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Chapter Text

It was around his 17th birthday that Harry woke up in the middle of a restless night drenched in sweat. His hair was stuck to his face, beads of moisture absorbing into the fabric as he pressed into his pillow. Painfully hard, his body was already thrusting down into his mattress for friction, every inch of himself prickling with need. He wiggled out of his clothes and threw off his bedsheets, the weight of even the light fabric causing his sensitive skin to scream out, everything too much yet not enough. A big hand wrapped around his own girth, knees digging in to give himself more leverage to thrust down into his tight fist desperately. Of course he had woken up with morning wood before but it had never been like this, never felt this urgent, never this frustrating. His mind was solely focused on his groin, everything other aspect of himself attached like strings, following his need like a puppet to chase release.

With his face as his pivot point, he pushed his free hand under himself to squeeze at his balls, both hands in a death grip that should have been painful but still just wasn’t enough. A whine forces itself from his throat, the origins of it deep in his body, pushed from the desperate thirst that the water of his own touch wasn’t quenching. His hips pushed his dick through his hand with more violent thrusts, his whole body shaking with anticipation. Once, twice, three more times and he felt thrown out of his own body, everything going silent and still before returning to reality. The base of his prick had bulged in his hand and the space under his body felt so wet he briefly wondered if he had pissed himself. Violent waves of his orgasm still making his dick convulse told him otherwise and he took deep breaths to ride ride out the pleasure and release.

As he laid in the wet mess, his sweat soaked body becoming chilled, he pressed a smile into his pillow. All of his pent up anxiety from the past few years instantly leaked from him, releasing out into space. His body hummed as it floated there in his bliss. It had finally happened. He had presented as an Alpha.

-

The news of Harry’s presentation spread swiftly through the pack whispered ear to ear, excitement and relief buzzing through the entire village. Their pack had been abnormally prosperous through the years since Harry’s father had become the pack’s alpha. The reign of his father before him had faced drought and a wave of sickness which made everyone appreciate the fortune the last few decades had brought for them. Everyone was fed, everyone was clothed, everyone had what they needed. No one went without, something the elders made sure no one took for granted.

The Styles’ lineage was strong, traits bringing compassion and community had been passed from each generation along with the confidence a good leader needed to have. They had no quarrels with their people, everyone would say the same. Their pack had rarely been involved in war, their negotiation skills gaining them respect from all of their neighboring packs. Their village existed peacefully gaining unneeded allies far and wide.

The birth of their eldest daughter and assumed omega had sent a wave of anxiety through the pack. Styles’ had always produced an alpha heir first for as long as anyone had kept record. Not having an alpha heir left their pack vulnerable to the rule of a new lineage, a change that was dreaded amongst the pacified people. An omega could assume the position but only after mating and bonding with an alpha born to lead a pack. This usually led to the merging of two villages, mergers that historically had never been smooth.

When Harry had been born several years later, the pack had rejoiced. Waiting with bated breath for him to present alpha, insuring the leadership of the pack would be passed along to another generation of Styles’ rule. Time passed slowly as Harry matured, doted on by the entire pack.

Of course Harry had grown up being spoiled. As the only son of the pack’s alpha, he couldn’t escape the way he was catered to everywhere he went. His family ties were strong though, his mum keeping him humble, his father grounding his rebellion. His parents instilled within him humility and compassion that would make him a great leader when the time was right. They made him a good person first and foremost, never faltering when shaping his character.

In the weeks after his first rut, though, he couldn’t help but be a little bit cocky. After the stress that had been placed upon him since he reached puberty, he figured he was allowed a small lapse in his character. He strutted around the village with a new sense of pride, head high and shoulders squared, a new swagger to his steps. The attention he began receiving from all the omegas in the village wasn’t something he could complain about either. His grin spread widely across his face each time he took a different omega on his arm, charming them with his wide smile and dimples even just to make them blush. Despite the talk that had started trickling through the village, he hadn’t done more with them then maybe a cheeky kiss or two. He would never use his rank or standing to take advantage of anyone, something the entire pack knew at heart despite the gossip.

Everyone loved him. They had no reason not to and if he was able to carry on in the same standing as his father, no one would ever think of him poorly.

He was on the outskirts of the village when it happened. The sun was warm after a dewy morning and the day was quiet. It was a perfect time to slip away to collect his thoughts, seeking solace in a small patch of meadow near a stream where he often sat. The trickle of the water was relaxing and he had spent a good portion of an hour letting his bare chest soak up the warm light, his shirt balled up as a pillow beneath him. He tried not to stay away for long, his mother always worried if he was late for supper.

The sun was dipping lower towards the horizon when he decided he should head towards home. Already he would be scolded if anyone realized he had been out on his own for this long. He had always scoffed at the idea of needing babysat, especially now that he had presented and felt as though he should be treated as a grown man. He had only been through one rut and of course knew in reality he hadn’t yet grown into his gender but he wasn’t quite ready to accept that. He was ready for his freedom and ready to take on the world though he still respected most boundaries that had been set for him. Like his father, he wouldn’t feel right pulling his rank but also didn’t appreciate being treated like a helpless omega. Slipping away for a few hours seemed mild on the list of ways he could disobey so he sometimes indulged.

It may be seen as ironic that his thoughts over being able to take care of himself was exactly what had him distracted enough not to notice the presence lurking behind him, watching him, following him. Strong arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind, a cloth pressed tightly to his face before he could do more than take in a large gasp of surprise, balled up shirt dropping from his startled hand. His limbs tensed to struggle against his attacker, falling limply to his sides nearly instantly as his eyes drooped closed. Everything faded into black.

-

Dreams come in many forms. Some are vivid and lifelike, leaving you in a state on confusion when you wake up to find that none of it had really taken place. Some are abstract with no real connection to reality, shapes bouncing about, colours, lights. Then some are hazy, nothing quite clear enough to remember but everything is still there. Thick as seen through the London fog, a scene through a smudged lens.

Hazy is how Harry slowly came to, eyelids so heavy he could only open them to a sliver of light. Every inch of his body ached, arms stretched uncomfortably over his head and hands tingling from the lack of circulation with a rope tied around them far too tightly. The air was cold against his skin but when he instinctively tried to pull his covers closer with his knee, he realized his feet were also bound in place. He had never had a dream where he had been paralyzed and the panic it instilled sent his heart into a staccato pattern, thumping the rhythm of fear through his veins. His head felt too heavy to lift, a useless bowling ball attached to his neck. He felt chilled and exposed, unable to move. He heard low voices around him but the rushing blood against his eardrums and the pounding of his head overpowered them, unable to make out their individual words to make any sense of them.

He drifted in and out, willing himself to wake out of this nightmare. If his hands had felt free he surely could have pinched himself, slapped himself to rise above this level of consciousness. The pressure in his bladder soon became a focus as he tried to open his eyes again, raising his eyebrows high in effort, still only able to crack them enough to let in some light. He needed to wake up from this dream to use the bathroom, that part felt very real to him. He tried to pull at his arm restraints but all of his muscles felt too weak, not able to move at all. Every part of him felt dead to his commands and he could only pray that he really was in a dream as his bladder gave way.

“Fuck, he pissed himself again,” one of the gruff voices came closer.

“Clean him off then, I’m not touching that,” came another voice shortly before his nether regions were doused in cold water. He could barely even flinch at the shock, head lolling to the side with a weak groan that replaced the shout of surprise that died in his throat. Something began to roughly dry him off, his protests trailing off weakly before they could be heard, his mouth too dry to even swallow. This nightmare was going to stay with him for a long time, he could already tell.

The voices blended around him again, sinking back into the darkness that was becoming more and more painful each time he resurfaced. Something shockingly cold hit the sensitive skin between his legs and again he could do no more than let out a small groan of protest. The contrast of warm hands soon followed, fondling him for a moment before stretching his immobilized legs further apart.

He felt violated as the fingers manipulated his balls, trying harder to fight but his body not responding. The weight of something cold and metallic sat against his skin, circling both his penis and testicles. Fingers grabbed his dick, pinching it roughly before it was forced roughly into something equally cold, his hips trying desperately to pull away from the feeling. He could hear metal on metal as they manipulated his parts, his weak groans of protest falling on deaf ears.

A hand grabbed at his hair to rip his head up for a moment, eyes cracked open but unable to focus on his torturer.

“Say goodbye to your dick, kid,” the gruff voice said before his head clunked back down and the sweet smelling cloth was once again pressed against his face.

-

Birds were chirping the next time he came back into consciousness. A small smile came to his lips, thankful to finally be out of such a nightmare. He blinked his eyes open to the morning sun, his relief slowly draining as he realized that sun was not normally this warm streaming through his bedroom windows. Looking around, he found himself in the meadow again, briefly thinking he may had fallen asleep here longer than he had meant to. He tried to sit up, his body protesting painfully to each movement.

Finally upright, he rubbed at his eyes, pupils aching with the bright light surrounding him, head pounding within his skull. He rubbed at his sore wrists, rope burned and angry red, his shoulders aching with even the smallest movements. It took him a few moments for the haze to lift from his mind, slowly stretching his legs out in front of him with the same protest as his arms. A sharp stick poked at his thigh and he flinched before pushing it away.

He froze, hand hovering on his thigh, his eyes following. He was naked. He was outside and he was completely naked. His heart began to race, fear spiking as he hesitantly slid his hand towards his crotch. The details of his dream were rushing back to him, the man’s gruff voice repeated tauntingly in his head.

“Say goodbye to your dick, kid,” rang over and over, terror that his dick would be missing heightening until his fingers touched metal. He looked down in horror to see his dick encased in a metal cage, a tight metal ring circling his testicles to keep it in place. He frantically tried to pull it off, each movement only pulling his flesh away from his body. His chest was heaving as he began to hyperventilate in panic, the metal cage strong and secure around his parts. He pulled until it hurt, each angle doing nothing to loosen or free his dick. What had he done to deserve this?? What had happened??

-

His walk home was humiliating. With nothing but his own hand to cover the shame of his condition, he kept his head down with his long curls hiding his face. He knew anyone who might see him would still recognize him but he still clung to the small hope that he would stay hidden. The path circling the village took twice as long to get back to his home but he took it anyway, unwilling to walk directly through the busy town in his state. The thought of facing his father like this already had his heart filling with heavy shame, he didn’t need the rest of the pack’s judgmental stares as well.

“Harry! Thank god!” his mother began to sob as soon as she saw him approaching the house. She raced to embrace him, a sob of his own matching hers as soon as he felt safe. He momentarily forgot about his condition and hugged her back tightly, ignoring the pain in his shoulders as he allowed himself to be coddled.

“I’m sorry,” he began to mumble out against her shoulder, unaware of the crowd that was starting to form around them. He had never meant for his disobedience to cause his mother so much pain, guilt weighing his soul down even more.

He had been gone for two days. Two whole days they told him once inside and wrapped in one of his fluffy blankets. His father was furious, pacing the floor with his long strides after sending for a locksmith and a blacksmith, the best in the pack. He was a man of few words and now was no different. His heavy footsteps echoed in the silent room, one arm tightly crossed over his chest while the other pulled at his chin in thought. Harry shrank down in his seat, knowing the punishment he had coming for going out alone would be harsh, knowing he deserved it. He had barely touched the food brought to him, his stomach churning in knots even at the idea of eating knowing what was to come.

Harry had never felt a sense of such heavy shame and humiliation as he did when the locksmith arrived. His family left the room before the man pulled back the blanket, Harry’s skin blushing bright red as he inspected the cage, manipulating it left and right for a better look. His penis was sensitive inside, lightning in his nerves each time the metal was moved. The man’s face was barely a few inches away from his most private area, poking the skin around the rings and bars to figure out how it was locked in place. He gave up with a sigh, leaving him alone without an answer.

The blacksmith arrived not long after, Harry hiding his face beneath the blanket as the man tapped at the cage, pulling it about to figure out its construction and the materials used. He poked and prodded longer than the other man had, his teeth leaving deep marks in his bottom lip as he struggled to get through it. He curled himself up into a ball once they were done, crying softly to himself as he heard them just beyond the door.

“There is nothing to be done. The construction is too strong and tight to his body. Any methods I could employ would certainly damage him beyond repair. I’m afraid your only hope are the people who locked it in place,” he could hear from his spot on the sofa.

His mother came to sit beside him, rubbing his back as the day slowly turned into evening. She didn’t speak and he was grateful, letting him process what was happening in his own silence. There would come a time, but not yet. It was enough that she was there, humming softly like she did when he was small. It did little to calm his heart but he knew it would be worse without her.

He must have drifted off to sleep, the sound of many footsteps and the scraping of chairs across the wooden floor drawing him to attention. His father had summoned the council of the elders, he could tell by the familiar voices mixing together in greeting. He was alone again, his back cold where his mother’s body had been.

It was a struggle not to listen as they began to discuss his predicament. Embarrassment flooded him again unable to avoid hearing his father describe the contraption in detail, describe his private parts to the men he had known since birth. Silent tears rolled down his face and his hand roamed down to touch at the metal cage just to make sure it hadn’t disappeared while he slept.

“Its a medieval practice,” said one, voice muffled through the door, “A war time tactic I certainly haven’t heard practiced in all of my time...”

“It leaves a pack vulnerable,” said another, “If an alpha heir is unable to bond and mate, they are not able to lead the pack, leaves us open for a hostile take over.”

“Could be a pack who was betting on marrying an alpha in to merge with us. Harry presenting alpha would have set their plan back,” someone agrees, “Killing him would have started a war. They may be too weak for that.”

Harry couldn’t listen anymore. He wrapped the blanket tightly around himself and slipped off to his room. He closed the door softly to not draw attention to himself, crawling up onto his bed. The blanket dropped from his shoulders, his exposed body still naked. His cock felt heavy between his legs with the extra weight and he looked down at the cage. He spread his legs out on the bed, his parts laying limply between his thighs, the drag of the metal making itself known with even the slightest movements. For the first time, he began to take a closer look at the contraption.

