Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations the characters find themselves in. Thanks so much for continuing to read and giving me feedback on my work. It's muchly appreciated and I do read every review you send me!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Everyone. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this soon, that's the plan, anyway lol.
What Changed Everything
Bane didn't sleep that night. Robin had first drifted off around two or so but had slept fitfully, which was unlike him. Every time the omega started to move around or make sounds of distress in his sleep Bane had stroked his hands up and down Robin's back or carded his fingers through his mate's hair to soothe him back into slumber. Eventually Robin would settle and go still, but he didn't slip into deep, constant sleep until closer to five in the morning. But even after enough time had passed and Bane was sure Robin would be all right Bane remained awake, stroking and listening to the sound of Robin's slow, easy breathing as his mate slept.
When his mind wasn't going down the dark roads he couldn't seem to find a way off of Bane allowed himself to find some amusement in the fact that Robin had been complaining incessantly about how uncomfortable the beds were during his time with the League, and now that Bane had provided him with a mattress he'd rhapsodized about earlier Robin wasn't even taking advantage of it.
He was being used as Robin's mattress, his chest his mate's pillow.
At first Bane had tried to transfer Robin onto the mattress, thinking that that might help Robin sleep better, but it had only agitated him more. So here they were.
As if on repeat Bane couldn't stop himself from thinking about what Robin had said earlier, about their future and the one Robin wanted them to have versus what his mate was sure was in store for them. A future without any hope for a happy ending. Or at least not one together. And every argument he could offer, every promise he was willing to make...in the dark of the room, with no one to speak over the voices in his head, Bane knew that Robin was right.
Even if Talia wasn't a threat Bane had countless enemies. Many of them worked or were affiliated with the League of Shadows. And no matter how strong, lethal, and cunning he was that was no guarantee that he could keep Robin safe. One slip up. One moment of trusting someone he shouldn't or just a random twist of fate that put them in harm's way.
Hitachi hadn't been able to keep his true son alive. Talia's father had failed to keep his pregnant mate safe and she'd been doomed to languish in The Pit for years before Death finally came for her. And it had not come swiftly or mercifully.
Was he willing to risk harm befalling Robin because of him? Was that the sort of man, the sort of Alpha he was?
If so, he didn't deserve Robin.
His phone signaling an incoming message had Bane turning his head and reaching out to the bedside table to retrieve his cell. Bane hoped that whatever it was, it would distract him from his current thoughts for a few minutes, at least.
Feeling around in the darkness Bane's fingers finally fit around the device, bringing it over towards his face. Angling the screen so the light from it wouldn't disturb Robin Bane carefully called up the message and read the text sent by one of al Ghul's assistants.
'Multiple online security breaches have been detected in relation to the League's information network. Preliminary findings suggest that the source of the breaches is Bruce Wayne or someone of his employ. The information accessed is still being reviewed, but suggests that he is aware that the Pet, John Blake, is in your custody and that he is searching for you both. Wayne's present location is currently unknown. A team has been assigned to investigate and all information gathered will be transmitted to you.'
Bane stared at the message until the screen went dark again. He didn't access it again.
Instead, Bane carefully set the phone back on the bedside table, using unnecessary care because if he didn't Bane knew he'd break the cellphone into pieces between his fingers. His hand shook with the effort it took not to.
Wayne was coming.
Fate, indeed, was a cruel bitch, Bane mused as the darkness consumed him once more.
)
No one was in a good mood the following morning. All four of them ate their breakfast in relative silence. Blake, who was wearing the winged necklace Bane had given him around his neck didn't even comment on the fact that the food was slightly unhealthy since there was bacon. Something he'd missed a lot but didn't really have appetite for today. Nor did anyone else but Simon, who ate whatever was in front of him out of habit. At his age he needed all the fuel he could get and ate on autopilot. The others picked at theirs and Bane, who never left any scrap of food untouched thanks to his years in The Pit pushed his plate aside and ignored what was still on it. Barsad observed, ate little, and wished they were somewhere else.
The follow up appointment was the focus of their morning, everyone heading out with the guards assigned to the task. The car ride to the doctor's office was done in silence, the four men lost in their own thoughts and doing their best not to look at anyone else.
Pulling up and into a parking lot less than half a block away from their destination everyone got out and started walking towards the sidewalk leading to the doctor's office, completely unaware of the fact that something big was about to happen all at once.
From the north came a group of just over twenty young men in their early twenties, their attire advertising the fact that they were all members of various sports clubs. Karate clubs to be exact. They were in Paris for a tournament and all of them were highly trained athletes from around Europe. They were walking towards the sports center hosting the event, amped up, riled, and ready to begin.
