Chapter 25

It was after noon by the time we got up. I awoke to Dean's lush lips wrapped around my cock, sucking and licking and humming When the Levee Breaks. I moaned and thrust into his hot mouth as his tongue swirled and twisted around my shaft. Between my half-awake state and the fact that it'd been a couple of days since we'd had time to make love, it took less than two minutes for me to climax. He then crawled up my body until he was straddling my chest, and I gladly reciprocated the blowjob.

Alec was sitting in front of the fireplace and throwing a ball for Hannibal to fetch, while Astrid chased after the puppy, when we emerged from our room after showering and dressing. He was wearing another pair of jeans and a Power Rangers t-shirt and smiled happily when he saw us.

I brushed my hand over his head as I walked past him and sat on the loveseat. "How are you feeling, Alec? Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, Papa. The bed here is even more comfortable than the one at the hotel. It was kinda weird going to sleep by myself, but when I woke up Astrid was on my pillow! Hey, what's Dad doing?" he asked, nodding towards where Dean was rummaging in the kitchen.

"He's making lunch for all of us."

"Dad can cook? Awesome!" He got up and hurried over to the island.

Dean grinned at him as he sat at the breakfast bar. "Hungry, kiddo? I'm making us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato rice soup. It's something Mom used to make when I—I mean when the original Dean was a little kid."

"What about when you were little, before Grandpa John found you?"

"I don't really think 'bout that time. Like most shifters, my parent was a few cards short of a full deck and didn't treat me too well. I'd rather act like the other Dean's memories were really mine." My brother shook his head to clear it. "Now, you wanna learn how to make the sandwiches?"

After lunch, we showed him around the rest of the house and the yard and demonstrated how to use the microwave, TV, Blu-ray player, and video game consoles. We let him run around the yard with Hannibal and a Frisbee for a while, then sat him down to watch a couple of movies, including How to Train Your Dragon. Dean made steak, loaded baked potatoes, and grilled asparagus for dinner and brownies for dessert. We then pulled out the pictures we had of our various loved ones and told him stories about Mom, Dad, Bobby, Ellen and Jo, and more.

The next day we took the boy to the Walmart in Eugene to get him more of what he needed. He tried to act brash, but we could see he was almost overwhelmed by the wide array of merchandise and the fact that he could choose whatever he wanted (within reason). He soon got bored and fidgety at picking out clothes, but his eyes nearly popped out of his head when we moved on to the toy section. By the time we left a couple hours later, the Impala's trunk and most of the backseat were loaded down with bags of clothing, toys, games, school supplies, movies, and books, as well as bedding, towels, and décor appropriate for a boy's bedroom. We then went home and helped him find places in his room for everything.

We were in the family room that afternoon when we heard the soft rustle of feathers. I was on my laptop, looking up homeschooling curricula. Dean and Alec were seated on the floor nearby figuring out a Lego Star Wars playset, with Astrid "helping" by batting at the pieces. Hannibal lay snoring on his back in front of the fireplace.

We turned toward the sound and saw Castiel, Bobby, and Jody standing in the doorway leading to the foyer. With them were a couple of overnight bags and several large cardboard boxes. Dean and I immediately rose and hugged our visitors, while Alec looked on curiously.

"As you can see, we figured out a way to get here that those Manticore goons ain't gonna be able to track," Bobby said, nodding at Cas. "And this must be my new grandson!"

I placed a hand on Alec's shoulder. "Alec, these are some of the people we told you about last night, and they're part of your family too now. Bobby pretty much adopted us back when we were kids, so that makes him your grandfather. Cas here is our closest friend and like a brother to us, so he's now your uncle. And Jody looks out for us like a big sister, so she'd be your aunt."

Bobby crouched down and opened his arms, his eyes soft. "Boy, but ain't you the spitting image of your dad! We're glad to have you in our family, kid. You're gonna be real happy here."

Alec hesitantly walked forward and was enveloped in a huge hug. This was followed by an equally heartfelt embrace from Jody. Cas patted the boy awkwardly on the shoulder.

Alec wrinkled his nose and looked up at the seraph quizzically. "What are you?"

"I am an angel of the Lord, child. I too am glad you are here. Sam and Dean are very good men, and they will do their utmost to see you are safe and loved." He directed a blue gaze at us. "Speaking of his safety, I should inscribe Alec's ribs the way I did to yours. Given Raphael's aspirations, it would be wise to ensure his allies cannot use the boy either."

"You're right, Cas. I've warded him with the anti-possession symbol and other protective markings—I used sigils that are only visible to psychic vision instead of tattoos, to not draw attention from teachers or other parents. But I can't recreate the Enochian runes that you put on us as easily," I responded. "I wonder why Michael's minions never went after him or Ben before though?"

