Chapter 13

"You don't have to do this, Biscuit."

The feeling of Ethan's hand trembling in mine as I helped him from the car was enough to set off my new Alpha impulses. I was fighting the urge to take my pound of flesh by storming into the ward where the Alpha who had taken him was being held. Not that the feeling was much different from before I'd started to transition, but the urges were a lot stronger now.

I held myself back though. Instead, I wrapped an arm around Ethan and cupping his jaw with my other hand. The hint of stubble as I brushed my thumb along his cheek grounded me as much as the way his eyes closed as he breathed out slowly and leaned into my palm. We stayed like that for minutes while he collected himself before he brought a hand up to mine to hold it in place. Turning his head slightly, he placed a kiss on my palm before marking my wrist with his scent.

"I know I don't, but, as much as I am having to fight the fear that man gave me, I want to go in there. So much of this is because of him and I just… I need to know what he has to say."

My jaw clenched so hard from forcing back a growl that it's a wonder I didn't crack a tooth. A small dark voice whispered that I could just make him leave. And then nothing would hurt him. Except I knew that doing so would mean that I would be hurting him. I pressed my forehead to his and inhaled, letting his scent ground me. He held the same position before murmuring to me.

"How about this, if he shows his cards as an evil mastermind, I promise not to fuss if you and Jade want to kill him."

My grin kicked up at the corner of my mouth as his words ghosted across my lips in a whisper.

"Feeling a little bloodthirsty, my perfect Omega?"

I felt the furrowing of his brows against my forehead before he leaned back and locked his hard eyes onto mine.

"What he created, what he did to me? Set off everything. People are dead because of him. Shae was taken and Cat's an Omega? What about you? I will do whatever I can to help bring these people down, Theo. And if you're with me, I know he can't touch me."

Add vengeful Ethan to my kink list because I was sporting another ill-timed hard-on. I flexed the hand that was still beneath his jaw to force his mouth to mine, nipping and sucking at his plush lips as I crowded him backward against the car, drawing our hips together. The sharp intake of his breath told me he felt just what his words had done to me, and the way he gripped at my jacket told me it didn't bother him one bit. A soft whine of protest slipped out of him when I lifted my head and he tried to chase my mouth.

"It's time to go inside, Biscuit. Unless you want to get back in the car and I'll knot you in the backseat?"

He made a soft humming type sound as his lust-glazed eyes met mine.

"Raincheck?"

"Fuck, yes."

Stepping back, I slung my arm around his shoulder to keep him tucked into my side as we walked through the doors of the psychiatric hospital and approached the security checkpoint. I had to force myself to release him so he could hand over all of his things and go through the metal detectors. Finally, we were both through and he laced his fingers with mine as we waited in line at the reception desk.

The woman behind the protective glass seemed to be in her thirties. She had that kind and empathetic but exhausted look about her that so many people in care-taking fields seemed to share. Without any open air between us, it was impossible to tell this woman's designation and there was something refreshing about that.

"Ethan West for Dr. Hopkins."

The woman typed into her computer, and it looked as though she read something, then her eyes softened a bit. She gave Ethan a knowingly sympathetic smile before directing us to the waiting area, saying the doctor would be with us shortly.

We didn't wait long before a woman in a long white lab coat, with graying light brown hair pulled into a tail at the back of her head, came over to greet us. Her smile was genuine, and she had deep laugh lines around her eyes. That first impression, along with the mild floral Beta scent that accompanied her arrival, seemed to put my Omega at ease.

"Good morning, Mr. West. Thank you for coming." The doctor's focus shifted to me. "And to you are?"

"Oh, pardon me. This is Theo Owens, one of… my Alphas."

Ethan's slight blush and the warming of his scent made the doctor smile fondly at him, and I squeezed his hand, trying to communicate how much I loved hearing him introduce me that way. Thank the fucking stars that I seemed to finally be getting the hang of this purring thing because if that hadn't set off the stupid motor in my chest without my permission then nothing would.

"If you all would follow me, I wanted to chat briefly before we went to see Dr. Stephens, or Clint, I guess."

We followed her to a brightly lit office. Intricate wood details around the windows and doors, as well as bookshelves set within the walls, showed off the age of the building and made it seem more welcoming than a psychiatric hospital that handled criminals had any right to be.

"Please, have a seat wherever you are comfortable."

