Contacting Dolarhyde as they left the opera had taken all of three minutes and, frankly, he'd seemed borderline ecstatic to move things up. With an agreement to meet them at Cornwallis' house, they'd returned to their own home, filled Abigail in on everything and checked on the twins before Hannibal had gathered what was needed. Nobody had bothered to change, Hannibal would just slip on one of his plastic suits once they arrived and Will couldn't help thinking his elegant murder had reached new heights.

Though a longer drive than to the opera house, Will hardly noticed it; he was adrenalized and eager to get his friend back. Once Beverly was home Will's promise to rescue them from Jack would be complete, he'd have kept his word. He wanted to introduce Beverly to his pups, wanted them to know the woman he hoped would be their godmother. Maybe after they got Beverly back he would stop having nightmares.

Oliver's home was an older house more in keeping with Hannibal's own with a vast quantity of land around it. The Bentley was left quite some distance away where it wouldn't be noticed and the mates silently made their way toward Oliver's home. This was nothing new for Hannibal, but Will hadn't ever experienced such a thing; he wanted Oliver dead and Beverly saved, but it was only when a shadow fell into line beside them that he realized they'd be killing people that night. Hannibal and Dolarhyde shared a greeting while Will meandered around in his thoughts; he'd killed Margot Verger, he was already a killer, but that had been a fit of anger while this was cold and calculated. No, Oliver Cornwallis didn't deserve second chances or pauses to think of morality, for what he'd done his sentence was death.

"I'm still killing the family, right?" Questioned Dolarhyde as he took the safety off his gun and raised it toward the first of the cameras they'd scouted out days ago. "I won't be denied."

"Nobody is denying you, Francis, I assure you of that. Will accompanying us was unforeseeable though, so I suggest you go ahead and kill anyone you like. As long as you leave Cornwallis for us and do not harm Beverly Katz should you come across her, I'll not interrupt."

That seemed to sooth any worries and concerns over. For a moment Dolarhyde had half expected Hannibal to insist Will got to slaughter kills meant for him. The Chesapeake Ripper could have done so much better than an uncultured runt for an omega – should have done better – but he couldn't help envying the way Hannibal looked at Will; Dolarhyde wanted someone to look at him like that. Reba might not have been able to actually make eye contact with him, but he'd seen the beginnings of love twinkle in them, maybe one day she'd love him properly.

"I've not got a problem with leaving him for you, Doctor Lecter. I want to see your painting finished."

With that Dolarhyde shot the camera and quickly moved on to the others in a systematic manner while the mates watched on. Wasn't this how things should have been? The former soldier carrying out the infiltration while the medic waited for his moment?

Will squeezed Hannibal's hand. "He still doesn't like me."

"That is because Francis is jealous of you, Will. He envies the love I have for you, my devotion, because he's never had that in his life before. Meeting me is the first time he feels truly seen by anybody and now he is greedy because he never wants to be without that feeling again."

One eyebrow raised above Will's glasses. "He's not going to do anything though, is he?"

"Not unless I tell him to, no. Francis would much rather have things remain the way they are than see me hate him."

"I get it." Will nodded. "I felt the same when I met you. Until you I'd just been another omega."

Hannibal cupped his cheek then and pulled him close for a kiss as shots began inside the house; just a faint pop and intermittent flashes through the windows. There would always be a bloody backdrop to their love and that somehow seemed appropriate.

"I love you, mylimasis. I will always love you and not just because you're the most beautiful omega I've ever met. You're magnificent."

"Flatterer." Will breathed out a laugh. "Should we go in now?"

Hannibal presumed Dolarhyde would have eliminated everyone inside the house by now and subdued Cornwallis, so he agreed and had Will don his spare plastic suit – too big but that made it all the more adorable on him. Inside they found a bloodbath, raspberry splattered over walls and pooling on the ground throughout the house. As they made their way through the house Will recreated exactly what had happened in his mind, saw a step by step as though he'd murdered them all himself. The live-in maid had been the first to go, gunned down near the top of the stairs when she'd left her room, then had been the eldest teenage son as he'd exited a bathroom. The two youngest Cornwallis children hadn't even made it out of their beds, while the last teenage son had been shot as he'd fled down the back stairs. Inside the master bedroom lay the wife, blood soaked into the fluffy rug there reminding Will of a slaughtered polar bear; odd how that image was the only part he found distasteful. Oliver though, he remained very much alive stood by his bed. Dolarhyde had him pinned in place with the threat of being shot just as his entire family had. Of course Oliver had no way of knowing Dolarhyde wouldn't risk disappointing Hannibal by killing him; no, if forced, the dark-haired alpha would just kneecap him and be done with it.

"Hannibal?" Oliver's brow furrowed deeply the moment he spotted his fellow alpha enter the bedroom. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Forgive the rude interruption, I'd not intended to barge in tonight. However, the night was young and Will asked so delightfully."

