Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sonic tried to still the random tremors that shot down his limbs, knowing what they meant just as he knew his racing heart would do nothing but make the situation more dire. He needed suppressant.

He needed it now.

“Sticks!” Sonic pounded on the badger’s door harder. “C’mon I said the codeword and the backup codeword to make sure the first wasn’t a trick. Lemme in!”

“Sonic?” Sticks opened her door just enough to poke her head out and looked around him suspiciously. “Who’s with you?”

“No one, Sticks, it’s just me. I need–”

“That’s what someone who wasn’t alone would want me to think so they could spring a trap!”

Sonic tilted his head in confusion at the badger, his tone tense and urgent. “What? No!”

Sticks narrowed her eyes in agitation, but then her nose twitched, and she pulled back in surprise.

Sonic rolled his eyes in exasperation, sighing heavily. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Sticks disappeared inside, leaving her door open for Sonic to follow. He shut it carefully behind him, wanting this conversation as quiet and secure as possible. He shifted uncomfortably as he watched the badger search through her disorganized belongings. She flung scraps of fabric and odd bundles of greenery this way and that. The occasional sound of ceramic shattering made him flinch.

It made sense she wasn’t prepared. He wasn’t prepared either. He shouldn’t have had to worry about this for another month at least. He was early. Well, rather, his heat was early.

He ducked his head in embarrassment at his situation, the existing flush on his cheeks deepening. Sonic the Hedgehog, world-renowned hero, acclaimed ladies’ man, and…

Secret omega.

It wasn’t that he was necessarily ashamed to be an omega. He wasn’t. It was what that status meant that freaked him out more than any evildoer ever could.

Omegas were rare and had been growing increasingly so over the past several decades. While female betas could technically become pregnant and carry children to term, it was rare as well. With the Mobian population quickly falling, governments had taken it upon themselves to ensure that every Omega was paired and mated by their 21st birthday to make the most of their childbearing years.

Sonic was almost 27.

Being tied to someone, being nothing but a baby factory? Having his freedom completely and irrevocably stolen from him?

No thank you.

He shifted nervously, emerald eyes glancing back toward the door. The others would be waiting for them. They were all supposed to meet at his shack so they could set out on this stupid mission to find Egghead. Why they couldn’t just leave it alone, he had no idea, but Amy insisted the loony scientist had been too quiet for too long, and Eggman hadn’t been at his base in weeks, if not a month. Tails had picked up a surge in chaos energy not terribly far away the day before, so that’s where they’d decided to begin the search.

Sonic dodged a random pot his friend threw over her shoulder in her haste. “Sticks, I really–”

“I know, I know! I can smell ya from over here!”

Sonic frowned uncomfortably and crossed his arms over his chest. Sticks was the only one that knew the truth. She’d been helping him since they met during his first heat, when he’d been alone, confused, and more than a little embarrassed. She wasn’t an omega, but she understood what it was like to be alone. She made sure he didn’t starve to death when he got too weak to walk and then shared with him a combination of herbs her grandmother had created for preventing heat cycles and altering baseline scents. Apparently she hadn’t wanted to pump out a kid every year either and had prevented her heats to control the number of children she and her mate had.

Sonic scoffed at the thought. What a concept. Having a choice in the matter. Not anymore. Omegas were nothing but glorified broodmares.

“Here, I found–uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” Sonic asked, panic rising in his voice. “Why ‘uh oh’?!”

Sticks held up the jar she typically kept his mix in. There was barely a dusting of herbs in it. “I thought you weren’t due for another five weeks!”

“One, are you charting me?? And two, yeah, I know, it’s early. Like, really early.”

Sticks frowned and moved toward her makeshift kitchen, setting her kettle on the stove. “I don’t like that, Sonic. That’s never happened before…. I suspect–”

“It’s not aliens.”

“Aliens!”

Sonic hung his head and groaned. “Just gimme the tea, Sticks.”

“I’m just saying. Any missed chunks of time? Funky little burns?”

“No. And no crop circles outside my hut either.”

Sticks stood back, a thoughtful hand coming to cup her chin. “Interesting. It’s less likely, but maybe the herbs just aren’t doin’ the trick anymore.”

“What?” Sonic snapped to attention. “That’s not possible. They’ve worked for…” he counted on his fingers, “going on nine years now!”

“My grandma never took ‘em this long, you know. Who knows what it’s doing to your system.” The badger turned her attention to the kettle as its whistle let her know the water within was ready. She poured the meager contents of the jar into a diffuser and added boiling water. Steam rose from the mug as she handed it to Sonic who immediately began blowing, eager to get its contents into his system.

“I don’t care what it’s doing to my system as long as I’m not forced to shack up with some alpha and crank out kids for the rest of my life.”

Sticks shrugged. “Seems kinda cushy to me.”

“You’d lose your mind.”

“What mind?”

“Exactly–” Sonic ears perked at the sound of voice approaching. “Shit! It’s them!” He hurriedly began drinking his tea, not even caring that it immediately seared his tongue and throat. The relief was near immediate, and Sonic breathed in a deep sigh of relief before handing Sticks his empty mug. “Can you find more of those herbs where we’re going?” he asked hurriedly.

Sticks barely managed a quick nod before the others were at the door.

“Sonic?” Amy called out. “Sticks? Are you in there?”

Sonic hesitantly sniffed his underarm and shook out his fur, hoping his true omega scent had dissipated enough that the others wouldn’t detect the subtle scent of heat that had started to creep in.

Sticks slid the empty herb jar into her pack and pulled the drawstring tight. “We’re coming! We’re coming! Hold your horses.” She opened her door and pushed through the others, seemingly her typically grumpy self when in actuality she was breaking them up so they wouldn’t be close to Sonic when he exited.

The blue hedgehog quickly followed after, hopping anxiously from one foot to the next as his friends stared at him curiously.

“Sonic, you were supposed to be at your shack half an hour ago!” Amy chided. “It was your idea to meet there!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. Sticks was convinced the Froglodytes were eavesdropping and asked if I’d check it out.”

“It was an emergency,” Sticks added, picking up her favorite walking stick and pointing it aggressively toward her burrow. “I could hear them whispering! Sonic did too!”

Sonic froze, feeling the other’s surprised gazes fall on him. He looked to the side awkwardly, his attempted smile coming out as more of a cringe. “Uh, yeah… mmhm. They sure were… active.”

Amy frowned, foot tapping the ground impatiently. She glanced at her communicator. “Well, they’ll have to wait. We’re already well behind schedule.”

“Egghead’s been quiet for weeks. I think he can chill for an extra hour or whatever. Besides, shouldn’t we just be enjoying the peace for once? Why do we have to go looking for trouble?”

“He’s never been this quiet before,” Tails countered. “Knowing Eggman, he’s up to something big. Would you rather wait for him to sneak attack us?”

“I mean, kinda,” Sonic grumbled, shifting uneasily when Knuckles moved closer, a strange look on his face.

“You guys smell that?” the echidna asked, nose angled up.

Sonic gulped, heart beating frantically in his chest.

Knuckles was an alpha.

Sticks immediately pushed against their red friend, urging him toward the wooded path. “It’s the Froglodyte stench, I tell ya! They’re everywhere!”

“Smells kinda familiar, like–”

“Rotten eggs!”

“That’s what rotten eggs smell like?” Knuckles asked, completely baffled. “It smells so good, though–”

“Okay, Knuckles,” Amy sighed. “Enough about eggs! We have bigger fish to fry.”

“Fish?! That’s a relief. I’m so hungry even rotten eggs are making my mouth water…”

Sonic shook his head as he followed the others, shoulders sagging with relief he was worried wouldn’t last. This was going to be a long day, and if he didn’t get more tea soon….

He honestly wasn’t sure what he’d do.

It was, in fact, an exceptionally long day.

Knuckles managed to find an active beehive, and instead of giving it a wide berth like any sane Mobian, he’d climbed the tree that held it and tried to procure himself a quick snack. Amy had tutted and tsked as she dug into the first aid kit she was quick to remind them they’d said wasn’t needed. Knuckles had the good sense to look sheepish as she irritably fretted over him. Or at least he tried. There was a fair amount of swelling, so it was hard to tell for sure.

Tails had led them around in circles for half the day after trying out some of his new tech, and Sticks had yet to find more of the botanicals she needed to make his tea. He typically needed a daily dose for the week his heat usually ran. A monthly one was fine, otherwise, to keep his scent masked. If she didn’t find more, it was going to become very obvious that not only was Sonic actually an omega, but he was actively in heat.

To top it all, they’d not found hide nor hair of Eggman.

“Let’s rest here for the night,” Amy called out as the group trudged to a stop. The female looked around and nodded, noting the small clearing would give them a place to stretch out while the surrounding forest would provide plenty of firewood. “Tails, you help me set up camp. Knuckles, go lay down.” She grimaced as the echidna shuffled past her. “Just looking at you makes me hurt.”

Knuckles collapsed onto a particularly cushy patch of grass and flung an arm over his eyes. “I don’t like the outside,” he groaned. “It’s so angry.”

“Those bees were just defending their home.”

“I wasn’t gonna hurt it, just take a little honey. They had lots.”

“You know, Knux,” Sonic quipped as he strode by. “That’s considered breaking and entering in most civilized places.”

Amy rolled her eyes and pointed to the dense tree coverage. “You. Make yourself useful and go gather firewood.”

“Aw c’mon, Ames,” he whined. “Just a little break? We’ve been walking all day.”

“Keep whining and I’ll make you cook dinner.”

Sonic’s eyes went wide. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would,” Amy countered. “Even though I know for a fact it wouldn’t be edible.”

“You’re cruel, you know that?”

Amy shrugged. “You say cruel, I say effective leader.”

Sonic sighed, turning back the way they’d come when Sticks moved to his side. “I can’t find the right plants, not around here at least.”

“What?” Sonic hissed. He pulled the badger further into the forest, mind racing. “But that dose will wear off completely by tomorrow night at best!”

Sticks shrugged helplessly. “Maybe it’s time to let the widabit out of the bag.”

Sonic shook his head. “There’s no way! Even if the others find out, they won’t look at me the same. I’ll be a ‘precious omega,'” Sonic mocked, fingers forming quotation marks in the air beside his head. “I don’t want to be treated differently, and I sure as hell don’t want to be forced into some mate bond that I don’t even want!”

“What if an alpha would help but not mark? Then you’d be functional, and your scent wouldn’t be screaming you're in baby-making mode. I could use something else like mint or sassafras to cover up your baseline–”

“What alpha wouldn’t mark an omega?” Sonic scoffed. “You know how it works. They fight over every single one of us available. If they get one, they sure as hell don’t let them go.”

“What if Amy or Knuc–”

“Don’t even go there.”

Sticks sighed and shook her head. “I’ll keep looking.”

“Please,” Sonic urged. “Or I’ll have to leave, and you’ll need to make up some sort of excuse for me.”

Sticks shot him a disbelieving look. “You wouldn’t make it two miles if your heat hits full force! You’d be too weak, not to mention any alpha nearby would be able to scent you like a shark to blood. Not all alphas are honorable.”

“I know that,” Sonic hissed under his breath. And he did. It didn’t happen often, thankfully, but it wasn’t unknown for an alpha to force themselves on an omega in heat, even force bonding them. The punishment was severe, but the damage was done. Most omegas never fully recovered.

He shuddered. “That won’t happen.”

“‘Never say never’, that’s what granny used to say, and that was before the night the kraken came.” Sticks’ eye twitched.

Sonic’s face scrunched up a bit. “Your granny was a dark little gremlin, you know that, Sticks?”

“How do you know about the gremlin blood?” Sticks hissed under her breath. “That was seven generations back, and–”

Sonic held his palms up in defense. “Forget it!” he said quickly, if a little awkwardly. “A bad joke. I don’t know anything about gremlins, swear.”

Sticks narrowed her eyes, but slowly walked backwards and away from him, eyes creeping to the sides like the wooded shadows listened in, and for once….

She wasn’t wrong.

Chapter Text

Sonic slept fitfully. Even in the midst of the shaded forest, close enough to the ocean that the breeze still wafted through the trees, he was overheated and flushed. His skin felt overly sensitive, like he could feel every strand of grass under his back, every brush of wind in his quills. His metabolism, normally already far higher than a normal Mobian, was amped up, elevating his heart rate and quickening his breaths.

The discomfort in his body plagued his unconscious. Vivid dreams that weren’t quite nightmares flashed through his mind anytime he began to delve into deeper sleep, startling him awake throughout the night. By the time the sun began to lighten the eastward sky, Sonic was already wide-eyed and staring at a ceiling of leaves.

He lay still, not wanting to wake the others, and worried at his lip. The dose of suppressant the day before had been too little. He could feel the tremors in his limbs begin again and a dampness growing at the base of his tail. He was flushed, hot, and the ache he felt between his legs was beginning to throb.

He wasn’t going to be able to make it until tonight. At best, he had a few hours before the scent of an omega in heat surrounded him and drew the attention of not only his friends, but any nearby alpha.

He was going to have to make a run for it. There was no other choice. And he’d have to go now, while he still had the strength to run. If he didn’t… the unsatisfied urges would leave his body weaker and weaker until he was bedridden in his misery for a week or more.

A biological punishment for not procreating.

He carefully stood on shaky limbs and tip-toed to where Sticks was sprawled near the remnants of their fire. He tapped the top of the tin foil hat she insisted on sleeping in and knowingly dodged the answering swipe of her walking stick. He pressed a hand to her mouth and a finger to his own, shushing her before her panic woke the others.

He froze, afraid to move, but there was no break in the rumble of Amy’s snores, and straight across from him Tails and Knuckles remained fast asleep. He quickly glanced back down at Sticks and removed his hand. “I have to leave,” he hissed hurriedly.

Sticks’ eyes shifted warily around the clearing. “Anyone could be out there,” she whispered back. “I saw a chupacabra once. It asked for directions, but I knew it was a trap!”

“That’s–” Sonic took a deep breath and closed his eyes, gathering his patience before returning his attention to his delusional friend. “I need you to cover for me.”

“And tell them what?”

“I don’t know! Whatever. Anything besides the truth.”

Knuckles grunted in his sleep, and nearby Sonic could hear Amy murmur something along the lines of, “S’good…smells so good.”

He gulped. Amy was an alpha too. And a hell of a lot more capable of putting two and two together than Knuckles. “Sticks!” Sonic insisted. “Please!”

“Fine! But just for the record, even I think this is crazy!”

Sonic didn’t answer her. There wasn’t time. With a rush of wind and a scattering of leaves and twigs, he was off and darting through the trees. Within seconds he was out of breath, flagging. His legs felt like noodles, some circuit between his mind and feet jammed and sluggish. He tried to push on, just a little further at least, far enough that maybe after a rest he could manage to get back to his hut, but his body had other ideas. With a startled cry, he toppled face first to the ground, barely managing to curl into a protective ball before he was skidding down the side of a small cliff. He bounced haphazardly off exposed tree roots and outcrops with pained grunts before landing on the water-smoothed rocks of a shallow river.

He groaned and uncurled, wincing as what felt like every muscle he had spasmed at once. He held his breath against the pain and tried to sit, but a gush of warmth along the base of his tail had him stopping halfway. “Fuck!” he muttered out loud, embarrassed and in pain.

His arms shook and he fell back against the palm-sized stones that spread out a few feet from where the water lapped and trickled past on its way to the sea. They pressed against his aching muscles in all the wrong ways, but they were blessedly cool. He allowed his eyes to close while he tried to slow his breathing. Just a moment to rest. A moment, and he would push himself up and keep going.

A rustle of small branches and leaves had a blue ear ticking slightly to the left. He felt a sense of unease settle over him, green eyes slowly opening, though he made no attempt to move. Not yet. If this was something he needed to try and get away from, he needed to save his strength. He waited with bated breath, his heart sounding in his ears. His thoughts ran crazy through possibilities. A rabbit. The wind. A lust-crazed alpha. A chupacabra?

He shrugged off that last one. Probably not a–

The sound came again. Louder. Closer this time.

Sonic swallowed hard. He couldn’t fight. Not like this. If he had a mate keeping the side effects of heat at bay with frequent couplings, he would be relatively normal, but as it was… his condition was worsening quickly. Way faster than it should. All those blocked heats were determined to make this one the worst of the worst.

He had to run. It was his only option.

He jumped up, digging for the last of his energy reserves, but it was too little, too late.

A hand closed around his throat, and he was violently thrown back to the ground. The air was knocked from him, and his vision swam as his head slammed into a rather large piece of basalt. He gripped the affronting wrist and tried to kick up with his legs, but even though he managed to land a blow, it wasn’t forceful enough to matter.

“What have we here?”

Male. Definitely male. Sonic growled and struggled, the sun blinding him and preventing him from getting a good look at his attacker. All he knew was they smelled terrible, like if rancid meat and toe funk had a baby. “Get off of me!” he managed to snarl, even as the hand on his throat closed a little more, forcing a cough out of him.

The ratty scarf he normally wore was ripped from his neck and a cold nose bumped into his shoulder, leaving a wet trail to just under his jaw. The lone male ignored Sonic’s intensifying struggles and inhaled deeply. “Omega,” he hummed hungrily. He breathed in again, and this time his foul breath puffed out against Sonic’s fur. “Unmated omega.”

Sonic’s stomach sank. Fuck. An alpha.

Why couldn’t it have been a chupacabra??

Sonic kicked. He scratched. He even tried to bite at the arm that held him, but it was no use. It made little difference and only caused his fleeting energy to flag. “Let me go, and get the fuck away from me!” he cried. His quills flared protectively, but they only tore into rock and sand. He blinked against the sun, finally noting that it was some sort of canid that was thoroughly scenting him. Sonic had to purse his lips to keep from gagging, not only from the smell, but memories he’d forced to the back of his mind nearly a decade ago. Ones no one knew about. Not even Sticks.

“Let me go, asshole!” Sonic raged, managing to get a knee up between his attacker’s legs and using it to his advantage. It wasn’t much, but it weakened the hand against his throat just enough that Sonic was able to headbutt the canine and scramble away.

A howl of fury echoed as Sonic tripped and slid toward the water, grabbing his scarf along the way. Another howl started, but abruptly cut off, morphing to a yelp even as it was followed by another male’s snarl.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Two of them??

Sonic forced himself up on shaky legs and limped, tripped, and blundered along the water, trying to take advantage of a break he wasn’t likely to get again. If only he could hide, but then they’d just scent him again, unless….

He glanced at the water and grimaced.

This was officially the worst day ever.

He strode into the clear, shallow creek, immediately gasping at how cold the water felt against his heated flesh. He tied the flimsy garment that gave him some semblance of safety back around his neck and kept moving downstream. The water was near his hips and rising alarmingly, but he didn’t know what else to do. It worked in the movies, so maybe this way he couldn’t be scented?

“What are you doing, fool?”

Sonic’s head jerked up. He knew that voice. He whipped around and immediately felt his feet go up from under him. The current wasn’t terribly strong, but enough to take him down and leave him flailing and coughing as he fought to stand again.

Strong hands gripped under his arms almost painfully, and a second later, his head broke the surface. He gasped for air, coughing and sputtering, still reflexively kicking out against the water.

“Stop!”

He immediately obeyed. “Shadow?”

Crimson eyes glowered down at him as he was hauled to safety and abruptly dropped on yet more rocks. Sonic groaned and rubbed his backside with a heated glare. “What the fuck, dude.”

“Don’t look at me like that. I just saved you. Twice.”

“I had it under control, and what do you mean, ‘twice’?”

Shadow looked at him like he’d grown two heads. “Are you so dense you don’t understand what that jackal wanted to do to you?”

Ooh… so it was a jackal, Sonic thought. Sonic would find him when this was over and make sure he was never a threat to anyone else. He’d never forget that scent.

Speaking of….

Sonic’s nose twitched. Cedarwood. Lavender. A touch of something more complex, something musky but deliciously so. It smelled good. Really good. Sonic felt his mouth water and his body heat up again despite the fact that he was shivering.

“Are you not even going to thank me?”

Sonic heard Shadow, and he thought to answer, but it was hard to focus with that scent…. He suddenly doubled over with a groan as his heat ramped up in response.

“What’s wrong with you? That thug shouldn’t have been able to keep you down.”

The last of the suppressant chose that moment to wear off, and Sonic’s true scent finally broke through strongly enough that someone wouldn’t have to be close to figure out the truth of his status.

“You’re….” Shadow started in disbelief. His nose twitched and flared, rising slightly in the air. His quills bristled and a low, deep growl rumbled from his chest. “Omega.”

That scent, the one that smelled so good, billowed up toward Sonic, stronger and more potent. He felt a fresh warmth pool between his legs. He was leaking slick now. A lot of it. He hadn’t done any of this since his one heat. He’d never experienced it as an adult, and it was… it was so much stronger. The absolute need was indescribable. The ache beneath his tail was so deep and intense, it hurt.

Shadow took a step back. And then another. “You need to leave.”

“Can’t,” Sonic muttered weakly. Fuck, Shadow looked so good with his stupid little quill cowlick and his obnoxiously cuffed gloves. And it was him. That scent was him, so intoxicating and strong. Alpha, it screamed at him, his thoughts boiled down to just a few primal statements repeating on loop. Powerful, strong, virile, mate–

Sonic stopped at that last one. Mate? Shadow? What the actual fuck. Hormones were messing with his head bad. He just needed it to stop–

Shadow was moving farther away, a cold stoic mask in place of the shocked and agitated creature he’d been seconds before.

“Wait!” Sonic called out, barely managing to hold up his hand. It quickly fell back down to his side. His blood burned with desire and lust and the absolute want for his rival of all fucking people. “I need your help.” His voice shook, and he inhaled deeply, though he immediately discovered that was a mistake because all Shadow’s scent did was make him hornier.

Shadow took another step back, though it faltered. “You have your communicator. Call one of your friends, I’ve done more than enough–”

“I can’t.”

“I don’t care.”

“Shadow–”

“Leave me out of it.” Shadow turned, his shoulders visibly tense and his breaths short, like he was trying not to draw in air.

Shadow was leaving. He was really leaving. Shit!

“I need you to fuck me!” Sonic blurted. His face burned hot enough he was positive he could cook something on it, but his pride and ego would have to take a back seat this time. “I’m an omega, and I’m in heat. No one knows except Sticks, and I’m out of suppressant. If anyone else finds out…. If people find out I’m an omega… they’ll pair me off with some random alpha, and that’ll be it! No more heroing, no more rescuing, no more running, fighting, nothing. I can’t. I can’t live like that.” He paused another moment and closed his eyes, swallowing the last of his pride. “Please.”

Shadow didn’t turn back around, but he also didn’t leave. “You have alpha friends. Go to one of them.”

“I can’t. I told you. They don’t know, and I don’t want them to.”

“Then why me?” Shadow spun around to face him, his hands curling into fists at his side. “What makes you think I would want to debase myself by being intimate with you?”

“Well, for starters, I don’t think that bulge you’re rocking there is because you’re off to do your laundry.”

Shadow growled and made to rush at Sonic, fist drawing back, but he quickly lost steam and stuttered to a stop a few feet away. He was close enough now that Sonic could see how dilated Shadow’s pupils were, how his breaths were short and fast, and his jaw clenched.

“Listen,” Sonic continued, hands up in placation, “this isn’t exactly something I had on my Shadow bingo sheet either, but look at it this way. If they mate me off, you won’t have anyone to race or fight with, and you know I’m the only one you can’t beat.”

“I can beat you.”

Sonic winked at him and shot him a suggestive look, despite his haggard state. “Yeah you can.”

Shadow groaned and ran a hand over his face, clearly at wit’s end. “Just sex? I… service you, and that’s it?”

It was taking every ounce of strength Sonic had to continue forming coherent sentences. His stomach rolled with more heat cramps, and he grit his teeth to keep the pain from his voice. “Ew, that makes it sound super creepy, but yeah, just sex. And once it’s over, I’ll have Sticks help me figure out how to get rid of anything that might… well… stick.” Sonic cringed at his own words as much as the discomfort in his body.

“That won’t be a problem.”

Sonic tilted his head in confusion. “You on blockers?”

“It’s none of your concern, but possible progeny won’t be a problem.”

Sonic visibly sagged in relief. “So… does that mean you’ll do it?”

Shadow tilted his head back to look at the forest canopy and grumbled under his breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but yes... I will help you.”

Chapter Text

Sonic gaped in disbelief. He honestly hadn’t expected Shadow to say yes. “And you really won’t tell anyone?” he pressed. “Not a soul?”

Shadow faced him again, eyeridges narrowed in exasperation. “As if degrading myself in this way would be something I’d willingly share. Besides, would that not defeat the entire purpose of this little… encounter?”

Sonic shivered as red eyes settled on him again. Were Shadow’s eyes always this intense? They seemed to burn through him with repugnance, and yet it only added to the pressure building between Sonic’s legs. Fuck, even Shadow’s disgust was turning him on. Everything was turning him on.

“True,” Sonic muttered in agreement, the words a struggle when all that really wanted to come out was some sort of mortifying whine. “But you can’t blame a guy who doesn’t want to become an incubator for double checking.” He cleared his throat and dug his own fingers into his thigh hard enough to bruise, anything to take his mind off the inferno of need that somersaulted in his stomach. Even so, his voice was strained. “So… are you gonna come over here? Because I don’t think walking is in my available repertoire at the moment.”

“Are you going to be this pathetic the entire time?”

“It’ll get better once you actually do your part, asshole.” Sonic managed a weak glare. “Are you gonna make me crawl over there, or what?”

“That is an interesting idea.”

“Fuck you, dude.”

Shadow scoffed but begrudgingly closed the few feet separating them. Even that small action made Sonic’s breath hitch in anticipation. Shadow’s mere presence was enough to make more slick gather under his tail and his dick throb in its sheath. Shadow wasn’t the only one sporting a bulge.

Shadow stood awkwardly in front of him for a moment before scooping Sonic up into his arms. The hero yelped in surprise. “Holy–give a guy some warning next time!”

Shadow’s jaw clenched, presumably in annoyance, but no retaliatory insult came. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Sonic probably wouldn’t have heard the words. Not pressed this close to Shadow. Sonic’s mind was very quickly being reduced to mush.

Very horny, very indecent mush.

Sonic buried his nose in the crook of Shadow’s neck and breathed deeply, instinctively seeking more of the other’s scent. He closed his eyes and bit his lip to stifle a moan, but nothing could stem the dampness that now coated his inner thighs. He curled his tail between his legs, trying to hide just how advanced his condition was, but of course Shadow noticed.

He couldn’t see the other’s reaction, but he did feel Shadow’s hold on him tighten, feel his steps quicken. The physical touch alone was soothing to Sonic’s overburdened system, like it somehow knew it would soon get what it needed. The unbearable ache, the need, were all still there, but the painful cramps and nausea had faded, and in their place more desire than Sonic had felt in his life combined.

He knew he should probably ask where they were going, but with Shadow’s heart pounding against him, and the other’s breath catching anytime Sonic would shift against him, he couldn’t bring himself to care. At this point Shadow could fuck him in the middle of Meh Burger and he wouldn’t give a damn.

With that thought, the air suddenly cooled, and the light faded. Sonic perked at the change and opened his eyes only to notice he was in a somewhat familiar cave. He hadn’t been in this one exactly, but one like it for sure. Ancient purple etchings lined the walls, glowing with just enough luminescence to light a dusty path that wove between stalagmites and disappeared into the dark.

Shadow followed the narrowing tunnel with ease, the soft thud of his steps echoing against stone. The further they went, the more Sonic relied on his other senses for clues about his surroundings. It was especially dark along the path, no ancient depictions lighting their way, though Shadow was unphased and navigated as though it were broad daylight. The air was musty and damp, but laced with the same comforting and arousing aroma that coated Shadow. “You live here,” Sonic blurted with sudden realization.

The hybrid grunted in acknowledgement and twisted so that he could take the last few steps with Sonic’s head leading the way into a large cavern. More purple pictographs covered every surface but the floor, even the vast ceilings. Sonic looked up in awe, momentarily distracted from the alpha’s nearness and even his heat. “How have I never seen this before? Tails would be fascinated–he loves studying the ancient’s–”

“Mention a word of this place to anyone, and I’ll strangle you with your own tongue.”

“Aw Shads, is this how you romance all your dates?”

Shadow dropped Sonic on a pile of blankets, albeit a little more gently than before. “You are not a date. Don’t make this into something it isn’t.”

Sonic felt a surprising pang of hurt that almost felt like… rejection? He’d never thought of Shadow in a romantic way, or really… anyone for that matter. So how could he feel badly over something he didn’t want? It must be hormones playing tricks. That was the only explanation. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he mumbled sarcastically, hoping to cover up his internal fumble. He leaned back a bit on his hands, as well as he could, anyway. He could barely hold himself upright. He glanced at Shadow and spread his legs a bit in invitation. “So, you gonna come down here, or should I start without you?”

The hybrid’s jaw clenched, and his tail flicked with irritation, but he lowered himself onto the makeshift bed. He crawled over the other, forcing Sonic back and down onto the blankets, but kept himself separate with sheer strength of will. Sonic smelled… delectable. Shadow inhaled deeply and let out a low growl. His mouth watered, and his dick swelled even more in its pouch. He’d been hard as fuck the second he’d scented that Sonic was in heat. It was only a miracle that he’d found him so close to his cave. Otherwise, he’d have had no choice but to fuck him in the open.

Running with a massive erection wasn’t something he was practiced enough with to try.

“Have you done this before?” Sonic asked quietly.

Shadow noted a slight waver in Sonic’s voice, unusual for the confident, swaggering hero. “Once,” Shadow answered, a surprising part of him unsettled by Sonic’s nervousness and seeking to soothe it.

“You didn’t mate them?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Neither of us wanted it.”

“Who was it?”

“Do you want to do this or not?” Shadow scowled.

“Yeah, yeah, I do,” Sonic blundered, “it’s just that, I haven’t, so….”

That one simple statement, uttered innocently by Sonic, triggered Shadow’s instincts more than anything he ever thought could. He’d always thought himself above his more primal Mobian side, finding even his yearly ruts easy to manage in solitude, but this….

He swallowed a groan and pressed his nose against Sonic’s neck, nosing away his bandana until his fangs grazed the skin under blue fur. The urge to bite down and claim was so strong Shadow’s mouth watered, and his canines elongated. Below him, Sonic whined softly, his gloved hands coming up to push against Shadow’s shoulders. “Sh-shadow,” Sonic gasped. “You can’t mark me–we’ll be bonded.”

Shadow licked over that oh-so-sensitive flesh that his alpha side screamed was his and his alone. He sucked on it, lips curling up around his fangs as he fought to regain control over himself. Sonic groaned, fingers now digging into the muscle of Shadow’s arms but no longer pushing, almost like he wanted Shadow to bite him. Shadow could hear how Sonic’s heart thudded, how his blood all but sang, and his scent saturated the air. Sonic’s body was adamantly begging for the opposite of the hero’s words.

Shadow swallowed hard and closed his eyes, fighting for restraint. “I know,” he finally managed, voice raspy. “I won’t.”

“Do other things,” Sonic said shakily, “I want you to do other things. I need you to do other things.”

Shadow pulled back a little, just enough that his breath ghosted across Sonic’s muzzle. “What other things, omega? What would you have me do to you?”

“Touch me!” Sonic answered immediately, “I want you to touch me so fucking bad, Shadow. It hurts that you’re not.” He squirmed a little, arching his back, desperate for more of Shadow to be pressed against him.

One of Shadow’s hands came up, pulling at Sonic’s bandana to remove it, but the hero stopped him with a look on his face Shadow hadn’t seen before. Apprehension.

“Don’t,” Sonic said, unusually serious. “It stays on.”

Shadow felt the impulse to remove it anyway, his alpha urges wanting the omega’s neck bared to him, but he ignored them. He released his grip on the old fabric without a word and opted to trace Sonic’s collarbone over the fabric instead. He smirked when he noticed that simple touch was enough to make the hero bite his lip in order to silence his sounds. Any hint of fear the hero had displayed was quickly erased and replaced by need. Shadow’s hand trailed a little further down, grazing over velvet-soft peach fur. It didn’t matter that he’d never expected to be in this position with the most annoying hedgehog on the planet. Every primal desire he didn’t think he had was fully surfaced and raging thanks to Sonic’s scent and condition.

He paused over Sonic’s sternum where he could feel his rival’s heart racing. “Where do you want me to touch you?” he asked.

“You know where!”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Why?” Sonic whined. “I thought you said you’ve done this before!”

Shadow leaned back on his heels and stripped his gloves before reaching for Sonic’s hands to do the same. “I have, but I still want to hear it from you. I want you to say it, so I know this is what you really want.”

That caught Sonic off guard. He watched as Shadow tossed the damp cloth that had covered his hands to the distant side of the cave. Sonic’s bare fingers ghosted over Shadow’s before guiding the dark hedgehog to the area just above his tail. Shadow’s sharp intake of air echoed much louder than it actually was. “There,” Sonic said, voice already breathier than he’d like, “right there. That’s where I want you to touch me.”

A low rumble of approval left Shadow’s chest as he outlined Sonic’s dripping hole with a single finger. “You’re so wet….”

“C’mon, Shadow–just. Please. Get on with it already.”

“And needy.”

“I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t get your dick inside me, and it fucking hurts like hell that you haven’t, so yeah, I guess I’m a little eager to stop feeling like death.”

“We’re going to have to work on your patience, Omega,” Shadow murmured as he eased that digit inside.

Sonic gasped, hips bucking up and trying to take more. It felt so good, but it wasn’t nearly enough. His cock peeked from his sheath at that first penetration, dripping precum against his still damp lower belly. “Don’t call me that,” Sonic growled, though it was half-hearted and breathless.

“What? Omega? It’s what you are.” The finger Shadow had been using turned to two, and Sonic keened. “See? You need to be filled. Your body craves it.”

“I know what I am,” Sonic groaned. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Shadow bent back over him, tilting his head as crimson eyes raked over his form. He curved his fingers, sliding them in and out of that tight, wet channel with a little more force until–

Sonic cried out, flailing slightly and reaching out to grasp Shadow’s arm in a death grip.

Shadow hummed in satisfaction when Sonic’s inner walls clenched wildly in response to his prostate being stroked. “What about now, hedgehog?” he taunted. “Do you like it a little more?”

“Fuck! Chaos! What the–” Sonic panted, a sheen of sweat breaking out despite the chill the cave air brought to his fevered body. He rocked his hips into Shadow’s hand, still gripping the other male’s arm with enough force it had to hurt, but Shadow voiced no complaint. If anything he seemed to be enjoying making Sonic an utter mess. The needy ache in his groin was intensifying with every movement of Shadow’s fingers. Sonic’s heart raced erratically and his heels weakly dug into the nest of blankets in an attempt to get more leverage. He needed that touch deeper.

“Just do it already,” Sonic snapped, growing more and more desperate.

“Tch. So demanding. Aren’t you supposed to submit and take what you’re given?”

Sonic’s ears pinned, and he bared his teeth, despite the fact that he’d do almost anything for Shadow to keep going. “If you want a meek bedmate, maybe you should go put your dick somewhere else.”

Shadow withdrew his fingers, much to Sonic’s immediate dismay. Was he really leaving? Or kicking him out? Shit. He couldn’t walk, how was he gonna–?

Sonic only mentally floundered for another second before he felt something hot and hard as steel pressed against his backside. He froze, his breath coming in shaky pants as he tried hard not to whimper and beg.

“Who said I wanted you meek?” Shadow pressed inward a little, rubbing his dick against Sonic’s hole, wetting it with the copious amount of slick coating the area. His cock was so hard it hurt. All he wanted to do was fuck into his rival like a savage, knot him, mark him, make him scream and then do it all over again. Shadow’s entire body quivered with barely checked restraint. “I want you to submit. It’s not the same thing.”

Shadow’s words barely registered. Sonic wasn’t thinking. He couldn’t. His being burned, and everything in his lower belly tightened to the point of near agony. “Shadow–dammit. Please!”

He squirmed and tried to pull Shadow in, but the hybrid bared his teeth. “Be still!” he snarled. His words were sharp, and Sonic’s ears instinctively folded, his body going limp as his head tilted to the side. The movement exposed his throat and placated something deep within Shadow. He brought his nose to the crook of Sonic’s neck, hot breath heating blue fur under the hero’s ratty bandana. He let his teeth graze again, even through the fabric, and felt Sonic tremble under him, still and compliant for once.

Shadow closed his eyes and pressed his hips forward a little more, feeling that ring of slick muscle open for him, but it was still so very tight. Sonic let out a soft sound of discomfort, and Shadow stopped. The anatomy he’d worked with before wasn’t the same as Sonic’s…. Perhaps he hadn’t prepped the other enough? He went to withdraw what little of him had made it inside Sonic, but the blue hedgehog immediately cried out, a forlorn sound Shadow never thought to hear from his rival. “Don’t!” the hero all but begged. “Don’t stop.”

“I may enjoy punching you in the face, but I don’t want to hurt you. Not like this.”

“It’ll hurt more if you don’t–just. Please, Shadow. This heat. It’s not like my other one. It feels like my insides are lava, and I can’t wait anymore, please!”

Maybe it was the alpha part of Shadow that sought to protect, or maybe it was just that he cared more than he should, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny Sonic. Not when he needed him like this.

He pushed himself inward, more of his cock gripped by tight, wet heat. “You’re burning up,” Shadow muttered, pulling back enough to press his lips against Sonic’s forehead. It was searingly hot. Far too hot for a normal heat, enough to be dangerous.

“Just don’t stop,” Sonic gasped, eyes closed, as he tilted his head up, kissing the underside of Shadow’s muzzle. “You can make it better, just don’t stop, please don’t stop.”

Shadow gently eased forward, taking care not to go too deep too fast and risk tearing his counterpart, but the hero was having none of it. “All of it, Shadow. I need all of it, right now, right now, please, all of it, I can’t–”

Sonic’s words were abruptly ceased by Shadow’s lips. Shadow kissed him hard, more of a punishment and a means of getting him to shut up than sexual overture, but it didn’t matter. Sonic groaned loudly and became more pliant, letting Shadow thrust forward with a little more ease. “That’s it,” Shadow murmured, breaking apart for air. With his right hand, he reached down to stroke Sonic’s cock, surprised to find it comparable to his own. He thought omega males were supposed to have smaller organs, but apparently Sonic was the exception to many of those rules. He gripped his rival’s hard length and pumped it up and down in time with short, shallow thrusts. “Relax for me. Let me in. You can take it, I know you can.”

Sonic cried out softly as he was stretched by Shadow’s girth. It was too much, it hurt, but it also felt good and wasn’t enough. It was wholly contradictory and confusing, but the incessant cramping of his stomach had faded the deeper Shadow got, and he knew, beyond a doubt, that if Shadow hadn’t found him when he did, this heat would have killed him.

The claws of Shadow’s free hand dug into the blankets near Sonic’s head, and the arm he supported himself with shook, but he froze at Sonic’s cry. “Do you need to stop?” he managed to get out. The urge to rut mindlessly into Sonic was almost unbearable. Shadow’s breathing was hard, his lips curled into a half snarl with the effort of fighting his instincts while he waited for Sonic’s answer. “Be truthful.”

“No,” Sonic answered breathlessly, “But–” He looked away, embarrassed even though his rival was halfway to balls deep in him. “It helped. When you kissed me.”

Under normal circumstances, Shadow would have held that over Sonic’s head. He would have taunted and mocked him. There was no time for that now, and no desire. The only thing he wanted was to knot and fill the omega beneath him until Sonic smelled more of Shadow than himself.

Without hesitation, Shadow lowered his head and caught Sonic’s lips in a far gentler kiss than before. He tongue traced along the hero’s bottom lip, before slipping into his mouth just as he thrust in deeper. Sonic’s sounds were muffled by his kiss, but the blue male made no move to push Shadow away or otherwise stop him. Instead, he opened his mouth, caressing Shadow’s tongue with his own until a deep, rumbling groan was worked from the hybrid, and Shadow’s hips snapped forward, fully sheathing himself in Sonic’s heat.

Shadow broke apart with a gasp, releasing Sonic’s dick to support himself with both arms. He was shaking too hard to risk one. It felt too good. “You’re so tight,” he muttered, holding still while the other arched against the blankets and tried to adjust. Sonic’s hands fisted at his sides, and his breaths were shallow and fast. Shadow kissed against his face, forcing the omega to turn his head and bare his throat again. He nuzzled under his rival’s bandana and sucked at the blue column hard and swore he could feel his canines ache with the need to bite down.

He hadn’t felt that with Rouge when he’d helped her the previous year.

He hadn’t felt any of this.

Sonic groaned, and Shadow felt the omega’s inner muscles tighten. Shadow’s tongue laved over the sensitive area where a mate mark would go and felt Sonic’s arms come around him, holding him place. He began to thrust, slow at first, shallow. Each of his breaths were hot against the flesh he wanted to badly to sink his teeth into.

“Mine,” he growled, low and deep.

Under him, Sonic moaned and nodded, something in him responding to Shadow’s possessiveness in a way that made his hole leak even more slick. The wetness around his tail was already obscene, but Shadow only hummed in appreciation. “So wet for me,” he grunted. His hips moved harder, faster. “And you feel so fucking good….”

“Please, Shadow,” Sonic whimpered, hating how pathetic his own voice sounded. “More….”

Shadow answered with a punishing thrust, finally letting go of some of his control. Sonic cried out again, but this time with nothing but pleasure and anticipation. “Yes! Fuck–just like that, right there--right fucking there, don't stop!”

Shadow didn’t need to be told twice. He pounded into his rival with a deep groan, feeling the hero’s walls grip him so tightly it was like they were drawing him in deeper and deeper. At the base of his cock, his knot was swelling, ready to be forced into his omega to keep him full. The bulbous gland pressed hard against Sonic’s entrance, even the thick girth of Shadow’s cock paling in size. Shadow wanted to knot him so fucking bad….

Sonic pulled Shadow back down and kissed him, savoring the feeling of the dark male’s lips against his. “Knot me,” he demanded in a haggard whisper. “I need it.”

Shadow hissed through his teeth, eyes clenching shut against the powerful urge that washed over him to do just that. “Sonic… there’s no going back if I do. You understand I won’t be able to pull out? Even if I hurt you.”

Sonic nodded. “I know, I know, but I want it–Shadow please.”

Shadow could hear the desperation in Sonic’s voice, the sheer need. It flipped a switch in his brain, his primal, alpha side raging to the surface of his actions and burying common sense and logic. Without another word, he hooked Sonic’s legs over his shoulders, bending the other almost in two, and thrust forward hard. Sonic’s answering cry was delicious, an almost feral sound of satisfaction.

Sonic could feel the stinging pressure of Shadow’s knot pushing against his hole with every slap of Shadow’s hips against his ass, but the alpha wasn’t using all his force. Not yet. It was driving Sonic mad, feeling so close to what would soothe this all-consuming desirous pain inside him, and having it held just out of reach. “Shadow….” Sonic pleaded. “I need all of it. Don’t hold back.”

“You want it?” Shadow suddenly pulled out, leaving Sonic miserably empty and sat back on his heels. “Then get on your hands and knees.”

Chapter Text

It took every ounce of Sonic’s strength to simply roll onto his belly. He tried to push himself up, but his limbs had no strength left. He bit his lip, and a frustrated sound that was more whine than he’d like to admit slipped from his throat. He struggled to try again, but then Shadow’s hands were on his hips, pulling him up onto his knees with ease. Sonic barely managed to keep his lower half from falling back to the disheveled blankets, but anything else was out of the question. His chest remained flush with the blankets.

Shadow didn’t seem to mind.

A hand stroked down Sonic’s spine before grabbing his tail and lifting it up. “I think I like you like this…” Shadow said, a hint of surprise in his tone. “Ass up. Presenting for me.”

“I’m not pr–” Sonic started, but was cut off by a pained groan. The heat cramps were starting to come back. “Stop screwing around and just get it over with already!”

“Impatient hog,” Shadow tsk’d, but there was no venom in his voice. Sonic felt his tail almost painfully pulled up and opened his mouth to protest, but then the fat bulbous head of Shadow’s dick was pressed against his leaking hole, and words became scarce.

Shadow eased in, slow and careful despite his earlier words. He groaned in satisfaction as his cock was easily swallowed by Sonic’s velvet heat. The cobalt male was tight as a vice but producing so much slick there was little to no resistance, and the sounds Sonic was trying to muffle with his arm were not indicative of any pain. He released Sonic’s tail and grabbed blue hips so he could pull the other to him and get every inch aside from his knot deep inside.

Sonic moaned as new places inside him were claimed, and despite the strain of taking something as big as Shadow’s cock, he needed more. This heat wouldn’t calm until he was knotted and filled. Maybe years ago it would have been fine, but not now, not after it had been repressed for so long. “Shadow–do it. Just cum and knot me and get it over with.”

Shadow barely heard him. His vision was narrowing to only the place where his body connected with Sonic’s, fixating on how his dick stretched out that tight ring. He watched in primal fascination and satisfaction as he pulled almost all the way out, and then thrust back in.

Hard.

The sound Sonic made in response set something off in Shadow. It overwhelmed the conscious, self-aware part of his brain and brought something forward that only wanted to claim and breed.

Which was almost humorous given the condition of his biology.

