Braun was moving on autopilot and not much else. He had nothing left to lose, so he placed his trust in Serge and his husband Dex, and he went with them to their apartment over a cigar shop, only two blocks from where he’d been found. He carried his duffel bag up the narrow interior stairs, every one of his senses shutting down as his adrenaline waned.

Serge ushered him through the living room to an eat-in kitchen, then put him into a dining chair at a small, round table. Dex limped to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. Twisted the cap off. He offered it to Braun, who sipped without feeling it. Serge returned to the table with a bottle of brown liquor and two old-fashioned glasses. He poured a shot and pushed it across the table to Dex.

“Braun, are you injured anywhere else?” Serge asked. He had liquor, too, but he didn’t drink it yet. “Did they hurt you anywhere besides your lip?”

Braun shook his head, which only reminded him how much his mouth hurt. Serge said something to Dex that Braun didn’t catch. Dex left the table.

“Can you tell me what happened tonight?” Serge continued. “You were supposed to have been taken to a halfway house last week. What are you doing wandering the streets this late?”

Braun shook his head again, unable to find words to answer the man who’d saved him tonight. Dex returned with an instant cold pack, already broken and chilled. He helped Braun hold it against his bruised mouth.

“Should we take him to the hospital?” Dex asked. “He seems really out of it.”

“No!” Braun reached out and grabbed Serge’s wrist. “No, please.”

“Okay, no hospital,” Serge said. He covered Braun’s hand with his, a familiar and gentle warmth. “It’s late. We have a guest room. Stay the night, get some rest, and we’ll puzzle this out in the morning, okay? I promise you’ll be safe here.”

Braun had no choice but to trust the two betas who’d rescued him. It was here, or risk the streets again, and he’d rather risk it here, in a clean apartment that smelled pleasantly of coffee and cologne. “Thank you,” he whispered. “For everything.”

“You’re welcome. Come on.”

Serge led him down a short hallway and opened a door. The small bedroom had light blue walls and a yellow coverlet on the bed, and a single window. It seemed safe enough.

“Good night, then,” Serge said. He closed the door.

Braun dropped his duffel on the floor and crawled onto the bed, stretching out on his back to ease his sore ribs. He hurt all over, a combination of his unexpected run, his tumble to the ground, and his previous injuries. More than anything, his heart hurt from fear and uncertainty over what morning would bring.

He woke to sunlight peeking in through the closed blinds. He didn’t remember falling asleep, but his rested mind told him he’d slept. His best night’s sleep in nearly a week, and he’d done it on top of the covers, not moving a muscle since the night before. Everything ached, especially his head.

As he sat up, he spotted two white tablets and a glass of water. Painkillers from the shape of them. Uncertain, but tired of hurting, he swallowed them both. He reeked of a combination of sweat and fear and the rising musk of heat—the timetable had been hurried along by those damned alphas last night.

Braun’s gut clenched as the memories assaulted him again. He’d been so close having two alphas violate him without consent. No alpha was to be trusted. They were all violent beasts who wanted sex and who saw omegas as convenient holes, especially when in heat. He never wanted to see another, not ever again.

He slid off the bed, cracked open his door, and peeked out. He smelled coffee, and two beta scents. Still just the three of them. As he opened the door farther, Serge emerged from the door to his left. Braun froze.

Serge smiled. “Morning. You sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Bathroom’s behind me if you want to shower. I imagine you do.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Towels are in the tall cabinet. Help yourself to our soap and stuff.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Serge waved his hand in the air. “Don’t ‘sir’ me, I’m no demanding alpha, and I’m not even your nurse. Call me Serge, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you.” He really needed to stop saying thank you.

Braun escaped to the bathroom, which was as tidy as the rest of the apartment. A single vanity with neatly organized toiletries. Braun carefully peeled off layers of clothing, revealing a few bruises on his hip from his fall, and bruises on his wrists and forearms from being grabbed. His bruised ribs were still various shades of blue and mottled green. He was a fucking mess.

The hot water made his cut fingertips sting, and the shampoo didn’t help, so Braun washed quickly. No need to be vulnerable for too long. As he dried off, though, something in his body changed. The burn in his fingertips was gone, but he burned warmly all over his body as his temperature rose. His gut began stirring with need and his passage clenched.

Oh goddess, not now. Please, not now.

He’d studied the signs and he knew the symptoms, but he’d hoped to have a few more days. Those damned alphas last night had triggered him, damn it. He would be in full heat in a matter of…wait. The arousal hit a wall of sorts in a way that Braun couldn’t explain, and it died off quickly. The burn eased and finally ceased.