"I do not know, Sam. Perhaps even Zachariah and his ilk had qualms about using a child in such a way. Or they were concerned that the limitations of an immature vessel would put Michael at a disadvantage against the Morningstar." Cas knelt in front of Alec. "This will hurt very much, but just for a moment. Afterwards however, no other angel will be able to find you. May I proceed?"

"But I thought angels were the good guys? Don't they work with the Blue Lady?"

"Who is the Blue Lady?" I asked.

"A janitor at Manticore gave her picture to one of Ben's unit mates when he was sick. The picture was of a beautiful lady in a blue robe surrounded by glowing light. The janitor said that she lived up there, in the Good Place, and watched over all children—even ones like us," Alec explained earnestly. "Ben's unit used to give her presents, like food, flowers, even their baby teeth, so she'd be strong enough to protect us. Some of them tried to tell other units about her, but most of the rest of us didn't believe them."

"I believe he is referring to the Virgin Mary. Belief in the Blue Lady is not uncommon among disenfranchised youth, such as the street children in Miami," Castiel said.

"Well, angels are supposed to help her, kiddo. Unfortunately, truth is most of 'em are smug, sanctimonious asshats who think humans are just vermin, and the fuckers are willing to do anything to get their own way," Dean told Alec. "Cas put these same wards on us a while back so they can't find us either."

Alec nodded at that and stepped closer to Cas. He flinched after the angel touched him but gave no other indication of pain. We then steered everyone towards the seating in the family, and Dean fetched beers and sodas for the group.

Jody smiled warmly at the boy. "Like the others have said, we're all thrilled to have you here, Alec. I brought some of my son Owen's things for you—clothes, toys, books, and stuff like that. Your new dads have probably gotten you a lot already, but I'm sure you could use some more. My son was just a couple years older than you when he died, and I thought it would be better to pass his belongings onto you than let them gather dust in my attic. We can go through the boxes later and see what you like."

"What are you planning to do now?" Bobby asked.

"We're gonna keep Alec home and teach him ourselves until the end of this school year, since there's a lotta stuff 'bout the world outside of Manticore that he needs to learn. We'll say that his mom got weird after his birth and turned into a hermit, which is why he ain't familiar with so much," Dean explained. "By the time September rolls around, he should be ready to go to school. In the meantime, we'll introduce him to the kids in the neighborhood and enroll him in sports, music lessons, or whatever else he'd like to check out."

"Alec will initially stay home with me until my next semester starts. After that, most days he'll go with Dean to the garage—there's an empty desk in Karen's office he can use to study, and Collin's already given his okay. He'll come with me once or twice a week on days when my class and teaching load is lighter," I added.

"As for the other escapees, we'll use the materials you brought to scry their locations. Then we or some other trustworthy hunters will try to retrieve them, since they're not safe out there on their own. We're thinking to try to place them with hunters, though only ones with a secure home, or hunter-friendly families who'd be able to deal with their unique circumstances," I continued.

"I can assist with the location and rescue of these children, particularly the ones you cannot go after yourselves," Castiel offered.

"Thanks, man—that'll be a huge help. These kids ain't gonna trust strange adults, but having someone they associate with their Blue Lady there might ease the way," my husband said gratefully.

"What're we gonna do 'bout the rest of 'em though? There simply ain't enough hunters, at least ones we can trust not to shoot the kids too, to take on a whole military base—even with your powers and Cas' renewed mojo," Bobby pointed out.

"Not to mention there's not enough reliable families to take that many children in," Jody said.

"All we can do 'bout Manticore itself right now is gather more intel. This sorta conspiracy shit should be right up Frank's alley, and the rest of us can try to dig up what we can too. Maybe we'll find a weakness we can exploit," Dean responded.

Alec piped up, "Are you going to release the 'nomalies too?"

"You mentioned them before. What are they?" I asked.

"They—they're failed experiments . . . ones where the animal traits came out too strong, so they can't pass as human. Or they have some other defect, like the shakes, but are too useful to just destroy. They're kept locked up in the lowest level of the base. Manticore would've put me, Ben, and Max there too if they didn't kill us after the tests." The boy shuddered.

"Them too, son—they're just kids like you. It'll be harder to find safe homes for 'em, but we'll figure it out." Bobby then looked at Dean. "By the way, Dean, I think these sonsofbitches mighta done more than simply take your DNA. Alec here is eight years old, right? Which would put you around twenty-three or twenty-four when he was born. Dunno if you remember this, but a coupla months after your twenty-third birthday, right 'bout when your deadbeat dad decided to go off on his own, I sent you to Gilette for a rare spellbook that had supposedly turned up in a pawnshop there. The lead turned out to be bogus, and you disappeared the day after you arrived.

