Not Destiny

by N. J. Lysk

  Uri had time to catch his breath before he felt his chin being lifted. “Look at me.”

  He did, although any urgency to see had disappeared. Thomas was flushed enough to be visible even in the low light. “You’re gorgeous, you know that?” he told Uri, thumbing his stubble with a tenderness that turned sharper when his hand travelled lower to rest on his neck. No pressure at all, but enough for Uriel’s heart to clamour against in his chest. “You don’t have a safeword, so I gotta ask you again. Can I have your cock?”

  The words hit like lightning strikes, and Uri clenched his eyes shut like he’d had a torch shoved into his face. He felt Thomas’s thighs pressing against his sides, and then, once he could hear again, Thomas’s voice in his ear. “Hey, it’s okay.” The other man was bent over him, using his left arm to support most of his weight so his right hand would remain free to touch Uri. “Take it easy.”

  Uri blinked, swallowing hard. He didn’t understand what was happening to him, the raw, open feeling in his head, like an anchor had been cut and there was nothing... Thomas’s fingers tugged at his hair and the pain focused his attention on the other man. “I got you,” Thomas promised. “Just... Just trust me, I got you. You can let go, I’ll pull you back out.”

  He only realised how tense he had become when the words unlocked the muscles in his back and he slumped onto the bedding. Thomas sighed above him and bent double to kiss him softly on the cheek, praising as he did, “Like that, yeah. Just lemme...”

  Uri felt Thomas’s hand on his cock like a distant echo to the brush of his lips against his cheekbone, and then Thomas raised himself onto his knees and positioned Uri’s erection at his own entrance. Normally, Uri would have found it hard not to thrust, but now it was easy to lie there, to wait, shivering slightly because he was growing a little cold everywhere Thomas wasn’t touching him. The soft skin of Thomas’s arsehole giving way to the head of his cock was intense enough to make him jerk, but he still didn’t try to push. With Thomas sitting on top of him, supporting his weight with his hands firmly planted on Uri’s shoulders, it wasn’t likely he’d have accomplished much if he’d tried.

  He couldn’t move his torso, but Thomas was too busy to kiss him, so when the lube he’d generously applied made him slide a few inches lower on Uri’s erection, he was free to whimper at the glorious pressure.

  Thomas echoed the sound. “Yes, like that, give it to me... I want all of it. I—” He must not have meant to clench or the immediate relaxation that automatically followed and that accomplished the rest of the task with swiftness his soft grunt suggested was not altogether pleasant.

  Uri closed his eyes again, overcome by the slick heat he was encased in.

  “Hades and Heaven,” Thomas sighed, a praise and a curse. He lifted himself and let gravity do the work of pushing him back down onto Uri’s dick. They both grunted and off they were, or really, Thomas was because with a man a good bit heavier than him on top while he was flat on his back, there wasn’t much Uri could do but lie there and take it.

  It felt good, better than anything he could ever remember; not simply pleasure but peace. A quietude he... Thomas scratched his chest, heaving for breath as he raised himself once more, fucking himself hard enough he’d indeed feel it the next day—possibly the next week. Almost too fast for Uri to get off, except just then he clenched as he was almost all the way off, catching the sensitive head on his rim and waking Uri’s body from its pleasurable stupor with a wave of ecstasy he could hardly breathe through. It jolted through him, making his hips buck and slam his cock deep into Thomas’s body.

  Thomas moaned, low and deep, and almost growled at him for it. Uri wasn’t sure if the tight, twisted strokes he took up next, short and sweet and forcing him deeper each time, were a reward or a punishment. It was hard to think through the haze of euphoria he was falling into as his cock was squeezed into Thomas’s hole to the rhythm of the man’s panting exhalations.

  “Oh, gods,” Thomas whimpered, taking a bruising hold of Uri’s bicep.

