Will Graham sat in his comfortable armchair in his new house on the outskirts of Baltimore. Unfortunately when he wanted to fix up his old farm house in Wolf Trap, there were complications. The contractors, hired by his dad when he visited Will this summer, found that the house cannot be renovated and has to be torn down because of damage to the internal structure, at least they wrote that reason in the official report.

The omega was devastated when he heard that news. This house was the first property that was in his name. What you have to know is that omegas are often treated like mindless trophies and some house owners don't want to sell to people of that gender. The elder beta woman was the only one willing to sell her property to a younger omega Will some years ago.

After that he only hoped, that he will be able to find a house not so far from Quantico, but he knew it would be very hard. After a long search and a lot of refusals he found someone willing to sell a house to an omega. It was a desperate beta man in a lot of debt, only because of that and payment in cash did Will manage to snag this property.

It wasn't perfect, it was on the outskirts of Baltimore, so the time it took him to travel to work increased and the décor was atrocious, but with some work and dedication Will managed to make himself a home.

When he lived in Wolf Trap he was often invited to various social gatherings held in Washington, he was after all a famous author, even if most of his readers didn't knew his real identity. The invitations where passed to him by his editor who after his huge success doubled as his PR representative. Now he'll receive invitations for the Baltimore area.

The omega liked finer things in life, but you wouldn't call him decadent. He sometimes attended the functions, protected by the anonymity that his alias and lack of pictures of him anywhere allowed him.

Will very much liked the opera, the private balcony with very dim or almost nonexistent lighting, the great acoustics and masterful performances were very dear to him. There, shrouded in darkness he could be himself while somewhat in public setting.

What he didn't like were the galas where one had to mingle. He attended exactly two of them. One out of curiosity and the other after much persuasion from Mellissa, that it couldn't be as bad as the first one. And it wasn't as bad, it was even worse. He mourned the dead brain cells that he felt he would never recover.

If I mate with Hannibal I'll probably have to attend a lot more he thought. As he was new to Baltimore and Lecter looked and acted as someone from the upper echelons, Will decided to buy every local newspaper on his way back from Eve's shop and browse the society section. He reasoned that even if the alpha wasn't in any of them, he still could find some information about other members of Baltimore social circles. He'll probably have to mingle with them at some point.

But he wasn't disappointed, Hannibal was mentioned in the second newspaper he opened and in the last one there was even a picture of him with his acquaintances.

Lecter, he was again right in his assumption, this time about this man's profession. He could only imagine what those skilled hands could do to his body if they would give into the temptation or was it just the compulsion of their biology?

Will was suddenly brought from his wandering thoughts down to earth by a weight that appeared pressing down on his legs. He reached with his hand and scratched behind the ears of the animal. Winston was getting slow in his old age, but he still could catch him unaware.

He found him wandering on the side of the road a couple of days after he bought his first house. After searching for his owners and finding none Will kept him, he had a lot of room on his property and appreciated the company. Omegas where social creatures after all, no matter that this particular one had a better grasp on his instincts, he still felt loneliness. Will didn't and still doesn't consider people good companions, except his father, but that's family. After all what he values the most is loyalty, not a blind one, but knowing you can trust that one person and not be betrayed.

His biology was compelling him to trust Hannibal, but trust as well as respect should be earned and not freely given. The omega decided to give the doctor a chance to do exactly that, gain his trust. And if he'll waste it, well it just might be the last thing he does.


After feeding Winston the omega poured himself two fingers of his favorite whisky with vanilla undertones and started to mark the papers his class had to turn in yesterday. He wanted to be able to return them in time for his next class which was the next day before lunch. That turned his thoughts to what he did in lunchtime after his previous class. He had yet to call and actually set up the dinner date with Hannibal.

Finishing the marking, he put down the red sharpie and picked up the phone. Borrowing a little courage from his almost empty glass, he pulled out the crisp card with the alpha's number on it, which he put into his desk drawer as soon as he got home. It was only partially because he knew that he would fiddle with this card so much that the writing would become unrecognizable and definitely it had nothing to do with the still faintly clinging smell, that would completely disappear if he didn't.

He dialed the number and waited, his heart started beating faster and moisture appeared on his palms. He played it cool at the shop, but now in place he felt safe, he was actually nervous.

"Hannibal Lecter speaking." He heard and quickly thinking on something to say, he replied "I didn't change my mind."

Hannibal must've recognized his voice and didn't waste time in saying "Will, I'm very pleased you called. What date works for you?"

He recognized my voice right away, Will happily thought to himself as his omega part purred in delight. He didn't have to contemplate long on an answer "Saturday about eight o'clock?"

"That would be perfect, I'll text you the address. Don't be late." There was a hint of humor in the alphas' voice and Will catching onto that finished in the same tone with "I won't" and hung up. Not long after that he got the text with the address. He had some time to prepare as the next day was Friday.


His class was uneventful besides a few complaints from arrogant alpha students about the grades they received on the written assignment. He quickly put them in their place, that being students while he was their teacher and not someone they can push around just because of him being an omega.

