Chapter Text
Mike had tried not to feel paranoid when Eddie approached. He knew Eddie was an alpha. He could smell it on him in that subconscious way the other night, when he'd been on the ground. The jolt it had given him to realize his heat was coming in was what had driven him to take Eddie down. If it hadn't been, Mike wouldn't have known an alpha from a potato. He liked it that way.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see when Eddie whispered something to Bello and they both looked at Mike, who was pretending to be occupied with the gun. Bello nodded to Eddie, who tried to say more, but Bello held a hand up. Mike studiously didn't look up as Eddie took his leave, looking disgruntled.
"Tell me," Bello said, "can you give my men their lessons while you are in heat?"
There was the slightest pause as Mike pulled the slide of the gun into place. He glanced up at nothing, then finished the motion.
"You are an omega, are you not?"
"Yes, I am." He'd almost said yes, sir, but with Bello's status unknown, he didn't want to risk it being taken as an invitation.
"Eddie thinks your time is near. Is this so?"
Mike nodded curtly and checked the view through the gun's sight.
"I understand this is a delicate topic in this country," Bello said, dropping his voice a few decibels. "But there are several alphas among my men, or their women if that is what you prefer. I can make arrangements if you require assistance."
The offer gave Mike an itch. It would be nice to get it taken care of quickly, and it would help strengthen his cover with Bello. And he was curious what some of these men would be like as alphas, whether they'd try to dominate them or whether they'd sit back and let him do the work. Whether they'd succeed if they tried.
"I've got a friend on base," he said, pushing the magazine into place. "Thanks for the offer, though."
"Absolutely not."
"I know," Mike assured everyone. "It gets worse, though."
"Mike, you're undercover with a crew full of alphas and you're going into heat. What could make that worse?" Jakes asked. Mike had tried to sit down to tell just Briggs, but then Paige had stumbled across them, then Johnny, and in typical Johnny style, he had called a family meeting. Now everyone in Graceland was gathered in the living room.
"I have CHS." He was quiet for a moment, letting that sink in. "Once it starts I could be useless for up to a week."
"Wait," Paige said. "I've heard of that but I don't know what it actually is."
"Cluster heat syndrome," Charlie offered. "My sister has it. You know how heat is more or less seasonal? Four times a year? Well, patients with CHS might go up to a year or two without going into heat. Then once they do, they could go into heat again several more times, just hours after sex, before they go into the resolution period. The record is 14 heats in a row."
"I've never had that many," Mike assured them. "But the least we can hope for is three."
"What's the most we should prepare for?" Briggs asked.
Mike thought about it, scratching the back of his head as he tried to tally the most he'd ever had at once. That had been after nearly three years of nothing, so he didn't think it was likely to be that bad, but he should prepare for the worst case. "Seven," he said. "Maybe eight. Estimating twelve to twenty-four hours of downtime I'll need for each one." The heat itself might only last as long as it took to have sex, but there was no way to tell when, in the period after, the next heat would come. He wouldn't want to be working when it did, especially around a lot of guns and a lot of alphas with poor impulse control. Not to mention, when he was truly in heat, he'd have sold his soul to get what he needed. He wasn't fit to maintain secrecy in that state. That was the reason you didn't find too many omegas in the field. Mike had just been that exceptional.
"Okay," Briggs said. "So there's a period of at least thirty-six hours up to eight days where Bello has to do without you. Either he's gonna fire you for it or he's not. Obviously it's your decision, but your agency does not expect you to use your body to maintain your cover, understand?"
Mike nodded. "Understood, sir. I already told Bello I had help. I won't be going near his crew for it."
"Good man. Bello's not the type to hold it against you, for what it's worth," Briggs said, sitting back in his place. "He's a beta, he's got a few omegas around him. Not so much in his crew, but doing some of the side work. I'll call Eddie up and tell him what's going on, once you start, and keep making the excuses as long as you need."
Johnny, normally so chatty, had been mostly quiet the entire time. Once he'd figured out what this was about, it seemed even he knew when to cut the jokes. Finally, though, he did speak. "Guys."
Everyone turned. "Johnny?" Mike said.
"There's a question we're ignoring." He looked at Mike. "Do you have help?"
The million-dollar question. Mike wasn't sure he wanted to have this part of the conversation. In fact, he was pretty sure he didn't, but he knew it needed to be had. He shook his head. "No. Abbie's an omega too."
The silence that fell was thoroughly awkward, although maybe Mike was just imagining that. He hoped so. Somehow he doubted it.
"Well, he can't go to the public house," Charlie said. Establishments dubbed 'kemmerhouses,' after something out of an old novel, were maintained in public for those without partners who went into heat. But they presented all the pitfalls of a lot of public places. "You could blow your cover there as easily as in Bello's crew, especially if one of them saw you? You could be done."
Mike was about to lay out the problems with selecting a one night stand from a bar, but Paige put a hand on his shoulder before he could. Instinctively, he went silent, some part of him driven to bow to an alpha. He bristled against it a little, in his mind, but he was close enough to heat that his body and his emotions had something different to say, going quiet and calm under that hand's weight.
Paige seemed to notice and quietly took her hand away, planting it on the back of the couch again. "Mike. All five of us are alphas. I'd be willing to help you, and I think everyone else would too?" she asked, looking around.
Jakes just nodded, looking Mike in the eye.
"Yeah, man," Johnny said, nodding. "If you need it, you know? Bros helpin' bros."
Briggs took a second, seeming to consider, but he nodded once. "Yeah. Yeah, I can help."
Charlie took the longest, giving Mike a long, hard look. "Sure, Mikey," she said finally. "I'll help, if you want me to."
Paige nodded once and looked down at Mike from her spot standing behind him, while he looked up. "So, there you go. Is there at least one of us you'd be comfortable with?"
Comfortable? He looked around the room. Jakes, with his braids and quiet intensity. Johnny, who would make him laugh the whole time and have Mike half in love with him before they were done. Charlie, with those hips and the fiery heart. Briggs, with his strong hands. Paige and that sensuality that was as much a part of her as her voice and her eyes, the smokiness to her that she could never shake. He wanted all of them already, had practically since he'd set foot in the house.
"Yeah," he said finally. "Yeah, there's someone I'm comfortable with."
Paige nodded once. "Okay. It's completely your choice, Mike. No one here will- look at me," she said, reaching down and tilting Mike's chin up. He looked away from where he'd been glancing at Charlie, focusing his eyes on Paige as she stared him down. He wondered how he hadn't known it of all of them as soon as he'd arrived -- she had the command of an alpha just in how she looked at him.
"No one here will pressure you into anything you don't want to do. No one here will judge you for however you need to handle your heat. It's a completely personal thing. Graceland is safe for you not just as long as you're in heat, but as long as you're here. Okay?"
Normally, Mike would have just hoped those words were true and dwelt on the irony of them, given his true purpose here, but in a pre-heat state, making eye contact with an alpha, he couldn't help but accept it. So he nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good boy." She smiled, and Mike smiled back.
"Okay, now that that's settled!" Johnny declared. "Guess whose turn it is to make dinner!"
There was general groaning around the room at the thought of Johnny's cooking. Mike smiled to himself, glad the attention was off him. Now he just had one decision to make:
Who first?