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Seb bit back the urge to hiss and scruff Max-fucking-Verstappen as he barrelled into Charles’ hotel suite, not waiting for confirmation from Sebastian – or Lewis – that he was allowed to enter the space. Behind him, Lewis scrambled to catch up, shooting Seb an apologetic glance as he rushed into the room behind the younger alpha.
“I thought I told you to talk to him,” Seb hissed irritably at his mate.
“I did – I’ll get him, he just isn’t thinking,” Lewis apologized frantically, moving to step around Seb to… what? Drag Max back into the hallway and remind him to use his manners? Charles wanted him here, and despite Sebastian’s own misgivings, the younger omega had been fully lucid when he’d made his choice.
They had to respect that.
So, Sebastian stopped his mate with a gentle hand on his chest, just as Charles’ desperate whine filled the room. The younger omega’s scent was quickly becoming overpowering, and was very clearly teetering on the edge of heat, reaffirming that Seb had made the right call in keeping the pair separated until they had informed consent from both parties.
“Charles,” Max breathed, practically running to the nest.
Shockingly, the younger alpha pulled up just short of actually climbing in, practically toppling over his own feet in his haste to stop himself, even if he was practically vibrating in place. Sebastian was struck by the control Max was exhibiting, waiting for permission to enter Charles’ nest even as he himself was teetering on the edge of a full-blown rut, if his scent was any indication.
Not many young, unmated alphas would have been able to restrain themselves even half as well as Max was managing, when faced with a similarly young, unmated omega in heat.
“You can come into the nest, Max,” Charles practically pleaded, the hint of a whine hiding behind his words.
Seb and Lewis watched from their place near the door as Charles reached for Max, adorably making grabby-hands at the alpha until Max launched himself into the nest in an ungainly mass of flailing limbs, pushing Charles back so that he could wrap himself around him more fully.
A quiet laugh that rumbled out of Lewis’ chest at the sight, and Seb couldn’t help but look towards him with a small smile of his own before turning a keen eye back towards the pair on the bed.
During their momentary distraction, Charles had eagerly pulled Max as close of physically possible while also nosing at his neck, inhaling deeply as he pressed against the alpha’s scent gland. Sebastian heard Max’s alpha rumble rise to meet Charles’ omega purr, the two of them completely engulfed in each other’s scents and the sensation of being physically wrapped in the other.
“Right, so, we’re going to go,” Lewis announced loudly, shifting as he reached up to hold the hand that Seb still had pressed to his chest. “We’ll drop some food and water by later, yeah?”
Max growled, the sound rumbling across the room from where he was busy drowning himself in the omega’s scent.
“Right, yes, leaving now!”
Then, Lewis practically dragged Seb from the room. Seb followed reluctantly, glancing back towards the door nervously as it swung shut behind them. He knew – he did – that Charles had said that he wanted Max, but he did not normally spend his heat with alphas…
“They’ll be fine, Seb,” Lewis reassured his mate. As he spoke, he pulled Seb close, giving them both a moment to scent one another and just back in the gentle reassurance that came from being in one another’s arms.
“It is just… Charles does not normally spend his heats with alphas,” Sebastian worried aloud.
“Max will take care of him,” Lewis soothed. “I don’t think he’s actually capable of hurting Charles, even in rut. I don’t know if you noticed, but he cares about him quite a lot.”
“Do you think…?”
“That’s for them to figure out, and for us to find out when – and if – they are ready to share,” Lewis gently reminded his mate. “Now, stop meddling and come on – we’ll be more comfortable in our own room, yeah?”
As wonderful las that sounded – it was late, and they usually would have been curled up in their nest long before now – Seb pulled away and shook his head.
“Seb, we’re not staying out in the hallway all night –”
“I want to go to the paddock,” Sebastian explained.
Lewis sighed.
“I know you’re keyed up, Seb, but the race is cancelled, and the curfew is still in place,” Lewis pointed out. “There’s nothing to be done tonight, okay?”
“No – you – I,” Seb sighed, clearly frustrated at him inability to put together the words he wanted. Lewis waited patiently, which Seb appreciated. He knew that sometimes it took a moment to formulate his thoughts in English, especially when he was frustrated – as he was now. “I want to go see the alpha.”
“No, Seb,” Lewis said firmly and without hesitation. “Even if security let you through to see him, it’s not a good idea.”
“I am going,” Sebastian announced as he set off, pointedly ignoring Lewis’ aggravated huff. “You can come with me or not – I do not care.”
As expected, his alpha trailed behind him, grumbling something unintelligible as he followed Seb first to their room (to quickly change into more appropriate clothes and grab their wallets, as well as a set of car keys), then to the garage.
“I’m driving,” Lewis announced, shooting Seb a withering glare when he opened his mouth to argue. “No, Seb – you’re on edge as it is.”
“But –”
“Call George while I drive – fill him in on whatever you feel is necessary for him to know, so he can start getting the GPDA stuff sorted, yeah?” Lewis continued, completely ignoring his mate’s attempted protests as he slid into the driver’s seat.
