by Aiden Bates
“I’m going behind his back,” he said finally, voice very soft. “With you.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end.
“And that makes you bad?”
“I’m lying to my father. The man who is technically my Alpha as long as I live under his roof. I…”
“He heard Raul’s sigh clearly down the line.
“Listen to me, baby. What you’re doing? Maybe it’s not the thing a perfectly obedient omega would do. But you can’t life your whole live tied up in these traditions. They’ll keep you from ever finding out who you are and what you want. And do you really want to be the perfect, obedient omega and wind up married to some ancient Alpha who doesn’t care about anything except how many pups you can pop out for him?”
Gavin closed his eyes.
“No,” he said quietly. “No, I don’t want that.”
“It will be okay,” Raul’s voice promised in his ear. “I’m going to win my suit, and you’ll be mine, and it won’t matter, because everything you’ll have done, that will have been with me. And I’ll be your Alpha. And if you need me to, baby, I’ll absolve you every of wrongdoing. However you want. “
Gavin found a smile somewhere, though tears pricked at the corners of his eyes.
“Promise?”
He wished Raul was there, to reach out and touch him. Wished he could have his Alpha’s fingers in his hair.
“I promise,” Raul answered, and there was nothing but certainty in his voice.
Gavin still wasn’t entirely sure he believed it. But when he hung up the phone after whispered goodbyes, he was able to sleep.
Chapter Six
His heat came as he had known it would. He’d been tired and restless the night before, and he woke up the next morning with an ache low in his stomach and curled back up in his blankets with a groan. It wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time. When his father knocked on his door just after sunrise, Gavin didn’t answer.
The door creaked open, and Gavin looked up to find his father standing over him. He already felt too hot, his hair curling against his temples and sticking to his cheeks.
His father took one look at him and stopped mid demand that he get out of bed. Instead, he reached out and laid a hand gently against Gavin’s forehead. His skin felt cool against Gavin’s own, and Gavin closed his eyes and leaned into the touch.
“I’ll get you some water and that bag of snacks you left in the kitchen,” his father’s gruff voice said, and then he was gone.
Gavin kicked the blanket off himself. It was too hot.
Footsteps returned, and he heard the door open, the faint click of glass against wood as his father set down the water and the snacks on his bedside table.
“I’m going to work,” he said, somewhere above Gavin, and Gavin nodded.
A hand brushed against his hair so gently he almost wondered if it had really been there. Gavin heard the door close again, and rolled over onto his back, stretching out against the too-warm sheets and staring up at the ceiling. His father, he knew, wouldn’t bother with breakfast. He’d get something on his way to work. Distantly, he heard the front door close. Gone, then, and not likely to be back until well after dinner time. He always avoided the house as much as possible when Gavin was in heat. Without turning his head, Gavin groped for his phone.
“Hey, baby.”
God, Raul. He had the best voice, low and warm with just the slightest hint of the accent his carrier must have had. Gavin shuddered a little, his free hand sliding down his body.
“Alpha,” he answered, breathless.
There was a pause, a muffled sound he thought might be Raul swearing.
“Oh, baby,” he said an instant later. “You in heat, sweet thing?”
It wasn’t really a question. The signs were obvious enough; Raul knew the answer already. Gavin nodded before he remembered his Alpha couldn’t see him.
“Yes,” he answered. “God, Alpha. Want you.”
He writhed on the bed as he spoke, words slurring together. He needed Raul. But Raul was an hour away. He had forgotten that part. And Raul couldn’t come to his house, because his father would smell him in the cabin and then they’d both be in trouble. Gavin whined softly in the back of his throat. His Alpha groaned.
“Can’t come, baby, you know that.”
“Yeah,” Gavin answered. “I know. Wish you could.”
“So do I, lover. More than you know.”
There was a moment of nothing, Raul whispering furiously to someone on the other end while Gavin lay on his bed with his free arm flung up over the pillow and his hips rocking.
