There was a great deal of things in Dell’s life that caused him stress, from co-workers to bills, but nothing affected him quite as much as having to care for that little omega. He wished that he hadn’t offered Corey food or his shower and had just taken him right to the police station. It would have been so much easier to appear impartial if he just dropped the kid off, but his sense of empathy was stronger today than usual and he couldn’t help it. The kid made him feel too damn much. That was a danger to his image.

Too late to worry about it now. What’s done is done.

He did have to admit, the kid cleaned up nicely. He already looked healthier, what with some fuel in his system to jumpstart a shapeshifter’s natural ability to heal at more than three times the rate of a human. If his hair grew back, he might even seem like a prize. For some other alpha, of course. Dell wasn’t interested in sleeping with someone so dependent. It was wrong.

Dell unlocked his truck and clambered up behind the wheel. He started the engine and had the vehicle cooling down before the kid managed to climb inside.

Corey cast a curious gaze around the interior of the truck. “You alone?”

The question could be taken in several different ways. Dell decided to cut the shit and take it the way it was meant to be taken. “I am, yeah.”

It wouldn’t have been terribly difficult to figure out. The apartment lacked a woman’s touch, and there were no feminine products in the bathroom, no perfumes or pink razors or hairspray. It was the same for any sign of a male omega. No softness anywhere, no sign of a second opinion or another’s taste mingling with his.

“And you keep everything this neat?” Corey looked back over his shoulder again, examining the interior of the truck.

“Like I said, I don’t drive much.”

And I don’t have anyone else to clean up after me or even help with the work. I’m not a slob.

He knew that the omega was waiting for something else to be said, to continue the conversation, but he couldn’t think of anything and considered it a moot point to try. They weren’t friends. He was a cop. This was his job.

Even as he thought that, reassuring himself it was the truth, he felt that Corey’s feelings were hurt. Regret tasted sour and strange on his tongue, lingering all through the drive to the station.

He parked and climbed out, gesturing silently for Corey to follow him inside. Gavin still sat at the desk, doodling on his own notepad. He looked up as Dell entered and a smile widened on his lips. “Hey, look! I drew a wolf just like you.”

Dell looked dispassionately at the scrawled blob on the paper and said nothing.

“Hey, wait. What time is it?” Gavin glanced over at the wall. “Geez. That patrol took you ages. What gives?”

“I found something,” Dell grunted, and stepped aside to reveal Corey, who had been hiding behind him.

Gavin inspected the omega man for a few moments with a practiced glare, and then gave a deep sniff. “Geez. This one’s been through a lot. Where’d you find him, huh?”

“You’ll get to read about it in my report at the end of the week,” Dell replied. Something felt off to him about all this, or perhaps it was just that taste in his mouth nagging at him and fouling his mood. “In the meantime, is Jefferson here? I need to speak with him about this.”

“Yep. In the Chief’s office.”

Great. Dell couldn’t help but to roll his eyes. Jefferson had his own office. He was acting Chief and shouldn’t be where he didn’t belong. Damn fool was going to get an earful when Michael came back.

“Thanks. Come on, Corey.”

Dell moved off toward the Chief’s office with Corey trailing nervously behind him, flicking a fearful gaze in every direction, at every step. Beneath the clean scent of soap, the omega still had that sour reek that no amount of bathing could remedy. He was afraid and incapable of hiding it, broadcasting his frailties to anyone who might be watching and waiting for an opening. There were, after all, panthers out there who wouldn’t hesitate to attack if they thought it was a good time.

Jefferson waited until long after Dell knocked on the door before finally calling out, “Come in.”

The idiot probably thought that making people wait for him was the hallmark of a busy man, a signal of importance. Dell had other news for him and rammed his shoulder into the door after opening it just to get the message across.

“Hey, easy there!” Jefferson snapped, lifting up his head from where he was bent over a few folders. Dell recognized the color of the label as being Michael’s personal file on the panthers. While not technically unlawful snooping, he wasn’t pleased about seeing it.

“Sorry, but this is more important.” Dell turned and grabbed Corey around the wrist, pulling him out of his shadow and into plain sight once more.

Jefferson’s eyes widened. He pulled in a hissing breath between his front teeth and let it out through his nostrils. “Officer Brightly, what is this?”