"I came to town to look for you a coupla days later when you didn't return my calls, and I made that idjit John drop what he was doing and help too. We searched for you for nearly a week, and then you suddenly showed up at our motel with some cockamamie story 'bout shacking up with a girl. John left as soon as he knew you were safe to go back to his hunt for the demon, but I wasn't satisfied. But before I could dig any further, we both got pulled into a series of drawn-out cases, and I musta forgot after that."

Dean furrowed his brow. "I vaguely remember the girl, but the details are real hazy, even for it being nine years ago. You think those douchebags lured me near their fucking hideout and then grabbed me? For what—more experiments?"

"I figure that bastard Lydecker got hold of your blood or spit somehow, and the scientists at Manticore flipped out when they tested it. So they fed me that false info, and maybe did the same with some of our other contacts at the time, hoping you'd take the bait so they could find out what you are," the older hunter replied. "I think the only reason they let you go is me and your dad were raising too much of a stink, flashing our FBI badges, interrogating everyone, and poking our noses into everything. They musta been afraid either we'd track them down or attract the wrong kinda attention on them. So they dumped you after putting some sorta whammy on your memory."

"The X4's," Alec said. "They were the series before us X5's, and many of them had psychic abilities. One of them could've altered your memories, and even made so that you weren't interested in investigating more."

Bobby went on, "My point is, we dunno how much information they got outta you while you were their 'guest.' We've gotta assume that they know whatever you did back then 'bout your abilities, the supernatural, and hunters. We also dunno how many shifter genes they spliced into the other X5's, not just Alec and his twin—things like your accelerated healing, enhanced senses, enhanced physical traits, and telepathy would've been mighty attractive."

"And we don't know what kind of resources Manticore can bring to bear to track the escapees down, so we need to be extra careful. Alec's and the other kids' whereabouts are on a need-to-know basis, and we must be very selective in who we bring in on this. Frank's going to send us some untraceable burner phones, and they will be the only ones we use to exchange information about any of this," I said.

Jody looked worried. "Are you going to be safe here?"

"Don't worry, Jody. If they knew 'bout our lives here, they woulda tried coming after me earlier, when Ben first starting having problems. With all the moving around, aliases, and supposed deaths, I doubt Manticore had any more luck keeping tabs on me after they let me go than the damn FBI did when Hendrickson was on our asses," my brother responded. "That being said, we're gonna up the security around here as much as we can and watch our backs."

I stood. "Alright folks, that's enough for now. The point of this visit is for Alec to get to know more of his new family, right? So why don't we all take Hannibal down to the park and relax for a while?"

We'd just finished decimating the feast we'd picked up from the Chinese takeout place on our way back from the park when Bobby asked, "So are you boys planning to keep hunting now or not?"

"We're not sure yet, Bobby. Alec is of course our first priority, but we're still going to try to take on a few cases now and then. We just have to be careful about what we tackle," I said. "But if it turns out that even this limited amount of hunting interferes with our ability to care for him or puts him at risk, then we'll pull out for good."

"Yeah, we ain't putting our kid through the same shit that we had to grow up with," Dean added. "If we can't hunt, we can find other ways to keep helping people."

The older man beamed at us. "I'm real proud of the both of you. I'd always wished that your damn fool dad had paid more attention to your well-being than his revenge, and I've regretted not doing more when you were kids. But you still managed to turn out great and to find a life outside of hunting as well. I know you'll do a fantastic job raising your son."

Dean looked down in embarrassment, and I had to clear the lump from my throat before saying, "Thanks, man. That means a lot to the both of us. And we couldn't have made it to here without you, so don't knock what you did for us."

After clearing away the food, we went through the things Jody had brought to see what Alec could use. Dean sat everyone down so that Alec could watch A New Hope for the first time, and then the boy was sent off to bed. The rest of us stayed up for a while longer, drinking and reminiscing, until Bobby and Jody finally retired to their room. Cas promised to return in a day or two before disappearing with a rustle.

Dean put the drinks away and turned off the lights in the rest of the house, while I checked that the defenses around the property were active. We then went to our bedroom and quietly washed up. I locked the door and set up a privacy spell to prevent noise from escaping the room as I waited for my husband to finish his shower. The blowjobs this morning had been just a teaser, and I planned to take advantage of this time to ourselves.

When he emerged from the bathroom, I was propped up on some pillows in the middle of the bed, slowly stroking my member. His eyes lit up at the sight, and he gave me a slow smile as he climbed onto the foot of the bed and crawled towards me with sinuous grace. He nudged my knees apart and slid his hands up the inside of my thighs to my groin, then bent down and wrapped his full pink lips around my glans.