He somewhat expected the summon to Crawford's office. Will knew that the alpha wouldn't give up on acquiring his insight even if only in the capacity of a FBI trainer and not the deep analysis of taking the point of view of the killer, thinking and feeling the same things as she/he did when they committed the crime. And now there was something Will, according to Jack's thinking, could focus on – the returned body of Elise Nichols.

What he didn't expect was to find the recent object of most of his thoughts, standing in Jack Crawford's office, facing the board and analyzing the portraits of the taken girls. There was no mistake that it was the same alpha Will met at Eve's.

The omega was instantly suspicious. What is he doing here? Was their initial meeting a set up? No, take a step back and think! Will thought in rapid succession. He wouldn't ask him to dinner if that was a set up, it would void or put in very bad light all reports he filed concerning Will, because of their not yet started but heading there relationship. It would be extremely unethical and Kate Purnell definitely wouldn't stand for it. But Jack would, he was so obsessed with catching killers that he sometimes conveniently 'forgot' some rules.

Calm down! They don't know anything and you're jumping to conclusions. Jack isn't that good of an actor…., but Hannibal is in a whole new category. Will forced himself to step over the threshold.

"I see you couldn't wait to see me until our dinner" he joked. The doctor slowly turned around fully aware that the omega had been standing in the doorway. He allowed a true smile to bloom on his usually neutral mask and replied: "William, what a lovely surprise. I didn't know I'll be working with you, but now I'm more than happy I agreed to help the FBI."

"I didn't know I'll be working with anybody besides Jack or other agents." he didn't mention that he didn't know he would be working on this case at all, that would be a lie and for some reason he had the impression that Hannibal would know if he lied. You can't bullshit a bullshitter after all and the alpha was a master in it. Even the head of the BAU didn't see anything wrong with him and asked for his help.

Will knew there was something off about the alpha, he seemed almost too perfect, too put together. There was a barrier, a mask that separated the real Hannibal and this fake one he presented to the world. If the omega wasn't looking so hard, wasn't so interested in him, he would miss or at best take notice but dismiss it. But since his body deemed this person to be the best reproductive partner, Will will have to discover exactly what is behind that mask.

Judging from the attraction between them he thinks he can rule out pedophilia, necrophilia and other similar deviations. There are many possibilities left, but most are acceptable and can be even negotiated. Who was Will to throw rocks if Hannibal turned out to be a killer? He after all isn't innocent and as long as he and their children would be safe, cared for and loved, he could care less about others.

The omega was now about eighty percent sure, that the alpha was a killer. The longer he thought about it, the more sense it made. The mask, his proficiency in medicine, now involvement with the FBI. It was a pattern already and if Hannibal would go further down that road he will be exposed. Exposed just because of his loneliness, because he didn't have anyone who saw the real him and appreciated his work. He doesn't know it yet, but it's a path to self destruction, the omega saw it many times before.

He had to stop the doctor before it was too late and he exposed himself. He was brought out of his thoughts by Hannibal:

"I hope that me consulting on this case won't influence our relationship in a bad way?" the alpha asked.

Will moved to stand closer to the doctor and standing close enough if by enough you mean almost touching, looked up into the eyes of the blond and gave his hand to the hand the alpha offered in greeting.

"I don't think it'll be a problem." As was quickly becoming their custom his hand was brought to and brushed by the sinful lips of Hannibal.

"So, what do you think?" Will asked, motioning towards to the pictures, curious about the inner workings of Hannibal's mind. Unfortunately before the alpha could voice his opinions they were interrupted by Jack who returned to his office with a new file, probably containing results of the autopsy of the returned girl.


Hannibal knew he was brought in on this case for two reasons, first: he could help with the profile of the killer, and the second: profile and convince a reluctant ex-profiler turned lecturer to go back into profiling. His reasons for taking the job was finding out the inner workings of the FBI and after making contacts within, steering them away from pointing to him when the time came. What he didn't know was that this lecturer was no other than Will Graham, his true mate.

After the initial surprise, he reasoned that he could still work on both profiles, but feed only one to Jack and resign from the other citing their budding relationship as a reason. At least he will be truthful in that aspect. He couldn't afford to loose Will over something so trivial as a profile for the FBI. He wanted their future life to be build on solid foundations, for Will to find him interesting enough to want to get to know him, to fall for him. The alpha would resort to manipulation only as a last resort.

As of right now they were still sitting in Jack's office, studying the file Crawford just got from the lab.

"Antler velvet is sometimes used as healing accelerant. It seems that he was trying to undo as much as he could given that he already killed her." started Hannibal.

"Yes, but why?" demanded Jack, impatient as always.

"Because there was something wrong with the meat." said Will after fake staring at a wall for some time after reading the file. He had to keep up appearance, that he didn't want to look and that he didn't know that before.

"She had liver cancer." added the Lithuanian after looking at some data.

"He's eating them. He wants to consume one of them, but he can't, so he's going for the next best thing. He probably has a daughter, same age, same body build and coloring as the other girls." finished the omega. He didn't do that for the FBI, he did it for Hannibal, he wanted him to know that he actually understands killers. That he can understand him.


Thank you for reading my story:)