From the east a woman in her early thirties crossed the street, her arms wrapped protectively around her thin waist. She was an omega, one of Doctor Eilish's patients. She'd been feeling off all night and was dropping by her doctor's office in the hopes that he could spare a few minutes to look her over.
Experience and training meant that all the League members and Blake automatically noted the people around them. It was ingrained habit even for those whose thoughts were elsewhere. Only Simon didn't notice them, but that would have been the case even if he hadn't been thinking about other things.
And then everything went to Hell in a handbasket.
The omega had made it to the sidewalk and was within five strides of the front door when it happened. Hot, fiery pain. A heat that burned through her so that she fell to her knees with a cry, her scream of pain making the men approaching from the north pick up their pace as they ran to lend her aid.
Blake automatically snapped into cop mode, posture straightening as he tried to elbow his way out of his entourage to get to the woman in distress. They weren't budging of course, but he was preparing to start throwing elbows and possibly punches to get them out of his way when things went from bad...to so, so much worse.
Worse, because the woman wasn't suffering from an ulcer or some mysterious illness.
One moment she was screaming in pain, the next scream...was one of need. Of desire. Of terrible, all-consuming need and lust. And the young men who were coming over to help her, the majority of whom were alphas in peak physical condition and in their sexual prime, pumped up on adrenaline, hormones, and now...now right in front of them was a receptive omega female in heat. One screaming to be taken.
Bane's men reacted too, which they shouldn't have. They were better trained than that. Knew what Bane would do to them if they laid hands on the omega who was in no condition to give consent. But the scent the woman was giving off, which they could smell even from a distance was at least five times stronger and more seductive than it should have been. And she was tearing at her clothes, begging them...
In Bane, Barsad and Blake's minds came the stories Doctor Eilish had told them the night before. Stories about omegas who'd suffered horribly after they'd stop taking Umbra. Omegas with uncontrollable heats that were much worse than any a regular omega would ever experience.
The least affected because he was an omega, Blake burst through the men and started running towards the woman as soon as he was free. Over his shoulder he ordered Simon to get the woman to Doctor Eilish as fast as he could. He'd hold the alphas off.
Running after his mate Bane roared at his omega to get inside the building where it was safe, gut wrenchingly terrified that the alphas would turn on Robin and attempt to force themselves on him as well. He yelled...even as he knew Robin would not obey.
Barsad was a beta, and he wasn't interested in females. That being said...even he found his blood heating in reaction as he charged after Bane. But he was still in control and intended to stay that way, especially as he sensed the men who should have had his and Bane's backs focusing in on the woman like she was wounded prey for them to tear to pieces over. He expected Simon to be one of them, the boy's alpha nature overpowering his basic decency and usual airheadedness. But when he risked one brief glance behind him the boy's eyes looked clear enough as Simon ran after them.
Nose wrinkled Simon cursed the situation they found themselves and his own reaction to the woman's scent. It made him hard and itchy and wanting to jump Barsad and fuck him through the sidewalk. And now was really, really not the time for that. And crap, he was going to have to wade into the battle now taking place in front of him and try to get to that woman without ending up permanently maimed or dead. And she was pretty tall, so she'd be hard to carry and probably wouldn't cooperate if he did manage to get ahold of her. Ugh. Why him?
The thing that had so far saved the woman from worse than some bruises was the fact that there was so many alphas trying to get at her that they ended up fighting with each other, none of them managing to do more than the briefest of touches and grasping hands before they were wrenched away by another who wanted more of the same.
So while the men fought with brutal intensity for their prize Blake, then Bane and Barsad and the one other League member who still had enough control over himself to do so, went to work knocking the men unconscious.
And Simon, with a very put-upon expression, gritted his teeth and did as he was told, doing his best to stay out of the way and wait for his chance.
)
Robin had told Bane repeatedly that he knew how to fight. Had warned them all that he should be taken seriously and viewed as a threat. And Bane, like the others, hadn't truly taken him seriously even after seeing Robin attack Simic in Simon's defense. He hadn't believed, and in all truth, this was something he'd had to see to believe. Would have never believed if Bane hadn't seen it for his own eyes in between throwing his own punches and tossing the out of control but still skilled alphas aside. Trying, like the others still in their right minds, to clear a path for Simon to get the woman to safety.
His mate was League trained. Not by him, or any of his men. But by Bruce Wayne.
