Alpha, Delta (8 page)

Forseti had died dramatically and horribly and its death throes had very nearly taken him and others with it.

A nurse came in to check his vitals and he grabbed the chance of talking. He asked the same question that he’d done every single God-damned time he’d spoken to anyone.

“The team that got us off of the platform, are they here?”

The nurse, still smiling, shook her head. “Sorry, this is my first shift this week, I don’t know of another team in the hospital.”

“ERU,” Niall persisted. “The Deltas.”

The Nurse frowned briefly, then resumed her smiling, this time with raised eyebrows. “Oh, I think I’d notice a Delta in the place,” she joked. “And no, there aren’t any. But you do have a friend who is waiting to visit.”

Ewan was back again. This time Niall hoped he’d bought his son with him so Niall could at least see the new baby.

The nurse leaned over to add details to his chart then adjust the drip into his non-splinted arm. They’d had to operate on the bones, knitting them and holding them in place with a metal plate and it fucking hurt today.

“Although,” she added thoughtfully, “the guy out there is very rugged and sexy, could easily be a Delta.” She left and all of a sudden Niall had hope inside him. Ewan was a good-looking guy, as brothers go, but no one had ever described him as sexy or rugged. To be fair though, not that anyone would to Niall. Was it possible that Finn was here?

The moment they’d shared on the stairs, just before Niall lost his last connection to consciousness had been intense. But that had been three days ago now. Three. And Finn had said he loved him, but where was he now? If Finn really loved Niall then shouldn’t he be here or something?

The door opened a little, then more fully and Niall’s breath hitched in his chest. Finn. His lover looked tired. No, beyond tired—exhausted. He wasn’t shaved, his hair a mess of spikes, and he looked uncertain, wary to step in the room.

“Finn,” Niall said with more than a little excitement in his voice.

“Hey,” was all Finn said.

Niall wriggled a little to sit more upright, sickness washing over him at the pain in his arm. Finn immediately crossed to him, placing a hand on his chest. “Don’t move,” he said, concerned.

Niall couldn’t concentrate on not moving. “Where have you been?”

Finn shrugged then glanced behind him at the closed door. “Tidying up loose ends with Svein,” he explained. Niall imagined that was all he was going to get out of Finn, secrets and all that mess associated with hijackings and hostage situations. Then to Niall’s amazement Finn continued. “Svein had been tracking you,” he admitted. “Had a whole wall of crazy in this place outside of Oslo. Saw a connection between the two of us.”

Niall considered the words. He could sense what Finn was doing. All that heroic shit where he kept himself out of Niall’s life in order to keep Niall safe.

“Don’t do that,” Niall snapped the conclusion of his internal thought process.

“What?” Finn looked confused.

“Start all that shit about how we’re better apart.”

Finn looked down at Niall. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re going to give that whole speech about how we’re better apart just so I don’t get targeted by a mad man intent on killing a Delta.”

Niall watched as realisation passed over Finn’s face. Then Finn chuckled. “I wasn’t going to say that at all. Hell, he wasn’t after you, he was using you to get to me, different scenario.”

“So what do you want to say?” Niall couldn’t help the suspicion in his voice. He was used to the fact that this whole relationship was a temporary thing, had even come to terms with it in his head.

Finn moved to sit on the bed next to Niall, and somehow in that curiously graceful way he had about him for such a big guy, he was in a position to cradle Finn in his arms. Finn sunk into the strong hold and attempted to relax.

“My place has two rooms,” he said. “You could move in with me and have the second bedroom as an office. I’d move in with you but I need to be near HQ in Oslo.”

Niall said nothing, the words sinking in slowly. “What?” he finally asked.

“Will you move in with me?”

“In with you?”

“Yes, in with me,” Finn chuckled as he repeated the words. “I love you, Niall Faulkner, and I’m done with this self-sacrificing bullshit that has me fucking and leaving. I want forever with you. You up for it? I’m not much, my time is up with ERU in ten months or so and I’m back in London, and you’ll just be dating a cop again. And i—”

“Shut up and kiss me,” Niall ordered.

