Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/997120. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Underage Category: M/M Fandom: Supernatural Relationship: Dean_Winchester/Sam_Winchester Character: Sam_Winchester, Dean_Winchester, John_Winchester, Michael_(John Winchester), Bobby_Singer, Lucifer_(Sam_Winchester), Missouri_Moseley, Ruby_(Supernatural), Pastor_Jim Additional Tags: Mpreg, POV_Multiple, Alpha/Beta/Omega_Dynamics, Omega_Dean, Alpha_Sam, Mating_Cycles/In_Heat, Dean_in_Heat, Bottom_Dean_Winchester/Top_Sam Winchester Stats: Published: 2013-10-09 Chapters: 17/17 Words: 67478 ****** The Mark of the Beast ****** by cillasstuff Summary Omegas should be pampered and loved until they mated at age sixteen, the legal age for mating. When eleven-year-old Dean Winchester went missing the night of his first heat, it sent his father John in a panic trying to find him to keep him from the clutches of an unscrupulous Alpha, but he was too late. A week later he reappeared in the same mysterious manner that he disappeared, except he came back mated and pregnant. Sam couldn’t remember when Dean’s mating mark wasn’t red indicating that he was mated instead of being flesh colored like his, and it never bothered him until he turned sixteen and popped his knot. Now much to John’s dismay, all he can think of is Dean and becoming his brother’s mate. They manage to keep away from each other until Dean goes to Hell and Sam performs a spell hoping to bring his brother home, but instead he’s face to face with eleven-year old Dean in the throes of his first heat. Notes This story came from this prompt at . When I first started writing, I thought that it was going to be a quick fill, I had no idea that it would turn into this monster. I want to thank for running the and putting up with my problems. I would also like to give much thanks to for stepping in to beta this for me. Any mistakes found are my own. The art wonderful art was done by the amazing . Please go to her journal and show her love for her fantastic art. ***** Chapter 1 ***** [Mark of the Beast] Part 1 - The Omega     A sleepy and half -drunken John Winchester lumbered his way to the bathroom of the motel room he had rented as a temporary home for him and his boys. He was supposed to be on a hunt, but he’d gotten drunk instead. The drinking had been brought on by the fact that this was the seventh anniversary of his wife Mary’s death and he still hadn’t found the yellow eyed-son of a bitch that killed her. That and the fact that he was now staying in the cheapest places he could find, because all extra money went to the hunt. As long as the boys were warm, dry and had full bellies, nothing else mattered except finding the demon. As he passed the bed his boys, Dean and Sammy were sharing, something was off, but his alcohol-hazed mind couldn’t figure out just was…wrong? After relieving his bladder of some of the twelve pack he’d consumed earlier, John stumbled back to his bed and that’s when it hit him, Dean. Dean wasn’t in the bed, and drunk or not, the room was so small that it only took a quick glance to see that the boy wasn’t in it. Standing at the foot of the bed, John noticed that the pillow had an indentation of Dean’s head and the covers had not been disturbed, hadn’t been thrown back as though his oldest son had gotten out of the bed and walked away. In fact, the covers still held the shape of the young boy’s body. It was more like Dean had just vanished, rather than left the room. How in the hell could an eleven year old boy sneak out of a motel room without disturbing the other two occupants, one of which he shared a bed. Okay, John thought, he was drunk so that might have made it easier for Dean to get past him, but even drunk his instincts told him that Dean didn’t leave of his own violation. Someone had taken his boy. Walking over to the door, John turned on the lights, waking his younger son, Sammy from his sleep. The little boy was only seven, but all seven of those years had been spent on the road, going from one supernatural hunt to then next while John hunted for the demon that had killed his mother. It was nothing for him to be awakened in the middle of the night when his father returned from a hunt, and Dean getting out of the bed the boys shared to tend to any wounds he might have, so he knew that sometimes waking up in the middle of the night wasn’t a good thing Even though it was just this past Christmas that Sammy had learned that John wasn’t the salesman he’d been led to believe, Sammy was a smart kid and John believed that he’d have figured it out before Dean told him. After he’d learned the truth, being an Alpha, despite the fact that he was younger and smaller, he’d decided that it was his job to protect his Omega brother. John had told him that he was too young; even though he still needed help getting dressed, but being a stubborn Winchester, Sam believed he could protect his older brother. This was a perfect time to drill into him that he was too young, but John couldn’t make himself break the boy’s spirit. “Sammy,” John started, “Where’d Dean go? Did he say anything to you before he left?” Sammy sat up in the bed, blinked owlishly against the sudden brightness in the room, looked to his left, and asked, “Where’s Dee?” Something broke inside John and sobered him up at the same time, He hadn’t realized how much he’d been depending on Sammy knowing where his brother was until that innocent question told John that Sammy had no clue where Dean had gone, but he asked again anyway. “You sure you don’t know where he’s gone? Think Sammy, where would he go?” “I dunno, daddy, I didn’t hear him leave. Why would Dee leave, did something take him?” A horrified Sammy asked. John knew that he was going to have to calm down because if he didn’t he was going to have a hysterical seven year old on his hands to go along with a missing eleven year old Omega going through his first heat. His blood ran hot at the thought of some unscrupulous Alpha getting his hands on his boy. Tomorrow or rather today was Dean’s birthday; according to the clock, it was just a couple of minutes after midnight and it was almost as though whoever took him was waiting for the calendar date to change before taking the boy. Even though it was illegal for an Alpha to attempt to claim and Omega before their sixteenth birthday, it wasn’t unheard of, but Dean was too young for this. All the Alpha had to do was stay away for a week and let the bond form between the two of them and the law couldn’t touch him. John Winchester sure as fuck would, but there was no way the law was going to come between a bonded pair no matter how much the family protested. Dean’s already had his childhood snatched away from him by being dragged across the country with a revenge driven father, but this, this would take his entire life. Depending on who took him, he could live his entire life as nothing more than a fuck toy or a slave. The thought of either made John even more desperate to find them before the bond had a chance to form and cement. John knew that he needed to look for Dean now while the trail was fresh, but how did he do that with a confused seven-year old in tow. He didn’t know how to take care of a child while he hunted, because that was Dean’s job. One thing he was sure of was that he couldn’t leave Sammy alone in the motel room in case that Alpha was still out there. If John were gone, what would stop the unknown Alpha from grabbing Sammy because he thought that the little boy had seen something? Not wanting to lose both of his sons in one night, John bundled Sammy up in the blankets from the bed and placed him in the back seat of the Impala and went hunting for his boy. By sunrise, he’d been stumped. It had been snowing, and other than his own footprints; there hadn’t been any tracks in the snow. The salt lines in the room hadn’t been broken until he broke them, so he had nothing. The entire situation was confusing to him because he couldn’t even scent Dean. How in the hell did an eleven year old Omega in the throes of a heat disappear into thin air. He knew he needed help, that he couldn’t do this alone and the only person that he trusted was two states over in South Dakota, Bobby Singer. “God damn it Bobby, I don’t know where he ran off to,” John yelled into the phone while Bobby grilled him, “If I knew that then I wouldn’t need you. I just woke up and he was gone.” John lowered his voice because he could tell the he was frightening Sammy, and the little boy was already scared enough. Dean, who was Sammy’s everything was gone and he was terrified, and had been since the pair of them woke up this morning and Dean was gone. The only explanation that John had for Dean’s disappearance was that he’d vanished into thin air because he’d checked the salt lines, then tore the room apart checking for hex bags, but he’d found nothing. Dean was just… gone. “I gotta find him Bobby,” John pleaded for Bobby to understand, “You and I both know what can happen to an unclaimed Omega in the hands of an uncaring Alpha, and I’ll die before I let that happen to Dean.” Neither man said it out loud, but there were Alpha’s that would take someone as young as Dean and use them for sex but never claim them, never knot them, and when they were tired of them, sell them or pass them around to their friends or even whore them out. There were even Alphas with a Beta mate that would use young Omegas to bear their children. The average citizen would be horrified at this, but when you lived on the fringe as they did, you saw things that normal people didn’t know existed, and he’d die before he let someone do that to his child. “He’s not…is he in heat yet?” Bobby cautiously asked. “Yeah. Yeah he is, Bobby and since it’s his first one it’s hell for him. The doctor said that he shouldn’t take suppressants during his first heat because it could fuck up his system and make him sterile, so he prescribed me some het blockers so his heat wouldn’t affect me and I could help him through it. Since Sam hasn’t popped his knot yet, we didn’t have to worry about him being affected yet.” “Listen, me and Jim Murphy are not that far away, I’ll have Jim to meet us there, and he can take Sammy to Minnesota with him, and I’ll stay to help you look for our boy. Don’t come to meet us John, I think it’s best that you stay there in case Dean comes back.” “That’s a good plan,” John nodded his head as though Bobby could see him. “When we find the son of a bitch that took him, then we can deal with him together, but make no mistake John, we will find him.” Bobby promised. Even though John agreed to the plan that didn’t mean that he would stop looking for Dean in the meantime. He put Sammy back into bed and let him get some more sleep; he sat at the table on the other side of the room as though he was standing guard over his remaining child. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and removed a picture from one of the sleeves. It was the family photo taken a week before Sam’s six-month birthday. John rubbed his fingers across the image of his dead wife and whispered, “I’ll find him Mary or I’ll die trying. Please say that you understand that I have to hold off looking for the yellow eyed bastard that killed you until I can find Dean.” Bobby Singer arrived at the motel fifteen minutes before Jim Murphy did, and sat there until he saw the other man pull up beside him in the parking lot. Neither man said anything, but they looked at each other with dread in their eyes. Both of them thought it but neither said it said it, but judging by the way the boy disappeared, they were dealing with something powerful. Although they’d been after the thing for years, they still didn’t know enough about the demon John was hunting to know if he could pull off this kind of disappearance. Both men finally got out of their cars and walked to the door and the fact John answered on the first knock told Bobby that he’d been watching them as they sat outside. “Bobby, Jim thank you for coming so quickly, everything had turned into a dead end. I…I just don’t know where to go from here.” John confessed as he ran a hand through his hair. John wasn’t being a braggart, but he knew that he was a dammed good hunter; some would say one of the best. As he waited for Bobby and Jim to arrive he realized that it was one thing to hunt for the demon that killed his wife, but to hunt for the thing that took his son right from under his nose was an entirely different animal. He knew what he was doing and how to track for it, but with his son’s life on the line he second-guessed every move he made. The only thing that was sure of was that whatever took this sweet child, he was going to tear and tear it limb from limb. “That’s why we’re here John,” Jim assured him as he walked over to Sammy. “Do you mind if I talk to Sammy before Jim takes him?” Bobby asked John as he walked towards the bed where Sammy sat silently playing while the hunters talked. “Hiya, Sammy,” Bobby kneeled down as he greeted the little boy. “Hey,” Sammy shyly greeted in return, but not once looking up from the little green army men he was playing with. Bobby suspected that he really wasn’t interested in whatever game he seemed to be so engrossed in, it was more to keep his mind off the fact that his much-adored older brother was missing. “What can you tell me about what happened to Dean, Sammy?” Bobby quietly asked. “Nothing, Unca Bobby,” Sammy shook his head as he answered, “I was mad at him because he was hot and he wouldn’t be still. I told him I wish he would go away and let me sleep, and then I saw the light and he stopped moving. I thought he went to the bathroom.” “That’s good Sammy,” Bobby encouraged as John and Jim looked on. “Did you see which way the light came from?” Sammy shook his head, and pointed towards the bathroom. “My back was turned to Dean and the bed moved a little, that’s why I thought he’d gotten up.” “Now think Sammy, did you hear anything, anything at all?” He asked letting his voice stress the importance of the answer. “No,” Sammy answered before finally looking up at Bobby, trying to fight the tears, but two fat tears rolled down his cheeks, “just saw the light. You’ll find my Dee won’t you? Please Unca Bobby you hafta find him?” “We’ll do our best,” Bobby told the boy, but he’d learned a long time ago that where anything supernatural was concerned, it was foolish to make promises.   Sammy understood and nodded his head as he grabbed the small duffle bag that held everything he owned in this world and began to follow Pastor Jim. He tried to hide the trembling lower lip as he told his father goodbye, because he knew his dad would be upset to see him crying. Alphas don’t cry was the mantra on which he’d been weaned. Even at seven, he knew more than the average kid about the differences between Alphas, Betas, and Omegas, and knew that some people saw them as weak and they needed to be cossetted, but Sammy didn’t agree. Dean was smart and took care of him even though his dad had told him that Dean was older, but it was his and Sammy’s job to keep Dean safe. It seemed as though they’d failed. Although he’d never admit it, Sammy sometimes envied Dean’s status as an Omega, not because he wanted to be seen as weak (Dean totally wasn’t), but because Dean never had to hide his feelings. The Omega could say what he wanted, that included being allowed to cry without censure, and admit to being hurt without being called out on it; in fact, Dean was encouraged to show his emotions, while Sam had to hide his. Wiping his eyes Sammy, looked at the three men he trusted the most and prayed that they found his Dean because he meant more to him than anything he had in his duffle bag. Sammy took one last glance at the motel as he and Pastor Jim drove back to his home in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Dean had drilled into Sammy that Pastor Jim was for emergencies, for instance, if they couldn’t get in touch with dad or if he didn’t come back. I guess Dean disappearing was an emergency as well. The ride to Minnesota was a quiet one; though not for Pastor Jim’s lack of trying, the older man tried to engage Sammy in conversation to keep his mind off what was going on back at the motel. The thing is that when your heart has been ripped from your body, there’s nothing in this world to distract you from the fact that there a gaping hole in your chest. It was dark when the two of them reached the parsonage, and because of the many visits to Pastor Jim’s over the years, Sammy knew where the spare bedroom was and escaped there as quickly as possible. He knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, not without Dean curled at his back, but right now, he just wanted to get away from pitying eyes and questions that he couldn’t answer. On the evening of the sixth day that Dean went missing, Pastor Jim drove Sammy to rejoin his father at the seedy motel where he’d camped out hoping that Dean would return or the bastard that took him would at least show his face and let him know that the boy was safe… that he was alive. That night when Sammy went to bed, for the first time in his life, he felt like his father’s son and not an Alpha in training. From the moment he arrived at the motel with Pastor Jim, John hadn’t let him out of his sight and even when he had to go to the toilet, either Pastor Jim or Bobby were there watching him. When it was time for bed and the two men went to their rooms, when he went to crawl into the second bed in the room that he’d normally share with Dean, John guided to the bed near the window that he always chose. He’s not sure what woke him, but it wasn’t another of his dad’s trips to the toilet. He hoped that when he gets old that he could hold his water, because honestly, how does the man get any sleep. Sammy put his insomnia down to the fact that Dean was gone. He’d finally fell into a light sleep a couple of hours before dawn, when suddenly there was a bright light, his eyes flew open and he looked towards the empty bed, except that this time it wasn’t empty. There was Dean still dressed in his favorite Transformer pajamas that John had purchased at the last Goodwill they’d stopped at, curled up fast asleep as though he’d never been gone. “Dee!” Sammy screamed as he threw back the covers to get to his brother. He hadn’t expected his dad to wake up and hold him back from him and fought against the arms that restrained him. “Daddy, it’s Dee, he came back to us,” he explained excitedly as he again tried to break free of his father’s grip.     John wrapped his large arm around Sammy’s middle holding him back. He wanted to rush to Dean as well, but he didn’t know what had happened to him while he was gone or what took him and he had to protect his youngest whether he wanted it or not. Holding tightly to Sammy, John picked up his cell phone and called Bobby to come quick because Dean was back the same as he disappeared, out of nowhere. John picked Sammy up and hauled him towards the door when Jim yelled for him to open up, but it was hard with a wiggling Sammy in his arms. Sammy realized that he was crying because he wanted to go to his brother, to make sure that Dean’s okay, that whoever took him didn’t hurt him, but his father held him back. John was a realist, even though the boy in the bed looked like Dean, they had to be sure to be certain because he doesn’t want any harm to come to Sammy in case that wasn’t really Dean on that bed. Suddenly Sammy understood what he meant the moment his uncle Bobby doused Dean with holy water. Pastor Jim held Dean down who was now imitating Sammy, trying to get away from the adult who’s holding him on the bed. While Jim held Dean, Uncle Bobby was now placing a small cut made with a silver knife on Dean’s arm and Pastor Jim kept muttering Christo. John watched as Bobby and Jim performed the tests to make sure Dean wasn’t possessed or turned into something supernatural, but his nose told him what had happened. He could smell the difference in the child, that someone else’s scent had merged with Deans and all of his fears had come true. “Sammy!” Dean screamed as he reached for his brother, and Sammy screamed Dean’s name in return but neither boy was strong enough to break free of the arms keeping them apart. “He’s clean John,” Bobby declared and the two men released the boys and watched as they ran and clung to each other. “John,” Jim hissed as he caught sight of the dark red mark on Dean’s neck he figured out what John already knew, someone had mated Dean.   ***** Chapter 2 ***** John looked at the two boys in the bed across from him. The pair was wrapped around each other as though their closeness would keep the bad things away. John didn’t have the heart to tell them that if something bad wanted you, it would rip them apart and take what it wanted. He hated the fact that he was going to eventually have to teach them that cruel lesson. From where he sat on his bed, he could see the red mark on Dean’s neck and it angered him even more than the first time he saw it. Some motherfucker had mated an eleven-year old boy, had taken what he wanted and then threw him away. Since he had known Dean was a rare Omega, even with their life on the road he had treated Dean with kid gloves so that when he mated at sixteen, he would know what it felt like to be worshipped and loved, and now that had been taken away. Life was going to be tough for an Omega whose Alpha rejected him, so John made the decision that he would treat him the same as Sam. From here on out, he would put Dean on heat suppressants and tell the world that had two Alphas. If that bastard decided to come back a second time, Dean wouldn’t be in the throes of heat and would be able to protect himself. The more he stared at the mark on Dean’s neck, he subconsciously reached up and touched his own, it had once been red like the one Dean now sported, but before Mary’s ashes had even cooled, it had turned gray signifying that he was now a widow. He remembered how good life was when his mark was red, how he looked forward to the next day because he was able to spend it with Mary; now he couldn’t see past killing the demon that killed her. He and Bobby had bonded at Hartville’s Roadhouse over the fact that they both had a gray mating mark and intended to keep it that way because if there was a second mate out there for both of them, it wouldn’t be fair to subject them to the life that they led. The three Winchesters now all carried different colored mating marks, Sammy’s was still the flesh colored one everyone had at birth telling the world that he was unmated. Dean now had a newly turned red one showing that he’d been mated, and John’s was the gray of widow’s, but if he had his way, Dean’s would soon be black signifying a broken bond. That way when Dean was older he would be able to choose an Alpha of his choice, of course if he couldn’t get the bastard to break the bond, then gray would work just as well. Dean lay in bed next to Sammy in the semi dark motel room and watched his father as he processed the events of the day. Tonight his dad was trying his best to make him feel safe now that he was back with his family. Tomorrow would be different. Dean knew that his father and his friends had questions, lots of them and he wasn’t sure he had the answers that they wanted to hear. He’d been surprised when they told him that he’d been gone for a week, but he couldn’t remember any of it. There were flashes of the man that had taken him and the things he done to him that caused embarrassment, but he wouldn’t be able to give the answers they wanted. The last clear memory he had was the few moments before his first ever heat slammed into him and how terrified he’d been. In school, Omegas were taught about their bodies and the kind of heats that only they experience where their bodies become so fertile that they could become pregnant simply by talking to an Alpha. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, she told him that pregnancies producing multiple babies weren’t unusual. Like all of his other classmates, they’d learned about the marks that everyone was born with meant. He’d never seen anyone his age with a red mating mark before and that was going to make school even more interesting for him. It was hard enough sometimes being the lone Omega in a classroom full of Alphas and Betas, but to be a mated one would separate him even further. Now each time a hunt took them somewhere new, he would now not only be the new kid, but the new kid who was the mated Omega. He had no answers for his dad, Uncle Bobby and Pastor Jim who were constantly grilling him about the Alpha, where he was and how he’d gotten there; however, those questions would be nothing compared the taunts from the kids in whatever school he would be enrolled into next. Teenage Alphas are cruel, Betas were super bitches, and both would make his life hell. Bobby convinced his dad to wait two days before they started grilling him about where he’d been and who took him. He really couldn’t tell them and they wouldn’t settle for that answer. “What about a name, Dean?” his dad asked. “Surely he gave you a name before he fu…before he claimed you.” Dean’s face became heated and red with embarrassment as he realized that his dad knew what the man did to him, that everyone in the room knew. He was also embarrassed because he could vaguely remember begging for something he couldn’t name, but his body knew it wanted. He had fleeting pictures of the Alpha. He was tall; taller than his dad was as well as most Alpha’s that he’d ever met. He was huge, but he’d been gentle, and Dean could remember him whispering soothing words to him while they’d been tied. When his knot had deflated, the stranger had cleaned him up and helped him cool down from the fever of his heat. Even though his dad knew what had taken place, there was no way Dean could tell his dad the specifics. “What did he look like Dean?” Bobby asked with more kindness and patience that his dad. “I don’t know Uncle Bobby, I really don’t. All I remember is feeling really hot and there was a funny feeling down there,” He blushed as he remembered the slick that had gushed from his hole, and the more the man touched him the more he produced. “Each time he…he. Well I started to feel better, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.” “Leave him alone!” Sam shouted as he made his way between the men to stand in front of Dean in a protective stance. He was standing at his full height with his hands balled into fists as though he was ready to take on all comers on Dean’s behalf. “He says he doesn’t remember them he doesn’t remember.” “It’s alright Sammy,” Dean assured his baby brother as he tried to calm him down before he got into trouble with their dad. “No it’s not Dean,” Sam argued. “Dad said that we were supposed to protect you, not make you feel bad for something a bad Alpha did to you.” “He’s right John,” Jim agreed with Sammy, “we can go about this a little differently.” “Jim…” John started. “No John,” Bobby interrupted, “can’t you see how hard this is for the boy to talk about this in a room full of people as though he did something wrong. Even a seven-year-old boy can see that this is not right. This is not a demon interrogation; He’s your kid John. Treat him like it.” Sam stood in front of Dean staring at his father with a mutinous glare as if he dared him to touch the older boy. John finally seemed to get the message and backed away from the boys. Jim came up with the idea to take the boys out to dinner instead of another night of eating in the motel room. He told John it would do the boys some good to get out of these four walls. The five of them went to dinner, but nothing kid friendly, because John was not ready to let to boys out of his sight just yet, so they settled on a diner not far from the motel. While they waited for the food to arrive, Bobby got five dollars from the cashier and took Dean to play the videogame in the corner. “Dean, you know that John. Well, John loves you, he just has trouble showing it sometime when someone he loves has been hurt, or taken advantage of.” “I know Uncle Bobby,” Dean told the older man, but he really didn’t. He knew his dad loved him and Sammy, because it would have been easier to have let CPS take them, but he didn’t love anything more than he’d loved their mom. “Good, good. It’s just that he can’t get the man who hurt you, unless you can give him some information about him.” Dean pretended to be focused on the Miss Pac Man game he was playing while he thought about what Bobby said. He didn’t want to tell Uncle Bobby that even if he can’t fully remember what happened, he knew that the man didn’t hurt him, but his dad would never let him rest if he didn’t give him something to go on. He remembered that the man was so tall that at first he thought that he was a giant, but he wasn’t. He remembered…“Tattoo.” Dean said as he let one of the ghosts eat Miss Pac man. “He had a tattoo Uncle Bobby, just like the symbols in your books.” “You saw his tattoo in one of my books?” Bobby asked just to make sure. “Yeah, it was in that big black one with the eyes on the front,” Dean clarified before going back to his game. Sam suddenly realized that Jim and his dad were distracting him with sugar while Bobby took Dean aside to pump him for information on the Alpha and jumped up from the table before he could be stopped. “Whatcha doing Dean?” he asked as he made his way over to where Dean played his game while Bobby watched. The scene he walked into seemed peaceful, and Dean was concentrated on his game, but he didn’t know that Bobby had gotten the information he needed. When they arrived back to the motel, the men were ready to leave. John’s went into drill-sergeant mode and ordered the boys to pack their meager belongings so that they could follow Bobby back to South Dakota in order to have Dean look at the book. Even at their young ages, the boys were used to packing or unpacking at a moment’s notice. Usually one or two things needed to be thrown into their duffel bags, because they never really fully unpacked. Whenever John got a lead on the YED or if another job came up and he needed to save another family because he’d been unable to save his, they were usually packed and ready to go. “Sam make sure you get all of your army men,” Dean reminded his baby brother. They were the only thing that held Sam’s interest, and would fit into his duffle without displacing his few clothes. Dean also knew that if Sam left them John wouldn’t care and he wanted his baby brother to have something. “’K Dee,” Sam responded knowing that Dean had probably already packed them for him. The trip to Bobby’s didn’t seem to take that long to the boys, but that was because that were used to the traveling and they had each other for company while their father drove. They tried not to show it, but they were both excited about going to Bobby’s because depending on how long they were there, they lived like normal people and that was a big thing to Sammy. He really didn’t understand what their dad did yet, so he kept whining to his dad to get a job where they didn’t have to travel so much. The problem was he was smart and Dean knew he would figure it out soon, and it would be left up to Dean to fill in the blanks. Dean loved Bobby’s because when he was here there was another Omega boy his age and that made life more bearable while he was there. He loved Sam, but as the younger boy got older, the Alpha tendencies began to manifest themselves and he wanted someone who understood him Omega sensibilities. “Dad?” Dean tentatively asked. “Yeah, Dean.” “Are we gonna stay with Uncle Bobby for a while this time?” “We’ll see son, we’ll see,” Was his dad’s non-committed answer. Dean looked out of the window and didn’t ask again because he knew that meant that it depended on whether or not his dad got a lead on the demon that killed his mom or something else supernatural popped up. Once they finally pulled into Bobby’s junkyard, like at Pastor Jim’s, the boys knew where the spare room was and ran inside to put away their clothes. This was the only time they unpacked because this was…home, or as close as they’d ever get to it. Because he finished first, Dean helped Sammy put his things away before running downstairs to help Bobby cook dinner. When they were here, he got to try new recipes he found in the magazines at school or in the lobbies of the nicer hotels where they spent the night. He loved visiting Uncle Bobby. “Hey, Sammy,” John called to his youngest son, “why don’t you come help me, it’s time you started to learn how to break down a gun and clean it.” Dean watched as Sam eagerly ran to help his dad clean the gun. He’d wanted to do this for years, but John wouldn’t let him, and he didn’t understand why. He had taught Dean to shoot when he was Sam’s age, but he wouldn’t teach him the mechanics of how the gun worked. To know how the gun worked, how to put it together and keep it cleaned made you a master of your weapon and Dean wanted that. When he asked his dad to show him, he’d been told that he would have an Alpha to take care of him the same as his mom did, so he didn’t need to know that. Dean just needed to know how to point and shoot until Sammy was old enough to do it for himself. Guess you had to be an Alpha to learn how to put a gun together. He looked at his father and his brother taking the gun apart with a longing he couldn’t disguise. After being told no so many times, he just stopped asking, and learned in theory by reading books, so if his dad ever decided to teach him, he’d be ready. “Dean,” Bobby called from behind Dean. Dean blushed knowing that Bobby had caught staring jealously at his dad and Sammy. “Yeah, Uncle Bobby,” Dean answered as he walked towards the older man. That’s when he saw the book that he’d mentioned earlier. “Come and look through this with me.” The book was old, he thinks that it older than Uncle Bobby even, and huge. It was so big that he had to sit at the desk to look through it because he couldn’t hold it. Dean shuttered as he looked at the cover, some of the books in Uncle Bobby’s library scared him, but he wouldn’t tell Bobby or dad because they would think it was just because he was an Omega. He’d told Sammy though, and it turns out that even though he was an Alpha, they scared him too. Bobby pulled the chair out for Dean to sit and opened the book and he began to look and the million symbols in there. “Look carefully at these and tell me when you see the one like the tattoo on the Alpha.” Dean nodded yes, and blushed a little at the thought of the Alpha and began to concentrate on the symbols. It wasn’t as though he could say no. He was surprised at the sheer amount of symbols the book had; were there really that many things that people needed protecting from? Finally, he found it, the last symbol on the last page. He’d been so cross eyed by looking at all of the symbols that he’s almost picked one just so he could stop looking but then dad would be mad and Bobby would be disappointed. “That’s the one,” He told the man as he pointed at the symbol. He felt proud that Bobby hadn’t asked him if he was sure. His dad would have asked him a million times before he even looked at where Dean was pointing. “It’s an anti-possession symbol, John,” Dean heard Bobby tell his dad later that night. The men thought that he and Sammy were asleep. Dean looked over at Sammy, okay he was, but Dean was only pretending. This was the only way he could learn things because the adults didn’t talk around them. “That means that the Alpha is a hunter, Bobby, because there is no other way anyone would need that symbol. Does this mean that he’s someone we’ve worked with or ran into at Harvelle’s?” “Could be John,” Bobby agreed, “you know most of those guys are sweet on Ellen, could be someone trying to get even for Bill dying on that hunt with you.” “Bobby we could be here all day making suppositions about why, the thing is this fucker had no qualms about mating an eleven year old kid.” John surmised. “He’s mated now and there’s nothing I can do about it now, but I can make sure Dean will be able to protect himself from now on.” “How are you planning on doing that John?” Bobby asked. “It’s time Sammy started his training, no reason Dean can’t start as well.” “John…” “I won’t leave him vulnerable again Bobby, I won’t. I know I won’t get an award for father of the year, but if this happens again, I’ll know that Dean can protect himself and that’s good enough for me.” “There a doc in town that will be able to get him on sups John. It makes no sense to train him and then have it all come undone when his heats hit.” Bobby reasoned. Dean didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because he was so busy celebrating in his head. Dad was going to train him; he’d be treated the same as Sammy, like an Alpha and not some fragile doll. That was the thought that kept playing in his head before he really fell asleep. School was the one place that Dean constantly wished that he and Sammy were closer in age, or that his dad had trained him to take care of himself, because he felt so vulnerable there. It was the place where everyone had learned their pecking order by the time they were in the fifth grade; and if you were different or alone, you were seen as weak and therefore bullied. The day started out the way Dean had expected it to, after a week things had pretty much fallen into a routine. Each day he knew that all of the young Alphas, most of them hadn’t even popped a knot, let alone know what their dick was for, felt the need to tell Dean what they would do to his pretty Omega ass. There must have been a handbook handed to the Alpha’s when they were babies because not matter where he went to school, they all seemed to trot out the same cheesy lines. As if. The school decided that Dean and the only other Omega in his age group would fare better together, but they did have some reservations at first because Dean was mated. He didn’t understand what that had to do with anything, it wasn’t as though he was going to brag to anyone about how he’d been mated and abandoned. Good thing that his dad was quick with a lie and explained that Dean’s mate was away on a job and he’d wanted his Omega to continue school. He told them he had papers, and Dean had never seen them but he’s sure if pushed his dad would produce them. Dean really didn’t understand the fuss, by virtue of him mating, he wasn’t going to come on to any of the young Alphas and they shouldn’t have the slightest interest in him unless he was in heat, then all bets were off. The principal was still worried, especially once John told them that he wasn’t on suppressants, and that his heat wasn’t due for another three months. An Omega could go into heat early if he or she was around an Alpha that was going into rut when he first popped his knot, and at the school where that could happen at any time since teenaged boys did not always follow Mother Nature’s plans. To appease the principal, John pulled Dean from school that day and took him to the doctor for a prescription for suppressants or sups, as they were commonly known. The doctor however took one look at Dean and laughed, “I think that it’s a little too late for those, don’t you think?” “I’m afraid I don’t follow,” John told the doctor. “Look at his mating mark, the doctored instructed, “See how dark it’s getting around the edges?” “Yeah, what about it?” John asked and Dean could tell he was losing his patience. “Well, we’ll have to run the tests to confirm it, but your Omega’s pregnant.” ***** Chapter 3 ***** “Don’t cry Dee,” Sammy begged his older brother while he lay on the couch in Bobby’s den and cried as though his heart was breaking. He didn’t understand why his brother was crying, but he wanted it to stop, needed to see him smile. He wondered if the stupid alphas at school do something to his Dee, but he didn’t think that that was the problem. It seemed that since they got him back from the bad Alpha, Dean wasn’t the Same. He couldn’t wait until he was older so he could really protect Dean because dad wasn’t doing such a good job. It was usually Dean’s job to prepare dinner for the three of them, but when they were at Bobby’s it was usually something nice because Dean got to try out the recipes that he found in the Omega magazines. He would get Bobby to help him, but since he was upset, Sammy saw this as a chance to help his brother for once. He went into the kitchen to help Bobby prepare dinner and when they were through, he took a plate to Dean and felt his chest burst with pride when Dean almost cleaned his plate. It was kind of like the way Dean took care of him when he was sick and he’d make tomato and rice soup to make him feel better. “Thank you Sammy,” Dean smiled his approval as before standing up and announcing. “I don’t feel so good; I’m going to bed now.” Sammy watched as the older boy held onto the bannister as he made his way upstairs to bed. He wanted to follow him, but he could tell that his brother wanted to be alone. “You’re going to make a good Alpha for your mate Sammy,” John praised his youngest. “The way you took care of Dean was wonderful and I hope that he gets an Alpha to treat him like that all of the time. I’d hoped that when he mated he’d find an alpha like you, but it’s too late for that now.” As John walked away Sammy stood there for a second or two longer because he was confused, weren’t they Dean’s Alphas? He was going to ask his daddy, but if he was going to be a good Alpha, he needed to figure this out by himself.  