Thick metal rings circled his cock from the base down to the head, metal bars locking the rings in place and meeting to cross over at the point. Though it was not tight around his soft shaft, his skin still pressed against the metal in a way that would look painful if he wasn’t feeling it for himself. Other than the dull ache he felt from desperately trying to pull the cage off his body earlier, there was no pain from being locked inside. There was a space between the large ring behind his scrotum and the start of the cage that left his balls hanging freely, the sensation strange as the weight of the metal passively moved the loose skin.

He slid a finger around the big base ring, thick and solid and pressed closely to his body. At the top was a link that locked the two sections of the cage in place. It held solid as he tried to move it at the juncture and almost looked as if the two pieces had been welded together. From the diagnosis from the blacksmith, he wondered if it had. He moved his finger down each ring, the rings placed close together at the base, each new ring spaced slightly further apart the further they were from his body. The gaps towards the head were spaced just far enough for him to stick the tip of his finger in to touch flesh. His head was nearly completely exposed, only the criss cross of the connecting bars meeting in a X at the very end. His finger tip was able to slip between the bars there, stroking the sensitive skin in small movements like one would pet the head of a baby animal.

It felt good to touch his skin so delicately, the gentle strokes such a contrast to the way the cage had been manipulated by everyone else. They at least had had the decency to touch his skin as little as possible, this sensation left only for him. He had just enough room to slip his finger tip in to stroke along his sensitive slit, whimpering softly as he teased himself. It felt different than the way he normally grabbed himself, aggressive and determined in contrast to the kitten strokes he was now restricted to.

It quickly became clear that he had not thought this exploration through, his dick fattening up quickly with the attention. It didn’t take long for the head of his dick to be pressed uncomfortably against the metal cross, rings constricting the rest of his shaft like an iron fist. It didn’t exactly hurt yet but with the confines of the cage, his dick couldn’t grow to it’s full size, not even close. The head of his cock pushed at the cage, the base ring pulling away from its snug position against his body, taking his balls with it. He huffed out a small sob when his dick wanted more, trying to burst out of the cage that held stable and secure around him. The gentle curve of the rings that fit him when he was soft was now bending his dick uncomfortably and there was nothing he could do about it. He grasped his hand around the cage, attempting to move it like he would if it was just his own hand but the jerking motion didn’t feel right. It tugged in all the wrong places and pressed painfully at the head of his dick, the whole organ beginning to feel like circulation was being cut off. The gentle pleasurable touches had quickly given way to pain and he choked out sob of frustration, pulling at his caged dick in anger.

He was a young boy, an inexperienced, brand new alpha boy and he had never, not once, ignored an erection. It went against his very nature and primal instinct not to reach down and get himself off, learning his body and yearning for the day he finally be mated. His frustration built with each passing moment, nothing edging him towards relief, nothing bringing him pleasure. The way the cage pulled on the base ring was now making his balls start to ache uncomfortably. Pulling back on the cage gave his balls some relief while at the same time making the bars at the tip of his penis dig in to his sensitive straining flesh painfully.

With another frustrated sob he threw himself onto his stomach on the bed, trying to rut into the mattress to get the kind of friction he was desperately seeking. It only made it worse, the sturdy metal digging into his flesh unpleasantly, pinching his skin as he tried. He gave up and let his sobs of frustration overtake him, grabbing a pillow to muffle his anguish, not wanting an audience in his current state. So that was what he had meant by saying goodbye to his dick. He still had it but in this state, he might as well not. He cried himself to sleep, exhaustion finally taking over to give his brain some much needed rest.

-

Harry refused to leave his room for days. Deep down he knew he was being dramatic, knew that life still ticked along yet everyone still gave him the space he was demanding. They let him process the loss of his sexual freedom without question though he knew there was nothing they could do. He could tell that his family wasn’t quite sure what to say about it his situation quite yet. From what he understood, this hadn’t happened in centuries, perhaps only in myths and old wive’s tales. He didn’t think those came with a manual on how to handle this in real life. His father had avoided him completely, meeting with elders and researching as far as Harry was able to tell from the sounds beyond his door. His mother brought him meals, lingering long enough to make him feel like he wasn’t completely alone and he appreciated the gesture. The knowledge that his family wasn’t abandoning him at least eased his mind a little.

It had been hard enough to acknowledge and talk to his parents when he hit his first rut and that had been a natural part of growing up, an anticipated coming of age event they had all awaited. Knowing they were nearby hearing him violently masturbate now seemed less embarrassing than his parents knowing his manhood had been locked away for good. The pity in his mother’s eyes had been unmistakable and though he knew she was just concerned about him, it made the shame hit him even harder. He would never be the alpha his parents wanted him to be, never live up to anything they had wanted for him.

Just days ago he had been the cocky alpha heir strutting his stuff around the members of his pack. He hadn’t just fallen but rather been violently beaten off of his pedestal with one small lapse in judgment, a useless excuse for a ruler forced into a eunuch now curled on the ground for everyone to pity. He valued his manhood, his alpha status, he had known that before but he hadn’t realize how strongly he had let it define him. How much he had let it define his future. His gender had been the focal point of his life as long as he could remember. Stripping it away left him feeling lost and inferior, unable to face anyone with the loss of his destiny, the loss of his dignity. He knew the pack would talk. Not only had the elders been summoned more frequently than they had been in years but he also remembered all the eyes that had witnessed it first hand. There would be no denying his caged dick when he finally emerged from wallowing in self pity. No one would ever look at him the same. That Harry had died the moment he had been placed in this jail. He mourned the loss of himself along with his dick, not bothering to push down any of the emotions plaguing him. It was no use.

When he finally started emerging for meals, his family tried to make everything feel normal for him. Their daily routine had continued and they welcomed him back into it without hesitation. He appreciated the idea of falling back into his old life but knew nothing would ever be the same. He could eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time every day, same as before, but it still wouldn’t take away the adjustments he had to make every time he sat down at the table. It wouldn’t take away the sound of metal against wood as he leaned across the table. Every day he tried, though, putting on the best act he could, pretending that everything was just as it was. He could tell no one bought it but no one approached him about it either. There was a large caged elephant filling up each room he entered but no one ever called the circus.

-

It had been months and they were no closer to finding his kidnappers or a way to break him free. Months since he had been able to orgasm and not for lack of trying. He hadn’t realized that maturing to an alpha would bring such an intense need to knot at all times of the day but now that he couldn’t, it was absolute torture.

He was so preoccupied getting through one day at a time that the day he woke up soaked in sweat came as a complete surprise. He had only been through one rut, not even a second to document his cycle to know when the next would be coming. The cock cage was tight and restricting as he looked down, the flesh of his penis bulging out of the small gaps in the metal bars, the head pressed painfully against the end. Everything throbbed, pain and pleasure both so intense that he could do nothing but writhe in his sheets. He moaned relentlessly, desperately attempting to let off some pressure through his vocal chords but nothing was working.

He gripped at the cage, fingertips brushing over the tiny bits of bulged flesh, the relief not enough. Not even close to enough. His nerves prickled at the incomplete strokes, the answer book to his orgasm with more than half the pages ripped out. He gathered precum onto his fingertip, trying desperately to stroke at his sensitive head, sobbing at the lack of friction he desperately needed. He squeezed the deeply coloured head between his forefinger and thumb, gritting his teeth at the burst of pain yet blurting out a glob of precum with the only stimulation he was able to give himself.

An hour later he was screaming in pain, the confines of the cage making every inch of his dick ache in protest, the rings feeling permanently imbedded into his flesh. Not having come in months had already made his balls seem heavy and sore but with the added production for his rut, they felt like they might explode from the pressure. The base ring pulled even tighter, his parts turning angry shades of deep red and purple. His lips stung in pain after biting so hard he had made them bleed, purple crescent bruises surfacing up and down his arms and hands, unable to stop himself from biting in frustration, skin even broken in a few places.

He was delirious, not even registering his mother covering his forehead with a cold wet cloth, trying to sooth him from the madness his suppressed rut was causing. It had barely been a day and Harry was ready to drown himself to get away from the torture plaguing his body. He felt like a wild animal, ripping his sheets and making noises he knew weren’t human. His skin prickled with invisible bugs, millions of tiny crawlers burrowing into his veins and spreading throughout his body, cycling through him over and over as his nails ripped at his flesh to release them.

By the end of the first day, after having to restrain Harry to the bed in order to keep him from hurting himself more than he already had, his parents had called in a doctor. No one had experience a situation such as this so no one quite knew how to help him. Unmated alphas either found someone to help them through or they toughed it out alone. No one in their right mind would attempt simply ignore their nature.

He growled and yanked angrily at his restraints as the doctor sat near his hips on the edge of the bed. His mouth was moving but Harry was too far gone to register anything he might have been saying. His eyes saw red, the hot breath leaving his nostrils in such heavy puffs they may have even been visible.

The bed groaned as he thrashed violently against the pressure of something unexpectedly pushing against his hole, unnatural and unwanted, especially in his state. The bonds held him tight, unable to get away from the slick fingers curling into his ass, thick and uncomfortable as they stretched him open. His caged dick was purple and painful as it bobbed around with his movements, the pull against him taunting him too far out of reach.

The first brush of his prostate startled him, screaming out at the sensation and clenching against it. The doctor persisted, roughly stroking over the spot repeatedly while he moaned in protest.

He felt his balls tightening up to his body, finally feeling right on the brink of release, sobbing as he came so very close to what his body desperately needed. He was almost there, almost ready, his dick painfully trying to expand, the muscles in his stomach tightening...

And then it was over, huge globs of come oozing from his prick and over the cage with the doctors strokes. He let out a pitiful sob as the moment passed without the pleasure and release he was searching for, the pressure slowly easing as his balls were emptied, his knot pulsing and restricted tightly in the cage.

His mind began to clear with the release of his semen and he very quickly became aware of the doctors fingers still pressed into his hole, still moving to milk as much out of him as he could. Red flamed his face and he turned away, his shame and embarrassment quickly returning as he realized the state he was in. The cage still stood up with painful press of his erection between his legs, a reminder of what he had been turned into, why a doctor, a grown man he had known since he was born, now had his fingers pressed in his most intimate of places. He squeezed his eyes shut with the realization that his parents were there as well to witness the lowest point in his life, worried eyes fixed on their worthless son through the entire thing.

The elders had been right. There was no way to mate and bond locked up in such a way. The knot that he only had the pleasure of experiencing a handful of times was now uselessly confined, painful even as it tried to expand the way nature intended it too. He now understood the placement of the rings at the base of his dick, no part of his knot able to slip out of the confinement. Whatever their motive for this had been, they had achieved it. They had successfully broken down every part of him. They had stripped him naked and grasped him by the root of life, snapping it off right at the source.

He curled in on himself as soon as his restraints were untied, hiding himself from the eyes he knew were still there, pity for the broken. It was in that moment that his will was broken. In that moment he stopped living. In that moment that he became someone else.

Chapter Text

There comes a point in everyone’s life when they wish they could pause the movement of time, that halting the clock could freeze the progression of life even for just a moment enough to take a breath. The cogs of the universe are impenetrable, though, thrusting us forward whether we are prepared or not. It was in this way that life continued to move forward for Harry. Or rather moved on around him. It began to feel as if everyone around him was in fast forward while he felt suspended. He had gone from pushing into the lead in the race of life to slowly dragging his feet in last place. The fall from grace had been sudden, a bat to the knee while jumping a hurdle mid-air, a third party factor no one could predict.

But things kept moving on. The social butterfly he had once been wilted away, the dust brushed from his delicate wings making him unable to fly. The deep tan to his skin began to fade as his exposure to the sun grew less frequent, turning down invitations to leave the house until everyone stopped requesting his presence. He started taking his lessons at home, unable to concentrate while his peers whispered about his condition as though he wasn’t there. His friends stopped coming around and before long his family became the only people he interacted with, the only people who treated him the same.

The days after his first caged rut were dark. Rage and frustration churned within him, thick and rough like rubbing wet sand between your palms, caged up just as tightly as the steel incasing his cock. It bubbled and boiled through his tense muscles until the confines of his body could no longer contain it, ripping from his body with aggressive animalistic sounds. He had only seen red as he destroyed his bedroom, wood splintering against his walls and glass raining down to cover his floors. He scratched and pulled at the violating object that had changed his life until lines of blood began to surface over his pelvis.

It lasted until he had nothing left, crumpling to the floor in the midst of ruins that resembled the turn his life had taken. He sobbed until learned the true meaning of exhausted, limbs heavy and chest tight as his body gave up, survival mode putting him to sleep as a last resort. The depression continued to linger once he woke. His bedroom had been put back together, at least as much as it could be in the state he had brought it too, but it did little to change his mood. He spoke very little during this time, closing himself off to everything until he was just a shell of the person he had once been.

His cock seemed to be hard, or at least as hard as the cage allowed, at all hours of the day. The healthy sex drive he had as a young alpha was in no way suppressed, his dick screaming out for the attention it was suddenly missing. The release never came and it began to feel like his constant erections were the result of his little guy stubbornly protesting the abrupt change. He spent hours sticking his fingers through the gaps and tugging at himself, sobbing out as he came so close so many times, never able to push himself over the edge he was so desperate for.

It remained that way until the arrival of his next rut. Writhing on the bed in the early stages, he was able to graphically remember how violated he felt when the doctor had pushed his fingers past the tight ring of muscles in his most intimate place. His hole contracted at the memory, letting out a small sob as his mind took him back to the two thick fingers of the grown man stretching into him and the overwhelming shame that had engulfed him as the man the age of his father had milked him dry.

He surrendered his ego and searched for the cock shaped item that had brought to him after the last time. It was made for an omega to get them through their heat and he had refused to let himself, an alpha, be reduced to that. What would his friends think if they knew he had shoved something up his ass? How could he face anyone after he had willingly done something like that to himself?

