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Early morning with a fresh heel of bread in hand and his feet heading towards the forest was Peter’s favorite time of day. No alphas sniffing at his door, asking when he intended to choose a mate. No pitying looks of his neighbors or whispers at his back. Just the chatter of birds far above and crunch of leaves under his boots. Peace.Peter chewed at his breakfast as he walked towards his favorite place to hunt, thinking over an idea that had come to him the night before, a mechanical mechanism that could be cranked to mix ingredients instead of doing it by hand. May’s hands always ached from how much she had to use them to stir wooden spoons in the kitchen where she worked. If he could make that job easier for her, he would do his best to try. He was still mulling over ideas as he climbed his favorite scouting tree and settled in to wait for prey.The rabbit was fatter than his usual fare, a good meal to bring back to May if he could catch it. He drew his bow, took a deep breath, and released the arrow. It shot across the clearing and hit his target in the side, deep enough to wound, but not kill. The rabbit squealed in pain and darted off into the trees. Peter swung his bow over his shoulder, leaped down from the tree, and ran after it, following the scent when he lost visual of it.The blood grew thicker with every few feet of ground, the scent stronger. Peter ran harder, determined to get to the rabbit and kill it before it could suffer much longer. He hated wounding without a kill. He burst into another clearing, but stopped short when he spotted the rabbit. It was in the mouth of a giant wolf, easily a foot taller than his own wolf, but painfully skinny, half-bald from mange, and so caked in mud that it was difficult to determine the color of what fur still clung to the wolf’s bones.He snarled at Peter around the belly of the still-struggling rabbit. Peter’s arrow stuck half out of his mouth, the broken fletching dangling down. His eyes were deep red and wild, darting all over Peter as if not sure where to attack first. The scent of him hit Peter in the next moment, dirt and disease, but underneath it the strong scent of Alpha.“Sweet summer moon, you’re a shifter,” he said, holding a cautious hand out, intending to let the alpha scent him and show that he meant no harm. The alpha snarled at him once more and darted off into the trees, taking Peter’s dinner with him.Peter was too shocked to move for several moments, unable to process what he’d just witnessed. He’d heard rumors of a feral wolf in the woods moons now, but all the stories had been of a far more vicious creature. The alpha he’d just encountered looked more scared than anything, scared and starving and so sickly that it was a miracle he had been able to stand, let alone run off into the woods at the first sign of spooking. And none of the stories had said the wolf was a shifter. Peter couldn’t imagine who it might be. A stranger, likely. There hadn’t been an alpha gone missing from the village since his uncle was killed by thieves five years ago. And Peter hadn’t heard of any disappearances before that. He would ask May when he got home, later than expected now that he was going to have to climb another tree to find their dinner.But as he settled into the crook of a branch a few minutes later, he thought better of his decision to tell May what he’d seen. If she knew there was a feral alpha in the woods this close to their village, she wouldn’t let him go hunting anymore, and they needed the meat. They certainly didn’t have the means to buy it, not since they’d lost the farm with the death of their alpha. It was better for them both if he kept this revelation to himself. At least for the time being.When he returned to the cottage a few hours later, it was with three bushy-tailed squirrels he’d found in his snares, but no rabbits. May greeted him with a grateful smile and a kiss to his cheek anyway, none the wiser of their lost rabbit stew.

“You’ve been getting up awfully early lately, sweetheart.”Peter froze in pulling the strap of his bag over his head, unsure what to say. He thought he’d been quiet in his sneaking out early to look for the alpha over the last several weeks, but he should have known nothing would get past May. “Just eager to get my day started,” he told her, trying to keep his heartbeat steady to hide the lie.May crossed her arms over her nightdress, eyes narrowed at him. “Are you having trouble finding game?”“No, not really. Just… been trying to work through an idea. The quiet of the woods helps me think.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the entire truth, either, and saying it made his guts twist around the meager breakfast he’d snuck. He let his bag strap drop onto his shoulder, forcing a smile.May frowned, but didn’t push him. Instead, she walked up to him and kissed his forehead, her warm lips against his skin a soothing balm to his nerves. “Whatever it is, you’ll tell me when you’re ready, won’t you?”“Of course, Aunt May. I’ll take care of the garden when I get back. I think some of the tomatoes are ripe enough for picking now.” He kissed her cheek in gratitude and turned to the door.“Be careful. The Watsons lost a few chickens two nights back, said it looked like a large animal got into the coop. Whatever it is, you stay out of its way, hmm?”Peter’s stomach went cold. Snarly. What else could it be? “I will. I love you,” he said over his shoulder before slipping out of the cottage. If his feet took him into the tree-line faster than usual, no one but May was likely awake to notice.It was still mostly dark, the first few hints of the sun just lightening the forest enough to see the path ahead of him. The insects were still loud, chirping the last of their midnight song as he made his way deeper into the trees, heading for the clearing where he first found the alpha he’d nicknamed Snarly. The first few days after their initial run-in, the clearing smelled of him so strongly it was impossible to ignore, but Peter never saw him while he was there. He started laying in the center of the clearing for hours, listening for signs of the alpha and leaving as much of his scent as he could in the foliage. Even if the alpha was still hiding from him, skittish and stand-offish, the least he could do was get the wolf used to his scent. Every day he left part of that day’s catch, hoping to associate his scent with food.It took nearly two weeks, but his efforts were not in vain. One morning as he approached the clearing, the scent of the alpha hit his nose, fresh and alive and present. He paused at the tree-line, wary to enter the clearing and scare the wolf. Snarly was curled up in the spot where Peter usually laid in wait for him, his body so tightly wound it looked painful. Peter could see his shoulders shivering in the cool of the early morning. His hygiene had not improved, but the food offerings had helped him to put on a little weight. Only enough so that his ribs were not quite as visible as the first time Peter had laid eyes on him, but it was enough to bolster Peter’s determination to continue his efforts.Snarly’s head popped up as soon as Peter approached and his lips pulled back, revealing two rows of the biggest teeth Peter had ever seen on a wolf, shifter or otherwise. They looked deadly sharp and itching to sink themselves into Peter’s supple flesh, but Peter refused to be frightened by the gesture. He held his hands up and out to show the alpha that he held nothing in them, that he wasn’t a threat.“Good morning. I had hoped you would return. I have breakfast for you, if you don’t mind me reaching into my bag,” he said in the calmest, easiest voice he could manage. His answer was a snarl. It brought a smile to Peter’s mouth. “You are a grumpy one, aren’t you?” He slowly reached into his bag, pausing with every growl, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the ground so as not to be perceived as threatening. When he pulled out a cloth bundle, the low growls quieted. He unwrapped the cloth, grinning, and showed the alpha the handful of blueberries, sliced apple, and strips of cooked salmon he’d snuck out of the house. The alpha sniffed the air, but flinched back when Peter knelt down to spread the cloth out.“Go ahead. I brought it for you to eat. I thought you might be hungry.” He stepped away from the cloth, leaning against a tree several body-lengths away to give the alpha room to inspect the offering. The alpha watched him for several tense moments before approaching to take the food, dragging it closer to him by a corner of the cloth. He darted another wary look at Peter before beginning to eat. Peter’s chest burst with a sense of accomplishment. He would be feeding this wolf by hand if it took a year.It didn’t take quite a year, but the several weeks of painstaking patience, time taken from his duties with his aunt, began to feel like a year’s time before the wolf finally began to trust him. Now as he stepped into the clearing, Snarly lay curled up in Peter’s usual spot, his head resting on his paws. He looked up when Peter stepped out of the tree line, but didn’t otherwise move, just followed Peter with his eyes.Snarly had put on a little weight, though the sad state of his fur made it impossible to tell just how much. His fur was still caked in mud and patchy from mange. He looked like he might have gotten in a few fights with other predators in the past, as well. Despite the mites and dirt and the malnourished state of him, Peter could tell that he was quite the alpha wolf when in good health. He was larger than any of the shifted alphas Peter had seen in the village, and his paws were enormous. Peter ached to know what he looked like in his human form. He would probably dwarf Peter. But at the moment, he was still too wild for any hope of shifting. Peter had a lot of work ahead of him.  He approached Snarly slowly, careful to keep his hands in view at all times. He had learned to pull the food from his pack before he reached the clearing to defuse some of Snarly’s tension. He unfolded that day’s boon, a sliced apple and three carrots. “Good morning, I brought you your favorite,” Peter told him, spreading the cloth out a few feet away.Snarly sniffed the air before slowly getting to his feet and stepping closer, glancing up at Peter before nosing at the food and beginning to eat. Peter waited until he was distracted before slowly, carefully extending his hand out to stroke his fingers along the patchy fur and skin of Snarly’s side. The muscles under his hand tensed, then relaxed after it became clear that Peter meant him no harm.Peter couldn’t hide his grin. He began petting the fur he could reach. The fur was scratchy, dirty to the touch, the exposed skin scabbed over and painful-looking. Peter longed to bathe the wolf and clean the mud from his fur, feel the real texture of it under his fingers. He imagined it was soft when clean, soft and silky. “I know you aren’t there yet, but I hope you’ll let me take you to the river and wash you of this dirt one day. You’d feel so much better, and it might even help with this mite problem of yours. It can’t feel good to have so many sores.” A flea jumped onto Peter’s hand as he dug his fingers in Snarly’s fur. He tried to ignore the revolting sensation that swept through his belly. A bath might help with those, too.Snarly pulled away abruptly as if having been spooked and quickly skittered into the trees with his tail between his legs. He was out of sight before Peter could voice his protest. He sighed under his breath and collapsed onto his ass in the soft grass, disappointed that he’d scared Snarly off.“Thank you for letting me touch you, I guess. I wish you would let me help you more,” he said, loud enough that he knew the wolf would be able to hear him. He gathered up the rumpled cloth, now empty of all but a few bits of carrot stalk. He shook out the leftovers and tucked the cloth back in his bag. He pulled a book out next, borrowed from Harry’s library, and stretched out in the grass to read for a little while. In the back of his mind, he hoped Snarly might come before the sun shifted too far in the sky to justify sitting any longer, but he knew in his heart that a few pats were all the contact he was going to get that day.By the time he’d finished a chapter, the light had moved higher in the trees. In the distance, he could hear the shuffling of leaves, a wolf pacing, watching him, but Snarly never came back into the clearing. Peter sighed to himself as he tucked the book back in his pack and stood up and brushed the grass from his trousers. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Please take care of yourself,” he said.The sun was much higher in the sky when he returned to the cottage with a bag full of wild mushrooms and a fat rabbit for supper. May was still out when he dropped his things off and skinned and cleaned the rabbit and mushrooms for a stew, so he went to the back garden to weed as promised.“You’ll never catch an alpha with all those calluses, Pete,” Mary Jane said from directly behind him. She had probably meant to sneak up on him, but he heard her skirts in the grass well before she got near him. He sat back on his heels and turned to show her his filthy hands with a grin.“Who said I want an alpha? Maybe I’d find a pretty omega to pup with.”Mary Jane wrinkled her nose as she settled into the grass next to him and picked up his basket to settle in her lap. “Even if two omegas could pup together, where would you live? You would want to stay in that tiny cottage scraping by for the rest of your lives?”“Laws can change.”“Unlikely.” She dug her thin hand into the pocket of his trousers and took out his knife to begin cutting out the stalks of the vegetables he’d already collected.“I thought you were worried about calluses,” Peter quipped, smirking at her. She rolled her eyes.“Maybe I already have an alpha sniffing around my skirts,” she said, a hint of teasing in her tone.Aunt May’s voice popped into the back of Peter’s head, reminding him about the chickens. He tugged at a particularly stubborn weed instead of answering. Mary Jane made a scoffing noise. “We both know you’re not interested in Harry’s attentions, Tiger. No need to pretend to be jealous.”Peter blinked over his shoulder at her, caught off guard by the comment. “Harry. Right,” he said in a flat tone, eyes darting towards the tree line to the north. He doubted Snarly was nearby, but the thought that he might have been into the Watsons’ chickens made Peter uneasy. “May said something got into your chickens last night.”Mary Jane frowned down at the carrot in her hand, tugging at a particularly stubborn stalk. “Not something, someone. I don’t know who thought it would be amusing to kill my favorite girls, but it was no animal. There wasn’t a lick of damage on the latch or the fence. Whoever did it let themselves in the conventional way. I find it unlikely that a coyote sprouted hands, and I don’t think a raccoon would be tall enough to push the latch up high enough to open the gate themselves.”“Why would someone sneak in to kill your chickens?”“I haven’t the faintest. Whoever it was is owed a knife to the thigh, though. They got Pluck and Little Red.” Peter didn’t need to look at her pinched mouth to know how angry she was. Pluck and Little Red were her prized chickens. She had raised them from eggs and never stopped talking about how beautiful they both were. Peter would have to have a talk with Snarly. It wasn’t acceptable for him to get into the neighbors’ coups. There was plenty of wildlife in the forest, and now that he was a little healthier, he should be able to hunt them down himself.“That’s terrible. I wonder who it was.”“I haven’t the faintest, but if it was a silly alpha trying to get my attention, he’s going to regret his behavior, mark my words.” She shredded a leaf between her fingers with vicious intent.“I don’t doubt it,” Peter said with a smirk, going back to his digging.

“Have you ever treated an animal for mange?” Peter asked over the dinner table one evening in early autumn. He had been thinking about it for the last several weeks, worried about the state of Snarly’s coat and how he was going to successfully survive the winter with half of his skin exposed. Knitting the giant wolf a sweater was out of the question. Even if he had the time, they couldn’t afford the amount of wool he’d need.  May paused in lifting her mug of water to her mouth. “I’m sorry?”Peter looked down at his plate, realizing how ridiculous the question had been immediately. Why would he be asking about taking care of an animal at all? They couldn’t afford pets, and she had no idea about Snarly. Or at least until that moment she hadn’t had any idea about him. “Forget it, I was thinking out loud. It was silly.”May let him fumble around with his fork for a few minutes in awkward silence before setting her own utensils down and sitting back in her chair. “I can’t say I’ve ever taken care of an animal with mange, but I’m sure Healer Banner could help you. He treats all sorts of animals.”“I hadn’t thought of him. Thank you.”“Are you certain there’s nothing you want to tell me, Peter? Maybe about why you spend so much of your free time in the forest these days?”“There’s nothing, Aunt May, really. I promise.” He knew he was caught in the lie because he couldn’t look May in the eye when he said it, but she had the grace not to call him on it. For now.Healer Banner showed him none of the same courtesy the following morning. “Why are you asking about mange, Peter? I didn’t think you or May kept animals,” he asked as he picked up one of Stark’s new piglets and looked it over, ignoring the loud squeals of distress.“We don’t, but I might have started feeding a cat I found in the woods, and he trusts me enough to pet him sometimes. I thought I might be able to make him feel a little better if I could help with the sores. I think he is in a significant amount of pain,” he lied as smoothly as he could manage. He did his best to keep eye contact. Healer Banner might appear to be mild-mannered, but he was the fiercest alpha wolf in the village, and he had senses to match.  Banner’s flat look didn’t make the nervous flutter of Peter’s stomach settle any, but the deep resigned sigh that followed was a relief. “I can’t imagine what you would be doing with a cat. Your aunt’s allergic, you know that.”“I know. That’s why I haven’t tried to take him home. And I’d appreciate it if you kept this from Aunt May. She has enough to worry about.”“That is true. Which is why I am finding it so difficult to believe you are treating a feral cat with mange.” He handed the piglet to Peter with an incredulous look. “Keep that one until I’ve finished examining the others. They’re impossible to tell apart.”Peter took the piglet and cradled it under his arm, trying to console it with pets to the head to calm it down. Eventually, it settled against him and quieted to a soft snuffling. “I like animals. You know that, sir.”“I do. If you weren’t an omega, I would have you for an apprentice. I’ve never seen anyone with such a way with animals.”Peter perked up. Working under Healer Banner would be almost as amazing as working under Alpha Stark. “I would love that. You could always bend the rules…”“And have Osborn on me within the day? He would forbid me from practicing medicine, and it would do nothing to help your situation. Even if you were my apprentice, you could never work on your own. No one in our village would hire an omega for medical treatment.”Peter didn’t have to be told. He was already well aware of the ridiculous laws. Omegas were good for nothing but mating, breeding, and house work. An independent omega was a sign of failure for an entire community. The Starks only employed Peter’s aunt in their kitchens out of pity, he knew, and even that was unusual. “Can you tell me how to treat the mange, please? There has to be something simple. It’s just a mite problem, isn’t it? Like fleas?”“Yes, which means it is both simple and extremely difficult to treat. You have to clean the animal and keep it clean. I would suggest shaving the fur, but I doubt a feral cat would permit that sort of treatment, and so close to winter, it wouldn’t be advisable, not if you intend to keep the animal outside.” He handed Peter a second squealing piglet as he explained and went digging through hay for the third, who had been trying to run away.  Peter cradled the second one against his chest, letting it squeal in his ear until it acclimated to his body heat and calmed. It was awkward to hold two of them, but once they’d stopped squirming, it wasn’t difficult. “So I should give him a bath?”“With soap if you can manage it. And frequently. The more often you do it, the better chance you have of killing the infestation.” Banner pulled the final piglet out from behind the hay pile by its stubby tail and started checking it over. “Combing the fur is also helpful. I can lend you a special comb to help with the process, if you’d like.”Peter brightened up at the offer. The soap was going to be a sacrifice on its own. They only owned two combs, and May would notice if one went missing. “That would be wonderful. Thank you so much, sir.”“Of course. It’s the least I can do for you.” He glanced at Peter with that same pitying look he got every time Peter’s circumstances were brought up, even in passing. In the year after Ben died and they lost the farm, Healer Banner had offered to mate Peter twice, but Peter had known the offer was only out of guilt and a desire to help the family, not a genuine interest in Peter himself. And even if it had been, Peter had no interest in mating an alpha any time in the near future.Peter watched him set the piglet on the ground and gesture for Peter to do the same. Peter did so reluctantly. Cuddling small animals always made him feel calmer, less anxious. The piglets snuffled around his feet for a few moments before scuttling off to their mother to eat. Banner climbed out of the pen, brushing his hands off on his apron. Peter followed after him, glancing back over his shoulder to watch the piglets latch onto their mother.“If you’ll follow me back to my house, I can get that comb for you.”  Peter did just that, excited at the prospect of helping his mangy alpha feel better.

When he found the wolf curled up in his usual spot the next morning, Snarly was up and wandering over with his nose in the air as soon as Peter stepped out of the trees. “Good morning to you, too. You smell something in my bag?” he asked, reaching down to pat the wolf on the part of his head still covered in fur. “I don’t know how excited you will be when you find out what it is.”  Snarly stuck his nose under the flap of Peter’s bag, his snuffling sounds loud in the quiet morning. Peter pulled the flap back and revealed a nice slice of the skunk he’d bagged the day before and the half bar of soap he managed to sneak out of the house. It was costly, but Peter thought using it on the wolf would be worth it if it helped ease his pain and possibly helped bring him back to his humanity. Peter was desperate to learn what the alpha looked like as a human. To speak with him. To learn what his name was and what had caused him to flee to the forest.Peter held out the slice of meat, pleased when the alpha quickly snatched it from his hand and dropped his head to take it apart with his teeth. While he devoured his treat, Peter took out the soap and closed the flap of his bag. When the wolf looked up again, he sniffed the air with what could only be described as confusion. “I spoke to the healer in the village, and he suggested that giving you a bath could help to kill the mites biting your skin. I thought it might help you to feel a little better.”The alpha snapped his teeth at the suggestion and stepped back from Peter, giving the bar of soap a sour look. “Hear me out. You might not trust me yet, but this could help with your sores. I know they hurt you. I just want to help.” He held the soap out for the wolf to sniff. Snarly continued to eye it without moving closer. “If nothing else, wouldn’t you like to get some of that mud off? It can’t be comfortable.”Snarly snuffled, ignoring the soap, and stuck his nose back in Peter’s bag to continue rooting around. There were other treats inside, but they were for after the bath. Peter pulled the bag above his head with a frown. “Not until you’ve had your bath. If you want what else I’ve brought you, you need to let me clean you off first.”Snarly sat back on his hind legs with what could only be described as a pout. “Don’t give me that look. You get treats when you earn them. Come now, the river’s a bit of a walk, and I still need to get some hunting in for the day.”  Peter walked away with his shoulders back and his head held high, feigning the confidence that Snarly would follow him even though he wasn’t sure Snarly would do any such thing. He tried to hide his relief when he heard the leaves crunching behind him, indicating that Snarly was indeed following him to the river. “I think you’ll feel so much better once we get that mud off you. And I promise I’ll scrub you down well. It will be like getting a massage.”  Peter glanced side-ways at Snarly, who was skulking a foot behind him, looking not at all enthused with his impending bath. “Not that I’ve ever gotten a massage myself, but I imagine it’s similar. You like being petted, don’t you?” Peter paused long enough for Snarly to catch up and petted his head, which Snarly took as permission to bump his snout against Peter’s side.By the time they reached the river, Snarly was looking less and less likely to allow Peter to lure him into the water. He whined at the sight of the running water and hid his tail between his legs. He tried to look small as if to avoid Peter’s notice, but even curled in on himself, the wolf was nearly as tall as Peter. Peter was having none of his pity party. “Come along The water isn’t going to get any warmer.”  Peter kicked his boots off and started stripping to his skivvies, shivering as he dropped his shirt onto the pile. He stepped into the water, hissing under his breath at the chill. It wasn’t freezing yet, but it wasn’t much better than the water he pumped in from the well for May every day. He gave Snarly a severe look as he waded backward into the stream, and that was enough to get the wolf moving. He dipped one paw in, howled in dramatic fashion and stepped back, licking at the water. Peter crossed his arms over his chest, the soap in one hand, and waited.  After a few minutes of waffling and whining, Snarly finally stepped all the way in. With all the dried mud caked on him, Peter was surprised he didn’t sink under the weight of it, even in such shallow water. He smiled as he approached Snarly, reaching out with the hand not holding the soap to gently stroke him behind the ears. “You’re doing so well already. Thank you for doing as I asked. Are you ready to feel a whole lot cleaner?”  Snarly bumped his head against Peter’s, pressing his body against Peter’s chest to try and steal his body warmth. Peter allowed it, reaching behind him to wet the bar of soap and rubbing it against the fur he could reach, attempting to generate suds. When that proved unhelpful, he gently nudged Snarly away. “Okay, okay, you can rub all over me after we get you scrubbed clean.” Peter began to suds up the soap between his hands and started scrubbing, using what nails he had left after constant nervous biting to scratch at Snarly’s fur and massage the dirt off him, careful of the open sores.  Snarly whimpered through the process and occasionally snapped at Peter when he had to work on a particularly stubborn bit of dirt or hit a sensitive sore. It took longer than Peter had expected—the sun was far higher in the sky than he was comfortable with by the time they crawled back onto the bank, both of them exhausted—but it was worth it.  Snarly moved with much more ease now that his fur wasn’t matted together, and he seemed to be in a much better mood for the effort, licking at Peter’s face and rubbing himself all over Peter when he wasn’t shaking his fur dry. Peter couldn’t help but giggle as he was knocked over several times by Snarly’s antics. “See? I told you you would feel better,” he said, rubbing at Snarly’s flank. “I have another bit of grooming for you, but I think you’ve done so well so far that you’ve earned one of your treats. Can you bring my bag over?” Peter reached out for his bag several body lengths down the embankment.  Snarly dutifully dragged his bag over and sniffed at it and Peter, impatiently waiting for his treat. Peter pulled out a strip of salted fish Healer Banner had given him in thanks for helping with his animal care duties. Snarly snatched up the fish and ate it in one bite.  While he ate, Peter dug around for the comb Banner had lent him and held it up to show Snarly.“Was the fish good? Here’s the other bit of grooming I have for you today. I know it’s a pest, but you’re covered in fleas and mites that keep biting you and making you itch and scab over. If I can comb them out, it will make you feel better. And maybe even grow back some of your fur for winter, if the goddess wills it. It gets cold in this part of the world, as I’m sure you are probably well aware of.” Snarly looked less than impressed with the idea of being groomed, but he sat dutifully while Peter attempted to comb through the matted wet fur on his back.When he was finished, Peter sat back to admire his work. Snarly was dry by then, and his coat was clean and shiny, but it was obvious that most of the lost fur would never grow back. A majority of what Peter had assumed was filthy mange was actually scar tissue, most of it mottled and raised, but too pale to be new. Straight, thin lines that looked like blade marks, strange circular scars that looked like brands, large areas of shiny burn scars. Whoever had caused this alpha to go feral had done so in the cruelest way. It broke Peter’s heart to see.“Oh, Alpha, who hurt you like this?” he whispered, reaching out to stroke one of the burn scars. Snarly flinched away with a low whine. Peter took his hand back. “I apologize, Snarly. Whoever did this to you should be stoned in the town square. This is unconscionable. I’m glad you got away from them.”Snarly hid his scarred muzzle with his paw, still whining. Peter put the comb away to give him privacy and began pulling his clothes back on over his mostly dry underthings. It grew chill as the day got on, and he would need to do a bit of hunting before returning to May or she would have questions. When he was finished, Snarly was peering at him around his paw. “Do you feel better, at least? You look so much more handsome all cleaned up. And now I don’t have to worry about getting fleas every time I touch you. At least for a while. We’ll have to keep doing this to keep you pest-free.” Peter hesitated. “Or you could shift back, and I could convince my aunt to let you sleep in the cottage with us. On the floor, of course, but still.”Snarly stood at the mention of shifting back and snapped his teeth in Peter’s direction, though Peter somehow knew he wasn’t snapping at him directly. A no to that idea, then. For now.“Fine then. I need to track down some game or May will start asking questions. You can help if you like.” Peter shouldered his bag and checked his bow. When he looked back up, Snarly was gone.“I suppose I will see you tomorrow, then,” he said to the empty stream.

