by Leta Blake
Xan’s knees shook so hard he was afraid he’d collapse, but he walked up the steps and tried to get his quivering hand to bring his keys from his pocket.
Monhundy was right behind him, shoving his cock against the back of Xan’s pants. The neighborhood was asleep. The rain still came down, slipping down the side of Xan’s face as he fumbled in his pocket, the key somehow evasive while his heart thundered and sweat broke over his wet skin.
“Open the door, or I’ll fuck you right here,” Monhundy whispered in Xan’s ear, his voice sick with hatred and his big, hard cock rutting against Xan’s backside, scrunching up the back of Xan’s coat. “Want the neighbors to hear you squealing like a stuck pig? Want them to hear how you come for me, you unmanned piece of shit?”
Xan found the key. He stuck it in the lock. He turned it.
“Come on,” Monhundy urged. “I’ll make you cry. Hurt you good. You’re gonna love it. Get the wolf-damned door open.”
Xan trembled all over. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and balled up his fists. He let his mind remember it all: every moment in Monhundy’s grip, all the times he’d thought he was going to die, the horrible orgasms, and the bitter self-loathing that filled him each time. He thought of the knowing, nasty gleam in Monhundy’s eyes when they met his across the meeting room tables in his father’s office.
The threats. The pain. The humiliation.
Dredging up all of Urho’s lessons, he rounded on Monhundy and punched him in the mouth, sending him reeling backwards. Pride swelled in his heart at the expression of shock on Monhundy’s face as he touched his fingers to his bleeding lip. And then his heart caught as Monhundy’s brows drew down, his bloody lip curled, and his fists came up.
Xan didn’t back down. He lunged at him, shouting, “Rape! Rape!”
Monhundy tried to grab Xan’s mouth to cover it, but Xan bit his hand and kicked his shins, fighting with every ounce of loathing he’d ever directed at himself. He spit, he punched, he bit, and he screamed.
Monhundy came at him, but each time he tried to grab Xan, he’d leap back to avoid teeth, or nails, or the sharp edges of Xan’s elbows. This wasn’t what Urho had taught him. There was nothing gentlemanly about the way Xan fought now. It was pure rage and pain, and he channeled it on Monhundy in the loudest, most shocking way he could.
“Never again!” he screamed. “You won’t touch me again!”
Monhundy gasped as Xan bit his hand. Blood gushed into Xan’s mouth and he spit the metallic wetness of it out onto the rain-wet ground.
Monhundy gripped his bitten hand with the other, his face a mask of terror in the scant moonlight showing through the clouds. His hair was plastered on his head as the rain fell even harder, and Xan laughed. The slick, wet, wonder of rain washed away his last bit of fear.
“I’m unmanned, but I’m not your fuck toy to beat and abuse.”
Monhundy backed away, his cock still flopping around, his eyes wide and dark.
Xan stepped toward him. “You’re a coward. Fight me!”
Shivering, Monhundy shook his head. “You’re a lunatic. Crazy.”
“Crazy? No. I just have something to lose, Wilbet,” Xan hissed, drawing even closer. “Something. Big. To. Lose.” He had his life, and his love, and he wasn’t going to give that up no matter what. Not for Wilbet Monhundy. Not for his father. Not for money. He wasn’t a whore. He grinned, a mad sense of invincibility slashing through him like pain. “Try loving someone besides yourself sometime. It’s freeing.” He drew back his fist and took aim.
Monhundy ducked and shielded his face with his hands. “Stop,” he whimpered.
“And you know what people do when they have something to lose?” Xan sneered. “They get fucking honest, Wilbet. Really fucking honest.”
Monhundy blinked wildly. “Are you threatening me?”
“I don’t know, am I threatening you?” Xan yelled, a crackling madness zipping up his spine. “Do your parents know you’ve been out in Calitan looking for a prostitute? Does Kerry? Does he know about how you’ve fucked me and beaten me? Does he know how brutal you are?”
The whites of Monhundy’s eyes glowed in the moonlight, as the rain slapped the sidewalk around them. Lights flicked on in the houses across the street and next door. Windows opened. There came the sound of a door opening and shutting, and a neighbor yelling, “Hey, what’s going on over there?”
Monhundy retreated further, his cock shriveled but still exposed. Rain spitting down on him like even wolf-god despised the monster of a man. No, not a monster. A scared, ugly bully. A disgusting, but human, piece of waste.
“Leave Kerry out of this,” Monhundy snarled. “Or I’ll kick your ass.”