“The appropriate question is, ‘Who is this?’ If you want to avoid being offensive,” Dell replied. He bit off each word, cutting them short and curt. “This is an omega I found roaming around outside the city. Name of Corey.”

“Corey…?”

“He reportedly remembers nothing about his past, including his last name. He didn’t even know that he was a shapeshifter until I explained everything to him.”

Jefferson gave a sniff and his wide eyes suddenly narrowed again, looking like coals beneath the flame of his hair. “The boy is recently fed and bathed. Your doing?”

Dell was determined not to wince, knowing that he wasn’t in the wrong. He had acted as best he could, given the circumstances. That would just have to be enough for this idiot, acting too big for his britches. So, all he did was nod. “He was starving and severely dehydrated. When I followed his scent trail, I found him collapsed under a tree and basically on death’s door. I took him home with me and let him get some of his strength back.”

“So, that is what you’ve been doing all this time instead of patrolling?”

Dell didn’t bat an eyelid. “Yes. I considered the rescue of the omega a priority.”

“You prioritized the well-being of one over the welfare of many?” Jefferson placed his hands on the desk and stood up, seeming genuinely shocked.

Ducking his head down, Dell let out a warning growl. The omega cringed away from him, reminding Dell that the other had no real experience being a wolf or being around other wolves. Struggling to calm himself, though he didn’t quite manage to stop squaring his shoulders, he said, “No, Jeff,” instead of, “No, Chief.”

“Seems that way to me.”

“Then you’re as much of a fool as I thought you were!” He was growling again, dammit. Couldn’t help himself. Some people just needed to have their muzzles bit. “Eureka is safe. The omega wasn’t. I prioritized Corey’s emergency over the continued stability of the people. I’m not sure how doing my job is grounds for reprimand.”

“You abandoned your duty.”

“If there was a burglary and I was the nearest cruiser to be able to respond, would I be getting this treatment?” Dell gritted his teeth to hold back whatever he might have said next. “We can continue this later. The important thing right now is Corey.”

Jefferson frowned, reluctant to back off the argument, but he glanced at the omega and was forced to relent. The message in his eyes was clear enough, though. They would return to this later. The acting Chief would always return to things best left alone. That was simply his way, to make sure the last word belonged to him through any means necessary. “Yes, don’t think we’re done here.”

Perhaps the other alpha was regretting asking Dell for backup on any decision he made. He hoped so. It hadn’t been a thing he agreed to with any real amount of enthusiasm anyway. No big loss.

“Tell me again how you found…”

Dell looked over at Corey, who gave a start and then yelped out, “Corey!”

Jefferson winced and covered his ears. “Right. Corey. Refresh my memory.”

That was only a sideways way of saying he hadn’t been listening, without admitting it outright. After all, that just wouldn’t be befitting of the temporary Chief. Patience running thinner and thinner, trickling away by the second, Dell repeated everything he’d already said.

Jefferson scribbled down notes in meticulous shorthand, his writing neat and blocky. “This seems simple enough to me. He’s wearing your clothes, right, Brightly?” Dell nodded, wondering what that had to do with anything. He had a bad feeling about it. “I’ll have someone start searching through the Missing Persons reports using his first name.”

“We should also send out a Found Person report,” Dell interjected. “Just in case. We don’t know if he’s missing long enough or if someone is searching for him.”

For the kid’s sake, he hoped someone out there was looking for him. If no one was, that would deal a huge blow to his fragile mind.

Jefferson scowled, clearly having wanted to say that part himself. “Right. I’ll need to get a picture of him and then I want you to take him along to healthcare. Tell the doctor the situation and that he should contact me with any questions. I want Corey here given a full examination to make sure he’s in good health. Good enough, anyway.”

That last remark was perhaps a little unnecessary. A little rude.

“Notify me if you find anything.”

Jefferson let out a small growl of a laugh. “Don’t worry. You’ll be the first person I tell.” His voice said otherwise, but there wasn’t much of a point in stopping to challenge him. Actually, Dell didn’t want to stay in that office any longer. His fingers itched and curled against his palm with the urge to smoke.

Once they were outside, after Corey’s picture had been taken, the omega watched Dell light up and puff on his cigarette with an eagerness he hadn’t felt in a long time. These days, the need was a habit, a craving. He hadn’t ever actually looked forward to it except as a way to soothe his nerves and calm himself, but now he relished the taste and tried to convince himself that he wasn’t self-conscious about being watched.

