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Silas stamped the slushy snow off his boots as he stepped into the diner, peeling off his jacket and heading towards the hostess stand at the front. It was so early that it was still late and the diner was quiet aside from a low, mechanical hum echoing from the combination of the central heating and the various kitchen appliances. The waitress, an older beta woman who’d clearly been reading a novel before Silas walked in, closed her book and grabbed a menu.
“Morning, sit wherever you’d like – you want some coffee, sugar?” she set the menu and a napkin wrapped bundle of silverware down on the table Silas chose, and Silas nodded, sliding into the booth and setting his jacket on bench next to him. He browsed the menu and by the time the waitress returned with his coffee, he’d made his choices, and ordered the breakfast platter with over medium eggs and hash browns. He sipped on his coffee, checking the weather radar on his phone, and grimaced. He’d been right to set his alarm so early – it was a ways off still, but the storm brewing was definitely going to sweep through and dump a truly absurd amount of snow down, and he wasn’t interested in getting stuck in that mess. He finished his food economically and stood, leaving cash on the table and heading towards the bathroom, his mind on how the earlier departure time would affect when and where he was hitting traffic later on in the day.
As he passed the last booth tucked in the back of the diner, he realized with some surprise that he wasn’t the only customer there – a slight young man was curled into the very last booth, nearest the hallway leading to both the bathrooms and the rear exit. He had a mug of coffee in his hands and a half-eaten slice of pie sitting on a plate in front of him, and shrugged himself a little deeper into his hoodie as Silas passed. Silas didn’t pay him much mind beyond the initial surprise that someone was even there, but as he washed up his brain kept snagging on something, some niggling thought that just wouldn’t let go. It wasn’t until he was rinsing his mouth out from brushing his teeth that he finally caught up with what his hindbrain had been trying to tell him – the young man’s scent was familiar. Very familiar. Silas snorted as he dried off his toothbrush and slipped it back into the plastic bag it lived in – how had this kid even gotten his hands on that specific brand of scent neutralizers anyway? But of course, now that he was thinking about it, the scent that had wafted off the kid when he’d passed was definitely the specific blend of slightly sharp unremarkableness that, as far as Silas knew, only came from the old broad-spectrum pan-designation scent neutralizers the army used to hand out like candy back when he was in the service. They worked, worked well, to neutralize any scent profile no matter what designation, but while they neutralized they definitely didn’t eliminate scent and for people who knew what they were smelling they were almost a beacon shining the words “I’ve got something to hide!” in bright, bold letters. There were commercial, civilian scent patches that muted or adjusted scent profiles, some good enough to be practically undetectable when used correctly, and Silas knew the military had switched over to a different blocker formulation sometime in the last decade that effectively removed scent entirely, easier to either pass without scent at all or to layer a false scent over, so wherever this kid had gotten his blockers it definitely wasn’t any of the usual ways.
Silas sighed, debating with himself. It wasn’t his business, he had a schedule to keep, he didn’t really have time this morning for delays – but it wasn’t explicitly not his business, either. And Silas knew that whatever reasons this kid had to be hiding in the back corner of a diner attached to a truck stop at three in the morning, wearing scent blockers gotten second-hand at best, there’s probably trouble attached to them – but, again, it’s not like Silas hadn’t walked into his share of trouble in the past. And Silas may not be an evil bastard, like some of the alphas he knows, but it’s not like he’s a saint either. And… Silas groans, swipes a hand over his face, and shakes his head. He knows himself well enough to know he’s already talked himself into this and is just stalling at this point, and he doesn’t have time for that, not if he wants to be comfortably ahead of the storm rolling in. He shook his head at himself, headed back out into the diner, and slid into the booth, on the bench on the other side of the table from the kid.
The kid had twitched, his movement almost but not quite a flinch, when Silas sat down, and pulled himself more upright, out of the curl he’d sunk into in the corner of the booth. Silas studied him in silence for a moment, assessing him. Short brown curls peeked out from under his hood, and Silas could tell that the hoodie was several sizes too large for the body underneath it. Lightly tan skin, liberally spattered with freckles, framed deep brown eyes which were currently assessing Silas in turn and, if Silas was any judge, also doing a bad job of hiding a fairly high level of anxiety. Delicate fingers poked out of the ends of the hoodie, with nails that looked a little ragged but were neither bitten to the quick nor dirty. The neutralizer scent still wafted off him, and while Silas couldn’t tell his designation by scent, he would have been shocked if the kid wasn’t an omega – no alpha or beta who looked like this would have been neutralizing their scent in public, especially not one so young and still likely to be in that insecure stage young alphas and betas often went through regarding their places in the world. Silas could tell his silence was unnerving the kid, but he gave the kid props – after it became clear that Silas wasn’t going to speak first, he didn’t stutter or stumble when he spoke.
“Can I help you?” The kid’s voice was a strong tenor, deeper than was fashionable for an omega, and Silas could hear the crackle of puberty behind it.
Silas smiled. “Maybe. Or maybe I can help you. Now, what’s a pretty little thing like you doing here, so early in the morning and smelling like neutralizers that I know you didn’t get from a pharmacy?”
The kid’s eyes widened and he shifted in his seat like he was considering his odds of getting past Silas and out the back door if he ran for it. Clearly deciding it wasn’t worth it, he replied, tensely, “I’m just waiting on someone, that’s all.”
Silas nodded. “Uh huh, and when’s this someone supposed to meet you, hum?”
“Soon, uh, he’ll be here any minute now,” the kid said, and Silas chuckled, leaning back against the wall.
“Well, I’ll wait with you then – I’d feel too guilty if I read a headline that something happened to you after I left for me to not worry about leaving you here alone.”
