QAN: Same as last chapter.

Warnings: This may not start weird or anything but it will have (hopefully) very erotic chapters later on. This is an ALPHA/BETA/OMEGA Dynamics story (meaning there is knotting, mating/heat cycles, and male pregnancy, etc., etc.). There will probably be DUBIOUS CONSENT and AGGRESSIVE themes. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Chapter One

Derek

One week passed after the brunette told me that the Neroians were going to come to visit the governments of this world. I was beginning to doubt the girl even more. I scoffed at myself. Even IF she had of been telling the truth, I shouldn't have let it get to me. I couldn't believe I'd let myself buy into that stupid trick of hers.

I sighed a bit, shifting through some vegetables. They were expensive, but I couldn't stand that processed, frozen crap that had been meant to substitute fresh produce. I've been told that food grown naturally now wasn't nearly half as good as before when it could be grown outside of large facilities, but I'd never had access to better than this, so I didn't bother wondering too often about it.

As I selected a desirable piece of broccoli, the hologram screen—or holoscreen—of my computer bracer crackled to life signaling an alert broadcast. With a sigh, I looked down at the small screen. Apparently the Neroians had just landed in Japan. I'll be damned. Maybe the brunette wasn't lying after all.

The arrival date for each country was listed after that. Apparently, they were planning to hit the United States by the end of the month. It was rather unusual since they typically went through all the more advanced countries and then worked their way down which would put the United States in the top three visited… this time they seemed to be going in some sporadic order. It must be because of the new ruler.

I sighed, what did it matter? They had nothing to do with the rest of us. I still didn't understand why our government still felt the need to tell us when they were coming. Was it a publicity stunt? They would be coming during the month just before the November 2056 elections… But it still didn't make much sense. How would that affect voters? Whatever, it wasn't my problem. Washington D.C. was plenty far away from here… we wouldn't even see the space craft, more than likely.

I clicked holoscreen off and proceeded with my shopping, ending it with several newspaper and job cards that I would be able to sift through in hopes of finding a better job. I finish paying and press the button on the collar around my neck. The hologram mask—or holomask—slips up and covers my mouth and nose, to filter the air coming directly into my lungs. I step out and head back towards my apartment, which is closer to the New York City Biosphere which only covered the wealthier part of the city.

Half-way to my house, I stopped. The brunette who'd come to the club… she had said she was going to meet with them. I shook my head. Maybe it was just by chance that she knew the Neroians were coming… she could still be lying about everything else. After all, New York may still be an important city, but it wasn't the nation's capital.

Pushing more pointless thoughts from my head, I jumped slightly when my computer bracer alerted me to a call. I activated the holoscreen and smiled when I saw my friend, Nick, on the other end.

"Hey! How's it going?" he laughed. "Oh? You're outside? Shopping before work tonight?"

"Yeah," I replied with a chuckle of my own. "How's the detective life treating ya?"

The African American man's chocolate eyes lit up as I asked about his new job.

"It's been great." He said, excitedly, "But I didn't call you to brag. You have the day off tomorrow, right?"

I nodded, smiling at his excitement.

"Great, let's get together with the boys and go drinking or something. It's rare that you have a Saturday off!"

"I drink every night," I replied, with a sigh. "I'm too old to keep this up."

"Get your foot out of the grave! I'm three years older than you and you don't see me whining about being old." He said, waggling his brows at me. "Come on! We can get some real girls in here to flirt with… the ones you like. Long legs, red hair… big tits..? What do ya say?

"I say that this place is way too public for this kind of conversation." I glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention. "I'll come. What time?"

"That's what I'm talking about! The guys and me have been missin' you man!" he laughed, "I'll meet you at the usual place… say about… 6:30? Wear those sexy jeans o' yours. You know the girls just die for those… Hell, so do half the guys."

I rolled my eyes. "Only you would notice if there were guys checkin' me out."

"Someone's gotta defend that sweet virgin ass of yours."

"Again, too public for this conversation," I laughed out loud as I reached my apartment and climbed up to the third floor where my apartment was nestled furthest from the stairs.

"You love me, dude! Just admit it!" he laughed, his eyes sparkling again. Nick was pretty openly gay and as long as we kept the banter friendly, I didn't mind. He'd never expressed interest in me—in fact, I'm pretty sure he was more into our other friend, Rhody, but anyone's guess is as good as mine—so we kept a good relationship.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, "I'll see you tomorrow." I hang up on him as I walk into the apartment, chuckling a little bit.

He sent me a message.

Douche, didn't have to hang up on me. – NC

I laughed, and then typed into my reply.

Sorry, did I hurt the poor baby's feelings? – DI

You're such an ass. – NC

A few minutes later:

Also, be careful out… a woman was murdered in your area the other day. – NC

A chill went up my spin.

Dude, really? That's just creepy. Besides, don't criminals have like, I dunno, a specific target type or something? I'm pretty sure I'm not a woman. – DI

His reply didn't come until well after I'd cooked and finished dinner.

Usually, yeah, something like that. But it doesn't hurt to be cautious. Just keep it in mind, I'll talk to ya l8tr. – NC

With a sigh, I showered and left for work… which ended up being tremendously boring. I collapsed later when I got home, a bunch of job-search chips sitting in a neat pile on my bed side.

You'd think an engineer wouldn't have such a hard damn time finding a job… - DI

Nick should be up about now… Wait, it's Saturday, so maybe not. Oh well.

Dude, wtf? It's like… 5 AM. Besides you know experience is EVERYTHING in that field. Book smarts will only get so far. And it's not like you have an award-winning personality. – NC

Dick – DI

But he was right. I sighed and unclipped the device from my wrist, setting it on the nightstand next to the cards. I'd get working on those when I woke up.