The first rabbit was easy to dismiss. May had mentioned that she’d found a dead rabbit on their front step when he returned from selling vegetables at the market. Peter had known instantly that Snarly was the culprit, but he brushed the incident off as odd when May had asked.When two more rabbits had shown up later in the week, he’d had to pretend he’d dropped them there on his way back from the forest while on his way to see Mary Jane. May had eyed him, but hadn’t commented further. And then the fish started showing up.May was busy cleaning one at the counter, quiet except for the sound of ripping as she pulled at the innards. “It’s funny,” she started, causing Peter to turn from his own work preparing rabbit skins for tanning. “One might think an alpha was courting you, but this isn’t Harry’s style at all, and that awful Eugene finally mated poor Liz,” she said.Peter choked on his own spit, but managed to recover quickly. “What makes you think you aren’t the one being courted? You are just as likely to catch an alpha’s eye as I am, and you aren’t half as mouthy. Much more desirable to an alpha.”May smacked him lightly with a rag she had been using to keep her hands clean. “I highly doubt I’m the one being courted. I’m far too old for courting.”“I don’t know, Healer Banner was smiling awfully hard at you yesterday in the market.”“Don’t be silly,” she admonished him, but she was blushing as she turned away. Peter grinned to himself, happy to have distracted her. He’d have to salt one of the fish later as Snarly’s after-bath treat at the end of the week.When he found Snarly the next morning, he spent an extra long time scritching him behind the ears and telling him how  good an alpha he was. Snarly knocked him over and licked his face until he’d collapsed in giggles and had to wash the slobber off in a stream.It soon became difficult to find an explanation for the myriad of game appearing on their porch. One morning in late autumn, Peter pushed at the front door, but found it blocked by something too heavy for him to move. Confused and annoyed, he walked through the cottage to the back door.When he passed May in the kitchen, she frowned at him. “I thought you were off to go hunting, dear.”“I couldn’t get the front door open,” he explained and immediately regretted it when curiosity caused May to follow him outside and around the cottage to the front. Lying across their front step, blocking the door, was a dead deer. And not a small one. Snarly must have been feeling considerably better, because it would have taken quite a bit of skill to take down a buck that size. The antlers alone would go for so much gold at market. Peter already had a list of things he could buy with the money, things they needed, but could never afford. Tears sparked in his eyes, but they quickly vanished when May gasped.“My goodness, that’s quite an animal. We’ll never be able to eat all that meat. Whoever is courting you must be quite smitten,” she said, stepping around Peter to examine the buck more closely.“No one’s courting me,” Peter said quickly, wishing there was a way he could spirit the animal away quickly and change the subject.May gave him a sharp look. “They took down an enormous animal for you, Peter. And don’t think I haven’t noticed the marking to the outside of the property after every visit of Harry’s. No need to be shy.”Peter winced at the reminder. He had already tried to admonish Snarly for it to no avail. “I promise, it isn’t what you think.” At least, I hope so. Snarly can’t be trying to court me. But even as he thought it, the concept of being courted by his wolf overwhelmed him with fluttery butterflies for reasons he preferred not to examine too closely. Snarly still hadn’t shifted to his human form yet. Peter couldn’t mate a shifted wolf. Could he?“That animal looks like it weight more than the both of us combined. You might want to find this alpha who isn’t courting you and have him figure out what we’re meant to do with all this meat. We can’t even open the front door.”“I will take care of it. Why don’t you go inside and continue working on what you were working on?” He guided her by the elbow back around to the rear of the cottage and into the kitchen. The last thing he needed was May asking more questions. She didn’t look happy to be dismissed without answers, but Peter didn’t pause long enough for her to keep questioning him. He grabbed a bucket and their sharpest knife and returned to the front of cottage to take care of the meat. He would cut what they could eat from carcass and take the rest to the butcher to sell. The skin would likely be enough for at least a pair of boots for the both of them. Peter continued making plans in his head as he worked, but in the back of his mind, Snarly prowled.

Peter wasn’t able to come back to the woods for a few days after the deer, unable to make the excuse that he needed to hunt when they had more meat than they’d had in a year at the cottage and enough money from the sale of the extra to be able to stock up on needed supplies for winter. He had been busy tanning the hide and preparing what meat they kept for winter storage, but even as he worked, his thoughts strained to Snarly. He could somehow sense him stalking the edge of forest, watching Peter work and waiting until he returned. He left a parcel of food on the second night with a whispered thanks and a promise that he would return when he could. It was gone the next morning, and the ground smelled heavily of his wolf.When he finally managed to sneak out to the woods, Snarly was pacing in their clearing. He didn’t immediately come when Peter approached, an air of apprehension tensing his solid shoulders. Peter smiled at him and knelt in the grass a few feet from him. “Thank you for the deer. It was such a nice gift. It’s kept me busy for days. Aunt May and I are going to have a good winter because of what you’ve given us. I dried some strips for you to eat. I thought we might give you a bath today, and you can eat them while I comb your fur,” he said in a soothing, quiet voice meant to placate, holding out his hand so that Snarly could sniff if he wished.Snarly stepped slowly closer, first sniffing, then licking Peter’s hand. Peter petted him with the other, smiling wider as Snarly snuggled up to him, licking his face. “You’re a very good alpha. You’ve taken such excellent care of me. Let me take care of you for a bit.” He stood, extracting himself from Snarly’s insistent licking, and headed towards the river, knowing Snarly would follow.When they were in the water, Peter started hesitantly as he began soaping up Snarly’s fur. “I appreciated your gift so much, Alpha, but it was quite difficult to take care of on my own. If you plan to leave more game that large on my doorstep, you will have to shift back to your human form to help me clean it. It weighed nearly twice as much as I do. It took me all day to get it butchered enough to be able to move it off the front step. The neighbors talked. And Aunt May definitely thinks I have an alpha after me. What was I supposed to tell her? That a feral wolf was thanking me for getting rid of his mange?”Peter paused in talking, suddenly aware that he wasn’t sudsing up an animal anymore, but instead there stood a man in front of him. A large man, a full head taller than Peter and twice as broad. And naked. Very naked. Peter was touching him, his thin hands pressed against the man’s chiseled, heavily scarred abdomen. Peter’s eyes drew up the torso, up and up, until the man’s face came into focus. Peter blinked once.Twice.Three times.He knew that face. It was scarred and covered in mottled red blotches and the luscious-looking hair was gone, as well as the eyebrows, but Peter knew it all the same. He had seen it every time he visited the magistrate’s office or the village square since he was a child going to market with Ben. The Alpha Killer, the most wanted man in the kingdom. Peter knew the story well. Something about the sketch on the wanted poster had drawn him immediately, and he hadn’t been able to rest until he found out all he could about the fugitive. The Alpha Killer had gone on a killing streak a decade ago and been arrested and convicted of killing a dozen alphas. He had been scheduled to be hanged, but he’d escaped the magistrate before they could go through with his sentence. Wade Winston Wilson. Peter had liked the alliteration of the name, had liked that it matched his own. The women used to trade stories about him in the village square, stories of how he slaughtered mated alphas in a jealous rage. How he had gone from mated pair to mated pair, attempting to win the omegas from their alphas, and viciously killing the alphas when the omegas rejected him. The stories had fascinated him as a child. It had always been hard for him to believe such a beautiful man could commit such vicious acts.Peter dropped the soap, barely aware of it floating down river as he continued to stare up at the Alpha Killer’s face. Snarly. This was his big snarly wolf in human flesh. And he was naked.

“Alpha?” Peter asked, slow and unsure of himself. This had to be his alpha, but he had no idea how to process who his wolf really was. Or that the two of them were standing a foot apart, waist-deep in a cold river, naked and nearly naked.“O-ome-ga,” the alpha struggled to reply, his voice deep and scratchy from disuse. It sent a shiver down Peter’s spine. He dropped his hands to the water, fighting a blush.“You’re the Alpha Killer. Your picture’s in the village square,” Peter said, and instantly regretted it. It probably wasn’t the best strategy to remind a convicted killer twice Peter’s size that he was a convicted killed when he had just shifted back to his human form for the first time in the moon and stars only knew how long. Peter lost his battle with his blush and dropped his head, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I shouldn’t have said that,” he muttered.Fingers gently cupped his cheek, lifting his head up so that he was looking into warm brown eyes, as familiar as they were foreign on such a different face. Peter couldn’t find the strength to pull away. “Safe. Keep you safe,” the alpha said with such a serious, sincere expression that the apprehension in Peter’s belly instantly melted.“Okay.” Peter nodded, unable to turn his eyes from the alpha’s. Peter could see his wolf, his Snarly, deep in those eyes. It made the instinctive parts of his brain stretch and uncurl from what felt like a long sleep. They stared into each other’s eyes for a long time before Peter found his words again. “I should... get dressed. It’s... cold... out,” he said, stilted and embarrassed. To think this entire time he had been stripping down to his underthings with an alpha and never thought twice about it. Aunt May would have admonished him if she knew.“I brought you some...” He paused, feeling silly telling a grown man twice his size that he’d brought him treats like he was a puppy. “Some food. For after your bath. I assume now that you have hands again that you can take care of the rest of the washing up?” The alpha nodded, eyes still trained on Peter as he moved away.Peter got to the bank and shook himself of as much of the water as he could before pulling a rag from his pack and wiping down the rest. He dressed quickly, hyper-aware of the silent alpha watching him from the water. It was strange. Peter had heard that the Alpha Killer liked to talk even more than Peter did, that he was flirtatious and charming, bordering on obnoxious. But this alpha was deadly silent.When he finished dressing, Peter turned back to the water to find the alpha still standing in the middle of the river, something small clutched in his hand. Peter peered at it, surprised to see it was the bar of soap Peter had dropped. He had assumed it was lost down the current. When had the alpha grabbed it?“Are you done? I smoked some of the deer meat for you.” Peter dug through his bag until he found the cloth he’d bundled it in, along with a few wild mushrooms sautéed in butter and two thick slices of bread. “I know you’re strong enough to hunt for yourself again, but I thought you’d like something cooked. I realize how silly that is now. Wolves don’t eat cooked food. Although I suppose you’ll be able to enjoy it more now that you’re back to your human self. That’s good.”He turned back to the water again to see if the alpha was planning on coming out or not and nearly jumped out of his skin to find him standing an arm’s length away. “How did you move that fast?” he asked.“Is... Bread?” the Alpha Killer asked. Peter looked down at the bundle in his hands and held it up for the alpha to examine. The alpha took one of the slices of bread to sniff with a satisfied smile to himself. He plucked a few of the mushrooms from Peter’s hand and put them on top of the slice and took a large bite, smiling.“Good?” Peter asked, unable to help his own smile. Even with all the scarring, the Alpha Killer was a beautiful man when he smiled like that. “I’m glad you like it.” He watched the Alpha Killer eat the rest of the slice, making pleased noises as he did. “What should I call you?” Peter asked when it was gone, holding out the other slice and piling mushrooms on it. “I feel awkward continuing to call you Snarly. You have a name. Would you prefer Alpha Wilson?”“Wade,” he said, taking the slice and biting into it, his eyes never leaving Peter’s. It should have been disconcerting, but Peter found himself entranced instead.“Wade? I can do that.” He held out the cloth with meat still inside. Wade took a slice, sniffed it, then held it up for Peter to eat instead of himself. “That’s for you,” Peter said.Wade shook his head. “For you. Caught for you.” He held the meat to Peter’s mouth until Peter relented and took a bite. It was smoky and delicious on his tongue, just as it had been the night before when he and May had it for dinner. Peter closed his eyes, humming. When Wade tried to give him another bite, he shook his head and turned Wade’s hand around to his own face.“Try it. It’s delicious. I had some last night. I brought this for you.”Wade finally relented in taking a bite, and Peter was delighted to see his look of appreciation as he did. “Good, huh?”“Good,” he agreed, chewing with a pleased little nod.When he tried to give Peter another bite, Peter took it, if only to make Wade take the last. He should have been frightened, perhaps, standing alone in the woods with a known killer, particularly one he had no chance of besting in a fight, but somehow, he wasn’t a bit scared. Call it instinct, but he knew Wade would never harm him. Even if it was hard to reconcile the two, Wade was still his Snarly, his sickly, skinny wolf he had nursed back to health.He glanced down Wade’s body, looking for signs that he still needed help on that front, and suddenly became very aware once more that he was sharing space with a fully naked alpha, the two of them standing less than an arm’s length apart. “I uh… I should probably get back to the cottage. You don’t really need a combing now, and my aunt is already suspicious enough of me going into the woods so much. I don’t know if you’re planning to stay human or, uh… shift back to your wolf form, but I can bring you some clothes tomorrow if you like?” He formed the last bit into a question, not entirely sure of himself or how to proceed. Instinct wanted him to stay near Wade, near his alpha, but he had been fighting that urge for weeks now. Wade being human made it only slightly more difficult.“Stay human. Be with you.” Wade’s voice was still scratchy and stilted from ill-use, and he moved as though he were still more wolf than human. He raised his hands to Peter’s waist, stepping so close that his naked front pressed against Peter’s clothed chest and thighs. Peter could feel the press of the start of an erection against his stomach and couldn’t stop the hitch in his breath. His eyes shuddered closed for a fraction of a moment before he shook himself of the forbidden places his mind went.When he opened them again, he smiled, trying to push the traitorous thoughts away. “I want to be with you, too. But for now, I’ll bring you some clothes tomorrow, if that’s acceptable?”Wade nosed along Peter’s hairline, breathing in loud lungfuls of Peter’s scent. His nose tickled against the sensitive skin of Peter’s mating gland, and Peter shivered. He had to physically push Wade away before he let him go further than he ought. “That’s enough for now, I think. I’ll… I’ll bring you some clothes tomorrow. For now, take care of yourself, hmm?”Wade looked bereft to have Peter out of his arms, but it couldn’t be helped. Peter did his best not to look down at the enormous erection he knew he would find below Wade’s torso. He picked his pack up off the ground, where he’d dropped it when Wade surprised him, and lifted the strap over his head once more. He leaned up on his toes and kissed Wade on the cheek, much as he had kissed the wolf’s muzzle before leaving in the past. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he murmured, giving Wade’s wrist one final squeeze before walking away on feet that wanted nothing but to turn back around again.He spent the rest of the day busy at work, but if anyone asked him what he had been up to, he wouldn’t be able to say. His head was nothing but thoughts of Wade Wilson, the Alpha Killer.

Peter was too busy stuffing the last bit of blanket corner into his bag as he opened the door, and nearly cried out when he walked right into Harry, standing on the porch with a perplexed look on his face and a familiar bundle in his hand. “Is there another alpha courting you? Someone left this on your porch,” Harry asked, holding the bundle out, along with a fat raccoon. It was the food Peter had left for Wade the day before, likely minus the bread, as had become his stubborn, stubborn custom.Panicked that Harry of all people had found Wade’s latest present, Peter grabbed the bundle and the raccoon and took both into the house. It reeked of Wade’s strong alpha sent, no longer masked by the dirt and disease that had plagued him when Peter first met him. “No one is courting me, just a gift from a neighbor. I helped mend a few fences last week. They were probably just saying thank you,” he explained, not looking back at Harry, though he heard Harry follow him inside the cottage.“I wouldn’t say no one’s courting you. I’m certainly doing my best,” Harry said, a sheepish smile on his face as he leaned his elbows on the back of a kitchen chair, watching Peter put away the items Wade had returned to him—minus the bread, as he’d suspected. He deposited the raccoon in the basin, but sighed to himself the next moment, realizing that he was going to have to delay his forest trip to clean the raccoon before it spoiled. Wade would have to wait.“I thought you were courting Mary Jane. All the neighbors have talked of for the last three days was the bouquet of hot house flowers you brought her,” Peter said, glancing back at Harry with a smirk.“Only because you refuse to let me court you. The Goddess knows I’ve tried.”“You’re my best friend, Harry. I don’t want you to be my alpha. I would rather never have an alpha,” Peter said, managing not to choke on the lie.“You need one, though. You can’t live in this tiny cottage scrounging for every scrap of food for the rest of your life, Pete. You have so much more potential than that,” Harry reminded him, walking over and resting his back against the counter next to where Peter was working on the raccoon.“I like this cottage. And it’s not as though I could ever leave Aunt May.”“May could come with you. No one said you’d have to leave May here all alone.” When Peter glanced over, Harry was picking up the spoon contraption he was working on to help May with her baking. “What’s this?” he asked.“Something I’m working on for May. If I can figure out the turning mechanism, it might make stirring ingredients a lot easier for her. Her hands aren’t going to last forever.”“I don’t understand how you find the time for anything. If you had an alpha, you wouldn’t have to worry about all that hunting and gathering you do. You could work on your inventing all the time.”“I thought you wanted a litter of pups. How is an omega supposed to get any inventing done chasing little ones around?”Harry set the invention down with a loud sigh and dropped his head back in dramatic fashion. “You vex me so. I am trying to woo you.”Peter snorted. “You’re doing a terrible job of it.”“I could leave a dead animal on your door step. That seems to be working well.” Harry gave the now-skinned raccoon a wry look.“I told you, it was from a neighbor.”“That why it stinks of an alpha I don’t recognize? Because if I didn’t know better, I might think someone scent-marked it on purpose. I could smell it from down the lane.”Peter had no answer for that. What could he say? Harry was right. Now that Wade was clean and healthy, his scent permeated everything in Peter’s vicinity no matter how hard he tried to air things out. He suspected May only hadn’t said something yet because she was waiting for him to confess himself. Instead of an answer, he shoved the raccoon hide at Harry and pointed to the back door. “Can you take that out back? I’ll stretch it for tanning later.”Harry took the skin, eyeing Peter as he circled him to get to the back door. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you dodge that question,” he said. Peter didn’t answer. Thankfully, Harry had the grace to change the subject when he returned.Peter didn’t get to the forest that day. Harry stayed until late in the afternoon helping Peter with chores without complaint. It was almost the way it had been, before Peter presented as omega and Harry’s interest in him slipped from friendly to romantic. It was nice, if not as enjoyable as spending half the day with Wade would have been. Aunt May was home from the Stark kitchens by the time they were done, and she wasted no time in inviting Harry to stay for supper.Long after Harry left for the night and May had gone to bed, Peter snuck out with his bag and walked to the edge of the forest, somehow knowing Wade was nearby without seeing him in the pitch dark. “I am sorry that I couldn’t come to see you today. I had a visit from a friend of mine from childhood, Harry. I don’t know if you saw him, but you can likely smell him on me.” Peter hesitated, unsure how to explain. “He’s… a friend. He would like to be more, but I have never been interested in mating. At least… not until recently.” He shook his head, clearing the thoughts he couldn’t help and the words he shouldn’t say, not this soon after Wade’s first shift. He knew nothing about this alpha except that he had been living feral for years and that he was a murderer. But he wasn’t dangerous. Not to Peter.“Anyway, I wanted to come see you all day, but since I couldn’t, I wanted to make sure you at least had a blanket. I know you’ve been living in the forest for years without one, but I don’t want you to be cold. I’ll come by tomorrow with some clothes.” Peter set the blanket on a bed of fallen leaves and stood up. “Thank you for the raccoon. It was delicious. I have no skill for haberdashery, but I think I am going to try and make you a hat with the skin. I think you’d be dashing in gray and black.” He was grateful for the darkness to hide the red in his cheeks. He tried to peer into the trees one final time, but with the new moon, it was too dark to see even ten feet in front of him. Even so, he could smell Wade’s thick scent not far away. He said his good night and walked back to the cottage on silent feet.He went to bed that night with that scent in his nose and thoughts of Wade swimming in his head.

“Why do you keep bringing back the food I give you? My aunt is getting suspicious,” Peter asked a few days later as they sat in their clearing, Wade in his human form once more and wearing the old clothes Peter had brought him. They had belonged to Peter’s uncle before bandits had taken his life, which meant that the trousers were several inches too short and the shirt was rather snug on him, but he wore them all the same. Wade had taken to pulling Peter into his lap as soon as Peter was within reach of him, and Peter rarely felt an urge to object. It had not been long since his first shift, and while some of the human of him had begun to return, his wolf instincts were still much stronger than Peter felt the need to fight against."Smell hungry. You always smell hungry," Wade said in his stilted way, nudging his nose into Peter's hairline. The touch was far too intimate for an unmated alpha and omega, but Peter found that he cared less than he should.“I’m fine, Alpha. You’re still recovering. You need to eat,” Peter reminded him.Wade didn’t say anything in return, only snuffled at Peter’s hair and held him close. Peter should have pushed him away, should have kept his distance so that Aunt May wouldn’t smell a strange alpha on him later, but Wade’s arms were so large and comforting, and he smelled so good. Peter couldn’t bear to pull away.“What am I going to do with you, alpha?” he asked, smiling to himself as Wade continued to nuzzle him. There was no answer.

