I woke up to the sounds of loud voices outside the office. Someone was angry outside. I didn't like it. Still on the worn couch, which I hated, I turned over slowly. As I moved, the dried blood on my back from where I had been cut pulled away from the couch. I whimpered, pushing my face against the back of the seat, trying to muffle my tears.

Finally the voices outside stopped. Silence filled the room, and somehow it was even worse than the shouting from before. Now that it was quiet, I could hear the footsteps approaching, the lock turning, the door creaking open. The room flooded with his scent again. He was angry, furious, at whatever had just happened, he was going to take it out on me.

Approaching me with slow, metered steps, his cold dark eyes did not waver from my face. When he was close enough, he pulled me up by my hair, studying my bruised, tear stained face. His voice was low and venomous as he spoke, "I don't give a shit what that stupid alpha says to you. What has he told you, hm? Does he say you're special, that he loves you, that you're just as human as the rest of us?"

He paused, taking the opportunity to backhand me across the jaw. My lip split, and I coughed on the blood in my mouth, but he was still talking. "Do you actually believe any of that? Don't you ever forget what you are. Useless trash, a dirty whore. I would never even let you into my house." He threw me back onto the couch, and I cowered away as his large frame looked over me.

"That idiot Boone knows too much. She found out about our little summer trips." I cringed at the memory of those times. The alphas spoke in different languages, wanted to do different things, laughed at me when I cried. He chuckled at my reaction as he leaned over me, "Those were the good days hm. Bangkok, Amsterdam, Beijing... Those were my favorites." He trailed off, seemingly deep in thought, before his steely gaze returned to my shaking form.

"They've called in the FBI." Before I could stop it, a look of relief crossed my face, which I paid for with a hard slap across the jaw. "Now, now little one, don't get excited. Do you really think I would let you go just like that?" No. No he couldn't do this. He couldn't take me away. They were going to save me. Tyler was going to save me. He grabbed my face, his hand rough on my jaw as he growled down at me, "I'm going to find some way to get you out of here, and I swear to god, if you so much as make a peep, I'll kill you. I'll kill you and I'll make that alpha of yours watch me do it."

He didn't have to tell me twice. Tears ran down my cheeks as he let go of my face, pacing the room as he tried to think of a plan. I fell back to the couch, wrapping my arms around myself and rocking back and forth, like Tyler did when he held me. I thought carefully about what was going to happen to me. I knew what I had to do. It was easier to just do what he said. To take the pain he gave me and follow the rules, so I wouldn't have to have anymore. There was no way I was going to let Tyler suffer for me. I wasn't worth enough to make him hurt. I knew what I had to do.

From my spot on the couch, I became dimly aware of commotion outside. Someone was speaking loudly, directing whoever they were talking to. There were sounds of things being moved. The chief stopped his pacing, frozen in place as he stared at the door. "Fuck," he whispered under his breath, "they're here." He crossed the room to me in an instant, bending low over me again as I heard his knife click open.

The blade was against my throat and I gasped, letting out a whimper as the cold metal pressed against my freezing skin. "A word... any fucking sound and you know what I'll do. Don't try me, little one..." with that, his knife was back in his pocket, and he stalked out of the room. I heard the lock click behind him, and settled down onto the couch.

This was going to be my life again. I was going to go away with him, with that awful smell of fire and smoke. I was never going to see Tyler again. I wish he would just kill me, just get it over with. Everything would be so much easier. I wouldn't have to be afraid, or try to remember the rules, or where I was, or who I was, or anything at all. Sometimes it was all too much. I just wish I could forget it all. Forget my own name. It would all be so much easier. So much easier than all of this.

I had only been back in the cell for an hour or so when Officer Boone returned with a colleague. She looked relieved but exhausted as she explained what was going on. "The FBI have just arrived. They're working fast, or, as fast as they can. Of course their first priority is the victim, they've cleared your charges." I closed my eyes and let out a ragged sigh, "So I can see him? I can see him again?" She nodded slowly, and the hesitation gave me pause, "Yes Tyler, but the FBI, Agent Bass and his team, need to speak with you first. Remember that the longer we wait, the less likely it is we'll catch the perpetrators. The longer Ivory is here, the more likely it is they'll find out about it."

