Chapter Text
He sighed as he went back to camp with his spoils. And was surprised to see a fire waiting for him. Hmm, perhaps the captain wasn’t so useless after all. Gregory was staring into the flames but looked to him at his approach.
“Excellent timing,” Hannibal said. “I brought back pig for dinner.”
“That’s amazing. You really are incredible,” he smiled brightly.
I know. Hannibal thought.
Gregory rubbed at the back of his neck. “Listen . . . Dr. Lecter, I’m sorry for my behavior today. You’re the reason we’ve been able to survive. I’ve been letting you go out so much, but it suddenly hit me today that you’re an Omega. It was irresponsible of me, as an Alpha, to not do more.”
Hannibal did not care for much of the phrasing in that apology, but he was curious at the sudden change of heart. “It is important to take lessons from the mistakes we make so we can grow.”
Gregory nodded and Hannibal wondered if there was some hope for the man after all.
.oOo.
The pork was cooked splendidly and Hannibal was delighted to cut it up and serve. It had been too long since he’d had meat. A vegetarian diet was not to his tastes. Especially not when his heat was almost on him. His cravings grew stronger alongside his desires.
Hannibal made a happy noise as the first bite burst on his tongue.
“I’ve never seen you so happy!” Gregory exclaimed.
“A carnivore expected to live the life of an herbivore will surely perish,” Hannibal replied, still savoring his meal.
“You should smile more often. You’re a very handsome man, Dr. Lecter.”
Hannibal’s chewing slowed, his eyes going sharp as daggers. “Thank you.”
“I’m not just saying that! You’re the most amazing Omega I’ve ever seen! Look at everything you’ve accomplished~” When Gregory got up, Hannibal’s grip on his knife tightened.
“Again, thank you.”
“Don’t be so modest,” he chuckled, brushing a hand over Hannibal’s shoulder, unmindful—uncaring—of the way the muscle tensed under his grip. He thumb rubbing against him as he leaned down, whispering. “You’d make an Alpha a fine mate.”
All things considered, Hannibal was most upset by how Gregory’s words made the food he’d been enjoying come back up, creating bile in his mouth. He swallowed, mouth twisting unpleasantly across his face.
Hannibal calmly cut another bite of food and forced it down before he responded. “I suppose this is where you offer yourself to my service?”
“Yes, exactly,” he nodded, too eager. Showing his hand far too early, the faux-kindness revealing his true intentions. “I’ll satisfy you during your heat and then . . .” He popped his lips. “We’ll see where this goes.”
You getting what you want and then toss me aside or force bonding me. Hannibal thought. Every path the man was thinking of taking was incredibly tepid to Hannibal. The least his would-be assailant could be was interesting. But, no, he’d been predictable from the start. And that was the most disappointing part of it all.
“That sounds lovely,” Hannibal spoke, calm and poised. “There’s just one problem.”
“What is it? I promise I can fix it for you.”
Hannibal smiled. “I’m not sure you can.”
The slightest stirrings of anger simmered through Gregory’s fake smile. “Give me a chance.”
“Very well,” he said before turning to face Gregory kneeling down next to him. “I very much doubt you’re capable of satisfying me.”
“Why, you—!” He made to grab him just as Hannibal slashed him with the knife and stepped out of range.
“They say the truth can cut deep. I’d never realized how true that was.” Hannibal licked the blood from the blade, incredibly pleased with his joke.
Typical of enraged Alphas, Gregory lunged for him again. Hannibal punched him in the nose, making his head snap back. It was a warning. He could have gone for the throat or stabbed him somewhere vital. “You won’t try that again if you value your life.” And, surprisingly, the Alpha backed down, properly chastised.
That is, until his eyes flickered to something behind Hannibal. He held his nose, confusion replacing agony in his features. “Wha-who—?”
It didn’t take much to guess who he meant. Hannibal flicked a brief glance over his shoulder, surprised once again, to find his mate loitering along the perimeter of their camp. He looked furious, all that delicious violence brought so close to the surface.
“Oh, where are my manners,” he drew out the hand that wasn’t holding the knife, indicating his chosen beloved. “Allow me to introduce my True Mate.”
“True Mate?!” Gregory recoiled. “When the fuck did that happen?!”
Hannibal tsked at him, waving the knife in warning. “Be careful with that sort of language, Gregory. I don’t take kindly to it.”
“Who is he?! Where did he come from?!”
“I’m afraid those are questions you’d have to ask him. Though, from my own experience, you’re wasting your time if you try.” A fond smile crept along his face.
“You fucking bitch,” Gregory snarled. “The whole time you were teasing me, you were off fucking some—”
A swift kick sent the Alpha sprawling on the ground. “I warned you not to take that kind of tone with me.” Hannibal twirled the knife in the air and caught it, viewing him with a slow blink of his eyes.