  Uri unclenched his eyes to see him throw his head back and take his own cock in his other hand with an equally unforgiving grip. He lifted himself again, abs rippling with the effort, and Uri watched, transfixed, as he started to come, his sticky release arcing between them and marking both their chests up. Until he couldn’t anymore, because as Thomas orgasmed, the resulting contractions around his cock reached their peak, and he emerged from the oddly absent state he’d so easily submerged into like a man taking his first breath—both ecstatic and painful, electrifying and burning—as oxygen hit his brain and his balls started to discharge into the tight, wet grip of Thomas’s body.

  Chapter Nineteen: Thomas

  Some might have said there had been plenty of revelations that night, but Thomas was... giddy. Bloody giddy with relief, ecstatic with joy and some other combination of words he couldn’t be bothered to search for. He reached out and ran his fingers over Uri’s stomach, rising and falling as the man breathed.

  Uri turned his head in Thomas’s direction, eyes bright and lips already curving in anticipation. “Really?” He seemed far from disinterested, if the way he was turning his torso into the touch was any indication.

  Thomas rolled his eyes at him, then breathed in and out. “I have another question.”

  He felt Uri’s stomach muscles tighten as he swallowed, but he got a nod.

  “Just... Any answer is fine, I just want to know what you like. This was...” He laughed, unable to hold it in. “Amazing,” he said in the end, echoing Uri’s verdict.

  Uri smiled, tentative but sincere. “Ask already.”

  “When you... Well, that first night, when you sucked me off and then you fucked me, you were...”

  “Domineering?” For once, Uri finished his thought instead of the other way around.

  “Yeah,” Thomas agreed, relieved. “You seemed to like it, but, I don’t know, do you? Or maybe you do but this is better? Just—”

  “I like it,” Uri said, then rolled even closer and reached for his wrist. Thomas let himself be pulled towards the centre of the bed until their knees knocked together. “I just...” His grip tightened. “I can’t ever be sure if it’s me, or...”

  “Or your instincts?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Like I can’t be sure if I want to kiss you because you’re a bloody saint or because you got really lucky in the genetic lottery?”

  Uri huffed, and Thomas felt his hold slacken. He only had a few seconds to reach out and crush Uri’s fingers between his own before the other man rolled away. “Don’t.”

  The alpha looked up, startled.

  “Don’t... don’t go away,” Thomas tried to explain. “I want to understand.”

  Uri watched him, clearly doubting his ability to, but he nodded. “Okay.” His fingers twitched, and when Thomas loosened his own, Uri turned his hand until they were palm to palm. “For me... when I want someone I know, someone I like... that’s one thing. I know why, it comes from what I have with them, our relationship. But with omegas, it’s just there, for no reason. I don’t need to know them, I can even grow to dislike them as people and it won’t go away. It’s...” He met Thomas’s eyes, wary, vulnerable. “It’s wrong.” As soon as the words were out, his grip tightened almost painfully. “For me,” he said quickly. “I don’t—”

  “I know,” Thomas said as reassuringly as he could. “Although you’re kind of holding a very expensive tool I would prefer not to have broken.”

  Uri snatched his hand away like he’d been zapped. Thomas snorted before he saw the wide-eyed terror on the other man’s face. “Hey!” He reached out with the same hand since he was on his side. Uri let him touch his shoulder then tug him closer until he could cup his face. “Joke, love.” He slid his hand down Uri’s throat, relishing the shiver it got him, then leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek. “You’re not going to hurt me,” he whispered right into his ear. Uri shuddered against him.

  “I didn’t mean t
o,” he said, voice low.

  “I know.” He kissed him again, this time right besides Uri’s eye. “It was just a little painful.”

  “Yes,” Uri insisted. “But I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t in control, I could’ve—”

  “Uriel,” Thomas cut him off, tightening his grip against Uri’s battering pulse for a long moment. It got Uri to look at him. “So could I. I’m stronger than you, aren’t I?”

  He thought he’d more than proven than point when he’d held Uri still against the wall, although he’d melted so beautifully that it was not exactly fair to say he couldn’t have broken his grip.

  “Yes, but...”

  Thomas shushed him. “I could make a mistake too, push you too hard, or hold too hard, couldn’t I?”

  Uri sighed. “Yeah.”