I nodded, taking a deep breath and recognizing she was right. The door to the holding cell opened and I followed her down the hall. Instead of returning to the main floor of the station as I had expected, we turned left in the hall and entered some sort of briefing room. White boards had been set up around the windows, and several agents were milling around. Catching sight of me, a beta with tousled brown hair and tired eyes offered me a handshake, "You must be Tyler Dunwood, I'm Agent Bass, I'm in charge of this unit."

I nodded, shaking his hand and looking around at the rest of his team. He turned back to the board he had been looking at, and I saw my own picture tacked up. He spoke in the same metered voice he had greeted me with, "I understand from Officer Boone that you are the victim's alpha, yes?" He didn't wait for my response, but continued full steam ahead, "I'm sure this must be very difficult for you, but you're going to be a key part of the process. In a moment, we're going to need to speak with the victim-"

"Ivory." I said, cutting him off. I wished everyone would stop calling him just "the victim" he was a person, and he deserved to have his name used. "Ivory, yes. We will need to have a little chat with Ivory. Obviously, you'll be here with him, I'm sure he'll benefit from your support. I understand he's been in your care thus far?" I nodded, giving him a brief summary of Ivory's living situation since I had brought him back from the parking lot what feels like a lifetime ago.

There was a knock at. The door behind me and I turned to see Officer Boone's partner open the door. He looked concerned, and spoke in a quick, emotionless voice to Agent Bass, "Sir, we might have a bit of a problem." Bass raised his eyebrows, and the cop continued in the same tone, "Officer Boone went to check on the victim, the door is locked. That room is for general use, it doesn't have a circulating key that locks and unlocks it."

My eyes snapped up to the officer as soon as he said those words. "What are you saying? He's been locked in?" He nodded, and my breath caught in my throat at the thought that Ivory had been locked up. How would that even happen if none of the officers had a key to the office?

I pushed past him, closely followed by Officer Boone and the FBI team. I was only a few steps from the door when I saw him. The police chief, smelling like angry fire, stepped in front of the office door. "What the hell are you doing?" I almost yelled, "Let me see him, why is that door locked." He smirked back, placing a protective hand on the doorknob behind him, "You can't be the only one that gets all the fun. You should learn to share"

My heart was pounding in my chest as it dawned on me what he meant. "No...no you didn't... I'm going to fucking kill you-" I tried to lunge for him but Boone was faster, she grabbed my arm and twisted, forcing me to listen as she spoke, "We'll take care of him Tyler. You go to Ivory, that's what he needs right now." She was right, of course she was right. In front of me, police officers advanced on the chief, backing him away from the office door, trying to convince him to stand down.

He made a sharp move, reaching for something on his belt, and then the electric zip of a taser sounded as he fell to the floor. My vision was blurry as I watched, every bone in my body desperate to pummel him into the ground until he felt all the pain he had given my omega. But that didn't happen. Instead, Boone tossed me a key she had pried from the chief's hand, and I flew back to the door.

Unlocking it as quickly as possible, I braced myself for what I was going to find on the other side. I took a deep, steadying breath with my hand on the doorknob. Ivory needed me to be calm right now, to be gentle and safe. The door creaked open, and I took a slow step inside.

The room was dark, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light before I saw him. He was on the couch in the back corner, cowering into the arm rest, trying to make himself as small as possible. I closed the door behind me, trying to eliminate as much extra light and sound as I could. Taking a step towards him, I could tell he was too much in his own head to notice that I was there. He was naked, blood dripping down his thighs and hips. His bare shoulders shook, and I could see a bruise blooming across his left side.

"Ivory, baby...love, it's me. It's Tyler." His head snapped up, blue eyes meeting mine for a second before they moved back to the floor. I moved closer, lowering myself to kneel in front of the couch in front of him. He was crying silently, tears splashing onto the pale skin of his legs. I reached out to him, wanting to pull him close, but he whimpered, shaking his head and pushing himself further away.