“At some point you will have to explain why you spend so much more time in the woods than you used to,” May said one morning as Peter tried to hide the half a loaf of bread he’d snagged to give to Wade. Bread was the only food he brought Wade that didn’t end up back on his front step by the end of the day, even after their talk.Peter tried to subtly hide his bag behind his back, but May’s eagle eye narrowed in on it anyway. “I want to have a stockpile for us before the animals start burrowing down. We don’t have much longer before first snow.”May glanced at the latest porch offering, two fat geese hanging above the kitchen sink. “I noticed blankets are missing from your mother’s chest. And a few items of Ben’s clothing.”Peter blinked, trying to keep his face blank. He hadn’t thought she would be looking in Ben’s things after so long a time. “Oh?”“I’m sure you know nothing about that,” May said dryly.“Nothing at all. Would you like me to pluck those geese when I get back? Maybe I can clean the feathers and make you a new pillow?” Peter asked, leaning across the space between them to kiss her cheek.“You are not as subtle as you’d like to be, but yes. That would be wonderful, thank you. Go do whatever it is you do in the forest all day.”Peter wasn’t going to object to being dismissed. He hurried to the clearing, excited to share his smuggled breakfast with Wade. In the weeks since Wade first shifted, he had started adjusting to humanity quite well. He still had a tendency to shower Peter with physical affection the way he did as a wolf, but he had started talking more, and talking with Wade had quickly become the highlight of Peter’s day.Wade was in the clearing as usual when Peter approached, one of the blankets Peter had given him spread out on the dying grass to keep them warm as they talked. He stood when Peter approached and wrapped Peter in his arms, pulling him into his wide chest and sniffing at his hair immediately. “You smell like bird. You found the geese?” Wade asked in way of greeting.“Was I supposed to miss them? I had to push them out of the way to get the front door open.”“I wanted to make sure. I smelled another alpha last week.”“That’s Harry. I told you about him already.”“Don’t like it. I should be the only alpha sniffing around you.”Peter snorted, pulling away to look up at Wade’s face. “Want me all to yourself, do you? I think not, Alpha. Harry has been one of my closest friends since we were little. He’s not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon.”“He wants to court you. He always smells like he’s two days from a rut around you.”“He wants a lot of things. Is that why you mark the house after his visits? May almost throttled me the first time she smelled it.” It wasn’t entirely true. She had been concerned, worried that Peter had another alpha like Eugine Brock after him. Peter hadn’t known how to explain that Wade was different without explaining about Wade. He hadn’t been angry, though, not the way he had been when Brock had done it. With Wade, it had felt like a comfort.Wade grinned at him, more wolf than man and so ridiculously charming that Peter didn’t know what to do with himself seeing it. “I didn’t think you would like it if I ripped his throat out with my teeth.” He set his teeth to Peter’s mating mark without biting down, a tease that sent a shiver of warmth down Peter’s spine. It was a possessive move, raw and animal in a way that made Peter’s wolf side want to wriggle around and show his belly. He pushed down the impulse.  “Come sit, I brought you a present.” Peter pulled away and went to the blanket, secure that Wade would follow. He wasn’t disappointed. Wade’s eyes lit up when he saw the bread. He took it when Peter held it out and tore off a chunk to stuff in his mouth, stretching the scars on his cheeks as they puffed out with food. He made a happy noise as he began chewing.“I’m glad you like it. When I finally tell May about you, I’ll be sure to let her know how much you like her bread.” Peter sat back on his heels, trying not to preen.“It’s been a long time since I had anything fresh from the oven, baby boy. I could eat ten loaves without stopping.” Wade loudly munched at the bread for a few minutes, holding chunks up for Peter to take every few bites. Peter let him feed him without complaint, enjoying the soft way his eyes crinkled every time they looked at each other. When the bread was gone, Wade tucked Peter into his lap and began telling him a funny story about stalking the geese.Peter listened to him quietly, beginning to trace the scars on Wade’s forearms as he listened. His sun-kissed skin was covered in more old white scars than smooth skin in places, creating a stark contrast between the damaged areas and the untouched. The patterns of pale marks both fascinated and nauseated Peter. They told a tale of great physical harm coming to his alpha that unsettled him and made him want to tear the world down at once. He traced a series of circular divots that ran up the inside of Wade’s right arm, winding a figure eight around the line of circles with his finger. Each was wider than the length of his thumb.Wade suddenly grew quiet. Peter could feel his eyes on the top of his head. He looked up and behind him to find those brown eyes watching him with a haunted look Peter didn’t recognize. “They used a hot iron when I wouldn’t tell them what they wanted to hear,” he said in a low, serious voice.“They what?” A cold dread flooded Peter’s stomach, and he looked from Wade’s face to the line of scars on his forearm.“After I was arrested, they tried to get me to confess that I killed all those alphas to steal their omegas. They got angry when I wouldn’t and got… physical.”Peter didn’t like hearing that at all, but he pushed anyway. Wade hadn’t spoken about the murders yet, and Peter was desperate to know the real story. “That was a lie, then? That you were after omegas?” He had thought it might be, but it was more of a relief to hear a confirmation that Peter had expected.“I had a mate that I was happy with. I didn’t need to chase after other omegas. I killed those alphas because they were abusive bastards.”Peter twisted in Wade’s arms to look at him in surprise, pressing a hand to his chest to keep himself steady in the unnatural position. This was decidedly not the story he had been told. “You had a mate?” he asked. It had never been mentioned in the rumors that went around the village. It also meant… but Wade smelled unmated. It was unmistakable, even to someone as biased as Peter.“Vanessa.” His voice warmed on her name, became soft in a way Peter hadn’t heard before. A tiny spark of jealously bubbled up, but Peter quickly pushed it back down. Wade wasn’t his to be jealous over, no matter how close they had become. “We mated when she was very young, before I was sent to fight in the war,” Wade continued to explain.“The one with Latveria?” Peter asked as he twisted back around and settled back against Wade’s chest. He picked up Wade’s arm once more and traced what looked like a long knife wound that had been sewn back together. A battle wound, likely. Peter doubted whichever magistrate tortured him would have bothered dressing his injuries.“The one. I got conscripted about nine moons after our mating. They sent me to the front lines, turned me into a trained killer, made me do some terrible things. Things I would never want you to know about.” He tugged Peter closer as if to shield him from the very idea. Peter’s stomach was churning too terribly to protest the coddling. At the moment, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the reality of what Wade had been ordered to do in battle. The books he had read from the Osborn library were terrible enough. “When the war was over, they sent me home to try to be normal again. It didn’t go well.”“Did you get the name Alpha Killer then, or later? After...” Peter couldn’t finish the sentence, but Wade knew what he meant.“During the war, but they used the name afterward against me.” He sounded remorseful.Peter took his hand and laced their fingers together and began to trace the mottled burn scars across the back with his other hand. “What happened?” he asked“During the war? I don’t think you want to hear about that, sweetheart.”Peter shook his head, frowning at a particularly nasty scar that ran all the way up Wade’s hand to his wrist. It looked like the wound had been deep, maybe a blade through the hand even. “After,” he said.“You knew who I was when I shifted the first time. You don’t know the story already?”“I know the rumors from when I was younger. I want to hear what really happened. I’ve never believed you were trying to steal omegas from their alphas, and I definitely don’t believe it now. Tell me the real story.”Wade was quiet for a long time. Peter couldn’t tell if he was trying to find a way to explain or to dissuade Peter from the topic, but he waited regardless. He could wait all day if it meant hearing what Wade had to say.“When I went to war, I’d already killed a man. My father liked two things in this world: liquor and beating the living hell out of my mother and me. It got so bad that he didn’t even need the drink as an excuse to beat us. I was terrified of him. But so was my mother, and I… I couldn’t let that stand. After I presented alpha and grew bigger than him, he backed off of me, but that just meant he went harder on Mama.  I tried to defend her as much as I could, but one day I came back from market to find him wailing on her with a belt. She was covered in welts and bleeding all over.” Wade took a wet, shaky breath, his chest shuddering against Peter’s back. Peter pressed backwards into him to comfort him. “I… I guess I snapped. I shifted and attacked him. He didn’t even have time to react before I’d ripped his throat out.”Peter gasped, unable to help his reaction. He had never heard that one of the alphas the Alpha Killer had murdered was his own father. And yet he felt nothing but sadness and sympathy for Wade and his poor mother. What Peter remembered of his own parents had been full of love an encouragement, and May and Ben had been more of the same when they took him in after they both succumbed to illness. He couldn’t imagine the pain of having a parent who treated him as horribly as Wade described. “I’m sorry you had to do that,” he whispered, leaning to the side to look up at Wade. Wade didn’t make eye contact, but he pulled Peter in tighter.“It needed to be done. The magistrate didn’t come after me then. The neighbors had seen my father beating my mother, and they knew it hadn’t been the first time. When I asked Vanessa to take my bite, she already knew what I’d done and understood the reasons.” He took another deep, shaky breath, his eyes unfocused as he continued to speak. Peter looked back at their entwined hands and pressed his back against Wade’s chest once more.“I killed a lot of people in the war. I was a soldier. I did what I was told to do and didn’t ask questions. But I came back a different alpha than when I left. When one of Vanessa’s omega friends came to our home with purple bruises and a cut lip and tried to say she’d fallen over a chair, I knew what that meant. I left Vanessa to watch over her and went to her home to confront her alpha. His knuckles were bruised. When I asked him about them, he told me to mind my own business. I… lost it. It was like my father all over again. Only this time, I was trained. I knew what I was doing, and I did it well.”The hollow, haunted turn of Wade’s voice should have scared Peter, should have made him want to run like a frightened rabbit. He didn’t sound like Wade, but more like a man torn apart and dead inside. It broke a small part of Peter to hear. He found himself tugging Wade’s arms closer around him, resting his head back against Wade’s shoulder, pressing as much of his skin against Wade’s that he could manage in an effort to show Wade that he wasn’t alone. “What happened to Vanessa’s friend?”“She moved back in with her parents. A year later she was mated to a new alpha, one who treated her with respect and kindness, the way an alpha should.”“I’m glad. What happened next? There was more than just one. They wouldn’t have dubbed you the most wanted alpha in the kingdom for one death.”“There were others. After the first alpha, word got out to the omegas that needed help and weren’t finding it in the hands of the law. Omegas started coming to me from all over, telling me about the abuse they suffered, and asking me to help them.”“The law wouldn’t help them?” Peter knew that the laws were heavily biased against omegas, but he had always been told that was to protect omegas by making sure they were protected by an alpha. Surely there were laws in place to keep those same omegas safe from alphas who mistreat them?“Not the local magistrate. I made sure that each of them had already gone to the law and been turned away and that their alphas deserved the death. Every single one of them did. All eighteen of them.”Peter sucked in a breath through his teeth. He hadn’t known the number was so high. It was a little difficult to wrap his head around. There were barely thirty people in his tiny village. Wade had killed over half that number, probably double that when his military service was considered. His heart began to race, nervous stirrings raising the hairs on his arms. But then he looked up at Wade’s face, felt the steady beat of his heart against Peter’s back, the careful way Wade held him, protected him. Remembered the many, many times Wade had given Peter back food to eat when he clearly needed it because he thought Peter and his aunt needed it more. The dozens of times Peter had woken up in the middle of the night and looked out the window to see large, reflective red eyes watching from the tree line. Wade wasn’t a monster. He had been protecting those omegas from lives of violence and abuse, the same way he had protected his own mother. If Peter’s life had played out under different circumstances, he couldn’t say that he wouldn’t have done the same.“I don’t think I’ve met eighteen alphas,” Peter said, realizing that he’d been quiet for too long, and Wade had stiffened in anticipation of a rejection. “How could anyone ignore so many of them?” But Peter knew how a magistrate might do that. He knew the way Magistrate Osborn spoke of omegas, the way he had treated Peter and May like they were simple when Ben had died. Like it had been an unreasonable suggestion that they could ever be capable of taking care of themselves without an alpha to take care of them.Wade relaxed again, his hold on Peter loosening. “Killebrew is the worst kind of alpha. If I could have gotten away with killing him, as well, I would have.”“But instead he arrested you,” Peter prompted, wanting to hear the rest of the story. He trailed fingers over a wide patch of burn scar over Wade’s elbow.“A beta saw me dragging a dead body out of a house and sent for the magistrate. I worked at night to cover my tracks, but it was bound to happen eventually. I don’t have the best luck.”Peter cocked his head to the side, knocking against Wade’s shoulder. “I don’t know if I would say that. You found your way to me. I would call that lucky.”“It is, baby boy. Very lucky.” Wade squeezed his arms around Peter and kissed his hair. “But getting caught with a body was not lucky. Killebrew did not take kindly to finding out that the string of alpha murders were all done by the Alpha Killer. We had a history.”“I’ve never heard of Magistrate Killebrew. Did you live far away from here?”“On the other side of the kingdom, near the ocean. I don’t know if Killebrew is even still the magistrate or if his son has taken over now. I feel bad for the villagers either way. They were both as terrible as each other.”“And you had a history with the father.”“With the son, actually. Francis. He and I fought together in the war. Francis was a decent soldier, but he hated that I bested him in training and gained more ground on the battlefield than he did. He wanted all the recognition. I would have gladly given him all my metals and the blood that was spilled to earn them.”Peter stroked his fingers down Wade’s arm, leaning his head back on Wade’s shoulder to get as good a look up at him as he could. “What happened next?”“Killebrew arrested me and convicted me of the murders the same day and condemned me to death. The omegas I helped came to my defense. I could hear them chanting for my release from the dungeons. But they were omegas and Killebrew was an alpha. I think you know how well that worked.”Peter knew all too well. He had fought for months to keep their farm after his uncle was killed by bandits. Magistrate Osborn hadn’t listened, had insisted that two omegas weren’t legally allowed to own property and couldn’t possibly handle the workings of a farm on their own. He had given them a portion of the sale and allowed them to rent their small cottage in exchange for May working in the Stark kitchens. It had been a humiliating blow during one of their darkest periods.“What happened to your mate? Did they let her stay in your home?”The silence that stretched after his question told Peter all the answer he needed to hear. “They did not. Killebrew threatened to name her as a conspirator, but then he realized doing so would mean that he thought an omega was capable of conspiracy to commit murder, which would mean they were capable of testifying in a trial. He tried to force her to mate Francis, and when she refused, he seized our property and turned her out on the street. When I escaped and went looking for her, she was boarding a ship to cross the sea. I couldn’t follow as a shifted wolf. I don’t know where she is now.”“It must have been hard being separated from your mate. I haven’t experienced it myself yet, but I remember what my aunt went through when my uncle died. You didn’t die, obviously, but still...” Their bond must have broken, then. That was why he still smelled unmated even though he had had a mate. Peter had never known a couple to break their mating bond without death, but he could only imagine that it was a difficult experience even under normal circumstances.“I got close.” Peter jerked around, surprised. He’d assumed Wade had overpowered his guards in his wolf form and fought his way to freedom. Wade nodded with an upward quirk of his mouth that was more self-deprecating that pleased. “After Killebrew was done with me in the dungeons, they hung me from the gallows. They did it slow, too. No snapped neck and over in a few seconds like a usual execution. Old Killebrew wanted me to feel it. I passed out, they assumed I’d suffocated, cut me down and buried me in a hole in the pauper’s field. I woke up, dug my way out, and ran to the forest.”“But you were so feral when I found you. I thought you were trapped in your wolf form because of what they did to you,” Peter said, shifting around so that he could face Wade without twisting his spine. His eyes drifted from the network of scar tissue on Wade’s face down to where he could see the faint outline of scarred lines across his throat. He reached up without thinking to trace the mark.“I was feral when you found me, but that was from living as a wolf alone for so long. I’ve been running for... I don’t know how long at this point, but I’ve passed many winters outdoors.”“I first heard stories about you when my parents were still alive, and they died twelve years ago.”Wade nodded his understanding, his eyes fixed on Peter with such sadness that it threatened to break Peter’s heart. He never wanted his alpha to look like that. Peter had told him the story one morning while Wade was still a wolf.“Your poor mate. Over a decade without knowing where her alpha is or if you’re even alive.”Wade shrugged, some of the sadness bleeding from his expression. “She moved on. Vanessa’s a strong one. I think she found another alpha to mate a long time ago. I felt our connection disappear many winters ago.”“I’m sorry. That must have been difficult, being all alone in the world.”“I’m not alone now, am I?” Wade squeezed his arms tighter around Peter and nuzzled his neck.“You aren’t.” Peter lifted onto his knees to wrap his arms around Wade’s neck, burying his face in Wade’s neck to nuzzle him back. All of the thoughts that had been swirling around in his head since before Wade shifted back to his human form flooded his mind suddenly, all the comments of Aunt May’s and Harry’s hints at a mating. “Have you been courting me?” he found himself asking without having meant to. “With all the animals you’ve been leaving for me on my porch?”“Is it working?”Peter nodded absently. “My aunt kept telling me she thought I was being courted by an alpha, but I kept trying to tell myself you were just thanking me. I... I’ve never wanted an alpha to court me before. Harry tried for a while, but I ignored all his presents. There was another alpha, as well, but he was too much for me. He smelled...off. Wrong.”Wade growled low in his throat, his fingers tightening over Peter’s back.“He’s mated now to someone else. I haven’t seen him for more than a year. But even if he were still interested, it wouldn’t matter. You are the only alpha I want.”“And you are the only omega I want,” Wade told him, rubbing his nose against the bare skin at the base of Peter’s throat where his mating gland waited for an alpha’s bite. Peter shivered under his touch and squeezed his hand.“So you were courting me?”The wolfish smile was back, more amused this time. Peter’s stomach fluttered. “I don’t drop dead animals on people’s doors for my own amusement. Mostly.”Peter’s mouth quirked up at the corner, and Wade buried his nose in Peter’s hair again, breathing in his scent like he could live in it..“I think I’d like to share my next heat with you. They haven’t become... regular, yet, but when the next one comes, I’d like you to be there.”“I’d love to, sweetheart, but I don’t think I could do that without biting you.” He pressed his teeth to Peter’s mating gland once more, but this time felt less playful and more like a warning.“I wouldn’t want you to. Share my heat without biting me, that is. I want your bite. I want you. You make me feel safe. Even when I haven’t seen you for days, just knowing you’re nearby makes me feel taken care of. If I thought Aunt May would allow it, I would have had you move into the cottage a long while ago and never leave my side.” Saying it felt too big, to unwieldy, like a boulder he couldn’t quite wrap his arms around, but he managed to say the words anyway, and felt lighter for it. He had barely thought of anything else since the first suggestion of mating had entered his brain, before Wade ever showed himself as human. Knowing who he was and what his past looked like did nothing to change his mind. Except for one thing.He pulled back from Wade’s hold to look into his eyes, wanting to make sure there would be no misunderstanding his next words. “There is one thing I need you to promise me beforehand, though.”“Anything, baby boy. I would move mountains to make you happy.”Peter’s chest warmed at the sincerity of the words, but he didn’t allow himself to be distracted by them. “I understand why you did what you did. But if you truly want to be my mate, the killing has to end. I can’t have murder on my conscience. You have to promise me that you will never kill another soul once I’ve taken your bite.”Wade didn’t hesitate. “My hands will be clean for the rest of my life, if that’s what you wish.”Peter beamed at him, his heart spilling over with love. He surged forward, pressing his mouth to Wade’s for the first time. It felt like lightning surging through his veins, but also like he had just found his home. Wade cupped his face in his hands and kissed him with purpose, his lips moving with a skill Peter had no hope of matching. It didn’t matter. Wade touched him like he was precious, perfect, like he was the only being in the universe who mattered. Peter never wanted to stop kissing him.If life went the way he wanted it to, he never would.

Wade was awake and walking before he was fully conscious of what woke him. The scent was faint, but growing stronger as he stalked through the woods. His little omega was in distress. Sticky sweet and miserable. Wade needed to get to him. Comfort him. Help him through. He stalked out of the forest on four paws, tongue hanging out, scenting the intoxicating scent of his omega’s slick, thick with his heat.He could hear the strangled voice of his omega, begging for relief, begging for his alpha to come and take care of him. But the door was closed, and Wade had never met the aunt. He couldn’t barrel his way inside without permission. He wouldn’t allow himself to be like the alphas he’d killed, brutish and demanding, taking what he wanted without concern for the omega at his mercy.Unsure and not wanting to go against his desired mate’s wishes, Wade didn’t scratch at the door or shift and open the door by hand and force his way inside the way he wanted to. Instead, he paced outside. He circled the building as he’d done many a time during the night, warning off other potential alphas, letting his omega know he was there. His little omega had peeked out windows to find him watching on many a dark night. He could only hope that the same would happen now. One look from Peter, one beckoning gesture, and Wade would be through the door and by his mate’s side in an instant.Peter’s sounds grew more desperate. Wade could hear him writhing around in his sheets, calling out for him. But the door remained shut, and Wade wouldn’t cross the line to open it himself. He had heard omegas say more desperate things during their heats before and not mean them later. He wouldn’t be that alpha. But oh, how he yearned to be inside taking care of his mate.He continued to prowl the perimeter, watching, waiting. When Peter cried out in unsatisfactory orgasm, Wade howled in sympathy.A face appeared in the window, an older omega who looked haggard and distressed to have to deal with her young nephew’s heat. Her eyes went wide when she saw him stalking back and forth in front of the cottage, and she disappeared from his line of site. The front door opened a moment later and she stepped out, pulling the door closed behind her. “You must be the mysterious alpha Peter has been spending so much time with. He tried to pretend that there was no alpha, but he comes home reeking of you every day.”Wade didn’t answer because an answer would require shifting back, and he didn’t think she would appreciate a fully aroused, naked alpha introducing himself to her. And this close to his heat-ravaged mate, he could be nothing else. He stepped closer, cautious not to startle her. Her eagle eyes remained on him with every step. “I don’t know who you are, but Peter would never permit an alpha who was not worthy of him to court him. That is what you’ve been doing with all your gifts getting blood on my doorstep, isn’t it?”Wade nodded, prostrating himself at her feet to show submission to her as the head of her household and the keeper of her nephew’s right to mate. Under normal circumstances, he should have come to her weeks ago to request formal courting rights, but Peter hadn’t wanted to tell his aunt about Wade until the time was right. He hadn’t been certain how she would react to Wade’s past.“Before I permit you entry to our home, you must know that Peter loves with his whole heart. If he lets you in, you stay in. If you betray him or leave him, I will hunt you down no matter how far you run and rip you to shreds. I do not care how big an alpha you are. Do we have an understanding?” She stared him down like an angry bear ready to go in for the kill, and for once in his life, Wade felt true fear. This woman was capable of violence to match his own, and he had no doubt that she would enact it on him should he hurt her nephew. He nodded his head, keeping his eyes downturned so as not to challenge her authority.“Very well. Take care of him. He’s precious to me.”Wade wanted to tell her that Peter was precious to him, too, but wolf anatomy prevented him from doing anything but whining in agreement. She stepped aside from the front door and opened it to allow him entrance. He slipped in through the opening and made his way towards the cot Peter lay prostrate on, tucked away in a corner of the front room of the tiny cottage, sweating through his bed linens. Wade heard the door close behind him, but by then he was entranced by his mate.Peter was flushed from head to toe and writhing on the bed, sweat glistening on his smooth skin. His hand was wrapped around his erection, so hard it looked painful. He was stroking it, but past experience with omegas told Wade it likely wasn’t helping his need. He needed a knot, and soon. Peter shifted onto his side when he smelled Wade and turned his big brown eyes on him, glassy and dilated. “Alpha…” he said, voice a harsh rasp. He reached out his free hand to Wade, fingers curling in the thick fur at his neck.Wade sniffed at his hand, taking in the sweet scent of his heat. He licked the sweat from the skin, using the wide flat of his tongue in clean line down his forearm. Peter whined, curling closer. “Alpha, please.”It pained him, but Wade ignored the plea. He wanted to immerse himself in Peter’s scent, taste him all over, drown in him. He smelled so lovely, like warm cinnamon and crisp fall leaves. He nudged Peter’s hand away from his cock and licked up the shaft, long and thin as his fingers and the perfect size for Wade to curl his giant tongue around and engulf him. Peter cried out, his hands going to Wade’s muzzle, sliding up to bury themselves in his cheek fur. “Oh fuck,” he shouted. Wade grinned to himself and bobbed his head, tasting his mate’s pre-cum as his tongue moved across the head.Peter convulsed under the touch, twitching closer around Wade’s head, his short fingernails digging into his fur down to the skin. “Please, Alpha. Don’t tease me…” he rasped close to Wade’s ear. “I need you.”Wade couldn’t resist shifting then, if only to get his hands on his mate. Peter let out a happy noise when the hair receded and mottled skin replaced it under his fingers. He moved back on the bed, shifting onto his back and spreading his legs to leave room for Wade to climb between them. Wade hesitated, running his hands down Peter’s flank as he knelt next to the bed. “Are you sure, baby boy? We do this, there’s no going back,” he said, eyes locked on Peter’s.Peter rolled his eyes and huffed out a laugh. “Of course I’m sure. We talked about this weeks ago. I’m already yours, I just need a bite to seal the deal. Do you know how long I’ve been fantasizing about you being inside me? I’ve gotten almost my whole hand inside thinking of you.” He pulled Wade closer by the back of his neck and nipped at his bottom lip, inviting a kiss.Wade didn’t need more encouragement. Just the picture of his precious mate all-but fisting himself thinking of Wade set Wade’s senses on fire. He kissed Peter fiercely, climbing up onto the cot in one swift motion to settle between Peter’s splayed legs. He pulled Peter’s hips up to meet his, their cocks rubbing together in an imitation of their tongues. Peter moaned into his mouth, arms wrapping around Wade’s neck and his legs around his waist to cling to him like a spider on a web.Wade huffed a laugh into Peter’s ear, trailing sucking kisses across his cheek and down to his throat. “You want it, baby? You’re climbing me like a spider up a wall.”“Need you close. Want you in me, fucking me so good. I’m so empty, Alpha. I need your knot so bad,” Peter insisted, rocking his hips as best he could to emphasize his point, his head arching back to give Wade better access to his neck.A growl rumbled in Wade’s throat. “Where’d you learn to talk so dirty, my little spider baby? I had no idea you had such a filthy mouth.”“It will get so much filthier if you don’t fuck me. I’m going crazy without you, Alpha.”“I know, baby. Just give me a few seconds more,” Wade consoled him, stroking a hand over Peter’s perfect ass cheek to dip into his crack, feeling the thick coating of slick dripping from his entrance. Peter whined again, louder this time, and rocked his hips to try to get Wade’s finger inside. Wade tested to see if he needed to be stretched, only to be surprised by how open he was.“Told you I was busy thinking about you,” Peter told him, licking a line up his throat and sucking on the curve of his jaw. His teeth scraped the skin and sent a spark of pleasure down Wade’s body. Wade lost all the patience he had left. He reached under Peter to guide himself to Peter’s wet entrance, rubbing his sensitive head over the slick to wet himself before sliding in in one long push.Peter cried out, nails scrambling to grab hold of the skin at the back of Wade’s neck. He was trembling, tears springing to his eyes as Wade filled him to the brink and past. “Oh...” he said with a whoosh of air, a look of reverence lighting his eyes. Wade pulled out slowly, watching for any sign of pain, but Peter only clung tighter, squaring his jaw in determination as if he could stop Wade from pulling back. His mouth formed a small O of surprised awe when Wade pushed back inside.Wade tried to take things slow, worried that he might tear his precious mate before they got to the best part, but it quickly became clear that Peter neither needed nor wanted coddling. “More,” he begged, even as Wade increased the speed of his hips, small fingers digging into the soft tissue at the back of his shoulders. Wade couldn’t deny his mate’s pleas. The cot rocked under their bodies, creaking ominously under the weight of the two of them.It was difficult to get good leverage on the tiny cot, so Wade dropped his feet on either side of the bed instead and crouched over Peter, holding him close as he began to thrust into him for real. Peter screamed, a string of the most beautiful curse words falling from his luscious lips. Peter’s hips were no longer on the bed, but he was too busy sobbing out his pleasure to notice. Every hard thrust punched out a weak cry from him, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was a hot, blotchy mess, nails scratching into Wade’s back morphing into claws as he lost control. The tiny claws dug into his skin deep enough to bleed, but Wade barely felt the pain over how good he felt inside his mate.He could already feel his knot swelling and had to push inside with more effort, the feel of Peter clenching around him every time he popped through the tight barrier driving him ever closer to orgasm.Peter was trembling by now, tears trailing down his cheeks, his mouth gaped open. “So... good...” he gasped. “You feel... so good... ALPHA.” Peter gasped louder with every press of Wade’s knot past his rim. “Fuck, Alpha. Never thought... Oh fuck, I’m going to...”Hot seed spilled between them, squelching between their abdomens as Peter shook apart. The look of pure satisfaction that accompanied it felt like a religious experience to witness. Wade momentarily forgot what he was doing in the wake of it, too entranced in watching Peter’s expression of pure bliss and the way his body trembled.Peter fell boneless back against the bed, Wade’s arms holding him up the only thing that kept his hips in the air. He blinked his beautiful brown eyes open and looked up at Wade with an awe that told Wade the experience had been just as divine for him. “Oh, Alpha, that was amazing,” he said, smiling up at Wade with the brightness of the sun. Wade couldn’t resist swooping in the kiss him, deep and full of all the love he could manage. Peter hummed his happiness as they pull apart and stroked his fingers down Wade’s cheek. “Are you going to fill me up with your knot and make me yours now?” he asked, grinning up at Wade with a sparkle of mischief.Wade dove down to the bed to kiss him once more, wrapping him up tight in his arms and fucking back into him with a groan. Peter gave as good as he got, whining his encouragement and digging his nails into the back of Wade’s neck with every hard thrust. One more, and Wade could no longer pull out. Hands dug into the sides of his head, tilting his face away from Peter’s mouth to the crook of his neck and shoulder where his mating gland pulsed, thick clouds of pheromones fanning out around him and intoxicating Wade’s senses. Wade tried to look back up at Peter for reassurance that the bite was what he wanted, but Peter’s hands were like iron, immovable.“Please, Alpha, all I want is your bite,” Peter pleaded, his voice low and desperate, mischief gone. Wade’s teeth descended without his conscious thought and sunk deep into the meat of Peter’s mating gland, blood and hormones bursting onto his tongue and sealing the two of them together as Wade came in a flood. He dropped Peter to the cot as the pleasure of it overtook control of his muscles, but Peter kept him close with arms wrapped tight around his neck. He held him through it, his thighs squeezing around Wade’s hips spasmodically.Eventually Wade retracted his teeth and licked at the wound until it closed into a fresh pink scar, Peter flinching away and giggling the whole time. “Tickles,” he said when Wade pulled away to look down at him. Wade licked the tip of his nose, making him scrunch it up with a little smile. He followed it with a kiss to Peter’s lips, meant to be brief, but Peter took it over and licked his way into Wade’s mouth.When they parted Peter looked up at Wade with an awed smile. “I can feel you, right here,” he said, rubbing at his chest. Wade understood, the familiar feeling of his mate’s heartbeat next to his pulsing through his senses once more, but somehow different. Where Vanessa had been a fierce, independent soul, Peter was warm and solid, but so gentle. Good all the way to his bones.“I feel you, too, baby boy,” Wade couldn’t help but tease, shifting his hips to emphasize the joke.Peter barked a laugh and slapped him on the shoulder. “I was trying to be romantic, you boor.”“I got all the romance you need, sweetheart.” Wade grinned at the annoyed face Peter made and kissed it away. Peter hummed and wrapped his limbs back around him once more. They kissed until the next wave hit, and then they kissed through it.-Later, much, much later, when Peter was settled in the curve of Wade’s body, the two of them cramped in the tiny one-person cot, Peter took Wade’s hand from where it rested across his belly and raised it to his mouth for a kiss before holding it out in front of his face. He started tracing the spidery cuts on the back of Wade’s hand, most of them old wounds from the war and careless knife practice when Wade was a boy. Vanessa had liked to trace them in bed, too, and for the first time, the memory of that didn’t plunge him into a fathomless pit of despair.“I didn’t mean what I said earlier,” Peter said as he continued to trace.Wade’s heart plummeted into his intestines. “I knew I shouldn’t have rushed you. I am so sorry, baby boy. I should never have accepted heat consent as consent. I—”Peter turned in his arms, frowning at him. “What are you talking about? I consented. I literally yelled ‘fill me with your fat cock, Alpha’. There was no way to have been more concise about what I wanted. Which was—and will likely always be—you.” He pressed a kiss to Wade’s chin, the angle not quite right for lips.Wade was thrown by the assurance. Peter hadn’t spoken of anything but their mating while they were having sex. If he truly did consent, heat not withstanding, what could he possibly be talking about? “What did you mean, then?”“The breeding thing,” Peter explained, a blush creeping up his cheeks. Wade grinned at the flash of memory. Peter had begged during the last round for Wade to breed him and fill him with pups. It had been so sexy at the time, but Peter’s flushed cheeks and shy glance away was so much sexier.Peter kept his eyes trained on Wade’s chest, tracing the skin over his heart as he continued. “If it has already happened, I will welcome it, but I think it would be ill-advised for us to try for pups just yet.” He didn’t need to explain the hesitation in his voice. Wade was a mess and he was likely going to drag Peter down in the muck with him if he wasn’t careful. This entire mating was a mistake. But it was what Peter wanted, and whatever Peter wanted, Wade was determined to do everything in his power to give him. Wade only hoped that he was kind when he decided otherwise and left Wade to the vultures like the emotional carrion he was.Except he couldn’t permit himself to think that way, not when Peter was so close and smelled so content in Wade’s arms. Wade needed to be a good alpha, to take care of his omega. And that meant no self-deprecating, depressive thoughts. Peter knew his own mind, and Peter was determined despite all advice to the contrary, to be with Wade. Wade would have to get over himself and take care of his mate. And the first step towards that end had already sprung up in his mind. “If you don’t catch this time, there are herbs that can be taken next time. We will do what can be done.”Peter kissed Wade’s hand again and tucked it in next to his heart, shuffling back around to settle back against the curve of Wade’s body once more. “I love you,” he said, voice quiet and soft.“I love you, too, baby boy. So much more than you know.” He tucked his nose into Peter’s hair and squeezed him tight, and settled further into the cot to try to sleep before the next wave hit them.

