So one day he found her crying
Coiled up on the dirty ground
Her prince finally came to save her
And the rest you can figure out
But it was a trick
And the clock struck twelve
Well make sure to build your heart brick by boring brick
Or the wolf's gonna blow it down

Keep your feet on the ground
When your head's in the clouds

Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
We'll bury the castle, bury the castle
Paramore, Brick By Boring Brick

Hannibal pushed the door to the guest lounge open and stepped inside only to see two Omegas sat on the far side of the room. Alana had her back to him but soon turned and offered a smile when she heard him speak.

"Hello Alana."

"Hey Hannibal."

Alana was by far the most comfortable Omega around Hannibal, except for Will of course. She acted more like a beta, probably because she had been raised with Price and by his Beta father. She had been adopted, normally Omegan children could not be adopted by a beta family but it was long before dynamic DNA testing and so it was rather common. People had always been confused by that a Beta and Omega were siblings so she and Price had just said they where step-siblings, people seemed to cope with that a little better.

There were two Omegas opposite her one male and one female. The male looked calm and collected but Hannibal could see it in his eyes and in his scent, Alana wouldn't notice her sense of smell was nowhere as strong as his thoroughbred ones, Hannibal knew though, saw, smelt the fear and panic in him. The girl wasn't trying to hid it, she was shivering and chewing on her bottom lip so hard there was blood. Her legs where crossed under her, a childish attempt to protect herself. Both of them held their breaths in fear when they saw the Alpha.

"Genevieve, Kale." Alana began. "This is Doctor Lecter, he runs the place."

Hannibal crouched down in an attempt to appear less threatening and covered his face with a soft smile.

"Hello, but please, call me Hannibal. You have nothing to fear, I am the only Alpha here and am bonded."

Genevieve seemed to physically relax a little while Kale nodded slightly.

"Hello Hannibal."

In that one small stuttered out sentence Hannibal felt so proud of the male Omega. He was traumatized, had suffered God only knew how much pain and yet Kale had managed to greet the Alpha. Hannibal couldn't help but be reminded of his William and that memory forced his soft smile to grow.

"Let me explain the place to you. I am in charge and the Beta's basically make sure that everything runs smoothly. There are a few other Omegas here: Rain, Rex and Abi have been here for a while and Sara and Joanna, they came in last week. Alana here..." He gestured to the dark haired Omega. "...acts as our counsellor, she is here if you need someone to talk to."

Hannibal's knees where beginning to hurt and so he had no choice had no choice but to return to a standing state. Oh how his knees thanked him.

"That is everyone, except William. Will is my mate, he helps me run the house and he works with Alana too. So feel free to talk to him as well."

XXXX

Price had searched and searched for information on Marcus Delaware and his Omega auctions, he had routed through Jack's endless supply of random bits of paper looking desperately for a thread that he could cling on to, a trail. He couldn't go on without Brian for much longer, he missed him so.

Just as he was about to give up and try something else, he found it, his thread, his trail. A small piece of paper.

OMEGA X 4
9727 EMERALD MEWS, MOSSBANK

Price knew what it was the second he saw it scribbled in Jack's ugly all capitals handwriting, it was the address that Brian and the others had been sent to. He felt like a huge weight had been lifted, he had to show Hannibal. Jack's crap had been moved to a box in the security room, Price was on his knees leaning over the box but in half a second Price was up two flights of stairs, nearly knocking Barney and Clarice over on the way and banging on Hannibal's office door. It opened suddenly.

"Is there a reason you are slowly knocking the building down?"

Price couldn't speak, he just held up the paper scrap and stared wide-eyed at the Alpha he had come to call friend.

"Mossbank? That's not to far."

Hannibal understood what Price was saying without words, only Brian could make him speechless. Only Brian could cause the tears building in his eyes, only Brian. Just short of a miracle Price found his voice.

"We need to go...now."

Price wasn't being rude, Hannibal knew that but the Beta somehow managed so sound like an Alpha. Voice filled with determination and strength. Hannibal thought that maybe he was rubbing off on the man, he couldn't help but be pleased with that.

"No." The Beta's face dropped, Hannibal didn't care. "It is still daylight, we will go when it's dark."

Price silently cursed himself for not believing in Hannibal, the Alpha was noble and would never go back on his word. They spent the rest of the afternoon discussing how they where going to follow Price's thread of hope that Brian could be found. It took hours but they finally worked out a plan...

...They would find the Omega's...