Here is the next installment in Love, Actually. Enjoy!
Chapter 16
Adam sat in front of Ezra who was passed out on the mountain of blankets they had placed him on the night he was brought in from the mill. Adam didn't quite know what about Ezra fascinated him. All he knew was he was utterly, obsessed wasn't quite the word, utterly fascinated (it was the only word Adam could think of) with him. Ezra's babies chirped and searched for their mother's wings they were clearly hungry, all except for one. He stayed behind and sleepily woke up from his nap. He stared up at Adam with wide brown eyes and yawned, his mouth opened wide.
"Hello little one," Adam smiled a bit and held his hand out for the fledgling to take. "I won't hurt you."
The fledgling curiously looked at Adam's gesture until he heard the sound of Ezra stirring and immediately bounded over to his mother's side. Ezra nuzzled him and started to clean his feathers before he realized Adam was watching them.
"His name is Luke," Ezra said, suddenly wearing a blank expression. "And what are you still doing here? I'd have expected you to have gone home by now."
"This is my home," Adam replied, chuckling a bit. "And I'd have expected you to stay asleep longer than now. I mean you must be exhausted."
"Well," Ezra said bitterly. "Someone has to take care of the fledglings and God forbid an Alpha should do any work."
"I-I didn't mean…" Adam stammered.
"That's just it," Ezra said defensively, jumping up and advancing on Adam. "None of you Alphas ever mean anything. You don't mean anything you say, anything you do; mating also means nothing to you! You're simply fuck machines! Now if you don't mind leaving I'd like some actual peace with my children thank you!"
Adam backed up, his hands raised in a defensive stance. He backed into the doorway, hissing and grabbing his hip, but keeping his eyes on a clearly pissed off Ezra. There was something else behind Ezra's broken hazel eyes though. There was pain but there was also fear. Fear of being abused again, which Adam could understand. Fear of Alphas which most Omegas from mills suffered from. Sure, Castiel and Gabriel had managed well with Dean and Sam, but they had been fledglings themselves when they all had met. Adam guessed, by process of elimination, that Ezra had grown up in the mill and thus probably led to his mistrust of Alphas or anyone for that matter.
"Alright," Adam said, defeated. "I'll leave."
Adam rounded the corner, leaving Ezra alone with his fledglings. Ezra's shoulders, which had been tensed up, relaxed only slightly as he slinked back to his pile of blankets and lay back down. His fledglings gathered around his wings, only caring about one thing: food. Ezra sighed. He wished he had someone to talk to, sure he'd had someone, but he'd chased that someone out the door. Ezra didn't beat himself up too badly about it. Adam was an Alpha after all. Alphas weren't to be trusted. He'd learned that from the mill. Other Omegas had always told him to watch out for slutty, horny, stud, Alphas. But did Adam really fit any of those standards? In fact he was downright cu—
No, Ezra wasn't going there, not ever. He'd sworn, never would he ever get with an Alpha. But as Ezra touched the glasses on his face and remembered what Adam had done for him. He'd saved him, in the brink of death at a mill. Ezra felt his face flush a little bit. He shook off those thoughts and curled back up in the blanket, hopefully he could escape them in dreams, hopefully…
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
"What if we got someone on the inside?" Dean suggested.
"Dean," Castiel pleaded. "No."
"Gotta admit," Anna said. "It's not a half bad idea."
"You would say that." Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"Guys," Sam exclaimed and got everyone to shut up. Everyone turned their head towards the tallest Alpha there and gave him their full attention. "One at a time first of all, second of all as much as it goes against every fiber in my being Dean is right. Maybe if we got someone, maybe even more than one someone, on the inside it would be beneficial for us. We could get an upper hand against Crowley and we could maybe even smuggle fledglings or even angels out of there."
"And risk our lives," Adam exclaimed, he'd only more recently joined the conversation, but he'd heard enough to form his opinion. "No way, you saw what happened last time we were there! Crowley threw his hounds after us. He almost killed us!"
"He only saw a few of our faces the first time," Sam explained. "If we send in someone he didn't see, then maybe just maybe this plan could work."
"Key word maybe," Castiel spoke up, making his point known. "I am not having my ma—"
Sam looked over in curiosity. Castiel had almost said mate, but stopped himself. Had he and Dean finally sealed the deal? Or had it been a simple Freudian slip?
"I'm not having Dean get hurt," Castiel finished. "He's implied already that he'd like to be one of the ones who go in there."
"One," Dean looked to Castiel, with eager eyes. "Because Crowley didn't see me and two, because this is something that needs to be done Cas. I'm not just going to sit by and let more and more innocent little fledglings from our home die or worse, be bred. Not when there's something I can do about it."
