enough for Charlie to get a leg up between them and bring his knee to connect with Ben’s groin painfully. 

Ben let out a strangled yell as he curled into himself in pain. Charlie used whatever bit of strength hadn’t been wasted away from being confined over the past half-decade to push Ben off the bed and onto the hard, unforgiving floor. 

A siren began to sound from the hallway, and Ben let out another pained, frustrated noise.

“The fuck is going on,” Ben snarled, crawling over on his hands and knees to the wall so that he could use it as a support to pull himself to a standing position. He grabbed for his lab coat and scrambled for his key card, flipping it over and staring at the codes along the back. 

“Three short sirens, two long,” he muttered to himself, and Charlie realized that Ben was tracking the pattern of the blaring horn in the hallway. 

“System failure. Fuck. Fuck!” Ben made for the door, stabbing the code into the keypad and wrenching the door open.  If Charlie hadn't been so overwhelmed by the sound of the sirens, he might have noticed that the telltale beep of the door unlocking was missing.

Ben glanced back at Charlie, and even in the semi-darkness, Charlie could see the fury in his eyes. 

“This isn’t over,” he snapped, spitting venom in Charlie’s direction. 

Obviously. Charlie thought. It never was. 

……………

“I’m really going to miss you,” Imogen muttered into Charlie’s shoulder as they embraced for the third or fourth time that day. 

Imogen's pregnant belly protruded so far between them that it was difficult for Charlie to get his arms fully around her. 

It was Charlie’s seventeenth birthday. Twelve months had passed since he’d entered the program. Twelve heats under the careful watch of the program coordinators. Twelve sets of negative pregnancy tests. One womb that remained empty. 

Charlie could hardly believe it. He’d made it through the program. 

He was done. 

His body would not have to undergo the strains of a pregnancy. His body was his own again. 

He’d been informed at breakfast that morning that he’d been summoned to a meeting with Dr. Ried. 

Charlie fully expected the man to give him a long chat about the potential of his body and what he could do for society, and blah blah blah. He figured that Dr. Ried would probably ask Charlie to extend his time in the program. Maybe even offer him money to remain, the way that Imogen was being paid for her continued participation. The good doctor would probably try to scare him with the statistics about how ‘unsafe’ it was for an immature omega out there in the big bad world.

Charlie didn’t care. 

He was ready to go home. 

He was ready to see his parents and make them understand the gravity of what they had signed him up for. 

He was ready to stay up late, tucked up in his bed with Tori, filling in the missing gaps of their lives that they had missed over the past year and a half. 

He was ready to sweep his little brother up in his arms, even if Olly was getting too big for it, and swing the boy around the yard until they were both dizzy and giggling. 

“Mr.Spring. Thank you for meeting with me this evening.” 

Not that I have a choice. 

“Hello Sir” 

The doctor gestured for Charlie to sit down in the same chair he had occupied during every meeting he’d been objected to during his time at Truham. 

“I’d like to apologize to you, Mr. Spring.” 

Charlie would have been less surprised if Dr. Reid had reached across the desk and slapped him. He was going to apologize for what the program had put him through?

“Sir?”

“We’ve failed you this year. You’ve clearly not been getting the support you need in order to flourish. It’s a rarity that program participants don’t blossom within their initial year. A rarity but not an impossibility. I want to reassure you that it’s nothing you’ve done.” 

Did Dr. Ried think that Charlie was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten pregnant? Was he worried that Charlie was going to leave a negative review? 

“I assure you that going forward with the program, things will improve.” 

Charlie blinks once. 

Twice. 

A third time. 

Dr. Ried had continued talking, but Charlie had missed whatever it was that he’d said next. 

“During your next heat, we will..."  Charlie cut the older man off, speaking over top of him. 

“But the year is over.” 

“What do you mean, Mr. Spring?” 

“You said the program was a year. Just a year. That giving up a year wasn’t a big sacrifice. It’s been a year. The program is over.” 

“Ah,” Dr.Ried folded his hands on the desk. 

“I must apologize again, Mr.Spring. I misspoke. Level one of the program is a year.” 

“Level one?” Charlie felt like sharp fingernails were digging into his shoulders, anxiety breathing down his neck. 

“Most of our participants conceive during the first level, but in special cases, such as yours, the program is elevated to level two.” 

“But you said that, and they said outside-" Charlie was rambling, his mind running a thousand miles a minute; he couldn’t finish a sentence. 

“Your things have already been moved to the upper campus. Level two has far fewer participants, and you’ll have more private space, which we find aids in conception.” 

“But you said that it was only a year. I’m supposed to get to leave after a year.” Charlie could hear his voice getting shrill and knew that Dr. Ried was going to accuse him of getting hysterical, the type of condescending comment so often made to Omegas, but he didn’t care. 

"Mr. Spring, may I call you Charlie? Charlie, your parents have signed a contract that obligates you to one breeding. In most cases, this happens within a year, but in instances such as yours, it can take more time. But worry not. You’ll be well taken care of.” 

Charlie was going to be sick. He was sure of it. He could feel stomach acid crawling up his throat. 

It wasn’t a year that he owed these people. It was a pup. Were they going to keep him locked here until he got pregnant? What if he never did? 

This couldn’t be happening. 

“I want to talk to my parents.” 

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. You know that part of Truham's philosophy is that in order to thrive, Omegas need to be isolated from the outside. Your fragile nature makes your kind so much more vulnerable to-” 

There was a loud ringing in Charlie’s ears, and dots danced in front of his eyes. He was going to lose consciousness. It had happened to him once before in his life when he’d blacked out during a family holiday because he hadn’t eaten that day. He recognized the signs. 

He slid down to the floor as his eyes rolled back in his head, a single thought running through his head over and over again. 

What the fuck was going to happen to him in level two? 

…

Charlie wished the sirens would stop. They’d been on for a little over a minute, and already they were doing his head in. 

The sound and the flashing of the emergency lights were overloading his system. It was a tale-tell sign that his heat was approaching. Everything about his system became heightened and more sensitive. Loud sounds and bright lights sent him spiralling down a road of body aches and migraines. 

He pulled a pillow over his head and pressed down, trying to block out the stimulus. 

A system failure. What were the fucking odds? In all the years that Charlie had been trapped in Truham facilities, there had never even been a fire drill, and now...

Wait. 

What were the odds? 

Could it be? 

Could this have something? anything to do with Nick? 

Charlie sat bolt upright, staring at the heavy metal door that separated him from the outside world. He was willing it to open. He was willing for Nick Nelson to burst through the door like some superhero out of his imagination. 

Be reasonable, Charlie. Your expectations are too high. Realistically, you'll would probably never see Nick again. 

Heroes don’t exist. The world is only home to villains. 

…….

It turned out that the ‘increased privacy’ that Charlie would be treated to level two was only code for isolation. 

He wasn’t given a chance to speak to any of the friends he’d made over the past year. Charlie was thankful now that he and Imogen had said a preemptive goodbye, as he was shepherded immediately from Dr. Reid's office to the medical wing and, once he’d been cleared, to a van that transported him to the ‘upper campus’. 

Was he denied the chance to pack his own things and say goodbye to his friends because the Truham staff didn’t want him to get the chance to sound the alarm about the ‘truth’ about the program? 

Would the truth even matter to anyone but him? 

The year deadline was irrelevant to every other Omega that Charlie had met at Truham. They had all gotten pregnant. They all fulfilled their ‘breeding’ contract. 

If Charlie ever got out of this place and made it back to his house, he’d tear his parent's office apart to find that contract. He needed to know if they had understood what they signed him up for. Did they think it was only a year? Or did they know that they had signed their son over indefinitely in exchange for the guise of his ' safety’? 

And... had his parents been compensated? Did a hefty sum land in their account when they’d signed on the dotted line? Had Charlie’s freedom financed a trip to Spain and the braces that Olly would inevitably need? 

The shock had overtaken Charlie’s entire being. 

He’d been so sure that it was over. 

He had been so sure that he’d made it out mostly unscathed. 

He had been so wrong. 

For his first week in level two of the program, Charlie hadn’t left his bed. 

An unspeaking beta would enter his room three times a day, dropping off a tray of food and scanning his ID bracelet. 

The trays went untouched, and by the fifth day Charlie found himself once again the deeply shamed owner of an NG tube. He hadn’t even fought off the medical team member who had arrived to snake the tube up his nose and down to his stomach. 

The defeat he felt had stolen any fight that he had left. He was asleep even in wakefulness. He was turning to stone in the plush bed that was supposed to ‘increase his body's natural instinct to nest.’. 

Until he woke up at the worst possible time. 

…………….

Three minutes of the sirens and flashing lights are enough to make Charlie feel physically ill. There was a blinding white pain building behind his eyes. 

Make it stop. Make it stop. Please make it stop. 

Charlie was so lost in the pain that was swimming through his head that he didn’t immediately notice the heavy thud of his door being pushed open. 

His head was buried in his hands, starving him from the sight of the alpha pushing into the room and heading directly for his side. 

If Nick’s scent hadn't been burned into Charlie’s memory, he might not have noticed him there at all. 

But the familiar, sweet, comforting scent of Nick hit Charlie a second before the boy sank to his knees at the side of Charlie’s bed. 

“Char. Char. Get up. We need to go. We need to go now. ” 

Charlie lifted his head, his eyes watering from the pain, not believing what he was seeing. Not believing what he was smelling. 

Nick was there. Nick was right beside him. Nick had come back. 

“How are you here?” 

“We don’t have a lot of time. I don’t know how long it will take them to get the system back online, but for now the cameras are down and every door is unlocked. They’ll be more concerned with retrieving the data, so hopefully they leave the physical security to last, but still.” 

Charlie was frozen. 

Was this real? 

It couldn’t be. 

He was asleep. 

That must be it. 

But if this was a dream, then why could he feel the pain in his head so acutely? If this was a dream, why was Nick’s scent so soothing and strong? 

How was it possible? 

“Get up, Char. We’re getting you out of here. Right now”

Chapter Text

When Charlie started feeling the symptoms that signalled that his heat was approaching, true anxiety set in. 

What did level two mean? 

No one had told him anything. 

He hadn’t been given a ‘welcome’ packet the way he had been when he first arrived at Truham, and he didn’t have a spirit guide at the upper campus like the one he had found in Imogen. From what Charlie could tell from the glimpse he had seen when he was allowed out of his room to stretch his legs once a day, there was only a handful of other omegas at level two. 

Was there a reason they were keeping them apart? Charlie longed for someone to talk to, but even the betas who delivered his meals and accompanied him on his daily walks seemed to have been forbidden from speaking with him in any meaningful way. 

“What is going to happen tomorrow?” Charlie had asked desperately the evening before his heat was about to start. 

The beta girl who had come in to deliver his tray and scan his ID band winced. Charlie acted brashly, reaching out and wrapping his fingers around her wrist. 

‘Please. Please. No one will tell me anything, and I just... I want to be ready.” 

The girl grimaced at him. 

“I just delivered the trays. I don’t really know the specifics.” 

“Can you tell me anything ? Do you bring supplies in during heats?” 

The girl winced and then nodded again. 

“So then you see what happens. Please. What happens?” Charlie wasn’t above begging. He was desperate for any information. The not knowing was driving him mad. 

“I guess it’s just what you would expect,” she stated with a shrug. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I’m only beta. I’ve never-” 

“Please!” 

“I suppose it’s just what naturally happens when you put an Alpha in rut and an Omega in heat together,” the girl shrugged again. 

“I was never good at biology.” 

Charlie slipped out of his body, escaping into the depths of his mind so he didn’t have to acknowledge the truth that he’d just been slapped in the face with. 

“It’s not that bad,” Imogen had promised him when he’d first arrived at Truham and expressed his distress at the idea of the program. 

“No one touches you,” she promised.

It seemed that wouldn’t be true in level two. 

Charlie couldn’t sleep that night, his anxiety mounting as his body inched closer and closer to slipping into a heat. 

He couldn’t sleep knowing that come morning he’d have an alpha set upon him, someone who would be so overloaded on hormones that they would take Charlie’s body, use him, and knot him without his consent. 

How could he sleep knowing that tomorrow would be the first time he’d be raped? The first of who knew how many times? 

That was the first night that Charlie ran his tongue over his canine teeth and wished that they were sharp enough to open a vein. 

……

“How are you here?” Charlie felt like he was moving underwater. The lights and alarms still made his head swim, the shock stealing him of his finer motor skills. 

“I don’t have time to explain. I promise I’ll tell you everything once we get you out of here.” 

Nick had slung a backpack off his shoulders and yanked out a mass of dark navy fabric. Charlie realized it was the same jumpsuit that Nick was wearing, the same kind that the guards always wore when they slipped into Charlie’s room uninvited. 

“Put this on,” Nick urged, glancing over his shoulder as if nervous they were about to be discovered. Maybe they were. 

Charlie moved without thinking, yanking the jumpsuit on and zipping it up over his clothes. 

“Ok. Good. Good. Um…fuck your scent." Nick’s nose twitched. Charlie winced, aware that he must smell stronger than usual. His heat was due soon. 

“If someone catches your scent in the halls, we’re fucked,” Nick muttered, looking around the room as if searching for an answer to the problem in front of them. 

“Can I scent you?” 

Charlie took a half-step back, the backs of his knees knocking against the bed. He’d not expected that.

But now that he’d heard it, he was shocked that Nick had even asked. 

When was the last time that an alpha had asked for his consent to do anything? 

“It’ll mask your scent. I don’t know how well it will work, but it’ll help,” Nick promised. 

“Do it” 

“What?” Nick seemed slightly shocked that Charlie had agreed. 

“Do it. Whatever will help, just do it." 

Nick nodded, seeming to steel himself before he pulled up his sleeve, exposing his wrist, and then gingerly picked up Charlie’s hand, moving to gently rub his wrist against Charlie’s. 

Charlie couldn't stop the little gasp that escaped his chest as Nick’s skin rubbed against his, their scents mixing in the air. 

"Sorry,” Nick murmured as he switched Charlie’s hands and rubbed their wrists together again. 

“It’ll be um better, stronger, I mean if our other scent glands um-” 

Charlie understood immediately what Nick meant, and he pulled back the collar of the jumpsuit he had just pulled on, exposing his neck. 

He heard Nick let out a little involuntary sound, half way between a gasp and a groan. 

Nick’s hand seemed to come up without his permission, pulled as if by gravity to the scar tissue that riddled the skin around Charlie’s mating glad, the area risen and angry, set apart from the sallowness of the rest of his skin. His fingertips grazed ever so lightly across the abused skin as if marvelling at its existence. 

“How-” 

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it if we ever makes it out of here.”

Nick seemed to come back to himself, realizing the gravity of their situation. 

"Right,"  Nick moved forward as slowly as he dared, as if nervous that any sudden movement might speak the Omega. Little did Nick know just how steeled Charlie had become against the advancement of Alphas and Betas alike. 

Charlie held his breath as Nick ducked his head into the crevice of Charlie’s neck and shoulder, pressing their skin together and leaving his scent against Charlie’s skin. 

Despite his better judgment, Charlie closed his eyes and leaned into Nick. He took in the alpha smell, his scent that Charlie had always associated with safety wrapped around him to the fullest extent. 

Nick’s breath on his skin, their scents mixing, his hands gripping Charlie’s forearms to keep them steady. 

Charlie’s body was already so vulnerable. He was on the edge of his heat, with only days left before it was meant to arrive, and having Nick so close to him... it was doing something that Charlie didn’t understand. 

There had been so many Alphas... so many Alphas that had taken and used his body. Never before had Charlie scented the air and felt anything like he did when Nick was near. 

Every other Alpha scent had spoken of power and ferocity. It smelled of control and pain. 

Was it just because he’d known Nick in his life before this? Well, maybe known was too strong a word. He’d been around Nick before. He’d sat next to him and had his scent reach his mind before. He had the advantage of familiarity. 

But was that the reason that Charlie was putting his trust in the Alpha? Was he putting his life in his hands because Nick was there and willing, or because he was Nick?

In a strange way, Nick was the closest that Charlie had ever been to home in nearly five years. 

A dreadful thought had weazeled his way into Charlie’s mind one night when he lay awake, looking at the door and hoping that Nick would walk through it. 

What if this is just another experiment? 

What if Truham had cooked up this plan in another hail-Mary attempt to get Charlie to conceive? 

What if they had recruited an Alpha from his hometown to gain Charlie’s trust, hoping to lower Charlie’s body's defences, only to have Nick turn around and be the next to breed him? Charlie had supposed he would know the truth one way or another if Nick appeared in his room on Thursday with a set of researchers. 

But no. 

When Nick stole into his room that night, alarms sounding and lights flashing, Charlie felt like he could smell the sincerity. 

Charlie could try to reason it out, try to make sense of it, but there was no point. All there was left for Charlie to do was trust, something that didn’t come naturally to him, at least not anymore. 

He’d not had a true ally since level one, when Imogen had been his comfort. There had been the one Alpha in level two who, in the quiet, unmonitored moments when they had been stuck together after Charlie had been knotted, had whispered apologies and confided in Charlie the way that he too was a prisoner of his own kind. The rouge member of the medical staff who showed Charlie a few moments of kindness was the closet Charlie had come to a meaningful connection since then. 

Now Nick Nelson stood in front of him, marking him with his scent and offering him the possibility of freedom. Even though that possibility was more than Charlie had had in years, the hope he’d sworn he didn’t feel, didn’t want to feel, was blooming in his chest. 

Nick took a step back from Charlie, looking him up and down with an expression that Charlie didn’t recognize and couldn’t place. 

“Ok. Ok, I think that’s the best we can do. We’ve got to go.”

And then Nick did something that Charlie hadn’t been expecting. He took his hand. 

…………

Charlie had fallen into a near catatonic state after his third heat in level two; he’d been taken to the medical ward for ‘observation’. 

The NG tube was placed again, and an IV was placed in his arm, replenishing his dehydrated body. He’d started refusing water when his heat had ended and the most recent Alpha that had been set upon him had been carted away. 

He preferred to focus on the burn in his throat and the pain in his head rather than the damage that had been done to him psychologically over the course of the past three months. 

His body no longer felt like it belonged to him. He had had no power over what had happened to it for longer than he could remember, but there in level two it felt more true than ever. 

So he stopped drinking water. 

It was the only control he had left. 

He should have known that it wouldn’t be allowed to go on for long. 

A Truham team member had dropped by his space in the medical unit and sat down to sit on the side of his bed. 

They’d introduced themselves as a counsellor, wanting to address Charlie’s concerns and discuss what had him exercising such self-destructive behaviour. 

Charlie had nearly laughed at that. 

Did he really have to explain what had him so ‘down’ as they had so eloquently put it? Had they expected him to be cheery and bashful, looking forward to his heat each month? Looking forward to the next time that Alpha he had never even met before taking control of his body? 

Was he meant to be giddy at the prospect of being sexually assaulted hour after hour for days on end? 

Charlie must have said that past part out loud, as the counsellor had clucked their tongue and placed a hand on Charlie’s knee. 

He’d shrunk away from their touch. Where had this person been educated that they thought it was a good idea to put their hands on a rape victim without their consent? 

Only no one at Truham saw him as a victim. They didn’t see what was happening to him every month as an assault. They didn’t see it for what it was. 

“Your body is meant to do this.” 

“This is your biological duty.” 

“It’s what your body is asking for. What do you think a heat is, dear?” 

Ah. 

A classic. 

He’d been asking for it. 

So because of a hormone storm that happened once a month that was completely outside of his control, Charlie was asking to be penetrated and seeded over and over. It didn’t matter if he had cried or begged or passed out from the intensity of it; he’d been asking for it. 

Level two had brought something out of Charlie that he hadn’t expected. 

Now he lay his head down every night. He prayed to a god he wasn’t sure was there. 

He prayed that a seed was growing inside of him. He prayed for a pregnancy.

How fucked up was it that he prayed to bring a pup into such a fucked up world? Was he so selfish that he prayed for his own salvation at the possible expense of an innocent child? What if the pup grew up and presented as an Omega? What if this theoretical pup one day had to suffer the same fate that Charlie did? 

There was no happy ending to this story. 

Either Charlie doomed a child to the same possible fate that he was living, or Charlie never got out of the hell he was living in. 

What a world. 

……

Charlie held tight to Nick’s hand as he towed him out of his room. Stepping into the hallway, the alarm only sounded louder, and the flashing lights above intensified. 

Charlie let out a hiss of pain and clutched at his head. His stomach roiled and his muscles ached.

Nick kept moving but glanced back at him, the concern he felt written across his face. 

“Are you-” 

“I’m fine” Charlie relied, not letting Nick finish his sentence. He just wanted to keep moving. 

Nick squeezed his hand as he continued to lead him down the hall. 

Charlie had to squint and keep his eyes forced on the floor, his gaze trained on the back of Nick’s shoes in front of him. 

The stimulus was too much. His body was revolting, carving quiet and safety. Ha, as if he’d experienced anything even close to that in the past 1800 or so days. The closest he had come to feeling safe was with the boy whose hand he now clutched. 

Charlie’s muscles screamed in protest as they half ran down the hall. His muscles had deteriorated greatly since he’d arrived at Truham. The toned legs he’d gained from running in his youth had been wasted away from spending so much time in confinement. 

He’d had some freedom in level one and had been able to walk around the facility at will. He’d been decreased to an hour or so of exercise a day in level two. In level three, Charlie almost never left the walls of his assigned room. He had a small walking pad that had been shoved under his bed. 

It’s speed didn’t go above a light walk. 

Hurrying down the hall was the fastest that Charlie had moved in years. It was painful and exhausting while at the same time feeling exhilarating. 

A red exit sign hung above a door down the hallway. 

Could it be that easy? 

Could the outside have really been just right there the whole time? 

Nick shoved through the door and exposed a set of winding stairs. Charlie glanced over the edge and saw that it stretched at least fifteen floors down. 

Was it fifteen floors to freedom? 

Charlie nearly stumbled a few times on the stairs, but Nick held onto his hand tight. 

A few people passed them on the stairs, all also headed down. 

“The control room is in the basement,” Nick had whispered back to him the third time that they had had a group rush past them, a few dressed in similar jumpsuits to the ones that Nick and Charlie had on. 

God, what had Nick done to make it necessary for everyone in the building to sprint to the basement to try to rectify whatever had gone wrong? 

How much damage had Nick done? What sort of danger had he put himself in? And why? 

Because he thought it was the right thing to do? 

Or was it just for Charlie?

“Everyone is heading there now.”

Everyone but them. 

They were headed somewhere else. 

They were getting out.

Chapter Text

Charlie’s entire body ached. 

He felt like he was just one giant bruise. 

His heat had ended the night before, and without the extra surge of hormones, Charlie was far more aware of the battering that his body took during an Alphas rut. It wasn’t often that the Alpha's ruts didn’t match up with Charlie’s heats. Usually, they broke around the same time, at least within the same hour or two. 

Charlie had returned to his body fully six hours before, the haze of his heat lifting. The alpha, who had been knotting him almost constantly over the past five days, was still caught up in their rut, which meant that taking from Charlie’s body was still the only thing that the alpha was concerned with. 

He’d knotted Charlie three times since Charlie’s heat had broken, barely letting the knot go down before starting at him again. 

Knotting during a heat was already a lot for Charlie. There was a constant strain on him to give and give, to let an Alpha take from him, and to accept any pain that came with it. But outside of heat? Charlie didn’t even have the hormone surge to protect him. 

At least in heat, his hormones were in control. Charlie could to some extent slip away and remove himself from the act. 

Without it, he felt every moment of pain. He felt the hard press of fingertips digging into his hips as his body was thrust back and forth by the intensity of an alpha barreling into him. He didn’t produce the same amount of slick, and the resistance was increased, his body not as adept at taking what was forced upon it. 

Without the hormones of heat, Charlie was all too aware of the knot inside of him, sealing him to the alpha behind him. 

His first time being knotted outside of a heat, he’d been sure he would die. He’d not recognized the panic attack for what it was and had his breathing hitched and dark dots exploded in front of his eyes; he’d believed that he had finally reached the end. 

He’d blacked out, and when he’d opened his eyes again, the Alpha was still inside of him. The difference was that Charlie could feel the shaking of the alpha's chest behind him, and there was something damp on his shoulder. 

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry." 

It was then for the first time that Charlie realized that Omegas weren’t the only ones being exploited at Truham. 

Most of the Alphas that were set upon them were there willingly. Some seemed to thrive in their position of dominance. They hissed and spat cruelness in his ear as they attacked, enthralled by demeaning him. Their roughness exceeded the limits of their ruts. It became a choice. 

Others were just as trapped as Charlie. 

No matter who it was that Charlie was forced to mate with, every heat took something from him. 

This was his twelfth heat in level two. 

How had another year passed? 

How had he survived yet another rotation of the sun as a prisoner to the demands that this place put on his body? 

Another year. 

Double the amount of time that Charlie had expected to have to endure the program. 

Another birthday passed. 

He was eighteen. 

He was an adult. 

Now was when he was supposed to be experiencing true freedom for the first time. 

Instead, he was about to lose even more. 

He hadn’t been aware he had any left. 

…………..

Nick held tight to Charlie’s hand as they skidded down the last set of stairs and pushed through the door to the outside. 

Charlie had almost expected it to be locked. 

He had thought that they might bounce right off the steel and go sprawling back onto the ground, only to be grabbed by guards and hauled back upstairs. What sort of fate would Nick be doomed to for trying to help Charlie escape? 

Would he be forced into the program? Would Nick become one of the Alphas in level two? Or worse, would he be relegated to level three and lose any sense of himself? 

He couldn’t imagine Nick’s soft brown eyes going dark, becoming unrecognizable as he was stripped of his humanity and made to be more animal than human. 

But the door flung open, and the cold air stunned Charlie. If Nick hadn’t been holding onto him, Charlie might have stayed there, shocked by seeing the outside world for the first time in so long.

Nick towed him forward, heading directly into the dark. 

Charlie struggled to keep up with him; his wasted muscles were nothing compared to the Alpha's strong legs. 

He felt like he was running directly into the dark. Charlie couldn’t see anything in front of him except for Nick. There was almost no light. The moon was only a sliver, and the facility behind them was dark. Whatever Nick had done to shut down the system, he’d knocked out all the external lighting. 

Alphas had a sharper vision, and while Charlie couldn’t see five feet in front of him, he knew that Nick was sure-footed. He’d already put all his trust in Nick to get him out of the building, and he continued to trust him to get him out. 

And then Charlie hit the ground. 

Charlie had tripped on his own feet and gone sprawling onto the grass. The only reason he hadn’t smashed his face in was because Nick had still been clutching his hand and he’d managed to catch at least a part of him. 

“I’m sorry” Charlie squeaked as Nick pulled him back to his feet. 

Charlie could smell his own blood. He couldn’t feel the pain, but he must have scraped his knees when he’d fallen. 

Charlie’s heart was hammering so hard against his chest that he wouldn’t be surprised if it burst out of his body and went sprawling across the lawn. 

He’d fallen. He’d fucked up. He was bleeding. He could smell his blood, which meant that others could. 

The scent of omega blood was nearly as potent as their scent during the heat. The theory was that the scent of omega blood could be smelled so clearly so that Alphas would be immediately alerted to an injured Omega. 

Just a holdover of the barbaric notion that Omegas were made to be ‘protected’. 

What if a guard was outside somewhere and caught the scent? 

What if they came running? 

Had he just doomed both himself and Nick to a fate worse than death?

“It’s ok. You’re ok” Nick had clamped both his hands down on Charlie’s shoulders and had bent down so he and Charlie were face to face, their eyes level. 

“It’s alright, but you’ve got to calm down. Your scent is getting stronger the more stressed you become. 