Shadow set a rough, steady pace that had him grinding his knot against Sonic’s weakening pucker with every thrust. “That’s it,” he mumbled, “you’re almost there. You’re going to take my knot aren’t you, Sonic? You’re going to take it all.”

“Yes!” Sonic yelped in response. “Yes–Chaos yes, I need it Shadow, I need it so bad–please….”

Shadow pushed harder, his pace quickening, his pelvic muscles tightening. “Say it again. Beg for it. Tell me how much you want it.”

Sonic clawed at the blankets, drool pooling in his mouth as he felt everything inside him coil and teeter on the edge. It fucking hurt, the sting of Shadow’s knot felt impossible to take, like it would tear him in two, but he felt certain he’d die if he didn’t get it. “Please!” Sonic cried again, desperation filling his tone.

Powerful black hips snapped forward just as Shadow pulled Sonic back tight against him. The hybrid’s knot finally breached Sonic’s entry and then–

Sonic blacked out.

Only for a second, maybe less, but then he was cuming so hard he couldn’t do anything more than cry out and rut into the air beneath his cock while Shadow let out a muffled snarl over his shoulder. Within the blip Sonic had been out, his rival had come down across his back, one hand gripping the bedding while the other hugged around Sonic’s lower belly, holding him in place. Shadow’s knot was impaled securely inside Sonic, keeping the dark hedgehog’s thrusts trapped and short, but no less powerful.

Sonic’s inner muscles clamped down, clenching rhythmically with every wave of pleasure, milking the other and encouraging his alpha to release. It worked like magic and Shadow, it seemed, wasn’t immune to biological witchcraft.

Shadow let out a savage growl and tugged Sonic to him almost painfully just before heat bloomed in Sonic’s belly. The instant relief of his symptoms, the euphoria, had Sonic’s eyes rolling back in his head. He could feel every pulse of cum from Shadow’s dick, each one further stimulating his already sensitive insides until tears spilled from the corners of his eyes and he was babbling random curses and praises. A few drops of something warm and wet hit his shoulder, but Sonic didn’t care about anything other than the sheer sense of relative normalcy he felt.

Like a miracle, the weakness, the pain of an unfulfilled heat lifted, and Sonic’s mind felt clearer than it had since the day before. He blinked heavily and then groaned in pain as he came down from his high and finally felt the stinging ache of Shadow’s knot in his ass.

“Shh,” Shadow said, “I’m going to move us to our sides. Try not to fight it when I move you, and stay as relaxed as you can.”

“Easy for you to say, you don’t have a grapefruit up your ass.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, but tried to keep the snark from his voice. Tried being the key word. “It’s not that big.”

“It feels that big.”

“Would you rather me suffocate you by lying down as we are for the next twenty minutes because at this point I’m starting to find that solution acceptable.”

“Ass,” Sonic grumbled. “Fine. Do as you must, almighty alpha.”

Shadow nipped Sonic’s shoulder in retaliation, which brought a surprising gasp from the hero instead of the indignation he expected. Shadow chalked it up to a heat-addled mind and gently brought his and Sonic’s hips down to the nest before sliding his arm under Sonic’s head and shifting them to their sides. He could tell the movements pained Sonic, though the other voiced no complaints.

He still felt a bit guilty.

“It won’t be so bad next time,” he offered softly. “Your body will adapt and get used to it.”

A blue ear swiveled back, and Sonic nodded, though his breaths were short and his sides tense with discomfort. Shadow rested his elbow on Sonic’s shoulder and combed his hands through Sonic’s quills in a way that Maria, his late sister, had done for him when he’d been in pain. Within a minute, he could feel Sonic press back against him a little more, his respiration evening out.

“Thanks,” Sonic offered awkwardly. “That feels… nice.” Another few moments of silence followed, the only sound that of their breaths and the occasional drip from stalactites further in the cave’s darkness. “Didn’t peg you as one for aftercare,” Sonic eventually added.

“Do you want me to stop?”

A pause. “No.”

“Good,” Shadow answered, continuing his slow strokes. “For what it’s worth, I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“I know. I actually feel a lot better. This heat…. It’s probably all the suppressant I’ve taken, but it’s like if hormones had a boss battle.”

Shadow let out a surprised huff of amusement. “Sounds dramatic.”

“Fuck you dude, don’t try and pretend like you didn’t enjoy yourself.”

“I did.”

“You totally–wait. What?”

“I did enjoy myself. Every inch of my cock is inside you right now, and you’re full of my cum. Is that not evidence enough?”

“I guess I didn’t expect you to admit it.”

“What’s the use in denying the obvious? I don’t expend energy on useless ventures.” When Sonic didn’t respond, his movements stilled. He turned his head a little more to Sonic, a tightening of uncertainty twisting in his stomach, enough that it filtered into his voice. “Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Did you… enjoy yourself?”

Sonic seemed to stiffen slightly, and for a second Shadow thought he wouldn’t answer, or worse yet, say no, but after a moment, Sonic gave the subtlest of nods. “Yeah. I didn’t want to… but I did.”

Shadow settled his arm around Sonic’s side in what might have been considered a cuddle if they were a couple. But they weren’t, so it wasn’t, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fragile softness in Sonic’s voice. “Why didn’t you want to?” Shadow asked.

“I don’t know. I guess a lot of reasons. If it didn’t feel good, I’d never want to do it again. I wouldn’t have to submit. I wouldn’t want to submit.”

There. That was the real reason. Shadow was certain. “Does it bother you? Submitting.”

“Yes,” Sonic said and then sighed. “No.” Another pause. “I don’t know. It’s confusing and… complicated.”

Shadow thought on that for a moment. When Sonic begged for him, it certainly fulfilled a deep-seated drive he’d been surprised to learn he had, but…. “Would it help if I didn’t ask it of you?”

“Isn’t that the whole point?” Sonic asked bitterly. “The omega submits to the alpha, then the alpha pumps them full of babies.”

“I won’t be pumping you full of anything besides cum,” Shadow countered, “and regardless, I don’t seek to force you into submission. If you want to submit, that’s one thing, but I have no desire to see you in a role you don’t want. I would still need to fuck you to see you through your heat, but I won’t ask you to present. I won’t ask you to beg again. I won’t call you omega or ask you to call me alpha.”

Sonic turned slightly in Shadow’s arms. “You’d do that?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Shadow said, a light growl of frustration in his voice, “as annoying as you are, I still… respect you.”

“Aw, Shads. I think that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey, is that any way to talk to someone you respect?”

Shadow started to pull away, testing his knot against Sonic’s sore ass, and found he could almost free himself. Sonic yelped and grabbed at Shadow’s arm across his chest. “What the hell?? So much for respect.”

“Calm yourself, I was just trying to see if I could separate us.”

“Obviously not. Ha. Get it? Not?”

“Careful, or I’ll do it anyway.”

Sonic exhaled loudly and pouted. “Fine. You’re no fun.”

“The wet spot you left on my blankets would indicate otherwise.”

Sonic blushed. It was a pretty damn big wet spot. He wasn’t sure he’d ever come that much or that hard. “Will you come back with me? To the others? Stick around for when I need you again?”

“You’re seriously considering continuing your idiotic mission?”

“The others need me. I can’t just leave them alone out there.”

“You’re a risk to yourself and your friends if you draw in feral alphas in rut.”

“Not when I have my big strong alpha to keep my heat at bay,” Sonic argued.

Exaggerated and disingenuous as they were, Sonic’s words still stirred something in Shadow. Something possessive. “It would be easier if you kept my scent on you.” He burrowed his nose into the back of Sonic’s neck and felt the other shiver against him. “The more I take you, the harder it will be to hide anyway.”

Sonic gulped against his suddenly dry throat. Why did he like the thought of that so much? “I have to, or the others will find out I’m an omega. Just–follow behind us and stay close? I’ll wander away from the others when I feel another bout coming on.”

“This is a terrible idea.”

“It’s just for a few days–”

“And then what? Your heat will last longer than three days. Will you see yourself through the rest of your need?”

Sonic felt a rush of anxiety and tensed at the mention, a complex wave of insecurity and anxiety washing over him. He’d be defenseless if Shadow didn’t want to stick around. What if someone else found him? What if…. What if he found him? Sonic’s heart thudded in his ears. What if he finished what he started and Sonic couldn’t–

Sonic squashed that thought as quickly as he could, startled at the deeply out-of-character spiral. He fought against the rush of panic that had sent his heart rate skittering upwards and forcibly slowed his breathing. He was Sonic The Fucking Hedgehog. He’d never let his fear control him and he wasn’t about to start now.

Shadow could feel Sonic tense against his chest and in… other places. He gently, if a little awkwardly, rubbed Sonic’s arm in a way he hoped was comforting. “I’m not saying I won’t stay. I will. If that’s what you want.”

Sonic released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I hate this. Being so… needy. And dependent.”

“You didn’t seem to mind a few moments ago.”

Sonic threw a glare over his shoulder. “You don’t get it. You’re an alpha. Ruts will make you extra horny, sure, but they don’t make you feel like your insides are melting, and you’ll die if you don’t get a dick in you. They don’t make you… weak.”

“Then allow me to even the playing field. I’ll satisfy your needs through your heat, and when it’s time for my rut, you’ll satisfy mine.” The words spilled out of Shadow before he could stop them. If he’d been able to kick his own ass at the moment, he would have.

“You’d want that?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself. It’s embarrassing enough to have said once.”

Sonic seemed to consider his offer, but then nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Deal.”

Shadow nodded against Sonic’s shoulder, before trying to pull out again. This time he was successful. Though he tried to be careful, the blue male pressed against his belly let out a sharp hiss and immediately pressed his legs together. That didn’t stop Shadow from seeing the trickle of white that flowed across Sonic’s ass cheek, evidence of what he’d left inside his rival.

His dick twitched, eager to fill that tight hole with more. Shadow fixated on the sight with a hungry glimmer in eye before he realized Sonic was speaking.

“--Rag or something? Tissues?”

“What?” Shadow snapped, the stifling of his alpha instincts making his response irritable.

“Do you have something I can clean up with? I’m sort of leaking all over myself here.”

Shadow pushed himself up, tucking himself away before his fresh arousal became too much to fit back into his pouch. He stalked over to the scattering of boxes where he kept his few possessions and grabbed one of the ratty washcloths he kept for bathing. He wet it with some drinking water he kept on hand and tossed it at Sonic. “Here.”

“Thanks.”

Sonic brought the rag between his legs and gingerly wiped at the sticky fluids that had pooled there. He bit his lip to keep his discomforted sounds to himself. He was sore and felt a little raw, though as far as he could tell there was no blood and he hadn’t torn, a feat given Shadow’s size. His rival had truly tried to be careful.

He got the mess as best he could and shakily rose to his feet. His ass hurt, his back hurt, but even so he was far better off than he’d been before Shadow fucked him.

“Bend over.”

Sonic’s head whipped up at that. “I’m good. For a bit at least. You don’t need to–”

“I’m not going to fuck you. I’m going to heal you. I can tell you’re in pain, and I refuse to carry you.”

“You can do that?”

“To an extent, though I don’t do it often. It depletes my chaos reserves in a way fighting doesn’t.”

Shadow came up behind Sonic and moved close. His still bare hand brushed up the slight curve of Sonic’s ass in a way that Sonic knew wasn’t meant to be sensual, and yet...

“Bend over,” Shadow repeated, the command in his voice anything but subtle. It made Sonic feel a rush of heat, something about it having the opposite effect it usually would. Normally he’d mouth off, do the opposite just because, but this time… he wanted to obey.

As much as he hated that about himself at the moment, he also wanted to be able to do more than waddle on the hunt for Eggman.

He put his hands against the cave wall at the foot of Shadow’s makeshift nest and bent over a little. Shadow kicked Sonic’s foot out, widening his stance and forcing Sonic’s hands to slip a bit so he was in a very vulnerable position. One of Shadow’s hands rested on Sonic’s lower back while the other moved between his legs, fingertips lightly brushing over his used hole.

“You’re still so wet….” Shadow whispered, and Sonic shuddered, ears tipping back. He whimpered and wiggled his ass back against Shadow.

A low, deep groan rumbled in Shadow’s chest. “Keep doing that, and the meetup with your friends is going to be postponed…”

Sonic’s lips parted on a silent gasp at the thought. He wasn’t in pain, his heat wasn’t forcing him to mate. He just… wanted it. He wanted Shadow.

That thought seemed to plunge him into metaphorical ice water, and his desire retreated to more bearable levels. He managed to keep himself still as he felt a not unpleasant warmth spread from his entrance and into his depths. Almost instantly he felt relief, shoulders sagging slightly with it.

“Better?” Shadow asked.

Sonic nodded, eyes closed as he let out a small sigh. “Loads. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The hybrid stepped back and returned to his meager supplies so he could wash up a bit as well. A jump in the nearby creek where he’d rescued Sonic would have been better, but they didn’t have time for that. The moment he’d left his release in Sonic, the clock had restarted. He didn’t know how long they’d have before the omega was desperate again.

Sonic came up at his side, and Shadow handed him more water and a new cloth without asking, knowing the other would need it. As much as the act would normally irritate him, he couldn’t help but feel the urge to look after Sonic.

At least a little. Not a lot. Definitely not a lot.

Shadow subtly sniffed the air and felt another uncomfortable jolt of arousal hit him.

This was going to be a very long week.

Chapter Text

“You’ll need to get to the badger first. Find a way to separate her from the others,” Shadow called over to Sonic as they sped through the forest and away from the safety of his cave. The sun soared high overhead, warming the air even in the shaded depths of the forest, enough so Shadow felt a light sweat break out under his fur despite the air whooshing by him. Even with the expanse of openness and some distance between them, it was still obvious what Sonic was. Whatever the badger had up her metaphorical sleeve, it had better be strong. “My scent is all over you, and you still smell of omega and heat.” And sex, Shadow thought, but he left that part out.

“I know. I just have to figure out how to do it without her thinking she’s under attack.”

“Won’t she think that regardless?”

“Yeah…. I’d probably have an easier time getting decent service at Meh Burger.”

Shadow leapt over a downed log and skated under another as Sonic kept time with him at his side. “How long will it take her to do what she needs so the others don’t recognize your condition?”

“Dunno. Never had to do this. The tea always worked before. Even fooled you.”

“I still think attempting to disguise the truth is pointless. You only put the others at more risk by not acknowledging the facts.”

“And what are those, Shads?”

Shadow dodged a series of low branches and effortlessly resumed Sonic’s pace. “You’re not in any shape to fight anything and you’re more likely to draw trouble then steer it away. Not to mention, you insult your fox’s intelligence by assuming he won’t notice your atypical behavior.”

“C’mon, Shads! It’s not that bad. Where’s your optimism?”

Shadow didn’t bother telling him his optimism died onboard a spacecraft Sonic didn’t even know existed. “It’s not that bad because I healed you. I can’t do that every time.”

“Eh, it’ll be fine–but hey. I tell ya what. If it gets too bad, I’ll make up an excuse, and we can go back to your cave. Easy peasy.”

Shadow shook his head, already exhausted despite having limitless stamina. Nothing about this was going to be ‘easy peasy,’ no matter how much optimism-flavored stupidity Sonic had.

A hand suddenly pulled at Shadow’s, jerking him to a stop. He opened his mouth to snap at Sonic, but the other quickly shushed him and pointed into the woods. Shadow’s ears tipped forward as he focused, surprised to hear Sonic’s idiotic friends stumbling their way through the brush like toddlers learning to walk.

He clenched his jaw in irritation and embarrassment. His senses were far superior to Sonic’s. He should have heard them long before the other. It must be Sonic’s condition. It was… distracting.

Sonic motioned for him to follow, creeping around the bases of more mature trees until they were able to crouch behind a thick stand of saplings.

“I don’t get it,” Amy was saying as they trailed after Tails, whose nose was pointed down at his Miles Electric. “Sonic told you the transmitter implanted in his brain by a transdimensional race of super-beings commanded him to return to Hedgehog Village and pay his overdue water bill?”

Sticks waved her walking stick in the air adamantly. “And file his taxes!”

“Taxes?” Knuckles shouted in surprise, his face slightly more recognizable than the evening before. The bee stings had really done a number. “You guys pay taxes?”

“Knuckles, you own a small business,” Amy answered. “Do you not pay taxes?”

“For what?”

“Oh my–” Amy started, running a tired hand over her face. “You have to keep track of these things! Run the numbers, budget, file the appropriate paperwork!”

“I did!” Knuckles answered, pulling out a tattered piece of paper from seemingly nowhere. The date marked was five years before and signed with a smiley face.

“Every year!”

Shadow shook his head at the exchange unfolding before him. How Sonic managed to tolerate such buffoonery was unbeknownst to him. At his side, said hedgehog was shuffling on the ground, sifting through leaves and palming what appeared to be small stones and acorns.

The hero tossed one into the air a few times and then pitched it directly at the badger who trailed the group. It hit her dead on.

Sticks immediately crouched into a defensive stance and eyed the trees suspiciously. She rubbed at the back of her neck and pulled out her boomerang while the rest of the group walked on.

“Sticks,” Sonic hissed, popping his head up once the others had gotten several more steps ahead. “Over here!”

The badger narrowed her eyes, muttering something under her breath that Sonic couldn’t make out. “Can you hear what she’s saying?” he asked Shadow.

The striped male pinched the skin between his eyes. He could already feel the onset of a migraine brought on by the sheer ridiculousness of the situation he’d found himself in. “Something about devils in the trees.”

“What does that even mean?” Sonic popped up again, careful that the others didn’t see him, and tossed another projectile.

This time the badger whirled around, unable to stop her boomerang even after she realized it was Sonic and not demonic trees that had called out to her.

“Duck!” Sonic yelped. He made a grab for Shadow, pulling the surprised hedgehog to the ground. Twigs and leaves poked through their fur and dug into skin, but Sonic knew from experience it was nothing compared to the pain of being knocked upside the head by Sticks’ go to weapon.

The boomerang flew past, but Sonic had played this game before. He pushed back against Shadow’s struggles to stand and blanketed himself over the hybrid as the crackle of snapping brush announced the boomerang’s circling path.

“Idiot!” Shadow growled, “get off me!”

“Stay down!” Sonic hissed, and by some miracle, Shadow listened.

What Sonic didn’t know was that the only reason Shadow hadn’t thrown him off was because he was applying pressure to a place that was still swollen and sensitive from their earlier rendezvous. The dark hedgehog steeled himself against his urges, fisting his hands and gritting his teeth, until he finally felt confident that if he opened his mouth, it would be words that came out and not some series of pathetic sounds.

“Get. Off,” he all but snarled.

Sonic looked down and flushed, suddenly feeling the press of Shadow’s growing desire against his lower belly. “Oh. Um. Sorry,” he muttered, pushing away from Shadow and standing. “Just didn’t want you to get a concussion, and believe me, if that thing hit you, that’s exactly what you’d get.”

Shadow jumped up and began brushing the leaves from his fur. “If I were weak like you, maybe, but I’m the Ultimate Lifeform. It would take far more than a pathetic piece of curved wood to–”

Shadow dropped like a sack of potatoes while Sticks’ boomerang continued on into the trees. Sonic fell to Shadow’s side and rolled him over just as Sticks slid to a stop a safe distance away. “Did you have to throw it again??” Sonic snapped as she caught the weapon on its return and crouched beside him.

“I was saving you from Shadow! He’s the enemy!”

“He’s not the enemy, Sticks! He’s helping me with my heat. Or he was. Now he probably has brain damage!”

“Didn’t he already have that?”

“Sticks!”

“Sorry! What do you want me to do about it?”

Sonic breathed in deeply and slowly through his nose and closed his eyes to try and gather his patience. Maybe this was how Shadow felt around him…. “I need you to cover my scent. You said you could still hide that I’m an omega.”

“Yeah, yeah. I can do that. Plenty of things to use in these woods.”

“Do it, but don’t let the others know I’m back yet. We’ll need to make sure it’s working before I’m around them.”

“I still think you should just fess up. They’re not gonna tattle on ya.”

Sonic shook his head adamantly. “No. No one else can know.”

Sticks growled under her breath but stood. “Trail us, but don’t get too close. I’ll find you after the others are asleep.”

“Deal. And Sticks?”

The badger tilted her head in question.

“Thanks. Really.”

Sticks blushed and squirmed a bit, uncomfortable with and unsure what to do with Sonic’s praise. “Don’t mention it,” she said, punching his shoulder lightly, but accidentally enough for him to sprawl backwards beside the still unconscious Shadow. Her eyes tipped down as though really seeing the dark hedgehog for the first time. “He’s not so bad when he’s out,” she muttered. “Kinda pretty. You sure you can trust him, though?”

Sonic didn’t bother to get up. Instead he scooted a little closer to Shadow so that his hip pressed into the other’s side. The contact made him feel centered. Safe.

Which… was weird, considering Shadow was arguably the one being on the planet who could put him six feet under and had already tried. Multiple times. “Yeah,” he answered after a moment. “If he wanted to hurt me, he could’ve. I don’t think he’s all that bad. Just… angry.”

“Maybe he needs a snack.”

“What?”

“Maybe he’s hangry! Never seen the guy eat before….” Her eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. “What if he’s an–”

Sonic had seen that face before. “Sticks–he’s not an alien–”

“Android!”

Shadow chose that moment to stir, and with her newly formed hypothesis, Sticks found that arguably enough reason to get going. “Hang a sock if you’re doing the nasty when I come back!”

“On what? Sticks!” he called out. “There’s no–”

The badger darted back through the trees, leaving Sonic sighing heavily. “...Door.” This was going to be the most awkward, uncomfortable, and ridiculous week of his existence.

He was sure of it.

“What happened?” Shadow groaned, trying and failing to push himself into a sitting position.

Sonic pressed a hand against his shoulder, urging the other to stay put. “Give it a minute, Shads. I told you Sticks’ boomerang is no joke.”

“Boomerang?”

“Yeah, she thought you were gonna attack me.”

“These so-called friends of yours are fools. If I wanted to attack you, I would have.”

“That’s what I told her. I, uh, also told her you’re helping me out. With my heat. She said to trail behind them, and she’ll bring me some stuff to cover my scent after nightfall.”

Shadow’s nose twitched as he scented the air a bit, which was a decidedly bad idea. His dick twitched in its pouch, eager to be knot-deep in the idiot he’d tied himself to for the next week. “Is that even possible? It’s… potent.”

“Um, yeah. In theory? As long as you and I… you know… often enough….” Sonic looked away, a hand coming to sink into the back of his head quills. “I should be able to function pretty normally as long as the heat is sated. My system will think I’m with my mate and tone down the ‘come breed me’ pheromones. Then it’ll just be my omega scent that needs to be covered.”

“And mine,” Shadow added. “The more I take you, the more you’ll carry my scent.”

Sonic licked his lips, something about that statement bringing back the ache from before. “Should cover that too.” Maybe a part of him didn’t want it to….

“And what of me? You saw how the badger reacted to my presence. I doubt your friends will welcome me with open arms.”

“Shit. I didn’t think about that…”

“Are you even capable?”

Sonic glowered. “You’re sneaky, and you can do that weird teleport thing. Just follow and stick close.”

“And what? Wait for you to collapse in another wave of heat?”

“It doesn’t happen in two seconds, you know. I can feel it coming on. I’ll find a way to leave the group, then you find me, and boom, we bang, I’m fine for a bit, and you getta keep your favorite rival out of some random alpha’s nest.”

Shadow collapsed back on the ground. Somehow his head hurt worse despite the healing his body had already begun.

He’d been trailing Sonic and his group of merry misfits from the moment they’d stumbled into what he considered to be his territory the day before. It wouldn’t be difficult to continue doing so. He typically stayed just outside of earshot, but kept close enough to see what they were up to and intervene if necessary. He supposed he’d be doing what Sonic asked regardless of their current stalemate.

Minus the fucking, of course.

“This is the most idiotic excuse for a plan I’ve ever heard, and worse yet, you’re risking it all to try and find a man who doesn’t want to be found. Why not just enjoy the respite?”

“That’s… actually what I said. About Eggy and enjoying the peace and quiet.” Sonic sighed heavily and seemed almost... tired. “But the others were going to come anyway, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to them because I wasn’t there. It’s just a week, Shads, and only a few days dealing with the others. As soon as we find Baldy McNosehair, we can skedaddle back to your cave, and no one will be the wiser.”

Shadow wanted to argue. He knew he should argue. Everything about this plan, operation, idea, whatever–it was bad. But. Shadow also knew what it was like to regret not being there when the people you loved needed it.

“We’ll try it your way,” Shadow relented, “but if it goes poorly I won’t hesitate to remove you from this situation and take you back where it’s safe, regardless of your mission status. If your omega nature is revealed, it defeats the entire purpose of this arrangement.”

“This is going to work. You’ll see. But okay. Fine. Deal.”

“I’ll hold you to it, hedgehog,” Shadow muttered as he threw an arm over his eyes to block the sun and maybe aid his head in healing. “Because this will go poorly.”

Sonic flopped down next to Shadow and laced his fingers over his stomach as he stared up into the tree canopy. A small smile teased at his lips, despite Shadow’s pessimism. The gloomy gus could predict doom as much as he wanted. Sonic’s confidence in their plan was more than enough to cancel out Shadow’s certainty it would fail.

It was just a few days of peddling through the woods and covering his scent. It was simple enough. They’d get through it.

Everything was going to work out just fine.

Right?

Across the narrow strait that separated Seaside Island from the mainland, a lanky jackal cradled his broken arm and yelped as another of his pack straightened his broken nose. “Fuck!” he snarled, though the sound was muffled and nasally. “Did you have to be so rough?”

“Can it, Vier. You’re the one who let some hedgehog get the jump on you when you were supposed to be setting up the drop.”

Vier sat back in one of the few structurally sound chairs and grumbled, trading the grip on his arm to rub at his tender nose. “Wasn’t my fault!” he snapped back, before trying to reign in his anger. Dva was their second and reported only to Infinite. Pissing him off was never a good thing. “Found an omega on my way back, all alone. In heat to boot.”

The door to the coastal shack suddenly burst open, letting in a rush of briny air and a burst of brightness from the late afternoon sun. The energy in the room immediately crackled with an undercurrent of tension as its occupants hastily grabbed at their weapons. Vier dropped his eyes the second the lone newcomer’s gaze fell on him, the clattering sound of weapons lowering covering up his audible gulp. Being the subject of Infinite’s attention was never a good thing.

Their leader was tall and broad-shouldered, his presence taking up more space than his mass should dictate. He commanded attention and inspired fear. He was relentless, violent, and calculating. He’d fought his way to the top of their ranks through shrewd deception and had remained there through sheer brutality.

“What happened?” Infinite asked, voice deep and slow, like he hadn’t a care in the world. There was something cold in it, something that made the fur on Vier’s neck stand up every time he heard it.

“Vier went and got himself beat to shit by some hedgehog on Seaside. Says he got the drop done, though,” Dva answered.

Infinite took in the sorry state of one of his top five as he tied his thick white hair back with a leather thong. “A hedgehog did this?” There was no attempt made to disguise the disgust in his voice. “And you let him?”

“It wasn’t a fair fight!” Vier cried defensively. “He caught me off guard. Took a cheap shot, that’s all.”

Dva slotted Vier’s arm in a stained sling, the pain of it making the injured jackal more defiant than usual. “I couldn’t help it! There was an omega, full-on heat, just laying there on my way back to the boat. Begging for an alpha. Real pretty one too, another hedgehog but blue–”

Infinite’s attention zeroed in. “Blue?” he asked, trailing a hand over the scar that ran across his right eye. “What kind of blue?”

“I dunno–just blue–” Vier’s breath caught in his throat as Infinite’s hand closed around it and squeezed. The jackal coughed and spurted, his one good hand coming up to grip Infinite’s wrist and pry him away, but it was no use.

There was a reason Infinite was the boss.

A heterochromatic stare narrowed at Vier. “What. Kind. Of. Blue.”

“Bright!” Vier rasped with what little air he had left. “All over. Green eyes.” He sputtered and pulled, feeling the constriction around his windpipe lessen just enough that he could pull in a quick breath. “Peach belly. Smelled like–”

“I know what he smells like,” Infinite snapped before releasing his minion with a harsh shove. “Change of plans, men. We’re going to take a little field trip. It sounds like my long-lost mate has taken up residence at the edge of the world.”

“But he was unmat–”

“Silence!” Infinite snarled. “He is mine.”

The other shrank back, nodding and dropping their eyes. Appeased, Infinite strode to a pile of supplies in the corner, mentally calculating and preparing for everything he’d need to make sure his little omega didn’t escape again. Sure, it meant that the next payday would be delayed, but perhaps that was for the best anyway. Authorities from mainland agencies were already sniffing far too close. A break in activities would only help their precarious position.

“Vier, Dva, and Zeks be ready to leave by tomorrow morning. The rest of you guard the goods here and wait for additional orders.” Infinite reached down for a coil of rope and sneered. “I’ve got a reunion to prepare for.”

Chapter Text

It took Shadow’s enhanced system less than half an hour to heal his probable concussion, though he was almost willing to give himself another if it spared him more of Sonic’s rambling. The hero talked incessantly. It didn’t matter that they were supposedly trying for stealth. It didn’t matter that Shadow didn’t respond. He just kept going. For hours.

“Are you ever silent?” Shadow finally snapped as they maneuvered through thick understory. “Or perhaps this is all a ruse and you want your friends to hear us coming. From a mile away.”

“Sheesh, someone’s grumpy. Maybe you are hangry,” Sonic grumbled back. Truth be told, he’d known he was getting under Shadow’s skin a while back and was probably enjoying it a little too much. “Does Shadsypoo need a snacky snack?” he taunted.

That was it.

Shadow growled and shoved Sonic against a tree so hard he could almost hear the blue hedgehog’s one brain cell rattle around in his empty skull. He covered the hero’s mouth. “If you don’t shut that mouth of yours for five minutes I’ll do it for you,” Shadow hissed. His quills were raised, his muzzle wrinkled in a snarl, but then….

There was a flare of Sonic’s scent, the one that was so much sweeter, so much more intoxicating than normal, and Shadow’s anger faltered. His pupils dilated. His hold weakened just a little, enough for Sonic to–

Lick his hand???

Shadow recoiled in disgust and jerked away, but Sonic didn’t let him snap, punch, or yell like instinct demanded. Instead, the world’s fastest hedgehog used his speed to bring his mouth to Shadow’s in the hottest, most desperate kiss Shadow had ever experienced. It floored his alpha system, forcing it into overdrive and making his body respond before he was even fully aware what was happening. He groaned, pinning the other until his rapidly hardening pouch pressed against Sonic’s. He thrust against him hard, rutting into the other like an animal and absolutely blind to the world around him.

Sonic moaned into his mouth, and Shadow found that he didn’t actually mind Sonic’s noises so much in this context. In fact, he’d very much like to hear more of them.

He kept a tight grip on Sonic’s hips with one hand while the other dug into blue quills and pulled back, exposing his neck. Shadow buried his nose into blue fur and inhaled deeply, irritated that the scarf blocked easy access to the other’s scent gland, the one that made his mouth water. The one that made him want to throw good sense out the proverbial window and bite down. Even knowing what that meant. Maybe especially knowing what it meant. “You didn’t show the same signs as before,” Shadow managed to mutter, breath ruffling short blue fur. “I didn’t realize your heat needed attending again.”

“I didn’t either,” Sonic gasped back. Pressure was building in his lower abdomen, and he could feel his body responding to Shadow, a trickle of slick already dripping from his hole. “But now that you mention it…”

“Your need is only going to get worse. If I keep fucking you like this,” Shadow murmured against the other’s neck “you’re not going to be able to follow anyone anywhere, let alone find Robotnik.”

Sonic whined, his head falling back against rough bark while he tilted his head more, physically pleading for Shadow’s attention on his neck. It was something he never thought he’d let anyone do after what happened to him, never mind want them to do, but Shadow….

Shadow was different. Shadow made him feel safe. Safe enough to be exposed. At least for a minute. The sun was starting to set…. It was probably dark enough. Shadow wouldn’t be able to see anything that Sonic didn’t want to talk about, and he… trusted him not to do what had been done before.

He pulled at the scarf around his neck, loosening it and then letting it fall to the ground. Shadow didn’t question the action, just immediately buried his nose in the crook of Sonic’s neck with a deep moan. Sonic could feel the alpha shudder, Shadow’s claws digging through the fabric of his gloves and into Sonic’s hips a little harder.

“You smell…” Shadow inhaled deeply and held Sonic even closer, “so fucking good.”

Shadow’s breath was so hot against his flesh, Sonic could feel himself start to sweat. When the dark male’s tongue licked against his scent gland, his knees almost went out. “Shadow–” He meant it to be a protest but it came out a whine.

The dark male seemed to tense all over, and Sonic could feel the puff of warmth against his neck stop completely, like Shadow was holding his breath. “If I take you again, I won’t be able to heal you until the morning. We should wait until they stop for the night.”

Sonic didn’t like those words. He didn’t like them one bit. He wrapped his arms around Shadow’s shoulders and brought his legs up around ebony hips. He locked his ankles and squeezed the other tight before grinding against him. “Then don’t heal me. I can take it.”

A growl rumbled deep in Shadow’s chest. He kissed down Sonic’s bare neck, stopping to suck along his collarbone, harder than he should. He couldn’t mark the omega the way he so desperately wanted, but he could still mark him up in other ways.

Sonic wanted to care, he should care, but he didn’t. If anything, he wanted more. He wanted those dark purple marks visible on his chest, his stomach, somewhere they’d be seen so anyone who looked at him would know he was wanted. He’d been claimed. As it was, they would be almost completely hidden by blue fur and his bandana. “More,” Sonic managed to demand, even if it did sound pathetically weak.

“No,” Shadow countered, pulling away. His eyes were heated, almost glowing in the dusk as they met Sonic’s. “Not until they make camp.”

“They’ll make camp any minute, and we can catch up in seconds, even if I am waddling a bit. I need it. I need you,” Sonic insisted. “I need you inside me. I need you to fuck me. I need you to make me come. Not later. Now. Right now.”

The war within Shadow waged on his face, but Sonic could see the second he won.

“You’re a demanding, needy fool,” Shadow nearly snarled after only a few seconds of tense internal deliberation. The striped hedgehog suddenly pried Sonic from his body and roughly spun him until his face was pressed against the rough bark of the tree. “If you want it so bad, then you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

Shadow pinned Sonic’s front to the tree and pulled out his hips until they were flush with the dark male’s growing erection. “You’ll stay just like this for me…. Hands on the tree, ass up, and you’ll keep your damn mouth shut. The last thing we need is for that merry band of misfits you call friends to come running because they heard you screaming my name.”

“Well that’s a bit presumpt–” Sonic bit his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood when Shadow yanked on his tail and ground against the building wetness at its base. He swallowed hard against all the pitiful whines that were bottling up in his throat, letting out a shaky breath instead.

“Good boy,” Shadow said, voice a deep whisper, and though Sonic knew Shadow meant it to be condescending, his cock sure as hell didn’t know the difference. The cooling evening air suddenly caressed the head of his length, and he knew he was one touch, one more filthy command away from being completely exposed.

Sonic’s reaction didn’t go unnoticed by Shadow. “You like that…” he said, a hint of surprise in his tone. Of course the hero would like praise. “You like it when I tell you you’re good.”

“Shut up,” Sonic growled back. “I do not. I don’t give a shit what you think.”

Shadow trailed a hand up Sonic’s back, sliding between his spines and burying itself into the hero’s quills. He pulled back hard, forcing Sonic’s spine into a dramatic arch. “So,” he murmured, “if I were to tell you how delicious you look like this, all desperate and presented for me, it would have absolutely no effect on you?”

Sonic shuddered, eyes rolling back in his head as Shadow’s words caressed his mind like warm velvet. “Not even–,” his breath hitched when Shadow’s breath tickled the shell of his ear, and when he spoke again his voice came out a little higher and far too breathy, “--a little.”

“Hmph. Then I’ll save my useless words,” Shadow answered, well aware that Sonic was lying. And badly. His omega’s struggles were clear in the way his tail lifted and his legs quivered, in the heat radiating from his body and the sopping wet fur left against Shadow’s pouch. Even Sonic’s scent responded to Shadow’s words and touch, flaring until it was the only thing Shadow could smell, that mouth-watering sweet combination of heated omega and Sonic’s baseline of sea and meadow.

“I won’t bother telling you that you’re dripping…” Shadow murmured. He brought the hand he had on Sonic’s hip to his mouth and hastily pulled off his glove with his teeth before carelessly letting it fall to the ground. Not a second passed before he had his fingers pressed against his rival’s sopping hole. “And that your scent makes my mouth water….” He abruptly pushed in two fingers, going deep and curving them downward slightly until Sonic let out a tense cry and desperately clawed at the tree’s bark. “I won’t tell you how good you feel, how tight and hot and eager, like your ass is so needy it’s sucking me in–” Shadow let out a ragged groan against Sonic’s ear. “I won’t bother telling you I want to fuck you until you can’t walk. Until the only thing you can do is lift that pretty ass up and take my cock. Take it over and over again until I’ve filled you up completely.”

Sonic whined, high and choked, pushing back against Shadow’s fingers hard enough that the alpha couldn’t resist adding a third even if it was a little fast. “Is that what you want?” He fingerfucked his partner harder, until those little noises he’d told Sonic not to make were near constant. “To go back to your friends with my cum dripping down your thighs? So they can see you’re mine?” Hot, velvety walls tightened and quivered around Shadow’s fingers. “You like that idea?” Shadow continued. “Leaking my cum? Carrying my scent?” Sonic keened softly at that, and Shadow pressed closer, angling his mouth back toward the other’s ear. “Maybe you want to be claimed. Maybe you want to be bred. Is that it, Sonic?”

He could hear the hero’s breath hitch, his thighs trembling uncontrollably against Shadow’s. The dark male smirked, a glint of white fang showing as he removed his fingers and brought his cock up to Sonic’s hole. Shadow’s dick had long since released itself and ached to get back inside his omega. His omega. The thought made Shadow feel something deeply primal stir in him. “Answer me, hedgehog. Is that it? Do you secretly want to be pumped full of pups?”

“I don’t!” Sonic snapped, though his body made it clear Shadow wasn’t wrong.

“You’re lying,” Shadow whispered lowly. He rubbed his cock head over Sonic’s leaking entrance, putting just enough pressure behind the motion for there to be a hint of stretch before withdrawing. “Try again.”

“I-I don–Shadow–” Sonic moaned, knees threatening to buckle. “Stop teasing…”

“Stop lying.”

“I’m not!”

“You are.”

“Am not–oh fu–!!”

Shadow chose that moment to slam forward, and all of Sonic’s belligerence ceased immediately. Shadow’s hand released Sonic’s quills in a millisecond, allowing only one blip of the hero’s cry to echo through the trees before silencing him as best he could. He nipped the omega’s ear in retaliation and didn’t pause before setting a demanding pace. “Is this what you wanted?” Shadow asked, thrusting forward roughly. “What you needed?”

Sonic’s muffled moan of assent was hot against the palm of Shadow’s hand, the shameless nod of his head unmistakable. The hero clung to the tree, fingertips digging into the bark so hard the cloth of his gloves was threatening to give way, and his sides heaved with gasped breaths. Shadow let the hand that wasn’t keeping Sonic silent trail down his spine, stopping only to play with the pert tail that was lifted up and out of the way. He gave it a firm tug, and his ears tipped forward at Sonic’s answering groan. A finger dipped down just a little further, down to the stretched ring of muscle he was forcing to accommodate him, tracing it, feeling himself go in and out.

Sonic gave a whole-body shudder, and those delicious inner walls of his clenched around Shadow’s cock. The dark hedgehog let out a deep, guttural groan of his own and watched the place where their bodies connected with a near feral intent. “You’re so tight,” he whispered. “I can feel you gripping me, like you’re trying to keep me inside.”

Sonic whined softly and shakily managed to pull at Shadow’s hand until the other released his mouth. “Knot me.”

A low rumble of a growl reverberated in Shadow’s chest as he leaned over Sonic’s back, pressing them closer together. His pace never faltered, and the wet smack of their coupling punctuated each of Shadow’s words. “I can’t heal you,” he answered tensely, the reply fighting every instinct he had.

“I don’t care!”

“Sonic…”

“I need it! I-I want it!” Sonic pushed. “Chaos, Shadow, I want it so bad!”

Shadow clenched his jaw, warring internally, but in the end he had no choice. How could he refuse his m–? He shut that thought down, the idea alone enough to make his pace stutter.

Sonic threw his ass back, trying to take more on his own. “Maybe you’re just not alpha enough. Maybe–”

“Maybe,” Shadow cut in, grabbing Sonic’s hips with both hands, “you should hold on tighter to that tree.”

Shadow didn’t give Sonic another moment’s notice before he slammed forward, ignoring Sonic’s startled yelp and deciding he no longer cared if someone heard. Let them. Sonic was his. His to knot, his to claim.

The bulbous gland at the base of his cock pressed against Sonic’s ass mercilessly, but the tight ring refused to give. Shadow thrusted in short, hard movements, grinding every so often to try and work past the barrier. He wrapped an arm around Sonic’s chest and brought the other against his front. “Relax. Let me in.”

Sonic whined pitifully, his defiant tone from minutes earlier nonexistent. “I want it, but it’s too much–” His breath caught when the stretch intensified for a second. “I can’t–”

“You can,” Shadow whispered. He softened a bit, some of the possessive urges fading in light of Sonic’s struggle to open up enough to take all of him. “You’ve done it before. Just hours ago.”

“Yeah, but I think when you healed me it undid… that. Or at least it feels like it did.”

That made sense. Not being able to confine his omega to a nest and fully look after his needs was making Sonic’s heat more difficult than it needed to be. He let out a soft growl of irritation that turned into a sigh. He abruptly pulled out. “Turn around.”

“Wha–why?” Sonic asked, though he shakily did as requested.

“So I can do this,” Shadow answered, cupping Sonic’s cheek and letting his lips brush over the other’s. “You said it helped before.”

Sonic’s eyes closed, and he licked his lips as though savoring the feel and taste Shadow left behind. “Yeah. It did. It does.”

Shadow slid his hands down Sonic’s sides until he reached the back of blue thighs. With little effort, he hoisted Sonic up and against him, humming in satisfaction when he felt Sonic’s legs come around his hips. He pressed Sonic against the tree, pulling back just enough to reach between them and guide his dick back to Sonic’s hole. He pushed in with no warning, pressing his forehead against Sonic’s as they both gasped. “Okay?” Shadow asked, a slight tremor to his voice as slick heat enveloped him once more.

“Yeah,” Sonic answered, the sound breathy and short. He wrapped his arms around Shadow’s shoulders. “It’s good. Better.”

Shadow’s gaze dipped down to Sonic’s lips as he licked his own. His cock throbbed with the need to knot and claim, but he held himself back, instead starting with slow, steady thrusts until he felt Sonic begin to move with him. Shadow let out a small sound of approval. “That’s it…” he murmured, eyes closing as they moved together. “Take what you need. Fuck yourself on my dick just like that….”

Emboldened, Sonic did exactly that. He tightened his grip on Shadow and moved his hips with more force, trying to adjust his angle, searching for that spot inside that would make him see stars. His ears tipped forward as he worked a sharp groan out of Shadow, the alpha’s scent flaring, his fingers curling into the soft flesh of Sonic’s ass. Sonic let out his own moan, distracted from his search by the powerful need to coat himself in that potent combination of cedarwood and lavender. He needed to be closer somehow–needed more.

With a sudden shift, Sonic brought an arm behind him and pushed hard against the tree, harder than he even intended truthfully. The force alone would have been enough to send Shadow stumbling back a few feet, but the added surprise had the dark male very abruptly on his back.

Air left Shadow’s lungs in a choked whoosh that quickly morphed into a deep, guttural groan as Sonic grinded down on his knot, nearly taking it. A sharp hiss slipped from Sonic’s lips, and he relented slightly, face scrunching with a bit of discomfort and frustration.

Shadow knew exactly what he needed.

He slid one hand up Sonic’s thigh while the other wrapped around the hero’s leaking dick. Sonic’s position faltered, and his inner walls reflexively clenched around Shadow’s girth. “Keep going,” Shadow encouraged as he pumped the omega’s cock. He bucked his own hips up just as he brought his thumb over Sonic’s tip. “You’re almost there.”

Sonic whined, hands coming to Shadow’s chest as his weakened muscles trembled. “This heat is going to kill me, and it’s all because of your monster dick,” Sonic growled.

“You’re going to take it,” Shadow countered, pumping Sonic a little faster. “You’re going to take it because you did it before. Because you’re the only one who can.”

Sonic felt a prick of pride and let his weight come down a little harder. There was a fresh burning stretch, but everything else felt too good to back down now. He clenched his jaw and ground down, letting out a held breath with the effort. “What about the other omega?”

Shadow’s claws were ripping through his one gloved hand and making hard indentations in Sonic’s thigh, but it couldn’t be helped. He was so close to being fully seated, and it was taking everything in him to let Sonic do it at his own pace. “I didn’t knot her,” he huffed out between clenched teeth. “Just you.”