“You and… um… Chief Jefferson…really don’t like each other, huh?”

Dell glanced over at the omega, who had his arms wrapped around his thin frame. He was shivering despite the warmth of the day, as anyone would be if they hadn’t the slightest bit of meat left on their bones to insulate them. “Chief?” he repeated, raising one eyebrow. “He’s the deputy.”

Corey touched his breast, right where a police officer’s badge was normally pinned. “His tag said Chief.”

Well, he’d be damned. Perhaps Jefferson had plans of challenging Chief Michael for his position as pack leader when he returned from his honeymoon. Normally, a challenge resulted in the loser being cast out of the pack and sent on their way but, in such a human-populated setting, that wasn’t possible. If the subordinate in the fight lost, life would simply continue on as usual for both parties. If the leader lost the fight, he would simply step down and give up his title. This way, livelihoods weren’t disturbed and suspicions weren’t aroused.

“Our Chief is on his honeymoon,” Dell explained. “He left earlier today. Wedding was yesterday.”

“Oh.” Corey dropped his pale green gaze, though Dell couldn’t forget their color. They were jade, starbursts of peridot. “Um… what happens if… if no one is looking for me? What happens to me?”

Abruptly losing his taste for his poison of choice, Dell dropped his cigarette and crushed it underfoot. The dark smear on pale concrete reminded him of impurity, of something haunted, and he moved away from it toward his truck. “Someone will be looking for you.”

Corey slammed the door of the truck behind him as he clambered up in the passenger seat. “But if they aren’t?” His voice shook, jawline trembling.

Sighing, Dell turned to look at the other man and found himself floored by those brilliant orbs. They pierced like metal, causing something inside him to die, but the death was so sweet he could hardly resist. “Someone will be looking for you,” he repeated, softly. “A guy like you? Someone’s missing you.”

He didn’t want to see the smile forming; didn’t need to look to know Corey had been flattered as if he’d never heard such words before in his life. Perhaps he hadn’t, and that was the most terrible thing of all.

The drive to the doctor’s office was short. Eureka Healthcare Primary Care always stayed just busy enough, never packed but always with one or two patients lingering in the waiting room. Three nurses and one doctor made up the entire staff, which was just enough to keep everything manageable. 

Dell led Corey inside the building, holding the doors open for him. There were no others waiting, but he heard voices past the door at the other end of the waiting room, which meant that the doctor was busy. He cut off his awareness of the speaking, not wanting to eavesdrop. Approaching the front desk, the nurse opened up the window and spoke while looking down at her computer. “Hi, how are you? Please sign in and… Oh! Officer. Excuse me.”

Dell gave the nurse his warmest smile, baring his teeth slightly to mingle politeness with just the right amount of threat. “Hello, Jan. How is your day going?”

“Oh… you know. What can I help you with?”

The omega was standing behind him again, hiding from view. Rather than force him around again, he just gave up. “I need a physical exam immediately. I’m sorry for the inconvenience but it’s extremely important.”

Jan immediately swiveled around in her chair, short hair swaying around her chin as she looked toward another nurse who sat behind her. “Mary Beth, can you please go fetch Dr. Stein? Officer Brightly says it’s important.”

Only a minute later, Dell and Corey stood in the exam room with Dr. Stein in front of them. Dell summed up the situation, giving only the barest details necessary even though the omega kept giving him a sideways look each time he omitted information.

Dr. Stein nodded once the explanation was over. “Of course. If you’ll step outside…?”

Corey blushed as he realized the implications. He would be stripped naked…

“I need to ensure that everything goes as planned.”

The doctor shrugged and just got started with the exam, knowing better than to question a member of law enforcement. Dell didn’t much care about seeing the omega naked and kept his eyes averted toward the wall except for an occasional glance to check progress. He just needed to stay in the room in case anything went ugly with an unexpected shift.

As Corey dressed himself again in his borrowed clothes at the end of the exam, Dr. Stein turned toward Dell. “He’s perfectly healthy aside from the obvious malnutrition and fatigue. A few days of solid meals and bedrest will do him wonders.”

All Dell’s strength wasn’t enough to keep him from sagging in relief. “Good. That’s good.”