Charlie nodded shakily, feeling his entire body start to vibrate. He was so fragile that the tiny fall had taken a lot of him.

“Fuck, they’ve wasted you away,” Nick muttered, his hands had slipped down to Charlie’s wrists. Nick could nearly close his thumb and his forefinger around both of them. 

“We’ve got to be quick, ok? Can I carry you?”

Charlie nodded, not trusting his legs to carry him fast enough to keep up with Nick. Charlie was already the reason that Nick was in danger, and if he was the reason they got caught? It would be too much. 

Nick crouched down and helped Charlie onto his back. He tightened his arms around Nick’s neck, hoping that Nick’s scent would be enough to mask that of Charlie’s blood in the air. 

Nick took off at a run, already moving so much faster despite the fact that he now carried Charlie’s entire weight. 

Instinctively Charlie tucked his head into Nick’s neck, his nose resting on Nick’s skin. It hadn’t been intentional, but Charlie had started to scent Nick, which had immediately started to calm him. 

“Good. That’s good” Nick murmured, taking one of Charlie’s hands from where they were grasped around his neck and bringing it to his nose before returning it to his neck and rubbing it against his skin. 

Nick had thought that Charlie was trying to reapply Nick’s scent to him. Nick thought that Charlie was trying to mask his scent with Nick’s again. 

Maybe a part of that was true, but a larger part of Charlie had instinctively tucked into Nick for comfort. 

It was a foreign feeling to have an Alpha bring him an emotion or feeling that wasn’t riddled with anxiety or pain. 

Charlie kept his face tucked into the man's back, holding tight until he felt Nick slow. 

“There’s a hole in the fence here somewhere. The electricity should still be off,” Nick muttered. 

Charlie lifted his head and took in the soaring wire fence in front of them. 

Electricity? The fence was electrocuted? 

He really had been an animal in a cage the entire time. 

“There! Just there. We’re going to have to crawl, I think.” 

Nick loosened his grip on Charlie and let him slide down his back. 

“How do we know that it’s off? What if they got the system back on?” 

“They haven’t” Nick sounded sure, but Charlie thought that he could scent Nick’s uncertainty in the air. 

“They haven’t,” Nick said again, taking Charlie’s hand and squeezing it. 

“We’ve got to ditch these clothes. It’s going to be a squeeze to get through that gap.” Nick was already pulling at the guard's jumpsuit. 

Charlie everted his eyes as he struggled with his own jumpsuit.

“We just have to get through to the other side. We follow the river down for two miles, and then I’ve stashed a car, and then—” 

“I don’t know where I’m going to go. My parents sent me here; I can’t go home. What if they send me back?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“You’re coming with me?”

Charlie had never considered that Nick’s help would extend past the fence. 

Was Nick really giving up everything just to help him? 

“Yeah. I mean, if you want me to.” 

“Yes. Yes, I want you to.” 

They’d gotten off the bulky jumpsuits, and Nick took the small canvas bag that Charlie hadn’t even noticed him carrying and shoved it through the space at the bottom of the fence that had been cut out. 

“Ok. You go first.” 

“But you-” 

“Charlie, please. Go first” 

Nick squeezed his hand again. Charlie glanced down at where their skin was joined, and his eyes caught on something metallic. 

His ID bracelet. 

The same one that's prongs had bitten into his skin his first day at Truham. The tag that tracked his temperature and his hormone levels. The tag had a direct line to his vein. The bracelet he was suddenly sure had a tracking device in it. So sure that he’d bet his life, or whatever was left of it. 

He’d tried before, in acts of desperate rebellion, to pry it off. He’d scuffed the metal but never made a real dent. His teeth were too dull. 

“Nick. Fuck. My ID band” 

Nick glanced down to where Charlie was looking. 

“Shit um-” Nick glanced over his shoulder, back in the direction of the facility. Thankfully, it was still dark. No one was on their trail yet. 

“Fuck. I don’t know how to get it off. Fuck. Fuck. They’re going to find me. Fuck” 

“We’ll get it off.” Nick’s words sounded like a vow. 

“It’s in my skin.” 

“I’ll try to pry it up." Nick grabbed Charlie’s wrist and tried to slide his thumb under the plate. He pulled, but it didn’t budge. 

“Fuck I can’t get a good grip on it. What if we-” 

“Nick”

The Alpha glanced up at him, and Charlie could see his mounting anxiety reflected back in Nick’s eyes. 

“Can you...will you use your teeth?” 

There wasn’t much stronger than an Alphas canines. They were sharper than knives and had greater biting power than lions. 

“Are you sure?” 

It was a risk. 

Nick’s teeth were powerful; if he slipped and they caught a vein, the amount of blood would send every Alpha within five kilometres running in their direction. 

But what choice did they have? 

Charlie had trusted Nick up until this point. There was no point in stopping now. 

“I trust you.”

Nick nodded.

His hands were shaking, and Charlie reached out and placed his free hand on Nick’s shoulder, steadying him, steadying them. 

Nick bared his teeth and brought Charlie’s wrist to his mouth. 

…………..

Instinctively, Charlie knew when the pregnancy test came back negative that things were about to change again. 

He’d had twelve heats in level two. The same amount as level one. 

Charlie hadn’t even been shocked when a beta knocked on his door an hour after his negative test to inform him that Dr. Ried was coming to speak with him. 

‘What fresh hell will be next?” Charlie had mused to himself, staring at the ceiling as he waited for the so-called doctor to arrive. 

It seemed like a bad sign that the doctor was coming to him rather than the other way around. 

"Ah, Mr. Spring. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to meet again under these circumstances.”

Dr. Ried settled himself onto a chair on the far side of the room, folding his hands on his lap over a clipboard. 

“It seems that further apologies are in order. I had high hopes for your success in Level 2, Mr. Spring; I truly did. I wish I knew where it was that we had failed you.” 

Charlie remained silent. Holding his tongue seemed like the safest avenue. If he said any of the things he was actually thinking... he couldn’t imagine that going very well. 

“It seems, Mr.Spring, that you are rare even amongst your rare breed.” 

Hearing the word breed out of the man's mouth caused Charlie’s stomach to roil. 

“However, that gives you the unique ability to be of use to your kind.”

Charlie winced. If Dr. Ried noticed, he did not mention it. 

“You are one of only three of your kind to have passed through two levels of our programs without conceiving a pup. Not even a false conception. It’s remarkable, really, when you consider the statistics of it. You’ve been provided with only the best studs, and yet you remain unripened.” 

Like a piece of fruit, Charlie thought bitterly to himself. 

"Well, I am sure we are both saddened that you’ve not yet been blessed with a pup. I’ve not lost hope. Nor should you.” 

I lost hope a long time ago. 

Not that they’d been hoping for the same things. 

“Your rarity makes you uniquely useful. We have the opportunity here to learn a great deal. Classic conception does not seem to favour you. That means not that a more unconventional tactic won’t bring results.” 

Unconventional tactics?

Conventional tactics had nearly killed him. 

What else could there be?

Charlie regretted asking the question even in his mind. 

“So a progression to level three seems to be in order. I am aware that the unknown can be frightening, but I urge you to think of the good that this can do. If we can discover how to impregnate an inhospitable omega, it may just be the key to the answer to how to reverse the infertility of the nation as a whole.” 

Inhospitable Omega.

Was that what he was? 

And what would happen if, after months or years of being a lab rat, he remained inhospitable? 

Would they only push harder? 

Would the tactics only become more unconventional?

How far were these people willing to go?

Chapter Text

Charlie held his breath, his eyes fixed on the gleam on Nick’s teeth as he bore them, bringing Charlie’s wrist to his mouth. He watched Nick move every so slowly, angling his teeth just right in an attempt to delicately slide beneath the metal plate. 

He pulled back, shaking his head as if trying to clear away cobwebs of doubt. 

“Fuck. I'm sorry. My hands are shaking so badly." Nick muttered, his eyes not leaving Charlie’s wrist that he had cradled in both his hands. 

“Nick” 

“I promise, I’ll get it. I just need to-” 

"Nick, I want you to promise me something.”

The other boy's head snapped up at that, brown meeting blue. 

“What?” 

“If you can’t do it if you break the skin trying to get it off, I want you to open the vein.” 

“What? Charlie, no” 

“I want you to open it and run.”

"Charlie, you’d, you’d-” 

“I’d bleed out before anyone got here, and you’d have time to run.”

"Charlie, I can’t-” 

“And I can’t go back. I won’t. I would rather die. You wanted to help me; you’ve risked everything to help me, but if you can’t get me out, I need you to do this.” 

“I don’t think I can.” 

“I’d do it myself if I could. I would have done it a long time ago. So please, if you can’t get it off. Then just...let me go.” 

Something hardened in Nick’s eyes, like a determination settling over him, a certainty he hadn’t had before. 

“I’ll get it off.”

“Nick-” 

“I can do it, Char. I swear I can.”

Then Nick brought Charlie’s wrist to his lips again, nudging his teeth under the metal and attempting to pry it up as gently as possible. 

Charlie couldn't stop the tiny hiss of pain that escaped him as he felt the metal prongs start to shift beneath his skin. 

Nick’s eyes flicked up to Charlie’s face, concern now intermixed with determination. 

“It’s ok. Keep going” he coaxed.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the metal began to lift until Charlie felt a pressure followed by a snap as the teeth of the ID bracelet broke away from his skin and the chain snapped, dropping into Nick’s open hand. 

A gasp crawled up Charlie’s throat as he stared down at the raw image of his bare wrist. He hadn’t seen the skin there in five years. It was pale, somehow impossibly paler than the rest of him that hadn't properly seen the sun in five years, apart from the four bright spots of crimson blood. 

Charlie saw only a flash of his skin before Nick brought it to his mouth again, sucking it between his lips and pressing his tongue over it. 

Charlie had nearly forgotten about how Alpha saliva allegedly had the power to close wounds. Charlie had never known if it was true or not. It was said that it existed so that an alpha might seal their mating bond after having punctured their omega's skin. 

He had no idea if it was true or if it only worked once the Alpha and Omega were bonded, but as he watched Nick try to seal his skin back together, he found himself believing intrinsically that it would work. 

When Nick let his wrist drop, seconds or maybe hours later, the fiery red marks had paled to pink. 

“Thank Christ,” Nick muttered as he squeezed Charlie’s hand. 

“Now please, through the fence.”

Charlie nodded, pulling his wrist back and dropping down to his stomach so he could crawl through the tiny hole at the very bottom of the fence. 

The metal just grazed at Charlie’s shirt as he pulled himself along the ground, but he wouldn’t have cared if it was tearing off layers of skin. He was doing it. He was getting out. 

Once he was through the fence, he stayed crouched on the ground as Nick shoved the canvas bag through the hole. Charlie grabbed it and yanked it through. 

“Now you,” Charlie encouraged. 

“Get to the trees,” Nick urged as he began to edge his way under the fence. 

Charlie glanced behind him to see that there was a stretch of forest a few yards behind him. 

Doing as he was told, Charlie moved on his hands and knees into the tree line, turning to make sure that Nick was still following him. 

Nick was very nearly through the fence, just his left ankle still grazing the metal when the floodlights flashed on above them, and Charlie heard the buzz of electricity as the fence roared back to life. 

………………

Charlie had kept track of his heats in levels one and two. 

In level one, he had been counting down until he might get the chance to go home. 

In level two, he had been counting down to the terror of the unknown that he believed would be coming if he reached level three. 

In level three, there was no point in counting. 

There was no fourth level. 

This is where he would stay.

This is where he could exist until he either miraculously got pregnant or succumbed to death. 

The second option seemed much more likely.

Death was a certainty in life, and Charlie conceiving most certainly was not. 

So he did not count the heats, or the days, or however many new experiments were tested on him. He did not count the trials or the injections. 

He did not count the number of researchers who were present at the door during different stages of his heat. 

He did not count the number of guards and researchers who appeared in his room after hours. 

He did not count the number of times that Ben had helped himself to his body in the name of 'science’. 

He did not count. 

But he did remember. 

He remembered the feeling of having his limbs bound when they had draped him over the breeding post. That experiment had seemed like a half-baked effort, a desperate attempt by a team grasping at straws.

They’d only tried it once. 

All the ‘properly done’ experiments saw the same parameters for at least three heats in a row. 

A few had been repeated a greater number of times. 

The medical team had said something about his hormone levels increasing after particular heats. So the parameters were replicated further times until they proved just as futile as the rest. 

All his torments were not created equal.

Some left much deeper scars than the rest. 

……

Charlie saw Nick’s body tense as the current from the fence drove through his body. 

Nick did not cry out in pain, but Charlie let out a strangled cry. 

No. 

No. 

No. 

This couldn’t be happening. 

Nick wasn’t moving. 

Why wasn’t he moving? 

Because he’s been electrocuted, you fucking idiot. 

Charlie scrambled away from the trees, crawling to where Nick was sprawled out on the ground. 

Was Nick dead? 

This was all Charlie’s fault. 

He’d made Nick risk everything, and now it was Nick who had lost. 

This was wrong. 

If one of them was going to die, it was supposed to be him. It was supposed to be Charlie. 

There was a roving spotlight above their heads, throwing light across the ground, seeking out what didn’t belong. 

Charlie reached the place on the ground where Nick lay, his cheek pressed into the ground, dirt marring the rust-coloured freckles that danced across his face. 

Charlie placed his hands on Nick’s shoulders, one sliding up to Nick’s neck and feeling for a pulse.

“Nick. Please wake up"  He whispered. Charlie was begging, but he wasn’t sure who to ask. 

In actuality, he was speaking to the boy lying sprawled before him, hoping against hope that he’d find a pulse as his fingers searched for the right spot on Nick’s neck. 

In an abstract way, Charlie was begging God. 

A god he had long ago stopped asking anything of. 

A god of whom Charlie hadn’t been sure existed but was sure that if he did, he had long ago decided that Charlie wasn’t worth saving. 

You left me for dead, but please, if you have any mercy at all, please bring him back. 

A beat. 

Charlie felt the spark under his finger. 

A skittering thump of a pulse. 

Nick wasn’t dead.

They were far from safe, but it wasn’t over yet. 

……………..

“Do you think we’re getting closer to a break through?” 

“It’s hard to say. I’d like to think so, but every time I think we’re getting close, we hit another dead end.”

The researchers had taken to talking as if Charlie wasn’t there. 

That was fine with him. 

The conversations often had something to do with his body or his kind but never really to do with him . 

In this new universe of his existence, Charlie Spring did not exist. 

Omega Spring. 

Subject number three. 

That was what his entire existence had been boiled down to. 

It was easier when Charlie was able to separate himself, his being, from his body. 

All the experiments, all the torment, were happening to his body. Not to him. 

Subject number three was battered and bruised. 

Charlie Spring existed somewhere else, on some other dimensional plane. If Charlie could split his mind and body permanently, he would. 

Yet his being always came back to his body at some point. The pain was never kept at bay for long. 

Eventually, they came back together, and everything he’d kept at arm's length would come rushing back. 

Charlie knew what the main topic of conversation was between the researchers those days. 

Genetics. 

More specifically, omega genetics and how they might be manipulated. 

It seemed there was a fleet of geneticists descending on Truham to try to achieve a ‘breakthrough’. 

Genetically modified omegas. 

A perfect specimen who could conceive earlier and more often with even greater ease. 

What a miracle they could create! They’d change the world. 

If only they could get it right. 

Didn’t you learn with the Alphas? Charlie silently chastised, his hand roving to his neck without thinking. 

His skin had long since grown over, knitting back together in some instances with the aid of a few securely placed stitches by a member of the medical team. The side of his neck and all down his clavicle and shoulder had been torn apart by metal grating at his skin. 

His skin would be forever scared, not only by the physical impact but also by the memories of the six heats he’d been left in a room with a mod-alpha. 

A research team member had been sent into his room the day before his heat, the way they always did the day before he was started on a new ‘protocol’. 

They’d often run down ‘what was to be expected’ and sprout off about the hypothesis that had brought them to the newest course of action. 

Charlie was set on extra-high alert when he realized that three people had entered his room instead of the usual single team member. 

“Omega Spring. We’re very anxious to get you started on this newest protocol. We’re anticipating great success with it.” 

He’d had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. They were always anticipating ' success’ and thus far nothing of the sort had ever occurred. 

Charlie’s head snapped up when he heard the words ‘genetically modified’. 

It sounded like something out of science fiction. 

Truman was playing around with genetics now? 

Charlie had missed a lot of what the researchers had been saying; his mind was derailed by the initial shock. He checked back in mind the sentence. 

“The seed has seen a spike in omega pregnancy occurring in the first heat cycle in level one. Up nearly forty percent. We are incredibly pleased with the potency.” 

They’d created an uber alpha with super seed? 

Were they going to administer it to Charlie the same way that he used to be bred in level one? Was he about to experience his first heat in years where no one would touch him? 

What wishful thinking. 

………….

It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds between when the fence had flicked back on and Nick’s eyes had opened, but to Charlie, it had felt like an eternity. 

When Nick opened his eyes and saw the floodlights above him, Charlie saw the alarm bells start going off in his head. 

“Charlie, what are you doing? The trees. Get to the trees." Nick’s voice was strained, and Charlie wondered if he even realized what had happened. Was he aware that he’d just been on the edge of death? He couldn’t have been, or else he wouldn’t have been so worried about Charlie. He’d be saving that concern for himself. 

Despite the fact that he was more fragile than he’d ever been in his entire life, Charlie hooked his arm around Nick and started dragging him backwards, pulling them both through the dirt and towards the tree line. 

It was tedious work. The lights kept barely glancing off them as they roved over the yard. 

Were there cameras? Were the feeds back up? Had they realized Charlie was missing? Were they headed in their direction now? 

“Char, stop. You’ve got to go. I’ll catch up with you just; please go hide.” 

Charlie could see Nick start to get control of his limbs back. His arms were twitching, and Charlie saw Nick’s heels start to dig into the dirt and push, helping to propel them forward. 

“We’re almost there,” Charlie muttered, pouring all his energy into getting them to the trees and whatever small amount of cover they’d be able to offer. 

Maybe it would have been smarter to leave him. 

Maybe it would have been wise for Charlie to slip into self-preservation mode and turn and run. 

He didn’t know what would happen to Nick if he was caught, but he knew what would happen to him. 

Charlie was fairly sure they might just create a special fourth level just for him, one that became less about conception and much more about punishment. 

But Charlie wasn’t going to risk Nick when Nick had already risked everything for him. 

They were both going to make it out of there, or they were both going to get caught. 

Whatever happened. They would do it together. 

Chapter Text

As soon as they made it into the cover of the trees, Charlie collapsed onto his back, breathing hard. His lungs ached as if each gulp of air he brought in was actually made of fire. It was a cruel reminder that, in being alive still, he was still in pain.

So much of his life for the past half-decade had been crafted around pain. 

The avoidant of it.

The enduring of it. 

The pursuit of it. 

Pain. 

Nick’s body was draped on top of Charlie’s legs, weighing him down like a blanket made of lead. 

“Are you alright?” 

It seemed a rather stupid question; he knew it even as the whispered words left his lips, but he had to ask. 

He needed an answer. He needed to be reassured, or he needed to be warned. 

“I’m ok” Nick’s words were harshly undercut, but the strain in his voice. The discomfort there was evident. What damage did the electrical current of the fence cause? Was Nick’s heart about to give out at any second?

“I think,” Nick added as an afterthought before he rolled to his side with a great grunt, freeing Charlie’s legs of his weight. 

Nick threw his gaze back towards where they came from. They couldn’t see the fence from there, but the floodlights rays still peaked through the dense arms of the trees, searching. 

“We need to keep moving,” Nick muttered, his convictions somewhat dulled by the hiss of discomfort he let out when he tried to turn from his back onto his knees. 

Charlie agreed but wasn’t entirely sure it was possible. 

Nick had been dead.

Charlie was almost sure of it. 

The electric current had moved from the fence through Nick’s body and into his heart. 

It had stopped it. 

His heart. 

The current.

It had stopped the vital organ from beating. 

But by some miracle, it had started again. 

Nick was alive. 

He could speak, move, and think. 

But could he run? 

Nick seemed not to care about what he could do but rather what he would. 

With another great groan of pain, Nick had turned over and pushed himself first to his knees and then up onto his feet. 

He seemed slightly unsteady but offered his hand out to Charlie anyway. 

“Can you stand?” 

Charlie very nearly laughed.

He wasn’t the one who had moments ago been acquainted with death. 

Charlie felt an unwilling flash of malice. 

Of course, an Alpha would be under the impression that the Omega was the weak link, forever fragile and in need of minding. 

He silently pushed away that course of thinking. 

Projecting onto Nick wasn’t wise, not when he was risking so much for him. Not when Nick had just nearly died in pursuit of Charlie’s freedom. 

It wasn’t as if Nick hadn’t already seen firsthand Charlie’s less-than-fair state. He’s spent the past many years as what amounted to a prisoner, the past three having his body experimented on to differing extremes. His muscles had wasted; his resolve softened. Even as Nick had asked the question, Charlie hadn’t even been sure of the answer. 

Could he stand? 

Could he run? 

He didn’t know. 

He supposed all there was to do was try. 

….

Nick had thought that he’d never see Charlie Spring again. 

He’d kicked himself in the weeks after Charlie had disappeared from their shared form. Why hadn’t he been braver? 

Why hadn’t he gotten himself together enough to say more than a brief ‘hi’ to the other boy? 

Why did he care so much? 

Nick didn’t have the words to explain. 

He’d never been great with words. 

His mind was more inclined towards science than it was towards English. 

Maybe it was because he’d spent the first five years of his life only speaking French. That had been his father's excuse when Nick had come home from year three with a poorly marked smelling test. 

“If he could learn in French, he might have half a chance." Stephane had spat across the kitchen table, once again showing his frustration for having to relocate his family to England. 

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Nick when his father disappeared back to the continent, leaving his wife and two sons without much else besides a muttered sorry and a promise to'see them soon’. 

Science made more sense to him.

Grammar rules did not matter as much when it came to biology and physics. 

But the laws of motion did not lend Nick the explanation he needed for the pull he felt towards Charlie the second they sat down at the same table. 

Maybe it was science?

The way that the omegas scent seemed to call to him. 

Or maybe it was something that both science and words were beyond explaining? 

It couldn’t just be that Nick thought that the boy smelled nice. 

There was a certain comfort that Nick felt in Charlie’s presence as if a weight he had not been aware he had been carrying had been lifted off his shoulders when the other boy was close by. 

The weight settled back over him as soon as Charlie was gone from his side and would not be lifted again until the following morning. 

It turned Nick’s stomach to hear the way that some of his classmates spoke about Charlie after he’d presented. 

He’d not been aware of how bigoted and cruel some of his classmates were, but once they knew there was an Omega in their midst, someone whom they felt comfortably above both in strength and station, they’d revealed their true nature as some of the foulest people that Nick had ever had the displeasure of knowing. 

Nick had never seen any of the abuse occur himself. He doubted he would have been able to control his temper if he had, but he’d heard all the whispers.

He’d heard about the way that Alphas were stalking the halls, using their beta friends as herders to get corral Charlie to them so they could forcibly scent the Omega, as if it were their right based on his very existence. 

Nick had very nearly come to blows with a member of the rugby team when Harry Greene had gone on a rant after practice one day. 

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not fucking gay or anything, but I swear to God one of these days I’m going to corner the little runt behind the storage shed and see for myself what all this fuss is about. He smells fucking incredible. How do you think he’ll taste? Fuck, you can just tell how bad he wants to be knotted. I fucking smell it in the air every time I walk by him. I swear when I stuck him against the lockers to scent him the other day, I could smell slick. God, can you imagine how easy he probably is? Just totally gagging for this kno-” 

Nick had slammed his locker shut and stocked out of the room before he did something that would get him expelled. 

He’d actually come to blows with his older brother when David had come home from uni and smelled Omega on Nick. 

“I’m impressed, Nicky. What little slut have you got yourself a piece of? Keen to share?” 

Nick had tried to ignore his brother, but David had continued to needle at him, only when their mother wasn’t in earshot, but when David had gotten up from the sofa and declared that he was going to go 'sniff out Nick’s little friend and show him what a proper knot felt like.' Nick had snapped. 

David had gone back to university with a split lip and a broken ego, while Nick showed up to form the next day with a small purplish bruise under his left eye. 

Nick had maybe a little foolishly hoped that Charlie would notice, and maybe it would be the start of the conversation that Nick had been trying for weeks to begin. 

Only Charlie never again appeared in their form. 

He never reappeared at school. 

“Probably got himself knocked up,” someone had whispered in the hallway on his third day absent from class. 

“You could smell how desperate he was to be bred. Some Alpha must have granted that wish.” 

It had driven Nick slightly crazy to not know what became of Charlie. 

He just wanted to know that the boy was alright. 

After a few weeks, Nick couldn’t take it anymore and sought out Charlie’s sister. 

He’d never spoken to Tori before. In truth, he’d always found her a bit intimidating. Still, he had to know if Charlie was alright. 

“That’s not really any of your business." She’d snapped when Nick had gently inquired about Charlie. 

“You and every other knothead in this fucking town just need to leave him alone,” she sneered through her teeth.

Nick could see that he’d hit a sore spot by bringing up Tori’s brother. How many other alphas or their beta serfs had come to bother her, goading at her and no doubt making lewd comments about her brother and his secondary gender? 

“I just want to know that he’s ok,” Nick said again, looking at Tori’s shoes instead of meeting her eyes. 

It was almost unheard of for an Alpha to bow their head to a Beta this way, but Nick wanted to make his intentions clear. 

It did not go without Tori’s notice. 

She softened, only slightly to him.

“Charlie is ok” had been her only other words before she turned on her heels and stalked away from him. 

That had been all Nick wanted—no need to know. 

He’d tried to put Charlie out of his mind over the next years, but still the boy came to his thoughts on occasion, and his dreams even more often so. 

The Springs had moved away a little over a year after Charlie had disappeared from school. Nick hoped that wherever it was that they went, it was somewhere that Charlie didn’t have to hide in the house all day. 

He hoped that he was somewhere that Charlie felt free. 

For his part, Nick continued on with his life as best as he could. He finished his exams, gained entrance to a university in the north, and moved on as best as he could. 

He fell—well, not in love but in like with a few people.

His heart was never broken, but it had been bruised over the years. 

He studied science, less for his love of it and more because it was something that he knew he could succeed in. Nick didn’t imagine he’d have a career in the field; most of his energy at university was focused on playing rugby, but the classes were interesting enough to fill his time, and the coursework was deemed noble enough by his father to be worth paying for. 

Nick had intended to return to Kent the summer before his senior year of university. He’d arranged to teach a few youth rugby camp sessions and had been looking forward to spending time with his mother. 

That was until Stephane stepped in. 

“My boy, I've arranged a most wonderful opportunity for you." Stephane had proclaimed one night, his voice booming over the phone. 

Nick had been surprised to receive the call and even further startled by the contents of the conversation. 

“They are doing cutting-edge work at Truham with genetics, life-changing stuff, I am told. Very important. It would be good for you, I think, to go work there this summer. They are taking on summer students, and I’ve put your name forward. A former colleague of mine works there; he will ensure you are accepted.” 

“Papa, I don’t know that I want-” 

“Rugby will not last forever, my boy. A position like this on your CV will greatly increase your chances of getting into a good graduate program. You will do this for me, yes?” 

Nick had resented his father for asking this of him, but Stephane did so little for his children that Nick felt it necessary to accept this work purely because his father had procured it for him. 

So instead of heading south and back home to the comfort of his mother's house, Nick had turned to go further north to the Truham Institute of Genetics. 

