#with danni

“Today, Omega Dan Howell-Parks was arraigned on two charges of murder in the first degree. The omega, from the wealthy suburb of Kingwood Park, denies any wrong doing. Investigators report that Omega Howell murdered his alpha mate and the alpha’s wife in cold blood while four children were in the home. Charges of child endangerment may be added to the omega’s list of crimes. The court case is set to begin sometime next week. Back to you, Marcia.”

Phil rested his coffee mug on the table as the reporter finished the segment on the ‘Top News’ and moved onto human interest stories.

His wife, Ingrid, turned off the television in the kitchen and walked out.

“Hey, I was watching that!”

“You’re going to be late dear. I’ve been saying your name for five minutes now.”

Phil looked down at his watch and muttered, “Shit,” before jumping out of his chair, grabbing his briefcase, phone and keys.

“I’ll be home around 6.”

“I won’t be back until 8… maybe,” she said, grabbing her own briefcase as well. “I have a corporate dinner to go to. Wish me luck.”

Phil felt sorry for her. As a criminal justice lawyer, he easily avoided things like business dinners with long boring speeches and old boring alphas. Corporate attorneys always had to fulfill that particular obligation.

“Good luck, my love.”

Ingrid pecked Phil on the cheek, carefully not to get her lipstick on him and promptly left. Phil locked the door of their large home after setting the alarm, then he too was off to work.

On his way to his office, the radio station RTQW played a morning talk show and of course the news of the omega murdering his alpha was a top story. Phil turned up the volume, very interested, like most would be after hearing about the incident.

“Get this! He’s saying that he can’t remember doing it?”

“How does one forget that they’ve stabbed a man 10 times in the chest and 8 times in the groin area? The omega was certainly out to kill his mate.”

“I agree, Marie. I mean, think about it. The alpha definitely didn’t walked into the knife 18 times did he?”

There was a bit of laughter before the conversation continued.

“What really gets me is that there were very young witnesses. The children in the home were between the ages of two and five. The five year old female called the police when it happened.”

“Scott, let’s not lose track here. There was another victim, 30-year old Vivian Parks, the beta. Police say she was strangled to death and left upstairs in the omega’s bedroom.”

“Something must have made him snap like that. It takes a lot of anger to strangle someone until they stop breathing completely.”

“My question for the listeners out there is: What would be an appropriate response to this vicious crime? Do you all think that he should be evaluated for mental disorder or sent straight to prison? Let’s take our first caller now.”

“Hello?” the voice said.

“Yes, good morning. Who is speaking?”

“Bobbi,” the female said.

“And what is your take on this whole thing?”

“He should get the death sentence! After everything we betas and alphas do for those people, he should be grateful. We can’t have a lunatic like that roaming about.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… You’re saying he should die? We haven’t heard his motive yet. What if it was self-defense?”

“No such thing when it comes to omega. My gran always said, ‘We decided what is best for the omegas. If his alpha threatened his life, then the alpha had every right to do so.”

“I agree,” radio-personality said.

“Really, Marie? That’s a bit much. He is human.”

“Maybe we have conflicting ideologies but that’s the way I was raised. My mate’s omega is very obedient because of the way he’s been trained in our household. We do decide what is best for them. They’re far too childish to be trusted.”

“We have another called from Kingwood Park. Hello, your name is?”

“Jacob,” a timid voice replied.

“What is your take on all of this?”

“I’m an omega and I’ve always been treated pretty well by my guardians. But, many of my siblings were sold into very harmful households. I think that maybe this omega couldn’t take it anymore and did what he had to. I think we all need to see where he’s coming from.”

“Are you justifying a murder of an alpha and beta?” Marie asked incredulously.

“I’m saying that Dan Howell-Parks is innocent until proven guilty.”

“That won’t take very long, will it?” she retorted. “We’ll be back after these messages.”

Turning the knob of the radio’s volume, Phil began thinking. This case was going to be huge. Everyone was already talking about it even though it had only happened the day before. As he turned into the parking space reserved for him, Phil decided to look into this case a little deeper and see if the omega needed an attorney.

---

Dan had been stuck in this cell for almost two days. They had offered him food but he refused. There was an ache in his stomach, not from hunger, but from longing. Omega are extremely connected to their children more than beta and alpha. Dan needed to hold them, feed them, and make sure they were warm and safe.

The past few days were foggy in his head. He can’t remember what he did to end up in a place like this.

Dan remembers when his waters broke in the kitchen and he remembers cleaning up the mess it made. He remembers calling Donovan home and waiting for the midwife. The pain had been worse than ever before. One thing stuck out in his mind however. He had never seen the child’s face or scented him.

After each labor, the silver lining to all the suffering was a beautiful child to call his own. There had been no silver lining. No baby.

He had asked the officers where his children were and why was he there but they gave him no answer. Dan screamed and cried but eventually passed out from exhaustion and starvation.

**

“Omega, wake up.”

“Mmmm?”

“Wake up. Now. Someone is here to see you.”

“Me?” Dan asked, not getting his answer.

One of the jail guards unlocked his cell door and escorted him to the visitor’s room. He was shoved into a seat and told he had sixty minutes to speak with his lawyer. In front of him, behind a glass partition, sat a man with dark black hair and contrasting bright blue eyes. Dan stared at the man for a moment before lifting his hand to the phone and putting it to his ear.

“H-hello,” Dan greeted, keeping his eyes down so not to look directly at the alpha.

“Hello, Daniel Howell-Parks. I’m Alpha Philip Lester and I’ve been assigned to your case as your defense lawyer. I’m going to need you to be completely honest with me and tell me the truth absolutely 100% of the time. Can you do that for me?”

