Hold on I still want you

Chapter 23

Alec had been sleeping peacefully in his now fiancé's arms when he was suddenly woken up by excruciating pain. Alec didn't even realize he was screaming, the pain was too much for him to notice the sound. He recognized this pain, Victor had done this to him when he was being held captive by him. Victor was using their bond to torture him. 

Magnus jolted awake beside him, his heart pounding. His eyes widening in horror when he saw Alec screaming in pain. Magnus immediately got up and tried to hug Alec in comfort as he didn't understand where the pain was coming from. But Alec was in too much pain to register him. 

Magnus' heart was breaking in two seeing the love of his life like this. Magnus tried to collect himself and used magic to do a scan on Alec to see what was causing the pain. And he came to the same conclusion as Alec, Victor was doing this to him. Magnus felt rage bubbling in him wanting to explode and he had to work hard to reign in his magic or it would destroy the whole apartment. 

"Alexander, can you hear me? You need to fight this I know you can", Magnus said, hoping desperately that he could get through to Alec. Omegas could fight their alphas if they were torturing them like this. Magnus had heard of stories where omegas fought back through the bond and were able to escape the alphas who had claimed them against their will. Though they unfortunately remained claimed. 

Magnus tried to use magic to help ease Alec's pain but it didn't work, making Magnus punch the wall in frustration. After what seemed like eternity to Magnus, Alec stopped screaming but he was still curled into himself. Magnus was afraid Alec was still being hurt. Magnus carefully moved closer to Alec and gently touched his arm. 

Alec startled at the touch and looked at Magnus with wild and panicked eyes. "Magnus is that really you?" Alec had heard a voice encouraging him and he thought it was Magnus but the torture had been so horrific that he couldn't be sure. But Alec had listened and had fought back against Victor, thankfully he had succeeded. 

Magnus cupped Alec's face, "Yes it's me darling. Is Victor still hurting you?" Magnus asked in concern. 

"No it's stopped now", Alec said shakily.

Though Alec was terrified Victor would do it again any second. Through the torture Victor had spoken telepathically to him. He had said that Alec was his and that he was furious with him for cheating on him with Magnus. Alec had tried to argue back that he never cheated, Victor had forced the bite on him. He said that he had never wanted to be with Victor, but that just angered Victor even more and made him make the torture even worse. 

"I'm so sorry Alexander, I should have realized that Victor would be able to attack you like this. But I thought the prison he was in would stop him accessing your bond with it's magic, I should have known better". 

"Don't blame yourself, this was Victor's fault not yours. He was the one who tortured me", Alec said trying to reassure his fiancé. He would never blame his love for this, Magnus had truly believed he was safe. He couldn't have known this would happen. 

Magnus wasn't completely convinced though, he believed that Alec really didn't blame him. But Magnus still blamed himself. He had known about the bond between an omega and alpha and he had known Victor was certainly the type of alpha that would use it against Alec. But he didn't want to upset Alec further, so he lied saying that he agreed with Alec that it wasn't his fault.

"What are we going to do Magnus? What if Victor does that again?" Alec said unable to hide his fear. 

Magnus felt more guilt clench his heart, this was supposed to be the happiest time of their lives. They had just gotten engaged. But because of his failure, Alec was in danger again. Magnus was no closer to finding a way to be able to give the mating bite to Alec again safely and through that get rid of Victor's bite. Jace had angrily yelled at him saying Magnus should just bite over Victor's mating bite. 

But that would be fatal for Alec because Victor's bite had been forcefully given to him. When a mating bite was given willingly like Magnus' had been, if things didn't work out the omega could receive another alpha's bite and not be killed because of it. But cruel alpha's gave the bite differently, Magnus realized Victor had deliberately made a warlock put a spell on Alec so that no other alpha could bite over Victor's bite without killing Alec. 

This used to be common place among Downworlders as well as Shadowhunters to enslave omegas that wanted to be free from abusive alphas. But Magnus had fought the Clave against it being legal. They had won the fight but Magnus knew the Clave was illegally allowing it to still happen to Shadowhunter omegas. They couldn't control Downworlder omegas anymore thanks to Magnus' people winning the fight, but they could still secretly control Shadowhunter omegas. 

"There has to be a spell to block Victor's access to you. I'm going to do research right now", Magnus said and was about to get up but Alec gently stopped him. 

"Mags its 3am you need to sleep. I know I said I was scared he would attack again but I will be okay. I can fight back against him now", Alec said. Though he was afraid Victor was going to hurt him again, he didn't want his protection to be at the expense of Magnus' health. Though being away in Venice was helping, Magnus hadn't slept in weeks and Alec was very worried for him. 

Magnus looked like he wanted to argue but he reluctantly relented and sat back down. They both lay back down. Magnus called the prison holding Victor to tell them what happened and ensure that security was heightened. He also wanted to pay Victor a visit and they agreed to let Magnus come in the afternoon. After Magnus hung up, he wrapped his arm protectively around Alec wishing he could protect him from everything. 

The next morning Magnus woke early determined to get a head start on research. He made sure not to wake Alec as he got up. Magnus was so engrossed in his research that he was startled when Alec came in a few hours later and he sheepishly looked up hoping that Alec didn't think he was deliberately ignoring him. 

"You haven't been there long have you?" 

"No I just came in", Alec assured Magnus. 

Magnus sighed in relief, "Are you okay darling? Victor didn't attack you right?" Magnus hadn't heard any screaming but he knew Alec had a tendency to hide his pain. And now that Alec knew Victor could suddenly attack he may be better prepared to make sure he didn't scream in pain. 

"Thankfully no Victor didn't attack". 

Magnus looked closely at Alec's face to make sure he wasn't lying and was relieved to see he wasn't. "I was hoping I would have found something before you woke up. But I haven't found anything. There was only one case where an omega was able to receive another mating bite from a different alpha, but he died 100 years ago. If there was a record of how he did it, I can't find it. Either it was destroyed or never written down". 

"That's not nothing Mags", Alec said comfortingly and on a chair next to Magnus so he could lean against him. "This proves it is possible. And there has to be a way to find the record, we can't give up we don't know for certain it was destroyed. Does it say who his alpha was? Maybe the alpha knows what happened and can help us," Alec said trying to encourage his alpha. He wished Magnus wasn't so self depreciating, but Alec understood how hard it was not to be. He had been through it too. Alec had a feeling that the alpha wouldn't help willingly as they had forcefully bitten the omega, but Magnus was very persuasive. 

"It does say who the alpha was but you aren't going to like it", Magnus said anxiously. 

"Oh, who was it?" Alec said feeling worried by Magnus' tone. 

"It was Camille".