Crossfire

POV: Leo

When he opened his eyes the next morning, it was already light outside. Startled, he looked at his watch and realized that he had to hurry to make sure he didn't miss morning roll call. The last few days had been weekends, so soldiers in this unit were free to do other things. But now it was Monday and he couldn't afford to attract negative attention, after all he had already missed a day on Friday. 

He quickly slipped on his uniform and was about to fasten the last button when he noticed the bite mark on his shoulder. Reddening slightly, he buttoned the last button. Pull yourself together - he thought to himself and put on his serious face again as he walked strictly to morning roll call. There he realized that Christopher was not on site and his previously slightly racing heart calmed down a little with relief. 

The days leading up to the start of the missions went back to normal, shooting practice, field exercises, eating and sleeping, never meeting Christopher on any of them, which helped Leo get back to his normal self. He heard from other comrades that the black-haired man slept for several days after his rut, but they laughed furtively and only said that they would have slept that long too if they had had so much sex. Leo's cheeks flushed slightly when he heard this, realizing how many people had heard them. Luckily, no one knew that it was him who had been shagging Christopher in the communal shower. 

However, a comment from his comrades nagged at his subconscious: "I wonder if we're going to have a barracks baby soon." - To be honest, he had never thought about it before, after all, his fertility was massively limited by his lack of HEAT, so he dismissed the thought of a possible pregnancy, for now. There were a few things that needed his attention more than that. He was extremely conscientious, so he used the time to prepare thoroughly and consequently stood outside the barracks very early in the morning for the start of the mission and waited for Christopher. The morning mist covered the ground and it was relatively cold. Equipped with a large hiking backpack with a water bag and hose attached to it and his camouflage military uniform, his foot tapped impatiently on the ground and his eyes kept wandering from his watch to the front door of the barracks. "He's late...," Leo murmured quietly, "That could be something if he's already so unreliable." 

Leo started to move a little, jumping from one foot to the other to warm up. - What was this guy doing for so long? - Leo was the thorough type, so he had organized everything well in advance, but he couldn't shake off the nagging fear that Chris was different and was doing everything at the last minute. - We are so incompatible, he thought to himself as he finally spotted a silhouette in the fog outside the barracks.

"You're late," Leo reproached him directly as his first words, no good morning, nothing. "Yeah yeah, don't stress me." The silhouette turned into a person he could look directly in the face. Christopher's facial expression looked like he was in a very bad mood. "Not a morning person or what's got into you?" Leon grumbled at him. Christopher clicked his tongue. "I thought there were no fucking omegas in this part of the barracks." Leo's heart sank for a moment, but he didn't let on. "If I find the person who sneaked into the bathroom with me, I'll kill them." At that moment, Leo felt queasy, but on the other hand, he was upset by the statement. After all, Christopher was the one who had come along and had done it to him, not the other way around, but he didn't seem to remember. "Well then, as the dominant Alpha, you'd better watch out for the Omegas here," Leo said sarcastically, trying to suppress his passive aggressive tone. "That you're fucking your way through the barracks on your first day, respect," he added. Apart from an aggressive grumble, there was no reply from Christopher. He was probably not in the mood to pick a fight. 

Leo sighed inwardly. "Then, let's go now." With a wave, he indicated the start of the march. For the first few hours, the two of them just kept silent to each other, the path was quite arduous uphill and Leo really didn't feel like talking to the other idiot at all. Besides, they were on a mission where it was best to remain uncovered, so the silence was rather beneficial. 

It wasn't until the evening, when the two of them set up their sparse camp, that the first words were exchanged, distant and brusque, but at least Christopher seemed to be able to keep up with Leo's pace. Fortunately, they had found a good place to spend the night in an old cave, where they could make a small fire without being discovered. 

Leo leaned back against the wall of the cave and made a note in his notebook of today's activities, while Christopher sat down next to him, seemingly a little curious, and watched him. "What are you doing?" he asked Leo dryly. "Didn't they explain to you that one of us has to take minutes?" Leo closed the book and looked into Christopher's breathtaking violet eyes. "No," he replied curtly. Leo sighed: "First mission and then not even briefed enough. At least you're keeping up physically." A brief silence. Leo then stood up, brushed the dirt from the floor out of his clothes and stretched once. "Then I'll probably have a lot to teach you." He stared at Christopher with a serious look. "So treat me with respect, otherwise you'll be dead faster than you can look on a mission like this."

The other only growled briefly. "It's not that I'm untrained, it's just that I'm not trained for sniper missions..." "Then why did they send you along?" Leo growled back. "Because of your wear and tear on scouts. According to the higher-ups, you're too demanding and only my stamina as the dominant Alpha can keep up with you. You've probably driven a few alphas to burn out because they were too weak." Christopher shrugged his shoulders. "And you're not even a dominant alpha yourself, if they really couldn't keep up at a pace like today, they're real wimps, so I can understand your reaction." He stood up as well. "Do you want to take first or second watch that night?" he asked Leo curtly. "None of us have to keep watch, the ass holes really haven't enlightened you," he grumbled. "My ability allows us to sleep through the night, I'll be alerted immediately if anyone gets too close." "Handy," he replied curtly. 

His ability "Full Support" allowed him to amplify all things, including his senses, both when awake and asleep. As long as he was well enough, neither enemies nor animals should be able to get too close to them, which was really handy for his condition over the next few months of restful sleep. 

The two of them didn't exchange any more words, and even the next day their words were sparing and limited to the bare essentials. Contrary to Leo's expectations, he was quite happy with this, as it meant that they both avoided unnecessary discussions, at least for the next five days. Over time, Leo noticed how Christopher's expression grew darker and darker and on the evening of the fifth day, Leo couldn't take it any longer and spoke directly to Christopher about his observations as they set up camp. 