Ethan looked around then sat on the sofa with his back straight, not leaning against the back cushions, with his hands folded in his lap like he was waiting for his punishment at the principal's office. I resisted the urge to plop down beside him and tug him against me until he melted. Wanting him to know that I believed he was strong enough on his own, I settled for draping my arm behind him and running my thumb against his lower back.

"I'll get right to it then. I would be remiss if I didn't make sure that you are here of your own volition, Mr. West? That you weren't pressured by the authorities into something that you don't feel you are ready for?"

"You can call me Ethan and, no, I wasn't pressured, really. I mean if they hadn't asked, and if everything else hadn't happened? I would never have wanted to face him."

She hummed sympathetically and I watched as Ethan wrung his hands, the slightest bit of fear tainting his perfume. In my mind, I plotted ways to get him out the window and back into the car so he wouldn't have to do this.

"But my pack has been incredibly supportive, and Theo has come with me so, yes. I'm ready."

"Alright I have faith that your Alpha will get you out of the space if he senses you are in distress in any way. Mr. Owens, I need your assurance that you will not attack my patient no matter how justified you may believe the action to be."

A growl thrummed from me and through the room.

"I'm not sure how I feel about the way you phrased that, Doc."

The doctor lowered her head slightly before pushing back from her desk and walking around to lean against it, facing us.

"I am only being this candid because I have my patient's permission. How familiar are you with scent bonding or the feral state of a bonded Alpha?"

"Our Beta has talked about scent bonding. That they believe Ethan is the scent match for our pack. I don't know anything about a feral state beyond what the words imply."

I looked over to Ethan, who shrugged and shook his head at the doctor.

"I will let him explain more about his experiences and everything that led him to commit those crimes against you. I do not say this to negate what he did nor to refute any kind of blame for his actions. It is important for you to know, however, that when he was brought to us those months ago, he was in a feral state that is typically only seen when a bonded Alpha and Omega are separated?—"

Ethan's scent went to burnt sugar so quickly that the mixture of anger and fear in his voice didn't surprise me or the doctor.

"He didn't bond me! His bite—the bite he tried to force on me, didn't do anything. If he's trying to claim that, then he's fucking lying!"

I reached a hand out to rub the back of Ethan's neck. Concentrated on forcing out a soft purr. Focusing all my attention on him until I saw the heaving of his chest slow and he squeezed his eyes shut. The doctor's voice was soft and reassuring when she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Ethan. I didn't mean you. We believe Dr. Stephens had found his scent-matched Omega, who he had previously courted, and that they'd begun to scent-bond. When that Omega left him and his pack, it began his spiral into a feral state, culminating with his attack on you."

Pulling Ethan into my side more fully, I pressed my lips to his temple. His eyes were still closed, but he sank into me and nodded.

"When he was told you would be willing to speak to him, he made some demands that furthered my belief that the hormone blockers we have had him on since he came to us have brought him out of that state."

"What fucking demands?"

My brows were pulled down as far as they'd go as I glared at the doctor, but she merely held up her hands.

"He insisted that he be restrained by handcuffs that were anchored somewhere Ethan could see. Also that the meeting take place somewhere open with windows and guards visible. Finally, he insisted on using medical grade de-scenting products so that his scent wouldn't risk triggering Ethan."

Either this Alpha was playing a long game to get these people to trust him so he could go after my Omega again, or he really had been feral before. Didn't really matter though. If he tried anything, I'd put him down before he could lay a hand on Ethan.

"Let's just get this over with."

The doctor looked at me with obvious concern, but I could tell that, no matter how mixed-up Ethan's emotions were, he was determined to see this through. Instead of arguing, I just threaded my fingers through his and stood when he did. She nodded, then turned to leave her office with us trailing behind.

I tugged gently on Ethan's hand before leaning down to his ear and speaking low enough for only him to hear.

"I love you, Biscuit. You are ours but you belong to yourself first. Nothing will touch you while I'm here."

He squeezed my hand and his shoulders drew away from his ears a little more, relaying more tension leaving his body. He kept his face forward as we moved toward what was probably some kind of recreation space. Approaching the door, I saw it was empty except for the lone man anchored to a table by cuffs and two guards in the corner of the room.

Ethan sucked in a breath so quickly that anyone not standing by him wouldn't have heard, but his scent soured, broadcasting his fear to the Alphas in the space even as he maintained his determined posture. I saw the slight flair of Clint Stephen's nostrils, registering that change in Ethan's scent, before he hung his head.

"I'll leave you to it."

"Tell the guards to leave."

"Mr. Owens, I am not sure that's wise."

