Jonah felt like his feet were on fire though the tile floor under him was ice cold. He crept cautiously into the centre of the chamber of the elders. He scanned the faces of the elders; their wrinkled, pruned faces masked their expressions. They regarded him stoically as he began to shiver. He felt a cold chill run up his spine. He could see every one of his uneven breaths.
"Does he speak?" One of the elders asked him. The sound cracked through the silence like a whip, making Jonah flinch. He suppressed his fears; stood tall, and shook his head. "Why doesn't he speak?"
Jonah gulped. He was perfectly capable of speech. The woman was neither frightening nor intimidating. However, Jonah cared about the outcome of their conversation, so he dared not speak, lest he reveal his secret.
"He speaks to his brothers." She said in a slow bored tone. "He speaks to his uncles. Yet he does not speak to his own mother."
Jonah could hear whispers all around the auditorium. He turned to see where they were coming from, but none of the elders were moving their lips. Jonah closed his eyes and focused. He could hear a faint ringing. Almost like a buzzing sound.
It was quiet at first but as it grew louder Jonah's eyes shot open.
"He knows what it is." The woman in the centre of the room stated. "Will he know how to stop it?"
Jonah wanted to scream out in protest; he knew his brothers and Lestrade would have, but his father would never surrender. Jonah stood defiantly.
"He would accept death... at such an age?"
"Perhaps the concept eludes the boy." Another elder added.
Jonah heard whispers but didn't turn to see where they were coming from. He stared the central elderly woman straight in the eye. Jonah could tell they wanted him to cower in fear and let down his guard.
"Can he love?"
Jonah licked his bottom lip in thought. His eyes wavered from her face for a moment while he contemplated his response.
"If his pack was allowed in the city and he was not. Would he care?"
Jonah shook his head.
"And if his mother was to fall ill?"
Jonah felt sick to his stomach.
"Would he care?"
Jonah shook his head and gritted his teeth. His hands began to shake, but he rationalized it as a reaction to the cold air circulating through the round chamber.
"If his mother was badly injured. Would he care?"
Jonah clenched his fists and shook his head.
"If we killed his mother-"
"No!" Jonah screamed out.
"We see..." She said looking at Jonah coldly.
"No you don't!" He shouted. "You don't see!" He said, looking into her pale blue eyes. He began kicking the panelling in front of him. "He hates me! My own mother fears me!" He said trying to break a hole in the pedestal the elders put themselves on. "You'll never see because you're blind! He hates me!" Jonah cried out. "He hates me." Jonah said falling to his knees. He began to cry heavy liberating tears. "I am Jonah." He stated. "Jonah is bad." He inhaled a shuddering breath. "I am bad."
"Is he? Is Jonah bad?" She asked softly.
"Yes." He sobbed.
"If he speaks to his mother, his mother will know he is bad as well?"
"Yes." He whispered.
Molly tried her best to fit the family of eight plus their two pets into her tiny one-bedroom flat. Jamey couldn't have been any happier to have company, especially four-legged company. Toby sat dutifully on the sofa, watching the children, while the adults discussed their battle plans at the war table.
Molly was able to excise the mucoadhesive device Irene inserted deep into John's nose. John's eyes watered and he winced at the searing pain as Molly dislodged the device. She placed it in a glass of concentrated hydrochloric acid to de-activate it. John sat in agony listening to Lestrade and Mycroft bicker back and forth.
"How are we supposed to go and fight a war with a bunch of breeding-machines as soldiers?" Lestrade asked. "No offence, Mycroft."
"Breeding-machines?" Mycroft asked in disgust.
"We're in a city full of Omegas, lesbian Omegas. What chance do we-" Mycroft interrupted Lestrade with a smart slap across the face.
"Omegas are a proud race! You know what? You and your master can suck my Omega-"
"Mycroft." John said gently as he placed a hand on Mycroft's shoulder. "Now's not the time to be fighting one another. Think of the task at hand."
"Triad." Lestrade grumbled.
"Surely they have us beat in strength and most likely in numbers as well." John said looking at the map on the table.
"And the betas have us beat in wit and cunning." Lestrade added. He placed random board game pieces on the map. "I say we mobilize us Alphas into the forest and stay there while the rest of Britain gets destroyed."
"What weaknesses do Alphas have?" John asked, ignoring the Alpha. "Apitoxins, Omega heats, trees. We have all those here. If we used them to our advantage we could-"
"Be stuck with a bunch of betas that are immune to all those things." Lestrade pointed out. "With the head of the betas being the nastiest of them all. I mean, what weaknesses do betas have? None, right? Other than they don't live to long if you chop their heads off."