“Right, right,” Xan said. “Because who would believe me, right? Somehow I think Kerry would. There’s that birthmark. Right at the base of your dick.”
Monhundy licked his lips, the rain wet on his face. It looked like sweat.
Xan laughed, his mouth still tangy with the taste of Monhundy’s blood, his body singing with pain and power. “Thought you were going to hurt me?” he shouted. “Make me cry?” He laughed again and raised his face to the rain.
Monhundy yelled, “You’re crazy!”
“Come near me again and I’ll make you cry. I’ll make you pay.”
Monhundy didn’t wait any longer, looking around nervously, his body shaking. He ran to his car and started it. Xan laughed, raising his hands in the air, letting the rain fall over him. He walked into the middle of the street, ignoring the inquiries from his neighbors and the pain in his body from the punches he’d taken that night. He laughed and laughed. The water stung his face and exposed skin.
He laughed until he cried, and he cried until the rain washed him clean.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Urho was still drowsing in bed, eyes closed against the morning sun, and dreaming lightly of Xan. He’d tried to call him the night before, but hadn’t reached anyone at either house, and he wasn’t sure where to try next. His gut had been in knots over it all night, and he was desperately trying to rest when a knock came at his bedroom door.
Before he could call for whomever it was to enter, Jason burst in.
“Urho, we have a problem.” He was breathless and giving off a harsh, crackling scent.
Urho sat up. “Something’s wrong with Vale?”
“No, something’s wrong with Caleb.” Jason paced back and forth, his expression grim. Another burst of the strange, harsh odor wafted off him.
“You reek,” Urho muttered.
Jason stepped closer to Urho’s bed. “I know. Because Caleb came past our room on his way to his own.”
Confused, Urho rubbed at his forehead. “He’s not with Janus?”
“No. And thank wolf-god for that.”
“My thoughts exactly. He needs a break.”
“You aren’t getting it!” Jason raked a hand into his hair and huffed.
“He’s sick?” Urho’s heart skipped. He’d been making sure Caleb washed his hands in hot water as often as he could stand it, and he’d hoped he wouldn’t catch the flu, despite his constant and dedicated care of Janus.
“No, but—” Jason drew even closer to Urho, radiating that agitating, strange scent, and whispered, “Caleb smells different.”
“You smell different.”
“Because of Caleb!”
Urho wiped his bleary eyes, relieved Caleb wasn’t ill, but worried now about Jason, who was making absolutely no sense. He fluffed his pillow and lay down again, pressing his cheek against the cool side. “He’s stressed out. It’s changed his scent.”
“No, dammit!” Jason shook Urho roughly. “He smells really different. Heat different.”
Urho’s eyes widened as he bolted up. He took a deep breath, sorting the scents in the air, pushing away Jason’s new crackly odor and looking for the pheromones that spoke to all alphas. A rush of air came in through his open door, spilling in from the windows that opened onto the courtyard, carrying a h
int of ocean as well as the scent of the rooms on the opposite side of the building.
The scent of Caleb’s room. The scent of Caleb himself.
Fuck.
Urho’s dick hardened. He glanced down at Jason’s pants and saw the same reaction there.
“Vale better not see that,” Urho muttered darkly.
“It’s not my fault!” Jason covered his erection with his hands clasped in front. “It’s instinctual around an omega going into heat. You know that. He needs to be isolated—for his own sake, and ours. And we need to get Xan home. Now.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Urho muttered to himself. His limbs ached with exhaustion. He’d been getting so little sleep between worrying about Janus, and the new pains Vale was suffering from, and missing Xan, and fretting a little extra for Caleb too. “The last thing we need right now is to have to deal with a heat!”
“Tell that to wolf-god, who, in all his glory, chose right now to set Caleb off.” Jason shuddered. “He smells amazing.”
“Fuck,” Urho said aloud. “He does. They always do.”
Jason huffed and shook his head as though to clear it. “Vale can smell it too. It’s making him cranky. And restless. He smells my reaction to it and that’s…that’s worse.”
Urho groaned. He got out of bed and used the bathroom, dressing hastily.
Just as he finished buttoning his shirt, a cry of discomfort came from down the hallway. Jason jerked worriedly and clenched his fists. It was the same pained noise Vale had been making off and on for the last day. It didn’t mean anything good.
“How much longer does Vale have to endure this?” Jason demanded. “He’s in pain, Urho.”
“I know that,” Urho snapped back. “And I’ve been giving him the strongest muscle relaxer I have that won’t hurt the baby.” He searched his mind for another solution, aside from induction, coming up blank.
