Chapter 12: Soothed

It wasn't Dean he was sensing. It wasn't. It couldn't be. Castiel told himself that over and over, the mantra in his head whispering in Max's higher register in a repeat of the words the younger omega had tried to impress on his friend the night before. Leaning against the huge window that looked out toward the lake, Cas couldn't convince himself that he didn't see four shapes walking along the edge of the water and one of them definitely wasn't Dean.

"Is he always like this?"

Gabriel shrugged, sipping at his morning tea. "We've never spent time with other omegas in heat, to be fair, and Cassie is nothing like this during his heat. The boy has threatened to tear down stone walls to get at alphas, especially on his last day, and it is usually all we can do to keep him calm. He's never reacted to the heat scent of other omegas, so I can only imagine that his silence is just a side-effect of him missing Dean."

"You aren't silent, and I'm sure you miss Sam just as much."

Gabriel's golden eyes darkened as his fingers tightened around his mug. Max didn't mean to be cruel, but his words still sliced into the older omega. "I've had enough of silence for a lifetime. I'll mourn loudly."

Gadreel, who perfectly understood his twin's pain, reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "Max is right, Gabe; I've never seen Cas look so forlorn."

"He has a lot to work through. After all, this was his idea. He wants to learn to center himself, to resist the urges he gets around his boyfriend, and I can't argue that it sounds like a great idea for all of us. I can only hope Balthy isn't falling prey to his hormones the same way Cas is."

Gadreel snorted and walked toward one of the omegas curled up on a cushion near the bedroom. Max's suite was large enough for all three males currently in heat, plus their five visitors. Both of the female omegas, who weren't due to go into heat for another few weeks, had to leave later in the day, joining their semi-nomadic families to journey to their holdings in the south. Usually they would leave after the equinox, but the snow had melted faster than expected and all of the farmer families were aching to get out of the city and back to their lands. With Cas, Gabe, and Gad staying, the two women could leave with clear consciences.

One of males in heat, a young pup named Jordan, was whining against his pillow, mindlessly humping against the soft material. If Gadreel remembered correctly, this was Jordan's first heat, and the sensations were overwhelming him. "Hey, Jordan. Are you okay?"

"No," the smaller man whined, pale green eyes flying up to meet Gadreel's gentle gold. "Help me, please?"

"I can show you some techniques to ease the tension, but I can't help the way you mean."

"Why?"

"It won't satisfy you, Jordan." Gadreel's voice was steady and patient, explaining the mechanics of heat as calmly as he would discuss the weather. "You need a beta or an alpha, and you won't have that during your heat until you are mated. Anything I give you will be a cruel substitute. It wouldn't be fair to me, either, since I currently have a partner of my own."

"I hate this," Jordan growled, digging his fingers into the cushion as if he could will his heat away. Every omega went through this stage, especially during their first heat, and Gadreel knew exactly what to say to help him.

"You do now, but one day you will realize that this is a celebration of life, hope for the future. Your heat means that you can one day have pups of your own, bring fertility to the land and life to your pack. You are special; omegas are rarer than betas, and male omegas rarer still. Surely the ancestors could see into your heart, knew that you were strong enough to be an omega."

"Strong enough?"

"Yes, strong enough. Alphas are good at fighting, but they can't manage the people in a pack or take care of pups. That's why we are precious, and loved, and protected. This heat, your first heat, is you earning your place in the pack."

Jordan's eyes widened as Gadreel's words sunk in, Max and Gabriel grinning at him from across the room. "Earning my place?"

"Yes. Are you strong enough to do that?"

Jordan nodded slowly and reached up to take the older omega's hand, following him meekly into the bedroom. The two female omegas, Ally and Raina, grinned at each other before curling back up with the last omega, an older male named Damian. He was the only one of them with a mate, but his alpha had spent the winter in the main city on an important trading mission, so he had asked to share his heat with Max and Jordan.

"Your brother has a way with pups."

Gabriel nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, he's always been great with the youngsters. He doesn't want many of his own, maybe two, but he is perfectly willing to love and coddle everyone else's children. I can't wait to foist my kids off on him from time to time."

"Does Sam want pups?"

"Kind of. He's willing to want pups for my sake, as long as we wait a while. He thinks he's too young to be a father, and I know that he also worries about me."

"About you carrying them?" Gabriel nodded, and Max scoffed. "You're like the perfect size for a male omega. You might have been a little on the thin side when I first met you, but you've filled out just fine now that you're healed. You could birth him a dozen healthy pups without a breaking a sweat."

Gabriel laughed at that, feeling the tension in his chest ease somewhat. It had taken a lot out of him to convince Sam that they would be good parents, so talking about it with Max was poking at some wounds he would rather not think about. "A dozen is pushing it, but I think I know why he truly worries. I think that he still has this image in his mind of me, bleeding from the gashes on my leg the first time he saw me. I was half-starved and I could easily have bled out then and there. I would have if Asmodeus has been trying to kill me instead of kidnap me. I have to find a way to convince him that I'm not fragile and that I have healed from that attack."

Max reached out and ran his fingers through Gabriel's shoulder-length blonde hair, purple eyes searching the smaller man's face. "You'll never be fully healed, Gabe, and part of you knows that. You still wake up in the middle of the night, terrified that you've lost your voice. You still run your fingers down the scars on your legs and stare at the blood you swear you can see. What you went through was incredibly traumatic; you lost all concern for your own life at the end. If Rowena had not been able to heal you . . ." He trailed off, but his meaning was clear. Gabriel would have taken his own life. "You don't know what the thought of losing you did to Sam. I can pretty much guarantee that he would not have survived the reality."

"Max . . ."

