Author's note: Hey! Sorry it's been awhile since the last update, I'm going to try to be more frequent from now on. And a big thank you to everyone who's read the story and anyone who's reviewed it, I love reading them :) Anyways, here's the latest chapter, I hope you enjoy it!
Last chapter:
The rest of the day was spent hiking around the surrounding area with increasing confidence. He felt safe with Clara's coat on, and the spasms that wracked his body only came in waves once an hour. As soon as he felt the first jolt of pain, he unscrewed the small vial, took a deep inhale, and the pain went away. John grinned, laughed each time, felt almost normal. It was because he was too complacent that he didn't notice the sound of other footsteps until it was almost too late.
John froze as he smelled the scent upwind, at the same time the pain hitting him harder this time, enough that one moment he was standing, the next on his knees, hands bracing himself as he gasped for breath in great choking sobs.
"Are you alright?" There was a rustle in front of him and John looked up sharply, taking in the young man, no more than 16, who stood several yards away staring at him. His hair was in dark, unkempt curls down to his shoulders, and he looked almost delicate with his pale, sharp cheekbones. John sniffed the air cautiously. Unpresented, thank God.
"No, ah, I'm fine." He struggled to his feet, opening the vial and taking a quick whiff before screwing it shut again.
"You don't look fine. Awful in fact." The young man's eyes were sharp, and he stepped closer.
"You're young, 20, medical student. Haven't been here long, judging by your clothes, though why you'd wear that absurd coat while hiking, I've yet to discover." He sniffed once, conveying entirely what he thought of such a coat. He took another step forward and John felt the urge to step back, but fought it. There was no way an unpresented could tell what he was, unpresented had no sense of smell.
"How do you know that? And the coat's fine, thank you very much." John tried at sarcasm, but could feel it failing as his anxiety increased.
"It's easy, most people are much too obvious. And the coat, it's much too nice to be wearing out hiking." The young man's eyes widened. "A woman's coat actually. Is it for sentimental value? Why are you in these woods, on private property? No wait." He held up a hand "Don't tell me, it's much more interesting to figure it out myself."
He moved closer still, and John tugged Clara's coat tighter around him. He lifted his chin up defiantly, refusing to back down. The stranger didn't know him, and if he needed to, John was sure he could knock him out and escape. He was at least a mile from his tent, the stranger couldn't possibly discover it through all of the miles of surrounding wilderness.
The man smiled at him. "You don't think I can figure it out, do you? Or you don't care." His eyes narrowed and John shivered a little at the intense stare. He turned up the collar of the coat and steadily breathed in and out, but refused to speak and give himself away.
"You're alone, obviously, but who hikes alone? Someone hiding perhaps? But you're not planning to be here for long, a week tops, and you're not well." He stepped closer, only a few feet away from John, who let out a soft gasp and a warning, "Don't come any closer!"
The man froze, John could practically hear the gears in his head turning, before he breathed out, "You're an Omega, aren't you?"
"No!" John stumbled back, his eyes darting around, his breath coming out in quick pants. "I'm not an Omega!"
"Yes, you are. I've read about this, you're in heat right now. I can tell."
John shuddered, feeling a little lightheaded. He tried to put on an air of defiance, though he could feel the walls he'd built over the passed year crumbling around him. "You couldn't possibly know this, you're unpresented."
"It's mere observation." The man said dismissively.
A look of surprise came over the man's face. "You're not bonded, are you? You're much too old to still be unbonded though. Fascinating." The man was watching him with a predatory look, that screamed Alpha, despite his unpresented smell. John felt both indignant and frightened. First of all, he was not old, for crissakes he was only twenty, and second, well... He wasn't supposed to be anywhere near an Alpha, which this man was starting to look more and more like. And he wasn't supposed to feel this flustered and...wanting. John could practically smell the ashy desire, starting with the way his feet curled in his shoes.
"You know that this is private property. Anything on this property belongs to me, to do with what I will." The man smirked and moved even closer. "I'd like to try a few experiments..."
A thrill of fear went through him and he stumbled back. John could feel minute trembles starting at his shoulders and working it's way to his heart, which fluttered wildly like a butterfly caught in his chest.
"What are you saying?" He spat it out, trying for disgust, almost startled when it came out as panic. "I don't know you, I don't want anything to do with you!" He continued to shift back. Wanting to gain distance, wanting to turn and run, yet his eyes remained locked on the man's eyes, a pale blue that he couldn't break away from. Eyes that widened perceptably as John found his arms pinwheeling, felt himself falling from whatever root or rock he must have stumbled over because of course that was his life. Things coming up and ruining his carefully laid plans for college, for a normal life, for fucking escaping when he was supposed to. He could feel the ground rushing up and the next thing he knew, he was being cradled a few inches from the ground, the man's face looking down at him worriedly.
"Don't move" he muttered darkly. "You're clumsy enough in this state." John was limp in his arms, couldn't help it. He stiffened as he felt one long finger trace his face. Something snapped within him, and he was flailing, struggling, screaming, clawing, sobbing all at once. The nightmares he'd sometimes had in the past year all rushed back, dark shadows looming over him while hands touched, pressed in places, places that he didn't want touched, he couldn't move, couldn't see, he had no control over how his body flinched, spasmed - John could hear himself gasping, a rasping noise as if he was listening from a distance, knew he was having a panic attack. Hands held him by the shoulders, shook him before he felt a sharp sting on his cheek, and then again, his head snapping to the side and finally he couldn't see the images anymore, could see the sky and a pale, stricken face looking down at him.
The man's face was deathly white. He was biting his bottom lip to the point that a bright spot of red stood out starkly on his pale lips. "I - I'm sorry...so sorry. I didn't realize - I don't know what came over me..." He sounded so young, so unsure of himself. Suddenly he was just a young man again, a boy really, not some phantom Alpha that was going to do terrible things to him.
John got ahold of himself as the coat brushed against his face; he struggled away, out of the man's hands, scooted until his back was pressed up against a nearby tree and he could lean back shakily as he got his bearings. He brushed himself off to stall, to take a moment to collect himself.
"This - this is nothing. You didn't do - much." John hesitated, looking down at his hands which he clasped tightly. "And I'm not your property." John looked up and glared at the boy - that's all he was, John reassured himself - who gave a small, lopsided grin in return.
"Again, I'm sorry. I don't always know how to act around people - so my brother tells me." His face twisted into a temperary grimace at the word brother, before his face smoothed out and looked apologetic again.
John felt himself begin to relax, taut muscles slowly loosening. The boy wasn't a threat. To prove that, he leaned in and sniffed at the boy's neck.
"It's faint, but you're starting to present. I'm sure my presence has only helped that along." John hesitated, but felt a sort of camaraderie with this man, remembering his own first time presenting. Was it hard for Alphas as well?
"You should really be at home for this, the first time is hard, though I don't know what it's like for Alphas."
"I can't go home." His voice was firm, deeper than before. "At least not until Mummy's forgiven me for blowing up the kitchen." He shifted uncomfortably whilst John stared, gaping for a moment before giving in to a dry chuckle.
John held out his hand. The man stared at it. "I'm John. I might as well introduce myself, though I won't meet you again." The man continued to stare, but didn't take his hand, merely looked up at him and said "Sherlock."