15. Sleeping With Gabriel

The knock on the closet door was so soft, he almost missed it.

"Come in."

He paced to the end of the bed, but changed his mind halfway and returned to his previous spot near the wall.

Alice opened the door and peeked into the room. She looked like a frightened animal coming out of its hole, checking for predators. It didn't help that he wanted to be the predator and eat her up.

But not tonight. Tonight, he needed to keep a cool head and not scare her. Tonight was about catching a spy, not seducing Alice. So why the fuck did he feel so nervous?

Alice gently closed the door behind her and slowly approached the bed. She was compulsively smoothing her T-shirt over her blue pajama pants. She was wearing her oldest pair; the color was faded and the fabric looked worn. Maybe she was trying to look as unattractive as possible?

"So, we just sleep? That's your whole plan?" Her voice was shaking slightly.

He nodded. "I have the list of people who are on duty each day this week. They are rotating every day."

"How will you know if someone says anything?"

He gave her a faint smile. "Let's just say I have a little bird in my pocket that will let me know as soon as there is a rumor you spent the night with me." He tried to sound reassuring, hoping she wouldn't ask who the bird was.

"And when you catch this person, we can stop, right?"

Now he gave her a mischievous grin. "Yes, unless you like sleeping here so much, you want to continue."

He would love that…

She gave him a droll smile. She wasn't taking him seriously, but after this nasty business, he would make sure she understood that he meant it.

He pulled the blanket back and got into bed. Alice hesitated to get in, so he gently patted the bed beside him.

"This is so awkward," she said as she settled as far away from him as she could. For the first time, he regretted buying such a large bed. She might as well be on the other side of the room.

She turned her back to him. "Goodnight, Gabriel."

Gabriel turned off the lights and pulled the blanket up to his waist. "Goodnight."

He was going to have trouble sleeping at all tonight. He usually slept naked and didn't pull up the blanket. He didn't even own pajamas. But tonight, he had scrounged up an old pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt to wear. Alice wouldn't appreciate him sleeping naked; plus, she needed the blanket. She was always cold to the touch—in stark contrast to him—and he was too hot to sleep properly. He longed to reach out and cool off on her skin.

With a deep breath, he turned to his side and watched her breathing. Her hair was spread over the pillow and down to the sheet. He wanted to reach out and play with it. He followed the curve of her body with his eyes and longed to follow it with his hand, all the way from the tip of her shoulder to the curve of her ass.

"Are you going to stare at me all night, Gabriel?"

Stupid omega powers.

"Sorry." He turned away from her to stare at the ceiling, but then he heard the rustle of the sheets and found Alice looking at him. Her eyes looked almost all black in the dark.

"Can I ask you something?" Her voice was so low that he had to scoot over a bit to hear her better.

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"Have you been with anyone since you became my mate?"

The question sounded casual, but it took him by surprise.

"No, I haven't."

"Why not?"

He took a deep breath before replying. "Why are you asking, Alice?"

"Because I don't want to be in the way of your happiness."

"You're not. You are not in the way of anything."

"Please, Gabriel," she replied in a dry tone. "I can feel you, remember? I feel it when you're stressed, when you're angry, and when you're unhappy." She reached out to him and held his hand. "You were all three last night, and it made me think that maybe I'm stopping you from doing things you want to do."

"Like having sex?" He rubbed his face with his free hand. This was the right conversation at the wrong time.

"Among other things… but maybe it's not a coincidence that sex is the first thing that comes to your mind." She let go of his hand to rub the skin over her heart. She had been doing that since Bruno's death, and he was surprised the spot hadn't turned raw by now.

"Go to sleep, Alice. We can talk about this another time," he told her while turning away from her.

"Yes, alpha," she replied mockingly.

He closed his eyes and tried to drift to sleep. The clock on the nightstand kept teasing him with the hours, slowly parading them by his eyes. Shit, no amount of coffee was going to be enough tomorrow.

One in the morning. He could hear Alice's gentle breathing, sleeping as quietly as a mouse. Two in the morning. Alice's smell was filling the room, and it teased his senses. It was a bittersweet torture. He stared up at the ceiling and tried counting sheep.

Shaking in her sleep, Alice reached out and grabbed his arm. Her hand was cold and there was a frown on her face. Was she having a nightmare?

"Don't go…" she whispered.

His heart raced, and the need to protect her jumped at him. He wanted to wrap himself around her and shield her from the world. He settled with cupping her cheek. "I'll stay right here."

She pulled herself closer and settled against his arm. If he was warm before, now his body burned where she was touching him. He couldn't resist wrapping his other arm around her shoulders. He could stay like this for just a bit, right? Nothing wrong with giving her some comfort while she slept. He could turn around when morning came. He couldn't fall asleep anyway. He wondered why there were so many rabbits dancing in his nightclub. He tried to catch one, but they all slipped through his fingers and kept dancing and hopping around. There was the sound of a door opening, and he saw some go outside. No, that wasn't good, that wasn't safe! He stood in front of the door and tried to stop them, to catch them, but one by one, they hopped around his legs, evaded his hands, and went outside. There were still hundreds of rabbits, but he couldn't stop them from escaping the club.