Bane had already known that Robin wasn't Wayne's lover. Now he knew that Wayne had not just been Robin's friend. No, Robin had been the man's apprentice. His student. His skilled, very lethal student.
Wayne had adapted his League training for an omega. For Robin. Bane could see how Robin had been taught to compensate for his smaller build and lesser upper body strength. He could also see that Robin still clung to the skills taught to him by Gotham's streets, as well as some of the training that would have been pushed and taught at his police academy. It was a melding of the three, making it clear that Robin had been training with Wayne for quite some time. Was reading his opponents with obvious skill, taking the lesser hits and using the alphas own moves and strength against them.
Robin, being Robin, was quite obviously trying not to cause any more harm, lasting harm, than he had to. It was obvious when it came to where he was aiming his blows and how he was trying to pull them even when it meant taking a punishing hit in return. It was Robin's Achilles heel, his compassion and empathy for others. In Robin's eyes the undisciplined, weak-willed children attacking them were to be pitied and spared if possible. Even if it hurt or killed him.
Telling him to do otherwise would be pointless. Robin probably wouldn't even hear him, locked in the mindset of battle and survival. All Bane could do was focus half his attention on the alphas he was beating into unconsciousness with bone breaking efficiency and the rest on his mate. The mate he was trying to keep within his reach so that he could act as shield and protector-and failing. There was blood on his omega's face and body, bruises already starting to bloom on the exposed skin. And there was nothing he could do, especially knowing that Robin would fight him if Bane tried to stop him or protect him solely. Robin had been born to defend. To save. To sacrifice so that others didn't know the pain he'd known.
He was beautiful and deadly to behold, his Robin. His ruthless, fierce omega who fought with his whole body and soul.
How long they were locked in battle Bane wasn't even sure. It helped that many of the alphas Robin had wounded turned on each other as well, leveling the playing field despite the fact that other alphas had joined the fray in reaction to the omega in heat.
The tide turned when there was finally a big enough gap that Robin's useless boy was able to pick up the woman, holding her against his chest tight enough that bruises were a given. Necessary, the way she was thrashing about.
Bane had no choice but to order Barsad to go with them, not trust Kei not to rape the woman once he'd gotten her away from his challengers. Taking the man's protection away from Robin.
Knowing that that was what Robin would want didn't make it any easier as Bane, his mate, and those fighting on their side formed a human wall between the building and the street.
The sound of sirens splitting the air was the second shift in the tide, their opponents conditioned to react to it. That the majority of their opponents were injured helped as well.
Blocking a punch automatically Bane lashed out with a brutal right cross guaranteed to loosen teeth and fracture the boy's jaw. From the corner of his eye Bane saw the knife, the hand that held it as the arm brought the piece of metal down.
Robin's hand shot out, grabbing the man's wrist as Bane turned to defend himself. And as a shocked Bane watched Robin brought his other fist up to slam into the arm Robin was holding at the perfect angle to ensure the bones would break, the alpha's scream confirming it.
And seeing this, seeing the look of dark satisfaction on Robin's face, Bane knew in that moment that he would love this man until his last breath.
Chancing a glance behind him to confirm that the woman was out of sight and on her way to medical help Bane took stock of the situation while he kicked a man's knee out, following it up with a punishing fist to the throat that left his opponent gasping like a landed fish.
Time to go.
"We're leaving." Twisting and lowering his body Bane smoothly tossed Robin over his shoulder in a fireman's hold and started stepping over downed bodies, shifting to physically acting as a battering ram to get through the crowds that had congregated around them to watch like spectators at the Coliseum.
Wrong European country, Bane thought with cold eyed disgust and fury that had people stumbling over each other to get the hell out of his way. He didn't spare a thought for the men he'd brought with him, the ones that had gone wild having proven themselves unworthy. The one who'd kept his head followed after them, protecting their backs.
"Simon and Barsad!" Robin yelled at him, possibly not for the first time. Between the people and the growing number of sirens it was hard to hear anything.
"Barsad will look after the boy. We'll call them once we're in the car!"
A pat on his ass confirmed that Robin heard him.
Because of course that's what Robin would do.
The car was where they'd left it, the driver still behind the wheel and waiting for them. Bane ordered the remaining subordinate to sit in front with the driver, he and Robin would be in the back.
Yanking the door open with one hand while setting Robin back on his feet with care, Bane moved and gestured for Robin to get in first, following right after him. The car peeled away from the curb immediately after.
Bane had barely settled into his seat before Robin was in his lap, kissing him with a need that Bane returned in full measure.