Dean sulked for a couple of days because he believed that the news of his pregnancy would change the plans that he’d heard his father making with Bobby. He’d been proven wrong when John called him to the table where he and Sammy were discussing how to break down a gun. “Dean come here for a minute, son,” John called him over. When Dean made his way to stand at John’s side next to the table where he and Sammy were going over breaking down a gun, John nodded for him to sit next to his brother, and once he did, a gun was placed in front of him and John began to explain how to break it down and clean it. He listened raptly as John explained keeping the gun cleaned and oiled was just as important as knowing how to shoot it. Dean already knew what his dad was teaching him, has since he was ten years old. He’d been left alone with Sammy one too many times and became bored of watching the kiddie shows that the younger boy loved. He’d read about how to break the gun down so many times, but he never thought that he’d get to practice what he’d read. He wouldn’t tell his dad that because he might never get the chance to touch one again, let alone break it down and clean it, so he let his dad talk and when his chance came he dismantled it and put it back together in one go. He could tell that his dad thought that he was a good teacher and Dean didn’t correct him. That was the Omega way. While Sammy’s chubby little fingers were still trying to master the art of breaking down the gun, Dean had moved on and was getting separate lessons about which weapons killed which monsters. The time he spent reading his dads books was finally paying off because by the end of the week, John was looking at him differently, he looked as though he was proud. Despite how well things were going for Dean at home, school continued to be a challenge. He was practicing what John and Bobby were teaching him and now that he could without worrying about being caught, he practiced breaking down the gun and cleaning it. He also practiced shooting and it seemed that he was a natural at that, and he soaked up the praise from Bobby and John making him stand a little taller. While he was at school, there were some older students who had problems with him being an Omega and he didn’t understand why. Most places he went he was treated with kindness and cherished, but the kids in this school were different. Dean didn’t know that he was being treated differently because his shyness and uncertainness made him seem aloof, and because he was scared to talk to others, he’d garnered a reputation of being stuck up. The only people who were supposed to know about his pregnancy were his teachers; however with that was between gossiping teachers and Dean’s constant throwing up, someone was bound to derive the wrong conclusion and come up with five. While the adults were gossiping about him the kids were listening and were prepared to use it for ammunition to hurt him. The little confidence that he’d gained took a blow when John took a job in Minnesota. Bobby was great, but he wanted his dad to be the one to teach him. Hopefully this job wouldn’t last long The young Alphas needed the right time to confront Dean and that happened shortly after the gossiping started. Sammy had caught a nasty virus going around and went home early having been picked up by Bobby before lunch. John was on a hunt, so Dean had to wait for Bobby by himself after school. At first Evan, his Omega classmate waited with him until his dad arrived. They had sat there huddled together while being heckled by a group of thirteen-year- old Alphas who also made snide remarks as they threw things at them. When Evan’s dad arrived he was hesitant to leave Dean there, but the Omega assured him that his ride would be there shortly. Before the taillights had disappeared from view, the boys had Dean surrounded. The leader, a tall slender boy named Parker Davidson who was a couple of years older than the rest of the group, began the attack by scenting Dean, tried to smell his fear. He’d heard the teacher tell his mom about Dean, that his Alpha had gotten him pregnant and ran. She also spouted that she didn’t believe that Dean had a mate, that John had taken the boy to some back alley healer to have the mating mark stained to appear that he had mated to cover up him being a slut. Who would mate with an eleven-year-old Omega? The fact that the adults didn’t believe the story made Dean fair game for the boys. If he was giving it away, they wanted a taste. As Parker made his move, the rest of the gang stood back to see what he would do. “Who left the pretty little Omega, all alone?” Parker sneered. That comment made Dean realize that they were only giving Evan a hard time because he’d been sitting with Dean. He looked around at his surroundings and noticed that there was no one else there but him and the gang of boys and they meant to hurt him. He’d watched his father plan hunts and while he wasn’t as knowledgeable as his dad was, he did pick up some things. The first thing was never let them see you sweat. If they scented fear on him, he might as well walk into their fists himself, so he tamped down the fear and turned to face Parker. He tried to walk past Parker and stand closer to the street so that someone would see him but as he started to move, they grabbed him and pulled him to the side of the building and there was no way he could pretend not to be scared. He was terrified. “I popped my knot Omega,” Parker proudly explained to the terrified boy “and who better to test it out on that the slut Omega who’s already been broken in?” Hearing those words Dean realized what they had planned for him and he began to kick and scream hoping that someone in the deserted school would hear him. He might not remember the Alpha who took him, but he knows that it wasn’t like this. His Alpha had been gentle and kind. When he felt the boys pulling at his jeans, he tried to kick the ones closest to him but the jeans had his legs trapped and two others were holding his hands in place, so he screamed. “Help, Help!” He screamed hoping that someone would hear him. “Shut him up!” Parker ordered the others while he pulled down his own pants. He had popped his knot this weekend and that pretty Omega had already taken one so who better to wet his dick for the first time. He’d heard the teachers talking and the slut was already pregnant, so he wouldn’t even have to worry about a baby. Dean was perfect. If he touched Evan, he’d lose a chance with him when he was ready to mate, and he wanted that prize to be his when the time came, no this one would do just fine. “Son I hope to hell you’re going take a piss,” Bobby warned the boy, “because I’d hate to have to hurt you.” “Get out of here old man,” Parker snapped at Bobby as he turned his attention back to the struggling boy, but the sound of Bobby dicking his gun got the boys attention and everyone, except Parker moved away from the Omega. Once the hands were no longer holding him down, Dean moved until he was safely tucked into Bobby’s side. “Listen up pup, he’ll be back in school tomorrow and if he tells me that you- any of you idjits,” he included the boys who’d been holding Dean down, “so much as breathed on him…” “You’ll what, come and kill us?” Parker mocked, “I don’t think so old man.” Pulling the knife from the scabbard on his belt loop, Bobby glared at the stupid teen and promised him, “No, I’ll make a eunuch out of you and make you eat that knot you’re so fucking proud of.” The bravado from the overload of testosterone was gone and the boy seemed as though he was searching for a way to get past Bobby without sustaining bodily damage. Holding onto Dean, Bobby stepped aside and let Parker run away before glancing down at the young boy shaking with fear. “Bobby why was I born weak, an Omega? Dad said that his dad and his mom’s dad, and even Sammy were all Alphas. They’re all strong and can take care of themselves but I have to have someone take care of me.” “Don’t you ever think of yourself as weak Dean,” Bobby chastised, “While your dad was chasing that damn demon all over this country, you kept this family together. You. You’re the one that made sure that Sammy gets to school, that he eats. When John stumbles in drunk or hurt, you’re the one to patch him up, so don’t ever think of yourself as weak.” “I couldn’t… first my Alpha, and now them… I couldn’t protect myself…” Dean tried to explain. “Look if six men decided to attack me, I’m not sure I would have fared any better than you did, but we’ll teach you what you need to know. Just give it time.” “Uncle Bobby?” Dean timidly asked, “Am I bad now? Parker called me names, but I didn’t mean to do… he was so big, he could have hurt me…” Bobby looked at the crying little boy and wanted to kill, John, Parker and the unknown Alpha for hurting Dean. He’d take on the whole goddamned world if it meant that those tears would dry up. Bobby knew that Dean was depending on John training him to help build his confidence, but he also knew that if a hunt came up, John was gone and Dean would be left in the wind. The boy would be showing in a few months and they were limited about what they could teach him that would be safe for Dean and the baby. Unfortunately, there were no wax on wax off techniques that would be useful to a hunter, but they would make him stronger, and build up his confidence. Once they reached the car, Sammy was still asleep in the back seat where the cold medicine he’d taken earlier had knocked him out, and as usual, Dean forgot that fact that he’d almost been assaulted and made sure that Sammy was comfortable. There was a McDonalds on the corner near the school, so Bobby decided that that would be dinner to give Dean a rest, and a treat. The fast food would also give him more time to figure out what he could do to train Dean to protect himself from the Parker’s of the world. Bobby knew that John should be home soon, it was a ghoul hunt, and John had been known to dispatch them in his sleep, so he was surprised when a week turned into a month, and then another. He never said it out loud and neither did the boys, but the three of them all thought that he was dead. After the man had been gone for a week shy of two months, Bobby put feelers out with other hunters, and even broke down and called Harvelle’s but no one had seen him or heard from him. He watched as Dean grew quieter and Sammy tried to become the family Alpha, but he was just a chubby little boy going on his instinct and it was too cute to be alarming. It wasn’t cute when he had to listen to the boys crying themselves to sleep at night when they though Bobby couldn’t hear them. The boys comforted each other, and Bobby realized that he was going to have to deal with another Winchester somewhere around September. Wouldn’t that piss Karen off? As the months wore on the crying eased up and Dean was now showing. Sammy was getting even chubbier and Bobby wasn’t sure if it was from grief for John or sympathy weight for Dean. It was three a.m. and Bobby was researching how to kill a Vetala when he heard the noise. Like all hunters, he had his home guarded against all things supernatural because you never knew what would follow you home. Picking up his trusty 30/30, he waited for the intruder to find him. “Well that’s a hell of a way to greet somebody,” John grimaced as he threw himself down into the chair closest to the door. “Well look who remembered that they had sons and dragged their sorry ass home. We thought that you were dead, since you didn’t bother to call your sons for the past four months,” Bobby snapped at John. “Those boys are grieving for you and you walk in here like you went on a goddamned Sunday stroll.” “Well now they’ll now differently,” John said casually, “where’s Dean, I need him to change these bandages.” He didn’t tell his friend that he wanted to make sure that the boy was still here. He’d tell Bobby that later, when he told him about the ghoul that had almost killed him and left him in the hospital so badly injured that he’d been unable to wipe his own ass. He’d think about whether or not he’d tell him about Kate Milligan, nurse extraordinaire who nursed him in both the hospital and her home. She also made him seriously think twice about changing the color of his mating mark, but in the end, he had to get back to his boys. As soon as he was able to move without passing out, he made his way back home, but not without leaving a part of himself there. As he rubbed his hand across his mating mark, he thought about how he’d been tempted to stay, but he couldn’t, and God bless her, Kate understood. Family came first. There was no way he could settle down with her until he found the demon and now the Alpha that fucked with his kid. “Your pregnant Omega son is asleep at three fucking a.m. and you’re not going to wake him. In addition to him being tired, the boy has school tomorrow and he needs his sleep.” Bobby went upstairs, retrieved his first aid kit, and helped John change his bloody bandages. Once he gave him something for pain and helped the man to bed, Bobby went outside and moved the Impala. Chances are John would be still asleep when they woke up and he’d save the reunion and the questions for after school. Chances are Dean would need something to cheer him up after another round with those dick Alphas. Bobby didn’t understand a man like John. The basics he got- a demon killed your wife, then hunt the motherfucker down until either you or it was dead. That was unless you had children who needed you, but apparently a dead wife was worth more than two live sons. He had never wanted kids of his own, because he was scared to taint them with the blood of his father, yet Bobby would kill to call these two boys his own. If those boys were his, he’d give up on the thing that had taken their mother and as a tribute to her, raise those boys the best he could. When Bobby pulled up in front of the school, the first person he saw was that asshole Parker and his gang, staring at Dean as he exited the car. The boy was going to need some basic self-defense lessons ASAP because that asshole was not going to leave Dean alone. Now that John was back, they were going to have to step up their lessons, because soon Dean was going to be showing and that belly wasn’t going to allow him to learn anything. It didn’t take Dean long to figure out that as long as he was with Evan, Parker and his gang didn’t bother him, but once he was alone he was fair game. Uncle Bobby was teaching his things, like how to use a knife and he’d kept up his shooting lessons, but none of that was going to help him in school, and it certainly wasn’t going to help against a gang of six. Dean was sure that it’s not as bad as it could be because Parker was older and he only saw him at certain times during the day, and the Omega made sure that he was never alone with the older boy, but it was getting harder and harder to avoid him. Lunch was one of those times, and Dean had come to dread it. He and Evan had found a small group of Betas that had befriended them and they all ate lunch together, the problem for Dean was getting to the table. Evan was usually sitting at their regular table when Dean arrived to the cafeteria, so he had to make his way past the table of Alphas by himself. Most days he ended wearing his food instead of eating it. The tripping incidents were not as frequent now that he was showing and he guessed that the teachers didn’t want to explain how they stood by and let an Alpha cause an Omega to lose his baby. No matter how much they disliked the idea of an eleven-year-old pregnant Omega; there would be hell to pay if the public found out that a treasured Omega hadn’t been properly taken care of. Today lunch was good. Dean indulged in his favorite pizza and he had fun laughing and joking with his…friends. Yeah, they were his friends. Dean’s newest complaint about being pregnant was the fact that he always had to pee. Always. “Go on, Dean,” Evan laughed at him as he caught that look on Dean’s face. “I’ll take your tray.” “Thanks,” Dean told him as he tried not to look indignant as he ran to the bathroom. He used the stall and not the urinal because even if they weren’t mean to him, the other boys all stared at him, and made him uncomfortable. After relieving himself, Dean walked out of the stall and quickly washed his hands to go find his friends before his next class. He opened the door and barely registered that Parker was standing in front of him before he was pushed back into the bathroom and heard a click that told him that the older boy had locked the door. “P-Parker,” Dean stuttered as the older boy made his way inside the room. With each step Parker made forward, Dean took one backwards until he felt the metal of the stall at his back. “Please don’t…” He wanted to say please don’t hurt me but his throat seized with fear as the Alpha loomed over him. He hated himself for being weak and letting the bully see that he was scared and hated himself even more when he felt the tears running down his face. Dean knew that he was cornered this time, that there would be no Uncle Bobby to rescue him from the older boy. Parker reached out, grabbed Dean’s chin and said, “Evan’s for mating, but you, you’re for fun. Let someone fuck you and then pretend that you’re mated.” “But, I am,” Dean tried to convince the boy. He pulled his shirt away to show his red mating mark and begged. “See. Please don’t hurt me. If you let me go, I won’t tell anyone. I promise.” “If you don’t fight me then you won’t get hurt,” Parker assured the smaller boy. Pinning Dean to the wall next to the stall, the older boy then reached for the waistband of Dean’s pants and told him, “I finally have you where I want you and there’s no one to come running to the rescue this time.” Realizing that Parker was right, Dean tried not to focus on the hand that was trying to get inside his pants and tried to think like a hunter. What would his daddy do? As Parkers had breached the elastic waistband of his pants, Dean brought his knee up and connected with Parkers dick. He thought this may not be John Winchester’s style but it got the job done. As the older boy howled in pain, Dean turned to run to the door and escape; he’d almost made it when he felt a hand reach out and grab his ankle jerking him off his feet and pulling him down on the tiled floor. Dean’s last thought was now I can’t get away as his head connected with the corner of the porcelain sink tumbling him into darkness. ***** Chapter 4 ***** When Dean opened his eyes his best guess was that he had died and gone to heaven because his daddy was smiling down at him. He’d learned from Pastor Jim that good people go to heaven when they die, and his daddy was a good man so that’s where they must be. Of course, Uncle Bobby always told his daddy that he was going to hell, so it could mean that Dean was there too. Being in hell made sense as it could be his punishment for somehow forcing an Alpha to mate even though it was clear that he didn’t want Dean. Either that or he was hallucinating. Eventually he was going to discover which it was so he squeezed his eyes closed and whispered, “Daddy?” “Yeah, kiddo it’s daddy,” John answered as he stroked Dean’s hair. Hallucinations didn’t talk, did they? He could feel his hand and they definitely were solid. If his daddy wasn’t a figment of his imagination, then the only other answer was that he’s crazy because his father was dead, why else would he not contact them for months. “You’re … not dead?” Dean softly whispered. “If you’re not dead, then why were you gone so long?” “Your old man got careless and the monster got the drop on him.” John explained, “I was in no shape to get back to you guys and I’m sorry that I made you worry; but I’m home now and I get to take care of you.” Accepting his father’s explanation, Dean gave him a smile, as he reached for the man to give him a hug. Now he can learn how to take care of himself and not be scared of Parker. He wished that he and Sammy could learn together, but the stupid baby was going to stop him from learning a lot. Oh my God, Sammy! “Does Sammy know that you’re back, has someone told him yet?” Dean asked as he furrowed his brow. “Not yet, Dean, we were too concerned about you. You’re going to come home and since these nice people here were lax in protecting an Omega, they are going to provide you with a tutor for the rest of the year. It’s not that long until schools out for summer and we’ll play it by ear or the new school year.” “Okay, daddy,” he said as he stifled a yawn. “But tell Uncle Bobby to tell Sammy before he sees you, that will make it easier for him, ‘kay?” “Of course, Dean, we’ll do it your way.” John assured him. He must admit that he hadn’t thought about how to tell Sammy, but leave it to Dean to look out for his baby brother despite what’s going on with him. “I’m going to talk to your teacher and your principal, you rest until I come back for you.” John watched as his son turned over on the little cot and closed his eyes. What the fuck was going on here? He’d never heard of anyone not protecting an Omega and letting that bastard Alpha try to rape a pregnant, mated one was simply not done. Dean had enough problems without these fuckups adding to them. “Mr. Winchester,” the principal started when John walked into his office. “Don’t try to suck up to me now, I want to know why adults felt it okay to discuss my son and his mated status to the point where some young knot head thinks that it’s alright to attack him?” “We, well I,” the teacher corrected herself when the principal cleared his throat rather loudly. “I thought that somehow you made up the fact that he was mated.” “His mating mark is red,” John growled at the simpering woman, “how is that a fake?” “He’s just so young, I thought that … well I guess I really wasn’t thinking,” she admitted. “I just couldn’t understand how someone his age would be allowed to mate.” “He wasn’t allowed to do anything; he was taken from us for the week so the bond was formed.” Glancing at her neck, John noticed that her mating mark was still the flesh color of the unmated so he stated, “you were jealous, jealous that a kid could find a mate while you haven’t been able to.” “How do we correct the problem, Mr. Winchester?” the principal interrupted, saving the teacher from having to answer John’s accusation. John glared at the teacher for a second longer before he said, “Dean’s Uncle said that there are several other Omega’s here, to keep them safe, I strongly suggest that you set up a tutor for them all until that Alpha is gone from the school.” “I don’t think…” the principal started. “If I have to come back to this school about something like this again, I promise you won’t like the outcome.” John growled. “Give me a week to set something up, and I will let you know where the Omegas will finish out the school year.” John thought about it and nodded his head in agreement before he went back to the nurse’s office and carried a sleeping Dean to the car. When they arrived at Bobby’s Dean was still asleep and John carried him upstairs to the room he shared with Sammy. After placing the little boy on the bed, John stared down at him. It seemed as though everyone wanted to take advantage of this child and it was his job as Dean’s father to figure out how to keep that from happening again. “Bobby, we need to find Dean’s Alpha,” John told the man as he walked into his study. “He needs to take some responsibility for what he’s done.” “You’re not going to get an argument from me, but how are we going to find him?” Bobby probed. “You, me and Jim found nothing to indicate as to whom that might be. If you’ve got something, please, share with the class.” “Missouri.” “Shit, why didn’t we think of that sooner? We could have had his sorry ass strung up a long time ago.” John laughed at his friend’s words he knew that he could always count on Bobby when it came to his boys. “Dean is going to be out of school for a week until the principal can decide where they are going to tutor the Omegas; we could leave before Sammy gets out of school.” “No, not a good idea, John,” Bobby told him. “The boys were having a hard time of it already thinking you were dead, but if you leave with Dean without him seeing you, I don’t think that the kid will be able to handle that.” “Bobby you could explain…” “No John, No. You were gone for months and then there’s the fact that Dean disappeared into thin air, you think that’s not going to affect that boy? You wait and you let him see you before you leave.” John opened his mouth to argue about making good time, and traveling with a pregnant Omega, but he thought about that night when Dean disappeared and how it almost broke his youngest. Yeah, he could wait. John sometimes forgets that Sammy was an Alpha and that they were destined to butt heads. Even though he’s only seven years old the boy was as strong willed as any adult that he has come up against in his life. Like Dean, Sammy was worried about how his brother would take him coming back from the dead, because it’s what they did. He knew that they would think him dead and for a moment he entertained the thought of staying in Kate’s sweet arms and let Bobby raise them, but that was just a pipe dream. He had a demon to catch and sons to raise and there was no way he was placing his shit on her doorstep. To ease Sammy’s mind, they stayed and ate dinner together before he and Dean took off for Lawrence. He’s not sure why he didn’t think of this earlier, but it seemed that whenever he had problem that good old research couldn’t find an answer to, then he could always count on Missouri. Thirty hours later, a very tired John and Dean pulled into the driveway of Missouri Moseley’s home. John looked over at where Dean lay curled up, asleep in the front seat and he didn’t have the heart to wake the boy, so despite the pain in his side, he walked around the car, gathered Dean up, and carried him to Missouri’s front door. He hadn’t even called her to warn that he was coming and as he carried his son, he wondered if this was the time she’d turn him away. Missouri answered his question when she opened the door as John shifted the sleeping boy to knock, “Come on in John,” she invited with a smile. John had been there many times in the past so he knew where the spare bedroom was and made his way upstairs to let the sleeping boy rest more comfortably. Missouri followed behind him and once they were inside the room, Missouri went to the bed to turn the covers down and stood aside as John undressed Dean. Once Dean was tucked in the bed John turned to Missouri to tell her that he was going to crawl in beside him but the way she sucked in her breath, told him something was wrong. “John you’re bleeding,” she exclaimed softly as she walked over to him. With a familiarity of a relationship that had been forged in pain, and nurtured for comfort, Missouri began unbuttoning his shirt to gaze at his wound. “The stitches have popped, come to my room and let me clean this up for you.” With a quick glance at Dean, John followed Missouri down the hall to her bedroom and sat on the bed as she gathered the items she needed to repair the sutures. This wasn’t the first time she’d done this for him and even though they were no longer intimate, it wouldn’t be the last. Over the years, their relationship had changed into something warm and comfortable; and now she was one of the few people that he hadn’t managed to piss off. “So Dean’s pregnant,” she stated as she gave John a bottle of Jack to help numb the pain. “I saw the red mating mark and I gotta admit, I’m curious as to why you let him mate so young and more importantly who’s his Alpha?” “Dunno,” he shamefully admitted as he took a swig from the bottle. “That’s why I’m here.” As Missouri tended to his wound, John explained how Dean had disappeared for a week and returned just as mysteriously. She knew both Bobby and Jim and knew that the search was thorough and if the three of them couldn’t find the little boy, then this was either a spell or something supernatural and it made her wonder about the child that Dean carried. “You want me to read him.” She guessed. “Yeah, I do,” John, sighed. “I want to find this knot head and make him either take responsibility for his claim, or let me find someone to break this fucking bond.” “We’ll do it first thing in the morning. Normally I’d need to touch something that the Alpha touched, but the baby will be able to tell me all I need to know.” “Good, good. Whatever you discover, tell me privately and then I will decide what to tell Dean. The poor kid’s life has been fucked since he was four, if I can make something a little easier, then I will.” The next morning John woke to a throbbing ache in his side and a pain pill and a glass of water on his nightstand. He looked over to Dean’s side of the bed and noticed that the boy was gone and he hurriedly made his way out of the room. “Dean!” he shouted as memories of the Omegas disappearance flashed through his mind. “Here I am daddy,” Dean said as he appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, “I’m helping Missouri fix breakfast.” John dropped to his knees and hugged his son because for a few hellish seconds, he thought that it had happened again, that Dean had vanished. He looked past his son to Missouri and she nodded her head and he knew that she’d read him and knew the identity of Dean’s Alpha. Now he had to get through breakfast and wait until Dean tired again before they had time to discuss her findings. The pair didn’t get to talk until much later that afternoon, and it wasn’t because Dean was tired, they’d both given up being able to talk until he went to bed and when he’d become entranced by his favorite television show they took advantage of the time. “Ok, Missouri spit it out, what’s the bastards’ name.” “John, I…” “His name Missouri, what’s the son of a bitch’s name. Who’s the beast marked my boy!” he demanded as he stood in front of her. “It’s Sam, John. Sam is Dean’s Alpha.” ***** Chapter 5 ***** John tipped his glass to the bartender indicating that he wanted another drink. He really shouldn’t be drinking because of the heavy-duty pain pills that he’d taken earlier, but after talking to Missouri, he needed something to dull his senses even further. He didn’t even give her time to explain about Sam, he just left the house. As he sat there in that bar trying to drown his sorrows, he tried to work out how his seven-year-old son made his eleven-year-old brother vanish for a week and mate with him and he’d not seen any of it. He would like to yell and scream at Missouri that she was wrong, but in all of the years that he’d known her, she’d never been wrong. Not once. It was late when John made his way back to Missouri’s. Part of him was hoping that it was too late for her to be awake, and part was hoping that if she were, then he would be too drunk to have this discussion; then again, he realized that he would never be sober enough for this conversation. He saw the light on in the kitchen as he entered the house and heard water running and he knew that she was awake and waiting for him. Fuck. He quickly made his way to the bathroom to relieve his bladder and then to the bedroom to check on Dean to see if he was still asleep, if he was still there. Once he finally made his way to the kitchen, he found Missouri sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee waiting for him. He drank his coffee and shook his head as though if he did that was going to change what she’d told him earlier. Unfortunately, it didn’t work so he asked, “So, Sammy is Dean’s Alpha, how the fuck is that even possible?” “John this is dark magic, I’m talking about some evil shit. The Sammy that cast this spell is not that chubby little kid you left with Bobby; this is a full- grown man who’s filled with pain and grief. He is from a different time but he had to be powerful to pull this off John. You have to teach Dean how to protect himself or when they get older think about what he can do to Dean. “You’re right Missouri; I have to make it hard for Dean to remember that he’s an Omega, to think like an Alpha. I will train him and keep him on suppressants. There’s no way he can keep this baby, he just…can’t. If Sammy is able to bend time and take Dean, what will he do when he realizes that this baby is his and we’ve kept this information from him? I’m terrified that he will take the love that Dean has for him and their child and distort it and turn it into something ugly.” He was picturing some of the evil things that he’d seen in his life in the name of love, and there was no way he was going to let Dean suffer at his brother’s hands, so he made a decision. The baby had to go. “Missouri, there is no way that Dean can keep this child, not when there’s the chance that Sammy could hurt them both, I can’t let that happen.” “John if you take that baby from that boy it will kill him. Think about it, he’s an Omega, he’s built to nurture, and if he knows that he has a child out there and he’s not a part of its life he will grieve himself to death,” Missouri told him as she desperately tried to make John understand. “If you have to separate that boy from his child then you’d better find a different way than snatching it straight from his womb and giving it away.” John didn’t sleep very well that night because all he thought about was his conversation with Missouri and her warning and he realized that she was right; that there was no way that Dean would survive knowing that someone else had his child. As much as it pained him, there was just no way, that Dean could keep this baby. Omega or not, an eleven year old was not mature or responsible enough to raise a child, and besides, John had already ruined the lives of two children, there was no way he would add a third to the fuck up that was his life. Not weighing the pros and the cons of this decision because someone had to be an unfeeling son of a bitch and make the tough calls. Before he talked himself out of it, John picked up his phone and made three calls. The first one was to a doctor he knew that had patched him up when it wasn’t safe to go to a hospital, Dr. Robert, and the second to Bobby’s friend, Frank Devereaux for some forged paperwork and the third to Kate Milligan, someone who would love Dean’s baby unconditionally. By the time he and Dean were back in Sioux falls, Frank had provided him with the paperwork needed to give him legal guardianship over his son, signed by Dean’s nonexistent Alpha and adoption paperwork to give Kate the child she’d wanted and Dean didn’t need. For a large fee, John had also secured a promise from the doctor to help him put everything into action. Dean was miserable. His back has been hurting for days, and it didn’t matter whether he was sitting, standing or lying down he couldn’t seem to get comfortable. Because of the trouble last year with Parker, the Omegas were still being taught together and they don’t mingle with the other students until lunch or a home economics class, so Dean was free to walk around without disrupting a room full of students. He recognized that symptoms because he’d read about them, and knew that the pain was his body preparing for the baby to come. The thought that he was about to give birth made him both excited and scared. Lately he’s been thinking more and more about the baby. Things like who he look will like, what color his eyes will be. Sam was a good baby; he hoped his son would be too. If he were older, he would just quit school so that he could stay home, but he knew that he was too young to do that. Daddy was his Alpha in his true Alphas’ stead and he wasn’t going to let him quit school at eleven years old. Sammy laughed at him when he talked to the baby, but he’d read that babies could hear and he wanted his son to recognize his voice. He’d picked out a name; he was going to call him John Robert Winchester after the Alphas who thought that he was worth sticking around for. “Dean Winchester!” his teacher, Mrs. Hart, snapped at him. Holding the chalk out to him she demanded, “Please come to the board and work problem 12.” Dean knew that he should have been paying attention to his teacher, but his body wouldn’t let him. He slowly eased out of the chair and waddled to the front of the room. During the short walk to the board, he was trying to find a way out of this without embarrassing himself. He first studied the problem, hoping that the answer would come to him. He knew that he didn’t know the answer but he would try anyway. Just as he put the chalk to the board, Evan said, “Dean, you peed on yourself.” It seemed that all at once everything became a blur. Mrs. Hart was being nice, and kept asking how he felt and all the while he wanted to die from embarrassment. He’d peed on himself like a little kid. While he was trying to sink through the floor and hide, Mrs. Hart was guiding him from the room and to the nurse’s office where they called his daddy. While the nurse and his teacher tried to contact his daddy or Uncle Bobby, a pain ripped through his body causing him to scream from the intensity of it. “What’s wrong,” Dean cried. “I want my daddy, please get my daddy.” “Oh sweetheart,” Mrs. Hart murmured as she held his little body trying to comfort him as the pain eased up. “Your contractions have started. Try to relax okay. Your dad will be here soon.” The pain soon subsided but Dean continued to let his teacher hold him, as he tucked his head in the crook of her neck he closed his eyes and pretended that it was his mother holding and comforting him. He loved his daddy, but sometimes he wished his mom were still alive. It seemed that just when he got over the pain of the first contraction, the second one came along and he felt like he was dying. His doctor and his dad had attempted to prepare him for the actual labor, but all they had told him was that it was going to hurt. They lied, stubbing your toe. That hurt. This felt as though his body was being ripped apart and he wanted this thing out of him. His daddy finally came, it reality it only took him thirty minutes to get to the school, but the two contractions made it feel as though it was thirty hours. Daddy was here and he was going to make it all better. “You ready to go Dean?” John asked. “He just started another contraction,” his teacher answered for him. “I’m not sure that he’ll be able to walk out of here on his own.” Dean didn’t see the tears in his father’s eyes because the pain that he was going through, the only thing he remembered was his father taking him from Mrs. Hart and carrying him to the car where Bobby was waiting for them. The labor was long and painful, and after forty-eight hours, Dr. Robert was discussing with John the possibility of performing a cesarean to give his body a rest. Dean wanted to protest, but he knew that as his Alpha ad litem, his dad would overrule what he wanted anyway. The two men talked about him as though he couldn’t hear them; he was in labor not dead, and just a few seconds from screaming for them to make a decision. A few hours ago, he might have protested about them cutting him, but now he’d do anything to get the baby out and make the pain stop. “Dean, I’m going to check you again,” Dr. Robert, informed him as he pulled the sheets back and placed his feet into the stirrups. “If you haven’t dilated enough, we may need to think about alternative solutions.” “’kay,” Dean agreed just to get him to hurry along and get this over with. If they were going to do the cesarean, then he hoped that it would be soon. Dr. Robert pulled the sheet down and smiled at Dean, “It looks like someone has been busy, you’re at eight centimeters, and so it won’t be long before the baby comes.” It seemed that the doctor was right, an hour later his son was born, and then died. A part of Dean wished that he’d died with him. Dean went home two days later with an empty womb and a heavy heart. Sammy did his best to try to cheer him up, but Dean wasn’t in the mood and sent him away. He loved Sammy, but Sammy was his dad’s baby and for the past eight months, he’d been preparing to have his own. Now he felt empty and useless, because both his Alpha and his baby had rejected him. Once he finally made it out of the bed, he went downstairs to seek out his brother and apologize for being mean to him he heard his dad and Uncle Bobby arguing about someone named Kate and the fact that his baby wasn’t here with them. He was going to go back upstairs until he heard Uncle Bobby say, “Well since Dean doesn’t have a baby there really is no reason for you to stay here, so pack your shit and your boys and go!” Dean ran back to the room he shared with Sammy, and had barely made it back when his father burst in and told him to pack his and Sammy’s things because they were leaving. The murderous expression on John’s face told Dean that this wasn’t the time to argue and he pulled out his duffle bag and started packing. Thirty minutes later, everything that they owned was in the trunk of the Impala and he and Sammy were in the back seat waiting for their father to join them. John was almost at the driver’s side when he walked back towards Bobby. “Come on Bobby,” John cajoled, but the bullet that flew past his head had him jumping into the car and tearing out of the junkyard. Dean felt a hot tear roll down his cheek while he watched Bobby Singer get smaller as they drove away. He’d cost them a home and a friend, but he swore to himself that he’d make it up to his dad and Sammy. ***** Chapter 6 ***** Part 2 - The Alpha Sam was used to the girls staring at Dean, because his brother was gorgeous. He was tall, ripped and anyone would be lucky to claim him, well anyone but the Alpha who did. Each day after school, he had to wade through a sea of Betas to get into the front seat of the Impala to go home. As he watched these girls fawn over and throw themselves at Dean, He often wondered what they would think if they knew that his big bad Alpha brother was a mated Omega who got wet the same as them. That the only thing that kept him from going into heat and begged to be fucked was the suppressants that his dad had kept him on for as long as Sam could remember. He was half-tempted to spill this closely guarded secret to Carole Riley, the cute little Beta who’d used Sam to get close to Dean. Sam knew that the stupid girl had seen Dean’s mating mark but chose to ignore it, and besides, it’s not as if Dean would do anything other than flirt with her. The only thing stopping him from spilling Dean’s secret was the fact that it would crush Dean, and Sam would chop off his arm before he’d hurt his brother. Sam knew what the problem was, he had admitted to himself a long time ago that he was jealous and resented like hell when Dean paid attention to anyone other than him. That’s why he kept his feelings and information to himself and waded through the wall of pheromones and told Dean to drive. “What crawled up your ass?” Dean asked and Sam could tell that he was angry with him for pulling him away from his fan club. “Do you ever stop and consider that I have to see those girls in school and when you don’t follow through on your flirting, they take their anger out on me.” “You’re a big boy Sam, surely you can handle a couple of Betas,” Dean teased, his anger forgotten. “I can handle them Dean but I shouldn’t have to, just like I shouldn’t have to walk outside every day to you teasing them. It’s not like you’re ever going to follow through.” Once the word left his mouth, he wished that he could take them back. He doesn’t know what possessed him to say that other than he wasn’t feeling like himself today. Just because he wasn’t feeling well didn’t mean he should take it out on Dean. “’m sorry Dean,” Sam apologized. He knew that if he got Dean to look at him that he would give in to him and accept his apology, but his brother kept his eyes on the road and wouldn’t look at him. That action alone told him that he’d hurt Dean. Since Dean was eleven and gave birth to a stillborn child, his dad had trained him to think and act as though he was an Alpha. Dean played the role so well that Sam often forgot that that’s what it was – an act. It was only during times like this, when they argued and he hurt Dean, that he remembered. They quickly reached the shithole that their dad rented while they were here in this backwater town and Dean barely put the car in park before he had the door open and jumped out and practically ran inside. Sam knew that he had to figure out how to make this right because Dean didn’t deserve to be disrespected. As Sam slowly made his way inside, he was practicing what he was going to say to make Dean accept his apology when he saw his dad’s duffle bag by the front door. “Dad, you’re leaving?” Sam asked. “Yeah, I’m headed to Minnesota, there’s a ghost haunting a high school in Windom and a couple of the students have been killed.” “But you just got back dad,” Dean reminded him. “You guys aren’t babies you can take care of yourselves. Dean’s an adult and Sammy you’re almost one, hell you’ll be popping your knot any day now.” On glance at his brother and Sam could tell the he was just as upset that their parent was leaving again less than twenty-four hours of returning home from a hunt. No, Sam wasn’t a baby, he’d turned sixteen four months ago, and his daily training insured that he could take care of himself, and like his dad said, he’d pop his knot any day now and he’d be even stronger than he is now. That wasn’t the problem; the problem was that both he and Dean were looking forward to spending time with their father, even if it was just repetitive training. “I’m not leaving until later tonight, so we’ll get to spend some time together,” he attempted to pacify them as though an extra couple of hours was going to make up for him leaving so soon. “Oh, and boys, just because I’m sticking around doesn’t mean that you can skip today’s training session.” “Yes, sir,” they replied in unison. Sam grabbed his homework and plopped down on the ratty sofa that he and Dean had found at the local dump when they went there to haul some trash. John had told them they were supposed to be leaving trash not bringing it home. It might not look like much, but it was comfortable and it saved them from having to search the local thrift stores. He wanted to make sure that he got his homework out of the way before he and Dean began sparring. Experience had taught him that it was best to do it first, because