"He's bonded to you, Gabe. He considered you his mate long before you regained your voice. He loves you more than he knows how to say, and he is terrified that Rowena's cure might fail."

Gabriel was silent for a long moment, staring into the steam rising from his herbal tea as he rolled Max's words over in his mind. Raina disentangled herself from the other two omegas in the corner, walking over to take a seat beside Gabriel and curl against his side. She wasn't much older than him, but she was incredibly perceptive and she knew that the Celestial needed more support than Max could provide alone. She also caught the increase in Max's scent, knowing that he was going to hit another spike in his heat soon and would head into an empty room to take care of it. She didn't want Gabriel to be alone when that happened.

"You're a witch, Max. Do you think the cure will fail?"

"No. I have never known Rowena to be less than completely successful. She said that the cure worked and I believe her. The trauma will never leave you though, just as that smidgen of fear will never leave Sam."

"I hate Asmodeus for this," Gabriel whispered, running his fingers through Raina's blonde hair as she rested her head on his leg. Taking care of someone else tended to help Gabriel center himself, something that Raina had picked up on the instant they met. "I want to kill him."

"For revenge? Gabe, it won't make you feel better."

"It will! It has to."

Max took Gabriel's tea away and placed it on the table, enveloping the omega's free hand in both of his. "Gabriel, it won't. Gods, I wish it could, but killing him for revenge won't make you feel better. It won't ease that pain in your soul. If you kill him, do it to prevent him from torturing other omegas, from doing that to anyone else." He pointed at Gabriel's leg, emphasizing his point. "I have seen what revenge can do to a soul, and I don't want to see that happen to you."

Gabriel stared into Max's brilliant purple eyes, focusing on the feeling of Raina's silky hair under his fingers and the warmth engulfing his other hand grounding him. He poked at that deep core of anger in his soul, the part of him that wanted to destroy Asmodeus for what he did, and he pulled at it, trying to unravel it, banish it. He nodded at Max as soon as he felt that he was somewhat successful, and the olive-skinned man grinned.

"Thank you for trying, Gabe. I don't want to lose you to that kind of madness."

The blonde hummed an approximation of an agreement, nodding toward Castiel in an effort to break the tension. "How do we keep from losing Cas to his demons?"

Max turned to follow Gabriel's gaze, Raina raising her head slightly before settling back down in Gabriel's lap. She couldn't comfort the raven-haired omega. "Give him some time. Charlie promised to join us for lunch, and she will speak with him if he is still like this."

"The plan is to leave five days after the Equinox. It will take three days for Balthazar to return to the city, so that only leaves us two days to pack and get on the road. I know that Dad had to be worried when we didn't make it back before hard winter, but he must have figured that we holed up in Asa's city."

Sam nodded, following a few steps behind his brother as they paced around the edge of the lake. Benny and Jo completed their group, possibly the first time that the four pack mates had been able to spend time alone together since they rescued four starving omegas three months earlier. Jo clenched her fists at her side, looking up as Benny's comforting hand came to rest on her shoulder. She wasn't immune to the beta's calming scent, and she gladly leaned against him and let that vanilla and sandalwood aroma wash over her.

"What's on your mind, cher?"

Sam and Dean slowed to a stop, joining Benny as the blonde alpha closed her eyes and sighed. "I just . . . I was thinking that this is the last time I'll run with your pack."

"Charlie?"

Jo smiled and nodded, grateful that Dean could almost read her mind at times. "She . . . I don't know how much I can really tell you, but she's going to graduate from her apprenticeship with Rowena and create her own pack once they return to Spellbound lands. She asked me to join her, as her legacy protector and . . . and as her mate."

"Jo, that's wonderful!" Sam grinned and leaned forward to offer Jo a quick hug, glancing at his brother to gauge his reaction before speaking again. "Why do you have to leave, though? It's not uncommon for the alpha to join her omega's pack, but generally it's the other way around."

"The situation is unique. I'll ask Charlie to explain it to you, but she'll be creating a kind of rogue pack that doesn't owe allegiance to anyone. I think she will look to Crowley ultimately for protection, but she and the other omega in her band will live outside of the normal pack political structure. She needs a legacy to protect them when that doesn't work, and it doesn't hurt that I care for her quite a bit. It surprised me a little, to be honest."

"I'm sad to be losing you," Dean murmured, reaching out to cup Jo's cheek in his hand. He wasn't normally a very physical person, but he knew that Jo needed his touch. "Charlie is lucky to be getting you as her alpha. You're going to make a great pack leader."

"Hardly a pack," Jo grumbled, smiling at her alpha. "My future mate and one other omega."

"A pack's a pack," Sam shrugged. "We know how long you've wanted to find your place, and leader of a rogue pack certainly counts."

"Your mother is going to kill you," Benny pointed out in that laid-back drawl of his.

Jo ducked her head and chuckled. "Yeah, I know. And I have to officially relinquish my place in Wilderness pack before I can join a rogue pack, even one that I technically lead. I wanted to tell you guys first, before we returned to the city."

Dean grinned as he walked away, his pack trailing behind him again. He glanced toward the city, almost feeling like someone was watching him, but all he could see was the edge of one wing of Asa's house. It was too far away to see people. Shaking off the feeling, he glanced over his shoulder at the only female member of his pack. "I'm glad you ran with us for as long as you did, Jo. I hope you found what you were looking for."

"Yeah, I did. Thanks, Dean."

Castiel glanced at the plate Charlie held, staring at the food for a minute before shaking his head and looking away. He still stared out the window, even though he no longer felt that tugging sensation. Whoever he had seen by the lake earlier was gone now, but he didn't feel like joining the other omegas in their embroidery practice.

The redhead frowned, reaching out to run her fingers across Cas's chest as she whispered a quick spell. "You're really not hungry, are you?"