I snuggled my face into the pillow. The bracer squawked at me saying I had a new message. I ignored it. I was too comfortable now. My mind was restless though. Nick was always right. I had a different mask for every situation. My work face—all charm and charisma—my friend persona—all good humor and masculinity… and while, I'm not denying being all of those things I am normally more defensive and grouchy than anything. As far as I know, Nick is the only one who understands that about me… it is a rather strange reaction.

There is no particular reason… None that I can claim is unique, at least. My parents were assholes, pure and simple…Not an unusual occurrence in a world still putting itself back together. Well, there were some other things, but they were also quite common occurrences in the world that we live in.

So… why did it bother me so much? I snorted. Probably because I couldn't seem to hold a job because I was always pissing off my bosses, and that meant that I couldn't gain experience in the field that I needed, which meant that in the end I couldn't get a job in the field I wanted.

A sigh works its way out of my throat and I curl into the pillow more. I'll sleep for a little while before I get to work on those job things and have to meet the guys. It didn't take long to fall asleep.

I woke to my alarm five hours later, groaning ever so slightly. I knew it wasn't enough sleep, but I needed to find a better job, so that's what I would do.

The time to leave to meet my friends came quickly enough, and I felt I'd been rather successful all things considered. I'd managed to apply to three prominent looking places. All that was left was to wait for them to call me back with promises of interviews…If they wanted to interview me, at least.

On my walk to meet the guys, I got the faintest chill that someone was watching me. I imagine it's because Nick was creeping me out with the whole murderer thing. I hadn't even realized that there had been a murder. Not that that was particularly surprising.

I didn't actively look up that kind of stuff, and while the government still had the same law system—with some adjustments for the newer way of things and technology, etc.—they tended to keep publicity about the bad things in society down to a minimum when things started getting a little out of hand a few years back. In fact, if I remember correctly, the last time the Neroians came to Earth there was a string of murders across the country… or at least that's what Nick said, since he actually pays attention to stuff like that.

The government investigated and said it was something about anti-Neroian movements and other stuff that made no sense to me, but I remembered the alert. I wondered if that would happen again. It's very likely considering that some people are always looking for an excuse to start something…especially against the government… and especially since the crisis that brought the world together is slowly ebbing away, even if it's not gone completely.

The evening started with a light supper—it was a bar, not a restaurant after all—and got rowdy quickly. Nick had indeed found a long-legged red head for me to take home with me later. She flittered with me shamelessly, and I returned it.

"So, I was looking through some files and you have no fuckin' idea how weird some of these cold cases are…" Nick slurred a bit, where he had tossed back a couple to many after a rejection from some just-turned-21 kid that had been trying to get me to flirt with him. He continued on and on with his conspiracy theories, but I had to piss too badly to really pay much attention. I'm sure he'll regal me with the tale of his investigations later.

"'cuse me…" I said, standing, my voice only slightly slurred. Considering the amount of alcohol I've consumed, that is a definite feat.

With more effort than I'd like to admit to putting forth, I stumbled to the restroom, relieved myself, washed my hands, and began wandering back towards my friends when I was stopped by some guy. He was big, but I was too drunk to really focus on his features.

"You forgot this," he said, after a minute of staring at me before he shoved a scarf-like thing at my face.

The first thing I thought when it was shoved into my face was how rude this guy was. Why didn't he just hand it to me like a normal person? The next thought was that the scent on this scarf was positively delicious and I had to figure out what cologne it was—which led to the more confusing thought of WHY it smelled good enough to give me an erection if it was my scarf.

I yanked it from my face, stared at it uncomprehendingly, trying to wrap my intoxicated mind around the questions floating around in my head lazily.

"I think you're mistaken," I said, glancing up at the guy who was still staring at me. "There's no way this is mine. I've never smelt this cologne before… If I had, I'm sure I'd have remembered it's almost mouth-wateringly delicious."

What I was sure was a smug expression came onto his face.

"Oh, well, it is not mine either, so why don't you just keep it? I doubt anyone will come looking for it." He replied before turning and striding off and disappearing into the crowd.

I blinked after him, and then shrugged, taking another long deep breath of the scarf. My body hummed slightly and I wondered briefly if there was some kind of aphrodisiac that had been put on the scarf.

I wrapped it gingerly around my neck, figuring it didn't matter to keep it or not, and it was just a bit nippy outside.

I chatted up the red-head again—because she was about to leave with some wanna-be, but I am a much better catch, so I stopped that nonsense quickly enough—and we left after I waved good-bye to my friends.

The heady scent of the scarf drifted up to me every now and then and I found that keeping my hands and mouth to myself was a bit difficult. It didn't help that my long-legged partner was so willing to stop so we could all but dry hump each other against the walls out in the middle of the street.

Maybe she got a whiff of the scarf as well… Of course, could just be she's horny.

Didn't matter, I was getting laid tonight, and would hopefully have a job by the end of the month. I could feel eyes on me and figured someone was enjoying the view of an enthusiastic "couple."

We stumbled into my studio apartment—modest, but spacious; I was very particular when searching for a place to live—and started shucking closes like they were on fire, our mouths barely breaking from one another.

But something, I realized was very wrong. My previously enthusiastic erection waned and despite her enthusiastic attempts to liven it up, it just wilted further.

I was shell shocked, and could barely do more than watch her pull on her clothes and storm out angrily after slapping me—hard.

I looked down at my uninterested member and back at the door before letting out a stream of irritated curses. Well, it must've been a fluke. I had obviously been hard at the bar earlier and had been up until we started getting undressed.

Obviously, I had drank more than I'd realized, and the alcohol was catching up to me.

Glaring at nothing I flopped back onto my back, still naked, grumbling under my breath, I let close my eyes and just decide to sleep it off, curling under my blanket and not bothering to get dressed.