he didn’t do his best after sparring with Dean because he was either too tired or too turned on to concentrate. “Dean, you took your sups today, right?” John asked. “Yeah, dad, I took them,” Dean answered from the kitchen, and Sam thought that his brother sounded a little sad and it made him worry. Did he not want to take them, and if not why. Was he so busy bitching about the Betas, that he hadn’t noticed an Alpha sniffing around? Dean told Sam everything, but he refused to talk to him about him being an Omega or being mated. Sam knew that Dean was mated shortly after his eleventh birthday, but that’s all he knew. He had never met Dean’s Alpha, hell, he didn’t even know his name, but with them being bonded, he knew that Dean had to miss his mate. He couldn’t imagine being bonded and not being near his mate. Was that the reason Dean was suddenly looking so sad? There had been times in the past when Dean had slipped away and it made Sam wonder if that was to meet his mate. Once he’d been gone on one of his sabbaticals, he came back drunk, sporting a tattoo with the numbers, 92990 right over his heart, and Sam didn’t know what the numbers meant. He’d pestered Dean until he yelled at him that that was the date on which his son had both been born and died making Sam feeling like the biggest dick that he didn’t know, that he didn’t remember. The last time Dean came back from one of his absences, he didn’t talk for two days, but Sam didn’t push him to talk about where he’d been. Sam watched as his father made his way to the kitchen where a stoic Dean was preparing dinner. Once he reached Dean he leaned in a whispered something into his ear while rubbing the Omega’s arm, suddenly something occurred to him. There were always little intimate moments like this between Dean and their dad, moments that he’d never had. Was-could it be that his dad was Dean’s Alpha? Once dinner was over, Dean and Sam made their way to the old barn that they had designated as their training area. The old structure was sturdy and offered them plenty of room for them to wrestle with each other. When they were younger, Sam used to worry about hurting Dean because he was an Omega. However, Dean soon made him forget that and promptly set about handing him his ass repeatedly. Even though he was now about an inch or two taller than Dean was, the Omega was still stronger and faster than he was, and Sam was embarrassed that he couldn’t beat someone who was supposed to be weak. As they began their sparring, he didn’t feel so good; Sam was feeling dizzy and had begun to sweat profusely. Fifteen minutes into the session, his shirt was drenched and both his hair the thin white t-shirt looked as though he’d been caught in a torrential downpour, but he knew that he had to keep going or he’d have to answer to his dad. “Okay, that’s it,” Dean announced after he’d taken Sam down much too easy. “You don’t look so hot so we’re done here.” “Dad’s gonna be pissed,” Sam warned Dean. “Probably, but you’re sick, he told me you were my responsibility and this is me being responsible for you. I’ll deal with dad; you go take a shower because you stink bitch.” “Fucking jerk,” Sam tossed back ducking his head to hide his smile as he took Deans hand to help him up from the floor. Sam made his way down the hall to the room they shared as Dean cut off their dad’s tirade about how they needed to take their lazy asses back to the barn. As he closed the door, he heard Dean’s low voice explain why they were back so soon. He’d never been able to do that, change his dad’s mood. Well, he had but it was only to make him angrier. Soon he was under the shower, and moaned as the cold water hit his overheated skin, he closed his eyes to savor the feeling and was surprised at the unbidden Technicolor images of Dean that ran through his mind. He blinked as he tried to rid himself of the images, but when he closed his eyes they were still there and worse, his dick was twitching and getting nice and fat at the thought of his beautiful brother. He thought that the cold shower would make his erection go away, and it probably would have worked if he could have erased the visions of Dean from his head. It seemed that once were there, they weren’t going anywhere, so he lathered up his hands and gave his dick a tug and his knees got weak at how good it felt. He felt it on the second tug he’d finally popped his goddam knot. Taking his hand Sam felt it and was surprised at how sensitive it was and the more he touched it the more he imagined that he had it buried in Dean. He closed his eyes and pictured the sweet Omega in the classic submissive position, his head to the floor, arms folded behind his back with his legs spread and his tiny pink hole dripping with slick. He couldn’t decide if he would open him up or let the slick do the work. He was and Omega, so his body was built to take an Alpha so it wouldn’t hurt him if he just sank right into that tight wet heat. Sam wished that he could march right out there and claim Dean, but some unknown Alpha had taken him before Sam even got the chance. He thought about being buried inside Dean, the heat from his body feeling so good, that he’d never want to leave it. He pictured this as his hands stroked his dick, running the thumb over the head making him moan each time his thumb ran over his slit. With each stroke, each touch of his knot there were tiny tremors being sent through his body causing such an intense pleasure that threatened to make his knees buckle again, so he took his free hand and placed it on the tile to keep from falling as he stroked himself to completion. As he sprayed come on the tiles of the shower, Sam called out his brother’s name so loud that he’d half expected him to burst into the room. John Winchester had spent the last sixteen years as a hunter, and during those years, he had learned a lot of things and one of them was reading signs. Like when your sixteen year old Alpha son couldn’t go fifteen minutes into a sparring session without breaking into a sweat and having to stop. Dean might not have realized what was happening, but he did, Sam was going to pop his knot and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. When Kate had called him, he thought that she was calling about her son - Dean’s son, Adam; but she was calling about a job. There was a haunting in a local school there, kids were dying, and she needed him to stop the ghost. It was a simple salt and burn and it wouldn’t take too long, but with things changing with Sam, an hour would be too long. He had made the decision not to tell Dean that Sam was his Alpha, because life was confusing enough for the kid and he wasn’t sure what that knowledge would do to him. He’s sure that sometime in the future it will be revealed but right now, neither of them could know. He was having a hard enough time making sure that Dean could take care of himself and Sam didn’t turn into the evil monster as Missouri predicted. “Dean, what’s going on with you and Sam?’ John asked once Sam was in the shower. “What do you mean?” Dean asked pretending that he didn’t know what his father meant, but John could tell by the blush staining his cheeks that he understood what John was asking. “Son you have to remember that you already have an Alpha, stop leading Sam on because nothing can come of it.” “I know that dad and even if I didn’t, I have you to constantly remind me,” Dean bitterly stated. “Good, someone needed to. Just remember that while I’m gone that you have to take your sups, Dean. If the people that we deal with knew that you were an Omega, Sam and I can’t always be there to protect you,” John reminded him. John knew that he was coming across as an asshole, but someone had to have a cool head in this house. He knew that if Dean forgot his suppressants then he would go into heat and because Sam was Dean’s Alpha, he would react accordingly. Hell, even on the sups just being near his Alpha could trigger his heat. Sam and Dean were already drawn to each other and couldn’t understand why; and taking away the only thing keeping them apart would be like throwing gasoline onto a fire. Over the years he’d noticed that Alphas showed an interest in Dean even though he was mated and they thought him to be an Alpha. Because he was mated, that shouldn’t be, so he’d read a few of Bobby’s books and learned that because the mates were in different time frames, Dean presented as unmated. When Sam stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, the smell of pheromones and semen hit him in the face and he knew that trouble was starting, that he was right, Sam had popped his knot. For once he was torn between the job and his sons. When they were younger, he could browbeat them into submission and Dean, well he obeyed his Alpha, but Sam worried him. The younger boy was a hot headed, stubborn shoot first and ask questions later Alpha who was also a Winchester. He glanced at his sons and turned to leave because even if he couldn’t stay with Kate, he owed her. His decision made, he told the boys he was leaving, because the sooner he left, the faster he could get back. He convinced himself not to worry about the two of them being alone because even though Sam was a sweet talker, Dean would never let John down. He hoped. “Boys, I’m leaving and I shouldn’t be gone any longer than a week,” he announced. “Remember to keep up your training and just because tomorrow’s Saturday doesn’t mean that the two of you can slack off.” As he sat outside in his truck, John looked back at the house where his boys were and wondered what he would be walking back into. ***** Chapter 7 ***** Usually when his dad left, Sam would take his bed and pretend that it was his, but tonight he didn’t want to do that, he felt that he had to be near Dean. Reluctantly, he went to the other room because he didn’t want have to explain to Dean why he broke habit. He couldn’t explain something that he wasn’t so sure of himself, like why he was so drawn to Dean. The red claiming mark on Dean’s neck should have made him not want his brother, because Alpha’s weren’t attracted to claimed Betas and Omegas, someone needed to tell his traitorous body that. Sam woke the next morning and almost choked on the smell of pheromones in the room, he supposed that it was only natural after he’d spent the night dreaming about fucking Dean. He reached down, reached into his sleep pants, and found that his hard dick was covered in a sticky mess as apparently he’d been having wet dreams about his brother. Using the mess in his pants, Sam closed his eyes and began to stroke his dick until he spilled over his hand. The sun was barely up, and after a quick shower Sam found himself out running trying to see if physical exertion would dull this newfound lust for Dean. He ran until his legs were too heavy to take another step before he ran back home. The sun was up, but it wasn’t that late, so he figured that Dean would still be sleeping. He was wrong. “Where the fuck have you been Sam,” Dean shouted as soon as he walked through the door, “you know better than to leave and not let someone know where you’re going! I…I thought that someone or something had gotten to you.” Sam could kick his own goddamned ass, he was so caught up in the new feelings that popped up along with his knot that he forgot about how Dean worried if he didn’t know where Sam or his dad was. He’d only been seven the night that Dean disappeared and most of the time, he forgot because they sent him with Pastor Jim. He remembers being sad, but the actual night was somewhat fuzzy for him, but not so much for Dean. “Oh God, Dean I’m so sorry, I didn’t think,” Sam apologized. “I just felt like a run this morning and I didn’t want to wake you.” “You…you can’t just leave like that. You just went for a run but I thought that maybe something had come for you. My Alpha came for me at my first heat, you just popped your knot, the same thing could have happened to you.” Dean whispered. Sam looked at his brother and noticed that his skin was pale making his freckles stand out more, and the normally beautiful green eyes were dilated with fear and Sam knew that he was the cause. The simple act of not telling Dean where he was took him back to the night where his Alpha stole him and kept him for a week. “So fucking sorry, Dean,” he apologized again as he walked forward, gathered his brother in his arms and rocked him gently while murmuring in his ear. “I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to take you back there, to remind you of what happened.” Dean accepted the apology and ran to their bedroom, leaving Sam alone in the kitchen feeling guiltier than he had before. Dean felt as though he was coming out of his skin, when he woke up it was bad enough that Sam slept in their dad’s room, but when he was gone from the house and hadn’t woken him or left a note he panicked. His mind automatically went back to that night nine years ago when he disappeared. Through the years, his dad had tried to get him to tell him about that week, but didn’t believe him when he told him he can’t, but it’s the truth. The only thing he remembered was earlier that day when he felt hot and itchy as though his skin was too tight. He was suddenly hard and aching, and his hole was wet. He needed something but he wasn’t sure what. He now knew that he was going into his first heat. Unless an Omega had an Alpha, they either took suppressants or suffered through the once a month weekly heats on their own, except for the first one. The first heat was always suffered through unaided because giving an Omega sups during their first heat would cause sterility. Because Omegas were so young when they experienced their first heat, the majority of them didn’t have Alphas to help them through it and it was a painful experience. Dean was not sure what his dad’s plans had been for him to get through his first heat, but he’s pretty sure that it would have been a rough week. He wanted to know who his Alpha was as well as Sam, but his dad won’t tell him either. If wasn’t for the fact that he wasn’t dead, Dean thought for a long time that it might have been his dad’s friend and fellow hunter Caleb because it seemed that he was always hiding his mating mark. The speculation ended when Caleb had been hurt after a hunt, and the hunter was shirtless while his dad patched him up. Caleb’s mark was still flesh colored so he couldn’t have been Dean’s Alpha. At the time, he wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or relieved. Recently Dean thought that he was going crazy because it seemed that something was happening between him and Sam. He wasn’t sure what it was but for some reason lately he couldn’t seem to stop touching Sam and wanting him to reciprocate. Dean tried to cover it up by flirting with Sam’s Beta classmates and playing into their belief that he was an Alpha, but it wasn’t working. His dad had seen what was happening between them because when Sam was in the shower after their aborted sparring session last night he’d pulled Dean aside and reminded him that he had a mate and he needed to stay away from Sam. Dean had his mate and he had to step aside to let Sam find his. Dean knew that his dad was right but why did he feel sick at the thought of Sam touching someone else. He was mated so he shouldn’t feel this way, but each time he looked at Sam he wanted to fall to the floor and present himself for the fucking of his life. As an Omega, it went against his nature to disobey his Alpha, and since dad had left instructions for them to spar, it would have to be Sam to disobey because he would follow those instructions to the letter. He quietly walked back into the den where Sam was sprawled on the sofa and stared at the perfection that was his little brother. After looking his fill, Dean softly called his name, “Sam.” “Yeah Dean,” the Alpha answered. “We- dad wants us to spar…” “I thought that you were too angry at me to want too,” Sam told him as he sat up on the sofa. “I wasn’t mad Sam, just scared. I didn’t know where you were,” he tried to explain without sounding like a child, like an Omega. He didn’t want Sam angry with him because it would make life inside their home unbearable. Dean didn’t want that because home was the place where he could relax. Outside, the face he presented to the world was that of an Alpha, but at home, he didn’t have to pretend. If Sam was angry with him that would take away the only source of comfort that he had. As the pair silently made their way down the path to the barn to practice as their father had dictated, Sam couldn’t help but sneak glances at his older brother. He was both proud of how Dean kept his composure even though he’d been terrified and was in awe of his beauty. Even though Dean pretended to be an Alpha, he’s the perfect Omega. He cooked, took care of both him and his dad and still managed to be one of the best hunters around. The problem with that was he shouldn’t have to take care of them, he should be taking care of his child, hell he could have had a house full if that’s what he wanted. He was so fucking strong. How could someone be so stupid as to leave someone so perfect alone to wither away from lack of love and attention? If Dean were his, he wouldn’t let a day pass without showing him that he was loved. Once they reached the barn, both removed their shirts because it was already warm, and when they started, it would be even warmer. As they circled one another, it occurred to Sam that as the only Alpha in residence that he could override his dad’s orders and Dean would go along because dad couldn’t counter them. The only reason he didn’t just say fuck it was because this was the only way that he was going to be able to touch Dean’s beautiful body. While he was staring, Dean took advantage of Sam’s distraction and bent over and charged, knocking Sam over with a shoulder to his solar plexus. “You paying attention now?” Dean asked as he stood over Sam and laughed before he turned and walked away. “You bastard,” Sam growled as he jumped to his feet and tackled Dean from behind. The older boy may be an Omega, but he was wiry and could hold his own in a fight. Before Sam realized what happened, Dean had somehow maneuvered his body around to face Sam and have him on his back again. No, it wasn’t that he was getting his ass handed to him by an Omega, it was the fact that it was being handed to him at all. It was something that Dean had been doing since their dad had begun having them spar. Sam used to think that when he got bigger then he would be able to take the older boy, but that hadn’t panned out yet. Since he popped his knot yesterday, he’s felt a little stronger and a little more agile, so this session wasn’t going to end without Dean under him at least once. The next hour and a half went pretty much the same way, with Dean pinning him each time he tried. He even toyed with Sam making him think that he was going to win round, only to find himself face down in the mat. Dean stood across from him and taunted, “That the best you go Sammy? You gonna let a little ole Omega show you up?” “Show me what you’ve got,” Sam taunted back as they circled each other once again. Sam waited and let Dean make the first move this time and he was sure that Dean was going for his favorite move to take Sam’s legs from under him, but he was wrong. As Sam twisted to put a chokehold on his brother, Dean’s arm snaked around Sam’s waist at the same time his foot swept Sam’s feet carrying him to the ground where he landed on his back and Dean straddled his lap in victory. Once Sam felt Dean bear down against his crotch, the feeling of disappointment at losing yet again was replaced by the tendrils of desire curling in his belly at the feel of Dean’s dick sliding against his. Sam could tell the moment Dean realized how intimate they were, because he stopped laughing and tried to extricate himself from Sam’s lap, but this time Sam had the advantage and held the Omega there. “S-Sam?” Dean stuttered. Sam’s answer was to roll his hips giving them enough friction to shoot pleasure through their veins. “It’s okay Dean,” Sam answered as he rolled his hips again causing Dean to moan. When he heard that moan, suddenly all bets were off; because that sound was the sweetest fucking thing that he’d ever heard in his life. As he held Dean in place while they rubbed their dicks against each other, Sam realized that this was probably Dean’s only sexual experience. Being taken nine years ago by some unknown bastard while he was in the throes of his first heat didn’t count. It wasn’t as though Sam had notches on his headboard, but he was somewhat experienced and knew what to expect, but this was all new for Dean. Their father kept Dean on a tight leash as well. Sam had noticed over the years how other hunters, Alphas had looked at Dean, especially around his sixteenth birthday, but their dad kept him close, never leaving him alone with them. Usually they wouldn’t show interest at a mated Omega, but Sam thinks that it’s because Dean hasn’t been with his Alpha since that night. There was always disappointment when the hunters saw Dean’s mating mark, but walked away. Most of them, but there was always that one who tried to outsmart John. They had been surprised that Dean could kick their asses. That meant that Dean was as good as a virgin; that the hole that he’d dreamt about so often, was so tight that he’d have to take extra time opening him up before he could slip inside, and damn if the thought of that didn’t go straight to his dick making it impossibly harder. As Dean leaned forward and blindly searched for Sam’s mouth, Sam moved his hands, went to the back of Dean’s jeans, slipped inside, and rested on finger at Dean’s hole. At the feel of his finger on his hole, Dean stiffened and stopped moving his hips and Sam almost cried at the loss of the sweet friction. “It’s okay Dean, I just wanna make you feel good,” When his body still remained stiff, Sam slid hid mouth over Deans and whispered, “please,” into the warm cavern. Sam had really intended to tease Dean’s hole but as the Omega relaxed into the kiss, Sam wanted to give him more, so he pulled his finger free and placed it into Dean’s mouth and let him suck on the digit and almost came at the sight. Those plump lips wrapped around his finger made his dick twitch and spurt so much precome that if he didn’t know better, he’d swore he came. His body was on fire with the fact that Dean’s had only been fucked once, then the possibility that he’d never sucked dick before was a likelihood and Sam would love to be the one to teach him the fine art of fellatio, to teach him to be his. Soon the spit-wet finger was again at Dean’s hole, but this time he eased it past the tight ring of muscle and into the heat of Dean’s body. Sam had wet the finger to make it easier for Dean but he was wet from his own slick that Sam didn’t have a problem easing it inside. The further in the finger went, the more Dean relaxed and when Sam found that little bundle of nerves and stroked it, his time the moan was guttural as though Dean couldn’t believe something could feel that good. When Sam pulled his finger out Dean protested with a high-pitched whine, and relaxed again when he felt Sam’s hand back at his entrance with two fingers this time. Taking a moment to let his brother get used to the stretch, Sam was soon fucking Dean with his fingers. Dean might be new at this but he was a quick learner and soon found a rhythm sliding their denim-encased dicks to match the strokes of Sam’s fingers, until soon, the freckled face was buried in Sam’s neck as he mewled his pleasure as he came, with Sam following soon after. If Sam thought that Dean made him feel bad just for going that run this morning without telling him, then Sam was wrong, because now Dean wouldn’t even talk to him. If he entered a room Dean left, when Sam came to the kitchen and Dean was eating, then, the Omega was suddenly no longer hungry. Hell Dean couldn’t look at him without blushing. Then there were the showers. It seemed that Dean was taking showers to try to wash Sam’s smell from him but apparently, they weren’t working. Finally, Sam couldn’t take it any more so he waited until Dean was in bed before going in to confront him. “Dean,” Sam called softly as he walked into the room, “can we talk?” “Sam, we can’t,” Dean told his brother as he backed away from him. “Just talk, Dean. Just talk,” Sam promised. “What we did, it that barn, it was nothing to be ashamed of Dean.” “That’s easy for you to say, Sam you’re not mated. We aren’t even supposed to be able to feel like this towards each other, but yet I let you…” Sam closed his eyes and carefully chose his words, “You’re right Dean, we aren’t supposed to feel this attraction to each other, let alone act on it, but we were and we did and it felt right, like you were mine.” “As I said before Sam, you’re not mated, and it’s not you people will blame when they find out,” Dean told him. “What if…what if he came back, my Alpha? What if he came back and found me like that, then I’d have a black mark Sam and no one would want me.” “I’d always want you Dean,” Sam corrected his brother as he walked towards him, and felt his heart break when Dean backed away. “I’d welcome him back to denounce, to rescind his claim on you so that I could claim you.” “No Sam, I-we can’t. Dad,” Dean responded giving Sam a pitiful excuse. “I’ve embarrassed dad enough, I won’t add to what I’ve already done. Please Sam…” Sam went back to his dad’s room and looked around. The only reason he stayed was because of Dean, and he no longer had that. He gathered up the few things that he owned and put them in his duffle bag. Once he was certain that Dean was asleep, he went to the kitchen to the coffee can where Dean kept their money and took half of it to fund his trip. Remembering how frightened Dean was this morning when he couldn’t find him, Sam left a note on the table telling him that he was gone because he had no reason to stay. Twenty minutes later, he had made it to a busy road and had hitched a ride that would take his as far from Dean as his money would allow. ***** Chapter 8 ***** The house was extremely quiet when John entered it, too quiet. Sunlight had barely breached the horizon, but it was a school day so the boys should have been moving around, or rather, Sam should be hustling to wake Dean up so that he would make it to school on time. Did the boy oversleep? Knowing how their sleeping arrangements changed when he left for a hunt, John went to the bedroom he’d claimed when they moved in to see if Sam was still in bed. He flung the door opened and was ready to yell at the boy for being lazy, but he was greeted with an empty bed that hadn’t been slept in. “He’s gone,” a soft voice whispered from behind him. “What do you mean he’s gone?” John demanded as he whipped around to face Dean. “Gone as in left, ran away. Gone,” Dean, repeated. “Why would he run away? What the hell happened here Dean?” John demanded as he threw his duffel bag on the floor and turned to walk back to the kitchen, and that’s when he smelled it. “What did y’all do Dean; I can smell him on you, did you fuck him?” “No!” Dean exclaimed, “We…no.” “Don’t lie to me Dean,” John told the boy as he struggled to explain what happened between them. “The scent may be weak, but I can smell him on you.” Dean blushed as he tried to get the words out, “I –we wanted to but we didn’t. We’re not supposed to be able to feel this pull dad towards each other, so why do we? If it wasn’t for the fact that my claim mark is red, I’d think that you were lying to me about having a mate just to keep us apart.” John ignored Dean’s accusation because he didn’t want to answer it until he had a good enough lie ready. He wasn’t ready to explain future evil Sam and different dimensions. You’d think that after nine years, he would have had something in place, but it never occurred to him that they would be pulled towards each other or that Dean would disobey him. “When did he leave?” He asked as he watched the struggle on Dean’s face as he fought not to demand an answer from him. “He was gone when I woke two days ago. He let a note telling me that he was gone so I wouldn’t worry and think that he’d vanished into thin air.” “Get your things so we can go find your brother,” John instructed. “If the pair of you had listen to me and kept your goddamned hands to yourself then we wouldn’t be in this predicament. You know you’re mated, it doesn’t matter what you feel you can’t give away what belongs to someone else.” The look on Dean’s face made John want to kick his own ass for putting it there, but how was he supposed to be able to protect Dean from the evil that he knew that was buried in his youngest. That Parker kid did a number on Dean’s self-esteem, so he didn’t get how special he was. Although it wouldn’t have been his first choice, Sam would have been the perfect solution to finding Dean a mate. They wouldn’t be the first siblings to do so and they wouldn’t be the last, but damn it just once couldn’t something go right for them. If Sam were a normal sixteen year old then John would find him still hitchhiking along the highway, but this was Sam he was talking of and not your average teen. His boy had spent his entire life training to hunt and kill supernatural beings and how to stay under the radar if needed, and now he and Dean were going to have to search hell and high water to find him. The first step was figuring out how Sam made his escape, did he hitchhike, steal a car or take the bus. John ruled out stealing a car because that would be easy for him to track and if he hitchhiked, then he could be anywhere. This would be do much easier if this was Dean, but then Dean wouldn’t pull some juvenile shit like this. “Do you have a recent picture of Sam?” John asked and felt like an uncaring dick because he didn’t have a recent photo of his son like Joe Average would. He wasn’t Joe Average though; he was a man seeking revenge on a wrong done to his family so long ago that the pain of that night had replaced it with the desire for revenge, instead of his love for Mary. Dean reached into his duffel bag and searched until he found a picture of the two of them that had been taken before school started and gave it to his father. John stared at the photograph and his chest burned with the pride he felt because of the two young men. Somewhere between Mary burning on that ceiling and Sam running away he forgot to be their father. He knew that he came off as more of a drill sergeant than parent, but he loved his boys and once he found out about all of the supernatural shit that’s out there it was his job to protect them the best way he knew. There were times when he was drunk and maudlin that he wondered if the reason that he’d been unable to find the yellow-eyed monster that had killed her was because he wouldn’t know what to do with himself once he did. He couldn’t go back to being a mechanic, or working some nine to five, because that man was gone, he died with Mary. Even if he could, the boys were men now and really didn’t need him, but he held on tight because they were all he had left of his wife. None of that mattered now; the only thing that was important was finding his son. While Dean put all of their belongings in the car, John picked up his cell and made calls to Jim and Caleb to put out a hunter all-points bulletin for Sam. He hadn’t talked to Bobby Singer in nine years, but he knew that either Jim or Caleb would call him. “Are we coming back here dad?” Dean asked as he slammed the trunk shut. “Depends on whether or not we find Sam. Hell, the only reason we stayed this long was because he bitched about wanting to finish the school year here, but since he ran, it doesn’t seem like staying here was that important to him.” John reached into his pocket, handed Dean a wad of cash, and instructed, “Go to one of the stores that can make copies and make several copies of that picture of Sam, so we can pass them out. I’m taking one of the other pictures and taking it to the bus station to see if anyone there remembered seeing Sam. Just meet me there when you’re done.” “Dad?” “For once Dean, just do as I say,” John snapped. John watched as Dean ducked his head and walked towards his car and the father in him wanted to call his son back to offer him comfort and assure the boy that everything is going to be all right, but the hunter in him was telling him that he couldn’t give Dean false hope. There are things out there looking for a way to seek revenge on John, and a runaway Sam would be the perfect choice for them to fuck with him. Sam had a few days lead on him, so right now it was more important to find Sam than to coddle Dean. Sam had scoped the place out to make sure that no one else was squatting there before settling on it as a good place for a temporary home. The little shed was perfect, it was out of the way tucked on the edge of town in the desert and it looked as though no one had been there for some time. After arriving late last night, he had to secure the perimeter and make sure that the doors and windows were salted before settling in for the night. Just because he’d left his family of hunters didn’t mean he was going to be careless. When he left he wasn’t sure where he was going, but Flagstaff was the final destination of the last person he’d hitched a ride with, and it seemed to be a good place to stop. It was a small city, but large enough that he could fit in without standing out. Paying his way had eaten into the money he’d snatched from Dean’s coffee can and he was hungry. The shed was at the edge of town, but it was close enough that he had been able to walk to the convenient store he’d passed on his way into town. Tomorrow he’d see about finding work and maybe he’d find a way to finish school. Sam lay in the dark and wondered how Dean was holding up. He left because after having a taste of his brother, there was no way he was going to be able to keep his hands to himself. He remembered those breathy little moans and those mewling sounds he made as he rubbed his dick against Sam’s. Was Dean feeling guilty, or worse was their dad making him feel guilty? Suddenly Sam felt like the biggest asshole for leaving Dean there to face their dad alone. Funyuns and Mr. Pibb, the breakfast of champions, Sam though as he ate the chips he’d purchased last night. After helping pay for gas, money was low, so frugality was the key word until he found work and nothing said cheap like chips and soda. He’d kill for one of Dean’s omelets right about now, stuffed with all of Sam’s favorites, ham, cheese and mushrooms. The visualization of food in his head bordered so close to being pornographic that he almost grabbed his dick. A low whine from outside brought him back to reality. As he wiped the drool from his mouth he thought that perhaps the sound came from him, but he heard it again accompanied by a scratch at the door. He slowly made his way to the door, but not before he grabbed the knife from his boot. “Who’s there?” he asked with a lot more bravado than he felt. “Who’s there?” He asked again; but instead of an answer, he received a low- pitched whine. He carefully opened the door, peeked out, and smiled at what he saw; it was a beautiful golden retriever who looked more pitiful than Sam. As he opened the door wider, Sam glanced around looking to see if someone had accompanied the dog, but seeing that no one was there, he stepped aside and let the dog in. Kneeling down in front of the dog, Sam scratched the stray behind his ears and pet his matted coat and was not surprised at what he found, the dog was skin and bones. There was no tag or collar, so Sam figured that the dog was a stray. A thirsty hungry stray. Walking over to the small sink in the corner of the shed, Sam mentally refigured his funds to include dog food becaue there was no way that he was going to turn this bag of bones back out into the elements. He found an old bowl, filled it up with water, and watched as the dog inhaled the water. This was his kindred spirit of sorts as they were both alone and hungry. In the dog’s case the hunger was literal and Sam, well he was hungry for Dean, hungry, no starving for his touch, a kiss and one of those beautiful unguarded shy smiles. The bad thing about being sixteen and on your own is that you were sixteen and on your own. The age was too young to get a job that paid decent wages, and it was too young to get into the bars where he could hustle older and slightly drunk patrons out of their cash. If he spent it carefully, a good night hustling pool could earn him enough money to last a couple of months. The job he finally found was purely by accident. Sam had just been turned down for a job as a fucking bag boy when a man and his wife overheard him being rejected and offered him work doing odd jobs around their home. It was perfect because the pay was in cash. They gave him the address and told him that they’d see him the next day. Not sure if he were walking into a trap, Sam reconned the place later that evening. Everything seemed to be in order so Sam felt at ease when he showed up the next day. Sam soon fell into a routine and was working daily for the couple, the O’Brien’s and everything was going well until then end of the first week when their son Gerry returned home from a trip. “So who are you?” He demanded when he first met Sam. “I guess I’m the handy man,” Sam answered as he offered him hand in greeting to the other man. “More like boy,” Gerry sneered as he ignored Sam’s hand as he walked away. Over the next week, Sam learned to avoid Gerry because for some reason the man didn’t like him. When he wasn’t outright insulting him, he was constantly grilling him, asking questions like who his family was, were they local and why he wasn’t in school. At first, the questions were just annoying and Sam did his best to ignore them, but two weeks in Mrs. O’Brien had him doing some work in Gerry’s room that he found out why. The windows were salted, and there were sigils disguised as art framed and hanging on the walls. Gerry was a hunter. Sam backed out of the room as though it was going to attack him and made his way downstairs. He found his employer, told her that he was ill, and had to leave. During the entire walk back to the shed he’d began to think of as home, Sam tried to figure out where he was going next and how he was going to travel with Bones, because it would be difficult to hitch a ride with a dog along. In the end, it didn’t matter, because when he arrived home, the Impala was parked in front with a gorgeous looking Dean leaning against the driver’s door. Sam drank in the sight before him; it had been two weeks since he’d last seen his Omega and yes, despite how much Dean and their dad fought it, his Omega and Dean looked so fucking beautiful that his knees buckled a little. “Hiya, Sammy,” Dean greeted with a smile. “Sam,” he automatically corrected. Keeping his gaze on Dean, Sam asked, “Where’s dad?” “Not here,” Dean gestured by spreading his arms to show that the man in question was nowhere around. “I asked him to let me come alone so that you and I could talk; to get you to come back with us.” Sam noticed that Dean said come back with us, not me so he asked, “Are you…are we going to be mates Dean?” “No Sam, I already have a mate so the only relationship we’ll have will be as brothers. If you come back Sam I need you to know that no matter what this is between us, brothers are all we’ll be.” Sam walked closer to Dean and reached out to touch him, only to have the Omega press his body flush to the car in order to avoid the touch. A slap would have been less painful. Dropping his hands to his sides Sam pleaded, “Let’s stay here Dean, or go somewhere else, just me and you. We know how to take care of ourselves, we don’t need dad for that…” The smile Dean gave him was full of regret and Sam knew what the answer was going to be, but he let the scene play out, praying that the outcome would be different. “You know that I can’t do that Samm…Sam. Besides the fact that you’re only sixteen, Dad is the Alpha I take orders from, not you. As much as you- we may want it to be otherwise, it isn’t, but if you come back with me perhaps we can find a way for us.” “I don’t know if I can Dean, it’s not just me and you, but dad as well. I’m surprised that he held out and let you come alone. As soon as I get back you know that we’ll be at each other’s throats.” “I made him promise me that that wouldn’t happen, Sam, that if you came back they’ll be no repercussions for you,” Deans shot back. “I even made him promise to let you finish school on South Bend.” “Dean…” Sam pleaded. “If I was your Omega and someone was pressuring me as you’re doing how would you react?” “I’d rip his fucking throat out,” Sam growled at the thought of someone other than him touching Dean. ‘Anyone who would disrespect you like that doesn’t deserve to live.” “Then show me the same respect and honor my status.” Sam stared at Dean and knew that he’d lost the fight and with a nod just gave in. He could fight his dad and the whole world even, but he couldn’t fight Dean. Even though he wasn’t going to have Dean in the way that he wanted, Sam didn’t have the strength to walk away from the man a second time. He turned and walked towards the shed to get his things and gather up Bones. There was a shelter off Main Street that would take him because he couldn’t keep the dog. As he packed, Sam reasoned that if he went back with Dean he could research on his own, find out whom Dean’s Alpha was, and get him to relinquish him claim one way or another. The drive back to South Bend was quiet, the easiness that they’d always shared lost to the tension that had settled between them. Dean had tried to engage his brother, but Sam was hurt and so he just stared straight ahead. “Are you planning never to speak to me again,” Dean finally asked. “If so, just let me know so that I’ll stop making a fool of myself, besides it will make thing difficult on a hunt.” “I’m not like you Dean, I just can’t shut off my feelings.” “Despite what you think, I’m not a goddamned robot Sam, I hurt too,” Dean snapped, “But I’m Omega and that means that I handle things differently than you do. The Omega in me wants nothing more to bend over and present myself to you, but the same instinct that makes me want to bend over for you also make me fight against it because I am mated. I can’t help it any more than you, but I will not get all pissy because I can’t get what I want.” Sam mulled over Dean’s words, but he wouldn’t let go easily, but by the time that they reached the outskirts of South Bend Sam had given in and had begun to make awkward small talk with Dean. The brothers walked into the house together, and Dean walked past Sam and took their bags to the room they shared to give the Sam and their dad some time alone. John sat at the table obviously fighting to keep quiet and not lash out at Sam, so Sam walked to his dad to get this over with. Once he reached the table he was surprised at what he found; it looked as though his dad had robbed a Radio shack. On the table, there were three cell phones and a clamshell IBook computer that had Sam salivating. “Sam…” John bit out. “I should have known that you wouldn’t honor your word,” Sam accused. “I knew that you wouldn’t let this pass without a fight.” “I’m not going to argue or fight, I’m going to keep my agreement with Dean,” John stated as he gave Sam one of the phones, “but know this, I’ll keep this promise to you as well, you pull this stunt again, don’t bother coming back.” ***** Chapter 9 ***** When Dean found Sam in Flagstaff, he had promised the teen that he would be able to finish school in South Bend. Sam had understood that to mean the rest of the school year before moving on, but in actuality it meant that South Bend would be their home base until Sam graduated. Now that he had what he wanted, Sam wasn’t so sure that it was what he wanted. The stupid people that he’d been preparing to get away from he was now stuck with for