"What's wrong with you? You've been in a bad mood for days now and it's infecting me," Leo said. He only growled at first, but after a few minutes he began to speak. "I slept with that damn Omega. What if he's pregnant now?" - Leo's heart skipped a beat - I don't think so, he thought to himself - after all, Leo had slept with Christopher and his HEAT was so irregular and barely there that a pregnancy was virtually impossible - but he couldn't tell him that. So he just replied:" Would that be bad?" "I don't want to be a father," he replied as if shot from a pistol, but Leo had the feeling that there was more to it than that. 

"Is that all? That's not the only reason you're in a bad mood, is it? Who knows if the other party even wants to have contact with you afterwards." A brief silence. "I can tell you don't know anything about dominant alphas, I appreciate that, but you just don't understand it," Christopher's tone seemed passive aggressive, as did Leo's: "Then explain it to me." They had managed to set up the tent, so Leo sat down on the floor and pointed next to him with an energetic knock. "Sit down and enlighten me, Mr. Dominant Alpha," his voice was slightly sarcastic at the end. 

Christopher hesitated briefly, but then decided to join Leo on the floor. Apparently, he really just needed someone to talk to and there was nothing better than this situation. 

"You have to imagine," he began to explain, "that most families of dominant alphas are only made up of dominant alphas themselves. Then, when you reach a certain age, dominant omegas are sought out and paid or forced to bring new dominant alphas, your descendants, into the world. It's not just that alphas rape omegas, in our cases it's the other way around. Carrying the child of a dominant alpha brings them many advantages, such as money, fame or power, so that even our sperm is stolen and sold for a lot of money. I'm not that young anymore and my family wants nothing more than to have more alpha offspring, so my parents have tried to send omegas after me several times. They've even paid them to rape me, and not just once. Luckily I've come out of it okay every time so far, but not this time and I don't even know why. I don't normally respond to pheromones from Omegas, or rather, they just stink to me and I'm not interested either. I have a hyper-regeneration ability, so I don't even need all those healing abilities from Omegas." He bit his lip and gritted his teeth. "But now I've probably officially fucked up defying my parents, I didn't want to be an insemination machine and fall victim to that whole dominant alpha construct...," he growled. 

"Hm, it's not easy being a dominant alpha, I understand. But if I were you, I wouldn't worry about it until the time comes. After all, there's a chance that the person isn't pregnant, and they would have contacted you afterwards and tried to blackmail you, wouldn't they?" Leo tried to reassure him, he knew more than Christopher. Sighing, Christopher lay down on the floor. "Actually yes, but tell that to my fucking head, it's really stressing me out, I joined the military exactly to avoid that. I thought I'd be safe here because they said there were no Omegas in our barracks, well, don't trust what people who are under your father say." 

Well, nobody actually knew that Leo was in the barracks as an Omega, and the superiors couldn't help it either. But he was a little suspicious about Christopher's father, he knew he had heard the name 'Wollseif' before. "Is your father General Wollseif?" he asked, slightly surprised. "Yup, unfortunately. The demands on me are just too high." "I can imagine, difficult situation, no matter what you do, you can't escape, because as far as I know, your father is also an important member of the government, isn't he?" Of course Leo knew that, not only because he was often in the media, but also because he himself had a lot to do with the government, albeit in a different department. "Well, if I did, I'd have to flee abroad, but I'd have to get there first." "Really bad situation." "Yes, that's why I'm at least trying to enjoy the peace and quiet in the military, because until I have a rank that suits my family, it's the only profession where I'm not allowed to have children until then - and now I'm sitting at my mission with a colleague and pouring my heart out, I can't believe it," he puffed.

"Well, sometimes it feels good." Leo shrugged his shoulders and lay flat on the floor as well. "Hm, so now it's your turn to do something good for yourself...," muttered Christopher. "You want me to tell you something about myself?" "Mhm," he replied, "what do you want to know?" A short pause. "Your parents, what are they like?" More silence. "There's not that much to tell. They're dead, I'm an orphan, I don't even know them," Leo explained calmly. "Never been adopted?" "Well, yes. They picked me for my looks and hoped I'd be either a dominant alpha or dominant omega, but in the end I was useless and so they gave me away." "Lousy." "Yup, that's why I can't say too much on the subject, the family doesn't expect anything from me, I'm under no pressure." This time there was a longer pause until Christopher mumbled: "Thanks for listening, dude." "I'm not old," Leo grumbled back. "I know, that's just what they say," Christopher replied and lay back on his haunches. Less than a minute later, all Leo heard was a soft snore. Sighing, he also rolled over and closed his eyes. 

The pressure Leo was under was coming from someone other than his family, namely the government. He had to make sure that his secrets were kept. Not a nice situation either - he fell asleep with that thought. 

However, the alarm in his head jolted him out of his sleep after a brief period. Leo shook Christopher to wake him up and he startled. "What's going on?" he growled tiredly. "We've been spotted, get up and grab your gun, this isn't going to be fun, they're outnumbered." Quietly Christopher jumped up, Leo was already standing there with his rifle in his hand and tactically retreating further and further, leaving the camp just as he did, and Christopher quietly followed him and they barricaded themselves behind the trees. With hand signals Christopher asked Leo how many enemies there were and Leo's senses told him that there were 4 soldiers coming closer and closer and an unknown object, probably a large animal, perhaps one of the monsters living here, creeping up from the other side. He communicated this to Christopher and instructed him to just keep quiet and watch until suddenly a loud bang rang out through the forest where they had spent the night. 

More shots rang out, but at first there was no sign of the bullets until one of them accidentally hit the tree Leo had been standing behind. "Fuck," he shouted as quietly as possible and at the same time signalled to Christopher: "We have to get out of here, we're caught in the crossfire."