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“Yeah. I wish I’d sped everything up, but I was afraid of getting caught and losing all my progress. I was still really weak at that point because they didn’t feed us enough, and I knew I had to replenish my magic before I could break us out of there. So I set up an invisibility spell, a few tripwire spells, and I cast an illusion on the door so no one would see me going in and out.”

“That must have used up a lot of magic too,” Bruiser pointed out.

Uriel shrugged. “Yeah. But without knowing where we were, or if there were other omegas I had to rescue, I had to be careful with everything. Turned out, there were a lot of other omegas. About thirty of us.”

“Fucking piss stains,” Bruiser snarled.

“Yeah. I had to steal food from the kitchen, for myself and Fenn. It was hard to get extra food to the other omegas because I couldn’t risk them telling the guards and scientists. I didn’t think they would trust me; I looked like an alpha by that point. Even Fenn—when he saw me at first, he almost screamed.” Uriel sagged.

Bruiser hugged him tightly.

“Fenn got over it quickly because he recognized my voice, but...” Uriel sighed and fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “Anyway, he promised to keep my secret. When he regained the strength to eat, he inhaled all the food I could give him. It was only then that I realized just how much food the rest of the omegas needed, but I couldn’t get it to them. The pantry had crap food for the omegas and good food for the scientists, but the meat for the scientists had to be cooked and portioned out, if I wanted to give it away. I couldn’t avoid the guards long enough to do that.”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you,” Bruiser said. “But Uriel, you said your cuffs were charmed. Was there anyone there who could sense your spells?”

Uriel flinched. “Yeah. They had a mage visiting sometimes, Xenowen. He was... a creep. He liked to touch my face and stare at me.”

Even now, the memory of Xenowen sent a chill down his spine.

Bruiser growled ferociously. “Did you kill him?”

“No. He wasn’t there when I broke everyone out.” Uriel cringed. “When I first unlocked my cuffs, I made sure to try and sense him. He wasn’t there. But I found the spells he’d left behind, and I avoided them as much as I could. Thankfully, he was away the entire time I was free.

“After a week, I regained enough of my magic and came up with a plan. Fenn took two more weeks before he could move around reliably. When that happened, I made us both invisible, and we went around taking out the guards and scientists. I knocked them out, Fenn zip-tied their wrists and ankles, and we put them on a big cargo dolly and dumped them out in the back. It took several trips to get them all there; some of them woke up. Fenn knocked them out again with a crowbar.

“When all of the alphas were secure, I removed the invisibility spells and we went to free the omegas. Fenn went into their cells first because he still looks like an omega. We uncuffed everyone and got them out as a group, then we showed them the alphas tied up in the back, and we let them hit the alphas with anything they could find.”

“Did you leave any of the alphas alive?”

“No.” Uriel flashed a quick smile, then it faded. “You could tell that some of the other omegas were tortured worse than I was. I had to make them swear blood oaths not to kill every alpha they met on the street.”

“Yeah, that would be bad,” Bruiser said quietly.

“We took everything valuable in that place and drove out. Those who had families were dropped off; the rest of us stuck together for a while, until we felt safe enough to head off on our own. We sold off the valuables for cash, and I hung around until everyone was more or less stable. That was three years ago.”

“What happened to Fenn?” Bruiser asked.

“He’s been... moving around. I don’t know. He’s been quiet lately.” Uriel frowned. “I’m a little worried about him.”

Bruiser frowned too. “Try contacting him again?”

“Yeah, I’ll have to.”

“Is Xenowen going to be an issue?”

“I try not to think about it,” Uriel said. “After I got out, I learned how to hide my magical trails. The spells that I’m hired to do—I weave some concealment magic into them. But with this whole kidnapping thing, sometimes there isn’t time for me to add the concealment spells. Sometimes I barely have enough time to throw up shields and attacks, and those leave bits of my magic behind. He might be able to track me with that.”

Bruiser growled.

Uriel shrugged. It was something he had to come to terms with, when he left his heavily-enchanted cabin to move to Cartfalls, to help his alpha friends with the baby-kidnapping problem.

“I’ll ask around,” Bruiser said. “See what I can find out.”

“Don’t put yourself in danger.”

“I’m sure as Hell not letting you put yourself in danger.” Bruiser slipped his hand down to Uriel’s belly, where—oh gods—where a baby might already be growing. “Hey, I know we’ve talked about weekly visits, but... If you ever want more security, my lair has some wards up. In case you need shelter.”

“Let me think about it,” Uriel said, his stomach flipping.