"Gabriel, could you please let go?"

Alice's voice woke him from the dream. He tried to remember what he had dreamed about, but all he could remember was that it had been very silly. He sighed and snuggled up to Alice, burying his face in her hair. This dream was far more pleasant.

"Gabriel?"

He opened his eyes and was surprised by the soft light in the room coming in from a crack in the shades. It was as if he had just fallen asleep. Alice was snuggled up to him, her back to his chest, her ass on his hips, and her feet trapped under his ankles. She tried to move away from him but couldn't, and it took him a few seconds to understand why. He had both arms wrapped around her in a tight grip, her head held in place by his.

"Not sure I want to let go. This is very comfortable."

"I need to pee!" Alice tried wiggling out of his arms again, and this time he did let go.

"Well, can't argue with that," he said, more to himself. He could hear the disappointment in his own voice. "Use my bathroom, not yours."

"Is that part of your plan too?"

He didn't have time to reply before she raced to the bathroom.

Propping himself on one elbow, he caressed the sheets next to him, her warmth still lingering in the fabric. A sweet scent came from her side of the bed, something he'd never smelled before. His curiosity led him to take a deep breath of it. It caressed his skin, from his face to his chest and all the way down to his groin. He rubbed is face. He needed to ask to have his sheets changed in order for his plan to work, and that meant losing her scent on his bed. Shit…

He sat up and adjusted his erection, trying to get more comfortable. He hoped Alice hadn't felt it, but the way her ass had been pressed on his hips made it quite unlikely. She was a grown woman who had been married for several years; she knew this kind of thing happened. Right?

Alice came out of the bathroom but stayed by the door. She crossed her arms over her chest. Her face looked red and her hair was wet around her face. She still had that sweet smell around her. He hoped it would linger in the bedroom after she left.

"We are so late for work," she complained.

"I'm First Chair. They can fucking wait for me." He didn't get up, needing her to leave first. He lifted a leg to hide his erection from her.

"What's with the foul language so early in the morning?"

"Sorry. I didn't sleep very well."

"Me neither. I really hope your plan works today." She hesitated. "What do I do now?"

"Leave the room by the corridor. Maybe go to the kitchen to grab a coffee? I will join you in a bit."

She nodded and left the room, taking that delicious sweetness with her.

He let himself fall back on the mattress, grab her pillow, and take the deepest breath he could. Then he got up to lock the door, opened a drawer on his nightstand, and took out some tissues. He settled back on the bed next to her scent, and fumbled with the waist of his sweatpants. He wasn't used to doing this with his pants on, but they had spent all night touching her, and he found keeping them on was far more erotic.

He pleasured himself while thoughts of what could have happened last night ran through his mind. He imagined his hand traveling over her body, tracing the curve of her ass, moving around her hips, and sliding into those ugly pajama pants. In his imagination, she wore nothing underneath. His mind ran wild, coming up with all the ways he could take her, imagining her face filled with pleasure as he buried himself inside her. He stroked his erection until he spent himself on the tissues. Breathing heavily, he went to the bathroom to dispose of them. He washed his hands and face, and went to join Alice in the kitchen. His room smelled of sex, and they smelled of each other. It was enough bait to make the would-be spy race to share the news.

In the kitchen, Alice was happily talking with one of the housekeepers, a beta in her sixties. The woman was all smiles, her gaze darting between him and Alice. He was sure she could tell they smelled of each other. He was no fool; he knew the help gossiped between themselves about them.

He turned to the beta. "Could you please change the sheets in my bed?" he asked her with a smile. "And maybe air the room a bit?"

"Of course." She gave them a big smile and left. The staff was going to be so disappointed when Alice went back to sleeping in her own bed.

They were protective of Alice and fussed over her, much to her chagrin. But he also was certain they didn't gossip with anyone outside the household. Not only would his command stop that from happening, but Alice was theirs to take care of, and they took that seriously. That was another of the reasons why this would-be spy bothered him so much. Someone who didn't want to protect her could harm her.

"You seemed so happy a few moments ago, and now you're back to brooding," Alice said before taking a sip of coffee.

"I think I'm going to work from home this week. Not sure how many nights like this I can take."

"Said the man who runs a nightclub."

"I sleep late after the nightclub, not early like today." He helped himself to some coffee and sat next to her at the kitchen table.

"What time do you think it is?" She chuckled.

He drank half his coffee in one gulp. It was scalding hot, and it burned down his throat. "Not late enough."

The next two nights and mornings were the same kind of torture. They fell asleep as far away from each other as possible, but during the night Alice would reach out to him. She talked in her sleep and would say little things that got Gabriel's heart racing. But they were not for him—they were for Bruno. Even in death, his friend still haunted him and made him envious of his connection to Alice.

But Gabriel would be the one she dreamed about soon. She might be whispering Bruno's name, but it was his arm she held onto now.

On the fourth morning of sleeping with Alice, while he was still having his first bucket of coffee, he got a text from Rita.

"Has your mate finally decided to put out? I'm betting it's just goodbye sex. Are we still on for Saturday?"