“No, Gregory, the simple fact of the matter is that you’re a disgusting pig who thinks he deserves more than what’s given to him. But, you’re too foolish to realize that when a pig is given more—when a pig is fattened—” he stared down at him impassively. “They get eaten.”
By then, Gregory was beyond words as he charged at Hannibal. Or, at least, Hannibal had thought he was charging for him. He veered off course and grabbed his knife from his plate on his way to . . .
“You want a True Mate? Then suffer like only a True Mate rendered alone can suffer!” Gregory cackled viciously as he thrust himself at the Beta.
Hannibal’s heart stopped, his frozen terror costing him precious seconds before he was able to regroup and lunge after Gregory.
He was too late to stop him from jumping the Beta, but he was much faster than Gregory, able to leap on his back and jerk his head away from his mate. He pulled the knife around and dug it into the soft flesh of Gregory’s stomach.
That’s when he saw it. As he grappled with Gregory, he saw his mate’s eyes flash with bloodlust, his teeth bare in a glorious hiss, before he struck. His teeth sank into the Alpha’s throat, tearing the flesh away from his body in a beautiful spray of blood, painting him red with victory. Hannibal held the Alpha still, felt the life drain from his body, pouring onto his mate, making him more radiant than Hannibal could have ever dreamed.
Hannibal tossed the lifeless husk to the side, eyes only for his beloved. He drank him in as he ran a hand across his bloody chest, reveling in the harsh panting that told him his mate was living. Thriving.
“I was so worried he was going to take you away from me,” he whispered, stroking a hand through the curls he’d longed to touch since they’d first met. “And then you—oh, my sweet, vicious boy, you were so incredible. I can’t believe—what made you change your mind? Why did you come here? Do you wish to—”
His mate sat up with a deep sigh, locking eyes with him as he grabbed the back of his head. “Hannibal, you talk too much.” Then, he kissed him.
Hannibal’s shock at his mate speaking gave way to the shock of his mate kissing him and eventually gave way to Hannibal melting into his mate’s arms. They drank of one another, Hannibal finally getting to feel the plushness of those full lips against his own. The one’s he’d only ever been able to dream about until this moment. He’d never tasted something so delicious in all his travels. Nothing he’d eaten in any country in all the world could come close to how perfect his beloved tasted! If it were possible, Hannibal could easily see himself kissing his mate ‘til time stood still.
But, there were a number of pressing matters.
He pulled back with a gasp and couldn’t help the breathy moan as his mate switched to kissing down his neck. “Do-does this mean you accept me as your True Mate?”
He laughed, parts amused and parts exasperated. “Yes, Hannibal, I’d say it does.”
Hannibal shivered under the sound of his mate’s honeyed accent rolling over his flesh, causing a scattering of goose bumps where his lips brushed over him. It was thick, hailing from the southern area of the United States. Hannibal would have to remember to look up food in the area to ply on his lover for later on. Foods that reminded one of home often triggered feelings of family and safety and—
“Stop that. You think too loudly. I can’t tell what you’re thinking, but I can see you putting things together in there. In case you didn’t notice, I’m trying to sweep you off your feet.” He grumbled as he pushed Hannibal’s shirt from his shoulders.
He kissed him again and Hannibal forgot himself for long enough that by the time he came back to himself he was naked. He was getting overwhelmed by it all. The taste of his mate and the force of his heat sweeping over him. In a desperate need to make things clear before there was no going back, Hannibal pushed him to the ground and held the knife to his throat.
“Darling, I’m afraid there’s just a few things I need to sure of before we go any further.”
His mate went lax under him, unafraid of the knife pressed to his throat and the man who’d already killed once that night. It gave Hannibal hope. Which he knew to be a dangerous thing. “We killed that man, you and I.”
His mate snorted. “Don’t try to tell me that was your first time. I’ll know. If you lie to me, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Stretch the truth as far as you want, but the second you lie is the second you die. Understand, darling?”
Hannibal felt a shiver roll through him, slick slipping out of him at the threat and the way his mate rolled the endearment off his tongue.
“It’s been a long time since my first time,” Hannibal smirked.
“Is that supposed to make me jealous?”
“Does it?”
He gave him a steady stare. “You’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you? You like pissing me off.”
Hannibal purred, rolling his hips down against the splendid erection straining for him. “As much as you enjoy teasing me.”
“I’m not the one being the tease right now.”
“Revenge is one of my favorite dishes. I’ll savor it for as long as I like.” He rolled his hips again and gasped when his rhythm was matched.
“Sounds like a dish we can share.”
