England wasn't as foggy and wet as he had thought. It was also a lot less cold and windy. At least on this day. Two days ago, when they had arrived, it had been raining dogs and cats, coming down in buckets and the temperatures had been frosty. Now there was a momentary respite, but forecasts spoke of a wintry December, with the possibility of snow.

Wilhelm Klink was dressed in an American Air Force uniform, the rank of a colonel, and it spelled 'W. Klink' on his chest.

He still had to get used to that.

It was one of the first things he had been handed over by the Allied Command officer who had greeted them in the offices in London, along with official papers and a passport. As a Sentinel's Guide he had been automatically incorporated into the military, even if the Sentinel was a troubleshooter and shouldn't be in need of one. His file reflected his past in Germany, with a lot of black applied to most pages since his work was highly classified, as was his Guide status.

Next to him, the Sentinel was at ease, almost totally laid-back, wearing full uniform, and looking right at home. He had gone through the Q&A game with his usual charm and wit, coming out on top. It had been just another round of repeating what had already been said, right down to the assessment of him as a special ops agent and troubleshooter. Klink had had his own interviews, but those had been less in the line of what he had done in the past, who he had been in the giant Nazi machine, than what his status was now.

Giving him an official rank within the US military had been that last step in his acceptance.

"Enjoying yourself?" Klink now asked.

Hogan smiled brightly. "Very much. You?"

The anchor bond lay solid and real in the back of his mind. Hogan had been in his element lately, was his assured and cocky, as well as confident and commanding self. He handled himself with an air of authority and purpose, assured of his abilities and his place in this world. Not just the military, no. The world.

Typical alpha, Klink mused. Whether he wanted to hear it or not, Robert E. Hogan was an Alpha Sentinel of the highest order and those few Sentinels and Guides they had run into had known. He might not radiate it to the world because of Klink's abilities, but word had spread like wildfire.

"Not so much," he answered the question.

"Liar."

Yes, liar. London was different from what he had expected it to be. He hadn't been here as a German officer, a spy, or a prisoner. Klink was here as a colonel, as Hogan's partner.

No one had given him a second look.

No one had threatened to drag him off to be questioned by Intelligence or any other kind of military security force again, or to have him thrown into a holding cell. Somehow Klink still expected tables to turn, for MPs to cuff him, for a general to decide he was too much of a risk to leave running free.

Hogan had always been there, right down to the moment where he had even warned off a higher-ranking Sentinel who happened to be a general. The man had just given them a narrow-eyed look, especially Klink, who kept himself shielded. He had yet to use his abilities to manipulate perceptions, to push his will at a mind.

And then there was the wily little coyote that had been quite visible to the Guide recently, bristling just as much as the Sentinel, snarling silently or bouncing angrily around whoever upset them. Their spirit animals usually kept an extremely low profile. Neither man had seen them after that night where they had taken the last step in forging the connection between them into a bond.

Now the coyote was there, looking highly offended and ready to bite at ankles or sink its teeth into any fleshy part it chose. Klink had no idea if spirit animals could be corporeal enough to inflict harm and he didn't really want to find out. Logic told him that they were nothing but a representation of their respective souls, the energy within them. But who knew anything about them or what they truly meant?

For all he had talked to other Guides while at field bases or even here, he had never broached that subject.

So far no one had seen the animals, aside from the bonded pair. The crow was usually a lot better behaved, though it tended to stare at people like it wanted to drill a hole into their minds. Klink had tried to mentally shoo it away, but it had simply given him an amused look and continued to size up an opponent.

"You keep pissing off people, Hogan," he now remarked.

"I like a challenge."

"General Henry McNeill? Another Sentinel? A higher-ranking Sentinel?"

A careless shrug. "He implied things."

Who didn't? Klink thought sarcastically. They were an unusual, actually very unique combination and he never dropped his shields to be perceived as anything but normal and human by other gifted people.

By now there were the odd murmurs about them being alpha primes, whatever that entailed. Hogan was his smug, insufferable self, breezing through meetings in such a confident manner that had Klink want to stomp on his foot or kick him in the shins repeatedly. Or smack him upside down the head.

A man without a single doubt, strong and unbreakable.

Probably his work, Klink mused. Because the bond was now a permanent fixture, their very cores connected and the flow of psychic energy a steady, thrumming hum. It was incredible to feel his Sentinel like that, a soul full of energy and life, and he knew Hogan felt him the same way. It gave them a life, a strength and a power he hadn't been able to imagine before.

In his case it was all hidden away from prying eyes, but Hogan wasn't beyond flaunting it.

McNeill might have been a little more on edge for such a seasoned soldier or military breeding because of it.

"So you threatened him?" Klink now asked with a long-suffering look.

"Threatened?" Hogan echoed innocently.

"You postured, Rob. A lot."

It got Klink a careless shrug.

"You don't have to defend me."

"I wasn't defending you."

"Right." He pointedly raised his eyebrows.

The connection between them was close to alive, an almost physical sensation. He let their minds touch, a soft brush over his senses, like a kiss, a gentle caress over his face, and Hogan almost leaned into the non-existent touch.