He was part of a student cohort of ten summer students, and on their first day they’d taken a tour of the grounds and labs that they’d be working in. 

It seemed to Nick that the job was mostly going to be data entry and some light collecting of samples to be transported around the campus. It wasn’t disclosed to the students what exactly the team was working on—all the paperwork was written in a code that Nick didn’t recognize. 

It was slightly disappointing to Nick, as it took any interest out of the work and made it feel entirely meaningless to him. 

If he was going to miss out on a summer coaching kids and spending time with his mother, he would at least like to feel like the research he was working on was going to have a positive impact on the community. 

“Oi! Is that Nick Nelson?” 

It was the end of Friday on Nick’s first week on the job when he heard his name being crowed like a chant from across the lab. 

He raised his head from the data sheets he’d just finished inputting into the program and saw a dauntingly familiar face approaching him with a delirious grin spread across his lips. 

It was one of the last people that Nick had ever expected to see in a place of science. 

Harry Greene. 

Harry was the epitome of a trust fund kid, and the sight of him in a uniform that wasn’t based on a sports team was rather startling to Nick. 

“It is, Jesus Christ, how are you doing, mate?” 

Harry had come to stand next to Nick and had clapped a hand down on his shoulder. 

“Harry, wow. Hi. What are you doing here?” 

“Same as you, mate! Working! Summer job and all that! My uncle, who owns majority shares in this place, got me the gig. You’re looking at the head of summer security of the junior staff! Makes me your boss, eh Nelson?” 

Nick resisted rolling his eyes, knowing the headache of getting Harry pissed off wouldn’t be worth the momentary satisfaction it would bring him. 

"Oh, I’ve just thought of something brilliant! You’re done here for the day, yeah?” 

Nick glanced at the clock, wishing for the first time that day that it wasn’t anywhere near five o’clock so he’d have an excuse to deny Harry.

No such luck. 

“The other security lads gave me this gift last week, and I think you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did."  Harry winked dramatically at him in a gesture that Nick felt rather misplaced. 

“That’s very kind of you, but I’ve got some work I had better finish up here and-” 

“Nonsense! Didn’t we just establish that I’m your boss? Oi lads!” Harry turned around and gestured for the security that had been loitering along the edge of the lab. 

“This is my mate Nick. I think he deserves a welcome gift. What do you say?” 

The guys all hooted and hollered their approval as if they were speaking of heading out for pints to pick up women. 

Maybe that’s what this was? A trip to the pubs? Nick could probably handle that much. Plus, if these men drank enough, they probably wouldn't notice Nick slipping out early. 

“Right. Let’s go!” Harry shouted, pulling Nick to his feet and wrapping an arm around him, steering him through the building and into a section Nick had never entered before. 

“Are you sure we’re supposed to be here?” 

Nick asked warily as they passed yet another sign that stated the area was for ‘authorized personnel only’. 

"Oh, calm your tits, Nelson, it’s fine. Besides you’ll be thanking us soon enough. Once you’re thoroughly relaxed,"  Harry gave another obnoxious wink. 

“Here we are,” Harry pronounced in a sing-song voice. 

“Get in there, son,” Harry crowded, slapping Nick’s arse and pushing him through the door that the others had just opened with a key card. 

“What the-” 

But before Nick could process what was going on, he was unceremoniously shoved into the room, stumbling over the threshold. 

Before Nick could right himself and get a baring of his surroundings, a familiar scent flooded his senses. 

It was a fragrance he’d thought he had memorized, but he now knew he had forgotten the exact sequence of it and had forgotten the way it had flooded his body with a sense of calm and contentment. 

It was a scent he’d only encountered a handful of times years before, in the early mornings of a form classroom.

Charlie Spring.

Chapter Text

The sound of twigs and branches snapping and crunching beneath Charlie’s feet was the only constant that he had. 

His breathing came in uneven waves as he huffed through the woods, branches of the trees scraping at his limbs as they stumbled past them. Charlie prayed that the scrape of the bark wouldn’t break his skin and that more of his blood wouldn’t be exposed to the air. 

His steps were uncertain; he felt sure that he would lose his footing at any second and go sprawling onto the forest floor the same way he had hit the ground when running from the Truham buildings. 

His heart was hammering, jumping and then pausing, slamming against his chest walls, and then stilling as if trying to decide if it wanted to stop beating altogether. 

Then he felt Nick’s hand reaching out and clumsily grabbing hold of his. 

Charlie had a new constant. The feeling of Nick’s hand in his. The squeeze of reassurance. 

They were both there. 

They were both alive. 

They were both still going. 

They were going to get out. 

………………..

Nick’s head was swimming as he stumbled back through the halls of the Truham Institute, across the lawn, and towards the summer staff housing. 

His hands were shaking so hard that he struggled to fit the key into the door. When he did finally manage to unlock it, he stumbled through it, nearly losing his footing. 

He couldn’t think straight. 

He couldn’t see straight. 

What kind of place had his father sent him to?

Had Stephane had any idea what sort of business his friend was in?

Did he understand? 

Nick wasn’t sure he understood. 

No. In fact, he was positive that he didn’t understand. 

None of this was commuting in his brain. 

This place, Truham, was supposed to be a lab. A place of science. 

It had seemed it was that way at first. 

During his first days there, Nick saw the microscopes, the data, the lab coats, and the computers. 

But then he’d seen the truth. 

He’d seen the parts that didn’t make sense. 

He’d seen the steel doors with electronic locks. 

He’d seen the bedframe and the restraints. 

Charlie. 

He’d seen Charlie Spring, a ghost from his past. 

The sweet-scented boy with a kind aura.

Charlie, that Nick remembered from form all those years ago. 

That Charlie.

That Charlie, who now looked more like a shell than he did a person. 

Charlie was on the same bed where Nick had noted the ankle and wrist cuffs. 

Charlie, who was now five years older than he had been the last time that Nick saw him but who somehow looked smaller. Not just in the shape of his body but in his overall presence. 

That Charlie. 

Nick’s knees hit the tile in front of the toilet as he emptied the meagre contents of his stomach into the bowl.

Where the fuck was he? 

What the fuck was this place? 

What the fuck had they done to Charlie? 

Nick couldn’t stop replaying their minutes together in his head. He was still in that room. He was still looking at the trapped figure of the boy who had lived rent-free in his head for years. 

He still heard Charlie’s voice in his head as the moments that had only just occurred but were now chewed into his brain, turning into memories that he would never forget. 

The first time he’d heard Charlie’s voice again in five years, the sharp cut of his tongue from the steely tone trying to disguise the terror. 

“Stay away from me.”

“I’m not here to hurt you." Nick raised his hands, palm up, trying to show that he meant no harm. He wasn’t there to hurt Charlie. 

He would never. 

He could never. 

“You shouldn’t be here at all.” 

I know! I wanted to spend the summer staying with my mom and teaching rugby! Had been Nick’s first thought, but he knew that that wasn’t what Charlie had meant. 

Charlie meant that Nick wasn’t supposed to be there in that room. He wasn’t supposed to be standing in front of Charlie. 

Nick’s nerves took over, and just like every other time he had ever gotten overwhelmed, Nick began to babble. 

“I don’t know why I am! A couple of the guards offered to buy me a beer after my first day, and then suddenly they hustled me down the hall, saying they had a gift for me.” 

Charlie's face twisted into an expression of disgust. 

“That would be me.” 

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? It didn’t make any sense. Charlie was the gift? Nick was so lost. 

“If you work here, you obviously know.” 

Nick’s mind was working overtime; he wouldn’t be surprised if smoke was seeping out of his ears. Nothing made sense. 

“I’m a summer student in a lab downstairs; I’m supposed to be studying the genetic mutation that dictates how we present not-” Nick looked around his eyes once again, fixing on the restraints and then flicking over to the corner of the room where some strange wooden contraption had been shoved, yet more restraints hanging from them.

“Not whatever this is.”

“Do you really not know?”

Nick didn’t know. He knew nothing. He understood even less. All we were sure of was that there was something very, very wrong going on.

“How, what, I mean, who did-?” 

“Are you going to complete a sentence?”

Nick had stuttered his way through a few other sentences before getting out a coherent question. 

“How long have you been here?”  Nick didn't, in all honesty, know where there was. What was this place? Nick had thought it was a lab, but now he wasn’t so sure. In fact, he was positive that there was much more to this place than science. 

“In this room? Or at Truham?’ 

"Both, I guess.”

“I got sent to Truham when I was fifteen. I was in the general population doing stage one of the program from 16 to 17, and then from 17 to 18, they had me in the special population for step two, and after that didn’t work, I became the lucky third-ever participant in step three. Which was when I got these lovely accommodations. I’m not sure exactly how long it’s been. I tried to track heats for a while, but—”

Nick spoke the next words without thinking.

“I always wondered where you went.” 

Charlie looked startled by his words, and Nick rushed to explain himself. 

“When you disappeared from school. There were rumours, obviously, but I didn’t listen to any of them. I tried to ask your sister once, but” 

Nick’s words faded away, remembering the hospitality Tori had had towards him, making it clear to Nick that he wasn’t the first Alpha to come asking after Charlie. He did suspect that he was the only one who hadn’t had impure intentions. 

“Why did you care?” 

Nick answered with as much honesty as he could muster.

“I don’t know. I just know that as soon as you stopped coming to school, everything felt wrong. I had been trying to work up the nerve to talk to you, but then one day you were just gone.” 

There were so many pieces missing. Nick didn’t understand. He was desperate to understand. 

“I don’t understand what this is. I don’t understand what you’re doing here.” 

“If you really think about it, I think that you do." Charlie spat his response like it was venom. 

“What?” 

“Think about it, Nick. Think. ” 

“I don’t-” 

“But you do!”

“Why would someone want to round up a bunch of Omegas into one place? What benefit would that have?” 

No. There was no way. 

“But it couldn’t be—it’s not legal to.” 

“You’d be surprised what the government turns a blind eye to.” 

Nick felt bile rise in his throat. 

“Are they... are they breeding you?”  

Charlie let out a harsh laugh. 

“They’ve been trying; it’s not exactly been successful, but who knows? Maybe the last time took.” 

“So they’ve just been what... keeping you here? Forcing you to-?” 

“Do you want to say it?” Charlie challenged. 

“Can you say it?” he continued. Nick felt like all the blood in his body had gone cold.

“Because I can't, and I’m the one it’s happening to.”

How was it possible? How in this day and age was it possible that an involuntary breeding program existed? 

“Why? Why are they doing this?” 

“It’s what I’m meant for; at least that’s what they tell me; only I can’t seem to get it right, can I?”  

Nick thought back to the way that he'd heard Alphas speak in locker rooms; he thought of the controversial articles about the duty of secondary genders and about how Omegas were treated in some corners of society. 

"Charlie.” Nick got to his feet and took a half-step closer to him. 

“This isn’t right.”  It was a stupid thing to say. Nick knew it as soon as the words left his mouth. 

“You think I don’t know that?” 

“I want to help you." Nick didn’t think he’d ever said anything so true in his life. The words weren’t strong enough. He didn’t want to help; he had to help. 

“You can’t” 

“I can try."  

“ How ?” Charlie’s voice was so small that it was nearly a whisper.

Nick let out a long breath, pushing his hand backwards through his hair. 

“I don’t know yet. But I swear to God. I’ll try everything. Anything.”

“Better wrap it up, Nelson!” came a jeering voice from the hallway, a bunch of other rowdy voices laughing around it.

“Make sure you don’t knot him!” Called a different voice, just as full of cruel amusement. 

“We don’t have the time to wait for it to deflate!” 

Oh fuck. 

Nick realized for the first time what Charlie had meant when he’d said that ‘he was the gift’. 

Harry Greene and all those boys in the hall had sent Nick into this room thinking that he’d force himself on the Omega inside. 

How many of them had done the same thing? 

"Char,” 

Charlie looked even more startled at the sound of his name falling from Nick’s lips. 

“I swear we’re going to figure this out, ok?”

"Seriously, Nick, we can’t hang around much longer. Blow your load and let fucking go.” 

“I promise. I’ll keep saying it until you believe me. Please believe me. We’re going to figure this out.” 

“If we could figure it out before next Thursday, that would be great."  There was a teasing tone in Charlie’s voice, but Nick could hear the fear and uncertainty underneath it. 

Before next Thursday. Nick could do that. He would do that. He had to. 

“I’ll see you soon. I promise” 

Nick knew that somehow he’d keep that promise. He’d find a way. He had to. 

Nick wanted to believe that he’d feel this determined when it came to saving anyone. 

He knew, however, that it was different because it was Charlie. 

Charlie, whom he hadn’t seen for half a decade. 

Charlie, who he had never ever forgotten. 

Charlie, who Nick would be anything to see free. 

…………..

Charlie could hear it ahead. 

He could hear the river rushing. He could hear the sound of the water rushing and lapping against the river banks.

That was it! That was where they were headed.

Nick had said that they just needed to follow the river down.

They would follow the river down a few kilometres and eventually reach the place where Nick had stashed a car. A car they could get in and drive away.

Drive away fast. 

Charlie wanted to get in a car and go as fast as possible. He wanted to stick his head out the window like a dog and feel the wind whipping against his face. He wanted to feel something other than the pain he’d been living in for what felt like forever. 

They were so close. 

They could make it out. 

They were going to make it out. 

“SPRING!” 

Charlie’s heart dropped out of his chest and tumbled onto the forest floor in front of him. 

That wasn’t Nick’s voice. 

Someone was calling his name. Someone who meant him harm. Someone who wanted to drag him back to where he’d just escaped. 

Charlie kept moving but cast a look over his shoulder. 

He could see the prick of a torch flicking through the trees. 

They’d been followed. They’d been found out. 

Someone was coming for them, maybe multiple someone. 

"Nick,” Charlie whispered, wincing when he heard his name called again. 

“OMEGA SPRING. STOP!” The voice still sounded a ways away, but Charlie knew they would catch up quickly. 

“ Nick” 

“It’s alright. We’re going to be alright." Nick sounded like he was trying to reassure himself as well as Charlie. 

They had to stop running when they reached the riverbank. 

The water rushed in front of them, and trees stretched out across the other side, offering more cover, but they were unreachable. 

They could keep running along the river, but they’d be out in the open. Whoever was following them would be able to see them for ages, kilometres even. 

Whoever it was could be armed; they would have a clear shot. 

A bullet might be a blessing, but Charlie knew that it would likely be a tranquillizer. Charlie was more valuable to these people alive than he was dead. 

But what about Nick? 

Charlie turned to Nick, holding tight to his hand. 

“Can you swim?” 

“What?” Nick seemed startled as if Charlie had broken him out of a train of deep thought. 

“Can you swim?” 

“I can but-” 

“Then let's go.” Charlie hurried forward into the frigid water, pulling Nick with him. 

“Charlie, what are you?”

“We need to swim with the current; let it take us downstream. If we stay on shore, they’re going to—” 

“Ok,” Nick agreed. 

“Ok, let's do it. I don’t know how strong it is, and I don’t know how far it’ll carry us before it spits it out.” 

I’d rather drown than go back . 

“Nick. Thank you” Charlie squeezed Nick’s hand one last time before they both dove forward into the water just as the torchlight from the trees hit the shore of the river.

Chapter Text

Charlie felt the icy water take hold of him and drag him forward the moment he was submerged. 

He’d noted the speed the water was moving from the shore, but he’d underestimated the strength of the current. 

It was pushing him downstream, but it also seemed to be pressing him closer to the river's rocky bottom. 

Down 

Down

Down

Closer to the bottom 

Further from oxygen

Toward the waiting arms of death. 

As Charlie struggled to break the surface and claim lungs full of air, a voice whispered to him.

Wouldn’t it be easier to swim down? 

Wouldn’t it? 

What if Charlie stopped fighting? 

What if he let the water overtake him? 

He’d thought so often of how he would welcome death when it came time to meet it. 

He’d prayed for its swift arrival.

But. 

But what had it all been for if Charlie gave up now? 

Nick had given up everything to get Charlie out. 

He’d put himself in terrible danger just to give Charlie a chance to live. 

Nick had laid down his life to give Charlie a chance to get his back. 

He couldn’t give up. 

He had to fight. 

Just a little while longer. 

He’d survived up until this point. 

He could survive a little longer. 

He’d survived the experiments at the hands of the twisted scientists at Truham.

He could survive a bit of water. 

Charlie used what little strength he had in his muscle-waisted legs to kick out. 

He didn’t fight the current; he went with it, trusting that the buoyancy of his body would push him to the surface.

Charlie gasped and gulped down water as his head broke the surface. He immediately started swimming in tandem with the current, letting it push him where it wanted. He focused on pushing his arms through the water and kicking out with his legs. 

The water splashed on his face, blinding him with its freezing drops. Charlie couldn’t see Nick. He had no idea where he was or if he had surfaced. Charlie wanted to call out for him, but every time he opened his mouth, water rushed in, taking up what little precious space he had for air. 

Nick was there. 

Nick was beside him in the water. 

The current was carrying them together. 

They would make it to shore. 

They’d both make it to shore. 

Charlie repeated the words to himself as the water moved him.

It was the truth. 

It had to be. 

………

Nick had to do something. 

He wanted to storm the castle. 

He’d fight any sorcerer and slay any dragon to rescue the boy in the tower. 

But this wasn’t a storybook. 

Evil wouldn’t be defeated with a true love kiss. 

No. 

Nick needed more than bravery and bravado. 

He needed to gather information. 

He needed to find an escape route. 

Nick needed a plan. 

Nick couldn’t sleep that night; his brain was running at hyperspeed trying to make sense of the senseless, trying and failing to come up with the perfect answer to the mess he’d stumbled into. 

Nick hadn’t even been aware of the wing of the building where Charlie was being held. 

If it weren’t for Harry Greene and the other perverse guards, Nick would have gone the entire summer not knowing it existed. 

There were security badges and passcodes. 

Steel doors and guards. 

Surely there were other security measures. Ones that Nick wasn’t even aware of. 

Charlie was kept under lock and key like a valuable commodity. Surely there were other measures in place to ‘protect’ their specimens. 

Security cameras, motion detectors, and who knew what else? 

Nick had to figure out a way around all of it. 

He had to figure out a way out of the building and then a way away from it. 

How far would they have to flee for Charlie to be safe? 

He needed a plan. 

He needed answers. 

He needed help. 

Only there was no one to lean on. 

There was no one to trust. 

How many of the people that Nick worked with every day knew the truth about what was really being'studied’ at their institute? 

Was it an open secret that Nick hadn’t picked up on? 

Was it discussed over the water cooler in the break room? 

How many others had received ‘welcome gifts’ like the sort that Harry had tried to give to Nick? 

But. 

But maybe that was it. 

Maybe that was the answer. 

There was one person that Nick was sure knew the truth. 

One person who he knew was careless with the rules. 

One person who Nick knew he could win over with a little flattery and crude jokes. 

One person who Nick knew he could fool when the time came to it. 

Harry Greene was the answer to all of this. 

Harry Greene was going to hand Nick the key to get Charlie out of this place, and he’d never even know he’d done it. 

……… 

Charlie felt the water start to lose its grip on him. 

He felt the current start to slow. 

He thought he might have felt his toe skim something. 

Could he touch the bottom? 

He could. 

Charlie planted his feet and tore himself from the arms of the water. 

The river was still waist-deep, but it wasn’t trying to force him downstream with the same ferocity. 

He pushed the water out of his eyes and looked around, trying to see through the darkness. 

The water around him was inky black. 

The sliver of moon in the sky was the only thing to light the shore, and Charlie couldn’t see past the tree line on the river's edge. 

Nick. 

Where was Nick? 

Charlie twisted around, his eyes scanning the water, his fingers skimming its surface as if he might pluck Nick out of its current with the touch of his hand. 

Had the river carried him further down? 

Had it pushed him out to the other side? 

Or had Nick swum down?

Had Nick picked to greet death instead of running the risk of what would happen to them if they were caught? 

No. 

No, Charlie didn’t believe that. 

But it didn’t mean that Nick hadn’t been taken by death unwillingly. 

Charlie struggled to the shore, collapsing on the rugged rocks of the river bank and coughing up the water that had worked into his lungs. 

His body shook and convulsed as he tried to pull himself together. Adrenaline was carrying him through, keeping his heart pumping and keeping the cold away. 

It would run out eventually. 

Charlie needed to find Nick before that happened. 

He had to find Nick. 

Nick was somewhere. 

Charlie just had to figure out where. 

………..

“It’s absolutely insane, mate; you wouldn’t believe some of the shit that they showed me my first week in the security office. I swear I’ll never need to visit another porn site again. The mental images in my spank bank are enough to last a lifetime.” 

Nick clutched his fists under the table, his nails digging into his skin to the point that he wouldn’t be surprised if he drew blood. 

Nick had sought Harry out the next day, asking him if he wanted to go for a pint so that Nick could ‘thank him properly’ for his ‘gift’. 

Harry had seemed thrilled, agreeing quickly. 

Nick wasn’t surprised. 

For all this ego and brashness, Harry was really just a desperate guy looking for approval. 

He’d thrown massive parties during their school days just so people would suck up to him for an invite. 

Harry had never met a friend that he couldn’t buy. 

Except for Nick. 

Nick hadn’t been fussed about going to Harry's parties. 

He’d shown up with the rest of the rugby team, but he’d not joined in on kissing Harry's ring in thanks.

Nick had the feeling that that had always bothered Harry. 

He didn’t like that he couldn’t buy Nick’s praise. 

So when Nick appeared at the security office and asked to buy Harry a drink as a thank you, Harry jumped at it. 

Nick had been sitting in the little pub in town with Harry for a half hour. 

He’d thought that he’d have to be tactful and subtly bring up what was happening with Omegas at Truham, but Nick supposed he should have known better. 

Harry had always been a bragger, and he’d almost immediately jumped into his ' stories’ about the grand time he’d been having at Truham since he’d arrived. 

Nick’s stomach had turned and roiled as Harry described the videos he’d been watching during his down time in the security offices. 

‘They film it all for their research, you know. Shits insane. I’m not gay, so I can’t say that Omega Three does much for me, but one and two? Fuck Nicholas, you wouldn’t believe. I know you swing both ways. Harry nudged Nick in the ribs. 

“So I figured you’d be into three. I’ve never hit that, but some of the lads won’t shut up about how good it is. I guess slick is slick at the end of the day.” 

If Nick didn’t need Harry and his connections so badly, he’d have beaten him to an inch of his life right there. 

Nick hadn’t realized that Harry didn’t recognize Charlie. 

It seemed hard to believe to Nick. 

Charlie was sort of unforgettable. 

But Harry had been one of those asshole Alphas that used to corner Charlie in the corridors to scent him just because they could—a way to assert their dominance. 

The words felt like acid as they crawled up Nick’s throat. 

“Do you think I could, uh, take a look at some of those videos sometime?” 

Harry grinned at him. 

“Nicholas Nelson, I always knew you were a dirty dog deep down. I’ll tell you what, my son, you drop by the security office after quitting time tomorrow and I’ll give you the grand fucking tour.” 

Nick gritted his teeth as he clinked his glass against Harry's. 

He was doing what he had to do. 

He didn’t think there was anything that he wouldn’t do to get Charlie to safety. 

Nick would blow up the whole place if he had to. 

Every second that Nick could steal he spent researching. 

He scoured every corner of his work computer, breaking into locked files and trying to find keywords that would lead him to any information he could use. 

Nick was exhausted. 

He’d been up most of the night on his laptop, typing furiously and trying to find the weakness he was sure existed in the code in front of him. 

When he’d met up with Harry at the security office three nights ago, he’d covertly slipped a drive into one of the computers and copied the contents. 

He had memorized the layouts of the grounds, maped out the best and fastest route out of the building, and tracked security rotations, trying to figure out the perfect time to execute his plans. 

Nick wished that he could go back to see Charlie and somehow let him know that Nick hadn’t forgotten his promise. But it wasn’t possible. 

He’d stolen a key card from the security office, but Nick couldn’t risk using it before he had everything in place. He couldn’t set off any alarm bells. 

He had Harry in the palm of his hand, but if Nick did anything to make him suspicious, he could quickly turn into a vicious enemy. 

Nick knew he only had one chance, and he had to get it right. 

…………

Charlie crawled up the slippery rocks, hauling himself further onto the shore. 

His palms burned and stung. 

Please don’t be bleeding, he silently begged. 

He'd been lucky before with his scraped knees. The bleeding had stopped before it could spread through the air and had been almost instantly masked by the strength of Nick's scent.

Charlie had no such protection there in the open. 

He had no idea how far down the river had carried him (carried them), he reminded himself. Nick was there somewhere. Charlie was sure of it) down and how much distance he’d put between himself and the Truham campus. 

Were people still out looking for him? 

Charlie was fairly sure it had been Ben who had called out from the trees. 

He recognized the voice—the vitriol. 

Would Ben have turned back for backup, or would he have tried to follow the river on foot?

Or would they assume that he and Nick had drowned? The water was cold and fast-moving. Charlie could have easily been lost in the water. 

No matter what, Charlie couldn’t afford to have the scent of his blood in the air. 

Unless…

What if Nick was nearby and looking for him? 

What if he was also stumbling around in the dark trying to find Charlie the way that Charlie was trying to find him? 

Charlie brought his palm to his mouth. 

The skin was scraped, but there was no blood. 

Still, it wouldn’t take much to bring a drop to the surface. 

Charlie looked around desperately, hoping against hope that he might catch Nick’s scent in the air or see his form emerging from the woods or the water. 

But his nose wasn’t strong enough to pick up scents at a distance, and his eyes saw nothing but darkness. 

Taking a deep breath, Charlie bit down on his palm until he felt the tiniest drop of blood emerge. 

That was all it would take. 

Any alpha within a mile would be able to smell him. 

Charlie just had to pray that Nick was the only one who came looking.

Chapter Text

Charlie was breathing hard, holding his hand close to his chest, and watching the tiny spot of blood still blooming on his hand. 

The sound of the river rushing was the only thing that Charlie could hear; the sharp rocks under his knees and the freezing sting of the wind were the only things he could feel. 

Nick.

Please be close.

Please don’t be dead. 

Please

Please

Please

The sound of a branch snapping under the fall of a foot stopped Charlie’s heart as his head snapped up to scan the woods in front of him.

Please be Nick. 

Please be Nick. 

Charlie didn’t know what he would do if it was someone else. 

Maybe take his chances with the river again? 

Would Charlie be strong enough to survive the water a second time? 

Another branch snapped, and there was the sound of leaves crunching. It sounded closer. 

Please be Nick. 

…..

Nick was working on a deadline. 

He didn’t know if the date that Charlie had given him was arbitrary or if it meant something, but Nick had taken the request seriously. 

He was going to get Charlie out of there before Thursday. 

Nick thought he had everything together. 

He had a USB in his pocket containing a code Nick had slaved over. Once Nick installed it on his work computer and set it free onto the server, he was confident that it would take the institute's system down, at least temporarily.

The lights would go out, the doors would unlock, the cameras would go dark, and the electricity running through the fence would be cut. 

The fence being electrocuted had been a surprise to Nick. He’d not been expecting that kind of security, but before he’d found Charlie, he had had no idea that Truham had had so much to hide. 

Harry had been the one to fill Nick in on the fence. 

“It’s how we got all the new guys. Just touching your finger to it knocks you on your arse. Pete grabbed it, and he swears his heart stopped. He blacked out and everything, but he might have just been a drama queen. He’s a bit of a pussy.” 

Nick had walked the fence during one of his lunch hours, trying to gauge if it was too high for him and Charlie to climb if the electricity was off. 

Nick thought he could make it, but from how weak Charlie looked, Nick wasn’t sure he could say the same about him. 

