John woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and reality, assuming Peter Mikhailov was still in town. He made himself a fresh pot of coffee while he got dressed and prepared to carry on as usual. Death threats or no death threats, he had three active cases to resolve and the cheating Alphas weren’t going to catch themselves with their pants around their ankles.

Coffee in hand, he went across the hall still wearing his worn-out bathrobe, the collar of which was soaked clean through with his morning caffeine fix when he saw the Alpha standing in his office reading one of his client files.

“Christ!” John muttered, grabbing a cloth to wipe the coffee off his robe.

“And here I thought you were an atheist,” Peter said dryly, sitting on the edge of his desk. He glanced over the file, shaking his head. “Man, these guys will stick their dicks in everything but their spouses, won’t they?”

“You’re really going to make a remark on infidelity?”

Peter dropped the file on the desk. “I told you, Johnny. I never cheated on you.”

“And I told you not to call me Johnny,” he snapped. “And you let me think you cheated for three fucking years, so I wouldn’t get up on your high horse about it.”

To his surprise, the Alpha’s gaze softened. “You’re right. I know I hurt you and I don’t get a pass just because I did it to protect you.” He cut his hand through his hair and John looked away, because the way it fell into the other man’s eyes had always been his weakness.

Hell, Peter was his weakness. Just not one he could afford.

“I thought I was doing the right thing,” Peter said quietly. “I can admit now that I was wrong, but I never stopped loving you. I never stopped wanting you.”

John scoffed, because even if he recognized the sincerity in Peter’s tone, he knew better than to let himself believe it. “Well, I did,” he lied, holding the door open. “You need to leave, before I call the police.”

“The police aren’t gonna do shit when Lake comes looking for you,” Peter warned, a dangerous edge in his tone. It wasn’t anything compared to the look in his eyes, but that was dangerous for all the wrong reasons.

“So you say.”

“It’s not a joke. You don’t know him like I do. I grew up with the guy. I’ve lived with him, drank with him, killed with him. You think you can handle shit, and when it comes to the two-bit cheaters you’re used to dealing with, maybe you’re right, but not Lake. He’s playing a whole different game.”

“So are you,” John shot back. “I’m not interested in playing at all.”

Peter stood and stalked across the room, slamming the door behind John so hard it shook in the frame. The Alpha planted his hands on either side of the door, staring down at John with a look in those frosty blue eyes that stirred a fire in his soul.

In that moment, in those eyes, John saw that Peter was everything he claimed to be. He wasn’t sure how he had ever doubted it. How he could pride himself on seeing through everyone and yet be so oblivious to the man he’d lived with for so long. The man he’d loved.

Then again, Peter always had been his blind spot.

“You don’t have a choice,” Peter growled. “You stopped having a choice the moment I decided not to pull that trigger. We both did, and like it or not, we’re bound together. If you don’t wanna believe we’re bound by fate, then believe that we are bound together by every breath Lake Kristoff takes and will be until he breathes his last. After that, you wanna go off and do your own thing, I’m not gonna stop you.”

His gaze softened and the regret in it made John’s heart ache. The traitorous heart that hadn’t been able to let go even if holding on while Peter had forgotten him was killing him.

Except, the Alpha hadn’t forgotten, if what he was saying was true. John needed it to be a lie, for his own sanity, but while Peter wasn’t the man he’d thought he was in any way, he still knew the Alpha well enough to be able to tell when he was lying.

Every instance of deception came back to haunt him, which was nothing new. For years, memories of the Alpha slipping into bed in the middle of the night had kept him awake. All the bullshit answers Peter had given him then took on a new meaning with the context he had now.

I was working, baby.

Just hanging out with a friend.

Gonna be out of town for a few days. Deal went wrong on the border and I gotta tie up the loose ends.

Back then, he’d been so sure they were all thin excuses, mere covers for the fact that he was seeing an omega on the side. Maybe two or three.

Somehow, knowing the truth wasn’t any easier. It still hurt, just in a different way. Knowing that all those times Peter had been out, he wasn’t cleaning up after drug dealers or running errands for mob bosses. He was killing people.

