As a Supreme Alpha, Steve had many responsibilities. Especially as the head of a war pack. And one of those responsibilities was to know everything about his packmates. And he did mean everything. Even the honorary ones. Just as it was his job to protect them and keep them from trouble.
And 'Tony', was in a lot of trouble at the moment as a baseline human.
Both as his fellow packmate, and as a female. Baseline human females were rare. Not so rare that they didn't exist or anything, but it was more like the precentages of them that managed to survive, outside of the camps, and reach adulthood- were not only staggering- they were utterly horrifying.
The percenages of baseline human females that made it to adulthood intact, were even more so. Honestly he could feel his blond hair slowly turning white from just staring at the numbers!
So far, from what he could see- the only reason that Tony hadn't been sent to the camps as a child had been because of her brilliant mind. As long as she was alive to make weapons for government organizations and such, then touching her would be a bad idea.
However since she had become Iron 'Man' and shut down the weapon making part of her company, the only thing saving her from being attacked and forcibly taken to the camps now was the pack and himself. But the moment that the government caught wind of them no longer needing her for anything (and he did mean anything, as much as it sickened him to think on it much) then she would be taken and never seen nor heard from again.
Her company would be striped of it's resources, and everything that she'd ever worked on or fought for and even shed blood for would be either gutted and handed over to someone else or signed over to the pack.
Gnashing his teeth in frustration he tried to think of a way to protect her from all of those things. Because let's face it, as a borderline human, she was bound to trip herself up and someone was bound to inevitably find out about her orientation and out her.
Which meant that he needed to... The answer eluded him as a soft knock sounded on his bedroom door. Letting out a low growl, he called for whoever to come in and was somewhat surprised to find Bruce quietly tip toeing his way up behind him as he continued to stare at the information that he'd found and tried to control the incredible urge to do his own angry impression of the Hulk.
Only in blue and carrying a nice shield that he could throw at people.
It wasn't an actual answer to the problem, but it certainly would have been easier and made him feel better if it had been.
Finally taking a deep breath, he shut down the computer that he'd been looking up the information on baseline human's with and scrubbed his face with his hands as he asked tiredly, "What's up Bruce?"
The other alpha merely sat himself down in one of the spare chairs across from Steve's desk and said, "I thought that you could use someone to talk to about what you're going to do about Tony."
Steve gave him a calculating look before slowly asking him, "What do you think that I should do with her?"
If Bruce said anything about sending her to the camps, Steve wouldn't hesitate to kill him. Truly he wouldn't. Nor would he hesitate to kill anyone else in the pack if they suggested the same. He may have been born in a different era, and raised with different values but that didn't make him a monster. And he certainly wouldn't become one by sending an innocent woman off to god knows what kind of horrible fate regardless of the pack's feelings about it.
Bruce blinked at him for a moment before then setting something down on his desk, a folder that he hadn't noticed that the other alpha had held in his hands before.
Looking down at it, Steve arched a brow at it and then let his blue eyes flicker back to Bruce for a moment as the other alpha said, "The only way to protect her now is if the pack claims her."
"I'm aware,"
"No Steve. You aren't. We have to claim her not only publicly, but lawfully as one of us. Not just as a packmate, though that would certainly be enough to deter most from coming after her. But one of us will also have to mate with her and claim her fully."
Steve stared at him with a bewildered expression on his face as he tried to wrap his head around the mere idea of someone claiming Tony as a mate.
In truth he'd always sort of liked her, even when he had thought that she was a male. But he hadn't dared act on any foolish impulse because he knew that it would lead to nothing but heartache.
He was an Supreme Alpha, it was expected of him to mate someone strong enough to produce live offspring. Seeing as the serum in his blood would cause any poor female that he happened to mate with, to miscarry until it either broke her, or killed her.
Yet at the same time, he couldn't imagine Thor or Bruce mating her. He tended to get royally pissed whenever they so much as touched her to leave their scent's on her to warn others off.
In fact he'd once gotten so pissed about someone touching her at one of her gala's that he'd nearly beaten the weaker alpha to death in front of god and everyone. After which he had grabbed Tony and then disappeared back to the tower where he had locked them both away in his personal rooms for three days.
Where he'd kept her pinned underneath him with his teeth lightly pressing against her throat until he had calmed down enough to remove them. It'd taken him almost two weeks after that particular incident to finally settle down enough and let her leave his room, and his side for any reason and even then- he'd expected her to check in.
Every two hours. Regular as clockwork.
If he didn't hear from her- he armed himself to the teeth with weapons, coffee, and food depending on whether or not he was sure that she'd eaten anything- and he went hunting for her. And the two of them usually got into some hellacious arguments when he finally managed to find her.
Especially if he found her either sleeping or working in her lab.
Especially if he found out that she had been skipping out on rest and food- hell he'd thrown a world class hissy fit the last time he'd found out that she had lost weight.
Bruce had had to step in as the other guy and stop him from punishing her for not taking care of herself.
But that had all happened back before he had known about Tony being a female baseline human. If he had known before...well, he still would have probably been jealous and possessive- it was simply in his nature to get into pissing contests with others trying to lay claim to what he knew was his.
But he wouldn't have been so rough with her.
Though he was somewhat uncertain whether or not he'd actually ever hurt her before. It wasn't like she spoke to him much for any reason. Not that he could actually blame her any.
He wondered if he'd ever done anything to help inspire or build trust between them.
Feeling, rather than seeing Bruce's fingertips gently brush aside a lock of his hair, Steve jolted out of his thoughts and looked at the other alpha again as the man asked, "You were very quiet. Where did you go?"
"I-I was just thinking about which of us would..." Steve audibly gulped before tacking on in a nervous tone, "Mate with Tony."
Bruce gave him a small knowing smile, knowing damned well that he nor Thor would be the ones to do so. Steve was simply too protective, and possessive to allow it. Unless he was open to the possibility of sharing the small female between the three of them.
However knowing Tony even a little bit, Bruce knew that the female would likely despise them for passing her around between them like a whore or something. She seemed to loathe males that did such things to females without a thought to the damage/damages that they were doing to the female.
Which was why the only sound advice that Bruce could think of to give Steve was, "Keep your shield handy. And make sure that your wearing a cup when you tell her." And then grinned as Steve cringed and let out a low whining sound as he got up and walked off.