By some miracle, Nick came to a section of the fence where a few links had been cut away from the bottom, creating a hole just large enough for someone to wiggle through on their stomach. He breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that this problem at least had been solved for him. 

Nick had done everything he could. 

He’d rented a car using his brother's old ID. He didn’t want to risk using his name or taking his car. It would be too easily traced back to him. Nick needed to give him and Charlie the best chance to get away and the biggest head start they could manage. 

Truham was remote. The closest village seemed only to exist to cater to the employees of the institute. There wasn’t a proper town for fifty kilometres. No emergency services that they could call as soon as they made it off the property. 

Nick wanted to put as much space between Charlie and the institute as possible. 

He didn’t know how far their power reached. 

He’d spent every spare second that he had pouring his energy into his plan. It had to be perfect. It had to go flawlessly. 

Nick had to get Charlie out. 

He had to. 

He would.

There was no other option in his mind. 

Nick was getting Charlie out of there. 

No matter what. 

…………

A branch snapping. 

Leaves crunching.

Someone was coming closer. 

Charlie was frozen where he crouched on the river bank. 

He scented the air desperately, trying to tell if Nick was the person moving towards him, but the wind was making it impossible. His nose wasn’t strong enough. Not like an Alphas. 

Charlie looked down at that spot of blood again. Whoever was heading his way had smelt him, had smelt his blood in the air. 

Please be Nick. 

But what if it wasn’t?

Charlie glanced back at the river again. 

If the person emerging from the trees wasn’t Nick, would Charlie have the speed to make it to the river again before he was overtaken? 

He started to inch backwards until the river was lapping at his fingertips. 

If it wasn’t Nick, he was going back into the water, and the chances were he wasn’t coming out again. 

………

Nick tried his best to blend into the background as he moved across campus. He was dressed in the coveralls that the security guards wore, and he had a canvas backpack slung over his shoulder. 

He was careful not to walk too fast; he made light eye contact with anyone he passed, trying to keep the expression on his face easygoing and calm. 

Inside, he was teeming with nerves. 

He only had one chance to get this right. 

Nick flashed his stolen security card on the keypad, not exhaling until it flashed green, and he heard the telltale click of the door unlocking. 

He wanted to situate himself as close to Charlie’s room as possible before he activated the bug he’d planted in the server. Once he did and the system went into failure, every institute employee would go rushing to the control room to try to retrieve as much data as possible. 

Once he was hidden in an alcove just down the hall from Charlie’s room, Nick took his one out of his pocket and initiated the code he’d planted on the server earlier that day.

The effects were instant. The hallway went dark before the emergency lights lit up along the floor and sirens started to blar. 

Nick had just stepped out of his hiding place when he saw the door to Charlie’s room open. His heart clenched. He hadn’t expected anyone to be in Charlie’s space. He’d not planned for that. Nick froze as a figure appeared in the hallway and turned in Nick’s direction.

Fuck.

He’d been caught. 

Already.

He’d failed Charlie. 

He’d promised he would get him out, and he’d failed. 

But the figure just brushed past Nick, muttering curse words under his breath as he rushed in the direction of the stairs that would make the quickest route to the control room. 

Nick could hear his heart hammering in his ears. 

It hadn’t actually been a close call, but it had felt that way. 

He needed everything to go right. 

He needed to get Charlie out. 

He needed him to be safe. 

Nothing else past that mattered. 

…..

Every breath that Nick pushed out and pulled into his lungs felt like a knife moving in and out of his chest. 

Each one of his senses was heightened. 

His ears perked at the slightest sound. 

His eyes focused intently in the dark, scanning their surroundings, acutely aware of all the places where danger could be hiding. 

All the scents that swam through the air were overwhelming. His nose had never been so attuned to the world around him before. 

Nick supposed he should be grateful that his scenting had slipped into overdrive because the second that Charlie’s blood had hit the air, Nick had been able to smell him. 

Once he and Charlie dove into the river, Nick had immediately lost sight of him. The second that his head had broken the surface, he’d immeidetly scanned the water, searching for any glimpse of the boy in the water around him. Through the rapids, he tried to catch sight of Charlie’s dark hair, a flash of his sallow skin or his bright eyes.

Nick’s arms cut through the water as he pushed his body forward, letting the current carry him and silently praying that Charlie was close by, swimming, alive. 

If Nick had managed to break them out of the institution just for Charlie to drown, he’d never forgive himself. 

It wouldn’t matter that going into the river had been Charlie’s idea. 

It wouldn’t matter that Nick has no power over the currents. 

He would forever blame himself. 

Nick was the one who was able-bodied. 

Charlie had been kept prisoner for half a decade; the muscle in his body wasted away, his body deprived of sunlight. 

Nick had spent the last five years playing rugby and going to the gym. He’d taken up cooking and meditation. 

He was the one with the physical strength. 

He was the one who was supposed to keep Charlie safe. 

If he failed... Nick didn’t know what would happen then. 

When he’d felt the current loosen its grip on him, Nick had made a break for the shore. When he felt the rocks scape against his knees when he made it to the bank of the river, he felt a momentary sense of total relief. He’d made it to shore. He hadn’t drowned. 

Then the relief was replaced with utter terror. 

Where was Charlie? 

Nick had scented the air, hoping against hope that he’d catch a whiff of the familiar honey scent that would lead him to Charlie’s side. 

Instead, all he could smell was the rushing river and the earthy dirt of the forest. 

Charlie

Charlie

Charlie

Where was he? 

Was he still in the river? 

Should Nick get back in the river? 

Nick narrowed his eyes and scanned up the river bank. 

He estimated he’d travelled a few miles down the river from where he’d started. Maybe more.

Nick started back up the river bank, following an instinctive feeling that Charlie may have been let go from the current before Nick had been. 

Most alphas would have assumed the opposite. There was no way that an omega could have escaped a current before an alpha who had the brute strength given to them by nature.

But there had been something about Charlie and the way that he dove into the water with no hesitation that made Nick feel certain that if Charlie had gotten out of the water, he’d be upstream from where Nick was now. 

Nick kept his nose raised in the air, waiting for any whisp of Charlie’s scent. 

He’d been working his way up the river, struggling slightly on the jagged rocks and starting to get more and more concerned that maybe Charlie was further downstream, or maybe he’d taken cover in the trees. 

Logically, Nick knew that he should stay on the same course before he deviated to a different tactic, but something in him made Nick want to head into the trees to where he estimated that the car he’d stashed was located. 

Nick slashed through the trees, beating branches out of the way and kicking up dirt on the forest floor until he caught sight of the silver Land Rover, parked under cover of a canopy of trees. 

Charlie wasn't there. 

Nick hadn’t been aware that he’d been holding out hope for that until he realized it wasn’t true and experienced a fleeting feeling of crushing disappointment. 

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Where was Charlie? 

Please be alive. 

Please be safe. 

Nick opened the trunk of the rover, stuffing the backpack he’d be carrying into the boot space and digging around for dry clothes. 

Charlie was alive . 

Charlie would be freezing when Nick found him. 

He’d need clothes. Dry clothes.

Nick was breathing heavily, his hands shaking as he tried to pull himself together. 

And then…blood.

He could smell blood in the air. 

Strong and metallic. 

Not just blood. 

Charlie’s blood, scented with warm honey. 

Nick had only smelt it once, tasted it once, and yet he would know it anywhere. 

Charlie was alive. 

Charlie was bleeding. 

Charlie was hurt.

Any Alpha for miles would be able to smell him. 

Nick needed to find him before anyone else did. 

…..

A hulking figure came stumbling out of the trees, bursting onto the river bank. 

All the air rushed out of Charlie’s lungs in a single breath. 

Nick.

Charlie moved without thinking, pushing himself to his feet and throwing his body into Nick’s. 

It was the first time that he’d touched anyone without thinking in years. 

It was the first time that his physical affection was entirely of his own accord. 

He was touching an Alpha by choice. 

That was something that he’d never thought would happen again. Not when he’d had Alphas physically forced on him for so long. 

But Charlie had no thoughts in his head when he said Nick other than thank God you’re alive. 

“I thought you were dead.” 

Nick had stolen the words right out of Charlie’s mouth and whispered them in his ear. 

The alpha's arms had instinctively wrapped around Charlie when he’d jumped at him and was now holding him against his chest. 

“So did I," Charlie whispered back, focusing on the sound and feeling of Nick’s heart thundering against him. 

“You’re bleeding,” Nick pulled back slightly, scanning Charlie’s body for injuries. He’d obviously smelled it in the air, just as Charlie had hoped he would. 

“I’m fine,” Charlie promised, bringing his hand up between them. 

“It was the only way I could think of to tell you where I was.” 

“It worked,” Nick murmured. 

“Can I?” Charlie realized what Nick was asking, taking in the sight of his hand cradled in Nick’s.

Charlie nodded, holding his breath as Nick brought his hand up to his mouth to seal the wound. It was the second time that Nick had healed over his open skin with the strange power that lived in his saliva. 

When Nick’s mouth was on his skin, Charlie felt like there was a string connecting his hand to his heart, and having Nick touch him was pulling it tight. 

“We should go. We’re not far from the car.” 

Charlie blinked, surprise washing over him.

“We’re not?”

Nick shook his head, pushing his river-drenched hair out of his face. 

“We’ve gone about half a mile too far. So really, our little river ride put us time ahead.” 

Charlie couldn’t stop a surprised laugh from bursting out of his chest. 

"Sorry,” he gasped out between laughs. 

“It’s not funny; it’s not,” Charlie continued to laugh.

Charlie was in shock. 

Logically, he knew that. 

But he couldn’t stop. 

How strange was it that their hail Mary suicide mission had actually worked in their favour?

Nick stood in silence, emitting calming hormones that Charlie soaked up greedily. 

Once Charlie had regained control of himself, Nick spoke in a soft but certain tone. 

“We need to move.”

Charlie nodded, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat. 

They started back up the river, dripping water as they went. Charlie’s body was shaking, from the adrenaline or the cold; he wasn’t sure. 

Nick was tense. 

Charlie could smell the anxiety coming off him like a freight train.

“Can you… Can you smell anyone coming?” 

Charlie’s voice was rough from all the water he’d accidentally taken on during his ride down the river, but Nick didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding him. 

“Not yet”

Yet.

A stark reminder that they weren’t in the clear yet. 

That they were far from safe. 

Charlie shuttered, this time not from the cold.

Chapter Text

Charlie focused on the feeling of Nick’s palm pressing against his as they bushwacked through the forest, running along a path that only Nick seemed to be able to see. 

He had really and truly put all the trust he had left in his life into Nick’s hands. 

He hadn’t known that he’d had any trust left in him at all. 

He’d thought it had been forever ripped from him the moment that Doctor Ried clarified that the ‘program’ didn’t end after a year but would progress to another level. 

A trick of words and a lack of precision in language had zapped Charlie of any faith that he had left. 

He couldn’t trust the other people in the program, although they knew as little as he did. 

He couldn’t trust anything that the people who worked at Truham told him. 

He couldn’t trust his family, who had sent him there and never looked back. 

He was an island. 

Completely and totally alone, surrounded only by the churning waters of the dark sea that hemmed him in on each side. The only things that ever emerged from the water were the people who came to hurt him, those who used his body for their own gratification, whether it be scientific or sexual. 

But then there was Nick. 

Nick, a lighthouse way out in the distance, a tiny prick of light in the otherwise total darkness. 

Charlie had somehow mustered up a tiny bit of trust from somewhere inside himself and had put that little bit of faith he had found into that little light in the distance. The roving beam of warm yellow reached out over the troubled waters to reach his shore. 

Maybe it had something to do with that old, familiar scent. 

It had never made sense back at school that Nick’s scent had calmed him when the smell of every other alpha only made his stomach roil with anxiety. 

Sure Nick had never manhandled him in the corridors, crowding him against a bank of lockers to scent him the way that the other meathead alpha boys had. 

Nick had never sent a pack of betas after him.

No.

Nick had just sat next to him in form, offering a gentle smile and a soft smell. But being around Nick in that form class had felt like having a warm blanket wrapped around him after hours of wandering in a snowstorm. 

A few stolen moments of sweet relief. 

He’d felt that again the instant that Nick had been hustled into his room the week before. 

It was the first moment of true comfort that Charlie had felt in half a decade. The fact that it came from an alpha shocked him most of all. 

Every alpha that had been stuck on him, every alpha that worked on the research team—every single one had left scars on him, on his skin or his soul. 

For the past five years, the sight and smell of an alpha made Charlie recoil in a Pavlovian response. 

But not Nick. 

Never Nick.

Nick, whose hand was wrapped around his, acted as Charlie’s eyes in the dark as they wove through the trees, ducking under branches and scrambling over rocks. 

Charlie scented the air, trying to catch a whiff of anyone else out in the woods that night. It was pointless. His nose wasn’t strong enough, not in his weakened state.

What Charlie did smell each time he tried was Nick’s scent, riding the waves of the wind to him and coating his skin in that comforting glow.

His lighthouse in a dark sea. 

“It’s not far. Just a bit further.” 

Nick had said the same thing every few minutes since they took off from the river bank. 

Charlie had no idea how far ‘just a bit further’ was. He was running nearly blind in the dark, his clothes dripping wet and the cold seeping deep into his bones. 

So he focused on the heat of Nick’s palm on his and their fingers wrapped together, hoping that a bit further was close by and that no one would catch them before they got there. 

…..

Nick wanted to pull Charlie onto his back again and run. 

Run the way that he had when sprinting across the Truham lawn in the direction of the fence. 

He wanted to. 

But he knew that he couldn’t. 

For all the strength that Nick processed, the night they’d had had taken its toll. 

He felt like every nerve in his body was on fire from the volts he’d absorbed for the fence, the electricity causing every muscle to tense. 

While he ran warm on a normal day, the freezing river had chilled Nick to the bone. He’d expended so much energy in the water, energy that he didn’t have after his encounter with the high voltage of the security fence. 

But he had to keep going. 

He had to keep moving. 

He had to get Charlie out of there. 

Get both of them out of there. 

He needed to get them somewhere safe.

He needed to put as many miles as possible between Charlie and Truham. 

So he kept Charlie’s hand clasped in his and pushed forward, moving as quickly as he could in the direction of the car. 

When he finally caught sight of the clearing in the distance where the car was stashed, he let out the first full breath he had in a while, maybe that entire week. 

“It’s there. It’s just there,” he promised, squeezing Charlie's hand and pulling him along behind him. 

When Nick’s hand finally landed on the handle of the Land Rover trunk, he could have fallen to the ground and wept. The relief to be felt was so immense it seemed nearly impossible to feel it all at once. He gave into it for just a second. 

They weren’t safe yet. 

Not until they were literally out of the woods. 

“The back is full of camping gear,” Nick explained as he opened the trunk and offered Charlie’s hand to help him up. 

“I thought it would look less suspicious. There are dry clothes and sleeping bags and everything. Um-” Nick glanced around, scanning the trees around them looking for any sign that someone was on their tail. 

He sniffed the air, but the only thing he could smell was the forest around him and the warm honey scent of Charlie. 

Nick wanted to get into the car and go, but he had to be smart about this. Any precautions they could take, they should. 

“You should change. We’ll leave your clothes here. They’ll have your scent on them. If anyone is out here searching for us, they’ll be able to smell them. It might throw them off our trail a bit. Buy a little time. 

Charlie nodded, taking the backpack that Nick pushed into his hands and pulling out the dry clothes that were stuffed within. 

Nick turned his back to Charlie, trying to give him some illusion of privacy. 

“You should change too. You’re soaked” Charlie’s teeth chattered slightly as he spoke, but his voice sounded strong. Sure.

“I’ll change once we’re out of here,” Nick decided. He wanted to put at least 100 miles between them and Truham before doing anything else. He’d pay the price of sitting in wet bottoms and a sopping shirt. 

“Bury yourself in the back. Under the blankets and everything. I don’t think we’ll hit a roadblock or anything, but...

Nick cut himself off, knowing he was verging into rambling territory and not wanting to say something stupid that would scare Charlie even more than he already was. 

Charlie left his sodden clothes on the ground by the wheel of the car and crawled into the back of the Land Rover, pulling the blankets, pillows, and sleeping bags around him. 

Nick ran around the front of the car before yanking open the driverside door and climbing in, starting up the engine before he even had the door closed. 

He slammed his foot down on the gas, the engine roaring to life as the car jolted forward. Nick drove as fast as he could on the bumpy dirt road that weaved through the woods. 

Five more kilometres, and they’d make it to the main road. 

Five more kilometres until pavement that would allow Nick to drive fast. 

Fast away from the woods. 

Fast away from Truham. 

Fast away from the monsters that were parading themselves as scientists, patting themselves on the back for their contribution to society. 

Back towards the world that Nick had lived in before accepting the summer job in the Truham lab. 

Had the darkness that Nick witnessed in the halls of Truham existed around him his entire life? Had he just never taken notice? 

How many people had he met who knew about places with Truham? How many parents had he exchanged polite words with who had sent their omega child away to a breeding farm? 

Nick had to believe that this sort of place was a well-kept secret. 

There was no way that people could wander the streets as if they hadn’t a care in the world while knowing what happened behind bolted doors and electric fences. 

Nick had had no idea that places like Truham were real. 

Had he just been naive?

The tires skidded out slightly as the wheels hit the pavement of the main road. 

They were out of the trees. 

They were on the road. 

If Nick turned left, the little village that served Truham was only thirty kilometres down the road. 

They could be there in a handful of minutes. 

But could they really trust the police force in a town that was dependent on the Truham Institute to stay alive? 

Nick turned right, pressing his foot down on the gas, heading further north. 

……

The back seats of the land rover had been flattened, creating a mostly flat space between the trunk and the front seat. 

Charlie was kneeling on the foamie that was spread out across the back, fussing with the pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags that surrounded him. 

He could feel sweat collecting on his neck, but he still felt cold, his limbs still covered in goose bumps. 

He fussed with the pillows and the canvas backpacks full of camping supplies, trying to block out as much of the windows as he could. 

He didn’t want to see out. He didn’t want to worry over every car that they passed on the road, trying to figure out who from Truham was behind the wheel. 

He didn’t want anyone seeing in. 

He’d been a rat in a cage for too long. 

Even with Nick in the car, this was the closest Charlie had come to privacy in years. 

There was also the light. 

It was too bright. 

It was the middle of the night, but the reflection of headlights on the road burned his eyes and made his headache. 

He burrowed under the blankets, tucking them around himself and draping one over the headrest to create a sort of tent that he could hide in. 

Charlie couldn’t keep up with all the emotions that were running through him. 

He felt exhilarated. 

He felt afraid. 

He felt relieved. 

He felt alive. 

He felt like he might be dying. 

He felt like he was almost free. 

He felt like he was about to be trapped again. 

He was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. 

His head was pounding. 

He was so cold, yet he was sweating through the shirt he’d just put on. 

The light was too bright. 

His heart was beating too loud. 

His skin was burning. 

They were driving too fast. 

They weren’t going fast enough. 

The only thing that was bringing Charlie any sort of comfort was that the car heater was circulating Nick’s scent through the car, delivering Charlie hit after hit of the comfort that it brought. 

Charlie couldn’t tell if Nick was releasing comforting pheromones or if his scent did that to him naturally. 

His stomach roiled with nausea as the car wound around the curving roads. 

It seemed like they were taking a corner every second.

He wanted to ask where they were going. 

He wanted to know where Nick was taking him, where it was that he thought that they would be safe. 

He supposed it didn’t matter. 

Charlie had nowhere to go. 

He had no one to trust besides Nick. 

His life was in Nick’s hands. 

Still.

Instead, he asked:

“Where are we?” 

Nick startled slightly when Charlie stuck his head through the gap between the driver and passenger seat. 

“Um, I didn’t want to drive by Truham, so I headed north. I figured if we make it over the pass, we can go around the other side and head down south that way. I thought having a mountain range between us and them might be a good idea.” 

Us and them. 

Him and Nick. 

Nick and Charlie together. 

A team.

“That’s smart,” Charlie agreed, his eyes squinting as he recoiled from the stimulus of the lights on the dashboard. 

“We’re almost over the pass. We’ll be on the other side in a half hour.” 

Charlie nodded, trying to process what that all meant. 

He was about to have a mountain between himself and Truham. 

A mountain between him and the modalphas who had nearly killed him. 

A few thousand meters of elevation would soon separate him from the scientists’ who had torn his body apart in the name of progressing society. 

There would be a mountain between him and Ben. 

If luck remained on their side, Charlie would never feel Ben’s hands on him again. He would never feel the sharp sting of his teeth. 

Maybe he’d never be touched by another alpha again. 

At least without his consent. 

He’d taken an Alpha's hand willingly that night. 

He’d climbed on their back. 

He’d dove into a river with an alpha. 

He’d thrown his arms around Alpha and held on for dear life. 

But that was different. 

That was Nick. 

Nick had always been different, ever since those days in form. 

Nick wasn’t just an alpha. 

Nick was Nick, and while Charlie didn’t really understand why, that meant something. 

Charlie retreated away from the front, tunnelling back under the blankets and protecting himself from the stimulus of the light and sounds coming from both inside and outside the car. 

He fussed with the sleeping bag, trying to get it to lay right against his skin. 

He tried bunching up the pillows into the perfect shape. 

He was desperate to sleep, and maybe if he got the bedding just right, he’d be able to quiet his racing mind. 

But his whole body felt wrong. 

Why was he like this? 

This was his first taste of freedom in years. 

He should feel amazing!

Was some twisted part of Charlie’s psyche mourning the loss of his life at Truham? 

It seemed impossible. 

He had experienced the worst days of his life there. 

But he had lived it for five years. 

His body and mind had adapted to the routine. 

Was that why he felt so wrong? 

So sick?

He focused on Nick’s scent in the air and the soft blanket wrapped around him. 

Those were the only things that made Charlie feel okay. 

…..

Nick focused on the lines of the road. 

His eyes ached, his skin was chapped and shrivelled from sitting in his wet clothes, and his head was pounding. 

Every part of him was calling out for sleep, for comfort. But he had to keep going. 

He had to keep driving. 

They weren’t far enough yet. 

There wasn’t enough space between Charlie and Truham. 

Nick had promised to get him out. 

He’d promised.

He had to keep going. 

Even when his vision blurred. 

Even when his head ached and the muscle of his back screamed for relief. 

He had to keep going. 

"Nick"

Charlie was leaning up from the back seat. 

His face was so close to Nick’s this way. 

Nick had been kept going during this drive by the way that Charlie’s honey scent filled the cabin of the car. 

Was it the confined space that was making his scent so much stronger, more all-consuming? 

“Nick, you need to pull over. You look like you’re going to pass out any second. You’re going to drive off the road.”

Nick shook his head. 

He had to keep going. 

“Can’t stop. We’re not far enough yet.” 

“Nick, you’ve been driving for seven hours.” 

Was that right?

Nick glanced at the clock on the dash. 

Wow.

Where had all the time gone?

His eyes snapped up, paying more attention to the horizon. 

It was still dark out, but the light was on its way. 

“Nick, you’ve got to sleep.” 

“We’re not there yet.” 

“How much further until we are there, wherever there is?” 

Going further north and taking the mountain pass had tact on extra hours to their drive. Nick tried to calculate how much time was left while his mind was sluggish from exhaustion. 

“Maybe four hours?"

“You need to sleep.” 

“We’re not there.” 

“We’ll never make it there if you fall asleep behind the wheel and kill us both.” 

“Char-”

“If I knew how to drive, I'd offer to switch off, but you need to rest, Nick. For an hour even.”

The concern in Charlie’s voice was nearly too much for Nick to handle. 

It didn’t sound like Charlie was just afraid that Nick was going to crash the car and get them killed. 

He sounded like he cared about Nick and his well-being. 

"Ok,” Nick finally agreed, pulling the car off the road and onto the shoulder. 

“One hour,” he countered as he removed the key from the ignition. 

“Just an hour,” Charlie agreed, looking relieved that Nick had listened to him. 

“I’m leaving the phone predialed to 999." Nick took out his mobile and made sure the emergency call screen was up.

He didn’t believe that Truham or anyone from Truham could catch up with them in that time. He wasn’t sure anyone was looking for them now. 

He hoped they thought they drowned in the river. 

That their trail had gone cold. 

But there was no way of knowing. 

Still.

An hour wouldn’t make a difference. 

“Can I recline this seat?” 

Charlie crinkled his nose. 

“Don’t be dumb. You’re not going to get any rest up there. Just come lay down in the back. There’s a lot of space.”

Nick tensed.

Was that really okay with Charlie? 

Nick didn’t want to invade his space. 

Charlie had been violated enough. Nick didn’t want to take away the little bit of autonomy he had reclaimed. 

But it did look comfortable, and he was so tired. 

“Are you sure?”

"Course"

Nick hesitated for half a second before relenting and climbing into the back. 

“Is it ok if I-” Nick gestured down at his damp clothes. 

“Oh my god, yes. You must be freezing.” 

Nick grabbed the canvas backpack and pulled out the sweats he’d stashed there for himself. He shed his damp clothes, shoving them to the corner and pulling on the dry items. 

He lay down, trying to keep as much distance between himself and Charlie as possible.

“You can get under the covers. I know you’re not going to bite me.” 

Charlie’s tone was teasing, but Nick was in awe of just how much trust this boy had in him. 

Charlie, who had been abused and taken advantage of by Alpha’s, trusted him. 

Nick nodded slowly and eased his way under the blankets. 

It was so warm, so soft, so inviting. 

He was really and truly surrounded by Charlie’s scent. 

“Just an hour,” Nick said again, letting his eyes drift shut. 

“An hour,” Charlie promised. 

Nick fell asleep immediately, exhaustion taking hold. 

If Nick hadn’t been so drained, he might have noticed the signs. 

He might have noticed the way that Charlie recoiled at light and sound. 

He might have noticed the way that Charlie had fussed over the blankets in the back seat, getting things just right. 

He might have realized why Charlie's scent was so much stronger.

Instead, he didn’t think at all until an hour later, when his eyes snapped open and he found the smell of slick surrounding him. 

Chapter Text

No.

No, no, no.

No.

This couldn’t be happening. 

Not now. 

Not here. 

Not after the night they’d had. 

Not after everything that Charlie’s already been through. 

Nick scrambled upright, banging his head on the centre console of the car as he pushed himself backwards, into the front seat and away from Charlie. 

Charlie, who Nick had thought smelled sweet before. 

Charlie, who now smelled better than anything Nick had ever encountered. 

Like sweet honey and belted butter mixed with brown sugar, with a hint of something warm and spicy underneath. 

He smelled like an angel. 

He smelled like a dream. 

He smelled like Nick’s. 

That was what the alpha inside of him was repeating over and over again. 

Mine

Mine 

Mine 

There was a heat blooming in Nick's chest, pressing down on his organs and urging him to go back.

Go back to Charlie. 

Lay back down next to him and pull him into his chest.

Go take care of him. 

Give him what he needs. 

But Nick couldn’t. 

He wouldn’t. 

He couldn’t do that to Charlie. 

He couldn’t do that to anyone. 

Nick had paid attention in sex ed classes.

He knew that consent couldn’t be given during active heat. Not if there wasn’t a conversation beforehand.

Informed consent. 

He thought that’s what it might be called.

He wasn’t sure. 

Nick couldn’t think straight. 

His hands shook as he jabbed the key into the ignition of the car and turned over the engine.

They had to go. 

They had to go now. 

Charlie was still in early heat. 

The symptoms hadn’t yet progressed to the point where they had torn him out of sleep. 

For now, it was just that small amount of slick.

That was all. 

Slick and the sweetest, strongest smell that Nick had ever encountered. 

