CHAPTER 469: THE STRUGGLES OF A STRESSED ALPHA

Officer Deacon glanced between Maxwell and Andrew, before sliding his gaze towards Thomas. Then, he quietly closed his eyes and let out a small sigh.

"You were held captive by your ex and...experimented on? And you had no thought of calling the police?" Officer Deacon confirmed and Andrew nodded, feeling a little sheepish. When he said it like that...

"He had just been kidnapped. I didn’t encourage him trying to get normal justice, I was more worried about the fact that he had disappeared as a beta and came back to me as a true alpha. I focused on making sure he was okay." Maxwell spoke up, defending their choices. "I honestly wasn’t even sure if she was acting alone. Andrew took his sweet time letting me know that she hadn’t acted alone, plus she stole him from a cafe and no one noticed or cared. I wasn’t going to take any chances that the police were involved." Maxwell told him sternly, and Andrew shifted uncomfortably next to him.

Maxwell didn’t need to be so strong in his opinions right now. The man was just asking a question. It was his job.

"Besides," Thomas said, his voice quiet but drawing everyone in as he spoke, "my son-in-law is not only someone who changed from a beta to a true alpha, which most people would view in a positive light, he’s also half black. I didn’t encourage it either because I didn’t want to break Andrew’s heart if things went poorly because of the justice system. I encouraged Maxwell to gather a strong enough case before we took justice in our own hands at a later date. Hence why we are going so hard and heavy on his former company and the woman involved right now. We actually couldn’t move forward with some of our lawsuits because she had disappeared off of the face of the earth just a few weeks ago." Thomas told him.

Andrew felt even more uncomfortable, but Office Deacon took the complaints head on. He nodded, his expression dark. He glanced between the trio, before looking at the few people behind them, his people, and then back to Andrew specifically.

"I apologise. I can’t say with authority that at the time, a year ago, that your situation would be taken seriously. Every agency has its bias, even if we try to encourage other people to ignore it. While it is the police’s job to come into contact with all kinds of people and protect them, I won’t lie and say that there is bias against or towards true alphas." Andrew actually appreciated that Officer Deacon was apologising. It also seemed to calm the two Beckett’s as well.

"Thank you for saying that. It honestly didn’t even cross my mind. I was so worried about hurting others around me at the time that I didn’t consider it." Andrew also told him and Officer Deacon nodded.

"That’s a fair consideration. What matters now is that you are telling us and we have one of the potential perpetrators under surveillance until she gets her sanity back. Can I ask for some more details about what happened to you if it isn’t too hard to speak about?" Andrew realised the reason why Officer Deacon was so good at dealing with them at that moment.

Officer Deacon was probably so good at speaking and dealing with them because he was probably from the omega task force or something like that. Andrew had heard that the police had one, but he’d never had to deal with them. It would also explain why most of the team were either betas or mated alphas.

Andrew was a little stunned to realise this, but after the interactions he’d had with them, he was quite happy. Any omega who had to deal with the law and got Officer Deacon’s team would be in relatively good hands, Andrew felt.

"Of course. It will be difficult, but I need to speak about it more. I just can’t say her name. Maxwell gets upset when I do." Andrew told Officer Deacon, who seemed mildly surprised to hear that, but then he just gave a soft smile.

"Understood. You’ve already confirmed her name for me once at this point, we can just refer to her as the scientist from this point on if that is okay with everyone?" He offered and Andrew nodded in agreement.

"I think that’s fair." Andrew said and Officer Deacon nodded.

~

After that, Officer Deacon really got into the nitty gritty of the situation. He asked lots of questions, things that Andrew wasn’t necessarily comfortable answering, but he made sure to. There were a few that got Maxwell and Thomas a little worked up, but Andrew just comforted Maxwell and answered the questions as needed.

It took a lot longer than Andrew would have liked. At one point, Luis came over, phone to her ear, and let Andrew know that May and Ford were outside of the police barricade. Andrew had looked to Officer Deacon at that moment and the man had agreed easily to let them in.

