Song: Florence + The Machine - Howl

A sudden tightness in Kenny's chest almost causes him to swerve the truck off road.

"Jesus Christ, Kenny!" Stan exclaims as he's startled awake by the tires screeching to a halt, "Hey…" he says more calmly when noticing Kenny hunching forward, clenching at his chest as if in pain, "dude, are you okay?"

"I… I don't know, my chest.. It hurts a lot," Kenny gets out through labored breathing.

Something was wrong, so very wrong, he knew that. And knew it had something to do with Craig. He'd been feeling constant fear building up in him through the night, and it had gotten to a high point where he almost couldn't breathe for a span of time while driving. But none of it, none of the prior feelings he had experienced felt anything like this. There was so much pain in his chest, it was almost as if it were screaming at him, like a voice that he couldn't physically hear out loud but could feel inside of him.

He hunches over in more pain and his forehead presses against the steering wheel. It was so hard to breathe. Despite him taking in deep breaths of air, it was as if something was constricting itself around his lungs and squeezing out all the air in them. He'd never experienced such a feeling as this in his life before. And something in his gut was screaming at him that there was something wrong, so very very wrong.

"Craig…" he murmurs out.

"What?" Stan asks, confused. There's a brief pause that falls, "Kenny… are you and Craig—"

He's interrupted by the sound of a walkie-talkie.

"Guys, is everything okay up there?" Kyle's static voice asks.

"Yeah, uh, just going to switch drivers is all," Stan replies into it.

"Oh, okay then," Kyle says.

"Thanks," Kenny mumbles out.

"No problem," Stan says and unbuckles his seat belt.

He helps Kenny with his next, then opens the door as he helps slide Kenny over into the passenger seat. He closes the door after and heads over to the driver's side and shifts the truck into drive.

"Why don't you try and get some rest for now, I'll take over until we get there," Stan suggests.

"Okay, thanks," Kenny replies and turns to his side.

He knew that Stan wanted to ask him more about what was going on with him, but was grateful that he didn't. He wasn't even sure himself what was happening to him, but his chest felt so heavy now, and there was a sense of overwhelming loss seeping into him. Like a part of him was gone now somehow, and it worried him immensely that he might not get it back.

He isn't sure when he passes out exactly, but when he wakes, it's to Stan's voice telling him that they've arrived. He wakes more and realizes that the truck is now parked, and a few of his team are outside of the truck now and talking to who he recognizes as Wendy.

He sits up straight and adjusts himself a bit before exiting the truck and making his way over to her. As he nears everyone's attention is drawn to him.

"Oh, mister boss guy is finally up I see," one of them says.

"Shut it Clyde," Stan says, following behind Kenny.

"Hey," Wendy greets.

"Hey," Kenny greets back.

"Glad you guys made it here with no trouble," she says.

"Yeah luckily, thanks to your help," Kenny says, "really appreciated it."

"Of course, it's no trouble at all. Glad I could help," she laughs, "and glad to see you… back on your feet," she adds, a hint of relief in her tone, "...and that it worked."

Kenny is a bit confused by what she means exactly, he figured she meant about his wound and being in the hospital, but the latter half of that sentence didn't really make much sense to him.

"Anyways, Wendy here, the great being that she is, managed to snag up some blueprints for Thorn Tower," Bebe chimes in, drawing their attention, "we should probably go over them, don't you think?"

"Oh right, let's check them out and see what we can come up with for when we arrive," Kenny says.

As the group starts to follow Bebe's lead back to the truck, Kenny is pulled back by Wendy.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" she asks him.

"I'm fine," Kenny replies, but she doesn't seem to buy it, "I know I got injured pretty badly, but I'm alright now. Really, you and everyone else don't need to worry about me."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

There's a pause.

"...You haven't like, experienced anything weird or different since getting back up?"

"Weird or different?" Kenny repeats back confused, "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing," she says after a couple seconds, "I'm just glad that you're okay is all."

Kenny doesn't get the chance to ask more about what she meant, as she picks up pace and joins up with the others. Thinking back on it though, nothing really seemed out of place for him, and everything seemed to function as normal for him, at least he thinks so. He hadn't really noticed any change in himself or anything that stood out much to him. Although, he also was much too busy with other things to really notice it. But he was certain that if there was something different about him, he would be able to tell. At least he thinks so. Either way, he didn't have time to dwell on those thoughts for now, he needed to come up with a plan for his team's next course of action.

Some time passes before they come up with an idea for their next course of action and head on their way again.

Only about twenty minutes go by, until they reach their final destination at the tower.

"So that's it, huh?" Stan says looking up at it, from the parked truck.

"Seems so," Kenny says, taking note of the logo on the building.

"Doesn't seem ominous at all," Stan says sarcastically.