Cas shrugged and stared at the hand on his chest. He actually felt great; his thought were light and unburdened for the first time since he ran away from home, though he did get a little dizzy if he stood up too fast. He reached for the cup of water on the table next to the window, draining it quickly before eyeing the rose hip tea contemplatively. "I just don't want to eat, that's all."

Charlie placed the food on the table, grabbing Cas's chin and tilting his head down so their eyes could meet. "When was the last time you ate?"

"I don't know."

"He hasn't eaten since we came in here," Gadreel answered, joining his brother and friend by the window. "Nothing tempts him."

Charlie nodded and pushed herself to her feet. "I think I know what's bothering him. Give me a minute. Oh, which bedroom has been used the least by the omegas?"

Gadreel glanced at the three doors in the back of the suite. One led to Max's bedroom, one to Alicia's, and one to the guest room. The twins had lived together their whole lives, but the alpha took a guest room somewhere else in the palace when her brother went into heat. From what he had seen, the boys preferred to use Max's room or the guest room to manage their symptoms.

"Alicia's room has not been used, from what I have seen."

"Alright, fine. Take Castiel and his food in there, get the other omegas into Max's room, and wait for my return."

Charlie stalked out of the suite and past a pair of beta guards. Garth greeted her with a quick wave, straightening at Elvis's growl, as usual unimpressed by the younger beta's friendly nature. Garth was well-known for his impressive tailoring, embroidery, and weaving ability, but he still served guard shifts when the omegas went into heat. The tall, gangly beta considered it his duty.

The young witch was able to find Dean Winchester relatively quickly, his musky alpha scent coloring the corridors from the main entrance to the guest rooms. She caught up to the pack as they entered the small dining room they used, Jo looking up as the omega followed them in. "Dean, I need something from you. Hi, Jo."

"Hey, Charlie."

"Sure, Charlie, what's up?" The two alphas spoke at the same time, glancing at each other and rolling their eyes as they waited for the redhead to answer.

"I need your shirt. The one you've been wearing today."

Dean, who had actually grabbed at the hem of his tunic at the forcefulness of her request, paused. "Why? What do you need my shirt for?"

Charlie glared pointedly, waiting for Dean to finish taking off his shirt before she spoke. "It's kind of an experiment, and if I tell you what I am doing you will waste precious time." She grabbed a small bag off the nearby table, holding it open and nodded for Dean to fold his shirt and place it inside.

"I don't like being left in the dark."

Charlie grinned as she closed the bag, tossing it over her shoulder. "I'll tell you what I'm up to. Later. Probably."

Dean chuckled and shook his finger at the omega. "You're like the annoying little sister I never wanted. You know that, right?"

Charlie grinned as she bounced away, taking her purloined shirt back the way she had come. Jo reached out and punched Dean's arm, offering him a pseudo-annoyed growl. "What about me?"

"You know you're my favorite," Dean purred back, flashing his bright green eyes at the blonde. That was the last Charlie heard before she rounded the corner, hurrying back to Max's suite.

Garth bowed as he admitted the young witch and closed the door behind her. Charlie glanced around, grateful to see that her instructions had been obeyed and the living room was empty of omegas. Holding the bag tightly, she headed for Alicia's room and slipped inside, closing the door and taking a seat on the bed next to Castiel. Gabriel stood near the window and Gadreel sat behind his youngest brother, stroking Cas's arms soothingly as he held the raven-haired omega close to his chest. Gadreel was the only one of the omegas taller than Cas, and the youngest Celestial often found his size reassuring.

"What do you think is wrong with me?"

"How many times did Michael starve you while you were in heat?" At Castiel's startled gasp, Charlie smiled and placed a hand on his arm. "It wasn't hard to guess, though I must admit that I had some help of a psychic nature."

"He left us alone during our first two heats," Cas whispered, dropping his head and nuzzling against Gadreel's shoulder. He knew that the scent of the other three omegas in heat that was affecting him, making him desire physical contact and support, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. "During our third heat he began to ration our food. During our fourth, Gabe was sick and I gave him everything I had. Balthy and Gad did, too. I don't remember eating during a heat at all after that, except for the few strips of jerky I managed in the mountains this winter before our supplies ran out."

"Michael punished Cas the most," Gabriel added, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall. "He hated being challenged and Cas hated backing down."

"Cas, it looks like you've developed a type of conditioned response to the scent of other omegas in heat. In the mountains, it was your brothers' scents, but here you seem to react to Max and his friends, as well. Your body learned that the smell of an omega in heat meant that you wouldn't get food, so it goes into starvation mode. You aren't hungry right now because your body has just gotten used to not being hungry."

"That's ridiculous," Gabe scoffed. "His body doesn't just shut down because he smells omegas in heat. Gad and I aren't affected, and I doubt Balthy is, either."

"And how many times did you go weeks in a row without food?"

"Never," Cas replied, grabbing Gad's wrist in one hand and reaching out for Gabe with the other. The blonde smiled and took his brother's hand, joining him on the bed at last. He leaned against Gadreel's shoulder and reached up to run his fingers through Cas's hair. "I made sure that they always had food, even when Michael refused to give us enough."

Charlie raised one eyebrow, letting Cas's words sink in until the omegas accepted her point. "Look, if I'm right, then I can prove it and even help you overcome the conditioning." Cas opened his hands and pursed his lips in a clear gesture asking her to continue. Smiling, Charlie pulled her small bag into her lap and opened it.

Cas's reaction was immediate, the omega whining and pulling against his brothers' suddenly iron grips in an effort to reach the shirt in Charlie's lap. Gadreel ignored Cas's struggles, purring softly as he kept the younger omega tucked against his chest. Charlie handed the shirt over as soon as Cas had himself somewhat under control, letting the omega breathe in the scent of his alpha. "Gabe, hand him the plate now."