Dan nodded his head slowly and gave Alpha Philip a quick glance.

“Tell me what happened. Why do you believe the police think you killed your Alpha?”

“B-because my daughter...she saw me do it,” Dan whispered. “B-but I didn’t even know! I don’t remember doing it, I swear! I w-wasn’t thinking I guess, I just-”

“Slow down. I’m not blaming you for anything,” the alpha smiled kindly, “I’m just asking for your side of the story.”

“A-Alpha, I can’t remember what happened. All I remember is having my baby and then I was here.”

“Daniel, your youngest children are over a year old,” Phil mentioned, looking over the files before him. “You don’t remember anything from the past year?”

“No. I had a baby. I was pregnant after the twins. I know that much, sir. B-But, I never saw him. I don’t know where any of them are and it’s killing me. Do you know where they are?” Dan asked, verging on tears. He really didn’t know who to trust at this point but he had to try. “Please, I need to know they’re safe. Is Rhiannon--”

“Daniel! Please…” Phil said. “They are just fine. They’re in protective custody until a suitable home can be found.”

Upon hearing about this children, finally, Dan grasped at the little bit of hope. “They are okay? Has Mattie gotten over his cold? The twins need a nightlight to sleep and Rhiannon can’t drink lactose milk. Her stomach gets terribly upset. Have you seen them? Are they--”

“I’m sure they will be fine. The care system will find them someone to foster or adopt them all.”

Dan froze. “Adopt? Adopt who? My children? No! I can’t let that happen. Please?” he asked, grabbing at Phil’s sleeve. “Keep them. Don’t let anyone take them. They might split them up or worse, sell them!”

Phil was at a lost for words. “I-I…”

Breathing heavily, running his finger through his hair, Dan pleaded, “Make sure no one takes them. If I end up in prison or worse, they need to stay together. They’re all each other they have. I took away everything from them.”

“I will try my hardest, okay. I can only try.”

Dan nodded and released Phil’s sleeve. He mumbled, “Sorry, Alpha. I-I didn’t mean to disrespect you the way I have. Forgive me.”

Phil shook his head at the display before him. All of sudden, the baby-crazed omega fell into his submissive nature so quickly, Phil nearly missed it.  

“It’s quite alright. What I need you to do is tell me everything, from the beginning. If I’m going to build a case for you, I need to know where you’re coming from. Let’s start with your marriage, alright?”

Dan nodded, keeping his gaze down.

“When were you bonded?”

“Eighteen, Alpha.”

“How was the marriage?”

“I beg your pardon, Alpha?”

“Were you happy? Were you treated well? Um… was it everything you expected?”

Shaking his head, Dan replied, “Yes and no. I knew it wouldn’t be good the moment my father said I was ready. And I wasn’t very happy at all the first year. He was-- I made him angry. My alpha never liked anything I did. I was always messing up. I couldn’t even give him alpha sons. He gave me a home and I was well-fed and I even had my own room with a bed. I-I messed everything up…”

“Dan? You said you made him angry? Was he violent with you?”

“Violent?”

“Did he beat you? For any reason at all? Did he punish you physically? Make you bleed or bruise?”

Shaking, Dan pushed up his sleeves to reveal identical hand prints wrapped around his forearms. They had turned a yellowish-green from age. “The last time we... he held me down,” Dan whispered, closing his eyes and reliving the abuse.  Then he cautiously stood up and lifted the hem of his shirt before turning around. Burns and a multitude of bruises marred his back and waist. “I let dinner get cold when he came home later than usual. He was teaching me what hot was.”

“He burned you because you let dinner get cold?” Phil asked, trying to clarify.

He’d never been able to understand why anyone would abuse their omega after all they do for them. Phil was sure they were stories of the past told by great grandparents, but to actually see it happening today was...scary.

“Yes Alpha. I was bad, I deserved it. I always deserve my punishments because, like I said, I’m always messing up. Sometimes I won’t have enough time to clean everything or I might not be good enough during my heat to please my alpha...there’s been many things, but my alpha was only doing what he should have been. I need to be taught.”

Phil felt his heart drop into his stomach. He’d never met an omega so submissive and brainwashed. He thought abuse was normal and if he didn’t get punished he wasn’t learning. As much as Phil wanted to continue on with the current conversation, he needed more from Daniel to build his case.

“Daniel, you told me about a baby that you never got to see. Why is that?”

“Because I messed up, Alpha,” Dan replied as if it were common knowledge.

Was Alpha Lester even listening? He was punished when he did bad things and he’d done a horrible thing.

“How did you mess up?” Phil questioned. “Was there problems with delivery?”

“Not that I know of. Alpha wanted an alpha and I kept failing him. He told me this time would be the last straw. I tried so hard, I swear I did. I wanted my baby to be an alpha so badly--I would have done anything. But…” Dan trailed off looking at the wall rather than Phil.

“But what?” Phil prompted. “What happened?”

“My baby-my precious baby,” Dan mumbled allowing a few tears to fall. “I did a really bad thing. I messed up and didn’t give him his alpha, so I was punished. I never even got to hold him. Never got to see him.”

“And is that when your daughter - Rhiannon - came into the picture?”

“Yes Alpha. I don’t know what happened. I just remember being angry and I blacked out. When I realized what happened, Alpha Donovan was on the floor unmoving, along with his wife. I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to see my baby and I went nuts. I-”

“Time’s up!” a warden called.

“Please Alpha Lester, you have to believe me! I didn’t mean to hurt anyone! I just-”

“I said time’s up omega!”

“You need to help me!” Dan screamed over his shoulder as he was taken away by the guards.

“I will,” Phil told no one. “I promise you, I will.”

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