"Sherlock, any ideas?" John asked Sherlock who was staring off into space. "Sherlock?" He asked giving him a small tap on the shoulder. Sherlock gave John a non-committal grunt and went back to thinking.
"Our courageous leader." Mycroft sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands.
"Don't speak ill of my master, he's probably thinking of ten-thousand and one ways to take down the betas as we speak."
"No." Sherlock said with a long bored drawl. "I'm going through the properties of cyclooxygenase and prostaglandin metabolism."
"Does that have anything to do with the war?"
"No but I could use a remedy for my headache." Sherlock said with a sigh.
"I'll get you a salicylate tablet." Molly said, looking for an excuse to break free of the bickering men.
"Weaknesses of betas..." Sherlock hummed in thought.
"Perhaps we should defend against the weaknesses of Omegas." John added.
"Which are?" Mycroft dared him to respond. "It's the Alphas that have major kinks in their armour. One bee could wipe out a population."
"A honeybee, when it stings, sustains massive abdominal rupture and dies shortly after injecting its venom." Sherlock said with a disinterested tone.
"Could always just use adrenalin." Molly said, returning with the drug tablets. "Combat the anaphylaxis... What?" Sherlock was giving her a strange look.
"Do you have it purified for medical use?"
"Yes?" She asked, tilting her head to one side in confusion.
"It's a schedule one controlled drug in London." Sherlock started making connections left and right in his brain. "They wouldn't even consider its medicinal use." Sherlock stood up suddenly. "Do you have contact with the Londoners?"
"No. We're relatively isolated." She said wringing her hands nervously as Sherlock approached her.
"First and foremost. We must obtain contact. Secondly, we'll need adrenalin, an ocean of it. Begin synthesis right away."
"I'm not in charge of-"
"Then find who is!" Sherlock barked. The boys stopped playing in the front room and watched as their father gathered his coat and left promptly. Jonah raced after him and frantically pressed the button as his father disappeared.
"Jonah!" John shouted. John leapt out of his seat and ran to the lift. Jonah entered the empty lift and closed the doors. John panicked the moment the door sealed shut.
"The fire exit." Molly said as she opened the window. John ran to the window, stepped out and looked down at the daunting height. He clutched on to the railing as he rushed down the stairs. He made it to the bottom just as Jonah ran by, chasing his father.
John snatched him up and Jonah began to squirm and kick. He cried and reached out for Sherlock who was already disappearing out of sight.
"Jonah, what is wrong with you?" John said trying to restrain his combative son. Jonah became red with anger and tried harder to break-away. "Please, just tell me what's wrong." John begged. Jonah suddenly went limp in John's arms. John held on to him tightly. "Ever since you visited the elders, you've been ever more distant. Jonah, I can't take it anymore. Why won't you let me inside your mind?" John sighed. "I don't care if you never speak a word to me, but communicate with me... somehow. I need..." John stopped. He let go slowly. "I don't want to lose you."
Jonah sat on the ground and drew his knees to his chin. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. The air was stale and thick with pollutants. His father was leaving to the forest without him. He wanted to show his father his worth. Show him what he had learned from years in the forest. Mostly he wanted to spend time with him so his father would no longer pity him. His father pitied no one, save his own son.
John sat down next to Jonah and let out a sigh. "If you follow him, he'll just leave you behind. And if you try to lead him, he'll refuse to follow." John said softly. "He's like an untamed beast. The more you try to tame him, the more scars you'll receive. Sometimes... you just have to let him be and trust that he'll come crawling back, every time."
Jonah looked to his mother. He would care very much if John died. Jonah leaned against his mother for warmth. His mother reached out intuitively and scratched behind his head. Jonah tried his best to suppress his reflexive purr. His mother grinned, knowingly.
It took the Omegas two weeks to find accommodations large enough for the family. They were able to secure two two-bedroom flats in the same building as Molly and her daughter.
John lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, and thought to the store-room where Sherlock and he had once spent their afternoons.
"We've come so far in such a short time." John stated. Sherlock stretched, yawned, and grunted an incoherent response as he rolled over. "If anyone was to tell me this is where I was headed, I would have never in a million years believed them. You know?" John placed a hand on Sherlock's back. "I wouldn't change it for anything."
"You would much rather be back in London, in our hovel, leading a dull and meaningless existence."
John flicked the back of Sherlock's head. "I meant the children you git." Sherlock let out a low growl. "You will never change, will you?"
"I thought you didn't want me to change." Sherlock said sardonically.
"You are such an enormous dick, you know that right?" Sherlock chuckled as John pressed a kiss to his shoulder blade. He felt warmth radiating throughout his body. He pulled Sherlock closer and pressed his body flush against his.
"The war wages on, yet all you can think about is sex." Sherlock said with a laugh.