What in goddess’s name was that?

There was no such thing as a false heat, so what—the pills.

Braun wrapped himself in a towel, gathered up his clothes, and bolted back to his bedroom to dress. He ignored the muffled voices and the scent of frying food, eager to know what Serge had given him. He burst into the main room of the apartment, and then stopped short at the sight of a third man. The alpha scent hit him hard, and Braun growled.

The alpha looked up from his seat at the kitchen table. He and Dex were drinking coffee, while Serge cooked at the stove, and they all three turned to look at him.

“It’s okay, Braun, he’s a friend,” Serge said in his soothing nurse voice. “I swear, he won’t hurt you.”

The alpha stood; Braun took a full step backward. “My name’s Tarek Bloom,” the big man said. “I’m a friend of Dex’s.”

Braun tried to study the man without making the mistake of eye contact. Broad shoulders, muscular, dark hair, square jaw, ruddy complexion. He looked like a guy you didn’t want to challenge to a fistfight in a dark alley. It was rude to outright ignore the alpha, so he simply said, “Braun.”

Tarek smiled, and that did something strange to Braun’s insides. He…quivered. The man’s scent curled around him like a comfortable blanket, and some deep down instinct said to drop to his knees for this man. Braun shushed that instinct and remained standing.

“What were those pills?” Braun asked Serge.

“Heat block,” Serge replied. “I could tell how close you were last night, and if you went into heat today, it would be two days before we could get the whole story out of you.”

“Aren’t they illegal?”

“Technically, no, but they are extremely difficult to obtain, even with a viable medical reason and a doctor supporting you. And some omegas have had severe negative reactions to them, so I didn’t make the decision lightly.”

Braun didn’t push further. Serge had done something extremely dangerous to help him. A single dose of heat block kept the heat at bay for a full month, and continued indefinitely as long as the pills were prescribed. They were meant for older omegins who still heated, but for whom the risk of giving birth was too high and their alpha refused to wear condoms—yet another instance when the needs of the alpha overshadowed that of the omega.

Studies of the pills were ongoing, but some omegins who were on them long-term had seizures and sometimes fatal strokes.

One dose wouldn’t hurt Braun, they would give him a chance to sort out his mess of a life.

“Thank you,” Braun said.

“You’re welcome,” Serge said. “Please, come sit and have breakfast with us.”

Braun wanted to stay as far away from Tarek as possible, but asking to eat in his room was rude to his hosts, and he already owed them so much. He inched toward the table, alarmed as Tarek’s scent grew stronger and stronger, curling over his skin and caressing his senses. His passage clenched again, and he ache for Tarek to take him and—no! Nope. Not going there.

No.

Except his body was betraying him. It was doing exactly what he’d been told it would do when he met a bondmate-compatible alpha.

He sat across the table from Tarek and dared glance up. The man was watching him with slightly widened eyes. His nostrils flared several times. Oh goddess, he was reacting to Braun’s scent. It could no longer be his heat, because Braun didn’t feel the symptoms anymore. The block was working.

The two betas at the table seemed oblivious to the entire thing, as they served up coffee and pancakes. He was curious about Dex’s cane and limp, but asking was nosy and rude, so he focused on his food and did his very best to ignore Tarek’s spicy scent.

Yeah, good luck with that. I’m so screwed.

The three friends chatted a bit as they ate, mostly surface things that made no difference to Braun. He pushed bits of his pancake through smears of syrup, dreading the moment when they started asking him questions.

“How did you hurt your fingers?” was the first, and it came from Tarek. He even sounded upset about the cuts, and he kept shooting dirty looks at Braun’s mouth.

No sense in lying right off the bat. “I cut them climbing over a barbed wire fence,” Braun replied.

Dex’s fork scraped across his plate. “You what? Running from those men last night?”

“No, escaping the halfway house.”

Everyone else’s fork went down; Braun clutched at his, unwilling to part with it in case he needed a weapon.

“Braun, what happened after that constable took you from the hospital?” Serge asked.

Tarek’s expression flickered, as if something about Serge’s question was familiar to him.

“I was driven to a halfway house near the Narrows, I think,” Braun replied, proud of how steady his voice was. “The street was mostly abandoned, so we didn’t have neighbors. He gave me to a man named Fynn, who runs the house. Six other omegas were already there, all of them young. Younger than me, I think. It was weird, but not terrible. Not at first.”

“Did this Fynn character abuse the omegas?” Tarek asked, a growly edge to his voice.

