Chapter Text
The rev of an old engine was the first thing Lance could sense as he came to, peeling away the layers of cotton wool filling his head until he could fully assess the situation he’d landed himself in. The engine’s vibrations reverberated through the hard floor pressed against his back and the subtle scent of a beta sitting close by were the first things he noticed when everything came into focus. His ankles and wrists were bound with tape and the stale smell of his breath trapped in the burlap sack pulled tight over his head told him that he had been unconscious for quite a while.
Lance groaned, head pounding and hands trembling as fear and adrenaline flooded his system. He tugged on the bonds around his wrists, fighting through the splitting pain in his head and the ache in his throat from suppressing the urge to cry in order to sit up. Lance cried out in pain as a boot collided with his face, his lip splitting with the force of the kick.
“Stay down, Omega” the voice to his left spat.
Lance growled defensively, he couldn’t access the switchblade hidden within his pocket, not with the beta’s eyes trained on him, waiting for the opportunity to kick him again should he disobey. He’d lose it before he had the chance to use it so he succumbed to the pain for the time being, curling in on himself to be left alone with his own voice screaming in his head, so loud that he couldn’t make out the words.
He tried to think back to how he had gotten in this situation but his memory was hazy at best; the last thing he could remember was slipping out of his bed, careful not to wake his niece and nephew and tugging on some old sweatpants but he hadn’t bothered to find a shirt or shoes. He’d slipped out the living room window above the couch and shimmied down the rain pipe to take a walk, just like he had done so many times before when the dreams got to be too much and he was weary with memories of the past.
He’d left the small apartment he shared with his brother Luis, sister-in-law Lisa and their two children, Nadia and Silvio, in an attempt to clear his head of the distressing nightmare that had woken him in the first place. Rain poured from the sky, as it had done for the last three days, showing no sign of letting up any time soon. He could barely feel the drops as they hit his skin and plastered his hair to his scalp.
Even as the chill soaked deep into his bones, he couldn’t feel it; the nightmares left him with a numbness that he couldn’t escape from, not even in the daylight. Sometimes the pain was less when he was distracted with his niece and nephew or out with his best friend but they couldn’t always keep it at bay, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
There were no more tears left to cry anymore, all that was left was a heartache that wouldn’t heal and memories of the life he once had that was now nothing more than the very thoughts that always plagued his mind, even while asleep.
Lance’s finger tips traced distractedly over the jagged edges of the scars on his stomach as every step took him further and further from the apartment, only the blue glow of the streetlights kept him from disappearing into the darkness entirely.
A strangled scream drew Lance out of his own head, his gaze darting around the abandoned streets to find its source. The sound had caught his attention but with the rain pouring at such a deafening rate, he couldn’t narrow in on which direction it had even come from.
The scents of so many people in such a densely populated area usually clung to the air of every sector of their ward. The heavy downpour had washed away every lingering scent, leaving naught but a blank slate behind. Lance came to a stop beneath a streetlight, nose upturned in search of a discernible scent and ears straining to hear any sound that would give him a clue.
Heavy footfalls echoed like gunshots and Lance turned around; a well built man, a beta by the looks of it, exited the mouth of the pitch black alleyway, not ten feet from where Lance was standing. He dug a phone out of his pocket, the rain pouring too hard for Lance to hear what he was saying and then the smell hit him.
Terror and iron permeated the air with a smell like rotting meat, the body of a lifeless omega strung over the beta’s shoulder as if she weighed nothing. Lance was frozen, his own scent reeking of fear and his feet refused to move. The beta chose that moment to look up, looking just as startled to see Lance as Lance was to see him.
He ran.
The asphalt stung his feet and shards of glass left behind by drunkards that had long since retired for the night, cut his feet but the thudding footfalls of the beta giving chase drove him to run faster. The beta caught up to him, slamming his entire weight forward into Lance’s back and sending them both sprawling to the ground. Lance’s stomach and palms were torn up by the bitumen but still he scrambled to get to his feet.
A knee dug into his lower back and thick fingers that smelled like iron wrapped around his throat, crushing his windpipe with ease. Lance could remember hearing the beta curse, a searing pain as his head was smashed into the ground and then nothing but darkness that wrapped around him like a blanket.
The truck had finally come to a stop, the brakes squealing and the rumble of the engine falling silent. Lance felt hands encircle his ankles and he kicked out, hoping to at least injure one of his kidnappers. The tape that bound his ankles was cut and he was hauled upright with a bruising grip on his upper arm.
Lance swayed on his feet, head pounding with a combination of pain and unbridled rage that had replaced the fear that had incapacitated him in the face of the dead omega. His own life was already a shitshow, getting kidnapped was the last fucking thing he needed and he was a hairsbreadth away from gouging the beta’s eyes out on principle. The weak-scented beta held him by the scruff of his neck like a disobedient pup, inching dangerously close to his scent gland and holding him in place, no matter how much he fought to get free.
