"Victor," a voice calls, rousing him from his thoughts."Ah f*ck," Victor's eyes pop open. He'd half fallen asleep in the tub, unaware that Ariadne'd come in."What? What's up?"Ariadne's cheeks are dusted with pink. She swallows audibly. "Do you mind if I join you?"Victor blinks slowly.There is a brief moment where the Alpha's convinced that he's traveled to a strange alternate universe where Ariadne would actually say some wild, twilight zone shit like that. "Huh?""Just f*cking say yes and don't you dare embarrass me. It already took me five minutes to convince myself to ask," Ariadne spits.That's more in line with the things that Ariadne would say.Victor's back to believing it's real."If you want," Victor manages, swallowing against the lump in his throat.The Omega averts her eyes, probably not wanting to return Victor's unabashed and lecherous gaze, as she strips off her cozy sweater and pants.T

Arthur is the picture of ease, draped across the couch, legs crossed at the shins.His face fills with wicked delight as he regards them both. The man's dark, boiling, grey eyes speak of untold misery."Get out of my house," Victor says, voice robotically even.Arthur feigns offense. "Is that how you treat your cousin, whom you haven't seen in ten years? How vile. How rude.-" He pauses for a moment for effect. "-How expected."Victor keeps sight of Ariadne from the corner of his eye.The Omega is frozen to the spot, fear still looming over her, but it's quickly fading, and something scarlet starts replacing it."What are you doing here?" Victor hisses."You've taken something of mine," Arthur says impassively. "So I've taken something of yours, that cute little Beta."Calvin?Victor exhales comes out shaky. The Alpha's nerves are dancing."You should sit," Arthur hums before turning to Ariadne for the first time.

Victor closes the door on what feels like the setting inside of a nightmare. The Alpha walks over to the guest room.He has vivid images of setting the room on fire to wipe away the evidence.Instead, he settles for scrapping the sheets. But he can't manage to continue, so he decides to occupy the other guest room, the one that's still clean, relatively speaking, so he can catch a few hours of rest.F*ckHe can't sleep, not even after a few capfuls of whiskey.His brain won't forget the images, permanently etched into his eyeballs with what feels like a very dull, rusty chisel.All alone in the darkness, a stifled cry fights its way out of his body.

Ariadne can't sleep. Her brain won't stop it with these random, chaotic blurbs. It keeps ticking onward, relentlessly to its own destruction.To maintain the sanity that she still has, she quietly counts the number of things that make life still worth living.And now, at the very top of the list, against all unfathomable million to one odds, rarer than a royal flush in poker, was Alpha Victor.Victor has become Ariadne's priority, even above herself. She knew it as soon as she saw the Alpha cry like that, all alone in the dark.Ariadne realized then that there was no escaping it anymore.The Omega had lived in prison, where the walls were thin and made of chalk, where everyone stayed away.It was necessary to survive and keep clinging to this side of the earth, where one could still see the sky.But then came Victor, who knocked, knocked, and knocked even when Ariadne ignored.Victor was persistent, unwavering, and when living

Ariadne's whole body flushes with heat.The way Victor talks about Edward, with complete faith. He sees Edward and her for their merits. He's the first Alpha that hasn't underestimated them.Once Dustin is gone, Victor turns to Ariadne, eyes going soft once again, his scent leveling out. "You okay?"Ariadne shakes her head ever so slightly, and Victor takes her hand. "Let's go for some fresh air, yeah?""Okay," Ariadne manages. She'd give anything right this moment to not appear so f*cking weak.Victor watches her, crimson eyes, so dark and heavy a gaze, leaving the other's skin tingling.Victor doesn't let go of her hand as they make their way outside.