  Thomas pulled back but kept running his fingers up and down Uri’s neck, from chin to collarbone, like a mantra written on skin. Or a spell. It helped him, and Uri didn’t pull away, so he hoped... “You didn’t really answer the question, you know.”

  “What question?”

  “If you enjoy dominating me in bed.”

  The way Uri gulped and trembled slightly seemed like a good hint, but Thomas wasn’t taking anything but unequivocal consent. Especially from Uri, who’d already as much as said that his body often felt things he didn’t want to act on. Things that didn’t feel like they belonged to him but to some external force, instinct or hormones.

  It was the same pheromones and instincts that led anyone to sex, of course, but you couldn’t take someone’s feelings and analyse them until they stopped feeling them. You just had to take their word for it, then try your best to give them what they needed. To find a way to get what you needed at the same time, or afterwards if that didn’t work, with a little effort on both your parts.

  “Yes.” It was just a whisper, and Uri’s head was bowed, his body tense.

  Thomas gave him a second before assuming he wouldn’t continue. “Well, I loved it, and I loved this too. You don’t have to tell me now, but if you want to do it again...”

  “Yes,” Uri breathed out, watching Thomas like a man watched an oasis. “You...”

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Thomas said, dragging him closer until he could put a hand behind his back. He pulled until Uri half-crawled on top of him and he could hold him properly. He was heavy, and his heart was beating madly against Thomas’s own chest. He was stiff as a board for a moment, but then he melted into the embrace, resting his forehead against Thomas’s shoulder, breathing fast and wet against his cheek.

  Thomas held him for a few minutes, not speaking, before he patted him on the back. “Turn around.” Uri lifted himself up a little, arms bulging pleasantly to support his weight. “Come on,” Thomas insisted, not explaining, and the other man didn’t ask before obeying and turning his back to him. Thomas rolled closer, moulding himself to the other’s back.

  Having his cock against Uri’s buttocks wasn’t exactly a chaste experience, but this wasn’t about sex and, all jokes aside, he’d come twice already, and it was well past midnight. He put his arm around Uri’s waist, his fingers against the other’s chest—as if he could calm him down that way or keep that heart safe. It took a few minutes, but his instinct proved correct when Uri relaxed against him, tilting his head back to press closer to him.

  Thomas thought about telling him how amazing he was, or about the things he wanted to do together—switching opened up a world of possibilities—but he was warm and safe, tangled up with the man he loved. It could wait.

  HE WAS WARM AND COMFORTABLE, and naturally reluctant to move.

  The same could not be said for the source of his comfort, who was squirming against him in a way that could have been pleasant in different circumstances. Thomas grunted, tightening his grip. For his trouble, he got pinched hard enough to jolt him awake. “What—?”

  Freed, Uri rolled over. “Sorry, but I’ve been trying to get free for, like, ten minutes.”

  Thomas stared at him blankly, blinking to keep his eyes open. He vaguely registered Uri’s mouth twisting into a smile. “Go back to sleep,” he was told.

  THE SECOND TIME HE woke the source of warmth was behind him and much more amenable to cuddling. He would have still liked to sleep in—he’d turned off his morning alarm the night before—but he didn’t mind spending some time getting held close and nuzzled, either. As long as his eyes were closed, it counted as napping, really.

  “I made you breakfast,” Uri mumbled against his earlobe, which Thomas’s brain would have chosen not to process if it hadn’t been followed by a flick of his tongue.

  He shuddered, startled, and Uri laughed—too loud this early. “Ugh,” he complained.

  “Come on.” Arms pressed him against a broad chest, perky nipples twin points of heat against his bare back. “There’s coffee, but it’ll go cold.”

  He scrunched his face, but managed to ask, “Time?”

  “Almost ten,” Uri said, his warmth suddenly disappearing. Thomas rolled into the warm spot his body had left, searching for him. He was standing by the bed, dressed in a white t-shirt that made his skin glow, arms crossed. Beautiful, as usual. But...