“I don’t think so. I’m not sure, because I never saw him touch anyone, but he seemed…off. Secretive. I had a hard time sleeping most nights, because of the strange house and the strange people. And then this one day we all had to stand in the living room, while interested alphas came to interview and sniff us. It was the most humiliating thing I’ve ever been through.”

“I’ve heard of houses that do that, in order to help their orphaned omegas find an alpha to care for them. It’s not illegal.”

Braun raised his head and glared at Tarek’s chin, still unable to meet the man’s eyes. “Is it legal to tie an omega up, blindfold them, and dump them into a van in the middle of the night?”

“What?” Tarek did growl that time. “You saw that happen?”

“Yes. The night after the alpha visits. It terrified me, and the next morning at breakfast, Fynn said the omega had been matched to his mate and picked up early that morning.” Braun snorted. “I guess that was technically true.”

“Would you be able to describe exactly what you saw that night in detail?” Tarek pulled a notepad and pen out of his front pocket.

Braun’s entire body went rigid. “Why? Who are you really?”

“I really am Tarek Bloom.” For a moment, he actually seemed contrite. “What I didn’t tell you is that I’m also a constable.”

“Shit.” Braun bolted out of his chair and toward the front door, fork still in his hand.

In a flurry of movement, Tarek was in front of him, blocking his path to the door, and Braun lashed out with the fork. Dex grabbed his wrist and plucked the fork out of his hand, but that didn’t stop Braun from swinging. He punched Tarek in the chest. Twice. Panic settled in, overriding his common sense, and he tried to push past the brick wall of a man.

“Let me go! I won’t go back, I won’t!”

Arms wrapped around his torso from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. Serge’s comforting scent soothed his racing mind a bit, but it was Tarek’s hand on the back of his neck that settled Braun completely.

“Calm down, firecracker,” Tarek said. His deep voice soothed Braun’s frazzled nerves, and his touch sent his pulse racing with delight. “You’re still safe, I promise. No one here wants to hurt you.”

“Why do you care?” Braun snarled. “I’m just some useless omega you’ve known for twenty minutes.”

“You’re far from useless, little one.”

Tarek’s other hand rose, nearing Braun’s face. Braun snapped at his fingers. “I’m only a womb to you.”

“Far from it, my firecracker.” The hand on his neck squeezed. “Far from it.”

The grounding touch made Braun want to roll over and show his belly, but he was done being passed around. Done letting other people control his life. He didn’t want to feel this mating bond to Tarek, but he also couldn’t turn it off. Even with the heat block, Tarek was under his skin, doing funny things to his insides.

Angry and confused, Braun dared look an alpha in the eye.

From the moment Tarek had entered Dex’s apartment that morning, he knew he was screwed. He’d scented the omega immediately, the pheromones released by his impending heat stirring Tarek’s arousal. Making him want. He was there to help a friend in a jam, and now here he was, holding the fiery little omega by his scruff and trying to ignore the bond growing between them without permission.

If Serge hadn’t dosed Braun with the block, Tarek wouldn’t have been able to resist taking the boy right away, in the spare room where Tarek had slept off many a drunken bender.

And then Braun looked him in the eye—the only omega who ever had—and Tarek had to bite hard on his tongue to fight his instinct to claim Braun as his own. Bright green eyes glared at him with suspicion and anger, and deeper still, with curiosity. This firecracker of an omega called out to Tarek on every level, but Tarek couldn’t possibly act on his attraction until they’d figured this whole situation out.

Not introducing himself as a constable right away had been a mistake, and it had sent Braun into a blind panic. No one had ever tried stabbing Tarek with a syrup-covered fork before, and his skin was grateful that Dex still had incredible reflexes.

Tarek held Braun’s gaze steadily, until the omega relaxed under his touch. “You can release him now, Serge,” Tarek said.

Serge did without questioning him, and then took a full step backward, giving Tarek and Braun space. Tarek waited until his friends returned to the kitchen before lowering his voice to a whisper. “Please don’t deny you feel the bond between us.”

Braun swallowed hard. “I don’t want to, but I do. Please, alpha, don’t force me to mate with you.”

“I would never do that. I know some alphas might, but that’s not who I am. I’m twenty-eight and have never mated, and I’m not in any hurry now.”

“Oh.”

“Not that you aren’t beautiful.” Tarek’s free hand twitched, once again wanting to rise and comb his fingers through Braun’s thick, wavy brown hair. To stroke the soft skin of his cheek. He had a fierce beauty about him that Braun probably couldn’t see for himself when he looked in the mirror.

My firecracker.

No, he couldn’t think of Braun as his, not when Braun seemed disgusted by the idea of mating with Tarek. The omega seemed terrified not only of alphas in general, but also of the authorities. And no wonder, if a constable took him to a halfway house where he witnessed illegal omega trafficking.