How was it possible that Charlie’s scent was this strong when he was just entering heat? 

Charlie’s scent wouldn’t hit its peak until the crest of the heat. 

How was it possible that Charlie’s scent would grow stronger, sweeter than this? 

Nick risked a glance over his shoulder at Charlie. He looked feverish, a few dots of sweat peeking out of his hairline, but he was mercifully asleep. 

Nick’s head was swimming, every nerve and muscle in his body wanting to go to Charlie, to hold him close. 

He wanted to think that that was all that it would be. 

That he could just lay down next to the omega and emit calming pheromones into the air, there was a high possibility that that wouldn’t be the case. 

But Nick couldn’t go down that road. 

He didn’t know if he could trust himself. 

What if in some hormone storm, Nick lost control?

What if being so close to Charlie when he smelled so strongly and so sweet kickstarted an early rut in Nick?

What if he did something he couldn’t take back? 

What if he hurt Charlie? 

Hurt him like so many other people had before. 

Nick would rather die. 

He would literally rather die than inflict any pain on the boy sleeping in the back of the car. 

Before last week, Nick hadn’t seen Charlie Spring in years. 

He had been a fond but distant memory. 

He’d been a question mark in Nick’s mind and nothing more. 

But now, Charlie felt like a part of him. 

Was it just the act of escape that had bonded them together, actively risking their lives side by side that had fused them in Nick’s soul? 

Or was it something more? 

Was there a reason that Charlie’s scent had stood out to Nick all those years ago back in school? 

Was there a reason that Nick had never forgotten the omega, carving out a space for him in his memory? 

When Nick shot a glance into the rearview mirror and caught sight of Charlie in the back, he knew that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep him safe. 

Nick’s alpha was going feral, urging Nick to return to the back seat and consume the slick that was steadily pooling from Charlie’s body. His alpha howled with desire, wanting nothing more than to claim the omega in the back seat. 

He pushed down hard on the gas pedal, sending the car rocketing down the road. 

That hour or so of sleep might not have given Nick much energy, but the adrenaline that was running through Nick’s body was more than enough to keep him awake. 

Nick had been balancing the line of the speed limit before, never going more than 10 kilometres over as not to attract the attention of the police, but now Nick was pushing the Land Rover to its limits. 

Any copper who pulled them over would sniff out an omega in heat and wave them on their way. No matter the officer's secondary gender, the scent of a heat-ridden omega would be obvious. Not even the toughest law-abiding beat cop would hold up an alpha and omega in that situation. Hell, they might even get a police escort the rest of the way. 

Nick felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out. 

His mind was at war with his hormones and his instincts, his body revolting. 

What he wanted to do in his mind wasn’t what his body wanted. 

What his hormones were urging him to do was at odds with his conscience. 

Nick tried to focus on the road. 

He tried to think of nothing but the pavement in front of him and their final destination. 

He tired. 

He tried, but he was failing miserably. 

He kept stealing glances over his shoulder at Charlie, and each time he caught sight of the omega, his inner alpha began to revolt, fighting to get Nick to pull the car over and clamber into the back seat to take care of their omega. 

He tried not to take in the scents in the car. 

He tried to breathe only from his mouth, panting like a dog. 

He cracked his window, letting the wind whip fresh air against his face.

It was of little to no use. 

No matter what he did, all he could smell, all he could think about, was Charlie.

Fuck. 

Fuck. 

Fuck. 

Nick was terrified that he wasn’t strong enough. 

Terrified that he’d succumb to his hormones and instincts and take advantage of Charlie.

Terror was the main emotion he felt, followed in a close second by an intense longing. 

He wanted his omega. 

Which was ridiculous. 

Charlie wasn’t his omega. 

Even in some other universe where they were mated, Charlie still wouldn’t be his. 

Charlie was a person, not a possession to be owned. 

But it was what he wanted. 

He wanted Charlie. 

He wanted Charlie to be his. 

He wanted to be Charlie’s. 

It was agony. 

Nick had only managed to make it fifteen minutes down the road before a moan from the backseat broke into the silence. 

Charlie was awake. 

…. 

Charlie had been an idiot. 

He’d known. 

He’d known that he was due for his heat in a few days. 

It had never come this early before. 

He had never been more than twenty-four hours off his monthly schedule. 

He should have had at least forty-eight hours left before his hormones took hold, but when Charlie opened his eyes, he immediately knew what was happening. 

Everything from the night before should have been a dead giveaway. 

The way he had been shying away from the light and sound, the stimulus was too much for him. 

The way he had worried so much with the pillows and blankets in the back seat of the car. 

He hadn’t been fussing out of anxiety; he’d been nesting. 

Fuck. 

While Charlie knew immediately what was happening when he came back to consciousness after a fitful sleep, he didn’t understand . 

Was it because Charlie had only had his heat under controlled conditions for the past half-decade that he felt so out of control?

Something felt different. 

Something felt wrong. 

More intense. 

More painful. 

His head pounded.

His muscles ached.

His limbs twitched. 

He was so, so cold despite the sweat he felt dripping down his face. 

His stomach cramped painfully as he felt slick flow out of his body. 

Everything hurt. 

Everything. 

Was this what dying felt like? 

Charlie had never felt anything like this during a heat before. 

He shouldn’t be in this much pain, let alone this early into the cycle. 

It had never been like this before.

This didn’t feel like the sort of gaping ache that could be solved with a knotting toy.

It felt like his organs were shredding. 

It felt like his womb, which had been hostile and empty for so many years, was shedding its skin and pushing itself out of his body along with the slick.

The only tiny bit of relief came when Charlie breathed in. 

Nick. 

Nick’s scent was still around him. 

Driftwood and sea salt, ash and amber.

He smelled like comfort. 

He smelled like safety.

He smelled like home. 

Home was something Charlie hadn’t felt in a long time.

It was something that he wasn’t sure would ever exist again. 

He didn’t know if he had a family now. 

He didn’t know where they were. 

He didn’t know if something had happened to them. 

He didn’t know if he’d even want to see them again if given a chance. 

Could he ever look his parents in the eye knowing that they had signed his life away, knowing they were responsible for Charlie spending the last five years of his life in hell?

Could he come face to face with Tori when the memories of all that he had done and all the things that had been done to him were steered into his mind?

Could he wrap his arms around Olly when he could still feel the phantom touch of all the alphas and betas who had abused him? What if some of that trauma rubbed off on his innocent little brother? 

Charlie couldn’t think about that now. 

He physically couldn’t. 

Not when the pain he was feeling was taking over. 

He took a deep breath again, taking in as much Nick as possible despite the fact that expanding his lungs felt like a feat equivalent to holding up the sun. 

“Nick” Charlie’s voice came out like a whimper, broken and shallow. 

“Nick, I—I can’t—I—fuck—something is wrong.”

Charlie could hardly finish a sentence; the pain was so intense. 

He writhed under the blanket, his body continuing to twitch and convulse.

“I’m sorry, Char. I’m so fucking sorry. Nick sounded sort of far away. 

That hurt in a different way. 

Nick was the only antidote to the pain he was in; even if he didn’t neutralize the poison, at least he offered a tiny reprieve to the pain. 

It was like an ice cube over a broken bone, not much relief but better than nothing at all. 

“Nick,” he whimpered again before gasping and doubling over, cradling his stomach. 

He felt like he was being stabbed over and over again, the knife alternating between intensely sharp and a rusty metal blade. 

A sob rocked through his body, coming like wave after wave of rough water over jutted rocks on the shore. 

“Nick,” he gasped again. 

It was as if the alpha's name was the only thing that he could get out. 

Just Nick

Nick 

Nick

Over and over again. 

He wanted Nick closer. 

He needed Nick closer.

He wanted to be wrapped up in that scent that was the only thing that was bringing him any sort of comfort and relief.

But he was also petrified of what might happen if he got his wish. 

What if Nick….

Well, he is an Alpha. 

There was one thing that Alphas did with Omegas in heat. 

It was something that was supposed to be natural and beautiful. 

Something that happened and was shared between partners or mates in love.

Something that Charlie had only ever experienced as an act of violence. 

Something that he only associated with trauma and pain. 

What if Nick did what alphas did? 

What if he took? 

What if he used? 

What if…

Another stabbing pain rocked through his body, steering him away from the thoughts of Alphas taking from him. 

“I’m so sorry, Char. I’m so sorry,” Nick repeated. 

Could Charlie smell tears? 

Was Nick crying?

All Charlie could say was Nick yet again. 

He didn’t know how to communicate what he wanted, what he needed. 

Not that he was even sure he knew what that was. 

He just wanted the pain to stop. 

But this pain was so different from that of a usual early heat. 

His body wasn’t aching, calling out to be filled the way he had grown used to during his tenure as an Omega. 

Was this it? 

Was this finally the end? 

Had he made it out alive just to die on the journey? 

This is what Charlie imagined it felt like to be dying. 

Now he wished that he had drowned. 

Surely it would have been quicker and would have hurt less than this. 

“Nick” Charlie hadn’t realized that he’d reached his hand out until his fingers were latched around Nick’s elbow. 

“It h-hurts s-so much,” he sobbed again, his hand staying latched to Nick’s arm. 

If he was going to die, he didn’t want to be alone. 

He wanted Nick as close as possible. 

As close as was safe. 

“I’m so sorry, Char,” Nick repeated again, his voice starting to shake. 

“I’m so sorry, I can’t—I won’t hurt you.”

Nick wasn’t going to hurt him. 

At least he was going to try not to. 

Charlie tightened his hand around Nick’s arm. 

Nick shifted, twisting his arm back so that Charlie could more easily hold his forearm. 

Charlie gasped as he held Nick’s wrist to his nose, breathing in the anesthetic straight from the source. 

He was breathing Nick in and out. 

He tried to focus on the scent instead of the pain. 

He tried to focus on Nick. 

All that Nick had done for him. 

All the ways he had kept him safe. 

Charlie wanted to die thinking of happy memories, so he dreamed up those long-ago days in form, sitting next to Nick and soaking up the comfort, the safety. 

Nick’s arm moved, and Charlie held on tighter, not wanting to give Nick up now that he had latched onto him. 

Instead of retracting his arm, Nick seemed to have just shifted, and suddenly there was fabric pushing against Charlie’s nose where it was still pressed into Nick’s wrist. 

He opened his eyes and saw a bunched-up hoodie, only attached to Nick now by the bunched-up sleeve around the wrist. 

Nick must have tugged it over his head and pushed it down his arm in Charlie’s direction. 

“You can put it on; it might help.” 

Charlie reluctantly dropped Nick’s wrist from his grasp so he could pull the sleeve off. 

He groaned and whimpered in pain as he pulled the hoodie on, but being really and truly surrounded by Nick’s scent felt life-changing. 

If he was going to die, he guessed this was the best way to do it. Wrapped up in a hoodie that was still warm from Nick’s body, breathing in his scent, soaking up the pheromones Nick was pumping into the air, riding out the pain that was sure to take him under sooner rather than later. 

“It’s going to be ok, Char. I’m going to get you help.” 

Charlie was sure that Nick meant that promise and that he intended to keep it; Charlie just wasn’t sure he would get the chance before it was too late. 

….

Nick had never been around an Omega in heat before. 

He’d never had a relationship with an Omega that progressed to the point where they would share heats and ruts together. 

He’d seen dramatized versions in movies and on TV. 

He’d seen informative videos in health class. 

He’d once been exposed to a porno of an omega heat during a sleepover in his friend's basement in year seven. 

But this... this was so different. 

Something had to be wrong. 

This couldn’t be what all Omegas went through during heats. 

Charlie sounded, well, Charlie sounded like he was dying. 

He was writing in pain, shaking and convulsing. His skin was white hot, and his breathing was ragged and uneven. 

‘It h-hurts s-so much, Charlie had whimpered from the back. 

“Something is wrong,” he’d gasped as he curled into his body. 

“Nick, I can’t.” 

"Nick"

"Nick"

Nick. 

Hearing Charlie say his name over and over again with growing fear and desperation was devastating to Nick. 

He wanted nothing more than to be able to help Charlie, to take the other boys' pain away. He’d bear it in Charlie’s place if he could. 

The distance to their destination was shrinking, the extreme speeds that Nick was driving shaving off hefty chunks of time from their ETA. 

Nick debated changing course. 

Should he take Charlie to a hospital?

But Nick felt so lost. 

He felt paranoid, unsure who he could trust. 

No. He needed to take him somewhere he knew. 

Somewhere that he knew was safe.

So he stayed the course to their original destination. 

Driving straight and fast towards the one person he trusted more than anyone. 

The tires of the Land Rover squealed in protest as Nick took a sharp corner onto  Britannia road, not taking his foot off the gas until he was parked in the driveway. 

Nick bolted out of the car, running around to the back and opening the door. 

Charlie seemed so small, curled up in the back, his body shaking violently. 

“I’ve got you, Char. We’re almost there” Nick promised, his alpha jumping in anticipation now that Charlie was right in front of them. 

Nick pushed back against his hormones, fighting back his instinct to crawl into the back with Charlie. Why did his Alpha not seem to understand that Charlie was sick? This wasn’t the time to think about knots. But think his alpha did. 

Think and beg. 

Nick pushed forward past the lust. 

“Char, I’m going to carry you; is that ok?” They didn’t really have a choice, but Nick refused to touch Charlie without permission, not when he was like this. 

Charlie whimpered, his upper body drowned in Nick’s hoodie, but reached his arms out to Nick. 

Nick moved as quickly as he dared, scooping Charlie up into his arm and jogging towards the front door. 

“MUM!” he roared the second he was through the door. 

Sarah appeared instantly. 

“Nicky, thank God you—Christ.” Sarah’s sentence pivoted when she saw her son standing in the entrance with wilted Omega in his arms. 

“Mum, please. Please help him,” Nick begged, tears free-flowing from his eyes now.

Sarah swallowed back all her questions and directed Nick to lay Charlie on the sofa. 

She dashed into the kitchen, pulling her emergency bag out from under the counter. 

“He’s in heat, but—Mum I don’t think this is normal. He said something was wrong, and I, fuck, I don’t know what to do.

Nick was babbling, sitting on the ground by Charlie’s head, his wrist pressed to Charlie’s face. 

“It’ll be ok, Nicky. It’ll be alright. We can fix this" Sarah promised, rummaging through her bag. 

Sarah had seen a heat overload before, although she couldn’t recall ever seeing one this intense. 

They were rather rare, although normally they only happened to older omegas who had stopped having their heat cycles and then experienced one randomly. 

Their bodies, no longer used to the hormone rush, would react poorly. 

If treated quickly, an overload was harmless, but left to fester, it could be catastrophic. 

“How long has he been like this?” Sarah asked as she attached a needle to a syringe and popped the top off the vial she’d been rummaging for. 

“A little over two hours” 

Two hours? Sarah thought, And he’s this bad? 

“What’s his name?” Sarah pulled up the fluid and quickly changed her needle. 

“Charlie” 

“Charlie—” Sarah spoke to the omega, her voice soft but confident. 

“I’m going to give you something to make you feel better ok?”

Charlie just whimpered.

“What are you giving him?” Nick asked shakily, watching as his mother inched up Charlie’s shirt and lined up the needle into the flesh of his abdomen. 

“It’s a hormone antagonist. It should halt his heat. 

Nick held tight to Charlie’s hand, his other still being held to Charlie’s nose as he huffed in Nick’s scent. 

Sarah watched the clock, seemingly counting seconds before moving to take Charlie’s pulse. 

“Shit,” she muttered, reaching back into her bag. 

“What?” Nick asked, his panic clear in his voice. Nick knew that Sarah could help Charlie. She was a brilliant physician. A truly incredible doctor, everyone in town said so. So why did she look so concerned?

“What is it?” 

“It’s not enough. I’ll have to give him a second dose,” she muttered, readying another syringe. 

“And then he’ll be ok?” 

Sarah looked up at her son, her eyes flecked with worry. 

“And then I think we’d better call an ambulance.”

Chapter Text

Charlie felt like he was underwater. 

Not the same rush and push of the current that he’d felt in the river the night before, the water taking control of his body and moving it downstream. 

No. 

Charlie felt like he was submerged in the water of a crystal clear lake, surrounded on all sides by the dark pressure of the water, pressing in on all sides until it seemed inevitable that Charlie would collapse into himself. Sure, he was about to self-implode and become no more. He would disappear into the water, the molecules of his body disappearing into the water around him. 

At least the pain was gone. 

Well, not gone.

 But lessened. 

He’d felt brief moments of relief when he felt the needle prick on his stomach like a freezing cold stream of water had been injected into his fire-scorched veins. 

The relief had lasted less than ten seconds but had been so sweet that Charlie thought it could sustain him for whatever time he had left on Earth. 

The woman, Charlie hadn’t been able to open his eyes to see who it was, had pricked his skin again, and that same stream of water flooded back through his system. Again the relief was momentary, but that time the amount of comfort was enough to keep Charlie from giving up altogether. 

That tiny bit of relief and the reassurance of Nick’s hand clutched in his was all Charlie had left to hold onto. He had dragged Nick’s wrist up to his neck and was huffing in his scent like it was oxygen through a mask. 

“Yes. Britannia Road. No, no, that’s not necessary yet. No, that’s too long. We don’t have the time. Well. Tell them that Dr. Nelson is accompanying the patient. He’s had three doses already. I don’t have any more on hand. Five minutes? Good. Yes. Tell Derek I’ll be waiting outside to flag him down. 

Charlie didn’t recognize the voice confidently commanding orders to some unheard second party, but there was something about it that Charlie instinctively trusted. 

How strange. 

Charlie hadn’t felt anything that even resembled trust in years. Why did he instinctively want to put this faith in this faceless voice? Why did it feel familiar to him? 

“It’s going to be ok, Char. It’s ok. It’s all ok. 

Charlie did know what voice. 

He didn’t think it would ever be possible for him to forget Nick Nelson to any degree ever again. 

Nick was engraved in his soul now. His handprint was on Charlie’s heart, on his mind, and on his body. 

He had Nick’s wrist against his nose, his scent flooding all of Charlie’s senses. 

Charlie had been so positive that he’d been about to die, even though it still seemed like a strong possibility, but he’d taken comfort that the last thing he would ever smell was this specific alpha's scent. 

A scent that felt safe and familiar. 

A scent that reminded him of a much simpler time in his life. 

A time when he used to sit next to a certain Alpha twice a day and find a small slice of peace. 

At least Charlie would have that at the very end. 

He'd have Nick.

Only the end hadn’t come yet. 

He’d gotten those few seconds of relief when he hadn’t thought that anything would ever touch in the immense pain he felt. 

Now Nick was telling him that help was coming and that it was going to be ok. That everything would be ok. 

Nick hadn’t lied to him yet. 

Should Charlie believe him now? 

Then there was the faceless voice, so calm and collected, gently explaining to Charlie what was happening to his body. 

The pain made it nearly impossible for Charlie to understand what the mystery woman was saying. 

The pain was the only thing that was clear in his mind. 

But he heard the words

Heat 

Hormone levels

Overload

Fever 

Temperature

Time 

Organ failure

Most of it meant nothing to him, not in his current state. 

But one thing did stand out. 

Hormone levels. 

How many researchers had come into his room over the last few weeks, taking vials of blood and noting how pleased they were with his increased hormone levels? 

Even in his pain-rattled state and his foggy mind, Charlie realized exactly what was happening to him. 

…. 

For the first time in his life, Nick visibly bared his canine teeth and snarled when the front door to his mother's house burst open. 

“Nicky,” Sarah squeezed his shoulder, trying to pull him back from the edge. 

The paramedics, either used to territorial alphas or unaffected by their presence, moved forward towards their patient. 

Nick held tight to Charlie’s hand as the medical professionals strapped a blood pressure cuff around Charlie’s arm, fastening an oxygen mask to his face and moving to shift his convulsing body onto a stretcher. 

“You need to step aside, son,” one of the paramedics directs to Nick, trying to edge in between Nick and Charlie. 

Nick snarled again. 

“Don’t be daft.” One of the other paramedics, a woman with a wild ponytail and hooded eyes, snaps at the lad trying to box Nick out. 

“With a heat overload, we need all the alphas around we can get.” She glances between Nick and Charlie, their clutched hands and the way that Charlie was trying to wrestle off the oxygen mask so he could scent Nick again. 

“Besides, they’re very clearly mated. So if you want to keep all your fingers, Pete, I’d back off. 

Nick didn’t bother to correct any of them. 

If he got to stay with Charlie because they assumed they were mates, that was their mistake, not Nick’s. 

Nick jogged alongside the stretcher as they pulled Charlie from the house and in the direction of the ambulance. 

Sarah called to Nick that she’d meet him at the hospital, but Nick barely even registered his mother's voice. 

All he could focus on was Charlie. 

Charlie. 

Charlie. 

Charlie. 

Charlie was in pain.

Charlie was in danger. 

Nick felt safe at his mother's house, but at the hospital, would they be exposed and vulnerable? 

Were the people at Truham looking for them still? 

Had they assumed them dead? 

Had they found Charlie’s sodden clothes and known that they’d gotten out of the river? 

Nick should have burned them. 

They would have sent Charlie’s scent into the air without leaving behind the evidence. 

But Nick hadn’t had a lighter, and it wasn’t as if wet clothing would light anyway. 

Nick just felt like there were so many things he should have done differently. 

There was so much he would change. 

He should have gotten Charlie out sooner, left more space between their escape and Charlie’s impending heat. 

Would have 

Could have

Should’ve

Nick watched the paramedics inject Charlie twice more with pre-filled syringes. With each dose, the tension in Charlie’s face eased for a few moments. 

“He’s maxed out.” The woman paramedic from before muttered as she readjusted the heart rate monitor on Charlie’s finger. 

“When was his last heat before this?” the man who had tried to oust Nick before demanded. 

“I—um—I’m not sure,” he stuttered. He couldn’t think straight. 

“Well, does he have them every month, every three, or—” 

“Every month,” Nick answered mechanically, his mind flashing back to pages and pages of data he’d seen about all the heats that Charlie had endured at Truham. 

“Is he on suppressants?” 

“What?” Nick felt like his ears were filled with water and everything sounded fuzzy and far away. 

“Is he on suppressants? Scent blockers? Patches? Anything?” 

“I, um—I don’t think—” 

“Some fucking mate this guy is.” The man grumbled under his breath. 

“Doesn’t even know the basic shit about his own omega.” 

Nick snarled again, the sound ripping out of his throat. 

Before Nick lost the battle with his inner alpha and sprang forward to attack the beta who just insulted him and his ability to care for Charlie, he was distracted by the ambulance coming to a halt and the paramedics springing up and immediately starting to unload the stretcher carrying Charlie. 

“We’ve got to take him into an isolation room, away from all the scents, so we can try to get his fever down.” The paramedic that Nick didn’t want to murder explained to Nick as they hurried through the emergency room. 

“Which means you’ll have to let go of his hand now.”

Nick was horrified. 

No. He needed to stay with Charlie. They needed to stay together. 

“But—” 

“It’s his best chance. I’m sorry. We need to go now. 

Nick had been about to protest despite his better senses when he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“It’s ok, Nicky.” 

Nick glanced down to see his mother standing at his side. 

“It’s ok,” she repeated, gently uncurling his fingers from around Charlie’s. 

Charlie, who had been in and out of consciousness, opened his eyes when he felt Nick drop his hand. 

He tried to speak, but his voice was muffled by the fogged oxygen mask sealed around his mouth. 

“Nick,” he managed to get out, his fear clear in his shaking voice. 

“I’ll be right out here, Char,” he promised as they started to cart him away. 

“I’m not leaving you. I promise. I-” 

But before he could get the rest of the words out, Charlie was gone. 

Rushed away on a stretcher under the care of people Nick didn’t know if he could trust. 

But Sarah trusted them, and that would have to be enough for now. 

….

Charlie really thought that after the disaster that had been the modified alphas, the scientists at Truham would have the good sense not to keep messing around with humans genetic makeup. 

But then again, Charlie should have known better than to think that Truham might see the mod alphas as a mistake. 

In fact, he was sure that they still thought of that entire mess as a screaming success. 

They had gotten what they wanted out of it after all. 

Alpha super seed. 

The fact that they had entirely drained the humanity out of the mod alphas, essentially stripping them down to only their worst animalistic instincts. 

They weren’t human. 

They were less than animals. 

They were an abomination. 

A work against nature's will. 

Charlie didn’t think he’d ever erase the memories that were branded into his mind of his first time seeing a mod alpha. 

The first time he’d seen a mod alpha also happened to be the first time that said alpha was meant to be breeding him. 

The mod alpha was larger and hairier than any other alpha Charlie had ever seen, their eyes empty dark voids. 

The alpha snarled and snapped at Charlie who had instinctively cowered into the corner of his bed, the shackles around his ankles preventing him from putting any more distance between him and the thing that was stalking towards him. 

The alpha was made even more terrifying by the steel muzzle that was wrapped around the lower half of the alpha's face. 

A cage to contain the canines that looked longer than Charlie’s pinky finger from a distance. 

It became clear why it was necessary once the researchers undid the cuffs around the alpha's ankles and wrists and set him on Charlie. 

As the mod alpha ravaged the rest of Charlie’s body, the steel cut into the skin around Charlie’s neck and clavicle as the alpha snapped its’ teeth, straining against the cage in a desperate attempt to claim Charlie. 

But it was clear to Charlie, based on the intensity that the alpha did everything else, that in any attempt that the alpha made to bite down on Charlie’s mating gland, it would result in his throat being torn out. 

Even the monstrous Truham scientists stopped exposing Charlie to the mod alphas after a few cycles. After all, Charlie still wasn’t getting pregnant, and they were surely getting sick of having to stitch up the skin of Charlie's neck and chest from where the steel muzzle had destroyed his skin. 

But just because Mod alphas weren’t the perfect species didn’t mean that a Mod Omega would yield the same result. 

Charlie had heard the whispers. 

He’d heard them talking about stimulating his hormones to increase their levels in hopes of finally achieving a pregnancy. 

He hadn’t paid much attention to anything else they’d said. 

He didn’t pay attention to the increased number of injections he’d been given that month. 

It had stopped mattering what they did to him. 

….

As Nick paced in the hospital lobby, he couldn’t get the paramedic's words out of his head. 

That he was a bad mate. 

He wasn’t Charlie’s mate. 

But if Nick ever got the chance to be with someone as amazing as Charlie, he’d do everything in his power to take care of him, to be the best mate possible. 

Nick had already risked everything to save Charlie, to give him a chance at life. 

Instinctively, Nick knew that that would never change. Even when the moment comes when they are one hundred percent safe from Truham, Nick would always want and need to protect Charlie. 

He’d felt some part of that five years ago in their form room. 

Nick had felt the way his body was drawn to Charlie. 

The way his shoulders untensed when Charlie was near.

The way everything felt easier during those twenty or so minutes at the beginning and the end of the day. 

Maybe in some other life, they would have gotten to know each other. Maybe they would have become friends. Maybe after a while…they could have been more than that. 

Because deep down, Nick knew that what he felt for Charlie wasn’t normal. 

He knew their bodies and souls were connected in a way science couldn’t easily explain. 

Fated. 

It was why they had never forgotten one another. 

It was why Charlie had put his trust in Nick right away. 

It was why Nick had been able to seal Charlie’s wounded skin with his saliva. Something that usually only worked between mated pairs. 

It was why Nick knew that he would rather die than leave Charlie’s side when he was in such pain.

Nick belonged to Charlie. 

He belonged with him.

But life had gotten in their way. 

Some greater evil had pulled them apart in this universe, but by some miracle, they had found each other again. 