another year. It was sad really, the same girls still hovered around the Impala after school and he still had to wade through the bitches that were bold enough to touch Dean. That wasn’t his problem; the problem was that Dean let them. To stop himself from embarrassing himself and pulling their hands off Dean and declaring that the Omega belonged to him, Sam just jumped into the car and demanded that Dean drive away. So here he was a month into the new school year hoping that he could get through it without killing one of the Beta’s that were getting too close to Dean. With nothing better to do, Sam decided to take advantage of not having to move a couple of weeks into the school year by actually making friends. John glared at him showing that he didn’t approve, but he was going to have as normal a high school experience as possible with or without his dad’s approval. The best way to experience high school was by making friends, because the last time he had those was when he was seven and they stayed with Uncle Bobby in Sioux Falls. Of course that only happened because Dean was pregnant and they thought that their dad was dead. “So is Dean ever going to pick one of us or is he just being a tease,” Carole Riley asked as she interrupted his solitude. Looking up at her from his position under the shade of the tree where he spent his lunch period, Sam alleged, “You’re not blind and supposed to be smart, you see his mating mark so you must have figured out that he’s not going to choose anyone.” “You don’t like me do you?” She asked ignoring his comment. Sam’s attention went back to the paperback he was reading before she interrupted his solitude. “Look, I know that we kind of got off on the wrong foot last year, but I think that we can be friends,” Carole said as she presented her had for Sam to shake. “Why do you want to be my friend?” Sam asked as he stared up at her. “I can’t get you any closer to Dean so if that’s what you’re after you’re wasting your time sucking up to me.” Carole blushed with shame at Sam’s scathing words, “Look Sam I know that I did a shitty thing to you, but I promise that I just want to be your friend, nothing more.” When Sam failed to respond she threw up her hands and said, “Okay then, I’m going to leave you alone and let you finish you lunch in peace, but when you change your mind, come find me.” Sam didn’t respond he just cast his eyes back down to the book he was reading until she received the message and walked away. Did she think that he was stupid, that he didn’t see right through her ploy? He knew that this was just another way to get to Dean, but he’d be damned if he was going to help her. If Sam thought that Carole was going to give up, and then she soon rectified that mistake, because it seemed that everywhere he went, there she was and the final straw was when she convinced the Alpha that Sam had been partnered with in biology to switch partners. When Sam went to the Alpha to tell him that it was a mistake, the other boy didn’t want to switch back because he was crushing on the Beta he was now partnered with. Sam’s not sure what Carole’s endgame was, but after that stunt that she pulled with switching lab partners, he ignored her the rest of the day, but that didn’t stop her from trying. When the bell rang at 3:30 dismissing school, Sam heaved a huge sigh because at least at home after he could relax. Of course that was after he fought the usual gaggle of Beta’s still swarming the car and Dean. It wasn’t until they were almost home that he realized that Carole wasn’t a part of the crowd and he wasn’t sure what to make of that. Once he was home, the rest he’d planned never came, and it wasn’t because he was busy, but Dean was. After he completed his homework, he and Dean completed their sparring and weapons training, now under the watchful eye of their dad. After the training session was over, Dean prepared dinner, field stripped and cleaned their weapons and sharpened their knives. As if that was not enough, he went outside to their dad’s truck and restocked it because he needed supplies after working back-to-back jobs. The flurry of activity made Sam tired just watching. The entire time Dean was busy, Sam waited for his dad to make him help or for Dean to bitch at him for being lazy, and thus prompting their dad to make him help but neither of those things happened leaving the young Alpha confused. Dean had promised him that there would be no arguments and it seemed that for once their dad kept his promise. Just as he thought that the evening couldn’t get any more confusing, his new cell phone rang and Carole echoed his greeting of hello. “I would be wasting my breath if I asked you how you got this number, wouldn’t I?” he asked. “So I’ll just get straight to it and ask what do you want that can’t wait until tomorrow?” “No, and besides, I wouldn’t tell you anyway. Look, I just thought that this way we could talk and not be disturbed. You can call me all the foul names that you want so that you can get it out of your system and we can get to the part where we’re friends.” Sam wanted to be angry with her for having the balls to track his number down, but he had to admit that he respected her for having the balls to track his number down. Even though he respected it, he wasn’t going to tell her that; no she was going to have to work hard before she got any compliments from him. “Sam…I really do want us to be friends and that’s all,” she softly stated. For all of his desire to be a normal teenager, hanging out with friends and going to football games on a Friday night, Sam had to admit that he wasn’t making much headway in that department. Essentially, since he was still the new kid who showed up towards the end of the school year trying to fit in with kids who have known each other since first grade. “The thing is Carole, I still have memories of the first time you wanted to be my friend,” Sam reminded her. “Dean was your end game then, what is it now?” “I have no ulterior motive, Sam. I really do just want to be your friend…” she hesitated before continuing, “I’m just going to put this out that so that I won’t have to watch every word I say, I still think that your brother’s hotter than the sun, but that is not my goal here. I like you and I really do want your friendship.” “I guess I can live with that,” Sam reassured her, “but keep this in mind, don’t let me find out all of this has been a lie.” After he ended the call, Sam went to seek out Dean to spend some time with him, but the Omega would not sit still long enough for them to have a conversation, so Sam came up with the bright idea of waiting until Dean came to bed. He hadn’t counted on Dean staying up so late that Sam fell asleep while waiting for him to come to bed. There was no time to talk to him before they left because Dean woke before he did this morning and he and dad were in the middle of breakfast when Sam walked into the kitchen. “Sam, I’m taking you to school this morning,” his dad announced. “Dean has some errands for me today.” Well fuck. Sam wanted to protest, but he knew that it would just lead up to an argument and he’d been very happy without having his dad in his face all of the time, so he just said, “Okay,” before he finished his breakfast. Once he was at school, he was somewhat happy that Carole was standing outside waiting for him. If she noticed that his dad barely slowed to a stop before kicking him out of his precious truck, she didn’t say anything, nor did she ask about Dean. As the week wore on, everything fell into a routine, with dad taking him to and from school and Carole trying to worm her way into his good graces and Dean working like an unpaid maid, so tired that he can barely hold his head up at night. Thursday was different; on the way to school, his dad told him that he was leaving this afternoon on a hunt. When he got home that afternoon he was going to tell him that because his teachers had given him a shit ton of homework, there was no way he was going have time to spar with Dean. He knew that the announcement would trigger his dad’s favorite argument that a hunter didn’t need a formal education and it really didn’t help that Dean had dropped out before graduating at the age of sixteen. He would like to counter that argument that Dean was an Omega, he didn’t need the education, but as an Alpha he did. He knew that those words would cut Dean and he simply couldn’t do that. Instead of an argument, his dad handed Sam a wad of cash instead of giving it to Dean who was standing just inside the kitchen, and informed him, “This is what I normally leave for the two of you, so it should hold you until I…we,” he corrected, “get back. Dean’s going on this hunt with me and please don’t start any shit that you can’t stay here by yourself, seemed a though you were doing well enough in Arizona.” Once John made his announcement, he walked down the hall leaving his words hanging in the air like a bad stench that wouldn’t go away. “Dean?” Sam pleaded. “We won’t be gone long, Sammy,” Dean promised as he walked towards his brother. “Sam,” Sam corrected by rote. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were leaving?” “Telling you now, Sam and besides Dad got the call while you were in school; this job dad can’t handle on his own so I’m going with.” Reaching into his pocket, Dean pulled out his key ring and threw it at Sam. “It’s too far for you to walk, so you’ll take my baby, but I’m telling you if there’s one scratch on her…” “You’re coming back, right,” Sam choked out as he looked at the keys in his hand. Dad gave Dean the car two years ago on his eighteenth birthday and he’d shown the car so much love that there were times that Sam was jealous. Now, out of the blue, Dean’s going on a hunt with dad and leaving his baby behind. “Of course we’re coming back,” Dean promised as he stepped directly in front of his brother. “This is a four man job so we’re meeting Caleb and another old pal of dad’s, but we’re…I’m planning on coming back to you. There’s no way you’re going to get rid of me that easily.” Sam breathed a sigh of relief, because it never entered his mind that Dean wouldn’t come back to him because he’d gotten hurt on a hunt. His mind immediately thought that somehow to end this, whatever it was between the two of them, their dad had found Dean’s Alpha who was a possessive bastard and wouldn’t let Dean have his own car. “Time to go Dean,” John barked as he walked back into the kitchen. “We’ve got to meet Caleb in four hours so we have to haul ass to get there in time.” The sound of John’s voice caused the pair of them to jump apart guiltily as though he had caught them acting on the feelings that were so palpable between them. “Take care of yourself and my car,” Dean told him as he followed his dad. Sam watched them leave but for some reason he couldn’t make his feet move to follow them outside, to tell them, or rather Dean, goodbye. He was frozen to that spot until he heard the door snick close behind Dean, and suddenly he was snapped out of his trance and was soon running towards the exit. “Dean,” he called out just as Dean was closing the truck door. “Yeah, Sam?” Dean asked. “Take care of yourself, come back to me…please,” Sam pleads ignoring the hard glares from his dad. “I will Sammy,” Dean promised. “We’ll see you in two weeks, but if we’re gone longer than that…” “I know, I know, call Pastor Jim,” Sam recited as he ignored the hated nickname. Sam’s not sure how long he stood there and watched them as they drove away. Dean promised that he would be back, but Sam knew that a lot could go wrong and the next time he saw them, if at all, would be at a hunter’s funeral on a pyre. Once the truck disappeared from sight, Sam went back inside and was immediately unnerved by the silence. He filled the lack of noise with the television to erase some of the loneliness as he completed his homework. There had only been two times that he can remember that he and Dean had been separated; the first was when Dean’s mate took him for a week and the second was when he left and ran away to Arizona, and this, the third time made him realize that it never got easier. That this was the same as before, that it felt as though he was missing a limb and that feeling would only go away when Dean came back to him. The first few days alone were difficult because he was lonely and he didn’t realize how much Dean actually did for them. The Omega made it easy for them to go through life with little or no worries. He was able to sleep late because while he slept, Dean was up preparing breakfast and making sure that Sam’s book bag was packed before taking the younger boy to school. Both he and his dad were poor cooks, and Dean made sure that they were fed and went out of his way to make sure that they had great meals, not just food to eat. Dinner was a messy affair for Sam because he wasn’t a great cook, his repertoire in the kitchen was limited to a few dishes and one of those included a blue box and the microwave. Now he thinks that his dad realized this and that was why he’d left the extra money because he knew that Sam would be eating out quite often. After Dean and John were gone for four days, Sam was desperate because being alone wasn’t the party that he’s always thought it would be. This was different from Flagstaff because he’d had the thrill of running away, but here was …home and home without family was lonely. Desperate times called for desperate measures, so he gave in and called Carole. They arranged to meet at Dean’s favorite diner, and while he waited for her the waitress placed a pie in the cake plate on the counter and Sam couldn’t help but think of Dean. He smiled as he thought about how he’d charm the girl out of a free slice just to see if he could and then make the most pornographic sounds as he ate said pie making Sam so hard that he had to go to the men’s room and jerk off. When Carole finally showed, she wasn’t alone, she had three other people with her and Sam relaxed a little and let himself enjoy the evening and by the time the waitress returned with the menus they were joined by two more people from their science class. As the evening progressed, Sam watched Carole as she interacted with everyone and found himself surprised by the fact that he liked her. She was smart and funny, playful and pretty. Very pretty. Once he saw that she really was just being friendly, Sam relaxed even more and even began flirting with her. It started with stealing food from her plate and ramped up to playing footsies under the table. He wasn’t really that attracted to her, but it felt great to have his attraction reciprocated and not being made to feel guilty for loving…okay so this wasn’t love and she wasn’t Dean but it would do for now. By the end of the second week after John and Dean were gone, their group of friends considered them a couple, but Sam thought of them Hopefully.as friends with benefits and much to his relief, Carole had agreed that she wasn’t looking for a love match either. Friday was a long day because Dean was finally coming home. There had been phone calls and texts but it wasn’t the Same as having Dean close where he could touch him or inhale his scent. Carole had teased him relentlessly, and told him that he reminded her of a puppy panting after his favorite toy. The thing was that she didn’t know how right she was because there was nothing he wanted more than to play with Dean. That feeling of happiness lasted until after school when he received a call from Dean just as he reached the car. “How close are you guys?” Sam asked smiling and he opened the door and eased into the driver’s seat. “Um, that’s what I was calling about, Dad found another job so it looks to be at least another week before we make it back.” “Another week?” Sam bit out. “Yeah Sam,” Dean whispered. “I’m so sorry; I’m trying to get back to you.” Once he ended the call, Sam felt like throwing the phone just to release his anger. He wanted to hit something, but there wasn’t anything available. A week. A whole fucking week before he saw his Omega. He had been holding on, because before he had a goal, a date to look forward to, but now his dad had found another way to keep them apart and now it would take another week before he saw Dean. From his prospective, it seemed that his dad was going out of the way to keep them apart and maybe make Dean his. Sam had lost count of the times that he’d checked his dad’s mating mark to see if it had been changed or altered, but the last time he’d checked it was still gray. “Hey, are you okay?” Carole asked. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured her before he explained to her about the situation with his dad and Dean that they weren’t coming home as planned. She nodded her head understanding why he seemed so down. Instead of spouting meaningless platitudes, she walked around the car and slid onto the seat beside him. “You don’t…” Sam started. “Yes I do,” she disagreed, while pulling out her cell phone and called her mom, “Mom, I’m spending the night with Karen,” she lied as Sam gaped at her. “I know how close you are to your brother and how much you were looking forward to him coming home,” she explained, “this way I go home with you and save you from wallowing in self-pity and sadness. Besides, that what friends are for.” Sam rewarded her with a smile that is usually given to Dean, but he was happy that he had someone to share his disappointment with. He couldn’t confide in her the way he wanted to, because he didn’t maybe like her, but he didn’t know her well enough to trust her with Dean’s secret, but it did lighten his burden a little. The pair decided to stay in and order pizza instead of going to the diner because they didn’t want it to get back to Carole’s mom that she was with Sam instead of Karen no matter how innocent it was. After the pizza had been demolished, Sam decided to introduce her to the perfection that was John McLane. He thought that she was enjoying the movie, but halfway through the second movie, Carole was sleepy and tucked into Sam’s side while he was focused on the screen. It started innocently enough with Sam tickling her side to wake her up, so of course, she had to retaliate, and one tickle led to another and soon Sam’s large body was pressing her smaller one into the sofa, while they traded slow lazy kisses. Sam was content with trading kisses until Carole’s hand found its way inside his jeans. He stilled his body at the touch of her small hand working to undo the button. As much as he says that he wants just to be her friend, Sam knew that this would change the dynamics of their relationship. He also knew that she wasn’t what… no, she wasn’t whom he wanted, in short, she wasn’t Dean and he needed her to understand where he stood before she touched his dick. “Carole, stop,” Sam demanded as he scrambled backwards enough to look in her eyes, trying to read her emotions. “Why?” she asked as she spread her legs and rolled her hips up against his hard dick. The movement caused him to settle in the cradle of her legs and his dick on her sex. “It doesn’t feel like you really want me to stop.” “Yeah, I want it, but I’m not going to claim you,” Sam told her. “I’m not looking for a mate, so don’t expect me to knot you.” “Serious much Sam?” she laughed. “I’m only sixteen, so trust me when I tell you that I’m not looking for one either, I just want to enjoy you.” Sam studied her to see if she was trying to deceive him before he smiled and leaned in for a kiss. As his lips touched hers, he thought about Dean who’d been mated for as long as Sam could remember. He doesn’t think that his brother was looking for a mate either, but he wasn’t given a choice in the matter. He explained this to Carole because he didn’t want her to think that like Dean he was going to override her wishes. He also knew that sixteen was the legal age to claim mates, and he wished (not for the first time) that he’d been the one to claim Dean. He would have given everything he had to have been with him like this, his seed spilling into his body causing the claiming mark turned red telling the world that the Omega was his. The reality was that Sam knew that he was going to spend the rest of his life doing what he was doing now, fucking random girls because the person he wanted had already been claimed. Sam couldn’t have Dean like this so all of, well most of the things that he’d wanted to do to his brother he did with Carole, starting with deep drugging kisses. He lost himself in the feelings of pleasure that the kisses sent coursing through his body, but later he would berate himself for doing something so intimate with a girl who was at best just a fuck to take the edge off. He slowly left her talented mouth and trailed kisses along her jaw and neck and smiled at the sounds she made when his lips found that sensitive spot behind her ear. Once he was satisfied that he was driving her crazy, he wanted to work his way down her body, but first some clothes had to be removed. Sam sat up and pulled her along with him as he removed his white t-shirt before helping Carole do the same. Once the t-shirt was gone, Carole reached around her back and unsnapped her bra while Sam watched in fascination as the full globes sprang free. “You can touch them you know,” she teased as she reached for one of his large hands and placed it on her breast. Loving the feel of her in his hands, Sam didn’t need to be told twice and soon his fingers were pulling and tugging on her dusky pink nipples until the nubs were pebbled. Soon his mouth got jealous and he leaned in for a taste wringing a moan from them both. His mouth tugged a pulled at her nipples while she squirmed under his ministrations. In a moment of clarity, he knew that he did not want this to take place here on the sofa, so he took one more tug before standing up and reaching for her hand and husked, “bedroom now.” Once they reached the bedroom he shared with Dean, Sam stood in awe as he watched Carole reveal the rest of her beautiful body to him. Once she was completely nude, Carole sat on the bed closest to her and motioned with her finger for Sam to join her. Quickly ridding himself of his jeans and boxers, Sam got on the bed and settled between her legs as he buried his face in her neck as his dick rubbed against her mound, her slick coating his dick making it easy for it to glide easily between her folds. Reaching over to the nightstand that was nestled between the two beds, Sam opened then blindly searched in the drawer until he found a condom and giving it Carole to put it on him. He was so hard and felt like he could blow any second, Sam though about the lunch lady at school so that he didn’t come once she touched him. Once she removed her hands, Sam reached between their bodies, placed his dick at her entrance, and tried his best not to ram into her as he buried himself into her. As he stroked in and out of her wet warm heat, he leaned forward and placed a kiss on her neck, that’s when he realized that he was in Dean’s bed, because his nose in haled Deans scent from his pillow. Suddenly he felt dirty and cheap because she wasn’t who he wanted, who he loved. When he moved forward to kiss her mouth again, he imagined soft, plush full lips sliding sinuously against his, and when he closed his eyes, he could envision bright green eyes staring back at him unfocused because they were lust blown. The breasts that he’d been feasting on earlier, now firm pecs but the nipples were just as sensitive and begging for his mouth. Carole’s pussy was tight and wet and an Alpha could lose himself in it, that is if he wasn’t thinking about the fact that Dean’s hole hadn’t been touched since he was claimed and it was most likely hotter, tighter and wetter. He was thinking about how he would bury himself into that hole until his knot swelled and tied them together and the next child his Omega gave birth to would be his. With each thrust, Sam thought of Dean, imagining him tight around his dick. He was so lost in his thoughts of the Omega that he didn’t feel it as her pussy contracted and milked him as she came. His body began to react, his knot started to swell, and he would have mated her had she not been more aware and pushed him from the bed to the floor. “Goddam it Sam, we agreed, no knotting!” “Sorry,” he sheepishly apologized and shrugged his shoulders. “I got carried away.” There was no way that he was going to tell her that he almost mated her because he was fantasying about his brother. “It’s okay,” she said as she grabbed his dick. “That was kind of a compliment, so let me take care of this for you.” They spent the rest of the weekend exploring each other’s bodies, but Sam made sure that they were in his bed because fucking her and scenting Dean would have him mated to someone who was only meant to be a temporary fixture in his life. Carole left Sunday afternoon and Sam felt lonely the moment she closed the door. He had nothing to do so he sat on the sofa and watched reruns on TV. Then he heard a sound that he wasn’t expecting to hear for another five days, his dad’s truck. Like the kid he was but so often suppressed, Sam ran outside to greet his family, but Dean’s the only one to get a hug. “Stop being so handsy and grab a bag,” John told him as he nodded towards the bags of food on the bench seat. As Sam reached for the food, John and Dean picked up their duffels and weapons and walked inside. They were barely inside when both John and Dean stopped and sniffed the air, and both men had different reactions to the smell. John smiled. Not one of his usual barely there up turn of his mouth, no this one involved his entire face and even showed in his eyes and Sam was fascinated at how approachable it made his dad seem. He turned to Dean to see if he agreed until he saw the fury in the Omega’s eyes. John dropped his bag and patted Sam on his back before walking to the kitchen to grab a beer while a furious Dean stomped down the hall and slammed the door to their room. He emerged a few minutes later with sheets stripped from what Sam assumed was his bed. Fuck. Sam thought that he’d changed the sheets, but since they fucked on every available surface, it’s possible they made it back to Dean’s bed. “Dean,” John called out, “that shit can wait until later, come on boys let’s eat. For the first time he could ever remember, Dean ignored his father’s command and continued his cleaning. Instead of following his dad’s orders, Dean continued to clean; he scrubbed the kitchen, their room as well as the bathroom. He cleaned anything that smelled of whomever Sam had fucked in their house. It seemed that he was able to get rid of her scent from everything but Sam. Dean may pretend to be an Alpha to the outside world, but if anyone found out, he could protect himself with no problem. Here in their home Dean never pretended to be anything but the Omega he was born to be, but right now, he wanted to go Alpha and beat the shit out of Sam for dipping his dick into the first piece of pussy to come along. He stayed in the bedroom for a while after he’d finished cleaning because he didn’t want Sam or his dad to know that he’d been crying. Even though they weren’t supposed to be attracted to him, Dean’s had Alphas sniffing around him since he was sixteen, but he’d never once thought about taking them up on their offers because if anyone was going to be the cause of him getting a black mating bond, it was going to be Sam. Apparently, Dean is the only one who felt love, for Sam it was just lust. Once every possible surface had been scrubbed and the bed linens washed, Dean sat down to eat his cold dinner. He could feel Sam’s eyes on him, and he seemed confused by Dean’s actions, but if that’s the way he wanted to play this situation, then Dean let him. After eating his dinner, Dean excused himself and went to bed while Sam stared blankly at the television screen. Dean stayed in the room and Sam was too scared to enter. Both boys were so caught up in their emotions that neither noticed that that smile was still on John’s face because of the detention in the ranks. He was happy because he’d finally gotten what he wanted, Sam to leave Dean alone and he didn’t have to lift a finger to make it happen, no Sam did that all by himself. ***** Chapter 10 ***** It had been months since Sam and Dean spoke to each other if it didn’t hunting or training. Hell it had been weeks before Sam had noticed that Dean wasn’t even sleeping in his bed any longer, that he slept on the sofa at night. When he discovered it, it was completely by accident when he’d woken up during the middle of the night and went to the kitchen to get water. Now when they had target practice, Sam often got the feeling that Dean wished that the empty beer cans were Sam’s head. Even sparring was different, he already knew that Dean could kick his ass six ways from Sunday, but he didn’t have to do it every single time they trained. Sam’s not sure what it was he did to piss Dean off while they were gone, but it seemed that whatever it was he was going to pay for it the rest of his life. The only person who was happy about the new standing in the house was their dad and Sam was not sure why he was this happy about his sons were not talking to each other. He’d decided that he’ had enough and once their dad was in bed he was going to confront Dean and find out what he did so wrong that she wouldn’t speak to him any longer. He had thought that if he waited Dean out, he would have given in by now and they would have talked and Dean would have looked into his pleading eyes and their argument would be forgotten. Sam wasn’t sure what he needed to get Dean’s attention or how to approach his brother, but today he wasn’t going to try to figure it out. Carole was coming to visit to work on their lab project and she would be like a breath of fresh air because with Dean not speaking to him, he just had another reason not to want to stick around. While he was waiting for his friend to arrive, Dean was on the phone ordering a pizza for lunch. He was going to ask Dean to order extra, but he did it without Sam having to ask. Dean knew that Carole was coming and he thought enough to order something for her. Maybe things were changing between them or they were never as bad as Sam had thought them to be. Carole and the pizza arrived at the same time, and their arrival soon debunked Sam’s earlier theory that things between him and Dean were going to get better. Dean was rude and icy towards Sam’s friend letting the false Alpha persona show itself inside their home by hoarding the pizza. There was over a half of the pizza left but Dean didn’t want the girl to have any. “Dad’s gotta eat Sam,” Dean told him as an explanation for his behavior, knowing that they both knew he was lying because their dad hated pizza. “Here ya go Carole,” Sam said as he placed a couple of slices on a plate and glared at Dean. “You can have my share.” Sam’s action only served to infuriate Dean further and Sam was dumbfounded, he doesn’t ever remember his brother being that angry and especially with him. Dean was the first to give in, so he snatched up his keys and left. “I’m sorry,” Sam apologized,” I don’t understand why he’s acting this way. “You did nothing to apologize for, Sam,” she told him, ‘but your brother on the other hand, I want him on his hands and knees when he does.” Sam tried his best not to groan at the mental image of Dean on his hands and knees, groveling and it had nothing to do with a pizza. Before he embarrassed himself, Sam sat down with Carole and ate his lunch trying to get that image out of his head so that his dick would stop twitching. The pair had been working on their project for a couple of hours when Sam heard the growl of the Impala announcing Dean’s return. Sam was nervous as he waited for Dean to come inside because he wasn’t sure if the other man was still going to be rude to Carole, but thirty minutes passed and Dean hadn’t come inside. Once Carole was gone, Sam walked outside to find Dean, find out what was going on with his brother, and he knew exactly where to find him when he needed to work out his problems, their makeshift gun range. He wanted to rush to Dean and shake him, but that wouldn’t be wise since the Omega was holding a loaded weapon. “You owe Carole and me an apology for acting like an ass.” “I don’t owe either of you anything, go back to your girl and leave me the fuck alone.” “Yeah, you do!’ Sam disagreed as his anger made him forget that Dean was holding a gun as he reached for his brother’s arm and forced him to turn around to face him but his anger dissipated once he saw that Dean was crying. The man standing in front of him had gone through a lot, but Sam can’t remember the last time he saw him cry and it almost killed him to know that something he did caused him to do so now. “Don’t cry Dean,” Sam whispered into Dean’s hair. “I always knew that you would get tired of waiting for me to change my mind. I mean anyone, including me, would love to have you as their Alpha, but dam it Sam I can’t,” He sobbed. “I can’t and you fucked her in my bed just to rub it in my face.” “That wasn’t what I was trying to do Dean. You ignored me, wouldn’t let me touch you and you won’t even sleep in the same room as me, so what was I supposed to think?” “I promised dad,” Dean confessed. “Promised dad what?” Sam asked as he stepped away from Dean to look at him. “When we came back from Flagstaff, dad was going to send you to live with Pastor Jim to keep us apart so that we wouldn’t tempt each other, but I begged him to let you stay. I promised him that if he let you stay then I wouldn’t encourage you, so I kept my promise. I just didn’t know how hard I t would be.” “What do you mean he was going to send me to Pastor Jims?” “He said that there was some special training that he couldn’t help you with and he had planned to send you once you finished school, but with Jim being a pastor, he could teach you what you needed to know. After you’d finished your training with him, maybe a year or so once you, we, got these feelings out of our systems, and then maybe you could rejoin us,” Dean explained. “He was going to send me away?” Sam asked in disbelief. Sam was surprised but it made sense that his dad would send his Alpha son away and protect the weaker Omega, except Dean wasn’t weak and could protect himself. “He was, but I begged and pleaded with him not to send you away. I kept up with my end of the bargain and I stayed away from you, but I can’t…you can’t bring her here Sammy, you just can’t.” Suddenly it occurred to Sam why Dean had been so angry and rude to Carole, he was jealous. The thought made Sam smile because that meant that Dean was not as unaffected as he’d pretended to be. Once he understood what was happening with Dean another though occurred to him, how would he handle the mess he’d made with Carole? Even though they were friends with benefits, if he told her now, no more sex then she’d think that all he’d wanted from her was sex. “We’ll figure it out Dean,” Sam promised his brother knowing that he had no idea how to live up to the promise. “Before we go back inside, please let me have this,” he asked as he leaned forward and placed his mouth on Dean’s. Dean tasted so much better than he remembered and he didn’t have to close his eyes and pretend because he had the real thing in his arms. The sweet taste that he’d been chasing in Carole’s mouth, that kiss that she’d had mistaken for passion, he’d found. He pulled Dean closer and licked his way inside the smaller man’s mouth and groaned at how wonderful felt. His dick, which had gotten hard the moment his lips touched Dean’s stomach where it was trapped between them. He let his hand wander between their bodies and unsnap the waistband of his jeans. His large hands had just touched Dean’s dick when he heard, “Dean!” “Fuck!” they swore in unison as John’s voice cut through their lust addled brains. “I gotta go see what he wants, Sam” Dean panicked. “He can’t catch us like this.” As they walked back to the house Sam wanted to be able to take Dean’s hand in his as a big fuck you to their dad, but he could still send him to pastor Jim’s, or worse send Dean somewhere that he could never find him. He wasn’t willing to risk either for the temporary satisfaction of getting one up on his dad. As they walked back to the house, Sam thought about everything, trying to see it through Dean’s eyes; he knew what it was to want and not be able to have it because God knows that he wanted Dean, but it was being mated before he had a chance to know what he wanted. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also had to live with the fact that if Sam decided that Dean wasn’t what he wanted after all, then all he had to do was choose someone else and knot them leaving Dean alone. His Omega doesn’t have to worry about that because he can’t ever imagine not wanting Dean but he thought about how he almost knotted Carole nearly fulfilling Dean’s fears. In the future, no matter how frustrated he got, he would have to keep his dick to himself. Once Sam knew what he was looking for he could see it, how his dad was working, or rather making Dean work to keep them separated. If he had a hunt, Dean went with him, and the young man was still sleeping on the sofa and Sam was still jerking off to fantasies of him. He wondered how it would feel to have Dean spread out underneath him, opening himself up to Sam and no longer on those goddamned suppressants. He would finally be able smell Dean, that wonderful heady sweet Omega scent filling his nose as he filled Dean. He and Dean used any time alone to work on finding out the name of Dean’s Alpha, but they didn’t have a clue where to start looking. The only thing that Dean could remember was where they were the night he disappeared, so that’s where they started. The first thing they did was try to find a way to look in their dad’s journal without being obvious as to what they were doing. Once while they were on a hunt, Dean managed to get a look at it while John was passed out drunk only to find that the pages coinciding with that week were missing from the journal. As a matter of fact, except for a hunt for ghouls in Wisdom, there was no mention of anything including the birth and death of Dean’s son. Sam decided that if they couldn’t find Dean’s mate then he had to come up with a contingency plan, a way to get Dean away from their dad, all of the kids were submitting college applications and he decided to do the same. His grades were good enough to get at least a partial scholarship and sometimes the scholarships included a stipend for mates and Alpha’s with unmated Omegas. When their dad went to the bars to unwind, he and Dean would tag along to hustle pool for application fees and so that they would have some money to live on when it was time for them to leave. They managed to get the acceptance letters when they arrived, all except the one from Penn State, no that one John intercepted and had it laid out on the table as evidence that Sam had no way of denying. “What’s this Sam?” he asked when the two came inside from target practice. A quick glance told him what it was, and told him that him dad knew what it was as well. “You invaded my privacy to confront me with this, so please, just tell me what you think this is.” John laughed before turning to Dean, “Go get us dinner, while Sam and I talk.” When Dean didn’t move, John barked, “Now Dean!” Sam watched as Dean’s face reflected the inner turmoil that he felt. He wanted to obey his dad, but he didn’t want to let Sam face the irate man alone, so Sam gave him a slight nod telling him it was okay to go. “Oh, so you think that you’re his Alpha now huh?” John asked once he heard the roar of the Impala as Dean drove away. “I’ve been hunting since you were a baby did you two really think that I wasn’t going to figure out what was going on?” “I thought that you’d be too drunk to notice, I mean wasn’t that how whoever was able to work a spell right under your nose and steal your child?” Sam enjoyed being able to tell his dad that, but he was so busy relishing in his joy that he didn’t see that punch coming until he had been knocked on his ass. “That the best you got old man,” he laughed as he spit out the blood that was in his mouth from his split lip. “I barely felt that.” “That may be true, but I bet that you’ll feel it when I take Dean someplace where you’ll never see him again.” Suddenly all the cockiness and bravado was gone and in its place was a scared little boy afraid of losing the one thing that meant the most to him. He didn’t want to beg, but if that’s what he had to do that, he would. “Please don’t take my Omega away from me,” Sam whispered. “He’s not yours Sam!” John shouted at the young Alpha, “he belongs to someone else and you have to stop this reckless pursuit of him. You’re confusing him and that’s not fair to Dean, because all you’re doing is making him hate himself on top of feeling guilty for wanting you.” “He could be mine if you tell me, dad, tell me who his Alpha is,” Sam said desperately before he started begging. “Give me something; give me a name a location, some kind of clue so I can find him and don’t you dare tell me that you don’t know because you and I both know that that’s a lie. Please tell me dad, I…he should be mine. Let me find Dean’s Alpha and make him release his claim to end both of our suffering. Please daddy, tell me who he is.” “I’m sorry Sam, I don’t know who he is,” John lied. Sam sat there caught between his hurt and anger, confused as to why his dad wouldn’t help him by simply giving him the name. Despite what the man said, they both knew he was lying; that he knew whom the bastard was that had claimed his brother and left him to suffer the embarrassment of being unwanted. The thing is he wasn’t unwanted because Sam wanted him, but if he wasn’t going to tell him then Sam had to leave. because as much as he loved Dean one thing his father said was right, if Dean gave into him he would be wracked with guilt and Sam wouldn’t do that to him. In a voice devoid of emotion, Sam informed his dad, “Stanford offered me a full ride, and if you won’t tell me who Dean’s Alpha is then I’m going to take it because I can’t be near him much longer without having him.” “Oh, so you love him so much that you’d just abandon him?” John accused. “You’re just going to break up our family because someone else got what you wanted. Who the hell am I kidding, you haven’t wanted to be a part of this family for a long time and have spent most of your life trying to get away from us.” “You were willing to break us up to keep us apart, but it doesn’t have to be. Dean doesn’t have to be hurt any more if you tell me who his Alpha is. If you want me to beg then, I will beg, I’ll get on my knees and stay there until they bleed. Whatever you want dad I’ll do if you just tell me.” “I want you to stay away from him Sam, that’s what I want. You do what you always do and run away when things don’t go your way, so go Sam, but remember this, Dean stays with me. Until his Alpha comes for him, I am his guardian ad litem, so if you leave this time don’t bother coming back.” With a nod of his head and shoulders slumped in defeat, Sam told John, “I’ll leave first thing in the morning.” John Winchester watched helplessly as his family fractured and fell apart. Once Sam boarded that bus, everything would change. Dean had driven Sam to the bus station so they could say goodbye away from his prying eyes, but, he was at the station when they’d arrived, not willing to let his boy go with a proper send off, whether he knew it or not. He never wanted Sam to go, no he wanted his boy near him where he could watch over and protect him to prevent him from turning evil and hurting Dean, but the way things had turned out, he wasn’t so sure that he accomplished that. Sam’s leaving confused him because he wasn’t sure if the boy’s leaving was going to stop him from turning into the evil monster that Missouri had predicted or exacerbated it. They loved each other and wanted