Stripped Bare

My beloved is an Anomaly

Dante slept peacefully in Damien's arms but the young agent had an extremely restless evening, out of concern and worry for this man...this man who had silently won his heart. He studied his lover's face, admiring the gentle ridges of his immaculate bone structure: the high cheekbones, the aquiline nose. As his eyes wandered down to his love's pillow lips, he tenderly bent down to kiss them.

Dante stirred ever so slightly, as Damien carefully slid his arm out from underneath Dante's head, and slipped out of bed to read the new file that his father had sent him. Damien padded softly across the room, to the table where his laptop sat, and opened it.

As Damien read quietly, taking care so as not to disturb his love, he was astonished to find thorough information on the backgrounds of Dante's parents; their coming to America and the horrible accident that had supposedly caused their deaths.

The strange thing was, there were no bodies to be found. A report was filed anonymously by someone who had reported an accident where a vehicle had veered off the road, ran through a barrier and was sent careening down a ravine.

The vehicle had been totally crushed on impact, and if someone had been in it, they would have not survived the crash. This anonymous person had discovered a two-year-old toddler at the scene, and called it in.

How Dante the child came to be there at the time was a complete mystery. The police officer who responded to the call was no other than Marcus' sibling, officer Madsen, who immediately took the child, who seemed unhurt, to the hospital.

After notifying a priest at the children's orphanage, the officer left the Dante in his care. Even more mysterious was how the Organization had come into contact with the priest, and soon agents swarmed the hospital, removing the child and whatever records were created noting his presence.

Dante was then brought to a secret facility, where he underwent an operation to insert the implant behind his ear, and monitored before being handed over to child welfare.

Damien's brain went into overdrive, as this information peaked his interest. Dante's only recollection of his parents, was that of his mother singing him a lullaby, in his nursery at their designated home, which the US government had provided them.

Dante's parents were due for an interview that fateful morning, hopefully to secure two new jobs with the Aeronautical Department of Engineering. They had strapped their little boy in the backseat, while they both took to the front.

Whomever or whatever rammed them from behind, causing Dante's father to veer off-course, hit a barrier and go over the edge. The force must have been so great, that Damien had concluded that it could have only been something as large as a truck that could have done this.

The strange thing was, if his parents indeed could have survived the crash, who could have taken them? And more worrying, where were they now? This made Damien ponder the situation, since Thorpe's men had placed Dante in the care of foster parents, who did the worst imaginable, by nearly destroying the child through sexual abuse.

But thanks to his own innate powers, the boy was able to break free, but at the cost of killing the man sent to foster him. Alone on the streets, the child was forced to fend for himself the only way he knew how, by selling himself for food and a secure bed for the night.

Madsen had caught the child stealing a loaf of bread from the local store, and took him to his home out of pity, and thus, their relationship became more than just friendship, but that of father and son.

Madsen adopted the boy, left all his possessions and a small fortune to Dante, to continue his education, but it was not enough, so Dante was forced to look for other ways to supplement more income.

Taking on a job, first as a spotter for the local gym, then as a stripper for the hottest club in town was perfect for Dante, who continued to study for his police exams. The young officer graduated with flying colors, and continued his training as an undercover police officer, which led to drug busts in schools, thanks to his youthful, and seemingly innocent appearance.

Since Dante still moonlighted as a stripper, it was the perfect ruse for investigating his boss, and the seedy side of the industry, which included the presence of drug dealers in the mix. The Commandant was impressed with the young officer's keen sense of intuition when it came to his work, and was successful in all he took on, so the man agreed to allow Dante to keep up with it.

One could only imagine the Commandant's surprise, when all this led up to a certain prince named Alejandro, who was currently being investigated for his own dealings in illegal contraband, and human trafficking.

Dante POV

I woke up to the gorgeous view of Damien's naked back, as he sat in his chair, at the computer. I was wondering what could have peaked his interest at such an ungodly hour. It was in the stillness of night when I found him this way, studying a document intensely only to discover that it had my name on it.

"Find anything interesting?" I said, as I snatched the file right from under his nose.

"What? Oh, uhm...yes actually. There's a mystery surrounding your parents' supposed deaths..." He quietly mentioned.

"My parents?" I asked, wide-eyed, as I suddenly searched for the details within the file and sure enough I found them. "Their bodies were never found...I was alone..." I gasped, sinking into the seat opposite of Damien.

"How much of your parents do you recall, Dante? Any memories of them at all?" Damien carefully took back the file from my hands.

"Fleeting ones...of my mother holding me in her arms and cooing to me, while my father beamed over her shoulder...There was a lullaby that she sang in her mother tongue..." I scanned the small room, my eyes suddenly darting to a flash of light from outside the window.

I quickly grabbed Damien down to the floor with me, as the beam of light crossed the window pane. I waited until it disappeared, and then we both stood up again. Only the light from Damien's laptop was glowing in the darkness.

"What is it?" he asked, pulling me close to him.

"I'm frightened of what the royals might do to me..." I whispered, jumping with a start, as I heard my phone ringing. "Who on earth would be calling me at this hour?"

"What's wrong?" Damien flashed a look of concern my way.

"It's Elena..." I whispered, saying, "I guess I should answer it, huh?" I concluded with my eyebrows raised.

"Yes, better, so as not to arouse any suspicion..." He nodded, listening in.

"Yes, your highness...Uhm...I'm with a friend spending the night...Uh...sure..." I handed the phone over to Damien, covering the receiver. "She wishes to have a word with you...She assumes I'm with the cute boy whom I ran into at the airport, who has been my guide around town..."

Damien rolled his eyes and took the phone carefully.

"Hello? Who is this? Hello, your highness. It's a pleasure speaking with you. What can I do for you? Interesting. I see...sure...when? what time? Oh...kay?" He then hung up.

"What's happening?" I demanded.

"Well, it seems that your princess has decided to throw a lavish party tomorrow evening and requests our presence..." He shrugged., smiling mischievously, "I can't wait to meet her. This is going to be fun..."

"I suddenly feel as if I don't know you, Damien..." I was shocked at his reaction.

"I'd like to satisfy my curiosity, and this is one way to do it, but also to establish some sort of connection to see where she's going with this. We both know her involvement with human trafficking, don't we? Well...if she's thinking what I think she's thinking, she'll be definitely in for the surprise of her life..." He nodded knowingly.

I was curious as to what he had planned because immediately afterwards, he called both Mason and Fahey, and also Commander Bryant. I had a feeling that tomorrow evening was not going to end well for the princess...