A smile of triumph spread over his face. He saw the cleaner come down the service stairs with a laundry basket under one arm and a mobile phone in his hand. He had been all smiles when Gabriel had asked him to change the sheets, but now he had a frown on his face.

Gabriel knew the beta well. Joel was a friend of a friend, and had asked him for a job years ago. Gabriel had found work for him at his favorite hotel, cleaning rooms, and Joel had been happy there. The manager of the hotel had praised him to Gabriel several times, so when he needed help for the apartment, Joel was one of the first people that came to mind.

A wave of anger clashed inside him, hitting the barriers of his self-control. He wanted to get up and beat Joel to a pulp. But Gabriel wasn't some low alpha who had no control over his emotions. He was going to do things right, and give Matts the opportunity to take a peek inside the guy's head.

He went to his office and locked the door. The first thing he needed to do was make sure Alice was safe this Saturday.

He called Naomi. "Hey there, gorgeous, sorry to bother you so early."

"It's almost noon, Gabriel." Naomi informed him drolly.

"Well, early for me."

"How can I help you?"

"How do you feel about getting the girls and spending the day here this Saturday? And maybe the night?"

"By here, you mean your house?"

"Yes, where else?"

"You're on a mobile phone," Naomi replied.

He laughed. "Fair enough. So will you help me?"

"And here I thought you wanted to drag Alice to your club this Saturday. What changed?"

"There is a little rat in the house, and I'm going to lure it out." He looked around. No one could hear him with the door closed, but better be safe than sorry.

"I see. I will take care of it, no worries. Can't let my girl be around rats." Naomi understood him without issues; he'd been sure she would. He was convinced she was almost an alpha, with the way she took charge and handled difficult situations.

"Good. I'll text you more information today."

Next, he made the arrangements necessary to make sure his prey didn't escape. His men were going to be glued to them like bubblegum to a shoe. He set up the trap for Saturday with his people, and reinforced Alice's security for the week. She might resent him for it, but now was not the time to be cautious about her feelings.

He closed the call with his men and scowled at his phone. Now he had to make the hardest call.

"Hey, Matts. How is Norway?"

"I would guess still in the same place, but I'm in France at the moment." Gabriel heard the telltale sound of a cigarette pull. "How can I help you?"

"I found two little strays, and I thought you might enjoy playing with them." He was surprised at the edge in his voice. He was in control of himself, but he really wanted to rip Joel's neck…

There was a pause on the line.

"Is she in danger?" It was a simple question, but Matts's tone conveyed so much more.

"Only of getting pissed off at me," Gabriel replied. It would make the other man feel better.

He heard another pull on a cigarette before Matts said anything.

"Good. When do you need me?"

"I plan on catching them this Saturday. I can keep them for you for as long as you need."

There was the sound of a punch, and moans of pain in the background. Matts ignored them as he talked.

"I'm a bit busy this week, but I'll try to join you on Sunday." The groans grew distant, as if Matts was walking away. "Do you need me to send Henryk in the meantime?"

"No, I've got this covered."

There was an awkward silence between them. Gabriel heard the pull of a cigarette again.

"I'll see how much on Sunday, I guess," Matt said before disconnecting the call.

How he hated the man.

Come Saturday, Gabriel was ready to spring the trap.

He checked his phone. Naomi had sent him a text message to reassure him everything was okay back home. His men had Joel surrounded in his apartment and were waiting for his signal. It was up to him to catch the other stray first.

He walked into the hotel with a heavy step, determined to get things done as quickly as possible. People in the lobby parted to make way for him, not because he was the First Chair—he wasn't even sure they recognized him right now—but because he was an alpha with apparent murderous intent.

He pressed the elevator button and tried to relax, breathing in deeply to get a grip on himself. If he walked into the room with his emotions on his sleeve, he would scare his target.

He had confirmed with the hotel manager that Rita was in the room, enjoying a late breakfast he had sent up for her. On his phone, he checked the live feed of the corridor outside her room. No movement at all. He had requested the whole floor be empty unless someone specifically requested for a room near theirs. He didn't want any innocent people around.

He was quite sure Rita was acting alone, in her own self-interest. He doubted the alpha who was chasing Alice would let such a precious information node like Joel be casually used like she did. The fact that no one had requested a room near her reinforced his suspicion. If someone had, he would have gone about this very differently.

There was still a chance that this was a trap to kill him.

He smiled to himself. Let them try. He wouldn't be as easy a prey as Bruno was.

He knocked on the door of the room, and heard scrambling inside. Rita opened the door slowly, and glanced around before letting him in.

Her eyes were red, and although she was dressed up in a revealing outfit, she looked disheveled. His mental alarm bells went off, and he locked the door behind him.

"Is everything all right?" he asked as she wrung her hands.

"Yes." She gave him a smile that was too big to be honest. "I was just really looking forward to this."

He saw a travel bag near the bed, next to the food cart. She had hardly touched her breakfast. This was not what he had expected.

He sat on the edge of the bed, making sure he was between her and the door.

"Why so nervous, darling?" He offered her his most seductive smile. "I thought this was what you wanted."

She relaxed a little and stood in front of him, settling between his legs. She placed one hand on his shoulder and played with his hair with the other.