How many times had he come home and made John’s heart race immediately after he’d stopped someone else’s? How many of the clients who’d hired John to track a spouse or a brother who’d gone missing had loved people who were caught up in Peter’s web?

“You talk like he’s a villain,” John said, trying to keep his voice steady. “You’re both killers. Monsters. You’re no better than him.”

Peter’s eyes hardened again. “I never said I was, but the difference is, I’m a monster who’d do anything to protect you. Lake won’t stop at killing you to get to me.” His voice was low and gruff, like a growl. “He will take you, and torture you, and make you beg for death until you’re sure you’ve breathed your last a thousand times. When you’re finally a broken shell of a human being, he’ll slit your throat and leave pieces of you just to mess with me.”

John shuddered. He was used to dealing with twisted, broken men. He was used to seeing crime scenes that made men who’d been on the force for decades retch. It wasn’t the content of Peter’s words that churned his stomach, or the fact that Lake had such vile plans in store for him. It was knowing that Peter knew from experience. That even if he’d never done such things himself, he’d called a man who was capable of them his brother.

More than the revulsion and the guilt for being caught up in it, even if it was only by his own ignorance, it was another realization that broke John’s heart when he’d been sure there was nothing left of it for Peter to shatter.

“Who are you?” he asked, shaking his head. When Peter had walked into that bar, John had felt like he was a ghost from the past, but now he knew the truth. He was looking at a stranger. “I don’t know you.”

Peter’s jaw tightened as he looked down at the beta, finally standing back and letting his hands drop to his sides. “No,” he said in a tone of resignation. “You don’t, and maybe it’s better that way. All you need to know is that I’m going to protect you. We can do it the easy way, or we can do it the way that involves you tied up in my trunk for the whole drive to California. Choice is yours.”

“Fuck you,” John growled. He knew the Alpha wasn’t bluffing, and the most infuriating part was that he knew Peter would and could follow through. Even if John did call the cops and report him, he had made more enemies on the force than friends. If Lake really was coming after him, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about that, either.

Peter lifted the phone on John’s desk and held it out to him. “Go ahead. I’m sure you’ve got a few connections on the Federal level. Call and ask if he’s being released. See if I’m lying.”

John hesitated, mostly because he knew the Alpha wasn’t. He took the phone anyway and dialed the only contact he could think of who’d be willing to give him that kind of information. Detective Dean Garza was the mate of an omega he’d helped reconnect with his stolen child over Christmas, and while he and the Alpha hadn’t exactly seen eye to eye, they had worked together for the sake of Max and his son. Dean had also just been promoted to a higher position, and he owed John a favor.

“John?” The surprise in the Alpha’s voice was clear. “How’s it going, everything alright?”

John was surprised he hadn’t deleted his number. During the months he’d spent helping Max, he had admittedly developed feelings for the omega, but after seeing Dean and Max together, he’d known that wasn’t going to go anywhere. Not that it would have worked out if it had. No matter how he’d tried to move on, John’s heart always had and always would belong to Peter. The fact that the man he’d loved had turned out to be a lie had done nothing to change that.

“I’m fine, more or less,” John muttered, shooting a look at the Alpha watching him impatiently from across the room. “I just need to call in that favor.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“You have access to federal arrest records, right?” John asked. “I was hoping you could tell me when someone’s set to be released.”

Dean was quiet for a few seconds. “For you? Yeah, I can do that. What’s the name?”

“Lake Kristoff.”

“Never heard of him,” Dean muttered. John could hear him typing. “Alright, got him.”

“When’s be being released?”

“Already has,” said Dean. “Yesterday morning, in fact. This guy a client of yours?”

John’s blood ran cold. The last hope he’d held out that Peter was just making this up as an excuse to get him away went out the window. “No,” he said stiffly. “He’s not.”

“What is it?” Peter asked, frowning.

John ignored him. Dean asked, “John, who is this guy? If you’re in trouble —“

“It’s fine,” John insisted, not about to drag a family man into it if Lake was even half as ruthless as Peter claimed. “Thanks for the information. Give my regards to Max and the kid, alright?”