Sonic cried out sharply as Shadow’s knot suddenly forced past his entrance and settled deep inside, and Shadow could wait no more. He flipped their positions, rolling Sonic onto his back and thrusting into him hard. “Mine,” he growled. His arms came around Sonic, holding him tightly in place as he took what was his. Sonic’s euphoric sounds echoed through the trees, loud, desperate and positively wrecked.

Burning stripes of pain spread across Shadow’s back, but it was nothing compared to the intense, mind-consuming pleasure he felt around his trapped cock. Sonic’s inner muscles were gripping him, milking him, holding him so tight that every slap of his hips was almost hard enough to bruise, and then his own name sounded in his ears, loud enough to leave them ringing, and warmth flushed against his stomach.

He groaned and buried his face in Sonic’s neck as the other clenched down around him, feeling his fangs lengthen, his mouth water in preparation for the claim. He thrust forward hard, hard enough he swore he could feel his dick bulge in Sonic’s stomach and against his own, and then he was exploding. His lips curled back from his teeth as he came, but at the last second, he did exactly what he’d done before and set his canines into the dense muscle of his shoulder. His eyes scrunched shut, and his muffled snarl sounded as his cock pumped his seed as deep as possible. It seemed to last forever, every uncontrollable pulse sending a ripple of overstimulation through the both of them.

Finally, Shadow released his own flesh and licked the blood from his lips, bowing his head against Sonic’s shoulder and quivering with aftershocks.

Sonic was in no better shape, his legs shaking so hard he swore he could hear his joints rattling. He gulped huge lungfuls of air and tried to slow his racing heart. He buried his nose in Shadow’s fur and nuzzled into him, taking more of that delicious aroma on and into him, letting it soothe after the intensity of their coupling.

Shadow swallowed hard, trying with far more effort than it should have taken to keep some of his weight off Sonic’s chest. He pulled away, just enough that he could see the state he’d left the hero in. Sonic’s pupils were blown, his eyes heavy-lidded and glazed with lust. His cheeks were flushed a deep red that reached to the very tips of his ears, and faint purple bruising littered his neck and chest.

He looked a mess. Shadow felt a burst of possessiveness. His mess. Because of him. For him.

“Kinda look like you’re gonna eat me, Shads,” Sonic quipped, even if his tone was way shakier than he intended. “Seems like you already took a bite out of yourself, though….”

He gestured toward the dark hedgehog’s shoulder, and Shadow followed his gaze with a shrug. “It’s nothing.”

Sonic wanted to argue, but he knew why the other had done it. Part of him was grateful, but an equally large part was… disappointed?

Shadow watched Sonic fixate on the barely visible puncture wounds he’d left on himself. “I wanted to bite you,” Shadow said before he could stop himself.

“But you didn’t.”

“I didn’t.”

“Is that… normal? To do that? To want to do it that bad that you… bite yourself?”

“I don’t know,” Shadow answered truthfully.

Sonic frowned, eye ridges furrowing, and Shadow couldn’t help but want to erase the worry. Words were hard, and he couldn’t explain his reaction anyway, so he did the next best thing. He kissed him. Not because he needed Sonic to relax. Not because he wanted him to shut up. Not even because he wanted him to feel good.

It was simply because….

He wanted to.

Chapter Text

It was a soft kiss. A tentative kiss. A gesture that was a complete contradiction to most of their embraces thus far, but felt right, more so when Sonic melted right into it. Shadow took the invitation for what it was and slowly deepened it, licking into the other’s mouth and exploring it in a way he hadn’t before. Sonic’s arms came around him again, sliding up between his spines and holding him close until–

“Ouch! Ouchouchouch–fuck me,” Sonic yelped against Shadow’s lips, his whole body tensing as he broke apart with a pained whine. “Would you tell your dick to take a chill pill?”

Shadow’s ears tipped back as he closed his eyes and desperately tried to get his breathing and libido under control. His knot was far too swollen to withdraw yet, so attempting to stop his cock from responding and twitching inside Sonic was the only thing he could do. That, and possibly move them into a more comfortable position. He gave Sonic a quick peck. “Hold on.” He didn’t wait for the complaints he knew would come, just tightened his hold to jostle Sonic as little as possible and rolled onto his back.

Sonic protested with a sharp “hey!” but quickly went slack against Shadow’s front once settled. The hero had to admit this was much more comfortable. Shadow’s fluff made an excellent pillow, and the dark male’s warmth encouraged his body to relax, even if being stuck together wasn’t the most comfortable feeling in the world. He honestly wasn’t complaining. Not really. The sensation of being knotted was so deeply satisfying, it chased away the symptoms of his heat like they didn’t exist.

At least for now.

Sonic’s ears flicked forward as Shadow sighed, the slow exhale sounding surprisingly content, especially coming from his normally cantankerous rival. Shadow’s thumbs idly worked against Sonic’s lower back, gently easing some of the tension and soreness that had collected just above his tail. It felt good. Sonic closed his eyes, listening to the strong thud of Shadow’s heartbeat, and let himself be lulled into possibly the most peaceful state he’d experienced.

Ever.

“I thought you said it would get easier to take you,” he mumbled after a minute. “I think it got harder. Pun not intended.” He chuckled sleepily despite himself.

Shadow only rolled his eyes and kept working at stiff muscles under blue fur. “It wouldn’t be difficult if you allowed yourself to be taken care of,” he grumbled in response, his tone belying the deep frustration he felt. “If you trusted your friends enough to let them handle things on their own. You’re not meant to be doing things like this while–”

Sonic’s head whipped up, his lips pursed, peacefulness forgotten. “I can do anything you or another alpha or beta could do. Just because I’m an omega doesn’t make me weak.”

“I never said that.”

“You did! You and everyone else think omegas have no place in the world except for in a nest or under an alpha.”

“You’re putting words in my mouth. I don’t–”

“Psst, loverboys!” a voice called from somewhere nearby.

Shadow abruptly sat up, holding Sonic to him despite the other’s immediate objection, and snarled into the darkened woods like a thing possessed. His teeth were bared, his ears pinned, every protective and possessive instinct coming to life in an instant. To be jumped in such a vulnerable position made his alpha side desperate to protect his m–

“Shadow. Dude. Take it easy. It’s just Sticks.”

Shadow heard the words, but it was more the soothing hands in his quills that brought him back enough to realize the air wasn’t tinged with the scent of another alpha. Just beta. Not a threat. Not a real one, at least.

He stopped growling, unaware he’d continued, but made no move to loosen his grip on Sonic. “Keep back,” he called out harshly. He felt more in control of himself, but he still didn’t want anyone else to see Sonic in this position. It was for his eyes only.

“I’m not that crazy,” Sticks called back. “I know better than to poke a ruffled alpha, and I got no desire to see somethin’ I can’t scrub from my brain.”

“We’re sorta…” Sonic trailed off. His face burned with embarrassment. Of all the positions for one of his friends to find him in, stuck with Shadow’s knot up his ass was definitely at the bottom of the list. “In the middle of something.”

“Oh, I know. The whole forest knows.”

“Dammit…” Sonic groaned, head falling against Shadow’s shoulder.

“I told you to be quiet,” Shadow hissed under his breath.

Sonic glared at him but addressed Sticks. “Did the others happen to…?”

“Yup,” Sticks called cheerfully as though Sonic’s sex life hadn’t just been revealed in the most humiliating way possible. Her voice came a little closer, though her form was still hidden. “They won’t know it was real though.”

Sonic twisted his head a bit, looking for Sticks in the dark. “What do you mean they won’t know it was real? What did you do?”

“They wanted to come investigate. Amy was sure it was you screamin’. I managed to convince her it was widabit mating season, but then Tails looked it up on that fancy tech he carries around. I knew they’d figure out I was lyin’, so I slipped a little special somethin’ into their soup.”

“Sticks….”

“What? It’s just mushrooms. Perfectly natural. When I left, Tails was debatin’ a tree on the ethics of AI and Amy was giving Knuckles a makeover. I’m pretty sure she thought he was me, but that’s not important. What’s important is they’re fine, and by morning, they’ll just think they had crazy dreams!”

“You gave my brother magic mushrooms?!”

“He’s too smart, so he got double! Probably why he was losing that debate come to think of it….”

“Sticks!” Sonic struggled to get up, but it was too soon, and the tug on his sore ass had him wincing and promptly sinking right back down into Shadow’s lap.

The dark male groaned softly and then forcefully held Sonic in place to stop his moving. “Unless you want to go again,” he growled under his breath, “I suggest you stay still.”

Sonic growled his frustration. “Sticks, please tell me you have what I need so I can go make sure Tails doesn’t decide to debate something else. Like a shark. Or the bad slide of a cliff.”

“I got it. Don’t know if it’s gonna work though. I can smell you both from here.”

“I need to try at least. Especially since Tails is actively hallucinating.”

Shadow shook his head in exasperation, but remained silent. Sonic ignored him. “What is it exactly? A spray…?”

“More tea in case it helps tone down your heat and a lavender and mint wash. It’s the best I could do. It would take me weeks to make an oil. The water and tea are still a little hot, so be careful. I just finished whipping them up.”

“Where are you guys camped?”

“Quarter mile east, just in from the coast.”

“Got it. Shadow will stay close, but I’ll be around later.”

Sticks paused for a moment. “I still think this is a bad idea, Sonic.”

“For once the badger and I agree on something,” Shadow muttered under his breath.

“When has that ever stopped me?” Sonic countered. “Besides, we’ll find ol’ Eggy in no time, and then we can all go back to pretending none of this ever happened. Particularly right now. Y’know, the part where we’re having a whole conversation with Shadow’s d–”

“Enough,” Shadow snapped, voice plenty loud for Sticks to hear. “If Sonic insists on going forward with this foolish plan, then he’ll join you soon, but for the time being, leave. Now.” Shadow’s alpha side left no room for argument, and there was a swift rustle of brush and crack of twigs and then silence.

At least for a minute.

“You didn’t have to be so crappy about it,” Sonic chastised. “She’s helping if you hadn’t noticed.”

“She’s enabling your bad decisions.”

“And what are you doing?”

Shadow glowered at Sonic. “Acting in my own self interest.”

It was brief. Just a flash of emotion. But for a second, Sonic almost looked like Shadow had hit him. “Got it,” the hero said, pushing himself off of Shadow despite the sharp stab of pain that said he should have waited a little longer. “Of course you are.”

“Sonic,” Shadow started, reaching out for the other. Sonic evaded with a twist and staggered to his feet. Tension and discomfort were clear on his face, but Sonic didn’t comment on it, didn’t ask to be healed. Shadow sighed and stood, tucking his partial hard-on away. As long as Sonic was near and in this condition, his dick never seemed to want to soften all the way. It was as irritating as it was uncomfortable.

“Listen,” Sonic started, tugging at the sports tape that wound around his wrist. “I know you don’t like me. I get it. And I appreciate you helping me anyway and mostly not being a dick about it.”

Shadow dipped down to grab his glove, making a face at the clear holes in the fingertips from his claws. It wasn’t like he had another pair handy. “I don’t not like you,” Shadow said, pulling it on anyway. “You’re….” He exhaled softly and readjusted his inhibitor ring over his cuff.

“I don’t know what you are, but for what it’s worth, it’s not just self interest. I don’t want you to be unhappy, or hurt, or trapped. Outside of what it means for me.” And it was true. Shadow had been those things. All of them. He wouldn’t wish it on his rival no matter how much the other drove him to near insanity.

Green eyes looked up at that, watching Shadow with an unreadable expression. Shadow wasn’t sure what came over him, but without another thought, he closed the few feet of distance between them and wordlessly brought Sonic’s lips to his. There was a brief sound of surprise, and then Sonic was pressed against him, all fight gone. Shadow’s touch slid down Sonic’s sides, following the dip of his spine and tracing the base of his tail. His tongue flicked out against the hero’s bottom lip just as he focused his energy on the area his fingertips grazed.

Sonic let out a startled grunt but quickly relaxed once he realized what Shadow was doing, leaning more against him and widening his stance. It did no favors for Shadow’s condition, his cock hardening even more as he felt his own release dripping from his rival’s entrance. He fought his urges and reluctantly broke away, giving Sonic space.

The hero looked at him in confusion. “Thought you said you couldn’t heal me again.”

“Your bad decision making is apparently rubbing off on me.”

A corner of Sonic’s mouth ticked up because Shadow’s actions said what his words didn’t, or maybe couldn’t.

He cared.

It didn’t take long for Sonic to find the tea and wash Sticks had left. His nose wrinkled as soon as he was close. “This is strong,” he grumbled as he tied his scarf back around his neck. “I haven’t even opened it yet, and it’s burning my nose.”

“It’ll have to be,” Shadow said as he came up behind Sonic. His fur was still damp from their quick dip in the ocean, and the salt did his coat no favors. At least he hadn’t had to get his quills wet. That would have been a nightmare. He idly brushed the upturned bundles back and then ran his fingers through his chest fluff to try and smooth out some of the clumps. “You’ll probably have to use it every time I take you.”

Sonic felt a shiver roll down his spine, Shadow’s words matter-of-fact, but still managing to stir his arousal. Because of the heat. No other reason. “Guess I should start now….” He unscrewed the cap of the largest canteen and sniffed once more before cringing and splashing some of the warm, scented water onto his chest. He worked it into his fur, thoroughly applying it to his neck and groin before moving to the rest of his body. He’d used half the container before he finished. “What do you think?”

Shadow took a step closer, nose twitching. His ears flicked back, and he shook his head as though trying to dislodge something unpleasant. “You smell like the dried stuff they keep on the back of public toilets.”

“Better than what’s in the toilets, I guess….”

“That’s debatable,” Shadow grimaced. “But it definitely covers up your scent.” And mine, Shadow thought with more displeasure than he cared to admit. If Sonic carried his mark, it wouldn’t matter so much, but without Shadow’s scent on him there was nothing to keep another alpha at bay if Sonic’s heat broke through.

He’d have to stay close.

“Make sure you drink the tea too,” Shadow pressed. “Even if we don’t know for certain it will help. It can’t hurt.”

Sonic eyed it with relative suspicion. “I dunno, Shads. Using the tea for so long is probably what made this all so… intense in the first place.”

“You think it will make your current condition worse?”

“Maybe.” Sonic picked up the scuffed thermos and popped open the lid. “But hey, what’s a little risk, huh?”

Shadow had many answers to that, none of which Sonic would like, so he simply watched with new apprehension as the hero chugged down the concoction.

“Ugh… that taste never gets better,” Sonic grumbled with disgust as he held a hand over his mouth like it would keep his body from rejecting everything he’d just taken in. “Bet you never had to drink hot swamp water so you didn’t bang the shit out of something.”

Shadow tilted his head in mild confusion. “No. I can’t say I have.”

“Lucky. I’d trade you my heat for your rut any day.”

“My ruts aren’t typical. I imagine a full Mobian has a harder time.”

Sonic’s head shot up at that. “Full Mobian? What does that mean?”

“I’m a genetic hybrid. I thought you knew.”

“No, I didn’t know! How would I know? You never talk!”

Shadow rolled his eyes and curled his hand on his hip. “Now you do.”

“You can’t just drop that on a guy like it’s nothing,” Sonic protested as he closed the thermos. “You’re a hybrid of what? Mobian and human? How would that even work?” Sonic got a far-off look in his eye. “Wait. How would that work….?”

Shadow took a deep, slow breath and pinched the skin between his eyes. “Do I look like a human?”

Sonic squinted and cocked his head.

Shadow threw a pinecone at him. “Idiot! No. I’m not half human. Chaos. I’m a hybrid of Mobian and Black Arms DNA. They’re a hivemind alien race that–”

“Wait, wait wait,” Sonic said, throwing his hands up in a time out. “Let me get this straight. You’re half alien??”

“Technically.”

“Oh, Chaos…. You’re an alien. I fucked an alien.”

“Technically a half alien fucked you.”

“Okay, thanks for the semantics, E.T.”

“I thought Eggman would have told you. His grandfather is the one who created me.”

Sonic paced, containers forgotten at his feet. “Okay, one, no, Egghead didn’t say a damn thing about you being from outer space, and two, Sticks can never know. She already thinks we’re under attack from aliens. She’ll have us all wearing tinfoil 24/7 for sure.”

Shadow hesitated for a moment, something in him feeling oddly vulnerable. He’d never cared what others thought of him. He didn’t require their acceptance or reassurance. But….

“Does that change things?”

Sonic looked up from his pacing. “Change what?”

Shadow made a motion between the two of them. “This. Me… seeing you through your heat.”

“What?” Sonic shot him a baffled look. “No! I mean, unless your cum is secretly toxic, you’re just… you. You’re still Shadow. Whatever your DNA is.”

“It really doesn’t bother you?”

“No? Did you think it would?”

Shadow shrugged, and stared through the dark forest. Somewhere to the south an owl called once, twice. “I’m not sure…. I’ve never told anyone.”

“Not even that other omega?” Sonic tried, but couldn’t quite keep the jealous tinge out of his voice.

“She already knew.”

Sonic opened his mouth to ask more questions, but Shadow shook his head. “Enough. I thought you were worried about your fox friend?”

Sonic slumped a bit, disappointed he wasn’t going to get more information from his mysterious rival, at least not tonight. Resigned, he nodded and grabbed the thermos and canteen before giving his underarm one last sniff. Lavender and mint accosted him, but it also overpowered everything he didn’t want the world to know. His stomach twisted, not with nausea but with a sense of unease. He couldn’t smell Shadow anymore either. He chanced a look at his rival, noting the half-alien seemed tense and conflicted.

“I’ll follow and be close, but… if your heat breaks through… your alpha friends may notice. And quickly.”

Sonic nodded, only partly paying attention. He wanted, more than anything, to embrace Shadow one more time. He wasn’t sure why. Only that he needed to. He took a step toward him and then another.

Shadow seemed to sense what he was getting at and held up his hands to ward Sonic off. “I can’t. I can’t touch you. It will only get my scent back on you.”

“Yeah. For sure.” Sonic’s ears drooped, and he turned away, headed in the direction Sticks had shared. “See you soon, I guess,” he called over his shoulder.

Shadow watched him go, his ears following his every step long after he’d gone from sight.

“Goodnight, Sonic.”

Chapter Text

Not a hint of dawn colored the sky when the small vessel Infinite had commandeered the day before pushed off from shore. The heavens above were clear and quiet, dotted with stars as boundless as Infinite’s own name. Quiet waves lapped against the hull of the boat, the occasional dip of the craft sending a few droplets splashing against the leather of Infinite’s steel-tipped boots.

The jackal ignored it all, focus directed straight ahead to the island his omega had unknowingly escaped to all those years ago. It was just visible in the distance, a dark shadow looming on the horizon. He could feel anticipation build in his body, the steady hum of it stirring in his blood. Time had done little to sate his compulsion to bring the feisty blue omega to heel. Certainly he’d had others in his bed and his claim marked more than one, even if it was forbidden, but Sonic…. His desire for him went beyond biology.

He remembered the first time he’d seen the blue hedgehog–the first and only time Infinite had been bested. He’d known then, as the younger hedgehog had cockily claimed victory, that there was only one place Sonic belonged.

And that was under him.

He sneered as he felt the fresh fury of being cheated from his prize, but then calmed himself as he recalled one very important fact.

Sonic may have slipped from his grasp, but legally? He was more his than any of the rest in his collection. Legally speaking, of course.

Infinite felt Dva’s approach a second before the other male spoke. “We’re making ground on the western side?”

“Yes,” Infinite answered, tone bored and laced with irritation. “We need to avoid the drop zone. I don’t want Barker knowing we’re there. He may report it back to Starline, and the last thing I need is another reason for that fucking platypus to call me in. He’s already up my ass about that spying, good-for-nothing bitch.”

“That bat really fooled you good, didn’t she?”

Dva didn’t see Infinite move. One minute he was breathing normally, and the next his windpipe was shuttered tight. Dva wheezed and instinctively flailed at the hand that wrapped around his throat, but there was no give. No mercy.

“I am no one’s fool,” Infinite sneered, baring his canines. Flecks of spittle flew, landing against his second’s face. “You’d do well to remember that.”

Infinite shoved the other back, sending him stumbling into Vier and Zeks who had been manning the oars. The trio scattered and tumbled over one another, breaking the silence over the sea with a loud clattering of wood on wood and sharp pained yelp from Vier whose broken arm had been roughly jostled.

With a low growl of disgust, Infinite returned his gaze forward, ignoring the grunts, snaps, and muffled curses behind him. Infinite’s feet remained flat on his perch despite the chaotic swaying of their boat, his face impassive but for the predatory glint in his eye.

Land was inching closer, and with it came the assurance he’d finish what he once started.

Sonic would be his.

In all ways. Permanently.

Everything felt hazy. In multiple senses of the word. Sonic’s mind was foggy, and the world was blurred and tilted. Colors were muted, shapes and outlines shifting like the view through a twisting kaleidoscope. Fresh nausea burned through his stomach as he twirled and flailed through some sort of cruel funhouse of warped memory, one where even sound was distorted and muffled. He fumbled and clawed his way to a vaguely upright position and tried to take a step forward as his surroundings slowly took form.

Each moment was an extreme effort, legs so slow to obey his will he might as well have been walking in quicksand. An amorphous blob bucked and reformed ahead before finally taking the shape of a vaguely familiar hut. He perked up, finding more energy, more urgency to drag his resistant body forward. Maybe it was home.

Maybe it was safe.

He pushed harder, quickening his pace, and though he was barely at anything other than a brisk walk for a normal Mobian, he was out of breath and flushed. His heart raced, beating so hard Sonic could feel it thud throughout his whole being, hear the resounding rush of blood in his ears and the strain of air trying to fill his lungs.

Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.

Anxiety flared through him as he neared the building, realizing at once why it was familiar. His stomach dropped, his breaths stopped, and his eyes widened in utter and complete horror. “No!” he murmured, voice barely a stunned whisper, and then louder, a shout “No!”

His knees went out from under him, and he fell hard, instantly trying to scramble backwards and away, but his legs refused to cooperate. One look down, and he saw why. Ropes. So much rope. Coils of it tied tight around his ankles, his knees. His arms were suddenly twisted behind him, painfully bound at the wrist. He tried to scream, but his cries were muffled by the gag stuffed in his mouth and lost to the wind as his new dulled hell was traded for complete darkness.

Sonic knew what was happening. He remembered. He remembered all of it. He knew a thick burlap bag had been tugged over his head, knew the soiled rag stuffed in his mouth was the same that had been dosed with chloroform and held to his face just hours before. He knew he had minutes before his autonomy would be on the chopping block, put there by the first person he’d ever called a friend.

As if on cue, darkness was purged in a flash of white, and Sonic was left blinking painfully, trying to clear both his mind and his sight. He snarled through the cloth in his mouth, trying to push it out with his tongue, but just as he nearly had it, a voice broke through the sound of his struggles.

“Shhh…. It will all be over soon,” the voice crooned, sickeningly sweet and all too familiar. “You’ll get what you need, and I’ll get what’s mine….” The last words were a hissed whisper, “Omega.”

The dream twisted, warping into a dizzying, crushing vortex of betrayal and horror. Time skipped, jumped back, flashed through his mind until in one anguished moment of terror, Sonic felt a sharp stab of pain slicing into the dense flesh at the base of his neck and–

Sonic gasped, eyes flying open, limbs flailing in the dark, but as quickly as he realized it had been a nightmare, he felt agony spear over and through him. He twisted to his side for fear he’d be sick as his stomach threatened to reject its meager contents. The fur between his legs was soaked, his body almost steaming in the cooler, moist air of pre-dawn. He groaned and clenched his eyes shut, hoping it would stop the world from spinning.

It didn’t.

He shivered violently, another series of cramps making his already agonized muscles seize in a way that left him curled in on himself and unable to even call out. Everything was so quiet, his short gasps sounded loud in his ears, but none of his friends roused from their positions nearby. Apparently the mushrooms they’d ingested had more than done their job.

Sonic weakly managed to untuck his chin, looking off into the forest. “Shadow…” he called, but the sound was no more than a whisper. His heart raced, his chest was tight. It felt hard to breathe. He needed his…. He needed….

“Shadow….”

Watching Sonic walk off into the forest alone had been the single most difficult battle Shadow had ever fought.

And that was saying something.

His instincts had been so strong…. Screaming at him, telling him Sonic was vulnerable, unsafe, and needed him. By the time five minutes had passed, tears and punctures weren’t the only things that marred his destroyed gloves. Blood dripped from where his claws pierced the soft, fleshy part of his palm, the physical embodiment of his internal struggles. It took all he had to stay put.

Shadow took a deep breath, then another, but it only made his feelings worse because he could no longer scent Sonic under the cloying cover of lavender and mint. He swallowed hard, grimacing as it seemed to drown his taste buds and coat his throat. It all felt wrong.

Another minute passed and with it, Shadow’s remaining resolve. He moved silently through the trees, blending with darkness and dead set on getting Sonic back within his sights. The other’s camp wasn’t far, but by the time Shadow got there he could see Amy and Knuckles passed out in random, uncomfortable positions that looked more like they’d fallen from buildings than lain down to rest, and Sonic was actively trying to get Tails out of a large tree. He could distantly hear the distraught fox decree the ground lava and didn’t envy his rival the job of calming him down.

Sticks, however, seemed relaxed among the chaos, and was curled on a mat near the glowing embers of their dinner fire, a silver funnel-shaped hat snug atop her head.

Shadow took a moment to scent the air, relaxing when he caught nothing unexpected. Regardless, he circled the camp, checking for anything amiss before finally pulling himself into the thick leaf-cover provided by a tree, not more than thirty feet from Sonic. It was as far a distance as he could manage. Being unable to smell the hero had made some inner part of Shadow near frantic, and being able to keep him in his sights helped dampen the overwhelming drive to steal him away and coat him in Shadow’s own scent.

The night wore on, quiet and calm as Shadow kept watch. In the distance, he could hear the crest and fall of waves, the singing of crickets, and the rustle of foliage in the occasional breeze. There was nothing sinister, nothing dangerous, but Shadow had never felt more restless.

He could see Sonic finally sleeping not far from the young Mobian he called brother, and all he could think of was being beside him. For the first time in decades, he yearned for the presence of another. He stamped that feeling down as quickly as it arose. Yearning was something that happened when feelings were involved, and that certainly wasn’t the case here. It was only his more primal Mobian side responding to hormones that made him feel that way. It was Sonic’s heat affecting him. Nothing more.

He took a deep breath and let his head fall back against thick bark as he looked up through breaks in the canopy. He brought one of his knees up and rested his forearm on it as he sought out constellations he’d learned what felt like a lifetime ago.

Memories and stars played across Shadow’s vision and mind, lulling him into a state of–

His ears perked forward so quickly and so hard they nearly flew off his head. He was out of the tree and crouched down before he could even process what had put him on alert. Nothing was on the air that hadn’t been there before, but… something was wrong. Shadow didn’t see it, couldn’t hear it, but he felt it.

Sonic.

Without another thought, he forgot all pretense of stealth and secrecy and darted from cover, directly to where he’d seen Sonic lay down for the night. His heart seized as soon as he laid eyes on his rival. The blue hedgehog was curled in on himself, face barely visible, eyes squeezed shut. Visible tremors ran over his body, and his breaths were shallow and fast. “Sonic!” he exclaimed softly. He gently placed a hand on the hero’s shoulder, trying to get him to open up, but it only earned him a pained whimper.

“Hurts,” Sonic weakly gasped.

“Hold on,” Shadow said, just before scooping Sonic into his arms. No snarky comment came this time, telling Shadow just how bad Sonic’s state really was. “I’m getting you out of here.”

Sonic didn’t respond. He couldn’t. If he opened his mouth he wasn’t going to be able to control the sounds that came out, and once he started he didn’t think he’d be able to stop. The tea… it must have backfired, must have made things worse. He’d been banged up plenty of times, had more injuries than he could count, but this…. He felt like he was dying.

He was almost positive he actually was.

“What do you need?” he heard Shadow ask urgently above his head. “Is there medicine? A doctor?”

Sonic buried his nose in the crook of Shadow’s neck and breathed deep. “Y-you,” he managed to get out through gritted teeth. “Need you….”

Shadow’s jaw clenched, and his brows furrowed with worry as he sped through the still dark forest. He could feel a sweat breaking out at his temples, chest, and back, trickling down his spine, and realized with a start that the reason was Sonic. He pressed his lips to Sonic’s temple and jerked back like he’d been burned. Sonic’s body temperature was far too high. Higher than it had been when he’d first taken the other to his bed. High enough to cause serious damage.

Without another thought, Shadow flew toward the shore. Within seconds, leaves, dirt, and twigs turned to sand, another second and water crashed and sprayed around them as he ran into the ocean. Sonic didn’t shout, didn’t cling to him, didn’t say anything as the cool waters rose to their chests. “Sonic!” Shadow frantically shouted. Sonic’s eyes were closed, his limbs loose and unresponsive.

Fear tore through Shadow’s heart like a bullet.

“Sonic!” Shadow held on to the other, one arm wrapped around his back to keep the blue hedgehog secured to his chest while the other cupped water and brought it to his forehead. “You motherfucker,” Shadow rambled in fury, his hand gentle but shaking as it brushed between blue ears. “You couldn’t just let it go for a few days, let someone else handle the heroing.” He splashed more water across Sonic’s chest and against his neck, trying to submerge him as much as possible. Shadow’s eyes desperately scanned for any sign of responsiveness while his heart pounded. “Wake up!” He shook the other lightly. A flash of memory tore through his mind, a sound like thunder, blonde hair, blue dress, the smell of copper– He blinked it away and shook Sonic harder, panic tightening his voice. “Wake up, damn you!”

A groan. Weak. But there. “Shadow?”

Shadow closed his eyes and fought against his urges, simultaneously wanting to cast the other into the sea and let the sharks have him and hold him close and never let him go. “I hate you,” he said, hating most of all that his words weren’t remotely true.

When he opened his eyes, Sonic had the nerve to grin weakly up at him. “I heart you too, Shadow.”

Shadow dropped him.

The hero flailed and made garbled shouts of indignation as water splashed around the pair. Shadow grinned this time, crossing his arms as he watched the other struggle, feeling it served the idiot right and using the few seconds to gain control over himself.

He did eventually allow the other to latch on to his body like a life float. He wasn’t evil.

Green eyes narrowed at him. “You’re such an asshole, man–are you tryin’ to kill me?”

“I thought about it,” Shadow answered. “But you’re doing a fine job on your own.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This utter refusal you have to admit you can’t do it all, all the time! Sometimes you have to slow down, Sonic.”

“I slow down! You’re just not around to see it.”

“Napping like a fat house cat isn’t what I mean!”

“Excuse you–? I–shit–!” Sonic’s eyes squeezed shut, and his fingers dug into Shadow’s arm to the point of pain.

Shadow relented in his anger, exchanging it for worry. Again. “What is it?”

“Hurts. Real bad.” Sonic sucked in a deep breath through his teeth, his next words strained with effort and discomfort. “I think that tea made it worse. It’s like it’s poison now or something.”

“What do you need?”

“I don’t know! Fucked, I guess? Isn’t that usually the answer?” Sonic tried to breathe through it, but even the nausea was ramping up. Shadow may have been surprisingly gracious through this exchange of theirs, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t live to see another tomorrow if he yacked in the hybrid’s chest fur. At this point, the pain and nausea were so intense it was even hard to feel the horniness he knew lay at the core of all of it. He could still feel a burning flush in his cheeks that he knew had little to do with desire and everything to do with fever. He was a mess. And not the fun kind. “Please,” Sonic continued, voice uncharacteristically tired and defeated. “It doesn’t have to feel good.”

Shadow scoffed in offense at that, but Sonic continued on. “Like taking medicine, y’know? Sometimes it’s not the best, but it makes you feel–”

Shadow refused to listen to another word. He spun his rival so the hero’s back was flush with his chest and then brushed his quills to the side. He held tight to Sonic, staying deep enough that the current toyed with the lower edges of his chest fluff. He needed the cool waters to keep Sonic’s temperature down, at least until he’d stabilized the other more. Even so, he could feel Sonic’s heat against him, making his forehead dot with sweat under dark fur. “I’m not using you for my own pleasure. Not when it’s not what you, or your body, wants.”

“I want this to stop. I want it to be over. I don’t want to be like this, Shadow! I hate it!”

Shadow kept one arm wrapped around Sonic’s chest, keeping the other in place and safe from the ebb and flow of waves while he pulled the glove on his right hand off with his teeth. He discarded the ruined fabric carelessly and immediately brought his hand between Sonic’s legs. Sonic struggled against him for a minute. “That’s not going to work! You have to–”

“I know my part in this, hedgehog,” Shadow growled back. “I will fuck you. I will knot you.” His hand began to move in firm strokes, up, down, repeat, a slow, unhurried pace. He felt the concealed member twitch under his palm at the sound of his voice, his words. Sonic, it seemed, liked it when Shadow spoke. Liked it a lot.

Shadow felt a quick swell of pride before he tipped his head toward Sonic’s ear. “I will give you what you need. But I want you to come for me first.”

“I can’t, Shadow,” Sonic whined softly, even though he could feel himself responding to his alpha’s touches. “The cramps are too much, and I feel like I’m gonna barf… it’s not exactly how I get my rocks off.”

“Then how do you?” Shadow asked. His hand moved a little lower, curling between Sonic’s thighs and teasing his hole for a moment. That worked a soft, breathy gasp from the other, and Shadow felt his own dick twitch eagerly in response. “When you retreat to that hovel you call a home–”

“Says the guy that lives in a cave–”

“How do you touch yourself? Are you impatient then too? Seeking a quick release? Or…” Shadow’s hand cupped the growing bulge and let the fleshy part of his palm press down against Sonic’s slit, right where he knew the hero’s tip would soon be peaking out. “Do you slow down? Tease? Draw out your pleasure?”

Sonic’s eyes fluttered closed, and he leaned back a little more. The pain and twisting in his gut was still there, but he was quickly finding himself distracted…. “Fast…” he muttered. “No door.”

“Mmm, as expected.” Shadow adjusted his grip slightly, letting the tips of his fingers trace Sonic’s entrance, unsurprised to find it slick, even with the water constantly washing away the traces of his arousal. “And here? Do you ever touch yourself here?” He pushed in a single finger and felt Sonic arch against him with a choked gasp. Shadow kept his arm firmly against Sonic’s chest, holding his omega in place. He added a second finger, and Sonic keened.

“Y-yes!” Sonic cried, immediately followed by, “I mean, no!”

Shadow pumped his fingers in and out, his wrist and forearm still providing some friction to Sonic’s now exposed cock. “Yes you do, or no you don’t?”

“I don’t–I hadn’t–I never tried it!”

“Really?” Shadow moved a little harder, a little deeper, curling until Sonic cried out sharply. “But you seem to enjoy it so much….”

“S-shut up.”

There was a very evident waver in Sonic’s voice. Shadow couldn’t stop his answering smirk, and why should he? Sonic couldn’t see his face, couldn’t see the pink in cheeks, the darkness in his eyes, the way his face was angled toward the other’s simply so he could feel the brush of his fur against his face and nuzzle more of his scent on to him. He breathed in deep, closing his eyes as he moved his touch back to Sonic’s cock. He stroked firmly, but slowly, occasionally bringing his thumb over the head and feeling his own dick throb with every hitch of Sonic’s breath.

“I want you to come for me, Sonic. I know you can. I know you want to.”

“Shadow.…” Sonic panted.

“Come, and I’ll give you what you need…” Shadow whispered. “Come, and then I’ll take you just like you want.”

“Hard?”

Shadow groaned at that, his own length releasing against Sonic’s ass. His hand tightened around his rival’s cock as he angled his hips just right, letting his swollen tip ghost against Sonic’s leaking hole. He brought his muzzle down to Sonic’s shoulder and inhaled deeply right over his hidden scent gland. “As hard as you can take.”

Sonic cried out softly at that, moving in time with Shadow’s strokes. “I want your cum in me so bad, Shadow….”

“I know you do.” Shadow’s cock pressed in a little more, just enough to threaten to breach Sonic’s tight ring, but he held himself in check. Barely. Sonic, however, did not approve of his restraint.

“Fuck–please, Shadow! C’mon, Chaos I want it–”

“Then come, and you’ll get it.”

Sonic nearly sobbed in protest, but Shadow could feel just how hard he was, how close. The blue hedgehog in his arms struggled, trying to work his hips back until finally Shadow had had enough. He quickly twisted his rival around and used his enhanced strength to lift the other onto his shoulders, putting that delicious peach cock right where he wanted it.

Without a word, Shadow took Sonic’s entire length down his throat, moaning into the hero’s stomach as his nose pressed into peach flesh. Above him he could hear Sonic crying out, grabbing onto Shadow’s quills so hard he was sure a few would be missing, but it was well worth it. Not more than a few seconds later, Shadow felt Sonic curl over his head, babbling obscenities and cries of Shadow’s name while the hybrid sucked him down and dry.

Shadow took everything, swallowing it all down greedily, and Sonic was nothing more than a shivering mess of limp hedgehog against his face. He pulled back and gently helped Sonic slide down his body, enjoying the feeling of quivering thighs and raspy breaths. He expected Sonic to berate him, make some sort of snide comment, but the second the omega was able, his lips found Shadow’s in a deep kiss that had Shadow’s toes curling in his water logged air shoes.

“Again,” Sonic breathed into Shadow’s mouth, “But this time I want what you promised.”

Shadow brought blue legs up to lock around his hips and slowly began to walk out of the water and toward solid ground, eager to fulfil his omega’s demands.

He didn’t stop kissing Sonic for a single second.

Chapter Text

Time became meaningless. There was only a burning, all-consuming desire that made the world begin and end in a symphony of moans and a tangle of black and blue limbs. It could have been an hour, it could have been three. Sonic didn’t know, and he didn’t care.

How could he when Shadow was inside him, filling and stretching him, touching him in ways that made him feel–

Sonic shook his head slightly as his mind cleared and pushed that unfinished thought way, way down. It wasn’t real anyway. It couldn’t be. What was real was a much-improved physical state.
Multiple rounds with Shadow had sent the agonizing cramps high-tailing, and his stomach had settled like he hadn’t just been at death’s door. His body relaxed, and his temperature dropped like he’d taken the world’s most powerful fever reducer. Who knew? Maybe he had. Maybe Shadow’s cum had medicinal properties. He was half alien, after all.

“What are you thinking?” Shadow asked, his voice a husky whisper as he idly combed his fingers through Sonic’s quills. His breaths had just settled, and his limbs felt loose and taxed in ways they usually weren’t. The previous sleepless night and recent explicit activities were catching up to him, and Ultimate Lifeform or not, he was tired. Deliciously so.

Sonic’s eyes were closed, but he was by no means asleep. He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly in a long, sated sigh, the last tremors of pleasure occasionally still leaving his toes curling in the open air. “How do you know I’m thinking anything?” he answered finally before it turned into a yawn. “Don’t you usually say I’m too dense to think?”

Shadow yawned back, unable to stop himself. “Perhaps what I’m seeing is an attempt. Your ear twitches. Sometimes you make strange facial expressions or move your head like you’re having a conversation with yourself.”

Sonic grinned and turned his head inward to press a kiss to the inside of Shadow’s elbow. The hybrid’s arm was currently serving as his pillow and protection from the hard cave floor. The hole in the cliff they’d sequestered themselves in wasn’t Shadow’s, and it wasn’t comfortable, but it was private.

“I was thinking maybe your cum is medicine. Basically.”

“...what?”

“Yeah, y’know. It makes me feel better. Takes away pain and fever. You’re like… hedgehog ibuprofen.”

Shadow’s hand paused mid-stroke in Sonic’s quills. “I think that fever killed your one remaining brain cell. You should cease your attempts at thought. You’ll strain yourself.”

“Hardy har har. See if I ever give you a compliment again.”

“That was supposed to be a compliment?” Shadow traded blue quills for gently running his fingers over the soft shell of Sonic’s ear. The hero’s back was pressed against his belly while they waited for his knot to go down for the third, and hopefully final, time. As much as Shadow took pride in his stamina, even he wasn’t sure if he had another round in him right this second.

“Yes! What? Like you could do better? When have you ever complimented me? Besides that whole panther thing you weirdly meant as an insult.”

Shadow scoffed. “I distinctly remember complimenting you several times just minutes ago.”

“Telling me my ass feels good doesn’t count!” Sonic felt a fresh swell of pride regardless, but Shadow didn’t need to know that. “It can’t be sex-related.”

“How is a compliment relating to my cum not sex-related?”

“Because we’re not actively having sex.”

“Your rules are ridiculous.” Shadow rutted his hips forward, reminding Sonic just how connected they were. He let the hero’s answering groan roll down his spine and to his cock, which eagerly twitched deep inside Sonic’s heated channel. “You’re stretched around my knot,” he murmured against the ear he’d been stroking, “full of everything I’ve given you since you woke up, and this isn’t sex?”

“I just–” Sonic grumbled, flustered. “Fine. It can be sex-related, but keep my ass out of it.”

“Fine.” Shadow settled and let his touch descend down and then up a blue arm as he pondered for a moment. “Your fur is soft,” he said finally.

Green eyes followed the path of Shadow’s fingers as they traced along his elbow. “It is?”

Behind him, Shadow nodded. “Very, but especially right here.” Shadow’s hand fell down just a little more, to graze over the peach fur of Sonic’s lower belly, narrowly avoiding some of the remaining mess their most recent rounds had left. “It’s like velvet.”

Sonic was quiet for a minute, caught off guard by the simplistic sincerity in Shadow’s statement as well as the hybrid’s touch. “You smell good,” he blurted in response. Shadow’s touch paused, and Sonic’s ears flattened a bit in embarrassment. “Not just–now. I mean, obviously, you smell amazing now, but… I mean before my heat. Before all of this. You’ve always smelled good to me.”

Shadow tucked his arm under Sonic’s, wrapping it around the omega’s chest. “What do I smell like?”

“I dunno. Like flowers a little? And the forest after it rains in the summer. You just smell sort of… right?”

A powerful wave of possessiveness washed over Shadow at Sonic’s admission. He knew the other’s compliment was just that, a compliment. It didn’t mean anything. But, it made some primal part of him puff up in satisfaction. His omega liked his scent. He nuzzled under the slightly damp bandana Sonic had once again insisted on keeping around his neck and breathed deeply. He let his tongue sweep out across blue fur, right over Sonic’s scent gland. “It’s mutual.”

Sonic shivered, and his muscles tightened around Shadow’s knot, forcing a deep groan from the hybrid. “Shadow…” Sonic warned, even though it was far too breathy and weak to caution against anything. Given his history, he should be afraid right now, trying to twist away, but… it was Shadow whose arms held him. Not Infinite’s. The last thing he wanted to do was pull away.

“I won’t,” Shadow reassured softly, though he sucked at the spot he’d just licked, savoring Sonic’s taste as much as his scent.

“But you want to.”

Shadow didn’t say anything. There was no point in denying or confirming when his urges were so obvious. Of course he wanted to. He wanted to bite down more than anything. The strength of his desires has left his own right bicep littered with new puncture wounds and sticky with drying blood. It was all instincts and hormones, but it was strange to want it so badly with Sonic and not to have felt the compulsion at all with Rouge.

Silence fell, the only sound the soft peppering of kisses Shadow left along Sonic’s shoulder, and the nearby washing of waves along the shore. Dawn had risen, the sun’s light entering their temporary sanctuary in gold-casted rays that illuminated the signs of their previously rushed intimacy. Stone was marred by claws and quills, and Sonic’s sports tape littered the space between their scattered shoes and gloves like the tattered ribbons from a child’s gift.

Sonic was nearly as naked as he could be.

All but for one thing.

The scarf around his neck suddenly felt heavy and tight, like it was choking him even though it was loosely knotted, same as it always was. Shadow’s kisses pressed down over the thin cloth, and for the first time, all Sonic could think about was how much he wanted the barrier gone. Even in the light of day. Even knowing that Shadow would see.

Hesitantly, he reached up and tugged at the knot that secured his bandana. His heart beat wildly in his chest, but there was no stopping now. He wanted Shadow to know. He wanted him to see. He wanted to show Shadow this part of his past he’d not entrusted to even his closest friends, not even his brother.

Shadow pulled back to give him room, watching in confused silence. Sonic swallowed hard as he felt the cloth fall away, baring his neck and shoulder. He kept the scarf bunched tightly in his hand, clinging to it like a security blanket.

Shadow immediately buried his nose in the crook of Sonic’s neck with a sound somewhere between a growl and a purr. “You smell like me,” he murmured with satisfaction as he inhaled deeply. His hips thrust forward, grinding into Sonic’s ass hard, his knot rubbing against the other's prostate. Surprised moans slipped from peach lips, and Shadow’s ears tipped forward in appreciation of them. “I want my scent all over you…. Every inch. Inside and out.”

“I–ah–” Sonic gasped, feeling himself hardening again, despite his absent heat symptoms. This definitely wasn’t the response he was expecting. “I’m, uh. I’m pretty sure it already is, Shads. You’ve come in me like… five times in 24 hours.”

Shadow shook his head. “It’s not enough…” He pulled back, brushing Sonic’s quills further to the side when he saw it. A slight break in cobalt fur. His brow furrowed as he brought a finger up to trace the faint line that traveled right over Sonic’s scent gland.

Sonic immediately tensed. “I-it’s not what you think–”

“Have you been claimed?” Shadow meant to sound angry. He was angry.