I moaned as he sucked at the head of my cock and ran his tongue along its underside. He suckled it like a lollipop for a bit before swallowing my shaft down to the base. I dug my hands into his soft blond hair while he hummed The Rain Song and swirled his tongue around my length. As my passion approached its peak, he pulled his mouth away, shifted until he was sitting above me, and sheathed himself around me.

I had to concentrate to not climax immediately as Dean's tight heat enveloped me. Instead I rolled us over and looked down into his long-lashed green eyes, taking a moment to revel in the knowledge that this wonderful, beautiful man was all mine. He wrapped his legs around my waist, and I began to plunge into his slick channel with long, steady strokes. He keened and pushed his hips back into mine as each thrust brushed against his prostate.

Oh yeah, baby, you feel so good! he gasped. Love you inside me . . . love you, Sammy!

C'mon, Dee! I don't want to cum until you do, I growled while leaning down to capture his lips. Want to see you cum on my cock, sweetheart. Love you so much too!

We continued to move together until his breathing started to hitch. I then drove into him hard and fast, and he cried out as he ejaculated onto his belly and clenched around my member. I thrust into his velvety channel a couple more times before falling into orgasm myself. We both collapsed back against the pillows with our arms still wrapped around each other.

How are you feeling, darling? my lover asked while laying his head on my shoulder.

Really good, Dee. Although . . . I was hoping we were finally done with massive plots after stopping the Apocalypse. And yet here we are, dealing with this Manticore shit now, I complained as I felt his chest vibrate against mine and his inner walls quiver around my cock.

Hey, at least the world ain't in danger of getting flushed down the shitter this time. This problem ain't anything supernatural, just people being major-league fucking douchebags, he pointed out. Like I said years before—demons I get, but people are crazy!

That might make this even more dangerous, man. Demons rarely are as organized as the U.S. military or have the same level of resources. And there'll be a lot of things we'd normally do against demons that we can't against humans.

There's still plenty we can do, and those Manticore asshats ain't gonna know what hit 'em. We'll figure this out like we've figured out Lucifer, Azazel, and the rest of those fuckers. But right now, I'm gonna get us cleaned up.

Dean stretched languidly, pulled himself free, and headed into the bathroom. When he returned a few minutes later, he was clad in a clean pair of boxer-briefs and a t-shirt. He wiped me down with a damp washcloth and handed me a pair of boxers and an undershirt.

"We can't lie around butt-naked any more, in case the rugrat decides to pay us a visit," he said with a smirk. "I don't wanna be responsible for the therapy bills if he gets traumatized by the sight of your monster cock."

I gave him an unamused glare as I slid the boxers on. "You aren't anywhere close to as funny as you think you are, jerk."

"I'm fucking hilarious, bitch!" he proclaimed while slipping under the covers.

"You keep thinking that, dude. Although that does remind me . . ." I reached out with my mind, dropped the privacy spell, and turned the lock on the door before getting comfortable again.

I'd just pulled the comforter up when the door opened and Alec peered in. "Dad, Papa, can I—can I come in?"

"Of course, Alec," I answered. "What's up?"

He approached the bed hesitantly. "Can I sleep with you tonight? I'm still not used to having a room all to myself. Yesterday I was tired enough to fall asleep anyway, but now . . ."

Dean lifted the covers up in response and dropped them after Alec crawled in between us. Once the boy was settled in, my brother ruffled his hair and put an arm around his shoulders. "I remember . . . the first Dean used to do this sometimes with Mom and Dad. You like this, kiddo?"

"Yeah, Dad, this is pretty awesome! Back at the barracks, we weren't supposed to share beds or hug each other or stuff like that. I guess they thought it would make us soft."

"That's all in the past now. Whenever you want a hug or a cuddle or any kind of affection, you can come to either of us," I told him.

"And we're going to stop Manticore?"

"You bet! It's gonna take a while—we first gotta gather intel and find reinforcements before we can come up with a plan. But we've taken down bigger fish than those asswipes before," Dean said.

Before the child could say anything more, there was a thump, and then the door opened again. Hannibal bounded into the room, with Astrid scampering close behind him. The puppy jumped up onto the bed, and it took some nudging to convince him to sprawl across the foot of the bed instead of on top of us. The kitten, with typical feline disregard for personal space, walked across us and curled up on Alec's stomach.

In the midst of all this maneuvering, Dean looked at me and laughed. "Dude, we're gonna need a bigger boat!"

Eventually the chaos cleared away, and everyone else started to drift off. I gazed across the bed at the shapeshifter who was my brother, partner, and husband, at the genetically engineered super soldier who was now our son, at our pet hellhound and pet skogkatt, all slumbering under the roof of our enchanted, formerly haunted house. I thought back to my desperate dreams when I was a teenager and realized that I finally had everything I desired back then. This was my normal, apple-pie life, and I couldn't be happier.