“I’m going to stay on the phone with you,” Raul said. “How does that sound, baby?”
“Please,” Gavin answered instantly. “Stay with me, Alpha. Don’t go.”
“Not going anywhere, omega,” his Alpha returned. “I’m right here.”
“Need you,” Gavin breathed.
“I know you do, baby. Going to give you something that will help.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Raul said. “But first you need to strip for me.”
Gavin was only too happy to peel his shirt over his head and toss it aside, his pajama pants following. They hit the floor with little care.
“Ready, Alpha.”
“Good boy.”
Delight shivered through him.
“Get two fingers nice and wet for me, sweet thing.”
Gavin obediently spread his thighs, sliding his hand down between them, and slid his fingers through the slick there. The brush of his fingertips against sensitive skin made him whimper.
“Ready, baby?”
He nodded, remembered that he had to speak. “Yes, Alpha.”
“Up on all fours for me, omega.”
The growl seemed to vibrate in his bones. Gavin fumbled for the speaker phone button with his free hand, and rolled up onto elbows and knees with the phone laying on the blanket just in front of his face.
“Alpha. Please.”
“Shh, baby. I’ve got you. Two fingers, nice and slow.”
It wasn’t enough to press them inside himself. They weren’t as wide as Raul’s fingers. Weren’t as warm. But it helped. And having his Alpha’s voice on the phone there beside him helped. Gavin rocked back onto his fingers with a low moan, legs sliding open wider.
“How’s that feel, baby?”
“Good,” Gavin answered. “But ‘s not you.”
“I know,” Raul said, and his voice softened. “I’m sorry, Gavin. But it will be me. Soon.”
Gavin thrust his fingers back inside himself, tipping his hips up to make the angle easier, and gasped into the phone.
Raul’s voice lowered to an Alpha growl again. “I’m going to fill you up so good, omega. Going to open that pretty little hole so wide around my cock. Feel you so tight around me. Fill you up with my knot.”
The whimper that escaped Gavin might have embarrassed him another time. Right now he didn’t care. Didn’t care about anything except his Alpha’s voice in his ear and how much he wanted to be filled like that.
“Yeah. Alpha. Want you. Want your knot. Please.”
Raul groaned on the other end of the line, and Gavin writhed on his fingers.
“You have the toy we got you?”
Fuck. Yeah. That was a good idea.
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Get that out for me.”
Sliding his fingers from himself, Gavin reluctantly turned to open the drawer in his bedside table. The toy was already there. He’d moved it from its hiding place the night before in anticipation of the morning. It wasn’t his Alpha, but it was long and thick.
“You have it, baby?” Raul asked, and Gavin realized he had forgotten to say so.
“Have it,” he said. “Want it, Alpha.”
“I want you to slide it in your mouth first, baby. Get it wet.”
Gavin obediently opened his mouth, sliding down onto the toy the way he would have his Alpha’s cock if R
aul were here, moaning around the silicone. He let it press against the back of his throat, pulled it out again, then slid it deep, let his Alpha hear the messy sounds of it. Another slow thrust. Two. He whined, wanting more. He was so empty.
“Good boy,” his Alpha’s voice growled. “Now I want you to reach back and fill your needy little hole up with that.”
Whimpering against the sheets, Gavin did as he was told, pressing the toy slowly inside himself. It was a bigger stretch than his fingers, but it didn’t hurt. Felt good. Filled him up and opened him the way his Alpha’s cock would. He rocked back into it with a moan, breath catching when it stroked against his walls and over the little bundle of nerves that made his thighs tremble.
“Oh, fuck. Alpha. Feels so good. Fuck me, Alpha. Please.”
Raul was breathing hard. Gavin could hear him over the phone line, could hear the slick sound of skin against skin and knew that his Alpha had wrapped a hand around himself, was enjoying the sounds of Gavin being filled up and fucked with the toy.
“Gonna, baby,” he answered, voice a little rough. “Fuck you nice and hard and deep. Going to make you scream for me.”