The blonde reached for Cas's lunch, carefully placing it in his brother's lap and holding a piece of sliced venison up to his lips. Blue eyes locked on the offering as his stomach rumbled, Cas clenching the shirt in one hand as he reached for the food with the other. Gabriel made him eat slowly, offering him frequent sips of tea between bites.

Gadreel turned to Charlie, still supporting his brother while he ate. "How did you know this would work?"

Charlie shrugged. "I've seen this kind of conditioning before, though usually in reverse. In the Coven, omegas don't hide away during heat. The betas learn to ignore it, but our one alpha witch and any half-witch alphas had to teach themselves to control their reactions to the scent. Donald developed a kind of technique where he would associate omega heat scent with pain and it would prevent him from going into rut or really wanting to be near them at all. That technique only worked because his mate is a beta, but Crowley did something similar. He used to carry around these awful berries that tasted like sweat and skunk spray. He would eat them whenever he scented an omega in heat. Now he gets that taste in his mouth whenever he is exposed to one, and it helps him keep his cool. I'd guess that Balthazar's heat won't affect him like that, but I have never seen him react to any omega. Cas's situation is similar."

Gadreel looked around the room, taking a gentle sniff. "This room doesn't smell like omega in heat. That, combined with Dean's scent, helped break his mind free of this condition."

"For now," Charlie warned. "He's going to have to fight this at every meal for the next couple of days. The last day will be the hardest. Just isolate him from the omegas when it's time to eat on the last day, and I'll bring one of Dean's shirts if he needs it. I'd prefer not to, though; having a dominant male alpha's scent in this suite is dangerous for the other omegas."

Cas, who had managed to eat about half his meal, clenched Dean's shirt to his chest. Gabriel moved the plate away, knowing that his brother couldn't manage any more safely. "Thank you for bringing this, Charlie. Do you really think I'll need it again?"

Charlie shrugged. "I have no idea. The scent of your chosen alpha encouraged your body to take care of itself, to be healthy for him. An alpha's scent can heal quite a number of omega mental instabilities."

"Am I unstable?"

Charlie reached out and threaded her fingers with Cas's, smiling gently at the raven-haired omega. Images flashed through her head, fragments of the Celestial's future, and she tried to ignore them to focus on the present. Hopefully it would be easier to control once she met her prophet and formed the bond. "You've been abused, Cas, for your entire adult life. Your brother beat you for years, starved you during your heats, and chased you from your home. You're an omega, born to submit to and care for a more dominant partner, but your life forced you to push that integral part of your personality down until now. Is it any wonder that your mind betrays you like this?"

Gabriel and Gadreel knew what was going to happen before Castiel crumpled, the older two omegas wrapping around their brother as Gadreel moved them to the head of the bed where they might have more room. "Dominant male alpha . . . why would he want an omega that can't even trust his own mind? Why would he want me?"

"He does want you, Castiel," Charlie replied, joining the omega cuddle and resting her forehead on the back of Cas's neck. "He loves you and he wants you, trust me."

"Are you going to tell him?" Cas turned and his soulful blue eyes met Charlie's bright emerald.

"Of course I am." Gadreel held Cas tighter as he struggled against his brothers at the words, growling a rejection. "Hey, calm down! I'm going to tell him because he needs to know what to do if this happens while he's with you. He wants to take care of you as much as you want to take care of him. Dean doesn't see you as broken, Cas. He sees what you have survived, what you became to protect your brothers, and he is proud of you." She felt the omega slowly calm down, accepting her words and relaxing under his brother's gentle ministrations. "Cas, he wants to help you grow into the kind of omega you choose to be, no matter how broken you think you are."

"You're no more broken than the rest of us," Gabe soothed. "I still wake up in the middle of the night and scream, terrified that I won't hear any sound come out."

"I still check you over every night to see if Michael or Raphael have given you any new wounds I need to heal," Gadreel added, flattening his palm against Cas's back as if to test for any twinge of pain, any reaction. "And we all eat too fast, look over our shoulders too much, and spend hours every day convincing ourselves that we deserve to be happy. Dean makes you happy, Cas, and you make him happy. Never doubt that."

The younger omega finally broke down at that, crying into his brother's shoulder as Gabriel cuddled against his back. Charlie smiled, knowing that the tears would help Cas heal, gently extracting Dean's shirt from his tight grasp. "Let him cry until he feels better, then let him stay in here until supper. Make sure he eats before he cuddles up with the rest of the omegas tonight. He's not going to want breakfast, but you have to help him fight through that, then make him spend the whole day with Damian or Jordan. The more he is exposed to omega scent, the easier it will be for him to fight his body's expectation of starvation. I'll come back on the last day around lunch time and check on his progress, okay?"

Gadreel nodded. "We will watch out for him. Thank you for your help, Charlie."

"It's always nice to put my healer training to use." She tucked the shirt back into the bag and headed for the door, hoping that Dean was still in the dining room where she last saw him.

Dean looked up as Charlie sauntered into the small dining room, waving an invitation for her to join them as they finished their food. Charlie took the seat next to Jo and across from Dean and Sam, grinning as she handed the head alpha his shirt back. "Thanks for that. Going to tell me what you needed it for?" He tossed the shirt over the back of his chair, having already procured another one from his room.

"Yeah. Um, how much do you know about conditioned behaviors?"

Dean shrugged, but Sam leaned forward eagerly. "I think I read something about this once. It was an old book that my grandfather obtained from a raid on Celestial lands. It's when you have a reaction to a sound or smell or something like that, whether trained or reflex."

"Yes. In this specific situation, I am referring to a reflexive or uncontrollable response to a stimulus, a scent. Castiel is reacting to the scent of the other three omegas in heat."

