Chapter 2 - Kidnapping Makes A Bad Day Better
KIDNAPPING MAKES A BAD DAY BETTER
Tension buzzed in the emergency room. Under the hum of machines and voices, Doc heard the uneven flutter of the patient’s pulse.
It wasn’t looking good. Already, they had shocked the patient twice, pushing epinephrine into the IV and administering chest compressions.
The patient’s family was out there, murmuring to each other and clutching their hands.
He had to try again.
He watched the heart monitor along with his staff, all of them tense.
When the patient’s heart went into a shockable rhythm, Doc said, “Patient is in V-fib. We’ll defibrillate immediately.”
The room burst into motion.
“Charging,” Doc said, the paddles humming in his gloved hands. “Clear!”
He pressed the paddles down, shocks landing. The patient twitched.
“Resume CPR,” Doc said. “Push epinephrine.”
A junior doctor stepped in to do the chest compressions. It went on for two minutes, then the doctor stepped back and all of them watched the heart monitor. Doc’s pulse thumped. These moments when no one knew for sure what the outcome would be—they filled him with adrenaline and wariness.
Finally, the patient’s pulse evened out. Palpable relief filled the room.
Doc exhaled. “Good work, team.”
Smiles all around. Doc stopped at the workstation to type up a quick report. Then he went to the waiting room where the patient’s family was huddled together, their faces drawn with worry.
“Mr. William’s family? Great news. He’s stabilized; we’ll be moving him to the ICU for further observation.”
William’s parents came over to shake his hand. An omega burst into tears, sobbing helplessly. A gold ring glinted on his finger.
“Thank you,” the omega said. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if he had...”
“We’ll continue to care for him as best as we can,” Doc said, his heart twinging.
Not all of his ER cases resulted in such strong emotions. Most people were happy to leave with stitches or medication. But when it came to the life-threatening emergencies, Doc was always struck hardest by the patients who had a bondmate waiting anxiously for some news.
What was it like, having an omega who cared for him to the point of tears?
His gut ached with emptiness.
Through the rest of his shift, Doc saw several more patients, trying his best to solve their problems. The lower half of his face itched behind his masks; he couldn’t wait to get home so he could take them off.
Experience had taught him to keep the masks on so he wouldn’t scare people away. When he removed them, children cried. Omegas would look at him in sympathy. It had been so long since he’d left his lair without them, that he felt naked whenever his face was uncovered.
But... What if he had an omega who never saw his face?
Or an omega who had to stick around no matter what he looked like?
That’s not right, Doc told himself.
But as he clocked off and made his way home, he began to entertain the fantasy. One of those secret daydreams he could indulge in without anyone getting hurt.
What if he stole an omega who had no choice but to be in his hoard?
What if he stayed in his dragon form, and the omega fell in love with him that way?
He got home in a daze, heading for the shower to scrub off his sweat and hospital stink.
Hijinks was in his bedroom when Doc stepped out.
Doc jerked and scowled, cursing himself for not noticing the shapeshifter earlier. “I told you not to do that.”
Hijinks snickered. “You didn’t even notice me on your way in. Fantasizing?”
Doc hesitated. “I was thinking about an idea that... should never come to fruition.”
“Hit me with it.”
“Kidnap.”
Hijinks’ eyebrows jumped. “Oh? You want to kidnap someone?”
Doc hated that his butler could read him so easily. “No! I was just... considering the ramifications.”
Hijinks didn’t even look the least bit surprised. Or judgmental. Then again, this was why Doc had hired him. “So do it. Do the kidnap.”
“I will not. Do you hear what you’re saying?” Doc hissed.
“Obviously.” Hijinks rolled his eyes. “Shall I repeat myself?”
“Ace and the rest and I—We’ve put people in jail for kidnap.”
“You don’t have to do it permanently,” Hijinks pointed out. “And if you make it a catch-and-release without showing them your face, if you never let them know the location you hold them in, they wouldn’t know where to lead the police to.”
Doc buried his face in his hands, horrified. “Do you even hear what you’re saying?”
“Yes!” Hijinks said cheerily.
“Gods,” Doc groaned. “You want to turn me into a criminal.”
“Good doctor by day, bad doctor by night.” Hijinks cackled.
“I’m not kidnapping anyone!”
“Even if it’s consensual?”
Doc squinted. “What?”
Hijinks made an impatient noise. “You know, get them to agree to the kidnapping.”
“Then it’s no longer a kidnap.”
“But you can pretend! Roleplay! You could even draw up a kidnap contract!”
“What the fuck,” Doc said. “That completely defeats the purpose of a kidnapping. I don’t want them to leave. Or at least, I don’t think I do. But... Damn it. But that’s just wrong.”
Hijinks watched him for a moment too long, like he was looking right into the scarred-up bits of Doc’s soul. “Get out there, bring a contract with you. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find someone who wants to be kidnapped.”
“That’s insane.”
“So is wanting to kidnap someone.”
Doc sighed.
“Tell you what, I’ll prepare a contract for you,” Hijinks said. “One sheet of paper. It shouldn’t be too difficult to carry around.”
“You’re insane.”
Hijinks flapped his hand and pranced out of Doc’s bedroom. “You already knew that. brB. Contract in ten.”
Doc stared after him, bewildered. He got dressed and headed downstairs, where he found Hijinks in the office printing out a sheet of paper. Hijinks folded it into quarters and clipped it shut with a clicky pen.