"We're a new pair, Will. Newly bonded, off their radar, unlike anything they've ever had on their hands. I was working special ops for long enough to be a little peculiar, now that I have been pulled out with my new Guide. Alpha," he intoned, lowering his voice. "Lets me get away with being territorial."

Klink rolled his eyes. "Robert…"

Another bright smile. "I didn't feel you holding me back."

"I'm not a baby-sitter."

"Just a powerful Guide. My Guide." He sounded proud. "Colonel William Klink. Alpha. You could wipe the floor with a Sentinel like McNeill. He knows it. He knows we're an Alpha Pair." Yes, he could hear the capital letters. "Gives him the creeps."

McNeill just happened to be a highly decorated Sentinel with three senses, with a Guide who happened to be both male and a Colonel, and who hadn't made a secret of his close inspection of Klink. Klink himself had simply decided to be what he had always been: a Blindspot. Not a blip had been detectable, though one didn't need to be empathically talented to feel Hogan's smugness as the general had struggled to understand their connection.

Klink had yet to meet a Sentinel who hadn't been caught completely off guard by them. McNeill had gone as far as challenging the bond, on a subtle level, stating that it was most likely a ruse, that the rumors of them being prime alphas had been instigated by Hogan himself.

"I could order you to drop your shields, Colonel Klink."

"You could, sir. It might just have… unexpected results," had been the polite reply.

Hogan had nearly flown off the handle, though on the outside he had been calm and cool, very collected. Klink had simply given him a hard mental smack. He didn't want to handle an angry colonel attacking a general on top of everything else.

Of course, McNeill had been way out of line and more than just courting danger. A newly bonded pair was usually treated with quiet respect and a lot of leniency when it came to protectiveness of each other. An Alpha Pair? McNeill could count himself lucky Hogan hadn't just torn his throat out.

"I have no intention to wipe the floor with anyone, Robert." The former Kommandant looked out over the Thames. It was really nice here. He wouldn't mind doing some sight-seeing. "You were lucky General Barton intervened."

"He owed me one."

Klink chuckled. "I'm not sure generals owe colonels anything."

"If that colonel got the general out of the toughest POW camp and the Nazis' clutches, yes, he does." Hogan gently bumped their shoulders together, wide open to him. "He said he read my file when he got back home after the extraction. Quite a page-turner, too, it seems. Took him a while to get through all the reports. He was impressed."

They were still standing shoulder to shoulder, overlooking the river. Will didn't mind. Physical contact in public had become normal, expected, wanted. Some of it was unconscious on Hogan's side, some was a clear push forward, testing the Guide's limits when it came to public displays of what they were. Aligning their bodies, breathing almost in synch, Klink found himself letting go of the last of his tension.

He briefly closed his eyes, centering himself on the anchor, feeling the calming effect of his Sentinel, feeling nothing but protection and safety. Time and again Klink marveled at what bonding to a Sentinel felt like. To this Sentinel. The only one possible.

He had been incredibly drawn to it and still was. For all his wild plans and outrageous mission executions, Robert Hogan was a well of peace… peace of mind. Not the first description of the man anyone would think of when meeting the colonel.

"I've got an open pass, Will. We can go wherever we want for the next four weeks. No duties, no ranks, no military. Start here, work our way up the country or go overseas."

"I have never been to America," he mused softly.

"About time I showed you a good time then. And I remember you telling me to get some family time. How about it? Tour my own country for a while, quick drop by the family home, then it's just us."

Klink felt a sliver of unease return. "Sure," he murmured.

Strong fingers curled around his wrist, sure in their touch. A thumb brushed over his pulse point. Just once. Then he released the wrist again. Hogan was his obnoxious self, but he knew the limits when in public and he never crossed the lines Klink drew up.

"They know I found a Guide, Will. That I found you. Actually, my uncle's been congratulating me ever since."

"They know," he stated.

"Have so since I managed to get a personal call in. They know all about you."

"Oh."

Hogan grinned unrepentantly. Teasing, a touch of roguish.

He shouldn't feel so… so warm. So amazed.

But he did.

No one they had met or talked to had any idea what their relationship was really like or what had already happened, aside from Hogan and himself. They implied a sexual component, the primal Sentinel claiming the Guide, while it had been so very different. No one understood that the kisses meant more than a semi-erotic, intimate contact. Yes, sex happened. He liked it. He liked it a lot. Robert was a passionate man and Will could let go, absolutely let go, and not regret it.

Most had no clue what it meant to have such powerful minds meet, connect, intermingle and mesh together. Klink had once described Hogan's as a steel trap and he couldn't have been more correct. It was just that. Their psychic energy was immense on their own, but now it was easily flowing back and forth, intermingling, thrumming through their bodies, and Hogan had never felt better.

Alive. Real.

Alpha Prime, he mused. He wondered what it really meant, since classifications were still something few nations did. Then again, what was in a name? It didn't change what was between them, what he felt, how alive he was with the connection to the sharp mind and the deep well of power inside Robert Hogan.

"And they'll love you," his Sentinel said easily, drawing him out of his thoughts.

"I doubt it."

Another shoulder bump. "What's not to love?" Hogan asked playfully.

Klink grimaced. "Hogan, please," he groaned.

"Trust me, Will. It'll be fine."

tbc...