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Talk Too Much

The question of what the bloody hell was currently bouncing around in Harry's head like God was playing foosball inside his brain. Which was one hell of a mental image, and one he'd have appreciated more if he wasn't so busy silently freaking out. Why had Alpha Vasic called King? What had he said to him? Was Eggsy all right? Was it safe to call his lover or should he wait until he was outside with less chance of someone overhearing? Had Taron been plotting to get Vasic's support and that was what the call had been about? Being under Vasic's protection would either up King's determination to kill Eggsy or hold him back. No sane person wanted to be on Vasic's bad side. Not that Harry was entirely sure the psychopath had a good side. He was pretty sure that was just an urban myth created by Taron to justify shagging him.

William coming down the hallway towards him wiped all other thoughts from Harry's mind.

The questioning look Harry directed in the other man's direction got him a slight shake of the head in turn, nothing more. So, either William didn't know why Harry's meeting with his father had been unceremoniously cut short or the man didn't feel it was safe to tell him where others might hear him. Hell, the place could even be bugged.

Moving out of William's way Harry allowed himself a brief look at the dominant's retreating back and then continued walking with a fixed blank expression on his face. Meanwhile William's appearance hadn't given anything away, but there had been definite tension in the way he'd moved.

Picking up speed on that thought Harry exited the building through the nearest outside door, relieved beyond words when he discovered that Merlin was there, waiting for him.

"What happened?"

"Hell if I know." Harry began. "He was making snide comments, no doubt building up to some lecture or attempt to get information about Eggsy from me, when his secretary came in. Said Vasic was on the phone demanding to speak with him. He took the call in another room so I wouldn't hear what was said or see his reaction. When he came back all he'd say was that something had come up and we'd have to reschedule. I could smell fear, but fading. I'd guess he was terrified going to take the call like any sane person, then whatever was said didn't scare him. Upset him, though. I could see it."

Merlin lifted his wrist to check the time. "The Paris meet was only supposed to be for an hour or so. Has he messaged anything to you?"

Feeling like an idiot for not thinking to check as soon as he'd left King Harry took out his phone. Bollocks. According to the screen the last message he'd gotten from Eggsy was still the photo he'd sent before the meeting to reassure him about the public location of the meet.

"No message. I'll call him."

Doing so Harry waited and waited, his agitation only growing as it went to voice mail. Which was fine, the meeting had probably just dragged on a bit. Right? Nothing was wrong. Everything was probably better than that. Surely Taron had used his hold over Vasic to convince him to call King and warn him off harming Eggsy. That was surely it. Right?

Fuck.

Harry hung up without leaving a message and tried calling Taron instead.

This time it rang three times and then was picked up, thank the powers that be.

"Wotcher, Harry. Meeting cut short?"

That was definitely amusement in Taron's voice, which was good. Harry allowed himself a moment to breath out a small sigh of relief before confirming that yes, his meeting was over. How was Eggsy?

"Gallantly trying to fight off the advances of a very determined she wolf, but fine otherwise."

"What?"

"One of Vasic's lot has taken quite a shine to him. And is very handsy."

"What?" God, he sounded like a parrot. "What's going on? My meeting was canceled because Vasic called King. Why?"

Taron laughed. "Wellll...funny story."

"Your sort of funny, or everyone's?"

"That's fair." A pause, Taron perhaps rethinking his delivery of his 'funny story' now. "Basically, Vasic's people set up a perimeter around the café since they knew going in that Eggsy's being targeted. They wanted to make sure that their Alpha wasn't caught in the crosshairs of anything. Eggsy noticed Selenka up on a rooftop with her rifle and naturally assumed King had sent her. He pushed Vasic-or tried to-towards safety and then heroically threw himself over me to act as a human shield. Vasic was impressed by his instincts, the fact that Eggsy would actually show concern for his wellbeing, and appreciated his willingness to die for me. His people were impressed by all that as well-and want to adopt him."

"We are NOT moving to Russia!"

Another laugh. "That serious about him, are you? Good."

"Taron."

"Sorry." The apology sounded mostly sincere. "But really, things are fine. Better than we expected. Vasic called King to tell him that Eggsy's now under his protection. William wasn't entirely wrong...I think Vasic is still debating whether he wants to fuck or adopt Eggsy...but what's really important is that Eggsy held Vasic's dominant gaze without backing down, Harry. His gaze was getting stronger, not weaker. Eggsy didn't submit in the slightest."

That...that wasn't...

Harry swayed, grateful at the sudden grip on his arm as Merlin grabbed him in support.

