Alpha Shield

Stranger - Killian

His blue eyes gleamed like chips of glacial ice in his reflection. The eyes looking back at him were different than the eyes he'd seen nearly every day for his 37 years. The intensity of the predator staring at him from those eyes caused that spike of pain in his chest to fade into nothingness.

Fear. The name for the emotion he'd never truly felt before rose through his consciousness, but he pushed it aside. He didn't have time or the luxury to feel fear.

The Alpha inside of him stared out at him from the mirror.

The primal warrior who shared his skin made his presence known with a nearly feral growl that brought the conversation between Malcom and James to a halt.

"Killian?"

Understanding on a very basic level that Malcolm addressed him, Killian attempted to respond, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a deep snarl starting in the base of his chest. In the mirror, he watched this unknown version of himself stare out through his own eyes. With a snarl, his upper lip lifted, and he glimpsed a canine tooth that was much longer and sharper than anything he'd ever seen on himself before.

"Commander Hayes," James' sharp tone that probably snapped junior officers into line all day long rubbed this feral Alpha the wrong way and another menacing rumble escaped.

Internally, Killian knew he was dangerously close to some kind of boundary. That if he slipped too far into this primal mindset, he'd be too far gone, but while a small part of him tried to rein in his murderous thoughts, the rest of him wanted to revel in the power that coursed through his veins. He felt like if he released this primordial hunter, he would hunt his prey throughout the city until he could feel their flesh rend beneath his claws.

Claws?

It was this thought that startled him enough to shake his head and drag a deep breath into his lungs. Tilting his head, he looked down at his hands only slightly surprised that his fingers hadn't morphed into sharpened weapons, but the tips of the digits ached as if phantom claws rested just under the skin waiting to break free.

Taking in another deep inhale, he braved a look in the mirror to find the normal, every day eyes of Commander Killian Hayes of Alpha Corps staring back at him, but like an underwater flash of reflection, something... someone... else looked out from his eyes.

"Killian!" Malcolm's alarmed shout through the phone brought Killian's attention back to the two Alphas on the phone.

"I'm here," his voice still had a lower than normal rasp to it. His throat felt like he'd eaten sandpaper, but he swallowed again and refused to turn away from the reflection in the mirror. He'd known that he possessed a hidden monster. Maybe now his outsides would match his insides.

"Emily is going to continue digging on her end," James continued. "She's going to bring in one of her techs that she's trusts to speed it up, but other than that, she's keeping it off the books. Whomever hid the files has just enough tech skills to be a problem, but they won't be a match for the full force of Emily's wrath. She doesn't want to risk them knowing that we're on to them. She's scheduling a network upgrade for Baranov's department, and she'll plant some external surveillance equipment in his office. On top of everything else, fucking with her computer programs is a capital offense as far as she's concerned."

"Emily wants some surveillance planted at Sanctuary. They've got a closed system because of the nature of the place, so she doesn't have an access point. Can you get some of her tech planted, Killian?" James' voice prompted a response even though all he wanted to do was track down this fucker Baranov and rip the secrets from him.

"Yes. Just need to know where she wants it, and I'll get it handled."

"Good. I'll coordinate from here. On another note, Malcolm, are you aware that your Omega has been messaging me?"

"What?" Malcolm's surprise drew Killian's dark thoughts back to the present.

"Yes, can you please tell her that what she's suggesting is anatomically impossible, and she can come off of 'false imprisonment', her words, not mine, as soon as Tobias has been recaptured."

Malcolm's silence on his end of the conversation spoke volumes, and Killian decided it was the perfect time to end his part of the call, "Let me know when you've got the tech ready. My next shift is tomorrow morning so if it could be ready by then, I'll get it installed."

"I'll have Emily reach out later tonight."

"Until then," Killian pressed the button to end the call. Before he turned away to change from his Sanctuary uniform, he glanced back at the mirror and his reflection.

Seeing the same reflection he'd seen his entire life, he couldn't help but think a stranger stared back at him.