"You're going to keep me safe now, right?" She had a teasing smile on her lips, but her eyes seemed close to tears.

"Of course," he purred as he placed his hands on her hips and squeezed, swaying her gently on the spot. "But what am I keeping you safe from?"

Rita hesitated and looked at the door. He gently took her chin and tilted her head to look into her eyes.

"I can keep you safe," he told her honestly. "What are you running from, Rita?"

"There is this guy, this alpha, who wasn't happy that I came to you last weekend." She sat on his lap and leaned into him.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at her. "Did you tell him about our deal?"

"No!" She stood straighter, but his hands kept her in his lap. "He thinks I just wanted to sleep with you. He doesn't know anything else."

"Good." He brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, then gently massaged one shoulder. "Who is this guy?"

She closed her eyes and melted into his touch. "He's no one, a very forgettable guy. I only saw him once and I can't even remember his face."

Gabriel tensed for one second, then forced himself to relax.

"Why is he scaring you so much, then?" he asked playfully, trying to disarm her, and toyed with the skin on her neck. "Do you think he can barge in here and take you away from me?"

"He…" She turned to the door again, and he felt her pulse in her carotid artery speed up. He made a soothing sound to coax her into talking.

"He knows things." Her eyes were wide and shiny with tears. "He only touched me once, but he did something. It was…" She shivered.

"Did he molest you?" Gabriel tried to keep the edge off his voice. Rita might be a threat to his mate, but he didn't abide to women being abused.

To his surprise, she laughed. "Him? No, he's not interested in women—at least, not like that. He just wanted to know more about you when we met."

He raised an eyebrow at her again. She petted his cheek. "Don't worry. I don't think he's interested in you like that, either. I think you have something that he wants."

Someone, not something, he corrected her in his mind. "Did he tell you what it is?"

"No. It's probably nothing important." She waved her hand to dismiss the subject. "He's nobody anyway."

The dichotomy of how she talked about this alpha and how she reacted to him intrigued Gabriel.

One hand still on her hip, he used his other hand to caress her back. A genuine smile graced her lips, and her face relaxed again. "What did he want to know?"

"I can't tell you," she said in a low purr. "Why are we still talking about him anyway? We should be talking about us."

She put both her hands behind his head and tried to pull him in for a kiss. He refused to kiss her, pushing her hands away from him. Her head snapped back, her eyes wide. "What are you doing?"

The game was at its end, and it was time to snap the trap.

He slid her off his lap and got up, pressing her shoulder so she sat on the bed. He kept his hand there so she would remain still. He fished his phone out of his pocket and quick-dialed Lemos.

"Go."

A simple command put everything into motion.

Rita tried to push his hand off her shoulder, but he was stronger than her.

"Stay there," he commanded her as he opened the door to let his people in. Angela, a tall and imposing alpha, came into the room first, followed by one of the betas she commanded. Two other betas from her team waited outside.

Rita got up from the bed and backed into the window, panic in her eyes. Gabriel cursed. He had given her a clear command and she was disobeying him.

"I trusted you!" Rita yelled at him while Angela cuffed her wrists behind her back.

"And you did the right thing," Gabriel replied, watching a live feed of Joel's capture on his phone. "I told you I would keep you safe. That other alpha won't reach you."

His people dragged Rita out of the room and into a service elevator. They went directly to the deepest level on the parking lot and put her in a black van. She cried and fought them all the way.

He felt like a villain.

Matts arrived Monday morning by private plane. Gabriel waited at his car, near the landing strip he reserved for government flights, as he watched Matts supervise the removal of some delicate piece of luggage from the plane. It looked like a table, wrapped in protective plastic and paper. He recognized one of the men with him, Henryk, inspecting the package.

Satisfied with the condition of the parcel, Matts walked over to his car.

"Good morning," he said, jovial.

When they shook hands, Gabriel noticed there was a cut along Matts's knuckles.

"Good morning," Gabriel said, more somber. He pointed to the table-shaped thing. "What the fuck is that?"

Matts grinned at him. "The reason why I'm late."

Matts looked like he had been through hell. His eyes were dark with lack of sleep, his skin was bruised under his stubble on the left side of his jaw, and he was holding himself stiffly. Well, more stiffly than he normally did—the man did usually look like he had a broomstick up his ass.

"Don't they have Tubes in France?" Gabriel asked Matts, trying to get a better view of the cut.

Matts dropped his hand. "No time for that. This seemed more important than fixing a few bruises." He pushed his hair out of his eyes. The side of his head had another cut. "I'll tell you all about it while we visit your strays."

"All right. But you'll have to go to the Tube first if you want to see Alice. Otherwise she'll worry."

Matts gave him a mischievous smile. "Maybe I want her to worry about me."

Henryk yelled something to Matts that Gabriel didn't understand.

"Can you arrange for the package to be delivered to wherever your strays are?"

Gabriel studied it with suspicion. It'd better not be some torture device.

"Sure." He picked up his phone and arranged for a truck to come by and pick the damn thing up. "If you had asked for it in advance, I would have one here already."