Dean sat up straighter at the omega's name, stiffening at the use of his full name. "What's wrong with him, Charlie?"

"Nothing's wrong," Charlie assured the alpha, smiling gratefully at Sam as he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Something happened, but it's to be expected. Those boys went through a lot, especially Cas."

"I'm listening."

"He's developed a conditioned response to the scent of omegas in heat. He, uh, completely loses his appetite."

Sam connected the dots first, his hazel eyes widening. "They were starved when we met them, and Cas was worse off than his brothers. Somehow, he has associated the scent of an omega in heat with starvation, so his body suppresses his hunger when he smells it."

"Yeah, pretty much. I had his brothers isolate him and I used Dean's scent to snap him out of it. Temporarily, I should say."

"He shouldn't be in there if the scent is affecting him like this."

Sam grabbed his brother's arm and smiled at him kindly. "What other choice does he have? Cas has to break this conditioning, and there's no better place right now than Max's suite. Would you prefer that he starve himself every time he and his brothers go into heat? Hell, that sounds like letting Michael win."

Dean offered a small growl at the thought, shaking his head. "No, we can't have that."

"Don't worry; I gave his brothers instructions on how to help him through this, and I'm going to check on them during the last day. You needed to know what to watch for this summer when they go into heat."

"You think this will happen again?"

Charlie smiled sadly. "Of course it will. These kinds of things can't be healed overnight." She met Sam's eyes, and the alpha nodded in understanding. "You can help him, Dean, but you have to understand that he is very insecure about this. On top of his other concerns . . ."

"You told him that I don't think he's broken, didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Charlie assure the alpha. "You know how much I care about both of you." Her eyes flashed purple for a moment as she caught the edge of a prophetic vision, but she lost it before the image clarified. "I told him that you love him and that you're proud of him. Gadreel and Gabriel were soothing him when I left."

Dean sighed and ran his hand over his face. "As long as he's okay. I wish I could be there for him, help him through this. What am I going to do when he's the one in heat?"

Charlie caught that vision neatly, examining it before smiling and reaching across the table to grab the alpha's hand. "You'll be there for him, I promise."

"You sound awfully sure of yourself."

Charlie glanced over at Jo, who shrugged back. She hadn't told them. "I, uh, I have a way of knowing, I guess."

"Isn't that kinda what you said about Rowena when we first met?" Charlie watched as Sam ran through the possibilities in his mind, clearly searching through any recent conversations and all of his observations of the young witch. "Is there a new prophet?"

Benny leaned back at that, blue eyes locking on the witch. "It can't be. Rowena never told us that a new prophet would rise."

"There was no way for her to know. A speaker cannot see the next prophet. Rowena said the bond broke two days ago, the morning that most of the male omegas in the North went into heat. I think that one of the two young male omegas who became messengers that morning is the new prophet, though I did test Cas, Gabe, and Gad. I doubt Balthy would be the prophet, either, but I will have to test him when he returns."

"So you don't know who the prophet is? And these two male omegas have to be Celestials in order to be Messengers, so your prophet may be living up in the mountains."

Charlie shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. Rowena and I will have to find him before I form a rogue pack and take him away from the politics of the three lands. He has to be free to see his visions in peace, and I have to be close to him to translate them properly."

"So, what did you see?"

"I saw you and Cas walking across a plain I did not recognize, unfamiliar purple and blue grasses in the background. There were tents nearby, likely the homes of rogues or otherwise nomadic people, and I sensed that your pack mates were nearby. In the vision, I could smell Cas's heat, and I could also tell that you were not in rut. You were calm around him, controlled, in a way that I have rarely seen in an alpha."

Dean grinned. "Cool. I can't wait."

"Kevin, focus. You were pretty close that time."

The young omega nodded, glancing at his red-white-green patterned necklace as if he hadn't already memorized the pattern. He pulled on his wolf, mentally presenting the necklace to his inner self and asking him to accept it as he felt the change take over. Black and white patterned fur spread across his body, the colored beads slowly fading as he finished the transition.

Alfie cheered and reached out to hug the taller wolf, rubbing his ears affectionately. "You did it! You took the beads into your shift."

"I did?" Kevin glanced down, his tail slowly starting to wag as he realized that his brother was right. "I did."

"Very well done, Kevin," Mshindi murmured. "Now you can start working on taking clothes with you into the shift, though I would recommend practicing with something you don't mind losing. You'll tear quite a few tunics before you learn the correct technique."

Kevin shifted back and reached up for his necklace. "This is crazy. How did no one in the north ever know about this skill?"

"Chuck knew, many hundreds of years ago, but the schism between your peoples caused more to be lost than you realized." Mshindi's voice had dropped to his "storytelling" register, and the three other omegas were glad to curl up on their cushions and listen. "I'm not sure how much of your history survived from that time, but the Nomad Tribes remember much more of our past than you do. Before Chuck took over leadership of the northern packs, he spent two hundred years in the south in order to forge treaties that would serve him well as king. We taught him the skill of shifting with clothes, our shamans taught him a few of our most ancient spells, and we promised to follow him and his heir if he ever had need of us."

"Chuck? My father spent two hundred years with your people? And this was before his hundred year rule that ended five centuries ago? How old is he?"

Mshindi shrugged. "He wasn't young when he visited us. He had a plan to combine all of the northern tribes and packs under his rule, and our shamans helped as much as they could. He had powers of his own, something more ancient than what your witches or our shamans practice, but our stories are not very specific about the extent of his magic."

Balthazar leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes as he tried to center himself. "Mshindi, I am finding that I don't really know anything about my father. I rarely saw him as a pup, and he vanished just before my brothers and I went into heat five years ago. This is just . . ."