“So where did you get that filthy mouth of yours? I didn’t think a sweet virgin would know half of those words,” Wade teased as he brushed fingers through Peter’s sweaty hair. Peter lay on top of him, knot still filling him up from their latest coupling. Wade had lost count around the second day as to how many. His new mate was a relentless force in heat, he was quickly learning. Wade knew his physical strength was the only reason he was able to keep up.Peter tilted his head up to look at Wade without moving it from his chest, a faint blush on his cheeks. “Mary Jane lent me a few of her romance novels. Some of them are quite... salacious.”“Been reading the good stuff, hmm? I’ll have to ask this Mary Jane for book recommendations when you introduce us. From what you’ve told me of her, she seems to have excellent taste in literature.”“Please don’t,” Peter said, burying his face in Wade’s chest with a pained little mewl.“I supposed I could ask your aunt instead. She seems like the sort to have a good recommendation list.”“I will never let you in my bed again,” Peter insisted, even as he undermined the threat by raising up on his hands and rocking his hips back against Wade’s, pleasure flaring up with the new movement. Wade growled at the non-threat and pulled Peter into a hard kiss, holding him close as he fucked up into him. Peter began to tremble with the harsh movements, moaning into the kiss and grasping for a better grip on his mate, the thread of their conversation leaving his thoughts as he lost himself in the joining once more.

Peter was curled up on a kitchen chair, wrapped up in a blanket like a giant turtle, eating the small meal Wade had made for him. The two of them reeked of sweat and slick and sex, but Peter hadn’t woken up that morning begging for Wade’s knot, after five days of him waking every three hours for just that, so the two of them thought it was safe to take the heat sign down from the front window. Wade was busy gathering the bed things and Peter’s slick-soaked clothes to take to the wash, but he still turned when the front door creaked open and Peter’s aunt walked in.“Is it safe?” she asked, a mischievous smile on her face as she looked at Wade. Wade blushed, darting his eyes away from her as he tried to bundle the linens closer to his chest, as if he might mask their scent with his own pungent aroma. Thankfully, he had thought to put on trousers.Peter clambered out of his chair and stumbled into the room, tripping over the ends of the blanket still wrapped tightly around him. He joined Wade, standing in front of him as if to protect him from his aunt’s judgement. She watched the proceedings with nothing but amusement on her face. “Aunt May, I...” Peter faltered, turning to glance back at Wade with uncertainty.“You look like you’ve fared well in your first heat with an alpha,” she said. “Are you going to introduce him finally, or am I going to have to do the introducing myself?”Wade could see the flush blooming up the back of Peter’s neck. “Aunt May, this is Wade Wilson. My mate.”May stepped around Peter to hold her hands out to Wade. Wade wasn’t sure what to do with them. It had been a long time since he had been around people and the social customs had long since left his brain. She ignored his hesitance and pressed his face in her hands, pulling him down to her level. She took no notice of his scars except to frown at them as she traced a long, jagged knife scar that ran up his left cheek with her thumb. “It is very nice to meet you, Alpha Wilson. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I’m glad my Peter found you.”“Thank you, madam,” Wade said, voice choked with emotions he hadn’t felt for a long time. “I apologize for not asking you formally to court your nephew. I wanted to, but he asked me to wait.”May dropped her hands from his face to reach down and squeeze one of his hands, the smile never wavering from her face. “We have never stood on ceremony in this house anyway. If Peter is happy, I am happy. And I think you make my nephew very happy.”Wade could feel a blush coming on, a new experience. He rarely had a need to feel embarrassed. “I do my best,” he told her, squeezing her hand back. And then he short a smirk back at his mate before winking at May. “I think he might have kept me from you so that I wouldn’t turn my attention to courting you, instead. He never mentioned how beautiful you are.”May’s cheeks turned pink and she brushed her dark hair over her shoulder. “I see now. You are just as much a flirt as Mary Jane. No wonder he likes you so much.”Wade looked over the small woman’s head to find his mate clutching the blanket closer around his shoulders, his jaw clicking in annoyance. “I was trying to do no such thing. You know I was worried about her reaction,” he said.May’s face turned confused before she turned her back to Wade to look at her nephew. “Why on earth would you be worried about that? I’ve always told you you should mate whomever you liked and sod anyone else’s opinion,” she said.Peter’s expression turned to concern, his eyes darting past May to lock eyes with Wade. “With his history, I thought you might not approve...” he explained, his eyes darting between them.“What history?” May asked, turning to frown up at Wade once more. But then recognition flared in her gaze, and she took a slow step back. “You’re the alpha with the likeness in front of the magistrate’s office, the Alpha Killer, was it?” she said, staring up at Wade with surprise.“It was a long time ago, Aunt May. Wade had reasons, and they are not what the rumors claim,” Peter told her, stepping around his aunt to stand slightly in front of Wade, as if to shade him from rebuke.But there was no scorn to be found on May, only shrewd consideration. “I suppose it makes sense,” is all she said. Hardly an explanation of her opinion, but it wasn’t negative, which is what Wade (and clearly Peter) had been expecting. Wade deserved all the derision in the world for his deeds, though he would not have taken back one of them.“What do you mean?” Peter asked.“You used to ask the village elders all sorts of questions about the Alpha Killer. What he did, why, where they thought he might have gone. Your uncle used to tell me he thought you were processing your grief over your parents by fixating on death, but I never thought that was it. You recognized your fated mate, from his likeness alone.” She turned to Peter and patted his cheek with a warm smile. “So perceptive. I’m glad you found your mate, my love.”“And you aren’t upset about what he’s done?” Peter asked. Wade didn’t need to see his face to sense his fear, his heart beating at twice its normal speed.“If you trust this man, who am I to question that? Your instincts for people have always been flawless. I am not going to distrust it now, not after you’ve already taken his bite.” Her eyes moved to the raised double crescent scars at the crook of Peter’s neck and shoulder, still an angry pink. She reached over and thumbed at the wound, glancing up at Peter’s face with a bit of surprise when he didn’t flinch at the touch. She hummed to herself as if satisfied and moved away from them. “I’m going to get my kitchen back in order and air this house out. The two of you need to go wash up, and take those linens with you. I’ll have breakfast for us all when you get back, and then you can tell me all about yourself, Alpha Wilson.”Peter glanced at Wade with an unreadable expression. Wade indicated the back door with his head, and Peter nodded. They gathered clean clothing for Peter and walked out into the snow together. Wade wanted to shift to get to the river, but it wasn’t possible with the bundles in his arms. Peter began shivering at his side. Wade stopped and piled the linens into Peter’s arms. Peter gave him a questioning look, but understood when Wade picked him up before he had time to protest. He walked in quiet, the crunch of the snow under his bare feet the only sound between them until they were well on their way to the river.“I thought she would be upset,” Peter said finally.“That you mated a strange alpha or that you mated me?”“The criminal part. She and my uncle were always adamant that murder is wrong. I thought she would be furious that I had chosen to mate a murderer, even if that was in your past.”Dread sunk into Wade’s stomach, the same voice belittling him for having been selfish enough to bite Peter shouting in the back of his mind. “Do you regret taking my bite?” he asked.Peter lifted his head up from his shoulder as fast as lightning. “Absolutely not. You’re the only alpha I have ever wanted or will ever want.”“You’re young, yet. I thought that, too, once. You could change your mind with time. Maybe we should have waited.”“Maybe you should stop talking nonsense.”Wade set him down on the snowy bank of the river and watched him drop the linens and then the blanket. Peter waded into the river, hissing at the freezing water, chunks of ice floating past him with the current. In a few weeks, the river would probably be frozen over. Wade did not know where they did washing when that happened. There was  a well in the middle of the village, he knew from nighttime exploring. Perhaps there.“Get in here, Alpha. I’m cold,” Peter said, distracting him from his thoughts.Wade hurried to follow him only to have his tiny mate in his arms as soon as he was within reach. Peter practically climbed him like a tree to steal his body heat, shivering as he clung like a squirrel. Or a spider, he reminded himself. “Okay, my little spider, let’s get you washed up so you don’t stink your aunt’s home up.” Without warning, Wade dropped into the water, taking a squawking Peter with him. The freezing water was like a slap to the face, waking up every one of Wade’s senses and setting his haggard skin on fire. Peter’s blunt fingernails dug into the meat of his shoulders, his thighs wrapped so tight around Wade’s waist that he felt like a vice.“Y-y-you b-b-b-etrayed m-m-me, Alpha. So... cold...” Peter’s lips had turned blue, and he was trembling. Wade cursed under his breath at his own stupidity. Of course the water was going to be colder for his little mate. He was so much smaller and not used to being outside in the elements without protective outerwear.“Can you shift, baby boy?” he asked, holding Peter high up out of the water.It was a fair question. Wade hadn’t seen Peter’s wolf yet, despite the months of them wandering the forest. It wasn’t uncommon for betas and omegas to be incapable of shifting forms. Peter glared at the implication that he might not be able to, but nodded his head in affirmation anyway. Wade soon found himself holding a wolf, much smaller than his own and a pretty brown coloring. Peter had never shifted in front of him before, and seeing him like this stirred something primal in Wade, something fierce and protective.He took Peter back to the shore and watched as his little wolf shook out his fur, water spraying around him in a wide arc. He danced around in the light snow, shaking and licking at his fur, trying to dry himself off. Wade momentarily forgot how cold he himself was getting, still in the water, too transfixed on the gorgeous, grumpy, waterlogged wolf on the shore.He quickly shifted into his own wolf form and joined Peter on the bank, shaking his own coat off. Peter approached him slowly, half his size and still doing his best to look unhappy about being wet, but he no longer looked like hypothermia might be threatening. He nuzzled his head against Wade’s and licked at his fur. They spent a long time grooming each other, their wolves getting to know each other.The sun had moved by the time they made it back to the cottage, dragging their still-wet bed linens and clothing in their teeth together. They draped the blankets out across the ground and shifted back into human form by the back door.“We will have to take them to the laundry later, but at least they don’t smell to high heaven anymore,” Peter said. “Wait here, and I’ll grab some dry clothes?” He reached up on tiptoe to kiss Wade lightly on the lips before slipping into the house.He returned a few minutes later, dressed in dry, warm clothes, carrying a bundle for Wade. “We are going to have to get you some clothes to fit you soon. Uncle Ben was much smaller than you,” he said as he handed Wade the clothes and watched him dress quickly. Having not been used to clothing for a long while, Wade didn’t mind the too-short, too-tight nature of them much. Just wearing restricting clothes was an annoyance enough on its own.“I don’t mind. They show off my muscles,” he told Peter with a wink as he pulled on the socks Peter had given him. He had yet to try the shoes, but the socks were soft against his feet. Peter gave him an appreciative once-over, grinning his reply. Wade couldn’t help himself from kissing the expression off his face, crowding him up against the side of the cottage and stealing his breath from him. Peter whined his enjoyment of the proceedings, standing on his toes to reach Wade. They only pulled apart when a loud knock on the inside of the cottage reminded them that they were no longer alone.The smell of fried meat and eggs greeted them as they walked into the kitchen. May was setting out plates piled high with good food when Wade closed the door behind them, and she indicated for him to sit at the spot next to Peter with a knowing smile.“I didn’t have time to make any bread, but Madeline sent me over with some eggs for the two of you. Everyone is excited to know that you’ve finally mated, Peter. You will have to introduce Wade to the neighbors soon.”Peter darted a look at Wade. “Perhaps in a few weeks.”May settled into her chair with a concerned look until she followed Peter’s gaze and seemed to register what the problem could be. “Oh yes, the issue of the magistrate. I almost forgot. That will need to be dealt with at some point, dear.”“We know. But not... right away.”Wade turned his attention to his plate and shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth. They were better cooked than raw, but they still tasted like ashes in his mouth.   Wade slipped out with a good night kiss some time after he finished washing the dishes, promising Peter he would see him in the morning. Peter wasn’t interested in sleeping away from his mate, nor was he going to let Wade sleep in the snow by himself without warmth. Once May was asleep, he pulled the blankets from his cot and wrapped them around his shoulders, slipped on his shoes, and stepped out into the snow. It was cold outside, but nothing he couldn’t tolerate until he found Wade.The snow crunching under his boots was the only sound for several minutes, the fresh blanket of it muffling anything else that dared to stir in the dark. It settled something unknowable rattling around in his brain. He found the clearing a mess of paw prints and pacing tracks. Wade met him at the edge of the trees in wolf form, cocking his head to the side in question. Peter ruffled his fur with a hand still partially clutching the blankets around him. “I wasn’t going to let you sleep all alone out here. The cot feels too empty without you in it,” he explained as he passed Wade and spread the blankets out over the indent in the snow where Wade had been sleeping. Wade sat on his hind legs and watched.When the blankets were spread out to Peter’s liking, he began pulling his clothes off and folding them at the edge of the blanket, shivering more with each layer, until he was in just his boots and was able to shift. Wade was on him instantly, snuffling at his ruff and licking at his throat over his mating mark. Peter whined under the touch and rubbed his flank all along Wade’s. Now that he was no longer fighting off hypothermia, being shifted around his mate felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like their first kiss all over again. He could smell Wade’s arousal beginning to stir and felt his own rising to meet his mate’s.They played for a bit, wrestling and nipping at each other as they rolled around in the snow. It was started as high-spirited fun, but quickly turned into something much more heated. Peter could feel Wade’s erection against his fur when Wade pinned him to the ground with teeth on his scruff. He rubbed his hind end up against the hardness, whining an invitation. Without the disorienting, all-encompassing heat hormones addling his brain, the concept of sex with his mate was even more exciting, fresh and new, made more so in their wolf forms. He could feel the slick dripping down his hind legs already and flicked his tail out of the way to rub some of the fluid over Wade’s sheath. Wade growled around his mouthful of Peter’s fur and thrust his hips forward. Peter pressed back again to meet him.Wade’s teeth tightened on the back of his neck as he jerked forward, pushing into Peter until their hips were flush. Peter whined louder at the feeling of being so full, the press of Wade’s shaft against his prostate. It wasn’t the same as when they were human. Wade was twice his size in this form, and he dwarfed Peter much more than he did as a human, completely covering his form so that an observer might not even be able to see him beneath Wade’s body. There was a sense of urgency to this coupling, more animal instinct than desire for closeness. For the first time in his life, Peter felt wild, like an animal without connection to civilization or anything remotely human, just an wolf being taken by his mate. Wade thrust fast and hard into him, driving him towards orgasm much more quickly than they had ever gotten as humans. His constant muffled growls in Peter’s ear only goaded him further, and he was howling to the sky in mere minutes, trembling and clenching around Wade like a vice. He could feel Wade’s knot forming inside him, plugging him up so that he couldn’t move as Wade convulsed through his own orgasm.  The teeth gently unclenched from the back of his neck, replaced by a soothing tongue cleaning the matted fur as Wade’s hips continued to twitch and shudder for another minute. Peter bared his neck in submission and waited out the knot going down. Wade was hot against his back, a giant sack of hot coals keeping him warm against the winter night.Eventually, he pulled out, and Peter was able to turn to lick his muzzle and playfully nip at him, barking happy little noises. Wade nipped at his mating mark and licked the fur down smooth, nuzzling into him. Shivering with the loss of body heat now that he was no longer being dwarfed by Wade, Peter nosed between the blankets and crawled inside, happy when Wade crawled in after him and curled around him. It wasn’t the same as sleeping inside on a cot with Wade’s bicep as a pillow, but it was its own kind of comfort. Peter pressed close to his alpha and soon fell into a peaceful sleep.

“Peter, did you sleep outside last night?” May asked when Peter walked into the house, Wade following close behind him. May was knuckles-deep in soft, fluffy-looking dough. Wade wanted to poke it, but he had the feeling he would get his unwashed hand slapped if he tried.Peter glanced back at Wade, fingers rubbing over his mate mark, still pink and raised, his cheeks pink to match. “I uh... wanted to sleep with Wade. It’s fine. It was nice sleeping under the stars. I’ve never spent a full night in wolf form before.” He smelled like cold winter and fresh water from their bath in the river. Peter hadn’t wanted to come back to the cottage smelling of sex, even if the water had been so cold he had spent the entire time clinging to Wade for warmth. Wade certainly wasn’t going to complain.She cursed quietly under her breath and punched at the dough a little harder than necessary. “It is the middle of winter. Are you trying to catch your death? Why didn’t you have Wade come inside? I certainly wouldn’t have disturbed him. You know the only snorer in this family is you.”Peter’s eyes narrowed lightning fast. “That is not true. You sound like a forest stampede in your sleep.”May snorted her amusement. “I am sure Wade could have slept through it. He’s been sleeping through all manner of animal noises at night for years, haven’t you, dear?” May sounded nonplussed by the thought, turning a smile on Wade that made his chest warm. Peter had insisted that she wouldn’t be comfortable having a strange alpha in the house, but it appeared that he had been wrong.“You... don’t mind Wade sleeping in the house?”May frowned at him, licking sticky dough from her fingers. “Why would I be bothered by your mate sleeping in your home? As long as I don’t have to hear the two of you rutting like you’re still in heat, it is none of my business where the two of you sleep, as long as it isn’t outside in freezing snow, you silly goat.” May turned to Wade with a patient smile on and laughter in her eyes. “Wade, would you like to move into our home with us?” she asked.Wade looked at Peter, uncertain. This was his home, after all. The last thing Wade wanted to do was invade his personal space without permission. With permission was a different story entirely.Peter looked from his aunt to Wade and back again, a wide smile climbing his face. “Will you?” he asked with big doe eyes, his hands clutching at Wade’s forearms. There was no way to say no to that face, even if Wade had been inclined to.“Of course, sweetheart. I’ll go wherever you want me to go. I’m like a barnacle now. You’ll have to pry me off with a knife if you want me to leave,” he teased, tickling Peter’s sides. Peter’s smile grew ever wider and he lifted onto his toes for a kiss.Since Wade had no worldly possessions, that was that. Suddenly Wade had moved into the cottage. It all happened too quickly for Wade to process the concept of having a home again after over a decade lost in the woods. It would take getting used to, sleeping under a roof in a real bed—a tiny one, but that was all the better to keep his omega close—but it would be worth it to be close to Peter. Being close to his omega was all that he wanted in the world. For now, at least. Later, he could think about other things, like a home of their own and pups to fill it with. But for the moment, just being near Peter’s side was all he needed.Peter and Wade made breakfast while May worked on her dough, and soon the tiny cottage was full of chatter and the smells of good food. Wade had not felt this... normal in longer than he could remember. Maybe never. He liked it. He liked it well enough that he wanted to earn his keep by doing more than just bedding his mate.“I think I’ll go hunting after breakfast for something to sell at the market,” he said as he shuffled a few potato slices around his plate.“I could go with you,” Peter offered, leaning into him so that their arms touched from elbow to shoulder.“Or you could stay here and work on that invention you’ve been telling me about for three months.” Peter looked hurt at the comment, as though the concept of being away from Wade for even an afternoon was an insult. Wade grabbed his hand and squeezed, understanding the instinct to want to stay close. “It’s not that I don’t want you with me, baby boy. I’ve just been hearing you talk about all the things you’d like to do, but never can because you’re too busy hunting or weeding the garden or repairing the cottage. Let me do those things. I’ve been a wolf for a long time. I need to work with my hands again for a while.”This seemed to pacify Peter, who lifted the hand that held his to his mouth and kissed it. Wade leaned over to press a kiss to his mating mark, making Peter blush pink the way he had earlier. May watched them both with a twinkle in her eye and a pleased smile.