He sounded hurt.

“No!” Sonic tried to twist his head around to look at Shadow, but the other’s knot was still too swollen, and he was stuck like he was. He sank back down and turned his nose into Shadow’s elbow to let the alpha’s scent settle him. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t want it. He tried, but I got away–”

“Someone tried to force their claim on you?” Stone cold fury ripped through Shadow. Red bled into the edges of his vision. “Who? When?” he snarled.

“Shadow–”

“Where are they?”

“Shadow!”

“I’ll kill them. I’ll rip their limbs from their body. I’ll tear out their throat. I’ll–”

“Shadow,” Sonic said softly. A tremor ran through him, the memory of what Infinite had done enough to make his body react to the trauma whether he wanted it to or not.

For all his violent words and the promise of retribution behind them, Shadow didn’t hesitate to curl more into Sonic. His arms held his omega a little tighter as he tried to curb his rage. His voice shook anyway. “When?”

“I was 17. I hadn’t presented. I thought I was a beta. He knew, though,” Sonic rambled in a rush. “I don’t know how, but he knew I was an omega. I thought he was my friend.” Sonic's voice was quiet, staring at the far cave wall like it was a mirror to the past. “He waited. For years. Made me trust him. Until that first heat. I didn’t even know what was happening to me, but he did. He drugged me, tied me up, and then he tried to….”

Shadow was quiet, but trembled just as much as Sonic, the restraint of his anger testing his strength of will more than ever before. While he seethed, his touch remained gentle, soothing. He kissed the sliver of scar like the act would make the hurt it had caused go away. Erase the cruelty of another. He did it again, and then again. “But he didn’t.”

“He didn’t.”

“How did you get away?”

“I was starting to feel weak, didn’t have my speed, but he forgot something really obvious.”

“What’s that?”

Sonic twisted his head a bit, his flattened and relaxed quills harmlessly brushing against his alpha. “Natural hedgehog defense system. Cut his face up, I think. I don’t know. I didn’t stop to check. Some of the ropes came undone, and I took off. Sticks found me. That’s why she’s the only person who knows I’m an omega. She took care of me, and when I didn’t have anywhere else to go, she brought me here. Then I met Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and… you.”

Shadow’s thoughts and feelings warred with each other. He was furious, pained, desperate to both undo what had happened and ensure that it never happened again. His canines dipped further into his mouth, aching with the urge to erase the mark another had left with one of his own. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips together so tightly he could feel skin break against the sharp, elongated points.

“He did bite me…. Maybe he didn’t manage to claim me because I pulled away, but–I’ve been marked. The way the law stands….”

“You belong to him,” Shadow whispered in stunned realization.

Sonic nodded. “That’s why I wear the scarf. That’s why no one can know. He’s bad news, Shadow. The worst. He can’t find me. If he did, he’d hurt anyone I care about to get to me, and it’s not like I have the law on my side. I can’t risk it.”

“He won’t touch you. Never again.”

Sonic eased himself off Shadow’s cock, ignoring the gush of fluid that leaked from under his tail as he turned to face his m–rival. He rested his head back on Shadow’s outstretched arm and met crimson eyes. “You don’t know him like I do, Shadow. One on one, I could take him down easier than a hoard of badniks, but he’s not like you, or me, or even Eggman for that matter. He manipulates. He twists things, and he makes people do–” Sonic paused and looked away. He worried at his bottom lip. “I should have gone after him a long time ago.”

“You were scared,” Shadow said simply.

Green eyes flew up and narrowed. “No!” Sonic snapped. “I wasn’t scared. I was just–”

“Scared,” Shadow cut in again. He ignored Sonic’s glare and gave him a stern look. “Don’t. Don’t argue. I know what it feels like to be stripped of your free will, and if the mere thought of it makes me uneasy, it must petrify you.”

“Hey–” Sonic growled, but Shadow continued unbothered.

“You’re an omega, but outside of your heats, you’re capable of putting up a mid to fair fight.”

“Once again–hey!”

Shadow cupped Sonic’s muzzle with his free hand and brushed his thumb across short peach fur. “What I’m trying to say is you’re not helpless. He won’t catch you off guard again. You decide who gets to touch you. No one will take that from you again.”

Sonic softened slightly. “And what about during my heats? When I’m… weak.” Sonic’s ears tipped back at the admission, the words alone leaving a bitter taste on his tongue. “What happens then? When I can’t defend myself?”

“You have your friends–”

“You know I don’t want them to kn–”

“And you have me.”

Sonic’s eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. Something confusing and almost hopeful fluttered to life in his stomach, a strange but pleasant sensation for once. He hesitated, unsure of what he was feeling and afraid to look too closely. “That’s just the hormones talking, Shads.”

“It’s not,” Shadow answered softly, realizing with a terrifying shock that it was the truth. He would do this again. He wanted to do this again. In fact, the very thought of anyone else ever seeing Sonic through his heat made him want to set the world on fire. “I would do this again.”

“Why?” Sonic asked, voice equal parts wonder and confusion. “I get helping me now. It snuck up on me and you don’t want to lose the only racing partner you have, but…”

“What else would you do? It’s too intense to be on your own, and you refuse to ask one of your alpha friends.”

“Maybe I could ask Am–”

“Don’t,” Shadow immediately snapped. His muzzle flushed pink at the ferocity in such a simple word. He cleared his throat. “She has feelings for you,” he tried to cover. “It’s obvious. It would only complicate things.”

“And this isn’t complicated?”

“No,” Shadow lied a little too quickly. He swallowed all the other words he wanted to say and fought to keep his increasingly confusing feelings from showing. “It’s a simple transaction.”

Green eyes searched red, and Sonic felt something new and warm stir in his chest because Shadow was full of shit. The hybrid could say whatever he wanted, but his actions spoke louder than his words. Sure, they weren’t about to become mates and sail off to the stars, but it wasn’t so cold as what Shadow described. Not even close. Shadow cared. At least a little.

Sonic pushed against the hybrid’s chest, forcing him on his back and straddling him in the blink of an eye. He let his bare fingers comb through Shadow’s chest fluff, watching how the white tufts curled around his touch. He ignored the alpha’s previous words and lifted his gaze to meet Shadow’s. “You said I get to choose who touches me.”

Shadow grunted in surprise at the change in position but nodded at Sonic’s words. “I did.”

Sonic licked his lips, a single finger trailing down over Shadow’s stomach, gliding across silky black fur until he teased the area where Shadow’s barely softened cock rested heavy across his stomach. He could see it harden before his eyes, like it felt the weight of his attention. His own mirrored it. “You get to choose too.”

“What do you mean?”

“My heat symptoms are gone. I don’t need it. At least, not right now,” Sonic said, even as his mouth watered, and his hole leaked with a viscous mixture of his slick and Shadow’s cum. “But… I want it. If I get to choose who touches me, I choose you.”

Sonic caught Shadow’s wrists just as the hybrid moved to grip blue thighs. “But you get a choice too, Shads, just like you said. I’m not gonna croak this time if you don’t. You don’t have to.”

“I never had to.” Shadow easily twisted out of Sonic’s hold and had the hero’s hips in his hands not a second later. He bucked up just as he pulled the blue male against his erection. “I made my choice then, and I’m making it now. If I didn’t want to be here, if I didn’t want to do this, I wouldn’t.”

“You know that means you sorta like me, right?” Sonic smirked as he moved in sync with Shadow, each roll of his hips steady and unhurried. “Not that I’m surprised. I’m pretty damn likable.”

“A damn nuisance is what you are.”

Shadow made to roll their positions, but Sonic pushed him back down with all his renewed strength. “You mean damn sexy?”

“Definitely not.”

“That’s not what this guy says,” Sonic said as he lifted himself up a bit, just enough to take Shadow’s length into his hand. The alpha’s cock was rock hard, a drip of pre beading at the tip and looking far too delicious to ignore. Without thinking he slid down Shadow’s thighs and brought his mouth down so he could lap up that delicious drop.

Shadow’s breath hitched, his hands forming fists as the powerful muscles beneath Sonic flexed and quivered, all that strength and potential for destruction folding under his touches and tongue. Sonic may be an omega, but this alpha was his. His to touch, his to fuck, his to make quiver and moan and beg. A whole new rush of desire burned through Sonic as he brushed off a few more of the self-imposed shackles from his secondary sex. He wasn’t giving up control. Not with Shadow.

He was taking it.

Chapter Text

Sonic reveled in his newfound power.

He let the flat of his tongue roll over Shadow’s tip like he was licking at an ice cream cone, aiming teasing little flicks at the sensitive slit and underside. The hybrid panted in response, ebony stomach dipping and rising with fast, stuttered breaths. Sonic let his lips ghost down Shadow’s shaft, extending his tongue as though he meant to take more, but pulled away just to torment. He watched Shadow’s face, noting how the hybrid’s eyes were fixed on him, pupils blown under a half-lidded gaze. “You get this hard for all your rivals, Shads?”

“Only the mouthy o-ones,” Shadow shot back, obstinate even if his voice wavered a bit at the end.

Sonic laughed, a genuine smile breaking out across his face. “Was that a pun?” He let his tongue draw little circles on Shadow’s most sensitive flesh. “Not too bad. Maybe I should give you a reward.”

“I’m clearly superior to you in all ways, including your stupid quips–” Shadow groaned, and his eyes squeezed shut. His head fell back against stone, and his back arched. “Fuck–” he hissed as Sonic took him in and sucked like–

Like he swallowed chili dogs whole on a daily basis….

For once, Shadow didn’t care that Sonic had the palate of a pot-bellied trucker, because it sure as fuck was paying off now.

Sonic groaned around Shadow’s cock, forcing it deeper even though the stretch in his throat was difficult to manage. His hand wrapped firmly around the base, just above Shadow’s knot, pumping up and down as Sonic let the saliva that had pooled in his mouth dribble down. Was it great lubrication? No. But was it hot?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Sonic couldn’t get enough, not of Shadow’s taste, the way he felt in his mouth, the sounds he made–fuck. If he thought Shadow sounded hot before, this was a whole other level. With Sonic’s mind free of heat fog, he could fully savor each one, and Chaos…. The fact that he was the cause of those broken little moans and cries? His spank bank overfloweth.

“That’s it,” Shadow praised, finally allowing his hands to drag through blue quills now that he had a slightly better grip on his control. The first minute had been so overwhelming it was all he could do to be still and not fuck up into Sonic’s mouth with a roughness he didn’t want to unleash just yet. “Like that…” He pressed down on Sonic’s head, but only a little. “Open your mouth wider for me. A little more.” A broken groan left Shadow, his next words breathy and fast. “Now take it, all the way. Get it in your throat. I know you can do it.”

Sonic’s ears tipped back, his back dipping so his ass was high in the air as he pushed himself down, triggering a gag reflex he thought he’d lost years ago. He coughed and sputtered but didn’t let up, feeling Shadow’s dick force open his throat until Sonic’s nose pressed into warm black fur, and his lips kissed Shadow’s knot.

“Fuck!” Shadow gasped, “You’re so fucking good for me. So good.” He stroked Sonic’s quills, letting the blue hedgehog up for a breath before pressing down on his head. “Again. Hold it this time.”

Sonic instantly complied, Shadow’s praise doing things to his head. He took the hybrid to the hilt in one go and held steady while his throat rejected the action, constricting frantically around the intrusion. Shadow’s immediate cry of pleasure was more than worth any discomfort.

Shadow let out an honest-to-god whine, sweat beginning to trickle down his temples as Sonic brought him to the edge in an embarrassingly short amount of time. Praise tumbled from his lips, abundant and unfiltered. “Fuck yes–you feel so good. S-shit! You’re perfect, so fucking perfect for me. Don’t stop–”

When Shadow’s quads began to tremble against the inside of Sonic’s thighs, he knew the alpha was close, and while part of him desperately wanted Shadow to flood his mouth, he was thoroughly worked up again. He needed Shadow’s cum inside him. Deep inside him. Where his omega instincts told him it belonged.

Sonic popped off with a gasp for air and had his hips over Shadow’s not a second later. He pressed Shadow’s swollen tip to his hole, circling it and letting Shadow feel just how sopping wet he was. He bit his lip and whined softly, legs trembling with need, not weakness. “Tell me you want it, Shadow. Tell me–”

Shadow sat forward and gripped Sonic’s hips so tightly his claws left marks under blue fur. The dark male pulled him down on his cock, watching Sonic’s thighs part more with every thick inch that disappeared into him. It was slow, achingly slow, and he watched Sonic’s face as he did it. His lips hovered just a breath away from Sonic’s. “I want it,” he panted as searing wet heat engulfed his throbbing dick. “It’s all I can think about.” He groaned into Sonic’s mouth as he hilted himself with ease, their previous rounds evident by Sonic’s relaxed inner muscles and copious amount of slick. He licked at the hero’s lips as he ran his tongue along his own. “You’re in my head, and I hate it. How you feel, smell, how much I want–” Shadow cut himself off as he bottomed out, and Sonic grinded on his knot, already eager to have it back inside.

“Want what?” Sonic asked as he wrapped his arms around Shadow’s shoulders and rolled his hips.

“You–” Shadow’s lips closed the sliver of space between them, crashing down just as his arms wrapped around Sonic’s back, holding him close as their bodies moved together.

It was intense, just as much as the other times they’d done this, but it was different, weighted. The context of the need had changed. It wasn’t about survival or convenience. It just… was.

Sonic moved his hips a little harder, each movement a new attempt to get Shadow’s knot to slip into place. “You feel that, Shads?” he mumbled against Shadow’s lips. “Feel how wet I am? That’s not just me. That’s you too. That’s your cum dripping out of me.”

Shadow felt a feral, primal rumble work its way out of him as he turned his attention to Sonic’s neck, nipping and sucking and clinging by a thread to his omega’s wishes not to be bitten. That scar taunted him, and though no scent lingered from the other alpha–a sign that further indicated Sonic had never been claimed–he almost imagined he could smell it on cobalt fur. It made Shadow mad with possessiveness. “Then I think you need some more….”

Sonic moaned and nodded as he tilted his head to the side, exposing himself to Shadow. The hybrid pulled himself away even though his canines had dropped in his mouth, aching so much it was almost hard to talk. He brought his hands to Sonic’s stomach and hummed in satisfaction when he felt a slight bulge that moved in time with their thrusts. He watched the faint play of shimmer on peach fur as Sonic’s insides shifted to accommodate his cock, knowing it would be even more obvious once he worked his knot back in.

Shadow moved his touch to Sonic’s throbbing length, pumping the other in time with the merging of their bodies, and felt the hero clench almost painfully around him in response. “You’re so goddamn tight,” Shadow growled out. “Even after I’ve had you again and again. You’re like a vise, like you won’t let me go until I give you what you want.”

“Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll just keep fucking you like this and never let you pull out again.”

Shadow thrusted up harder, putting a hand behind him to brace himself while the other continued to work Sonic’s dick. “Would you like that?”

“Yes, fuck–please!”

Shadow’s hips snapped forward brutally, forcing his knot into Sonic in one merciless move. The hero all but screamed, and Shadow loved it, basked in it. He pumped Sonic’s cock in a blur, wanting to force the other into a climax so he could hear his overstimulated whimpers as Shadow fucked him with his knot. Maybe it was slightly sadistic, but he knew by now that Sonic loved it just as much as he did.

“Shadow! Slow down–I’m gonna–I can’t!”

A mere second passed, and Sonic exploded. He was left clinging to Shadow with one hand while the other tried to pull the alpha’s grip away from his dick, his sobs and cries echoing in the cave as he painted both of their bellies in sticky cum. Sonic’s hole clenched and quivered around Shadow’s cock and knot, but never once did he ask Shadow to stop.

The hybrid didn’t release his hold, didn’t stop thrusting upwards in slow, sharp snaps of his hips. Sonic whimpered desperately, his inner walls frantically convulsing with endless pleasure as he was pushed into overstimulation. “Shadow! Shadow–please-c’mon–I can’t–” the hero gasped in one long breath. “It’s too much!”

“One more,” Shadow murmured. “You can do it.”

“I can’t!”

“You backing down? Tapping out?”

Sonic growled and nipped at Shadow’s bottom lip hard enough to bruise, unable to refute the challenge in Shadow’s words. “I hate you.”

Shadow just grinned and rolled them so he could fully work his swollen knot deeper inside Sonic’s dripping hole. “That’s fine by me,” he answered, a short groan leaving him as he circled his hips and pressed forward as hard as he could. A fresh spurt of pre or cum, Shadow wasn’t sure, spurted from Sonic’s dick at the action, the omega’s abused prostate somehow finding more fluid when he should have been long dry.

Sonic half snarled at the rough treatment, overstimulated, but somehow still enjoying it and wanting more. Fuck, Shadow always made him want more. What was this?? He wrapped his legs around black hips and held on tight while his hand worked between them to gather the fresh cum streaking his belly. He took the wet mess, and in some sort of angry, defiant, and maybe a little possessive but definitely not territorial move, smeared it across Shadow’s chest fur. “Mine,” he growled, his own canines glinting in the strengthening rays of sun.

Shadow didn’t think. His lips collided with Sonic’s in a hard, desperate kiss, his tongue delving into the other’s just as his hips lost their steady, deep rhythm and became frantic. “I wish I could fill you up,” he growled suddenly. “Make your stomach grow with something more than just my cock.”

Sonic let out a raspy, broken moan at the thought. He didn’t want that. That was part of the whole point of not being mated, but–

Fuck, he did want that. The idea of it at least.

“You get so tight every time I say that…” Shadow pushed himself up and grabbed Sonic’s legs so he could fold the omega in on himself. He pressed his hands on the backs of Sonic’s thighs for leverage and pulled back enough to threaten to remove his knot before he thrust forward hard. He groaned in pleasure at the newfound depth the position offered. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe my biology has changed. Maybe I’ll fuck you enough it won’t matter either way,” he grunted. “Keep you nice and full.”

Sonic couldn’t stop the broken keen from leaving him as Shadow managed to get deeper than ever before. He panted and nodded, completely entranced and lost in the fantasy Shadow offered. “Yes! Fuck–do it. I want it! I need it–”

Shadow’s pace faltered, his climax painfully close. He let go of his restraint and let his alpha side at least have the satisfaction of potentially breeding his omega, even if he couldn’t mark him. “I’m almost there–” Shadow grunted and redoubled his efforts until the sound of their hips colliding echoed like gunshots. “You’re mine. Mine to fuck. Mine to breed,” Shadow growled.

That last statement sent Sonic to the moon, right to the edge of the orgasm he said he couldn’t have. “Shadow!”

The hybrid dipped his head down just as his body seized, and his thick cock emptied, but not to claim. Instead he took Sonic’s twitching dick into his mouth and sucked. Hard.

That was all it took. Sonic screamed as he came down Shadow’s throat, the exchange of cum blurring the edges of his vision and forcing his back to arch until only Shadow’s weight kept him grounded. He sobbed. He shook. He fell apart and came back together, and he did it all in Shadow’s arms.

He gasped for air as the alpha looked up at him with heated eyes. Sonic didn’t have to hear the words to know what Shadow was thinking. His expression said enough. “Yours,” he answered without hesitation, chest heaving with exertion. “Yours.”

That seemed to satisfy his… rival. Shadow came off his dick and leaned forward with hands on either side of Sonic’s head before he kissed him slowly, but very thoroughly.

Sonic pulled away, sucking down oxygen like he’d been underwater. “Air, Shads! Unlike you, it’s a requirement for me.”

Shadow chuckled, the sound deep and warm. It made Sonic smile back without thinking.

“You really had me with some of that dirty talk. Didn’t know you had it in you. You’re a freak, you know that?” Sonic said, batting at Shadow’s shoulder affectionately.

“You are what you eat, Sonic.”

Sonic laughed at that and wrapped his arms around Shadow’s shoulders to pull him down, nuzzling him with a contented sigh, when words he’d never once felt before formed in his mind. Ones he nearly felt compelled to say. Ones people–who were definitely not him–wrote songs, ballads, and poems about, and ones that people definitely didn’t tell their rival/sometimes fuck buddy.

Sonic tensed and pushed the thoughts and… feelings… down. Way down.

But not fast enough that Shadow didn’t feel him tense.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“Nah, I’m fine. Wouldn’t mind a change in position though. You’re surprisingly heavy.”

“Muscle weighs more than chili dogs, which is what I assume you’re made of.”

“Okay, funny guy,” Sonic said dryly, though there was a layer of fondness in it. “If the comedy show is over, could we flip positions?”

Shadow grumbled, but held Sonic close as he rolled onto his back. The shift painfully tugged at sensitive and sore flesh as was typical, but Sonic didn’t mind. He didn’t mind any of it.

Maybe he didn’t even mind being an omega if it could always be like this.

Sonic’s eyes fluttered shut as he tucked his head into the crook of Shadow’s neck and breathed deeply. Every muscle in his body seemed to relax as his alpha’s scent saturated his senses. He felt safe, protected, sated, and as Shadow’s arms tightened around him, he knew this was the only choice he planned to make. Shadow or none. What that made them, he wasn’t sure. Maybe it didn’t matter as much as he worried it did. Maybe whatever this was, was enough.

Within a minute, his complicated thoughts were lost to the steady sound of Shadow’s breaths and the thrum of his heart. Exhaustion overtook him.

He didn’t feel the lips softly pressed to his forehead as he drifted off.

Sonic slept deeply.

Too deeply.

He didn’t hear the skittering of shell particles and sand on stone until it was no more than a few dozen feet away from the little alcove he and Shadow had taken refuge in.

Even more surprising, Shadow didn’t either.

He ducked his head down on Shadow’s chest where he’d fallen asleep, ears flattened. A growl rose from Shadow’s throat as his eyes flickered open and he picked up on Sonic’s tension. Sonic quickly put his hand over the hybrid’s mouth, praying to the ancients, the gods, and anyone else that was listening that he’d still have two whole hands after doing so.

“Are you sure he’s in here?” Amy called as she looked around. “Doesn’t seem like a place Sonic would hang out…”

“Well, technically speaking, this is where his left shoe is,” Tails answered. “But logic would follow that he’s here, too.”

“Fuck,” Sonic grumbled under his breath. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He looked around, quickly noting that not only were he and Shadow as naked as a Mobian and half-alien could be, they reeked of sex, omega, and heat. Drying cum coated their bodies, the cave wall, and the cave floor. Sonic’s shoes were nearly a dozen feet apart, Shadow’s air shoes not much better, and between the two of them, they only had three moderately usable gloves.

A series of stalagmites served as a natural barrier between the opening of the cave and where Sonic and Shadow hid, but that didn’t mean that Amy and the others wouldn’t stumble upon their den of iniquity in 2.5. They were lucky they hadn’t been spotted yet.

Yet being the keyword.

Shadow pried Sonic’s hand from his mouth. “Tell them,” he hissed. “The truth.”

“Sonic?” Amy called.

“I told you! The dryer gnomes are at it again! First they come for your socks, and the next thing you know your left shoe is missing!”

Sonic had to hand it to Sticks. She was really trying.

“Smells like rotten eggs again,” Knuckles added, voice coming closer. “But if there are eggs, where are all the chickens??”

“I smell it too, Knuckles,” Amy said, “but it’s not rotten eggs. It’s strange, almost like–”

“Don’t come any closer!” Sonic shouted. He grabbed at his bandana and slipped off Shadow as he hastily tied it back around his neck. Fortunately they’d slept long enough for Shadow’s knot to go down, and both their cocks had returned to their pouches. Not that they still weren’t a mess and Sonic's ass a whole new level of sore, but not having to conceal a hard-on was definitely a win in his book. He ignored the discomfort in muscles he didn't know he had and ducked down low, well out of sight. Hopefully.

“Sonic?” Tails questioned. “Are you okay? What are you doing all the way over here?”

“I was… I’m…” Sonic wracked his brain as crimson eyes stared at him expectantly. A second ticked by.

Two.

His heart was going to burst.

Three.

He couldn't take it.

Four.

He panicked.

“I'm taking a dump!”

Shadow’s mouth fell open in shock. He blinked hard. “What??” he mouthed.

“Yeah,” Sonic continued, looking at his alpha with an awkward cringe and a helpless shrug. “Smells… real bad, so. You guys should all stay over there.”

“Maybe Sonic is having a different reaction to that tainted food we ate last night,” Tails explained to the others, though Sonic was still able to hear.

“Yeah!” Sonic was quick to agree. “I think I’m allergic to… whatever we ate. Messed me up so bad I can’t even remember what it was.”

Shadow closed his eyes and collapsed back on the stone floor. He tried to knock himself out in the process but unfortunately for him, it didn’t work. He wondered if Sticks still had her boomerang handy.

“Sonic has eaten expired chili from the Meh Burger dumpster,” Amy said, countering Tails. “And he’s never had an issue, and you want to try and blame my perfectly fine cooking that was so good we blacked o–”

“Hey those cans weren’t that expired!” Sonic called out with open indignation. “Everyone knows expiration dates are just suggestions anyway.”

“No they’re not!” Shadow seethed at Sonic before running a hand over his face in disbelief. He’d had his tongue in that mouth…. He shuddered at the implications. It had to be hormones. That’s why he’d stooped this low.

“Well can you wrap it up?” Amy asked, voice hurried and impatient. “Tails says we have to go in there.”

“What!?” Sonic gripped his quills, and looked down at himself, then at Shadow who gave him the most menacing stare he’d seen to date. He gulped. “You can’t! I’m– out of toilet paper! Yeah. Um. Sticks! Sticks can you bring me some of that, um, fancy stuff!” He looked down at Shadow’s bare hands and felt a wave of possessiveness. He didn’t want the others to see. He wanted to be the only one who knew where Shadow’s crimson stripe ended. “And maybe another pair of gloves?”

“Why gloves?” Tails could barely be heard going through his pack.

“BecauseIdidn’thavetoiletpaper,” Sonic all but shrieked. There were no crickets in the cave, but Sonic swore he heard them anyway.

“Sonic the Hedgehog, you are disgusting,” Amy said before Sonic heard her move further away.

“Agreed,” Shadow muttered at his side.

“Can’t you chaos control away?” Sonic grumbled under his breath.

Shadow shot him a dry look. “You have three options. One, abandon this pathetic excuse for a plan, admit to your friends what you are, and return with me to my cave. Two, I heal you and you come up with some additional hairbrained reason for why I’m here, or three, and I’m partial to this one at the moment, you waddle your way through your mission contemplating all your bad decisions and their consequences. Alone.”

Sonic narrowed his eyes. “I hate you.”

“It’s mutual,” Shadow spat back.

A moment later, footsteps approached. Shadow instinctively growled in warning but was quickly shut up by an apple being thrown in his face. “An offering for the hangry one,” Sticks said as she cautiously approached.

Shadow looked like he was about to throw the apple back with ten times as much force, but Sonic quickly scrambled between them. He started to stand, but Shadow pulled him back down, Sonic’s bare hands wrapped in his. “It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before,” he whispered, wrenching away from Shadow’s grip. “She’s a beta, ace, and a wannabe nudist. Trust me when I say she doesn’t care.”

The ‘I care’ was plain in Shadow’s expression as Sonic pulled away, but he said nothing as the badger pulled a few items from her bag. “I don’t think this is going to work,” she said as she handed Sonic a thermos. She kept her eyes averted even though the stalagmites still acted as a short privacy fence. She had enough nightmares as it was. “You smell like a pay by the hour motel room. What are you doing all the way out here anyway?”

“Heat got bad–”

“Bad?” Shadow snapped, poking his head up as he sat and leaned back on his heels. “You almost died!”

“You need to listen to your body, Sonic,” Sticks cautioned. “I’ve not heard of a heat this intense before. Heat death may be rare, but it’s still a thing.”

“One more time. I just need to try one more time,” Sonic protested. “If it gets bad, I’ll leave with Shadow. Hedgehog’s honor.”

“I have an easier time talking sense to the voices than I do you,” Sticks said as she tossed a balled up pair of gloves at him and then another. “Brought ya two. You should thank Tails. I didn’t figure you’d want Knuckles’, not with the alpha scent on them.”

“Thank you,” Shadow said as he pulled the fresh garments on, finding them a bit small, but functional.

“Don’t mention it. And Sonic?” she asked as she tossed their shoes and Shadow’s cuffs over.

“Yeah?”

“You both better use that wash. Your scents are blending.”

“Blending?” Shadow asked. His background left him with gaps of understanding when it came to Mobian customs, terms, and apparently, even biological functions.

Sonic flushed and grabbed the bottle of heavily scented water, unable to meet Shadow’s eyes. He shrugged. “It happens sometimes. With mated pairs.”

“Bonded pairs. Usually,” Sticks corrected. “Never heard of it happening outside of a claim.” She cupped her chin, deep in thought before bending down to close her pack. “It's probably because of the alien stuff.”

Shadow’s head whipped up towards Sonic in shock while the blue hedgehog frantically shook his head at him and made a severing motion at his neck. He zipped his mouth and made a motion of throwing away a key. Fortunately, Shadow had seen Maria do the series of actions enough to know what it meant. Sticks apparently wasn’t in on his mixed DNA. She was just being… Sticks.

“Probably not aliens,” Sonic said, awkwardly still holding the thermos. “But I guess you never know for sure, um. Mind, uh… giving us some privacy, Sticks?”

“Why?” she asked gruffly, as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder. She pointed to where Shadow’s head was just visible over the ledge. “He got something I ain’t seen before?”

This time it was Sonic’s eyes that went wide, his face burning. “No–I j-just–I mean–”

“Yes,” Shadow answered simply. “Now leave.”

Sticks shot Sonic a look of confusion, but shrugged and moved away without another word.

“Couldn’t you have lied?” Sonic asked as he slid down to tug on his shoes, lamenting that he hadn’t asked for a clean pair of socks too. His were still damp with sea water and didn’t smell… awesome. “Now she’s gonna hound me until she figures out if you’ve got two dicks or something.”

“Tell her the truth. I don’t care.”

Sonic frowned at that. He absolutely would not be telling Sticks that Shadow had a deliciously large alien dick with ridges that–he felt his cock twitch in his sheath and grumbled in irritation. Thinking about Shadow’s otherworldly bits and pieces should not turn him on this much.

“So what’s it going to be, hedgehog? Have you come to your senses?”

Sonic shook himself from his NC-17 thoughts and watched as Shadow adjusted his inhibitor band over the cuff of his glove. “I want to try. I need to.”

“Why? Give me one good reason.”

“Because they need me.”

“No they don’t. Try again.”

“You wouldn’t understand!”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t have friends!”

Shadow flinched like he’d been hit, but then his stoic mask was quickly back in place. “Turn around.”

“Shadow, I–”

“I said. Turn. Around.”

Sonic closed his eyes as he did what Shadow said and soon felt the other’s touch below his tail. It wasn’t the usual gentle caress, or soothing press of fingers. It was almost… clinical. It made some part of Sonic ache like he was missing something. Something he’d grown to need just as much as the release Shadow provided. It made Sonic feel cold, and he knew it was his fault. He knew he should say something, apologize–

But he didn’t.

Once Shadow’s fingers withdrew, Sonic stood and began lathering himself in the scented water. The overwhelming, cloying scent made his eyes water, but he used it to scrub the drying cum from his body and drenched his bandana in it. He didn’t make eye contact, but he could feel Shadow’s gaze, the weight of it heavy and uncomfortable.

“I can’t chaos control,” Shadow said softly. “Not until my reserves build back up.”

Sonic held out the half-empty bottle, but looked away. “I know. And thanks. For healing me.”

Shadow didn’t comment, just took the offered wash. The sound of streams and droplets of water hitting and pooling on stone sounded, joined by the slick brushing of fur. The space between them felt more strained than it had ever been. Sonic opened his mouth to say something, anything to make it better, but closed it as his friends re-entered the cave.

The group's eyes fell on Sonic first and then darted to his side. Their voices rang out as one.

“Shadow!?”

Chapter Text

The sun had barely crested the eastern horizon, and the air was already thick and balmy with humidity. It made Infinite’s palms sweat under his dark fingerless gloves, and his fur grew uncomfortably sticky. It wasn’t much different from the mainland, but the sensory experience did nothing to improve the jackal’s foul mood.

He tipped his nose into the air as he walked along the beach, taking in short quick huffs, but it was useless. There were the expected notes of sea, sand, and salt, and under those, hints of hibiscus, plumeria, pine, and wood smoke. Traces of civilization lingered if the breeze shifted just right, but despite all the things he could smell, there was one thing he couldn’t.

Omega. Heated omega.

Infinite’s tail swished behind him, more like a cat’s than a jackal’s. It divulged his darkening demeanor to his squad, who worked quickly and quietly to secure their boat under a cover of brush and debris.

Infinite turned to them, closing the distance along the embankment in quick, near threatening strides, noting with twisted satisfaction how their gazes instantly dropped, and their ears flattened. They were scared of him.

Good.

“Vier,” Infinite barked, calling his underling to him.

The lighter jackal tossed the rope he’d been holding into the boat and scurried to Infinite, kicking up a deep trail of sand behind him with his blundered movements. “Yes, sir?”

“You know this island better than any of us. What can we expect to find?”

“It’s sparsely populated. There are a few small tribes of peoples and one larger village. Locals consist of various Mobian species, with only one known human in the area that lives on a rocky key approximately two, two and a half miles away.”

“This village you mentioned, anyone there going to give us trouble?”

Vier shook his head, combing a hand anxiously through his short, white hair. “Not that I know of. Barker has said they’re idiots, but not much else. We don’t chat much during drops.”

Infinite nodded and called out to his second. “Dva. Find the town. Figure out what there is to know about a blue hedgehog. The color is unique. There won’t be two.” He turned his attention to the last member of their group, the youngest and newest, but also the shrewdest. “Zeks, go with Dva. I need both of you spreading something vague about an alpha looking for a lost mate. Make it flowery, play on this stupidity Barker claims is rampant. Don’t mention names. Use no more detail than it’s a hedgehog. Keep a low profile.”

Zeks nodded, the action throwing a tuft of white bangs over his tattered headband into his eyes. It made him look boyish and innocent when he was anything but. The jackal brushed them aside, yellow eyes intense and focused. “Should I hold onto the paperwork you requested before we left?”

“Yes. Keep it secret, keep it safe. I’ll contact you if there’s any issue requiring its use. Otherwise, I’ll send Vier to inform you when I’ve located my omega. At that time you can all reconvene here, though don’t expect me immediately.” Infinite sneered as he turned his gaze inland. A rush of anticipation swept through him, and his mouth all but watered at what was to come.

“My mate and I have some… catching up to do.”

Sonic wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his friend group look quite so comically baffled.

Or Shadow so annoyed.

Both observations were saying something.

Sonic took a deep breath and smoothed the fur over his stomach one last time to check for messes as he stepped away from the safety of his and Shadow’s temporary nest and toward more lies. He subtly kicked away a few lingering scraps of his sports tape and hoped to the gods that no one inspected the slightly shiny droplets that speckled the floor.

And the walls.

He should probably hydrate at some point….

His stomach twisted with nerves he didn’t normally feel, and his legs wobbled despite Shadow’s healing. He felt better for sure, way better than when Shadow had found him a few hours before, but… something wasn’t quite right, like a headache you’d taken medicine for, but could still feel beyond a veil of numbness.

Shadow followed wordlessly, his usual stoic mask affixed to his face making him seem uninterested and apathetic.

Sonic knew he was anything but.

A few more seconds, a handful of steps, and Sonic stood at the mouth of the cave, blinking painfully, nearly blinded by the sun’s harsh reflection off the ocean.

He rubbed at his eyes with one hand, holding the other up in placation as Amy summoned her hammer. “Guys!” Sonic called out. “It’s okay! Chill!”

“What is he doing here?” Amy asked. The others crouched defensively at her side–except for Sticks, who sighed and began peeling a banana.

Shadow crossed his arms and looked at Sonic expectantly and with no amusement. His expression clearly voiced the same question.

“Umm…” Sonic gulped, wracking his brain. “Emotional support?”

Amy’s hammer dropped to the ground in utter befuddlement. “What?”

“Well, see, Shads here, he really loves caves–” Sonic pulled said hedgehog into his side, bracing himself for retaliation but continuing anyway. “And he’d never been in this one. He was coming to explore, heard me in there all alone and was such a nice guy he came to check on me.”

Sonic knew his excuse was bad when even Knuckles looked disbelieving. He ignored the urge to dab at the nervous sweat beading at his temple. “I’d asked him to do that blippy thing he does and bring me toilet paper, but you guys beat him to the punch!”

Tails’ brows furrowed as he eyed Shadow warily. “Seriously? But then why do you guys both smell like Lady Walrus?” He made a face and waved his hand in front of his nose. “It’s burning my olfactory receptors.”

“It was better than the alternative, buddy.” That at least was the truth. At least as far as Sonic could see it.

“So… you’re friends with Shadow now?” Knuckles asked. “And he’s nice?”

“Yeah!”

“No.”

Shadow and Sonic glared at each other. It lasted all of two seconds before Sonic threw his hands up in defeat at his dark rival. “Seriously, Shads?”

“Someone recently told me I don’t have any friends.”

“Aw, Shadow,” Amy said, taking a step forward. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

Shadow gave her a look like he’d just noticed her existence. It quickly morphed into a cold frown once her words fully processed. He may not be able to smell her over the cloud of perfume that coated him, but he knew what she was. Alpha. He had to steel himself not to growl and instead only snap a quick, “I don’t need your pity.”

“But what about my friendship?” Amy suggested with a singsong voice that was a complete contradiction to her accusatory tone not a full minute earlier. She clenched her hands together and tucked them under her chin sweetly. “Our bookclub has been needing a new–”

“No.”

“But–”

Sonic patted Shadow on the shoulder and waved Amy off. “We’ll get there, Ames, give it time. Besides, he hasn’t dropkicked any of us yet, so that’s pretty good progress already.”

“The day is young, hedgehog,” Shadow muttered dryly.

Sonic rolled his eyes but kept his hand on Shadow’s shoulder. The hybrid hadn’t shrugged him off, and the contact settled him. “Ignore him, he’s mostly safe, and he’s coming with us!”

“Mostly?” Tails asked, uncertainty giving his voice a slight squeak. The fox grabbed his tails like that would stop Shadow from grabbing them and spinning him into something like he had so often in the past. “And he’s coming with us?”

“Yup. He’s turned a new leaf. Seen the light. Returned from the dark side–”

Shadow ran a hand over his face. “Enough. They get it.” He took a deep breath, trying and failing to make his body language seem friendlier. Warmer. He dropped his arms and tried to smile. The effort only seemed to make the others more wary. He sighed. “I am familiar with many of the local cave systems, and I–” he cleared his throat, trying not to choke on the words. “Want to help.”

“Why?” Amy asked. Her eyes narrowed a bit. “You’ve never wanted to help before. Why do you care if Eggman’s missing?”

“Boredom,” Shadow shrugged. There was some truth to the statement. He made it a point to stay away from the mainland, and there was only so much to do on an island he could lap in less than a minute. “But most importantly, damage control.”

“He’s been following us since we left and hasn’t killed us yet,” Sticks added, mouth slightly full. The others gaped at her, and she shrugged. “I’m just sayin’, he could be useful.”

“I knew that ominous foreboding feeling I’ve felt since we left wasn’t food poisoning!” Knuckles declared, though mostly to himself. “It was just Shadow!”

Amy gave the echidna a look and shook her head before focusing back on Sonic. Her hammer disappeared to wherever it went when not in use, and her shoulders sagged with the exhausted defeat of a mother being asked for a snack thirty minutes after mealtime. “Fine, but this is on you, Sonic. You’re vouching for him, so if things go south, you’re the one who gets to sedate Tails through his night terrors.”

“It was one time–” Tails argued, but Amy held up her hand to stop him.

Sonic released Shadow and held out his arms. “That’s not fair! He was basically rabid! He bit my ear so hard he pierced it, and then it got infected! What was I supposed to do?”

“Handle it like an adult!”

Shadow turned from the near brawl unfolding before him and toward Sticks, who’d just finished her banana and was snacking on some shelled peanuts. She held out the bag to Shadow. “Want some? They’re extra healthy because I blessed them before we left.”

Shadow gave her a mildly dubious look but accepted a handful. “How are they still alive?”

“Dunno,” the badger grunted. “Knuckles ate a four-leaf clover once. He thought it was cilantro.”

Shadow paused for a moment, looking from Sticks to the chaos before him that had all the emotional maturity of a playground sandbox. “You’re the sanest out of all of them, aren’t you?”

Sticks popped a few more peanuts into her mouth. “Yup.”

Twenty minutes, one beach-side bar fight, and two tantrums later, Shadow found himself tailing the back of the group with Sonic as they began their journey into the cave.

Sonic had managed to get the crew to all but run past their intimate hideout by saying he’d spotted a poisonous cave slug (not a thing), but then Knuckles had fainted, and Shadow had had to carry him.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the Benny Hill-inspired chaos hadn’t lasted long–though Shadow was still left wondering, for the millionth time, why he’d ever agreed to help Sonic in the first place. The far easier thing would have been to say no. He should have said no.

But he didn’t. And if he could go back and do it again, he wouldn’t.

He wished he knew why.

They walked mostly in silence, only the soft padding of their feet and occasional drip from a stalactite breaking the heavy atmosphere. The air was dense with moisture, so much so Shadow could occasionally see his breath, though the temperature was markedly more comfortable than it had been by the sea. The light in the cave was dim by any normal measure, and would have been pitch black if not for a secondary feature Tails had engaged on his Team’s accessories. Belts, sports tape, and gloves glowed with fluorescent light, with their shoes the brightest, casting their shadows upwards against the stone walls and dwarfing Shadow’s own. He had no such gear–not that he needed it–but it was a visible reminder that he was an outsider.

He didn’t belong.

Sonic wasn’t wrong when he said he didn’t have any friends. He didn’t, and he hadn’t. Not for a very long time. Rouge may refer to him as such, but he wasn’t sure he was much more than a convenient add-on to particularly difficult missions she undertook for a government organization on the mainland.

One he was all too familiar with.

He shook difficult thoughts from his head, sparing a quick glance to his right from the corner of his eye. Sonic seemed deep in thought. An extraordinary occurrence that made Shadow’s shoulders tense with unease. The hero worried his bottom lip, still slightly swollen from Shadow’s attention, and kept his eyes on his feet, unusually quiet. The white light the weave of his bandana produced washed out his coloring a bit, but Shadow could still make out the telltale flush that dusted his muzzle and knew if he pressed his hand there, it would feel overly warm and feverish.

Again.

“There’s some sort of weak energy reading somewhere nearby,” Tails said, breaking Shadow from his growing concern. The kit’s voice seemed louder than usual, echoing in the vast and hollow space in a way that made the fur on the back of Shadow’s neck stand on end. Something about the sound made him inwardly flinch, like he was somewhere he shouldn’t be, and now attention had been brought his way.

The fox didn’t seem to share his trepidation.

Tails had his nose pointed down toward his tablet as it had been much of the trek. He shifted it sideways in his hands, head tilting with it as he tried to make out the twisted pathways his drones were mapping ahead of them in real time. “It’s not something I’ve seen before. Not exactly, anyway. I guess it’s a little similar to what Sonic has put off in testing, but it’s almost like… a dying battery?”

“Is this what you picked up before we left?” Sonic asked.

Shadow spared him another look, wondering how the others couldn’t possibly have already picked up the difference in his tone, his posture, his mannerisms–

“Nope. Again, similar, but different bandwidths. Like… energy cousins!”

“And you think this signature you’re tracking will lead you to the Doctor?” Shadow asked, wondering if he could somehow get them to call off the mission altogether. “It seems like a weak link. Wouldn’t you be better off checking his base again?”

“The last time we did, I hid a device that’ll notify me when there’s a new heat signature of Eggman’s size and proportions, but as for the energy spike…. Well, the one that triggered my sensors the other day seems to have been a one-off. We explored all over the area where it pinged and haven’t recorded a second. So… it’s this or nothing. It’s our next best clue.”

“What about the village? What if he goes straight there?”

“Thought about that! I left some babysitter drones here and there, and look!” Tails tapped his screen and then twisted the tablet around to face Shadow. A black and white video feed of Meh Burger played seamlessly. The camera zoomed in on motion, and Shadow got an unexpected close-up of Dave the Intern picking his nose. He grimaced and looked away.

“See!” Sticks said, pointing at Shadow’s expression. “He’s worried about the radiation too!”

“There’s no radiation, Sticks,” Amy said, an edge of impatience finding its way into her tone. “We’ve talked about this.”

“Wait–is that why we’re all glowing?” Knuckles added.

Tails looked like he needed a concussion about as much as Shadow.

“Why would I give you, or myself, something that’s radioactive?” Tails asked.

“Maybe he isn’t Tails,” Sticks quickly added. “Maybe he’s a cyborg replacement from another dimension!”

Tails sighed heavily. “Sticks, the secret codeword is ‘secret codeword with a side of apricots.’”

Sticks narrowed her eyes, but nodded her head. “You’re off the hook this time….”

“It works like a long-range baby monitor,” Tails addressed Shadow as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “We can check in any time we want, and it’s set up to let us know if there’s a problem. Besides, Sonic could make it there in a few minutes, easy! Right, Sonic?”

Shadow turned to face Sonic, but the hero didn’t meet his eyes. Instead, the hero gave his brother a reassuring smile and thumbs-up. “Right! Egghead wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Tails grinned.