He was led up a set of cold, stone steps, he could feel as much beneath his bare feet and rivulets of warm blood snaked down the plain of Lance’s back as the beta’s blunt nails dug in deeper, keeping him incapacitated no matter how much he struggled against the hold on his nape. The burlap sack was pulled from his head and Lance’s lungs burned; taking in deep breaths of fresh air, chest heaving as he looked around with wide eyes.
He stood in the courtyard of what was once a long forgotten temple, the grey stone worn by age and the countless storms it had weathered through over the hundreds of years it had stood. A dense forest of towering trees surrounded the temple, the trees so tall they blocked the slowly rising sun as the sky changed from blue to gold after what seemed like an eternity in darkness, further proving that they were, as Lance had suspected, miles and miles away from civilisation.
Lanterns hung from the corners of the roofs and along the walls, dappling the courtyard in a soft, orange glow and a quick observation of the towering pagoda and the central temple had him realising that the building had been renovated to serve a new purpose.
The heavy scent of a powerful Alpha pervade his senses had Lance turned his head, following his nose to the direction of a towering Alpha that sauntered down the steps that led from the central temple down into the courtyard. Long dual toned hair fell over his shoulders like a curtain and the sleeves of his white button-down were rolled to his elbows, showing off a sleeve of intricate black tattoos. Lance noticed the shoulder holster atop the Alpha’s shirt and the butt of a gun peered out from beneath his left arm.
“Do you want to explain to me why he is still alive? We don’t leave witnesses Rax” the Alpha growled furiously, his voice echoing off the stone walls like claps of thunder that signified an oncoming storm. He stopped his descent at the last step, standing above his men. The Alpha’s scent had Lance’s lips curling into a snarl as he huddled in on himself, averting his gaze at the Alpha’s tone of voice.
It was an instinct built into the very DNA of every omega ever born and their role was ingrained into them the day they presented as their secondary gender. It was the role of an omega to always obey an alpha because, as the weakest class, they needed an alpha to protect and provide for them. Omega’s were genetically predisposed to succumb to the scent, voice and dominance of any alpha present and it was a compulsion Lance had fought tooth and nail against his entire life.
Lance lifted his head in defiance, fighting against the desire to submit and the Alpha’s displeased growl at the blatant show of disrespect had Lance sneering, teeth bared and eyes burning with hatred. The Alpha looked down at Lance with nothing more than disdain in his eyes and disgust in the curl of his upper lip.
“This is why, Sir” the beta, Rax, answered, delivering a swift kick to the back of Lance’s knees, sending him sprawling, once again, to the cold stone and aggravating his wounds further. Rax pinned him face down with a knee to his lower back and a hand to his nape. Rax spat on him and Lance growled; bucking against the hold on him as a rough hand rubbed harshly across his back, clearing him of the blood that had already begun to dry on his skin.
Every child, regardless of their secondary gender, was born with the name of their soulmate etched into their skin. Soulmates weren’t always romantic either; some people were brought together by their marks and were nothing but friends that spent their lives together. For Lance, black lines of Japanese script that flowed like spilt ink, decorated the length of his spine, reading the name of his destined mate; Takashi Shirogane.
Lance snarled threateningly as the Alpha crouched beside him, shaking his head in an attempt to fight against the heady scent pouring off the Alpha, filling Lance’s head with cotton wool and leeching the tension from his shoulders. The release of such a potent calming scent was usually an unprompted response from an alpha that needed to calm down a distressed omega but in this instance, he doubted that this Alpha wanted anything but to subdue Lance and regain the chip to his fragile ego.
“You have got to be kidding me. This omega is my mate?” the alpha spat contemptuously. The once calming scent dissipated like smoke, replaced with the acetous scent of disgust. He rubbed a hand across his eyes, breathing through gritted teeth, “I don’t have time for this. You should have killed him when you had the chance, instead of wasting my time”.
The soft calm that had washed over Lance shattered like glass, his chest ached and tears stung his eyes at the harsh rejection. The repudiation of a soulmate was an occurrence so rare that it was almost unheard of, only few history books ever detailed such a phenomenon. Lance was hauled to his feet and without a second thought; he threw his head back, colliding into the beta’s nose and reveling in the sickening crunch of bone shattering. The moment the beta let go of him, Lance lunged for Shiro.
Using all of the force he could muster, Lance slammed the Alpha to the ground and climbed on top of him, pinning his biceps to the ground with his knees; a position would have been rather intimate in any other setting, considering how close his crotch was to the Alpha’s face. He tugged the switchblade from the depths of his pocket and raised his arm, bringing down the bleed in a swift arc, slicing a deep gash across Shiro’s nose from one cheekbone to the other.
“I don’t fucking care what my soulmark says, I will never belong to any alpha. You’d do well to remember that”.
The beta hauled himself upright, one hand clutched to his broken nose as blood poured down his face and stained his teeth red. He charged. Free hand tangling into Lance’s matted locks and tearing him away from Shiro. He slammed Lance’s back into the ground, grinning with sick satisfaction at the winded groan Lance emitted.