He held off as long as he could, his balls heavy and pulsing like they had a heartbeat of their own. Finding a position was awkward enough for him. Laying on his back with his thighs parted made him feel vulnerable and exposed, cock cage laying heavily in the open air. He moved onto his stomach, mattress pressing metal uncomfortably into his pelvis. It didn’t feel right to have his ass in the air either. Finally, he got to his knees, sitting back on his ankles. The weight of the cage pulled down at him in the center of the V his thighs created but the slight swing that happened every time he moved almost felt good in a strange way.

The lube was cold against his fingers as he coated the device, reaching around himself to touch the tip to his hole. He lifted his bum up a little in order to get the shaft under himself and bit his lip. Deep breath in, long slow breath out and he forced himself to impale his body. It hurt and burned despite the lube, cursing at the sudden violating stretch. The throb of his cock and his constricted knot was worse than the uncomfortable pain in his rear so he pressed on. His hips rotated to find the right angle, his body jolting once he briefly hit the place the doctor had pressed inside him. It was awkward and weird to be fucking himself but he let his need blind him to the actual action, sights set only on the end result. The faux dick rubbed his prostate, the familiar tightness in his abdomen building and his heart racing in anticipatory bliss.

It was finally going to happen, he was finally going to feel the release, he was finally going to experience the relief. He became more determined, thrusting while another hand cupped at his contracting balls.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” he moaned out as finally his orgasm began to build, so close, almost there, almost...

He sobbed out as his dick began to ooze globs of come, the build of his orgasm uncoiling from the action without the release his body was expecting to get. It was the worst feeling he had ever experienced but it was all he could get. He missed even the simple contraction he felt when his dick would shoot, the rush of come against his slit as it would pulse out in waves, the roll his body felt as it tensed and then relaxed with his orgasm. The anticlimactic way he watched his semen simply seep from his slit and slide down his straining shaft was more tragic than a watching a child’s lost scoop of ice cream melting away into the ground on a hot day of summer. He wilted in resignation, his body going numb as the only way to cope.

Through the rest of his rut Harry didn’t even bother try. He milked himself with the dildo with the sole purpose of emptying his balls through his hormonal need whenever they became full enough to ache. False promises of an orgasm and release was a trick his body and mind just couldn’t take another time. Through the next few days he began to let go, giving up on the idea that he would ever be able to experience pleasure again. The empty shell slowly became what he was, the rest of his soul hiding out in the shadows of his past.

-

It had been just over a year since Harry’s kidnapping when the elders decided they could no longer waste time searching for a way to liberate him from his cage. He recently turned eighteen, the usual age for an heir to mate, which also meant his older sister was well past this point. The news should have been more devastating for Harry but the truth was that he had lost all hope already months before, resigned to the life he had been reduced to. He took the news with a quick nod of his head, holding his shoulders square until the elders had dismissed him. His eyes had fallen to his feet in submission, slinking back to his room as the numbness that had encapsulated his body hugged around him once again. It was in that embrace of emptiness that he had come to feel safe now.

It was announced a short time later that they would begin the process of seeking an alpha mate for his sister. He stayed to the sidelines as preparations began for suitors to visit from other bidding packs, not letting himself dwell on what that would mean for himself. Messengers were sent to deliver the formal announcement and the village flurried with activity and gossip about who may become the pack’s new next in line. Harry actively tuned most of the chatter out, diving into his books to escape the world as he had come to know it.

The first few visitors came and went without incident. Harry managed to avoid their presence, taking his meals in his room, and they left without him laying eyes on them. Of course he cared about his sister but in the end he knew it would never matter what he thought of her potential mates so why bother. He had long lost the art of small talk anyway.

-

Harry was just finishing a chapter of his latest book late one afternoon when he heard a loud shattering crash echo down the hallway from somewhere inside the house. It was so unusual and abrupt that he couldn’t stop himself from getting up to investigate. He opened the door to his room and was barely able to take two steps out before the momentum of a running body slammed right into him with full force.

“Ooff fuck!” a voice muttered quickly with the impact, a firm hand grabbing his arm while the other pushed at his stomach, forcing him back into his room, “Quick! Close the door!” the body continued to push him, kicking the door shut with his foot. Harry’s legs collided with the bed and a hand that was not his own moved to cover his mouth, throwing him unexpectedly off balance.

His body fell back against his mattress with a small bounce, legs bent over the sides at his knees while the second body followed him down to land directly on top of him. The hand stayed clamped against his mouth as they heard footsteps rushing past his bedroom door. Something kept his body frozen in place while the boy on top of him watched the door, the shock of the situation rendering him silent.

“That was close,” the boy said, dropping his hand from Harry’s mouth with a sigh of relief. He shuffled on top of him for a moment in an attempt to slide off, both boys immediately growing still as the stranger’s thigh moved and hit the cage resting between his legs. Harry watched in horror as his eyes moved from his face, down to his crotch and then back up with a look of confusion. He could do nothing but stare up with wide eyes as the boy’s hand reached down to explore what he had felt without any hesitation what so ever. It was a bold move but Harry didn’t stop him either.

The cage moved as the boy touched it, the warmth of his hand seeping through his pants while he was still frozen in place. His hair was a lovely warm shade of brown, down in a fringe that was styled in a messy way he had never seen before in his own village. He was petite which was directly apparently stretched out against his own tall and lanky body and his weight felt nice on top of him in a strange and unfamiliar way. His eyes had been bright and mischievous at first but now looked back at him with curiosity.

“What have you got in your pocket?” he asked with the hint riding on his accent that he knew it wasn’t something that simple. Harry still laid on the bed stunned into silence and his eyes widened with the anxiety of whether to lie or answer honestly. It had been months since he had interacted with anyone near his age and as he fish mouthed a few times he felt like he had forgotten how to speak.

They could hear footsteps and voices outside his bedroom door once again and the boy on top of him whipped his head towards the sound.

“Shit, I better go... I hear my dad,” he slid himself off to scamper towards the door, leaving Harry still and cold on the bed. He turned back with his hand paused on the door. Harry watched as his mouth opened with a million questions hanging on his tongue but he stopped himself, slipping out the door and out of sight.

Harry laid there for a long time once he had gone, hand resting over the cage that had become part of him by now. It felt strange to have someone else’s hand on it after so long and he found things stirring within him as he moved his hand over the metal and remembered the warmth of the palm that had rested there. As frightened as he had been, he didn’t find it surprising when he realized he was smiling smiling. He had been isolated for so long that it felt oddly nice to let someone new in on his secret. Even though he would probably never see the boy again, he would still have the moment they had shared, however brief. Curiosity had seemed to be his only motive in exploring and it made him want to open up about it, would have as well if his brain could have recovered fast enough.

He laid on his bed long enough to commit the encounter into his memory before finally getting up, going back to his book with a small smile curling lips.

-

That night Harry’s curiosity got the best of him and he found himself sneaking down the hallway towards the dining room where he knew the rest of his family was having dinner. He had heard that another potential mate and his family were in town which is why he had already eaten earlier in the privacy of his room. The boy that had crashed into him earlier had been consuming his mind all evening and he had to see if he was part of the visiting family.

He crept down the hallway, avoiding the creaks in the flooring that he knew like the back of his hand. The door was open to their dining room and he leaned against the wall beside it, eavesdropping on the dinner conversation for a few minutes at first. There was only the sound of his father and an unfamiliar man’s voice conversing which didn’t really surprise him. This was a business meeting first and foremost, the trading of an alpha and potential merging of packs. Despite making it look like it would be his sister’s choice, in the end it never really was. A mutually beneficial arrangement was all it really was.

He tried his best to be discrete as he peeked around the corner, his eyes searching out his parents and sister first. There was another large man sitting at the table with his back towards the doorway, only his shoulders and the back of his head visible. He took in the brown of his short cropped haircut and the width of his shoulders that made him seem larger than he really was. He could tell by the movement of his body that the voice he had heard belonged to him.

When he shifted his eyes to the next person at the table, the one sitting next to his his sister and facing him, he was surprised when they connected with bright eyes staring right back at him. Again he froze as he was caught, eyes wide as they engaged in an unofficial staring contest across the room. He watched as a grin slowly quirked over the boy’s lips, mischief sparking in his eyes the longer they connected. Harry wasn’t sure what to do so he stayed in place, knuckles turning white as he gripped the door jam tightly.

A quick movement of the boys hands and suddenly something wet and sticky hit Harry’s forehead right over his eyebrow. Laughter, high and loud, echoed through the dining room immediately, all eyes turning to the boy’s sudden outburst. Harry swiveled quickly back around the corner, a glob of mashed potatoes hitting the floor from his face. His footsteps seemed magnified in sound when he ran down the hallway back to his room, bright crimson licking up his neck and across his face in embarrassment the entire way. Swiftly he closed the door to his room and leaned his back against it, swiping his fingers across his brow to remove the remnants of the flying food.

He didn’t even know the boy’s name yet the bright laughter was still ringing loudly through his head. They had spent a combined total of ten minutes together and he already could describe him in detail to anyone who would ask. Ten minutes and could describe him as intense and impulsive. Ten minutes and he already knew Harry’s secret. Ten minutes and Harry wished he could tell him more.

Harry didn’t make another attempt to search out the boy that night, hiding away in his room with the door latched and locked. He couldn’t sleep, restless through the entire night as he thought about his encounter. It had been nearly a year since he shut himself off from his old friends in the pack. He had decided life would be easier without their judging eyes and comments, never knowing what they truly said behind his back. It had been difficult but he thought he didn’t need anyone, alone in his life of inadequacy. As he tossed and turned in his bed, wondering why he couldn’t just forget, he realized that it had made him uncomfortable knowing his friends had known who he had been before any of this had happened. This new boy would never have that to compare him to now. It was that fact that made him want to open up and that fact that made him realize he didn’t want to be alone. He selfishly wished that this stranger would be picked to mate with his sister and he spent the rest of the night fantasizing about how it would feel to have a friend in his life once again.

He didn’t search him out that night but that didn’t mean he wasn’t watching from the window the next morning, hidden behind a curtain as he watched them load up for their journey home. From there in his hidden spot, he silently watched as they drove from his line of sight, drove away from his life.

Chapter Text

A few weeks had passed when Harry heard that one of the potential alphas would be returning to spend some time with the family. Part of him peaked with hope that it would the same boy that had been on his mind since the incident in his bedroom. He knew he shouldn’t expect it to be the same alpha but he couldn’t help his growing anticipation anyway. His sister hadn’t spoken highly of him once he had left, confiding in Harry that he had been exasperating and immature. The crash he had heard had been one of their windows being broken out, shattered by a fire poker he had apparently been swinging around when left to his own devices as their father’s had toured the village. The image had made him smile to himself, imagining the compact alpha swinging the poker around in a mock battle that he would have once engaged in with his friends.

There was little to entertain him since he had exiled himself to the house. Occasionally he would walk around their garden but since it was private and available to only his family, there wasn’t much fun to be had alone. He tried his best not to drudge up memories of the kick abouts he used to have before the incident, the adventures him and his mates would go on when life seemed a bit too slow. He had changed so much since then and yet there was still a longing in him to go back to the way things had been.

Hearing about the things that made his sister roll her eyes made him like the boy even more. He had tried to be subtle when bringing him up, pretending his sister’s annoyance pleased him when in reality, he was just being self indulgent. He had learned that his name was Louis, pronounced with an e at the end that made him seem even more exotic and appealing. At night while he tried to find sleep he would let his mind wander to the shenanigans Louis and himself could get into around the house if he were to become his sister’s mate. He imagined that Louis would help him prank his sister the way he had as a young child. Maybe make her shriek by hiding a mouse in her jewelry box or putting honey in her hair as she slept. He imagined hearing about his own village back home, the trends that caused him to style his hair the way he did or if the pronunciation of his name was something normal to his dialect.

He imagined opening up about his condition for the first time. In his fantasy Louis wouldn’t look look at him with pity once he was done but instead curiosity and understanding. Most of his mates had been betas when everything had happened. Even if he had talked to them about it, he knew they could never fully understand the damage both emotionally and physically that being restricted had caused him. He wondered if Louis, an alpha himself, would talk to him about it and understand the frustrations and devastation that had destroyed who he had been. He yearned for that connection the longer he let himself think about it though he knew it would just hurt him more when he never saw him again.

It was a big commotion to have an alpha come to stay with them. Preparations had consumed the household while they readied one of the spare bedrooms for his extended stay. The village was also flourishing with activity to make a good impression on the visitor who may become their future leader. Harry helped where he could but as per usual, no one asked too much of him. He could tell they tiptoed around him with most aspects of the situation, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that was officially being cast aside and passed over for his birth right. Though he hadn’t had an outburst since the beginning of his imprisonment, there was still a hesitancy his parents had around him as though they were worried the decision of the elders and following events would set him off once again. He had never given them a reason to expect that kind of behaviour.

The house was loud the day the visitor was to arrive. His sister had slipped into his room to hide from the commotion, the anxiety clear on her face as she sat quietly while Harry read. He couldn’t help but feel bad for her. She had confided in him more than once that she hadn’t gotten on with any of the alphas his father had set up meetings with. This return visit seemed to weigh heavily on her as the reality of her fate drew closer to finality. His mother had retrieved her from his room to make an appearance once their visitor was approaching and Harry had moved to a place at his window to watch their arrival.

His hand moved to cover his growing smile as he saw the sunlight hit the same warm brown fringe he had been hoping to see, a blush colouring his cheeks. He could hardly contain the excitement that began bubbling within him and continued to stand at the window long after Louis and his luggage had disappeared into the house. Along with his excitement, though, came anxiety. Nerves tied his stomach in knots when he realized it was him who was actually here. All of the detailed and intimate conversations he had conjured up in his head already made him feel so close to Louis but as he realized that nearly every memory he had with him was false, he couldn’t help the nervous tremors he felt. He chewed at his lips until they felt raw and paced the floor of his bedroom until he was sure the pattern of his steps was worn deeply into the flooring. It was entirely possible that the Louis of his mind was nothing like the Louis that was now within the very same walls he called home.

Unable to calm himself, he skipped the family dinner that night to hide away in his room. He wasn’t ready to confront the reality of his fears just yet. Maybe he never would.