And now, Nick didn’t think he could ever let Charlie go again. 

Nick would be whatever Charlie needed him to be. 

His protector. 

His friend. 

His confidant. 

Maybe they’d never have the kind of love that they were meant to in another world, but that didn’t matter. 

Charlie would never love him. 

That was ok. 

Nick could live with that. 

As long as Charlie trusted him, that was enough. 

As long as Charlie lets Nick be near him.

Because even though they were in the same building right that moment, it still felt too far. It felt physically painful to be away from Charlie after spending the last twenty-four hours at each other's sides constantly. 

The anxiety of being apart was made only worse by the fact that Nick had no idea what was happening to Charlie or if he was ok. 

Was he scared? 

Was he looking for Nick? 

Did he think Nick abandoned him? 

Nick was pulled out of his thought spiral only when Sarah appeared in front of him, two steaming paper cups of tea in her hands. 

“Nicky. I think it’s time we talk about what exactly is going on."

Chapter Text

“Where is Charlie?”

Sarah sat down next to her son and pressed the tea into his shaking hands.

“He’s in good hands.”

“I need to be with him.”

“That’s not a good idea right now.” Sarah squeezed his wrist as Nick continued to vibrate in his seat.

“But the paramedics said it was better for him to have alphas around. I’m an alpha! I’m his—

I'm his alpha, Nick thought in the safe privacy of his mind

“That was before, darling. That was about keeping Charlie calm before he could get proper treatment.

Nick shuddered, his entire body demanding he get up and go find Charlie, to see with his own eyes that Charlie was safe.

“He’s in an isolation room, love. No one’s allowed inside.”

“What? Why?”

“They’ve quarantined him in a sealed room where they can control and eliminate the pheromones in the air. He’s on a hormone antagonist drip, and they’re leaching the extra hormones from his body.

“He’s alone?”

Was he afraid?

Was he asking for Nick?

“They’ve sedated him, baby.”

“So he isn’t in pain anymore?”

“No, darling, no,” Sarah promised, squeezing his hand again.

“Thank fuck,” Nick muttered under his breath. He slumped backwards against the chair, letting out a full breath for what felt like the first time since he’d woken up to Charlie in heat.

“Baby. You’ve clearly been through a lot, but I need to know what’s happening.”

“I don’t know if I can. I don’t even know where to start.

“Nicky” Sarah’s voice was serious as she held tight to her son's hand.

“An hour ago I was under the impression that you had drowned and I’d never see you again, and then you come stumbling through the front door with a boy in death's door.”

Nick whipped his head around to look at his mother. He now saw that her face was puffy as if she’d been crying.

“What?”

“Truham called me and said that you’d had some sort of psychotic break. That you broke into an off-limits sector of the facility and stole sensitive information and company property, broke through the fence, and jumped into the river and that they were recovering your body.

Sarah’s voice cracked a few times as she spoke, as if she were back in the moment when she had received the call.

“I nearly had a stroke when you came through the door.”

“It’s Charlie,” Nick muttered.

“The ‘property’ that I stole. It was Charlie.

“Darling?”

Nick could feel tears welling in his eyes.

How could he tell his mother this?

How could he inflict the pain of this knowledge onto her?

Nick knew that no matter how long he lived, he would be haunted by the things he had seen at Truham.

“Truham, it’s not what I thought it was. It’s not a normal lab. The things that they do there. The things that I saw” A sob clawed its way out of his chest.
Nick could feel his mom's hands on his shoulders. He could hear her telling him to try to breathe evenly and that he was safe, that she was there with him, but Nick still felt like he couldn’t draw in a proper breath.

He needed Charlie.

He needed to see him.

He needed to know that he was safe.

What if Truham had figured out where they were?

What if they found them and Nick wasn’t there to protect Charlie?

If anything happened to him, it would be all Nick’s fault.

Eventually, after what felt like a million years, Nick regained some semblance of control over himself.

“What do you mean, baby, that you stole Charlie?”

Nick shook his head, pushing the tears off his face.

“I helped him escape. I did break into a different part of the facility, and I did get through a fence and jump in a river. I did it all for and with Charlie. I would have done anything to get him out of there.

“You helped him escape? Escape what?”

“They were, fuck. They’ve kept him there for years, Mum. They were—they were trying to breed him, Mum. Every fucking month for five years. The whole time I was finishing school and going to uni, they had him. His parents sent him there, and then Truham never let him leave.

“Nicky—”

“I’m not making it up. You have to believe me. The things that they’ve done to him, the things that they’re still doing to other Omegas, I can’t—”

“Slow down, love, take a breath,” Sarah coaxed.

“I had to get him out of there, Mum. You have to believe me in the things they were doing. You have to believe me; I don’t know what to do now. I don’t know who else I can trust now. I don’t know how much power that Trump has. I have proof; I just need to find the right people to show it to.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright, darling. We’ll figure this out. I promise.

“You—you believe me?”

Sarah cupped the side of Nick’s face, pushing a tear off his cheek with her thumb.

“Of course, I believe you. Of course. You’re my baby; I know you wouldn’t lie about something like this.”

“I wish I were lying. I wish I had made it all up, Nick whispered, his throat raw and aching from crying.

Sarah's phone beeped from its place on the table. She snatched it up and scanned the screen quickly.

“Is it Charlie? Is he ok?” Nick almost immediately slipped back into panic.

“Dr. Baxter was just sending me an update.”

“How is he?”

Sarah winced.

“I’m not meant to share any patient information. I’ve probably told you too much already.

“Mum”

“Nicky, I—”

“What if he was my mate? You’d tell me then, wouldn’t you?”

“That would be different, but Nicky—”

“This is me telling you, his doctor, that we’re mates. I brought him in. You’re meant to take Alphas at their word, right?”

For once Nick was grateful for the unjust systems that favoured Alphas over the rest of society.

“Nick” Sarah warned.

“He’s my mate,” Nick repeated.

“Please tell me how he is.”

Sarah sighed deeply, holding onto Nick’s hand with a vice-like grip

Sarah might have tried to challenge her son further if not for the fact that two hours earlier she had believed him dead.

Sarah had been near comatose when she’d gotten off the phone after hearing the news.

She thought she had lost her son, her baby boy.

Now he was there in front of her, in obvious pain, begging her for help.

“His fever has come down. His respiratory rate was falling drastically, so they’ve had to intubate him"
Nicks's hand tightened around his mom's.

“But he’s improving, baby. Dr. Baxter thinks that they’ve got the antagonist titrated to the correct level and that he should be out of active heat in the next few hours. They’re going to watch his kidney function closely.”

“But he’s going to be ok; he’s not, he’s not going to die?”

“He’s doing much better but ge was very, very sick when he got here"

That wasn’t a yes.

His mother wasn’t saying that Charlie would one hundred percent make a full recovery.

She wasn’t promising him that Charlie was out of the woods.

What if the heat overload had damaged his organs beyond repair? Was that why they wanted to watch Charlie’s kidney function? Because they were failing?

“When can I see him?”

Sarah let out another soft sigh.

“Once he’s out of his active heat, he should be able to come out of the iso room within a few hours. I can take you to see him then.

Nick let his head fall into his hands again.

How was he supposed to make it hours without seeing Charlie?

There was this white-hot pain in his chest that he knew would only be soothed by being by Charlie’s side again.

“I’ve got some calls to make,” Sarah decided, squeezing Nick’s shoulder before getting to her feet.

“What? Who?”

“People who I know can help us. People I trust, okay?”

Nick nodded, placing all his faith in his mother's hands.

“Wait for me in my office, okay, baby? You should try to catch some sleep on the sofa in there. You look dead on your feet.

Sarah looked the same way to Nick.

She must have been up all night mourning a son who wasn’t actually dead.

“Mum?”

Sarah looked back at her son.

“Is it safe here? In the hospital?”

“Safe?”

“I’m worried that they’re going to come after him. Truham, I mean. Is he safe here?”

“He should be safe, but I can speak to someone in security. We screen guests when the hospital has a VIP or a sensitive case, and only those approved by the patient and cleared by security can enter. I think this situation applies.

Nick nodded.

He’d feel better when he could see Charlie, but if Sarah said it was safe, he would believe her.

He had to.

…………..

Charlie was floating on his back in the middle of the lake.

He could feel the water ripple under his fingertips as he gently grazed the surface.

He was weightless.

He was one with the element that held him.

There was nothing but him and the water.

There was no pain.

No thoughts.

No feelings.

He was on the very edge of existence to the point that he seemed liable to slip away.

What would happen if he let his head slip under the water?

Would he cease being?

He wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t quite ready to try.

Maybe he would later.

For now he was just going to float.

……

Nick had been sitting at Charlie’s bedside for three hours.

His eyes were flitting between the vitals monitor and Charlie’s face.

He watched the numbers obsessively, ready to press the call button the second that anything went south.

Nick’s knees had buckled when he’d finally been allowed back in to see Charlie in the private room he had been transferred to after leaving the iso room.

Seeing Charlie back in a bed made Nick’s mind flash back to the first time he had seen Charlie in that dreadful room at Truham.

He had seemed so small and diminished.

There was a tube snaking down Charlie’s throat, tape on the side of his lips to hold it in place.

Several different bags of fluid hung from the IV pole stations by his bed.

It was frightening to see him wrapped up in so many tubes and wires, but Nick continuously reminded himself that these were the things keeping Charlie alive.

They were making him better.

They were bringing him back.

Nick couldn’t even remember the last words that they had said to each other.
It couldn’t end this way.

They hadn’t come all this way for it to finish like this.

Charlie deserved a chance at a proper life. It may never be ‘normal.’ Charlie would have the weight of his trauma to carry with him. Nick would hold whatever of that weight that he could. He would do whatever Charlie let him to support him.

He would be whatever Charlie needed him to be.

Whatever Charlie wanted him to be.

He wanted to reach out and take Charlie’s hand more than anything.

He wanted to touch his skin and feel his body heat, proving to him that he was still alive.

He wanted to intertwine their fingers the way that they had when they were running through the forest.

He wanted that constant.

He wanted that connection.

But Nick couldn’t just take that from Charlie.

He wouldn’t take Charlie’s hand when it hadn’t been offered to him.

Just because Nick had come to the realization that he and Charlie had some intermixed destiny didn’t mean that Charlie would feel the same or want that.

Had Charlie trusted Nick because of the connection that existed between them or because Nick had been the only option?

He couldn’t think too hard about that, or he would drive himself crazier.

He needed to focus on what was happening in front of him.

In front of him, Charlie was there.

He was alive.

He was still fighting.

He hadn’t let go.

Every time that Charlie’s heart rate dipped, Nick felt his own speed up.

He was terrified the beats might drop to zero and the line would go flat.

Charlie had said he would rather die than go back to his life at Truham.

What if fighting proved too hard?

What if Charlie slipped through his fingers again when Nick had only just found him again after so many years?

Nick felt a hand on his shoulder.

Sarah was standing next to him, looking at Charlie’s fragile form in the bed.

She looked exhausted, even more drained than when Nick had seen her before.

“There are going to be a few people coming that you’ll need to talk to, Nicky.”

Nick didn’t answer.

He didn’t think he could leave this room until Charlie opened his eyes.

He needed to be there when Charlie woke up.

He had to be.

“I need you to tell them what you told me. They are going to help, okay?”

Nick wanted to believe that.

He wanted to believe that a team was assembling to help dig them out of this mess.

He wanted to believe that there were good people out there that would help them fight evil.

“Dr. Nelson?” A nurse had stuck his head in the door, his eyes on Sarah.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Is everything alright, Bradly?”

“Yes. There’s just someone here to see you about consulting on this patient.”

Nick’s spine straightened as his anxiety peaked. This wasn’t good. There was no reason for an outsider to be sniffing around.

“He’s downstairs. Security is waiting for your clearance.

“Who is it?”

The nurse glanced down at the chart in his hand, scanning for a name.

“It’s a Doctor Ried.”

Nick knew that name.

He’d seen it on the letterhead on the documents he’d ripped from his hard drive at Truham and from the security office.

Truham was there.

They had found them

Chapter Text

Nick felt as if every bone in his body turned to steel. 

Everything he’d worried about, everything he’d feared, had come to pass. 

Truham had followed them. 

Turham had found them. 

This was all Nick’s fault. 

There were so many things he’d done wrong. 

They shouldn’t have stopped. 

They should have kept running. 

Going to a hospital had been a mistake. 

Hospitals had records and computer systems that could be monitored or hacked. 

Nick should have gotten them out of the country, off the continent even. 

But how? 

Logically Nick knew it was impossible. 

Charlie was sick. 

It was abundantly clear that if Nick hadn’t gotten Charlie medical help, everything would have been for nothing. 

Charlie would be dead by now if they hadn’t gotten help. 

But now Truham was here, and Charlie had made it abundantly clear to Nick that he would rather die than go back to that place. 

So had Nick made the wrong choice? 

Should he have kept moving and given in to Charlie’s wish? 

Because while stopping had saved Charlie’s life, it may have doomed him back to the torture that he had escaped from. 

Nick’s eyes focused on Charlie’s fragile form in the bed, his chest rising and falling, the tube snaking down his throat, every monitor beep proving that he was alive. 

Nick knew on a molecular level that there was nothing that he wouldn’t do to protect this boy, no matter what that meant. 

He wouldn't have been able to keep driving when Charlie had been dying behind him, even if he knew that that was the choice that Charlie might have made for himself. 

Nick’s body revolted at the idea of doing anything that would bring the omega harm. 

Nick was caught up in what Charlie had asked of him. 

If things go wrong, Nick does the merciful thing and ends Charlie’s suffering swiftly. 

Nick could see the blue hues of Charlie’s veins under the near-translucent skin of his wrist. Charlie had wanted him to slice into one with his teeth and leave him to his end.

Thinking back to the two of them crouched at the fence, Charlie’s wrist in Nick’s hands as he brought the flesh to his lips and slid his teeth under the metal ID bracelet

Nick had pushed the request aside, determined to save Charlie’s life despite the odds. 

Would Charlie be asking for the same thing now if he could speak? 

There had to be another way. 

There had to be. 

“Nick” 

Sarah's hand clamped down on her son's shoulder. 

Nick hadn’t realized that he’d been growling until that second. 

“Mum. It’s them. That doctor. They’re here; they can’t take him back; they can’t—” 

“Nick”

“I have to get him out of here; we have to go; he can’t—” 

“Baby, look at me.” Sarah placed her hand on his chin and prompted him to face her. 

Only a mother would have the bravery to touch an alpha who was so clearly on such high alert. Any other person wouldn’t have dared it out of fear of losing a finger, or worse. 

“Trust me, darling. I’ll handle this.” She turned to the nurse, Bradly, still waiting at the door. 

“Please escort Dr. Ried to one of the empty conference rooms in the admin wing. I’ll meet him there momentarily. 

“Mum—” 

“Nicky, trust me,” she insisted, looking directly into his eyes, releasing the calming pheromones that Nick had been exposed to from childhood. 

“Stay with Charlie. I’ll be back.” 

“Mum, what’s—” 

“I’ll explain everything, Nicky, but we need to move quickly. Stay with Charlie. 

As if there was a chance that Nick would ever leave Charlie’s side willingly. 

……

The water rippled around Charlie once again. 

He hadn’t moved that time, just continued to float on the surface. 

Yet he felt the water start to move around him ever so gently. 

Charlie opened his eyes expecting to see the cool empty sky above him but was greeted with nothing. 

It was not dark or light. 

It just was. 

He glanced to the side, wondering if he would be able to see whatever had disturbed the water that was holding him but was once again met with nothingness. 

While his eyes were unseeing, he could feel it. 

Charlie could feel the water moving. 

He could sense that someone else was floating beside him, displacing the water and shifting his buoyancy. 

He could not see, but he could feel, and in that feeling, he knew. 

Nick was there in the water beside him. 

He stretched out his fingertips, hoping to come in contact with his skin.

His fingers closed on nothingness, not even the water.

But Nick was there. 

He was with him. 

The loneliness that Charlie had been so well acquainted with for the past five years was abated.

He wasn’t alone. 

……….

Nick felt helpless. 

He felt conflicted. 

He felt angry. 

He felt afraid. 

He wanted to storm down to the admin wing and wrap his hands around that doctor's throat. 

He wanted to watch the light leave the monster's eyes. 

But the evil was multiheaded. 

Nick couldn’t slay the villain by taking out a single entity. 

Still, his fingers twitched with an unreleased fury. 

But there was no way that he would leave Charlie’s side. 

He had to stay with him. 

He had to be there to protect him. 

He had to be there with him. 

Charlie’s fingers had started moving, twitching every once in a while. His pinky would strain out to the side as if he was reaching for something, for someone. 

Was it Nick? 

He wanted badly to take Charlie’s hand.

Nick's phone was clutched in his hand, waiting desperately for an update from his mother. 

He didn’t know what he wanted it to say. 

That the police had arrived and were taking Dr. Ried away? 

That there had been a mistake and the doctor that had come to see Charlie wasn’t related to Truham in the slightest? 

There wasn’t a perfect answer. 

Nick didn’t know if there was an answer that would put his mind at ease, but he needed something. 

“Nick?” 

His head snapped up at the sound of his name. 

The same nurse from before was standing in the doorway.

“Your mum is on the way back upstairs. She wanted me to warn you that she isn’t alone. 

Nick felt all the blood drain from his face. 

No. 

What? 

It couldn’t be possible. 

Was his mother bringing Dr. Reid up with her? 

Was he going to make Charlie face one of his tormentors?

Even unconscious, that felt cruel. 

Why would Sarah bring that man anywhere near Charlie? 

Nick felt his entire body heat up, each of his nerve endings on fire, screaming for him to grab Charlie and run. 

Trust me. 

His mother had said. 

Trust me. 

Nick had always put his trust in his mother. 

She had never steered him wrong before. 

He had to trust her. 

He had to put his faith in her and believe that she wouldn’t let him down.

She never had before. 

“Nicky,” Sarah poked her head into the room. 

Nick searched his mum's face, looking for answers.

“There’s someone I want you to meet.” 

……………..

Charlie’s throat was on fire. 

Something was pressing against the raw skin like a flint against a tinder, striking sparks down his throat and into his lungs. 

He was choking, gagging. 

There was a beeping somewhere, adding to the irritation. 

There were voices, someone saying something about calming down, about it being ok, about help. 

Where was the help? 

Was someone going to help him? 

Where was Nick? 

Nick. 

Charlie thought that he could hear his voice. 

He tried to focus on it. 

He tried to block out everything else and just hear Nick. 

“Ok Charlie, it’s alright. One, two, three" the fire was being pulled from his throat, moving like a knife being pulled out of his trachea. 

He coughed and spluttered until he was free, taking in deep gasps as he tried to catch his breath. 

His eyes shot open as he tried to take in everything around him. 

The lights were bright above him, and monitors seemed to be beeping and whirring all around. There was a tug on his hand when he tried to move, not pain, but irritation.

There was an IV poking into the top of his hand, thick strips of medical tape keeping it in place. 

An IV like the one that had been prodded into his hand a thousand times when he’d been in the Truham medical unit. That tube down his throat had signed his skin the same way that an NG tube had. 

Had they failed? Was he back at Truham? Confined to their medical unit to be forced back to the point of health where they could try to breed him again? 

He flexed his arms tenderly. 

There were no restraints around his wrists or ankles. 

That was a good sign. 

His limbs were free. 

“Char. Hey, it’s alright. 

There was Nick. 

He was sitting at his bedside, leaning forward and trying to prompt him to breathe evenly. 

“It’s ok. We’re safe. You’re safe,” Nick promised. 

Charlie wasn’t one to trust, but if there was anyone that Charlie was going to take at his word, it was Nick. 

There were three people in the room. 

One was Nick. 

The other was a woman standing at his shoulder who looked vaguely familiar to him; the third he didn’t recognize. 

Charlie moved without thinking, stretching his IV-less hand out to Nick. 

Nick took it without hesitation, interlocking their fingers and passing his warmth on to Charlie. 

Just having that small point of contact with Nick made Charlie feel instantly more at ease. Not at ease, he’d not felt that way in five years but at least close. 

“Hi Charlie, I’m Sarah. You probably don’t remember meeting me—

Charlie’s mind flipped back in its catalogue of memories. 

Pain. 

There had been a lot of pain. 

Nick had carried him into a house and laid him on a sofa. 

This woman, Sarah, had been there. 

She said she would help him. 

She’d promised to take the pain away, and she had, at least temporarily. 

“I remember,” Charlie croaked, his throat raw. 

“You helped us,” he murmured. His eyelids felt so heavy. 

“This is my mum, Char.”

Nick’s mum? 

“She’s a doctor, by the way.” 

Ha. 

That was cute the way that Nick felt the need to clarify as if it wasn’t already obvious. 

Thinking the word cute was strange. 

But there it was. 

“What happened? What’s happening?” Charlie was starting to get anxious again, and the beeping in the room intensified. 

Nick squeezed his hand.

That helped. 

That pressure.

That constant force. 

“You’re going to be ok,” Nick reaffirmed. 

“You have very high hormone levels, Charlie. Higher than your body could naturally handle. Higher than could have been naturally produced. Because of that, your body started to shut down. 

Charlie nodded, his head just barely moving. 

“We’ve managed to get your levels back down into the normal range, and your organs are bouncing back well, but we still need to monitor you closely for the next few days.” 

Sarah explained, her voice so much softer than any other health professional had been when speaking to him. 

There had been so many doctors at Truham who had been snappy with him, who berated him for not eating or for not conceiving when there wasn’t a medical explanation. 

There had only ever been one who had been kind to him, who had snuck him extra sedatives so that he could block out the worst of what had been happening to him. 

Sarah was different. 

She was speaking to him like she actually cared about his health. 

How novel. 

“Charlie,” Sarah said, taking half a step closer to him, her hand still on Nick’s shoulder. 

With Sarah touching Nick and Nick touching him, it was as if they were connected. 

“During examination, there were some very obvious signs of abuse.” 

Charlie winced, squeezing Nick’s hand hard. 

Was Sarah going to believe him? 

What if she didn’t? 

Would anyone? 

He was an omega. 

It would be his word against Truham, a respected institute run by Alphas. 

Would the evidence on his body even matter? 

He was an omega, and there was a decently large part of society that believed that once an omega was under an alpha's care, their state and welfare were up to the alpha's discretion. 

Alphas could treat their omegas how they saw fit. 

After all, it was only natural. 

“And as a mandated reporter, I was obligated to inform the authorities.” 

Charlie winced again. 

Could the police be trusted? 

How was he supposed to know if they didn’t live in Truhams infinitely deep pockets? 

“A detective is going to be coming to speak with you once you’re feeling stronger,” Sarah continued.

“And only once you’re ready, and you won’t be alone.”

 Charlie glanced over at Nick. 

Nick smiled softly back at him. 

“Of course, Nick will be there if you want him to,” Sarah clarified, noticing the look that passed between them. 

“But I was referring to Miss Jones.”

Charlie had nearly forgotten that there was someone else in the room. 

“Hello, Mr. Spring. My name is Tara. I work for the Secondary Gender Welfare Alliance, and if you consent, I’d like to act as your advocate. 

Consent? 

How many things had happened to him in the past five years without his consent? 

How many times had his body been used and mutated?

And now someone was asking for permission to simply stick up for him? 

Charlie nodded, not sure if he could even get the word yes out of his mouth.

Not when it had been meaningless to all the ears around him for a half-decade. 

“We’ll let you rest for now,” Sarah offered. 

“But please know you’re safe here.” 

Sarah and Tara moved towards the door. 

Charlie startled, holding tight to Nick’s hand, not ready for him to walk away. 

“I’m not leaving,” Nick promised. 

“I’ve got so much to tell you.”

Chapter Text

When Sarah had first reappeared back in Charlie’s room with Tara in tow, Nick had been on edge. 

He’d felt a momentary flare of relief when it wasn’t Dr. Ried who followed his mother through the door, but it was quickly vanquished by the next words out of his mum's mouth. 

She sat down in the chair by his side, angling it slightly so they were closer to facing one another. She reached out and placed her hand on top of Nick’s. 

“Is he gone?” Nick implored, hoping his mother was about to announce that Dr. Ried had spontaneously burst into flames. 

“Dr. Ried is still downstairs. He’s filling out the paperwork to have Charlie transferred to one of Truham's affiliated medical facilities. 

The sun had burnt out. 

The world had gone dark, and there was no chance of warmth ever touching its surface again. That was the only possibility. 

The world must really and truly have ended for Sarah to have betrayed him like this. 

Never in all his years alive would Nick have ever believed that Sarah would do this.

Even if Nick wasn’t her son. 

Even if he was a stranger. 

Sarah was good. 

She was kind. 

She had a moral conscience. 

Nick trusted her.

With his life. 

He had trusted her with Charlie’s life, and now this? 

“Darling,” Sarah moved to take his hand properly, but Nick recoiled from her touch. 

He needed to leave. 

He needed to get Charlie out of there now. 

But how could he? 

Charlie wasn’t strong enough to move. 

He wasn’t even awake yet. 

There was a tube snaked down his throat and an IV in his arm. 

He was still being flushed with hormone antagonists to stop his body from crashing out again. 

“Darling, listen to me.” Sarah took his hand, prying it away from his body. 

“How could you?” 

“Darling, you don’t understand.” 

“No, I don’t,” he snapped. 

His canine teeth ached. 

Physically ached. 

Every instinct in his body was commanding him to fight his way out of this, to do what needed to be done to get Charlie out of this situation. 

If it weren’t his mother, the person who had raised him, Nick might have spilled blood already.

Never in his life had Nick felt that instinctual need for violence as a solution before. 

It was supposed to be the alpha way, to use their brute strength to get their way, but Nick had never bought into that notion. 

He’d never thought that he had the right to use his physicality and the attributes he was born with to force his will over others. 

But in the past few days, after all Nick had seen, after all he knew had been done to Charlie, he would use whatever he had to make the other boy safe.

“You’re just going to send him back there? Look at him, Mum! They nearly killed him!” 

Nick’s voice cracked on the last word.

Acknowledging it out loud was terrifying; it made it all the more real. 

Charlie had nearly died. 

He had nearly died right in front of Nick’s eyes. 

Nick had nearly lost him when he had only just found him again. 

“He’s not going back, baby. He’s not,” Sarah insisted, squeezing his wrist. 

“Oh no, you’re sending him to one of their ‘facilities’ as if that will be any better! They’ll be back to trying to breed him next month. He won’t survive it. 

Nick snarled. 

He felt his teeth prick against the inside of his lip. 

He had nearly bared his teeth at his mother. 

The person in the world he was closest to, or at least he had been up until the last two minutes. 

“I’ve gone about this all wrong,” Sarah murmured, rubbing at her tired and swollen eyes. 

“Charlie isn’t leaving love. He’s not going back to them. 

Nick raised his head, not trusting the words he was hearing. 

“Doctor Ried is filling out a mountain of paperwork, enough to keep him sitting at that table for a long while, long enough not to notice that the door is locked. Long enough for the SGPA agents to arrive. 

The SGPA. 

Nick had heard the acronym before. 

It was an arm of the government. 

Of law enforcement. 

Secondary Gender Protection Agency 

Was that it? 

Nick remembered some big controversy a few years ago when one of the more conservative Alpha political parties had run on the platform of defunding the agency and putting that money towards ‘more useful’ initiatives. 

Thankfully that party hadn’t won a majority power, but it had been too close for comfort. 

“You called them?” 

Sarah nodded. 

“We alerted the agency the second that Charlie was admitted. The shape he was in most definitely made the need for them clear. When Dr. Ried showed up here claiming to be his primary physician and demanding to take over his care, he was essentially turning himself in. Not that he knows that. He thinks that he is well and truly has the wool pulled over our eyes, being such a clever Alpha after all. 