He shoved the bundle into Doc’s hand. “Shoo! Get out there, kidnap an omega.”
Doc winced. “You weren’t supposed to know that. About the omega.”
Hijinks rolled his eyes. “Your friends are all matching up with omegas and playing Happy Families. Obviously you want someone to snuggle with. And breed.”
Doc touched the lower half of his face.
Hijinks sighed. “Try it one more time. If it fails, you can blame it on me.”
“Fine.” Doc gathered himself. Then he shrugged off his clothes and walked out the front door, reaching inward for the spark of flame.
The shift was as natural as breathing. The flames spread through his body; his face lengthened into a snout and wings sprouted from his back, his body growing in size.
He checked that the folded contract was still in his paw.
Then he took off into the sky, smiling a little when Hijinks cheered after him.
“Ho ho ho,” the butler said right before he fell out of earshot. “That last line was genius.”
Doc frowned as the buildings grew smaller beneath him.
What last line?
Doc’s mansion was located on the outskirts of Cartfalls. Because dragon hunters still existed, albeit in smaller numbers these days, it was safer for him to avoid light sources in his dragon shape.
He flew high above the city, scanning the streets below. Nah. Too risky to land in full view of the night crowd. Instead, Doc followed the highway.
Titan’s bakery sat between Cartfalls and the nearest small town, with some homes clustered around Twin Buns and its neighboring shops. Beyond that was a stretch of pack territory, then Washerville.
He wouldn’t find any lost, wandering souls on pack territory. But perhaps there might be someone in Washerville?
Doc flew slowly above the moonlit trees, listening to the wolves howling. The forest stretched for miles around him.
Then he found a dark speck on the highway. A person?
Doc blinked. The speck was still there. It had two stick-like legs carrying it along the road.
He flew closer and squinted. The speck seemed to be a tiny man with a limp, hurrying along. Whenever a car rumbled, the man scurried off the asphalt and ducked into the trees.
Huh. Was he an omega? He sure looked like one.
Bring him home, Doc’s instincts said.
The beast in his heart roared.
He couldn’t approach slowly; the man might hear his wings and dive into the forest. Doc wasn’t agile enough in his dragon shape to chase the man in there. And he sure as hell wasn’t chasing him down as a naked man.
So Doc took the other approach. He beat his wings harder, tipping into a dive.
The omega went still and stopped walking.
Doc saw him consider running.
He plummeted toward the omega. At the last moment, he twisted himself around and threw out his wings, beating them hard to slow his fall.
His feet hit the asphalt. It was a perfect landing. Doc spread his wings to display the majesty of his dragon shape.
The omega squawked.
“Hello,” Doc said. “I’m going to steal you for my hoard.”
Instead of saying hello, the omega leaped back and whipped out a tiny white square, raising it like a shield between them.
It looked like a spell sheet.
Fuck!
Doc leaped back too, yelping when a stream of fire billowed out of the white square.
“Don’t hex me!” he said. The fire wouldn’t hurt him. But it was eating into the kidnap contract in his paw. He hurriedly smacked out the flames.
When the contract was no longer burning, Doc exhaled, looking up at the omega.
He was beautiful. He had large, dark eyes, pale skin, and full lips. His brown hair was windswept, his clothes hanging loosely off his skinny frame. He definitely needed more meat on him. And he looked exhausted, with dark shadows under his eyes.
In his dragon shape, Doc towered over the man; he was half Doc’s height.
“That’s the strangest kidnapping attempt I’ve ever heard of,” the omega said, his forehead wrinkling. “You didn’t just grab me and fly off.”
Doc puffed out his chest indignantly. “Only brutes do that. I have come with a kidnap contract.”
He held out the folded sheet, pen thankfully still intact.
“A... A kidnap contract?” The omega looked incredulous. But he gingerly accepted the contract and unfolded it. “Huh.”
Doc tried to be patient while he read it under the silvery moonlight. Hijinks had made the words large so reading was easier.
The omega suddenly scrunched up his face. “Wow, this last line.”
Last line?
Oh no.
“What last line?” Doc asked with a sinking feeling.
Dark eyes flicked up at him in question.
Then the omega read aloud, “‘Your voice is sweet like a songbird. It drives me to commit crime. But not just any crime. You make me spew my love juices nonstop wherever I go, covering the world in a widespread, fertile puddle of white. I will fill the courthouses and police stations with my holy juices. Everything will be blessed, including you.’”
“Holy fuck.” Doc stared at him in horror. Then he buried his face in his paws. “I should’ve proofread that thing after Hijinks handed it to me.”
The omega’s incredulity grew. “You didn’t write this?”
“No, my butler did,” Doc said into his paws.
The omega snorted. “Does your butler happen to be a Butler Brother?”
“How did you—” Doc whipped his head up, his eyes growing wide. “Fuck. You can’t tell anyone I’m doing this.”
The omega was smiling now. He shook the contract. “Is this a pickup line from 699 Pickup Lines?”
699 Pickup Lines For Your Wriggly Heart Muffin, the book Hijinks was obsessed about.
“Why does my life suck?” Doc groaned. “I’m an alpha dragon. I’m in control. I’m here to steal an omega for my hoard. One errant pickup line will not set me back. So... Is that a yes or no on the kidnapping?”
The omega opened his mouth. Then he jerked his head, glancing further up the highway. “Car.”
“Fuck. We’re out of time. I apologize in advance.”
Doc swept the omega off his feet, taking off into the sky.