The moment Chris walked through the door, Max’s heart leaped with hope and terror. If he played his cards right, the fear he’d lived in for twelve years would be over, even if his fight to get his son back was just beginning. Nonetheless, he felt his courage waning the closer Chris got, even knowing that John and Dean were listening close by.

The look in the Alpha’s eyes was stone cold, and Max knew the only thing keeping him safe was the fact that they were in a semi-public location. The store was quiet and there hadn’t been a customer in the store for nearly an hour, but even Chris would draw the line at attacking him in a store full of cameras.

He hoped.

“Did I not make myself clear the other night, or are you just even dumber than I imagined?”

Max took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, taking greater interest in the counter he was wiping down.

Chris caught his wrist and squeezed hard enough to hurt as he leaned in, his eyes livid. “Did you really think you could run to tell on me and I wouldn’t find out about it? Even a stupid whore like you should know better than that.”

“You threatened me,” Max gritted out through the pain. He knew if he made it obvious that Chris was hurting him, John would come in before he’d had a chance to get the Alpha’s confession on tape.

“You’re mine,” Chris seethed. “I let you scurry off like the rat you are because I felt pity for you, but that’s all over now. You think you can go to the police? I own the police. There’s nowhere you can hide from me, nothing you can take for yourself that I haven’t allowed you. And trust me, Max, there is an end to my generosity.”

Max swallowed hard. This was enough, or at least, he’d thought it was. But he could see it now, the way Chris’ lawyers would spin his words into an “innocent misunderstanding.” The Alpha would walk if he gave in now. He’d get away with it, like he always did.

“Your generosity,” he echoed with a bitter laugh. “Is that what you called it when you sold our child to the highest bidder? Generosity?”

Chris’ eyes narrowed. “The best thing I ever did for that brat was making sure he wasn’t raised by you. But if it’s a child you want so badly, I’ll give you one.” He wrenched Max’s arm and pulled him around the counter, dragging him towards the back.

“No!” Max shrieked, jerking his arm back. Chris’ grip didn’t budge as he headed for the door that led into the back room. Max screamed at the top of his lungs, turning himself to dead weight when his struggling proved ineffective.

“That’s enough,” Chris snarled, grabbing him by the front of the shirt to slam him against the wall. He clamped a hand over Max’s mouth and froze, groping the omega’s collar to pluck the wire from its tape. His eyes narrowed dangerously, but the only sound Max heard was his own whimpering. Chris yanked the wire the rest of the way out and threw it to the ground, crushing it with his boot.

Chris grabbed a handful of the omega’s hair and dragged him kicking and struggling across the floor, back over to the counter. He reached underneath and slammed the silent alarm. Max heard the automatic doors lock around them and froze.

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” Chris seethed, throwing him to the ground. He stalked over to the mall entrance, pulling down the metal grate the other stores had already lowered. Brattleton’s was always the last to close, and Max’s heart raced as he realized John and Dean didn’t stand a chance at getting in through that way. While Chris was distracted, he scrambled to his feet and bolted for the back room. It didn’t lock for safety reasons, but he shoved a chair from the break room underneath the door and hoped it would give him enough time to think of something.

Max struggled to take a deep enough breath to calm his panicked mind, but he remembered to shut off the lights and darted back through the plastic slats covering the open doorway that led out onto the loading dock.

The dock was massive and filled with semi-trucks loaded with items ready to be stocked when the freight workers came in the early morning. Max searched the room in the dark, finally spotting a ladder that led up to the high shelves of extra goods the store kept to replenish during the holiday sales. If he could get up there and push the ladder down, maybe he could wait out Chris until help came.

He could already hear the Alpha trying to ram through the break room door, so he raced up the ladder. Before he’d reached the top, he heard the flaps rustle as Chris broke into the room with a snarl.

“Where the fuck are you?” the Alpha growled, his steel-toed boots falling hard on the cement floor. Max held his breath and stayed where he was on the upper rungs, afraid he’d draw Chris’ attention before he had a chance to make it to the top.

When Chris finally found him in the shadows, Max flew the rest of the way up, but the Alpha caught the bottom of the ladder before he could get all the way up. He felt Chris shaking the ladder violently as he grasped onto the ledge of the top shelf and the ladder fell away. Max let out a sharp cry as he found himself hanging from the twelve-foot shelf, barely managing to scramble up on top of it before Chris pulled the whole thing down. Max took a leap and grabbed onto the next aisle over, but just barely, as the first shelf went crashing to the floor and Chris gave a strangled cry.

The omega panted, barely able to see through the pulsing capillaries blurring his vision. He held fast to the shelf and prayed it wasn’t going to tip over as he waited for any sign that Chris was still alive, or conscious.

“Max!” The muffled sound of Dean calling his name came through the aluminum doors outside the loading dock and Max’s heart leaped with relief. “Let us in!”

The omega took another deep breath and groped the darkness for a foothold. Once his toe hit the lower shelf, he dropped down just enough to get a better grasp and gradually climbed the rest of the way until he felt safe to jump without breaking his legs. All store employees had to go through basic warehouse safety training, so he knew the override for the loading dock door was along the east wall somewhere. As he took one step at a time and felt his way along the wall, the sound of shuffling boxes drew his attention to the fact that he wasn’t alone.

As a hand wrapped around his ankle, Max cried out in alarm. Chris yanked him down just as his fingers brushed the control panel on the wall and his head hit the cement floor hard enough to render him unconscious for a split second. As he struggled to right himself, he heard the sound of a gun firing from outside, the bullet echoing as it grazed off the metal lock. The door creaked and groaned in protest as someone peeled it open from outside, and Max caught a sliver of light from the street lamps in his foggy vision.

Chris’ hand closed around his throat and Max screamed just before the Alpha cut off his supply of oxygen. The door opened fully and Max could barely make out the silhouette of Dean holding it up with his bare hands as John rushed into the room. The beta raised his gun and fired three shots into the dark.

With a snarl of rage, Chris’ grasp loosened and he fell to his knees. Max scrambled out from underneath him and made a mad dash for the door, stopping only when he collided with Dean. The Alpha released the broken door and took Max into his arms, holding him tight enough that Max could scarcely breathe.

Not that it mattered. No matter how much or how little oxygen was getting to his brain, none of it felt real.