Tarek would double check, but he was pretty sure this was the omega Heely had complained about last week. He’d know which house he’d taken Braun to.

“Come sit,” Tarek said. “Finish telling your story.”

“You promise you won’t arrest me?” Braun asked.

“I promise, on your life and on my own.”

Braun reluctantly returned to the table and sipped at his orange juice. He hadn’t wanted coffee, and he’d barely eaten his pancake. Tarek fetched a fresh, warm one from the oven and a new fork. “Eat, firecracker.”

He did, either because he was still hungry, or because his alpha had given him an order.

Stop it, I’m not his alpha. I’m his friend.

“What happened after the omega was taken?” Dex asked.

“I was desperate to escape,” Braun replied. “Goddess, it’s hard to believe it was only yesterday morning.”

Tarek added that to his list of notes. It would help in looking for traffic cam footage.

Braun continued. “I tried to act normal, but I spent the rest of the day studying the house. There was no way out the front or the windows. The backyard had a tall fence topped with barbed wire, and it was the only way I could see to escape, so that night I put on as many layers of clothes as possible and still move around, and I sneaked out. I was terrified every moment, thinking I’d be caught and punished.”

“Did this Fynn character punish you guys for infractions?” Tarek asked, his temper flaring to life at the idea of anyone raising their hand to Braun.

“Not physically, not that I ever saw. But there was a basement no one was allowed in, and he said it was for heats, but I didn’t believe him. And with my first heat so close, I was terrified of being down there. Knowing he’d let two alphas take one of the omegas away like a prisoner, I feared Fynn might allow strange alphas into the basement during my heat to…help.”

Tarek growled deep in his chest, his inner alpha rebelling against any other man getting near his Braun.

“Once I was clear of the fence, I ran. I didn’t know where I was, or where to go, so I ran, until I had to walk. And then I was chased and cornered.”

Another growl caught in his throat. “Dex told me about that when he called this morning.” His gaze flickered to Braun’s bruised lip. “I don’t suppose you know any names?”

“One of them was named Tetch, but I don’t know if it was his first or last. They never said the other guy’s name out loud.”

“We can all give physical descriptions,” Serge added. “If Braun wishes to press charges for assault and attempted rape.”

“No, I can’t,” Braun said with a sharp shake of his head. “If the constabulary finds out I’m here, I’ll be arrested and put in jail. Or back into another omega home, and what if that one’s worse?”

Tarek leaned back in his chair and considered the situation. “Serge said your father died last week, and that’s why you were sent to the home.”

“Yes. I have an older brother who’s mated, but he’d due to have his first child this month, and his husband is…cruel.”

“Cruel how?”

Braun flinched. “Physically. Verbally. I’ve seen Kell with bruises, and he’s suffered broken bones, as well.”

Tarek raged for the young omega and his brother, but unfortunately, there were no laws against domestic discipline in an alpha/omega pairing, and that’s what any arrested alpha would say. He was doing it for his omega’s own good.

No one deserved to be treated like garbage for their “own good.”

“Have you been in contact with your brother recently?” Tarek asked, instead of voicing his thoughts.

“No.” Braun’s eyes glimmered with tears, and the sight of them punched Tarek in the gut. His omega should never cry. “No, I haven’t seen Kell in person in months. The constable watching me at the hospital said he left a message at the house, but I don’t know if Kell got it, or if he even knew where I was sent.”

“Would you like to call Kell?”

Hope widened Braun’s eyes. “May I? We were so close as children, and after he was mated, we barely ever saw each other. Krause wouldn’t allow him to learn how to drive, and Krause refused to come to our father’s house, so we only visited on the rare occasion my father would drive me across the city. Usually it was holidays or birthdays. Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. My birthday is coming up soon. I’ll be twenty-one, too far past eighteen, and then no alpha will ever want me.”

I want you.

Braun slouched in his seat, all excitement over speaking to his brother gone. “I should have just let those alphas have me.”

Tarek was kneeling beside Braun’s chair and turning Braun to face him before he registered moving. He tried to keep anger out of his expression, but it continued to burn hotly inside of him. “No. Don’t ever think that again, Braun, not ever. You are worth so much more than a dirty, forced rut in an alley with two strangers.”

Defiance covered Braun like a second skin; his firecracker was waking back up. “So says you, some old, unmated alpha. What the hell do you know?”

