Alpha Shield

Blossom - Abby

The visiting room at Sanctuary normally seemed large enough when Abby met alone with Selah, but with the addition of a furious Malcolm, the stranger who had followed him in a few minutes ago, adrenaline from the attack, and the aggressive pheromones made the room shrink to the size of her dorm.

The new black-haired, giant Alpha sucked all the air from the room. Or at least from Abby's lungs. His presence was intimidating enough even though he'd done nothing more than enter the room and take up a post next to the room's only exit. He'd leaned against the wall in what might fool most people into thinking he was lazy and relaxed.

Abby wasn't fooled. She could feel the tension roiling off of him like he was a volcano only one earthquake away from an eruption. His dark, smoky scent reached out to her, and she could almost taste the danger that emanated from him.

With his head tilted down, a locke of midnight hair fell in front of his eyes, and Abby's fingers itched to push it back to get a clear look at his face. What she could see should have sent her running in fear. She clenched her fingers into a fist to squash the urge to feel the texture against her skin.

What was wrong with her? She had no desire to ever be close to an Alpha again. Something about this Alpha called to her though. Called to something deep within her causing her to shift restlessly on the couch next to where Selah stood.

Turning her attention to Selah and Malcolm didn't ease her nerves because they were locked in a battle of wills over the coffee table in the middle of the room. Only the Alpha standing by the door blocked her exit, or she would have tried to escape both the tension rising between the mated couple. Trying to disappear into the cushions, she shifted to keep her eyes on the two biggest threats in the room.

The Alphas.

In her therapy both with Selah and the residential counselors, she'd learned that not all Alphas are overbearing monsters, but her hind-brain hadn't fully gotten that message yet.

Alphas weren't to be trusted.

She feared for her Omega friend when Malcolm's eyes seemed to glow with a burning silver, but Selah simply met his gaze with her own, crossed her arms to rest them on her bulging stomach, and sat, or rather flopped, down primly on the couch. When he growled at her, she calmly replied, "No."

Her answer earned another growl from Malcolm making the room vibrate, but he left her on the couch and moved to stand next to the end of the couch where he stood guard like an avenging angel of fury. She watched in amazement as Selah ignored the furious Alpha next her to turn back to her. At Abby's quick fearful glance at Malcolm, Selah waved towards the unknown Alpha in the doorway.

"I'm so glad Malcolm found you, Killian." Selah said, "As you can probably guess from the alarms and panicking Omegas, we have a bit of a situation."

Abby's eyes widened at the understatement from the supposedly delicate Omega sitting with her, and she jumped at the disbelieving huff that came from the direction of the Alpha who must be Killian. A growl from Malcolm completed the reaction to the gravid Omega's announcement. Abby wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh, cry or scream at the amount of Alpha pheromones filling the small room.

"Abby. This is Killian. He's an old friend of Malcolm's that we asked to watch out for you while you're here."

Selah's calm, serene tone hid the full message of her announcement, and Abby paused for a moment to process the words before answering, "Watch out for me? I- I don't... Why?" She finished weakly when she didn't really know how to finish the question.

Avoiding the hulking form of the gigantic Alpha looming by the door, Abby studiously kept her gaze on Selah's face.

"For the past several months, Malcolm and I have had this... feeling. Intuition? Instinct? I'm not really sure what to call it. Then in the past several weeks, there have been three notes that were discovered addressed to you. The security staff at Sanctuary intercepted them, and the Director turned them over to Malcolm and I."

"Notes? What kind of notes? I don't know anyone in the city..." her voice trailed off until she barely whispered, "Were they from... Tobias?" She couldn't help how her voice broke at the end of her question. Ice filled her veins, and her lungs tightened to a point where she could barely draw in any oxygen.

"No!" Selah exclaimed and Abby drew a fragment of strength from the confident tone in her friend's voice.

"No," Malcolm's gravelly voice echoed his mate. "Tobias is in solitary confinement. He has no contact with the outside world, and everything he comes into contact with is searched both before it reaches or leaves his cell."

He paused before he continued, "His execution is scheduled for next week."

Selah hissed in his direction. Abby's eyes darted to her normally calm therapist/friend at the anger in the sound.

"She doesn't want to know that!" Selah snarled at her mate. The angry noise turned to an unexpected oof of sound and Selah's hand went to her side, "Even the babies know that!"

"Knowing the world will be rid of that lunatic might be good for Blossom."

Like prey feeling the stare of a predator, Abby dropped her stare to the floor at the rumble of sound that came from the mysterious Alpha. From Killian. Slowly, without shifting any part of her body except her eyes, Abby trailed her gaze across the patterned, industrial style carpet towards the room's only door. When she found his booted feet, she expected to have to drift her gaze up a long way to find his face, but a shiver of surprise rippled through her when she discovered that he'd knelt down. Squatting down with one his elbows resting on one knee with the other slightly lower, she didn't have a chance to escape the hot glow of his blue eyes.

Swallowing, trying to get moisture to her suddenly dry mouth, Abby forgot what she'd been trying to say as she fell into the depths of his eyes.

She forgot to breathe.

She forgot her name.

All she could feel was the hot spike of awareness that shivered through her body.

"Selah!" Malcolm's shocked tone pulled her back to herself, and she turned her gaze back to find Selah looking at her Alpha with a saccharine sweet look that wouldn't have fooled anyone.

"You disagree? If they had waited just a few more minutes to pull Telia off of him, we'd be spared his trial and his execution." Selah brushed imaginary lint off her lap, and Abby marveled at the look she directed towards her mate from under her eyelashes.

Malcolm looked incredulous as he looked down at his heavily pregnant, therapist Omega. Abby found herself shifting in her seat when his looked morphed from disbelief to a heated simmer. His lips quirked up dangerously, and Abby glanced at Selah in time to see a matching little smirk on her friend's lips.

The heat in the room making her a trifle uneasy, Abby twisted on the sofa so that her knees shifted away from Selah to bump on the coffee table in front of her. Checking out the details on the table like it held the secrets of the universe, she started when Selah's hand brushed her knee.

"Sorry, Abby," her friend whispered softly to her, "I'm blaming everything on hormones. Killian, you were saying?"

"She's tough. Knowing that asshole is about to be put down will make her feel safer." Killian rumbled.

Abby decided this was shock-Abby night. First, she discovered someone had been threatening her. Secondly, Selah, her normally mild-mannered friend turned therapist, advocated for vigilante-style justice. Finally, an Alpha who looked like he could take on the world, thought that she - Abby Parmador - was tough.

She didn't realize she'd been staring at Killian with her mouth open until a low laugh from Selah preceded her friend's voice next to her ear, "See something you like?"

Snapping her head around to meet her friend's laughing eyes, Abby decided she looked as shocked as she felt.

"Sorry! Sorry! These hormones..." Selah waved one hand at her with a giggle and the other hand on her bulging stomach.

Abby might be more inclined to believe her if Selah's eyes weren't dancing devilishly.

And she hadn't forgotten that Killian had called her Blossom.