Seb grumbled but acquiesced, slipping into the passenger seat and taking Lewis’ proffered phone, George’s contact already opened and ready to go.
“He’s probably sleeping,” Sebastian reasoned as Lewis pealed out of the garage, either ignorant – or uncaring – of the speed limit. Probably the latter.
“He’ll be awake – I doubt any of them are sleeping after Carlos’ little rampage around the hotel for nesting materials,” Lewis responded. “Call him, Seb. He needs to know, so that he can be on top of things when – .”
Sebastian sighed loudly, cutting his mate off before he could really gather steam, and pressed the call button, the phone barely making it to his ear before the young beta was on the line.
“Lewis, what’s going on?”
“Hello George,” Sebastian greeted.
“Yes, yes, my manners are terrible, woe is you,” George snarked. “What is going on, Sebastian? They’ve cancelled the race, and Carlos looked apt to just steal mine and Alex’ clothes if we didn’t hand them over – .”
“There was an… incident at the track,” Seb explained haltingly, searching for the write phrasing. George was needed – and would likely be more needed by morning – but Sebastian was also unwilling to violate Charles privacy more than it already had been.
“With Lando?”
Given Carlos’ slightly panicked state, it wasn’t an unreasonable guess – though Sebastian knew that Carlos would never have accepted being separated from his mate for even a moment if it was Lando who had been assaulted.
“No – no, Lando is okay. He and Carlos are isolating now though, because they are at risk for a stress heat and rut,” Sebastian was rambling he knew, but he didn’t know how to explain what had actually – what was actually – happening…
“Get on with it, Seb,” Lewis grumbled. “We’re nearly there.”
“It was Charles,” Seb blurted out. “He – he stayed late at the track, and there was an incident with an alpha staff member in rut. Max and was able to step in, but it’s triggered a stress heat and rut for the pair of them.”
Silence, and then –
“Are you and Lewis on your way to the paddock?”
“Yes – I… I wanted to see him – the alpha,” Sebastian explained. “Lewis does not agree, but…”
“I’ll be there shortly,” George responded curtly, before hanging up.
Sebastian sat in silence as Lewis pulled into the car park, easing into a spot right near the entrance before putting the car in park and turning off the engine. He flexed his hands before curling them into fists, gaze fixed straight ahead as he spoke.
“Your scent is getting stronger,” Lewis ground out. “Seb, are you sure you can manage this? We – we don’t have to. Not now.”
Seb bit back a frustrated whine.
He knew that his own scent was thickening – had known that he and Lewis were careening towards a stress heat and rut well before they had left the hotel. It was the reason why alphas in rut and omegas in heat were banned from the paddock - the risk of triggering mass ruts and stress heats was simply too high. Especially among a group as tight-knit as the drivers were, viewing each other as pack, and pups, and family.
But Seb needed to see the alpha who had hurt his pup.
Needed to look the alpha in the eye so that he could recognize him anywhere, so that he could protect Charles – and the rest of his pack – from him if he ever deigned to so much as look at an F1 paddock again.
“Seb?”
The omega took a deep breath, settling himself before he responded.
“I can handle this,” Sebastian confirmed. “It’s still hours off – this won’t take nearly that long.”
Lewis nodded tightly, flexing his hands once more before he opened the door and stepped out of the car. The moment Sebastian joined his mate, Lewis wrapped his hand tightly around the omega’s own, squeezing it reassuringly before they set off towards Paddock Security.
“Mr Vettel? Mr Hamilton?” an unfamiliar beta security guard asked, clearly caught wrong-footed as the pair stepped into the appointed motorhome.
“We’re here to see the alpha that you apprehended earlier at Daniel Ricciardo’s request,” Sebastian explained tightly.
He could tell that the security guard knew who they were talking about, despite the fact that his neutral beta scent barely changed. It was in the way his expression went carefully blank, the way he tensed under their ongoing scrutiny, the way he fidgeted nervously.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve been instructed not to let anyone back,” the security guard answered nervously. “He – he’s fully in rut now, and could be a danger to himself or others. We’re keeping him in isolation until the police arrive in the morning.”
“It’s very important to Sebastian – to us – that we see him,” Lewis stepped in, letting a bit of that confident authority he usually kept under wraps slip into his voice as he regarded the young beta before them, arms crossed and brows raised.
“I –”
“We’ll just be a minute or two,” Lewis interrupted, a cold finality in his voice.
“Just a minute or two,” the security guard acquiesced, moving aside nervously to let the pair slip past.
They found the alpha in question easily enough – his scent was pungent, filling the space in an almost cloying way. It didn’t affect Sebastian much – as a mated omega, with his own irate mate at his side. His nose was too attuned to Lewis’ own slowly deepening scent to be bothered much by another’s. But to Charles… Sebastian couldn’t imagine how overwhelming that would have been, how terrified his pup would have been…
The alpha looked up as they approached the temporary holding cell he’d been assigned, blinking his eyes open lazily as he took them in.
“You smell like him” the alpha murmured. “My omega.”