"You ready?" Kenny asks and Stan nods. He then holds up the walkie-talkie and speaks into it, "We're here, is everyone ready?"

"We're good to go whenever," Kyle replies.

And with that, Kenny exits the truck and makes his way to the tower. Stan joins up with him a short while later with Kyle and the one named Clyde from earlier at the back of the building. They give a collective silent nod to one another before making their way to a backdoor. Kyle plugs a device into its automatic lock and overrides it to unlock and open the door. They all slip in one after the other and make their way through the halls.

"The custodian room should be to the right," Kyle informs. They quickly come across it shortly after and slip into the room. "There should be some spear uniforms we can wear in here," Kyle adds.

"Let's take a look around," Kenny says and everyone starts searching.

"Hey, think I found some," Stan says, pointing to the inside of a locker and they walk over to him.

Kenny grabs one of the folded clothes from inside it and holds it up, causing it to unfold as he does so and revealing a custodian uniform.

"Alright, change into these then get ready to head out," he tells the others.

Once changed, they head out of the room and split into pairs to be less noticed.

"Craig should be on the top floor, in the living quarters of the building," Kyle informs, into the earpiece.

"Got it," Kenny replies.

Stan and him make their way to an elevator and board it, keeping their faces hidden as best they can with the uniform hats so the surveillance camera won't pick up on them. They make it to the second floor from the top and get off.

"We're on the second top floor, as high as the elevators will take us, you in position yet?" Kenny asks as they near a stairway.

"One second," Kyle replies, "we just saw Damien head down, looks like we'll have a bit of time."

"We still need to hurry though," Kenny informs, but feels a bit of relief knowing that they wouldn't need to deal with Damien for now.

"Okay, we're at the stairway on the opposite side, I'm going to unlock both stairways, are you ready?" Kyle asks.

"Ready," Kenny replies.

The light on the lock flicks to green and Kenny and Stan head in. They make their way up the stairs and quickly reach the top floor.

"Okay, we've reached the top floor, now all we have to do is figure out which room he's in," Kenny says, "keep me updated if you guys find anything."

"Will do," Kyle replies.

Kenny and Stan begin their quick scan of the area, peeking into rooms and halls.

"Goddamn this place is huge," Stan says.

"Tell me about it," Kenny says.

"Where do you think he'd most likely be?"

"With how Damien is known for being, probably some fancy ass bedroom or something."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it were just a trophy room to be honest," Stan says and Kenny shoots a look back at him, "what, I'm just saying," he adds putting up his hands with a shrug.

As unsettling as it was, Kenny couldn't say that he wouldn't also be surprised by that either. But he hoped for it not to be the case, and that Damien actually had some sort of decency to not stoop so low as to actually do that.

They nearly run into a couple personal staff members, consisting of maids and butlers, but manage to sneak past them fairly easily. They had been lucky so far and even more so, as it seemed like only a handful of Damien's personal staff were on this floor.

They eventually come across a very fancy looking door with rich wood and a golden trimmed frame. There's something about it, that Kenny feels in his gut almost pulling him towards it. He reaches a hand for the knob and gives it a try. But it's locked. He quickly looks around for something small.

"What is it?" Stan asks.

"I need something to pick a lock with," Kenny replies.

"Oh," Stan says, then hurries off.

Kenny wonders where he's run off to briefly before he makes a quick return.

"I saw these lying on a table in the living room area, think these will do?" Stan asks as he hands him an old looking pair of hair pins with small decorations on them of some sort.

"Yeah," Kenny replies.

He gets to work on the lock and manages to get it open after a few seconds. He stands back up as he opens the door and peers inside.

The room is big, and filled with expensive looking furniture and other goods. He opens the door more, continuing to scan the room until they fall onto a king sized bed with four columns, near the windowed walls of the outside overstretching cityscape. They widen once he spots what's lying on the bed, and quickly rushes into the room.

"Craig!" he exclaims.

He comes to a stop next to the bed and overlooks him. Craig is lying on his back nude, with his head turned to the side facing away. There's various marks littered across his body in various parts, and a black leather collar around his neck. Kenny's expression darkens and even more, when spotting the chain attached to the collar from the bed.

"Craig…" Kenny says again, and tentatively reaches a hand out towards him. He places a hand on his cheek and slowly turns his head to him.

Craig's eyes seem glazed over, as if he's not even there. Dark red puffy circles encase the lower part of his eyes. It seemed as if he were numb, and was out of touch from this world. The sight is enough to cause Kenny's brows to knit together in sorrow.

"Craig, can you hear me? It's me Kenny," he says, hoping that his voice reaches him.

This time, there's a reaction. It's subtle, but Kenny manages to notice the way in which Craig's expression shifts. Then his eyes as they look over at him.

"Kenny…?" he says, distant.

"Yeah," he replies, trying to offer a small smile.

