My alpha woke me up again. I was so goddamn tired, but my alpha kept asking me to stay awake. It was… surprisingly civil with me this time. It didn’t show a lot of hate toward me. It wasn’t angry or anything. It was simply asking me to wake up. Because of that, I fought my way back to consciousness. I was curious to see why it needed me up.

I wrinkled my nose when I remembered the looters, but I didn’t really notice anything wrong. It was quiet in the basement.

But then I heard a little sniff right next to me. I moved my head in that direction. I was too tired to feel anything when I saw Kieran in my bed, curled up with his baby in his arms, his back pressed against the wall. A silent tear was running down his cheek as he stared at the kid. He was still afraid… Not in panic, but scared enough.

How was this a SOU soldier…?

No… Something was wrong in him. And it had something to do with his baby. Without the child, he was dominant and fierce, but every time the kid was threatened, he broke down. But why…? It should’ve been quite the opposite, right? It was in the omegas’ instinct to fight until the very last breath to protect their children, but this one turned into a panicky mess. A SOU soldier at that.

Kieran’s eyes suddenly met mine, and he froze. I could tell he’d been crying for a while now. He said nothing. He didn’t look away. Didn’t even hide his tears.

Broken, my alpha told me. Like I needed it to tell me what I saw.

I didn’t fucking care.

Man, my alpha got mad… It got so fucking mad I was sure it would steal the body and never let me back in charge, but for some reason, it didn’t. But its anger wasn’t calming down, either.

I was so goddamn tired…

My alpha and I had never seen eye to eye. Even when it still was awake, it had refused to see my point. It refused to understand how much better our life would be if True Order was back in power. We’d have peace. The war would end. Everything would go back to how things used to be. True Order would make sure we’d have rich lives. No alphas would have to hide in fucking sewers anymore. Neither would omegas. They’d be able to continue with their simple little lives without having to use their simple little heads because us alphas would take care of everything.

Why did they have to ruin the good life we all had, huh…? Omegas destroyed our beautiful country by standing up against the true, natural order of life. They had good things, too, so why the fuck did they want to throw it all away? Now we had no other choice but to fight in this endless war because they wanted jobs too? The fuck was wrong with them?

My alpha finally got mad enough at me to take control of the body and turned its attention to Kieran. It let out soft breaths to calm the omega, and tentatively moved closer to him. Kieran, in return, smiled a little and carefully took in our scent.

“I’m guessing you’re not Trouble,” he murmured.

My alpha didn’t understand the question, but it was happy to see him smiling. It continued soothing the omega, who relaxed little by little, and eventually wiped away his tears with one last sniff.

“It’s been a rough night, huh…?” Kieran whispered, his smile fading. “I still can’t believe… This was always such a peaceful little neighborhood… But The Boss is gone now… So… I don’t know…”

It was clear that thought scared him, but my alpha noticed it and quickly calmed him down by gentle breaths and quiet purrs.

“You’re right… Not tonight… Everything will be better in the morning…” Kieran whispered, hugging his baby. “If only I could sleep…”

My alpha tried to move even closer to him, but the pain in our stomach stopped it. The pain annoyed it, and it looked down to see what it was. It was probably the first time the damn idiot noticed we were deadly injured… The covers hid the bandages, so my alpha tried to reach for it, but Kieran stopped it.

“Better not touch it,” the omega gently scolded us.

My alpha forgot the wound and turned its attention back to the omega, then to the baby sleeping between us. Kieran tensed and pulled his child tighter against his chest.

What was it about the baby that made him so scared…?

“Ares is asleep,” Kieran said quietly. “You don’t mind… right? It’s fine if we sleep here? I don’t want to go up there yet… I mean… If you don’t want us here, then I guess…”

“You’re staying here,” I grunted.

We both kind of froze. I recovered first and wrinkled my nose at him.

“Your house is fucked, that’s why,” I added in a mutter, quickly turning away from him.

Kieran stayed silent for a small moment longer, but then he let out a sad sigh.

“It sounded like that, yeah…”

I could feel my alpha glaring at me inside my head. I could feel how lowly it felt about me. It couldn’t understand how I could be so cold, especially since the omega was so broken. Especially after such a scary night. Especially since his nest was now ruined.

I let out a quiet groan. “What it’s worth, I don’t think they stole much.”

“I didn’t have much to steal, I suppose…” he murmured.

Except for the baby…

With my alpha still demanding more, I let out a breath and turned back to Kieran. He was watching his baby, slowly caressing his little cheek. He was tense. Even his eyes were tense, like he was fighting against tears.

And he was shivering…

“Get over here,” I said, lifting the covers.

He looked up at me. He seemed a little shocked.

“You’re cold, right? If you get sick, I get sick, and that’s a shitshow neither of us wants,” I said, keeping my voice harsh.

He still only stared at me, unsure of what to do.

“Your baby is freezing his butt off,” I noted, though Ares looked comfortable wrapped in his little blanket.

But it was the only way to get this omega to think.

And he finally shifted closer to me. He was careful when he moved, and he kept a close eye on me, so I stayed still. Once he was as close to me as he could get without touching me, I pulled the covers over him. The duvet wasn’t large enough for both of us to get comfortable, but at least it would keep us warm.

“Your basement is fucking cold, by the way,” I muttered and looked away.

“Yeah… It’s a bit chilly…” he said, but with less sadness in his voice.

I glanced at him, and our eyes met. He gave me a small, tentative smile. His scent grew stronger and surrounded me completely. I couldn’t tell what he smelled like, though…  

I felt my face getting a little hotter…

“I’m only doing this because you’ll make a nice little private bitch,” I grunted at him.

“Right, right…” he said with a short chuckle.

“I mean it,” I said as coldly as I could.

“Okay,” he only said, curled up around his child, and closed his eyes.

And for some reason, I couldn’t close mine.

“You’re just brainwashed…”

I bared my teeth at the memory of him telling me that. This little… omega… didn’t know what he was talking about.

In minutes, he was finally sleeping. My alpha wasn’t exactly happy with me, but it was less angry. It was mostly paying attention to the omega. To Kieran.

I was too tired to turn my head away, so I just let my alpha watch him sleep.