Castiel stared, stone cold, into Dean's returned gaze. Castiel had always admired Dean's courage and his integrity above all else. He also knew once the Alpha set his mind to something, unfortunately there was no stopping him. Not even if Castiel wanted to. Finally, Castiel sighed and looked away from Dean before returning his attention back to Sam. Dean sighed and did the same.
"Yoo hoo boys," the Alphas and Omegas all turned their attention to Ellen, who was leaning up against the doorframe, smiling. She held in her hand a video tape and was waving it back and forth in the air. "Not that I agree with this little plan of yours, but right now it's the best we've got. This here's the surveillance tape for Crowley's mill. It covers the area you all broke into. We'll see whose face made the cut and whose didn't."
"Ellen…" Dean started to say.
"Yeah?" Ellen asked.
"You're awesome." Dean smiled and chuckled a bit.
Ellen smirked and everyone followed her inside to the back of the pet shop. Ellen popped the video tape into the VCR player and the security footage immediately showed up on screen. Luckily the only faces that had been caught on camera were Adam's and Donathan's. The others had managed to stay hidden even from the other cameras and get the job done. The tape stopped itself after awhile and Ellen ejected it.
"Well looks like Adam and Donathan here are out." Ellen said.
"Good," Donathan said, coldly. "I wasn't planning on risking my ass once again anyway."
"Asshole…" Dean muttered.
"What was that?" Donathan bellowed.
"You heard me," Dean stood and faced him, glaring and giving off a total Alpha vibe. "Asshole. You don't care enough about tiny defenseless fledglings to get your ass in there and help them?"
Donathan and Dean both had their wings above their heads, both trying to show dominance over the other angel. Donathan, despite being an Omega, was quite the feisty angel. He would have had the makings of some Alpha had he been born with the right genes. It was ultimately Ellen who broke the two up.
"Dean," Ellen snapped. "Let's leave the ethics lesson at the door shall we? Regardless of Donathan's beliefs…he can't go in anyway, Crowley's seen his face. That leaves him out of the picture anyway, now I'd appreciate it if the both of you refrain from killing one another in my establishment, thank you."
Donathan growled at Dean and Dean bared his teeth back. Ellen snapped her fingers and the two stopped immediately. Castiel observed the interaction between the two of them. They really weren't all that different. Both bearing scars, Dean's around his mouth and cheeks from the muzzle at the pound, Donathan's on his wings and back. They both came from horrible pasts, but had been given the same chance at redemption. Why couldn't they just get along?
Castiel could practically smell the rage on Dean.
"That leaves the rest of you to decide who's going in and whose staying out," Ellen explained. "I don't care who does what, but someone has to prove to me that this supposedly brilliant plan of Dean's and Sam's is going to work."
"I volunteer," Anna spoke up. "Somebody has to."
"It was my plan," Dean said. "Of course I'm going in there."
Castiel gave a worried look at the thought of Dean being in a mill again. Gabriel smirked at the thought of Anna being thrown straight into the frying pan.
"Well then," Ellen replied. "Now that that's settled. Come with me guys. Let's get you ready."
Anna looked back at the others, smirked and followed Ellen. Dean turned to Castiel and Castiel stared into Dean's green eyes, almost like they were fragile and would break if he looked away. He kissed Dean, long and passionately, before breaking away and looking up into his eyes again.
"Please," Castiel pleaded with him. "For me. Come back to me."
"I promise Cas," Dean nodded. "I promise I'll come back to you."
"Dean," Anna exclaimed. "You coming with me or no?"
"Yeah Anna," Dean replied, not taking his eyes from Cas'. "I…I'm coming."
Dean turned and walked after the Omega. Castiel's wings drooped as he held in tears.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Ellen led the pair to the back of the pet shop where a truck was waiting. Exhaust poured out the back of it and a man stood nearby. He was rough looking, but not too terribly scary. He stomped out a cigarette on the ground with his boot and wore sort of ragged looking clothes. An Italian fisherman's hat was perched atop his head. He smiled at Ellen, Anna, and Dean when they approached him.
"Good to see yah again," Ellen flashed a necklace with a pentagram surrounded by fire to the man. Dean watched, confused and intrigued as to what they were doing. "Got two victims for yah."
The man flashed an identical necklace and nodded.
"Same to you Ellen," the man turned to Dean and Anna, shaking each of their hands. "So you two are the brave souls that are gonna help our little operation succeed?"
"Yeah," Dean swallowed hard, looking into the man's eyes. There was no turning back now. "We are."
"Perfect," the man replied with a smile. "Well hop in the way back and try not to act too domesticated. Oh and the name's Benny by the way."
Reviews are greatly appreciated! Thank you all for being so patient with me! College is hard.
So what comes next for Dean and for Anna as the venture into the darkest depths of Crowley's mill, by choice?!
Find out soon when the next chapter of Love, Actually is published!