Matts just gave Gabriel a casual smile. It seemed like nothing could get under that man's skin.

"It's something the strays are after. I prefer them not to know where one is available."

Gabriel lifted an eyebrow at Matts, but didn't ask. Matts loved having the upper hand when it came to his work, and wasn't usually forthcoming with information unless he had to be.

When the truck arrived, they carefully loaded the package onto it, and Henryk sat beside it in the back of the truck.

Matts joined Gabriel in his car and they drove to the Monsanto prison, where both Joel and Rita were being held under heavy security.

"Will Daniel meet us there?" Matts asked.

"He's already there. Joel tried to hurt himself yesterday, and Daniel has him sedated."

"Typical." Matts scoffed. "Their leader doesn't seem to care much about the people he leaves behind."

"What do you mean?" He glanced at Matts, but he was watching Monsanto's forest through his window.

Matts took a deep breath and held a hand to his ribs, as if it hurt him to talk about this.

"Before Alice's hearing, I followed his trail in Germany." Matts hesitated before continuing. "It's where part of the conversion Tube is made."

"He's after the Tube?" Gabriel asked, shifting gear to adjust to the steep climb of the hill.

"Yes, among other things, but he won't succeed in that." Matts grinned. "It's impossible to assemble one without one of the Potentia ad Opus present."

So, the powers at work had to be present to make one of the machines. Made sense; they were the ones who'd created them, after all. But Matts was putting a lot of trust in him by sharing this.

"I caught one of his men while we investigated a warehouse. He killed himself before we could interrogate him."

"Shit," Gabriel said between his teeth. The guy was ruthless; he had killed dozens of people on his attack to get to Bruno. But to think he would abandon his own men this easily… "That will make him much harder to catch."

"Now you know why I was so anxious to get Alice sedated at the hearing." Matts turned to him with a dark look in his eyes. "I thought she might try to hurt herself at your command."

Gabriel suppressed a shudder. He didn't like to think of the hearing, and when he did, he kept revisiting the moment she'd almost fallen off the roof. He had never run so fast in his life.

"Do you think he would kill an omega so easily?" Gabriel asked. He couldn't believe anyone would be able to hurt an omega, even a basic human.

"Could he? Yes. These strays aren't linked to the high powers. They don't obey the general rules imprinted in all of us." Matts scratched his stubble, lost in thought for a moment. "But would he?" He shrugged.

"He did go through a lot of trouble to get her. Did he try for any of the other omegas yet?" Gabriel was afraid of the answer.

"No. I think he just wants Alice."

Gabriel's grip on the steering wheel tightened.

They arrived at the prison, and Gabriel drove the car into an unassuming building near the center of the complex. The prison didn't look like much on the outside. He noticed Matts's surprise when he looked around. It was never a prison made for serious criminals, and when the conversion started, crime had dropped to almost nonexistent. The only ones who would still commit crimes were basic humans and some alphas, and those were locked up elsewhere. Gabriel had taken advantage of the empty prison to create a space for his private forces.

He greeted the men at the entrance of the building, and gave them orders to help with the unloading of the weird package.

Inside, Gabriel guided Matts down the hallway. The other alpha scoffed at the wide barred windows and sunny rooms they passed. Gabriel had kept the old, dilapidated look of the building on purpose. He wanted it to be as unassuming as possible.

"This doesn't seem very secure," Matts commented.

Gabriel tried to suppress a grin as they entered a spacious elevator and pressed the lower-level 3 button. Only the ground floor was visible from the outside, but the building went deep underground. They exited the elevator into a wide corridor with concrete flooring and walls, and several metal doors blocking their way. Gabriel put his finger on each keypad and the doors opened for them one at a time.

"My men will help Henryk bring in your table thingy." He tried not to sound too smug.

Matts looked at him with an amused expression.

"And I'll add you to the system, so you can come and go as you please."

"You keep surprising me, Gabriel," Matts told him with a smile. "Not many people do that."

They reached the end of the corridor, and Gabriel used this index finger again to open a heavy-looking metal door. Inside was a hospital bed with Joel strapped onto it. Daniel greeted Matts with a short handshake, and Gabriel with more enthusiasm.

"He is stable. No internal bleeding," Daniel told him while writing something in Joel's medical file. "But I would still like to run him through the Tube, just to be sure."

"I'll see if we can bring one here after Matts is done with him." Gabriel put a reassuring hand on the beta, but Daniel gave Matts a look of distrust.

Matts ignored him and inspected the man on the bed. Joel had thrown himself against the wall of his cell repeatedly before security could stop him. He had managed to hit his head a few times, and Gabriel hoped he could recover.

"And the other stray?" Matts asked him.

"A woman. I'll take you to her."

They walked to another section of the prison. Gabriel wanted the strays on the same floor, but on different sides of the building. He opened the door to Rita's cell.

Inside, the room was all white, divided in the middle by unbreakable glass. Angela sat in a chair by the wall, watching the prisoner with hawk eyes. Rita was sitting on a mattress on the floor, staring into the distance, knees to her chest. When they walked in, she refused to look up.

He crouched in front of the glass. "Hey there, Rita. Angela treating you all right?" he asked in Portuguese.