It was Lewis who snarled at that, ferocious and furious all at once, the sound filling the small space in the breadth of a moment, overpowering Sebastian’s own accompanying hiss.
“He is not your omega,” Lewis growled. “He has never been, and he never will be.”
The alpha stretched languidly as he stood, a smirk on his face as he made his way to the bars separating him form the mated pair. Sebastian felt, more than heard, Lewis’ rumbling growl as the alpha’s attention settled on his omega mate. Sebastian didn’t back down, observing the alpha before him just as carefully. Comitting the colour of his hair, the shape of his eyes, the cut of his jawline… Every unique detail about him to memory, so that he would never forget the man in front of him.
It may have been why the alpha caught him off guard, when he finally spoke again.
“He could have been,” the alpha sneered. “Did he tell you how he let me mount him, right there in the car park for anyone to see? How I had my teeth on his pretty neck? Would have made him mine, would have mated and bred him –”
Whatever else the alpha had been about to say – whatever other vile filth he’d been ready to spew – was cut off by Seb’s snarl as he launched himself at the alpha, uncaring of the bars between them. Lewis managed to grab his mate, wrapping strong arms around him waist as he pulled him back and away from the alpha, Sebastian kicking and snarling as they went.
“I will kill him!”
The security guard leapt back from where he’d been arguing with an irate George Russell at the sight of the feral omega in his mate’s arms.
“What –”
“Will the police – Seb, calm down – want statements from anyone involved?” Lewis grunted, still wrestling with a high uncooperative Sebastian. Seb merely hissed at him, logical thought all but abandoned in light of his overwhelming need to kill the alpha who had hurt his pup.
“I imagine they’ll want something from Ricciardo, and maybe Leclerc?” the security guard responded awkwardly.
“Leclerc and Verstappen are going to be… otherwise occupied for a few days,” Lewis forced out, starting to get breathlessly as he worked to control his mate. “I’ll tell Daniel to come by as soon as he can though.”
With that Lewis dragged Sebastian outside, leaving George to handle the pleasantries. As soon as the cool night air hit them, Lewis finally let Seb go. The omega leapt away from his mate, hissing and pacing angrily as he watched Lewis situate himself between Sebastian and the door.
“You’re not going back in there to kill him,” Lewis grumbled, eyes fixed on his furious mate as George appeared at his shoulder.
“You heard what he said,” Seb snarled in response. “The bastard called Charles his omega, he doesn’t feel any remorse about fucking raping him –”
George took a sharp breath, eyes wide as he glanced between Lewis and Sebastian.
“He – is Charles – Lewis?”
Lewis sighed, scrubbing at his own face while Sebastian stood frozen in place, some logical thought returning to his mind as he realized what he’d let slip. It never would have stayed secret forever, at least within their pack, but…
“He’s going to be okay, George,” Lewis responded softly. “Lando made him a nest, Seb got him cleaned up, and Max is with him now. We’ve got him.”
George made a sort of wounded sound at that, and Lewis reeled his teammate in, pressing the young beta to his side. George, for his part, didn’t hesitate to tuck his nose into Lewis’ neck, arms coming up to wrap himself around his alpha teammate. Sebastian watched the scene with fondness, knowing how hard it had been for Lewis to connect with yet another teammate. The proximity, however, lasted only a few moments – because tucked as he was against Lewis, even George’s less sensitive beta nose could pick-up the now obvious changes to Lewis’ scent.
“You’re going into rut,” George murmured when he pulled back.
“We’ve still got a few hours,” Lewis said in way of confirmation. “But we’re going to be out of commission for at least a few days.”
“Which means I’m on my own with the GPDA and the FIA,” George surmised. “The race has already been delayed – is there anything else that needs to be handled?”
“That alpha needs to stay in custody,” Sebastian growled.
“Of course,” George agreed readily. “Do you want me to keep you updated on any developments over the next few days? Or just fill you in once you get back?”
“You can update him, but I doubt he’ll have the time to check his phone,” Lewis commented drily, his own scent thickening briefly as he considered his mate. Sebastian flushed at that, knowing exactly how Lewis intended to keep him busy for the next few days.
George gagged.
“Right,” the beta muttered. “Get out of here then. I don’t ever need – or want – to know.”
Lewis grinned – more of a baring of his teeth than anything else – before clapping his teammate on the shoulder and dragging his mate back towards the car park. He only spoke once they were settled in the car again, making their way back towards the hotel at a much more sedate pace than they’d taken earlier.
“Did you get what you wanted?” Lewis asked.
Seb hummed, noting that a familiar blurriness was starting to creep in on the edges of his consciousness. Perhaps his heat wasn’t as far off as he’d expected…
“I know you said I couldn’t kill him tonight, but if I ever see that alpha near the paddock again, I will rip his throat out,” Sebastian’s harsh words were juxtaposed against an almost lazy tone as the omega did his best to cuddle up to his mate while still buckled into the passenger seat, nosing at Lewis’ scent glands needily.
For his part, Lewis merely bared his neck and used his spare hand to reach out and grip Seb’s thigh.
“If he ever dares to come anywhere near our pack again, I won’t stop you.”