-

It wasn’t until the third day of Louis’ visit that he gathered enough courage to meet his family at the table for dinner. He came in early to make sure there was a place set for himself and sat down, taking slow calming breaths to prepare.

“Who’s this then?” a sharp voice broke him out of his own thoughts, looking up to see Louis sitting down at the table across from him. He opened his mouth to answer for himself only to have his father beat him to the answer.

“This is our son, Harry,” he introduced him with a motion of his hand, “He is our youngest.”

Harry wasn’t quite sure what else he was expecting his father to add to his introduction but the simple way he seemed to dismiss his presence made his frown deepen for a moment. It wasn’t that he expected his father to gush over him, especially after what he had become, but he also had never been made to feel so invisible and disposable by his own family. He knew he was taking it a bit too personally, making a mountain out of a molehill, he couldn’t stop himself from doing it either. It had been a long time since he had shown his face around guests and it already wasn’t going exactly how he had imagined it would. He folded his hands in his lap and kept his eyes down, embarrassment quickly washing over him and making him regret the courage he had worked up to come down in the first place.

“Hi Harry, I’m Louis,” the voice startled him to look up quickly when it sounded closer than he had anticipated. Louis had come around the table to stand beside his chair, hand outstretched to shake and a bright smile lighting up his face. He took his hand hesitantly and managed a shy smile back as they shook. He couldn’t stop himself from cataloging the details of his face from this close. The crinkles around his eyes as he smiled, the smooth glow of his tanned skin, the gentle curve of his cheek bones that were somehow sharp at the same time. His expression was welcoming and so were his eyes. He didn’t realize he had been sucked in until after the smile had already grown on his own face to mirror the one he was looking at. It felt nice to be recognized and addressed. He hoped his blush wasn’t too apparent as they shared their greeting. It was odd to feel this shy around a peer without shame driving it but Louis had shown no hesitation and it felt nice.

He kept sneaking peeks at Louis throughout dinner though he stayed quiet. Each time he found Louis looking right back at him, a grin curling his lips in response each time. He didn’t pay attention to the conversations going on around him but he knew he wasn’t being addressed anyway. He had nothing to contribute. Butterflies were fluttering in his stomach and the warm that was filling his chest was addictive and he wanted more. It was self indulgent for him to let himself feel that way just from a bit of attention but he convinced himself quickly that he deserved to be a little selfish.

As soon as dinner was finished he excused himself from the table. The rest of the family would no doubt move to their sitting room to wind down for the evening, perhaps play a game or two, but he just wasn’t quite ready for that. He locked the door to his room and let himself grin so wide the stretch of his face began to feel uncomfortable. Sure it hadn’t been much but it had also been so much more than he had been expecting it to be. There was a potential there now that he could let himself believe in and it made him giddy and excited. It was difficult for him to fall asleep again that night but for an entirely different reason. When he was finally able to close his eyes, he could feel himself smiling, the image of Louis’ bright and welcoming expression burned into the back of his eyelids like a new beacon of hope.

-

The next day he gathered enough courage to venture out of his room just after lunch. He knew the family was to take Louis on a tour of the village but no one had extended an invitation knowing he would decline anyway. He walked past the guest room where Louis was staying, pausing when he saw the door was wide open. Louis was muttering under his breath as he shrugged on a formal blazer, cursing to himself as he straightened up to fasten the buttons in the front.

“Do I have to wear this?” he complained to Harry’s mother who was helping him dress, “I feel like a stuffed pig in this thing.”

Harry couldn’t help the snort that left him as he held back his laughter, Louis’ eyes immediately snapping up to meet his at the sound.

“What’s so funny curly?” he shot at Harry though there was no venom to his teasing tone, “I’d like to see you shoved into a jacket stiffer than an alpha in rut.”

He couldn’t help but squawk out a laugh as his mother scolded him for using such foul language, slapping a palm over his mouth to cover the sound and his amusement behind it.

“Harry don’t encourage him,” his mother scolded him with a shake of her head and a wave of her hand, “Now shoo! We’re already running late!”

Harry continued to grin as he met Louis’ gaze, lips quirked up in a smirk of amusement. He giggled to himself as he obeyed his mother, moving away from the doorway yet staying close enough to hear Louis continue to mumble comments under his breath.

He could see how his sister had viewed him as immature but it just made Harry like him that much more. None of his friends had ever sassed his mother and he was highly amused. He lingered just out of sight until they finally made their way out of the house. He lingered by the window to snicker at the awkward way Louis’ formal suit made him walk like there was a pole strapped to his back, his mouth moving to curse his attire until they were no longer in sight.

Dinner that night went much the same as the night before. It felt nice to be a part of a normal gathering again even though he stayed quiet through the whole meal as he had before. His confidence was building fast with the small buds of friendship that were sprouting between them, even through his silence. Though he again excused himself right after the meal, he could tell he was almost ready to take another step. Louis wasn’t intimidating to him anymore, the only hurdle left for him to jump was his own awkwardness and lack of practice with social interactions. The butterflies of nerves had simmered down to a gentle hum over the past day and he knew he was almost there.

-

He was almost asleep that night when his ears perked at the sound of his door creaking open and then shut once again. His eyes cracked open to the dim moonlight trickling through the window in soft squares, his initial thought being that his mother had stopped by to check on him. His lids were just beginning to fall closed again when something popped up right in front of his face in close proximity.

“Hi!” Louis whispered enthusiastically making him jerk back in surprise. He watched in shock as Louis peeled the covers back and began to climb into bed next to him. “Scootch over, will ya?” he requested and Harry shimmied his body backwards to accommodate his demand without explanation.

“Hiya,” he said again once he was comfortable and settled on his side facing Harry. His head rested on the now shared pillow, faces only a handful of inches away from each other.

“Hi,” he tried to reply back, his voice cracking a bit from his state of almost sleep. In the dim light Harry could tell he was wearing a long night shirt that matched his own. The way the material looked worn and soft he was almost certain it was one that had belonged to him before it had been outgrown. His fingers reached out on their own to touch the fabric between his fingertips, drawing them back swiftly when he realized what he had done.

“Found it in a drawer,” Louis explained as he looked down to where his fingers had been, “I usually sleep naked so I hadn’t even thought to pack anything. Is it yours? I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, it doesn’t fit me anymore,” he replied in barely a whisper, hesitant with the strange and unexpected situation.

“Good. I think I might steal it. Its really soft and feels nice,” he smiled across the pillow, reaching out to poke the tip of Harry’s nose with a grin. He crossed his eyes to look down before focusing back to his face.

“No one would notice,” he assured him softly, mentally scoffing at himself for trying to connect with him via night clothes.

“Why are you so quiet?” Louis asked him boldly, cutting right to his point. Harry shrugged a bit and pulled the edge of his lip between his teeth.

“Dunno. I just am,” was the easiest explanation he could come up with. He could tell it wasn’t believable instantly. Louis’ eyes were intense in that moment, interrogating him with just a look, piercing through him as if he could already read his soul and was only asking out of courtesy to hear it from Harry himself.

“Why is your sister being mated out instead of you?” he boldly pressed instead, “I know you’re an alpha, I can smell it on you.”

Harry blushed and looked away from his piercing eyes. He couldn’t smell the alpha on Louis and no one had ever told him that they could tell before. He had hardly reached the maturity for that, figured he probably never would without a functional knot.

With as often as he had wished to open up about his situation to Louis over the past few weeks, he hadn’t visualized it happening in such a blunt and direct manner and definitely not so soon. He bit at his lip again and shuffled backwards a few inches away from him self consciously as though he could tell what was under his night shirt just by being in the same bed.

“I... can’t,” he replied hesitantly after he realized Louis was not going to let it go without an answer.

“I have a secret too,” Louis voice abruptly became much softer in the moonlight, his fingers gently pulling his chin up to meet his gaze once again, his eyes gently pleading, “I’ll share if you will.”

He seemed so honest and truthful that Harry couldn’t help but trust him. It may have been his growing need to connect with someone after being isolated for so long that made him so instantly trusting but his guard had been up for far too long. It was tiring to hold up such thick and heavy walls and he wanted a moment away from the mental fatigue. In the back of his mind he knew that letting Louis in had the potential to backfire on him. It had been another pack that had debilitated him so drastically so he knew exposing himself to an outsider could be dangerous. Louis could have been sent in as a spy to search out their weaknesses, manipulating Harry into confessing anything that could be used against them. That protesting voice seemed so weak in comparison to everything else though. The small screams of warning nearly overpowered completely as he fell for the honest eyes and encouragingly soft smile.

“I can’t because I can’t mate or bond,” he confessed softly, his cheeks heating up.

“Why??” he asked, eyes widening with curiosity and confusion, “Is there something wrong?”

“Not exactly wrong...” he hesitated for a moment, weighing his options yet again. “I um... am locked up in this cage thing so I physically can’t.”

There it was out in the open now, no turning back. His words made the quiet juncture that followed seem heavy and thick. It was a long moment that felt like it would determine everything between them from that point on. He waited for the pity to overtake his expression, waited to feel useless and broken with yet another person in his life.

“What do you mean? Can I see?” Louis surprised him with that response, taking him back for a second.

“You want to SEE?” he asked in disbelief, fingers toying with the hem of his night shirt nervously. Louis nodded eagerly with his lips pressed together, still nothing but curiosity lingering there.

He paused before nodding back in agreement, shifting from his side to lay on his back. Louis gently lifted the covers down past his thighs, eyes hovering on the tent the bulky cage made under the thin fabric. He wanted to squeeze his eyes shut in embarrassment but resisted the urge. This may end up being the only time he would willingly show someone his darkest secret and most intimate places and something made him want to hold onto that memory. He would never mate or bond or be intimate with anyone for the rest of his life. A few minutes of exploration with an alpha may be the extent of his pathetic sex life.

The air was cool but not uncomfortable when he lifted the light material to his belly, the offending cage reflecting the light of the moon like a beacon to his shame. His dick was soft within the bars, resting gently in the rings rather than his flesh pressing against them as they once did. He had noticed in the last couple of months that his flaccid member had looked smaller within the cage. It seemed to be shrinking back from the lack of use, withering away from the thick glory it once was. If he was ever to be free of the cage, he wondered if he would ever be able to knot or if he would be inadequate for the rest of his life. Use it or lose it often circled his mind when he went to relieve himself in the bathroom, staring down at his pathetic prick with resentment. He tried not to dwell on it much past that, keeping it to the few minutes alone in the bathroom where there was no way to ignore it. It was no use getting upset about hypothetical situations anyway. The cage was locked onto him for life.

Louis lifted a hesitant finger, sliding it across one of the sturdy rings without asking permission first. He couldn’t say he minded but his breath did catch in his chest with someone voluntarily touching it so delicately, the small vibrations easily detected by his sensitive and untouched skin. The finger traveled from the base to the cross at the tip, moving it gently back and forth experimentally. Harry’s lip ached between his teeth at the feeling of the soft motion, willing his body not to react when he felt a small twinge travel through his cock. Getting turned on by another alpha was a sure way to scare off his new friend.

“Why would you wear this?” he asked softly, his finger traveling down to the thick base ring, following the circle of it until it disappeared beneath his sack, the side of his warm finger grazing over the soft skin of his balls. It almost felt like he had purposefully lingered there but it felt too nice to stop him or draw him away.

“There isn’t a way to take it off,” his voice came out barely a whisper, “I was... um... kidnapped and woke up with it on after I presented. No one could get it off, no one has ever been able to.” He tried his best to conceal the quiver in his voice, his emotions surging as he relived it through his own words for the first time.

“So you can’t knot,” he said in wonder and maybe a bit of horror, a statement rather than a question. “Who would do this to you?” He sounded outraged and full of compassion at the same time, his finger tip still wandering. Harry’s breath hitched each time his fingertip touched a fraction of his skin but he still made no move to stop him. He didn’t even touch himself anymore beyond relieving himself and washing.

“We don’t know,” he admitted honestly, shrugging and rolling his eyes up in attempt to stop the moisture collecting there and threatening to spill out.

“How do you get off?” His finger slid through the cross at the point, the bottom of his knuckle barely grazing the head of his penis and sending a tingle through Harry’s body at the butterfly wing-like sensation. His body wanted more but he had trained himself not to care. It felt different, though, when someone was giving it direction attention. He felt his sensitive slit twinge as he pulled his finger away, body rolling with the sensation as a thick bead of precum pulsed out and made him nearly sob in desperation. It felt so foreign yet so achingly familiar even after all the time that had passed.

“I don’t,” he choked on his emotion a bit at that, hitting on the full reality of what the cage meant for his life. Louis reached up with his other hand and wiped a stray tear from his cheek that had broken free, the action gentle and comforting despite barely knowing each other. He couldn’t completely suppress the small hiccup of a sob that shook his chest but there were arms around him immediately in response. The hug was warm and encompassing and he wrapped his arms tightly around him and squeezed him back without thinking twice. Louis’ cheek rested comfortably against his chest tucked just under his chin and it was easily the best hug he had ever received. They laid there just like that for a long time, not even shifting when Harry felt his fingers tingling from the angle over his back. His little hiccups subsided and his heart beat slowly evened out. If he had let himself, he could have drifted into an easy and sated sleep. When he began to think Louis actually had fallen asleep, he felt a small shift of his jaw against his chest.

“I’m an omega,” he whispered softly into the silence, “That’s my secret.”

Harry tightened his grip a little in surprise, the wheels turning slowly in his head. Why would his family send him here knowing he was not an alpha?

“Why are you here?” he tried to ask with out offending him. There was nothing wrong with being an omega, it just meant they had sent him to his family under false pretenses.

“No one knows. Not even my family,” he answered softy, “I haven’t actually officially presented as anything yet but I know. My father is sure I’m alpha and that I’ll present any day, even told your father that. He has been so focused on mating me into this pack for so long... even before we got the official announcement. I’ve been too scared to tell him. I’ve already started producing slick sometimes though, just a little bit. Any day now and I’ll have no choice.”

“Why did you ask to come back then? If you knew?”