Wade was focused on skinning the deer he’d taken down that morning, but he still heard the soft footfalls of the young omega next door, Peter’s friend who Wade had been jealous of when he had first began growing attached to Peter. He had taken two of her chickens in the night and eaten them in retaliation. At the time, the move had seemed logical, but once he could think with a human brain once more, he regretted having done it. He was planning to pay for them once he had the extra money. Is she here to punish me for that? he thought to himself, glancing up from his work to find her leaning against the side of the house with a flirtatious smile on. “You’re new,” she said.Wade didn’t know what to say to that. Peter hadn’t told him what he wanted Wade to tell other people about where he came from. She didn’t appear to recognize him, at least. “Good morning,” he hedged, darting a look towards the house.She cocked her head to the side, delicately sniffing the air. “You smell like Peter. You’re the alpha he’s been smelling like for months, aren’t you? The one leaving him all those presents.” Her eyes went wide all of the sudden, and she whipped around and marched into the cottage without knocking. Wade could hear something clatter to the kitchen floor. Peter must have dropped his invention in shock. “Peter Parker, are you mated to that gorgeous alpha outside?” the omega asked.Wade followed her into the house just in time to see her snatch Peter’s collar away from his neck to view his bite mark. Wade couldn’t stop the warning growl at her overly familiar touching of his omega. The girl rolled her eyes at him and let go of Peter’s clothes. “Calm down, Alpha. I just had to see,” she said.Peter stood, adjusting his neckline with one fidgety hand. “Yes, we mated. You needn’t have barged in here like an angry badger to pull my clothes from my body. You are lucky Wade didn’t physically remove you from me.”“You went and found yourself a mate without telling me. I thought you didn’t need an alpha. You were certainly on your high horse about it in the summer,” the omega exclaimed—what was her name again? Margaret? Michelle? Mary Jane! That was it. Peter had told Wade many times while they were in the forest, but most of his wolf memories were wobbly at best. Mary Jane had her hands on her hips like she was about to deliver the lecture of Peter’s life.Peter stepped back from her, somehow managing to edge his way closer to Wade without seeming to move. “I changed my mind. I am allowed to do that.”“I know that, Tiger. Introduce me to your new alpha. I know he and I have never met before. I would remember such a strapping hunk of muscle if I had seen him before.” Mary Jane was as persistent as Peter had warned Wade she could be. It was mildly alarming, though it went miles towards explaining Peter’s dirty mouth in bed.Peter took a few more steps backwards until he was within touching distance of Wade and glanced up at him from over his shoulder. The uncertainty in his eyes made Wade want to pull him close and protect him from the world. “This is, uh...”“Wade Wilson, my lady. You may call me Wade.” He reached around Peter to take Mary Jane’s hand and kiss her knuckles with a wink. He knew Peter was hesitant to introduce him to the neighbors. The risk of the local magistrate finding out his identity was high, especially if there were still Wanted posters nailed to the town square with his likeness on them. Even if he looked a great deal different from his portrait back then, his name was unmistakable. Mary Jane showed no recognition of the name, but her mouth did quirk up at his gesture.  “Very formal. It’s lovely to meet you, Alpha Wilson. I only wish Peter had been more open in speaking of you earlier. Do you make a habit of meeting young omegas in the woods for mid-morning trysts, or is our Pete just that special? I would have enjoyed an invitation otherwise.” She gave Wade a wicked smile as she took her hand back.“So Peter wasn’t lying about where he got his mouth. I can only assume he kept us apart for the same reason he kept me from his aunt. Gorgeous omega can be terrible competition, can’t they, baby boy?” He turned his tease on Peter, who was scowling.“We were not trysting,” is what he said, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout.Mary Jane looked nonplussed by the answer. She picked up the machine Peter had been working on and fiddled with the crank a few times. “What would you call it, then? You met in the woods early in the morning, every morning, for months. And every time, you came home bathed in the scent of a strange alpha. What else could you have been doing to get so thoroughly covered in his scent?”“I wasn’t bathed in his scent...” Peter protested. Wade wanted to kiss the pout off his lips.Mary Jane did not look impressed with the answer and stared him down for a better one.“Wade was covered in mites and malnourished. I was bringing him food and trying to get him to trust me enough to let me help him. We weren’t trysting.”“I wasn’t even human for a couple of months,” Wade offered, waggling his eyebrows at Mary Jane over Peter’s head. Peter shot him a sharp look over his shoulder.Mary Jane licked her lips at Wade with a wicked smile. “I bet you were.” She turned her attention to Peter, the flirtation gone from her expression. “It’s good that you’ve found an alpha, at least. Maybe now you can petition to get the farm back and have Magistrate Osborn listen this time.”Peter glanced at Wade again. “I don’t think so. We have a few... other things to deal with first.”“I have a past,” Wade explained at the blank look Mary Jane gave them both.“Oh, bad alpha with a past, hmm? Peter, I never would have expected it from you.” She winked at Peter and leaned back against the kitchen counter like she lived there, setting the invention next to her hip. “What dark skeletons are you hiding behind all those muscles, hmm? Are you secretly a smuggler? Did you plot against the king?” She turned that dazzling smile on Wade, and it became easy to see how this omega got away with so much of what Peter had relayed to Wade of her sharp tongue.“You don’t recognize me? Peter knew me immediately,” Wade said.“Peter wanted in your breeches immediately, I’m sure.”Wade smirked at his mate, whose cheeks turned crimson. “I wasn’t wearing any breeches at the time. Neither was he.”“I was giving you a bath. Honestly, the two of you make it sound as if I was being bedded in the forest for months by an unknown alpha, like I have no respect for my own health,” Peter quipped, walking past Mary Jane to take back his invention and sit at the kitchen table to continue work on it while they spoke.“I’m not certain how giving a strange alpha a bath is any different?” Mary Jane said, tilting her head to the side so that her long red curls tumbled over her shoulder gracefully.“He was in wolf form and covered in fleas and mites. I was trying to rid him of them so that his skin could heal. Believe me, it was in no way sexual.”Mary Jane turned to Wade with a questioning look. “As much as I wish the situation had been more salacious, he is telling the truth. I first met Peter as a feral wolf. I stole a rabbit he killed. He fed me and brought me back to health. And long after I had fallen deeply in love with him, he talked me into shifting back into my human form.”“Which he did in the middle of a bath to keep the parasites off him. He was covered in sores when I found him.”Mary Jane continued to frown at him in confusion, her eyes only briefly flicking to Peter as he explained. “Why were you a feral wolf? Did something terrible happen to you?”Wade stared at her for a long moment. “You really have no idea who I am, do you?” When her expression only grew more impatient, he continued. “I killed over a dozen alphas, was convicted for their murders, and hanged. I survived the hanging, dug myself out of the grave they buried me in, and ran away. I’ve been on the run for over a decade.”Her eyes widened in alarm, but there was still no recognition in her expression. For someone as sharp as she was, she must have never looked at one of the Wanted posters in the village square. “Wade’s face is on the posters in front of the Magistrate’s office. He’s the Alpha Killer.”Mary Jane whipped around to look at Peter so fast that her hair was a blur. “And you decided to mate him?”“He had a good reason for doing what he did,” Peter answered without looking at her. Wade couldn’t tell if he was purposely avoiding eye contact with her, or if he had already gotten over the tallest hill of his apprehension in explaining the situation to his aunt.“Explain,” Mary Jane said, turning her sharp gaze back on Wade. Something in her face made Wade disinclined to argue. He explained. And at the end of it, Mary Jane drew very close to his face and stared into his eyes for much longer than he would normally permit. It was a challenge if ever he saw one, but it was also an examination of a different sort. Wade quieted his wolf and permitted her to look her fill.When it was over, she leaned up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “You take care of him, or I take your knot and make you choke on it. Yes?”Wade had never been so certain of the sincerity of a threat before. She reminded him of Peter’s aunt. He nodded his agreement without hesitation. She gave him a bright smile and pecked his cheek again. “Good. Now go off to finish with that deer outside, will you? I need to gossip with Peter for a while, and he won’t tell me the good details if you are standing right there.” She patted his arm and sent him on his way with one last look over his shoulder at his mate. Peter waved at him helplessly from the table. He mouthed ‘Thank you’ just before the door closed in Wade’s face.

As the days, and soon weeks, passed, Wade took to leaving early in the morning to hunt in the woods. Climbing out of the tiny cot where his sweet-smelling mate clung to him, sleepy and grumpy to have been jostled, was the hardest test to his resolve that Wade had ever faced, but he managed to untangle himself from Peter’s warm embrace each morning before dawn, dressed, and left the cottage in the dark. There was usually only one other person awake that early, the Watson patriarch. He was a weathered older man who watched Wade with a stern look each morning from across the road, never returning the nod Wade sent him. Wade had lived long enough in the forest to not take it personally. They had not been introduced, and now that Wade was living in the Parker cottage, he interacted regularly with the alpha’s daughter. Wade would likely be wary of a strange alpha interacting with his daughter, as well.The thought of having a daughter with Peter put butterflies in Wade’s stomach that fluttered there until he reached the clearing and his work. Now that he was fully restored to health, hunting took him very little time, but he still spent the entirety of each morning in the woods working on a secret project. Their clearing no longer looked as it had the first time Peter had stumbled upon him. It was much larger after a few weeks of work chopping down trees and digging their root systems out. Peter wouldn’t recognized the space now, but it still smelled of his scent. Wade hoped to finish his surprise before the scent fully faded.Wade had finished clearing enough space to start lining out the foundation for their future cottage. He had traded game for the tools, hiding them from Peter and slipping them into the woods under the cover of darkness. He was only days away from beginning the arduous task of gathering stones for the foundation.He worked all morning drawing plans in the dirt, drawing and re-drawing as he thought over what Peter might like. This wasn’t the first home he had built, but it had been so many years since his last effort that he kept forgetting basic elements. And Peter was a much different person than Vanessa had been, with much different priorities for how he lived his life. Thinking through what he might want for their home gave Wade a significant feeling of accomplishment, and more than a little excitement to see Peter’s face when he saw the finished product.Hours later, when he exited the forest with three ducks in hand and a sense of purpose in his heart, he scented the air for signs of his mate and found the unwelcome scent of a familiar alpha coming from the cottage. The young one who had been sniffing around Peter for longer than Wade was comfortable with—Harry, Peter had called him—was inside their home. Wade could smell him mixed with Peter’s sweet scent and the stench of unhappiness.Wade dropped the ducks at the back door and walked into the kitchen to find Peter standing with his back to the kitchen counter and his hands clenched against the lip. The other alpha was standing over him, reaching as if to touch Peter’s mating mark. Wade instantly started growling. Harry lifted his hands out of the way in surrender and stepped several body lengths backwards, eyes darting to Wade. He was the same height as Peter, and not much more developed. He had the posture of an aristocrat and clothing to match. Wade disliked him immediately.“Wade, calm down. Harry was just curious,” Peter tried to say, putting himself between Wade and the other alpha. He put his hands on Wade’s forearms and bared his neck for Wade to scent to prove that he hadn’t been touched. Wade kept his eyes on the other alpha the entire time he leaned down to inhale Peter’s comforting scent and kiss the mottled skin there. Peter shivered under his lips, his hands gripping Wade’s arms a little tighter as he let out a soft breath.Harry’s lips were pressed so tightly together they were white as he watched the exchange. He made no attempt to stifle the sour anger of his scent. “I thought Watson was confused when he told me you looked like the Alpha Killer, but seeing you myself, I understand what he was worried about. You are Wade Wilson, aren’t you?” he asked, clenching his fists at his side.“Harry, take a breath. I know your father has told you wild stories about Wade, but none of them are true...” Peter said, twisting to face him without letting go of Wade.“Some of it’s true. I did kill those alphas for laying hands on omegas without their consent,” Wade said, his eyes flashing red as he spat the words out. He needed to settle himself, but the image of the idiot in front of him reaching out for his mate while his mate tried to move away was burned into the backs of his eyelids.“That is not the way I was told,” Harry snapped back at him.“And that is where the rumors are wrong. Wade had no interest in stealing omegas. The alphas were abusive, and the local magistrate did nothing to help them. They came to Wade because they had no other choice, and he saved them,” Peter explained.“I’m sure that’s what he told you, Pete, but records say differently.”“Of course they do. Why would the Magistrate want to admit that he allowed omegas to be abused while he did nothing? Wade is a good man, and he has paid for his crimes already a hundred fold over. His skin is evidence enough of what he has suffered through in punishment.”“He’s a wanted man, Peter. I know you are mate-addled right now, but you must see what a terrible idea this was. He is dangerous, for you and your aunt. He already physically threatened me. You saw him.”“We haven’t even been mated a moon cycle. He found a stranger cornering me and trying to touch me when I did not want to be touched. Compound that with the fact that you tried to court me in the past, and it should be easy to see that Wade had every right to warn you off. Any newly mated alpha would do the same, including you,” Peter said before Wade could defend himself. Wade had witnessed Peter’s dominant personality in the past, but never to this extent. He was like a hissing viper, ready to strike at any moment. Wade had never loved him more.“Even so, you have to see how irrational this is. He is a convicted serial killer. You woud be safer with a wild boar living in your home.”“Wade would never hurt me or May. He swore off killing before our mating, and I believe him with my whole heart. Please let us be. I promise you my aunt and I are both safe in his care.” Peter squared his shoulders, annoyance flooding his scent. “And if you ever imply that I am blinded by instincts again, I will have you turned out of this house faster than your feet can move you. Your father might be the most sexist man I know, but I will not tolerate the same from you. You know better.”Harry’s jaw remained clenched, but he nodded all the same. “If that’s what you want, Pete. I think you’re being stupid, but the deed is already done, I suppose.”Something about the way he twisted his mouth as he spoke made Wade think he might be lying, but there was no proof of it, and he didn’t want to further upset his mate. “Peter is safe with me. I would sooner cut my own heart out and give it to him than let anyone or anything hurt him. He is my entire world.”Peter reached back to take his hand, the annoyance slipping from his scent once more as he looked over his shoulder at Wade with a warm smile. “You’re mine, too,” he said, soft and loving.Harry made a noise of displeasure and took a step back. “I think I’ll leave you to your mating, then. I really wish you hadn’t done this, Peter, but if I cannot talk you out of it, I needn’t be involved.”“It is already done. There’s nothing to talk me out of. Just promise you won’t tell your father. We both know he will arrest Wade on sight, and I couldn’t bear it.”“Whatever you want,” he said, but there was another twitch. Wade watched him leave with a backward glance at Peter, and a stone of dread weighed down his stomach. He wrapped his arms around Peter and held him tight, and Peter let him without complaint.“It’ll be okay, Alpha. We’ll be okay,” Peter said, rubbing his nose up the side of Wade’s neck. Wade stayed quiet, but he held Peter just a little bit tighter.

Peter was tinkering with the invention he had been working diligently on at the table when Wade walked in to find a rag. Instead of looking for said rag, he slunk over to Peter and wrapped his arms around him from behind, leaning over his shoulder to press kisses to his cheek and neck. Peter made a surprised noise and twisted in his arms, reaching up to wrap himself around Wade’s neck. “Aren’t you supposed to be cleaning that buck you brought home?” he asked, a teasing smile curling up his lips as Wade continued dotting his cheeks with kisses.“I couldn’t resist. You’re so gorgeous, I had to touch you.” Wade kissed him, lifting him up onto his toes and then off his feet entirely as Peter hummed his pleasure and returned the kiss. This close, he smelled so good, warm and soft and sweeter than usual, like one of the honey buns Vanessa used to bake for him when he came home from a hunt. It made Wade want to wrap Peter up in his arms and carry him away to a secret hideaway and keep him all to himself.Wade’s hand had just slipped into the back of Peter’s tight trousers to play when a series of heavy knocks on the front door interrupted them. Peter turned with a frown to look at the door. “Who could that be this early in the day?” he muttered. He slipped out of Wade’s arms, adjusting his trousers as he approached the front door and opened it wide enough to peer out. His entire body stiffened at the sight on the other side. “Can I help you?” Wade heard him ask.“My son seems to think you might be harboring a fugitive, Omega Parker. Is that so?” came an older man’s voice that held a familiar authority, as well as a familiar insidious haughtiness. Wade’s stomach turned to ice.“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Magistrate. The only person here besides me is my mate, and we happen to be very busy at the moment. If you’ll excuse me—” Peter tried to shut the door, but a force on the other side stopped him, pushing him back several steps. Two guards stomped into the cottage, followed by a plain-looking alpha with sandy hair and the posture of a peacock.“Wade Wilson, I presume? You are wanted for murder, mutilation of a corpse, and escape from custody,” the alpha told him, striding towards him on thick-heeled boots that made clacking noises against the flimsy floorboards.“Does it count as an escape if you dig yourself out of your own grave? It’s not like I picked a cell lock. They left me outside,” Wade said, eyes on the magistrate while the rest of his senses remained keenly aware of Peter and his rapidly beating heart. Wade wanted nothing more than to pick him up and carry him off into the depths of the forest where the law might never find them. But he would likely have to shed blood to get to Peter, and he had promised he would never do that again.“As amusing as your reputation claims, I see. Is young Peter aware of your crimes?” the magistrate asked.“I—” Peter tried to speak, but Wade cut him off before he could implicate himself.“I never told him,” he lied, shooting Peter a sharp look. The last thing they needed was for Peter to be arrested for conspiracy and aiding and abetting a fugitive right along with Wade. He should never have mated his sweet little omega. Peter deserved so much more than the bullshit Wade was about to drag him through by association. The situation was unfair to him. He looked at Peter again, really looked at him, and saw the wide eyes and pale cheeks of fear. Fear for his alpha getting arrested. Fear for himself. For what would happen after.Because... because this was so much different than last time. Last time, Vanessa had known what Wade was doing, had known the risks, had encouraged him to do what was right. She knew what being separated would mean, that it could be painful and could risk her health. But they had been mated for years before his arrest, had already suffered through a long separation. Their bond had been tested and proven to withstand the strain. Vanessa had known that she would survive, even if Wade didn’t. Peter didn’t have that same assurance. They hadn’t even been mated a full heat cycle. And Peter was so young. So young and vulnerable. So fragile.Wade growled under his breath, instinct taking over. He ignored the protestations of the guards and the magistrate and moved to Peter’s side, picking him up in a swift move and darting for the open back door. Peter cried out a protest, but clung to Wade’s neck as they exited through the back door. Wade intended to make a dash for the trees, but a line of guards with drawn swords stopped him in his tracks. They completely surrounded the back garden, blocking off his path to freedom. Wade snarled his frustration even as Peter slid from his arms with a soft sound of surprise.“Did you think I would not take precautions against an escape attempt, Alpha Wilson? You have a history, after all,” Osborn said from behind them, voice mocking.  Wade immediately twisted around to shield Peter from him, placing himself deliberately between his mate and the greatest threat. Peter clung to the back of his shirt, pressing himself all along Wade’s back.Osborn watched him without emotion. “Step away from the omega. He needn’t be harmed in this process,” he said, calm and falsely soothing. He undermined the tone with the vindictive glint in his eyes.Wade growled louder, forcing Peter back a step. “You aren’t going to take me from Peter,” he snarled. If he had to full-shift in front of them to get his point across, he would.Osborn looked less than impressed with his display. “Guards. Seize the criminal. Bring no harm to the omega,” he said. The two guards that had followed them outside came at Wade with swords drawn like cowards. He could sense the other guards approaching from behind. Wade hadn’t faced a blade in over a decade, but he knew he could cut them all down with barely a thought. He crouched down, ready to attack, but Peter’s fingers dug into the back of his shirt, reminding him of his presence. His promise. No killing.“I won’t let you separate me from my omega. We’ve barely been mated a moon cycle. He’ll die without me.”Osborn gave him a withering look. “Know a thing or two about separating omegas from their alphas, do you?” He held a hand up to pause the guards. Wade could only assume he did so because Peter was still clinging to Wade like the spider he was.Wade bared his teeth, longer and sharp enough to pierce his own lip. He could taste the blood on his tongue, but not the pain. “I never separated an omega from an alpha who didn’t want to be separated.”“I doubt they would agree with you.” Osborn plucked at his gloves, tugging them higher up his hands in a move he probably meant to be nonchalant. He indicated the neighbor who had appeared around the side of the cottage sometime during the encounter without looking at him.“Alpha Watson has reported you spending significant amounts of time in the woods. How do I know that you aren’t preparing burial spots for more alphas, the way you did in Francisco?” Osborn asked, glaring at Wade with his beady little eyes.Wade looked directly at the deer hanging from the rack he’d built, belly split open and cleaned, partially butchered. “You got me. I’ve been spending all my time in the forest murdering the innocent.” The look on Osborn’s face was almost worth the sharp dig of Peter’s nails into the back of his arm in warning. “Deer. Geese. That one raccoon who tried to steal my boot. A lot of rabbits. This hot little number really loves his rabbit stew, don’t you, baby boy?” Wade winked over at Peter, earning an exasperated look.“Wade...” Peter muttered, his fingers tightening once again on Wade’s shirt. He looked like he might want to commit a little murder of his own. Whether it would be of Wade or the magistrate was still undetermined.“That does not explain why you brought a shovel into the woods last week. Do you often hit animals over the head to kill them? Not a particularly efficient hunting tool for someone who is known to full-shift into what I’ve been told is quite a large wolf,” Osborn said.Wade shot Watson a dark look. That asshole needed to keep to his own business. His secret project was supposed to be just that. Now he was going to have to fess up if he didn’t want to be arrested again and taken from Peter. He could already smell the distress coming off his mate in waves. “It was supposed to be a surprise,” he said.“For the local alpha population?” Osborn asked, eyes narrowing improbably thinner.“For Peter,” Wade corrected, flashing him a look. He really did not want to have to reveal this secret. It was supposed to be a mating present, and now Wade would never get to see the look of surprise on Peter’s face when he saw it.Osborn gasped, taking a step back as he gaped at Wade. “You were planning to murder your own mate? I knew you were a monster, but I never thought—”“No, you idiot, I’m building him a house. For when we have pups, so we don’t overcrowd May’s little cottage. There’s not a lot of space in there if you hadn’t noticed. I needed the shovel to pull up tree roots and dig the foundation. I bet our nosy neighbor over there saw me bring an axe out there, too. I hope you can guess what I’ve been using that for. And don’t say murder. Peter made me promise not to do that anymore if I mated him, and I plan to keep my promise.” He looked to Peter to make sure he understood how sincere Wade was in his vow. Peter’s eyes were wide and shining as if he were moments from crying.“You’re building us a house?” he asked, voice trembling.“Of course, sweetheart. I promised you I would take care of you, didn’t I?”Peter’s eyes shone with tears, but he quickly brushed them away and turned to Osborn with a fierce expression, nudging Wade’s protective arm out of the way so that he could stand in front of him. “Enough of this bullshit. What sort of alpha are you, separating an alpha from his new mate, knowing well what the likely result will be? You claim to protect omegas, but you would let me whither away and die for crimes committed over a decade ago on the other side of the kingdom? You should be ashamed of yourself.” His sharp tone took even Osborn aback with the veracity of it. Wade couldn’t see Peter’s expression, but the looks on the beta guards’ faces told him all he needed to know.Peter wasn’t finished. “Do you know how much Wade has suffered for his crimes? When I found him in the woods, he was emaciated and covered in mites and fleas and open sores. He looked a week from death. He hadn’t had contact with another were in more years that you’ve been mated to your current omega.”“He escaped captivity. That is his own fault—” Osborn tried to interrupt with a reprimanding look at the comment about his mate, but Peter was on a tear and had none of it. He pointed a hard finger at Osborn, his other fist clenched tight at his side.“You know nothing. He was tortured for nearly a moon cycle before he was executed. You can see the scars that cover his body, nearly all of which was a result of his torture. He was burned to the point of losing his hair. He even has a visible scar from the rope that hung him. He had to dig himself out of his own grave, and then spent years living feral in the woods, sick and starving and alone.”He took a deep breath, his heart beat somewhat steadying with it. Osborn attempted to open his mouth again, but whatever look Peter gave him forced it closed quickly.“By no means am I saying that what Wade did wasn’t horrible. Murder is never the answer to a problem, even in the case of abusive alphas. I wish the local magistrate had intervened for the omegas involved before Wade had to do what he did. But he didn’t. When omegas went to him for help, he ignored their claims and sent them back to violent homes. They had no choice but to go to Wade for help. Wade was trained to deal with situations in a far different manner than you or I have been. He did what he thought was the right thing to help omegas who were living under terrible circumstances. Surely, when you take the circumstance into account, you must agree that Wade has paid his debt. He was sentenced to hang, and he was hung. He was also tortured and permanently disfigured at the hands of his jailors, which I am certain is unlawful. He was forced feral and lived as a wolf for over a decade. He has suffered far worse consequences for his crimes than he was ever sentenced to endure. Surely you can see reason to letting him go.”Osborn gave Peter a patient, insincere smile. “I realize that this alpha has dazzled you with his pheromones, little omega, but this is a matter for the authorities. Kindly keep your opinions to yourself.”Peter reeled back as if contemplating punching the magistrate. “I am not a weakling subject to the whims of my instincts. I know the difference between what is right and what is cruel, and you are being unreasonably cruel.”Osborn ignored him. “Alpha Wilson will be taken to the palace, and he will be hanged, as his original sentence dictates. And this time, he will hang on the gallows for one week to ensure that he is truly dead.”The small crowd of neighbors that had gathered behind Alpha Watson all gasped in protest. “But Magistrate Osborn, he is Peter’s mate,” one cried out.“Peter could die, as well,” called out another.“This isn’t what I wanted when I came to you, Norman. This is uncalled for. Think of Peter,” Alpha Watson said, trying to step forward to appeal to Osborn, but one of the guards intervened, pushing him back to stand with the rest of the on-lookers.Osborn gave them all a forced smile. “I understand that this will be a difficult time for young Peter, but he is a strong boy. He will overcome losing his mate and thank me for it once he is no longer under this monster’s spell. If need be, a replacement mate will be sought to care for Peter. I’m certain Harry would be more than happy to oblige.”Rage burst from Wade at the thought of another alpha touching his mate. Peter didn’t want that any more than Wade did. He moved past his mate and went for Osborn’s neck. “Peter’s mine. You don’t have a right to him. If you try to force another alpha on him, I’ll rip your head from your shoulders and lay your entrails out for Peter as a present,” he growled. The guards behind him attempted to subdue him, but Wade’s grip was too tight around Osborn’s throat. He squeezed until he could feel the bones shift under his hands, the larynx start to crush in. The way his eyes began to protrude, blood vessels breaking under the pressure, it only made Wade squeeze harder.“Wade! You promised,” Peter cried, pulling ineffectively at his arm.“I don’t have to kill him. I could maim him a little. Tear off an arm, maybe? You’d like that as a mating present, wouldn’t you?” he said through clenched teeth, eyes alpha red and fingers still clenched tight around Osborn’s throat.Peter fought harder against his hold, yelling his objection. “No blood! You promised.”The touch of his hands on Wade’s arm brought him back from the red-tinged edge of reality. He blinked down at his mate, his hands loosening around Osborn’s neck. “This won’t help us. Let him go,” he said, gently pulling Wade’s hands away. Before Wade could apologize for almost breaking his promise, the guards had him firmly in hand once more and shoved him to the dirt, one of them shackling him roughly while the other kicked him in the head. The last image he saw was of his mate crying out, reaching for him in terror, and then his world went black and he saw no more.

Food tasted rotten in his mouth. He was cold every moment of the day no matter how many layers he wore or how many furs he piled on top of his cot. Their cot. It still smelled deeply of Wade, and Peter found himself unable to muster the interest to leave it even as his misery soured the scent. He found himself suddenly quite the socialite, not by choice. A parade of neighbors began sitting at his bedside, attempting to get him up, coax him out of bed. A bitter part of his heart thought some of them might be trying to assuage their own guilt for speaking to Norman about Wade in the first place. None of them had any idea how difficult the thought of leaving the scent of his mate was when he had no way of getting to Wade.On the first day, Peter, May, and Mary Jane had petitioned for Wade’s release from the Magistrate’s office, but Wade had been sent in an immediate convoy to the capital accompanied by Norman himself, and with him any chance of settling the matter locally. Peter knew that King T’Challa was a fair king, but he believed in upholding sentences, and with no other information except what Magistrate Osborn gave him, there was little chance that he would decide in their favor. It was unlikely that Magistrate Osborn would even tell King T’Challa that a petition for Wade’s release had been put forth.After their unsuccessful trip to the magistrate’s office, they sat down at the kitchen table and Peter explained everything Wade had told him to May and Mary Jane. Mary Jane got a glint in her eye as soon as she heard about the omegas being abused. Peter told her what he could and squeezed her hand tight when it got to be too much, Wade’s voice whispering the words in his ear like a lullaby made of broken glass.  She listened to everything he had to say intently, and left with a determined set to her shoulders. He wasn’t entirely sure what she meant to do with the information, but he didn’t see her for two days afterwards.In the meantime, the separation began to weigh on him. The pull was a constant strain on his chest, begging him to find his alpha, even as it cried out that he had been abandoned by that same alpha. Peter could barely keep his thoughts straight for the conflicting parts of himself, all angry, all desperate, all growing tired of the distance. Every mile that Wade was pulled farther away from him felt like a knife digging into his skin and drawing up flesh.He began to find it difficult to do even simple tasks, dizzy spells and a sick, empty feeling making it hard for him to focus, to stand up for more than a few minutes at a time, to eat. Eventually, he retreated to bed and stopped getting out of it.Aunt May did her best to take care of him, trying to get him up and moving as much as she could, but Peter was more a bag of sand than a person in his despair. He curled up on his cot and refused to move.Healer Banner arrived on the eighth day, all furrowed brow and quiet requests for Peter to drink water. He gently examined Peter, treating him like he was a fragile thing, precious and threatening to shatter. When he pressed a hand to Peter’s stomach, a look of surprise came over his face. “Peter, I apologize for having to ask you under such difficult circumstances, but I need you to turn onto your back and open your legs for me. I think I know why you’ve deteriorated so quickly after your mate was taken.”“So quickly?” Peter asked. He thought it had been four days since Wade was taken, but he’d spent so much time in bed, perhaps it had been longer. He complied with Healer Banner’s request, trying not to feel embarrassed as Healer Banner began an internal exam, his fingers probing into Peter’s rectum as he frowned.A moment later he pulled his hands away and Peter watched him get up and clean his hands in the sink in the kitchen. He spoke briefly with May, and a few minutes later he was bringing Peter a small mug of steaming liquid. He sat back on the stool and held the mug out to Peter. “I need you to drink this for me,” he said.Peter sat up slowly and took the tea in shaking hands. It smelled sweet and vaguely like alpha in rut. Peter wrinkled his nose at the smell—not Wade—but tried to swallow it down anyway. He thought he knew what Banner was looking for, and the idea of it made him want to vomit.The tea made his insides warm and expand, slick appearing. He set the tea on the ground with an unhappy grunt and slid back onto his back, knowing what was coming next. Banner reached between his legs again, his cervix open for examination this time.After a few minutes of uncomfortable prodding and pressure, Banner pulled his hands away with a unhappy sigh. “I am sorry to have to tell you this, but I believe you are deteriorating so quickly because you’re pregnant. Under any other circumstances, I would say this is a good thing, but with your mate in custody, there is a high chance that you will lose this baby.”Peter curled in on himself on his side and covered his face with his hand to hide the sob building in his chest. He had already suspected something like this might have happened. Wade had been telling him he smelled sweeter in the days before he was taken. Peter had chocked it up to being newly mated at the time, but it was clear now. Pregnant omegas always smelled better, more enticing, an evolutionary hold-over to try to look more appealing to alphas so they would stay and take care of them. Wade would have been so excited. But now Wade would probably never find out.“We’ll petition again. They can’t keep a pregnant omega away from his mate, not this soon after their mating. That’s tantamount to sentencing him to death,” May said, standing over Peter’s cot like an avenging goddess. She looked like she wanted to rip apart the entire world to save her nephew. Peter appreciated the sentiment, but he knew it was no use. Magistrate Osborn wanted Peter mated to Harry, he had made that opinion clear since the day Peter presented. And this was just a handy excuse to make that a reality, Peter’s health and safety be damned.“I’ll assist you however I can,” Healer Banner promised with a grim nod. He got up to wash his hands again and talked about what they needed to do to keep Peter as healthy as possible for the baby. Peter heard the talk over his head without really listening. He curled his arms over his stomach and wished for his mate.