Shadow fumed.

The fox turned to lead the group further into the cave, and Shadow didn’t hesitate before grabbing Sonic’s arm and pulling him closer. “You’re lying,” he hissed under his breath as soon as the others were far enough ahead. “You couldn’t run right now if your life depended on it.”

Sonic’s ears flattened, and he looked away. “I could if theirs did.”

“So you’d give your life for them, but you can’t trust them with what you are?”

“It’s more complicated than that, and you know it! I told you why!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have!”

Shadow regretted the words the second they left his mouth.

The flush disappeared from Sonic’s face, and his eyes widened before turning cold and steely. Without another word, Sonic stormed ahead and left the hybrid with only the company of his namesakes.

Ahead and just around a bend, Shadow could see Sonic start to near his friends. He saw how unsteady the hero looked, how his strides wavered, how his tail was low and not long from being tucked between his legs to stop the flow of slick that was sure to increase. It made Shadow furious. Furious at Sonic, furious at himself, the situation, his friends, everything with a heartbeat in a five-mile radius!

If he just didn’t care so damn much, then–

He tripped over his own feet and nearly left an imprint of himself on stone. He closed his eyes, stopping for a moment to take a deep breath and attempt to slow his suddenly racing heart. Panic rose at the edges of his psyche. He inhaled until his chest was fit to burst, counted to five, and released slowly. Three deep steady breaths, one after the other. Just like Maria had taught him back on the ARK. Between them, all he could think was how stupid he’d been. How naive. How blind.

He cared about Sonic. It was obvious. Blatantly so. Not just now, but before too. It wasn’t hormones and instincts. It wasn’t the draw an alpha would feel toward an omega. It went further, deeper than that, and it had for who knew how long. Shadow had said it himself, after all. He’d looked Sonic in the eye and told him he didn’t do things unless he wanted to. Shadow wanted this. He wanted Sonic.

Completely. Irrevocably. Permanently.

He wanted him as his mate.

The voices of the rest grew faint, only occasional echoes reaching his ears, and still he stood motionless in the dark. A mate was the last thing Sonic wanted. That was the main reason they were doing what they were. The omega didn’t want to be tied down, didn’t want to be outed, didn’t want the connection that came from bonding. Shadow had been told he was sterile long ago, so while children weren’t something he would burden Sonic with, the rest….

What a fine goddamn mess he’d found himself in. He’d developed feelings for the most obnoxious, dim-witted, self-destructive, and extraordinary person he’d ever met and condemned himself to being tortured by the realization he could never have what he wanted.

He hung his head and began to walk, feeling exactly as he had for the past seven decades.

Alone.

Chapter Text

Shadow’s words felt like a physical blow, one that struck sharp and true in the center of Sonic’s chest. It made him want to wrap his arms around himself to ease the lingering ache, to leave, run, go somewhere, anywhere that wasn’t here, but he couldn’t. Only a handful of hours since his heat had last been sated, and already he could feel the end of the line approaching.

His fur was fluffed from the cave’s chill even though a cold sweat trickled down his spine. His legs felt heavy and unsure. His hands shook, and his face burned, and most mortifying of all, slick was gathering under his tail and beginning to drip down his thighs. His body protested its emptiness with stomach spasms he’d been able to ignore so far, but not for much longer. He was a goddamn mess.

Again.

He hated it. He didn’t want to stop. He didn’t want to slow down. He didn’t want to admit that even though Shadow had managed to lay open an old wound, he still wanted him. He needed him. Even now, all he wanted to do was turn around, find Shadow, and beg him to make it all stop, but he didn’t.

And he wouldn’t.

He knew he’d hurt Shadow with what he’d said earlier, but he hadn’t thought one mistake of a sentence would so easily erase the ground they’d gained in their relationship. Or rather, what he’d thought they gained. Shadow’s response, that Sonic shouldn’t have told him about Infinite, made him feel that they were back to square one. Back to what they were before.

Rivals.

Nothing more.

The very thought made Sonic feel raw and vulnerable in a way he hadn’t expected. Maybe it was the hormones, but he felt oddly… rejected. He’d laid bare a part of himself he’d hidden from all others, and at the time he’d felt accepted and protected.

He should have known it wasn’t real. Hadn’t life taught him as much?

“Whoa… do you guys see this?” Tails called out, breaking Sonic from his conflicted, confused, and heat-addled thoughts. He could just see his younger brother disappear around another bend and found himself, for the first time in his life, struggling to catch up.

The winding path they’d been following opened up into a huge chamber, large enough it was difficult to make out exactly where its far side ended. The stone ceiling tapered up to a point, giving the entire space the feeling of being in a caveman’s circus tent. It would have been difficult to conceptualize the vastness of the room if not for the same purple etchings that decorated Shadow’s home carved into every inch.

Sonic walked where the pictoglyphs started on the wall nearest him and traced his finger over the edge of a series of images. He felt the shallow grooves under his finger and pulled away to see that nothing stained his glove. Whatever material had been used to give the etchings their color and glow, it wasn’t coming off. They were a little different than the ones he’d seen before, both in and outside of Shadow’s cave, almost like what would be expected from different handwriting styles. The angles were sharper, the sets tighter, but more uneven, like they’d been made in a rush. It made Sonic think of an offhanded comment Amy had made once about how anxiety could impact handwriting. Maybe the ancients who’d made these had been stressed, or in a hurry.

And she thought he never listened.

One of Tails’ drones zoomed overhead, the whir from its tiny blades reminding Sonic of an oversized mosquito. The tiny bot scanned the images in front of him with a ray of flattened blue light, much as it had the majority of the cave.

“Can you translate it, Tails?” Amy asked from Sonic’s left. Sonic glanced her way, relieved when he realized she was walking the wall away from him. He couldn’t let her get too close. Not now.

“I’m trying.” Tails cocked his head and moved further down the chamber to where a shallow creek trickled by, its edges lined with a thin coating of fine grain sand. “They’re coming back as older than anything we’ve seen before. A lot older.”

“I’ve decoded a few more since the last time we compared notes,” Amy said, hopping across the creek and gazing upwards. “That one there!” She pointed to what seemed like a burst of stars sprayed out in the shape of an upside down palm tree. “We thought that meant space, but it doesn’t! It better aligns with energy or power.”

“You got that from the artifacts we picked up a few years ago?” Sonic asked. He cringed at the sound of his own voice. It sounded weak. Raspy. Fuck. He needed to figure out how to get away. He looked around, failing to spot Shadow anywhere. His stomach fell. Had he made the other so angry he left?

“Those and a few others the Gogobas found,” Amy continued, oblivious to Sonic’s inner crisis.
“I’ve been compiling our knowledge of the ancients and researching archaeology here and there between Eggman battles. That race sure knew how to tell a story. I just know there’s a romance fueled, fated lovers story in here somewhere. I can feel it!”

“Are you sure?” Knuckles scratched his head and gestured over his shoulder. “I’m pretty sure everyone is dead in that one over there.”

Sure enough, Knuckles wasn’t wrong. The group joined the echidna who stood on the opposite end of the chamber where a series of rudimentary drawings depicted Mobians of various species splayed out and clearly deceased.

“Yup. That’s death and destruction,alright,” Sticks confirmed, nodding at the image. “I’d recognize it anywhere.”

“Maybe it’s depicting a plague, or some other illness that killed off the ancients?” Amy asked.

“No,” Tails said with a shake of his head. His voice was uncharacteristically somber. “That’s not what the ancients looked like. That’s us. It means we’re going to die.”

Sticks shrugged, unphased. “Called it.”

“What do you mean we’re going to die, Tails?” Sonic asked. “In a–philosophical we’re all going to die someday kind of way or… apocalyptic kind of way?”

“Oh yeah, um,” Tails glanced at his screen again. “Definitely apocalyptic.”

“Great.”

Amy was less blasé. “Tails… can you elaborate? Please?”

“I’m still missing several gaps in the translation, even with the new symbol you decoded, so I can’t say this with 100% accuracy, but it looks like most of this has to do with some sort of energy imbalance.”

Sonic pinched the skin between his eyes. It was slick with sweat. “So, what? There’s a disruption in the Force, and we all go kaboom?”

Tails rolled his eyes at Sonic. “You’ve watched way too many Tommy Thunder movies.”

“You’re the one who said it was apocalyptic.”

“I just mean the inevitable end of the world.”

“And that’s not dramatic?”

“Hey, isn’t this the symbol for alpha, beta, omega?” Sticks asked. She’d grabbed her peanut bag and was snacking again as though talk of the end of the world was an everyday thing for her.

To be fair, it was.

“Yeah,” Amy agreed, as she glanced over at Sticks. “It’s sprinkled throughout everything they drew here. It must be important.”

“It is,” Tails said. “The symbols are tied to the one you deciphered, Amy. The ones that mean energy. There’s also these recurring swirls that look to be topped with weeping willow trees. You don’t find that tree around here naturally, not even back then, so I’m not sure what it means…. All I can tell is that something happens with the energy, there’s a slow decline, and then everyone dies.”

“Awesome, sounds–” Sonic shuddered and grabbed at his stomach, panting through a new wave of intense pain.

And then another.

He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t pretend anymore. He doubled over, a pained sound escaping him.

“Sonic!” Tails cried.

The fox immediately stepped toward him, but Sonic held up a hand. “Don’t! Stay back!”

“But you’re still sick!”

Sonic shook his head frantically, waving his brother off. “S’fine. Just a little stomach–” he grimaced and sucked in a breath through his teeth, “--ache.”

“You don’t look so good, Sonic,” Knuckles said. “Like that time Amy said we should play spin the bottle.”

Amy glared at Knuckles, but frowned with worry as she turned back to Sonic. “What he means is you look like you’re going to pass out! Why don’t you let us–”

“No!” Sonic’s quills bristled, his knees wobbled. “Just stay back. Don’t come any closer!”

Knuckles’ nose wrinkled. “Do you smell that? It’s the rotten egg smell that smells….”

“Good,” Amy said faintly, looking at Sonic. Her pupils dilated, and she licked her lips. “It smells good.”

Sticks grew tense while Tails just seemed confused. “I don’t really smell anything, guys, but it’s probably just a pocket of sulfur. Sonic, is it your stomach? Is the smell making you sick?”

Sonic managed a nod even as a wave of agony speared threw him, and he dropped to a knee. His tail tucked between his legs, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he was actively dripping slick onto the cave floor. His stomach tightened with nausea, and his mouth flooded with saliva. He was gonna be sick. His vision swam, sweat trickled down his temple, and his chills grew strong enough to make his teeth chatter. Fuck. Not like this. He didn’t want them to know!

Amy lunged toward him as he fell, to help him he was sure, but even so his instincts sprang to life, and he snarled weakly in her direction. She wasn’t what he wanted. She wasn't who he wanted.

She wasn’t Shadow.

Amy recoiled, startled, but the nearness had done the trick. He could tell by her expression. The kind concern, the warm infatuation her eyes normally held, turned confused and then shocked. Her mouth fell open, her hand flying to it as she gasped.

She knew.

“Sonic….” Her voice wasn’t threatening or lustful. It was soft. Pitying.

She reached for him again, but a dark blur passed between her and Sonic, echoed by a growl so vicious and feral even Sonic felt a jolt of fear before he realized who it was.

“Get back!” Shadow snapped. He crouched in front of Sonic, ears pinned, teeth bared. “Don’t touch him!”

Amy snarled back and called her hammer to hand while Knuckles fixed Sonic with a perplexed, yet mildly disturbed look. Sticks jumped between Amy and Shadow, arms outstretched to keep distance between them. “Sonic,” the badger called over her shoulder, though she didn’t take her eyes off the two alphas. “I don't think your secret's a secret anymore.”

Sonic’s other knee gave out before he could respond. He barely caught himself before he smashed face-first into unforgiving stone, and then he found he couldn’t answer. It was all he could do to keep from whimpering, and he was already mortified enough. He refused to lose his last shred of dignity by becoming even more pathetic in front of his friends.

“His temperature!” Tails exclaimed, anxiety making his voice sharp and fast. “It’s way too high! My diagnostics say he’s exhibiting heat symptoms, but that can’t be right. He’s a beta!”

Sonic groaned, and Shadow’s ears tipped back toward the sound, but no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t reach out. Not yet. He needed his arms free and his wits about him in case he needed to defend Sonic. “Tell me where I can take him,” Shadow growled out, forcing his brain to work through the panic of seeing Sonic’s condition. The same internal loop of words ran rampant in his brain, telling him his mate was in pain, dying, needed him. “Somewhere close. Private.”

Tails looked at him blankly, before realization dawned on him. Scared as he was, his yellow ears pinned, and he showed his tiny canines. “You’re not taking my brother anywhere. Especially like this!”

“If I don’t, he’ll die.”

“Then let us have him,” Amy countered. “He should be with us! We’re his friends, we’ll keep him safe.”

Shadow’s fists rose and his fangs flashed. Instinct spoke before he’d thought the words. “He’s mine,” he hissed in warning. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, battling the urge to fight what his alpha side saw as threats to his mate. They weren’t, not really, and they didn’t have time for this. Sonic didn’t have time for this. He needed to get him somewhere safe now.

“Shadow’s been seeing Sonic through his heat,” Sticks finally blurted. “He’s already half bonded to him, can’t you see? He’s not gonna hurt him.”

“Shadow….” Sonic managed weakly.

The need in Sonic’s tone had Shadow at his side in the blink of an eye. Without care or thought for what the others might think, he dipped low to sweep Sonic into his arms. “Hang on,” he whispered into Sonic’s ear. “Just a little longer.”

Sonic groaned as the sudden shift sent shockwaves of pain through his system, but most of it was muffled as he reflexively turned into the crook of Shadow’s neck and breathed deep. The scent of his alpha soothed his frazzled systems just as the familiarity of Shadow’s body against his own relaxed his cramping muscles. Gone was the bite from Shadow’s earlier words, chased away by an answered need. They weren’t forgotten, just overtaken. Being in Shadow’s arms felt so safe, so secure, there wasn’t room for anything else. It was like napping in his hammock, or basking in the sun. It felt right. It felt safe.

It felt like home.

Tails gave Sticks a conflicted, almost pained look before his shoulders sagged, and he turned back to Shadow. He adjusted the goggles atop his head and brought his tablet back up, accessing the map his drones had made. “At the back of this chamber there are multiple pathways. Take the second from the right and follow it down until it opens up again. It’s a dead end, you can’t miss it. It looks like there’s some sort of water feature there and enough space for you to do… whatever you need to do.”

“Tails, you can’t be serious about this!” Amy argued. “He’s not safe!”

Tails ignored her and met crimson eyes. When he spoke again, his voice was small. Scared. “He’ll be okay… right?”

Shadow swallowed. Uncertainty and fear clouded his own heart and mind, but he spoke the truth. “He will. I won’t accept any other reality.”

Tails gave him a short nod. “Go. I’ll make sure the others don’t follow.”

Shadow didn’t need any more encouragement. Without another word he sped off, away from Sonic’s team, away from the etchings and the foretellings of eventual doom, and toward a place where he could hopefully chase Sonic’s heat away for as long as they needed.

His eyes adjusted immediately, though the same purple pictoglyphs occasionally appeared to lead the way. In seconds Shadow was at the tunnel Tails had said to take and through it, noting that they were descending deeper underground as the air cooled further. The fox hadn’t been wrong, and his instructions led true. The path abruptly opened up into a space the size of a small house. A pool took up most of the area, fed, Shadow assumed, by the same creek that had cut through the chamber they’d been in moments ago. The ceiling was tall, though not as vast as the largest chamber, and the floor was mostly flat except for a sprinkling of stalagmites. The reservoir was supplied by a gentle waterfall that flowed off an overhang a dozen or so feet from the ground. The current was gentle, allowing the stream to fall to the pool like heavy raindrops in a downpour.

Shadow darted for the water, hoping it would do as it had before and bring Sonic’s temperature down, but it wasn’t as deep as he’d hoped and needed. He moved through it with little care for grace, and every emphasis on speed. Droplets sprayed left and right, his wake sending waves to the far shores as he strode toward the waterfall. It wasn’t as efficient as submerging Sonic would be, but it would work.

It had to.

He held Sonic close as he took them both under the steady cascade and let the cold droplets soak into Sonic’s fur and quills. Green eyes were closed, but Sonic had a death grip on Shadow’s chest fluff, almost like he was afraid Shadow would let him go.

As if Shadow wanted to. As if he even could.

“Sonic?” Shadow said gently. His thumb brushed the soft blue fur on Sonic’s arm. It looked almost bare without the ridiculous strips of sports tape the hero normally wore. “Are you with me?”

A choked groan left Sonic, only muffled by lips pursed in pain. He nodded sharply. “It’s bad again.”

“I know,” Shadow answered. He waited a moment, giving the water time to do its job before he asked, “Can you stand?”

“Dunno. Maybe.”

Shadow slowly released Sonic’s lower half, but kept a tight hold on him otherwise, continuing to support most of his weight just in case. Sonic’s legs shook like rickety toothpicks, but they held.

Sonic gripped Shadow’s shoulders as he tipped his face up and met his alpha’s eyes, surprised to find them filled with unconcealed worry and not anger.

“Are you okay?” Shadow asked.

Sonic had just enough energy left to huff bitterly. “My friends, including my brother, not only know I’m an omega, but got to see me leaking slick everywhere like a damn fire hydrant, and I’m stuck in a cave with a heat that’s trying to kill me every couple of hours. But yeah, sure, I’m just peachy.”

Shadow’s ears flattened, and he sighed heavily. Part of him wanted to snap, berate Sonic for putting himself in this position to begin with, but he could hear the pain and fear mixed in with the sarcasm that dripped from Sonic’s words. He could be angry later. He would be angry later. But right now his mate needed something else from him. “I’m sorry,” he said instead of the pejorative list his mind had been curating for the past 24 hours.“I know this isn’t what you wanted.”

Sonic’s expression softened and his gaze fell. Tiny rivulets traversed his muzzle like the tears he refused to cry. “I never wanted them to see me like that.” His voice was quiet, almost unheard over the ambient sounds surrounding them. “Ever.”

“I know.”

“Did you see the way Amy looked at me? How they all did? They feel sorry for me. They pity me. The weak omega at the mercy of biology.”

“I did see, and I think we saw different things. She wanted you. The pink one. Amy.”

Sonic pulled back a bit in surprise before he shifted uncomfortably. “Amy’s always sorta had a thing for me–”

“I could take you back.” The words caught in Shadow’s throat like a wad of sandpaper, cutting, choking, wrong in every way, but he forced them out. “You’re stable enough now…. If you would rather her help you–”

“I don’t want Amy. I never have. Not like that.”

“Then the other, the red–”

Sonic shut Shadow up with a crushing kiss, quick and rough and insistent. “I don’t want him either.” He cupped Shadow’s muzzle and kissed him again, softer this time, slow and tender, molding his body to Shadow’s, exactly where he belonged.

“I want you, dumbass.”

Chapter Text

Shadow didn’t ask again. Chances are, he couldn’t have if he’d wanted to. The mere mention of Sonic sharing his heat with someone else had already left his possessive nature roiling, on edge, and starving for the chance to renew his connection with Sonic. He needed to scent him, fuck him, mark him–make sure every living thing knew this hedgehog was claimed, protected, lov–

He silenced his thoughts with an iron fist and swallowed hard, but the action failed to force his heart back where it belonged. He brought a finger under Sonic’s chin and brushed the hero’s bottom lip with his thumb as he searched green eyes for hesitation or doubt.

He found none. Not a flicker. He tilted his head and brought Sonic’s mouth back to his in an almost-chaste kiss, and then another. “You have me,” he said simply, meaning it to the depths of his soul. “I’m yours.”

Shadow could have waited for a response, and maybe he should have, but instead he kissed Sonic with all the urgency he’d been holding back. A deep groan rumbled through his chest as his mate eagerly responded and fuck, it felt so good . Like he’d been caught in a riptide and was finally able to let the current carry him to safety. He relished the feeling of Sonic’s lips on his, the press and pull, the tease of tongue, the taste he couldn’t get enough of. He kissed his omega until the world outside their reprieve ceased to exist, until his own body trembled with restraint, and his need outmatched even Sonic’s.

He ripped off his gloves, Sonic’s quickly following. With a bare hand, he traced the dip of Sonic’s spine, his other keeping the hero pressed tight to his chest. He let himself be consumed by the soft feel of blue fur against his fingertips, the way Sonic’s lips parted in a breathy gasp against his own, the needy whines that made Shadow’s ears tip forward and his pouch swell and throb. The heat between them was exponential. It wasn’t Sonic’s condition, it wasn’t Shadow’s elevated baseline, it was something deeper, something chemical, maybe even nuclear. It built, ebbed, flowed, collapsed in on itself, and was born again in every touch and sigh, every soft sound, in every whisper of a name.

The air was thick with a current of connection and tension, the nature of which had always been present in subtle ways, just unrecognized for what it was. The foundations, the spark, the draw…. It had all been there long before the first time they’d crossed the line. Maybe there’d been a reason Shadow had never truly hurt Sonic in all their fights. Maybe there was a reason he found himself unable to. Maybe there was a reason he trailed Sonic’s group of friends, and maybe it wasn’t solely to avoid collateral damage. Maybe he was trying to protect Sonic, even then, even from his own impulsivity and recklessness.

Maybe they’d never been rivals at all.

Maybe they’d always been something more.

When Shadow pressed Sonic against the rough limestone just behind the waterfall, it was with a reverence and wonder that contradicted everything he’d always proclaimed himself to be. He didn’t join their bodies in the name of battle, or war, not violence or superiority. There was no roughness that wasn’t layered with care, no touch that wasn’t tendered with emotion. Shadow spoke no words, and yet said everything.

He only hoped Sonic would understand.

Sonic’s body welcomed Shadow’s just as it had before, opening for him, letting him in. Blue hands carded through dark quills with that first breach of flesh, peach lips never leaving tan except to cry out with renewed pleasure when Shadow found some new way to please him. Shades of black and blue moved behind a curtain of water, their shapes blurred and highlighted by occasional flashes of purple refraction. Their gasps and moans, the rhythmic slap of their bodies connecting and occasional splash of water echoed through the air in an endless loop of auditory rapture. Their scents blended and merged, the wildness of Sonic’s baseline, sweetened by his heat, intensifying Shadow’s own musk of lavender and cedarwood until the combination clouded their senses, and all they could breathe in was the other.

Shadow was lost in it. Lost in everything that was Sonic. Wholly and utterly consumed by the last person he’d ever expected. Never in his life had he known anything could feel as good as Sonic wrapped around his body and his cock while he gave up his soul piece by piece. He thrust deep, panting hard against Sonic’s mouth as his hand tugged at Sonic’s bandana. “Please,” he implored, voice raspy and raw. His instincts screamed to rip away the cloth, to bite down again and again until there was no doubt who Sonic belonged to. His heart, however, was far stronger than his animalistic urges. “Take this off?”

Sonic nodded and reached up, working at the knot with trembling fingers. “But don’t….”

“I won’t,” Shadow murmured. He gripped Sonic’s thighs and let his knot press against Sonic’s entrance with a particularly hard rut, just enough to make the other groan and shake even more in his hands. “Not until you ask me to.”

The implication that Sonic would hang heavy in the air, and Sonic didn’t deny it. He wasn’t sure when what he had always considered ‘no’ had turned to ‘not yet,’ but it had.

With one last frenzied jerk, Sonic pulled the wet fluorescent fabric free and let it drop, instantly forgotten when Shadow buried his face into the crook of Sonic's neck. Shadow’s mouth came down on Sonic’s scent gland, sucking, licking, letting his teeth graze in a way that quickly escalated the tone of Sonic’s moans, taking them from soft to desperate keens in the span of seconds.

“Tell me how you’re feeling,” Shadow panted. He pulled away and kissed Sonic’s cheeks, his forehead, his lips again.

“Like I need you. Like I-I never want you to stop touching me,” Sonic answered, his words nearly broken with pleasure. He pulled Shadow back down to his mouth with an eager groan that Shadow echoed before the hybrid broke away to lavish more attention across the slightly marred flesh where he envisioned leaving his mark.

The hero moaned breathlessly, tilting his head back to give Shadow more space. His heart skipped a frenzied beat every time he felt Shadow’s canines dig into skin a little, and not with fear, just pure unadulterated want. His inner muscles quivered, clenching and quivering in response to his alpha’s attentions, wanting even more despite every reservation still lurking in his mind.

Shadow groaned into his neck. “Chaos, you feel so good when you do that, so perfect for me,” he whispered, drawing his fangs across the base of Sonic’s throat. “Keep squeezing me like that–fuck . Don’t stop–”

“I won’t,” Sonic gasped. “I can’t–Shads, your knot, please …. I need it so bad.”

“You’ll get it,” Shadow answered. “You’re almost ready to take it.”

“I’m ready now!” Sonic squirmed against him, combatant and petulant despite good sense. As usual.

Shadow let his hold on Sonic dip inwards, fingertips lightly tracing the tight ring of muscle he already had stretched to the max. He was determined as ever to cause Sonic no damage. “You’re not. If you want it, you need to relax for me.”

“I am relaxed!” Sonic snapped.

Shadow chuckled, his smile hidden against blue fur. He pulled back a little, angling his torso back so Sonic’s front was visible. The hero’s cock was hard and twitching against his stomach, and Shadow licked his lips at the sight before meeting green eyes. “Touch yourself. I want to watch you do it. I want to see how you make yourself come.”

The flush dusting Sonic’s muzzle deepened, the dark pink easily visible even in the dim lighting. Sonic hesitated, a rare moment of atypical shyness, before he moved a hand from Shadow’s shoulders and down to his length. He began to work himself, slow at first, and then quickly building speed until–

“Slow,” Shadow whispered. He pulled out until just the tip of his ridged cock remained inside and then slammed forward hard. He repeated the motion with a grunt of pleasure, his pace slow and steady, but demanding.

Sonic keened and nearly let himself go so he could just hold on and take it, but he didn’t. He gasped for air and met Shadow’s eyes as he pumped his dick in time with Shadow’s thrusts. Each one felt like ecstasy, a brilliant blend of pleasure and pain that had Sonic positive he’d be torn in two and at the same time damn near wishing for it. The thick, long length that Shadow wielded penetrated deep, rearranging Sonic’s insides to suit him, molding them to accept only him. Sonic craved it, longed for the moment when the hybrid’s knot would stretch him to the brink, and he would be filled to the brim with Shadow’s seed.

“I want you to come inside me,” Sonic managed to say before biting his lip to hold back a moan when Shadow pushed in a little harder. “So bad.”

Shadow managed a breathless huff. “What did you think I planned on doing?”

“I-I don’t know, I just… I need it, Shadow. I want it deep, so deep, I–”

Shadow groaned and pressed his forehead against Sonic’s. He pulled out one more time and ground his hips forward just as his lips caught Sonic’s. He gripped Sonic’s ass tight, pulling him down as he thrust up until he finally felt Sonic’s entrance yield. Shadow groaned unheeded and broken into their kiss as every inch of his cock was engulfed in tight, wet heat. He held steady for just a moment, letting Sonic adjust. The omega took in shallow gulps of air and scrunched his eyes shut as he tried to force his body to relax around what felt like a beach ball in his ass.

“Keep touching yourself,” Shadow demanded softly. Green eyes met red before Shadow tilted his head down to their connected halves. “Do it.”

Sonic whimpered but moved his hand, finding it helped counter the discomfort of being so stretched and brought his climax back within sight. He pumped faster as Shadow began to move again, thrusts short, trapped, but simultaneously relentless and urgent.

“That’s it,” Shadow encouraged. He watched as Sonic fisted his dick harder than was probably wise, the copious amounts of pre making obscene wet sounds that perfectly matched the ones coming from his dripping hole. “Come for me. Come for me, and I’ll give you what you want.”

Sonic's head rocked back against the stone as his back arched, and Shadow couldn’t help but descend upon his neck once more. “Fuck, Sonic–oh fuck, I want you so much . I want you to come on my dick. I want you to scream my name. Do it–say who you belong to–”

“You!”

“Say it! Say my name when you come.” Shadow fucked into Sonic harder, hard enough to bring a ragged cry from Sonic’s throat. “Scream it.”

Sonic barreled toward his end, his heart thudding in his ears, his senses possessed by only Shadow, every muscle coiled and nerve alight. It was euphoric, it felt amazing. He wanted to come, he needed to come.

A second, two, a breath held, building pressure in his lower stomach, and then–

Sonic screamed. He screamed Shadow’s name and came undone before the only person he trusted to break him and put him back together again. His body bowed and snapped, his cock released across his stomach, his hand, his chest. Pleasure ripped him apart.

Shadow’s arms held him together.

Shadow whined pitifully as Sonic’s inner walls tightened around him to the point of pain, but still he kept moving, determined to meet his mate’s request. Determined to fill his omega up until every space within him was coated in his spend.

Sonic released his oversensitive cock and moved to press himself to Shadow again, but then something changed, something wrong. Normally his heat symptoms would be nonexistent mid-fuck, especially after Shadow had him knotted, and they never reared up again right after an orgasm, but now– Sonic's stomach suddenly cramped sharply, chasing away the aftershocks of his pleasure while nausea made his head swim. A distressed whimper fell from his lips, fear edging his heart rate even faster. “Shadow, wait–” he panted. “Stop–”

It didn’t matter that Shadow was seconds from spilling, he stopped. Immediately. “Sonic? What’s–?”

“It feels wrong. Something’s wrong. It’s not going away–” A particularly violent spasm rolled through Sonic’s abdomen, cutting his words off with a harsh cry of pain.

“Sonic!” Shadow’s eyes quickly tracked over Sonic’s body, trying to find an injury or cause for Sonic’s distress, but found none. “What’s wrong? Sonic? Talk to me. Did I hurt you? Am I hurting you?” Dismay haunted his tone. He couldn’t pull out, not yet. If he was the cause of Sonic’s pain, pulling out would only make it worse.

“My heat–the symptoms, the–” Sonic gasped, biting his lip as an anguished groan tried to fight its way free. “Pain. It’s back. It’s not stopping. It feels like it did before we fucked. I can’t–Shadow it’s not going away, it’s not going away, and I don’t know what to–”

“You just came. Usually–”

“I know, but it’s not this time!” Panic saturated Sonic’s words. “It hurts so bad, Shadow–”

Shadow’s ears flattened, distraught. “What can I do? Tell me. Anything.”

“Fuck ,” Sonic whimpered, trying as hard as he could to hold back tears. He refused to fucking cry. This heat may kill him, but he would be damned if it made him shed a tear before it did. “Come? Just come. Maybe it’ll stop.”

“Sonic….” Shadow’s heart broke at the request.

“We know me coming isn’t gonna fix it, Shads,” Sonic said through gritted teeth. “Not this time.”

Shadow looked away, hating everything this moment asked of him just as much as he hated himself for doing it. He thrust forward, gently, but the movement still forced a sharp intake of air from his mate. He moved again, again, trying to find a balance between Sonic’s pain and the stimulation he needed to come.

Sonic’s body was rigid with tension, breath held, trying to cover his suffering by biting his lip so hard red outlined his lips, but then Shadow heard it. A sob rushed in on a desperate gasp for air.

Shadow couldn’t take it. “Claim me,” he commanded. He wove a hand into blue quills made heavy with water and gently urged Sonic toward his neck as he tilted his head. “Do it. Quick.”

“What??” Sonic barely managed.

“Mark me. As yours.”

“Omegas don’t give mating bites. Only alphas.”

“And since when do you follow the rules, hedgehog?” Shadow snapped back. “You’ll still have your freedom. It won’t bond you to me but maybe it will be enough.”

“Shadow–”

A small plaintive sound left Shadow, his tone softening. “Please. Try. I can’t hurt you like this, Sonic…”

“It won’t do any–”

“Do it!”

Sonic found it within himself to growl, Shadow’s stubbornness stoking his own persistence. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t argue again. He gripped Shadow’s shoulders even harder and a moment later had his canines buried deep in Shadow’s flesh, right over his scent gland. Copper flowed over Sonic’s tongue just as lavender and cedarwood overwhelmed his sense of smell, so heady and comforting and… right.

Sonic could hear Shadow cry out sharply, the hybrid’s claws digging into the meat of Sonic’s ass as he buried himself as deep as physically possible and very suddenly released. Pulse after pulse of heat flooded Sonic’s core, forcing out a stream of groans that were muffled by dark fur and muscle.

Sonic’s ears pinned and he bit down harder as he was thoroughly bred, legs locked around Shadow’s hips with renewed energy and strength. Like magic, it worked. The nausea, the pain, it faded to nothing, leaving only blissful, sated aftershocks in its wake.

Sonic came back to himself slowly. He released Shadow and licked at the deep puncture marks he’d left, cleaning every drop of blood and soothing any discomfort until the bleeding stopped. He pressed one more soft kiss to the area before pulling back and finding Shadow’s lips.

Shadow kissed him back, hands sliding up between blue spines and pressing the omega as close as possible until nothing could have made it between them.

“How did you know?” Sonic murmured. “How did you know it would help?”

“I didn’t.” He brought a hand up to cup Sonic’s muzzle, thumb brushing across soft peach fur. “But I’m glad it did.”

As the afterglow descended and his lips sweetly found Sonic’s again, he became suddenly aware of two things. One, he felt ravenous and cold–but wasn’t–and two, he was exceedingly conscious of Sonic’s place in his arms. Not his physical presence necessarily, but more the way the tip of a compass knows true north. A jolt of surprise hit him square in the chest as some new part of himself opened up, much like gaining a sixth sense. It wasn’t as though there was a new presence in his mind, but rather some new understanding that was tied directly to the hedgehog curled around him.

He broke away from Sonic’s kiss as surprise turned to concern and fear. Were they bonded? That was exactly what Sonic hadn’t wanted, what he feared. He met Sonic’s gaze as the hero tilted his head in amused confusion, but no matter how hard Shadow searched there seemed to be no recognition of what had happened between them. Was it only him? Was that possible?

His understanding was vague, but typically once an omega was claimed they would permanently bear their alpha’s scent in addition to their own, and both would be able to sense the other, no matter how far. A bond allowed alphas to know if their omega was in heat and find them if they were. Or at least, that’s what he’d been told.

“What’s up?” Sonic asked. “You’re looking at me real weird.”

“Are you hungry?”

The non sequitur seemed to catch Sonic off guard. “Uh, yeah… Did you hear my stomach rumble or somethin’?”

“Something,” Shadow mumbled back. He left one arm secured around Sonic’s bottom while the other held him close, pressing between cobalt spines. He gently turned them so it was his back that pressed against the cold stone and not his mate’s.

Sonic relaxed a little more and burrowed into Shadow’s warm chest and neck. “That feels nice,” he murmured, voice muffled as he nuzzled against Shadow. “Was gettin’ cold.”

“I know.”

“How’d you know?”

Shadow swallowed his trepidation. The connection seemed one sided. Sonic was still free to make his choice. “Gut instinct,” he answered. It wasn’t a lie.

“Hmmm,” Sonic sighed. “Gonna need to go again, soon, but this is nice for now. Legs are getting noodly though.”

“We’ll move out of the water once I can pull out.”

Sonic nodded, lips idly brushing over the mark he’d left in soft, peppered kisses. “Shadow?”

“Hmm?”

“What if it scars?”

“What of it?”

“It’s—” Sonic took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain Mobian customs as he knew them. Shadow did live in a cave, after all. Maybe he didn’t know? “Alphas are supposed to be dominant. They don’t let omegas bite them. It’s kinda unheard of. People might talk shit. Maybe if you met someone else, someone you wanted to mate, they wouldn’t–”

“Does it bother you?”

“Well, I mean, obviously not. It was really freaking hot actually, almost nutted ag–”

“Then I don’t care if it scars. I don’t aspire to step into whatever roles your society has deemed acceptable based on our secondary genders.”

“Super progressive of you, but what if you wanted to claim another omega–”

Shadow shook his head. “Stop.”

“I’m serious though. You never asked for this!”

“I distinctly, unequivocally remember doing exactly that.”

“Not–” Sonic sighed. “I mean. Not this exactly, not the mark, but the whole situation. I just sorta dropped all this bullshit on you because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Shadow brought the hand that had been pressed against Sonic’s back up to cup his muzzle. He kissed him slowly, without hurry, until Sonic began to melt against him, and he felt the omega’s inner walls grip his dick a little tighter. His length gave an appreciative twitch, still lodged within Sonic’s cum-filled depths.

When he broke away, Sonic was breathless and too rattled to speak, which was exactly Shadow’s goal. “I think,” Shadow said, “I was in the right place at the right time. I also think you should know by now that I don’t answer to anyone but myself.”

“But, Shadow–”

“I don’t want anyone else. I won’t want anyone else.” He pressed his face against Sonic’s and tilted his head so his lips tickled Sonic’s ear. “And just so we’re clear, I have no qualms bearing an omega’s mark so long as it’s yours. I have no regrets. Unless, of course, your craftsmanship brings shame on all hedgehog kind again. I may wear my own scarf on those days.”

Sonic laughed and wrapped his arms around Shadow, simply holding him.

Sonic didn’t say it, and Shadow didn’t either, but Shadow felt that warm, all-consuming and distinctly happy feeling hit him again as Sonic’s hold tightened. It was distinctly stronger now, more weighted, culminating into something he could, just maybe, finally, name.

Love.

The realization shook Shadow’s world to its core. It changed everything. Sonic may not bear his claim, but it seemed Shadow’s heart was his regardless.

“I’m sorry,” Shadow whispered suddenly. “For what I said earlier. I’m glad you told me what happened to you and why you hid. It took courage, and while I still think you do yourself disservice by not acknowledging your needs, I can understand your reluctance to share parts of yourself with your friends.”

Sonic’s ears folded and he buried his nose against Shadow’s neck again. “Guess it doesn’t matter now. They know.”

“You can still choose how much you divulge.”

“I wish I hadn’t said what I did to you. About you not having friends. That wasn’t fair.”

Shadow sighed deeply and massaged the sore muscles above Sonic’s tail. “I did have a friend once. A long time ago. Her name was Maria.”

“Was?”

“Mmmhm, was. She died trying to save me.”

Shadow felt Sonic gently stroke his quills and press a comforting kiss to his neck. “I’m sorry you lost her.”

“I am too. I have been every day since.”

“So that’s why you’re all holed up by yourself. You’re really just the same as me,” Sonic said in soft surprise. He pulled back, meeting crimson irises that flickered with occasional sparks of ancient purple lighting. “All these years I thought you were being an asshole for fun, but you were just afraid. You were hiding too.”

Shadow scoffed and looked away, but Sonic moved his face back until Shadow met his eyes again. “It’s okay. I get it. But… for what it’s worth? I’m not scared with you.”

“Sonic…”

“Maybe when this is all over… maybe we could… I don’t know. Grab a chili dog at Meh Burger?”

“No.”

“Oh yeah, sure, no, makes sense, I mean–”

“I refuse to eat that garbage and if you insist on eating junk, I’ll at least be the one to cook it for you.”

“Wait–” Sonic’s expression was utterly flabbergasted. “You can cook? You live in a cave!”

Shadow shrugged. “Not all of the time.”

“What?? ”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

Sonic laughed. “I guess so. Careful though. You start cooking for me, and you might not get rid of me.”

Shadow opened his mouth to say that was absolutely the point, but it snapped shut when the ground beneath his feet rumbled ominously.

“Shadow–” Sonic started, but there wasn’t time for anything else.

The ground shifted, the walls cracked, great slabs of pictographs fractured and broke off in chunks that caused water to fly in every which direction, and Shadow was left with only a second to realize how low his chaos reserves were. He could save himself, but not Sonic.

His decision was instantaneous. Leaving his mate was not an option.

He curled himself around Sonic and held his breath as the world shuddered and crumbled.

Chapter Text

A short distance away, Infinite paced like a caged animal. His strides were angry and forceful, kicking up loose stones and leaving heavy scuffs in the sand. He picked up a sizable rock and flung it into the nearby river like it was the water’s fault his quarry wasn’t in sight. His lip curled in a silent snarl, taunted by the fact that he could just barely catch the lingering traces of his omega’s scent woven in with the foreign stench of another alpha.

Infinite ground his teeth, his heterochromatic irises combing the nearby landscape as though Sonic would suddenly pop out of hiding, or perhaps this other alpha might make an appearance so that Infinite could rip him into unidentifiable shreds.

“You swear this is the spot you saw him?” Infinite snapped, whirling to face Vier.

Vier flinched, eyes down, ears flattened. “Positive. I pinned him right there–”

Vier’s yelp cut through the rushing sound of water as Infinite slammed his fist into his underling's broken arm. “I didn’t touch him aside from that!” Vier cried, scrambling back. “I swear it! That asshole came out of nowhere and–”

“Tell me about him.”

Vier groaned and curled over his injury in agony. He answered anyway. He knew what would happen if he didn’t. “Another hedgehog. Black, red stripes I think? He’s strong and fast as hell.”

Infinite sneered and pulled his fist back to give Vier another taste of fast and strong, but just before he could, voices carried over the river’s white noise like broken notes through radio static. Infinite’s ears pitched forward, Vier spared by his shifting attention. “Be silent,” he snapped before darting into the woods, chasing wisps of what seemed like a heated conversation. He moved soundlessly, keeping low and moving carefully over the understory.

It was worth the effort.

Infinite hovered behind the base of a tree as a pink hedgehog came into view. The female was gesturing frantically toward the coast. “We have to go back! We never should have left Sonic behind!”

Infinite inched closer and crouched behind a few bushes, nearly salivating at the mention of Sonic’s name. A few rustles at his back made him force back a snarl, and he held up a hand behind him, motioning for Vier to stop where he was before the damned fool got them spotted.

“Trust me,” a badger said with a wave of her hand. “You don’t wanna be there for what happens next.”

“Guys….?” a beefy red echidna asked. The male was tall and imposing, but looked one crayon short of a full box. “I think I might be gay.”

The female hedgehog blinked hard, looking just as frazzled as she was confused. “What?”

“But just for Sonic. I think… I’m gay for Sonic.”

A lanky yellow fox, who looked like he’d yet to grow into his body chimed in with the exasperation of someone a half century his senior. “You’re not gay, Knuckles, you’re just responding to Sonic’s heat pheromones because you’re an alpha.”

“Is that why I feel… weird?” The male looked mildly horrified and was clearly mid existential crisis. “But you don’t?”

“Yeah, doesn’t do a thing for us betas,” a badger shrugged. “Hard to get what all the fuss is about.”

“The ‘fuss’ is, we left him in that condition, Sticks. With the enemy!”

“Weren’t you just inviting the enemy to your bookclub?” Sticks shot back.

“That’s not the point–”

“You saw how Sonic was, Amy,” the fox cut in. “That wasn’t a normal heat, at least not according to my diagnostics, and he wanted Shadow to take him.” The teenager cringed at his own wording. “I mean away. Take him away.”

“He’s in heat, who knows what’s going on in his head. He’s probably just overcome by hormones!” Amy countered. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot impatiently against the ground. “He clearly wasn’t in his right mind.”

“I told ya, Shadow’s not gonna do anything Sonic doesn’t want him to, and trust me,” the badger said, eyes widening with emphasis while a shudder rolled through her shoulders, “he wants it.”

Infinite’s hands curled into fists. Shadow. That must be the black and red hedgehog that had stolen his mate and apparently sullied him before Infinite could. Fury reddened the edges of the jackal’s vision, and his teeth gritted so hard his jaw popped.

“Is no one else bothered that he didn’t tell us?” the youngest of the bunch asked. He was clearly uncomfortable with the majority of the conversation happening but pressed on anyway. “He told me he was a beta, and he always seemed like one?”

The badger looked mildly sheepish, which must have been contradictory to her personality because it wasn’t long before the whole group was focused on her.

“Sticks….” Amy started. “You knew. How long?”

“Uh… a few years?”

“A few years?”

“Nine?”

“Nine!?” the group simultaneously mimicked.

Sticks held her hands up defensively. “It wasn't my story to tell. Still isn’t.”

“But nine years,” the fox said, clearly dumbfounded. “Heats are what? At least biannual depending on the species? How did we not notice? Or rather how did they,” he jerked his thumb toward the two alphas, “not notice?”

“He covered up his scent and suppressed his heats. Didn’t want anyone to know,” Sticks answered.

“But why? Why not tell us? We could have helped!”

Sticks shrugged. “Dunno. Never asked. It’s his body, he didn’t owe me an explanation.”

“Tails,” Amy said, shifting to the fox. “I bet it’s because of the law. Think about it! He would have been mated off years ago if he was a known omega, probably even have kids by now.”

“Sonic doesn’t like being confined to anything, let alone a relationship–”

“Tell me about it,” Amy muttered under her breath.

Tails continued unphased. “But that doesn’t explain why he’d hide it from us. We’re supposed to be his friends….”

Amy seemed to sag a bit. “Knowing Sonic, he was probably trying to play the hero, or just being dumb. Maybe both. Either way, he should be with us right now. Not Shadow.”

“I dunno…” Knuckles jumped in. “Sonic seemed pretty okay with it.” The red oaf’s eyes went wide as though some revelation had physically manifested in front of him. “Wait. Is Sonic gay??”