That was the cue to start moving the toy faster, writhing back on it until it was as deep as it could go, his body clenching around it. Like this, with the sound of his Alpha’s pleasure, he could almost imagine they really were together. Gavin angled the toy to slide over his prostate with each thrust, the fingers of his free hand curled in the blanket and his cheek pressed against the mattress. His face was turned toward the phone. He rocked back to meet each thrust, deeper and harder than the last. Heat was curling low in his belly, moving through his veins.
Another deep stroke, his Alpha’s panting in his ear. He could almost feel Raul behind him, big hands curled around his hips to drag Gavin back onto his cock, filling him up until he couldn’t take another inch. Yes, god, he wanted that. Raul would lean down and lick over the mating mark. Would bite his shoulder hard enough to sting before he soothed it with his tongue. He would growl against the curve of Gavin’s jaw. His knot would stretch Gavin open wide, tie them together.
“Alpha,” Gavin breathed, shuddering and uneven. “Alpha.”
“Getting close, sweet thing?”
“Yes.”
“Come for me.”
Gavin thrust the toy in hard. His spine arched. His toes curled. Raul growled his own climax and Gavin fell with him.
He sobbed his Alpha’s name against the sheets.
His knees slid out from under him, and Gavin sank down to the bed, still filled with the toy. Wiping his fingers on the blankets, he reached for the phone, curling them around it like he was holding his Alpha instead of just a hunk of plastic and metal.
“I love you,” he breathed into the phone, a little shaky with the come down, his voice soft and breathless.
There was an instant’s silence on the other end of the line, then Raul’s voice, warm and reassuring. “I love you too.”
Tired eyes slid shut, body slipping toward sleep. “Alpha?” Gavin asked, voice slurring.
“Yes, baby?”
“Stay with me?”
“I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else.”
Chapter Seven
He didn't sleep for long. It was only a short while before Gavin was awake again, begging for his Alpha's knot, fucking himself on the toy again. There were toys that had knots, but Raul had gotten him one without, told him that he wanted his knot to be the only one to ever stretch him so wide. Gavin had agreed at the time, eager to please and wanting the same thing, but it always felt like less of a good decision when he was in heat, rocking back on a cock that wasn't big enough to fill him up the way he wanted to be filled.
It was better when he could have Raul on the phone, talking him through it, but he couldn't always have that. There were times his Alpha was busy. And when his father was home Gavin couldn't risk it, had to work himself through the cycles alone.
His heat lasted five days. He drank the water his father left for him, ate the food he'd prepared ahead of time. Most of the time he was alone in the cabin, his father only coming home for dinner and bed. Gavin didn't really mind that. It meant more time with Raul when his Alpha could get away. The low, rough voice would murmur encouragement and growl commands, slowly taking Gavin apart.
When his heat broke, Gavin woke groggy, but clear-headed. It was a nice change. Good to be able to think again. He struggled up to one elbow and reached for the phone by his bed.
Heat's over, he sent.
He scrolled through the message history and deleted the ones he'd sent to Raul and his Alpha’s replies, then deleted the call log as well. If his father ever decided to go directly to the phone company he was in trouble, but his father rarely even asked to see his phone. Gavin looked down at the blank screen. His father thought he was a good omega, didn't expect his son would be going behind his back. But he shouldn't be thinking about that. Raul had told him he was good, and Raul was the one who mattered most, because Raul was going to be his Alpha. Gavin had to keep telling himself it was true. If he told himself enough, maybe it would be.
A little unsteady on his feet, Gavin pride himself out of bed to take a shower, then changed the messy sheets, tossing them into a pile with the blankets to wash later.