I didn't know what to do for a moment. Had he regressed back to the way he had been when we first met? Was he afraid of me again? "Ivory, you don't have to talk if you don't want to, I know it's hard. Why... What's wrong? Are you...afraid of me?" He shuddered, and I wanted more than anything to touch him, to make him feel safe again. His words were shaky, and his throat sounded dry and cracked when he answered, "You don't... you don't want me anymore."

What? I blinked at him, completely lost as to what he meant. He kept speaking, his voice getting softer and softer, "You d-don't want me. I'm-I'm used. I...he...I'll do whatever y-you want but I'm already d-dirty." I took a deep breath, considering my next words carefully. He was so sure that he was worthless, good for nothing but sex. Of course he was. His whole, that was all he had known, all he had been told.

"I'm going to explain something to you, okay? You don't have to say or do anything, just listen. I'm an alpha, right?" He nodded, bowing his head in submission at the word before I continued. "That means that I, like anyone, am capable of making my own decisions, and deciding what is best for myself, would you agree?" He nodded again, sniffling as his tears continued to run down his cheeks. "I have made a decision then, Ivory. I have decided that I do want you."

His eyes flicked up to meet mine again, and I saw something there, almost like a desperate hope, a yearning for something. "You are an omega. I know you've been told what that means to the people who hurt you, but they're wrong. I know that seems impossible right now, and that's okay. You are just as capable of making decisions as I am, but I know that that is hard at this point. Do you trust my judgment?" He was still looking at me, clearly hanging on to every word as he nodded slowly. "Then, while it's still difficult for you to make decisions like this, I am going to help you make them. I have decided that you are not dirty. The things that have been done to you are not your fault. I want to be with you, to love you. For me Ivory, no matter what has happened to you, you are my everything."

Ivory wasn't crying anymore. He was staring straight at me, his mind clearly running a mile a minute. I held my breath and prayed my strategy would work. The one constant in his life has always been that what alpha says, goes. If I played my cards right, he might actually be willing to accept this new idea, since this kind of context was familiar to him. I needed him to understand, to come back to me, to let me help him.

His breathing was shallow for a moment before he spoke, "Alpha...you're-you're going to keep m-me?" "Yes, yes for as long as you want. I'm going to take care of you. You won't have to hurt or be afraid any more. I'm not going to let you go." Fresh tears came to his eyes, and I was up on the couch next to him in a flash. As gently as I could, I pulled him towards me, settling him gently in my lap. He curled into me, grabbing my shirt and turning his face into my chest like he usually did.

I moved to put my hand on his back, wanting to wrap my arms around him and never let go, when I saw something that made my toes curl in horror. The blood on his hip was dripping down from a spot in his back. That monster had carved it into him. The word he could never seem to disconnect from himself. "SLUT" written in bright red across his hip. I closed my eyes and said nothing, putting my hand on the back of his neck instead.

He pushed into the touch, clearly desperate for this kind of comforting connection, and I gave it gladly. We sat quietly on the couch, and I wondered what was going to happen next. More than anything, I wanted to go home. To be alone with Ivory in the quiet where he felt safe. Where I could protect him and make sure he felt calm, or as calm as possible. His sniffles were softer now, he made a soft sound into my shirt when I ran my fingers through his dark hair, sounding almost like a low purr. "Hey kitten..." I said softly in his ear, and he tilted his chin up to look at me. "The police will want to talk to you again. But I think that can wait. Do you want to go home? We can rest there."

He nodded, his shoulders sagging and chin falling back down to my chest. Reaching to the floor beside the couch, I picked up my blue blanket from where it lay, untouched, since I had been arrested. I wrapped it safely around him, noticing the goosebumps on his delicate skin. "A bath too maybe? Nice and warm?" He said nothing, but pulled the blanket closer around him, taking a deep breath with the fabric up against his nose, breathing in my scent and sending a shiver down my spine.

This was definitely not the time or place for those kinds of thoughts. But I couldn't help it. He was so pretty like this. Wrapped in my blanket, tired and needy. I hope one day he will look like this for a different reason. He'll be dazed because of what I'm doing, not some evil alpha. His eyes will glaze over from pleasure, not pain. He'll whimper and croon for more, instead of for mercy. We'll get there. Someday, hopefully, we'll get there.