Tension crackled in the air, mostly between the two betas in the room, who were probably alarmed at the way Braun was speaking to Tarek. Some alphas might have punished the omega for speaking out of place, but Tarek only smiled. Clearly someone had tried to beat Braun’s self-esteem out of him, but they had not completely succeeded. He enjoyed listening to Braun stand up for himself.

“I know that not all alphas see omegas as nothing but a breeding vessel, and we’re actively working to change the laws that oppress your rights,” Tarek said. “I know I would never force an unwilling omega to mate with me, and I would certainly never slap one for speaking his mind. You’re a human being, same as me, and you deserve to be treated as such.”

“You’re lying,” Braun replied. “No alpha cares about omega rights.”

“Don’t you ever watch the evening news broadcasts?”

“Only when my father allowed it, and only particular broadcasts.” Braun frowned, his confusion etching lines on his forehead. “I don’t understand any of this that you’re saying. Alphas are meant to dominate their omega partner, to breed them, and to create the next alpha to carry the line. Why would any alpha, especially a constable, see me as worth anything more than my ability to give you children?”

Tarek fought against the mental image of Braun’s belly swollen with his child. “Because you’re a person. A person I happen to like very much.” Braun’s father had been a complete tool, raising his child to believe he was good for procreation and nothing else.

Being this close to Braun was fucking with his senses again, so Tarek moved back to his own chair.

“So what happens now?” Serge asked. “We can’t tell the constabulary he’s with us, or he could be taken away. You know the laws about unmated omegas better than anyone, Tarek.”

“I know. Braun, do you have any other living family besides your brother? What about your omegin?”

“He died,” Braun replied. “A long time ago. And no, no other family that I’m aware of, which is why I was sent to that awful house in the first place.”

The easiest solution—and the most biologically pressing one—would be for Braun and Tarek to mate, but Tarek didn’t want to pressure Braun into a relationship purely for the sake of his safety. And while Tarek could lay a legal claim to Braun, they couldn’t officially mate for another month, not until the block wore off. A true mating meant sex during heat, a knot, and the omega taking the alpha’s seed, all of which was biologically meant to lead to pregnancy. The mating combined their scents forever, so any other alpha who came near Braun again would scent him as claimed.

“What about guardianship?” Serge asked. “It’s allowed for orphaned omegas under fourteen, and it’s allowed for widowed omegins with no alpha family members to take care of them, so that they’re able to live with beta friends or family.”

Tarek turned that one over in his mind. “There’s no precedent for an older, unmated omega to live with betas.”

“But it’s a possibility, right?”

“Wait,” Braun said to Serge. “You want to take me in?”

“Why not?” Serge glanced at Dex, who was smiling fondly at his husband. “I like you. You don’t have any better options, unless you’d rather Tarek over there lay claim to you in the court system.”

“No.” Braun winced. “I just…I don’t.”

“It’s all right,” Tarek said. “You shouldn’t be forced into a relationship simply for protection from the law. When I go into work, I’ll look into guardianship for you guys. If the law is written broadly enough to manage a more open interpretation, we may be able to help Braun stay here.”

“I would find a way to pay you guys back,” Braun said, his head turning constantly so he could address Serge and Dex. “I swear I will, either by cooking or cleaning, or I could do yard work, except you don’t have a yard.”

“Settle down,” Dex said. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We need the guardianship paperwork first, so for now, you need to lay low.”

“What about calling Kell?”

“You can still do that,” Tarek said. “I don’t know who’s handling your missing persons case, but unfortunately, one missing omega isn’t going to rate high on the work docket. I’m sure you can call him without worrying anyone is tracing you.”

“Okay.” Braun didn’t move from the table.

For a moment, Tarek wondered if he was waiting for permission. Then Dex held out his mobile. Braun took it with a grateful smile and disappeared into the guest room.

As soon as the door shut, Dex turned to him and said, “Please tell me you guys didn’t do that magical alpha/omega bonding thing.”

Tarek grunted. “We felt it, but we obviously didn’t act on it. The poor guy has been traumatized. The last thing he needs is me imprinting all over him.” He shifted his gaze to Serge. “But thank goddess you gave him that block, or I’d have been out of my mind right now.”

Serge smiled grimly. “I did it to buy him some time, but yeah, I’ll admit it was an added bonus feature. And please don’t ask me how I got the pills, because I’ll lie.”

“I wouldn’t put you guys in that position, and I couldn’t report you if I wanted to. I’m helping you hide a missing omega from the constabulary. I could get written up for insubordination and dereliction of duties.”

“Then I guess no one should report anything.”

“Nope.” Tarek glanced at his watch. “I have to go. I’ll let you know what I find out about the guardianship. Keep him safe.”

“We will,” Dex said. “Promise.”