The all-pack meet was in two days. Gavin shoved the soiled laundry into the machine and closed the door, straightening up to pour soap in with the bedding. In two days, he would know for certain whether he was going to belong to Raul. He crossed one finger over the other, held it for a moment. He needed the answer to be yes. Surely his father would be able to see how much the mating could benefit him? Could benefit the whole Rollins pack. The Superior wolves would be a powerful connection. An ally well worth having. And wasn't it tradition to make matings for the sake of such benefits? That Raul and Gavin were in love didn't even have to come into it. Not until after the fact, when everyone would smile and nod and whisper about how lucky it was that they had been perfect for each other. That the political maneuvering had brought about such a happy loving union. Gavin shook his head at himself, though he was smiling. It was a bit of a silly fantasy. Most people wouldn't really care one way or the other how their mating turned out.
Laundry started, Gavin went to the kitchen to make himself something to eat. He was ravenous. The snacks he'd packed before his heat had been chosen because they could keep his energy up and keep him full, but they got old after a few days. He wanted something fresh. As he leaned down into the fridge to pull vegetables from the crisper, he found himself humming, a slow, up-beat little song.
-----
The day of the all-pack summer meet dawned bright and warm. Gavin had been awake well before the sun, sitting cross-legged on his bed and watching the light change outside. He couldn't sleep. There was just too much to think about. Too much to hope for. It might have relieved him to pace, but his father could hear if he was moving around his room, and he didn't want him asking questions. Going out for a run would have been even better, but he didn't have permission, and there was no way he was waking his father up to ask. So he sat on his bed, fingers tapping rapidly against the quilt, and tried to read. It was a doomed endeavor.
When reading didn't work, Gavin went to his closet, sorting through the clothes there with slow flicks of his wrist. What should he wear? Something nice, obviously. Not a suit, though. Pack meets weren't exactly boardroom affairs. Not unless you were the Alpha of one of the packs. Everyone else spent all their time camping and running around in the woods.
Gavin went through everything in his closet again. He pulled out a button up shirt and a pair of jeans. Those would do. Raul liked the way he looked in those jeans. Gavin pulled the clothes on, then sat down on his bed again. Maybe he should shower before he got dressed? But he had showered the night before. He pulled a comb off the night stand and ran it through his hair. He glanced at the clock on his phone, then out at the dawn spreading slowly across the forest. Well, at least they wo
uld be leaving soon. He could hear his father moving around in his own room.
A short while later, his father knocked on the door. Gavin knew he would already expect him to be awake and ready, and he slipped his phone into his pocket before he stood and made his way to the door.
"You good to go?"
Gavin nodded, and his father gave it no more consideration than that, turning and heading for the door. Gavin followed.
They were meeting deep in the national forest, at one of the camp grounds that wasn't yet full of summer tourists. It was a small one, and they'd booked it out a few months in advance. They always did. Gavin in the passenger side of his father's pickup truck, and watched the pack members mill around the open space, greeting each other after long intervals without contact. He could see kids running in and out through the tents, glad to be back with playmates.
There was Blake Marrock, tall and dark-haired, his arm wrapped protectively around his slight, brown-eyed omega. Gavin smiled a little at the sight, though he was careful not to let his father see. Blake's brother Grey and his Alpha, Nicholas, were walking beside them, Grey obviously pregnant with their third child. Darren had a little one in his own arms, and the other children danced around their parents' feet, eager to join the games of tag and hide and seek that were going on all around them. It was a sweet sight.
"I'm going to go and speak with some of the pack heads," his father sad as he pulled the truck into a tent site and killed the engine. "I'll be back to set up the tent."
Gavin nodded. It wasn't like there was any hurry. They had a long while yet before night fell.
When his father was gone, he sat for a minute in the truck, then slid out and shut the door behind him, checking to make sure it was locked. If his father was meeting with the other Alphas, he had a good few hours to wander around on his own. They wouldn't be done talking for at least that long. Gavin wondered when Raul was going to speak to his father. Was he already? Was that what the meeting was about? But no, Gavin realized. It couldn't be. His father wouldn't have left before putting the tent up for that. And he wouldn't be meeting with Raul in front of the other pack Alphas. The suit was a private matter.