“Mum—” 

“Don’t apologize.” Sarah didn’t let Nick finish that thought, sensing that Nick was working up to a sorry. 

“I shouldn’t have started the conversation like that. I’m not thinking straight; I’m just—” Sarah rubbed her eyes again, and Nick felt a deep pang of guilt deep in his chest. 

Looking at his mother, Nick realized just how intense the past twelve hours had been for his mother. 

Sarah had worked a full shift at the hospital, come home to a phone call telling her that her youngest son was dead, only to have said son show up at her doorstep a handful of hours later with a half-dead omega fading fast in his arms. 

Sarah had jumped directly back into doctor mode, never having the chance to process everything that had happened. 

Nick stood up, pulling his mom with him and wrapping her tightly in his arms. 

“Thank you,” he muttered, his heart rate just starting to calm down from the spike of hearing that Dr. Ried was downstairs waiting to take Charlie away. 

Charlie was safe. 

Authorities were coming.
Authorities that were specifically tasked with handling delicate cases like these. 

Authorities who would not directly defer to the Alpha in the room as if they were the only voice that mattered. 

People were coming who could help them. 

People whose job it was to keep people like them safe. 

Nick didn’t know how well-connected Truham was or how untouchable they felt, but something was coming. Something was going to change. 

It had to. 

…………..

Charlie wasn’t ready for much talking when he first woke up. 

He was still groggy from the sedatives, and his throat was rubbed raw from being intubated. 

But he was ready to listen. 

He let Nick hold his hand as Nick did his best to retell everything that had happened when he had been unconscious. 

Charlie had nearly slipped back into a state of catatonia when he had heard that Dr. Ried had shown up downstairs to take him back into Truham's authority but had been pulled back from the edge when Nick explained that he’d been stalled long enough to be taken into SGPA custody. 

“He’s been arrested?” Charlie didn’t really believe the words as he spoke them. He didn’t really believe it when Nick reiterated them back to him. 

“They’re raiding different Truham facilities right now.” 

“They are?”

Charlie had dreamed of something like that happening. 

He’d dreamed of agents busting down the door to his room at Truham and hustling him out to safety. 

He’d dreamed of being wrapped up in one of those foil emergency blankets and being loaded into an ambulance with the other captives of levels two and three. 

He’d pictured the shocked faces of level one omegas when they saw the state of the omegas in the levels above them that they didn’t even know had existed. 

He’d dreamed of it, but he’d never thought it would actually happen. 

It was the stuff of fairytales. 

Good that was coming to break him out of the clutches of evil. 

“It’s all over the news.”

Could it be true that at that moment people really were breaking down those doors and wrapping traumatized omegas in emergency blankets? 

Were they really being unshackled and finally hearing the words, “You’re safe now. It’s over”?

It was surreal. 

Were people around the country actually seeing news coverage of raids on these scientific facilities and ‘omega schools’ being busted up, their secrets spilled out for the world to see? 

Were parents learning the truth about what they had sentenced their children to?

Were Charlie’s parents going to see what they had done to him? 

Would they be surprised, horrified by the truth? 

What had they thought had become of him? 

Did they even think about him anymore? 

Charlie had a million questions. 

He was confused. 

He was still afraid, but for the first time, his hope didn’t feel tentative. 

Something had shifted. 

Things were changing. 

Things were happening. 

“You did this, Char. You’re out. So many people are getting out because of you.” 

Him? 

No. 

It wasn’t because of him. 

It was because of Nick. 

Nick as the one who did something. 

Nick was the one who broke him out. 

Charlie didn’t own any part of this 

“I didn’t do anything.” 

Nick shook his head. 

“You did. You survived. You did that. There’s no this without you.” 

Charlie wanted to keep arguing. He wanted to insist that this was Nick’s victory, but he knew there wasn’t any use. 

He was tired. 

He was so, so tired. 

Maybe he could sleep now that there wasn’t a sword hanging directly over his head, just shifted to the side. 

There was something else stopping him. 

“Nick?” 

The alpha squeezed his hand, a quick pulse of reassurance. 

“Yeah?” 

“Is there a phone I can use?” 

……….

SGPA agents were anxious to speak with Charlie. 

They wanted to take his statement. 

They wanted to see his injuries firsthand. 

They wanted to ask clarifying questions and get more details. 

They wanted a lot. 

But they wouldn’t get it. 

Not yet. 

Tara was stationed outside his hospital room door, only letting approved medical staff inside. 

While the SGPA agents were well-meaning, on Charlie’s side, they looked at things from a big perspective. They wanted information now so that they could put more plans into action now. 

It was Tara’s job to ensure that Charlie’s well-being was taken care of first. 

“He’s not ready to give a statement. Once he’s consented to an interview, I’ll alert you, but until then he needs rest. He’s a patient in this hospital. Please respect that. 

Nick had heard that statement a dozen times through the door of Charlie’s room since he’d met the woman. 

Tara was warm but stern when it came to protecting her charge. 

She was kind to Nick but turned into a tiger when it came to keeping the agents at bay. 

Nick had genuinely thought she might rip the head off the reporter who had managed to weasel their way to Charlie’s room. 

“How is that even possible? I thought that the hospital was on lockdown?” Nick's hands had shaken from the intensity of his anger at a member of the media having the gall to show up there. 

“They were an approved visitor of another patient. It was purely coincidental that they were a member of the press, but when they got wind that Charlie was here, they decided to try to get a scoop. They’ve been escorted off the property.” 

That had reassured Nick, but when Charlie woke up, he decided for the time being not to mention to him how many people had been trying to knock down his door. 

Charlie knew that SGPA agents wanted to speak with him. That’s all that mattered.

He also knew that that was only going to happen on his timeline. 

Tara (and Nick for that matter) would make sure that it didn’t happen a second before that. 

Nick handed Charlie his phone when the omega requested it as if he would deny him anything. 

Charlie’s hands shook slightly as he prodded at the phone screen. 

“God, these things have gotten a lot more complicated in five years,” Charlie muttered, holding the phone up to his ear. 

The phone rang a few times and then went through to voicemail. 

“At least I know she still has the same number,” Charlie dialled again. 

Nick wanted to ask who he was calling but held back. It wasn’t his business, not really. 

Still. He wanted to know. 

“She doesn’t pick up unknown numbers. I’m just going to keep calling until she gets annoyed and picks up,” he pressed to redial again. And then again. 

Finally, the call connected. 

“What?” the voice on the other end snapped. 

“Tori?” 

“Who is this?” 

“Tori, it’s me. It’s Charlie. 

There was a beat of silence. 

“That’s not funny.” 

“Tori” 

“That’s a really sick fucking joke. I don’t know who you are, but I swear to God I’m going to—”
“Tori, please listen to me—”

“What kind of sick fuck calls someone and pretends to be their dead brother? You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve, and— 

“Tori, listen to my fucking voice!” 

Another second of silence. 

“I know it’s rough, and I know it’s been a long time, but you know me, Victoria. You know it’s me. 

A second of silence. 

Nick held his breath until finally the sure and angry voice on the other end of the phone shifted to a shaky whisper. 

“Charlie?” 

Chapter Text

Charlie's entire body felt wrong. 

On edge. 

The environment around him was unfamiliar yet so like the cage he’d lived in all those years at Truham. 

The hospital room was a mirror to the medical wings at Truham that Charlie had been carted off to when he’d refused to eat for too long, avoided water long enough to get completely dehydrated, or when the skin around his mating gland on his neck had been torn apart by the metal cage that acted as a muzzle for the mod alphas that had tormented him for a few heats months before.

The difference is that Charlie’s wrist wasn’t encapsulated in a metal cuff and attached to the bed. There wasn’t a monitoring device impacted on his skin, nor were the doors made of steel locked to keep him sealed into the room. 

Instead, there was a guard standing outside the door, not to keep Charlie in but to keep other people out. 

There was an alpha seated at his side who wanted to protect him, not hurt him, and somewhere on the roads of the countryside, right at that very second, his sister was pressing her foot down on a gas pedal, forcing her car forward so that she could make it to him. 

There was an IV attached to him that instead of flooding his system with excess hormones was sending fluid into his bloodstream to halt the chemical compounds that had nearly killed him. 

The people around him cared most that he lived, not that he produced a pup. 

It was the first time in five years that anyone cared about his well-being instead of the possibility of what his body could produce.

Charlie had gotten overcome when he’d been on his phone with his sister. 

Tori had thought that he was dead. 

In a strange way that made him feel better. 

At least she hadn’t been worried about him for all these years.

At least Tori had thought that he was at peace. 

It also made him feel slightly better that Tori hadn’t given up on him and moved on. 

If he had just disappeared and she hadn’t gone looking for him… that might have hurt more than anything else. 

Even when Tori had first picked up the phone and she was hostile and growling at him, thinking he was some cruel soul looking to get a rise out of her, the sound of her voice had brought him more comfort than almost anything else ever had in his life. 

When he’d broken through to her and gotten her to actually listen to the sound of his voice, and Tori had realized that it was him, Charlie had broken down. He cried into the receiver, barely able to get the words out of where he was. 

Even then they’d been incomprehensible. 

Nick had to gently take the phone out of Charlie’s hand and give her the basic information about where they were and what was happening. 

“She’s coming,” Nick had promised when he placed the receiver back into the cradle of its base.

“She’s about an hour from here.” 

Charlie nodded, tears still streaming down his face that he didn’t bother to wipe away.

“She sounds the same as she always did,” Nick mused, looking down at his hands like he wasn’t sure what he should say. 

“Intimidating?” 

“Bloody terrifying,” Nick amended, actually getting Charlie to crack a smile. 

“Is there anyone else you want to call?”

Charlie blanched. 

There wasn’t. 

Olly may be five years older than he had been the last time that Charlie had seen him, but he was still way too young to see anything like this. Charlie wanted to be stronger when he saw his little brother again. He didn’t want to look like he was on the edge of death, especially when to Olly he would be coming back from the grave. 

Or what if Olly wasn’t at home? 

He’d tried to calculate how old the little boy would be now, but all the years were blurring together. 

Would Oly have come of age to present? 

What if he had presented and he, like Charlie, had drawn the unlucky card of becoming an omega? 

What if his parents had sent Oly off to Truham or some place like it like they had Charlie? 

No. 

Charlie couldn’t think about that. 

He’d find out the truth from Tori soon enough, but if he dwelled on it now, he might drive himself to the point of insanity.

Charlie had had a few friends in his life before Truham, but did he want them to see this? 

Surely if Tori thought that he was dead, they did too. 

Was it better for now that he stayed dead to them? 

Then. 

Then there were his parents. 

Did they know the truth?

If they didn’t, did they suspect? 

Had they ever told Tori and Olly the truth about where they had sent their brother? 

Had they ever told another soul that they’d sold his body in exchange for the illusion of safety from a threat that didn’t really exist? 

Charlie knew that a time would come when he would have to face them. 

Not for their sake, but for his. 

He wanted to look them in the eye and ask if it had been worth it. 

He wanted them to physically hand him the contract that they’d signed. 

Charlie wanted to know what exactly they thought they were signing him up for. 

Had they known the truth? 

Had they known even a fraction of it? 

Just the thought turned Charlie’s stomach. 

He wasn’t ready to see his parents. 

Not now. 

Not yet. 

But Tori. 

Tori, he wanted to see. 

Tori, he needed to see. 

He’d missed her so desperately over the years. 

He’d missed her prickly disposition that she had with everyone except for him. 

She’d been his best friend in all the ways that mattered. 

Charlie had wondered about his sister a lot. 

He had tried not to think about her when times got really dark. 

It had hurt too much. 

But he had wondered what had become of her. 

Charlie had pictured her getting away from their hometown and out from under their parent's thumb. 

Had she gone to university? 

Had she met someone? 

Would he even recognize her when she came through the door? 

All these questions had run laps around his mind as he waited for her to arrive. 

Nick’s phone had buzzed after a while, and Charlie had jumped at the sound. 

“It’s security. Your sister is downstairs.” 

Charlie swallowed against the lump that had risen in his throat. 

He felt like he might be sick from the anticipation that was churning in his stomach. 

“Do you want me to wait outside? Give you some privacy?” 

“No!” 

Charlie hadn’t meant to burst out the way he did, but his voice had gone an octave higher, and his hand had snatched Nick’s off the bed and pulled it in tight to his chest. 

He realized what he’d done seconds after he’d downed it. 

“Oh god, I'm sorry.” He dropped Nick’s hand from where it was clutched against him, but Nick didn’t pull away. 

“Don’t be. It’s fine,” Nick promised, offering Charlie his hand again. 

“I shouldn’t have grabbed you. I shouldn’t have touched you when— 

I shouldn’t have touched you when you didn’t say it was ok.

I shouldn’t have taken your choice away. 

I shouldn’t have used your body.

How many times had Charlie been grabbed and touched and manhandled without permission, and now he was doing that to Nick? 

“Charlie, it’s alright. I promise. You can hold my hand any time you want to.

Charlie gently wrapped his fingers around Nick’s again, guilt still swelling in his stomach. 

He didn’t know what to say. 

Was there anything that Charlie could say or explain to make this make sense to anyone when he couldn’t make it make sense to him? 

Nick being there in the room made it easier for him. 

Holding Nick’s hand made the air around him easier to breathe. 

Science would probably say it was because Nick was an alpha and Charlie was an omega. 

Omegas were meant to instinctively seek out comfort and protection from Alphas, and Alphas were meant to protect and provide. 

That had never been Charlie’s experience with Alphas. 

Alphas had only ever brought pain and destruction. 

Alphas didn’t protect Charlie. 

They hurt him. 

They took from him. 

They destroyed. 

But not Nick. 

Nick didn’t make his skin crawl. 

Nick didn’t make him want to shrink back into a corner and hide. 

It wasn’t because Charlie was an omega and Nick was an alpha. 

It was because Nick was Nick. 

Nick had always been different. 

He’d treated Charlie differently when they were in school together. 

He had put him at ease when every other Alpha had made him uncomfortable and afraid. 

Nick had offered him his help, not forced it upon him. 

Nick had never forced him into anything. 

He had just been there. 

Charlie wanted him there, wanted to be beside him not because he was an alpha, but actually in spite of the fact that he was an alpha. 

Charlie wanted Nick around because of who he was, not what he was. 

The intrinsic closeness and ease that Charlie felt toward and around Nick wasn’t the dynamic of an alpha and an omega. 

It felt like some dynamic of fate. 

“Can you stay?” Charlie requested, once again pulling their entwined hands into his chest. 

“Please?” 

“Yeah, yeah, if that’s what you want. Of course. 

“Thank you.” Charlie’s voice was little more than a whisper, but he hoped that Nick could tell that he meant it. 

A few minutes later Tara poked her head in the room. 

“Charlie, your sister is here. Is she alright to come in?” 

Charlie heard a huff from the hall, and he knew just by that exasperated sound that it really was his sister standing on the other side of the door. 

He nodded, his body tensing from the flash of anxiety that was coursing through him. 

Tara stepped aside, allowing the woman behind her to enter the room. 

The woman who Charlie recognized but only barely. 

He hadn’t seen his sister in half a decade. 

He’d not even had a picture of her, and it wasn’t until that very second that he realized how many details he’d forgotten in his mind. 

“Hi.” 

They weren’t exactly poetic first words to say to his sister in well over one thousand days, but it was all Charlie had. 

Tori was standing in the doorway as if frozen in place, unsure if it was safe to move.

“You cut your hair.” 

Charlie hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but it had jumped out at him. 

Her long dark hair had been cut into a blunt curtain around her chin. 

“It’s you then?” Tori’s voice was the same as it always had been. That part of his memory hadn’t changed. 

Charlie nodded. 

“I’m not dead I'm afraid, no matter what you’ve heard. 

Tori let out a surprised, harsh, signal laugh and then folded over, holding her stomach. When she straightened up, her eyes were filled with tears. 

“Can I, can I hug you or—” 

Charlie had never seen his sister unsure before. 

She had always been steady-handed and sure-minded. 

Now she looked like she was afraid that if she made the wrong move, a delicately constructed house of cards would topple over and catch fire. 

“Yeah.” Charlie’s voice broke on the single word as the gravity of the situation hit him. 

Tori was there. 

She was standing in front of him. 

He’d really thought that he’d never get this again, that he would never see her again. 

Tori approached him apprehensively, the way you might a wounded coyote. Afraid that they might lash out from their fear and bite. 

But then she was beside him, sitting down on the side of his bed and wrapping her arms around Charlie's neck. 

Charlie wrapped his free arm around Tori, pressing her as firmly as he could against him. 

“You’re supposed to be dead. They told us you were dead.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” 

“Shut up,” Tori grumbled into his shoulder. 

She pulled back, leaving her arms wound around Charlie’s neck but far enough back that she could look him in the eye. 

“How are you here?”

Charlie shrugged. 

He wasn’t altogether sure himself. 

The last few days were a blur.

They had run, swum, and driven hell all but flown away from Truham. 

They had done that. Him and Nick. 

Charlie didn’t even know what day it was anymore. 

He had passed out at some point during his heat overload. He’d been sedated at the hospital. Full days could have passed, and he might have completely missed them. 

“You were dead,” Tori repeated, diving into his neck again and holding tight. 

“We had, we had a funeral for you. Your ashes are on Mum and Dad's mantel. 

Charlie shuddered. 

What was actually in the urn that his parents had been given, or maybe who was in that urn? 

“How long have I been dead then?” Charlie teased, Tori sputtering into his shoulder. 

“Years” She pulled back again, pushing the tears off her face. 

“It was, god, three years after you—well, Mum and Dad referred to it as you ‘going away,’ but it was three years after they took you. They told us that there was an outbreak of omaphilia at the school and that you contracted it and didn’t recover. 

“Huh,” Charlie mused. 

“Good excuse.”

Omaphilia was a disease that was exclusively contractable by omegas and was highly contagious. 

Which was to say when you had large numbers of Omegas in the same place, the chance of an outbreak increased.

Charlie and every other omega at Truham had been vaccinated against the disease, and they had their temperatures taken daily.

Truman had done everything possible to prevent the disease from spreading, and when Charlie had been in the general population in level one, he’d never seen anyone get sick. 

But it was a convenient excuse for Truham to pull out of their back pocket when they needed someone to disappear. 

If what Tori was telling him was true, Truham had told his family that he had died when he had been transferred to level three. 

So while they had continued to torment him for years past that point, they had never had any hope for success. They hadn’t thought that he would actually get pregnant. 

Or maybe they still had hope that they’d managed to knock him up, but he was such an anomaly that they hadn’t wanted to let him go. 

“I knew something was wrong. I knew it. When they sent you away and we weren’t even allowed to call you. I hounded Mum about it, but she just kept telling me that we had to be patient, trust the process and that it was ‘best for everyone’ for you to be somewhere that could ‘handle’ you. God, I wanted to throttle her when she said that. 

Tori was bunching her fist in the bedsheets. 

“I wrote to you; we all did. The letters we got back, they weren’t you, were they?” 

“I never got any letters, and I definitely never wrote any.” 

Tori was biting down hard on her lip. Charlie wouldn’t be surprised if she drew blood. 

“I should have known. I should have done something I should have—” 

“Stop” Charlie squeezed his sister's hand hard, trying to pull her focus out from his spiral of shame and anger. 

“This isn’t your fault.” 

“God Charlie, I don’t even know what this is! I have no idea what’s happened in the last five years. I’m your big sister. I’m supposed to protect you, and I just— 

“Stop,” Charlie repeated, clamping down on her hand harder. 

“This isn’t your fault, and it’s not mine; it’s them” Charlie’s voice caught on the last word. 

“It’s those people and that place.” 

Tori hugged him again, holding on as tight as she could. 

“What happened, Charlie?” She whispered into his shoulder, her voice so timid it let Charlie know that she was as afraid of the answer as he was to tell it. 

“I can’t tell that right now,” Charlie muttered back.

“I’m high and tired, and I can’t think straight enough to tell you everything you need to know.” 

Tori nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. 

“Have you called anyone else?” 

“I haven’t called Mum and Dad if that’s what you’re asking.” 

Tori let out a harsh laugh. 

“Yeah, I guess that is what I meant.” 

“I’m not ready to face them yet.”

Tori nodded, squeezing his hand again. 

“Do you want me to tell them?” 

Charlie hesitated, and it wasn’t until he tasted rust in his mouth that he realized he had bitten his tongue hard enough to draw blood. 

“I guess they should know that I’m breathing. They should probably find out from you and not the news, but I don’t want them to come here. Not yet. 

Tori nodded again. 

“Can I tell Olly?” 

Charlie’s stomach dropped. 

“He’s still at home? He didn’t; he’s not a—they didn’t send him to— 

“He’s like me,” his sister promised, realizing where her brother's rambling was going. 

“He’s a beta.” 

“Thank fuck for that,” Charlie murmured under his breath. 

“Can I call him?”

Charlie felt the prick of tears in his eyes again. 

“Yeah. Please do. I want to see him.

“He’s going to shit himself,” Tori mused with a wet chuckle. 

“Nah, I'm sure he’ll be totally chill about it.” 

How was it possible that these two spring siblings were laughing together after everything?

Charlie had thought he’d never see his sister again. 

He’d never thought that he’d laugh again.

But there they were. 

There was a soft sniffle from Charlie’s left. 

Nick was wiping tears away with the hand that wasn’t still holding onto Charlie. 

Tori seemed to only just notice that it wasn’t the two of them in the room. 

Normally Tori would have noticed a hulking alpha in the room, but her brother coming back from the dead was a good reason to be distracted. 

She glanced over to where Nick was seated at Charlie’s other side. Tori clocked their intertwined hands immediately, following the line up to look at Nick. 

She stared at him for a beat, taking him in unblinking. 

“I know you. Why do I know you?” 

Nick cleared his throat, suddenly looking more like an awkward schoolboy than the strong, confident alpha. 

“We went to school together,” Nick finally managed to get out, feeling the full strength of the Betas stare down. 

Her eyes narrowed further. 

“You’re the alpha that asked about Charlie right after they took him away.” 

Nick nodded, remembering how he had steeled his nerves to approach Tori all those years ago to ask after Charlie. 

“Why are you here now?” 

“Tori,” Charlie warned, holding tight to his sister's hand. 

“Were you part of this?” Tori accused, a fury growing in her eyes for an evil that she didn’t even know yet. 

“Tori, don’t.” Tori looked between them and their intertwined hands. 

“I’ll tell you everything when I can, but just…” he let out a shaky breath. 

“I want you to be here, but I want Nick to be here too.” 

Tori leaned back in her chair, looking lost and unsure of what she should do next. 

“He’s not intimidating you or forcing you or—” 

“No,” Charlie swore again. 

“He’d never—he—Nick is safe.” 

“And you want him here?” 

Charlie glanced at Nick, sure that the alpha must feel exceedingly awkward being talked about as if he wasn’t there. 

Only Nick didn’t look awkward. 

He was looking at Charlie, waiting for his direction, waiting to follow his lead. 

Charlie looked back at his sister and told her the absolute truth, something he felt so deep inside himself that it was almost scary. 

“I need him here.”

Chapter Text

Everything around him was warm, the air laced with a distinctly comforting scent. Soothing almost.

Charlie stretched and flexed his limbs and for once didn’t feel the telltale ache of atrophy and tension. 

Soft. 

The bedding around him, the pillow beneath his head, the texture underneath the pads of his fingers—it was all soft. Gentle. 

Nothing hurt. 

Everything felt neutral, at peace.

It was a perfect nest.

Tapestries above him closing out the rest of the room and tenting in his sanctuary. It was dark except for a warm yellow light, a delicate glow that was cast over everything around him. 

Around them. 

Charlie wasn’t alone. 

It wasn’t a nest built for one.

Nick was beside him, the source of that comforting scent Charlie had noted before. 

Nestled against his back, a single arm slung over Charlie’s waist and held him softly but securely to his chest. 

It wasn’t confining.

Charlie didn’t feel trapped.

He felt safe. 

He felt cared for. 

He felt loved. 

Charlie blinked once. 

Twice. 

Then came back to full consciousness.

He didn’t know at what point he had fallen asleep.

Time had moved strangely ever since Charlie had first woken up in the hospital after his ‘heat overload.’.

He struggled to hold onto the concept of the clock moving forward when his mind seemed to be slowed down.

Maybe it was the hormone antagonists still flooding his system, fighting off the artificial influx that Truham had pumped into him, or the sedatives that were still working their way through him that he’d been given to stop him from ripping out his breathing tube.

Whatever it was, Charlie was struggling to keep hold of his reality.

What was real? 

Had Tori really come back to him? 

Were there raids being carried out at Truham institutes across the country? 

Had he really been in a perfect nest with Nick Nelson curled up behind him, keeping him warm and so, so safe? 

What was real? 

What did he want to be real?

The first two he wanted desperately. 

He wanted his sister back in his life. 

He needed justice to be carried out against the monsters that had been ripping apart the lives of countless omegas and alphas all in the name of ‘science.’.

The last one was more complicated. 

It had been a dream. 

Charlie was almost certain. 

There was no way to make that scene make sense in the context of his surroundings.

He was in a hospital bed in a poorly lit sterile room that was so far separated from the warm glow that he’d been basking in during that dream (that memory?). 

It had felt so real. 

So natural. 

So right. 

But it wasn’t.

It couldn’t be.

There was no way in this world that Charlie could ever exist in that context.

Not after everything that he had experienced. 

Not after every toll his body had taken. 

Everything that had been taken from him. 

The simple context, the natural conclusion, of an alpha and an omega together in the safety of a nest would never be a part of Charlie’s life.

He didn’t want it to be.

Charlie never wanted to have a heat again. 

He never wanted anyone to touch him like that.

To take from his body for their own pleasure. 

But in that dream, in that wished memory, everything had felt right.

Maybe because in that dream he wasn’t in heat.

Nick hadn’t been in a rut. 

They’d just been existing together in a place of comfort. 

In a cocoon of safety. 

It had been a dream, Charlie decided with finality. 

Just a collection of synapses firing and creating a false reality to fill his subconscious during his most vulnerable state. 

Charlie tried to ground himself in his surroundings. 

He needed to know he was awake. 

He needed to know what was real. 

Charlie was in the hospital. 

The room was the same. 

The sheets were slightly scratchy, and the air had a tinge of the scent of disinfectant. 

Tori was holding his hand. 

She was staring out the window, her expression guarded.

Charlie could only imagine what was racing through her mind. 

Had she gone on her phone and read the news? 

Had she seen footage of the raids happening? 

They were happening, weren’t they?

That couldn’t have been a part of a dream.

That had to be real. 

It needed to be real.

Had Tori called Oly? 

Did Charlie’s little brother know that he was alive?

Did he believe it? 

Was he on his way? 

Or did he not want to see him?

Was he disgusted by Charlie when he had learned the truth? Or was he traumatized by his sibling returning from ‘the dead’? 

Then there was his other hand. 

Nick was holding it. 

Charlie wondered if he had ever stopped since the moment that Charlie had grabbed him out of instinct. 

Was he holding Nick hostage here?

Nick had fulfilled his obligation, an obligation that Nick must have manifested in Nick out of guilt when he had discovered Charlie in such a terrible state. He had broken Charlie out of hell and delivered him to safety. 

Nick had done that without being asked. 

He’d gone above and beyond because that was the sort of person he was. 

Charlie knew true evil in the world, and now he had known pure good. 

But Nick was done now.

He’d done all that he could, and yet Charlie was being selfish and holding onto him.

Surely, Nick had his own life to go back to and his own messes to sort out. 

Charlie should let him go. 