So he did. And Niall enjoyed it so much that he even forgot he was in pain.

Well…very nearly anyway.

Forsetti was a mess.

Three weeks on the platform and Niall was a mess as well. Not only was it one of the hardest things he had to do, going back to where he’d nearly died, but he missed Finn. And that was just ridiculous. The very nature of who they were would mean they’d spend time apart, weeks, months even, but this was all so new, and there was no way Finn would be missing him. He’d be busy, focused on the important work he did.

“You okay?” Ewan had asked that a lot over the last three weeks, and was still asking it now as the Puma landed back at base. So far Niall had managed to gloss over how he was feeling, but with his feet on solid ground he felt like maybe now was a good time to clear the air and get his worries out there. His brother was a good listener and maybe all he needed was for Ewan to tell him everything was going to be okay, and that relationships like the kind he and Finn had could work.

“I miss Finn.”

“Yeah, I know. I miss my family as well.”

Finn wasn’t family. Not officially, but the way Ewan casually implied Finn was family to Niall was a nice thing. They entered the station and Niall offloaded his case and laptop onto the first table they came to.

“How do you do it? How do you deal with time apart?” Niall immediately asked.

Ewan crossed to the coffee maker and poured two mugs, exchanging insults with the security team who had shadowed them on Forsetti. Real security guys this time, not gun toting terrorists with hidden agendas. Seemed like Niall would have to wait for his answer until caffeine was consumed. Ewan began talking as soon as he was back at the table.

“It’s exciting, you know, I get home and I see Mel and it’s like we’re newlyweds again. Although she’s had Adam on her own and probably needs more of the baby care help than the hot monkey sex.”

Niall frowned. “I don’t want to hear details about what you do with Mel.”

Ewan poked him. “Well I’m not a virgin, you know, I’m a married man.”

“I just… I’m not sure Finn will be missing me as much as I miss him, okay? He’s probably out there saving the world and not giving one ounce of thought to the idiot who nearly died on his watch.”

“I thought he said he loved you.” Ewan looked puzzled, then his expression brightened. “I think you need to go now.”

Niall picked up his coffee and sipped at it tentatively. “After debrief and coffee,” he answered.

“No, I’ll cover debrief. I promise you really need to go.” He nodded to indicate something behind Niall and it made him turn. To see Finn standing just inside the door in his heavy coat. Something inside Niall snapped into place and in seconds he crossed to where Finn stood and pulled him into a hug.

“Glad you made it back okay,” Finn said into his ear.

Niall made a split second decision and returned to scoop up his laptop and case. “Tell them I’ll debrief tomorrow,” he said to Ewan. “We’ll do it together. Go home to Mel.” Then he turned on his heel and followed Finn outside. He wanted to kiss his lover, to hold him so close and never let him go, but he didn’t, because if he started he wouldn’t stop.

“Where to?” Finn asked cautiously. He looked uncertain, his eyes wary.

“Anywhere warm.” As if to underscore that the wind blustered around them, and with it came the hint of icy rain. Finn tugged Niall towards a car and they drove in silence away from the station. They turned off the main road and pulled up outside the cluster of apartment buildings where Finn had a room. Niall had been here before once and it was a nice room right in the middle of a group of them used by the rest of the Deltas when they were on site. Finn killed the engine before turning to face Niall, seemed like he wanted to talk but didn’t quite know what to say.

“Did it go okay? On Forsetti?” he finally asked.

Niall nodded. “We managed to get a workable plan to salvage.” He didn’t want to be talking about work. He wanted to talk about him and Finn and the future. “Look, before we… go inside and do… whatever…”

“Are you okay?” Finn asked with a cautious tone.

“No.” Niall didn’t mean that to come out quite so forcefully and wished he could take it back when his big-bad-Delta flinched.

“Niall—“

“I have to say something, and what I say may make you run for the hills, but I’ll understand, okay? I mean, I get you’re this super cop who lives for the danger and keeping us all safe, and I know we connected, but when I tell you this you might not want to do that… in there.” Niall failed miserably at explaining one single thing in any form of coherent fashion.

“Niall, what’s wrong?”