“I’d really rather you didn’t,” the kid said, face going pale. “I, uh, I mean, he probably wouldn’t be happy to find you sitting here, and I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way or anything, really, I’m fine.”
Silas shifted forward, steepling his hands on the table in front of him. “Kid, we both know that any alpha that’s left you alone to wait for him at a truck stop diner isn’t going to give a shit about me sitting here so long as I’m not actively trying to bend you over this table when he gets back,” he said, and the kid flinched. “But look, see, I’m not trying to do that, so there’s nothing to worry about, yeah?”
The kid pursed his lips, tensing even more, then sighed, “Fine. I’m actually waiting for the six o’clock bus, ok? And really, I’m fine, Velma’s keeping an eye on me and if anyone tries anything I can shout and the cook will come out, so I’m not all by myself.” He paused for breath, but hurried on before Silas could say anything. “Sorry I lied, I just – “
Silas cut him off with a wave of his hand. “It’s not a big deal, kid. I’m a strange alpha, getting all up in your space, we both know that the best way to get some punk kid alpha to go away is the threat of another one showing up soon, so I’m not surprised you tried it.” The kid seemed to unclench a little at that, and Silas went on, “I do have to be the bearer of bad news, though – it’s pretty likely the six o’clock bus isn’t going to make it here, or if it does it’s not going to make it any further. There’s a nasty storm rolling in, gonna dump several feet of snow down before it’s through. Nobody’s going to be getting through any of the passes for at least a week, maybe more, once it hits.”
“What? You’re - !” the kid cut himself off, then resumed, tone urgent, “Do you have a phone? May I look at the weather report please?”
Silas unlocked his phone and handed it over, and the kid navigated through his browser to first one weather station website, then a second, his face looking paler and more worried by the moment. After checking three more different sources, as though maybe one might show that the others were terribly wrong, he handed the phone silently back to Silas, clearly attempting to keep from panicking but, if Silas gauged it right, slowly but surely failing on that front.
“Hey, kid? What’cha running from, hum?” Silas asked, and then, at the horrified look on the kid’s face and the beginning of frantic denial coming out of his mouth, shook his head. “Nah, don’t give me that – I figured you were running as soon as I smelled those blockers, and it’s pretty obvious that the idea of getting trapped on this side of the mountains has you just about to fly to pieces.”
The kid looked like he was about to cry, but slumped down on the table, hiding his face, and let out a shaky breath. “Fuck. You’re… not wrong, that I’m running. But it doesn’t matter now, there’s no way for me to sneak back into the house without them catching me, and if I can’t get out of town they’ll catch me even if I don’t go home, and either way they’ll never let me out of their sight long enough to try it again, so it’s not like it’ll matter if I tell you. They’ve got an alpha arranged for my first heat, and I hate him, and even if I didn’t I still don’t want to get bitten on my first heat, but my alpha dad is super conservative and doesn’t believe in bond breaking and he also doesn’t care that I hate Tr- the guy, heck, maybe that’s a bonus for him, I’d believe it.”
Silas nodded along, even though the kid couldn’t see it. Not an uncommon or unexpected scenario, and Silas was half expecting to hear something like that and half expecting to hear that the kid was already bonded and trying to get distance enough to let the bond break naturally. Honestly, this just made it easier for him – no bond meant no claim from another alpha, and once his first heat passed it technically meant his alpha father didn’t have a full claim on him either, though in practice things were often a different story. But possession is nine tenths of the law, and if the kid got through his first heat and had somewhere else to stay, and said he didn’t want to go back if he was questioned, well…nobody was going to make him go as long as there was some kind of alpha to look after him.
The kid was clearly doing his best not to cry, but Silas could smell the salty tang of tears and hear the quiet, half-hitching sobs coming from the kid’s mouth, even pressed into his arm against the table. He let the silence stand for a second, then spoke.
“Hey kid, look up for a second?"
The kid tilted his head up, wiping his red rimmed eyes with his sleeve. “What? Gonna tell me I ought to go home, that my dad knows best?”
Siles shook his head, his mouth twisting up. “Nah, forcing a first heat bond, that’s more than a little bit fucked up. Listen, I gotta get on the road if I want to beat this storm, but if you want, you can come with me. But, know that I’m not just doing this out of the goodness of my heart, even though I think a first heat bond is fucked up, though that does contribute. I don’t have an omega, and it gets lonely on the road. I’ll get you a bite collar, and you’ll set the combination, and I wouldn’t bite you anyway but that way you’ll feel more secure about it, and I’ll feed you and take you on with me on my route. You can tell me to drop you off wherever, and I’ll let you go, but when you’re with me I’m gonna expect you to be my omega, be obedient and available, understood?”
The kid nodded slowly, obviously thinking. “I don’t trust you,” he said first, but followed it up with, “but I really, really hate Tr – the guy who’s supposed to bite me, so even if you’re lying about everything at least it won’t be him. So sure, yeah, I’ll go with you.” He paused, then added, “Thank you.”
Silas smirked and slid out from the booth, holding out a hand to the kid. “Alright, then, let’s hit the road.”
The kid took his hand and slid out of the seat, stretching as he stood up. Silas gestured to the back door and the kid walked ahead of him, out into the icy early morning. They reached Silas’s truck and he stepped up and unlocked the cab, then reached down and gave the kid a hand up into the truck. As the kid settled into the passenger seat, Silas started his pre-driving checklist and then started things up, and soon enough they had pulled out onto the highway.
“Alright kid, we’re gonna be rolling pretty hard this morning to beat the snow, so you can feel free to get some more sleep. But first, one thing – what’s your name?”
“Bryce,” the omega said, and Silas smiled.