one another and had future Sam not kidnapped younger Dean, he never would have fought them being together. Because who was he to deny that they were soul mates, but his job was to protect the Omega that his family had been blessed with and he would do that with his last breath. There had been times over the years, especially this past year that he’d thought about telling them what he knew, but he had to think about what would happen if that backfired and Sam saw that as a reason to hurt Dean further. He doesn’t know what happened during that week that terrified him and he wasn’t willing to take a chance to find out. If they were really meant to be together, then they will find their way back to one another. ***** Chapter 11 ***** Sam stared at the sonogram that he held in his hand, a baby. He and Jess were going to have a baby. He’d fought with himself for four years against mating with the pretty little Beta until he ran out of excuses to do so and the number one reason being Dean, but that was never going to happen. Four years he fought it and suddenly here he was, graduated from college and ready to interview for law school; it was time. Too much time had been spent pining away for someone who was totally out of reach, so he asked Jess to be his mate. “It’s about time, you ass,” had been her answer. Even though he’d already claimed and mated her, Jess’s parents insisted on a formal mating ceremony and Sam just smiled and went along with it, because whatever made Jess happy made him happy. The only thing that upset him was that he had no family there to welcome Jess into the Winchester family. Dean might not have come, but he’s more than sure his dad would have just to make sure that he would no longer try to claim Dean. Dean. He thought that once he’d been mated to Jess the desire and need he had to be with the Omega would disappear, but it didn’t. It died down from the burning, throbbing and constant need to a nagging ache, but it never went away. Sam was convinced that the longer he was mated to Jess even that would go away. He still couldn’t understand why he wanted Dean, even before he was mated to Jess, Dean had a mate and they should not want each other but they did, desperately. Palo Alto was a college town and between there and San Francisco, there were many libraries at his disposal, but in all of the hours he spent researching it, Sam could find nothing explaining the attraction that a mated Alpha felt towards a mated Omega. Nor was there an explanation as to why he still thought of Dean as his Omega. There has been no contact between him and his family, but Sam liked to think that Dean was okay and that their father treated the older man well and didn’t blame him for Sam’s departure. Although there was no evidence supporting it, a part of him still entertained the thought that John was Dean’s Alpha and his protection stemmed from the fact that Dean was his. Sam knew that these thoughts of Dean had to end, because not only would that not lead anywhere, but also he’d made his choice three months ago when he knotted his Beta. Even though it was a choice made with his head and not his heart, the decision had been made and he chose Jess, so Dean had to stay in the past. Placing the grainy black and white photo of their child on the coffee table, Sam made his rounds in the small apartment to check the locks and the salt lines at the windows and doors before he joined Jess in bed. He would lie there and enjoy the most peaceful time of his day before he fell asleep and again dreamed about her burning on their ceiling. As she snuggled into his body Sam thought about how Jess often laughed at his nighttime rituals, he may not hunt any longer but it was hard to forget a lifetime of rites. ----------------------------------------------- Dean sat in his car and watched as the last light was turned off in the little apartment across the street. He supposed that he could have knocked, but this way would be much more fun, and besides, he knew that the Beta that Sam lived with would be in bed and he wouldn’t have to talk to the blonde. Dean has been around for a couple of days and had seen the pair of them together; it seemed that while he’s still living on dreams, Sam’s living with the little blonde. While following them, he’s seen them hugging and kissing so there was no illusion as to what their relationship was and it hurt but then he was used to hurting. Hurt was such a constant thing with him, so long that he didn’t know anything else. For a short while he’d imagined what it felt like to love someone and have them love him back, but that was just a pipe dream After all of the subterfuge to find a way to stay together, Sam left and never came back. Dean and his dad had traveled all over this country and every Omega he’d ever met had people fighting over them, pampering them, but he’d never experienced that. He’d been claimed but not wanted, and wanted but not claimed, even his baby didn’t want him and he was always left alone. Now here he was again watching Sam give a woman the love he’d promised him, but this time he was under no illusions that he’d get it. Thirty minutes after the lights went out in apartment 212, Dean quietly left his car and made his way inside. He looked around, but wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for, but he was sure that it was just a glimpse into Sam’s life. Four years without a word and now, he was immersed into all things Sam. The apartment was saturated with his smell, but it was different, not as he remembered but it was still Sam. The walls and the shelves were littered with pictures of the happy couple and Dean thinks that he didn’t even have that. The last picture he remembered taking with Sam was just before the Alpha had ran away to Flagstaff. Even though he was jealous of the girl in the pictures, seeing Sam happy made him smile, that was until he came to the last picture on the shelf. He picked the ornate frame up to study the subject and make sure of what he thought he was seeing Sam’s claiming ceremony. He was so taken aback by the subject in the picture that he dropped the heavy silver frame. The sound of the picture frame hitting the floor was loud and unless Sam had gotten sloppy in the four years that he’d been gone, then he was going to come out and investigate the noise. Dean looked around the small apartment in an attempt to find a place to hide before announcing his presence and realized that he left the window open just as his brother grabbed his shoulder. Dean knocked Sam’s arm away before he could get a good hold and pull him down, and aimed a blow at Sam, but the younger man ducked and he missed. While Sam is trying to get his balance from ducking the missed blow, Dean gripped Sam’s arm, swung him around and pushed him through to the door to the larger room. Sam tried to kick, but Dean blocked it and because he could now see Dean’s face, he is shocked for a second, Dean elbowed him in his face, and he hears a crunch where it connected with his nose. Dean’s not sure but either the pain or the embarrassment made Sam furious and he kicks at Dean’s head, Dean laughs and blocks the kick, and swung again at his younger brother, which Sam again blocked, but this time Dean knocked Sam to the floor. Once Sam is down, Dean pins him to the floor with his body held him still by holding one had at his neck and the other one on his wrist. This was not how he planned for their confrontation to go, but Dean enjoyed the tussle because it reminded him of those long afternoons that dad made them spar. “Whoa, easy tiger,” Dean laughed at Sam. “Dean?” Sam asked incredulous, which caused Dean to laugh again. “You scared the shit out of me.” “That’s ‘cause you’re out of shape,” Dean smiled down at Sam, however the words were barely out of his mouth before Dean found himself looking up at Sam after the younger man flipped their positions. “Or not,” Dean said, suddenly aware of Sam’s hard body as it pressed his into the floor and his reaction to it. “Get off me.” Sam stood up and pulled Dean with him as he asked, “What the hell are you doing here?” “Looking for a beer?” Dean tried to lighten the mood before saying an ominous tone. “Look we have to talk.” “You could have called, Dean.” Dean looked at Sam in his normal home with his normal girl who didn’t come with a shit ton of baggage and imagined how that conversation would have went, “If I’d called, would you have answered?” Before Sam could answer, Jess turned the light on, and Dean stared at her, she was very pretty hot dressed only in her sleep shorts and a Smurfs t-shirt, and when Sam turned to face the young woman, Dean scented her. She was why Sam smelled different now, he had mated her and now their scents were intermingled. “Sam?” She questioned. Sam left Dean’s side, stood beside Jess, and introduced her, “Dean, this is my mate, Jessica.” Dean knew that he was supposed to look at her and appreciate her beauty and he thought that he did, but if he didn’t he knew that Sam would know that something was up and he didn’t need to be kicked out before he had explained to Sam why he was there. Even though he didn’t give a shit about Sam’s mate, he played nice. The thing was that he had a serious reason to be there, but all he could concentrate on was Sam standing there in front of him calling someone else his mate. Dean thought that Sam said something else but he couldn’t hear past the roaring in his ears. “Your brother, Dean?” Pulling himself together, Dean stepped forward and said, “Oh, I love the Smurfs, but I gotta tell you, you’re completely out of my brother’s league.” “Let me go put something on,” his uneasiness showing at the looks Dean was giving her. As she turned to walk away, Dean stopped her, his eyes going hard, “No, I wouldn’t dream of it. Seriously. Anyway, I just want to borrow your boyfriend here to discuss some family business, but, uh, nice meeting you.” “No,” Sam said as he put his arm around Jess’s shoulder. “Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of her.” “Okay, Sam. Um, dad hasn’t been home in a few days.” “So he’s working overtime on a Miller Time shift. Give him time, he’ll stumble in sooner or later.” “Dad’s on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been home in a few days,” Dean said choosing his words carefully because he wasn’t sure how much if any of his old life that Sam had shared with his… mate. “Excuse me Jess, we have to go outside,” told Dean that he’d told her nothing. Sam couldn’t believe that he was sitting beside Dean on his way to a hunt. He had left his pregnant mate to go chasing after a man who’d disowned him. “You’re twenty six years old, you could have looked for him yourself,” Sam accused. “No I couldn’t. I don’t know what dad was hunting or if there was someone he hadn’t managed to piss of and was hunting with him, but I’m an Omega Sam and even though we tried to hid it, most hunters know it. I don’t want to have to fight off someone looking for a piece of ass while I’m trying to find dad.” “You’re mated Dean, no one should want you,” Sam argued. “You did.” Sam had no answer for that. He’d tried to find a way not to want his gorgeous brother, but nothing worked, not even taking a mate. Once they arrived in Jericho, the last place that their dad had been, the pair quickly learned what it was that he’d been hunting, A Woman in White. They figure that it was some kind of family shit because they are the only ones who hurt each other and expect you to be okay with it. A husband cheated and his wife took the only thing she had to hurt him, his kids, but then she couldn’t live with herself and committed suicide and now she was taking out her anger on men who cheat. She didn’t focus Dean, but Sam. When he told her that he’d never cheated and she told him yes he did. He immediately knew that she wasn’t talking about him cheating on Jess, she was referring to Dean. Shit, even the damned ghost knew that Dean belonged to him. Hell it seemed that everyone except their dad who seemed to make this his second most important goal in life, keeping them apart knew. Now that he thought about it, Sam’s sure that even Jess knew, but became his mate anyway. It made him wonder though, why did Dad disappear like that? He had to be aware that Dean would come to him because being an Omega meant that it wasn’t safe for him to hunt alone even though Dean was stubborn enough to try. The ride back to Palo Alto was long and uncomfortable for them both. For Sam because the ghost accusing him of cheating brought feelings that he’d somewhat suppressed to the forefront, making his body throb with need for the man beside him. Dean was quiet because he’d done his best to convince Sam to keep going with him to find their dad. Had Dean asked him that three months and a day ago, Sam would have jumped at the chance to spend this time with Dean. Alone. He couldn’t do that now. The Beta who had patched up his soul and healed his broken heart when he’d first arrived at Stanford, who was now pregnant with his baby, came first. Sitting inside that car was hell, the atmosphere was thick and heavy with pheromones from both men who were staring straight ahead pretending not to notice when all they wanted was to pull the car over on the shoulder and fuck each other stupid. When Dean pulled up in front of the apartment Sam shared with Jess, the Impala had barely come to a stop before Sam was out and running towards his front door. He told himself that it was because he wanted to hit the bed as soon as possible because of the late hour, he was only going to get a couple of hours sleep before he had his interview for law school. He was okay with it because he had helped rid the world of another ghost and he was once again rid of the temptation that was Dean Winchester. Whom was he kidding; he was just glad to be out of the car before he had Dean flat on his back. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one in a hurry because he was barely inside the apartment when he heard Dean haul ass out of there. Sam felt a little guilty because he hadn’t asked Dean where he was going and silently cursed John for taking off and leaving the Omega alone and unprotected, but he forced himself not to care. “Jess?” Sam called once he was inside the tiny apartment. “Jess, I’m home.” The apartment wasn’t that big so it didn’t take Sam long to figure out that she wasn’t home. Sam guessed that she probably stayed with one of her friends so that she wouldn’t have to spend the night alone. He placed his duffel bag on the floor and flopped down on the bed to get the rest his body craved. It seemed that as soon as his eyed closed he was in that place between wakefulness and sleep when he felt the first droplet. He swatted his face as though it was a bug that had landed on his face, but when the second and third drops hit his face, he opened his eyes and looked at the blood on his hand. Sam looked up because he knew what he was going to find, he’d dreamed about it often enough, Jess on the ceiling and the blood was coming from the gaping wound in her stomach seconds before her body burst into flames. The baby. Jess. Gone. Sam jumped up from the bed in an attempt to reach his mate. But he couldn’t reach her because the building was old and had high ceilings. That was what sold her on the place. Just because he couldn’t reach her didn’t mean he stopped trying and just before he body exploded in flames a pair of strong arms pulled him from back. He knew that Jess was gone, so he made one more attempt to reach for the sonogram print out, but he couldn’t get his hands on it before he was pulled from the apartment. Sam knew it was useless but he fought the band of arms holding him back because a part of him thought that he could save her still. “C’mon Sam, the firemen need to do their jobs and they can’t do them if you’re in the way.” After letting Dean pull him from the burning apartment, Sam sat on the trunk of the Impala and watched as the firefighters put out the fire. At that moment, he thought about his dad and how he must have felt as he sat in the same position over two decades ago and looked helplessly as they put out the fire. When the fireman walked over to them later, he knew what they were going to tell him, Jess was dead. Even if she survived the fire, whatever had pinned her to the ceiling had given her a wound that made sure she wasn’t going to survive. Once the firefighters and the police officers gave everyone whose apartment was affected by the fire the clearance to leave, Sam glanced around him. It seemed that his neighbors all had somewhere to go, but that too little apartment was the only place he’d ever been able to call home and it was gone and everything that he loved and needed had burned up with it as though they had never existed. After everyone was gone, Sam and Dean sat there for a little while longer and he realized something, he was back with Dean and the only home that had been constant in his life, the Impala. “We need to get some supplies,” Dean said as he walked around to the trunk and opened it to take inventory. As he followed Dean around the car, he had to ask him something that had been hovering at the back of his mind, “How… why did you come back Dean, I saw you drive away?” Sam asked, “How did you know to come back?” “It started with the radio fading in and out, then the street lights all starting flashing, and I knew. I have been hunting all my life and I knew the signs and my first thought was you.” Sam didn’t know what to say to that, it had always been that way, he was always Deans first thought even at his own peril, and if he looked in the Omegas eyes he’s sure that he would see pure love and for a moment he returned that love. The minute he felt his heart responding to Dean he became angry at himself and Dean for making him feel that way with Jess and their baby’s ashes laying literally a few feet away. Blinking back the tears, Sam gave one final look into the trunk before slamming it closed, “Let’s go, we have work to do.” ***** Chapter 12 ***** The first few months on the road were the hardest, and Sam felt even guiltier as time progressed, because the more he was around Dean the stronger the pull was to him, some days it was so strong that when he felt himself reaching out for Dean he forced himself to remember Jess, and that she died because of him. In their quest to find their father, the pair ran into and killed a lot of supernatural things. There was a Wendigo in Blackwater Ridge, a Hook man in Ankeny, not to mention a ghost in Lake Manitoc that was drowning the family members of the young boys who’d let him drown years ago and through it all, Sam didn’t touch Dean unless it was hunt related. The memories of their days before he left for Stanford were never far from Sam’s mind, memories of how the two of them conspired to find either Dean’s Alpha or Dean just running away with him. Then their dad found out about their plans and stopped them in their tracks. The irony of the situation was not lost on him, because here he sits four years later, and the one thing that he has always wanted was sitting an arm’s length away, but the guilt of Jess’s death prevented him from taking it. Where ever their dad was he had to be laughing. They eventually caught up with their dad or rather he caught up with them in Manning, Colorado, as they sat in the car in front of the post office of all places. The first chance he got, Sam started an argument with the man, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was genuinely mad at him or if it was out of habit. In the end, it really didn’t matter because just like always, Dean was in the middle trying to play peacemaker and all Sam could see was him siding with their dad. “He treats us like children, Dean so forgive me if I don’t understand the blind faith you have in the man,” Sam spit at Dean, happy to finally let out the irrational pent up anger he felt towards Dean. He was angry with Dean because he wanted the man with every fiber of his being, and couldn’t have him. He was angry with him because he couldn’t have the Omega, he’d mated with Jess and was the reason she was dead. He was angry with Dean because he loved him and he wasn’t sure that that love was returned. “It called being a good son, as well as a good Omega but then you wouldn’t know anything about being either would you.” Dean explained. “I’m not you Sam, I can’t just decide to change my mind and go and mate the first person that comes along, and I’m not wired that way. You didn’t want me fine, that message was received loud and clear when you left four years ago, but dad didn’t get this far on luck alone. I know I’m just a lowly Omega, but I’ve got enough sense to let the person with experience in hunting something that we’ve never seen before take the lead.” Sam suddenly felt stupid, he was so busy wallowing in his own misery then and now, it never occurred to him to think about Dean’s feelings. He turned to his brother to apologize, but the set of those plump lips told him that it would not be welcome or appreciated. Taking Dean’s words to heart, Sam found that if he paid attention he could learn something other than the fact that vampires were real. He learned how to kill them and he learned that he and his dad had more in common than the fact that the woman they loved burned on the ceiling while they were helpless to do anything other than watch. John needed someone to go on a supply run to a funeral home to retrieve blood from a dead body, and Dean volunteered and Sam thought that he did it mainly to get away from him. The blood, Sam learned, was like a poison to the vampires and the two men finally had an opportunity to talk, Alpha to Alpha without the conversation ending in a conversation about Dean. Sam knew that this would have been a perfect time to seek information about Dean’s Alpha, but the guilt he felt about Dean and Jessica, wouldn’t let him broach the subject. As Sam talked to his dad, he thought that he had all the time in the world to get that information. From the day he was born Sam knew that he was cursed, how else could he explain the clusterfuck that was his life, because after surviving a vampires nest and retrieving a Colt Peacemaker that is supposed to kill anything supernatural, a goddamned car crash is what almost took his entire family out. Dean was tired but he didn’t hurt like someone who’d nearly had his heart ripped from his chest by a demon and survive, only to be near death as a result of a car wreck a few minutes later. The doctors could only describe his recovery as miraculous and he should get down on his knees and give thanks to God. He’d never believed in God and wasn’t about to start now, but was willing to concede that there was something out there. He sat in his father’s room knowing that the man was up to something but he wasn’t sure what. The minute that he sent Sam to get him a cup of coffee he began to talk. “Dean, I know that you and your brother think that I’m a selfish asshole, but please know that every decision that I’ve made concerning the two of you was for your protection.” “I know dad,” Dean responded, and he did. Even when the choices the man made hurt like hell, he knew that it was in their best interest. “You know in another life, one in which your mother lived, I would have treated you the way an Omega was supposed to be treated, loved and cosseted, but those weren’t the cards that we were dealt son.” John cleared his throat and continued, “I need to ask you a serious question, Dean. I need to know if you’re strong enough to kill Sam.” “Why…why would I need to kill Sam dad?” Dean asked with a shaky voice. “It wasn’t by accident that that demon chose your mom Dean, Sam will turn evil and you can’t be blinded by what you feel for him. If I thought that Sam would be good for you then I wouldn’t stand in the way of the two of you bonding, you have to know that Dean. The problem is that Sam has something evil in him and it will hurt you. I… Trust me son I know what the future holds and it’s not good.” “How do you know that dad?” Dean asked. John didn’t get a chance to answer the question because Sam walked in with the coffee he’d been sent to fetch and the alarms on the monitors that John was attached to all went off at once and above all of the noise Dean could hear Sam yelling, “Dad!” In less time that it took to draw a breath, John was dead and Dean had never felt so alone in his life. With their father dead and the car out of commission until Dean could complete the repairs, Sam and Dean along with some encouragement from Bobby, made the Singer residence their home. From the time he got up in the mornings until he was too tired to do anything but fall into bed, Dean spent his days working on the Impala. He hated to see her in such poor condition. Bobby had suggested scrapping her, but he couldn’t do that because he wasn’t sure how long Sam intended to stay, and it would be the only thing keeping him connected to his dad. After months of practically ignoring him, suddenly Sam wanted to talk. He was suddenly interested in having Dean talk about his feelings and how he missed dad. Dean thought taking jobs (especially the one involving clowns) would discourage Sam, but he kept pressing until Dean exploded. “Why the hell do you suddenly care about how I fucking feel, Sam?” Dean shouted at his brother. “You promised me that you were gonna take me with you that we would find the fucking beast that took me and make him break this bond, but what did you do? Do you remember what you did Sam because I sure as hell do? You fucking left without having the balls to tell me until the day I had to drive you to the bus station and then you mated someone you met on the day you arrived there, so don’t stand there and tell me that you care about me!” Dean watched Sam as he stared at him as though he was in a state of shock, because Dean, who was never angry, was yelling at him and it felt good. It seemed that everyone else was allowed to speak their mind and express their feelings, but Dean never did because he was afraid of the repercussions, but not now. “I’m sorry Dean, I- how did you know when I met Jess?” Sam stuttered. This time it was Dean’s turn to stare. Of course, Jess would be his first concern, “You know for someone so smart, you’re dumb as hell. Did you really think that dad would just let you go? We arrived in Palo Alto before you did and I-we saw when you met her. She gave you her phone number, and you gave her a smile.” Turning away from Sam, Dean went back to working on the car giving it all of his attention because if he didn’t he was going to break down and cry. Normally he reserved his Alpha display for outsiders as protection, but this time he was in full Alpha mode for Sam as he didn’t want this to get too close because there wasn’t much more of his heart left to break. “I’m sorry,” Sam whispered so softly to Dean’s back that it was barely heard before the big man walked away. After leaving Bobby’s it took several months and cases before the boys were comfortable enough to be civil towards one another, because Dean had decided that it was in his best interest not to get too close to Sam because as soon as he got revenge for Jess’ death, the younger man would be gone. Sam always left and in the past, it had been Dean’s job to bring him back, but not this time, no this time he would go searching for normal and leave Dean on his own. He would have Bobby, but that wasn’t the same because he wasn’t Sam. They drove around the country hunting things and saving everything they could with the exception of their relationship. They barely spoke to each other and Dean knew that it was mostly his fault, but he couldn’t seem to let go of the fact that one day Sam was going to run away again and leave him all alone. On top of that, he had to deal with that his father gave up his life so that Dean may live, had him on the verge of an emotional breakdown. This was his frame of mind right up to the night that they stopped at this little out of the way diner and Sam disappeared. At first Dean thought this was the night that Sam had chosen to run away again, but the bloody bodies of the diner’s employees littering the floor and the sulfur that was stinking up the place told him otherwise. It told him that the yellow-eyed demon had finally come for his brother. “Bobby, it’s got him, the demon has Sam.” Dean shouted into the phone. He’d called the old hunter because he was the only one person he trusted not to take advantage of his situation. Dean sat at the diner trying to retrace their day right up until the time they arrived at the diner and he couldn’t think of anything that had been off. Then again, he’d been so deep in his head that he had not been as alert as he should have been. He had gone over the scene, and when Bobby came, he did the same. As Bobby searched for clues, Dean stood aside and looked on in disbelief. He went over in his mind what he could have done differently, what had he missed, that the demon knew to be there in the diner. What had he missed that could have ended up with him enjoying a hamburger and Sam sitting beside him rolling his eyes in disgust. Realistically, Dean knew that the demon that took Sam wouldn’t have been stopped by anything Dean would have tried, but he wished that he’d have been given the chance to try. Standing there helping Bobby look for clues, he realized that if - no when he got Sam back the bullshit between the two of them would stop. If Sam no longer wanted him, then Dean would learn to live with that decision as long as he got to live with Sam. “Look, we’ve done all we can here,” Bobby told Dean. “We’ll drive a few minutes out and place a call to the cops so they’ll come in and take care of the people in the diner. We’re not that far from the salvage yard, we’ll go there and regroup.” Dean was going to argue, but he knew that Bobby was right, if by some chance Sam does find his way back to the diner, he would contact them and Bobby’s place wasn’t that far away so they would be back here in no time to get him. Dean didn’t put much faith in that happening; he knew that where ever Sam had been taken, he wouldn’t be back without help. Once they got back to Bobby’s the first thing Dean did was call Ash at the roadhouse to see if there had been any demonic activity in the area near the diner where Sam was taken. According to Ash, he had found nothing concerning demonic activity but he had something that he needed to tell Dean, and would only tell him in person. With Sam’s disappearance being the most important thing, it was hard for him to drive to the roadhouse, but the information that Ash had could possibly be helpful so he and Bobby made the trip. The trip to Nebraska from Bobby’s wasn’t that long, they had driven further, but because this could lead to information concerning Sam, it reminded Dean of trips when they were kids and it seemed that they would never get to where they were going. When they arrived at Harvelle’s Dean wished that they hadn’t. The place had been burned to the ground. The pair of them searched through the ashes to see if there were bodies in there and they found parts, and the most disturbing was the arm with a watch that Dean knew belonged to Ash. Whatever information he was going to give them died with him and now they had to go back to square one. Nothing. Once they realized that there was nothing to save from the ashes, Dean and Bobby stood in the parking lot trying to decide what their next move should be when the first headache hit him. It came so suddenly that he was nauseous and before he could recover that next one came and with it visions. He didn’t understand, because visions were Sam’s thing, but two headaches later he realized that someone, perhaps Sam was trying to get a message to him, and when Sam’s face popped up in one of the visions, he was sure of it. After describing to Bobby what he was seeing, he thanked God that the old man was a walking encyclopedia of hunting knowledge because from the few clues, he figured out that Sam was at Cold Oak and it was only a few hours’ drive back to South Dakota to reach it. Sam was the first thing Dean saw when he got out of the car, and as he ran towards the beautiful sight of his living breathing brother, his eyes quickly noticed a tall man running behind him with a knife. “Sam!” He shouted in warning, but it was too late, because as soon as he shouted his brother’s name the man was on him and plunging a knife in his brother’s back. Dean was vaguely aware of Bobby running past him towards the man who’d just stabbed Sam, as he ran towards Sam and held him as he fell to the ground trying to determine how bad the injury was, “Sam, Sam, Sam. Hey, come here and let me look at you.” Rubbing his hands along Sam’s back he felt something warm and sticky and he knew it was blood but it didn’t seem to be a lot. “Oh, hey look, hey look at me, it’s not even that bad. Sammy, Sam! Hey, listen to me, it’s not even that bad. Bobby and me are gonna patch you up and you’ll be as good as new.” When he noticed that Sam was looking down, Dean held onto his brother with one hand as he took the other one to force Sam’s head up to look at him and that’s when he heard it, the death rattle and he knew that his baby brother was dying. “It’s okay Sam, I’m going to take care of you, I gotcha. It’s my job as your older brother and your Omega to watch out for my pain in the ass little brother…Sam…Sam…Sam! Sammy!” Dean shouts and Sam closes his eyes and slumps forward. “No, no-no-no-no-no! Oh God, Sam!”  If John Winchester wasn’t dead already, Bobby Singer would kill the son of a bitch himself. As he stood beside Dean and watched him stare at his brother laid out on a table in the middle of a deserted schoolroom in the middle of an equally deserted town. Dead. Leaving the Omega all alone. Bobby had never met Dean’s Alpha, and his name was a secret that John took with him to his grave. With both Sam and John both dead and his Alpha nowhere to be seen, Bobby supposed that he was Dean’s Alpha now. He really wasn’t sure how that was going to work because unlike most Omega’s, Dean had lived the majority of his life as an Alpha and add that to the fact that he was a fucking stubborn Winchester, Bobby knew that this was not going to be the easiest of situations. “Dean you need to eat,” Bobby hoped to tempt the Omega as he held up a bucket of chicken. “No thanks, I’m fine.” “Please, Dean you should eat something,” Bobby tried again. “I said I’m fine,” Dean snapped. Bobby knew that the kid was hurting so he ignored Dean’s waspish tone, because what he had to say next was sure to elicit an even stronger response from the Omega. The Alpha glanced at the young man on the table, took a deep breath and said, “Dean…I hate to bring this up, I really do; But don’t you think that maybe it’s time…we bury Sam?” “No.” “We could,” Bobby signed before continuing, “maybe…” “We could what? Dean snapped, “Torch his corpse? Not yet.” Bobby decided to try a different tactic and pull the Alpha card, but when he opened his mouth, the words he uttered sounded more like a request than an order. “I want you to come with me, Dean.” “I’m not going anywhere,” Dean replied. “Dean, please.” “Would you cut me some fucking slack here,” The Omega begged as he stared at his brother. “I’m trying to son, I really am, but I just don’t think that you should be alone, that’s all,” Bobby explained. “I gotta admit though- I could use your help.” Dean snorted and shrugged his shoulders as though to say what’s new. That was his only response to the older man as he continued to stare at Sam. “Something big is going down Dean - something end of the world big,” Bobby told him hoping that it would get the boy to snap out of that near trance he was in. “Well then let it end!” Dean barked. “You don’t mean that.” “You don’t think so, huh?” Dean asked rhetorically. “You don’t think that I’ve given enough? You don’t think I’ve paid enough. I’m done with it. All of it, and if you know what’s good for you, then you’d turn around and get the hell out of here.” Bobby stood there trying to find the words to express what he was trying to say without pissing Dean off further when he snapped, “Go! Look, I’m sorry, so sorry, but please, just go.” “You know where I’ll be.” Bobby studied Dean as the young man nervously rubbed his neck before finally giving up and turning to leave. As he went outside to his car, he replayed the scene in his mind because something was off, different but he just couldn’t put his finger on it. He was halfway home before he realized what it was; Dean’s mating mark had changed colors and was now gray. Raising his hand to touch his own mating mark, he knew that gray meant widowed and the mark changed with Sam’s death. Had John somehow found out and had been guarding that bit of information all of these years? That Sam was somehow Dean’s mate, but how could that be? Sam’s mating mark was still flesh colored and besides that, he’d been seven years old when Dean had been taken. Once he made it home he was tired but he couldn’t get it out of his mind about how Dean’s mating mark had changed, how the hell was that possible? Bobby searched every book that he could think of and called and irritated a couple of hunters by waking them up with the question what could make a mating mark change other than the usual reasons, death and someone breaking a bond. If there was a way to change it, it’s possible John knew it and took the secret to his grave. Once Dean was ready to hunt again and was over the worst part of his grieving, Bobby was going to ask the Omega if he could leaf through John’s journal for answers. From the moment he saw the man plunge his knife into Sam’s back, Dean fought the tears, but once he heard the door close behind Bobby, the first one fell. He cried for the loss of the man he loved, for the babies he could never give him for the loneliness that settled into his heart. He’d give anything to have him back, to tell him that he loved him and that he wouldn’t be scared anymore, but he couldn’t because Sam was gone. Dead. He’s not sure when the idea came from, making a deal with a crossroads demon popped into his head but once it did, Dean couldn’t rest until he was on his way once he found the crossroads. Once he was there He rifled through the trunk until he found what he needed placed them in a box and buried it and bargained until that red eyed bitch had given him a year to live. It really didn’t matter if it was a year or a day, as long as it meant Sam was breathing. Hopping back into his car, Dean drove at break neck speed to get back to Sam, to see if his trade had paid off. Once he stood in front of the door, he was too nervous to open it. What if it hadn’t worked, He had no doubt that the red- eyed demon would come for him in a year, but if Sam wasn’t alive then she could come now. Slowly he opened the door and felt his knees buckle with relief at the sight of Sam standing in front of the mirror.  Sam never imagined that when Dean came to get him from Stanford all those years ago that they’d be here, Sam fighting to keep his head above water and Dean doing his best to help keep him afloat. He laughed when he thought that he was going to go back to school after helping Dean search for their missing parent. Dean was his crack, one hit and he was drawn back in. Their dad has been dead for some time now because he was stupid (loving) enough to give up his life to save Dean’s. No matter how much they disagreed on everything, Sam still felt the need to go down on his knees to give thanks for that unselfish gesture. At first he hoped, no he prayed that Dean would turn to him for comfort, but it seemed to drive him further away. However, when it came to Dean he was patient, if he needed to, Sam would take his dying breath to convince Dean to be his. Now here he was on his knees as Dean was screaming his name. He wanted to take the anguish from his brother’s voice but he was fighting to keep his eyes open. He could feel his life slipping away with each breath he took, and he fought to make his voice work, to tell Dean that he loved him; he desperately wanted Dean to know how he felt, that it wasn’t just physical, but the only sound that came out was the Omega’s name before he took his last breath. God he hurt. A huge spot in the middle of his back felt like it was on fire. Sam stood in front of the mirror trying to see his back, it hurt like hell and he wanted to know what was causing the pain, but the only thing he could see was the blood that soaked his shirt. Once he removed the shirt, he tried to look again but he couldn’t see anything except a small reddened area, so he guessed that Dean had patched him up. If his brother could fix a wound as bad as this one felt, it seemed that Dean had picked up a few new tricks while he was at Stanford. Sam gingerly walked around the room, wondering where Dean was. He’d looked outside and his car was gone, and there was no sign of Bobby either, so right up to the moment Dean walked in the door bearing food, he almost thought that he’d dreamt that Dean had been there. After Dean checked him over, especially the wound on his back, Sam found that he was starving because after spending time in Cold Oak where there wasn’t much in the way of food, he thought that he could eat the bucket of chicken by himself. As they ate Dean told him about the roadhouse and the fact that everyone there was dead along with what¬ever information Ash had wanted to give him. Once the information sank in Sam stood up ready to go avenge their deaths. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sam stop.” Dean directed as he grabbed the younger man by his shoulders. “Stop Sam, just stop it. You almost died here. I mean, what would I have- you just need to take care of yourself for a little bit. Just for a little but, please?” “I’m sorry, but no,” Sam responded as he stood up and headed towards the door.  