There's a long pause that follows as Craig just stares at him, almost as if he were unsure if what he was seeing were real or not. Slowly, Craig lifts up a hand and places it on his cheek. And it's only then, when the warmth of Kenny's face seeps into his skin, does Craig's eyes seem to clear and he's drawn back to the world.

"Kenny," he repeats, his eyes now starting to water. And Kenny leans into his hand more and he places his own over top of it. Tears start to fall from Craig's eyes then and he sits up, quickly wrapping his arms around him, "You're real," he sobs out, "I can feel you in my arms, you're not just a dream this time."

"Yeah, I'm here Craig," Kenny replies softly, "I came here for you. Sorry that it took me so long."

Craig's sobs seem to grow at that, and Kenny wraps his arms around him to return the hug.

"Damien he—I'm so sorry I couldn't—I couldn't protect our bond—I tried my best to, but it was —it—" Craig cries out into his shoulder and Kenny's hold on him tightens.

"No, it isn't your fault Craig," Kenny tells him, "I… I should have gotten here sooner. It isn't your fault."

Kenny tries to calm him as best he can, but still Craig sobs out repeated apologies to him.

"It's not your fault," Kenny whispers to him, over and over.

Craig manages to start calming down, as his sobs turn into more quiet hiccups. He keeps his face pressed to Kenny's shoulder, and takes in slow breaths. There's a very faint sweet scent that wafts into Kenny's nose from something, mixed with that of, burning wood? But he's unsure as to what it is, and thinks it must be coming from somewhere in the room.

"Your scent is different…" Craig murmurs against him.

"Huh?" Kenny says confused.

There's a shudder from Craig then and at first Kenny thinks it's because he's cold. But when Craig is suddenly shoving him away, he's even more confused.

"Craig?" he asks.

"I…" Craig trails off. An expression crosses his features, like that of shock or pain. "Sorry…" he mumbles and looks away.

There's a cough then, not from either one of them, but from Stan.

"I'm uh, sorry to interrupt but, we should probably get a move on, before 'you know who' makes a sudden comeback," he says.

"Right," Kenny says, with a small nod.

He reaches for the collar around Craig's neck then and undoes it. Once it's off, he goes to help Craig up, but Craig seems to flinch away from him.

"Craig?" Kenny asks, concerned.

"I… I'm sorry, I…"

"It's alright," Kenny tells him, "are you able to move on your own?"

"Yeah, I think so," Craig replies.

"Okay, try and stand then."

Kenny moves back to give him some space and Craig slowly gets to his feet. Kenny glances around for something to cover him with, and finds a blanket.

"Here," he says, and puts it around him, "I know it's not much, but it will have to do for now."

As he adjusts the blanket over Craig's shoulders, he catches a glimpse of his neck. His brows can't help but furrow when he spots the mark on it and he tries to ignore it as best he can for now and covers Craig up. Although seeing it, helped clear up as to why Craig was pushing him away now.

"I—my heat, I—I don't think I can go out there," Craig says, worried.

Which he had every right to be. Regardless of whether he was marked or not, alphas without mates were sure to be drawn instantly to him. And even more so because he was an omega in the Alpha District.

Kenny knew that as soon as they headed out that door with Craig, chaos would ensue.

He pauses for a few seconds to contemplate on the next course of action before pressing a finger to his earpiece.

"Kyle, we found Craig on the east side of the suite. You guys able to meet up with us?" he asks.

"Oh okay, we'll be there in a few seconds, hold on," Kyle replies.

Kenny looks at Craig then.

"Keep that blanket wrapped tightly around yourself as best you can, this is going to get very hectic once we leave this room," he tells him, and Craig does as he says, wrapping it close to himself and making sure to lift the bottom so that he's ready to move quickly. "We're going to get you out of here," he tries to reassure.

Just then he hears footsteps come down the hall and finds Kyle and Clyde now at the doorway.

"What's the situation?" Kyle asks, taking note of Craig.

"We're going to need to rush the exit as quickly as possible," Kenny tells him.

"Why?"

"Because Craig's in heat."

"Oh," is all Kyle says as he looks over Craig again.

"Contact the team and tell them to be ready for a quick get away," Kenny says, which Kyle nods to and takes out a walkie. "Are you ready?" Kenny asks Craig.

"Yes," Craig replies.

"We're going to need to move quickly and keep on moving, we won't be able to stop once we leave this room okay?" Kenny says, "I'm sure you can guess why."

"I know," Craig says.

Kenny offers a small smile. He wanted to touch his face or hold his hand and comfort him, but he knew what would happen if he tried to. So this small gesture of expression was all he could give him.

"Okay, I told the others to be ready," Kyle says as he pockets the device.

"Alright," Kenny says and gives everyone one last look over, "let's go."