"Fuck off!" she replied to her knees.

"You have a visitor, please be polite." Now he spoke in English, for Matts's benefit.

She glared at the other alpha studying her with interest.

"What's this? You're gonna sell me off to some alpha now?" She was still speaking in Portuguese. He translated for Matts, and he laughed.

"And here I thought you were a charmer, Gabriel." Matts moved closer to the glass, but didn't crouch, instead watching Rita from above.

"I'm not selling you to anyone. I told you that you're safe here," Gabriel said. He sounded exasperated, but this was not the first time he'd had this conversation with her.

"Am I safe from you?" she asked.

He got up and sighed. "When do you want to start?" he asked Matts.

"Start what?" Rita stood, anxious. He didn't blame her, Matts was a scary alpha, and he was studying Rita with delight. His many bruises and cuts didn't help.

"I can start right away." He gave Rita an evil grin and she took a step back, tripping on the mattress.

They exited the cell, and Gabriel blocked Matts's path. "Did you need to fucking scare her like that?"

"No." Matts smiled so politely, one would think he was asked about the weather. He walked around Gabriel and entered the room where Henryk was setting up.

Gabriel followed, but before he could give Matts a piece of his mind, he spotted the odd table they had brought in.

It was neither a table nor a hospital bed, but an odd amalgamation of both. At first glance, it looked like a boxy steel bed standing on heavy legs. But the surface of the bed looked like black sand, shifting when anyone touched the metal sides. Henryk was connecting it to a power outlet, and Matt busied himself with the console on one side of the bed when it lit up.

Gabriel gently touched the sand. It was fabric, or at least, it had some fabric over it. His hand sank into it without applying any pressure, pulling him in like quicksand. He tried to remove his hand, but it was stuck.

He looked up at Matts to find him grinning.

"What the fuck is this?" Gabriel asked. The sand was holding onto him like a vise, and his arm was starting to feel numb.

Matts pressed something on the screen, and the sand pushed his hand out. Gabriel squeezed his hand several times, trying to regain sensation.

"Don't worry. The numbness dissipates very quickly." Matts chuckled.

"What the fuck is this?"

"This"—Matts opened his arms to encompass the whole bed—"is a bookkeeper's desk."

"Excuse me?" The bed looked nothing like a desk.

"It's what we use to open and read our books." Matts tapped his head with his index finger.

"Is that where the bookkeeper nickname came from?" He had expected something cleverer.

Henryk laughed. "Someone told Matts he could read him like a book. Turns out it was the other way around."

Both men laughed at their private joke, and Gabriel fought the urge to sigh.

"We're ready." Matts pressed a few buttons on his weird bed, and turned to Gabriel. "Shall we start with the male beta?"

"His name is Joel." Gabriel gave the command for Joel to be brought to the room. They brought him in a wheelchair, still heavily sedated.

"Could you please stop the sedation, Daniel?" Henryk asked the doctor. "We need him awake."

Daniel glanced at Gabriel, who nodded. Gabriel then watched as Matts and Henryk carefully placed the beta on the bed. His body half sank into the sand, but the head was still outside, supported by a black pillow that kept it in place.

"Perfectly still. That's what we need to be able to do this correctly." Matts dragged a chair to the head of the bed and sat down. It looked almost as if he was going to open Joel's skull and operate. He carefully placed his fingers around the beta's forehead, closed his eyes, and relaxed. After just a few seconds, his eyes snapped open.

"Yes, definitely been messed around with." He addressed Daniel. "Could you please wake him up a bit more? His mind is in too deep."

"What does that mean?" Daniel asked, his face lit with curiosity.

Matts smiled gently at the doctor. "It's hard to explain. It's like his conscious thought is in a part of the brain I cannot reach."

Daniel had a tray with medical supplies ready next to him, in case Joel tried to hurt himself again, and he gave the beta a shot while being careful not to touch the black sand. After a few minutes, Joel slowly opened his eyes, but he didn't move a muscle.

"Good. We can start." Matts gave instructions to Henryk, who strapped a short sleeve linked to the bed to Matts's wrist. They made sure it was tight, and then the young alpha positioned himself next to the console.

Gabriel expected this to be quick. After all, with just a touch, Matts had been able to see that their memories were erased. But after the first hour passed with nothing happening besides Matts making some pained expressions, he started to think something was wrong.

"Is he all right?" Daniel asked quietly to Henryk.

"Yes. The more the mind is altered, the longer it takes to check things."

"Can he restore lost memories?" Daniel asked quietly again.

Henryk smiled at him. "I know what you're thinking—the memories that were erased on your mind, right?"

Daniel nodded enthusiastically, but Gabriel already knew the reply. He had asked Matts about it after the hearing, eager to remember the face of the second claimant.

"It may be possible, but it would take a very long time," Henryk replied. "And it would depend on the damage done. Matts said your memory erasure was too quick and badly done for it to be helped."

"How long would it take to try?" Daniel insisted.

"Months?" Henryk shrugged. "And it may cause more damage than good. It's best not to mess with the brain if you can help it."