"You want to know why he would never tell his children about his past? Or why he would not share his skills like fully controlled shifting?"

"Well, yeah, I do."

Mshindi reached into his bag, pulling out a few carved and painted wooden tiles and placing them on the floor between the four cushions. He pointed at the blue stylized howling wolf image first. "You will need a brief education first. This here is the symbol for wolves with unnatural strength, what you call legacies, I believe. Their power comes from their physical might and speed." He pointed at the image of a purple lotus flower with stylized flames rising above it. "This is the symbol of a witch, specifically the magic-users of the north. Our shamans use magic differently, and this is the symbol we have for them." That tile was a runic hand, colored in pale blue, with tiny stars around the fingers and an eye in the center of the palm. "All of our shamans have some psychic ability, even if it is only latent, and the eye represents that."

Balthazar leaned forward and lifted the next tile, a pair of green feathered wings on either side of a seven-pointed star. "This one means messenger, doesn't it?"

Mshindi nodded. "That is your symbol, you and your brothers and Alfie. Kevin's symbol would be the same, but pale yellow with the shaman eye in the center of the star."

Kevin nodded slowly. "Okay, that makes sense. What is this symbol?"

Mshindi lifted the final tile, the front view of a golden-orange wolf with two feathered wings and a golden circle carved above his head. Tiny stars were carved around the image. "This image means king. This is your father's tile."

Balthazar stared in shock at the tile, shaking fingers running down the engraved lines. "Father was a messenger? And he had magic?"

"And he had near-legacy strength," Mshindi added. "We gave him the title Great Chief, to be counted above all others. This halo is his crown, the golden circlet that the northern packs and tribes granted him when he united the lands. When he lost his kingdom and retreated to the mountains, he sent one last message to my ancestor."

"He told you to look for his heir, the next king," Kevin replied, his white eyes glowing with an unearthly silver light. "The prophecy . . . he knew about it then, long before Rowena told him."

Mshindi nodded as he packed the thin burned-bark tiles back into his bag, pulling out one more and handing it to Kevin. "This one is special, as old as the king tile. This is the symbol of a prophet, though the last one died five hundred years ago."

The image depicted a winged wolf flying over a spiral, the wolf's head tucked against its chest with eyes closed. A singled stylized eye, identical to the one in the center of the shaman symbol, was carved on the wolf's chest, the image colored silver-white. "The prophet is a messenger?"

"Yes, she was. All prophets were omega messengers, whether male or female."

"Why are the wings feathered?"

Mshindi chuckled. "My people assign every person a totem, an animal that represents their spirit. Mine is an impala, which is a creature you do not have this far north. Chuck and all other messengers we met were given bird totems, like the harpy eagle. We learned to associate the few messengers we met with birds, so we give the tiles bird wings."

Balthazar reached for the tattoo on his arm as Kevin asked Mshindi questions about the last prophet. Clearly, the Nomads remembered their history better than the northern packs. He pulled Crowley's image into his mind, hoping that he could keep this conversation completely silent. "Are you there?"

"I'm here, Zar. Your thoughts are in turmoil; what's wrong?"

The omega swallowed nervously, struggling to focus his thoughts. "My father . . ."

"A messenger? There's an image of a messenger in your mind."

"Mshindi said that he was a messenger, yes. He never told us. Why would he hide that?"

Balthazar felt the alpha shrug. "Your pack doesn't look kindly on messengers."

"Yes, but he was Head Alpha. Who would have dared cross him?"

"Being Head Alpha does not protect you from all threats, Zar. Even your father, who had once been king, must have feared retaliation from the alphas of his pack. Mother never told me that he had been a messenger, so it's possible that he kept that secret even when he was king."

Balthazar looked away, biting his lip. "Yeah, I guess so. It's not like he could perform the basic duties of a messenger as Head Alpha."

The omega felt Crowley's full attention wrap around him. "What else? There is something else bothering you."

"Are you in court? Crowley, I didn't mean to interrupt you . . ."

"Don't ever think you are interrupting me, Zar. You are the most precious of my subjects and I will make the rest of them wait patiently until I am done speaking with you."

The omega blushed at that, glancing up at his friends. Alfie chuckled and waved his hand at the glowing purple tattoo on Balthazar's arm. "He's talking to Crowley."

"You put your court on hold for me?"

Crowley sent him the sensation of rolling his eyes. "When are you going to understand how much you mean to me? Tell me what else Mshindi said about your father."

"He had magic, something different than what witches and shamans practice. And he had an almost-legacy level of strength and speed."

Crowley was silent for a long moment, clearly processing that information. Unlike Balthazar, he knew how to keep his thoughts silent when he wasn't actively transmitting. "I'll need to speak to my mother about this when she returns. I'm not sure she will tell me over a mental link. Do you remember your father ever using any of those powers?"

Balthazar shrugged, knowing that the alpha would sense the motion. "No, not really. I never saw him use any magic, and if he was stronger than a normal alpha I would never have noticed. His human form was short, shorter than Gabriel, but his wolf form was the normal alpha size."

"What about that worries you?"

"Just . . . this is a big deal, Crowley. I mean, being a messenger lost me my home. It almost lost me my brother. What other surprises did he leave us?"

Balthazar felt strong arms wrap around him, the phantom sensation almost real. "I know that I can't say anything to soothe your concerns, but I don't think you have anything to worry about."

The omega took a deep breath, relaxing into the phantom touch. "I know. This is just . . . a lot to take in." Alfie and Kevin sensed the change in his mood, flanking the taller omega as they wrapped their arms around him. He smiled at the brothers gratefully, holding onto his silent conversation with Crowley.

"I think I can do some research into your father before Mother returns, but she's definitely going to be my best source of information."