“I missed you, okay? I thought about you every minute of the freaking day, and I need to know whether you did too.”

“Whether I did what? Missed you?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s important to you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Jeez, don’t be. Because I thought about you every minute I could. When I was on downtime, when we were in Oslo, when I wasn’t busy fake killing everyone on training.” Finn reached out and cupped Niall’s chin. “I love you. You’re the other half of me and I hope to hell that is what you need to hear, because I don’t have the words like you do.”

 “And we
can
make this work.” Niall wasn’t questioning, he was making a statement of fact.

“I thought it was working already. Let’s finish this inside.”

They made it halfway up the stairs before Finn stole a kiss, which led to more kissing, which led to them fumbling for the key when they got to the small apartment, so much so that Finn couldn’t get the door open and Niall had to help him. With the door open they finally stumbled into the room, Finn pushing the door shut and pressing Niall up against the wood.

In seconds they were undressing each other—coats, sweaters, pants, socks, boots, everything flying from them—and Niall kissed every inch that Finn uncovered on his muscled body. This was so right, this was fire and passion and Niall craved Finn with an intensity that burned in him.

Somehow they tripped their way to the large bed and tumbled back in a tangle of arms and legs to the mattress. Niall whimpered in his throat as Finn pushed and shoved him up the bed before covering him with his body and sighing into their kisses.

“Here is where we belong.”

“In bed?”

“Together.” Niall answered. “So we’ll be apart sometimes, and we’ll miss each other, but we’ll always be in love, and we’ll make so many memories that you won't have space in your head for there to be any doubts.”

Niall arched up into Finn and gripped hard to his lover’s forearms. “Can we start now?”

Finn deepened the kisses, shifting and pulling until they were in just the right position, an arm’s length from the cabinet next to the bed. Finn reached over and located lube and condoms and Niall relaxed against the mattress, Finn would take care of him. They kissed as Finn stretched and prepared, and the kissing was endless, only interspersed with soft spoken words of love.

“Now,” Niall said, “Please.”

Finn pressed inside, so slowly, all the time kissing, and groaned as he moved. Finn stopped when he was inside, and for the longest time they rocked gently until Niall couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Finn…”

Finn pulled out a little, then pushed back in, staring down at Niall, complete concentration on his face. Niall loved that about him, how he took this all so seriously. Then he didn’t have time for thought at all as Finn moved faster, setting a pace that robbed Niall of breath.

“So close, touch yourself,” Finn pleaded. Niall gripped his hard cock and tried to set a rhythm but it was too much, Finn pegging his prostate with a punishing accuracy. Niall closed his eyes as his senses went into overload. He gripped his cock with one hand, Finn’s bicep with another, and groaned his release as he lost it between them.

“Open your eyes, Niall, please.”

Niall opened his eyes and that seemed to be what pushed Finn over the edge as with a cry of completion he was coming hard. He rested on Niall, still inside him and just a little to the side, supporting his weight on his arm.

“God, I missed you,” he admitted again. “Don’t ever think I don’t.”

Niall could never tire of hearing the words. He hadn’t been expecting love with a Delta, but that was what fate had given him.

“And we’ll make this work.”

Finn pressed one last heated kiss before pulling out and to one side. Laid on their backs, they both looked up at the white ceiling, hands grasped tight.

“Every single day you’ll know I love you,” Finn promised.

Niall smiled to himself. That was all he could ask for and it was just what he wanted.

“Every single day.”

RJ Scott
has been writing since age six, when she was made to stay in at lunchtime for an infraction involving cookies. She was told to write a story and two sides of paper about a trapped princess later, a lover of writing was born.

As an avid reader herself, she can be found reading anything from thrillers to sci-fi to horror. However, her first real true love will always be the world of romance where she takes cowboys, bodyguards, firemen and billionaires (to name a few) and writes dramatic and romantic stories of love and passion between these men.

With over sixty titles to her name and counting, she is the author of the award winning book,
The Christmas Throwaway
. She is also known for the Texas series charting the lives of Riley and Jack, and the Sanctuary series following the work of the Sanctuary Foundation and the people it protects.