"Does that mean it's going to take Matts months to fix Joel?" Gabriel asked. He couldn't believe Matts could just disappear for so long to fix one beta's mind.

"He's not going to fix. Mostly just look."

"It didn't take him long to look into our memories in the courthouse."

"That was different. He was looking at a natural memory that was partly erased." Henryk glanced at the console and then at the beta. "These are memories that were extremely altered. He may even have false memories implanted."

"Shit." Gabriel rubbed his face with a groan. He watched another painful expression pass over Matts's face. Whatever he was doing to Joel's mind didn't seem pleasant.

Henryk called Daniel to his side and started teaching him how to handle the console. Daniel, ever the doctor, was fascinated with the machine.

If Gabriel had known it was going to take this long, he would have brought his laptop to get some work done, so instead he entertained himself by double-checking security in the building and talking with his people. He checked on Rita, and went upstairs to smoke a cigarette. And when all of that was done, he returned to the room and read one of Alice's books he had taken from their library.

After hours of waiting, Matts stirred and opened his eyes. Henryk fussed around him and removing the sleeve he had placed on Matts's wrist.

Matts stood on wobbly legs. "I need a cigarette and some sunlight."

They went to a sunny room on the ground floor. It was sparsely furnished, but it had a couch and some chairs, and they could open a window to smoke.

Matts sat heavily in the couch, took a pull on his cigarette, and pressed a cold water bottle to his head, near the cut. He had refused all pain medication from Daniel, claiming it would dull his senses.

"Our stray has no idea of what he's doing in these people's minds," Matts said to the room. "He gutted the beta's psyche like a fish, and stuffed it with fake memories that don't even make sense."

"He had no training, right? What did he put in?" Henryk was on the edge of his seat, watching his senior with anticipation.

Matts looked at Gabriel. "He had memories of you hurting Alice. He saw, or he thinks he saw, you hit her."

"What? I would never…" Gabriel rose from his chair, but stopped when Matts smirked at him.

"I know, Gabriel. The memory was terrible. It looked like a cheesy soap opera. Maybe that's where he got it from."

Gabriel got up and walked to the window. He couldn't relax, so he lit another cigarette, avoiding Daniel's judgmental gaze. The doctor didn't like how easily people had taken up smoking again, after the conversion.

"He does something interesting that I had never seen before, however." Matts stared into the floor, his brow furrowing and his lips pressed together tightly.

"What?" Henryk scooted even closer to the edge of his seat. "We already know every type of bookkeeping we can do."

"He can attach real emotions to the memories he creates."

Henryk stood up straight and looked at Matts as if the man had grown another head. "Not possible. You can't change emotions. They aren't memories."

"I'm not saying he changed an emotion, Henryk. I'm saying he took an emotion the beta had already felt, and attached it to that memory."

Henryk fell back into his chair. Then he got up and started pacing the room, one hand scratching his chin.

"Why is that such a big deal?" Gabriel asked. The attitude of the younger bookkeeper was stressing him out.

"Fake memories are easy to spot, even for the victim, because the emotion doesn't match the visual input going through your mind. It's easier to alter memories that already have the emotion you want, and make them look like something else. But then you are limited to your victim's experience." Matts got up and joined Gabriel near the window, another cigarette in his hand. "What he did was twist a memory, glueing an emotion over it. The mind focuses on the feel rather than the visual, and an idea is planted. In this case, that you were hurting Alice."

"Let me guess. He thought he was helping her by sharing information about us with the stray leader?"

Matts made another of those pained expressions. "Yes. And the bastard made a good job of that. The beta feared for her life." Matts took a deep drag of his cigarette, and scratched between his eyebrows with his thumb.

"When did he get to him?" Gabriel asked, putting out his cigarette on the metal bars that covered the window.

"He waited for me to be out of the country, after my last visit. The beta's memory of when it happened is fuzzy, but I think he was cornered at his home." Matts inhaled again, blowing out smoke through the bars. "I'm going to check all the help again. Might as well check your little pack too."

"Why did you make those pained faces?" Daniel asked. "Did it hurt?"

Matts looked at the beta, the only one who was still sitting. "In a way, it does hurt. I feel the memory I'm reading as if it was my own." Then Matts frowned. "He even thought that you had coerced her into sex, Gabriel. That memory was not pleasant."

"That one could be real. They did sleep together this week," Daniel explained.

Matts went very still, and Henryk stopped dead in his tracks. Fuck. Daniel likely wanted to spite Matts because of Alice, but this was not the right way to do it.

The room became very dangerous.

"Did you fuck her, Gabriel?" Matts asked casually, but Gabriel could feel the violence crackling under the alpha's skin.

"Don't be crude, Matts. She spent some nights in my bedroom so we could catch who was spying on us." Gabriel forced his body to relax into the wall. "Alice chose to help me, and we didn't have sex."

"So no bond?" Matts's body was still tense, but Gabriel could see the wheels behind his eyes, calculating what this meant.

"No bond," Gabriel replied with honesty. "And Alice is back in her room."

Matts nodded slightly and relaxed. He put out his cigarette on the same metal bar on which Gabriel had put out his, and turned to Henryk.

"Shall we go take a peek at the woman now? She seemed rather interesting."