Balthazar felt some of the tension in his chest fade, sighing as he leaned against Alfie's shoulder. "Thank you, Crowley. Any information will help."

"I can tell. You're a lot calmer."

"Go back to your court, Crowley. I really appreciate it."

"I'll see you tonight, love."

Balthazar started at the word, realizing as Crowley broke the connection that the alpha had sent it without thinking, on instinct. "He called me 'love'," Balthazar whispered, grinning as he looked up at the brothers.

Alfie grinned and ran his fingers through Balthazar's short blonde hair. "Of course he did. That man is crazy about you. Mother's known him her whole life, and he has never been as gentle with anyone as he is with you."

"Or as protective," Kevin added. He hadn't seen Crowley rip Gerald's throat out, but the sight of that body had been enough to convince him that the Head Alpha would do anything to protect his omega. "You're a good match for him, Balthy." He stiffened as a vision flashed through his mind, the colors too vivid and the scents overwhelming. The omega whined and closed his white eyes, taking a breath as Mshindi placed a comforting hand on his back.

"What did you see, my friend?"

"Pink. Orange. It was a lake, I think, though I have never seen colors like that before. It was dusk . . . the sun had almost set. And there was something . . . someone there? I caught a scent, a wretched, miserable, dejected one . . . but there were too many smells mixed together for me to identify the owner."

"Can you pick any individual smells out?"

Kevin shook his head. "I smelled some flowers, I think, but I couldn't identify any specific one. Is it normal for visions to be so spontaneous and unreliable?"

Mshindi shrugged. "I don't know about your northern seers and psychics, but our shamans will take months to learn to interpret their visions. The best thing is just to try to examine each one as it comes to you and push for more details when you are gripped by it."

"Yeah, alright, I'll try. Just give me some time to recover from the headache that these visions like to give me."

"You going to be okay to come out tonight?" The omegas had already planned to sneak out to Balthazar's clearing that night and meet with Crowley again, but Alfie wouldn't force his brother to go if he didn't feel well.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. As long as Mshindi has his tea ready."

The Nomad chuckled and bowed his head in an affirmative. "Naturally."

Charlie gasped and jumped out of her chair, Jo losing her grip on the omega as the witch's eyes glowed purple. Dean and Sam had gone to take their turns on the guard towers until dusk, both of them needing the distraction from their missing omegas, but Benny had stayed to keep Jo and Charlie company while they waited for Rowena to emerge from her rooms.

Clearly the elder witch sensed the sudden surge of power that gripped her apprentice, emerging from her room for the first time in three days as she dashed into the small library as the power faded from Charlie's eyes. "Rowena!"

"I sensed you catch that prophecy," the witch explained, staring into her apprentice's eyes. "What did you see, Charlie?"

Benny rose to pour Rowena a cup of tea, silently offering it to her as they all returned to their cushions. "I saw . . . a lake. It was orange or pink, maybe. I don't think it was far from here."

Benny nodded. "Coral Lake. It's about three days' run south and east of the capital. The water appears a pink-orange color due to the strange properties of the sand."

"Yeah, okay. Coral Lake. It was dusk, and I could see the constellations in the darker part of the sky. Based on the stars I saw, assuming that they aren't very different from the constellations back home, I would say that it happens within a month of the Spring Equinox."

Rowena nodded, encouraging the younger witch to continue. Astronomy had always been a passion of Charlie's, and clearly it was a skill that would serve her well when interpreting her prophet's visions. "What else did you see?"

"Uh, figures, by the lake. It's hard to see them, because they are silhouetted against the water, but I think there are four of them, huddled together. They look . . . dejected, wretched . . . and I can smell intense misery. Something terrible happened to them, but I don't know what."

"Do you recognize them?"

Charlie shook her head, eyes closed as she tried to fall back into the vision. "It's fading too fast. I can smell something under the pain . . . it's so hard to pull it out . . ."

Rowena placed her hands over Charlie's, rubbing gently. "It's okay, it takes time to build the bond. I'm surprised you can see as much as you can without having met your prophet. Ignore the scents, just focus on what you hear. Can you hear anything?"

"Waves crashing on the lake shore. Birds calling . . . voices? I think I hear voices."

"From the figures in front of you?"

Charlie shook her head, frowning as she squeezed her eyes as tightly shut as she could. "No, the ones in front of me are crying, but they are pretty quiet. The voices are behind me . . . one deeper male voice, and two females. The male . . . I think I am smelling him. It's an alpha. I can't smell the females at all, so they are probably betas or omegas. I can't hear what they're saying but it doesn't sound aggressive."

"Charlie, are the four at the lake omegas?"

The speaker gasped, her eyes flying open as she met Benny's pained gaze. She hadn't even considered the possibility . . . "It smells like the ocean, but it's a lake."

"And the flowers?"

The scents, incredibly weak in her vision and almost overwhelmed by the strange alpha's musk, sharpened in her mind as she suddenly realized that she had encountered all of those aromas before. "Gardenia," she choked out; "honeysuckle, clover, rosemary, and mint."

Benny growled a curse, closing his eyes as he struggled to contain his reaction. "Gadreel smells like the ocean . . . sand, salty water, sea grasses: the works. Gabriel smells like gardenias."

"Balthazar smells like rosemary and mint," Jo continued, wrapping an arm around her partner's waist. "And Castiel smells like honeysuckle and clover."

"You can't tell Sam and Dean," Benny whispered. "What could possibly have happened? What could have driven them so far away from the city?"

"I don't know, I just saw the one scene. But . . . if my reading of the stars is correct, this will happen within a month of the Spring Equinox. I guess it might not be this year, but I got the impression that it will be."

"What can we do?"