The group didn’t get a chance to respond. The ground shook suddenly and violently, rumbling like a clap of thunder that refused to end. The ominous crack of branches snapping echoed like gunshots, and Infinite lost track of the group momentarily as he fought to remain on his feet. A crash from behind told him Vier had not been so lucky, but fortunately the sound was lost in the chaos, and none of Sonic’s acquaintances noticed.

The earthquake seemed to last forever, but in reality was probably only a minute at most. The second it stopped, the colorful group of Mobians were shouting at each other.

“Sonic and Shadow were underground. They might be trapped!” Amy cried. “We have to go back!”

“Can’t Shadow teleport?” Knuckles asked.

Tails quickly pulled out his tablet, eyes frantically scouring the screen. “Assuming he has his shoes on, or close by, Sonic is still in the cave. His tracker isn’t moving.” He looked up, fluffy bangs falling over worried eyes. “Amy is right, he could be trapped!”

“Guess even heroes need savin’ sometimes,” Sticks mumbled. “The good news is we should be able to hear them before we see them if they’re still going at it.”

“Hear them?” Amy asked as they began to run. “You’ve heard them before?”

“Yeah, you all did, you were just too drugged to remember.”

“Drugged? When were we drugged?”

“Eh, it’s not important.”

The voices trailed off as Infinite watched the colorful group disappear into the forest. He stood fully upright and took a step forward, following the path clearly left by those who knew exactly where Sonic was, and then another. A sinister smile crept across his face, growing with every footfall that brought him to the conclusion of his hunt and his prize.

He hoped he’d be in time to stop this Shadow from fully claiming his mate, but frankly it didn’t matter if they’d bonded or not. If they hadn’t, then Infinite would fully mark him as he’d meant to all those years ago, and if they had… well. Separating an omega from the one who marked them was often so distressing the submissive party was in a perpetually weakened state. It would only make Sonic easier to control. Regardless, he’d have his prey in hand soon, one way or another.

And that was all that really mattered.

Wheezed gasps and retched coughs pulled Shadow from the depths of unconsciousness. The sounds were faint and muffled, almost like they were coming from a distance or through a wall. It took him a full minute of scattered thought processing to realize the reason was because his ears were full of water. A second later, pain overwhelmed his mind, so all-consuming it was impossible to tell one single cause or if it was solely his, Sonic’s, or a combination of the two. The agony didn’t stop him from reaching for his mate though.

He fumbled in a darkness so suffocating even his superior eyesight couldn’t pierce it. It was almost thick, pressing down with a weightless mass that made Shadow’s movements sluggish and weak. Water sloshed against him, cold until his fingertips met waterlogged fur, warmer than it should be and far too slick to wet with only water.

Shadow lunged forward, trying to sit, but was met with stone and blinding white pain. Spots of color flashed before his eyes, and his stomach swam with nausea. He panted through it as his head dropped back into the water that came up the side of his muzzle. His free hand left Sonic’s side to feel the area directly in front of them, tracing it as best he could to get an idea of their situation.

He tried to reach out to the opposite side, but his right arm was pinned at the elbow, his legs trapped above the knee. He tried to squirm free but was rewarded with a new wave of agony and that made him nearly bite through his lip.

His legs were broken. Shattered, both of them. And he couldn’t feel his arm.

Another wet cough sounded, followed by a hacking retch and splashes of water. Shadow stretched his good arm out to Sonic, feeling around until he found the omega’s chest, his face, and then slid his hand behind his mate’s head. The water was slightly deeper where Sonic lay, flooding the hero’s mouth if he tried to breathe through it. Shadow ignored the strain on his own injuries and lifted Sonic’s head out of the water as best he could.

“Sonic!” he called, immediately choking as water slipped into his mouth. He spat it out and turned his head as much as he could without waterboarding himself. Every muscle in his core tightened with effort and pain as he tried to help his mate. “S-sonic,” he sputtered, “talk to me. Are you okay?”

No answer came, only sharp, quick breaths that were both a relief and a terror to hear. Shadow could feel how high Sonic’s temperature was again, and for the first time, he felt grateful they were at least partially submerged in water. Maybe it would buy them some time.

So long as it didn’t drown them first.

With three out of four limbs immobile and his only usable one keeping his mate alive, Shadow was left with few options for determining a way out. Just as he was about to use precious chaos reserves to break the shallow void around them, Sonic’s ratty bandana floated toward them.

Its fluorescence wasn’t much, but it was plenty for Shadow.

Crimson eyes quickly scanned what he could, not knowing if the light would move away again and having no way to keep it near. Slabs of wet stone were crisscrossed above them, connecting just enough to support each other and give them no more than six inches of room to breathe. One section of limestone was slanted diagonally over Shadow’s body, pinning him into the floor of the pool, while another was positioned vertically against it, the only thing keeping him and Sonic from being crushed.

And Sonic….

He looked over as much as he could and nearly inhaled water on a gasp of horror. Sonic wasn’t pinned like him, thankfully, but his injuries…. Shadow knew if he could see it, the water they were trapped in would be stained red from his mate’s blood. Deep cuts riddled peach fur, but the most concerning thing was the deep purple bruising on his side and stomach. It made Shadow pause with fear. He tried to use that new sense that connected him to Sonic to determine if there was more he couldn’t see, but it felt like the first time he’d tried to use his air shoes, clumsy and unsure. He closed his eyes, trying to separate the pain of his own broken body from Sonic’s, and concentrated harder. They’d still been intimately connected when the cave had collapsed, and although they were both well tucked away now, he knew he’d probably torn the other when they’d been ripped apart. Indeed, there was pain between Sonic’s legs, but it was nothing compared to what twisted and burned through the omega’s abdomen.

Sonic coughed again, and Shadow pushed his head a little higher, as much as he could. “Sonic, hang on. I’ve got you.” His brow furrowed with worry and exertion as a bubble of blood stained peach lips. His heart skipped a beat, and his stomach sank. Sonic wasn’t going to be able to wait until Shadow could chaos control them to safety. He wasn’t going to make it that long. Not with a punctured lung or whatever other internal injuries he might have.

He closed his eyes and dug deep into his chaos reserves. There wasn’t much. He’d been low to begin with, and some had already been used attempting to mend his own injuries. He didn’t care. He’d give Sonic everything, and then he’d chisel them out with his bare hands if he had to. He’d do whatever it took.

“Sonic,” he urged again. “If you can hear me, I’m going to move my hand to your stomach. You’ll need to hold yourself up as best you can. I’ll be quick, but I can’t do both.”

“Sh-shad-ow?”

Sonic’s voice was weak, and cracked at the end like he’d been without water for days, but it was still the sweetest thing Shadow had ever heard.

“Sonic.” The relief in his voice was nearly tangible. “Something, maybe an earthquake, caused a cave-in. We’re trapped, and I need to heal you, but I’m pinned. I can’t hold you up and get my hand where it needs to be.”

“You’re pinned? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Shadow lied, “just immobile. Can you hold yourself up? I’ll be quick.”

“Yeah. I got it.”

Sonic’s breath was caught in his lungs as he tried to keep from crying out. The pain of tightening his core muscles was debilitating. It made his head swim, forcing him to push his nose against the stone just so he’d know which way was up.

Shadow’s hand was against Sonic’s torso in a heartbeat. He felt the jump in agony from Sonic’s changed position but quickly pushed it down as best he could, discovering he could nearly block it out completely. He focused, pulling from his body and giving to Sonic’s until there were only dregs of chaos remaining.

Shadow went back to supporting Sonic’s head just as the other collapsed back with a stifled whine. “Shit,” the hero cursed, trying hard to steady his breathing. “Why’d it have to be water?”

Shadow snorted, the irony and ridiculousness not lost on him, regardless of how dire their situation stood. “It’s not… ideal.” He hadn’t been able to heal all of Sonic’s wounds, only the most critical, and without the ability to move… there was nothing he could do about his escalating heat. Sonic had needed him again before this had happened. He didn’t know how long they’d been out. Minutes? An hour? In the darkness there was no way to tell, but with some of Sonic’s pain receding, Shadow could feel the omega’s desire and need bleeding to the forefront. He pushed it down like he had the other’s pain. There was nothing he could do except try to build up enough reserves to teleport them out and away.

Sonic reached out with a shaky hand and grabbed at his bandana as it floated near. He dropped it on his chest and then immediately reached out to Shadow, laying his hand on the hybrid’s chest. Shadow was grateful for the contact because with the adjusted angle of light, he was able to see just how very trapped they were. Their space was even more narrow than he’d previously thought, with only one side, the one where Sonic lay, a half foot or so above the water. They were in some horrible version of a collapsing stone tent, penned in on all sides and mostly submerged in water that… seemed to be higher than it was before.

Their small survivable space was getting smaller.

Shadow’s heart skipped a beat. His chest tightened. Blood rushed in his ears, the water only amplifying the pounding whoosh made faster and faster with every escalating jump in his heart rate. He closed his eyes, trying to fight off the panic, but that only better allowed his mind to replace stone with bindings, or worse yet, glass.

“Shadow?”

The thunderous crack of a gunshot rang in Shadow’s mind, red bleeding into his vision like it had bled out of his only friend.

“Shadow!”

He pushed against a wall of glass with all his strength, fist beating against it while he pulled at his other limbs, not feeling any pain besides that in his mind. He yelled and thrashed and fought to escape so that he might save her, his sister in all but blood, the one good thing–

A sharp stab of sensation pulled Shadow from his warped version of reality, the burst of it reigniting that new tie within him. The one that said he was needed. The one that said he had something worth fighting for.

The one that said he wasn’t fighting alone.

Sonic moved closer, his hand rubbing slow, gentle circles against Shadow’s chest. “There you go, Shads. You back with me?”

Shadow nodded, albeit slowly.

“Sorry I bit you. Again. I can’t really move, and I didn’t know–”

“It’s okay. It worked.”

“I used to get those,” Sonic went on softly, “Panic attacks, or flashbacks or whatever. Back after Infinite did what he did. Usually at night, but sometimes it’d catch me off guard in the middle of the day, too. I’d see something, just a flash, maybe a bushy tail, or similar coloring, and it’d take me back like I was living it all over again.”

Shadow was quiet. The occasional drip of water echoed for a minute before Sonic continued. “I guess what I’m tryin’ to say is… I get it. I don’t know what happened, but I get it, and if you ever do want to talk about it, maybe when we’re not stuck in my own personal hell, I’m… around.”

The silence droned, and though Shadow felt the urge to speak, to share… he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not here. Not in this would-be tomb.

“How long do you think you have?” Shadow asked instead. “Before your heat gets bad again.”

Sonic sighed heavily, and Shadow knew without looking that his mate was disappointed. It wasn’t a physical ailment, he couldn’t feel it through the new bond that connected them, but there might as well have been a neon sign hanging over him that said as much.

“I dunno. There’s less and less time between, and I didn’t really get enough before, if you know what I mean. An hour? Maybe?”

“My chaos reserves won’t replenish that fast.”

“So no more cave nooky?”

Shadow scowled and Sonic laughed even though he couldn’t see it. “I’d say sorry, but,” he did the intonation version of a shrug, “sarcasm, humor, snark–it’s that or, what’s the saying? Weep and gnash my teeth?”

“No one says that,” Shadow answered dryly.

“You lurk in a cave all day, how would you know?”

“I’m reclusive, not a hermit.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“Are you going to help me think of a way out of this nightmare or talk until you use up all our oxygen?”

There was a pause. “That’s a thing?”

Shadow clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, opting to focus for a moment on his broken legs rather than his annoyance at his mate’s quips. “Yes. Running out of air is indeed a thing. For you at least.”

“Everyone needs air, Shads. Even high and mighty ultimate lifeforms.”

“I don’t.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t require air, food, water, or sleep–though my life is significantly more comfortable with them.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Do you want the details of my design or to get out of here before the water rises?”

“Both? Both is good.”

Shadow growled and shook his head, hating that the water in his ears muffled one of his most keen senses. “If we’re lucky, your friends will come looking for you.” Shadow’s free hand scoured the edges of the stone that pinned his legs now that Sonic could support himself better, hoping for a gap or even a dip in the floor that he could use to his advantage, but it was near impossible to reach with the way his body was forcibly positioned. “The fox mentioned a tracker before. He could use it again.”

“Yeah,” Sonic answered. He bit his lip nervously. “For sure.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be saved. Obviously that wasn’t the case. It was all he could do to not have his own panic attack. He hated enclosed spaces, hated being still, and hated water even more. Not to mention he’d lied when he’d said he could last an hour before he was overtaken by his heat again.

Even though his body was still in pain, and his ass throbbed, the ache to be filled was intensifying, and cramps were already starting in his lower abdomen. He didn’t have sixty minutes. He probably didn’t have 30. The thought terrified him. He might not actually make it out of this alive.

As much shit as he’d been through, the thought had never really occurred to him before. His time was not infinite.

“Shads?”

“What?” Stress made Shadow’s voice tense and snippy. He exhaled slowly, attempting to look toward Sonic as best he could. He could barely make out green eyes staring upwards in his peripherals.

“If, uh. If this goes south, I wanted to say–”

“Stop. It won’t. We’ll be out shortly. Your merry band of misfits can’t have gone far.”

Sonic sagged a bit, dejected and unsure. Everything he’d been feeling over the past couple of days danced in his chest, yet unnamed but powerful nonetheless. All he really knew for sure was that he wanted to get the hell out of this cave, and he didn’t want his time with Shadow to end.

Unable to put it to words, he grabbed Shadow’s hand in his and brought dark knuckles to his lips. He pressed a kiss to short, dark fur and felt Shadow’s index finger stroke his cheek in response.

Neither said another word as their hands intertwined in the dark.

Chapter Text

Dying wasn’t something Shadow had ever given much thought. Why would he? It’d been made clear to him by Ark scientists it wasn’t a fate he would, or could, face. They’d certainly tried their damnedest. Surviving a fall from orbit had only further cemented their hypothesis.

He was immortal.

Someone else in his situation might have found hope, or relief in that knowledge, but Shadow had never been more horrified. In theory, his heart would continue to beat through anything, but if Sonic didn’t make it?

He didn’t want it to.

What an immeasurable change, to have previously thought of Sonic as some addictive annoyance he didn’t understand his craving for, to… this. He never thought he’d have a mate. He’d never wanted one. He’d been through loss before and had no desire to repeat the experience. His sexual needs weren’t anything he couldn’t handle on his own, even during his rut, so what was the point? To add complication and inevitable pain to his life? No thank you.

Fate, however, seemed to think itself funny. Now he had gained a mate he’d only just realized he wanted, and might lose him, all in the same day.

The bitter irony was not lost on Shadow.

His thoughts tormented him as water lapped at the corners of his pursed lips. It flooded his ears and stung at the edges of his eyes. It was cold, so cold he could feel his heart slow, and he shivered uncontrollably. The involuntary shaking of his body jostled every place where stone grated against bone and flesh, but it didn’t stop him from tuning every muffled sense he had left to him toward Sonic. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the hero’s chest rise and fall with shallow, shuddered breaths. Even washed out by the fluorescent cloth clinging to his belly, Sonic’s muzzle was flushed a deep, unsettling pink. If it weren’t for the fever that raged his body, Shadow was positive Sonic would have been dangerously hypothermic.

Green eyes had closed a while ago, maybe twenty minutes, maybe two hours. It was hard to tell. It all felt like forever. Every second of time dragged out, one after the other, each simultaneously a millisecond and an eon, lost and distorted in the space between them and the world outside their watery confines.

Pain burned through Shadow’s nerves like endless forks of lightning, a debilitating combination of his injuries and Sonic’s. He could have reduced what he felt from his mate–he’d learned enough in the short time they’d been bonded to manage that–but as much as Sonic’s suffering broke his heart, it also served as assurance that the hero still lived. Shadow would endure whatever torture necessary for the gift of that knowledge, especially when it felt increasingly fragile….

With every passing minute, that new, precarious connection wavered and shivered like a bridge in a hurricane. Shadow couldn’t help but wonder how much longer it would hold.

“Sh-adow,” Sonic choked out suddenly, the sound raspy, weak, and unbearably faint.

Shadow lifted his head out of the water as much as he could, even though it strained his already broken body, especially the arm that had returned to being Sonic’s life support when the hedgehog’s failing energy had finally given out. “I’m here,” Shadow grunted, trying to soothe by rubbing his thumb at the base of Sonic’s quills. “I’m still here.”

“Need you….”

“I know.” And it was true. Sonic’s scent saturated what little breathing space they had left, forcing Shadow’s body to toss away any idea of self-preservation and physically respond despite being unable to answer his mate’s need. He was completely unsheathed, throbbing and exposed, aching to love his omega until the pain was replaced with pleasure, but there was nothing he could do. Not like this.

He’d never felt so helpless.

“Hurts.”

“I know.”

“Please….” Sonic writhed in the small space, thrashing a bit harder when his heat-addled mind noticed the water that surrounded them. It wasn’t the first time fever-induced delirium had made him forget.

“Shhhhh,” Shadow soothed, while trying to keep his hand under Sonic’s head. The water was a little deeper on Sonic’s side, deep enough it would have covered his mouth by now if Shadow wasn’t holding him up. “Your friends will be here soon. I’m sure of it.”

“I can’t take it anymore–it’s–Shadow. I feel like I’m dying. I don’t want to die. Please,” his voice cracked, “Shadow–Alpha–”

Shadow’s eyes squeezed shut. His heart broke. Never in his life did he know something could cut into him so deeply, so effectively, as that tone in his mate’s voice. “Sonic…. I want to. I want you so badly. You–you have no idea how badly–”

“Alpha, please–”Sonic cried out as pain ravaged his battered body. “Make it stop, please just make it stop!”

Tears burned in Shadow’s eyes. He told himself it was the sting of water creeping in, but it wasn’t the truth. The plea in Sonic’s voice, the torture Shadow couldn’t save him from–maybe it was never going to be a physical blow that took Shadow’s life. Maybe it was this. Maybe his mate’s anguish would do what nothing else could.

“Sonic, love…. breathe. Just breathe. As soon as we’re free, I promise–”

“I can’t! I can’t do it–I can’t–Oh fuck, fuck–fu–ngh” Sonic’s words were choked off as some sort of hybrid mix of a groan and sob tore from his throat. His body convulsed, and for a moment Shadow thought he was suffering a febrile seizure, but it only lasted a handful of seconds, just long enough for Shadow to realize his omega had climaxed untouched from sheer desperation.

Sonic’s head hung limply in Shadow’s hand after. No more pleas, no more cries, no more sounds at all.

“Sonic??” Shadow tried to twist his head, but the damned water was rising faster. He couldn’t get a good look. He focused his hearing but the water made it impossible to–

The bond, their mate bond. Shadow felt for it, finding it harder to locate within himself than before. His fears spiraled out of control for an agonizing series of seconds, but then it was there. Not gone, just quiet. Sonic was unconscious, but alive.

Shadow’s arm shook with the effort of holding Sonic’s head above water, but he ignored it. His mate was alive.

That was all he needed to know to keep fighting.

Above ground, surrounded by trees and a sea breeze, Tails anxiously focused on the broken static coming from his communicator. Layers of limestone were wreaking havoc on the signal, making even short responses come in garbled and distorted. “How f–ar down did….y–say, Tails?” Amy asked.

“Not far, all things considered. About 80 feet, give or take.” He hovered anxiously over the spot where his brother was all but buried and glanced at his Miles Electric, observing the newest readings with a frown. “But it’s solid all the way down. If the section they were in collapsed, digging down could compromise any remaining stability."

“The whole entrance is blocked twenty feet in or so. Maybe less,” Stick’s voice added, clearer than Amy’s had been. “Amy’s taking a closer look, but it’s not lookin’ good on this end.”

Knuckles shuffled nervously at Tails’ side as he listened in. Tails only spared him a quick glance before running another simulation on his tablet. Once they’d arrived over the ping from Sonic’s tracker and realized the full extent of the difficulty a rescue presented, Amy and Sticks had sped over to the beachside entrance in the hopes that it was still accessible.

Those hopes seemed ill-placed given the current feedback.

All of this would have been a million times easier if Sonic hadn’t destroyed his communicator at some point over the past 24 hours. As it was, they were going in blind with no real idea what conditions Sonic and Shadow might have found themselves in. With his brother’s life on the line, it was the scariest guessing game Tails had ever had the misfortune of playing.

Tails pursed his lips and scratched at the fluffy golden tufts between his ears. “Do you see any cracks or gaps? Any place where we might be able to squeeze through?”

“It’s too dense–,” Amy answered, her voice trailing at the end like she was craning her neck to look for something high up. The sound of scattering rocks and a muffled curse followed. “It’s impossible to tell. There’s nothing big enough for you to fit tech through, and my flashlight can’t see through it.”

Knuckles shrugged. “Can’t we just make a new entrance?”

“It’s not that simple, Knuckles,” Tails said without looking up. “They could be injured. Doing something so drastic, even if it’s not near, could bring the whole cave system down. We have to be delicate.”

“I can be delicate,” Knuckles pouted. “I only broke five things the last time I went into a china shop.”

Tails eyed him dryly. “Is that because you only broke five things, or because you can only count to 5?”

“Both?”

“Tails,” Amy’s voice broke up a bit again. “We’re—up. Be there–three.”

“Copy,” Tails answered, inferring from the broken bits of conversation that Amy and Sticks were on their way back. That made knowing what to do clear, but the action itself infinitely more difficult. He pressed a series of buttons, remotely summoning a few of his inventions, namely a modified beetle bot he’d affectionately named Beezlebud. The former badnik was fitted with interchangeable attachments Tails usually used for keeping his shop tidy, but he’d made a drill bit for it the year before. After blowing his electrical for the millionth time, he’d upgraded his entire system, which just so happened to include digging new access tunnels for cables.

How convenient Sonic had caused that mildly destructive electrical fire by attempting to microwave a can of chili.

Still in the can.

Tails shook his head at the memory as he dropped his backpack from his shoulder and rifled through it. He pulled out one of his drones, and then scooped up a blue capsule from the side pocket toward the bottom of the bag. It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand but incredibly powerful. When pressed, a silver button at the side would release a beam of energy (made from Sonic’s own) that could extend as long as necessary and was nearly unbreakable. They could use it to pull Sonic out if he was…if he….

The fox bit his lip, refusing to let his mind go further down the road of fear. They’d all been in prickly, dangerous, darn near hopeless situations before, and that had never stopped them. It sure as hell wouldn’t now.

“Knuckles, can you hand me the double-sided adhesive?”

“The what–?”

“The thing that looks like a silver donut by your left foot.” Tails watched as Knuckles bent to look at the ground in confusion. “No,” he added, trying to keep the exasperation he felt out of his tone. “Your other left foot.”

“Ah ha!” Knuckles grinned. He swiped up the roll of tape and tossed it over.

“I need your communicator too.”

“Why?” The echidna asked, unfastening the band around his wrist anyway. His arm looked surprisingly naked without it. He hid it behind his back like it was something scandalous as he gave the device to Tails.

“I’m modifying this drone. We’ll need to be able to communicate with Sonic and Shadow, and these models have a video feed but no built-in mics. If I use this adhesive, it should be strong enough to hold this and my closed loop refractor beam in place long enough to get them to Sonic.”

Knuckles look at him with a vacant expression.

“I’m trying to stick these two things on to this thing,” Tails translated dryly.

Understanding swept over Knuckles’ face just as Amy and Sticks bounded back through the brush.

“Any luck finding an easy way down, Tails?” Amy called out.

“It’s definitely not going to be easy, but it should work. As long as we’re careful.” Tails held up the drone, tilting it to show off its newly-affixed accessories. “Beezlebud will be here in–” he glanced over from his crouched position at his tablet–”two more minutes. We’ll use it to drill down, but we need go in at an angle. Burrowing directly over Sonic’s ping could do more harm than good and make additional damage more likely in the case of aftershocks.”

Amy nodded. “I’ll have the first aid kit ready just in case.”

“Do you have any emergency heat or rut suppressants in there by chance?”

“Why do you think Sonic was comin’ to me?” Sticks huffed before Amy could answer. “They ain’t made that stuff available to the common folk since before you were born. You can find it here and there in the big cities sometimes because they use it in hospitals, and sometimes it gets caught up in the drug trade. If you’ve got the money,you can find it. Otherwise? You get granny’s tea.”

“So that’s a no….”

Amy gave her friend an incredulous look. “Sticks, how do you even know all that?”

The badger extended her arms like the answer was obvious. “Because it’s all part of a governmental conspiracy to keep the plebeians struggling and reproducing while the rich hold all the power!”

“Honestly, she’s probably not wrong on that one,” Tails conceded.

“Well, unless she has some of ‘granny’s tea,’” Amy shot back, fingers in quotations beside her head, “we’re not going to have anything to help Sonic with those symptoms.”

“No tea, but I’ll be ready to fight off any nefarious alphas!” Sticks chimed in. She whipped her boomerang out and scanned the treeline around them with narrowed eyes. “At least until you rescue Shadow, then he can take over. He’s well equipped to handle the heat stuff too.”

Tails made a face at Sticks’ wording, and Amy frowned, but no one had a chance to say anything else before Tails’ droid burst into their small clearing.

“Pefect!” he exclaimed as the bot skittered to his side on its many armored legs. “The plan is to dig down, recall Beezlebud, and send down my drone. This little guy,” he said, holding up what looked like a mini helicopter, “will have Knuckles’ communicator and a closed loop refractor beam we can use as a rope to pull them up.”

“Like your whip?” Amy asked.

“Yup! Same tech,” Tails answered, not looking up from his tablet as he stood and moved a few feet away. “Okay, here should be good!” he said, addressing the bot. The mechanized beetle was still and steady, its changed color scheme glistening in a well tended to gold and black. The drill positioned on its front was slightly wider than it was, leaving only its feet visible when viewed head on. “There are sensors in the drill that will give us real-time information on density and stability. We’ll know when it hits a place where they could be trapped.”

He held out his hand toward Sticks and Amy. “Can I use one of your communicators? I want to attach one to the bot, too.”

Amy didn’t hesitate to fiddle with hers and relinquish it. “Are you sure this will work?”

“Well, short of teleporting, it’s kind of our best bet?”

“Knuckles was right, Shadow can teleport,” Sticks added as Tails equipped his droid. “What if he already zapped them somewhere?”

“Then I guess we find Sonic’s lost left shoe?”

“It doesn’t matter, so long as Sonic’s safe,” Amy agreed. “Let’s hope that’s exactly what happened. I guess I would rather Sonic be with Shadow than buried alive.”

Sticks shot Amy a look. “You guess?”

Amy growled and bristled at her friend. “Of course I don’t want Sonic trapped or hurt! I just don’t want him with Shadow either!”

“Why,” Knuckles egged, “Are you jealous?” The syllables were elongated and exaggerated, the implication more than clear.

“No!” The female crossed her arms and looked away, defensiveness obvious in her tone and etched in her features. “I just want what’s best for him, that’s all.”

Tails stood and backed away from his bot, typing on his tablet before pressing a button. The beetlebot instantly dove into the ground, sending the group jumping back to avoid being hit with sprayed globs of clay and rock.

“Well, Sonic seemed to think Shadow was what was best for him,” Tails said. “I mean it sorta makes sense, honestly.”

Sticks nodded. “They always did fight like an old married couple.”

“And they’re gay!” Knuckles added, before looking around at his friends. He hesitated. “Right?”

Tails ran a tired hand over his face, nearly knocking his goggles off in the process. He clumsily righted them while watching the digital tracker on Beezlebud descend. The angle was a little sharp, but to straighten it, even a little, would add precious minutes onto their rescue time. There was something restless inside of him saying this time minutes mattered.

Sticks, Knuckles, and Amy’s bickering faded into the background as he watched his invention inch closer and closer to the signal pinging from his brother’s shoe. The grating sound of steel and stone echoed from his communicator like nails on a chalkboard. He’d left the device on and the channel open in case it couldn’t be seen or reached.

“C’mon…” he muttered, brows furrowing. His grip on his tablet was white-knuckled. Fifteen feet.

Ten.

Five–

“Stop!” Shadow’s voice came through, followed by a gasp and a sputtering sound. “There’s water–”

More coughing followed, and Tails’ heart lurched into his throat. “Hold on!” He felt the others hover silently around his back as he frantically typed at his screen, directing Beezlebud to drill further down and away, theorizing that the water would follow gravity and drain after him. The bot didn’t need air. Sonic and Shadow obviously did. He held his own breath as he watched the beacon turn and move away from his brother’s ping. With the communicator tied to the droid, he had no way of knowing if his plan was working. Only hope.

Unsure how much water they were dealing with, Tails let Beezlebud keep digging and quickly grabbed his drone. He pulled up its programming, and the little machine whirred to life instantly. He briefly tested its mobility and responsiveness before guiding it to the narrow tunnel left gaping in the ground. There was a fair amount of debris, but still enough of a passage that a hedgehog could crawl through.

Tails watched his screen carefully, unused to manually piloting, especially in such tight quarters. A tiny but powerful light beamed out in front of the drone, lighting the way and allowing video feed to be surprisingly detailed given the circumstances. Within a minute and a half, Tails reached a semi-broken barrier, a partial wall that water continued to bleed from.

A strained grunt had Tails’ ears flying forward, eyes surveying what little he could see as he tried to find a way to get to his brother. “Sonic? Shadow? Can you hear me?” he called.

“Tails?”

“Shadow, is that you? Are you hurt?”

“It’s Sonic! He needs help. You have to get him out of here!”

Within the confines of stone, Shadow pushed upward with his one good arm, already well beyond exhausted from holding Sonic’s head up for most of the time they’d been trapped. The second the water had started to drain, he’d begun trying to find a way out again, uncertain how much time they had left. “Sonic–he needs help. I’m pinned and I can’t–” He pushed against the stone with all the strength he had left, but it made no difference. It didn’t budge. He wasn’t able to free any of his trapped limbs. He panted heavily from exertion. “I can’t help him.”

“Hold on! I’m sending a drone through. At the bottom is a device that can be used as a rope. Do you think you can get it around Sonic?”

“Yes. Just hurry!”

Tails carefully guided the tiny aircraft through the hole, not more than six inches of room on any side. His tongue stuck out with concentration, and his shoulders were tense as the area where his brother was stuck came into few. He could see Shadow pinned on the right, his dark fur making his form hard to detect unless Tails guided light directly on him, but Sonic…

He wasn’t moving.

“Sonic!” Tails cried, a whimper of fear catching in his throat.

“He’s alive!” Shadow called out. He reached for the drone, and the blades slowed to a stop. His eyes blinked hard in the sudden brightness as he manipulated the aircraft to locate the device Tails had mentioned. “How does it work?” he asked.

“Silver button,” Tails answered immediately. “Press that, and there will be as much as you need. Wrap it around him, and then stick the base back on the drone. It’ll elongate, and then we can pull him out.”

Shadow didn’t hesitate. He did as Tails directed, though he struggled greatly with only one good arm. He had to jostle and move Sonic around with little finesse and far more roughly than he wanted, but in the end he was left with several coils of bright blue energy tied around Sonic’s chest and secured under his arms. He’d been careful to pull the base through the back binding so that it would, in theory, allow Sonic to be pulled through the tunnel with his quills taking on most of the burden of protection.

The act had exhausted Shadow and his hand shook badly as he stuck the base of the rope back to the bottom of Tails’ drone. “It’s done,” he said. “He’s ready.”

Blades buzzed to life as Tails took control over his drone. “I’ll send Beezlebud back to try and break you out next!”

“No.” Shadow shook his head, even though Tails couldn’t see. “That could take time Sonic doesn’t have. I healed him as best I could, but he’s still hurt from the cave in, and his fever is dangerously high again. He needs a doctor. He can’t wait, but I can.”

“Shadow–”

“Get him stable, Tails.”

“But–”

“So help me, fox, if you don’t do as I say, I’ll destroy every invention you’ve ever made, and then I’ll come straight for you. Get. Him. Out of here!”

The drone zipped away, its light fading and leaving only Sonic’s bandana, now discarded between them, and the pale blue coming off the energy cord. Shadow reached out, his hand finding Sonic’s. He gave it a gentle squeeze. “If you die,” he whispered, his thumb rubbing against the back of Sonic’s hand, feeling soft fur and raised knuckles. “I’ll hunt your soul down in whatever convenience store kitchen it tries to find a chili dog in because there are things you need to know. There are things I need to tell you, whether you’re ready to hear them or not.”

He pulled their clasped hands to his lips and kissed each of Sonic’s scarred knuckles tenderly, wondering which of the long-healed wounds belonged to him. Maybe he hadn’t yet left the mark he wanted, but their history was still mapped under fur regardless, a story only they could read and understand.

They had moments left. Tails would be back, Sonic would be gone, and Shadow would have to wait for his energy to rebuild. He knew what he was doing by sending Sonic away from him. What he risked to himself and the precious connection that lay nested in his soul. Maybe the island had suppressants, maybe they didn’t. Maybe another alpha would have to take Shadow’s place. The thought made him want to expel the nothing in his stomach, to fight, claw, rip apart his own limbs, anything to stay with his mate, but he would be no use to Sonic either way.

Giving Sonic over to the protection of his friends was the best way he could help Sonic now.

It was the best way he could love him.

Shadow’s heart broke, his chest tightened and his stomach twisted as the rope around Sonic became taut. He held tight to the hero’s hand, clinging to him, holding on until the very last second that came too soon.

One last gentle squeeze, and Sonic was gone, pulled from his grasp, and Shadow was left alone in the suffocating silence of his own frenzied thoughts.

Chapter Text

A loose strand of Infinite’s hair was pulled from the thong at the nape of his neck, wavering in the downwind breeze that kept the tetrad a stone’s throw away blissfully unaware of the danger at their backs. Both jackals kept low, crouching behind a dense thicket of bayberries and using their large, sensitive ears to try and capture more bits of conversation being unknowingly shared.

Apparently his mate was indeed trapped, and judging from the worried expressions and stiff body language Sonic’s friend portrayed, it wasn’t an easily dealt with situation. It made no difference to Infinite. He waited. He observed. He calculated. He let the work of procuring his omega be done for him, planning only to reap the rewards after, and oh, what rewards they would be. His mouth all but watered at the thought of getting his hands on the pest that had eluded him for so long. The one and only thing ever to escape his grasp when he set his mind to it.

He didn’t plan on letting it happen again. He wouldn’t.

He watched as the fox, clearly the most intelligent of the group, pulled equipment from his belongings. Everything Infinite could make out looked novel, complicated, and impressive, the most so a beetle-shaped robot that blew past his and Vier’s hiding spot in an explosive and surprising rush of leaves and trailing twigs. The shock of almost being run over in the middle of the forest would have given away their position if Infinite hadn’t clapped a hand over Vier’s mouth just in time to stifle his startled yelp. As it was, he’d nearly suffocated the injured jackal out of spite before finally releasing him and pushing him to the ground in disgust.

He’d turned his attention back to the unfolding rescue, not particularly caring if his underling rose again. If he didn’t, he wasn’t worthy of Infinite’s time or attention anyway. Weakness wasn’t something he tolerated.

“What do you plan to do, sir?” Vier rasped weakly behind him.

A scared blue eye regarded Vier, carefully watching as the lanky canid cradled his broken arm and settled back into a wobbly crouch. The older jackal was typically his enforcer, a true sadist who enjoyed inflicting pain more than any other Infinite had had the displeasure of meeting. Vier was an idiot, but a vicious one, and it was a trait Infinite had used on more than one occasion.

“Do you remember that bat?” Infinite finally said, voice quiet but edged. “The one who broke our ranks?”

“With the big tits?”

Infinite’s jaw tightened with anger at the memory of how she’d seduced half his squad. “Yes.”

“What about her?”

“How would you feel about being the one to bring her in? Question her. Find out who sent her, why, and what she told them.”

An excited gleam sparked in Vier’s yellow eyes. “Now?”

“No! Not now,” Infinite hissed. Voices were escalating in front of them, the bot having disappeared into the ground. “After this, after I’ve secured my mate and left him full of my litter, our normal business will resume, and it will start with that bitch. No one makes it past me and lives. No one.”

Vier gulped, nervous, but licked his lips eagerly all the same. “I wouldn’t let you down.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Infinite continued, “because you know what happens to those that fail me. You’ve been the one to execute justice.” A scuffle pulled Infinite’s attention back to the cluster of Mobians, now lined up and pulling at a bright blue cord that was the same unique shade his omega boasted. His eyes narrowed as he watched displays of both strength, brawn, and loyalty. “Take off your sling,” he ordered without diverting his gaze.

Vier’s good arm clutched his bad. “Why?”

“If you want the bat, you’ll do as I say.”

Cries and exclamations sounded, and Infinite was just quick enough to catch a glimpse of blue before it was blocked by various shades of brown, pink, red, and gold. He twisted his position to face Vier, ripping the dirtied cloth that had supported his mending bone away and tossing it to the ground. “Attack them,” Infinite commanded. “Attack them and make it seem like you want the omega. It shouldn’t be hard to pretend once you scent him again.”

“But, sir–”

“Once you’ve distracted them, I’ll grab my mate and be gone before they know what’s happened.”

“But what about me?”

“What about you?” Infinite sneered. “Do they look like the murderous type to you?”

“No–”

“And what do I look like?” Infinite bared his teeth, the scar over his blue eye, the one that Sonic had gifted him, bunching at its lower tip over his muzzle. He knew what it made him look like.

Savage.

Vier clammed up, unmoving, but his eyes lowered slightly, and his ears turned back. His leader’s question didn’t need a response, not when they both already knew the answer. “I’ll do it, but what if they end up jailin’ me?”

“Bars are inconsequential when you own the system. Now go!”

Vier flew forward, ripping through the minimal underbrush that separated their hiding space from view and barreled toward the unsuspecting cluster of Islanders. Infinite could see the moment Sonic’s scent hit the jackal and had only a few seconds before a diluted version found him amongst the bayberries. Even at a distance, it was instantly overwhelming. Heady, sweet, but more floral than Infinite remembered, like soaps found in the fancy hotels Starline liked to have his meetings in. The subtle change was probably from his heat. It hadn’t been nearly this intense when Infinite had claimed him before. It made Infinite’s mouth water and blood rush to his groin.

He resisted the urge to palm himself and instead slipped closer as Vier went after the pink alpha first, likely seeing her as the easiest real threat. From nowhere, the female hedgehog whipped out a comically oversized hammer and swung without hesitation. Vier only barely missed being propelled back to the mainland by dropping into a swift forward roll that brought him to where Sonic’s body lay prone.

Infinite crept closer, noting that the omega was naked except for a blanket haphazardly thrown over his lower half. Bare cobalt fur shimmered under the sun, highlighting a toned, lithe physique. The omega had certainly done some growing and filling out over the years they’d been apart, and now Infinite was so close he could almost feel that body under his hands. He grinned maliciously, about to dart forward when he chanced a quick glance at Vier.

It was a good thing he did.

He caught himself just in time to see the echidna pick his underling up with one hand and throw him like a baseball to the female alpha. It was clear this was a practiced move. Between one second, and the next, Vier was sent cartwheeling away. The jackal let out a bloodcurdling scream that morphed into an enraged wail as he landed.

Infinite clenched his jaw nearly hard enough to crack his molars. This wasn’t going to work. Sonic’s team was too strong, too fast.

Time for a change of plans.

Just as Vier shakily stood to return to the fray, Infinite burst from the forest. He didn’t pay any mind to the shouts of Sonic’s attendees, and instead beelined for his fourth like a bat out of hell. Vier has one moment to look surprised, another to look afraid, and then his temple met with Infinite’s elbow, sending him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

He stepped back from the crumpled alpha without care, brushing his hands off and schooling his features before turning around. “Are you all alright?” he asked, urgently. His tone was lighter, forcibly made softer around the edges, while he let his shoulders drop and his ears tip slightly down and to the side. “I heard a commotion and–”

He paused, letting his expression fall into confusion as he pretended to notice Sonic for the first time. “Sonic?” he asked. He let his voice waver a bit at the end and applauded himself on his five-star performance. Playing the part of a star-crossed lover who’d been unwillingly separated from his mate had always been the backup plan.

He was just enacting it a little early.

The group before him shared a collective look of apprehension and remained unmoving. Infinite prepared to lay it on even thicker, when a sudden groan from his mate had the defensive wall of Mobians giving him their backs. He quickly moved to join them, but Amy still had her hammer, and she wheeled on him instantly, pulling it back as he neared. “Stay where you are!”

“We don’t have time for this,” Tails cried. “He needs a doctor.”

“He needs Shadow!” Sticks argued.

“He needs me,” Infinite cut in.

The others gave him a look. Except for the echidna. He seemed to have been trying not to breathe and was turning a bit purple.

“I’m Infinite. I’m his mate.” He took a step forward again, but the others took defensive positions, pushing him back. He held up his hands and lowered his ears innocently. “I would never hurt him! It’s true, though. He bears my mark.”

Tails inched backwards and kneeled at this brother’s side, careful to keep the jackal in his field of vision. He tilted the unconscious hedgehog’s head slightly, nearly drawing back in alarm when he felt how hot he was, but sure enough. There, previously hidden by Sonic’s bandana, was a faint mark. It was atypical. It didn’t appear to be a mating mark, more a cut than anything, but the jackal was right. Still…. “Sonic’s never mentioned you,” he said as he stood. He eyed the jackal suspiciously. “Ever.”

“He wouldn’t have.” Infinite wrung his hands together like he hadn’t done unspeakable things with them, and he was simply a nervous alpha desperate to be reunited with his love. “We’d committed to each other when an accident took him from me. He was likely injured. Possibly amnesia.”

“Sonic’s never mentioned anyone or anything about where he was before he came here, come to think of it,” Amy mumbled.

“We don’t have time for–” Tails was cut off as the earth abruptly shuddered and trembled without preamble. Flocks of birds from surrounding trees sounded the alarm and took to the skies as limbs cracked and trunks splintered once more.

Every Mobian standing fought to remain on their feet, managing somehow, but the hole they’d made to rescue Sonic wasn’t so lucky. A cloud of dust rose, and the jarring sound of clattering, collapsing rock echoed against the edges of forest. “No!” Tails cried, diving for the ground. He felt all around, but there was no easy way to remove rock. He threw a few over his shoulder, only to feel it grasped by Sticks.

“We gotta get Sonic to town,” Sticks said. “You heard Shadow, same as me. The guy’s tough. He’ll–”

A sharp alarm blasted from Tails’ tablet, the screen flashing an obvious warning.

“What is it?” Amy asked, still keeping a wary eye on Infinite.

Tails grabbed it, checking as he stood. “It’s Beezlebud… The signal’s been lost.”

“So that means….”

“Shadow…” Sonic called unsteadily. His head twisted weakly in search of his mate, though green eyes didn’t open.

“Let me take him–”

“Back off, stranger danger!” Sticks growled. She jabbed her boomerang into the jackal’s face. “You’re not takin’ anyone anywhere.”

“He needs an alpha, and I’m his mate!”

“He’s got a mate, and it sure as heck ain’t you!” Sticks snapped back.

A flicker of fury passed over Infinite’s face so fast it would have been incomprehensible to most.

But not Sticks.

“Unless you want to end up like your pal over there, you better back away real slow,” the badger growled. She aimed her boomerang. “Sonic’s the second chance guy. Me, not so much.”

Infinite didn’t move. Inwardly he imagined an array of murderous outcomes for the band of Mobians in front of him. Outwardly, he appeared hurt and concerned. “Please. If you won’t let me take him, at least let me help you get him to a doctor.”

“We don’t have time to argue or fight.” Tails’ mouth tightened with worry as he glanced at his brother. He began throwing his things back into his bag. “Knuckles, can you carry Sonic?”

“Will that make the tingling feeling worse or better?” Knuckles grimaced uncomfortably. His legs were pressed tight together like he had to pee. “Because Knuckles Junior feels really weird and–”

“I got him,” Sticks said, scooping the hero into her arms. Her nose twitched. Sonic’s scent had a strange, sickly sweet tinge to it. It had been strong before, and though it didn’t affect her like it did the alphas, she could tell something was wrong. “I think it’s heat death,” she said softly, horror dawning on her.

She began running without looking back.

Infinite started to chase after her, but Amy caught his arm. “One wrong move. Just one, and your hide will be decorating some mountainside lodge on the mainland. Got it?”

“On my honor,” Infinite responded solemnly. She didn’t need to know he didn’t have any.

“What about Shadow?” Knuckles asked.

Tails slung his back over his shoulder. “I’ll come back as soon as we get Sonic stable. We won’t leave him down there.”

Amy gave him a quick nod before she sped off, followed by Infinite, then Knuckles. Tails’ ears flattened as he took one last look at the sunken hole. He said nothing, but he hoped beyond reason and logic that Shadow was still holding on, still alive.

Somehow.

Sticks wasn’t as fast as Sonic, nowhere close, but she was still formidable. She was agile, quick-witted, and she knew their island like the palm of her hand knew a mosquito carcass.

Intimately.

Time blurred, each second unnaturally extended by the adrenaline pumping through her veins. It made her hold Sonic a little closer, terrified that his ribs would suddenly stop expanding, and she’d be too late.

With that thought on repeat in her mind, she blasted into the village, disregarding the people milling about and sorting through the damage the earthquake had dealt to structures and homes. They squawked and yelled as she blew by but she didn’t hear them. She beelined for the small doctor’s office, set just west of the library, hoping beyond reason that they’d have suppressants.