“I’d never left my own village before, never been anywhere without my father. I wanted to see new places and be on my own before my father decides to lock me away from everyone or sell me off to the pack with the highest most appealing bid. I know how it happens and my father is greedy. I wanted to not belong to anyone but myself for just a little while, I wanted to feel what its like to be on my own. That and I wanted to see you again. You’re were a mystery hiding from me around the house and I just wanted to know. I could tell you had a secret, I just couldn’t figure out what it was.”

Harry nodded and let Louis’ confession stew in the stillness of his bedroom for a while, the silence loaded but comfortable. They were in completely different positions yet in the same one all at once. They tightened their arms around each other, the only thing solid in both of their unstable and grim futures.

“I guess we both got the short end of the stick,” he eventually murmured quietly. Louis sniffed softly against his chest once as he nodded in sorrowful agreement, his fringe hiding his face from view. This wasn’t exactly what he had imagined would happen between them either but the connection he was feeling made him not care about any of the fantasies he had conjured up when the loneliness had consumed him.

Their loads felt lighter when they were carried between the two of them. Louis now held a portion of his burden while Harry carried some of his in return. Though nothing had been resolved and nothing had changed, the relief of having that small piece off of his chest made him feel better than he had in over a year.

Louis’ breathing eventually evened out into small puffs of air against him signaling that he had finally fallen asleep. He laid there for a few more minutes and enjoyed the contact and warm weight of his body resting on top of his, reveling in it even. The weight of the cage between his legs started to feel less like a punishment and more like an anchor roped to his bond with Louis. He pulled the covers up around their bodies and finally gave himself over to sleep.

Chapter Text

Over the next few nights their bedtime conversations slowly became a routine. Louis would slip into his bed once the house had gone quiet and still and Harry would move over to let him crawl into the warm space his body had been saving for him. They talked about everything until their eyelids grew heavy and their breathing evened out.

Louis told him about how his birth mother had died in a fire that had taken many lives in their village when he was only a few years old. He told him about the wonderful woman his father had married who loved and cared for him like he was her own son, even when his father’s temper flared. He talked about his younger sisters that were always in his hair but he loved them far too much to care. He spoke about his friends back home that were jealous that he had gone out to see the world but had demanded a detail account once he had returned home. He talked about how scared he was of finally presenting knowing his father would be so angry with him for ruining his plans. Harry soaked up every detail hungrily, urging him to tell him even more about his life back home.

Harry opened up about the life he had led before he had been kidnapped, how he had felt so empowered in the days after he had first presented and how quickly everything had changed. He talked about blacksmith who had burned his skin when his father insisted he try to release the cage from his body, unsuccessful with every attempt until Harry had said enough. He spoke about the friends he had once had and how isolated and small he had felt when they all had changed how they acted around him. He spoke about his family and about his sister who faced some of the same fears as Louis and how hard it was to know she wouldn’t be able to bond out of love.

They laughed and they cried together as they told each other the stories of their lives, so different yet so similar as the first sons of their pack’s leaders. The proximity of their bodies seemed to decrease in space over the course of each night as well, Louis always ending up on top of Harry to some extent by the time they fell asleep. Louis’ soft and wandering hands felt nice over Harry’s body and he never stopped himself from feeling Louis’ smooth skin in return. It was comfortable and natural the way they progressed, clinging to each other like they just belonged.

As they talked, eventually Louis touches always ended up wandering down to toy with his cage. Curious fingers learned the curve of each bar, circling the rings and the sensitive skin around them casually each night. Somewhere within Harry he knew that he should stop him but it felt so nice to have someone touch him in such a loving manner. He could never bring himself to pull the hands away that made his body tingle.

One night in the middle of a comfortable silence, Louis let his fingertips dance softly over the smooth loose skin of his balls. Goosebumps popped up over Harry’s arms at the gentle touch, closing his eyes to relax into the feeling. He let Louis pull the covers down to his knees and cracked his eyes open to watch once his night shirt was raised just above his navel.

“You’re so soft,” Louis mumbled while his fingers still roamed, manipulating the orbs within with fascination. Harry had hummed in agreement, closing his eyes again and letting himself enjoy the touches that weren’t exactly sexual yet still felt nice. The mattress shifted beneath them as Louis moved himself down the bed, fingertips moving up to circle his navel before scratching gently through his happy trail on their way back down. His breath hitched when he felt warm moist lips press to the same spot, opening his eyes to gaze down and watch his unexpected actions.

“You smell so good,” Louis whispered out in a small moan, pressing his nose to the juncture where his hip met his inner thigh, breathing in a long breath against his skin. Harry wasn’t sure what to do but let it happen, no reason to stop something they both seemed to be enjoying. Warm lips began to press against his skin again marking a trail across to where the base ring sat against his body. He nuzzled his nose up against the base of his cock, closing his eyes and nearly purring as he made a show of breathing him in. “Really good...”

Harry let out a small groan of pleasure, his alpha instincts igniting with the pleasure that satisfying an omega was sure to bring on. His dick twitched within its cage when his lips moved to his balls, mouthing gently at his skin as his fingers caressed the exposed flesh around his dick. His warm humid breath was hitting his cock just right, arousal sparking deeper within him at the foreign stimulation. He felt the heat of blood rushing to fill his dick, thickening up slowly within the confines of his cage.

“Louis... you need to stop,” he mumbled without much conviction, swallowing hard as he tried to redirect his body’s reaction to anywhere else on his body. None of this was leading anywhere that would leave Harry unscathed, his body already buzzing more than he should allow.

“I don’t want to,” Louis breathed against him, his fingers gently stroking the exposed quadrants of the head of his cock through the gaps in the bars. Harry let out a whine high in back of his throat, already backtracking and overriding the year of training he had given himself to ignore and crave the type of sensations Louis was trying to give him.

“Its too much, I can’t come. Its too frustrating. I can’t handle it, please,” he moaned, hands gripping his sheets in tight fists. He whimpered pathetically when he felt the tip of Louis’ tongue slide over his head, the organ swiftly becoming uncomfortably restrained the longer he let him continue.

“But maybe I could try,” he insisted, using a swipe of his tongue to help persuade him, “You’ve only ever had yourself... maybe you could if it was me.”

Harry whined in frustration, knowing how this would end but already past being able to make him stop. The truth was that he really did want it, he really did want to try. Knowing the disappointing outcome was the only voice of reason telling him this was a bad idea.

Fingertips manipulated his head until his slit was exposed from the cross of the bars, wet and glistening from oozing out bubbles of precum already. Louis pointed his tongue and concentrated on that spot, licking up the steady stream of sticky clear fluid eagerly like a hungry kitten. Harry groaned as his dick twitched, the whole cage moving with the spasm. The base ring had started pulling from his body with the pressure from his erection, balls stretched away from their usually resting place. Louis’ small hand slid beneath the ring, fingers circling around the base of his cock in a heavenly grip he hadn’t been able to feel in over a year. He had to bite at his forearm to stay quiet when he started to jerk at the base in small restricted motions, his body swimming with pleasure that was quickly overwhelming him.

Louis tongue slipped between the rings that allowed him to, swiping a line of warm spit over his untouched skin in restricted intervals. He knew this wasn’t going to end well but it felt so fucking good and he wanted it so very badly. Louis reached behind himself and collected some of his slick, the exposed smell filling Harry’s nostrils and making his eyes roll back into his head with blinding lust. He slid a slick coated finger over his head and against his swollen slit, precum instinctually leaking out with a steady stream with the presence of an omega’s juices.

“You smell so fucking amazing,” he growled against his arm, nostrils flaring to scent to scent him. Louis gave him a coy smirk as made a show of collecting more slick, coating Harry’s dick around the base to make his short jerks fluid against his skin.

“Its too much, fuck its too much, you have to stop,” Harry was nearly sobbing, never having been this turned on in his entire life, even during his very first rut. His body and mind was prepared for it to be ruined, the build up coiling him so tightly but knowing he still would never quite get there. He wasn’t sure he would be able to handle it if they took this even further.

Louis didn’t stop, fingers circling him more tightly at the base, tonguing at his head with determination. Harry’s fingers dug into the skin of his own stomach, so close and pent up that he felt he could rip his skin off in desperation. His chest was heaving with laboured breaths, his skin sticky with a sheen of sweat covering every inch. He felt the heat of Louis’s mouth sink over his entire head, bars and all, biting hard into the flesh of his arm to keep himself from screaming out.

His whole body abruptly stilled and suddenly everything felt blissfully serene. He was swimming in a white out, lost in nothing... and then it happened. His whole body seemed to seize up and then he was actually coming. Louis pulled his mouth away just in time for the first violent spurt to shoot past his head, balls puckered tightly against the base ring, constricting in pulses as he came and came. He felt like he might pass out as the most amazing relief flooded his entire body, semen shooting from his dick until he felt too exhausted to even open his eyes. It had been painful, excruciatingly so, his knot compressed and unable to open against the base of the cage and his dick so restricted that with each pulse also came an overwhelming ache that felt like his cock was being crushed in a vice. It hadn’t mattered, though.

Even as his knot still painfully protested against the rings, he couldn’t find it in him to care. He began to cry before he even came down. Tears of joy, of release, of pleasure, of pain all melted together into the only way his body could cope with such intense emotions and sensations. He could still feel come pulsing weakly from his aching cock, his body pushing it out as if he had actually knotted.

When he was finally able to focus his eyes he found Louis looking stunned and staring down at his caged cock. He looked a mess with splatters of come marked in wet places all over his night shirt, his fringe damp with sweat and matted back from his forehead. His lips were puffy and red, parted and glistening wet. His pupils were blown when he finally looked up, long lashes complementing his fucked out look in a way that made him want to pin him to the bed and fuck him until there was no tomorrow.

They stared at each other wordlessly, sharing every thought yet none at all as their bodies and minds slowly recovered from such an aggressively intense experience. The ocean of come he had pumped from his body began to chill on his skin, feeling it in places he hadn’t felt while his body was temporarily shut down. He reached down to the cage, wincing as he pressed against the head of his cock, trying to relieve the uncomfortable pressure of the bars cutting into his skin. His dick was still full and coloured with a purplish hue, Harry hissing out a breath as each movement caused stabbing pain to shoot through his restricted knot.

“Are you okay?” Louis was quick to grow concerned, brows knitting together as he surveyed his body. He nodded through clenched teeth, more than willing to suffer through the aftermath of pain for the release that had been edging him for over a year.

He grabbed the top sheet and carefully began wiping the come from his body, avoiding any area near the cage. He made a move to sit up so he could clean Louis, squeezing his eyes shut and hissing in pain when the cage bobbed with the motion.

“I can wipe you off in a minute,” he winces out, trying to lay as still as possible. Louis offers him a weak smile, pulling the night shirt over his head to reveal his own spent cock soft between his thighs. He bit his lip and blushed, using a corner of the sheet to wipe off his thigh before the splatters that had hit his neck and arms. They both blushed this time when their eyes met, minds cleared enough to be shy about their unguarded actions and subsequent nakedness. Louis carefully crawled up the bed, placing a gentle but firm kiss against his lips before sliding off the mattress. He tried to be discrete as he wiped the fluids from his ass and Harry could tell by his awkward motions that this was the first time he had gotten so wet.

The realization that Louis was an untouched omega stirred something inside him with a frenzy of rushing blood. His scent was still fresh and sharp in his nose, stirred up again in the room while Louis cleaned off. He hadn’t smelled like much of anything really during the previous times they had shared Harry’s bed. Sweet and clean maybe but never the intoxicating swirl of warmth that was currently sending pheromones straight into his bloodstream.

“Louis, are you in heat?” he asked gently yet hesitantly, both scared and excited about what the answer might be. He had never been around an omega in heat that wasn’t related to him before so he lacked experience and training to pick out the shift in scents. Louis was actually the first omega he had ever been around long enough to scent in the first place. His mother and sister always smelled friendly and inviting to him, a scent that meant safety but never one that stirred anything in his body. Their heats smelled bitter and sharp, often needing to air out his nostrils with a walk outside if he got too close to the offending scent. He understood the biology of it but it didn’t come with a handbook.

“No,” he shook his head with his voice sounding small, keeping his eyes down to ball the soiled sheet up in his hands, “Soon though. Couple days maybe.”

Something seemed off as he shuffled around the bed, scooping up the blankets soaked with come and slick to pile them up in the corner. His knot had stopped protesting enough for him to move, slowly sitting up and scooting to the edge of the bed. His dick was still pressed angrily against the cage but he knew it would take longer to go down with the way the rings restricted his normal blood flow. He grabbed a few blankets from his closet, spreading one out over the bed as a quick fix for the night before laying the other on top for them to curl into once they were settled.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked as Louis rummaged through his drawers like he had always lived there, pulling a clean but oversized night shirt over his head, the garment hanging loosely over his petite frame.

“I’ll have to leave soon,” he replied in the same small voice, handing Harry a clean night shirt to slip into as well, “Tomorrow probably.” His lip trembled as he kept his gaze averted, crawling up onto the bed to curl up in what had become his spot.

Harry hadn’t thought that far ahead yet but the reality was a crushing one. Louis wouldn’t be able to stay here once everyone knew he was omega. His body was still floating from a year’s worth of release but that didn’t stop a different kind of grip from squeezing tightly around his heart.

It had only been minutes since he had been able to clearly see Louis as more than a friend and already he had to cope with the fact that he would be leaving and he would never be able to have him. If only he wasn’t broken. He could ask Louis to be his mate and bond their friendship together for life. He could give Louis the life he deserved to have. He knew he could be the alpha to make sure he never felt like property.

From the highest of highs he had ever experienced down to the lowest of lows he fell, joining Louis at the bottom where he already was, curled up on the bed in palpable despair. Harry crawled onto the bed behind him, curling around him protectively. He didn’t even move as his cage pressed uncomfortably against his throbbing and oversensitive cock, not willing to put an inch of space between them. Louis scooted back against his chest as Harry wrapped them up in the blanket, burritoing them tightly together in attempt to hold on to the small threads of a future they could still pretend they had for just a little longer.