A year later, Dean found himself staring at the ceiling as he lay on the Fremont family’s dining room table while a Hellhound ripped his body to shreds. As he stared at the white ceiling it was almost as though it’s a movie screen as he watched his life pass by. Man, if he were going to live he’d tell Sam that that rumor was true. It started fast and the older he got the slower the flashes were, and when it got to the last year, it almost came to a halt. He cried as he saw Sam dying in his arms and later coming back to life after he’d made his deal. He saw the horror on Bobby’s face when he walked into his house with a living, breathing Sam and discovering that Ellen was alive and didn’t perish in the fire. Then there was he and Sam at the Devils Gate with Bobby, Ellen and Jake, where they eventually killed the demon that murdered their parents and Jess. As he watched, it still amazed him that he saw his father emerge from the gate. As the memories continued to play themselves out, there was the grifter, Bela and Sam’s demon BFF Ruby who had been a thorn in Dean’s side since the day she popped into Sam’s life. God he hated that bitch, and then there’s Lilith, she’s the demon who hold the contract on his soul and wants Sam dead because she thinks that he’s going to lead an army for the YED. He’s now looking at the scene where they came here and Lilith possessed a little girl. She had pushed Ruby out of the body she was possessing, and then he heard her say “sic him boy”. He could no longer feel his body and he thanked God for that because that meant the he could no longer feel the Hellhound tearing at his body, and suddenly the memories stopped and Dean lay on the table with his eyes open as though he was still staring at the memories as they played out on the ceiling. When he next opened his eyes, all Dean felt was pain; he was hung up spread eagle and held up by hooks and chains. As he looked around he saw the thunder and lightning and he screamed, “Help! No! Somebody help me!” When he received no answer, he yelled again, “Sam!” ”Quiet boy, no one can hear you.” A man with a creepy voice advised him. “I’m Alistair by the way; I think you should at least be on first name basis what the man who’s going to torture you for eternity. Now let’s get started shall we.” ***** Chapter 13 ***** Part 3 The Beast Sam wrapped Dean’s body in his arms and cried. That’s all he could do because he couldn’t save his brother’s life. He was mad. He was mad because they let too many things get in their way, their dad, hunting, Dean’s unknown Alpha and Jess. He might as well add his name to the list because he could have fought harder for Dean, made his dad cough up the name of Dean’s Alpha, but he didn’t. Now there would be no more tomorrows, he would never be able to claim Dean as his own because Dean had been willing to sacrifice more than Sam had ever been willing to. He failed Dean so many times and he still believed in him. He knew that Bobby was going to want to burn Dean’s body, to give him a hunter’s funeral, but he couldn’t do that. If need be he was going to search heaven and hell and all points in between to find a way to bring his brother back. He was going to do that as soon as he could let go of Dean’s rapidly cooling body. Sam was so caught up in his plans that he didn’t hear Bobby as the old hunter entered the room. “Oh God Sam, is he…?” Bobby asked, too afraid to finish the sentence. “Yeah,” Sam huffed. Bobby looked the young man holding his brother, the man he wanted to be his mate and he felt his own eyes fill with water. He felt bad for Sam, but even worse for Dean because he was deprived of his life as a cherished Omega, and had died before he’d been truly claimed. Had John not been so damned tight lipped about the boy’s Alpha, perhaps he would have had a chance to know. But he didn’t and now here he was a year later and even though the positions were reversed, the result was the same, one of the Winchester boys was dead and there was no doubt in his mind that the remaining one was going to sacrifice his life to bring him back. “Sam, we’ve got to get Dean and Ruby out of here, these people are going to have a lot to deal with as it is.” Just as he spoke, the Fremont’s entered the room looking even more shocked. “What do we do here, how do we fix this mess?” Tim Fremont asked. “These two are ours, we’re taking the bodies with us, now we can take the other two as well and that way it’ll be easier to explain, you can call in a missing persons report on them.” Bobby advised. “That’s my dad,” Kathy Fremont cried. “Yeah, your dad who was killed by your ten year old daughter, how are you going to explain that?” Bobby asked the distraught woman. “Look, I know that you want to honor your dad with a proper burial, but you’re going to have more pressing things to deal with, like maybe some psychiatric help for you little girl.” “But…” “Tell me how you’re going to explain to the police that your child was possessed by a demon and was able to break the necks of two full grown adults without them thinking that you’re bat shit crazy and them not take your kid away?” Bobby demanded. “You can’t so you have to take the lesser of two evils, and right now that is to let us take your dad’s body with us.” “He’s right Kathy,” Jason Fremont agreed, “Angie needs to be our first priority.” Once Kathy Fremont gave her agreement with a slight nod of her head, Bobby sprang into action, “Okay, we’re gonna need something that we can wrap the bodies in. I know that most of the folks in this cul-de-sac knew what happened here but that don’t mean that they won’t develop a conscience and call the police while we’re putting bodies in a trunk.” Bobby watched as the Fremont’s went in search of something to shroud the bodies in before he turned to Sam. The young man had been quiet during the exchange with the Fremont’s, and now he knew why. He was still sitting on the table cradling Dean’s lifeless body. “Sam,” He said, “you need to let go now, we lost and there’s nothing you can do for him now.” “You may have given up, but I haven’t. I am not burning his body Bobby, because he’s going to need it when I get him back.” “Not you too Sam, please…just don’t. You knew how he felt when he found out that John gave up his life for Dean, and how you felt when Dean did the same, how do you think that’s going to make Dean feel when he realized that he made the deal for nothing.” Sam just shrugged his shoulders and said, “so what. We cheated him Bobby, we let him give to all of us and we took it without giving him something in return. When I get him back, if I have time with him, all he will know is love.” Jason returned with several sheets, and Sam and Bobby got to work wrapping the bodies. When Bobby tried to place Dean’s body in his car, Sam went to the trunk and placed the body over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and placed him in the trunk of the Impala. “You’re not going to burn him Bobby,” He told the older man as he slammed the trunk closed. Bobby just shook his head and he got behind the wheel of his Chevelle. As the car ate up the miles taking him back to his house, he tried to think of how to convince Sam to give Dean the hunter’s funeral that he deserved. It was going to be hard because the Winchesters never took the easy route. The two men worked side by side building the pyre and placed three bodies on it before they set on fire. Bobby lost the argument about adding the Omega to the pyre because Dean’s body was still in the trunk of the Impala. “Where you gonna plant him, Sam,” Bobby inquired he thought that if Sam told him, he could go later and burn the body. “I’m a better hunter than that Bobby; you think that I don’t know that you’d dig him up and torch his body. Sorry, I’m keeping that bit of info to myself.” Bobby shook his head because the young man read his mind he knew that short of a miracle, there was no way for Sam to get Dean back but the Winchester in him was not going to give in easily. They often mocked John about how single minded he was but for some reason they never noticed the same trait in themselves. “I think you’ve got everything under control here, I need to…to bury Dean so that I can start looking for ways to bring him back.” “Sam…” “No Bobby, Dean’s mine and I didn’t take care of him when he was alive, I will do right by him in death and this what I think is best.” Bobby watched as Sam walked to the car he wanted to beg him to stay and place Dean on the pyre to avoid the chance that he could come back as a ghost, but he knew that his pleas would fall on deaf ears. So he stood there, staring at the Impala’s taillights as Sam drove away, wondering if this was the last time he would see the last of the Winchesters. As the tears fell down his face, the word yes kept floating through his mind.  Sam’s not sure why he chose Pontiac as the place to bury Dean, but it just felt right, and besides it was time to put him to rest. He’d stopped at several crossroads before burying Dean and his face still burned with the embarrassment of being rejected, not once but three times. Sam didn’t understand what was going on because Ruby had been adamant that Lilith wanted his intestines on a stick. Here he was offering, no begging to give her just that and no one would take him up on his offer. Dean was still dead. When he pulled into the wooded area about a mile off the highway and wrote the coordinates in his dad’s journal. In the event that he can’t find a way to bring Dean back then he will be the one to torch his bones, not Bobby or anyone else. Once he found the right spot in the middle of a copse of trees he began to dig. “You son of a bitch, it was your time to dig so why don’t you get up off your lazy ass and dig?” Sam whispered as he dug the hole where he was going to leave his brother. He knew that Dean wasn’t going to take over the dig, but a part of him wished it so. It took him twice as long to dig the grave because if he finished that meant that Dean was really gone. He knew a lot of people would say that driving around with the body in the trunk should have told him that his brother was gone, but covering him with dirt was…final. Once he’d finished he went to the back seat and gathered the pieces of wood he’d gathered to construct a casket of sorts to bury Dean. He waited until now to nail the pieces together because he didn’t want to raise suspicions by driving around with a coffin-like box in the car. He made quick work of the box before placing Dean’s body in it. Once it was in the grave, he looked at Dean who was so peaceful in death than he ever had while living and he prayed. He prayed for Dean to come back to him that he would just wake up but he knew that wasn’t going to happen. He reached into the coffin and removed the amulet that he’d given Dean when they were kids and placed it around his neck in memory. His luck had finally run out. The first shovel of dirt was the hardest because that meant that Dean was really dead and there was no last minute save to bring him back. After the last bit of earth covered Dean’s grave, Sam sat beside the grave, pulled his knees up to his chest and cried. Not the silent tears he’d cried when he’d left Bobby’s place, but deep soul wracking sobs that threatened to cut off his breath. After he was all cried out, he just lay there, not wanting to move because he didn’t want to leave Dean there alone. Sam lay beside Dean’s grave because he was still reluctant to leave his brother, his Omega alone. He laid there for twenty-for hours and would still be there if it hadn’t for the cold spring rain that fell the next day. When he was forced to move, it was to the Impala where he sat for two more hours before he made himself turn the key and drive away. When he left he didn’t speed away, he drove slowly repeatedly checking the rearview mirror as though by some chance he would see Dean chasing the car. When he had driven far enough away from the gravesite that he would be tempted to turn around and drive back, Sam called Bobby. When he attempted to tell the older man that he’d buried Dean, he couldn’t make the words come because he was choking on his tears. After Sam gave up his vigil, he drove until he found a liquor store, and proceeded to drink himself into a stupor. It was only after he was drunk that he realized that needed a place to pass out so he stopped at the first cheap motel he could find and stayed there until his liquor ran out. There was a sleazy bar attached to the motel so he went there for his drinks and drank until the bartender refused to serve him anymore. He’d barely gotten the door open before he was attacked by and man and a woman, the woman reached inside his coat and grabbed Ruby’s knife. “Thanks for keeping this warm for me Sam,” she said. “Ruby?” Sam asked just to be sure because he didn’t recognize the meat suit she was wearing. “It's nice to be back. Where I was, even for Hell, it was nasty. I guess I really pissed Lilith off. Imagine my relief when she gave me one last chance to take it topside and all I had to do was find you and kill you.” “Then just get it over with,” Sam told her as the other demon stood behind him blocking his exit in the event he decided to run. He didn’t plan to fight her he just wanted to die, but Ruby had other plans. She walked up to him with the knife poised to stab him, but instead she plunged it in to the hilt in the body of the demon behind Sam. “Grab your things, we have to go,” she ordered. “Now Sam!” She barked when he didn’t move.  Ruby felt giddy, well as giddy as a demon could, but everything was falling into place without her having too work hard for it, she and Lilith had a plan and it was unfolding so easily, it also made her a little nervous. Nothing was ever this easy. Now that Dean was dead Sam would be ripe for the next phase of their plan. It was perfect, they had another Winchester in Hell being tortured and it wouldn’t be long before one of them broke. Her money was on Dean. He was a weak little Omega, so how long could he possibly hold out under Alistair’s knife, she gave him one week. She had watched as Sam buried Dean and got shit faced before she moved in, because his vulnerability was going to be her ticket in. Thanks Dean. Lilith had located him in Illinois, they thought that he was on a hunt, but this was so much better, because if he was in hunting mode then it would have been harder to put their plan into place. She now had to help Sam tap into the powers that drinking Azazel’s blood had given him, but she had to convince him that drinking demon blood was the key. She also had to stop him from getting himself killed because if she failed, then Lilith had a special place in hell for her. The demons were having a good laugh at all of the things that Sam was doing trying to get his brother from the pit. She’d been present when two of them had laughed when they talked about how much fun it was to turn Sam’s offer of his soul down and then there had been his attempt at reopening the Devil’s Gate. She had been glad that he’d failed at reopening it because then there would have been serious competition to help Lilith with her plan and she didn’t need that because in the end Lucifer only needed to remember one name, hers. Ruby had searched all over the small town for Sam and had finally located him leaving his room in a cheap motel and heading for the bar attached to it. It was best to wait until he came back because she would not be able to contain things if they got ugly, and besides, she didn’t want the attention that killing a few dozen meat suits would bring. So she waited. To make what would take place next look real, she and the minion that Lilith had chosen to sacrifice camped out in the room and waited.  Sam wondered what Dean would think about his current situation, his driving the Impala with a demon riding shotgun. As he drove, Sam wondered how he let himself get into the position of letting demons attack him in his hotel room. He’d just checked in and not bothered to guard the room about anything, but now he was driving with Ruby extolling her love of French fries and telling him how thankful he should be for saving his life. “Who asked for your help?” Sam spat at her. Death would have been welcomed at this point because even though it had only been two days, living in a world without Dean wasn’t worth living. “Sam you don’t know what I had to do to get Lilith to trust me to let me out of that special corner of hell that she had me in,” Ruby implored. “Do you want to hear about the special corners of hell that I just toured?” “Not really,” Sam answered in a bored voice. “I’m fucking trying to save you Sam I’m a fugitive because of you.” “Who asked you to save me?” “Look, I’m just trying to help.” “Can you help me bring Dean back?” Sam asked because that was the only thing he needed from her. She’d strung him along for months making him believe that she could save the man and she’d been lying all along. It would give him great satisfaction to send her back to hell right now so that she could be tortured some more by Lilith for failing. “No. Nothing I know of is powerful enough to do that.” If she really couldn’t help him then what good was she, there was nothing else she had that he wanted, and if she couldn’t give him that then she had to go. He pulled over to the side of the road to let her out. “Then I have no use for you.” “What?” “Get out.” “Sam!” “Whose body are you riding, Ruby?” “What do you care? You've never asked me that before.” With the loss of Dean so fresh, he thought about a demon riding the Omega’s body and how he’d hate that. There a family somewhere looking for their loved one while this demon was using her for some nefarious plan and at this point he just couldn’t deal. “I'm asking now.” “Some secretary.” “Let her go.” “Sam...” Ruby pleaded. “Or I send you right back to Hell.”  She should have known that it was too good to be true, that things were going too smoothly, now she had to find a new meat suit to please Sam. She went several places searching for the perfect body, but none of them worked. She wanted someone that wouldn’t be missed and appealed to Sam on a base level, because she was going to get some enjoyment out of this assignment as well. She went all over the country before she realized that she was looking in the wrong place, because strippers weren’t going to appeal to Sam, and then she found her. A little nobody with that girl next door quality that appealed to Sam. Someone had attacked her for sport and attempted to kill her for fun. Even though someone had found her before she died, despite their best efforts, the doctors weren’t going to be able to save her. Once she shocked the doctors by waking up, Ruby walked out of the hospital with one goal in mind, finding Sam Winchester and teaching him how to exorcise a demon the fun way. It wouldn’t take that much to convince the human because as long as Sam thought that the ends justified the means, he would use whatever he could to get the job done, and without Dean there as his conscience, she was going to have fun with him. She found him two weeks later squatting in an abandoned house on the outskirts of some little backwater town hunting a –hell she wasn’t sure but that wasn’t important. Whatever it was he was hunting should kiss her ass in thanks because she’d saved its life the moment she knocked on that door and distracted him and convinced him to hunt demons. As soon as he opened the door, she handed him some papers. “Before you say anything, here is that proof that this body is 100% socially conscious. I recycled. Al Gore would be proud.” She liked this body because she was the only one home. There was no whiny voice crying out like a guilty conscience, let me out, or oh God what have I done each time she killed someone, spoiling her fun. She watched as he looked at the papers and when it became clear that she’d grabbed the body of a coma patient, if the constipated look on his face was anything to go by, he still wasn’t happy, but he was okay with it because he knew that the girl would drop dead if she smoked out. “Okay now that I’ve got a body that you approve of let’s get down to business, I can’t bring Dean back, but I can give you something that you want.” “Yeah? What’s that?” Sam asked. “Lilith.” His facial expression changed and the tension left his body as he relaxed and was now eager about being given the chance of killing the demon that killed his precious Dean. So she explained how he would be able to take her down. She expected a fight but his acceptance without a fight was, well a letdown. “Alright I’m in.” He’s in just like that, no angst or guilt about what he was going to do, he was just in, gotta love how grief makes people act in a way that they never would before and most likely would never again. Ruby knew that she had to get him to drink the blood and exercise his first demon before he realized what he was doing, and there was no time like the present. She had already found an abandoned warehouse for them to use, because there was no way the thin walls of this cheap motel was going to mask the sounds of distress a demon would make once they started, but first she had to open a vein. “You got a knife Sam?” she asked the wary man. “You’ve got one Ruby, why don’t you use it?” “Wow, Sam, if I didn’t know better, I’d think that you wanted me dead, but before this is over, you’ll trust me. Knife please,” she told him as she held out her hand. Taking the knife from Sam, Ruby sliced the soft skin at her wrist before stepping into the Alpha’s personal space and lifted the bleeding appendage to his mouth. Sam stared at her and unconsciously placed his hand on the amulet around his neck before latching his mouth to the wound and began to drink. She could tell when the blood started to work because he became greedy and held her wrist to his mouth to keep her from moving. “Okay, Sam that’s enough,” she told him as she pulled free from his grip. “If you bleed me dry, you’ll never learn what you need to know, so let go. I have something far more pleasurable in mind.” The warehouse was not exactly in the nicest part of town, but then when you were doing something shady, nice wouldn’t work, and this place was perfect. When the two of them entered the building Ruby was relieved to find that the demon was still there she had painted the devils trap herself and she still shudders when she remembered that she almost forgot to break the outside circle and she should have been trapped like the poor soul she had trapped there now. “Sam, this is where you come in, he knows where Lilith is and you need to get him to tell you.” She watched as Sam walked up to the demon tied to the chair, she had lured him there with the promise of dirty rough sex, and knocked him out whit a little spell she kept tucked away for times like this. When he woke up, he was trapped and was mad as hell. Sam was good at this. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the grief or if this was what he was normally like in hunter mode, but either way, it was good. The problem was the demon wouldn’t give up Lilith’s location, but then he couldn’t give away information that he didn’t have. “Sam, I think it’s time to end this, now pull him from the body he’s riding.” “How do I do that, Ruby?” “Concentrate, Sam,” She told him and stretched out her hand towards the demon. “Concentrate and pull him out.” Sam tried to mimic Ruby’s actions, but all he managed to do was pull a little smoke from the body before his head began to hurt. Shaking her head, Ruby simply broke the trap and walked up to the demon and stabbed him. She had a lot of work to do. Sam was ecstatic, today he’d almost pulled a demon from the body it was riding, Ruby had to step in and kill it in the end, but he’d been so fucking close. If he mastered this, he’d have the ability to save the person the demon had possessed and that would be fantastic. “Ruby I don’t think that I’ll ever get this,” Sam complained as he looked down at the dead demon. He would have to work harder to get this right because if he gets it right, then the possessed person would live and that was the goal. As he and Ruby worked to get rid of the body, Sam’s phone rang, “Fuck!” he swore as he looked at the caller id to see that it was Bobby calling. “Sam, is that you? Where have you been boy?” Bobby asked in greeting. “Still searching for a way to bring Dean back and to kill Lilith,” he replied. “Any luck?” “Not yet, but I’m still looking,” He hedged. He and Bobby talked for a while, but they both danced around the subject of Dean. Even though they died the same way, this wasn’t the same as when his dad perished. Since his mom’s death, their dad had distanced himself from them emotionally and as they got older, physically as well. But Deans death? It was as though someone removed his still beating heart from his chest without the aid of anesthesia. Once the conversation with Bobby was over, Sam called the cell provider and disconnected the service because not talking about Dean hurt just as much as talking about him. Also, if Bobby didn’t have a way to contact him, he wouldn’t have live up to the obligatory concern, when it was really Dean that the old man loved. He and Ruby were still trying to use his powers, but for some reason he just couldn’t get it. He either got the mother of all migraines, or his nose bled; sometimes it was both. Sam wasn’t even sure how he got here, he was now fucking Ruby and drinking her blood, and it was as though everything in his life began and ended with her. He wasn’t living, he was just going through the motions, and when he started seeing omens that told him Lilith was near, he was ready to charge in with Ruby’s knife to either get Dean back or to kill the bitch. It was a good day for research, because he’d also found a Louisiana voodoo queen who claimed to have spell to raise the dead or bring someone back from heaven or hell. He wasn’t sure about her claim, because why would you want to bring someone from heaven? He didn’t know but he was going to give Lilith a shot first, and if he lived through that then he would be Louisiana bound. “I’ve found her Ruby! I followed the signs and I’ve finally fucking found her,” Sam told the demon. “Sam you’re not ready yet, you can’t pull an ordinary demon from a body, let alone one as strong as Lilith. Let’s be smart about this.” Sam told her he would but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, he had Ruby’s knife and Lilith’s location and he was going to make use of them both. He’d drank from her this morning so he was going to exorcise her if his head exploded in the process. The house was easy to locate and he immediately saw the little girl tied to a chair and guessed she was the reason Lilith was there. He snuck into the house, but the little girl screamed as soon as she saw Sam, “Help me please!” He went forward to untie her and he was attacked room behind. “Lilith sends her regards, sorry she couldn’t make it. As he began to attack Sam, he lifted his hand to stab the demon, but the knife was knocked from his hand, but he was soon pushed away by Ruby. “Take the girl and run,” Ruby commanded as she stabbed one demon and was fighting the other one off. Sam took the child outside and told her to run home before he returned to help Ruby. Once inside he saw that the man was going to kill Ruby and he couldn’t let that happen so, without thinking about it, he held out his hand and drew the demon from the body sending it back to the pit. He was ecstatic, he’d finally done it but Ruby didn’t look as happy as he was. “You idiot, you are not ready to face Lilith, I told you that, what if you didn’t make it out…that’s the plan isn’t it Sam? You go in but you don’t come out.” She asked again, but he didn’t answer. “How the hell will that help you find Dean if you’re dead?” she yelled. He didn’t think of that. In fact, he had been going through the motions, but he hadn’t really thought about pulling Dean from the pit lately; all he had been concentrating on was drinking Ruby’s blood and exorcising the demons. Without saying a word to Ruby, Sam quickly walked from the house, got into the car, and drove away. His last search yielded information about a voodoo queen in Louisiana that could help him, and he planned to drive until he found her. It took him ten hours to get to her home in Houma; her name was Naya Thibodeaux, a descendant of a Houma Indian and a freed African slave, and she had merged the magic of both of her ancestors, and had created some powerful spells. Naya’s magic was black and she creating a spell that she swore would bring Dean back. For a rather large fee, she gave him the spell, the reversal and the ingredients that went along with it. He didn’t think he would need a reversal, but she insisted because there was no guarantee that what he brought forth was what he wanted. Even a day in hell could change a person and Dean had been there much longer than a day. With that warning, she advised him that the only other thing he needed to complete the spell was something that had belonged to Dean. Sam was squatting in an empty house near the outskirts of town that was remote enough for him to perform the ritual without being disturbed. He wanted no spectators in the event that the spell worked, or went wrong he would be the only one to witness it. He carefully mixed the ingredients and added Dean’s amulet to the mix before placing the bowl in the middle of the trap he’d drawn to hold Dean or whatever that came through. Once that bowl had been placed there, he began to chant a few words in Latin before dropping a match in the bowl. Suddenly there was a flash and then nothing. Sam didn’t realize how much he’d hoped for this to work until it failed. Turning his back, he tried not to give into the tears of disappointment that were threatening to fall when suddenly this wonderful smell permeated the room. It was cotton candy, a fresh ocean breeze and …innocence. Once Sam forced himself to stop scenting, he heard the moans from behind him and he slowly turned around. He wasn’t sure who was there but the voice was too childish to be Dean. Once he was facing the trap, his mouth dropped open in shock because lying in the middle of his trap was eleven-year-old Dean, clad in Transformers pajamas and in the middle of his first heat. ***** Chapter 14 ***** Sam took in the sight before him, while this wasn’t the Dean he’d been trying to conjure, he knew this was a version of him. This was the Dean who’d disappeared for a week when Sam was seven and Dean was eleven. Was this why he’d gone missing, while his dad, Bobby and pastor Jim had spent hours looking for the missing child, he’d been in another time. Thinking back to that time, Sam tried to think of what he remembered about that night, but other than the flash of light when Dean came and went, he remembered nothing. Since he was trying to pull Dean from Hell, Sam was sure that this was his brother, but he fought that scent and walked over to his duffel bag and grabbed some holy water and a silver knife just in case this was a demon or a Revenant. It was Dean, but how did this happen? Did he do the spell wrong, or was it the amulet? He’s not really sure but he knew that this was his brother and he was just beginning his heat and he smelled wonderful. As far back as Sam could remember his dad had made sure that Dean took heat suppressants because the Omega was pretending to be an Alpha, if the wrong people knew then it would have been difficult to take Dean on hunts. Since Dean had never missed taking the sups, Sam never got to smell this wonderful scent from his Omega. The scent assaulted his nose and traveled through his blood stream until it was a ball of fire in his gut wanting to burst through his dick. Since the minute Sam had popped his knot it had been hard as hell to keep his hands off Dean, but had he smelled him, scented him there was nothing in heaven or hell that would have stopped him from claiming his brother. Knowing how confused this boy might be was the only thing that was keeping him safe right now because he was fighting the delicious scent. Now he knew why Dean had disappeared. Over the years, John had told them that a beast had taken Dean and Sam wondered if he knew that he youngest son was that beast. Of course, he knew. There wasn’t much that got past John Winchester. All of those years Sam had wondered why his father wouldn’t just tell him the name of Dean’s Alpha so that he could free Dean, but he never did. Was that because he thought, or knew that he was going to go over to the dark side and didn’t want him to drag Dean along with him? People always said listen to your parents because they knew best, and he was convinced that John knew something because look at him now; drinking blood from and fucking a demon, and now thinking about claiming his eleven-year old brother. Whom was he kidding, from the time that sweet smell hit his nose, his claim on Dean was a foregone conclusion. Sam thought that he should fight this, that he didn’t have to give in to the want and need that was coursing through his body, but as he stood there and let those pheromones permeate his senses watching as Dean writhed, moaned, and begged he knew that he was lying to himself. This was his one chance to have Dean and he was going to take it besides, it was just another thing to add on his reason for going to the pit when he bit it. As he stood there and stared at the young boy while fighting his desires, Sam realized how miserable Dean must be, because there was sweat pouring off his body. The house was abandoned, so there was no running water, but Sam remembered the bottle of water in the duffel bag and he retrieved it along with a t-shirt. He poured the cool water onto the shirt and bent down to press the cool cloth against Dean’s forehead in an attempt to soothe the young Omega. The closer he was to him the more that scent pulled him in. His inner Alpha was clawing at his brain screaming mine! The problem was his body agreed. He was doing a good job of fighting what every fiber of his being was telling him to take, but when he wiped against Dean’s neck that’s when he lost the fight. He looked at Dean’s neck and realized that his claiming mark was flesh colored and that meant that he hadn’t been claimed…yet. “Please,” Dean moaned. “Please help me, I need…” “Shhh, I got you Dean,” Sam whispered as he laid the cloth beside Dean and began removing his sweat soaked pajamas but then he stopped. If he started this here, Sam knew wasn’t going to be able to stop. Knowing that it would take a week for him to forge his bond, he couldn’t leave him alone here if for some reason he had to go out. Instead of disrobing his Omega, he stood up and gathered the items he’d used and put them away in a cupboard so that he would have them when he had to send Dean back. He then gathered Dean, took him out to the car and went in search of a hotel for comfort and the ability to order takeout so that he wouldn’t have to leave Dean alone while he searched for sustenance for them both. Dean fell into a fitful sleep as Sam drove around looking for a decent hotel, and he prayed like hell that he could find one that had a scent proof room for Omegas in heat. Omegas were rare, but not so rare that most hotels in larger cities had special rooms that were sealed so that their scent wouldn’t attract unwanted Alpha attention, and that’s what Sam was looking for tonight. The frustrated Alpha found a nice clean motel just off highway 10 that was just a couple of steps above where he usually stayed, he pulled in because he noted that the sign said the Omega Room was vacant. He walked into the office, and there were three Alphas there ahead of him. Once he saw the other Alphas, he knew that he’d made the right decision leaving Dean in the car. There was no way he could have defended Dean against the Alpha’s, and besides, he could be arrested because of Dean’s young age. The age would be overlooked if Dean had been claimed, but he hadn’t so Sam had to be careful. The clerk was annoyed with him because he rushed her through the registration, and he’d requested the special room, which would be at the back of the motel and cost extra money. He wasn’t worried about the cost, he just wanted her to hurry. Sam had locked the car, but he wouldn’t relax until he was back outside with Dean. The clerk finally completed his registration and when he exited the office, he saw that the three Alphas were surrounding the Impala trying to get inside. “Step the fuck back,” he told the men, but they were so caught up in Dean’s scent, that they ignored him, so Sam reached under his jacket and removed his gun from his waistband and shouted, “Step away from the car or I’ll drop you where you stand.” The threat seemed to penetrate their lust-filled brains and they stepped away from the car. Two of the Alphas ran when they saw the gun, but the third glared at Sam and mumbled, “Shouldn’t leave an Omega alone smelling like that,” as he reluctantly walked away. Sam watched the last of the Alphas as he went into his room before he got into the car and drove to the back of the motel where their room was located. He gently gathered Dean in his arms and carried him inside checking to make sure that the door was locked behind them. After placing him on the double bed, Sam gently lifted Dean’s upper body to make it easier to remove his pajama top, and just as carefully laid him down to a supine position. Sam’s large hands trembled as he removed the bottoms and boxers. Once Dean was naked, Sam sucked in a breath at the stunning sight before him. This version of Dean was not the one he wanted but if this was he was ever going to have, then he was not going to turn it down. As he made quick work of undressing himself, Sam’s Alpha was screaming yes, finally and he couldn’t agree more. When he’d claimed Jess, his Alpha was barely on board because it knew that Sam was settling, but not now. Dean was whom he was supposed to have claimed. All of the years, the missed opportunities, and the misunderstandings had gotten in their way in the past. It seemed as though he’d spent his entire life holding back from claiming his brother, but nothing was going to stop him tonight, but right here and right now, nothing was going to separate Sam from his Omega, his mate. “Dean, let me take care of you okay,” Sam softly asked but he could tell that the fever of the heat stopped him from understanding what he was saying. The last of his clothing shed, Sam looked down at Dean and took in the sight before him. Dean’s hair was the longest that he’d ever worn it, and it was a light blonde that looked that it came from a bottle. Sam membered that this was the year that it started getting darker and the year he cut it short. His face was painted with cinnamon freckles and it seemed that he had more on his face as a child, but that was just an illusion, and then there were those lips. They were cherry red, plump and moist where he’d been chewing on them. Sam couldn’t wait to see if they were as soft as they looked. Lowering himself beside Dean until they were face to face, Sam gave in to his desire, leaned forward and tasted those lips. They were as soft as he’d thought them to be, and when the young Omega gasped at the contact, Sam’s tongue entered his mouth and he discovered that Dean tasted like a green apple Jolly Rancher. The pair of them lay there and hungrily exchanged kisses until all traces of the candy was gone and the only flavor left was all Dean. As he continued to plunder those full lips, Sam noted that Dean tasted sweeter than any sugary treat. Gently rolling Dean on his back, Sam moved until he was straddling Dean with his knees on either side of his narrow hips. Dean had always been his big brother and until Sam entered his late teens, he had always been the taller brother as well, but at this moment, he was small, helpless and at his Alpha’s mercy. Sam leaned down for another kiss before reluctantly letting his mouth wander down to Dean’s jaw and even further down until he was suckling the small nipples. They might be small but judging from the way Dean’s moans became louder, they were extremely sensitive. Working his way down, Sam smiled at the freckles that covered Dean’s body. He knew how much his brother hated them, but Sam had always secretly loved them and spent years fantasying about counting them and right now, he was ecstatic that he has access to them. Especially the ones on Dean’s dick. All of the moisture left Sam’s mouth as he encountered Dean’s small cock. He licked his lips and took it in his mouth, and because of the size, he was able to fit it all in his mouth without gagging. “Oh, God,” the Omega moaned at the contact and Sam looked up loving the blissed out look on his lover’s face. He knew that the look was partially because of his heat, but he let himself pretend that it was all because of him. Encouraged by the sounds slipping out of Dean’s mouth, Sam worked his mouth up and down Dean’s length humming to give the boy more pleasure. He wanted to make sure that the experience was good for Dean, because even though Dean had told them repeatedly that he didn’t remember this week, there was the small chance that he was lying and he wanted the memory to be a good one. Sam wasn’t sure if it was because of his age or if it was the excitement, but after a few more strokes, Dean was coming down Sam’s throat. Smiling, Sam lifted Dean’s legs up and pushed them towards the boy’s chest so that he could get a look at his hole. Once he was facing it, that wonderful smell that he had been scenting since Dean appeared before him. The pink muscle was so small, he wondered if he’d fit, but he knew he must have because he’d claimed the boy. Following the scent, Sam leaned forward and placed his tongue on the rim and licked. As his tongue touched that tight pink muscle, Dean moaned and to Sam’s ears, it sounded better than any porno that he had ever heard and he wanted to hear it again. Lapping up the slick that Dean was producing from his tiny hole, Sam reveled in the taste as it burst across his taste buds. He was glorying in that fact that he finally got his hands on Dean even though it niggled at his mind that Dean’s heat was not giving him a say in this. Pushing that thought away was easy as Dean was practically fucking himself on Sam’s tongue as he pushed his ass towards Sam’s mouth with each stroke until the Omega came for the second time. As wonderful as it was seeing Dean writhe on his tongue, Sam knew that it was not enough to open up something that tight, because as far as he knew Dean never even used his fingers, let alone a toy. Taking one last swipe, Sam maneuvered Dean’s body so that his legs were bent at the knees and spread as wide as possible so that Sam would have room to work. Running his thick forefinger over the wet opening, Sam thought that this was the prettiest thing that he ever saw, his mate wet and willing. “Please,” Dean begged as Sam’s finger teased along his opening. Sam gave in and pushed the digit inside, just past the rim. He looked to see how Dean reacted to the invasion, but the boy’s response was to push down on it and the Omega’s natural slick forced it in further. Sam loved the feel of the warm wet heat as he pressed forward searching for that little bundle of nerves. He knew when he’d found it by the loud keening sound escaping Dean’s mouth. Smiling at the reaction, Sam slowly pulled his finger out and marveled at the way that the tight, pink hole clamped around it as though it didn’t want to let go. Dean’s body was humping the air as though he was chasing Sam’s fingers, wanting them back to fill the emptiness. “It’s okay baby, I got you,” Sam whispered as Dean began to mumble incoherently at the loss and this time slid two inside the empty hole and scissored them to stretch him further. Even though Sam had large fingers, he carefully added a third because Dean was small and tight and he didn’t want to risk tearing his mate. After he’d stretched Dean, Sam reached under the boy’s stomach, pulled him up further, and positioned him so that he could line up his cock to his hole before slowly pushing inside until the head was just past the rim. He felt Dean stiffen, so Sam stopped to give the boy time to adjust to the invasion, before he continued until he was buried inside. “You’re being such a good boy Dean, you’re taking it so well,” Sam praised Dean. He was so amazed at the delicious feeling of the heat, the tightness, that he became a little dizzy from the pleasure. With each stoke Sam felt his knot began to swell and even though he’d toyed with the idea of not tying to Dean but there was no way he was not going to, so before his knot was too big, he worked it inside and never before had he been more aware why Omega’s were treated with such care. Their bodies were built for an Alpha’s knot in a way that a Beta never would be and Sam wanted to thank God for the design because nothing had ever felt this good. Sam leaned forward and planted a hand on each side of Dean’s small body, allowing his knot to stroke over Dean’s prostate relentlessly and at the same time he peppered kisses on the back of Dean’s neck. Sam began to pump hard into Dean, the pleasure that was buzzing through his veins almost making him forget that the young boy was a virgin. When Dean came a few strokes later, his ass clamped down on Sam’s cock like a vise that he wanted to howl with pleasure as he came. After Sam finally let Dean fall asleep, the big man lay there sated. After all of the years of wanting and longing he finally got to have Dean but the thing about it that pissed him off was that Dean wouldn’t remember any of it so Sam lay there and enjoyed the fact that Dean now bore his smell, and if he let that bond complete, his mark. This was a chance to change things for Dean, but Sam wasn’t sure if he was strong enough not to claim the boy. Dean’s life would be different if Sam sent him back now; he would be the Omega that he was supposed to be not a pseudo Alpha who was scared to let anyone get near in fear that his secret might be discovered. He might have even found an Alpha who would put his needs first and not be made to travel all across the country to avenge a mother that he could barely remember. Looking down at the boy sleeping feverishly in his arms, Sam knew that he was selfish, that even the thought of another touching what was his was unbearable. Just as he knew that when Dean woke he was going to stake his claim over and over until it was time to send him back to his father’s care. The pleasure coursing through Sam was almost too much, yet it wasn’t enough. He held Dean’s body as he rode his dick. He took it with no trouble at all, but after five days of constant sex, he should. Today was that day that he had to send him back before trying to find another way to get Dean from hell. He would have to make a return visit to Naya and make her pay for her fuck-up. But then maybe not because even if she didn’t spring Dean from the pit, she allowed Sam to have Dean in the way that he’d longed for, for years. This time he would knot Dean, he hadn’t all of the others because that would end his heat and making him lucid giving him the ability to remember that Sam was his Alpha and he wasn’t sure if that was worse than not knowing. He knew how it worked with Dean not knowing so he settled for the lesser of two evils. Once his knot deflated, he took Dean to the bathroom and helped the dazed boy shower before redressing him in the pajamas he’d had on when Sam conjured him. As he dried the small lax body Sam watched in fascination as the mark on Dean’s neck turned red, showing him bonded. Dean’s heat lasted a week and Sam reveled in his small body, fucking him everyday until he was to spent to try again. Even if the heat hadn’t lasted Sam would have kept him there until their bond had formed, because he wasn’t going to take a chance that Dean would bond with someone else while Sam waited for him to grow up. Because he didn’t feel guilty about what he’d done, Sam almost expected to find 666 instead of the traditional mark. Satisfied with his claim and that they were bonded, Sam gathered his belongings and in two trips, took them and Dean to the car before driving back to the house he’d originally squatted in to cast the spell. As he drove the few miles, Dean slept and Sam was sure that he’d wake up once he was back in his own time. Gently placing Dean back in the center of the trap, Sam mixed the ingredients, chanted the spell and watched with sadness as Dean vanished in a bright light. Some of that sadness was mixed with anguish because he hoped that he hadn’t done anything different, causing a Butterfly Effect, making things even more difficult for his brother. A few minutes after Dean was gone, Sam was in the car and back on the road, he had to find someone that could help him get his Dean from the pit, but first he had to find Ruby. As he looked for the demon, he worked jobs where he found them, until he stumbled onto a nest of Demons in Scots Hills, Tennessee. Each time he was closing in on them, they ran and when he was back in Pontiac, Ruby appeared. Hi Sam,” she greeted when she appeared in his hotel room. “Ruby,” he greeted with a nod of his head not bothering to get up from where he was sitting on the bed undressing. “Are we back to hunting Lilith or are you going to take off again like a little kid?” She asked. “I had some personal business to take care of.” She walked up to him, sniffed, and pouted. “You smell like sex to me. I’m really hurt because you had me for that Sam; I really thought that you liked this body.” “Like I said it was personal, nothing for you to worry about. After I get some sleep, what we do need to concentrate on is the nest of demons that I followed here.”  