The beta bent down, mouth agape to make some snide remark when Lance’s lips twisted into a feral smirk, a beautiful handgun, the metal black and the handle etched with violet filigree, twirled between his nimble fingers. He’d swiped it from the holster beside Shiro’s ribs during their scuffle. He held it steady, clicking the safety off and cocking the gun. Lance raised the muzzle to the beta’s forehead, his eyes burning like blue flames.
“You’re just an Omega” the beta spat, “You ain’t gonna pull the trigger”.
“That’s where you’re wrong” Lance answered.
He pulled the trigger.
A clean shot between the eyes.
Lance didn’t so much as flinch as the bullet entered into the beta’s head, even as blood spattered across his skin his eyes remained open and focused. He rolled to his feet before the beta’s body could fall, firing again and again as men rushed towards him, their own guns drawn, putting bullets in them with so much ease it was almost troubling.
With the magazine empty, Lance dropped the gun and growled, teeth bared as he lunged for the men still stupid enough to attack him, blinding them with sharp nails, shattering their noses and tearing through their skin with his teeth. Blood splattered his skin as bodies dropped like flies, the injured Alpha’s eyes darkening as he took a seat on the stone steps that led up into the temple entrance to watch the battle unfold, the gash across his face pulsing blood that dripped off his chin and soaked into his button-down.
Lance was feral, chest heaving and blood dripping from his lips, he was a masterpiece painted in red, a hurricane that only came to a halt when his opponents were stricken with fear of the carnage the Omega had wrought upon their comrades.
Lance briefly wondered what his family would think if they saw him; covered in blood, chest heaving and eyes burning with unbridled rage. Would they see him as a heartless murderer or a cornered omega that did whatever he had to do to escape?
Was he a murderer?
“Alright, that is enough, all of you” Shiro bellowed, “Lance-” his voice rumbled like thunder, Alpha voice slipping into his tone.
The Omega hissed at the sound of his name, gaze fixed into a withering glare. Lance turned, crossing the courtyard towards Shiro without another word, the men having fallen silent and the only sound being his bare footfalls on the cool stone. He only stopped one, stooping down to retrieve the gun from where it lay before continuing until he stood face to face with Shiro, unafraid.
He slid the bloodied gun back into the holster beneath Shiro’s arm, “If you think I’m some weak omega that’ll just roll over for the first alpha that tells me to, you’re sorely mistaken”
“Weak? You’re the first Omega I’ve ever met that could take on so many alpha’s and live to tell about it” Shiro smiled, folding his hands together as blood dripped from the gash across the bridge of his nose. His inner Alpha was practically giddy, such a strong Mate, so brave and so beautiful, the words a clear juxtaposition to the venom he had spat earlier.
Lance wiped his forearm across his face, smearing the blood that stained his lips and turned his back on the Alpha, taking quick strides away, only stopping once to slip his hand into Rax’s pockets to procure a set of car keys. He passed through a mighty arch, jogged down a flight of stone steps and didn’t look back. He pressed the automatic lock on the keys to determine which car the keys belonged to, clambered into the driver’s seat, started the engine and followed the road through the thick woods and back to civilisation.
~*~*~
Lance sighed as he hoisted his messenger bag higher onto his shoulder and pushed open the sunshine yellow door of Balmera; a popular café owned by his best friend Hunk and his mate, Shay. The small bell above the door tinkled as he entered and Lance made a beeline for his favourite booth, tucked away into the back corner of the café, thankful it wasn’t occupied as the rest of the café was steadily filling with Hunk and Shay’s regulars.
Hunk had quickly become his best friend within his first week in Japan, helping him learn the language and adjust to life in a new country after moving there for his niece’s medical treatment.
“Hey buddy, you aren’t lookin’ so good. Rough day?” Hunk asked, plopping down in the booth seat opposite Lance, sliding over a matcha milkshake and a hefty slice of his famous wobbly cheesecake.
“You could say that” Lance chuckled bitterly, lips wrapping around the mouth of the straw and groaning in approval at the flavour that burst on his tongue.
“Wanna talk about it?”
Lance paused, what could he even say? Got kidnapped by the Japanese Mafia for witnessing a murder, met my soulmate, he’s the leader of the entire operation by the way… oh and I shot some people and stole a car”. The last thing he wanted was to endanger Hunk and drag him into the clusterfuck by telling him the truth.
“Nah, just didn’t sleep well, had nightmares again and forgot my face routine, so I look less sparkly than usual. Don’t worry though, I’m sure all the ladies will still fall all over themselves” Lance finally answered with a wink, making light of the situation as he swirled his straw around the bright green mixture of his drink.
Hunk laughed and clapped Lance on the shoulder as he excused himself to check if his fa'apapa had cooled down enough yet. Lance smiled, hoping it didn’t look like as much of a grimace as it felt and rested his cheek on his palm, staring out the window to the busy street, wondering if things would ever be the same again.