"What are you fucking talking about? Hannibal who is this bastard?!" He demanded with a nod to Dolarhyde. "What are you wearing and why the hell are you here?"

Hannibal rounded the dead beta woman on the floor with Will right behind him until he was almost within arms distance of Oliver.

"I think I can make you understand exactly why we're here and what has brought you to this fate with a single name. Beverly."

Anger drained from Oliver's face to be replaced by shock, he tried to hide it but not very well. His Adam's apple bobbed as his mind raced to find some way out of the situation he'd found himself in. Dolarhyde couldn't have cared less about Beverly, he just wanted to kill the family then watch Hannibal finish his painting. Will though, he wanted to watch Oliver suffer and Hannibal would ensure he did just that.

"Who? I don't know what you're talking about. Who- Who the fuck is she?"

"Must you swear so gratuitously?" He sighed and set his medical bag down on the end of the bed, opened it and retrieved his scalpel. "You remind me of a woman who once threatened my mate, Mister Cornwallis, I'll tell you what I told her: If you're going to lie to me, at least have the decency to be good at it."

In one swift motion, before anybody had realized Hannibal had moved, Oliver had been knocked to the bed and rope snared around his ankles – how Hannibal had pulled that from his medical case so quickly remained a mystery. With Oliver's feet bound, Hannibal handed the rope to Will so he could tie it to the bed tightly while he turned his attention to Oliver's wrists, all while Dolarhyde kept a gun on him. Ropes bit into Oliver's flesh, burning and painful.

"The fuck is this?! Let me go, you sick fucking cunt!"

Hannibal's head tilted to one side with a mightily unimpressed expression. "What did I say about gratuitousness, Mister Cornwallis? I believe we'll begin with your tongue to save our eardrums."

So that was exactly what Hannibal did, he took the man's tongue with practised hands and set it aside on the nightstand to drip softly down the wooden drawers. Dolarhyde leaned up against the wall content to watch just as he had with Marsden, but Will drifted ever closer eager to witness the startling beauty that was death. He finally set the cooler he'd been carrying down by his mate's medical case, but those blue eyes of his never left the scene before him.

"Will, brangusis, You saw me take parts from Margot Verger, how would you like to assist this time around?"

"Can I?" A stupid question, Hannibal never would have offered had he not been serious. "I'd like that."

Dolarhyde's eye twitch but he remained silent as Hannibal opened Oliver's abdomen up while the man gargled his own blood and wept. The scalpel moved carefully with only as many cuts as was needed until both kidneys, the liver and intestines were ready for removal. It had been some time since he'd made sausages and knew they'd go down well at the House.

"There you are, Will. All you need do is reach in and pull them out." Will needed no further encouragement, did exactly as told and placed each organ into the cooler for Hannibal to create with later. "Well done, my love, I'll prepare the heart and lungs for you."

"What do humans taste like?" The dark-haired alpha suddenly asked from his corner. "Are they like pigs? Cows maybe? Or is the old saying everything tastes of chicken right?"

"Humans can be mistaken for pork by the untrained palette." Began Hannibal without looking away from his bloody work. "Truthfully there is no exact likeness, humans are our own unique flavor. Yet, if forced to make a comparison, I'd liken human meat to that of veal. It's rather versatile as well, there are a great many dishes to be made."

"You're making me hungry, Doctor Lecter."

That finally had Hannibal glance over his shoulder to Dolarhyde as Will started to pull Oliver's still beating heart out and strike the killing blow.

"Perhaps I shall cook for you one day."

Dolarhyde smiled, an actual smile. "I'd like that."

With organs removed and sat neatly inside the cooler, Hannibal turned his attention to finishing the painting he'd begun with Marsden. Tonight he'd paint the second brother and string him up for the police to find, to finally put the last pieces of the puzzle together. Both he and Dolarhyde knew the FBI would have realized the Chesapeake Ripper and Tooth Fairy had teamed up for Marsden's death, and that surely had to be a terrifying realization for them, but it would soon be over with Oliver's demise. Yes, they'd tackle Marcus Delamare together but Hannibal didn't foresee further collaborations beyond that. They were separate entities killing for very different reasons, there wasn't any need for them to work on top of one another.

"Where are you going to hang him once you're done, Hannibal?"

He couldn't shake the way Will's voice had sounded like a teenager excited to learn; always so adorable was Will.

"The stairs," he replied. "That is where Francis and I hung Marsden, we must have a matching image." He leaned in to kiss his beloved mate. "Once I've made the necessary cuts, would you like to remove his face?"

Was this what true love looked like? That was the question Dolarhyde kept returning to. Hannibal and Will worked together so seamlessly as though they'd been doing it all their lives, they anticipated one another, just one fluid motion after another. He and the Dragon hadn't ever been like that, they argued and couldn't ever work together properly; the medication Hannibal had put him on helped to quiet the Dragon's rage, but did nothing to help them work together. Then there was Reba, he felt something for her he'd never felt for another human being in his life, she wasn't like other omegas. How as it a blind woman could see him so completely? Dolarhyde couldn't be sure she felt that something as well, but he hoped she did and, without the Dragon ordering him to kill Reba, maybe he stood a chance of finding out.