Wade woke up abruptly as he was dumped into the mud, unsure of where he was and dizzy from his head wound. The last thing he remembered was his mate’s voice as he was dragged away and knocked unconscious. His head throbbed uncomfortably and blurred his vision, but he tried to get a bearing on his surroundings as best he could. He was lying in a mud puddle in the middle of a road, but the landscape at the edges he could see were still blanketed in dirty, patchy snow. They must have been further south than the village, but still weeks of travel north of the capital. He shifted as best he could to look behind him, his shoulder screaming pain at him with every minute movement, and found a cart there, its wheels sunk deep into mud tracks. They must have gotten stuck and needed to rid themselves of Wade’s considerable weight in order to push the cart out of the mud. Wade’s arms were bound tight behind his back, the rope digging painfully into his skin. The intense pain in his shoulder and upper arm told him it was probably dislocated. He guessed it was likely going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. He doubted any of the guards would be interested in untying him long enough to pull the arm back into its socket.A pair of expensive boots stepped into his line of sight as he mulled over this, rich leather and molded filigree. Wade looked up as best he could to see who owned them and was met by a sneer from Magistrate Osborn. “I wish I could say that I was surprised to discover a monster like you preying on young, innocent Peter Parker. He is a ripe little morsel, perfect pickings for a vicious predator to defile. Is that what you did to those other omegas? Slaughter their alphas in front of them and then force yourself upon them like the rutting dog you are?”Wade knew there was no point in arguing with him about the truth of his purpose, so he said nothing. This was not an alpha who liked to hear contradiction to his own beliefs. Better to save his energy for more important things.“Not going to defend yourself? You left that to an omega like a coward, didn’t you?” Wade snarled at that. He was many, many monstrous things, but a coward he had never been. Osborn smiled at the show of emotion and tipped his boot into the puddle in front of Wade’s face. “If you prey on innocents like a mindless dog, then you shall be treated like one. You might want to drink some of that water you have settled in. You won’t be getting anything else during our journey.”Wade cocked his head to the side. “If you’re trying for that evil villain in a romance novel appearance, I have to tell you, you’re doing excellent work. It’s a pity Peter made me stop before I killed you. I think your eyes would have protruded beautifully when I choked you out.”Osborn kicked him in the face, the tip of his boot striking Wade’s nose in a burst of pain. He could taste the copper of his own blood, mixed with the mud and horse shit of the road. He spat it out with a grin, intent on goading him more. Osborn kicked him once more before walking away, robbing him of the pleasure of taunting him further.Wade settled his cheek against the ground once the other man was out of sight and tried to think. He needed to find a way to escape and shift. His body would heal itself in his wolf form, but a shift was impossible with his arms tied so tightly behind his back. Osborn likely knew that. So he needed to find a way to release himself from the bonds without being detected and shift. He couldn’t go to Peter, not right away. They would put a guard on the house immediately, and likely restrict Peter and May’s movements until Wade was captured again. He would need to hide in the woods as close as he dared and find a way to send his mate a message.He thought over plans and strategies as the soldiers dug the cart out of the mud and broke bread on the side of the road, talking and laughing, making plans of their own for what they intended to do to Wade as punishment for his crimes. Half of them were alphas, and none of them took kindly to what they were told he had done. Wade wasn’t surprised. He also wasn’t worried. He had endured so much worse than anything these greenies could ever come up with. They were all soft and young, too young to have seen real war. They were cruel as a diversion from their loveless matings and mundane lives. They didn’t know real cruelty, had never seen a man torn apart piece by piece and reassembled into something darker and far uglier, let alone done the disassembling themselves. Wade had. He could endure whatever they threw at him. And he would, because there was going to be nothing stopping him from getting back to his mate.

The ache in his chest grew with every mile they took him further from his mate. He thought about Peter constantly, picturing him at home with May, dealing with his own pain, a pain Wade had never wanted for him. He could smell Peter on the breeze sometimes, sweet and sharp and so alive. But when he looked in the direction of the scent, there was never anything but more road and sneering soldiers as far as the eye could see.On the fifth day they fed him, claiming that they wished him to survive long enough to make it to the capital to hang for all to see. They didn’t know how long Wade could go without food, how well he had trained his body to survive on nothing but melted snow and insects from the road. Osborn stood over him while he ate, spouting lies and taunting Wade with visions of his mate bearing Osborn offspring, of forgetting Wade and becoming a good, obedient omega. Every word of it was a lie, and Wade knew it.When he didn’t react to the taunting, Osborn kicked him in the face again and gave him over to the guards to do what they liked with him. Wade thought of his little mate safe in his arms until he couldn’t think anymore.

Peter woke to the scent of a familiar alpha and was growling before his eyes were even open. “Get out,” he said, turning over so he didn’t have to face Harry.“Pete, I’m so sorry. I never wanted this for you. I was trying to protect you. I had no idea that you were this attached to him,” Harry said, his voice full of sadness and regret to match his scent.Peter could feel him try to reach out, but he was having none of it. He sat up, glaring, and bared his teeth, longer and sharp with threat. “You promised me you would leave us be, and you lied to me. You were supposed to be my best friend. How can I ever trust you again?”Harry looked wrecked, his hair tugged up at odd angles like he had been pulling at it. Peter had no sympathy for him. “I wanted you to be safe. He was dangerous. Before my father left with him, he told me Wade tried to kill him.”“Did your father also tell you that he offered you as my replacement alpha? To Wade’s face? He thinks when he kills Wade, that I’ll bare my neck for you because I’ll have no other choice.” He pulled his knees up to his chest, ignoring the way his limbs protested from ache and disuse.Harry sat back on the stool as if he had just been slapped. Peter quietly wished he had the strength to slap him himself. “He what...? You have to know I would never try to do that. He had no right to suggest such a thing.”“That is correct. He had no right to say any such thing, let alone to me alpha’s face. But he did. He thinks he can take my mate from me and pass me off to whichever alpha is interested, and I will permit it because I might die otherwise.”“I am so sorry, Peter.” He sounded broken, but Peter was not done being angry.He clenched his fists over his knees and looked away, barely registering the sharp bite of his canine teeth against his bottom lip. “The most frustrating part of all of this is that if Wade is killed, I probably will roll over and let you mate me. I can’t just...” A sob cut off his words, but he choked it off before it could come out. He looked down at his belly, the small mound of the pup visible in contrast with how thin he had become everywhere else.“I’d never ask you to do that. I never wanted to be your mate unless you wanted it just as much as I do.”“I’m pregnant, Harry. I could lose the pup if I am separated from my mate for too long. If your father gets the king to do what he wants, I’ll have no choice but to mate someone else if I don’t want my child to die. They’re all I have left of—” He cut himself off again, turning his face away to hide the tears in his eyes.Peter had never seen Harry as upset as he was hearing this news. He stood up so fast the stool knocked over with a clatter that rang through the cottage. “I can’t let this happen. I will go to the capital and find my father and talk to him. They have to allow leniency. My father would have never done this if he’d known how fragile your situation was.”Peter doubted that very much, but something in the speech sparked a new fire in Peter. He couldn’t allow Norman Osborn to dictate his life. He had already taken so much from them. Peter was not going to curl up in a ball and allow him to take the one thing that meant the most to him. He stood up as well, grabbing onto the nearest wall to steady himself when the vertigo hit him. “If you are going to the capital, I will go with you. I want to speak to the king myself. I might not be able to convince your father of anything, but King T’Challa can be reasoned with.”Harry tried to reach out to assist him, but Peter glared the attempt down. “I don’t know if it would be a good idea for you to travel like this, Pete.”Peter gave him a scathing look. “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask you for it. Call your carriage. We aren’t wasting any more time.”Harry didn’t argue. Peter liked to think that it was because Harry remembered Peter besting him in every fight they had as children, but it was likely the fact that Peter looked like a strong wind could knock him over. He didn’t dwell on it.

Wade’s vision was reduced to his right eye by the time they arrived at the palace, but it was as elegant a structure as he remembered. King T’Chaka had awarded him the Medal of Valor when he returned from the war, and it had been one of the proudest moments of his life. His second visit to the palace was slightly less auspicious.The palace guard who greeted them took one look at Wade and sneered at the magistrate’s guards. “Why is this man so badly injured? The report we received ahead of your arrival said that he was captured at home with his mate. He should be unharmed.”“Piece of scum can’t stay on his feet, can you, bub?” one guard told her, elbowing Wade hard in his broken ribs. Wade clenched his teeth together and showed no outward signs of the sharp pain that shot through his chest. “What’s it matter anyway? Monster’s about to hang, ain’t he?”The Dora guard shoved the other guard away with the blunt end of her spear and a sharp look. “That is up to the will of your king, not you.” She gestured with one hand at another two members of the Dora Milaje behind her, who came to either side of Wade and directed him towards a doorway that led to the dungeons. They murmured to each other about Wade’s treatment while the Dora guard dressed the two men down for mishandling a prisoner.Wade was taken down a flight of steps into an antechamber where the palace guards unbound his arms and apologized for the way he had been treated under Osborn’s care. “No one should be treated unkindly, no matter their crimes. You will not be subject to ill treatment while you are in our care,” one of them assured him.“Until you kill me, you mean? Pain now or pain later, it’s all the same,” Wade said, wincing as he tried to move his dislocated shoulder. He needed to shift for it to heal, but the last thing he needed was half a dozen spears pointed at him.“Perhaps,” the guard agreed, giving him a shrewd look that told him nothing of her inner thoughts. “Even so, we are not animals.” She paused, catching the raised eyebrow Wade sent her. “Most of the time. Would you like to see a healer for your injuries or will you be shifting when you are placed in a cell?”“Why wait?” Now that he was unbound, he could shift without worry of permanently injuring himself. He doubted they would mind if one of their own was the one to suggest it. He summoned his wolf and found himself on four paws, shaking the shreds of fabric from his ruined clothes off his fur. The shift automatically triggered a healing of his injuries, his body knitting together what had been broken as it remade him into a wolf. All the physical pains were gone, but the pull of his mate and the ache of the heartbeat next to his own remained.The guard crossed her arms in front of her chest with an impatient look. “You could have bothered removing your clothing. Now we will have to find you new things for your time here.”Wade wasn’t interested. He didn’t plan to stay human in his cell. He had no interest in being human without his mate to hold in his arms. He sat on his hind legs to show that he wasn’t a threat to the guards, but even sitting he was of a height with everyone else in the room.“I hope you don’t intend to stay in that form permanently. I have questions for you regarding the reports we were sent from Fransisco. The accounts from witnesses do not always agree with the confession you signed or the local Magistrate’s account of the events. King T’Challa would like clarification before your sentence is once more carried out.”Wade hadn’t expected that. T’Chaka had been a fair king in his day, but Wade had had to cross the entire kingdom to find a place where he could live apart without finding signs of Killebrew’s influence. He would have expected the snake to have his claws in the new king, as well. He shifted back, covering his groin with his hands in consideration of Dora Milaje modesty. He needn’t have bothered. She didn’t react to his shift back to human form except to turn to a much younger guard, possibly a recruit in training, and direct her to find clothes large enough for him.What followed was more in-depth questioning than Wade had encountered since he was tortured before his hanging. The only difference this time was that he was given clothes to wear, a meal to eat as he answered the questions, and no one touched him. It was overall a much more pleasant experience, but in the end he knew he would still die.

Twenty-nine days. Wade had been away from his mate for a full moon cycle, and he was beginning to feel the effects full-force. The bond was weakening, breaking apart, the fractured pieces digging into his heart little by little until it was difficult to breathe without his omega in his arms.The Dora Milaje were kind jailers, giving him three meals a day and sanitary conditions in which to live. Okoye, the head of the guard, continued to ask him questions in the days that followed. Wade had expected to be executed immediately upon arrival at the palace. That was what Osborn had promised him, dangling the threat over his head as he allowed his guards to do with Wade what they liked. Okoye treated him with dignity and listened to his answers as if she believed them to be the truth.Mostly, Wade laid in the middle of his cell shifted into his wolf form and thought about Peter. The way he smelled, his beautiful big brown eyes, his soft hair that always looked wild no matter what he’d been doing. His curious demeanor and constant questioning. His chatter. The way his eyes fluttered closed every time Wade touched his mating mark, and the way his fingers gripped at Wade whenever they kissed.Wade knew who it was long before he could see the visitor approach, the sound of expensive boots clacking against the stone floors impossible to mistake. The Dora Milaje were silent, as was the king on his one and only visit to Wade’s cell. Osborn was the loudest thing in the universe when he wanted to be, and he always wanted to be. “I see you’ve had a chance to heal since the last time I saw you. I suppose that’s what happens when you permit omegas to serve as your guard,” Osborn greeted Wade as he stepped up to the bars of his cell, his hands clasped behind his back. Behind him, Ayo gave him a disgusted look.Wade barely lifted his head from his paws, not bothering to shift into human form. He had no interest in speaking to this man.“I’ve come to see the Alpha Killer one final time before your execution tomorrow,” Osborn told him, a sickening smile on his lips. Wade remained motionless. “Not upset by this news? No longer missing your omega now that he’s out of your sight, then? I’m not surprised. I knew you were using that poor boy for your own gain. He’s better off without you. And once you’re dead, he’ll have no choice but to mate my Harry if he wants to survive the breaking of his mating bond. He’ll give my son strong heirs. And you will be but an unhappy memory lost to the years soon enough.”Wade kept himself as still as he could manage, but his thoughts were a mess of fury and fire. He thought about sinking his teeth into Osborn’s neck and ripping. Thought about what his blood would taste like on Wade’s tongue. What his face would look like as the light left his eyes. He thought about slicing the flesh from his bones, inch by agonizing inch. Cooking it while he made Osborn watch, and then forcing him to eat his own flesh. He thought about crushing his skull between his hands until his head was nothing but a mess of blood and tissue that no longer resembled a person. He thought about clawing up Osborn’s chest, carving Wade’s name into his skin over and over again until he bled out naked in the street.But most of all, he thought of Peter. Peter forced to mate an alpha he did not love and never wanted because Wade had been taken from him. He did not regret killing those alphas, not even when the act eventually caused him to be in this cell, far from his mate and unlikely to ever see him again. He missed his mate desperately, but had he not killed them, their omegas would have suffered violent and traumatic lives. Had he not killed them, he never would have been forced to run. He never would have met Peter. And Wade is just selfish enough to want that above all else. Peter had been the best thing to ever walk into his life, and he could never regret every awful step that brought him there.Looking at Osborn mocking him and taunting him with the possibility of his mate’s unhappy future, Wade could think of nothing but Peter. Peter baring his neck for that skinny, haughty alpha Harry Osborn. Peter begging for his knot and hating himself for it after his heat was over. Peter carrying Osborn pups. Peter forced to interact with Norman even though he hated him. His strong, beautiful, incredible mate brought low by an alpha he didn’t want to be with. Wade couldn’t allow it to happen. He had to do something, anything. He couldn’t stay in this cell and wait for death.Bored with Wade’s lack of reaction to his words, Osborn snarled at him with the full force of his wolf. It was pathetic. Wade raised a brow at him and stood, approaching as close to the bars as he could be while still being out of reach. He sat on his hind legs, letting Osborn get a good look at the entirety of him. Wade would be surprised if Norman’s wolf was more than an inch or two taller than Peter.“You truly are a vile creature. No self-respecting alpha would have such a patchy coat and try to flaunt it. You look disgusting. No omega deserves to be saddled with you.”Wade bared his teeth in a wolfish smile. Osborn straightened the lapel of his great coat and swallowed thickly. “I suppose there’s no use in wasting any more of my time in this filthy dungeon, is there? I look forward to watching you hang, Wilson.”Ayo smirked behind Osborn’s back, but the look melted back into placid disinterest when Osborn turned to leave. Wade waited until he was nearly out of sight before growling so loud it echoed off the walls. Osborn jumped and hurried his step. Wade chuckled to himself and laid back down on the floor, allowing himself a moment of satisfaction before he went back to forming a plan of escape once more.

Wade didn’t know the new guard’s name, but she was a tiny thing, young and green-looking. He didn’t doubt she would be able to take him in a fair fight, as he knew all of the Dora Milaje could, but this was not going to be a fair fight. It would be no fight at all. He waited until she was turned away to talk to a guard on the other side of the door to the dungeons, quickly picked the lock to his cell using a bone he had sharpened with his claws the night before, and slipped down the hall in the opposite direction.  Shoeless, Wade could be as silent as the Dora Milaje and just as quick. He slipped through the corridors unnoticed, evading watchful eyes at every turn, more determined the closer he came to the surface.  He began smelling Peter on the air, sickly sour and rotten with despair. He knew it was a figment of his imagination, his brain trying to trick him into going after his mate using any means possible. It wasn’t the first time he had experienced phantom smells trying to get him home to his mate. His brain had used the same tactics on the battlefield when he was close to giving up. He’d smelled Vanessa when he awoke in a pine box and had to dig himself out. And now escaping custody, his body pushed him forward with the scent of a desperate, dying mate. It was all the motivation he needed to get him out of the palace.He shifted once more when he hit the forest and darted through the trees. It was easier to run in his wolf form, where it had been easier to hide in the corridors as a human. Every mile farther North was a mile closer to Peter, and he held nothing back. Any chance of pursuit was lost in the mountains that cut off the Capital from western invaders.

“Omega Peter Parker of Forest Hills to speak with His Royal Majesty, King T’Challa,” the herald announced. Peter shot him a look. He had told the man he was mated to Wade Wilson. The king nodded his permission for Peter to approach the throne without a reaction to his name and village.Peter glared at Harry when he offered his hand to assist Peter up the stairs. Every cell of his body was screaming at him, begging for his mate, but he would be damned if he showed weakness in front of the king. The last thing he needed was to be dismissed as a silly omega when his mate’s—and his own and that of their unborn child’s—life was on the line. Peter looked up at the dais where King T’Challa sat, brow furrowed in something between confusion and concern. As Peter ascended the steps, his concern only appeared to grow.“Young man, you look as though a strong wind would knock you over. Let us find you a chair, and you can tell me what the matter is,” the king said, shooting a look to the right and pointing at a spot on the wide step just above Peter.Peter was vaguely aware of a young servant boy hefting a wide-armed wooden chair onto the wide step meant for plaintiffs to the king to stand, shooting Peter a look of concern of his own as he set it down. Peter took the chair, knowing when he was beaten. Clearly he was doing worse than he’d thought at hiding his level of pain. Sitting did little to dull the ache in his bones. He spread his hand over his stomach subconsciously and looked up to the king. “Thank you, Your Majesty. My name is Omega Peter Benjamin Wilson. I am newly mated to Alpha Wade Winston Wilson, and it is on his behalf that I have come to speak with you today.”T’Challa sat up taller in his throne, dropping the hand that had been holding his chin up to the arm of his chair. Peter could see the recognition in his face as soon as he heard the name. “Wilson is in my dungeons as we speak, awaiting his death.”“That is why I have come to speak to you, sire, though you might already have guessed as much. Wade and I have only been mated a few weeks. As you can imagine, the current situation has become difficult for me to bear.”“I was not told that the prisoner was newly mated to an omega.” He glanced in the direction of where Magistrate Osborn stood against the wall. Peter was vaguely aware of his presence, but didn’t bother turning his attention to him. “I assume you did not know of his crimes?” the king asked him.Peter shook his head. The pain of the quick movement made him wince. “I did, Your Majesty. There have been Wanted posters of Wade in the town square of my village for over a decade. I recognized him as soon as I saw him in human form. But his story is far more complicated than appearances would lead you to believe, and I understand that you might not have been given his account of the matter.”T’Challa looked both interested in what Peter had to say, and wary of him at the same time. Peter could imagine he was wondering what sort of omega might find it amenable to mate a known killer. “I understand that Wilson is known to have slaughtered seventeen alphas and attempted to hide their bodies in wooded areas. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang by his neck. He was hanged, believed to have been killed, and buried, but managed to revive himself and escape. He evaded authorities for over a decade. He was recaptured and brought to the palace to complete his sentence by Magistrate Osborn. I was told he attempted to murder Osborn during the arrest, as well. I understand that he is your mate, young omega, but I cannot allow someone who kills so easily to remain unpunished.”Peter rested his head against the back of the chair, unable to hold the weight any longer. “I am not here to claim that Wade is innocent of his crimes. He has told me himself that he committed them. But there were mitigating circumstances. The alphas were known to be physically abusive towards their mates. The omegas involved came to Wade after having already been turned away by the magistrate when they sought assistance in dissolving their matings. I don’t agree with murder myself, but Wade was trying to help omegas who had no other place to turn to in the only way he knew how. I cannot fault him for trying to help. I know my mate. He is a good man, a good alpha. He has promised to never kill another person, and I believe he will abide by his promise.”“With all due respect, Omega Wilson, how long have you known Wade Wilson?”“Two seasons, Your Majesty. I met him in the forest near my home in mid-summer. He was a feral wolf then, and sickly and underfed. I nursed him back to health, bathed him, fed him, and took care of him until the autumn. Even as a feral wolf who had lived  apart from civilization for over a decade, he was a gentle creature. He never once made me feel threatened or unsafe. When he shifted into a man, nothing changed. He is a good man. I would stake my life on that. In fact, I have.” He indicated his current state, emaciated and in visible pain as he was.King T’Challa continued to frown at him, perching his chin on his hand once more. “I understand that he is gentle with you, but he has shown a recent penchant for violence. There are several witnesses to his attack on Magistrate Osborn.”“He attacked Osborn in defense of me, after Magistrate Osborn implied that I could survive his execution by mating the magistrate’s son. We have only been mated a moon cycle. Wade was well within his rights as a newly mated alpha defending his omega.” Peter rubbed his free hand over the soft swell of his stomach. “Especially given that I am pregnant with his child.”The king’s eyes drifted to Peter’s hand rubbing at the slight mound of his belly, only obvious because Peter had grown so thin in the weeks away from Wade. “You are with child? I was not informed.”“Magistrate Osborn was unaware. I didn’t even know myself until after Wade had been arrested.”T’Challa was quiet for a long moment, studying him with an unreadable expression. “You say Wilson killed alphas at the request of the alphas’ mates? Wilson has told me this story himself, but was unable to provide proof. Do you have evidence of this claim?”“If I might, Your Majesty, several of them are camped outside the palace walls in hopes of bearing witness to this claim,” Mary Jane interrupted, curtsying as she spoke. Peter hadn’t even been aware that she had followed them into the palace. There had been a moment where he thought perhaps he had hallucinated her presence, in fact. The last time he had seen her, she had said nothing of making the trip to the palace. “I have been attempting to gain an audience for them for several days without success.”He turned to a woman standing at the edge of the dais with a scroll and quill in hand who appeared to be taking notes. “Who refused your request? I do not turn away citizens who wish to speak on behalf of prisoners, particularly when the written testimony of the case is as inconsistent as with Wilson’s case.”The woman frowned, shaking her head in confusion as she rifled through the parchment in her hands. “This is the first I am hearing of this, sire…” she said, looking to Mary Jane for an answer.“I took the liberty, Your Majesty. The omegas are confused about what happened to them. I did not think you needed the burden of their hysterical talk,” Magistrate Osborn offered. He spoke with confidence, hands out in a placating motion that Peter knew well. It was the same gesture he’d made when suggesting that Peter mate Harry once Wade had been hanged. It turned Peter’s blood cold to see.A thundercloud overtook King T’Challa’s face, the kind that promised deadly consequences for the person who caused it. “Magistrate Osborn, you have no authority to speak on my behalf in this matter. While you were the arresting magistrate, the matter is no longer your concern.” He waved a hand in Osborn’s direction, dismissing him. He turned to a guard to address him, but Osborn interrupted.“With all due respect, Your Majesty, I only thought to guard your precious time,” he said.The young princess who sat in a throne behind the king shot Osborn an incredulous look, and her brother followed the look with one of annoyance of his own. “Magistrate Osborn, I would remind you that I am your king. You have no authority to intervene in matters of state or speak on my behalf. If you continue to attempt to intervene in my affairs again, I will have you stripped of your title and placed in custody for the foreseeable future. It is quickly becoming apparent that you have a conflict of interest in this matter. Suggesting a newly mated omega mate another alpha in front of the new alpha was not a wise choice. And one you failed to mention in your statement of the incident. That knowledge alone is enough for me to question whether or not I should remove you from your position immediately. I would advise you to stay your tongue from now on.”Osborn opened his mouth as if to protest, but the outraged look of Princess Shuri behind her brother did enough to silence him. King T’Challa gave him a sour look before turning back to Mary Jane. “I apologize for the gross mistreatment by Magistrate Osborn, Omega…” he trailed off with a questioning look.“Mary Jane Watson, Your Majesty,” she offered, squaring her shoulders as if preparing for a fight. With her red hair gleaming in the sunlight streaming through the impressive windows that lined the hall, she looked like a warrior queen from a story book.“Omega Watson, it is lovely to meet you. May I ask what your interest in this matter is?”“Peter is my dearest friend. I have lived across the lane from him since he and his aunt were forced from their farm several years ago. When he told me the truth of what Wade had done, I wanted to help in whatever way I could. I have since spoken with several of the omegas involved in the deaths, and their stories are compelling testimony, sire. I think you would be remiss not to hear what they have to say.”T’Challa nodded his agreement. “I would like nothing more than to hear their testimony. The official record is inconsistent at best.” He turned to the guard once more. “Please arrange for an audience with these omegas Omega Watson spoke of. Omega Watson, I assume you are amenable to assisting in this matter?”Mary Jane curtsied again. “Of course, Your Majesty. Thank you for the opportunity.” She followed the guard out. Peter swiveled his head as best he could to watch her leave, but everything felt so very heavy, like his bones were filled with lead.“In the meantime, I see no reason to keep an omega from his mate prior to a decision being made. If you would like, Omega Parker, I have no objection to permitting you to visit your mate in the dungeons. I understand physical touch may assuage a few of your ailments.”The idea of being able to see Wade, if only for a few minutes through the bars of a cell, sent relief through his entire body. “I would like that very much. He hasn’t been... harmed?” he asked, hesitant to find out that his mate had been tortured more than what he had already endured.King T’Challa looked aghast at the very idea. “If he has been harmed, it has been through accident alone. I do not permit my prisoners to be physically harmed prior to sentencing. What would make you even ask the question?”Peter hesitated, unsure how to explain. T’Challa had not been the king when Wade was arrested the first time, but his father had been, and he thought T’Challa might not like to hear ill of his father or his father’s allies. “When Wade was arrested the first time, he was beaten and tortured for weeks before his failed execution. The majority of his physical scars are the result of his treatment by Magistrate... Killebrew, I think Wade said his name was? Wade said the man wanted him to confess to trying to steal the omegas from their alphas out of selfishness and not to keep the omegas safe.”T’Challa growled under his breath and got to his feet abruptly. “He was likely attempting to hide his own incompetence. If these omegas had sought help from a magistrate and were refused, the magistrate is at fault for whatever follows. We are to protect omegas, not force them to remain in violent homes against their will. Okoye, can you please send for Magistrate Killebrew? I wish to speak with him on this matter.”The female guard who had stood sentinel by his throne knocked her staff on the stone floor with a curt nod and walked away. Another female guard took her place, just as stoic at the left of the throne. T’Challa turned to her. “While Okoye is away, could you please have the omegas who wish an audience with me come to the throne room. And I would also have someone escort Omega Wilson down to the dungeons to see his mate.”The guard nodded at every directive until the last, her eyes darting to Peter, then back to the king. “I do not know if you have been told yet, Sire, but the prisoner has... escaped.”Peter sat up immediately, adrenaline pumping through his body. “Wade is gone? Where did he go?”The guard glanced at Peter as if unsure whether or not she should address him. “We do not know, sir. He was reportedly in his cell this morning, but when a guard brought his lunch an hour ago, he was not there.”King T’Challa remained poised, but the flash of red in his eyes portrayed how furious he was with this development. “Prisoners do not just disappear from the dungeons, Xoliswa. Who was on duty? And why was I not informed before now?”“I do not know, Your Majesty. I was only briefed a few moments ago.” The guard cast her eyes to the stone floor in shame, her shoulders slumping for the first time that Peter had seen.T’Challa turned to another guard and continued asking questions, but no one could explain how Wade had escaped, let alone where he was. Peter’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest with every word exchanged, but soon enough he heard none of it, his hearing fading out to a loud buzzing. He curled in on himself, trying to breathe and doing a terrible job of it. Where was his mate? How were they expected to save him if he was no longer in custody to face a fair hearing.Peter’s brain was buzzing with worry and uncertainty still, the sounds of the room so loud they formed a cloud around his head that made it difficult to think or take breath, when a pair of cool hands took his from his face. A soft voice was speaking to him, slow and reassuring. He opened his eyes to find the princess crouched in front of his chair, looking up at him with a warm smile and a calming scent that eased some of his panic. “There, you are better now. I’ve sent for someone to bring you water and something to eat. When was the last time you ate?”“Wade…” Peter said, unable to think of anything else.“Do not worry. The Dora Milaje are the best trained trackers in the kingdom. They will find your mate before long.”Peter shook his head. “I know how well trained they are, but Wade is better. If he has escaped the castle, they will never find him.”Shuri opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by the same boy from before with Peter’s chair approaching with a tray of food and a goblet of water. Shuri made him drink the water and eat a few bites of food, but it didn’t help his nerves. Where was his mate?

