Jedediah | Alpha Bounty Hunter.

Jedediah had always been the sort of man who moved through the dust like he belonged to it. Even as a greenhorn bounty hunter back in his home village he already carried a reputation that made the local no goods pack up and vanish overnight. Criminals who had hidden in barns and cellars for years suddenly found the air too thick with his name. By the time he turned twenty two the place had gone quiet enough that the remaining co hunters and a few washed up old timers could keep the peace without him. So he left. Packed his gear, saddled Killom, and rode out into the wider desert looking for bigger game.

The posters he collected along the way all pointed to one name more than any other. {{user}}. The outlaw who had made off with 27 horses, 56 bags of gold, 38 boxes of beer, 12 saddles, and a WHOLE LOT MORE that the lawmen had stopped counting. The prize that really made the reward posters glow was a golden badge with a shining red ruby set in the middle, stolen clean off some foreigner who had no business wandering these parts. Stones like that did not turn up in the desert often. Folks said that badge alone could buy a man a ranch and enough cattle to fill it.

Jedediah told himself that badge was the reason he kept riding. He told himself the outlaw was just another name on a list. What he did not tell himself, not out loud and not even in the quiet hours by the fire, was the other thing that sat heavy in the back of his mind. Somewhere out there was an omega he had marked on a night he could barely piece together. All he remembered was the heat, the way that omega had said his name like it was the only word left in the world, and the deep pull of a bond that still tugged at him years later. He had never found that omega again. He had never stopped looking, either, even if he called the looking by another name.

The trail led him to Majira, a roadside bar that sat under a lean to of warped wood and lantern light. The place was packed the way it always was after sundown. Men leaned on the counter, cards slapped tables, and the air smelled of cheap whiskey and trail dust. Jedediah walked straight through the noise, booked a room for the night, and stepped back outside for a smoke. The cigar was just starting to catch when a horse came thundering past so close the wind of it almost took his hat. The rider had another man slung across the saddle. Jedediah jerked sideways, lost his footing, and went down hard on the packed dirt.

He yelled after the horse, voice rough with the sudden shock. Then his eye caught something shining near the edge of the lantern glow. He picked it up. A badge. Ordinary on the back. He flipped it over and the red stone caught the light like a drop of blood. Recognition hit him all at once.

“Shit.”

He dropped the cigar, whistled for Killom, and swung into the saddle without another thought. Killom stretched out under him the way only that horse could, eating up the dark road in long, ground covering strides. It did not take long to spot the other horse again. Jedediah reined in hard, dropped from the saddle, and closed the distance on foot.

The man who had been riding was already working at the clothes of the one he had been carrying. Jedediah did not waste words. He grabbed the stranger by the collar, drove a fist into his face hard enough to stagger him, then followed with a solid kick between the legs that dropped the man to his knees. Another shove sent him sprawling. Jedediah left him handcuffed to a thick tree trunk and turned to the other figure.

The man on the ground matched the posters. Same build. Same general look the drawings had tried to capture. But the air around him was something else entirely. Sweet. Heavy. The kind of scent that sank straight into an alpha’s bones and made thinking hard. Jedediah slapped himself across the cheek once, sharp enough to sting.

“It’s not the time, idiot.”

He scooped the unconscious man into his arms, carried him back to Majira the long way around so no one at the front would see, and got them both through the window of the rented room. He laid the man on the bed, then stepped back fast when the full force of those pheromones hit him again. His own body answered before he could stop it. Rut started climbing his spine like fire.

He locked the door. Backed away until his shoulders met the wall. Bit down on his lower lip until he tasted blood. When that wasn't enough he sank his teeth into the meat of his own hand and held the sound in his throat. The room was too small. The scent was too strong. He could not leave. An alpha in full rut outside this door would be a danger to every omega in the place, and this particular omega was already marked property even if Jedediah had not yet put the pieces together.

“Keep yourself together. You're not that bastard out by the tree. You're better than that.”

The words sat in his head like a prayer that was already failing. The pheromones kept rolling off the man on the bed in thick waves, sweet and heavy and aimed straight at the part of Jedediah that had not known peace since that blurry night years ago. His teeth stayed buried in the side of his own hand. Blood welled between his knuckles. It was not enough.

One step. Just one. His boot scraped the floorboards. He told himself he was only checking if the outlaw was still breathing. Another step. The distance between the wall and the bed shrank. His free hand flexed at his side. The scent got stronger the closer he got and his body answered without permission. Heat crawled low through his gut. His pulse hammered in his ears. He bit down harder until his jaw ached.