“His heartbeat is strong. Bit unsteady and fast but not out of the realm of the norm. His current state of emaciation will cause that. Blood pressure is good. Breathing sounds good. Reflexes are good. Ears are normal. Eyes are normal.” Dr. Stein reached the end of his list and gave a warm smile that would have lit up a darkened room. “Our young patient here is strong. He’ll recover quickly.”

With the good news given, Dell saw no reason to stay around and mess with formalities. He took Corey back to the police station and found Jefferson waiting in the lobby for him. Gavin was gone from the front desk, meaning they were all alone.

“That’s good news,” Jefferson said. He looked positively bored, making the alpha want to punch him in his stupid smirking mouth. “We’re in the process of doing all we can to find out who he is. Meanwhile, we have to figure out what to do with him.”

Talking about him like he isn’t here. Very nice. I’m enjoying this list I’m building of your transgressions. Michael will regret his decision to promote you.

“I don’t think it would be wise to leave him with someone who isn’t an experienced shifter.” Dell glanced over at Corey. He still felt sorry for the kid, especially when all he could do was stand there and be talked about in a way that he didn’t understand. Even after receiving an explanation, he still didn’t know anything. He didn’t even know how to control what he was; could snap at any time and it wouldn’t be his fault if he injured himself or others. “The church is out.”

Corey shuddered, apparently agreeing with him. That, or thinking of himself still as a monster who wouldn’t be welcome in a religious building.

“That leaves a member of the pack. Which means it’s you.”

“Excuse me?” Dell exclaimed. A fist of surprise rammed into his stomach, making him taste that sourness again. “I have things to do.”

“And I am the acting Chief, which means you’ll do as I tell you. You’ll still be working to protect the people, just on a much… smaller scale.”

That bastard. That power-obsessed bastard of an alpha! Dell stared grimly into Jefferson’s eyes, speaking to him without words and letting him know that he knew exactly what was going on. Now that Jefferson had figured out that he wasn’t going to blindly follow every command, he was arranging to get Dell out of his way and there was no better excuse than this.

“What do you expect me to do with him? Sit at home all day and babysit him?”

“Or you can do something useful and see if you can help him remember anything.” Jefferson shrugged one large shoulder. “How useful you are is up to you. I think we’ll find out where he belongs very soon but, until then, someone strong needs to make sure he doesn’t go around endangering innocents. After Chief and myself, you’re the strongest wolf we’ve got.”

It would crush your hopes and dreams if I told you that I’m stronger than you. Or would it only fuel them?

As much as he hated this impudent brat of a man, there was nothing he could do to argue against logic without making himself seem spoiled. Besides, he didn’t know how much more of this Corey could endure. The omega was frazzled and unpredictable, swaying on his feet. The dark marks beneath his eyes seemed to have deepened in the short time he’d been a human.

“Fine,” Dell grunted. He turned away and felt Corey automatically start following him again. “Let me know if you find out anything.”

“Oh, trust me. I will.”

Outside, Dell felt a soft touch against his fingers and swung his head back around to glare at the omega, who froze in the act of reaching out. “Don’t touch me.”

The command came out harsher than he’d meant it to. The omega jumped and reared back with his pale eyes stretched wide, mouth opening to flash teeth that were no longer straight and even but growing pointed even as Dell watched. His inner wolf, that beauty composed of moonlight, flashed in front of his body like a snapshot of a ghost as it surged up to the surface to protect itself.

And then Corey staggered back another step, arms hanging limply at his side and his head down. “Sorry.”

“Look,” Dell growled, “I know you don’t know the rules. Someone’s going to have to teach you, or maybe you’ll remember. Until then, just know that there are rules. And one of my rules is that little omegas who can’t control themselves shouldn’t be grabbing at me.”

“Sorry,” Corey muttered again.

Dell just snorted and stormed away to his truck, running his hand along its dusty length and leaving a trail of clean metal. He washed the vehicle at least once a month, and he thought it might just be due for another. Anything to distract himself from Corey. Deep down inside himself, he hated being so harsh, but he didn’t like to feel things like this so strongly for anyone and definitely not for someone he’d just met.

Driving home, his fingertips seemed to grow a mind of their own and rubbed together constantly. He told himself it was to get rid of the layer of dust and grime but he knew, with tension in his stomach, that it was because the omega’s touch made him tingle.