The village was quiet when he finally reached it. It had taken nearly two weeks to arrive at the palace when he was captured, but his return journey took less than a week. Wade was exhausted down to his bones, but eager to sniff out his mate and find out whether Osborn had sent local guards to stand at the cottage or left the Parkers alone. He circled the village through the woods, careful to stay downwind as much as possible. Peter’s scent was stale on the air, bitter and desperate, the same scent Wade’s brain had tricked him into smelling at the palace. Except that smell had been fresh and strong on his tongue, and this scent was weeks old.He watched the cottage from the trees, but found no sign of Peter, just May going about her business. Once she sniffed the air and looked up in his direction, frowning, but shook her head and walked back inside with the basket of root vegetables he’d watched her dig up. She said nothing to the guard standing at her back door.Paranoid that all of Osborn’s threats had already been forced into reality, he made his way back around the village to the Osborn home and risked creeping as close as he could in search of any sign of his mate. There was none, not even the stale scent he’d found at the cottage. There were no signs that Peter had been anywhere near the house that winter.Confused, Wade rounded the village again and found the clearing once more. The snow had started melting for the spring and grass was  beginning to grow over the pit he’d begun digging for the foundation. Unsure what else to do until nightfall when he could creep closer to the cottage to find signs of his mate, he curled up in a ball in the pit he’d dug and slept until dark.  There was a different guard stationed outside the cottage when he awoke from his rest, standing at attention just inside their little gate. He faced the house, but his gaze wandered to the tree line and the neighbors’ homes, ever vigilant. Wade waited until the guard’s attention was elsewhere before darting across the yard on silent paws. He was too large to hide his bulk properly from the guard, but he knew how to open the back door with his teeth, so he only needed to be quick.Once inside, he scented the air, but Peter’s miserable scent wasn’t any fresher inside than it had been outside. His cot was empty when Wade found it, the blankets freshly laundered and folded neatly in May’s style. They smelled of him, miserable and sick, but the scent was faint and covered over with lye and May’s soft scent. There were no signs anywhere in the cottage that Peter had been there in weeks. Wade scented every nook and cranny of the interior, even silently slipping into May’s small room and sniffing through her things without waking her. There was no sign of Peter having been there in weeks.He crept back to the woods, unsure what to do. Where was his mate?   In the search for Wade, Mary Jane was brought to the Audience Chamber with eight of the omegas she had managed to locate. They were all lovely women, of varying ages and social statuses, but each of them standing tall and determined. Mary Jane had brought them to the capital with the sole purpose of helping them to finally speak their piece about their abusers and the man who saved them, and she was excited to have finally been allowed to speak with the king after several days of relentless petitioning.The room was as regal as she had expected, a massive chamber with three short flights of stairs leading to a large dais where King T’Challa sat in a throne shaped as a sphere. Mary Jane held her head high and wrapped herself in the grace and dignity she had been taught as a child of parents who intended for her to marry well. She would not allow herself to be intimidated by her king. She had a responsibility to these women, and to Peter.All of that consideration fell apart when she spotted Peter slumped in a chair on the highest landing before the king, shaking and distraught in a way he hadn’t been earlier in the day. He looked like he was moments from unraveling. Fear rolled off him in waves, rotting his normally sweet scent into something rancid and miserable. Mary Jane ignored the guards and hurried up the steps to his side, kneeling in front of him to lift his chin. “What happened? Has a decision been made already? The king said he wanted to hear from the omegas Wade saved. Is that no long true?” she asked, trying to make eye contact with him. She could feel his pulse under her fingers, beating as fast as a rabbit in danger.“Wade escaped. They don’t know where he is,” Peter told her, his voice thin and frightened. His hand was wrapped protectively over his belly, but still it trembled.“He what? Oh Peter, no. He was probably looking for you. You are in such a state, your bond is probably weakening. He must have felt the fracture and went to look for you.”Peter perked up at the suggestion, just enough to straighten in the chair, though he still looked like death. “You’re right. He’s probably headed home now.” He made a motion to stand up, but quickly slumped back in the chair as a look of devastation passed over his face. “I can’t follow him if we’re going to get this settled. Magistrate Osborn will just drag him back here and try to have him killed again.”Mary Jane glanced up at the king, who was talking quietly with one of the guards, and back to Peter. “I’ll take care of the petition. The omegas Wade helped are here with me, and they’re going to be allowed to tell their stories. I won’t leave the palace without a pardon for your alpha, I swear to you as your closest friend. Go after your alpha. You and your little one need him.”Relief had never been so apparent before. “Thank you, Mary Jane. I don’t know what I would do without you.”“You would have been killed by a bear or stolen by an alpha long ago. No need to thank me.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead and stood up to help him, glaring down the guard who looked like she might try to remove her from the stairs. Peter got to his feet on shaky legs and didn’t protest when Mary Jane walked him down the steps. She walked him to Harry, who looked so helpless and guilty for having caused all this pain. She glared at him as she handed Peter off to him. She was still angry with him for the way he’d betrayed Peter’s trust, but Peter needed help more than Harry needed scorn. “Take him home. And if I hear that you’ve said a word against Wade, I will personally see to your castration. Understood?”Harry nodded silently and helped Peter out, hopefully to a waiting carriage. Mary Jane turned back to the throne when they were nearly to the doors and squared her shoulders. She had a pardon to acquire.   Peter felt stronger with every mile that brought him closer to the village. He knew deep in his soul that he had made the right decision in going after Wade. Harry remained quiet, somber, staring out the window. Peter could tell the guilt of what he had put in motion was eating at him, but until Peter found his mate again, he didn’t care enough to make amends. He kept his hand flat against the small pouch of his belly and thought about how good it would feel to be in Wade’s arms again, to see his face when he found out about the pup.He thought about what was happening at the palace, and whether or not the king had already made his decision. Would he wait until Wade was found and brought back to the palace to be judged or would he make his decision in Wade’s absence and enact whatever justice he found appropriate once Wade was found? Peter didn’t know, couldn’t hope to know the king’s mind. He could only pray that whatever decision he made would mean that Wade could live. Peter hadn’t been able to see the omegas Mary Jane had found to testify, but the fact that they had been willing to make the journey to the capital had to count for something.Peter had already decided that if the king decreed that Wade’s sentence was to be carried out as ordered, he would run away with Wade. They could live deep in the forest and raise their pup as a wolf. No one would ever find them in the vast wilderness that separated their kingdom from Latveria. Wade had struggled as a lone wolf, but they could make a home for themselves as a family and grow strong. He would miss Aunt May and worry about her, but she was resourceful. She would keep working for the Starks, and without Peter to worry about, maybe she could find a new mate. Peter could bring the pup back to visit when they could be assured that the magistrate was no longer on the hunt for them.He rubbed at his belly, thoughts drifting to what the pup  would look like. Who they might turn out to be. He knew Wade was going to be a good alpha to them, a good father.“I never meant to hurt you, you know. I truly thought you were in danger,” Harry said, interrupting the long quiet of their fourth day of travel.Peter turned to look at him, his hand still rubbing over his belly and the growing life inside him. “I told you Wade would never hurt me or May. You didn’t listen to me. You lied to my face.”“I thought you were being influenced by the mating hormones.”“I know your father has told you wild things about omegas, but being overtaken by pheromones and unable to make rational decisions isn’t something that happens to us. I have always known my own mind, even when I was so overwhelmed with heat hormones that I could barely function. We have known each other our entire lives. You should know me well enough to know that I am not a stupid, frivolous child because I am capable of bearing children.”Harry frowned, shaking his head so that his curly bangs flopped around on his head. “I never said you were stupid. I’ve always thought you were one of the smartest people I know.”Peter narrowed his eyes at him. “You told me I was mate-addled, Harry. You spoke to me like I was a child. And when I asked you to promise me that you would not tell your father about my mate, you lied to my face and treated me like I was incapable of taking care of my own safety.”“At the time, I didn’t think you were safe. He was a convicted murderer. He killed seventeen alphas. You never heard the reports of what he did during the war. He was a monster. He ripped soldiers apart with his bare hands. He committed atrocities I dare not even name.”Peter had already gleaned as much from the haunted look that came over Wade’s face every time he spoke of the war and what he had been asked to do. He pulled all of his patience together to continue to speak calmly, if only because he could not leave the carriage if he grew too angry. “And who ordered him to commit those acts? Who taught him how to wield a sword? He did what was expected of him so that he could survive, because he was never taught to be anything but a killer. But I know him as something more. He is a good man. A good alpha. I know it deep in my soul.”Harry pulled at his hair until it was an unruly mess, burying his face in his hands with a frustrated growl. “But how was I supposed to know that, Pete?”“You weren’t. You were supposed to trust me, as I have always trusted you.”Harry opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he was going to say died on his tongue, and he looked down at his lap with a frown. Peter clenched a hand over his belly and wondered what he would have to do to get Harry to understand that he was a person with his own thoughts and feelings and not just a walking womb with jokes. They had been such close allies once, the best of friends. Surely Harry hadn’t forgotten that entirely.“I know this is difficult for you to understand, but I have had to keep myself safe for far longer than you and under far more dire circumstances. I know when I am unsafe. I have never felt that way with Wade. Not even when he was completely feral and growling at me to keep my distance.”Harry whipped his head up to look at Peter again in alarm. “He growled at you, and you still insist that he is safe?”“Yes. He was more animal than man. You’ve never seen Wade as a wolf, but he is taller than me even when shifted. He could have killed me easily when he felt threatened by my presence. He didn’t. And I never once thought he might. I know when I am under threat. You know I know when I am under threat.” Peter gave him a significant look, and Harry's eyes dropped to his lap again, no doubt remembering the many times Peter had gone to Norman with a complaint against Eddie Brock, only to be ignored time and time again.Harry had never backed his father’s decision to ignore Peter, but he had not attempted to speak on Peter’s behalf either, even when Peter had physical evidence that Brock's attempts at courting had crossed the line. Not even when it became difficult for Peter to go into the woods to hunt for food without being cornered and scented without his permission. The reminder was enough to end the discussion, at least for the time being.   The weather had grown markedly cooler in the few days that passed in silence between them. Peter watched the signs of snow slowly melting with excitement, going through scenario after scenario of reuniting with his mate. He no longer needed to sleep nearly all day and night, and he felt lighter with every mile under their wheels. He had even regained a bit of his appetite, though he was a long way from putting back any of the weight he had lost. He felt Harry’s eyes on him more often than not, but didn’t acknowledge his attention. He had already said what he needed to say.Harry, it turned out, had not. “Father thought you were making up stories about Brock to make me jealous,” he said as they began passing familiar farmland.Peter turned his attention away from the landscape he remembered from the twice yearly trips he and May made to the larger market in Times Square, a day’s travel west of Forest Hills. “And you believed that?”“No. I knew you knew if you wanted my attention, you had it. I thought perhaps you were exaggerating how aggressive he was in trying to win you.”Peter gave him a flat look. “He marked my front door with piss and followed me into the forest so that he could corner me and force me to allow him to scent me. I had the bruises of his teeth marks on my neck.”“I know that now, but at the time I could not imagine an alpha going to those extremes to try to win the heart of an omega.”“And did you think the bruises were self-inflicted?” Peter narrowed his eyes at him, frowning. “Or did you think I had let him mark me to make you jealous?”Harry scowled at the accusation and shook his head. “No, I believed you when I saw the marks. I made Father re-assign him to Bushwick to get him away from you. I was just as relieved as you were when he mated Liz.”Peter gave him a long look, debating whether or not he should continue the conversation. Part of him wanted to know what Harry had said to his father about Brock, but the rest of him had other matters to focus on. This close to Wade, he wanted to concentrate on the present, on finding his mate. His problems with Eddie Brock were long over, and this fight with Harry wasn’t worth the energy. “I appreciate that, Harry,” he said, because there was nothing more he could say that wasn’t aggressive or rude.They sat in silence for several more miles, until they were nearly to the town center. Peter knew Harry was going to want to stop in town for the night, but he was determined to continue on, even if he had to do so on foot. He wanted to find Wade, needed to find him, and this close, he didn’t want to delay any further.“What will you do when you get back to the cottage? There will be guards waiting. Even if the king has decided in Wade’s favor, the news won’t have gotten to the village before we do.”“I am going to find Wade, and any guard who gets in my way will find himself regretting his choices,” Peter answered without hesitation. He gave Harry a hard look to show his seriousness. “I have been separated from my mate for over a moon cycle. There isn’t a force on Earth that could keep me from him longer.”“What if he’s arrested again?”Peter turned his gaze away as they pulled up to an inn. “He won’t be.” He stood and untied his cloak, not paying attention as it dropped to the floor of the coach. “I suppose you intend to stay over tonight and push on to the village tomorrow?” he asked, beginning to strip the rest of his clothes off. Harry watched him with something akin to horror.“What are you doing?”“I am going to run. I told you I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of finding my mate, and that includes a day’s carriage travel.”Harry stood, attempting to stop Peter from removing his breeches. “You can’t mean to run the rest of the way shifted. You’re still weak. You could hurt yourself or the pup.”“I feel stronger than I have since Wade left. The pup is just as eager to find our alpha as I am.”“We’ll hire a new team of horses and a new driver. You’re being unreasonable, Pete. Put your clothes back on and sit down. I’ll take care of it.” Harry tried to coax him back to his seat, and he went only long enough for Harry to jump down from the coach and go looking for the innkeeper to do as he claimed.As soon as he was out of sight, Peter stood back up and stripped off the rest of his clothes. He shifted as soon as he was able and pushed open the coach door with his nose. He bound off into the thick woods that bordered the inn as soon as his paws hit the cobblestone. It was incredibly freeing to stretch his legs, feel the wind through his fur once more. It had been so long since he’d let himself run free as a wolf. Even sleeping in the woods with Wade before May invited him to move into the cottage hadn’t been like this, not quite. His chest swelled with every footfall that brought him closer to home, closer to his alpha. He knew now with a certainty down to his bones that Wade had returned to the village looking for him and was waiting for him to come back. The heart that beat next to his own in his chest grew stronger with every step.On four paws, the distance took half the time it took him pushing a cart of wares to sell with May. He stopped once when his hunger became too much and worry for the pup forced him to hunt down a skinny squirrel and eat what he could of its flesh. Barely enough to sate his hunger, but it would have to do until he was reunited with his mate.He could smell Wade as soon as he entered the forest outside the village, and the scent trail only grew more potent as he followed the tree line around the village towards the far outskirts where his home and Aunt May sat. The moon was still high in the western sky when he spotted the cottage. It smelled of Wade, sour with worry, and a confusion of several unfamiliar alphas and betas—soldiers, most likely. Peter spied the guard standing just inside their little fence, but paid the beta no mind. He sped past the cottage, Wade’s scent growing stronger as he passed through the woods beyond.His heart was beating a hummingbird’s beat as he neared the clearing. He heard a howl and found himself knocked over by a massive weight. Wade, growling over his mating mark and covering him with his body, scenting him, nipping at his mark, yipping happily over him. Peter gave as good as he got, his heart alight with happiness to finally be close to his mate. He licked every part of Wade he could reach, hopping around and over him excitedly and yapping in return. It was overwhelming to be with his mate again, wonderful and emotional, and so, so good.He shifted unconsciously, wanting to wrap his arms around Wade’s shoulders and hold him close, kiss him. Wade shifted in the next instant, and they were twisted around each other in the mud, limbs wrapped around each other, kissing furiously. Peter felt like he could crawl inside Wade and still not be close enough to him. “I missed you so much, Alpha,” he said between kisses, touching Wade all over to assure himself that his alpha was really there, whole and unharmed.“I thought I lost you. When I came back, and you weren’t here, I didn’t know what to do. Osborn said so much shit about mating you off to that brat of his...”“Let’s not talk about that right now. We are both here now, and no one is taking you from me ever again.” Peter kissed him hard, his arms and legs wrapped so tight around Wade he might have cut off circulation if Wade weren’t so strong. Wade’s fingers slipped over his muddy skin, his grip gentle but firm, as if Peter was something precious he didn’t want to lose. Peter pressed up against him and canted his hips into Wade’s, impatient to be closer. It had been so long, and all he wanted was to feel his alpha inside him and reassure himself that Wade was actually there, real, alive.Wade thrust forward in answer, his hardness pressing against the crease of Peter’s cheeks. He slipped into Peter’s wet heat in the next moment, the two of them sighing into each other’s mouths as they finally came together the way they were always meant to.It was fast and frantic and over so quickly that Peter barely noticed his own orgasm, but in his alpha’s arms, he didn’t care. Wade rolled onto his back, pulling Peter onto his chest to cuddle him close as they waited for his knot to go down. The only sound around them was their own heavy breathing and the early calls of the morning birds. Peter lay his ear to Wade’s breastbone and listened to his heartbeat slow.“I thought I would never see you again,” he said into the quiet.“I did everything I could to get back to you, sweetheart. I know you don’t want me to kill, but if anyone ever tries to separate us again, I’m going to rip them apart,” Wade said, curling his fingers in Peter’s hair and combing through the tangles. His voice was gentle, yet hard as stone.Peter raised his head to look up into Wade’s face. Wade was already looking down at him, love like an inferno staring back from his eyes. “Honestly, if anyone tried to take you from me again, I might let you. I never want to be that far from you again.” He leaned over Wade’s chest to press their mouths together to seal the promise of his words. Wade combed back his hair with his fingers and looked at him with a kind of reverence when they pulled apart.“You smell different. Sweeter, like honey rice cakes,” he said, tracing Peter’s hairline with his thumb. He scrunched up his nose. “Hungry, too. Why do you smell so hungry? I’m catching you a rabbit as soon as we can separate. You’re too thin. Were you taking care of yourself while I was gone?”Peter couldn’t stop himself from looking down at the barely visible roundness of his belly with a goofy smile. “It was hard being away from you. Especially with the new addition missing our alpha...” he said, his smile widening as first confusion, then understanding, and shock flicked over Wade’s face. He flipped Peter onto his back in a flash and began scenting him all over, nosing at his belly and his neck and pressing kisses to the bump. Peter giggled at the tickle of his whisper-soft kisses and watched Wade fawn over him.Eventually, he looked back up at Peter with a new light of awe in his face and leaned down to kiss him firmly on the lips. “Is the pup healthy?”“I don’t know yet. They’re too small still, I think. Now that we’re together again, I think they’ll grow stronger, but I... I had a rough few weeks.”“You didn’t eat while I was gone? Is that why you smell so hungry?” Wade snuffled into his throat again and up into his hairline. Peter let him with loose hands on his biceps, loving the feel of his rough skin under his hands again.“Without you, everything hurt. I couldn’t keep anything down. It will be better now.”Wade pulled away, frowning. “But I still have a death sentence over my head. You can’t live with me in the forest forever, not with a pup on the way.”“Of course I can. We can go deeper into the woods, find a burrow, raise the pup as a wolf. I have no need to live as a human just because I always have. We can keep each other sane and teach our pup to be the same.”“But that’s not right—”Peter shushed him with a hand over his mouth. “I would rather live on four paws with you than two feet without you. I can promise you, if the pup was able to speak, they would want the same.” He smiled, tilting his head to the side. “Besides, we might not have to worry about it. Mary Jane brought several of the omegas you helped to the palace to give testimony to King T'Challa, and he was interested in listening to them. He might commute your sentence, or pardon you for time served. I plan to check in with Aunt May when it’s safe and find out if word has been sent yet. For now, I don’t want to think about any of this. I just want to be with you.”Wade didn’t look convinced, but he kissed Peter anyway. And when his knot finally went down, he caught a fat rabbit and made Peter eat all of it.