"How so?" Henryk asked him.

"No attempts of self-harm, and from what Gabriel described, there seems to be some interesting contradictions in her behavior."

"Oh, that could be interesting indeed," Henryk agreed.

Gabriel and Daniel exchanged a look, Gabriel with an eyebrow raised, and Daniel frowning in puzzlement.

Back in the underground room, they watched Rita enter with a stoic expression. She appeared to be trying to keep her dignity while she was walking to the chopping block. Gabriel tried explaining what they would be doing, but she ignored him.

She scowled at the table. "Is this how you're going to kill me?"

Matts chuckled. "Depends on what I find in your head, my dear." He pointed at the bed with an open hand, inviting her to lie down. "If you'd be so kind."

She sat on the edge of the bed with a haughty expression, and carefully lay down.

"This feels weird. What the fuck is this thing?" She sank into the black sand.

"Ladies shouldn't use foul language," Matts scolded her gently. "This is to protect you. If you move while I'm in your mind, it could cause damage."

Now her features transformed into panic. "What kind of damage? Are you gonna make me go mad? I would rather you'd just kill me."

Gabriel could see from the tension in her neck that she was trying to move, but couldn't. Daniel gave her an injection that calmed her down, but not enough to knock her out.

Matts made a soothing noise as he placed his fingers around her head. He closed his eyes, and another waiting game started.

Rita's eyes focused on Matts before slowly closing. Instead of expressions of pain, Matts's face hosted a half-grin.

Gabriel returned to his book, but out of the corner of his eye, he watched Henryk and Daniel working on the console.

It took less time than with the male beta. Matts looked up from Rita after only two hours, seeming disoriented.

"Could you please sedate her, Daniel? She needs to sleep," Matts said after spotting the doctor. Then he relaxed into the chair and instinctively patted his pockets for his cigarettes.

"Smoking is upstairs only, Matts," Gabriel told him before the alpha could light one up.

"Sorry." Matts pocketed his cigarettes again.

"What did you find?" Henryk asked Matts. rocking back on his heels

"This one is full of surprises," Matts said, smiling down at Rita. "He tried cutting her off from the genetic hierarchy to make her loyal to him. But he didn't fully succeed."

Gabriel just raised an eyebrow at him.

"He made it possible for her to disobey other alphas, but failed in linking her to him."

"Why?" Henryk asked.

"Because she is almost a bookkeeper. Almost…" Matts gently patted her head.

"What do you mean, almost? You either are something or you aren't." Gabriel moved closer to the bed, watching the sleeping woman.

"Not true, not really. Some betas are closer to alphas than to basic humans, while some are so close to basic that there is little difference. Rita here is closer to being an alpha, and her mind is surprisingly strong."

Rita's body came out of the sand, and Matts brushed the hair out of her eyes with delicate fingers.

"I want to take this one home with me. With the right training, she could be a valuable asset for my team."

"And the other beta?"

"We no longer need him, so you can do whatever you want with him."

"Aren't you going to help him?"

Matts raised both eyebrows. "I don't have time to fix broken betas."

"So he's just going to stay like that until he finally succeeds in hurting himself?" Daniel asked in an angry voice, approaching Matts. The other alpha's smile fell from his lips.

"We could send someone to help." Henryk stepped in, looking at his senior. "And maybe having someone here full time wouldn't be a bad idea."

Matts slowly turned from Daniel to Henryk, and back to Daniel.

"That might be for the best," Matts replied in a lazy voice.

"What did you see in her memories?" Gabriel wanted the other alpha to focus on him instead of the doctor. "Did you see his face?"

"No. Her mind is strong, but not that strong." Matts finally closed his eyes, and he took a deep breath before focusing on Gabriel. "He just wanted her to seduce you, so he could get more information on you and Alice, and to stop you both from bonding. No big plan there, and she did this voluntarily. She was able to fight her self-harm compulsion, though, and screwed up his plans."

"Does he know about the time limit? If he stopped me from bonding with Alice, she would go to you. Is that what he wants?"

Matts took a few moments to consider his questions. "I doubt it. It would be much harder to take her from me than from you."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't get me wrong, Gabriel, but I have a full team of bookkeepers and the means to hide her away from the world. If she came to me, he would never find her."

"So does that mean he doesn't know about the time limit Gabriel has?" Daniel asked.

Matts glared at the doctor, but shifted in his seat, probably trying to control himself. "I don't think so, no."

"Good. I was starting to think he could hear our thoughts," Daniel said.

Henryk gave a little laugh. "No one can hear thoughts. What we see are just memories."

"I need to smoke a cigarette." Matts walked out of the room, bumping Daniel on the shoulder as he walked out. Henryk went close behind him, but put a reassuring hand on the doctor's arm before walking out.

As soon as they were gone from the room, Gabriel grabbed Daniel by the shoulders and spun him around to face him.

"Don't you ever, ever threaten an alpha like that again!" he demanded, furious at Daniel's recklessness.

Daniel looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry, I forgot."

Gabriel took a deep breath, still gripping Daniel's shoulders. "Go check on Joel," he ordered.

Daniel left the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.