"I was... I was not." John said indignantly. "I'm just getting comfortable."
"Must be uncomfortable with that hard-on."
"Oh, shut-up. Can't we just cuddle for once without your wise-ass opinions?"
The room fell silent and John nestled in for a long winter's nap.
He felt as if he was floating. His arms and legs weren't cooperating. He could hear barking in the distance. He was hungry and cold for the first time in his life. He worked himself into several fits, crying himself to sleep. He didn't understand where he was going. Part of him would have rather faced the ravenous hounds than the lion-man.
The further they walked away from his home, the more the lion-man's eyes softened into a steel blue. John recognized something in the man's voice, his mannerisms, in his eyes. Something he hadn't seen before.
John's eyes shot open and he sat straight up in bed. "Sherlock!" He shouted, rousing his companion.
"Unh." Sherlock groaned.
"Sherlock! That photograph, of your father, do you still have it?" Sherlock rolled on to his stomach and feigned sleep. "Sherlock!" John shouted as he started searching Sherlock's pockets. He pulled out Sherlock's old mobile. "Where is it?" He asked as he thumbed through the files. "Ah-ha!" He shouted as he pulled up the photo of the heroic man. "Look at him Sherlock, does anything strike you as odd?" He said shoving the mobile in Sherlock's face.
"John." Sherlock groaned.
"How can an Alpha and beta bear an Alpha son?" John asked. Sherlock cracked one eye open. "Look at him. Really look."
Sherlock blinked a few times and looked at the photo. "What am I supposed to see?"
"How old was your father when he took this?"
"Sixty, seventy years old." Sherlock said with a yawn.
"What?" John asked in shock.
"Just before he died, why?"
"He looks stunning." John said looking at the photograph.
"Alphas can live up to one-hundred and thirty years." Sherlock said rolling over once more.
"Sherlock, look at it. Doesn't something strike you as odd?"
"That you woke up out of dead sleep to comment on my late father's physique?"
"Sher! Is it not Persian for lion?"
Sherlock rolled over and propped himself up on an elbow. "What are you trying to say?"
"If Moriarty is after the sons of Siger he's not after you and Mycroft. He's after Mycroft and Jonah."
Sherlock furrowed his brows in thought.
"Sherlock, you are Siger."
"Irene Adler was sentenced to exile." Molly said as she fixed afternoon tea. The children were out and about with Mrs Hudson allowing the adults to have the day to collaborate.
"No!" Sherlock shouted. "The elders have made a grave mistake!"
"She's probably half-way to Moriarty right now!" John shouted. "And she's going to turn on all of us! Giving away our location."
"Dear." Molly said nervously. "That is bad."
"M-" Sherlock stopped and started sniffing the air. He looked to John and furrowed his brows. John's mouth started salivating. "John." Sherlock said, narrowing in his focus.
John looked Sherlock directly in the eye and held his gaze.
"Don't-" Sherlock chased John across the tile floor and to the lift. John knocked over the armchair and Sherlock leapt over it and dove into the lift with him.
"Mine!" John growled ripping Sherlock off of him.
"John get a hold of yourself!" Sherlock wrestled John to the ground and pinned his arms above his head.
"Oh, I am about to. I'll get a hold of myself and ram it in."
Sherlock slapped him smartly across the face. "Snap out of it!"
"Heat." He said with a whimper.
"Lestrade will take care of it."
"No!" John screamed. He threw several punches. "Mycroft is mine."
"He belongs to no one. Omegas aren't something to be had."
"Yes they are! And I'll have him over and over again until he screams for mercy!" John growled.
"Listen to yourself, you're an animal."
John laughed maliciously. "You're just some sick science experiment, just like me. How you could ever compare me to anything natural-" Sherlock pinched his arm. "Ow." John winced.
"Do you not feel pain? Love? Despair? You're human John. You're more human than anyone I know. You're just as miraculous and beautiful as anything nature could ever produce."
The lift reached the fifth floor and slid open. John lay with Sherlock on top of him for quite some time. The doors slid closed. Sherlock reached out and pressed the emergency stop button.
Sherlock bent over and pressed a kiss to John's lips. He withdrew a small packet out of his trousers' pocket. "I've modified the formula, making it more lipid soluble; with a longer shelf-life and less degradation due to hydrolysis."
John held Sherlock's hand steady. "I don't need synthetic heat pheromones to make love to you." John said softly stroking Sherlock's knuckles with his thumb.
"It acts as a lubricant and besides, I want you to have me on this floor until I beg for mercy twice."
"Have you ever begged for mercy before?"