The questions were interrupted for a few minutes as May and Ford came in and fussed over Andrew, both flustered and worried. Andrew, in his moment of making sure that he had gotten everything ready to deal with the Abraham family, had forgotten to let the Gates know what was going on.

That was okay, Luis, Kim and Maxwell had been making sure that May and Ford got a play by play, and May had also been to Noah’s place where Nicole’s fiancé was. She was acting as the go between everyone, since Jenny was at their side.

Everyone was doing okay, they knew that Nicole had been found, battered, but alive, and now she was at the hospital. That was when Andrew had remembered Michael and had panicked a bit.

Luis assured him that Michael was alive, he’d just gone with the first round of omegas back to the hospital. Andrew was relieved to know that. He felt like an asshole. He’d asked him to come and help him, and then he freaking forgot about it.

What a good friend he was.

After their brief moment of distraction and updates, Andrew went back to answering the questions Officer Deacon had before finally, the man said he had enough.

By that point the stench that was coming from the mansion was mostly gone, officers were still everywhere, and the mansion was being cordoned off from the general public.

Officer Deacon had a rather serious expression on his face. Everyone could tell that his father’s family was somehow involved in this kidnapping situation, but no one knew how deeply yet. Were they just funding it? Or was something even more sinister going on here?

Andrew hated to think about it, but three true alphas had manifested recently? From the Abraham family? That seemed like a rather improbable number, right?

Andrew shuddered, horrified by his own thoughts.

Officer Deacon told him that everyone was free to go. He knew how to contact them if he needed more information from them, and he would also keep them in the loop about what was going on. As someone who was intimately involved in the situation, Andrew had the right to most information gathered. He did ask that they cooperate with any of the research that they had already gathered for their own cases, and Andrew had looked to Maxwell and Thomas for that.

They said they would review what he’d asked and consult their lawyers when they asked. Officer Deacon had smiled and let out a soft chuckle at that, shook everyone’s hand, and then went back to his people.

It was time for Andrew to check in with everyone else and probably head to Noah. He needed to see how his other brother was doing.

~

Getting to Noah’s place wasn’t difficult. It was honestly not that far from the main house, but was in the opposite direction of Andrew and Maxwell’s home. Shortly after Officer Deacon had let them go, Andrew and Maxwell had gone hand in hand back to where the others had gathered.

Almost unspoken, everyone had brought up going to check up on Noah and Nicole’s fiancé. Partly because that was where Amir and Jenny were, and other part was because everyone wanted to be of help.

They also all wanted to get away from this fucked up place.

So, everyone got into their cars, May and Ford walking back out of the main gates and getting into their own car there, and they all headed off towards Noah’s place. Maxwell had been a little hesitant to let Andrew get behind the wheel to drive, but Andrew had been firm in his insistence on driving. He needed something to focus on, and honestly? While he was mostly okay, he was feeling rather possessive of the omega man.

He did not want him lifting a finger right now. He wanted to care for him in a physical and emotional sense. Andrew was doing a rather good job of resisting his urges right now because he had to, but he could tell that things would change once he got home. To their safe space.

The drive was nice. Maxwell put on some music to help both of them relax, neither of them talking about the horrors that Andrew had witnessed and Maxwell had heard about. The snow was pretty, not coming in thick sheets but floating gracefully from the sky. A nice covering now that they were leaving that nightmare home.

Andrew made sure the seat warmers were on for Maxwell. They had been standing in the cold for quite a while. He didn’t want his man to freeze. Andrew had briefly thought about stopping somewhere to get him something warm to drink, but also knew that the trail of cars behind him would be rather confused by it.

Andrew cursed his nature. He needed to be more concerned for Noah and Nicole’s fiancé right now. Maxwell was a fully grown man with two hands. He could get something warm if he needed it.

Andrew groaned at his own thoughts. He wouldn’t if he thought it would inconvenience the others. He knew that most.

It was a hard internal struggle, but a good distraction until Andrew got to Noah’s place.