  “How do you feel?” his voice was a little rough from sleep, but this was important. He’d tried to be careful, but there was a reason you were meant to have a safeword, and Uri had dropped so fast that... No, that wasn’t fair. If something was wrong, it was on Thomas; Uri had so little experience he hadn’t even known he could go under.

  Uri pressed his lips together. “About last night?” He glanced away, but his mouth was already curving upwards, and when he met Thomas’s eyes again, his own were bright. “Good. Really good...” Thomas watched his cheeks colour like a caveman watching the sunrise on a winter morning—the relief almost overpowering the sheer beauty of it. “I mean, a little strange, sure, but...” He shrugged. “Strange means you’re learning.”

  Thomas pushed himself into a sitting position, ignoring the satisfaction of drawing Uri’s gaze to his chest. It sounded like a motto of some kind, often repeated, a truth that worked in different situations. It was, if he thought about it, also true. “Guess it does.”

  So Uri was fine. They were fine. Fuck, they were more than fine, this was...

  “Coffee?” Uri offered, then extended a hand like a lord out of a story inviting a lady to dance.

  Thomas took it and rolled forward as Uri pulled him to his feet. They ended up close enough his mouth was much more tempting than the promised caffeine, but his stomach chose that moment to rumble loud enough to remind him of the sheer amount of calories he’d burned last night. He sighed and gave Uri a peck on the cheek, ignoring his laughter, and sidestepped him to go wash his face.

  It took him until his second cup of coffee to notice the discolouration on Uri’s upper arms where his undershirt left them exposed. “Oh, shit, did I—?”

  Uri glanced up from the papers he’d apologized for needing to review. He was wearing glasses, thin and tinted cream. “What...?” He looked hot in them, of course.

  “Your arms,” Thomas said, pulse spiking. Uri had asked him to be rough, and he’d made his enjoyment clear every time Thomas had asked for confirmation, but to leave marks...

  “Oh.” Uri could barely seem to repress his grin. He twisted his wrists upwards to expose the inside of his biceps; the bruises were even darker there. Where Thomas’s thumbs had pressed. “I like them,” he said with such easy confidence it left Thomas dry-mouthed.

  And that’s how they’d ended up spending the rest of the morning in bed too.

  Chapter Twenty: Uriel

  Serene’s continued cool smile had stopped being reassuring and become downright creepy about two meetings ago. And yet, a part of him had expected her to be different around her children.

  She turned their way and opened her arms to hold them close. Mina and Tenir stepped up to her and held on, obviously used to the physical affection. But when the kids moved aside, the alpha’s face w
as nothing but satisfied and her scent had barely changed at all.

  “Children, would you please sit here?” Mx Yave asked, not quite hitting the kindly grandparent vibe Uri thought they were going for.

  Mina swallowed and dragged her little brother to the seats in the middle of the conference room where they’d agreed to meet once again.

  Mx Yave took the reader with the faked authorization out of his pocket like someone might take out a weapon, then put it on the table without a word.

  Serene’s lawyer glanced down and froze, not giving anything away. “What is this?” he asked evenly.

  Mx Yave met his eyes. “The authorization to take the children out of the country, which my client did not sign. A calligraphic expert has verified it.”

  “That’s absurd,” Serene said at once, mouth twisting into an incredulous smile worthy of an award. “Darling, that’s your signature.” She pointed. “I’d know it anywhere, why don’t you look again?”

  “That’s irrelevant,” Uriel said before the omega had a chance to react to her alpha. “Because the judge will take a calligraphic expert’s word over yours.”

  “They will take a calligraphic expert’s words over the person who actually signed too?” Serene asked him calmly.

  “No,” Claudette almost spat. She was stiff as a board and clutching at her own hands under the table. “I didn’t sign. I didn’t know. You—”

  “You’re wrong, darling,” Serene smoothly cut in. “What reason could I possibly have to take them away without telling you?”

  “I...”

  “Please do not address my client,” Uri told the woman again.

  “Your client is my bondmate, and I will address her as I like,” the other alpha told him.

  “Mx Coleridge,” the old lawyer said politely, but clearly a warning.