“Oh, you have a way of being terribly distracting,” Hannibal reprimanded, using one hand to still those dangerous hips. “What I meant before: you liked killing Gregory, didn’t you?”
A shift, hesitation. “Yeah, I did. I’ve never felt like that before. I saw him touch you, threaten you, and something just came over me.” He shook his head. “I swear you came to my island just to torment me.”
“Funny, I thought God had conjured you out of thin air to do the same to me. Why do you say that?” Hannibal struggled, instinct pushing him to rub their erections together for some kind of relief.
He let out a choked gasp, shuddering. “I got rejected from the FBI. They said I was too unstable. It was all I ever talked about, all I ever wanted. After they rejected me, I . . . I thought about why they did it. Realized, maybe, they were right. There is darkness in me. Things that other people shouldn’t have to deal with. People never liked me anyway. I figured the best thing I could do was take my boat out here and disappear. Never have to worry about what I might unleash on anyone.”
Hannibal was positively beaming. “Oh, I intend to unleash you onto the world. Why would a treasure such as yourself stay hidden away when I would be the envy of every person in the world to have you on my arm? I will polish you up and watch you shine, my dearest.”
He laughed. “Isn’t that a riot? I can’t get anyone to give me the time of day when I was out there trying my best to be good help save people. I come out here to be alone then kill someone and suddenly I have a whole mate in my lap. Life sure is funny.”
“It certainly is. Ah ah,” Hannibal slapped his hand when his mate reached for him again. “I’m not done yet.”
He growled. “Jesus, Hannibal, the smell of your heat is killing me. Are you a robot or something?!”
“Patience, my boy, patience,” He could feel his fever taking him over and longed to relish it. He flicked his knife towards the body. “Listen carefully. Remember what I said before about eating that pig? I wasn’t being metaphorical; I very much intend to eat him.”
“I figured as much,” he huffed out a laugh, breathless in his desire. “I could see it in your eyes. You’re a fucked up son of a bitch.”
“You do recall what happened to the last man who used such language with me, don’t you?” he pressed the knife into his mate’s neck.
“Yeah, but the funny thing about that is,” he grabbed the hand holding the knife and twisted them around before kneeling up, bringing Hannibal’s body back against his. “I kinda don’t give a fuck.”
Hannibal gasped at the feeling of his mate’s cock rubbing against his entrance as the knife grew slack in his hand. “Allowances can be made,” he rasped.
He sank into him and they both groaned, a shivering mass clutching desperately at one another. He pulled out and pushed back in and, as Hannibal started losing himself fully to his heat for the first time in years, the knife dropped from his hand completely. He shivered at every pulse of pleasure shooting throughout his body. The huffs of his lover breathing harshly against his neck as he thrust into him. The perfect fit from his perfect person.
“I-I su-suppose,” Hannibal choked out, his blonde hair falling over his eyes as he fell against the sand, pressing back to give his mate better access, surrendering to someone else consuming him for the first time. “I only have one question left.”
“Christ, Hannibal!” he laughed, not stopping his thrusting, gripping hard at his shoulder and hip to pound harder into him. “Nothing shuts you up, does it?!” It was said with weary acceptance and genuine amusement. “What is it?”
“What is your name?” he twisted to look at him over his shoulder, hair out of place and breathing hard. “I want to know what to call out when you make me come.”
That got a rumbling, pleased growl out of the Beta that sounded more tasteful and commanding than any Alpha growl he’d ever heard. He grabbed a handful of Hannibal’s hair and tugged him back up against his chest, holding him there as he picked up the pace. Hannibal cried out at every jab, hands scrambling backwards to hold on for dear life.
“Pl-please! I’m—!” He tensed, a tingle starting at his spine, the edges of his vision blurring, that perfect cock filling him up in all the right ways.
“My name is Will,” he growled against his ear, nails clawing into him, possessively. “Now, say my name.”
“WILL!” He cried out, traveling all the way to heaven to make God witness their most perfect union and strike them down if He so dared to try. His release spilled from him and he collapsed into a boneless heap, allowing Will to have his way with him ‘til he, too, came with a repeated, panting cry of “Hannibal-Hann-Hanni-Hannibaaaallll!”
Will sagged against him for a moment before pulling them on their sides, having the courtesy to not crush Hannibal from whatever innate sense he possessed that told him Hannibal wouldn’t like that. He remained where he’d planted into the ground after Will was finished with him, unable to move. Not caring to ever move again right then.
He felt Will snuggle against his back, reaching an arm over him to play with his chest hair. He could hear the smile in Will’s voice when he said: “I know we did this kind of backwards, but it’s been a pleasure to meet you.”
Hannibal laughed.
“Believe me, the pleasure was all mine.”