I turned to her, struggling not to bear my teeth.

"You think I can't protect my Omega from a man in chains?"

"I do not doubt that at all. However, I cannot allow my patient to be harmed, no matter what pack law might allow."

"It's fine, Dr. Hopkins."

Her mouth twisted to the side and her brows furrowed, reacting to Clint's words, before she looked over at the guards in the corner before tilting her head in the universal sign to go on.

"We'll be outside if you all need anything."

Ethan's grip on my hand tightened to the point of pain but I would let him crush every bone in my hand if it brought him comfort. I focused on how I felt about him, let that love and desire fill me up as my scent flooded the space and a soft purr reached out to him. The desperation that had him clinging to my hand eased as his body and instincts responded to me.

He cleared his throat and moved us forward. I reached out to pull two chairs out for us. We sat at the same time but I turned toward him, spreading my thighs and tugging his chair until he was between them so I could surround him.

Turning his face toward me, some more of the tension bled from his face and a little teasing humor showed in his eyes. Of course, the elephant in the room took that moment to make itself heard.

"I'm so sorry. I know that doesn't make up for anything I did but I am truly?—"

"That doesn't mean I owe you anything. Trying to get me here to absolve you in exchange for working with the police is a cheap trick."

The Alpha flinched and a vicious grin split my face. My sweet Omega wasn't in the room right now and I fucking loved it.

"I don't expect that from you, really. If you had said no, I would have worked with the police. I just had to try to speak to you to explain, so I could warn you."

Ethan and I looked at each other, equal parts confusion and suspicion before Ethan turned back to the Alpha.

"My pack has been attacked by monsters who have killed, kidnapped, assaulted, and trafficked people using whatever you created in your lab to make it easier to force a bond on me. I don't know what you think you have to warn me about but save it for the police."

Ethan started to stand but Clint reached out and the chains rattled.

"No, wait!"

I knew he couldn't get to my Omega but Ethan's near terror-filled scent flooded me, and I pushed him behind me as I reached out to grab the other Alpha's throat, snarling, and ready to end him.

"Please… I have told the police and they dismissed me but you all will listen because you have seen the other side. I know you have the resources to do what the police won't."

He forced each word out around the grip I had on his neck and the pressure on his windpipe.

"Do not fucking move your hands from that table again."

He nodded as much as he was able and I released him, sitting back again but moving Ethan's chair so he was further back, and I was angled between them more. I put a hand on Ethan's knee and he held onto the material of my jacket on my back. To Clint it would just look like he had a hand on my back but I could feel how he was fisting the material to hide the tremor in his arm.

"I'd worked for the Omega Foundation for more than a decade, first on the team developing the tests that locate genetic markers then running the testing operations, but it wasn't good enough. Three times my pack has been a match for an Omega in the last several years and all three times the Omegas chose someone else. I could have dismissed it as not the right fit but the third Omega was perfect and he liked us. I know he did. He told me he did."

A silent tear tracked down Clint's face as he spoke but he kept his hands flat on the table and his eyes downcast.

"Then the Foundation liaison asked him to meet with a match they found from out of the region and suddenly he stopped texting and didn't want to see us anymore."

"He was allowed to change his mind. You didn't own him."

Clint just nodded and his posture deflated more.

"You're right, and I would have accepted that if he'd told me that he'd changed his mind, but it wasn't like him. We'd been courting for months, and the match percentage wasn't as strong with my pack as it was for me individually…I would have left. I would have broken with my pack if he'd asked. I loved him."

I hated the fact that, for a brief moment, I saw myself in this man's shoes. What would happen to me if Ethan suddenly left without any word? If I didn't have Jade or the rest of my pack? It didn't excuse shit, but fuck. He wiped his cheek on his shoulder, still carefully following my order.

"I dug around and found out the other pack had given a substantial donation to the Foundation just before the Omega stopped contacting us. I understood then. It wasn't enough to find an Omega that fit, that you could love, make each other happy like the Foundation preached. You had to buy them."

Disgust curled his lips and a quiet snarl leaked out of his words but, strangely, that sound didn't seem to affect Ethan like it had before.

"I received the West siblings' samples to run for compatibility a few weeks later, and when my pack came back as a match for Ethan, something snapped. I don't remember everything that I did in the next several days. I knew that the act of erasing the results of compatibility testing would not only end my career with the Omega Foundation, but also make me unhireable anywhere else. Not to mention that it would likely end with me in jail, but I just didn't care."