The building was little more than a wooden box, small and rickety and looking more like a bait and tackle shop than a medical facility, but to Sticks it might as well have been the pot of treasure her Grunkle Stan had told her was hidden at the end of rainbows.

By some miracle the doctor’s office was still standing and whole. Sticks rushed through the door, nearly plowing down Lady Walrus who grumbled and reapplied the ice pack she carried to her head. “Careful young lady!” the older female chastised. “Some of us have already been victimized by falling debris–” The walrus’ eyes widened, her long whiskers twitched.

And just like that, she knew. Soon the entire island would.

Sticks ignored her, ignored the injustice of it all. “Doc!” she called, darting around the few others who all had similar reactions, but fortunately, none of which were alphas. “Help!”

“Here!” A tall wolf appeared from around the corner of a small side room, drying his hands on a paper towel. His green eyes widened as he saw who Sticks carried, and then his mouth fell open when the overpowering scent of omega in heat washed over him. Realization fell across his features in one fell swoop. “Get him in here. Quick! Shut the door behind you.”

Sticks rushed into the side room the doctor had come from and quickly laid Sonic on the nearest free bed. The blue hedgehog groaned, eyes clenching shut, while his body seized with muscle cramps.

The wolf wasted no time, fumbling through drawers in a cabinet that lined the wall. “How long?” he asked as he searched. “Does he have a mate?”

“His mate is unavailable,” Sticks answered. “We don’t know how long he’s been like this. Maybe a couple of hours?”

The wolf held a vial out toward the light and squinted at it before grumbling heavily. “Expired, but it’ll have to work.” He grabbed a syringe and peeled back the sterile wrapper, hesitating for only a moment’s consideration before holding the tiny container of liquid upside down and inserting the needle into a permeable spot on its lid. He pulled back a substantial amount, narrowing his eyes as he pulled the syringe back and set the vial down. He flicked the shot with his finger, pressing the plunger just enough that clear liquid beaded at the tip of the needle and quickly pressed it into Sonic’s thigh.

The injection was drawn and given in less than 30 seconds, but Sticks felt like she’d been holding her breath for an hour. She inhaled in a gasp as her gaze raked over Sonic’s face, fearing the worst when his muzzle retained the same red flush and his brows the same pained furrow. “Is it working?” she asked urgently.

The doctor pulled curtains around them and shuffled to an old cabinet in the corner without looking her way. “We won’t know for a bit. It has to have time to suppress his hormones. What he really needs is his–”

“Mate?”

Infinite’s voice was smooth and layered with just the right amount of hesitation and concern. It made Sticks’ hackles rise with wrongness. Her gut was telling her this rando was bad news.

And she always listened to her instincts.

“Yes,” Doc answered, turning just in time to see Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and unfortunately, Infinite step into the confined space. “Does he have one?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

The doctor took a deep breath as he grabbed a blanket from the top shelf of the narrow two-door cabinet. Its cheap, metal hinges squeaked in protest as he shut it with a clang that was amplified by the growing tension. “Which is it? Mate, or no?”

“I’m his mate,” the jackal said, stepping forward. “He bears my claim.”

Doc shook out the ratty bedding he’d scrounged and draped it over Sonic’s lower half. While Sonic had been tucked away in his sheath upon arrival, the doctor knew that could only be maintained for so long. He would still attempt to offer the omega what modesty he could given the situation.

He leaned over the male’s prone body, eyeing the scent glands on either side of his neck. “I don’t see–”

“Right side. It’s old. We were mated many years ago.”

The doctor sighed and moved to the opposite side of the bed, stepping carefully around Sticks who tensed at his proximity.

“Ah, yes, I see,” the doctor nodded. “Well, then–”

“No!” Amy shouted, stepping between Infinite and Sonic. She angled her body so her back was to neither. “He’s not his mate. We would have known.”

Infinite addressed the doctor. “We were separated. He was injured just after we were bonded. I’ve been looking for him ever since. You must let me tend to him, he needs me.”

“Do you have a certificate of mating?”

“Yes, but–”

“Unless you can provide a certificate of mating, signed by both of you, I’m afraid I cannot legally relinquish him into your care.”

Amy audibly sighed in relief, and even Sticks relaxed a bit. Tails, however, was watching Infinite with the kind of focus he’d give a particularly volatile project.

Infinite’s jaw clenched, and his hands twitched at his sides, but his voice remained calm. “I understand you’re only protecting my mate’s well-being. I’ll return soon with the forms.”

Tails watched him go, worrying his bottom lip as he turned back to the doctor. “Is Sonic going to be okay?”

“I’m going to do everything I can. His state has progressed as fast as a monkey in a banana race, but I’ll see to it that everything in my power is done. If you’ll allow me a moment’s privacy, I’ll do a quick examination.”

Tails nodded, far too used to the doctor’s odd analogies to give his wording much thought. He parted the musty curtains that separated them from the rest of the office and stepped out, the others following him. He gave Lady Walrus a rather pointed look, but the nosy woman only tried to crane her head further to see into Sonic’s space.

Amy was very suddenly in her field of vision. “Would you like a concussion to go with your ice pack?”

“Why I never!” she blustered before backpedaling and grabbing the hand of her middle child. She pulled him behind her and made for the door. “Let’s leave before their manners catch!”

Sticks crossed her arms and turned her back to the door once she realized they were otherwise alone. The medical facility was bare bones, housing five beds, seven if pushed, and was mostly meant to do little more than keep someone from bleeding out before they could be transported to the mainland where there were actual hospitals. “I got a bad feelin’ about this,” Sticks said, referring to Infinite. “Somethin’s not right.”

“You feel it too?” Knuckles’ expression fell, downcast. “I can’t believe I’ve been missing monkey races this whole time….”

“No! That jackal!” Sticks growled. “There’s no way he’s Sonic’s mate. We’d have recognized his scent on Sonic.”

“What if it faded?” Tails asked.

“Bonds don’t fade.” Sticks shook her head, expression unusually contemplative as she thought back. “And I got my great grandpappy’s nose,” she said, tapping her own. “Hound Dog they called him. Ain’t no way I wouldn’t have smelled him on Sonic from the get go.”

“Sticks is right,” Amy added. “There’s a mark, but if they’d bonded, it would have been obvious. Omegas always take on their mate’s scent in addition to their own when bonded.”

“Which is why I’m saying we’re wasting time here!” Sticks argued. “We need to get Shadow. Sonic’s already carrying his scent. Now that’s a bond that’ll take when they make it official.”

“Maybe,” Tails said, “but what about what Sonic wants? How do we know when he can’t tell us?”

“Didn’t he already tell us though?” Knuckles chimed in. “Back in the cave.”

Tails rubbed at his eyes, tired, worried, and in desperate need of a sleep that wasn’t mushroom-induced. “Knuckles is right,” he finally agreed. “If it has to be someone, it should be–”

“Excuse me,” the doctor said, pulling back an edge of the curtain. “Are you family?”

Amy nodded, glancing at Tails who met her gaze in agreement. “We all are,” she answered.

The doctor stepped out and pulled the drapes closed behind him. He glanced around to ensure they were alone. “I’m unsure how to put this, but, are you aware of his condition?”

“The heat death?” Sticks asked.

“No,” the doctor shook his head and wrung his hands nervously. “Do you know if he was attacked before you found him? There’s a scent on him, not any of yours, not the other gentleman’s.”

“Attacked?” Tails looked at the others in confusion. “What are you saying?”

“I’m afraid there’s evidence of assault, injuries that would occur during a…violent encounter of an intimate nature.”

“Wait–” Amy cut in, holding up her hand to stop the doctor. “Are you saying he was raped?”

Doc scratched behind one of his ears and nodded even as he looked away. “I’m sorry to say it. There are bruises, tearing, patterns that are traditionally associated with this kind of assault on an omega.”

“There’s no way,” Sticks said, her disbelief softening her words. “Shadow wouldn’t.”

“Shadow you say?” The doctor pulled a small notebook from the pocket of his white lab coat. “I can file a report, but I’m afraid there aren’t many repercussions with the minimal methods of evidence collecting I have at my disposal. Unbonded, the scent will fade, and we’ll only have testimonials.”

“Is that not enough?” Amy snapped. “Does someone’s word really mean nothing?”

“Unfortunately, an omega’s word means little when compared to an alpha’s.” Doc sighed and jotted down a few notes. “I understand your frustration, but there is little I can do aside from treat his condition. The suppressant seems to be working, at least for the moment. I have enough for another dose, maybe two, which will get him through the next 36 hours if we’re lucky.”

“And if we’re not?” Tails asked, his mind still reeling from Doc’s revelation.

“Then you’d better hope that jackal comes back.”

Chapter Text

By the time Infinite stepped out of the pathetic excuse for a doctor’s office, the sun had dipped far enough westward that swatches of pink and orange painted the local scenery in sepia. He strode down primitive dirt pathways with his hands clenched at his sides. His entire being vibrated with anger, so much so that it took every last scrap of self control he had not to pummel the first villager to stumble mistakenly into his path.

This was supposed to be easy. Right this very moment he should be claiming what was rightfully his, not playing the part of some long lost lover. And here he was, forced to do so because Sonic had collected some stronger than average allies.

It was sickening, but it didn’t matter. Not really. So what if it took another day or two? He’d prepared for this, hadn’t he? Of course he had. No person, no situation would be able to outmaneuver his planning and strategy. He would take what was his. One way or another.

Infinite pacified himself by daydreaming of blue fur and tight heat as he walked, waiting a few minutes before he began to whistle. The partial tune was soft, meaningless to bystanders, but to any of his team it was an audible neon sign saying here I am, where are you?

He explored slowly, aimlessly, ears swiveling back and to the sides to catch the last five notes that would indicate one of his squad was near.

He didn’t have to wait long or wander far.

The last bit of song sounded from behind what looked to be the local library. Infinite carefully pulled the thong from his hair, smoothing the strands, before pulling it back again and tying the leather tight. He used the opportunity to view his surroundings, ensuring none of Sonic’s friends had followed him.

The earthquake and its aftershock had done a fair amount of damage to the primitive structures these people called homes. Infinite could see one or two that had been decimated, while a few others leaned precariously one way or the other. Closest to him, two female bandicoots lamented a collapsed porch, and down the street, a matronly walrus was yelling at two young children that had climbed the tree crushing their house.

None of them gave him any notice. Satisfied he’d been unobserved, Infinite rounded the library’s corner and strode straight for Zeks.

The younger jackal leaned against the building’s cold stone walls, idly toying with the edge of his dark fingerless gloves and looking every bit the part of harmless emo kid. In reality, Zeks had risen through Infinite’s rank faster than any before him. He was brutally keen and used his intellect to advance his position–something Infinite respected.

“Report,” Infinite called out as he approached.

The young jackal straightened from his position, sharp yellow eyes meeting Infinite’s. “Dva is out helping the locals, gaining favor and gathering intel. I’ve been doing as you asked, spreading the word about lost love. The females love it. Pretty sure you’re close to having a fan club.”

Infinite smirked, the idea soothing some of the leftover fury from how things had gone when he’d found his mate. “Do you have the papers I gave you?”

“We got a room for the night. They’re there. Hidden.”

“Good. Has Dva shared what he’s discovered?”

“Not talked to him in a bit,” Zeks answered. He scratched along the edge of the headband that kept his bangs from his eyes and then crossed his arms over his chest as he thought. “Apparently this omega of yours–Sonic, he’s called–he’s super fast. Fights this guy named Eggberg or something like that. Some people ‘round here love him, some think he’s annoying as shit. Depends on who you talk to, but seems like a goody two-shoes regardless.”

“That’s him, alright. Never did like getting his hands dirty.”

“Sounds like it won’t matter either way before too long, right Boss? You found him?”

“I found him.”

“Surprised you’re not with him, him being in heat and all.”

Infinite growled under his breath at the reminder. “He’d be carrying my pups already if it weren’t for the little brigade that seems to be glued to his side.”

“Oh yeah, Dva mentioned something about some group hero shit they got going on. They can’t be that tough, though. We could take ‘em.”

“They leveled Vier without breaking a sweat. It was four on one, but even with the full team, it’s not a certain venture, and I won’t let him escape again. We play the long game. This time.”

“The one that includes those papers you gave me for safekeeping?”

“Exactly,” Infinite smirked. “Those idiots can bitch and moan all they want, but the law is on my side, and I’ll make certain there’s not a damn thing they can do about it.”

Sonic’s hammock had never felt so heavenly.

The glorified netting he called a bed had been moved outside and set in the sand under a cluster of palm trees. A few dozen feet away, high tide encroached with steady, gentle waves that lapped against the shore and lulled Sonic’s typically hyperactive mind into a state of calm. The breeze was just enough that the heat of midday was softened into something comfortable and perfect for napping. It didn’t hurt that he was pressed against a firm, silky soft form that cradled him even more protectively than the hammock.

A kiss was pressed to Sonic’s head, and a crimson-striped hand caressed his arm. Sonic felt an unrestrained purr bubble out of his chest, sated, safe, and comfortable. Happy.

“Tired?” murmured Shadow’s smooth baritone.

Sonic’s eyes closed, and he sighed contentedly. “Just comfy.”

“Mmm. Good. Rest if you need it, though.”

“Why? Is the Ultimate Grumphog worried about me?”

“Obviously.”

Sonic tilted his face up to meet crimson eyes. “You used to beat the shit out of me all the time. Why worry now?”

Shadow frowned, and his lips tightened with mild annoyance, an expression Sonic was more than familiar with. “You know why.”

“Do not.”

“Yes you do.”

“Nope.”

Shadow laid his head back on the woven strands of reed and stared at the clouds like he was begging some deity for strength. He finally turned his head back, a fond–if irritated–glimmer in his gaze. “Because I love you.”

Sonic’s breath froze in his chest, and his heart stopped. Those words…. How could such a simple statement be powerful enough to leave him reeling with some overwhelming combination of wonder and fear? It spun, heaving and daunting in his chest, leaving him swallowing hard against nausea and butterflies. “No you don’t,” he whispered.

“You act like you’ve never heard me say it before.”

“Because you haven’t!”

“Pft. I say it more than you.”

“I’ve said it?!”

“You said it first.” Shadow shook his head with a tired grunt and settled back into the secure embrace of Sonic’s hammock. He pulled his mate closer, the hand that had been stroking Sonic’s arm moving to rest on his belly.

Sonic’s very large belly–

Sonic woke with a gasp, immediately wincing at the blinding fluorescents that not only bored through his eyes, but straight into his skull. He clenched his jaw at the searing pain in his head, the jolt soon joined by the familiar seizing of cramps and chills. Nausea threatened to make him empty his stomach of nothing.

“Sonic!”

Tails’ voice. Sonic relaxed for all of a second before memories came rushing back. His heat, his friends finding out he was an omega, Shadow–

“Shadow!” he cried, trying again to sit up. The world swam in response, his efforts rewarding him with a wave of dizziness so severe it made him gag.

“Whoa,” Tails exclaimed, followed by the faint clunk of plastic on wood. Sonic felt something cool pressed against his arm. “I’m so relieved you’re awake, but if you’re gonna hurl, can you try and get it in here? The nurse left this after the last time.”

“The last time?” Sonic questioned weakly, eyes still squeezed shut. His voice was raspy and dry, and his mouth felt like he hadn’t had anything to drink in weeks.

“Yeah, Doc said it’s a pretty common side effect of the suppressant. Especially when it’s expired.”

“Expired? W-what happened? Shadow? Is he okay? The cave–it collapsed!”

“Sonic, did he–”

The doctor chose that moment to return, breezing into the room with a clipboard in hand. The wolf thumbed through some pages and smiled when he saw Sonic was awake. “Glad to see you’re conscious,” he said. “You had us more worried than a pineapple at a margarita bar.”

Sonic hesitantly cracked open an eye. It was still far too bright, and the room spun, but he was determined. “Wouldn’t a lime be more worried?”

The doctor ignored him. “I’ve given you two doses of heat suppressant which has fended off the heat death that had set in when you arrived. Fortunately, your mate has arrived to claim you and tend to the remaining duration of your heat.”

Sonic visibly relaxed against the bed, his eyes closing this time to hold back the hot rush of tears that were totally from hormones and not at all from relief. “Thank Chaos.”

“Yes, you’re fortunate indeed. I’ve not seen a case as bad as yours in my entire tenure as a doctor. I’m afraid the suppressant wouldn’t have worked for much longer, even the fancy, newfangled kind they have on the mainland.”

“I’m a lucky guy.” Sonic couldn’t help but grin. Shadow was okay. He was here. It was all going to work out.

“Sonic–” Tails started, his voice hesitant, like he was hiding something.

“Your alpha has presented all the appropriate paperwork. We’re gathering some copies. Won’t be but another minute or two.”

Sonic was impatient, he was always impatient, but he could wait for two minutes. The paperwork bit was weird, but whatever, he could wait however long he needed. His last memory of Shadow had made him feel certain there was more than just respect and agreements between them.

He thought back to his dream, to Shadow. To how he felt in it, to how he felt in the cave, how he felt now.

He obviously couldn’t be pregnant with Shadow’s genetics being what they were, but the other part? The part where he said those terrifying words first? Maybe that wasn’t so far-fetched….

A few days had truly changed everything.

“Sonic,” Tails tried to cut in again, “it’s not Sh–”

The curtain was drawn back with no request to enter, no knock of warning, just an assumption of belonging. Sonic opened his eyes, a stupid embarrassing lovesick grin on his face–

And then his world shattered.

Tails watched his brother’s expression turn from excitement to horror in the blink of an eye. Sonic’s quills bristled, tearing at the pillow behind him. He struggled to push himself up, failing miserably.

A short, but adamant, “No!” was all Sonic managed before he swayed back against the bed, his sides heaving as he gasped for air, and his eyes fluttered closed.

“Doctor!” Tails shouted, leaping up and rushing to Sonic’s side. He grabbed his brother’s bare hand, finding it unresponsive and clammy.

The doctor didn’t seem phased, just looked up as he signed a paper on the clipboard and brought it back to his side. “Ah yes,” Doc noted, “he’s just passed out.” He patted the jackal’s shoulder on the way out. “I’ll assume that won’t stop you from doing what you need to do.”

“No.” Infinite licked his lips, the sight of his defenseless mate invigorating him more than anything else had in a very long time. “It won’t.”

“Good, good. He’ll come to once his heat has been sated. Do follow up with an obstetrics provider within a month and start pre-natals as soon as you arrive on the mainland.”

“Prenatals?” Tails all but spat. “What?”

“We always talked about wanting a big family. No reason not to start now,” Infinite grinned. He turned to the doctor. “Thank you again. We’ll be out of your hair.”

“Like hell you will,” Tails growled. He moved between the foot of Sonic’s bed and Infinite, glaring up at heterochromatic eyes like he wasn’t facing off with someone ten years older, a foot taller, and a hell of a lot more violent. Infinite may be stronger, but Tails was smarter, and one more thing?

He wasn’t alone.

Sticks, Knuckles, and Amy stormed in, just as the doctor tried to slip out. “Sorry!” Amy apologized, “the nurse wouldn’t let us back. She said he–” she pointed at Infinite, “was Sonic’s legal custodian and had barred all visitors.”

“Didn’t stop us though,” Sticks grinned. “She’s taking a little nap now. Nurses don’t get enough breaks, ya know?”

“Or credit,” Amy added.

“It’s always the doctors when in actuality–”

“Excuse me,” Doc interrupted. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“No,” Tails said. “We’re not going anywhere, and neither is Sonic.”

“I’ve told you,” Infinite said, voice honeyed and far too sweet to be sincere. “He’s mine. I have our mating certificate. The law understands it’s my place to make certain he’s cared for.”

“I was the mayor once, and I do not approve this motion,” Knuckles countered.

“He has all the correct documents,” Doc assured. “I've seen and verified them, and the law is straightforward. An omega’s alpha dictates any of their medical needs during estrus, especially as it relates to possible or future progeny.”

“Sonic said no!” Tails snapped.

Infinite held out a piece of paper, showing it just long enough for it to be clear what it was, but not examined for authenticity. “But this says he said yes. He just doesn’t remember it yet.”

Amy moved to stand beside Tails, her hammer in hand. “That’s not right!”

“You’re only preventing your friend from receiving the care he needs,” the doctor tried to explain. “Artificial supplements can only do so much to fight nature in a case this extreme.”

“You heard the fox,” Sticks said, moving in beside Amy, while Knuckles joined Tails’ other side. “Sonic said no.” She tapped her walking stick in her hand and loosened up her shoulders. Everything about her posturing said she was ready for a fight and confident in its outcome. “And we listen to Sonic. Maybe you’d better, too.”

Infinite growled and made a move to step forward, but Sonic’s friends were an all but impenetrable wall.

He could fight.

He could lose.

The very thought made red bleed through at the edges of his vision. “I’ll have you arrested.”

“You can try,” Amy shot back.

“Then I’ll take it to the courts.”

Knuckles perked up. “Tennis courts?”

Everyone managed a synchronized glare. The echidna shrunk down, disappointed. “I’ve been practicing my flat serve."

“You’re only delaying the inevitable,” Infinite glowered, “I’m his alpha. He belongs to me.”

Tails pushed against the jackal in a fit of exhaustion, stress, and rage. “Then you don’t know him at all. Sonic doesn’t belong to anyone!”

Infinite drew his fist back, but it was caught with ease by the echidna, who squeezed hard enough to force an involuntary yelp from Infinite’s throat. He jerked back, furious, shamed, and damn near murderous he’d been made to feel either.

Without another word he spun around and violently ripped aside the curtain before going for the door.

The doctor sighed. “You can’t expect much different behavior from an alpha around an omega in heat. They’re really not in control of their impulses. It’s not their fault, you see.”

Amy and Knuckles gave each other dry, confused looks while Tails all but seethed. “How much suppressant do you have left?”

The doctor reached for the vial he’d left on a small cabinet top and examined its contents carefully. “A day's worth, at best. There may be enough to see him through until tomorrow morning. You’d better hope that jackal comes back, or the authorities will pair him with a willing alpha of their own choosing. They won’t risk losing an omega. They’re far too precious a resource.”

Amy, Knuckles, Tails, and Sticks watched the doctor go. A heavy quiet settled over the group as they turned to face Sonic. “I’m going back for Shadow,” Tails said quietly as he stared down at his brother. “It’s the only option.”

“But what about what the doctor said!” Amy hissed. “We can’t let that happen again!”

“I’m tellin’ ya,” Sticks jumped in, “it didn’t. Those two have been doin’ the nasty for days now, and Sonic ain’t even waddled once! Omegas usually don’t leave a nest during their heat for a reason, y’know?”

“Maybe the Ultimate Lifeform isn’t so ultimate afterall,” Amy grumbled under her breath.

“Trust me. He is. Just be glad you all were too blitzed out to remember.”

“Can we just stop for a minute?” Tails wrung his hands and gestured to Sonic. “He doesn’t have time for us to go back and forth like this.”

Amy sagged. “You’re right. But how do we get Shadow when we can’t leave Sonic unprotected?”

“I’m pretty sure that guy that attacked us before Infinite showed up is working with him. It’s too much of a coincidence. There could be more of them.”

“But then who stays, and who goes?” Sticks asked. “If there’s a bunch of them, should we even split up?”

“Shadow’s still in that cave, and with the aftershock that hit….”

“He may not even be alive,” Amy finished. “So we could be putting Sonic at risk for nothing.”

“Shadow’s pretty tough,” Knuckles said, rubbing a phantom pain in his shoulder as he remembered what it was like to go toe to toe with the striped male. “If anyone could survive it, it’s probably him. Be cool if he could just blip out of there, though. Save a lot of trouble.”

“Knuckles is right, we’ve seen Shadow teleport, but there has to be a reason he hasn’t already. Maybe because he was pinned or injured?” Tails cupped his chin as he thought. Dark circles lined the hollows under his eyes, the exhaustion and worry chipping away at his normally bright, energetic appearance. He thought back to when they pulled Sonic out. It had been a blur, his thoughts a torrent of what-ifs and only some higher survival instinct forcing him to do what needed to be done. Shadow’s voice though, his tone, it tugged at Tails’ memory like he was missing some critical piece of the puzzle. The way he’d begged Tails to save Sonic and then flat out threatened violence and retribution if Tails didn’t get Sonic to medical care immediately. He’d refused safety himself so that Sonic’s chances of survival would be better.

“Shadow cares about him,” Tails blurted. “The evidence–it’s all there.”

“Finally!” Sticks let her head fall back in exasperation. “Someone gets it!”

“I still don’t like this….” Amy bit her lip and looked back at Sonic. Her brows furrowed in concern. “I wish he could tell us what happened,” she said softly, “and what he wants.”

Tails nodded. “Me too. Maybe he’ll wake up again, and he can tell us, but in the meantime, let’s focus on keeping him alive. We need to get him somewhere safe, somewhere Infinite wouldn’t know to look. A place the townsfolk wouldn’t even guess.”

“But who do we know who would let us hide Sonic?” Amy asked. “It’s technically against the law. They could face repercussions.”

“What if they were already breaking the law?” Tails wondered out loud. “And what if we wouldn’t need permission?”

Knuckles’ face scrunched up in confusion. “Uhh, why wouldn’t we need permission?”

For the first time in what felt like ages, Tails grinned. “Because we already know nobody’s home.”

By lunch they had a plan.

Amy had gone to move Tails’ plane closer for their getaway while Sticks gathered items from Sonic’s hut and Tails’ workshop. Tails and Knuckles remained as guards with the understanding that after Sonic’s last dose of suppressant that afternoon, they’d make a run for it.

All the way to Eggman’s fortress.

Knuckles and Sticks would go after Shadow while Tails and Amy stayed with Sonic at Eggman’s. Tails’ gadgets could monitor Sonic’s condition, and he knew the most about medicine from the sheer number of times Sonic had gotten himself banged up and refused treatment in town. Now all the adamant refusals made sense. Sonic had never wanted anyone to get too close. If they did, they might realize his beta persona was nothing more than a mask, and his run at freedom would be up. Tails couldn’t blame him for wanting to avoid that. Even if it meant he had more scars than he would have otherwise. Tails’ sutures had improved over the years, but he wasn’t a doctor. He could stop the bleeding and keep a wound clean, but making it so pretty the hurt didn’t leave a mark was beyond his capabilities.

It was decided an alpha should stay as well, in case Shadow wasn’t located or was… incapacitated. If it was a choice between life and death, at least they would have a final backup option. Knuckles backed out, stating he was saving himself for marriage, while Amy accepted. She showed no joy in the possibility of taking Sonic to bed, only genuine reluctance and worry. Whatever her feelings for Sonic, this was certainly never how she’d hoped things would pan out.

If Shadow was found, Sticks and Knuckles were to bring him to Eggman’s so long as Sonic consented to it. They could only hope he woke up again after the next–and last–dose of medicine.

He hadn’t so far. Not since he’d seen Infinite.

Tails let his mind wander as he watched the steady rise and fall of his brother’s chest. Whatever had happened between Sonic and that jackal, Sonic had definitely not forgotten. The recognition had been instant and anything but good. There had been so much in that one word Sonic had managed to get out, enough that it had told Tails everything he needed to know.

Infinite wouldn’t be touching a quill on Sonic’s head. Not while Tails drew breath.

Across from him, Knuckles jumped up as a shadow appeared at the curtain. Amy peeked her head around. “We clear?”

Tails nodded, and Knuckles sat back down. “Sticks is on her way to Eggman’s,” he whispered. “I checked all my monitors, and there’s still no sign of him. The whole fortress is empty. I’ve already deactivated the alarm system and unlocked the front door so she can get in. Doc or a nurse should be in any minute for Sonic’s last dose of suppressant.”

“Did he wake up at all?”

Tails slumped in the chair he’d pulled to Sonic’s bedside. “No.”

Amy came to his side and placed a hand on Tails’ shoulder. “He will.” She reached for Sonic’s hand with her other, feeling intense warmth through the cloth of her glove. His fever was coming back. The fingers in hers were unresponsive and limp, the only sign of life the rhythmic shifting of the blanket that covered Sonic’s prone form. “Any word on Infinite?”

“Nothing,” Tails answered quietly. “But Sticks mentioned she’d been getting some weird looks around town.”

“Do you think it’s because of him?”

“Could be. Or it could be that word’s got out about Sonic. Even if we fend off Infinite, the law says he should have been mated off years ago. How do we fight that?”

Amy shrugged. “How we fight anything, I guess.” Tails looked up at her and she offered him a small smile. “Together.”

“Incoming!” Knuckles blurted, standing as loud, purposeful footsteps sounded in the hallway. The steady thud of multiple pairs of boots on wooden planks seemed unnecessarily loud and dramatic, like a harbinger of doom that had each present member of Team Sonic battle ready in a second flat.

Their instincts weren’t wrong.

Infinite rounded the corner, two familiar officers flanking him. “That’s them,” he said coolly, gesturing toward the gathering around Sonic’s bed.

Officer Beaver stepped forward, a dry, almost bored expression on his face. He pulled off his sunglasses with a sigh and reached under his arm to pull out a large manilla envelope. He handed it off to Amy. “You’ve been served. You, and the defendant, Sonic T. Hedgehog, must respond in person at court tomorrow morning at 10am, or the default judgement will decide for the plaintiff.”

“Default judgement?” Amy snapped. “What does that mean?”

Tails grabbed the envelope and quickly removed its contents, flipping through the pages and reading with the speed expected of someone raised by the fastest thing alive. “It means they’ll give Sonic to Infinite, regardless of any protests he has, and if we interfere, we’ll be prosecuted.”

“That’s correct,” Infinite smiled, though his tone sneered. “And if I know my mate, he wouldn’t want any of you getting into trouble on his behalf. I can assure you, he’ll be well cared for.”

“Just wait until Sonic is well,” Amy snapped. “You wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”

That seemed to set the jackal off. Sharp canines showed just before a near rabid snarl worked its way out of the canine. Officer Wolf patted his chest, pushing him back a bit, while Officer Beaver shook his head in disgust at the tri-colored group of Mobians. “Don’t you know what this guy went through to find his mate? And now you’re trying to separate an alpha from his heat-stricken omega? You should be jailed!”

“But we’re the good guys!” Knuckles barked back in disbelief.

“Not from where we’re sitting,” Beaver shot back. “You’d be eager and upset too if you’d been heartbroken for nearly ten years, searching the world for your long-lost mate.”

Officer Wolf sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye. “But you never gave up hope, and then one day, you’re in just the right place at the right time.”

“Like fate,” Officer Beaver answered, tearing up. “It’s so beautiful.”

“So beautiful,” Wolf blubbered.

Infinite’s rage was quickly displaced by disgust. He moved past the two cops without a sideways glance. “Make sure you say your goodbyes now,” he shot over his shoulder. “You won’t get the chance after the court rules in my favor.”

“Not even trying anymore, is he?” Amy asked, watching as the cops followed Infinite out.

“He doesn’t have to,” Tails answered resolutely. “In his eyes, in the law’s eyes, he’s already won.”

As though in response to Tails’ pessimistic words, Sonic stirred. The blue hedgehog groaned feebly, shifting under the blanket, expression twisting from pain and discomfort. His lips moved like he was trying to form a word, like he was fighting tooth and nail for the strength and coherence to form the syllables.

“Sh-shadow….”

Tails leaned forward, gently patting his shoulder while Amy squeezed his hand tighter, the papers in their envelope forgotten. “Shad… here…”

“What’s he saying?” Knuckles asked.

One sudden pop and a fizzle of energy later, and a very whole, very fine, very agitated hedgehog appeared at the foot of Sonic’s bed.

Knuckles yelped and went flying backwards in his chair while Amy just barely avoided crushing Shadow with her hammer out of reflex. Shadow’s gaze was fixated on the unmoving form of his mate.

“Sonic.”

Chapter Text

Shadow didn’t have a chance to realize what happened after Sonic slipped from his grasp. One minute he was alone, fighting the onslaught of overwhelming physical and emotional pain, and then the next….

Nothing.

Shadow was, and then he wasn’t. He didn’t know for how long. There was no way to mark the time, let alone quantify it. There were flickers of thought, blips of awareness, but they never lasted long. In the end, he wasn’t sure if he was caught in some repetitive exchange of life and death, or simply fading in and out of consciousness. Maybe both.

It might have lasted forever were it not for one very important fact.

He loved Sonic.

Whatever hold the void may have had on him, it wasn’t stronger than that.

He fought. He raged. He battled. He clawed his way from the bottom of an abyss so thick with darkness it felt like he couldn’t breathe. The urge to stay, to rest, to let it be was there, loud, insistent, poisonous. Shadow didn’t listen. Instead of nothing, he imagined soft, blue fur parting under his fingertips. Instead of smelling damp stone and clay, there was meadow and sea. Sonic’s voice broke through the rushing of Shadow’s blood in his ears. The same voice that drove him to the bounds of sanity, now pulling him back from the edge of eternity.

The climb back to consciousness wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t fast, but the first thing he felt when his senses began to return to him was heat. Maybe it would have been secondary to the aching agony in his broken limbs if he wasn’t so bone cold. It felt like an aura of warmth, something ambient, like hovering your hand over a stone that had been set in the sun. It caressed his face and made him want to move into it like a plant in a windowsill.

He stirred, eyelids fluttering open as he instinctively craned his neck toward it. Soft, yellow light flickered under the ripples stirred by Shadow’s movements. The water wasn’t high like before, but enough to submerse the majority of his body, including his hands. For a moment, he wondered if he might be dead, and maybe this was the golden light that was supposed to present itself to wayward souls on their way to the afterlife. The heaven Maria had talked about.

He couldn’t imagine hurting in quite so many places if he were no longer corporeal though. Whatever the origin, it had to be real. It needed to be real.

He stretched out his hand and felt his fur rise in goosebumps as he neared the source. It wasn’t unpleasant, on the contrary. It felt… familiar, like the metaphysical equivalent of recognizing a face in a crowd that he couldn’t quite place.

Curiosity won over agony, at least for a moment. He reached out cautiously, ignoring the red hot agony that sliced through his senses like a whip delivering lashes. He was close, so close his fur rose in goosebumps as though lightning were about to strike, but it was just out of reach.

He pushed the pain to the back of his mind like he had many times before and stretched. His teeth ground together, his face screwed with exertion and concentration, and his fingers extended. Just a little more–

Shadow pushed himself, distantly he heard something pop, some part of himself giving, and not in a good way, but it did what he needed. That extra half inch jerked him forward, and then so many things happened at once, Shadow would look back and wonder if time had quite literally frozen.

Energy surged through his fingertips as they grazed something smooth, solid, and alive. Power sang through his veins, filling the void his previous expenditures had left, ones so deep and hollow it was hard to tell if they would have ever recovered.

Strength he’d sorely missed came rushing back as his bones mended, and his ribs reset. So great was the power, so quick was the healing, that Shadow had only enough time for a sharp gasp before he was whole, well, and very suddenly lying on the sand in full sunlight. The abrupt change in lighting made him hiss as he threw an arm over his eyes and rolled to his side.

He curled up instinctively as the abrupt change drowned him in sensory overload. It was too loud, too bright, too warm, too everything. He took in big gulps of fresh air, as his ears pressed to his head to dampen sound, and his eyes remained squeezed shut.

After several seconds, a single dark ear perked up, followed by its twin, both appendages twisting this way and that as he reacclimated to the outside world. One by one, each input separated and made itself known. There was the steady sweep of waves against sand and the chatter of gulls, while palms rustled in a breeze that chilled Shadow’s damp fur. Faintly, from further inland, Shadow could make out the sound of the river where he’d first found Sonic what felt like eons ago.

Sonic.

He quickly pushed himself to his feet, his limbs trembling slightly from adrenaline. He blinked hard, squinting in pain against the brightness of the beach as he slowly opened his eyes. He took a shaky step forward and immediately stopped when the toe of his hover skate clinked against what sounded like crystal.

Shadow looked down, managing to make out what looked to be an oblong, unrefined gemstone that shone with the brilliance of a flawless canary diamond. He hesitated for only a moment before picking it up, finding it to be warm, even against the bare flesh of his palm.

It pulsed with power, and although it didn’t burn, that same zing of energy swept through him, invigorating him in ways he imagined coffee might affect others. It was more subtle than before, but there regardless. Whatever this was, it was the reason for his freedom. Of that much he was certain.

The uncut stone sparkled in his hold, though its light seemed dimmer than before, like a flashlight about to lose its charge. It was heavier than expected, roughly the size of a small mango, and while he’d never seen anything quite like it before, he felt certain it wasn’t the first time he’d come across something like it.

Shadow stared down at it in confusion, catching the crimson from his own eyes glaring back at him. A flash of memory made him inhale sharply as he was transported back in time. A blast of cold, stale air, a laugh that made his heart soar, and phantom pinpricks from failed injections. It was all too fast, too fleeting to understand and left him with more a sense of deja vu than recollection.

If it meant something, he had no idea what, and he had no time to press the inner workings of his mind for more. Whatever this stone was, it was powerful, and it had helped him. It was worth holding on to. As for what it was and where it originated, those questions would have to wait.

He had more pressing concerns.

Shadow stuck the gem in his quills for safekeeping and closed his eyes as he reached inside himself for the precarious thing his bond with Sonic had become. Whether it was distance or weakness, Shadow wasn’t sure, but the connection felt fragile, like some frayed cord between them that could snap with the slightest pressure. He held hope that the bond was as strong as Sonic’s will and gave it a gentle tug with his own energy.

By some miracle, it held.

Sonic was unconscious, it told him. Again. Shadow recognized that muted, quiet feeling from before, like there was a curtain drawn between them. There were twinges of pain, flashes of heat and discomfort, but it was fuzzy. The harder he concentrated, the more he felt a pull, an almost physical one, urging him to take a step forward, and then another. It felt like there was a hook anchored somewhere in his soul, and he was being reeled in. The closer he got, the stronger the impulse and the longing that came with it.

He opened his eyes and began to run. Sand scattered as he picked up speed, following that fine, frail connection that told him where his mate was. Faster, faster. His heart went into overdrive, slamming in his chest with newly realized desperation, until finally he was close enough to know exactly where Sonic was. With a burst of energy, he disappeared and reappeared at the foot of a medical bay bed.

The space was wrapped in a ratty curtain hung on rusted rings and full of people and things, but Shadow had eyes for only one. His gaze fixed on Sonic, and his chest seized with some frenzied warm feeling like they’d been apart for years and not a single day. He blinked once, twice, gaze unfaltering as though he were scared Sonic would disappear again if he so much as looked away. Dark purple bruising and a scattering of cuts and bandages spoke to the reality of Sonic’s situation. His form was haggard, worn, and looked uncharacteristically vulnerable under a thin cotton blanket, but if Shadow looked hard enough, he could see the slight rise and fall of Sonic’s chest.

He was alive.

“Sonic,” he said, though nothing about the single utterance was simple. Shadow’s tone was breathy, soft, and held a convoluted blend of hope, reverence, and fear.

In hindsight, he should have seen the hammer coming directly at his face, but his befuddled and lovesick senses had newly reduced processing times that he typically only associated with his lessers.

And he’d forgotten how strong Amy was.

Shadow dropped to the floor with the force of Amy’s blow, but he didn’t stay there for long. Any injury she’d managed to inflict was healed in seconds by his natural abilities and hurried along by the charged crystal in his quills. “Stop!” he barked as he stood, holding his hands up defensively.

The next time she swung, he caught it. “Last chance,” he hissed, pushing back against the hammer’s head and staring Amy’s furious green eyes down. “Back off. Before you get hurt.”

“You’re the one who’ll–”

“Amy, stop!” Tails snapped. He jumped up from his place at Sonic’s side and pulled at her arm. “He didn’t do it!”

“You don’t know that!” she snapped back.

“Do what?” Shadow sidestepped past Knuckles, who’d just righted himself after having been startled out of his chair by Shadow’s sudden appearance. He felt Sonic’s forehead, smoothing the furrows between his eye ridges and hoping more than anything to see a flicker of green.

Sonic turned into him instantly, breathing deep and murmuring under his breath.

“Don’t touch him!” Amy yelled.

Shadow’s ears pinned, and he bared fangs that had fully elongated the moment he’d been exposed to his mate’s scent. “I’ll touch him as long as that’s what he wants!”

“Like what he wanted in the cave?” Amy blurted back. “When you raped him!”

Shadow’s face fell like he’d been slapped. His mate was alive but in desperate need of his affections, lying so close to him Sonic’s scent clouded his mind and brought every primal instinct he had to the surface, and even so, Amy’s words were the verbal equivalent of being doused with a bucket of ice water. “What?!”

Tails pushed back against Amy. “Amy, calm down. Sonic’s pheromones are probably getting to you. Even I can tell they’re stronger now that Shadow is here.”

“He’s getting to me!” she exclaimed, jabbing her index finger toward Shadow.

Tails turned to apologize just in time to see his brother’s eyes flutter open. Shadow followed the kit’s gaze and immediately forgot everything and everyone else. “Sonic!” He cupped a peach muzzle, doing something no one else in the room had ever seen.

He smiled.

“Shads?” Sonic’s raspy voice asked. He perked up substantially as his eyes focused on red irises. “Oh thank fuck you’re okay.” He scrambled a bit, trying to sit, before giving up and pulling Shadow down to him for a desperate kiss.

Shadow let him. Of course he let him.

Sonic was only doing what he’d been dying to the second he saw him.

There was no tenderness in this kiss, only desperation, relief, and need, so much need. Shadow was hit, all at once, by the force of Sonic’s state and found himself responding in an instant. His omega needed him, and badly. The urge to protect and claim was all-encompassing.

It’s possible he would have mounted Sonic right there and then if a sudden splash of water hadn’t brought him to his senses. He broke away from his mate, a snarl directed at Tails, while Sonic growled his own displeasure at Shadow. The omega tried to pull him back down, but he held strong, only allowing Sonic a quick peck. “A moment,” he murmured, as he blinked water from his eyes.

Sonic was unphased by the drops that landed on him. If anything, they seemed welcome. His now exposed chest was just as flushed as his cheeks. His fever was up. Again.

“Sorry!” Tails awkwardly offered, an empty glass disappearing behind his back. “Public place and all?”

Shadow’s jaw tightened. “You’re wasting time–”

“There are things you need to know!”

“And things we need to know!” Amy jumped in. “Like why the doctor thinks Sonic was attacked!”

“Attacked?” Shadow bristled, and his eyes flashed. He brought a hand to Sonic’s shoulder and barely managed to repress the rage in his voice. “Who attacked him?”

“You!” Amy shot back.

Shadow looked as though Amy had skipped the glass and the bucket this time and just dropped him headfirst into an ice bath. His mouth dropped open, but no words came out. Instead, it was Sonic who answered. “What?”

Tails blew out a long, exhausted exhale through his lips and looked away. He shuffled his feet awkwardly and brought a hand up to scratch behind his ear. “Doc said there were signs that you’d been… you know….”

“Raped!” Amy finished for him, glaring daggers at Shadow.

Sonic was taken aback. He wondered for a moment if this might all be a fever dream. He felt Shadow tense even more at his side and found his mate’s hand without thinking. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, and that’s saying something because Knuckles once told me that Muckfoot sent him a Christmas card.”

“He did!” Knuckles said defensively. “And a birthday card, and that means we’re best friends.”

“I thought I was your best friend.”

Knuckles pouted. “You forgot my birthday last year.”

“That’s because you changed the date and didn’t tell anyone!”

“Muckfoot remembered.”

“Muckfoot isn’t–”

“Enough!” Shadow threw his free hand over his face, ignoring the fact that it was still bare. The others seemed to notice though. So did Sonic. He grabbed Shadow’s arm to pull him down, covering his hands with the blanket with a pointed look at everyone else, daring them to comment. Shadow huffed, and his eyes narrowed in exasperation, but his thumb brushed the back of Sonic’s hand with gentle affection. “You’re being absurd. There are more important things going on than hand modesty.”

Sonic just pinned his ears back and gave Shadow a look that said he wasn’t budging. Shadow sighed. “Fine.” He turned to look at the others, who were eyeing them with varied looks of confusion, disgust, and boredom. “I did not attack Sonic. I would never hurt him like that.”

“Then what happened?” Tails pushed. “The doctor seemed convinced.”

Sonic blushed, though it was hardly noticeable as red as he already was. “We were sorta… in the middle of somethin’ when the earthquake hit.”

Tails’ eyes widened. “Oh.”

Shadow felt a sharp twinge of mirrored pain twist through his gut and knew it was from Sonic. The cramps and physical discomfort from his heat had been dulled, but now that he was awake, and Shadow was near, his systems appeared to be making their demands known again. Sonic flinched slightly but showed no other sign of pain. Shadow didn’t like it, but if Sonic was hiding it, there was probably a reason. It still made him shift with restless energy and anxiety he didn’t typically feel.

“He’s coming with me,” Shadow said. “I’ll take him somewhere safe and stay with him until his heat ends.” Shadow’s tone left no room for argument.

Amy did anyway. She moved to stop him from scooping Sonic up. “Wait! There’s more you need to know. It’s important!”

“She’s right!” Tails said before Shadow could retaliate or blip out of existence. “There’s an alpha here, in the village. He says he's Sonic's mate and that he’s marked him.”