"Never." Sherlock growled. John smirked as Sherlock began pulling down his zip. John's breathing increased and he could feel his heart pounding in chest in anticipation. Mycroft's heat pheromones still weighed heavily on his tongue.
Once Sherlock ripped open the packet, there was no turning back. John sat up with Sherlock in his lap and snogged him viciously. He gripped Sherlock's ass and glided him over his bulge. He nibbled on Sherlock's lower lip and Sherlock shuddered in his arms.
John gripped both sides of Sherlock's shirt and ripped it open. Buttons flew off in every direction, pinging off the lift's walls. He ran his tongue up Sherlock's bare chest, up his neck, and to his bonding scar. John sunk his teeth in a bit deeper than he had intended and Sherlock let out a howl.
"Didn't think you'd be begging for mercy so soon." John laughed. Sherlock threw him to the ground and the back of John's head bounced off the floor. John saw sparks and his vision remained blurred.
"Present." Sherlock growled. John just laughed at him. Sherlock dug his nails into John's shoulders. "Mine." John saw the blood dripping from Sherlock's bonding scar. Sherlock's eyes shone a pure gold. John's terror quickly turned into arousal as Sherlock tried to tear off his trousers.
John's cock was throbbing and his ass was pulsating. He didn't know what he wanted but he was absolutely euphoric. Sherlock pulled out his cock and John sat up.
"Down." Sherlock growled.
John sunk his thumb into Sherlock's collar bone. "Submit."
They both stood up on to their knees and began battling for dominance. John threw all his weight into trying to knock Sherlock over. He wrenched the lubricant from Sherlock's grip, lunged at Sherlock, baring his teeth, and started rubbing the lubricant all over Sherlock's backside.
Sherlock shoved him away and began circling him like a hawk. John looked down at Sherlock's erection and burst out into roaring laughter.
"Do you honestly believe you can take me?" John laughed. Sherlock scowled and gritted his teeth. "Well, come on then." John bent over and presented himself. Sherlock completely removed his trousers and cast them aside before focusing in on John.
He ran his hands up John's flanks and closed his eyes. John turned on him and tackled him to the ground. Sherlock growled and hissed a slew of curses. John mounted his chest and kept him pinned to the ground.
"Do you want it?" John teased. Sherlock nodded and let out a small whimper. John watched as his eyes softened. John reached back and stroked Sherlock's cock, slowly, teasing him more. John slid back closer and closer, just outside Sherlock's reach. "Beg for it."
"Please, please." Sherlock begged. "I want it. I need it."
John grabbed Sherlock's cock and guided it just to his entrance, holding him steady, as Sherlock continued to beg.
"You are my shining star in a sea of darkness. A beacon of hope in this retched existence I am forced to lead. You are my one and only one true love. Now please for the love of God! Sit on my cock!"
"Is it true? Do you really love me?"
"I can't live without you. You are my addiction. I crave you. I need you." Sherlock furrowed his brows. "Sex." He said with a whimper.
John slid down onto Sherlock's cock and Sherlock let out a loud moan. John placed both hands on Sherlock's chest and rolled his hips. There were a million and one things going on in John's mind that he couldn't possibly understand. He smelled the synthetic heat which was overwhelming his senses, yet he was riding Sherlock's cock like an Omega slut.
With every thrust, Sherlock sent a rocket of mixed sensations up John's spine. Sherlock's fingertips dug into John's hips and kept him steady as he pumped into him. John's cock was rock hard and continued to swell and ache. He placed a hand on his prick and tried to release the pressure that kept building.
John felt a cold wave of pleasure rocket through him. He pumped into his fist harder. Sherlock reached out and gripped John by the base of his cock. John growled and hissed as he was denied his orgasm.
Sherlock kept a firm hold as he crashed his hips upward into John's ass. John rocked back and forth trying to bring himself to orgasm. Just as he was about to come, Sherlock gripped him firmly once more. John let out an aggravated grunt and tried to pry Sherlock off his prick.
He was snapped to his senses when he felt Sherlock's knot. John tried to pull away but Sherlock gripped his hips and forced him down. John's cock sputtered as a mind-blowing orgasm ripped through him. Sherlock's knot slid through his tight ring of muscle and John tensed.
Sherlock sat up and started jerking John off rapidly. John cried out as all his sensitive nerves fired at once. He felt orgasm after orgasm. Sherlock held him close as he came down from his high.
John fell asleep in the lift, wrapped in Sherlock's arms, with his knot inside him. He woke groggy and sore. He was surprised to find himself in his bed with Sherlock beside him.
"I was supposed to fuck you." John grumbled. He rolled on to his side and winced. "You owe me."
"Mm." Sherlock hummed. "I was long overdue."
"Bastard." John said with a grin as he cuddled in close.