He woke up the next morning against Louis who was drenched in sweat. A blush was covering his skin and his slick was covering Harry’s lower torso. His scent had Harry dizzy with heady desire and his cock was already throbbing, hard and struggling to break out of his cage.

So there it was. They truly had reached their end.

Louis moaned desperately, his night shirt hiking up around his waist and his body pressing back against Harry’s. The omega’s hips were working instinctually to rub his slick soaked crack up against his caged dick. The smell of his heat was intoxicating and every part of him was screaming out to mate and claim him, something that he wasn’t even able to do. He rubbed his cage between his cheeks, moaning as his hot slick coated every part of him through the bars. Louis seemed to be just waking up in this state, a hazy and glazed look in his eyes as he worked himself back against the feeling. Harry didn’t think, just let his body act as he tried to press the cage against his soaked opening, somehow willing it to sink into him. He whined in frustration that he wasn’t able to plunge his dick inside, his hand instead slinking around to circle Louis’ straining erection.

“Harry don’t,” Louis gasped out, his fingers circling his wrist to stop him. “Don’t start this or I won’t be able to handle it.” There was desperation and pleading thick in his voice and it was all Harry could do to stop himself. Louis turned and gave him a long and fierce kiss, separating with a wet smack and gasping breaths.

“I’m so sorry,” he looked Harry sadly in the eyes, so many emotions churning up a storm within the blue edges still visible around his enlarged pupils. He gave him one more soft kiss before scrambling off the bed and out of the room.

Harry groaned and grabbed at his cage, finger rubbing Louis’ slick into slit. The intensity of Louis’ heat had triggered his rut, nothing making sense past the drive he had to mate and claim. He spent the next few days with his face pressed into the slick soaked sheets they had soiled together, milking himself dry with the fresh scenarios he would surely remember for the rest of his life.

Harry’s father had escorted Louis home the same morning in the early stages of his very first heat while Harry writhed on his bed in misery. It was only as he emerged from his rut that it began to sink in. Louis had never been his to claim and now he was gone. He slipped back into the shell of himself Louis had briefly freed him from. He wallowed in the grief of another tragedy the cage had brought to his life. He curled himself up in the blankets that they had shared and thought about how easy it would be to let himself just waste away. Against the moonlight Harry played his memories on repeat until the sun began to peek over the horizon. In the light of the morning sun, he watched Louis leave his life. He watched Louis run for the door and leave him broken and worthless on the bed they had shared. Yes, Louis had left him because he was broken, the lingering kisses and engulfing scent his only goodbye.

Chapter Text

If he had thought his life was over waking up with a cage permanently fastened to his dick, he never could have imagined waking to something worse yet that was what had become his reality. He woke every morning with a new sense of defeat, each day dragging him to a lower level he didn’t know could exist. It consumed him and ate him down to the bone until not even scavengers would want to pick at what was left. To lose something he had never had was one thing. To be given a taste before having it ripped away was something entirely different.

To say that Harry had given up would have been a gross understatement. There was no fight left within his body. The last traces of his will had been squeezed out of him violently while he was forced to watch it swirl down the drain, diluting with the water until there was nothing left to save.

His rut had passed but what was the point of caring? The first time in over a year, in well over twelve entire months, he had made the attempt to feel alive again and at what cost? Would he have been better off never venturing out of his room to spy on a stranger? Would he still be existing amongst the living? Or would he have reached this point eventually on his own.

No matter how many ways he put it, he could never regret Louis. Louis had made him feel like a person again instead of a shadow. Louis had made him feel valuable instead of being just a write off. Louis had fought for him when he was sure he would never be able to experience pleasure again. No, he could never regret Louis.

He would never regret him but he also knew he would never recover. He would wither away to nothing in the midst of their dirty sheets, tears mixing with the fluids of their pleasure from the night that had both shared, it would destroy him. Louis’ scent was slowly fading away from the fabric, fading like the last of Harry’s hope.

He refused to leave the bed, refused to eat, refused to clean himself or the sheets that held the memory of their last moments together. There was no purpose for a useless and broken alpha and losing Louis was the last confirmation that he needed. Soon his sister and her mate would be taking over the pack and where would that leave him? He couldn’t live the rest of his life as a squatter in his sister’s home. She would inevitably have children who would grow to mock their useless uncle who couldn’t even take a piss properly. He would end up a joke, the example of failure and soon there would be no one on his side, maybe there already wasn’t.

It took him a few weeks to finalize his decision. It wasn’t that it had taken him that long to come up with it. He had taken that time to make sure it would not be an impulsive reaction to Louis leaving him. Even through his consuming depression he had known to be sure.

He had emerged from his room and eaten dinner with his family one last time that evening. His mother had smiled and hugged him, kissing his temple and offering him a few kind and encouraging words. He tried not to look forced when he smiled and nodded back, taking a seat beside her. Nostalgia filled him as he had watched his family, remembering the days when he had made himself the center of attention during their meals and activities. It felt like a different lifetime to him and he wondered how they had stayed so much the same while he was barely even able to recognize himself.

He gave each of them a hug after dinner and returned to his room to prepare. He spread the blankets he had shared with Louis over the bed, smoothing out the wrinkles just to waste some time. They were still the same, never washed since the day things had ended, and he was glad he had kept them this way. He pressed his face into the blanket, nosing along its surface until he found a spot that held the most of the lingering scent. He pulled out the scissors and meticulously cut the square of material out, folding it away safely in his pocket once he was done.

The night air was chilly when he finally slipped out of the house. He had waited for everything to grow silent before pulling on his shoes and carefully closing the front door behind him.

Back in the days he had ventured out to explore he had been able to leave the borders of his village a few times just a bit before he would chicken out and run right back. On one of those journey’s he had made it to the edge of a grove of trees. It hadn’t been the trees that had been particularly memorable but the plants that had been growing beneath them. At the time he had been learning how to identify the poisonous plants that grew around them and there, like a small forest of their own had been a great amount of wolfsbane. He had learned that wolfsbane would slow down the heart and that it could be fatal.

It sounded like the most peaceful way to do it. If the patch was still where he remembered it to be, he would ingest what he thought would be enough and then fall asleep slowly under the stars with Louis’ scent to comfort him. Maybe they would find them, maybe they would not. Either way he felt like this would be the best solution for everyone.

Taking his time, he moseyed along the edge of the road for a while, kicking a few rocks and enjoying the clear view of the sky he had in the open air. If he remembered correctly it would just be a few miles up and he had all the time in the world to get there before the sun would start peeking over the horizon. He thought only of the good times in his life, not allowing himself to grow dark during his last few hours. At the very least he owed that to himself, to be light through his time of death.

It wasn’t long before he heard a crunch of gravel that did not come from his own feet. He paused for a moment but heard nothing more and continued his steps. A few strides later there came another noise behind him and he turned to look. Though the moon was brightly lighting his path around him, there were still areas shadowed in the darkness of night. He glanced around but still saw nothing, shrugging it off as an animal slinking through the ditch.

The next shuffle he heard behind him was closer this time. He quickly spun around, pivoting in place to survey the space behind him. There was no chance to focus before he was ambushed, his arms locked behind his back and something pulled over his face. He couldn’t see anything and his own heavy breath was warm and stifling around his face in what might have been a pillowcase. His arms and elbows were quickly bound before he had a chance to protest but he wasn’t sure he would have anyway.

“We’ve been waiting for you to finally turn up,” a gruff voice grunted near his ear, gripping his bicep tightly, “Now walk.”

The shove to move him forward nearly made him lose his balance and he stumbled to do what he was told. He walked blindly forward with a hand gripping his arm tightly on each side of him, pushing and dragging him along whenever his steps began to slow. There was grass and uneven ground under his feet and it was difficult not to stumble when he wasn’t able to see in front of him but the men kept him upright. He wasn’t sure how long or how far they had traveled but his feet were aching in his shoes that felt just a little too tight. The hands on his arms abruptly halted him into a rough stop.

Light flooded his eyes as his mask was ripped up just over his nose and a cloth slapped to his face. A familiar sweet smell filled his nostrils, one he had not easily forgotten. It was the same smell that had sealed his fate the last time his life had been taken into someone else’s hand. This time he gave in to sensation easily, letting his body wilt to the ground before blacking out.

-

It was the same but yet entirely different. As he came to, he was met with warmth and silence. For a few moments he thought maybe he had been killed and the slow fuzzy space was just waking into the afterlife. The pulse of pain in his still tightly bound arms brought him swiftly to reality though. The angle was awkward, his neck stiff and sore from his head being lolled forward for so long. The muscles holding his body together felt weak when he lifted his head, blinking lazily against the darkness. Something hard and stiff was shoved between his arms and his body, his legs sprawled out in front of him and putting his body at an uncomfortable angle.

The blood in his veins was pounding through him, his heart beating hard and attempting to supply blood to all of his extremities that were severely restricted. He heard the click of steps and the sound of a door creaking open, echoing around him so he wasn’t quite sure if it was happening in front of him or behind his back.

“He’s up,” a man’s voice muttered, the sound of the door being opened wider filtering to his ears. The click of shoes echoing around him made his chest clench anxiously, each one bouncing off the walls and making it sound as if a small army had marched in to his execution. His breathing felt laboured and heavy but suddenly everything in his body stopped for just a few seconds when the hood was ripped off his head, the grip that fisted it taking some of his hair with it. He winced in pain and squeezed his eyes shut against the dim light he was suddenly exposed to.

“So this is the new alpha Styles,” an intimidating voice spoke, a small but broad man towering above where he was laid out on some type of table, his ankles tied tightly and pulled towards the corners, his back propped up against something in a semi sitting position. “I have to say I’m a little unimpressed. I expected much more from your father than this pathetic excuse. Not much of an alpha at all if you ask me.”

Harry watched from the corner of his heavy eyes as the man stalked around the table with his hands clasped behind his back, shoulders squared and head held high so he could look down his nose at him in disgust. He had no idea what was going on and he wracked his brain for any of his actions, however small, that would have brought him to this place.

“But enough of that, Mr. Styles. There is always bound to be an alpha or two among us who doesn’t deserve the privilege but that’s just the game nature plays with us I suppose.”

Harry’s breath was short and shallow, insides twisting with this man’s entire presence and demeanor. He didn’t look him in the face, keeping his head down because he knew this man was right. It hadn’t been long, though he had no way to measure the passage of time, that he had set out to take his own life over the same realization. He wasn’t a worthy alpha, he really was a pathetic excuse for one.

“Now lets get down to business,” he said, signaling to the other man. The door creaked and thudded closed in front of him, the click of the lock ricocheting around them. With another motion of his hand, the man moved to Harry’s side. His fingers were coarse against his skin as he grabbed the waist of his pants, sharply yanking them down his thighs. They caught on his cage and tugged with the action, his stomach muscles clenching with the pain that shot through his body as the rings pinched and gripped his skin. He blushed with being so exposed, shamed even further being so vulnerable.

“Not bad work if I do say so myself,” the man said as he slipped a finger through one of the bars, not even remotely gentle as he pulled it about to inspect its construction. “Well constructed from having to work from scratch. I see it has done its intended job nicely as well. Still in place after what, a year? My how time flies. It doesn’t seem that its been that long.”

The man dropped the cage and continues to pace around him slowly, each click of his shoe spiking Harry’s heartbeat. He never thought he would face the man who had imprisoned him but as it happened, he was unable to process any emotion or thought past the anxiety that was overwhelming him as he realized who he was. Exposed, bound and helpless on a table, he could do nothing but wait, unable to predict what was about to happen just as he had been unable to pinpoint why it had happened in the first place.

“In hindsight, perhaps I should have ordered them to just cut it off,” his voice nonchalant as he paused, picking something up from the table with a small scrape, “I had heard things were going quite well but I guess you really hadn’t learned your place.”

The man turned and displayed the sharp dagger of a knife in his hand. He approached the table and pushed Harry’s shirt up his stomach. His muscles twitched when the cold knife ghosted over his skin, body growing chilled as he began to sweat.

“You see, I don’t tolerate being disrespected,” he continued, an edge of the double sided blade moving to rest against the base of his dick, the pressure just enough for him to know it was solidly there and threatening. He was barely breathing now, eyes focused on the position of the knife. “I don’t care who you are or where you come from. I don’t discriminate when it comes to punishing those who have acted against me.”

He slid the knife along his skin, the blade so sharp he couldn’t even feel the slice but watched as a small line of blood appeared across the very base of his penis. It was no deeper than a paper cut but caused his heart to race so fast he thought it might explode. It stung as the blood collected on the surface, exposed to the open air just below the ring of his cage.

“See how easy it would be? I would probably only take the shaft too, leave you with all the desire and only phantom pains to haunt you,” the man pulled out a piece of cloth and wiped the blade clean, turning it over in his hands carefully, “You would deserve it. You would more than deserve it. Touching an omega that is not yours is a highly punishable offense here, as I’m sure you know. Keeping you away from what’s mine was never even part of my plan but I’m appalled that a pathetically caged up alpha like you would even have the nerve to do so. Especially since obviously your intention was to only have a play thing in your condition.”

The knife was still shockingly cold when it was again rested against the base of his manhood, pressure real and grounding and causing his breath to hitch again next to his racing heart.

“Having my son come home in heat was obviously upsetting to me. I had had a bright future set up for him and our pack. It interrupted my plans, of course, but there was still a role for you. I couldn’t mate him with your sister as an omega but there was still you. Pathetic and useless but still a possibility, still a pawn to get my pack into the position we deserve. But then he came home with your scent all over him and, like I said Mr. Styles, I do not tolerate being disrespected.”

Harry’s eyes shot up to his face for the first time as the truth slapped him heavily across the face. His stomach dropped violently out of his body and he could feel himself begin to shake, the knife pressing harder against his skin with the motion.