Sonic’s face paled, despite his flush. “It wasn’t a dream.” His insides spasmed and cramped in response to his anxiety. “He found me.” He looked toward Shadow and swallowed hard, fear in his eyes even if he tried to hide it. “Infinite.”

Shadow couldn’t help himself. Not anymore. Bearing Sonic’s pain was hard enough, but seeing fear in his eyes? He wasn’t that strong. He scooped Sonic up, blanket and all, and held him close in a bridal carry. Before all this, Sonic would have fought, or at the very least commented, but this time he only wrapped his arms around Shadow’s neck and inhaled deeply for a minute. Shadow felt no small sense of pride that his scent comforted his mate. “I told you he’d never touch you again, and I meant it,” he whispered so only Sonic could hear. He looked out at the group, noting that while they still seemed apprehensive and mildly uncomfortable, no one was making any move to stop him.

“He’s got a mating certificate, and if it’s not honored, he’s taking Sonic to court. And all of us,” Amy said. “He’s got the medical staff here convinced, the police, half the town, we think. He’s got everyone thinking that Sonic is his long lost-love, and Sonic never remembered because he’s had amnesia.”

“What?!” Sonic spat. “That asshole tried to–” he suddenly grimaced, his breathing turning shallow and open-mouthed for a moment. His eyes squeezed shut. “Shads.”

“I know,” Shadow murmured quietly, holding Sonic a little tighter. He addressed Tails. “Details will have to wait. We need to go.”

“But it can’t!” Tails insisted. “We need to know what really happened. The summons is at 10am tomorrow!”

Amy finally allowed her hammer to dematerialize. “Without the full story, we may lose–”

“Will the story have pictures?” Knuckles asked. “I don’t read too good….”

“No one is taking him anywhere he doesn’t want to go,” Shadow snapped. His patience was gone. His omega shivered against him, and his scent was becoming thicker, more concentrated. Shadow’s body was responding, and his ability to remain in his pouch was swiftly disappearing.

Tails wrung his hands. “It’s not that simple. He has the paperwork, there’s the claim on Sonic’s neck–”

Shadow’s lips curled back from his teeth at the mere mention, but before he could say anything, he felt wetness against his arm. He stopped breathing. Sonic’s slick. His omega was dripping for him, so much so that it had seeped through the blanket. His attentions swiftly changed. “Give me a communicator. Something I can use to contact you.”

Tails unhooked the band around his wrist and handed it over without a fight. “I have more in my lab, but–” he stopped to pull open the curtains to make sure they were alone. His voice lowered to a whisper. “We think there’s more of them. In the forest. We don’t know where, but if they or Infinite scents Sonic, they’ll find you.”

“My home is secluded,” Shadow barely managed to get out. Sonic’s need was doing things to him. He was either going to fuck him right here in front of everyone or go on a murdering spree. He was fairly certain Sonic wouldn’t be okay with either option.

“Not enough! Go to Eggman’s base. It’s off the coast. They won’t know about it, and he’s not there. You’ll be safe. At least until tomorrow.”

“I refuse to–” Sonic’s soft cry of pain stopped Shadow in his tracks. “Fine,” he grumbled. He glanced at the communicator Tails had given him, noting the simple interface would be easy enough to figure out. “We’ll reach out later.”

“In how long?” Amy asked. “We need to prepare, and–”

Shadow gave her a look that had her shutting her mouth instantly. “However long it takes.”

One quick pop and a flare of energy later, the room was abruptly minus two hedgehogs.

Knuckles looked between his friends awkwardly. “So… does this mean we have time for Meh Burger?”

One of Tails' eyes twitched.

He was fairly certain it would be permanent by the end of this.

Chapter Text

Shadow’s visits to Eggman’s base had been few and far between over the years. Purposefully. The human’s incessant adulation sickened Shadow, even if his abilities and performance did warrant the praise.

Fortunately for Shadow, his memory was keen, and even with his limited knowledge, Eggman’s lair was an easy teleportation destination.

At least for him.

Sonic groaned, a wave of nausea rolling through him that was strong enough to turn even Shadow’s stomach sour as it echoed through their bond.

“Close your eyes,” Shadow said, as he walked deeper into the building. “Take slow, deep breaths through your nose and out through your mouth. It will pass.”

It was a testament to Sonic’s condition that he didn't argue. Not fighting over it gave Shadow the chance to take in their surroundings. It was dark inside despite being midday, with only some kind of standby or emergency lighting at the floor to guide their way. The main entryway was so vast and tall, it felt very much like the cave they’d explored hours–or maybe it was days–ago. Shadow’s concept of time hadn’t quite caught up. He still wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed since he and Sonic were separated.

The dark hedgehog’s footfalls sliced through heavy silence with a steady, persistent clank of metal on metal. His ears twisted in either direction to catch any indication that another might be present, but there was nothing but the faint scent of Sonic’s badger friend, and the even fainter stench from Robotnik.

Tails had been right. They were alone.

He strode across the red boundary that marked the edge of Eggman’s first floor and made for a set of stairs that quickly came into view off the main hallway. He took the steps two at a time, eagerness and maybe something akin to nervousness quickening his pace.

“What are you looking for?” Sonic asked. His voice was weak, his body far too hot in Shadow’s arms.

“A bed,” Shadow answered simply.

“Floor’s fine. Wall. Even these stairs–”

“No. You deserve comfort. As much as I can offer, anyway.”

Sonic was silent for a moment at that, attempting to process the well of happiness those words made him feel. He wanted to take some cheap shot at Shadow’s softness, something that would detract from or lessen the depth of care being offered, but he didn’t. Maybe it was the hormones, maybe it was the fact that if he didn’t get fucked soon he’d probably actually die, but he did something he didn’t often do.

He was quiet.

Shadow made no additional comments either, focused on zipping from room to room as cautiously as he could until finally, they stepped into a bedroom. The space was clearly intended for a human, with tall ceilings and a bed that could have fit a dozen Mobians comfortably. Two doors were set off to the right at equal distance from each other, and a narrow band of windows cut across the topmost section on the left. Thin beams of light bled through light-blocking curtains, landing directly on the neatly made mattress as if it needed another reason to draw their attention. It smelled stale and closed off, with more of Robotnik’s odor than he knew either he or Sonic would prefer, but it was private, clean, and would give them the repose they needed.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Shadow found himself pausing, eyes focused on the center of the room like the bed would turn into a hidden gateway, or maybe a monster might slide out from underneath. His heart thumped loudly in his chest, and his arms closed tighter around Sonic.

For some reason, taking Sonic in an actual bed felt different. It wasn’t a quick, emergency fix wherever they could find a semblance of privacy. They could stay here, sleep here, linger, take their time, be together–

At least until tomorrow.

Shadow walked to the bed, overly conscious of every step, and gently set Sonic down. The omega was shaky and clearly struggling, but still fully aware. A miracle Shadow was grateful for because he’d waited long enough to say what he needed to say. Whether it led to one more time or forever would be up to Sonic.

Said hedgehog pushed himself back on the bed until his back hit a mound of pillows, kicking off the soiled blanket as he moved. He waited in the middle, and when Shadow didn’t immediately join him, patted the spot next to him with a hint of confusion in his voice. “You waitin’ for a formal invitation, Shads, because I–?”

“I love you.”

The hero’s eyes went wide, his mouth fell open, and whatever he’d been about to say was promptly deleted from his head. His body ceased movement, becoming as still as Shadow had ever seen it. If Shadow had been in any different situation, the look on Sonic’s face would have been comical. As it was, Shadow felt his nerves threaten to remove his stomach from his body.

Permanently.

“The cave-in gave me time to think. It made me realize some things I’m not entirely sure I would have otherwise, or at least not admitted to you quite so quickly. I don’t expect you to say or feel the same,” Shadow continued, voice uncharacteristically soft, “but I needed you to know.”

Sonic felt his muzzle flush with even more warmth, though his stomach fell with a jolt of anxiety. “What if it’s just hormones? What if that’s what’s making you feel this way? What if my heat ends, and you’re back to wanting me six feet under?”

“Have I ever truly hurt you?”

“Your right hook has definitely hurt my face’s feelings a time or ten.”

Shadow pinched the skin between his eyes. “I’ve put your friends in bandages during fights, but never you. Not in all the years we’ve known each other. Why do you think that is?”

“Because I’m awesome. I feel like that’s obvious.”

“Or because I saw you as something more than a rival from the start.” Shadow sighed, his shoulders sagging a bit with the weight of the past handful of days. “I don’t love you because of biology or hormonal predisposition. I love you because…” Shadow thought hard, searching for words that couldn’t even come close to defining what he felt. Maria had told him once to look for the light. Her words had faded over the years, like the sound of her voice, the joy in her laugh, but that line had always stuck with him.

How funny that the light had found him instead.

“You’re the reason I exist. You’re the reason I want to exist.”

Sonic grew more serious, something in Shadow’s words hitting home. “I thought I annoyed the shit out of you,” he said, voice soft with a combination of wonder and confusion.

“Oh, you do,” Shadow assured easily, “but apparently I hate myself enough to enjoy that.”

“You love me.” It wasn’t a question.

Shadow answered anyway. “Yes.”

Sonic’s expression was frighteningly serious. His hand came up to brush along the mark another had left on him against his will. His body was bare. No bandana. No gloves or sports tape, no strength, no speed. His slick already stained the bed, and his scent screamed for an alpha to take him. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t run. He was as vulnerable as he’d ever been.

His gaze met Shadow’s, finding that despite all that, his rival hadn’t moved, not an inch. It wasn’t because he was unaffected. Sonic’s eyes were working just fine. He could see the hybrid’s hands in fists at his sides, his body visibly trembling, and between his legs, Sonic could clearly make out the tip of Shadow’s cock already emerging from its pouch.

The hero felt an answering ache at the sight. His mouth watered, and his hole clenched painfully around nothing, mourning the distance that remained between them. Wanting Shadow had never been in question. Trusting him with all the imperfect, broken pieces of himself? For life? Trusting anyone with that?

That was another matter entirely.

Shadow made no move to join Sonic on the bed, and it was clear he wouldn’t. Not until he was quite literally invited. Urges be damned.

“If I asked you to,” Sonic said softly, “would you leave?”

Shadow’s jaw clenched, and he appeared crestfallen. “Yes.”

“If I said I wanted someone else to get me through my heat, what would you do? Would you fight them? Take me anyway?”

A pained sound slipped from Shadow’s throat, and when he spoke, his voice was raspy with the strength it took to form the words. “Is that what you want?”

“Answer the question, Shadow.”

“No. I wouldn’t fight them. Not if they were what you wanted, and they would care for you. It might kill me, but I wouldn’t stand in your way.”

“Why?”

Shadow’s patience was hanging by a thread. His heart was agonizingly open and exposed. “Because you have a choice! It may not seem like it, but you do, and I’ll be damned if I am ever the one who takes that from you.”

“Ask me, then.”

“Ask you what?”

“Ask me what I want.”

Shadow’s chest tightened. The way Sonic was looking at him, it was like the hero could see through flesh and into Shadow’s soul, view every scrap of trauma and darkness that lingered despite how hard he’d tried to bury it. Shadow set his jaw and stood strong anyway. “What do you want, Sonic?”

“I want you to come here.”

Shadow’s ears fell back, and he hesitated even though he wanted on that bed with Sonic more than anything in the multiverse. “If I come closer…. I don’t know that I’ll be able to pull away.”

“Good. If you did, I’d be super pissed.”

Shadow stepped out of his hover skates and peeled off socks that would likely have to be trashed for all they’d been through. The bed shifted slightly from his weight but remained quiet as he climbed onto it. It seemed Eggman splurged on memory foam.

He moved on all fours toward Sonic, naked except for his inhibitors. Muscles he normally couldn’t tax if he tried trembled with the effort of fighting his urges. He wanted to make Sonic his. He needed it in ways he didn’t need anything else. Not food, not water, not even air. It was a necessity above all others.

But he didn’t. Not yet.

Sonic let his upper half fall back on the pillows as Shadow neared. He bit his lip as desire flared under Shadow’s heated gaze. The weight of it felt like a caress all its own, one that managed to stoke Sonic’s arousal to new heights. Fuck, he wanted Shadow to touch him. He wanted the weight of his body, his hands all over. He wanted to coat himself in his mate’s scent, drown in it, feel Shadow’s knot break him over and over–

Just another minute. He could hold back for one more minute.

Shadow hovered over Sonic, watching, waiting.

Not pushing. Not taking. Not forcing.

Even now, inches away and with his cock heavy and unsheathed between his legs, Sonic knew he could tell Shadow to go, and he would.

But Sonic didn’t want him to. Not ever again.

Sonic cupped Shadow’s face in his hands, feeling soft tan fur under his bare palms. “Later, I’m gonna have lots of questions for you. Like why, and how, and at what point did you realize you had a hard-on for getting your ass kicked–” Shadow gave him a look at that, but he continued. “For now, though, I want you to make it real. Make it permanent.”

“Sonic–”

“I want you to claim me.”

Shadow clenched his jaw in an attempt to keep control, even as his canines dropped, and saliva pooled in his mouth. Those words were everything he’d wanted to hear, but…. “Is it because you’re afraid of Infinite?” Shadow searched green eyes for confirmation. “I won’t let him touch you whether you bear my mark or not. You don’t have to–”

“I want you to because it’s you. It’s got nothing to do with him and everything to do with the way you make me feel.” Sonic brushed his fingers through Shadow’s chest fur, grounded by the touch, by the scent and nearness of his alpha. It soothed his biological needs enough to allow him to find the right words. “You make me feel strong, Shadow, even when I’m at my weakest. You give me choices when I feel like I’m trapped. You don’t want me because of what I am, hell, I’m pretty sure you’d prefer not to want me at all, but you do, and you’re here, and I–”

“You what?”

“I love you too.”

Shadow’s restraint broke.

His lips found Sonic’s between one breath and the next, his body following, pressing Sonic into the plush bedding and savoring the sinful, hungry moan the other instantly let out as he got what he so badly needed. He kissed all over Sonic’s face, his cheeks, his neck, everywhere he could reach. He buried his face into the space his claim would go and breathed deep, letting Sonic’s scent consume him, body and soul. “Tell me you’re sure,” he murmured between kisses. “Please.” If his voice was pleading, he wouldn’t admit it.

“I’m sure. You’re the one I want, Shads. The only one.” To prove his point, Sonic pushed Shadow back and turned over on his stomach. Shadow gave him a quick look of confusion, but Sonic ignored it, opting instead to flatten his ears and get onto all fours. He lowered his front half and lifted his tail high, exposing himself fully. He swallowed thickly as he looked over his shoulder at his mate. “Alpha,” he whispered, willingly, knowingly, and this time it didn’t feel like he was less for it. He tilted his head, lengthening his neck in clear invitation.

Shadow’s eyes all but glowed with arousal at the sight, his focus narrowing to the image before him. That vulnerable neck begging for his bite, curved spine presenting a round ass, and that delicious hole leaking enough slick to mat the fur of blue thighs. Shadow’s erection bobbed with desire. His omega was presenting for him, begging for his cock, just for him. Only him. Forever and on.

He gently dragged his claws down Sonic’s spine before gripping his tail and giving it a firm tug.
Sonic gasped and turned his face into the pillows to muffle his sounds. Shadow frowned. Not just because he wanted Sonic loud and unhindered, but because pain flashed through their bond, and he’d not pulled hard. Sonic’s leaking hole clenched under Shadow’s gaze, and he felt that brief burst of discomfort once more, different from the typical heat cramps that still faintly rolled through Sonic’s stomach. It was sharper, more concentrated and cutting–and then it dawned on him.

Sonic had been torn when they’d been ripped apart. That’s why Amy had thrown those ridiculous accusations at him.

“Why didn’t you say you were in pain?” he asked. He lightly traced a finger over the cleft of Sonic’s ass. “I would have healed you the second we got here.”

“Barely feel it now,” Sonic mumbled. He’d gotten a grip on one of the pillows and was holding on to it as if it were a floatie in the ocean. “I’ve had worse. S’not important.”

“You’re important,” Shadow corrected firmly. “Tell me when you hurt.”

“Why? So you can kiss it and make it better?”

Sonic’s snark may have been just that, but it didn’t mean it couldn’t give Shadow an idea. “Yes,” he answered just before pressing the flat of his tongue against Sonic’s hole. Sonic yelped in surprise and tried to jump forward, but Shadow settled between his mate’s legs and held on tight to his hips. He had no intention of letting his meal escape. Not when he was this hungry.

Shadow was relentless, digging in and lapping up every drop of slick Sonic’s heat-broken body would give him. With every lick, he sent healing power into his omega, mending torn flesh and soothing strained muscle. The taste of Sonic’s arousal flooded his mouth, so heady it only made him desperate for more. Overtaken and ravenous, he slipped his tongue through that tight furl of muscle and took his fill.

Sonic’s reaction was immediate and loud, just like Shadow wanted. Blue hips wiggled and squirmed, seemingly torn between rocking forward or pushing back, too much, and not enough. “Please! Oh, fuck. Shadow–that feels so good. Deeper, please, c’mon, please!”

Shadow’s ears perked forward, and he did as he was told. He pressed his face into Sonic’s ass, delving into that heated channel as far as he could until oxygen was a thing of the past, and his fangs dug sharply into blue flesh. The sound of cloth ripping and Sonic’s ragged groans made Shadow’s lower abdomen tighten and his cock weep.

“You taste amazing,” Shadow rasped as he broke away. He took in a big gulp of air, saturated with his mate’s intoxicating musk. His hands traversed Sonic’s sides, gliding over silky fur and lithe muscle, worshipping his mate’s form even as he healed leftover bruises and lacerations with his touch. “Every part of you is perfect. Delicious. Mine.”

“Yours.” Sonic pressed his backend against Shadow until he felt the hybrid’s erection between his ass cheeks. He made an appreciative sound, working that long, thick length against his entrance with a roll of his hips. “Inside,” Sonic demanded.

Shadow watched his cock slide wetly against his mate, the ridges that lined the underside catching against Sonic’s sensitive ring. “Not yet,” he said, nearly hypnotized. “You need more prep.”

“Do you not feel how wet I am?” Sonic asked incredulously. “I’ve been ready. I finally tell you you can claim me, and you’re taking your sweet time.”

“Some of us–” Shadow said, bringing a single finger to Sonic’s entrance, “know to go slow.” He idly teased puckered flesh that winked wetly at him. “When something is worth savoring.” He lubed up a second finger and, achingly slowly, pushed both in, reveling in the high, broken whine Sonic let out as he was breached.

“Look at me,” Shadow demanded. He altered his angle, finding Sonic’s prostate with practiced ease. He brushed over it as he drew back, all the way out, and thrust his digits forward again with more force. Glazed green eyes, half lidded with pupils blown, locked on his. Shadow didn’t drop his gaze for a minute. “Is this what you needed?” he asked, adding a third finger and biting his lip to hold back his own eager groan when it slipped in without issue.

Sonic’s ears folded, and he nodded, peach lips parted to let soft, incoherent, needy sounds escape. “More,” he panted.

“Not yet.”

“Fuck you.”

“Soon, I hope.”

Sonic’s head lifted at that, and he shook it like he couldn’t possibly have heard correctly. Shadow smirked and let Sonic watch as he slowly began to stroke his own length in time with the movements of his fingers. “You seem surprised. Would you like that?”

“Fuck yes!” Sonic managed. He bit his lip and rocked back against Shadow’s hand, trying to get his fingers deeper. “Just–ah,” he gasped while trying to find words in his endorphin-filled head. “Alphas don’t usually, you know, bottom.”

Shadow added a fourth finger just to see if he could and pushed all the way in, letting the hard bony edge of his knuckles dig into soft flesh. Sonic was relaxing easily, his body more than accepting of the stretch Shadow’s knot would demand of it. “I have no qualms submitting. So long as it’s to you.”

Sonic’s eyes squeezed shut at that, and he groaned helplessly as he was finger fucked open. “S-shadow…. You’re gonna make me cum. Just like this. Just talking like that. Dammit, I love you so much, and if you don’t put your dick inside me, I’ll kill you.”

Shadow chuckled but removed his fingers. As much as he’d like to torture and edge Sonic until he was a begging, blubbering mess, he’d save that for another day.

They had time now, after all.

Sonic waited for the now familiar sensation of Shadow’s bulbous tip spearing him open, but nothing came. “Shads? You gonna make me beg for it, or what?”

“That’s certainly an idea for a later date, but for now, I want you to turn around.”

Sonic looked over his shoulder again, tail dipping a bit in uncertainty. “But this is how omegas are supposed to be claimed.”

Shadow pressed down on Sonic’s hips and helped the other turn over until he was on his back, nestled amidst pillows. Sonic’s legs fell open in invitation, and Shadow readily moved between them, settling until his length met Sonic’s. His breath hitched at the much needed friction, and his hips rolled with the promise of what was to come. “We play by the rules we set,” he said, watching Sonic’s lip part on a silent gasp. “No one else’s.”

“You don’t want me to call you alpha?” Sonic half laughed, voice shaky and more serious than he’d intended.

“I’d rather you call me mate.”

Green eyes met red. The world faded with that last declaration. Nothing else mattered. Not their location, not Sonic’s omega status being revealed, not the next day’s court battle, nothing.

Their lips hovered just apart, shared breath teasing and hot as Shadow shifted and pressed the thick head of his dick against Sonic’s dripping entrance. Blue-furred hands slid down Shadow’s spine, pressing firmly against his lower back as Sonic wiggled his hips to try and get Shadow inside. “Mate,” Sonic said softly, and Shadow shuddered, finally giving in and bringing his mouth to Sonic’s just as he breached his partner’s heat.

The kiss was searing, wet, messy, the connection mirroring that of their lower halves. Shadow’s tongue delved into Sonic’s mouth just as he thrust all the way forward, bottoming out in one smooth motion. He stilled for a moment, fighting the urge to move. He’d just healed his partner, and they’d not been able to do this for far too long. He would ignore every instinct screaming at him, and he would let Sonic’s body adjust if it killed him. He knew his omega wouldn’t need him to hold back soon enough. He was utterly perfect for him.

He must have said those last words out loud because Sonic murmured them back to him before he wrapped his legs around dark hips. “Deeper, Shads. Give it to me. All of it.”

“So demanding.”

“You like it.”

“I do,” Shadow conceded. “I like how needy you are. How wet, how tight, how you try to suck me in like you were made to take dick. My dick.”

Sonic squirmed, rocking his hips and meeting Shadow’s movements in an attempt to get what he wanted. “Stop holding back.”

“Stop trying to sabotage your asshole.”

Sonic huffed at that, part indignation, part amusement. Fine. If words wouldn’t work, he knew what would. He whimpered softly and tilted his head, exposing his scent gland to his mate. He knew that faint scar from Infinite would be visible this close, just as he knew the act would bring out that possessive side of Shadow he loved so much.

He wasn’t wrong.

“Brat,” Shadow growled, even as he tucked his muzzle into the crook of Sonic’s neck. He placed open-mouthed kisses against coiled muscle, sucking at sensitive flesh until Sonic was ready to squirm right out of his skin, come, or beg Shadow to bite down. Maybe all three.

“I know what you’re doing,” Shadow huffed.

“Is it working?”

Shadow pulled back and let his hips snap forward, burying himself to the hilt. He nipped Sonic’s shoulder even as the omega all but howled in pleasure. “What do you think?

“Fucking f-finally!” Sonic panted.

“Impatient as ever.” Shadow grabbed Sonic’s wrists and pressed them into the pillows, careful of his quills. He pushed himself up a bit and looked down between their joined bodies as he moved deep and hard. “Look,” he commanded.

Sonic didn’t have to wonder what Shadow wanted him to see. His lower belly moved with Shadow’s every thrust, a faint bulge evident under Sonic’s cock.

“See how I fill you up? You’re mine. Inside and out.”

Sonic nodded fervently, his cock leaked, smearing pre across peach fur. An embarrassing whine slipped from his lips as he watched with focus made hazy by fever and desire. It was hypnotizing, watching as Shadow carved out space inside him, preparing him for the claim.

“You take me so well,” Shadow grunted. His hips moved a little harder, a little faster, his angle shifting until Sonic could no longer watch but was forced to let his head fall back on the bed with a cry. “That’s it, isn’t it?” Shadow continued. “That’s your spot. Fuck–you feel so good. I want you to come on my dick, Sonic. I want you to come so hard you scream, and they hear you all the way in the village, and everyone will know you’re mine.”

“Make them see it,” Sonic nearly sobbed. “I want them to see it.”

“They will,” Shadow agreed. He could feel his knot swelling, feel it catching on the tight ring of muscle that wasn’t quite open enough to take it. “I’ll make sure you’re so full of my cum, you leak it for days. I’ll cover you in marks, in my scent. There will be no doubt to whom you belong.”

Sonic’s eyes rolled back in his head. “Close! Shadow, I’m so close–”

“Do it.” Shadow held the same angle, the same steady, hard thrusts– “Come. Now. Come for me. Let me hear you.”

Sonic’s back arched off the bed, and he fought for control of his wrists as his soul left his body through his dick. He cried out, all but screaming, his insides clamping down on Shadow’s length so hard it was almost painful.

Shadow grunted with effort but didn’t stop. He continued to fuck into his omega, desperate to get his knot inside. The ridges along his alien cock rubbed at Sonic’s overstimulated walls, but his mate didn’t ask him to stop. Instead, he felt blue legs, stronger than they’d been before, wrap around his hips with enough force to have the swollen base of Shadow’s dick threaten to breach Sonic’s hole. Slick dripped down blue ass cheeks, making the sound of their coupling wet and lewd.

“Give me another,” Sonic panted. “And this time I want to come on your knot.”

Shadow rocked his hips forward, each forward thrust grinding against Sonic’s entrance. He could feel the muscle giving, a little more of his bulbous flesh meeting heaven with every passing movement. Sonic gasped, whimpered, moaned. He called out for Shadow with every other breath. The sound of it all sent new waves of desire and possessiveness surging through Shadow’s veins. If he thought the crystal in his quills contained huge amounts of power, it was nothing compared to that which Sonic held over him just by opening his damn mouth and saying his name like that.

Nothing could have pulled him away. Nothing under the sun, the moon, the stars, on this planet or any other. His world bucked under him with pleasure he wrought, with need only he could sate. He wanted for nothing else than this moment to never end.

Shadow kissed Sonic like he’d never get the chance again. His tongue swept over the hero’s bottom lip, teasing, before nipping and working a deep, breathy chuckle from his mate. Sonic fought his wrists free, and this time, Shadow let him. Cobalt hands wrapped around his sides and curved up, burying themselves in Shadow’s quills and pulling hard. Shadow let out a sharp gasp, allowing Sonic to take control for the moment.

The hero explored his alpha’s mouth with a reverence and hunger that made Shadow whine pathetically. Wet muscle traced Shadow’s fangs before breaking away for deep gulps of air–just in time for Shadow to force his knot inside at last.

Sonic’s attempts at filling his lungs turned to a half scream that made Shadow’s primal instincts flare. He slid his arms under Sonic’s body, coming up around his back so he could grip his omega’s shoulders. He forced his cock deeper, angling himself until Sonic made that same sharp cry as before that told him he’d found his prostate again. He buried his face in Sonic’s neck, the hero’s scent drowning him. He growled as he thrust, a near-mindless creature whose energy matched that of the insatiable hedgehog below him.

Fuck. Breed. Claim.

Sonic’s claws scratched down his back, his legs shook, but tightened anyway. The hero kissed Shadow's neck as the hybrid’s cock somehow managed to breach new virgin ground inside him. His canines were far less intimidating, but he let them drag across dark fur anyway. Shadow’s instant, primal rumble was enough to make Sonic’s dick twitch between their stomachs, already wet and slick with his cum. “Gonna–Shads–fuck–like that. Right there, right there, oh fuck, don’t stop, right fucking there. I need it, please.”

Shadow growled again, ears pinned as he set his mouth against Sonic’s scent gland. His fangs, fully elongated, throbbed with the beat of his heart. Sweat collected at his temples, heat and exertion, need and desire all coalescing to this one moment.

“That’s it–” Sonic whimpered. “I want it. I want you. I love you. Do it. Please.”

What else could Shadow do?

He bit down.

Hard.

Chapter Text

It hurt.

But it was a good hurt.

Shadow’s canines sliced deep into muscle, puncturing Sonic’s scent gland and leaving a mark that could in no way be identified for anything other than what it was.

Binding.

Sonic screamed Shadow’s name, just as he’d been commanded before. Euphoria swept him up and away like a paper airplane in a hurricane. His cock spilled between their bellies, untouched, and through a heavy haze of endorphins, Sonic felt the deeply satisfying bloom of heat that was Shadow’s cum filling his insides. Pulse after pulse, each followed by a harsh, grinding partial thrust into Sonic’s body. Each powerful surge of strong black hips made Sonic’s inner walls clench and bear down in endless waves of pleasure until he was near delirious and panting.

It was more than he’d ever thought it would or could be.

And then, very suddenly, it was even more.

Like an internal supernova caught in his chest, something previously hidden sparked to life, bright and warm and right. It felt like something he’d always had, always known about, but had somehow forgotten, like finding an old picture that overflowed with good memories and happiness that just needed to be held to be remembered.

He was overwhelmed, overtaken, and consumed. His heat beat wildly, and his soul rejoiced as it was joined by another. He could feel Shadow, feel him in every imaginable way. His mate’s solid weight atop him, his canines still set within his flesh, his floral, woodsy scent now blended into something new and undeniably them. Deep inside, Shadow’s cock continued to twitch, locked in place and filling Sonic with as much as he could give, and on top of it all was that dazzling new bridge that connected their two wholes and built something new, something stronger.

Shadow was his. He was Shadow’s.

They were mated.

Without thought, Sonic twisted his head and, quick as a snake strike, set his teeth deep into the muscle that ran from Shadow’s neck to his shoulder, right over his scent gland and the mark he’d left before.

Shadow snarled into Sonic’s flesh, but not a handful of seconds passed before it morphed into a high whine as Shadow’s hips stuttered, and he held on tighter to Sonic, clinging to him desperately. A short, trapped thrust, another, and then Shadow was coming again, his cries muffled by Sonic’s shoulder and absolutely wrecked with pleasure.

Unfortunately–or fortunately–for Sonic, the angle at which Shadow was stuck pressed directly against his prostate. Sonic released Shadow and blubbered out a weak, surprised cry of Shadow’s name before his mate’s pleasure compounded his own, and he was lost in a third orgasm that left him limp, limbless, and barely conscious.

His body shuddered with random aftershocks of pleasure as he slowly returned to himself. He kept still, unable and unwilling to disturb either place where he was connected with Shadow. Instead, he ran his hands through soft ebony fur until he felt a deep, solid rumble against his chest.

Shadow was purring.

Sonic smiled. He couldn’t help it.

He’d been fucked within an inch of his life by his mate. What more could he possibly want?

A soft groan sounded before Sonic felt the pressure of Shadow’s bite release and wet warmth lave over new puncture wounds. The area was bruised and sore, but the care was so tender it set off Sonic’s own purr.

“I can feel you,” Sonic murmured as he began to do the same to the mark he’d left. The tang of copper spread across his tongue as he soothed the area. “Not just in the usual place, but deeper than that. Not even in my head exactly, you’re just… there.”

Shadow hummed in acknowledgement, understanding Sonic’s mess of words because for him, the feeling wasn’t new. “I’ve been able to feel you since you bit me in the cave.”

“What?” Sonic asked, confused. He paused his ministrations. “We were bonded before?”

Shadow made a noncommittal noise as he continued to clean the claim he’d made. “I’m not sure. Partially? Temporarily? I’ve not heard of a bond resulting from an omega marking an alpha, but regardless, that’s how I knew where you were earlier. I wasn’t certain if you could feel it, and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want it to influence your decision.”

“What would you have done if I hadn’t asked you to be my mate?”

Shadow pushed himself up so he could meet emerald eyes. “All the same things I told you before.”

“But if you’re not with your bonded mate–”

Shadow shushed him with a soft kiss. “I am with my bonded mate,” he whispered. “And I don’t intend on that changing.”

“Never?”

Shadow sighed his contentment. “Never. Even if you do have the palate of a dumpster-diving raccoon.”

“That is offensive!”

“To whom? Raccoons?”

Sonic started to laugh and then hissed in discomfort when the action made his pelvic floor muscles tighten a little too much around Shadow’s knot. “Still waiting for that part where taking your fucking jumbo-size alien schlong gets easier.”

Shadow smirked and pressed kisses to Sonic’s cheek, moving down his neck where he nuzzled and breathed in their newly combined scent. “Didn’t hear you complaining a minute ago.”

“Just wait until I dick you down.”

“I look forward to your retribution,” Shadow chuckled. One of his hands carded through blue quills while he let his body fully lower back to Sonic’s, resting his head in the crook of the hero’s neck. “How are you feeling?”

Sonic idly ran his claws through the fur between Shadow’s back spines and let his eyes close as he rested. Shadow was heavy, but in a comforting, weighted blanket kind of way. “Better. A lot better, actually. Kind of weird though, because I got this little twinge in my glute like I hurt myself… but I didn’t.”

“That’s me. I pulled a muscle when you marked me. It’ll heal in a few more minutes.”

“So I can feel your pain?”

“Seems so,” Shadow murmured sleepily. “You may be able to sense my location too, but I don’t plan on letting you out of my eyesight for a while.”

“Protective?”

“Mmm,” Shadow mumbled. He pressed a butterfly kiss to Sonic’s neck. “Just keeping my promises.”

Sonic lost track of the number of times he and Shadow made love. He supposed it didn’t particularly matter. Whatever the number, it was enough to feel like he’d never have full use of his legs again, and his heat was finally, truly sated.

It was possible the abatement of his symptoms had more to do with being mated than being well and truly fucked senseless. Or maybe his heat was winding down. He could tell it wasn’t over, not completely, but for the first time since everything had started, he felt… himself. Maybe more than he had in a while.

At his side, Shadow’s chest fluff rose and fell with deep, steady breaths, crimson eyes hidden behind dark lids. The hybrid was curled into Sonic’s side and half draped across him. It made Sonic feel a bit like a cherished stuffie, something about the position echoing Shadow’s claim and making him feel safe and content in a way he never had before.

Sonic had tried to sleep after their most recent round, but it seemed that his mind felt like he’d had enough of that when he’d been unconscious for the better part of a day. Instead of snoozing like he should, Sonic rested his cheek on top of Shadow’s head and idly combed his fingers through deadly red and black quills. The spines were relaxed, cool to the touch, and surprisingly soothing to stroke so long as he was careful. Sonic didn’t typically like being still, but this he could get used to. Seeing Shadow so at peace, getting the chance to take in his features, like the line in his quills where black met red, or how there was the tiniest tuft of fur at the tip of each black ear…it was a treasure.

“Don’t….” Shadow mumbled suddenly, breaking Sonic’s reverie.

Sonic’s hand froze, his body tensing. “Shadow?”

“Don’t…”

“Don’t what? Are you okay?”

“Don’t… eat the cheese.” Shadow shifted a bit, nuzzling more against Sonic, and let out a soft snore.

Sonic blinked once. Twice. And then nearly pissed himself trying not to laugh.

Shadow was talking in his sleep.

About cheese.

The absurdity of the moment caught up to him, and tears collected in his eyes while his sides shook from choked half-breaths. If someone had told him he’d be outed as an omega, nearly die of heat death, and be mated to his rival, all in the span of less than a week, he’d have asked if they’d ordered the catfish special at Meh Burger.

The entire thing was entirely ridiculous, but….

Sonic pressed a kiss to the top of Shadow’s head and breathed in his scent. Their scent.

No one could convince him this wasn’t exactly how things were supposed to be.

With a sigh, Sonic let his head fall back against pillows that had far less fluff than before. Either he or Shadow—probably both—had shredded them, leaving puffs of polyester scattered across the bed and onto the floor like homemade snowfall. The blankets were draped over their tangled lower halves, their combined body heat too much to tolerate pulling them up all the way. Sonic was fine with that anyway. They were sticky, wet, and stained with more cum and slick than he would have thought either of them could physically contain.

Green eyes closed as he settled in, pulling his mate just a little closer. It was fine. They could clean up later. They’d deal with all of it in the morn–

The door to the bedroom suddenly burst open with enough force, it smacked the wall behind it with a shuddering thud. Sonic recoiled in surprise but then hissed in pain as the curtains were drawn back, and blinding morning light filled the room. Sonic had a moment of pure terror as he bolted upright, thinking that Infinite had found them before he realized it was worse than that.

Much worse.

Eggman stood in the doorway, sunhat askew and mouth agape. His suitcase handle dropped to the floor in surprise, catching on his hideous tropical button-down on its way to the floor. Sonic wasn’t sure he’d ever seen the human in such a state of shock. It would have been hilarious in any other circumstance.

At the moment, it felt wholly unwelcome.

“Sonic!?”

Shadow took that moment to sit up like a thing possessed and snarl like an agitated mountain lion.

“Shadow?!”

“Get the fuck out!” Shadow growled. His quills bristled to the point that Sonic had to lean slightly to the side. Shadow took notice and pulled the blanket up more over both of them as he maneuvered himself more in front of his mate. “Now!” Shadow snapped.

“This is my bedroom! What are you doing here?”

“Sleeping?” Sonic deadpanned. “There was just one bed?”

“There are four guest rooms!”

“Oh.” Sonic gulped, but then his face twisted in confusion. “Wait. You don’t have any friends. Why do you have–?”

“That’s not important! What is important is answering the question of how you broke into not only my lair, but my bedroom.”

“The front door was open?” Sonic tried.

“You lying blue rat–”

Shadow’s ears pinned, and he hefted a spear of energy at the doctor’s feet. Eggman yelped and blundered backward, nearly tripping over Cubot and Orbot, who’d crowded up behind him.

“Fools!” Eggman snapped. “Get out of my way!”

“But sir,” Orbot started, “we have guests–”

“They are not guests,” Eggman barked back, pointing at his own bed. “They’re an infestation of rodents!”

“Technically, hedgehogs belong to the family Erinaceidae, not rodentia,” Orbot said. He wrung his hands together nervously. “But, I’m afraid that’s not what I mean–”

“Eggman!” Sticks called out, her voice slightly echoey, like she hadn’t fully made it up the stairs yet.

“Seriously?” Sonic all but yelped. He turned to his mate. “What’s a hedgehog gotta do to get fucked in peace around here?”

Shadow’s jaw clenched, his eyes never leaving the entryway. “Next time, we’re going to my apartment.”

“Wait–your apartment?” Sonic asked. “What apartment? Is that what you call your cave so you feel better about it?”

Shadow shot him a look. “No, you imbecile. I have multiple domiciles.”

“Domawhat?”

Shadow breathed in deep and let his forehead fall into his hands just as yet more people came plowing into the room.

“What!?” Eggman bellowed. “Get out! All of you! Do you think this is a hotel?”

“We came as soon as we got the alert Eggman returned,” Tails said, breathless, like he’d flown across the bay. “You weren’t answering the communicator I gave you.”

Sonic looked sheepish and ran his hands through his quills. “Been a bit distracted….” The act pulled at the deep puncture wounds Shadow had left on him. The alpha had tried to heal them, but Sonic refused. He was worried if he did, they might not scar, or it might mess with their bond. Call him crazy, especially with how he felt before Shadow had claimed him, but he wanted the world to know he was Shadow’s. His scent and his body would proclaim just who his mate truly was.

Amy seemed to notice. Her nose tilted slightly in the air and Sonic knew she could tell even without seeing his fresh mate mark. “You mated,” she said softly. There was a layer of sadness in the statement that made Sonic’s ears tip back. He didn’t get a chance to reassure her, though.

Eggman’s eyes nearly fell out of his head. Or Sonic assumed. It was hard to tell with the glasses. “You what!? In my bed?!”

“Was that not obvious?” Sticks shrugged, glancing up at the human. “They’re naked.”

“They’re always naked!” he snapped back.

“And it smells like rotten eggs,” Knuckles added helpfully, like that was a telltale sign.

“Rotten eggs? It smells more like Bradford pears–” Eggman’s face went blank with realization and without another word, he turned and moved through the collection of robots and Mobians, suitcase scooped up and pulled behind him.

The others gaped as they watched him. All except Shadow, who crossed his arms and all but growled a sharp, “Get out!” before there was the hasty shuffling of shoes against the metal floor, and they were left blessedly alone.

Sonic let himself collapse back on the bed. “Why?” he muttered. “Why does everything always have to be revealed in the most awkward, painful way possible?”

“Because you’re you,” Shadow answered, most unhelpfully. The dark male pulled back the remaining blanket and walked barefoot to the farthest side door. Sonic couldn’t help but watch with appreciation. Even after hours spent in bed, Shadow moved with the grace and power of someone completely un-taxed or hindered by normal bodily constraints.

Also, his ass was divine.

“I can feel you staring,” Shadow said over his shoulder as he opened the far door and peeked inside.

“Can’t blame a guy for enjoying the view.”

“Hmph.”

Shadow sounded mildly irritated at best, but given what had caught Sonic’s eye in the first place, he couldn’t help but notice the brief wag of Shadow’s tail.

“It’s a bathroom,” Shadow said, interrupting Sonic’s increasingly NC-17 thoughts. “Human sized, obviously, but we can clean up before we join the others.”

“Phew!” Sonic hopped out of bed, albeit about as gracefully as a newborn giraffe, and darted past Shadow as fast as he could hobble. “I nearly peed my metaphorical pants earlier when you were talking in your sleep.”

“I beg your fucking pardon. I do not talk in my sleep”

“Yeah, you definitely do,” Sonic snorted. He quickly released himself from his pouch and relieved himself, uncaring that Shadow still stood in the door. They’d seen all the other had to offer anyway, so what was the point in being embarrassed? “You said not to eat the cheese.”

Shadow got a far away look in his eyes. He moved past Sonic and toward the large clawfoot tub that sat in the middle of the tiled room. He twisted the hot water spigot and let his hand trail through the water as it warmed. “I’m not admitting to talking in my sleep, because I don’t,” he said without turning, “But I was having a dream.”

“A good one?”

“Mmm, I suppose.”

“What was it about?” Sonic asked.

“Maria. She wanted to have a picnic, but she and I grew up on a spaceship. There were no parks, or green areas to do something so traditional, so we made do with the blanket off her bed and a plastic bin of various shelf-stable snacks she stole from the scientists’ breakroom.”

“A spaceship? Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“And why no cheese?”

“Maria was lactose intolerant. The results from her consuming dairy products were… memorable. Especially on an enclosed spacecraft with minimal ventilation.”

Sonic laughed at the painful cringe on Shadow’s face. “Wow, Shads, there’s a lot to unpack there.”

Ebony shoulders tipped up in a shrug. “I told you. There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

Warm blue arms wrapped around Shadow’s torso, and the hybrid surprised himself by instinctually melting into the touch, despite not having heard Sonic wash his hands. “Do I get to find out?” Sonic asked, voice muffled as he pressed kisses to Shadow’s shoulder.

“Maybe,” Shadow said softly. He turned and caught Sonic’s lips in a tender kiss that lasted longer than it should have, considering they had people waiting on them and a deadline.

But fuck all that.

Satisfied the water was a suitable temperature, Shadow pulled back the curtain and climbed inside, offering Sonic a hand as he did the same. The water cascaded down, steam quickly filling the air as Shadow drew the curtain back around them. He pulled Sonic back to him, kissing him deeply while the shower’s heat soothed sore muscles.

“How are you feeling?” Shadow murmured.

“Can’t you tell?”

“Yes, but I prefer if you used your words.”

“I’m going to start keeping track of every time you tell me to talk and use it against you when you inevitably tell me to shut up.”

“That’s going to start sooner rather than later if you don’t answer the question,” Shadow grumbled.

Sonic grinned, tail wagging behind him. That small action did bring some attention to a certain area. “Pretty sore,” he finally admitted. “Not gonna be running any time soon. Water stings a bit, but it feels good too.”

“I could heal you.”

“Nah. Not this time.”

That seemed to stir something in Shadow, leading the alpha to drag his hands down Sonic’s spine and gently cup his ass. “I’ll kill the person who interrupts us during your next heat.”

Sonic’s tail wagged harder despite himself. He kissed under Shadow’s jaw and let his touch wander between dark thighs. “Feeling a little murdery, huh? More than usual, anyway?”

Shadow groaned and made no move to pull away. He didn’t supply an answer, but his cock twitched with interest under Sonic’s palm.

Sonic dropped to his knees and stared up into heated crimson eyes. “Maybe I could help with that. Little stress relief?”

Shadow ran his hand between blue ears and bit his lip as he looked down, feeling his pouch swell at the sight alone. Sonic’s ears were tipped back and pink at the edges, his lips slightly parted in anticipation. His tail wagged hard enough to flick droplets of water against the side of the tub. “Your heat has quieted.”

“So?” Sonic leaned into Shadow’s hand, using it as an excuse to allow his muzzle to brush the bulge directly in front of his face. His mouth watered, his soreness was forgotten, and in its place was that deep seated, needy ache that only Shadow inspired. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want your dick in my mouth.”

Shadow cupped Sonic’s muzzle, thumb playing along his bottom lip. “Then who am I to deny my mate?”