Turning his head Harry met Merlin's shocked gaze, well aware that Merlin had been eavesdropping on the conversation the entire time. The two of them stared at each other, both knowing what this had to mean.

Eggsy wasn't just a dominant strong enough to be an Alpha. He might...could be...an Alpha already. A born one.

The existence of born Alphas was something long debated amongst their kind. These days the general consensus was that yes, there were dominants born with traits that would make them good Alpha candidates-but that didn't make them special. Wasn't something to get all excited about. Some people just had better leadership ability than others.

But there were those who believed the old stories. The legends. The tales of born Alphas who had done great things. Who'd brought unprecedented wealth, strength, and honor to their packs. Born Alphas who'd laid down their lives with the greatest of selflessness for their people. Who had proven themselves, both on and off the battlefield, to be in a league of their own.

Vasic, for instances, was not a born Alpha. Not as defined by the old stories. He did not have that ability to love and bring people together. To bring out the best in his packmates. He was a god damn psychopath who collected strays to him because a wolf desired pack. Because Vasic desired subordinates.

Not a born Alpha...but an incredibly dominant one. The most violently dominant wolf Harry had ever met. It took incredible strength of will to hold Vasic's gaze normally, much less when he was testing you for weakness. Some managed it, yes, but their erratic pulse and heartbeat, their struggle to do it, gave them away. It was always made clear that Vasic could, with time, destroy their dominance and make them submissive.

In his gut Harry knew what Taron was suggesting. That Eggsy, still so young and untrained with his two natures still fighting each other for control half the time had enough dominance, enough strength already to stare down Vasic. To possibly, in the future, be more dominant.

It was said a born Alpha couldn't be dominated. He or she submitted to one person and one person alone. Their mate.

"Recovered from the shock enough to talk?" Taron asked. Possibly not for the first time.

Harry's affirmative was more croaked than growled.

"Yeah. At first I was so chuffed, so proud that it didn't occur to me. Then it did. King can't find out."

No. No he couldn't. However-

"The Kings have always claimed that born Alphas run in their family line."

"How much they actually believe that is up for debate, but I hear you. And if King does believe it that could also explain why he's escalating so fast. The amount of control Eggsy showed, keeping himself and his wolf under control before you found him..."

Fuck. Of course. King would have investigated Eggsy thoroughly.

"Vasic and his people won't say anything. The problem is any spies King might have had in the area."

"He knew about the meeting. Or that's the sense I got when we spoke."

"I figured. But the important thing is that no one was close enough to confirm Eggsy's physical reactions or lack thereof. If any of King's people were nearby they couldn't handle Vasic's dominance and backed off. At most they can testify to the fact that he held Vasic's gaze. Others can manage that. Hell, even King can manage it for twenty odd seconds before he finds some excuse to look away and recover himself."

Harry had never tested how long he could hold Vasic's gaze-and admittedly wasn't eager to try.

"So, breathe a sigh of relief and settle down. Things are seriously looking up now."

"No. They're not. Why would you think this is good?" Harry's mind boggled that Taron was so calm about this. King's desire to kill Eggsy would skyrocket if he really started to think that Eggsy was a born Alpha.

"Well obviously because-shite. Did I forget to tell you-bugger. I didn't have that much vodka." Taron started muttering about how getting old sucked.

"Taron. If you want to get any older you'll explain. Now."

A moment's pause from the other end had Harry envisioning his hands around Taron's throat. Which, given the man's resemblance to Eggsy, did not sit well with him or his wolf.

"I almost made a joke...but I'm going to remember that with age is supposed to come wisdom." Taron finally stated. "What I forgot to say before was that Eggsy's also protected because by supper time tonight the whole pack will think King tried to assassinate him."

"But it wasn't-"

"They won't know that." Taron pointed out, interrupting him. "It will be all over the news, Harry. People took videos and such. Eggsy didn't just try and protect Vasic and I-he yelled at everyone to take cover. In English of course, but enough people understood and they repeated the warning in French for everyone else. There was quite a panic, especially when Selenka and another of Vasic's men were spotted by others before they made their getaways."

Weights dropped off Harry's shoulders. "King literally can't do anything now. Or at least not in the near future."

The assumption that King had tried to have Eggsy murdered would reverberate through the pack. That it wasn't the truth, and in this King was actually innocent, wouldn't be believed. And Harry chose to believe that the majority of his pack would be horrified over what they thought King had done. And even the packmates who would turn their snotty noses up at someone like Eggsy joining their pack would find this horribly gauche at the very least.