“There’s my confirmation,” he chuckled darkly, an evil smirk crossing his face as Harry finally took him in, “I can’t help but be proud of my boy for recognizing what the next step in our plan would be. He couldn’t win your sister so instead moved on to you. Such a shame you didn’t have the decency to respect an omega of status. How dare you force yourself on someone so helpless when you had no intention of following through? You knew you couldn’t mate and still you shamelessly defiled my son during his first heat. Do you know how long your scent lingered on him? It is unacceptable. I can’t very well sell him now as an untouched omega.”

He lowered his eyes in shame, the familiar feelings of guilt weighing him down to where his stomach already felt like it was laying on the floor. It hadn’t felt like that to him. It had felt mutual and powerful and everything he expected a connected experience with someone would feel like. He was starting to see it for what it was worth now that his fathers words were stabbing him deeper than the knife he held ever could. Louis had known he was about to present and had pushed a space for himself into Harry’s heart to take advantage of later.

The blade cut into his skin once again, a twin line of blood forming right next to the first along his penis. He could feel every prick of his nerves this time, cutting deeply into his soul that was now just as exposed as the most intimate parts of his body. He couldn’t scream or even react, every last drop of his fight and will evaporating into the heavy air around them. The small light inside of himself that he had kept lit for Louis even through everything was violently extinguished with the cold bucket of truth.

None of it had been real. Revealing his secret had merely been the first step in his plot. Their intimate conversations had only been to break down his guard to gather information and cozy up to him, to create a false bubble that Harry felt safe in. The rest had been to appeal to his alpha instincts. He had intentionally worked him up and left him hanging in order to use it against him later.

“Of course giving you the punishment you deserve would only damage my own interests at this point. I can’t mate you with my son if I’ve already removed your knot,” the man sighed with disappointment, wiping his knife again against the cloth as he shook his head, “So unfortunately I will have to let you go with a warning.”

The man’s breath was hot against his face as he moved an inch away from his cheek, the blade of his knife now pressed against his throat.

“If you EVER speak of this encounter to ANYONE, I WILL take your life,” the blade gathered his shirt as it moved down his abdomen, the point clinking over every ring of his cage until it slipped through to press against the skin over the head of his cock painfully, “And I don’t mean the life that lets you breathe. Understood?”

The very tip of the blade cut sharply through his foreskin and into the ridge of his head, the blinding pain finally causing him scream out.

“Good,” the man pushed himself away from the table taking the knife with him with Harry’s blood shining wetly on the point. “Finish with him then,” he waved a hand at the other man as he cleaned his dagger, sliding it into his sheath at his side. He didn’t look back at Harry as he stalked out of the room with his important posture, head held high and the click of his heels following him.

The other man who had witnessed the entire scene turned his back for a few moments, preparing something in a bowl with the scrape of a spoon. There was still fresh blood leaking in a small line down the head of Harry’s cock, sliding off the point and through the bars of his cage in a slow drip between his legs. He clenched his teeth tightly at the sting and pulsing ache, pulling at his restraints to pull away from the sensation.

Uncaring about Harry’s struggle, the man began to grab and pull at the cage, turning it in his hand harshly to inspect it. Holding it at an awkward sideways angle, the man picked up the bowl and began dripping the liquid he had mixed onto the link where the two pieces were fascinated tightly together. It only took a few drips for it to start falling onto Harry’s sensitive skin, immediately beginning to burn. The drops almost instantly reached the two hairline wounds at the base of his dick, blurring the lines of drying blood together. He screamed at the intense pain that radiated through his body, yanking at the restraints holding him in place so violently that he felt his hands and feet might be pulled from his own body in the process.

He couldn’t stop his own reaction, the agony making his muscles spasm and his chest constrict as more of the liquid was being poured between his legs. The searing shock that hit him when the liquid made its way to the wound still bleeding towards the tip of his cock was enough to make his vision go white, the sting searing into his slit and down the inside of his dick shortly after. He began to sweat violently and shake as though he was being burned alive which is what it quickly began to feel like. The man continued as if he were oblivious to Harry’s violent screaming that was making his throat burn and his voice hoarse within a matter of minutes. He let Harry writhe in pain, bound tightly in place and unable to help himself without a second thought.

The liquid burned on his skin until the man seemed to be satisfied with whatever the solution was expected to do, reaching for a long and straight narrow key. He used a piece of cloth to guard his own hand from the substance burning Harry’s flesh and took hold of the cage. The key slid into the link between the two parts of the cage slowly like it was being pushed through ungiving but soft wood and eventually with his strength it was fully inserted. With a great amount of effort, the man was able to slowly turn the key until the two parts separated with a ting of release, the base bouncing back against his body with the weight of his balls against it. Being jostled around only made the pain more intense. He had gone deaf to his own screams, only the burn left in his vocal chords as evidence as the man yanked the first part of his cage off his body. His cock hadn’t been free in a year and was extremely sensitive beyond the scorch of pain. The man didn’t care as he pulled at the base ring, popping his parts through it ruthlessly.

Harry let out a guttural noise but it was all too much for him to handle. The man gripped him with the cloth to wipe him clean and it was the final push. His brain shut down with the last overwhelming pulse of his nerves, his head lolling backwards as his world again disappeared into blackness.

Chapter Text

Harry’s skin felt like it was on fire. He blinked his eyes open into direct sunlight and flinched. The places his skin was exposed were scorching, feeling tight and uncomfortable when he moved. His body felt dirty, layers of sweat and grime had mixed into mud caked on his skin and his clothes itchy against him. Blinking a few times, he looked around him and couldn’t immediately place where he was. There was tall grass around him partially obstructing his view and after a few moments realized that some of the itch was from the tiny legs of ants traveling over his body. He slowly pushed himself to sit up, brushing the little bugs off his arms that were already colouring a deep red from a violent sunburn.

His muscles ached and protested with his movements, rough scabs ringing his arms at his elbows and at his wrists from being bound so tightly. This time it wasn’t so much like a dream and his body’s protest was almost enough of a reminder. The reality was still seared into him, nerves prickling with pain with even the memory.

Just to be sure, he reached down and slid his pants down his hips just enough to confirm what he already knew to be true. His dick lay free there between his legs, angry red and smudged with dried blood that had cracked with his motions. The lines from the blade had scabbed over and the imprint from the metal base ring was still visible on his skin like an imprint after having a rubber band around his wrist. It was almost foreign to him to look at himself like this after so long. It didn’t look as familiar as he thought it would after a year of being obstructed. It seemed shriveled and small and even the thought of getting hard had him flinching at how uncomfortable he was conditioned to think it would be, how unsatisfying it had been.

He poked at it with his finger, sensitive and exposed in the sunlight. His fingertip dragged across the scab at the end of his dick, dried blood cracked in the little stream it had created when the wound was fresh. He was unaccustomed to the sweaty sensation skin on skin created as his penis laid there naked. The sticky pull felt disgusting when he moved and he wondered how he had ever found that feeling normal.

Oddly he felt anxious with his penis so exposed. With how strongly he had hated the device and yearned to take it off, he thought he would rejoice the moment he was freed from the confines. Instead he found himself feeling vulnerable and unsafe like a hermit crab out of its shell. It was far too sensitive and even the movement of fabric as he pulled his pants in place was uncomfortable and irritating. His nerves had grown far too sensitive after being protected from simple sensations for so long.

He didn’t feel free. It hadn’t automatically taken him back to the person he was before. It hadn’t suddenly made him feel like an alpha again. It didn’t make him feel whole and it did not heal what had been shattered inside his soul.

Broken. It had broken him irrevocably and removing the cage had not mended the fractured pieces of his life. He couldn’t fathom returning to his family with every physical aspect an alpha should have in working order without the will to back it up. He was still a shell of an alpha though, a shell that everyone would expect to step up into the roles he had been destined for before any of this had happened. There was no way he could return and learn to lead a pack in the state he had reduced to. He didn’t even know if he would still be able to mate. Even if he was able to rally to the job, he would be a disgraceful shame if the damage had been done and he couldn’t seal the deal with a prospective mate. He could never be a leader if he could never knot. He could never produce an heir.

He stood up and wandered aimlessly until he found a road, dragging his feet with his head hanging in defeat. His steps carried him until he found a landmark he could identify, the very place he had been headed to end his life. He wasn’t sure how long it had been but he was certain his family would have found him missing by now, hoped they would have anyway. Maybe it would be a good idea if they just kept looking. Maybe it would be even better if they had never started looking at all, letting his body return to nature in peace.

His feet led him off the road and through the small ditch to the edge of the trees. The sunburn stretched his skin uncomfortably as he sat down, his body spreading out on his back to look up at the clouds that were becoming dim. It didn’t come as a shocking realization that his family and pack would still be better off without him. He had become settled with that conclusion many months before. His old friends would still look at him differently, the village would still talk about him like he wasn’t standing right there, no one would want to mate with him after being in his condition. He may have been one of the strongest and most desirable alphas at one time but no one could be attracted to him now. That’s how natural selection worked. He doubted he would even be able to catch an omega’s eye anymore.

The weight of his pants became too much, wiggling them down enough to free his dick. It made him feel nervous and distressed to be so unprotected and he cupped his hand over himself to shield it from the light breeze that felt like the soft tickle of feathers. It was all too overwhelming and none of it in a pleasurable way.

He laid there under the calming sky until he had again made peace with his decision. He said his soft goodbyes to his sister, to his parents, to the friends he had once been so close with. He remembered the good times, the dreams he once had and all of the opportunities that were no longer open to him. Gently he pulled his pants back into place and moved to sit at the base of one of the larger trees. He respected himself enough to not be found with his pants around his knees at least. The wolfsbane was growing within arms length and it wouldn’t take much effort to snap off a few leaves and begin to chew.

Just reading out for his first stem, he froze in place. There had been a crunch of gravel, he was sure, and he perked his ears to listen. Fear spiked in him with the thought that the men might be looking to take him once again. His body stayed perfectly still and there was no mistaking the quick grinding footsteps that seemed to be growing louder. A figure finally came into his line of sight, moving at a jogging pace, gasping breaths nearly louder than the footfalls.

They stopped a few paces away, body folding in on itself, hands on their knees trying to catch up with their heavy sobbing breaths.

Louis. It was Louis. Right in front of him like a taunting mirage and he looked absolutely wrecked. His skin was red and splotchy, hair damp and unkempt and dust making him appear more tan than his normal healthy glow. Harry’s hand dropped with a thud from where it had been held midair and all he could do was stare. His memories were begging him to call out but harsh reality tried to neutralize it, keeping him in a limbo of wide eyes and a confused heart.

Louis straightened his body, kicking his legs out in front of him and stretching in a few long lunges that appeared painful by the grimace on his face. He took off to run again, stumbling and nearly falling on the loose gravel. His eyes somehow caught sight of Harry in his periphery and he too froze in his spot, the disbelieving expression making it seem as if he also assumed he was hallucinating his presence.

“Harry?” he stared in confusion, rubbing his fingers hard against his eyes before blinking them open again in disbelief. He let out a heavy sob and scrambled towards him through the grass. “Oh Harry! Harry I’m so sorry,” he continued to sob. He was uncoordinated as he crawled over Harry’s lap, straddling his thighs and taking his face into his hands.

There were dried tear tracks down through the dirt on his flushed cheeks, a new wave of them already spilling over into the same lines. He was dirty and shaking, sobs and gasps mixed together in desperation. Wrapping his arms around Harry’s shoulders, he pulled him into a tight hug, burying his face against his sunburned neck without pause.

“I’m so sorry,” he kept mumbling through his tears and Harry could do nothing but just sit there and let him, limp arms hanging at his sides. He didn’t reciprocate the affection but Louis didn’t seem to notice, lips moving over his neck clumsily between his sobs.

Once he had calmed enough to speak, Louis sat back against his thighs, hands again moving to cup his face.

“It was my father,” he said through hiccups that wracked through his body, “I overheard them... It was my father who did this to you, who put the cage on.”

Harry could do nothing but stare back at him with a blank expression. The way those eyes had looked at him while they were safely shielded away from the world warmly in his bed was still so fresh in his mind. The scent he had been clinging to still prickled his nose. Even with the dirt muting it now he could smell the wonderful aroma that Louis had developed since maturing through his first heat. He was so close and so familiar, the comfortable weight on his legs still feeling so natural. Part of him still wanted it.

“I didn’t know, Harry, I didn’t know he did it, I didn’t know about it,” Louis rambled on, taking his silence as encouragement to hear more of the story, “He bribed them to kidnap you so he could make me mate with your sister.” He began to sob again, pressing his face into his shoulder and sliding his arms around his waist.

“You have to come back with me. Harry you have to come back with me so I can make them take it off, please,” he continued, hands wandering down between his legs, “I know they know how, I can make them take this o---”

Louis cut himself off abruptly when instead of the cage, his hand was met with soft flesh beneath his pants. He pulled his head up to meet Harry’s eyes in sudden question. Harry met his glassy look with his dead stare and they stayed frozen in place, wheels seeming to turn in Louis’ brain while nothing but rage began to boil within Harry’s.

It wasn’t until a relieved and happy smile broke over Louis’ face with a laugh of disbelief to follow that Harry finally came to life. It all finally boiled over and he began to react. Everything was real again, right there in front of him. Louis had betrayed him and now was back to wrestle his way into that space within him again that he had created under false pretenses when they had shared intimate time alone. He could actually feel the storm brewing as he narrowed his eyes and shot daggers across the short distance between them, aiming for the kill.

He grew rigid and tense and took his cue from the expression dying on Louis’ face. His large hands came up and connected with Louis’ shoulder, unceremoniously pushing his body off his lap without holding back his surge of strength. Louis toppled to the ground in a heap and laid in a tangle of limbs in shock and stared up at Harry as he got to his feet and immediately began to stalk off with determination. He didn’t even chance a look back, having no concern for the manipulative omega’s wellbeing.

Anger had ignited in every part of his body and with it came a confidence that squared his shoulders and straightened his back. The rush of testosterone was like fire in his veins and each stride felt like it was taken with more purpose than the last until his head was effortlessly held high once again. There was a pulsing in his ears that drown out everything around him, even the sobs of an omega in distress was lost on him.

