A full week passed without any word from anyone who might know Corey’s true identity. His picture circulated across websites for a few days and was displayed on the evening news twice before being replaced by other, more pressing stories filled with a type of drama that a missing person lacked. Dell hated that aspect of the job, of society. Ratings were more important than someone’s life, and the cases that took precedence as a result were the ones already solved because people cared more about having the answers than they did about finding them.

The omega continued to recall small details of his life, but nothing important that would lead to a breakthrough. Nevertheless, Dell tried to encourage him to talk about anything and everything he thought of. One thought might lead to another, and then they could start examining the clues. If Corey remembered going to high school in an area with a great deal of palm trees, the police should probably give up on finding any relatives in Montana.

Nothing like that happened, but Dell voiced it as an option anyway because it kept the kid’s spirits up. Why he cared about the kid’s spirit, why he felt anything at all about the kid, was a mystery. Why he’d been aroused by the kid was downright unsolvable. There were no answers here. Real life just wasn’t that tidy, no matter how many times he swept the floor.

Michael returned to Eureka with his little family in tow, red sunburn staining the bridge of his nose and his fine cheekbones. Though it wasn’t required of him, Dell showed up at the station just to see the look on Jefferson’s face as he gave up his precious temporary title. His good mood apparently undisturbed, Michael headed back to his office and the others gathered, then went along on their way after welcoming their Chief back into their arms.

Not even bothering to knock, Dell walked right inside and found Michael standing in front of his desk, leaning back against it with his arms crossed. “I smell Jefferson in here.”

Dell snorted and shut the door behind himself. “I’m not surprised. That asshole’s been acting like you died. Made himself a badge and everything.”

Michael laughed, but it was more of a groan than anything else. “I saw. He was wearing it today, the idiot.” He rubbed his face with one large hand. “Remind me again why I hired him?”

“I told you to shove your job offer up your ass.”

“To this day, I still wonder why.”

Dell glanced away. He hadn’t come here for this. “Didn’t want the responsibility.”

“But you’re willing to take on the responsibility of taking care of the feral omega?”

Surprise squirmed in Dell’s stomach, reminding him of just how much he hated being surprised. “Who told you about that? You were on your honeymoon. We weren’t supposed to bother you.” He might not care to ever have a honeymoon himself, but he hated that Michael’s hadn’t been as peaceful as the Chief probably would have liked. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you when I spotted the omega out wandering the first time.”

Chief Michael didn’t look pleased at that, and he let out a low growl to put Dell in his place. He felt suitably reprimanded and ducked his head down, acknowledging that he’d been out of line. Then, Michael said, “I do want to say thanks for being so considerate. Timmy’s been stressed ever since the baby came. All I wanted was to focus on him.” He sighed, that glazed look entering his eyes. It was the same sort of glazed look all people wore when speaking of their significant other. Dell sincerely hoped he would never look like that. “So, how is he?”

“Corey’s fine. Made a rapid recovery, like we all do. He’s remembering bits and pieces but nothing useful yet. I think it bothers him but, honestly, there’s nothing to do for it.”

“And his wolf form?”

“Hasn’t shifted since I found him,” he reported. “He’s of a generally good temperament, though stressed. Has questions I don’t know how to answer; questions no one knows how to answer. The sooner he gets his memory back, the better.”

Michael nodded, rubbing his chin. His fingers rasped through his stubble. “He’s unmated?”

“Yes. Completely unmarked, as far as I can tell.”

“If you’ve already exhausted all your options here, you might want to consider him.”

Dell felt as though he’d been struck by a hammer, feet nailed into the floor. His fingers tingled in that distinctive way he’d come to hate so much, and he remembered the way speaking of a man’s needs around the omega had caused him to become horny. It had made him feel like a teenage boy, excited at the sight of something that vaguely resembled a dick, and he hated that feeling. It put him on edge; knocked him out of the territory he knew how to navigate.

“Geez.” Michael looked amused. “I was going to screw with you but you took that a lot harder than I thought you would. What happened to you being a lone wolf?”

“I am a lone wolf,” Dell growled. “Corey means nothing to me.”

“He means enough to you so that you address him by his name.”

There was that. He’d backed himself into a corner here.

“You need to keep watching him,” Michael said. “Although, by this point I’m starting to think no one is ever going to claim him. We need to prepare for that. He needs to be prepared for that.”

“And why am I the one who has to do that?”

“Because you are the one he’s most familiar with. You’ve been watching him for the past week. He trusts you and clearly you have some sort of vested interest in him. You’re the one who has the highest chance of getting through to him about everything he needs to learn about his new life.”

Dell growled to himself, fingers itching for a smoke. He swallowed hard and opened his mouth before shutting it again. If he protested at all, it would be taken the wrong way. He really didn’t want to be known as a sentimental fool, so all that left was agreement. “Fine. What do you want me to tell him?”

“Everything.”

“I’m not sure how much he doesn’t already know,” Dell replied, wracking his brains for anything he might have left out. The Chief just watched him, apparently waiting for him to come to a conclusion. “The only thing I haven’t told him is about marking.”

“You might want to do that,” Michael suggested. His blue eyes were dark and serious. “Someone could take advantage of him if he doesn’t know.”

“He’s staying with me. Why do I have to be the one who talks to him about the birds and the bees?”

Michael shook his head. “Still haven’t figured it out, huh? I guess I should have expected that. Out of all the alphas in the world, you’ll be the last one to know.”

The last one to know?

“Before we finish here, do you think I need to be wary of Jefferson?”

“No,” Dell answered, voice flat. “He’s a bumbling idiot. Don’t give him credit for having a brain he doesn’t possess.”

“Mmm.” Michael tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling, watching a spider weave back and forth between the blades of the gently-turning ceiling fan. “You’re dismissed.”

Dell turned to leave but stopped in his tracks as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Wait. I forgot to mention something. Corey has dreams.”

Michael stopped in the middle of reaching up to swipe at the spider as it dropped down a few inches and spun in a lazy circle as the fan rotated. “Regular dreams or does he have an ability?”

“Nightmares.” Dell felt his heart ache in his chest as he remembered the scene that happened almost every night during the past week. He would wake to the sound of muffled cries, tossing and turning. Rising from his uncomfortable bed on the couch, he would pass through the hall on quiet feet and push open the bedroom door to see Corey thrashing in the grips of what must have been terrible dreams. He grunted a string of incomprehensible words, though some of them made it seem as if Dell could almost understand if he just tried hard enough. The more this happened, the longer he watched these fits until Corey eventually fell into restful sleep once more, Dell became certain that those motions were that of a person trying to flee. “I think he was abused.”

Michael rubbed his face and sighed. “Well, we’ll figure out his story eventually. Damn. Just keep watching him. Show him what to do.”

As much as he wanted to continue trying to feign disinterest in Corey, he couldn’t. Not when he’d just pictured the kid in the middle of a nightmare. God, he hated watching, but he had to. And he tried so hard to convince himself that he didn’t care but here, in front of his boss, he couldn’t. “I will. I’ll show him.”

I’ll make sure he knows what he needs to know. Whatever that might be.