Rowena shrugged. "There's nothing to be done, Benny. Sometimes prophets see futures with multiple paths, like the one I told you about the four omegas, and sometimes they just see what will be. This event at Coral Lake, it will happen. Just be there for the boys, and I am sure that you will get through this."

Jo reached across the space between cushions, grabbing Benny's hand in hers and squeezing gently. "We won't tell Sam or Dean, but I will help you keep an eye on them once we leave here. I'm sure that this Coral Lake thing will be easy to resolve."

"Thanks, Jo. I don't want to see Gad in pain, ever. I sure as hell don't want to think about him crying by a lake without me."

Rowena smiled as she took her tea and sipped it. "You must remember that the prophecy is cruel at points, but it does protect these four omegas. They will make it to the end, to the rising of the king, even if they break along the way. You must be there to put them back together, as I have said before. I will do what I can; you know that."

"I do," Benny agreed, relaxing slightly. "I think I'm going to go volunteer to guard the omega wing tonight, see if it calms me."

Charlie chuckled, reaching for her own abandoned mug. "Since I'm sure you'll find a way to talk to Gad, make sure to remind him to get Cas to eat tonight, even if he doesn't want to."

"Of course."

"Metatron?"

It took a long moment for the old beta to look up from his scrolls, slowly placing his quill back in its stand before turning to face his alpha. Long ago, when he was a younger scribe, the beta had served Chuck faithfully in the capital city, penning treaties and negotiating border disputes with the Head Alpha. When Chuck's first omega twins were born, Gabriel and Gadreel, he had told Metatron that he would leave before the boys went into heat, recommending that the scribe find a new, safer home for his retirement. Malachi had been glad to take him in, respecting him for the work he had done under Chuck even as some of the nobles cursed his name. Metatron would be the first to admit that the treaties he worked on had not always been favorable to the Celestials, but they had been fair, and just, and there had been an uneasy stalemate between the three lands in part thanks to his advice. He was content with his past, but he hoped that he could still contribute to his pack's future.

"Malachi," he greeted, his voice rough from disuse. He rarely left his library anymore, content to pass his days reading and writing instead of joining the younger wolves' hunts and patrols. He was no longer as fit as he had once been, gray stubble covering heavy jowls as he squinted as his guest through weakening blue eyes. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You remember when I asked about you taking a trip to Spellbound lands?" Malachi always spoke respectfully and gently to the old beta, one of the few alphas in Celestial lands who ever bothered to be kind to him.

"Yes, yes, I remember. When the snows melt, if I remember correctly."

"The snows are melting early; I think you can leave within the week."

Metatron furrowed his brows and glanced outside, running his hand over his belly thoughtfully. "Hmm, perhaps. I don't know about the lower slopes; when the glaciers melt the river to the south can be quite impassable. I would prefer to go due south until I reach the treaty lands before turning east. There are some unsavory characters in north Spellbound lands, and even an old beta like myself may be in danger from them."

Malachi growled under his breath, clearly having forgotten about that particular issue. "Cain's pack. Those beta children of his are a menace."

Metatron tilted his head to the side in agreement. "Lilith is pretty brutal herself. I heard recently that Alastair has joined them sometime since midwinter." Malachi had no idea where Metatron got some of his information, but it was always accurate and reliable.

Alastair. He had been a rogue wolf, wandering Spellbound lands alone for a decade before he made it into the mountains. Malachi had offered him a home the previous fall, but Alastair had been caught torturing a young omega just after the Winter Solstice and had been chased to the border by Malachi's warriors. The Head Alpha had wanted to kill the sleazy Spellbound, but Metatron had reminded him that the treaty prevented the murder of guests from other packs, no matter the insult. Even in the case of murder or forced mating, a tribunal would have to be called from all three packs to mete out punishment. They had both secretly wished that the skeletal alpha would die in the mountains, but clearly he had not.

"I can see why you wouldn't want to risk a confrontation with him. When do you think the streams to the south will be safe?"

"If you could send a scout on the equinox, I would appreciate it. If the report is favorable, I can leave then, However, I worry that it will be three weeks before it is safe for me to travel."

"I understand, old friend. Anna and Lucifer are going to be coming here for the equinox; would you like to join us to greet them?"

Metatron smiled, running his fingers over the tooled leather of his belt. Lucifer and Anna were the only wolves in the main pack who had ever stood up for him or greeted him warmly. "Yes, yes, it would be good to see them again. Did Anna really attack Zachariah for speaking ill of me in the capital a few weeks ago?"

Malachi grinned. "Yeah, she did. It was pretty awesome." He glanced over his shoulder as a servant stuck her head into the room, the girl nodding toward the main wing of the palace. "I have to go; Inias wants to officially ask for my permission to court Sophia."

"You'd let Inias mate your daughter? You've grown soft in your old age, Malachi."

The Head Alpha chuckled. "Perhaps. But the girl is almost twenty-three and she has waited patiently for me to accept the fact that she isn't a child anymore. Her mother and both brothers have gladly welcomed Inias into the family, so I suppose that it is time I did the same."

Metatron was a very weak psychic, his powers barely strong enough to catch the edges of other peoples' visions, but sometimes he could concentrate just hard enough to force a glimpse of the future. This was one of those times. "Sophia wants to breed this year. She wants to give you a grandchild. Your first."

"Can you See that?"

Metatron nodded. "She will have an alpha son, Malachi. And the sight of that baby boy will be enough to convince Azrael to seek a mate of his own, to have pups of his own."

"And Ezekiel?"

"I see . . . his future lies in the south. I cannot see more than that."

"Thank you for what you did see," Malachi replied, bowing as he left. Metatron nodded his farewell as he returned to his scroll. Lifting his quill, he dipped it once before returning to the history he was painstakingly copying.