Vengeance is a powerful motivation and there was nothing that would stop him from being the alpha he was born to be. Now he had an aspiration to become everything he thought he would never be able to be. He would show them all that they couldn’t keep him down. He would show them that they hadn’t broken his spirit. He would show Louis that he didn’t need him. Maybe he would take one of his omega sisters just out of spite. The possibilities were endless now that he felt his resolve returning.

Hormones played such an important role in so many aspects of life. They could have an omega writhing on a bed, an alpha crazy with primal instincts and have their bodies know when to reduce them to this condition. They also determined characteristics, the ability to scent different moods from different sexes, and so many things that aren’t as easily detected.

Harry would never have placed much thought in the science behind their biology but he also couldn’t deny it’s intensity as he felt his body changing in his strides towards home. It felt like a switch had been flipped and suddenly he had allowed himself back into the alpha space he had been so proud to enter when he had presented. He felt stronger, felt broader and, most importantly, he felt sharper. In the year of his confinement, he had felt himself wasting away, had restricted himself and closed everything off as his future had been compromised. It had dulled his senses in a way he had not realized until everything now seemed crisp and clear in front of him, the contrast illustrating what he had been missing. Every detail was easily visible on the path ahead of him from the different colour tones on a pebble to the flutter of individual leaves and blades of grass. He all came in to focus. It had been hours of walking and he did not yet feel tired, hearing the rustle of leaves around him, birds chirping off in the distance and... the faint sound of gravel crunching behind him.

He didn’t want to turn around now but the more he focused, the better he could hear the uneven steps some distance behind him. Turning his nose to the air, he could smell it was Louis, the scent just slightly stronger than what he had left lingering on his clothing. He could command Louis to leave him, dominate him with his alpha voice and leave him whimpering submissively in the middle of the dirt road but no. He would let the pack take care of him once they returned. He would expose Louis’ deception and leave them to rip him apart as they felt necessary. As much as the hate festered within him, after the time they had spent together he wasn’t sure he would be able to take care of Louis himself. It also was against his biology to hurt an omega no matter how evil they became and one he had once shared a connection with made it even harder. Stubbornly he pushed the soft spot for Louis down, burying it underneath his new found sense of pride and tried his best to erase it.

That didn’t stop him from tracking the steps behind him, though. Omegas weren’t built for extended exertion, even their heats left them weaker than an alpha in the same position. It was the alphas who were built to protect and hunt, were the embodiment of all things physical. Knowing that, it should have come as no surprise when the foot falls behind him became more uneven and drawn out, irregular in their tempo and length of stride. They were coming from a further distance now as well, at least a half mile behind him when at first he had nearly been on his heels.

He paused in his tracks at a sound that he couldn’t just ignore. The sound was a dull thump that was muffled from the distance behind him but after, the footsteps behind him had ceased. His instinct pulled at him to turn around and go back, the urge to make sure the omega was alright was starting to become stronger than the resentment that kept him pushing forward.

It wasn’t more than a dozen steps after he had turned back before he could see the pile of rumpled clothes in the middle of the road in the distance. He began to run, unable to hear the shuddering breaths that had been accompanying the gravel crunches he had been tracking. The distance was made short with his long strides, arriving next to the heap on the ground in no time. He knelt and placed his hand on Louis’ back, relief flooding him when he could feel the shallow breathing still keeping him alive. He couldn’t leave him, wouldn’t leave him where he knew he wouldn’t be able to defend himself. He couldn’t leave him with such an unknown fate now that it wasn’t just an anger induced thought in his head.

He gently scooped the unconscious omega easily into his arms, cradling him against his chest as he rose and continued back towards his village which now was within his sight.

Chapter Text

Numb was something that Harry had grown to know well.  It was a defense mechanism that shielded his mind when it threatened to shut down on him completely.   It was a cocoon he wrapped himself in when the pain was too consuming. It was a comfort he slipped away to when the void had grown too large to fill.  

Yes, numb was something that Harry knew well.  Yet why was it so hard to find that space when he needed it the most?  

The waiting was torturous, everything in his body screaming to reach out, to protect, to comfort, to heal.  They were all things he should have been growing into after he presented, emotions and urges he should have been learning to control and interpret.  Instead, they flooded him as he had the first real contact he had ever had with an omega, the first real connection, the first exposure his senses had to a potential mate.  He couldn’t dial them back even with the conflicting thoughts he had plaguing his mind, with the small voices echoing that Louis was not just in danger, Louis WAS danger. It was a violent game of tug of war with himself and what he knew to be true.  

But how could he dwell on that when Louis was still unconscious, breathing still shallow and body lifeless like a ragdoll.

The doctor had been called once he had finally made it back to the house, Harry ushered out of the room in his state after he growled threateningly at the professional he knew was only there to help.  It hadn’t been something he had been able to hold back, the deep rumble already leaving his chest before he realized what he was doing. His behaviour even frightened himself, a deeply ingrained instinct that burst out of him without his control or command.   It was almost like watching someone he didn’t know hovering over Louis’ body yet every action felt too personal to ever be anything other than his own.

Nobody even knew what had happened, his family hovering just beyond his reach and watching him like a caged wild animal.  No one had ever seen him behave this way and he knew that he couldn’t blame them for how cautious they were. He couldn’t when he thought about himself the same way.  There was a fear of what he might do if provoked, a fear that he would cause irreparable harm driven by an instinctual force. He wouldn’t even be surprised if his father had called guards to stand just out of sight, ready to spring into action to counter any aggressive moves.    

It wasn’t until Louis was stable that the doctor emerged from the guest room.  He tossed Harry a hand towel that was covered in Louis’ scent to distract him just enough to approach.  A nerve twinged as the doctor stuck his arm with a small prick that instantly calmed him down a few notches, withdrawing with a cautious expression.  It cleared Harry’s head rather than making him hazy like he would expect from drugs given to him in the past and he sat down hard onto one of the chairs in front of their fireplace.  Looking around the familiar sitting room, he finally truly registered he was back at home. It was a little disorienting to realize it once all the fragmented thoughts of his surroundings and family were snapped into their proper places.  

“He’ll be fine,” the doctor assured him firmly with a grounding hand on his arm, holding the contact until Harry hesitantly made eye contact with him to be sure that Harry had heard the message and understood it.  “Just some exhaustion and dehydration. He’ll be okay after some fluids and rest.”

Harry found himself nodding, looking down while his hands fiddled with the towel that still faintly smelled of the omega.  The hormone neutralizers that had been shot into his bloodstream brought him slowly back to himself and made him ashamed of drawing such attention to himself.  His withdrawn behaviour was not something that had disappeared once he had been freed, even with his momentary spells of confidence. The damage ran deep. It was who he had become.     

“The more serious matter at hand seems to be the pre-bond that you’ve somehow formed as your behaviour suggests.  There is not an easy solution but it is a conversation that needs to be had. It won’t be without difficulty, but it would be in the omega’s best interest for you to break it while it’s still new.”

“Pre-bond?” Harry questioned, chancing a glance up.  

“I have only see it in courting couples who are waiting for marriage to seal their bond, usually only with pre-bonding rituals.  It is not to be taken lightly as I’m sure you know. If you let it grow further…” The doctor trailed off and glanced up at Harry’s father, using a motion of his hand to indicate that Harry should be able to finish the thought but he couldn’t.  He didn’t understand what it would mean to let it grow, it wasn’t something he had heard of before. It made him feel small and incompetent, uneducated about something he clearly should have known about but then gender studies had been all but abandoned for him over the past year.  It wasn’t knowledge that anyone felt would be useful to him after what had happened.

“If you let the pre-bond grow stronger,” the doctor started hesitantly like he was about to deliver some delicately bad news.  It seemed that was exactly what he was about to do. “In your condition… Unable to seal the bond… Harry, the rejection would eventually kill him.”

Something flared deeply within him and he found himself towering above the doctor, hands trembling as he clenched them at his sides.  It only took a few seconds for the impulse to subside, the neutralizers still hard at work in his system to control his body’s instincts but not fast enough for the guards not to appear in the doorway with their weapons tensed at the ready.  He reluctantly sank down into his chair again, unable to still the tremors running through his limbs.

It was confusing to him now that the drugs kept his head clear, this overwhelming need to keep Louis safe while also wishing the worst for him after what he had been a part of.  In either case, though, he found that he didn’t want Louis to die, especially not on account of him. He’d never be able to forgive him and saw his own body and mind withering away wtih even the thought.  

“How would I break the bond?” he asked, teeth clenching even as he tried to force himself to say the words, his own body fighting against him in a hellish angel and devil routine, each fighting for a different outcome.  He rationally didn’t want to bond with such a malicious omega yet all the hours he spent fantasizing about being able to mate him still pulled strongly at his heart. But he also wouldn’t want his rejection to break Louis down.   He wasn’t sure he’d be able to live with either option. Deceitful as he was, Louis would never make a trustworthy mate which would never make for a happy life. Cutting Louis off to die would never leave Harry happy either.

“We would have to start with aversion therapy,” the doctor started with another glance at Harry’s father and all Harry could do was lean forward to bury his face in his hands.  It already hurt just to think about it. The edges of his consciousness ached with the idea of surgically removing Louis from the places their souls were already connected. His body cried out with phantom pains of never having contact with Louis again.  The answer was becoming far too clear for comfort.

“And if we’d bond?  It would be okay?” he cut him off, words muffled against his palms.  

“In a normal situation, yes.  But with your… condition…” The doctor paused to clear his throat, hesitating before he continued.  “In your condition, bonding will never be possible. It would never be complete. It would kill you both.”  

“My condition,” Harry scoffed, shaking his head with the irony of the situation.  Louis had been part of the condition that would eventually kill him, still would if Harry willed it so.  

“I know it is a delicate matter, but we have to face the reality here.  You are no longer a valid or capable alpha and the omega must be removed from the house at once before any further damage is done.”

“I’m as much an alpha as you’ll ever be.”  A growl rumbled through Harry’s chest and he rose from his chair once again to square his shoulders and face off with the doctor who had chosen to question his reacquired manhood.   

“Now Harry, we are all well aware of your condition,” the doctor held out a hand in an attempt to calm him but Harry just narrowed his eyes at the gesture.  “As regrettable as it is, you will never be a fully functional alpha while that device is in place and it may well leave you permanently disabled in the future should it be removed.”

The doctor’s words made him tense and shrink back into himself.  Harry had seen for himself that his dick wasn’t the same as it had been before.  There was no way to know if he could pop a knot once he tried and by then, it might be too late.  

He found that he had backed himself against the wall and felt small and unworthy once again, trembling with the thought that he’d still never be an alpha even with his body back in his own control.  

“How will I know if the damage is permanent?” Harry asked and felt clammy while he awaited the answer he didn’t want to hear.  

“There would be no way to know until the device is removed.”  The doctor stated which made a wave of shame was over Harry. He’d have to tell him what had happened.  

“And if it were removed?” Harry finally looked up and met the doctor’s eyes with meaningful contact he hoped would relay the message without Harry having to elaborate.  

“Harry, what have you done?” The doctor’s voice was hushed and urgent and the tone was not lost.  

It had been discussed before but his father had put his foot down.  An alpha son caged against his will was better than one invalidated by their own actions.  Once hope had been lost to free the cage, cutting flesh had been the next option offered. It was a gamble that he would have function once it was completed and it would be unlikely he could bear children, but it would leave him free from the heavy prison.  Harry would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about that option in moments of his darkest desperation. A clean slice the only thing between him and his freedom. It had been so tempting.

But that had not been what he’d done and no one in the room had even been aware of his absence or any of the ways he had been recently tortured.  None of them could even imagine that he had been freed only to be confined with more obstacles. He would never be free to tell them.

“Nothing.  I’ve done nothing.  But my condition has changed.”  

The doctor swiftly waved his confused family from the room and rounded on him like he was child about to be punished for speaking of something vile.  Harry cowered back against the wall with the approach.

“What have you done?” the doctor asked again, this time just inches from Harry’s face to demonstrate the seriousness of his question.  

“I haven’t done anything,” Harry answered in a biting tone at the implication that he had harmed himself in the most irreparable and drastic way.   

“Show me,” the doctor demanded, obviously not believing that Harry had not harmed himself.  

That was exactly what the doctor would think once he saw the state he was in, dried blood and uncomfortable raw skin open from the acid.  It caused Harry to hesitate long enough for the doctor to reach out for Harry’s trousers himself.

“Who did this to you?” The doctor gasped and pulled Harry’s hips forward in order to get a better look with the light from the window.  

Harry clenched his eyes shut while his body trembled, every inch of instinct begging him to pull away from any touch and cover himself.  He’d been examined many times but it was too much without the shield of his cage, he was too vulnerable without it. It had become a part of him.

“Just– just someone who was able to get it loose.”  He was unable to stop his voice from trembling and, as tears began to well in his eyes, realized that he was not providing a very stable or dominant image for his newly re-acquired alphahood.  His feeble explanation wasn’t going to hold up either.

“These look like infected chemical burns.  How long ago was this done? What was used?”  The doctor sat him down and started to wipe his wounds with a liquid that had his nerves on fire in seconds.  The pain he’d experienced in his most sensitive areas was more than any alpha should be subjected to in a lifetime yet it seemed to be ongoing for Harry.  

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” he moaned out and fought to push the doctor’s hands away on instinct, anything to stop the burn, to stop the torture.  

“If you don’t want to lose it completely, you’ll have to let me treat you,” the doctor was stern as he struggled one of Harry’s hands to his side and pinned it there while he attempted to have a closer look.  

Harry tried but his body shook.  It was too much, it was all too much and Harry felt the pull as his mind began to shut down in sections like a hallway full of light switches, one flip at a time.  

“The extreme measures a young alpha will take for sex,” the doctor muttered as he shook his head.  The implication that Harry had willingly mutilated himself made the actual scenario playback for him in vivid details until he was screaming and thrashing to free himself.  The lights continued to flip off and when the finally switch was thrown, the floor was the last place he registered being.