Ruby wasn’t sure where Sam had gone and who he’d been with but she could sense that he distanced himself from her and she couldn’t have that. By the time she and Lilith had completed their task, she wanted Sam right there beside her as Azazel had originally envisioned. She had to do something to bring him back around. Normally she would try sex, but that wasn’t going to work right now because he was not interested it was as though he’d…. fuck! Without a word she reached up and jerked his head around to inspect his claiming mark, it was red. “Mated!” she screamed. “We’re in the middle of the biggest hunt of your life and you went and fucking got mated?” This wasn’t good, if Sam was worried about a mate then his head wasn’t in the game and besides she’d planned to have him mated to her to prove to Lilith that she was doing her job and that Sam was committed to her and he’d fucked that up. She’d just have to find the little bitch and take care of her, because she’d worked too hard, clawed her way back from the pit not once but twice to let a minor detail screw this up for her. “My being mated doesn’t have anything to do with our goal, it fact it give me more of a reason to want to end this. Ruby right now I’m tired and I need some sleep. You’re welcome to stick around and watch if you want, but just be quiet about it.” This was not the time to let her jealousy and anger get in her way. From the moment she’d seen Sam she’d thought about all of the ways she could corrupt him and separate him from his precious Dean. Well she’d done that, but now she had to stay cool and close to find out who this mate was and have her taken care of because she was not giving up her favorite toy until she was ready to, so she stripped and crawled in beside him and watched as he fell into a deep sleep. She didn’t sleep, but once Sam was she went to his computer and began to search for clues as to who his mate was, but there was nothing there, but she did find something interesting, the name Naya Thibodeaux. Was she his mate? She dressed and after a quick glance to make sure Sam was still sleeping, she found herself on the doorstep of Naya Thibodeaux. Ruby couldn’t go in because the place was warded against her kind. Racist. She watched from outside while the lady was with someone hoping that the woman would come outside, but she sensed that the witch knew that she was there and wasn’t going to come outside anytime soon. She also sensed that this wasn’t Sam’s mate, and that was all she needed to know. Sam’s presence was heavy in this little backwater town so she let her mind wander to the places where Sam had been and she ported herself there. The first place was a rundown house that was just the kind that Sam liked to squat in, and that’s when she saw it, the trap in the middle of the room. She picked up the copper bowl that had been pushed aside and sniffed and she knew what this spell was, but she knew it couldn’t have worked because had it worked Dean would have been with Sam in that hotel room. She concentrated on where else he’d gone and that lead her to the hotel room, when she entered the smells assaulted her senses. The scent of pine cleaner was heavy but it couldn’t cover up the strong presence of Sam’s pheromones. They clung heavy in the air and as she let them wash over her, she became aroused and wet, but she knew from the other scent in the room that there had been an Omega and Sam had mated here. As she was letting Sam’s scent wash over her the door opened and a couple walked in, an Alpha and a Beta, from the smell of them they were going to mate. With a flick of her wrist, she slammed the door shut behind them and flung the Beta against the wall breaking her neck. She had plans for the Alpha, here in this room that reeked of Sam; she could pretend and be back in Pontiac before she was even missed. Sam didn’t wane until almost the next afternoon and Ruby was there beside him pretending that she’d been there all night, not in Houma fucking an Alpha to death. “I’m going to shower, and then we can go get something to eat before we can decide what our next plan is going to be.” “Okay,” she agreed and watched the ripple of the muscles on his back as Sam walked towards the bathroom. He was in there fifteen minutes when there was a knock on the door, and she opened it and came face to face with a smirking Dean and a scowling Bobby. ***** Chapter 15 ***** Dean studied the vast array of tools that were on the tray for him to work with, and in the end, he chose a knife whose handle was made from the femur bone of some poor soul who had spent time on Alistair’s rack. He liked the weight of the knife, how it fit in his hand, and the blade was perfect for skinning and cutting. Turning to the woman strapped on the rack before him, Dean sliced the skin from the screaming woman’s body before he sat back and admired his work. It had taken him a while, but he’d finally gotten the hang of it and he turned to Alistair for support and the demon nodded the approval Dean was seeking. The demon who’d been his tormentor for thirty years was now his mentor and judging by his smile, he was proud of his protégée’s handiwork. “Very good, Dean,” Alistair praised, “You’re the best student I’ve had.” Basking under his mentors praise, Dean turned to the woman on the rack, and smiled, “Don’t worry sweetheart, this is going to hurt,” before he started slicing away exposing her muscles as though he were giving an anatomy lesson. Just as he was going for her organs, he heard a commotion from behind him, but before he could turn around and see who was disturbing him, he felt a burning pain on his upper arm and suddenly he was being lifted upwards and away from hell. He was in a small, dark and cramped space when he woke up, struggling, he managed to get his lighter from his pocket, and one he flicked it, Dean saw that he was in a casket. Not sure what was happening, his years of training kept him from panicking. “Help!” he croaked out of his raw throat, and questioning himself as to who could hear him if he was buried. Knowing that he was going to be short on oxygen soon, he had to get out of this box soon. It would be stupid to have been suddenly ripped from Hell, only to die in his coffin. As he dug his way from the grave, he tried to figure out how he got there. His last memory before he was snatched from under Alistair’s nose was the woman he’d been torturing. He liked to start by skinning his souls because that was the worst before removing the liver and slicing it up in thin slices as though he was a chef in the fanciest of restaurants before feeding it to the poor soul he was torturing. The first time he took the knife from Alistair it was hard and he felt ashamed that he hadn’t been as strong as his father had been. He justified his actions by convincing himself that the person deserved what he was doing because they were in Hell for some reason and it wasn’t because they were good people. Sometimes that would work until he remembered why he was there, but by the time he’d been airlifted from the basement, he no longer had to justify what he was doing because he found enjoyment in each slice he made. Dean knew that he had to atone for what he did, for what he’d become. He wasn’t sure why he’d been pulled from the pit but he said a silent prayer to whomever for giving him a second chance. He had to find Sam and Bobby so that he could get back to hunting, because if he saved a life maybe that would make up for the evil he’d done. Once he made it back to South Dakota he’d found Bobby, but no Sam. After Bobby performed every test he could think of to prove that Dean was Dean and not something supernatural, Dean was ashamed to look the man in his eyes. He was afraid of what his surrogate father might see, and scared as hell of what his reaction would be once he’d figure out what Dean had done and it would kill him if his friend turned him away. When they had located Sam in Pontiac, not far from where Dean had been buried, the Omega breathed a little easier because during the long trip to find his brother, Bobby didn’t sense the evil within him, couldn’t see the blood on his hands from all of the souls that he’d tortured and he thanked God for that. Once Sam had been located, Dean was hurt to see him with somebody and their state of undress told him that they were more than just friends. He supposed that she was cute enough, and like Jess before, she was the opposite of Dean. Reason told him that as far as Sam was concerned, Dean was dead, but he was bitter that it didn’t seem to take long for him to find someone else. Hell, it only took a day when he went to Stanford; he hoped this one took at least a week. Like Bobby, Sam had to be convinced that Dean was who he said he was, but he was eventually convinced, and as he hugged his brother was when he saw it, Sam’ red mating mark. Before he’d become a Hellhounds chew toy, Sam’s mating mark was gray, he knew that because it’d had been a daily reminder of why Sam no longer wanted him, but this was worse. When he’d crawled out of that grave and walked to that Phillip’s joint so that he could make contact with Sam, a glance in the mirror told him that he’d had a mark of his own. The handprint from whomever or whatever had pulled him from the pit and his own mating mark was now flesh colored. Now that he was free, Sam wasn’t. Things went back to status quo very quickly, him and Sam wanting each other, but avoiding each other at all costs. When they went to visit Pamela Barnes, a psychic that Bobby knew for some answers as to how dean was able to make it topside, he flirted with her just to piss Sam off. When the psychics eyes were burned out because something named Castiel didn’t want her to see him, Dean realized that he caused destruction wherever he went and perhaps it was just as well that Sam was mated. After getting Pamela medical help, the three of them checked into a motel, Dean and Sam got a double while Bobby bunked next door. He took the bed next to the door as was his habit and slowly drifted off to sleep while Sam did research on the computer. He’d barely closed his eyes before the dreams started. Behind his eyelids in Technicolor, the disemboweled bodies, the flaying of skin, and hey there was smellovision, because he could smell the burning flesh of the souls he tortured. Just because he’d physically left Hell, didn’t mean it had left him. He was mercifully awakened by a loud noise and when he opened his eyes, the mirror were breaking, as was the all of the glass in the room, and there was an awful noise coming from the television similar to that at the Phillips station. He attempted to get up and away, but the noise was deafening. “Dean!” Bobby’s voice cut through the noise as he ran into the room and dragged the struggling man out. Bobby pulled Dean from the motel room to the safety of his Chevelle. “What the hell was that?” Bobby bit out. ‘I don’t know, but the same thing happened at the gas station where I hotwired the car.” “Well I don’t think is a demon,” Bobby said as he pulled his EMF from his shirt pocket, “and according to this it sure as hell wasn’t a ghost.” “Poltergeist?” Dean asked. “I don’t think so Dean, this was something new.” Dean pulls out his phone, calls Sam, and lies to him, saying that he and Bobby are going for a beer. “Why’d you lie to him, we could use his help.” “Nah, he’d just try to stop us.” “Stop us from what?” Bobby asked in a tone that said that he really didn’t want to know the answer. “Summoning this thing,” Dean informed him as he pulled out Ruby’s knife.  An angel. Really? Of all the things that Dean thought was causing the new havoc in his life an angel never crossed his mind, mainly because he didn’t believe that they existed. To think that there really were angels, they could interfere with humans, and the sons of bitches let all of this bad shit happen in his life rather pissed him off. From the time that his mother burned on that ceiling all those years ago, to him going to hell- okay they fixed that one but it would have been better if they’d shown themselves before the hellhound. They could have stepped in and stopped or fixed or something but they just sat back on their asses and let this shit happen. His baby could have been saved, or better yet, they could have stopped the Alpha from claiming him and not let him experience that heartache at all. After the experience with the angel called Castiel, Bobby and Dean collected Sam and the three hunters high tailed it back to Bobby’s to gather themselves. The trench coat wearing being (Dean still had doubts about his claim to be an angel) had told Dean that he had work to do scared him. His vivid memories of Hell and what he’d done there convinced him that there was no way God or an angel would want him in their midst, so until he had proof, he wanted to stay clear of this…whatever. After a quick meal, Bobby began to return calls while Sam and Dean went upstairs to bed in the room they shared since they were kids. “Perhaps this is why dad sold his soul for you Dean,” Sam surmised. “Perhaps he knew that you were destined for greater things. An angel pulled you from Hell Dean, that’s gotta mean something.” “You say that as though dad wouldn’t have done the same for you, his big strong Alpha son.” Dean challenged as he stood up and began to undress. “and until we know what they want I’m not too keen on giving them my trust.” “Look Dean we both know that there is nothing pure about me, that there was no way the God or his angels would want anything to do with me,” Sam told his brother. “While you were gone, I learned some things about me that was far worse than what you already know about me. I’ll tell you soon,” he promised when Dean started to question him. “I’m not trying to hide anything from you, it’s just that I have to sort it out in my head first, you know.” Dean nodded his head, “Okay, then how about something easy – what’s your mates name. Was that her in your motel room in Pontiac?”  He should have seen this coming, that Dean was going to want to know, but now that he was faced with the question it caught him off guard. How does he tell Dean this? Will it drive him away? He’s trying to figure out how to answer Dean’s question as the older man undressed and stared at the handprint on Dean’s arm. Before Dean went to Hell, he bore Sam’s mark, now he bore an angel’s and he was possessive enough to be pissed. He has two major secrets, he knew that he had to come clean with Dean, and he considered this the lesser of the two evils. Walking over to Dean, Sam reached out and ran his fingers over the keloid on Dean’s arm, then up to Dean’s flesh colored mating mark, and now that he knew that he’d been responsible for the change, all he wanted to do was turn it red again. “Mine,” he muttered, “all this fucking time you were mine and we didn’t know it!” “Sam, don’t,” Dean whispered as he stepped away and turned his back to his brother. “I’m working on getting used to the fact that I’ll never get to have you that the time for us has passed, that you belong to someone else now, so please…just please don’t.” Sam took in the sight before him, Dean’s back was to him and his body was shaking all over as though he was trying to get a hold on his emotions but was losing the fight. He erased the distance that Dean put between them and pulled the Omega’s body flush to his with an arm around Dean’s waist to hold him there. When Dean stopped fighting him, Sam buried his nose in Dean’s neck and inhaled before speaking. “Dean,” Sam softly spoke so he didn’t startle the man, “While you were in Hell, I was in of in a hell of my own because I learned the identity of your Alpha… it was, is me.” “You can’t do this Sam, it’s not fair. I saw you with that girl and the way you both were dressed that wasn’t casual and besides you couldn’t have been with her if I was your mate.” “Did you see a mark on her Dean?” Sam asked his voice broke because he was upset that Dean thought that he would lie to him. “No you didn’t because she’s not mated to me or anyone else.” “Sam?” “While you were gone I tried everything I could to get you back, everything but nothing worked. I couldn’t even make a deal with a Crossroad’s demon. I finally found this voodoo woman in Louisiana and paid her a lot of money for a spell that would spring you from hell.” He chuckled in Dean’s ear before continuing. “I guess that I should have been a little more specific about which hell I was springing you from because I got this eleven-year old version of you in your first heat, and I couldn’t resist.” Turning to face Sam, Dean fumbled for words, “I don’t – wait, are you. Are you saying that the week that I disappeared I was with you?” “Yeah,” Sam confirmed, “you were in heat and…” “You fucked me,” Dean bitterly completed Sam’s sentence. “I claimed you Dean, we bonded. I had been missing you as if an appendage had been ripped from my body and it really didn’t help that you were gone because of me. I thought about all of the chances we had, were too guilty or too goddamned scared to take, and now I would never get another chance. But there you were, or at least a version of you. I thought that this was the only chance I’d ever have so I was selfish and took it.” “Sam,” “I watched it change Dean, I watched your mark change to red telling the world that you were mine, but when you came back you bore the mark of another and mine was gone. Now all I want to do is reclaim you. The only thing standing in our way is you Dean.” “Sam, Dean,” Bobby called from the other side of the door. “I think I found some information that you guys need to see.” “Fuck!” Sam muttered under his breath. “We’ll be right there Bobby.” Sam watched and Dean moved to dress, or rather put on a t-shirt to go downstairs to see what Bobby had found. As Dean placed his hand on the doorknob, Sam stopped him. “Dean I know that what I told you … well it’s a lot to take in, but please don’t let this keep us apart. The only thing that matters is I’m yours and you’re mine.” Dean nodded and opened the door, “what ‘cha got Bobby?” “Something that will answer some of your questions,” Sam heard the older hunter say as he and Dean walked down the stairs. Sam stayed behind for a few minutes to collect himself so that he could appear as calm as Dean was pretending to be. When Sam finally made his way downstairs, he found Bobby and Dean looking through books, “Here it is,” Bobby was telling Dean, “it says here that an angel can pull a soul from the pit.” “And what else,” Dean asked. “What do you mean what else boy? It says that an angel can, and that’s it. Why is so hard for you to believe that and angel would do this?” “Because if there are angels, then I’m supposed to believe that there’s a God.” “That would be the logical conclusion,” Sam told him. “There…there can’t be,” Dean whispered. “Why are you being so stubborn about this, you know that there a hell and demons, and after today you learned that angels exist, so why the problem believing in God?” “If there’s a God, then why did he let my child die?” Sam didn’t have a response, but Bobby’s answer was a glass and a generous amount of rotgut whiskey. They returned to the room and went to bed, and when Dean tried to slip into the bed where he normally slept, Sam didn’t argue, he just slid from under his covers and eased in the small bed beside Dean turning him until the Omega’s head rested on his muscled chest. “I meant it Dean, nothing going to keep us apart now, not even you.” There was no response from Dean, just the feel of his mate’s hot tears scorching his chest as they fell from his eyes. As he lay there in the dark, the realization hit him, the baby that Dean had given birth to and had mourned all of these years, was his. He’d been seven at the time and barely remembered Dean being pregnant, let alone giving birth. Now he knew it and he’s not really sure what he should feel. That baby wasn’t real to him, but Dean’s pain was. Sam stroked his fingers along Dean’s arm and briefly stopped when he encountered the raised handprint and he then realized that the scar Dean had received from his encounter with a Wendigo was missing, and as he thought about it a lot of Dean’s scars were missing. As were his tattoos, both the one for his child’s birth date as well as the one for anti-possession. He’d been so jealous and focused on the handprint, that he’d blocked out everything else. “Dean what happened to your tattoo?” Sam asked. “Dunno,” Dean mumbled into Sam’s chest. “It seemed that all of my scars are gone and broken bones don’t ache the way they used to.” “You need to get the anti-possession one replaced immediately… the baby’s birthdate as well, if you want. I know that it was supposed to be a remembrance, but all it did was cause you pain.” Dean didn’t respond, and Sam thought that he was thinking about his suggestion, but he’d fallen asleep and Sam was close to following him into slumber, but a moan from Dean caught his attention. He was going to wake his brother from what seemed to be a nightmare when the smell hit him. He’d smelled that once before, cotton candy, the ocean breeze and the innocence was still there; Dean was in heat. ***** Chapter 16 ***** Once Sam recognized that wonderful smell, Bobby was knocking at the door. Sam loved the other man like a father, but there was no way that he was letting another Alpha near his mate so Sam rolled out of bed and walked to the door. “What is it Bobby?” Sam growled at the older man. “I…you need to take care of your mate, so I’m going to head into town for a couple of days, or a week until Dean’s heat is over.” “Sam…Oh god, please!” Sam heard Dean moan and watched as the Omega threw off his covers and pushed his boxers down until they were caught on his foot. Dean struggled as he tried to kick the offending garment off, but stopped and let it hang from his foot as he gave into the lust coursing through his body. His hand reached down, wrapped around his dick, and began stroking it. This time it was Sam who moaned. Turning from the door Sam sucked in his breathe at the sight before him. Sam watched, fascinated as Dean’s hand furiously worked his dick, his thumb collecting the precome at each swipe of the purple head. As much as Sam wanted to join Dean on the small bed, he was entranced at the show that was being played before him, making him weak in the knees when Dean bent his knees, exposing his leaking hole just before he took a finger and slipped it inside. With the smell of Dean’s heat surrounding him, Sam had to press his hand on his cock to stave off coming in his pants. Sam inhaled deeply, loving the aromas Dean was emitting, and as he stood there watching, his inner Alpha wanted to come out and play. It was dying to bury himself in that tight ass and fuck that smell of innocence out of his Omega, and replace it with his scent of ownership. The sleep pants and t-shirt that Sam wore to bed were irritating his suddenly sensitive skin and he itched to take them off. However, he held off because he didn’t want to miss a second of Dean pleasuring himself. When Dean adds another finger to his dripping hole, Sam was glad he didn’t because that was too beautiful to have missed. “Sam,” Dean muttered repeatedly as he worked both his dick and his hole. “Need you.” Damn it he needed Dean as well, but Sam noted that way his brother’s balls were drawing up that he was not going to last, that Dean was going to come soon and then he’d replace those fingers with his cock. Soon Dean’s hands slowed down then his movements stuttered before the Omega threw his head back and moaned Sam’s name before coming on his stomach and chest. “So goddamned beautiful,” Sam murmured as he took in the sight. Suddenly the Alpha was a flurry of movement, he disrobed, and he was on the bed with Dean. Lying beside Dean, Sam ran his hand through the pool of come that was cooling on Dean’s stomach. He then brought his fingers up to his mouth and tasted but he almost choked on the salty come when he heard Dean moan, “Alpha.” Hearing Dean call him that went straight to his dick. The sound of his Omega acknowledging him as his made Sam become impossibly harder. Jess never made him feel like this, like strutting like the cock of the walk and letting everyone know that Dean was his, that even in the throes of his heat Dean’s inner Omega recognized who he was, and now he was going to stake his claim. Sliding his large frame over Dean, Sam loved the feel of the body beneath him, loved that this wasn’t a child but a full-grown man. Just as Sam liked being able to lift and place the eleven–year old Dean where he wanted, he also loved the idea of being able to manhandle the adult Dean. Sam plastered himself against Dean’s body until the fine sheen of sweat became glue and had their bodies stuck to one another from chest to groin. Demanding entrance without words, Dean spread his legs wider to accommodate the larger man. As Sam looked into Dean’s eyes, he could see that his eyes were still lust blown and he was operating on instinct, and his instinct allowed him to recognize his mate. As he settled in to the space Dean made for him between his legs Sam gloried in the feel of Dean’s undulating hips lining their cocks together creating the sweetest friction that made Sam’s knot start to swell. Leaning in Sam kissed the already swollen lips before he peeled himself from Dean to line his cock against Deans glistening hole. “Sam, please, I’ve waited long enough for you.” Dean moaned. Sam pushed in slowly, fascinated at the sight of his large cock as it entered Dean. The natural slick produced by the Omega’s body made it easy for him to slide into that tight channel, and he shifted so that he could push forward and was shocked by the resistance he met. Dean was a virgin. As angry as he’d been about the angel marking his mate, the fact that he got to have this twice, dissipated the anger a little. No matter how gentle he was this was going to hurt, so Sam leaned forward and captured Dean’s mouth to swallow the painful moan as he pushed past the barrier until he was buried inside. The moment he was past the barrier, he felt Dean tense beneath him. His instincts told him to move and God he wanted to, but his heart told him that he had to let Dean’s body adjust to the invasion. “Relax baby, or this is going to be more painful,” Sam tried to ease Dean through the worst of the pain. The tight wet heat of Dean’s body sent a fissure of pleasure down Sam’s spine straight to his cock causing his knot to swell. “Dean. I need to move,” he practically begged as his hips moved forward of their own violation. Not wanting to cause Dean any more pain than necessary, Sam bent Dean’s legs towards his chest and reached between them and wrapped his had around Dean’s dick and began to stoke his cock until the Omega began to moan in pleasure and not pain. With each stroke of his hand, Sam felt the tenseness leave Dean’s body until he was lifting his hips to meet Sam’s thrusts. Sam tried to be gentle, but the feel of his brother clenching around him made him feel wild, and his Alpha wanted to take over, to show his Omega that he was not in charge of this mating, and that he should submit to his Alpha’s will. He tried to fuck his mate into submission with long forceful thrusts until his knot tied them together only allowing for short strokes. Shortly before he felt Dean’s hot come spill warm and sticky on his fingers, Sam leaned forward and bit the sensitive skin behind Dean’s ear to complete their mating once again. Dean’s body began to clench around Sam’s cock and the channel seemed to get tighter and tighter, as it milked and orgasm from Sam. Sam’s not sure how long they were tied because they slept intermittently between bouts of Sam fucking him, keeping his knot swollen inside Dean. When he woke the next morning, Sam’s knot had deflated and he’d slipped free of Dean’s body. He thought that it would be the same as before, once they’d knotted, Dean’s heat would be over, but the sudden feel of Dean’s mouth on his cock told him differently. As he fucked Dean the next day he knew that Bobby was going to be angry for being run out of his home, but it beat Sam trying to kill him for being near his mate while he was in heat.  Ruby had watched as the old hunter ran from his house as though the hounds of hell were chasing him. Dean! The fucking Omega was in heat and she could smell the stench of it even though the house was locked up tight. She wasn’t sure how he was able to do it since Dean already had a mate, but Sam was in there staking his claim, mating Dean. From where she stood, Ruby could smell the mixture of the two and she could smell in changing from two scents to one. The Omega’s scent did nothing for her, but the pheromones from Sam was making her wet, she wanted him so much. As the scent changed, becoming richer and stronger and more like Sam than Dean, Ruby closed her eyes and let the scent wash over her until she could almost feel the Alpha moving inside her. Ruby was well aware that she was just a fuck to Sam, but right now knowing that Dean didn’t have his anti-possession tattoo any longer, she was so fucking tempted to find a way to possess him just so that she could experience the passion that Sam reserved for Dean. Dean was in heat and wouldn’t even be aware of it. Her black eyes burned green with jealousy, because she was the one Sam had turned to while Dean was gone, hell, that was part of the reason she’d chosen this meat suit and Dean had to come along and ruin it. Sam had to leave sometime, so it would be so easy to slip inside and break Dean’s pretty little neck before Sam had even got into the Impala, let alone drive away. The only thing stopping her was Sam’s reaction and knowing that he would stop at nothing to end her. Well that and the fact that Bobby had his house warded against every evil known to man, and a few that weren’t. There was no way she was going to make contact with Sam tonight so she let the pheromones wash over her as she unzipped her jeans and let her finger find her clit. She caught up with Sam a week later. He was on a food run and looked so happy that she wanted to punch him and wipe that stupid smile off his face. She had to find a way to get him back on track soon or Lilith would have her taking Dean’s place on Alistair’s rack to remind her why she’d been given the job to turn Sam and there would be no one to save her. If the rumors were true about who saved Dean, she and Lilith might have to restructure their plan with Sam. There had to be away to get rid of Dean, short of killing him because she needed Sam to turn to her. Right now, there were French fries to be had and they would help her concentrate on finding a way to separate Sam and Dean.  When you feel this good, everything looks better. Even though he knew that the world was a shitty place, for a moment it was a wonderful place to be, because he’d finally claimed Dean. It seemed that the sun shined brighter, the grass was cleaner and…Ruby. Fuck. They had stopped in this town because Dean needed to get his tattoo, because they’d been so busy fucking, that it hadn’t been high on their list of priorities as it should have been. Sam was getting dinner and he’d found this little place that boasted fantastic hamburgers and a certificate that swore that they made the best pies in the country and he wanted to surprise Dean with a whole apple pie and let him determine if this was true, but when he saw her walk in he’d forgotten it. “Ruby,” he greeted her warily. “Sam,” she returned the greeting as she walked up to him, “So Dean comes back and you forget our mission that Lilith is out there ready to unleash hell on the world, but you let that slip by the wayside while you fuck Dean.” Sam furrowed his brows as he stared at the demon. He appreciated everything that she’d done for him while Dean was…dead, but surely she didn’t think that he wasn’t going to reunite with his brother. His mate, now that he was alive. “No, I haven’t forgotten, but there are some things that we need to figure out and if that means putting you and Lilith on the back burner, then you and Lilith are on the fucking backburner!” Sam spat. “There were things we had to take care of and the first one was getting Dean acclimated and research how he got out.” “More like acclimated to your dick. Look Sam I get it I do, Dean returned from the pit - is it true that an angel rescued him?” she asked. “Yeah it’s true.” “See you later then.” she said as she turned to go, but Sam grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Wait, first you bust my balls about spending time with Dean, and now you rush off, what the hell, Ruby?” “Look Sam, it’s simple, they’re angels and I’m a demon. They smite first and ask questions later so I need to not be around until we can figure out what’s happening.” Before Sam could stop her a second time, Ruby turned and disappeared.  Sam and Dean spent the next couple of months on the road and being mates changed their dynamics, whereas even though he was an Omega, it never bothered Dean to take the initiative, or to find hunts. From the moment that Dean returned from hell, Sam noticed that his mate often deferred to him and he knew that even though Dean would never admit it, it had to be eating away at what was left of Dean’s soul. Most Omegas wouldn’t have a problem deferring to their Alphas, but Dean had never been treated the same as most Omegas and it was hard for him to let Sam take the lead. It was easier and harder, because as the Alpha in the relationship, Sam felt it was his duty to protect his Omega, while Dean felt that he’d been protecting himself since he was four years old and didn’t need to hide behind his little brother even if Sam was now his Alpha. Not only was Sam dealing with Dean, but he was also keeping secrets as he was meeting with Ruby so that they could work together to destroy Lilith. Once he’d dispatched of the demon, then Dean would see that Sam and Ruby had their best interests at heart. At first, he thought that he was going to have a hard time with Ruby because of their relationship when Dean was gone, but she didn’t protest when she learned that it was Dean he’d chosen as a mate. No, his problem was with Dean. As his Alpha, Sam should have been able to tell Dean that they were working with Ruby and he didn’t have a say in Sam’s decision, but this was Dean and if he wanted to he could kick Sam’s ass. So they snuck around. What Sam hadn’t counted on was that goddamned pesky angel spilling his secrets. He and Dean dispatched several supernatural things before Castiel spilled the beans. When the witnesses rose and began to kill hunters, Sam already knew about the seals but there was no way he could tell them that Ruby had already clued him in. Bobby would have called him a fucking idjit while Dean would have made it his life’s work to kill Ruby. While he and Ruby were pulling demons from bodies and getting one step closer to finding Lilith, Castiel sent Dean back in time to meet their mom and their dad. He wished that he could have taken that trip to see his dad before the man became the heartless hunter who raised them. For a while everything was seething under the surface and Sam was happy with that, hoping that it would stay there until Lilith was gone, but it all came to a head when the backstabbing angel told Dean where he was and who he was with. It really didn’t help things when Dean confronted Ruby and it seemed that he was siding with her and not Dean. Didn’t his mate trust him? If dad had made this decision, Dean would have fallen in line no questions asked, but he challenged his mate. Sam had thought that having an angel on your shoulder or in your pocket or wherever, was a good thing, but this angel had threatened him with death and Sam knew that if it wasn’t for Dean, he’d follow through without an ounce of regret. Did he want him out of the way in order to have Dean to himself? He could feel that Dean didn’t trust him, but he trusted an angel he’d only known for a short time. They had hunts in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and a few in between and Sam could feel Dean watching his every move as though he was waiting for him to fuck up. Even though they were walking on eggshells around each other, they still managed to do their job and had gone for a while without a major blow up until Ruby showed up in the dive where they were they were hustling pool and dropped another fucking angel in their laps. He could see the hate and mistrust in Dean’s eyes, but Ruby had never lied to him or given him false information before, and he felt that they needed to follow up on this. “You know this-our working together can’t work if you don’t trust me,” Sam finally told Dean. He was tired of constantly being judged and always found lacking. “Can I Sam?” Dean asked. “You’re so under the influence of that bitch that I don’t know if it’s you or if it’s her talking.” “Enough Dean!” Sam shouted. He felt anger sizzle through his bloodstream along with the blood that he’d ingested from Ruby earlier that evening. “I’m your Alpha and what I say goes. Ruby is helping us and you lay doubt to that because of an angel who gets all of your trust.” Dean stared at Sam, his face registered the shock that he felt at the words that Sam just delivered. It seemed to Dean that he’d waited his entire life to be claimed by Sam, to be his mate and call him his Alpha, but right now, he hated the sound of Sam calling him that after pulling the Alpha card. He hated Sam for that and for a whisper of a second, he thought about asking Sam to break his bond, to turn his mark black. Sporting a black mark meant that it would be hard for his to find another mate, but as much as he hated Sam right now, he knew that he wouldn’t want another mate, but he wasn’t so sure about Sam, after all he had Ruby. He couldn’t understand why Sam trusted her so much, how he could see so much good behind that evil little smirk that she called a smile. He had been gone for four months and in that short period of time Ruby somehow had managed to worm her way into Sam’s good graces as though it had been the forty years he’d experienced in hell. “No Sam, you were the one who had all of my trust but now Cas is the front runner.” Dean told him before he turned and walked out of the room to find the nearest bar. Dean wished he could cry, just let the tears wash away all the hurt and disappointment that he was feeling towards Sam, but the damned things wouldn’t fall. It was almost as if his body was telling him that Sam wasn’t worth it, but he was. Every night as he lay beside his mate, when Sam subconsciously held him tight as he slept, he felt safe and grounded. The action helped ease both of their frayed nerves, Sam held on to keep Dean from leaving him again, and for Dean it kept the nightmares at bay. A single touch from Sam drove away the images of the souls that he’d flayed while Alistair watched. If Ruby got Sam, who was going to soothe him and keep him sane? He’d just have to find a way to make Sam see Ruby for what she was, an evil conniving bitch. The alcohol wasn’t working. He’d hoped it would have helped him get relief from the pain he was feeling but all he was getting was drunk. About an hour after his arrival, he threw some bills on the bar and left, he was going to give Sam a chance to explain. “We need to talk,” he told Sam the minute he entered the motel room. “I need you to be honest with me about Ruby. I need to know why you trust her so much.” Dean listened as Sam told him how Ruby saved his life not once but twice; once from demons and secondly from his foolish attempt of suicide by Lilith. As he listened to how the hell bitch became such an integral part of Sam’s life, he knew he had to thank her from not letting Sammy die. “Sam, are you…are you still sleeping with her?” Dean asked even though he was terrified of what the answer would be. “No! Dean, no,” Sam exclaimed. “She was there when I needed to feel something, to feel alive. I know you hate her, and more so for that, but she was never a replacement, just a stop gap.” Dean nodded his head telling Sam that he understood, “I can’t promise that she and I will become BFF’s, but I’ll try. I can’t give you more than that.” “That’s good enough.” Dean knew that Sam wanted to help the angel because he thought that it would be a way to get