But it was the idea that he'd done it while Eggsy was in Vasic's vicinity that would really put King on EVERYONE'S shit list. If Vasic had somehow been killed or maimed-Hell, if he was just annoyed by the act and chose to lash out-people would die. Members of their pack would die and or suffer needlessly because King had decided he didn't want Eggsy around to challenge him. Such disregard for the wellbeing of their pack...well that would get the tongues wagging. Add that to the news Vasic had placed Eggsy under his care...

Eggsy was, for the time being, untouchable.

Unless King went insane or was really that deluded about his position and-

"Right. I'm going to get your boy on the phone. I have a feeling you're still freaking out. Hold on a mo."

)

The sight of his uncle making his way through the decently crowded and very seedy bar they were in had Eggsy inwardly doing a happy dance. He did not want to be left alone with these people. Sasha seemed determined to kill him with what he claimed was vodka, and Selenka...well death would be preferable to what she'd do to him if he were ever at her 'mercy'. Which was a word that Eggsy was fairly sure she didn't understand in any language. Though thank fucking Christ she only spoke a little English. He'd probably lose everything in his stomach if he had a better idea what she was threatening to do to him. Demitri had played interpreter for a bit, and that had been traumatizing enough.

Russians were fucking crazy. Or at least the ones who hung around Vasic. Which made perfect sense.

Making his very fake apologies Eggsy leapt at the chance to talk to someone, anyone, on the phone Taron indicated he should take when he got back to their table. The fact that the screen revealed the person on the other line to be Harry was just icing on the cake.

Motioning that he was going to move off to the side where it was quieter Eggsy shared a look with his uncle and then brought the phone to his ear, grateful for his super hearing since the bar was noisy as fuck.

"Harry. How'd your meeting with King go? You all right? Sorry if you called me first. My phone's died."

"You forgot to charge it?" Harry tone said there was going to be hell to pay if that was the case.

Thankfully that wasn't the case.

"I mean it's in pieces. Did Uncle Taron tell ya wot happened?"

"He did. It was a brave thing you did."

Eggsy rolled his eyes at that. "I overreacted, Harry. And now everyone thinks I'm some sort of hero, and they weren't ever in danger."

It had been awful, everyone coming up to thank or even hug him. Yeah, he'd thought the threat was real at the time-but he felt like such a fucking fraud now. The only good thing was that the coppers had been so scared of Vasic that they'd pretty much scrammed once they'd lied and said they didn't know nothin about what had happened and given them their info. Just innocent bystanders, them.

Not.

If he was the cops he'd be running Vasic's name through the system right about now. See if he had any mob connections or outstanding warrants.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed, Eggsy. Yes, this time there was no danger, but there could have been. That they weren't doesn't diminish your willingness to protect them."

While he wanted Harry to think the best of him Eggsy couldn't agree on this one. Sides, there were more important things for them to talk about. Like the fact that Harry hadn't answered his question about how things had gone with the Alpha Prick.

"He'd barely gotten started being a prick when Vasic called him. He sent me on my way after that."

Nice silver lining, that.

"Taron said that Vasic's pack is eager to adopt you."

Ugh. "Yeah. Not happening. Ever." Eggsy shuddered just imagining it. "Aled and Caleb seem all right, but the rest are fucking insane. Or do a bloody good job of pretending to be."

"Just stay close to Taron." Was Harry's advice. "And stay away from this Selenka person."

Eggsy had to laugh at that. "Oh, believe me, I will. I told her up front about you and she started talking about-ya know, nevermind. I'll spare ya the details."

A telling silence.

"I think you should strongly suggest to Taron that it's time for the two of you to come home."

He got that-while also being fucking amused at Harry's tone of voice. Something he made sure not to convey as Eggsy assured Harry that he'd do his best.

"Good. I'll be waiting."

Now that was an incentive, Eggsy thought with a wicked grin. "Definitely have to celebrate surviving our meetings, yeah?"

"Yes. See you soon."

"It's a date."

The call ending Eggsy was about to shove the cell in his pocket before remembering that yeah, it wasn't his phone. Which reminded him again that his own was currently in three separate pieces, though that wasn't nearly as big a deal as it would have been before. Taron had said they'd stop and get a replacement on the way home, a fancy one rather than the basic one he'd had. Though it would be a right pain, having to contact all his mates by email to get their phone numbers from them. There'd be no getting them off his old one.

Not that he was daft enough to complain about that to anyone he was hanging around with currently. He knew from past experience what the 'older generations' thought of his generation's dependence on electronics.

But let's see them remember phone numbers on top of all the stupid passwords you needed for every sodding thing these days, Eggsy thought with serious bitterness. That hadn't been an issue back in the day, now had it? So there.