Peter had never spent long stretches of time as a wolf before. It was oddly freeing, being able to run through the woods unimpeded, hunt what he liked when he liked, play with his mate without worrying that he had more important things to do. Until news was brought back from the capital, they were fugitives on the run from the law. So they explored farther into the forest than Peter had ever been, ate fresh prey without cooking it, rutted wherever and whenever they liked.Wade took to scenting him nearly constantly, reassuring himself that Peter was close and safe and healthy once more. They slept curled around each other, groomed each other, nipped and licked each other even when they were supposed to be doing more productive things. At night sometimes they shifted back to their human forms to talk while Wade snuffled over Peter’s belly and sometimes sang lullabies.On the fifth day, Peter went to the edge of the woods and slipped past the guard into the back of the house. It was late enough that May had already gone to bed, but not late enough that she was asleep. He could hear her breathing as he shifted and pulled breeches on to go and speak with her. She was sitting up when he walked in, staring at him like she wasn’t sure he was real.“That beta is terrible at doing his job. I barely had to try to get passed him,” he said quietly, slipping over to sit at the foot of her bed. May pulled him into a fierce hug as soon as he was within reach, pressing his face to her chest as she wrapped her arms around him.“Don’t ever do that to me again. When Harry told me you ran into the woods to find Wade, I thought for sure I would never see you again. I know you needed to find your mate, but goddess preserve me,” she cursed in a low, trembling voice. She stroked his hair and pressed her lips to the crown of his head, not letting him move from her hold until she had squeezed him nearly to death.“I’m sorry I scared you, Aunt May. I had to find Wade,” he told her, hugging her back just as fiercely.“I know, sweetheart. I understand the pain you were in being away from him. But don’t you ever disappear on me like that again.” She kissed his hair again, voice hoarse. “Did you find him?”“Yes, we have been living in the woods for the last few days. Did Harry tell you Mary Jane is working on obtaining a pardon?”May finally loosened her grip on him enough so that he could look at her. “Her father did,” she told him, raking her fingers through his hair with a frown, as if the state of it dissatisfied her. Since his only grooming for the last several days had been Wade's tongue, it was probably in quite a state. “She sent word that she was on her way home with news a few days ago. He thought it was positive, or she would have stayed at the capital to argue with the king a bit more. That girl is nothing if not determined to get her way, though I suppose it is to our advantage at the moment.”Peter scowled. “I’m sure her father was disappointed that she decided to help us.”“Can you blame him? He knows nothing of Wade but the rumors from the village. He has seen Wade come and go from our home with a cloak covering most of his face, but never spoken with him. For all he knows, Wade did exactly what he was accused of having done to all those other omegas in stealing you, only he got lucky this time because there was no alpha to kill to get to you.”Peter growled at the accusation, even though he knew May was not accusing Wade of anything. She frowned at him, giving him hard look. “If things go well, and he receives a pardon, he will have quite a bit of bridge building to do with the neighbors before any of them will be comfortable with him. You will have to come to terms with that, sweetheart,” she said.“Why can’t they trust that I know what I’m doing in picking a mate? No one believes me capable of making a good choice, but you and Mary Jane.”May laughed and kissed him on the forehead. “You are so young. Trust has never worked that way. Wade had to earn your trust, did he not?”“Yes,” he said, unable to hide the pout from his voice. He knew what she was saying made sense, that he should be happy if Wade avoided further punishment with the government and was allowed to live his life with Peter unimpeded, but it still made him upset that no one saw in Wade what he saw.“He will have to earn their trust, as well.”There was a scratch at the back door, soft claws against wood. Peter knew instinctively that it was Wade, impatient to have Peter out of the house and back safe from discovery of the guard as soon as possible. “Speaking of. I need to go before the guard outside suspects something. I will try to come back in a few days.”He tried to stand, but May pulled him back. “Wait, are you safe out there? Where have you been sleeping? The weather may be growing warmer, but it still isn’t a good idea to be out in the elements in your condition.”“We have been living shifted. I barely feel the cold as a wolf, and Wade takes good care of me. I feel stronger than I have since I found out I was pregnant. When this is all over, Healer Banner can do another exam, but Wade says he can hear the pup’s heartbeat, and it sounds healthy.”May did not look like his answer reassured her any, so Peter took her hand and pressed it to his growing belly. “The pup is still too small to kick yet, but they grow every day. I can feel my body changing to make room. Wade has been making me eat most of what we catch. I never thought I would like eating uncooked food, but it actually is not terrible when I am a wolf. I have a bit more weight to put back on, but otherwise, we are both doing well.” He chose not to tell her of his plan to run away with Wade and live as wolves if the verdict was not to their liking. If the time came, he would tell her before he left, but there was no need to worry her further right then. Another scratch sounded at the back door.Still skeptical, May moved her hand over his belly as if doing her own exam for a moment before sighing. “I suppose you are too old for me to try to tell you to come home. I doubt they would arrest a pregnant omega for aiding and abetting a fugitive, but it probably would not be wise to risk it with a guard out front at all times. You promise to come back to visit soon?”  “I will be back in a few days. If Mary Jane returns before I do, will you ring the back bell? I probably will not be able to hear it where we are, but Wade will.”“If it will get you back home sooner, I can do that. Be safe, sweetheart. And keep that little one safe, too. You are all the family I have left.” She hugged him tight one final time and held on for far longer than a normal hug, rocking him back and forth and murmuring quiet prayers into his hair. Peter hugged her back just as tight, squeezing his eyes closed to better breathe in her clean scent.They finally pulled away when a third scratch sounded at the door. Wade had been exposed out in the open for far too long. Peter stood with a final goodbye and slipped into the kitchen, where he stripped off his breeches once more, folded them, and set them on the counter. He opened the back door and shifted as soon as he stepped onto the cold ground.Wade was waiting for him, and scented him as soon as he was within reach, licking at the fur over his mating mark as if to reassure himself it was still there. Peter nipped at him to remind him of the guard, and the two of them crept back into the trees and out of sight.

Peter and Wade were curled around each other, napping, when Wade sat up suddenly, his ears perked on high alert. He stood, and Peter stood with him, straining to hear what Wade was hearing, but all he heard was the wind through the trees. Wade nudged him with his nose in the direction of the village. He must have heard the bell at the back door ringing. He howled, high and so loud it shook the surrounding trees, and then set off in a run. Peter followed close behind. He could never be as fast as Wade’s much longer stride, but he was quick enough to keep within a few body lengths until Wade abruptly stopped at the edge of the woods that lined the back garden of the cottage.There were two guards standing on either side of May on the back step with the bell pull in her hand. The guards were Dora Milaje, and not the magistrate’s guard. They stood ramrod straight, and both of them had their eyes trained on Peter and Wade even though they were still deep enough in the forest that they should have been obscured by trees and underbrush.Deciding that there was no point in pretending they weren’t standing there—Peter had heard about the fighting ability of the Dora Milaje, though he had never seen them in action himself. They were not the type of people to be played with—Peter crossed the tree line first and trotted up to the three of them, Wade right behind him. He sat on his haunches at May’s feet, choosing not to shift in deference to the strangers. Wade remained on his paws. The guards remained silent.“There is someone to see you inside. The both of you. I have clothes laid out for you in my room so you can shift. I think you will want to be able to speak for this conversation,” May told them, holding the back door open for them. Peter didn’t recognize the woman who sat at their kitchen table, but he could smell that she was an omega as soon as the door opened. She smelled friendly and nodded to the both of them when they walked in.They retreated to May’s room and quickly shifted and changed. Before Peter could go back into the kitchen to find out their fate, Wade gripped his arm and turned him around to kiss him hard, pressing him back against the wall as he poured all his nervous energy into the kiss. Peter momentarily lost his ability to think under the onslaught of it. When Wade pulled away, he pressed a kiss to Peter's forehead. “I love you so much, Peter. I never thought I could love anyone the way I love you.”Peter smiled even as tears gathered in his eyes. He reached up and kissed Wade on the chin. “I love you, too, Alpha. Nothing will ever change that, no matter what that woman tells us.”Wade kissed him again and finally let him move. When they exited May’s room on human feet this time, the woman sitting at the table straightened her shoulders, her dark eyes trained on Wade. Another guard stood between the kitchen and the front room, eyes also trained on Wade. “Alpha Wilson, I see you are doing well,” the woman at the table said, nodding at him. “Omega Wilson, you are looking much healthier than the last I saw of you at the palace. It is good to see that there will be no lasting effects of your time away from your alpha. The pup is well?” she asked.Peter didn’t remember seeing her before, but she must have been at the palace when he was there begging for Wade’s life. He nodded to her, unsure what to say. He wanted to ask what the verdict was, but a part of him hoped if the answer was delayed long enough, it would be the one he wanted to hear. “Please take a seat. We have much to discuss,” the woman offered, indicating the chairs across from her. Peter felt odd being given permission to sit at his own kitchen table by a stranger, but he took the seat nonetheless.“My name is Nakia. I am a representative of King T’Challa. He has sent me on his behalf to inform you of his decision regarding your execution and second escape from custody.”Peter sat up straighter, reaching over to grip Wade’s hand under the table. Wade laced their fingers together, not looking away from Nakia. “I hope the new guard wasn’t punished for letting me escape. It wasn’t her fault. I needed to get to my mate,” he said.“She has been sent back to training. You should not have been able to slip past a properly trained Dora Milaje.”“To be fair to her, I got past a bunch of them. Your warriors are incredibly well trained, but I’ve been escaping under impossible odds for longer than most of them have been in service. It isn’t their fault.”“The guards are not what I came here to discuss with you, although their training will become relevant later. What I primarily came here to tell you is that the king has listened to the testimony of many of the omegas whose alphas you murdered, and it has become clear that much more was at work than was originally reported by Magistrate Killebrew. In light of the new evidence and in consideration of your previous incarceration and treatment therein, the king has granted you a pardon from further punishment for your previous crimes.”Peter threw his hands up with a cheer, turning to kiss Wade as a grin split his mouth so wide it hurt his cheek muscles. He didn’t care. His body was alight with joy and relief the likes of which he had never felt before, not even in reuniting with Wade.“I was not finished, Omega Wilson,” Nakia interrupted, holding a finger up to stop his celebration.“Peter, you can call me Peter,” he told her, trying to sober, but the joy was too much. He could not pry the grin off his face. Wade was safe. He was going to be alive to see their pup born, to help raise them and maybe to have more in the future.Nakia nodded her acknowledgment of his name. “That was only for your past crimes. The king is unhappy that you were able to escape custody, though he understands that under the circumstances, you were unable to overcome your instincts. However, in restitution, you are ordered to spend a term of one year at the palace, assisting in the training of the Dora Milaje.” Peter started to object, but Nakia held her whole hand up to stop him. “You may accompany Wilson during his term. We recognize that the health of your pup requires that the two of you remain close. Housing will be provided for the both of you, as well as a stipend for provisions. If your assistance proves beneficial to the Dora Milaje, you will be required to return to the palace to train new warriors one moon cycle out of the year until your services are no longer required.”Peter frowned, unsure he liked the idea of living at the palace a moon cycle out of the year. Perhaps they would be allowed to go during a winter months when the weather was warmer in the south, and they would not have to worry about planting.“I think we can make that work, if it means that Peter and I can stay together.”Nakia nodded. “Good. There are other matters that need to be addressed.” She made a hand gesture towards the guard watching over them in the doorway, and the guard went to the back door and opened it for May to walk into the house. She was smiling, which meant she had already heard the news. Peter beamed back at her. “I have already spoken with your aunt, Peter, but you are also a listed party in the claim.”Peter frowned, unsure what that meant. What claim could Peter and his aunt both be a party to? His aunt was only legally connected to Wade in that she had been Peter’s legal guardian until he reached his majority, but that was long past.Instead of taking a seat at the table, May went about making tea for them all, nodding along as, to Peter’s great surprise, Nakia explained that the king reviewed Magistrate Osborn’s land acquisition of the Parker estate after Ben’s death and deemed it to be illegal. According to Nakia, the law that had prevented omegas from owning land without a supervising alpha had been abolished the year prior to Ben’s death, and the magistrate had no legal standing to seize the deed from them. The king had ordered Osborn to return the land to the two of them immediately. Osborn was also required to pay them a stipend so that they might hire a farm hand to assist with the operations in restitution for lost profits and undue hardship on both May and Peter’s behalf.Peter was stunned to hear the news, unable to comprehend what this would mean for them. Before he was arrested, Wade had helped them to begin to get ahead for the first time since his uncle died, but this would mean they could potentially crawl all the way out of poverty. They could move back to the house on the farm and out of the cramped quarters of the cottage. May would no longer need to work in the Stark kitchens to keep their heads above water. Peter and Wade could have their own room. Peter could hardly contain the overwhelming feeling of relief filling him. He stumbled out of his chair and over to May and hugged her tight, tears trailing down his cheeks.“We are going to be okay,” he said, burying his face in her neck to hide his ridiculous tears. May laughed, but he could hear tears in her voice, as well. A second body joined them, Wade’s massive form dwarfing them both as he pulled them in and held them tight. Peter let go of his aunt to turn in his mate’s arms to return his embrace, still crying into Wade’s chest. He leaned his head back to press a kiss to Wade’s mouth, still too overwhelmed to speak further. They stood there hugging until the kettle screamed at them, and May broke away to make the tea.Nakia stayed long enough to drink a cup and go over the details of the return of the deed and how they would proceed with Wade’s ordered duties. Peter was relieved to find out that they would not have to report to the palace until after the pup was born. Peter had not wanted to give birth away from his home. When the rest was settled, Nakia thanked them for their time and said her goodbyes, taking the Dora Milaje with her.“It’s over?” Peter asked when the door had closed behind her. He looked to Wade for confirmation, feeling somehow unsettled, restless, now that the uncertainty was at an end.“It’s over,” Wade told him, pulling him into his lap and kissing him. “I am so sorry I put you through all that, baby boy. I will never let anything like that happen to us again.”“I know you won’t.” Peter smiled up at him, tracing the outline of a shiny burn scar on his cheek. Across from them, May was still re-reading over the legal agreement for the third time, a disbelieving smile on her face.  They were interrupted by a knock at the front door. Peter’s heart dropped to his stomach, worried that it was Nakia, back to tell them there had been a terrible mistake and Wade was going to be dragged off to be hanged after all. “It’s Mary Jane,” Wade told him, snuffling into his hair before setting him on his feet and nudging him towards the front room.Peter went, still hesitant to open the door. The last time there had been a knock like this, it had been Norman there to rip his mate from him. But Wade had not been wrong. Mary Jane stood on the other side of the door, grinning as soon as she laid eyes on Peter. She flung her arms around him with an exclamation of joy and rocked him back and forth in a hug. “I’m so glad to see you well. Did Nakia tell you the news? Goddess, Peter, it was so inspiring to listen to those omegas tell their stories. They were all so strong. I wish you had been there to hear them speak up for what Wade did for them. The way they talk about him. It made the rumors they tell about what he did sound so pathetic and sad. He really changed their lives for the better,” she told him, talking so fast it was difficult to keep up with her, and all the while holding onto his neck so tight he was worried his air supply might be cut off.When she finally let him go, there was a light in her eyes he recognized from when he told her about the omegas the first time, just after Wade had been arrested. “I want to help omegas like them the way Wade did. Not by killing their alphas, obviously, but I want to advocate for better access to resources for omegas in need of help getting out of awful situations.”Peter smiled at her, still completely overwhelmed by the past few hours. “That’s wonderful,” he said.Behind him, he could see Wade walking towards them with deadly focus. He momentarily thought the old jealousy was flaring up with the emotional day they had had, but Wade gently nudged Peter aside and wrapped Mary Jane in a tight hug, picking her up so that her feet dangled a foot off the ground. “I apologize for eating your chickens,” he said into her ear, cutting off her excited chatter about her plans.Peter could just spy her features over Wade’s shoulder. She looked like she had just been picked up by a bridge troll and wasn’t sure how to grapple with the fact that one even existed to pick her up. “I don’t understand?” she said, patting his shoulder reluctantly, clearly unsure if it was wise to do so. Peter understood what Wade was talking about, though, and the realization that Wade had been thinking about it enough to apologize so many moons later made him double over in laughter.“Pluck and Little Red. Wade ate them while he was still feral.”Her expression completely changed, and she immediately smacked the same shoulder she had just patted. “How dare you! Those were my favorite chickens!”“I said I was sorry,” Wade said, gently setting her back on her feet. “Peter kept coming back to the forest smelling of you. I got jealous. It was either eat your chickens or eat you. The chickens were an easier catch,” he admitted. He did not look ashamed of the admission one bit.“I should be furious with you, but that is the most adorable reason to kill a chicken that I have ever heard. I’ll forgive you if you promise to never eat one of my babies again,” she said, holding her hand out to shake on the promise.It was the worst moment for her father to approach them. Phillip gave Wade a horrified look and grabbed for Mary Jane’s arm to pull her away from him. She turned in confusion and laughed at her father’s expression. “I was talking about the chickens, Papa. Wade ate the two that went missing when he was still living in the forest,” she explained. She turned back to Wade with a smile of realization. “No wonder the fence was untouched. I spent nearly a moon cycle trying to figure out how an animal got in to kill them without ripping the fencing up. Did you shift back to unlock the gate?”“I can unlock doors with my teeth,” Wade explained.  “Of course you can. You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” she said, winking at him.Phillip still looked unsure of the situation, but he seemed to rally himself in spite of his uncertainty. “I do not mean to interrupt such an important conversation, but I wanted to apologize for my part in the last few moon cycles. Mary Jane has explained the situation to me, and I regret having assumed the worst of you, Alpha Wilson.” He held his hand out for Wade to shake.Wade took it with enthusiasm. Peter thought he might be willing to shake Norman’s hand, he looked so blissfully happy at that moment. “It’s Wade, and that’s alright. You weren’t entirely wrong about me. I did murder a bunch of horrible folks and bury their bodies in the woods.”Alpha Watson looked like he was about to swallow his own tongue. Peter hedged between them with a patient, but pointed look at his mate. “I think we are finished talking about this for the moment. It was a long time ago, and you were trying to do good in the only way you knew how. It’s in the past, and we have just been given a chance to move on from it.” Peter slipped his arm around Wade’s waist, hoping to distract him. Wade sobered a bit and kissed his forehead, pulling him into his side.“Whatever you want, my little spider baby. I just want to be honest.” He nosed at Peter’s hair for a moment as if unable to help himself before turning his attention back to their company. “I appreciate the apology, Alpha Watson, though I don’t think it was necessary. As long as we can get along, the past is the past as far as I am concerned,” he told Mary Jane’s father.Phillip nodded his agreement. “I think that could work.”Peter smiled. “Would you two like to come in for some tea? We have other news, but I think May should get to tell you.”They agreed and turned to the house, Wade and Peter taking the lead. Mary Jane slipped up beside Peter with a mischievous smile and linked her arm with his. “Do I want to know why your alpha calls you his little spider baby?” she asked.Peter blushed down to his toes. “I… we… it… it’s a long story…” he tried, fumbling over his words.Mary Jane’s grin widened. “I thought it was a sex thing.”“Mary Jane Watson!” her father barked at her. She fell into Peter in a fit of giggles, not an ounce of shame in her body. They practically toppled into the house together, Wade holding the door for the two of them as Peter attempted to compose himself, while Mary Jane teased him mercilessly.They were soon all settled in the kitchen with tea and their news. Peter sat on Wade’s lap for lack of chairs and pulled Wade’s hand into the two of his and pressed it to his belly, smiling as he listened to the people he cared about talk about their future.  
SUMMER
 “I almost wish I was still working at the Stark’s if only to bake more. This is so useful,” May said as she used Peter’s mechanical mixer to smooth the batter for the cake she was making. Peter smiled to himself, busy shucking corn over a basket at the table. It had taken him longer than he liked to admit to figure out how to get the turning mechanism to work, but it had been worth all his efforts to see May so pleased.“I’m glad you like it,” he said.“There are the two most beautiful people in the world. I was hoping I’d find you here,” Wade greeted them as he walked through the door that fed into the front hall and the rest of the house. He looked inordinately pleased with himself about something, and Peter was immediately suspicious. He kissed May on the cheek before walking over to kiss Peter full on the lips.Peter narrowed his eyes at him when he pulled away. “What are you plotting?” he asked.“I have no idea what you mean, my love. I can’t be pleased to see you?”“You have a look.” Behind Wade’s back, Peter spied his aunt watching them with a knowing smirk. His suspicions grew legs and began walking around the kitchen.“I know my face is a mess, baby boy, but it’s rude to point it out.”“I was not—” Peter dropped the half-shucked ear of corn onto the table with a scowl and crossed his arms over his considerable belly. “You know very well I was not making fun of your face. I happen to like your face a great deal.”Wade winked at him, grinning. “I’m not offended, but you will have to make it up to me by taking a short trip with me,” he said, holding his hands out as if to help Peter stand.“This was a trick. Where am I supposed to be going this late in the afternoon? We have dinner to finish, still.”“I have dinner handled, sweetheart. You go with Wade and see what he has planned for you,” May insisted, the knowing smile still on her face. Peter should have never introduced her to Wade. The two of them scheming together was a dangerous combination. Next, he was going to find out Mary Jane had a hand in whatever Wade had planned, as well.He accepted Wade’s help begrudgingly, unhappy to need it, but his center of gravity walked a shaky tightrope these days. “This better be worth the effort. I’m already hot and tired out thanks to this demon you put in me. Do you know how many times I have had to walk to the latrine today? I might as well bring a book with me and set up shop there,” he grumbled, letting Wade shuffle him into his shoes and out the door with a farewell to May. Peter couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard her congratulate them. What for, Peter could only begin to speculate on.Ben Reilly was brushing Spider’s mane when they emerged from around the house, Wade assisting Peter with a hand to his lower back. Peter was confused upon seeing them because Spider was fitted with her saddle and looked ready to go for a ride. “I thought you were just taking me to the back garden. Are we taking a trip?” he asked, turning an inquisitive look to Wade.“We have a bit to go, yes. Too far away to have you walk right now, and you are too heavy to carry all the way,” Wade told him with a teasing smirk and a poke to the side. The pup kicked back hard, making Peter groan softly and rub at the spot. He shoved Wade in the shoulder in retaliation.“I am no such thing. You had no difficulty carrying me to bed last night when you wanted to—”“Thank you, Ben,” Wade said over him, taking the reins from him and helping Peter up into the saddle and climbing up after him. Peter hated that he had to ride side-saddle, but riding the normal way would be intolerable with how aching his spreading hips had become. He grumbled under his breath and leaned into Wade’s chest, waving to Ben as they rode past him and through the gates to the lane into town.“What secret have you concocted to surprise me with now, Alpha?” Peter asked, holding onto Wade’s shirt sleeve and craning around to look up at him. Wade held him close, his unoccupied hand spread wide over Peter’s belly as the pup kicked his palm.“Would it be a surprise if I told you? You just settle back and enjoy the ride.”Peter considered further protests, but he would find out soon enough what Wade had in store for him, so instead he did as Wade instructed and listened to Wade tell him a wild story about one of his friends from the military, Logan, and how his nickname the Wolverine came about.By the time they stopped, Peter was dosing on Wade’s shoulder, his voice washing over Peter like a warm blanket. He was surprised to find them at the edge of the forest outside their old cottage, now home to a young beta couple who had only mated two moons before. Wade hopped down from their horse and helped Peter down to the ground with gentle hands and a brief kiss to his lips.“What are we doing here?” Peter asked, looking around for clues. The cottage had changed very little from their time there, but there was a new path leading into the woods now, wide and lined with small stones, leading from the lane. Peter frowned when he saw it. Were the beta couple invading their territory? Had they found the clearing and made it theirs? The thought of it made Peter’s stomach roil in discomfort.“Surprises aren’t surprises if you tell them. You will find out soon enough. This way,” Wade told him, indicating the new path. Peter followed it cautiously, mildly annoyed to see it interrupting the familiar terrain.  “Did you make this path?” he asked, turning to Wade for confirmation.Wade nodded, holding onto his elbow to keep him steady over uneven ground. Peter was no longer so steady on his feet on level surfaces. This was tantamount to a knight’s gauntlet for him. “I thought it would make things easier to get to your surprise.”“We needed a new path? We don’t even live on this side of the village anymore.”“Are you besmirching my hard work, little spider? I am tempted to put you over my knee and show you exactly how much that hurts my feelings.”“I would love to see you try.”“Don’t tempt me,” Wade teased him, pinching his bottom and leaning into his shoulder to nip at his mating mark.“I am far too pregnant to get naked in the middle of this forest. Stop teasing if you have any interest in getting me there at home.”“Must you kill all my fun? Fine, close your eyes. The surprise is coming up, and I do not want you to ruin it with your curiosity.”Peter’s ankles were beginning to swell uncomfortably and the heat of summer was beginning to irritate him, but he did as asked, grumbling under his breath. “You could carry me at least,” he said. “I am not that heavy.”“As weightless as a feather, but twice as whiny. You are very lucky you’re so cute, baby boy.” Peter was swept up in his alpha’s arms the next moment, and hid his self-satisfied smile in Wade’s shoulder as he looped his arms around Wade’s neck.The next few minutes were filled with the soft swoosh of Wade’s boots on the soft grass and evening birds chattering their end-of-day conversations.Wade stopped abruptly, deposited Peter back on his feet, and wrapped his arms around him, his wide hands flat over the smooth expanse of Peter’s stomach. “You can open your eyes, now,” he said, directly into Peter’s ear.Peter opened them, and the sight that met him took his breath away. A large cabin sat in the middle of their clearing, now much larger than when Peter had seen it last. The cabin took up most of the space cleared, a structure large enough to house two bedrooms at least. It was breathtaking to look at, raised on a stone foundation with stairs leading up to a wide front porch. There was a fireplace in the back of the house, Peter could see because smoke billowed from the chimney. Peter had almost forgotten that Wade had said he was building them a house in the woods, all those long moons ago on one of the worst days of both of their lives. But even then, he hadn’t imagined anything nearly as beautiful as what he was being presented with at that moment. It was like stepping into a fairy tale of his own making. “You built this?” he asked, turning to Wade in disbelief.“I had some help from Phillip and Harry, and Mary Jane helped with some of the decorating. I thought we could go without the curtains, but she insisted.”Peter wanted to turn around to kiss his mate in gratitude, but he couldn’t look away from the beauty before him. “I never imagined anything like this,” he said, voice shaky with tears.“So you like it? I thought you might want to live away from your aunt once the pup’s a little bigger. There is room to expand, too. If you want.” Wade rubbed a hand over Peter’s belly, hovering over their pup’s continued kicking, hinting at something more. Peter grinned at him, twisting in his arms to kiss him finally and laughing when Wade picked him up again and carried him towards the house. “You haven’t said if you like it, baby boy,” he said as he ascended the stairs.“I love it. I have no words for how much I love it.” Peter told him, kissing him once more.“Worth the trouble of getting here?” Wade asked with a mischievous smile.Peter rolled his eyes, but kissed him again anyway. “Well worth the trouble.”