back into Cas’ good graces but in the end it all blew up in their faces because Ruby was involved because the innocent girl they were trying to help bought his nightmares to life. Alistair was topside. ***** Chapter 17 ***** Even though she was strapped to a table and being tortured by the king of pain, Ruby wanted to dance with glee. They were so close, so fucking close and even Alistair didn’t know what was coming. As she took in that smug look on his face, she hoped as part of her reward would be that she got to strap this smug bastard to his table and return the favor. By the time she’d convinced Alistair to come with her to that barn, it was almost too late, Cas and his angel buddy Uriel were about to take the angel, Anna, with them and ruin her plans. Frankly, she had no interest in what happened to Dean and Anna, in fact she enjoyed the sight of Dean nearly pissing himself at the sight of Alistair, but she had to be there to protect Sam. When she’s proposed her plan of getting the angels and demons together, she’d envisioned the angels smiting the demons and staking claim on Anna. Anna getting her grace back and banishing them all never figured into her plans. As Sam and Dean drove away, Ruby tried not to picture Dean fucking Sam when Lilith summoned her. Alistair thought that he was the king of pain; But Lilith could teach him a few tricks. She was the oldest, the first of Lucifer’s children and she knew all of the tricks. “Ruby, why must you always do this the hard way,” Lilith asked as she plucked Ruby’s ribs from her chest one by one and licked the dripping blood like barbeque sauce. She wanted to be strong and answer and assure her master that she would do better the next time, that there would be no more fucking up, but the pain allowed her to either speak or scream and the scream was ripped from her throat without her permission. “Ruby, this hurts you much more that it hurts me,” the demon smiled further robbing Ruby of speech as she reached into her neck and pulled. “Perhaps this will help you remember that we’re on a schedule and keep you focused. Um, I love sweetbreads.” Stunt demon number three and Ruby stood outside the motel room waiting for Sam to leave. She had given him the location for their meeting and it would take him a while to get there. Each time he would sneak away from Dean he wondered if the man was really an Alpha, but it didn’t matter, because she would be his Alpha and teach him how a real one behaved, but Dean had to be dealt with first. She was tired of waiting, and they were going to make it look like an accident so Sam wouldn’t know her part in it. As she and her cohort entered the motel room she could hear Dean throwing up, and a quick sniff told her that the bitch was knocked up, looks like she got there just in time. Then the angel showed up. She managed to get out before he realized she was there, but the same couldn’t be said for her companion. She was furious when she got to her meeting with Sam because her plans had been thwarted, she watched with barely contained anger as Sam pulled a demon from the meat suit he was wearing, the only thing that made the night better was when she looked up and saw Dean looking at them as Sam drank from her. Sam knew that something had changed because he couldn’t get Dean to slow down, they went from hunt to hunt and it was as though they had demons on their asses instead of the other way around. Sam tried to get Dean to talk, but he wouldn’t. As Dean’s Alpha he could force the conversation but that would not end well, so they hunted. They even had their second case of hunting humans ever. It ended just as bloody as the ghosts, but then Dean always said that he got the supernatural, but people…well he just didn’t understand them. When Alistair tortured Dean because of a fuck up due to the angels, he almost lost Dean and when he had the pleasure of ripping the demon limb from limb it felt good. This went on hunt after hunt and as much as Sam tried to stop it, he and Dean were growing further and further apart. They couldn’t agree on anything and now Dean wouldn’t let him touch him and he missed that. At least when they had sex they were able to connect in some way, but since that was taken off the table Sam was just as pissy as Dean. A simple touch at the right moment and he could have Dean’s hole dripping for him. but it wasn’t worth what would happen afterwards. He looked at Dean’s arm as he drove where the new tattoo of their son’s birthdate was just on the inside of his wrist. It was new, another fuck you to Sam. He’d convinced Dean not to get it when he got the anti-possession tattoo, but during the time he’d snuck out with Ruby, Dean had gotten the ink done and his mutinous glare had dared him to say something about it. How could he when he’d been with Ruby knowing that Dean knew and hated it. They were speaking in monosyllables when their dad’s phone rang and some kid was spouting some story about him being their brother. Dean was his brother. His mate. His everything. How dare some kid pop out of nowhere and make this claim. Didn’t they have enough problems without someone adding to them? As they sat in a little diner in Windom waiting for the interloper who was trying to become a part of their family, Sam shot Dean bitchy looks as he prepared for the arrival of Adam Milligan. Sam wasn’t calling him his brother just yet. Sam prepared for his arrival by way of Google and other search engines, while Dean prepared for something supernatural. He had silver in three forms, bullets, silverware and a knife. When the server placed glasses of water in front of them, he replaced the contents with holy water. Sam wanted to tell Dean to give the boy a chance, but he was afraid that Dean would bury the knife in him. “Sam, why did dad keep him a secret?” Dean surprised Sam with the question. “Do you think that he’s an… an Omega like me and dad…” It hurt Sam that Dean couldn’t even finish the thought, that their father treated his Omega son from another mother with the care that he never afforded Dean. Through the bond that they’d both been ignoring lately he felt his Omega’s pain and if dad were here, he’d kill him for hurting Dean this way. “Sam? Dean?” A deep voice asked from behind him. “Christo,” Sam said. “No, I’m Adam your brother.” The young man responded as he held out his had to Sam. Dean stared at the young boy and tried to see the resemblance to their father. But he didn’t see any. He looked just like Dean. Dean knew that couldn’t be because he was the male version of their mother. He was a little relieved when he sniffed and could tell that Adam was Alpha, not Omega, and now Sam’s hackles were up as he growled a little. “Down, boy,” Adam laughed as he sat down next to Sam. “I’m not going to lay claim on your mate. I just want to meet my family.” Neither relaxed until Adam passed all of his tests, proving that he wasn’t anything supernatural. After placing their orders, an uneasy silence settled between the three men. Sam was on guard because he felt that it was his duty to protect Dean from this new threat, and Dean mentally shook his head. He’d spent his life handing Sam his ass, but Sam still felt that Dean needed his protection. “Sooo,” Adam starts, “is there any reason that you two showed up and not John? Is he on one of his famous business trips?” Their father would have never won an award for father of the year but the sarcasm in this kid’s voice was uncalled for. John had gone out of his way to keep him out of the family business, while still trying to be a part of his life but apparently, it wasn’t enough. “When’s the last time you saw dad,” Sam asked sidestepping Adam’s question. “It’s been a while,” Adam answered nonchalantly as he shrugged his shoulders. “I really didn’t want to call him it’s just I didn’t know who else to turn to.” “Turn to for what?” Dean probed. “This is your home town, surely there are friends or family that you could ask for help for whatever it is you need.” “Nah, it’s just me and my mom, but the problem is that my mom is missing, and the local sheriff that was helping, said that John helped him a few years back on a case so helping me was a way to pay John back for his help. The problem is that the sheriff died before we could find out what happened.” “We can help you,” Dean told the young man. “Not to be rude, but who are you guys?” Dean looked at Sam and they both agreed nonverbally that it was okay to tell Adam who they were, and just deal with the fall out. Once they found out what happened to the boy’s mother then they could be on their way. “We are Sam and Dean. Winchester, John’s sons.” Sam answered. “I’ll wait for John and not the facsimiles,” Adam snarked as he looked Dean up and down. “Especially his Omega bit...son.” “It would be highly embarrassing for this Omega bitch to kick your ass,” Dean snapped guessing what Adam was about to call him. “Dad’s dead,” Sam bit out. “So if you want our help then act like it, because we have better things to do than amuse some spoiled brat.” Dean watched the play of emotions on Adam’s face as he decided what he was going to do. “I don’t trust you, because you’ve already lied to me.” “We haven’t lied to you once…” Dean began before Adam interrupted him. “If you didn’t know about me then why do you have my birthdate tattooed on your wrist?” Dean was shaking so badly that Sam had to drive to the house Adam shared with his mom. He grabbed his dad’s journal and began to read. There were pages torn out that he’d never thought about before, but now he did. They were all around the time that Dean’s baby died. “Sam do you think Bobby knew?” Dean asked his voice low and raspy. “No, I think that he would have told us, do you think he would have told anyone, because that’s a pretty big secret.” “Missouri,” Dean said with a certainty. He remembered John taking him to see the psychic before the baby…Adam was born. “If he went to Missouri for answers, then he knew that you were my Alpha that it was your baby and he still fought to keep us apart.” Once they reached the house Dean wanted to call Missouri, but Sam wanted to have this meeting face to face. They spent a few days trying to teach Adam how to handle a weapon, because if he was traveling with them, then he needed to know how to protect himself. That was the plan until Dean had to kill his son. Adam was a fucking ghoul and wanted to kill them in John’s stead. All this time his son was alive, he could have known him taught him the things he’d taught Sam. He could have loved him and when he found out about his existence, it was too late. Once Adam was given a hunter’s funeral and burned on a pyre, Dean decided that he didn’t want to see Missouri because nothing she said would bring Adam back.  Dean was still angry, but it was in a passive aggressive kind of way. Sam wasn’t sure that the anger was directed at him or their dad, but since Sam was here, he was bearing the brunt of it all. For some reason Dean hadn’t thought about the fact that Adam was his child too. Because Dean was bottling everything inside, San shared the information with Ruby. He knew that Dean would hate that, but unlike Dean he needed to talk. Unfortunately, that always ended with him drinking more demon blood. As they drove, Sam made an attempt to pull the information from Dean but he answered in monosyllables and he gave up. He wasn’t sure where they were heading, but that changed when Bobby called and them to head his way to help with a job. When Dean finally saw him drinking demon blood while they were in the middle of a case involving Cas’ vessel, that was when he decided to talk. How could Dean and Bobby do this to him? How could Dean allow Bobby to do this, lock him up as if he was a crack head who needed detoxing? He’s not sure how long they kept him but he was not going to stick around to ask. He didn’t see who let him out but since they didn’t stick around, he knew that it wasn’t Dean or Bobby because those sons of bitches would have let him rot down there. Ruby. It had to be her because right now she was the only one who cared about what happened to him. He had to find her. He had knocked Bobby out cold as he tried to escape unnoticed but he couldn’t feel bad about the man who’d help hold him captive. He was on the phone with Ruby before he’d even pulled out of the driveway. He drove not sure where he was heading but he knew he couldn’t just drive around aimlessly because that was a way to get caught. It was bad enough that Dean would know every move he made, so he did the opposite. Instead of taking some Junker, he took the flashiest car he could find and he’d told Ruby to get the honeymoon suite to throw his ma…his brother off his trail. Sam was bone tired when he reached the hotel, he’d driven all night and all he wanted was to sleep. When he walked into the room Ruby was there to greet him with a soft smile and open arms. This time no longer concerned about what Dean would think he stepped into them and reveled in the comfort they offered. This was Ruby, so she was offering something else as well, blood. Usually, when he’s with Ruby he feels both guilt and elation. Guilt because he was lying to Dean and elation because of the way the blood made his body sing. This time though, the more he drank, the guilt dissipated and the only emotion left was elation. With the guilt gone, Sam felt no hesitation in knotting Ruby as he drank from her, and his mark turned black as Ruby’s eyes. The next morning as they dressed, Sam felt wonderful and alive and he felt Ruby’s blood zinging through his veins. He was ready to save the world with Ruby by his side. “Did you let me out of there Ruby,” He asked as he nuzzled her neck. “Sam that thing is designed to bite me in the ass, so no, it wasn’t me. Maybe Dean came to his senses and let you go.” She offered as she exposed more of her neck to Sam. She had him now, she could afford to be generous, and besides after last night, Sam’s bond to Dean was broken and he now sported a black mating mark. As much as he’d like to spend the day buried in her and getting his fill on that blood they had work to do, first stop was to the hospital to find Lilith’s personal chef and make her talk. By the time they returned to the hotel room they had located her and would pick her up later. Ruby was rubbing against Sam like a cat in heat and just as Sam’s teeth grazed her neck there was a knock on the door. Dean. Although Sam couldn’t sense Dean, he knew that no one else would be knocking on his hotel door. When he opened the door, Dean walked past him, went straight for Ruby, and hit her. Sam pulled Dean off and stands beside her. “Look Dean, I’m glad you’re here, let’s talk about this.” Sam tried. “As soon as she’s dead we can talk all you want,” Dean promised. There was going to be no talking as long as Ruby was in the room because Dean was going to spend what little energy he had trying to kill her so the told Ruby to go. He stood between them until she was safely out of the room. “She’s poison, Sam.” “It’s not what you think,” Sam tried to reassure him. “Is that why your mating mark is black?” Dean asked as his voice cracked with emotion. “Dean I…” ‘Don’t lie Sam, I can smell her on you. I guess that I’m just checking on you. You’d do the same for me, your brother wouldn’t you?” “Dean we have a break on Lilith, someone close to her is nearby.” “You and I can go Sam; Demon bitch is a deal breaker.” “I can’t Dean.” Sam felt his heart drop to the floor as Dean nodded his head and turned to walk away. They were so close, why did Dean have to fuck it up now. “Dean, I need her to help me kill Lilith. I know you can't wrap your head around it, but maybe one day you'll understand. I'm the only one who can do this, Dean.” “No, you’re not going to do it at all.” The condescending way Dean spoke suddenly had Sam irritated. How was some weak Omega going to save the world? He was too busy kidnapping people to uncover the clues that Sam had and now he was talking to him as though he was still that little kid whose diapers he changed. “That’s right the angels think you will,” Sam sneered. “You’re an Omega, so you’re not strong enough to do this.” “You don’t know what you’re doing Sam.” “I do.” “That makes it worse, that means you... you’re a …” “Say it Dean, be the Alpha you’ve always pretended to be. I’m a monster!’ “Yes.” Dean agreed. “You’re a monster.” Sam doesn’t consciously make the decision, but he’s flying across the room and is on Dean, and for the first time in his life, he’s winning. As they break furniture and land blow after blow, he feels good finally dominating Dean. There was a time when he would have killed anyone who he even thought had hurt Dean, but with Ruby’s blood rushing through his veins, there are not thoughts of brother or mate, just kill. Sam chuckled to himself as he thought that he wished that their father could see the Omega now. When he looked down, Sam realized that he was choking Dean so he removed his hands and walked towards the door. “You don’t know me Dean, you never did.” “We can fix this Sam, it’ll be me and you just like always, but if you walk out the door, don’t bother coming back.” With a final glance at Dean, Sam walked out the door and never looked back. Dean lay broken and bleeding on the floor of the destroyed hotel room and stared at the door as Sam walked out. A part of him felt that if he stared at it long enough, Sam would come back and tell him that this was just a part of his plan to throw Ruby off track. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen, that Ruby had Sam and wasn’t going to give him up willingly. Dean knew that he wouldn’t. Sam wasn’t coming back, it was just like before. Like Flagstaff. Like Stanford. Dean didn’t understand why it was always so fucking easy for Sam to leave him. He’d given everything to him, even a child, but even Sam’s child left him the same way, bloody and alone. It would be so easy to lay there and feel sorry for himself, but Dean forced himself to get up and drive back to Bobby’s because they had to figure out their next move to keep Lilith from breaking Lucifer free. The drive back to Bobby’s was long and painful. He was hurting and he had to concentrate on not killing himself as he drove. “Dean!” Bobby shouted as he tumbled from the car. He really didn’t remember the drive, just that it was long and he was going to have to whip Sammy’s ass for making him bleed on Baby’s leather seats. He wanted to be proud and walk inside on his own, but his legs buckled when he tried to make his first step, so he swallowed his pride and leaned on Bobby. Sam had always been strong and when the extra testosterone that came when he popped his knot, he became even stronger, but when you add the demon blood into the mix and he was damned near unstoppable. All of those years they spent training and fine-tuning their moves and now Sam used them on him when he turned on Dean for a black eyed demon bitch. “What happened, Dean?” Bobby demanded as he helped Dean clean up. “Later, Bobby,” Dean promised, because he couldn’t talk about it right now. Once the dirt and blood was gone, a look in the mirror told him that he looked like shit. He took inventory and noted that his left eye was nearly swollen shut, but that was no surprise as he could barely see out of it by the time he’d arrived at Bobby’s. There was a cut above his swollen eye and one cheek was bruised from where Sam’s knuckles hit him and the other bore rug burns from the cheap carpet. Then there were the bruises on his neck. They were in the shape of fingers and were just below the now black mating mark on his neck. After a short nap, he made his way downstairs to find Bobby. The two of them had to find Lilith and destroy her to stop the final seal from being broken. He made his way into the kitchen to grab a beer; Dean wasn’t prepared for the memories that assaulted him. This was the closest thing they’d ever had to call home and those memories came flooding back. He remembered all of the times he was able to try new recipes and pretend that he was a normal Omega with a normal family. The table tucked in the corner of the room was where he and Sam learned to field strip a gun and put it back together. It was here he mourned for his child, and through it all, Sam was at his side. Now he stood with Ruby. “Hey sleeping beauty,” Bobby greeted him as he entered the den. “Did you at least find Sam before you took that beating?” “Sam was the one to give me the beating, Bobby.” Bobby wasn’t much of a talker unless it came to something supernatural, but it was rare to find him speechless, but apparently Dean’s announcement robbed him of his ability to talk. Dean eased his aching body into the chair on the in front of the desk and explained what happened. “I told him if he left then don’t ever come back, and he left Bobby.” “Well boo fucking hoo,” Bobby mocked. “You sound just like your old man and look what happened there, you didn’t see him for years.” When Dean didn’t respond, Bobby continued, “You need to call him.” “Dean! Dean! Did you listen to a word I said?” “Yeah,” he said as he rubbed absently at the mating mark, “but I’m not gonna call him, Bobby. What with Armageddon so close, we have bigger fish to fry.” He just wanted this conversation to end. This was the thing about families that he was glad he missed out on, their desire to butt in where they’re not wanted. He was just about to tell Bobby to fuck off when the pain hit. “Son, are you okay?” Bobby asked as he hurried from around the desk. As Bobby watched Dean drop his hand to his stomach, his eyes widen. “Dean …are you pregnant?” “Yes,” Dean whispered. Because of everything going on between him and Sam, he never found the right time to tell Sam that he was pregnant, and now it looked as though he never would. He knew what was happening he’d read about it when he and Sam were researching how to break a bond; when Sam broke his bond and chose Ruby over him that meant all vestiges of the bond. This was something that harkened back to the old days when bonds were broken and an Omega was pregnant. If the Alpha chose another mate, the new mate wouldn’t want the child of a previous mating so if the pregnancy was less than three months the baby would abort two weeks after the bond was broken. Because Dean was in his first trimester that meant the baby was going to be collateral damage if they didn’t fix this. Dean’s hand went to his stomach and he knew that he had to choose between his pride and his baby. Dean stormed out of the den angry at Bobby for telling him what he already knew, that even if Sam didn’t need him, he needed Sam. So he picked up the phone and dialed and was suddenly transported to one of the most beautiful rooms he’d ever seen. Ruby was pleased as she watched Sam’s finger hover over the yes button on his smart phone that would allow him to listen to a voicemail from Dean. She knew that Dean had called and all but begged Sam to come back for the sake of the parasite he was carrying. There was a time when he would have listened and returned a call without hesitation, but not now. He and his precious Dean had parted ways violently and now he wasn’t sure. Ruby liked that. For months she had tried to part Sam and Dean and thought that killing him was the only way to separate them and had actually set up ghouls to do so, but this was so much better. Eventually, with a gentle push from her, Sam was going to listen to Dean’s message, but when he did, it would be her altered version, not the whiny I’m gonna lose the baby message that had actually been left. As they stood near the car they’d taken outside the hotel where Sam had left Dean bleeding. The fact that Sam was the one who’d left Dean in that state brought a smile to Ruby’s face. They were on their way to meet another demon who was to be unknowingly sacrificed to help break that last seal, but it wouldn’t work if Sam continued to worry about Dean. “Sam is your head in the game,” She asked him, pleased with the level of concern in her voice. “I’m good, let’s get this over with.” “Look I know I’m not good at this Kumbaya shit, but Dean was wrong, however that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t talk to him, patch this up. Maybe when we’ve finished with Lilith you two can work this out.” “No he was right to get away from me, I’ve cause him nothing but pain before I was old enough to even realize it. It doesn’t matter anyway, it’s not like I’m coming back from this.” Biting her tongue Ruby moved to get into the car. She wanted to scream, you’ll get pass this, it’s Dean that won’t survive. She knew that Lucifer would reward Sam for his hard work to bring him forward and hopefully she’d have the pleasure of finally destroying the annoying Omega. It all came to a head in the convent where it started, Sam owed Dean the biggest I told you so known to man, Ruby had tricked him all along and he had fell for it hook, line and sinker. As it turned out she really did want to kill Lilith, but her reasons were a little different from Sam’s and he felt he’d been on the receiving end of the biggest Punk’d episode. If Ashton had popped out from behind the pillars, he would have felt better. When he held Ruby still as Dean plunged the knife into her body, it should have felt wonderful, but it didn’t because he saw the black mark on Dean’s neck and the enormity of what he’d done hit home. He chose a demon over Dean and he was sure that Hallmark didn’t make a card for that. Sam wasn’t sure what he would do to make this up to Dean but whatever his ma- his brother wanted he would do no question. He was surprised when Dean asked him to mate again, and he didn’t question it, he jumped at the chance to reconnect with Dean, but the problem was that after they mated again, Dean didn’t come near him. He hardly ever talked to him, so Sam didn’t understand why he wanted to mate again until one day after a hunt in River Pass Colorado, he went into the bathroom of the latest dump where they were staying and he smelled it. Dean was pregnant. Sam turned on his heels and followed Dean back into the room. “Were you gonna tell me?” He demanded. “Eventually,” Dean responded in a voice voided of emotion. Suddenly Sam was annoyed with Dean; the fact that he didn’t even pretend not to know what he was referring to, got under his skin irritating him until he could no longer ignore it. “You know it’s my god damned child too. I had every right to know about it!” Sam all but shouted. He wasn’t prepared for the hatred in Deans eyes as he turned to him and said all of the things that he’d been holding in. “When was I supposed to tell you, Sam?” He asked sarcastically. “Was it when you were chasing that black eyed bitch around? When you were fucking her? Or when you broke our bond? I certainly hope that you haven’t fooled yourself into thinking that I couldn’t live without you as the reason I wanted to be mated to you again. I would have taken my own life before mating you again, but I –there’s no way I could take the life of my child.” That last sentence deflated Sam’s anger. Over the years he’d had to use nothing short of dynamite to get Dean to admit to what he was feeling, and the one time he did, the words left Sam feeling gutted. “Sam, I don’t think that I can do this with you right now,” Dean continued as he ignored the fat tear that ran down his cheek. “I love you more than life, but right now I’m not sure that I trust you to help me cross the street.” It took everything in Sam not to walk over to Dean to comfort him and kiss away his tears; the only thing that kept his feet planted was the knowledge that Dean would push him away and he just couldn’t handle that. Without another word, Sam grabbed his duffel bag and haphazardly stuffed it with his belongings before heading out the door. He didn’t stop until he reached the other side of the door because he wasn’t sure that he could leave if he did. As he stood on the side of the road with his thumb out hitchhiking, Sam drew his lips thin. He almost grinned at the thought of Dean would call it his bitch face when in reality it was to keep himself from crying as well. While he was hitching rides and stealing cars, Sam’ thought about this baby and all of the things that he’d missed already, and until Dean changed his mind, he was going to miss more. It would be so easy to blame Ruby and Dean even, but he knew that he was the one at fault. Ruby didn’t force him to do anything, and he hurt Dean in the process. He would have to find a way to make this right. Sam ended up in a little town called Garber in Oklahoma. He’s not sure why he’d stopped there, but it felt right. He found work as a bar back in the only bar in town and settled in as much as he could. In a moment of clarity, Sam realized that he probably wasn’t going to hunt any longer, so he took all of his fake id’s and burned them. This place wasn’t so bad; perhaps he could convince Dean to settle down here. A week into his job, one of the servers, Lindsey tried to get him to talk about himself, said that she wanted to get to know him. His reply was to show her his mating mark and tell her that he had someone who already knew him. As the weeks passed Sam grew less content and less sure about the continued radio silence from Dean, but he was willing to wait until Dean called. That was until some hunters blew into town and tried to force him to drink demon blood. As they held him down, Sam’s only thought was how he’d disappointed Dean again. The blood they forced on him made him strong and he quickly dispatched the hunters, but Lindsey looked at him differently now. He couldn’t stay in Garber if he’d wanted to. As he tried to figure out what his next move would be, Sam realized that he didn’t have to wait for Dean to call him, the phone worked both ways and he could reach out to him mate. Sam was surprised that he answered on the first ring. “I need you Dee,” He whispered into the phone and Dean told him where to find him. It had been three months since he’d last saw his mate and now that he was going to see him it seemed that the miles taking him back were longer than the ones that took him away. Sam walked into the restaurant where they’d agreed to meet and drank in the sight of his Omega. He was tall and beautiful and…sad. They eased back into working together as well as their bond. Sometimes it wasn’t easy because Sam thought that Dean was being reckless and as his Alpha he wanted to put Dean in his place, but they were holding on by the thinnest of threads already, so Sam didn’t push his luck. With each hunt, they became less tentative around one another, but Dean was still distant and Sam wasn’t sure what he needed to do to break through. Dean knew that he wasn’t living up to his end of the truce that he’d made with Sam to work things out between the two of them. He was only talking to Sam if it involved a hunt, but beyond that he was inside his head. He had so much he wanted to share with his mate, he wanted him to know about the baby, how he felt and at night when he was scared, he needed Sam to hold him but he just stayed on his side of the bed. He wasn’t sure if Sam was giving him his space or telling him that it was over because the last motel that they checked in to, Sam chose double beds. “Are you ever going to forgive me?” Sam asked as he closed the door behind him. Nodding his head towards the double beds, Dean told him, “It doesn’t look like you care.” “But I do Dean, so fucking much, but it can’t just be me here. You won’t even let me touch you.” Sam was right of course, but Dean’s not sure why he fought it. Perhaps because he saw the way things were going; the harder they tried to stop the apocalypse, the more Lucifer and his minions moved forward, and now they were dealing with the Four Horsemen, War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. It seemed that each new hunt or encounter drained him. And then there was Ruby. “I’m trying Sam I really am, it’s just that each time I think I’m ready, I close my eyes and I see you and her, and I just…” Sam nodded his head as though he understood what Dean was saying. Truth was that had Dean done this to Sam, demon or not he’d have ripped another Alpha apart for breathing on Dean, let alone touch him and that thought is what made Dean try. Dean gasped and drew Sam’s attention to him, he wasn’t in pain, it’s just that the baby moved. It was the first time he’d felt it and it caught him off balance, so off balance that he didn’t even think about it he just held his hand out for Sam inviting him to feel the baby move. He questioned the move a second after he made it, but Sam’s blinding smile told him he’d done the right thing. Things didn’t really change for them after that, even though Dean craved his Alpha’s touch, he didn’t give into it. He’d always thought that the world was going to end bloody and now that time was upon them and he was tired. He was tired of running. It seemed that he’d always been running from demons, angels and even from Sam, but lately from his destiny. There was no aha moment when he decided that he should give into the angels and say yes to being Michaels vessel allowing him to fight his brother, Lucifer to end the world, but after watching the inhabitants of Blue Earth Minnesota turn on each other under the guidance of the Whore of Babylon who was disguised as a prophetess. So he ran. He holed up in a no tell motel and thought about what his next step was going to be, because as hard as they tried, neither he, Bobby, Sam or Cas could come up with a solution that didn’t include he and Sam giving into Lucifer and Michael. It was going to end bloody just as he’d predicted years ago, and him giving end could save some lives. The only thing that had kept him going was the baby, but when he discovered Adam, the thought that something supernatural could harm this child as well ate away at him. It was going to be hard enough leaving Sam, but at least his child wouldn’t know the evils of this world and that thought made him push forward with his decision. After boxing up the only things that were important to him, Dean lay down on the bed and cried. He cried for the mate that he never truly got to love, the loss of friends and comrades and another child that he would never get to hold. That’s how Sam found him hours later. He’d come with Cas and they took him back to Bobby’s against his will while the three of them researched how to put a stop to the inevitable. When Cas discovered that the angels were going to use Adam because Dean hadn’t given them the answer he wanted, something broke inside Dean. He was an Omega, he was built to love and nurture and he’d never been allowed to do any of that, and now it was as though he was being slapped in the face with his loss. Dean tried desperately to get out of Bobby’s but all his efforts got him was locked in the panic room just as he and Bobby had done to Sam. In the end, the angels got Adam, so Dean and Sam came up with a plan to trick Lucifer and but it didn’t work. Sam wasn’t strong enough and all Dean could do was watch in horror as Lucifer took Sam to fight Michael. It was too late to stop it now, but he had to be there with Sam. He needed Sam to know that even though he’d been an ass, he still loved him. Bobby watched as the Omega drove off like a bat out of hell. He knew that the boy was going to try to stop the showdown and he was just going to be hurt. “Cas, what can we do to stop this, that boy has been through enough but now he has to watch his mate and his son die again. Is there someone else we can offer up to replace Sam?” He watched as Cas though about his proposal before saying, “There’s always John.” “We torched him, Cas,” “That action was to keep John from coming back as something supernatural, but from the ashes I can make him rise and if he’s agreeable, take Sam’s place.” “What do we need to do?” Bobby asked. “I have a plan,” Cas told him before he disappeared and returned with a corporeal John Winchester. Dean had no idea what he was going to say to convince Lucifer to let him talk to Sam, but he had to try. Try to get through to Sammy. Bobby had managed to break through a demons possession long enough to save them, so maybe Sam could so the same. When he pulled into Stull cemetery, he could see them standing there, two brothers riding a father and a son, both ready to do battle for the end of the world. He would have like to have jumped from the car and cut an imposing figure, but the baby bump turned his stroll into a waddle, and as he approached the two beings facing off, he hoped that he would be taken seriously. “What are you doing here Dean?” Michael asked when he spotted the intruder. “You had your chance it’s too late for you to change your mind.” “I know that Michael,” Dean informed him. “I just wanna…I need to say good-bye to Sam.” “I told you before, Sam’s long gone,” Lucifer reminded him. In his heart, Dean knew that Lucifer spoke the truth, but it’s hard to remember that when he can still see Sam’s dimpled grin. “There’s nothing for you here.” Lucifer reiterated. When he spoke this time Dean noted the differences that told him that this was not Sam. His stance was proud and sure because he wasn’t trying to blend in. He stood with the surety that he owned everyone and everything around him, his speech patterns were more modulated and old fashioned. Then there was his smile. Where Sam’s were warm and inviting, the one there now was feral and calculating, no his Sam was gone and here was an evil incarnate in his stead. “Please,” Dean begged, I know that you don’t owe me anything, but let me say good-bye to my bro…mate.” “Had you not tried to trick me that might have been a possibility, but I made a promise to Sam to protect you that’s the only reason you’re not being squashed beneath my heel right now.” “Leave Dean,” Michael demanded. “Hey ass butt,” a familiar raspy voice called from behind him a few seconds before Michael was hit with a Molotov cocktail made of holy oil, sending up in flames. “You killed my brother Castiel,” Lucifer bellowed. “No one has the right to do that but me.” The pseudo playfulness was gone from Lucifer’s voice as he advanced on the angel, signaling Dean that something bad was about to happen. When Lucifer stood in front of Castiel, a single touch blew his friends body into pieces. Dean wasn’t aware that Bobby had accompanied Cas to the cemetery until he heard the older man mumbling something in Latin before a twist of Lucifer’s fingers broke his surrogate father’s neck. Once Bobby’s body was lying lifeless on the ground, Lucifer turned his attention to Dean and soon had him pinned against the Impala and threw the first punch. “I told Sam that I would leave you alone, that I would let you leave, but you couldn’t leave well enough alone, you had to come here. And interrupt something that you’d washed your hands of.” “Sammy? Are you in there?” Dean asked as he closed his eyes to the pain of the first punch. “Oh, he's in here, all right,” Lucifer grinned before he punched Dean again. “And he's gonna feel the snap of your bones. Every single one.” Each punch became harder and hurt more until Dean was barely lucid, but he was not going to let oblivion take him before reaching Sam. Lucifer hauled Dean to his feet and said, “We’re gonna take our time.” He continued to beat Dean who had lost count after the first few, his once beautiful face now swollen and bloodied. “Sam, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here. I'm not gonna leave you.” As though he took Dean pledge as a challenges, Lucifer continued to punch Dean, but the Omega just kept muttering, “I'm not gonna leave you.” Grinning at Dean’s vow, Lucifer again drew back his fist for another punch when he suddenly stopped and Dean’s not sure why, but in his pain-hazed mind he swore he heard his dad yell the rings Sam! Now! Dean was in so much pain that he sensed rather than felt himself falling to the ground as Sam dropped him after his father’s demand. Sam was saying something in Latin and Dean prayed that it was the spell to open the cage for Lucifer. Somehow, he managed to get one eye opened when the ground began to shake as it split open and he cried, as Sam stood on the precipice of it ready to jump. Or so he thought. The command was his dad and Dean watched amazed as his father began chanting something and Lucifer left Sam’s body, and entered John’s. As Sam teetered forward, John pushed his son back just as Michael re-appeared, “John it’s not going to end this way, step back. I’m supposed to fight my brother, it’s my destiny!” Instead of answering, John grabbed Michael’s sleeve and jumped taking the archangel with him into the abyss that immediately closed behind them. The silence was deafening. Dean leaned against the car, using it to prop him up as he fought to breathe. As he squeezed his swollen eyes tight against the pain, he hoped, no he prayed that this was the last time he witnessed his child’s death. Dean was still caught up in the loss when heard someone crawling towards him. His hunter’s instinct told him to move, but he couldn’t, he didn’t have the strength or the will, until he heard someone saying his name. “Sam?” “I’m so sorry, so sorry,” Sam apologized and he let his hand hover over Dean’s face as though he was scared to touch. “You didn’t do this Sam, nothing to apologize for,” Dean said before he turned his head to spit out a tooth. “The baby- he didn’t…” “No, Sam he didn’t hit the baby, but I don’t think that’s going to make a difference.” As soon as he said the words, Castiel appeared besides them. “Cas you’re alive.” “I’m better than that,” Cas smiled as he touched Dean’s forehead healing him instantly. “Cas, are you… are you God?” Sam asked. “That’s a nice compliment, but no. I do think that he brought me back though, new and improved.” Cas advised him as he walked over to Bobby and with a simple touch to his forehead; the old hunter was alive and breathing. “Then how did dad…that was dad wasn’t it?” Dean asked not sure if he was seeing things during the beating Lucifer had given him. “It was a spell that I found in one of my books,” Bobby explained. “but I couldn’t have done it if Cas hadn’t been able to bring John back.” The three men and the angel all stood looking at each other, each happy that they all made it out alive, but all too stubborn to say the words aloud. “Dean,” Cas said breaking the silence, “I healed you so I don’t understand why you are leaking now.” Dean had not looked at his stomach because he didn’t want to think about the loss of this child, but he was bigger, like full term bigger and from the pressure that was building, he was in labor as well. “What did you do Cas?” He cried out the panic evident in his voice. He was in labor but it wasn’t hurting like the first time. Cas walked to Dean and placed a hand on his distended stomach and smiled. “When I healed you, it seems as though that included bringing your baby to full term, she is fine, Dean just ready to be born.” “Why can’t I feel the pain?” Dean asked. “That was a temporary side effect, but if you want I can give you back the pain,” Cas told him. “No!” Sam and Dean shouted simultaneously. “Sam, it’s not that I don’t trust Cas,” Bobby said, “but let’s get him to a hospital just in case.” Two hours later, Dean was resting comfortably in a bed on the maternity floor. The labor was quick because Cas didn’t have the patience to go any longer than two hours. As Dean held his little girl, he thought about how he never got to hold Adam like this. He thinks his dad named the child Adam because he was the beginning the first for him and Sam. In retrospect, Eve would have been an appropriate name for this little beauty, but the start for him was a house about a twenty- minute drive and a woman named Mary, and he was proud to name his baby after her grandmother. She was beautiful like her namesake, but an Omega like Dean, born to a family of hunters. As he kissed her brow, Dean silently promised her that happiness was the only thing she hunted. Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!