Only it felt like their hands were superglued together. 

Charlie couldn’t imagine his pain if he tried to pull them apart. 

It didn’t make sense that Charlie wanted to keep Nick close.

The presence of alphas made him uncomfortable.

Their scents brought about an anxiety that was so deeply planted in Charlie’s psyche that he doubted it would ever be rooted out. 

Just not Nick. 

Nick.

He was different.

He’d always been different.

Charlie still didn’t know what that meant.

He had no words to explain it.

The connection that Charlie felt between them, the tug of familiarity, was unfathomable. 

He was selfish. 

He should let Nick go. 

He just didn’t know how. 

………

Tori had been staring at him over Charlie’s sleeping form for half an hour. 

Nick didn’t know what to say to her. 

“Nice to see you after five years. What have I been up to? Not much, just been at uni, and then my summer student job somehow resulted in my helping your brother escape human trafficking. You know, just the normal. 

Nick had always found Tori a little intimidating. 

He was fairly sure that everyone did. 

Tori had that sort of look; the strength of her stare was enough to bring the toughest alpha to the edge of unease. 

“I feel like I should be thanking you or something.” Tori finally got out, her stare still fixed on Nick’s face with an unwavering intensity. 

“Please don’t,” Nick murmured, rubbing at his tired eyes with his one free hand.

Nick didn’t want to be thanked. 

He wasn’t a hero. 

He certainly didn’t feel like one.

The feeling that Nick felt most overwhelmingly was guilt. 

It didn’t matter that he hadn’t known of Truham's existence before this summer or that for his first days there he hadn’t known the truth of what the facility’s purpose was.

He should have known. 

He should have done more. 

He shouldn’t have given up looking for Charlie. 

It was an unkind thought.

Nick and Charlie hadn’t even been friends back at school. They had been friendly acquaintances, but not friends. They hadn’t known each other in a way that would have warranted Nick searching him out, but still.

Nick had noticed that Charlie had disappeared from school. An outsider might say he had done his due diligence. He had sought out Tori. He’d asked after Charlie’s well-being. 

But then?

Then Nick had moved on with his life.

A life that was his to control. 

No one was forcing their will upon him. 

Nick got to go to uni, play rugby, and make positive memories with new friends. 

All the while, Charlie was being tortured. 

Nick should have gone looking for him before. He would never forgive himself for that.

“He seems rather attached to you,” Tori noted before her eyes flicked down to where Nick and Charlie’s hands were interlaced on the bed.

“Literally” 

Nick shrugged. 

He didn’t have the words to explain what was going on in his head and his heart when it came to Charlie.

Tori would have hospital security in there so fast if Nick started using words like soul tied and fate. 

“We’ve been through a lot together, Nick supplied, the answer feeling lame and sour on his tongue.

What Nick had experienced with Charlie had been the tiniest fraction of what Charlie had gone through on his own. 

Nick's feelings of trauma felt misplaced and unearned. Who was he to name his experience in that way? 

“He trusts you.” 

Tori wasn’t asking. 

Nick gave another shrug of his shoulders. 

“Why?” 

Another question that Nick didn’t have a good answer to. He decided to go with honesty. 

“I don’t know.” 

Tori continued to study him as if waiting for the answers to her questions to materialize above him. 

“Should he? Trust you? Should I?”

Maybe it was a pointless question. If Nick had had nefarious intentions, it wasn’t as if he’d tell Tori the truth. If he had something to hide, he’d hide it. But he didn’t. 

Tori was a beta. Her nose wouldn’t be strong enough to smell the shift in his scent that might indicate if he was being deceptive. Still, Nick got the distinct impression that Tori would somehow know if he wasn’t being honest.

It didn’t matter. Nick had no reason to lie. 

“I hope so.”

….

Tori’s phone kept lighting up from where it sat on the bed, a few inches from Charlie’s and Tori’s clasped hand. 

MUM 

was rolling across the screen along with a rather unflattering photo of Jane Spring.

“I can turn it off,” Tori offered for the fifth or sixth time, her face twisted into a grimace as she silenced the call.

“Don’t; Olly might need directions, or Michael might need you.” Saying his sister's partner's name out loud was novel to Charlie somehow.

It was the first new thing he’d learned about her in their five years of separation. Charlie had been too exhausted still to do much talking, so he’d asked Tori to fill him in on her life. He hadn’t been sure if he’d had the wherewithal to retain any of the information his sister would share, but he’d wanted to hear her voice.

He’d spent so long imagining it.

“She’s just going to keep calling,” Tori worried as her phone lit up again with their mother’s contact card. 

“Let her” Charlie grumbled. He’d only hear muttered words and indiscernible raised voices. When Tori had stepped into the tiny adjoining bathroom to call their parents. 

A part of Charlie felt guilty that his parents must be frantic at only getting a sliver of information, world-shaking information at that, only to be shut back in the dark again.

He pushed that feeling away. 

Charlie knew he wasn’t ready to face his parents. He doubts he will be any time soon. 

Seeing Tori had already been a massive shock to his already rattled system, and there was still his reunion with his little brother on the horizon. 

And then there was the police.

Charlie wondered how long his care team would be able to hold them off before they strong-armed their way into taking his statement.

He only had so long with the excuse that he was still groggy from the sedation.

It wasn’t that Charlie didn’t want to cooperate. He wanted to do anything he could to bring down the system that had stolen the past half decade of his life and had torn him apart in the process. 

He was just so tired, and he knew that conversation was going to take more out of him than he had to give. 

Still, the longer Charlie put the conversation off, the more room there would be for whatever conniving lawyers Truham hired to cast doubt on his story.

Pulling together more strength than Charlie previously knew he had, he asked Nick to call Tara into the room.

“I’m ready now,” he said, hoping that saying the words out loud would be enough to make them true.

Chapter Text

“No”

Nick had never been so intimidated by a five-foot-four-inch-tall omega as he was by Tara Jones. 

The determination and ferocity in her voice were enough to make anyone flinch.

“Absolutely not.” She continued, her arms folded across her chest. 

“I reiterated to you on the phone several times that no Alphas would be allowed in the room during the interview. I was very clear. 

Nick was standing in front of the door to Charlie’s hospital room. Tara, Charlie’s advocate, was stationed at his side, and a rather exasperated-looking alpha in a slightly crumpled suit was standing before them, looking as if he considered this interaction a massive waste of time. 

The agent was from the government sector in investigating organized crime, and while SGPA held primary custody of the case due to the specific nature of the crimes being implicitly to do with secondary genders, organized crimes were still involved. Their agencies would need to work together to best investigate the crimes and then have them prosecuted, but the hostility between Tara and this other officer made Nick nervous. 

The alpha clearly thought less of Tara and was trying to strong-arm her into letting him take control. How often did this happen all across the government and in everyday life? Were alphas constantly trying to force their will onto betas and omegas? Nick was looking at everything from such a privileged position, as an alpha. This could have been happening all around him all his life, and he may have never noticed. 

“And as I told you over the phone, Miss Jones, it’s vital that a member of my team conduct the interview.” 

“A Beta or Omega member,” Tara pushed, not letting up the pressure she was putting on the alpha in front of them. 

“There are no betas or omegas who work in our department.” The exasperation in the alpha's voice had doubled.

“The reason for that staffing can be addressed by a member of my department at another time, but my decision in this is final. No alphas. 

“Listen, I don’t think you understand what’s happening. The department has never seen a case of this scale before. It’s a huge undertaking, and I need my best guys on this so—” 

“And I don’t think you understand that this ‘case’ revolves around a traumatized omega who has been a long-term victim of human trafficking by alphas. Having an alpha present during what is already going to be a very difficult and vulnerable interview is unthinkable in this situation. You can send a proxy with a list of prepared questions, or we can arrange for a video conference.”

“That won’t work.” 

“That’s your option.” Tara wasn’t breaking, and Nick was unbelievably grateful that Charlie had this incredible woman on his side, fighting in his corner. 

“What about that one? He’s an alpha.” The agent was pointing their finger at Nick, and Nick had the oddest urge to reach out and snap it.

“Nick isn’t here in an official capacity. He’s known to Mr. Spring.” 

“But he’s—” 

Nick bared his canines without thinking about it, his natural instinct winning out over his better senses. This alpha may be older than him, but Nick was bigger, and more importantly, he had something to protect.

“I’ll forward you the meeting link; if you choose to use a proxy, they’ll need to be vetted. The interview is scheduled to begin in the next hour, so I'd step to it.” Tara then turned her back to the flummoxed agent and pulled out her mobile, tapping away at it wildly. 

The alpha was looking between Tara and Charlie’s closed hospital room door as if considering. Nick sidestepped so he was standing directly in front of the door, crossing his arms in a defensive posture. 

“Don’t think about it.” Nick’s voice was hushed but strong, making it clear to the alpha across from him that he had no intention of backing down. 

The alpha sighed, rubbing his hand over his eyes. 

“I’m just trying to do my job.” 

“And I'm doing mine,” Nick countered. His ears pricked, picking up motion on the other side of the door. Charlie must be awake. 

Nick shot the opposing alpha a glowering look before slipping back into the hospital room and letting any tension melt away from his face. Any stress that Nick was feeling, he didn’t want Charlie to be able to see. 

“Tara wants to get started within the hour.” Taking his seat next to Charlie’s bed, he held out his hand for Charlie to take, which he did immediately, folding their fingers together. 

Now that they had fallen into the habit of holding hands over the past day, it seemed to be their default setting. It was more natural for them to be connected than it was for them to be independent figures.

Charlie nodded. He smelled nervous. 

Nick squeezed his hand, a calm sense flowing off him and wrapping around Charlie. 

Tori sniffed and crinkled her nose. Betas could smell pheromones in the air, but they had little effect; in fact, they were often equated with a bitter taste. It was something that only Alphas and Omegas shared between them. 

“You don’t have to do this yet if you’re not ready,” Tori reminded. Curiosity and horror must be at war in Tori’s mind. She had almost no knowledge of what had been happening with her younger brother for the past five years except for the hastily written online articles that had popped up around the raids of Truham institutes. 

Much of what was written was speculation. Nick hadn’t read any of it. He’d seen enough with his own eyes to not want to see it in print. 

“I need to” Charlie sounded sure, but Nick could sense an underlying hesitation. 

“Putting it off isn’t going to help anything. It’ll just make it harder.” 

“You don’t have to tell them anything that you don’t want to.” Tori was pulling apart the threads of the blanket draped over Charlie’s bed. 

“I know.” 

“And you can stop anytime you need a break or—” 

“I know Tori.” Charlie's words came out like a snap of a twig underfoot, sharp and fast.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered after a minute. “I know you’re trying to help.” 

“Don’t apologize.” Tori was brushing a stray tear off her face. 

“I’m trying to help I just don’t know how, or how I’m supposed to say, or” 

“I don’t need you to do anything. You’re here. That’s all I need from you.” 

Tori nodded, looking like she wished there was a different answer. 

Nick wished for that as well.

He wanted to go out and do something to help get Charlie. He wanted to feel useful to the boy curled in the bed in front of him. 

But all Nick could do was hold Charlie’s hand and hope that he wasn’t doing more harm than good.

….

“Can you please state your name and age for the record?” The SGPA agent requested. 

They’d been set up in one of the doctor's lounges, Charlie seated in a wheelchair with his IV pole at his side and two government agents across the table from him with another on a laptop stream joining them virtually. 

Tara was seated at Charlie’s side while Nick and Tori stood along the back wall, not there in any official capacity. 

Nick wished he could be on Charlie’s other side. He wished their hands were still twined together. Nick felt more levelheaded when Charlie’s hand was in his, and Charlie’s anxiety didn’t smell as strong when Nick was directly beside him.

“Charles Francis Spring. Twenty” Charlie’s voice was clear and sure as if he’d been transformed to steel. 

Twenty. 

Charlie was only twenty years old. A full fourth of his life had been spent purely in a cage, traumatized and traumatized over and over again. 

“When did you first decide to enroll at the specialized Truham school for Omegas?” the floating head on the laptop asked. 

“I didn’t decide to enroll. My parents sent me there without my knowledge or consent.” 

“For clarification, Truham is not, nor has it ever been, a certified educational centre,” Tara added, jotting a note down. 

“Do you know why your parents chose to send you there?” 

“No” It appeared physically painful for Charlie to get the word out of his throat.

“The Springs will be interviewed at a later time. They’re en route to our offices in London from their home in Wales.” One of the other agents interjected. 

The mention of his parents had already set CHalrie on edge, but the change to thinking of them in the present tense was doing his head in. 

He couldn’t avoid them forever. 

He didn’t want to. 

They were his parents. 

Charlie loved them. He missed them. But none of that offset the anger and hurt that were so intensely twined around his heart. 

They moved on. 

Charlie got through the basics of the beginning of his story. The basic timeline of when he had arrived at Truham, how he had immediately been taken off his suppressors, and learned that upon his next birthday, he’d been artificially inseminated every month until he became pregnant. The surprise and betrayal he’d felt when he found out he was obligated to fulfill the contract his parents had signed him up for. How he had been lulled into believing that said contract was only for a single twelve-month breeding cycle and that if he didn’t give birth to a pup in that time, he would be free to leave. 

Charlie outlined the relief that he felt when a year passed without a pregnancy and he believed he’d be freed, and then the horror that had set in when he learned that the contract his parents had signed their name to would not be considered fulfilled until Charlie became pregnant and delivered a pup. 

His voice shook when he described the changes from level one to level two, the elimination of the artificial element of the insemination.

“No one had touched me before that but my first heat in level two—” Hot tears streamed down his face, and he pushed them away with an annoyed hand. 

“Once my heat started, they’d…send in an alpha in rut.” Charlie swallowed around the lump in his throat. 

“Every heat for the twelve months I was there, they’d send in a different alpha,” he sniffled.

“And when that didn’t work, they escalated again to a third level. An experimentation phase” 

“And that still involved the use of live alphas during heats?” One of the agents asked, scribbling furiously in their notebook and not meeting his eye. 

“Among other things” 

“Can you expand on what you mean by that?” One of the agents pressed, looking up at Charlie with expectant eyes. 

Tara must have noticed his hesitation. 

“We can take a break if you need to.” 

Charlie shook his head. 

He didn’t want a break. 

He wanted this to be over. 

He wanted to get the words out and never have to say them again. Charlie knew that it didn’t work that way. There was no doubt in his mind that there would be more interviews, more agents, and more questions that he would have to answer. Would it ever get easier to say? Would time and repetition numb the pain?

“Let’s proceed.” The agent on the laptop screen pushed.

“Mr. Spring, please expand on your previous statement.” 

Charlie wasn’t sure what compelled him to do it, but he glanced over his shoulder to where Nick and his sister stood, but it was Nick that he was looking at, who he was looking for. 

Nick was already watching him, and he offered Charlie the smallest, slightest nod of encouragement, something that no one else saw, something that passed only between the two of them.

So Charlie opened the floodgates of his trauma and laid it bare on the table. The agents all sat silently, scribbling at their notebooks as Charlie spoke.

He told them how for the first while, level three reflected level two in many ways. He was still isolated; he was still experiencing monthly heats, but things shifted drastically as well. 

“Everything was very regimented at first. They wanted to conduct their experiments properly. Hypothesis and all, but as the months went on and I still didn’t conceive, they started to get desperate, or maybe careless is a better word. They threw anything and everything at the world, hoping it would stick, things that didn’t even make sense. Things they didn’t have a reason for. Sometimes it seemed like it was just for their amusement.”

“How did they experiment?” 

Charlie tried to stop his hands from shaking where they were resting on his knees. 

“They force-fed me for a few months, thinking that maybe my body didn’t think I was healthy enough to conceive, and then when that didn’t work, they stopped feeding me altogether for two weeks before my heat. No water for forty-eight hours before. They thought that maybe if I was in a weakened state, the ‘mental block’ I seemed to have against getting pregnant could be ‘overcome.’. After that, there was the electroshock, sedation, the restraints, and um—” 

The pictures were flashing through Charlie’s mind. The syringes injected under his skin, the cuffs on his ankles, and the way he’d been chained to the breeding post forced him to keep the ‘presented’ position.

“And an alpha was present and active during all these experiment heats?” 

Charlie nodded. 

“Always. That always stayed the same. That was a constant from the end of level one.” Charlie shuddered a bit in his seat. 

“Was it ever the same alpha?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“You don’t know?” Cut in the voice from the Zoom call. 

“I didn’t see their faces most times,” Charlie defended a sick twisting in his stomach at the tone of the agent's voice. 

“Because you were presented?” 

“Or maybe because I was drugged or starved or shackled to the fucking bed.” Charlie was struggling more and more to control his shaking hands. 

He heard Tara reminding everyone to try to be sensitive and mindful with their questions. Her voice sounded far away. 

“Let’s continue. So was that all level three was?” 

Was that all? As if it were nothing?

“What the detective might have been meaning to ask is, ‘Are there other experiments conducted outside of your heat?” 

“Nothing in an official capacity. As the experiments became more haphazard, they stopped caring as much about what happened to me.”

Charlie was once again slapped in the face with the memories of all that had happened in the last several years. 

The junior scientists, the janitors, and the security guards had all slipped into his room night after night to conduct experiments of their own. He was floored by the memories of Ben crawling on top of him, biting down on his skin with his canines, and how Ben had taunted that he was stimulating Charlie’s womb when he had bitten down hard on the skin of Charlie’s tummy.

Charlie’s hand reflexively reached under his shirt and ran his fingers over the indents of Ben’s teeth that had left scars on his abdomen. 

“Support staff started to come to my room and force themselves on me.” 

Charlie heard his sister make a wounded noise from behind him, and there was an intense energy radiating against his back, a warmth that he felt like he could lean back into for support. 

“Mr. Nelson, you are here as a courtesy to Mr. Spring, but if you cannot control your emotions, you will be escorted out of the room.” 

One of the agents across the table was looking over Charlie’s shoulder with narrowed eyes. 

Charlie hadn’t even noticed the low rumbling growl coming from behind him. When he whipped his head around, he saw that Nick was no longer standing against the wall but had taken several steps closer to him. 

Nick dropped his head, running his tongue over his teeth before closing his mouth and muttering an apology.

“Are you saying that you were sexually assaulted by the staff?” 

Charlie nodded, unable to look up from his hands again.

“And these assaults from the staff didn’t start until you had progressed to level three?” 

Another nod. 

“So you weren’t assaulted the first two years you were enrolled at Truham?” 

It was the alpha from the Zoom screen again. Charlie felt like the ground under his feet had turned to quicksand, and he was quickly being dragged under.

The rest of the room seemed to have been stunned into silence by the boldness of the Alpha's question. 

“Detective, you can’t—” Charlie cut off Tara's words before she could get her sentence out in full. 

“That’s not what I said. They’ve been controlling since the day I was sent there.” 

“Yes, but—” 

“They took away my suppressants to induce my heat and forced seed into my body almost as soon as I had arrived there. I did not consent to that. That’s assault, and I wasn’t enrolled anywhere. I was captive. 

The alpha looked displeased to have to defend himself.

“Technically yes, but—” 

“Mr. Spring already indicated that he was assaulted by live alphas starting on the second level.”

“Well yes, but that was during a heat, so it doesn’t really count as assault, does it? It’s all natural hormones, yeah?”

Charlie now wished that the floor was made of quicksand, as he would like nothing more than to be swallowed whole.

“Detective Andrews,” Tara had turned into a ball of fury beside him. 

“You are being completely inappropriate and insensitive. A heat or rut does not equate to consent, and it’s certainly no excuse for—” 

“It’s a heat cycle! It’s what they’re made for! It’s not like he was being raped or—” 

Tara slapped the lid to the laptop closed, cutting off the arrogant, ignorant alpha. 

Charlie had stopped breathing. 

It’s not like he was being raped.

Then what had it been?

What had all the tears and the pain been from?

Was it all to be excused with a flippant ‘he wanted it’?

“Mr. Spring, we apologize deeply for Detective Andrews's behaviour. It was completely unacceptable. His thought process is archaic, and please rest assured that the law is on your side, and we will be prosecuting it for the crime that it is.” 

Charlie knew that one of the SGPA agents was speaking, but he couldn’t make the words compute in his head.

He felt on edge.

He wasn’t safe.

“Charlie, the doctors told you not to try to get up.” 

Charlie hadn’t realized that he had pushed away from the table, edging the wheelchair back and putting his feet on the floor. He wasn’t listening to Tara’s warning. He had to get up. He had to get somewhere safe. He needed safety. 

He needed Nick. 

Charlie made it only a few steps out of his chair before he felt his knees starting to buckle. 

It didn’t matter. 

Nick was already there in front of him, catching him as he fell. 

Nick was there.

Nick was holding him.

He was with Nick. 

He was safe. 

Charlie's eyes drifted closed, finally at rest.

Chapter Text

The past few hours had been a blur.
When Charlie had gotten overwhelmed during his victim statement and collapsed, Tara had cleared the room, pushing out the remaining SGPA agents who looked rather distraught themselves.

“He’s not hurt. He’s just lost consciousness” The one member of the nursing staff who was in the room reassured, after having rushed forward and assessed the situation.

“I’ll go get someone to help get him back to his room”

“We shouldn’t have made him do this so soon” Tori worried, biting at her thumb as Nick stayed with Charlie on the ground, keeping his head cradled in his lap until a medical professional could arrive to help get Charlie back to his room.

“He wanted to” Nick murmured, watching as Chalrlies eyes flickered slightly while remaining closed.
“We should have stopped him. He wasn’t ready”
“It wasn’t our choice”
“I should have made him wait until he felt stronger I should have made him-”
“We can’t make him do anything. He’s not been allowed to make a single decision for himself. He’s the one in control now. It’s got to be on his terms”

“I just want what’s best for him” There was no colour remaining in Tori’s face. She looked closer to a ghost than anything else.

“A lot of people thought that they were doing ‘what’s best’. What’s best for society? What’s best for Alphas or Omegas or whatever other shit they used as an excuse”

“I’m not like them” Tori snapped.
“I’m not saying you are! He just, he needs to be in the driver's seat”
“How are you so sure that you know what's best for him?”
It wasn’t an accusation. The words weren’t delivered with any kind of hostility or malice.
It could sound like Tori really wanted to know how Nick seemed so confident on what to do next when she was so lost.

“I don’t know. I just do” Nick couldn’t take his eyes off of Charlie’s face.
…
“It’s called traumatic imprinting”

They’d been back in Charlie’s room for a few hours most of which Charlie had slept through. When they’d gotten him back to his room and tried to get him back to bed Charlie had been reluctant to let go of Nick.

He’d only agreed to get back in the wheelchair to get back to his room because Nick had kept hold of his hand the entire time.

“Char, don’t you want to rest?” Nick gently prodded, trying to encourage him forward.
Charlie was looking between Nick, Tori and the nurse as if nervous he might make the wrong move.
“I’ll let you get settled” The nurse bowed out gracefully.
“How about I go get us a takeaway for dinner? The food in this place is shit” Tori offered.
“Do you want a Chinese? I still have your order memorized”
Charlie smiled weakly and nodded.
“Olly will be here soon. I’ll have him meet me and I’ll bring him up when you’re feeling ready ok?”
“Thanks, Tori” Charlie reached out and squeezed his sister's hand as she passed.
Nick and Charlie were the only ones left in the room.
The air felt lighter somehow now that it was only the two of them. Like it was easier to breathe.

“Do you want to stay in the chair?”
Charlie’s nose crinkled.
“Would you rather get back in bed?”
There was a reluctant look on Charlie’s face still.
“Is it uncomfortable? We could ask about getting you a different room or-”
“Would you sit with me?”
The words tumbled out of Charlie’s mouth in a rush and his cheeks flushed deeply once he’d let them escape.
“You don’t have to. It’s ok if you don’t want to. Forget it. It was stupid for me to ask I just-”
“Come on” Nick offered Charlie both his hands again and helped him climb back into bed.
Nick eased down beside him, their arms pressed together at first.
“Could I?” Charlie ducked his head slightly and Nick moved out of instinct, lifting his arm so Charlie could tuck himself under it. Charlie turned his face into Nick’s chest, his eyes drifting closed. His nose tilted up as if Charlie were going to scent him.

The psych doctor turned up an hour after that, knocking lightly at the door and offering a small smile.
“He’s sleeping. I don’t think he’s really up for questions right now” Nick had warned when the doctor had asked if it was alright to enter.
“I’m actually here to speak with you Mr.Nelson”
Nick blanched.
“Me?”

After a brief introduction the doctor, whom he now knew to be named Sharpe, sat in the chair next to Charlie’s bed that Nick had previously occupied. She gave a brief rundown of what she understood about the situation and then requested consent from Nick to give her professional opinion.
“On what?”
“On what’s happening between the two of you”
The hair on Nick’s neck had stood up and he felt a surge of protectiveness rush through him.
He didn’t know this woman.
Who was she to tell him who he was to Charlie?
She had no idea the connection that existed between them.
But he let her speak anyway.

“I’m sorry, what did you call it?” The words had sailed over Nick’s head.
“Traumatic imprinting”
“Imprinting? Like a duckling?
“It’s very common when two people with compatible secondary genders experience a shared trauma. They bond out of instinct and form a connection not unlike that of a mate. The omega often attaches themselves to the Alpha for comfort and Alphas often cope with trauma by leaning into their protective nature and prioritizing the omega's well being”

Nick glanced down at Charlie who curled against his chest, his face nuzzled into Nick as if he were trying to burrow into him.

“Which would explain why the two of you have maintained a physical connection and I’m guessing the reason that you haven’t sought medical treatment for your injuries is because you haven’t wanted to be separated from him”

“I’m not injured” Doctor Sharpe smiled at him gently.
“I can smell the blood, Mr.Nelson. If I’m guessing I’d say you have a laceration on your lower left leg, likely obtained from river rock during your trip downstream. The blood is dry but the wounds have not been cleaned and I can smell the bacteria. I can also smell charred flesh, which based on the report I read is likely from the burns you sustained from being electrocuted by a wired fence”

Nick winced as if he was only feeling the extent of his injuries that second.

Nick had forgotten how much training doctors and nurses received to be able to sniff out injuries and illnesses. It was a medical practice utilized mostly by Alphas who had stronger noses but could be used by Betas and Omegas as well when the scent was easier to detect.

“You’ll need to have your leg cleaned and stitched or you’ll end up with an infection”

Nick glanced down at Charlie.
It might physically kill him to get out of bed.
“We can have someone come and do it here” she offered softly, clearly seeing the distress on his face.

Nick’s head was reeling.
He supposed it made sense.
Maybe Charlie was holding onto him so tightly because of this so-called trauma imprint. It was a psychological response.
Maybe that was what was happening to Charlie but for Nick. This feeling had existed for Nick long before the trauma.
There had always been something been him and Charlie.
At least there had been for Nick.

“The imprint should fade with time and proper therapeutic care but they can be dangerous. People do reckless things when their emotions are heightened. Mating for example. It is sometimes deemed medically necessary to separate the alpha and omega”

“I’m not going to do that” Nick snapped. He hated the idea that someone would think him capable of taking advantage of Charlie that way.

But if Charlie asked you to……
Nick tried to drown out that unhelpful voice in the back of his head. It was difficult when Nick knew that it was right.

If Charlie asked Nick to bond with him, there was no world where Nick would be able to say no.
Even if they never saw one another again, if he never touched Charlie, he would still want their souls to be tied together.
Because a soul tie already existed between them.
It had to.
There was a reason that Nick had always felt drawn to Charlie.
There was a reason that his memory had never faded.
It had to be the same reason that Charlie had trusted him when he’d had no reason to.
It was a feeling.
An intuition.
A knowing.

At least it was for Nick.