Ethan's grip on my shirt had loosened and he was leaning closer to me but not in a way that heightened my urge to protect him; more like he was interested in what Clint was saying.

"I wiped the records of you and your sister's results from the system. I had to wipe them both because if just yours had gone missing it would have been suspicious." He took a deep breath and looked off to the side, out the windows. "I had been working in the labs on something that I'd thought would help people. That was what I gave you that day. What these people have twisted into something that, as a scientist, I can acknowledge is remarkable but, as a human, I find it abhorrent. I want them stopped as much as you and your pack do."

"How did you think that would help people?"

"One of my best friends is a Beta. He and his Omega have been together for years. They struggle through her heats because she doesn't want an Alpha. They are their own pack and it works for them. I started to wonder if there was a way to enhance a Beta's pheromones, temporarily, so that if they had an Omega partner in heat or an Alpha partner in rut, they would mimic the stronger pheromones of an Omega or Alpha. They would be able to soothe their partner's biological needs without having to use services or bring people in."

"That's why your scent changed before, on campus, and… after."

"I am so sorry. I understand now that I had gone feral. That's not an excuse but I would never harm anyone in my right mind."

"Too bad your pack didn't share that sentiment."

He met my gaze with that statement, a hardness entering his eyes that hadn't been there before.

"The police were kind enough to share what they'd found out about my pack." he practically spat the last word. "Selling my research to those monsters? We were more together out of convenience than actual packmates long before I lost Liam. I'm not sorry they're dead, after what they did."

"Why are we here though?"

For the first time since we walked into the room, Clint looked directly at my Omega and that did make my hackles rise, until he spoke.

"Do not trust the Foundation. Those ‘donations' weren't going through official channels. I think someone there is connected to the Jackals, somehow. I know I sound crazy, and the police have dismissed me, but I thought no one knew about my research outside of my assistant. They told me Dayton was taken too, but how did they know who he was? The police said they probably just took anyone from the lab after my pack went to them, but I don't believe it. The other Alphas in my former pack weren't bold enough to do this on their own. They certainly weren"t creative enough to imagine the uses of my research."

I looked back to Ethan and I could see his brilliant mind racing to make connections. As much as I wanted to take him home and wrap myself around him in his nest after all of this, I had a feeling we'd be going to Drake House so he and Cole could do their nerd thing. Ethan looked at me and there was a spark of something in his eyes. Yep, definitely heading to the BullPen.

"We have to go."

Ethan and I stood and started to leave the surprised Alpha without another word, until Ethan grabbed onto my wrist and turned back toward Clint.

"I won't forgive you. I have to live with what you did to me, and you should too."

Clint's shoulders slumped and he nodded as more silent tears leaked from his eyes.

"But… I don't think you're evil." Ethan chewed on the corner of his lip, and the Alpha's eyes snapped up to Ethan's face. "What was your Omega's name?"

"Liam. Liam Carter."

"I, uh, volunteer for an organization that helps Omegas." I tried not to scoff at his use of Aubrey's description of his work for Haven. "I can't promise anything, but I will check on him and make sure he's with a pack that he chose and is happy."

The eagerness in the Alpha's gaze, and the hopeful look on his face, was hard to look at.

"Thank you."

Fuck, those words came out like he was dying and Ethan had just given him the one thing that would save his life. Ethan nodded once and then we turned again to leave.

We made our way back to the car after saying our goodbyes to Dr. Hopkins and retrieving our things. After buckling in, I turned to Ethan, needing to know what was running through his brain. He'd pulled out his phone as we'd been walking to the car and was still furiously texting. I put my hand over his to stop his thumbs from flying over the screen and bring his attention to me.

"Alright, Biscuit. Spill."

"We need to go to the BullPen."

"Yes, I figured, but why? What are you thinking?"

Ethan's energy was all over the place. He was fidgeting and anxious but not in a way that told me he was scared, more like the way an athlete gets before the start of a game.

"It's the Foundation, what I've been missing. So stupid! We couldn't find where the Jackals were getting their funding and their medical or scientific knowledge or whatever. I need to look for connections between the Jackals, the Foundation, and where those donations came from. Can we go now?"

I chuckled at his pout as I put the car in gear and pulled from the parking lot. Inside, though, I felt some of that anticipation transfer over to me. This could really be the information we needed. Stupid fucking cops being tied up by their red tape. Not that I would have believed Clint, either. Those interview tapes made it clear the Alpha was missing a screw or two. But, damn, if he was right? This would be bigger than we'd realized.