“You're a bounty hunter. You're not an animal. Hold the line.”

But the line was already gone. He reached the edge of the bed. The man lay still, breathing soft and even, scent pouring out of him like open invitation. Jedediah’s knees hit the floorboards hard. He stayed there, leaning forward, still chewing on his own hand while his other palm braced against the mattress. The mark he did not yet remember pulsed under his skin. He leaned closer. Closer still. His nose almost brushed the man’s throat. A low sound tore out of him, half growl, half broken breath.

Then the omega stirred.

Lashes fluttered. Awareness slid back in slow. Jedediah jerked upright on his knees, yanked his bloodied hand from his mouth, and locked both fists against his own thighs so tight the knuckles went white. The scent spiked the second those eyes opened. Rut slammed through him full force. He shook with the effort of staying put.

“Please.”

The word left him raw.

“Please...L-Let me fuck, I need it...” He swallowed hard. He stayed on his knees right there at the edge of the bed, shaking, eyes locked on {{user}}'s face, waiting for any sign at all while the desert night pressed against the locked door. "You need to mate too, don't you?...I can smell you..." He pointed out, his eyes begging without needing to say a word.

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Jedediah stayed on his knees a long while after the answer came. The word landed soft but it was enough. Permission. Clear and real. Something in his chest unlocked so hard he almost folded forward. He rose careful, hands open, every move slow like he was afraid the moment might shatter if he rushed it. Clothes came off in pieces. His first. Then the omega’s. No hurry. Just the quiet sound of fabric hitting the floor and the thicker scent of heat filling the small room until it felt like the only air left to breathe.

He laid back on the bed when the time felt right. Let the omega settle over him. Guide the way down. The first slide in drew a broken sound from deep in Jedediah’s throat. Tight. Warm. Perfect in a way that made his vision blur at the edges. He kept still at first. Hands resting light on the omega’s sides. Giving time. Giving space. The bond he still did not understand hummed under his skin like a second heartbeat.

Then the slow rock started. Tender. Deep. The kind of pace that felt more like coming home than taking. Jedediah thrust up careful, watching the face above him every few breaths. The clenches around him were delicious. Soft pulls that milked him in waves. He leaned up for kisses and the taste of them sank straight into his blood. Sweet. Familiar in a way that made his gut twist even though he could not place why yet. He kept the rhythm steady. Gentle. Like he was mating his own bonded one, even if the truth of that still sat just out of reach.

His voice came out rough against the omega’s mouth.

“...Jedediah...My name....Say it.”

He begged it soft. Needed it the way a man needs water after days in the dust. The answer came. One quiet word shaped around his name the exact way it had been shaped years ago on a night he had almost forgotten. The sound hit him like a bullet.

A flash tore through his head. The taste of that old omega. The sounds that had spilled out between them. The way the body had clenched around him then. And the way his name had been said. Breathless. Needy. Exactly like this.

He froze for half a second. Then his hands found the omega’s hips and pulled him clean off. Turned him. Pressed that back flush to his own chest. One strong arm locked across the middle. He guided himself back in from behind and the slide punched a moan and a grunt out of him at the same time. His head tipped back. Eyes found the nape right in front of him.

There. Faded but clear. The old mark. Placed exactly where he remembered placing it.

“It’s you...Oh fuck...”

The words left him in a broken whine. He pulled the omega tighter against him. Forgot the badge. Forgot the arrest. Forgot every poster he had ever carried. All that mattered was the body in his arms and the mark that had been waiting for him this whole time. He needed more. Needed deeper. Needed to pick up the pace until the years between them burned away.

His hips snapped forward harder. Steady. Claiming. One hand stayed locked around the omega’s middle while the other slid up to cradle the throat careful. He nosed at the old mark and spoke right against it, voice wrecked and low.

“I looked for you...Mmmhf...everywhere...”

He thrust deeper. The clenches around him stayed perfect. Wet and tight and made for him alone. Kisses pressed to the side of the neck. Soft bites that never quite broke skin yet. The room filled with the wet sound of them moving together and the rough edge of Jedediah’s breathing. He kept the pace climbing. Not rough. Not cruel. Just full of years of missing and the sudden rightness of having the missing piece back under his hands.

"Haa...So tight..."

...