“I will, but be careful. They got this guy on possession of drugs and stolen weapons, but there was a whole lot more they couldn’t pin on him,” he warned. “I know you like to do your own thing, but this is the kind of shit you don’t wanna get wrapped up in.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” John said, hanging up. He was already wrapped up in it more than he’d ever wanted to be, and for the time being, it looked like he didn’t have a choice but to go deeper.

“What’s wrong?” Peter demanded.

“Lake is already out of prison,” John said, his thoughts already racing with all the arrangements he was going to have to make to get out of town. “They let him out yesterday morning.”

The fact that all the color drained from Peter’s face in a second was not a good sign. “Shit,” he growled. “We have to go.”

“I know that,” John muttered, pulling out a few vital files from his cabinet. Namely the ones he wasn’t supposed to have. “I’m packing.”

“Leave it,” Peter growled. “If Lake is already out, we don’t have time.”

“I can’t just leave, I’m in a bathrobe,” John protested, grabbing the files and walking across the hall to his apartment. He found his duffel bag in the closet and stuffed the files in along with a few changes of clothes while John rushed after him.

“Do you really want to die over some old T-shirts?” the Alpha demanded.

John discarded his robe and pulled a sweater on before grabbing his trench coat. “You act like this is the first time I’ve had to go on the run.”

Before Peter could answer, the window exploded with the sound of gunfire coming from the front lot. Peter dove on top of him, taking him down to the floor. John felt glass digging into his leg as he hit the ground, Peter’s body flattening on top of his to shield him. The Alpha’s familiar weight stirred memories along with the shock as bullets ricocheted off every surface of his apartment.

“Stay down,” John growled, his hand covering the beta’s. As soon as the gunfire ceased, Peter dragged him to his feet and John snatched the strap of his duffel bag, still on autopilot. The Alpha pulled him through the door and out the back way, but John could hear people coming up the front steps.

Holy shit. This was real.

“Get in the car,” Peter bellowed, all but flinging him toward the muscle car waiting in the back of his lot. John dove behind the car as the back door to his apartment complex flew open and Peter pulled a gun, firing directly into the chest of the man on the steps. Blood sprayed out like a cartoon and he staggered back into the two men on his heels. They fired blindly, shots glancing off the tree across the lot and raining holes in the pavement.

Peter got in, firing a few more shots out the window. John already had the door open, but Peter dragged him into the car and peeled out of the lot.

“Fuck!” John cried, shielding his ears and ducking down in his seat as Peter fired another shot out the window. Through the rearview mirror, John saw one of the other shooters drop to the ground.

He’d just seen Peter kill at least two people in front of him in the last sixty seconds. Two people who were trying to kill them.

The shock lasted until they were on the main road and Peter was driving ninety easily. “We’re going to get pulled over!” he cried.

Peter looked over at him in disbelief. “We just came within two seconds of getting gunned down and you’re worried about the traffic laws?”

“We’re gonna be a lot easier to kill if we end up in a high-speed traffic chase,” he shot back.

Peter grunted in irritation, taking a hard right onto a dirt road. He parked the car behind a small abandoned shed and leaned back over his seat to watch until three black sedans whizzed past them on the main road. Not ten seconds later, John heard sirens blaring and saw the flashing red-and-blue lights of a squad car in hot pursuit.

He gave Peter a “See?” look and the Alpha rolled his eyes before pulling back onto the road.

“I see you’re still a backseat driver.”

“I mean it, Peter. I don’t want you going after cops.”

“Fine. Except the ones who’re working with Lake.”

“What?”

Peter glanced over at him. “You think you get how this world works because of your job, but you have no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“There are no good guys or bad guys, John. Not anymore. There’s us, there’s the people who want us dead, and everyone in between is collateral damage.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“That’s the way it is, and we don’t have a damn chance at surviving unless you get that.”

“I’m not letting innocent people die to save my life, so unless you get that, you can just let me out right here,” John snapped. “That’s the way it’s gonna be.”

Peter stared over at him before glancing back at the road, his mouth pressed into a hard frown. “You are so fucking stubborn,” he muttered, shaking his head.

“I guess some things never change,” John said, folding his arms and staring out the window. How they were going to survive Lake was suddenly much less of a concern than how they were going to survive the car ride with each other.