With surprisingly little effort Oliver's face was removed and taken downstairs where it was carefully placed on the accent table beside the front door with Marsden's, which Hannibal had brought with them. Then the three killers carried Oliver's destroyed body to the stairs where he was hung up to complete the painting. The ropes continued to cut into his flesh even after death, an ongoing torment Will hoped he'd suffer in Hell as well.

Only Marcus Delamare remained, he was the last pure evil that needed banishing from the world that could threaten the House. His demise would be the start of a new era for the omegas who'd survived the House and Marcus' auctions. Speaking of surviving omegas, attention soon returned to locating Beverly. They all doubted she'd have been hidden somewhere Oliver's wife stood a chance of stumbling across her, same with the maid, but that hadn't ruled out another hatch in the basement.

"Maybe we should have gotten out of him where she is first." Will mused once they'd concluded she'd not been imprisoned in the basement.

"No need, Will. Francis has already assessed the situation for us during his reconnaissance. He concluded she was either in the basement or somewhere in the nest of sheds and outbuildings hidden away at the back of the property. Beverly is not here-"

"So check the sheds." Will finished for him.

He supposed Hannibal was right, Oliver hadn't seemed all that intelligent or cunning when they'd met at the opera, and nobody could argue with Dolarhyde's ability to survey a location. Hannibal thought of everything, was a master at being prepared, so if he'd felt confident Beverly was in one of those two places then Will was confident Beverly was in one of those two places.

They trekked out to the sheds and outbuildings, some half-collapsed from years of disuse, while others seemed newer and centred around a mechanical building which probably held the backup generator and such. However, instead of cracking them all open to take a look or calling out for Beverly, Hannibal soon spotted one shed with three more locks than all the others. Old fashioned padlocks – heavy duty and brand new.

"Here." Didn't take more than a few seconds for the omega and other alpha to flank him on either side. "Would you like to put those lockpicking skills of yours to good use again, Francis?"

Dolarhyde smiled, even just a hint of Hannibal's praise brightened his day. Soon the padlocks were on the ground forgotten and the door yanked open. Inside they found Beverly half unconscious on a makeshift bed of dirty blankets, she'd been shackled to the wall by a long chain around her neck and – while not as badly beaten as Brian had been – was in a sorry state.

"Get away from me!" Beverly managed to scream when she saw two new alphas enter the room dressed disturbingly and smelling of blood. "Get away!"

"It's okay!" Will pushed passed the two alphas and hurried to the woman's side. "It's me, it's Will."

Beverly's brow furrowed deeply. Will? Will was actually there? Will with two alphas at his back? Every time she thought there were no more tears to shed they burst forth anew to stain her face, tears stun her cheeks as she launched to hug him as best the chain would allow, clung to him just to make sure this wasn't some fantasy and he'd fade away having been a cruel dream.

For a great many moments Will just sat there with her cradled in his arms, rocked her slowly and muttered soothing words to her in a similar tone to the one he'd used when the twins cried. He'd thought the day he'd escaped would be the last he ever saw of Beverly, had started to think they'd never get her back, but there she was in his arms.

She'd jolted away when Hannibal had crouched beside her to release the chain holding her to the wall, but Will had just gone on soothing her.

"Forgive me, Miss Katz, I didn't mean to startle you. My name is Doctor Hannibal Lecter, this is Francis Dolarhyde and you know Will of course. We are here to take you away from this nightmare, you are safe now. I shall carry you to the car."

When Beverly wriggled away from Hannibal, Will placed one hand on his mate's forearm and shook his head.

"It's okay, Hannibal, I can carry her."

Will might have been an omega but that didn't mean he was weak. Since he'd begun eating properly, walking Winston and carrying the twins around, Will had put on some muscle and become deceptively strong.

Thankfully Beverly didn't deny Will and let him carry her away from the shed while Hannibal bagged up the chain and dirty blankets, then did the same with the padlocks.

"Where do you put them all, Doctor Lecter?" Dolarhyde had asked once Will had slipped Beverly into the back seat of the Bentley much as Hannibal had done with himself all that time ago. "You can't keep them at your home."

"No, not my home." Said Hannibal as he placed his medical kit, cooler and the bag of dirty scraps into the trunk of his car. "There is a safe place for them though. Once Marcus is dead and the auctions ended, Miss McClane will need somewhere to recuperate. When that day comes I think it will be time to let you in on our little secret as long as the others agree."

"Others?" Dolarhyde squinted.

"Yes, others."

Sensing he'd not get anything else from the older man and knowing Marcus expected to see him doing his real job that evening, Dolarhyde departed for his own vehicle shortly after; just faded into the night as seamlessly as he'd first joined them. And, with the killing done, painting finished and Beverly rescued, Hannibal soon had them on their way to the House.