“He can’t sleep. He aches all the time. The baby’s shifted to a head-down position. This new thing with Caleb’s scent changing has him in fits. How much longer do we have to wait until we can induce?”
“Jason, we’ve got a dangerous flu virus at large in the house. We’ve done our best to contain it, but the baby is safer in Vale’s body than outside of it. At least until Janus either comes around or…doesn’t.”
Jason paced some more. “Vale could die if he doesn’t give birth at the right time.”
Urho took a calming breath, but jittery anxiety rode his nerves. “Stay calm. Vale is handling this pregnancy quite well.”
“You don’t listen to him cry at night!”
Urho shuddered, a shard of despair in his heart. The idea of Vale crying in pain gutted him. “It’s that bad?”
“It’s bad. And when I fist him now, he sobs. He doesn’t want it. The baby has grown big enough to make it hard to get my hand inside. I don’t know if we can wait until Janus decides if he’s going to stay on this earth or depart for wolf-god’s waiting arms.” Jason’s eyes flashed. “I’m sorry if I sound callous, but Vale is my first priority.”
“He’s high on the list for me as well.”
“Then help him!”
“I am, dammit!”
Another moan came from Vale and Jason’s room.
“I’m going to him,” Jason glared at Urho. “Do something about Caleb and that scent. I don’t know how much time he has, but it can’t be long. Send for Xan.” Then Jason softened, shoved his hair out of his face and said, “Look, you need to get him somewhere safe. What if he runs off…?” He shook his head. “Xan is counting on us to take care of him. If you need help getting him into his quarters or summoning Xan, let me know. I’m happy to help, but right now I need to go check on Vale.”
Urho scrubbed his face and waited until Jason had left the room before standing. Exhaustion and worry flooded him. He didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t been able to get through to Xan in the city, and here he was with a stubborn, frightened, grieving omega going into heat, another omega on the verge of going into labor, a sick and dying alpha, and another tense, worried alpha in fear for his Érosgápe’s life and the life of his unborn child.
He adjusted his heavy cock and went to close all the courtyard windows on their wing of the house. If nothing else, he’d try to prevent Jason from scenting Caleb’s time coming, and that should keep him from radiating that scent that would put Vale, as his Erosgapé, on an irrationally jealous edge.
Then he called for Ren, issued some orders, and rustled up some alpha quell from his medicine bag. He took one and then slipped a handful of them into Jason’s pocket as he went into Vale’s room to check on him. “Take as needed,” he whispered before carefully approached a very aggravated Vale where he stood looking out the window to the town below.
Jason was right. The babe was head down, in the ready position, and Vale was more uncomfortable than Urho liked to see him. He was restless and pacing, moaning off and on. If he continued on this way, there was no doubt Urho would need to administer the pills that would start labor soon. Jason could barely take Vale’s pain as it was, and the babe seemed determined.
Still, inducing now was no sure thing. The babe’s lungs were hopefully developed, but there was a chance they might not be. And Urho hadn’t been exaggerating the possible risk of contagion with Janus residing so near the house, especially with the servants who cared for him coming and going.
He considered isolating them in the detached wing, but then there was the problem of food and laundry. The only kitchen and laundry facilities were in the main house proper. Still, they scoured everything with boiling water. If they were careful, it was possible that he could go ahead and induce…
He chewed his lip as he headed towards Caleb’s room, relieved to be out of the grip of his initial lust thanks to the calm, cool slip of alpha quell in his veins. Zephyr skirted past him with a mouse between her teeth. She leapt onto a table in the hallway, overturning a glass vase of winter flowers, and stared at him with dark, challenging eyes.
“Don’t you cause problems too,” he groused at her as she proceeded to tear into her treat. He groaned, feeling sorry for Ren who was going to have to contend with the gruesome mess.
Caleb answered on the first knock. He was jumpy, scratching at his arms and chest in his white, short-sleeve V-necked shirt. He paced his room with the windows to the ocean flung wide. The air poured in, frigid enough to make Urho shudder with the chill, but Caleb seemed untouched by it.
His cheeks were flushed, and the new, delicious aroma of heat joined the mélange of Caleb’s usual odors in the room. But there was another new scent, a mouthwatering fragrance Urho had never had the opportunity to scent before—the musk of Caleb’s slick.
He groaned. Caleb smelled ripe and ready, and Urho couldn’t deny the throbbing reaction of his cock despite the alpha quell. Yes, he was quite aroused. His tongue swiped over his bottom lip as he stood in the doorway watching Caleb pace. A possessive urge struck him, familiar and hot. An alpha’s need to corner an omega in heat, get him somewhere safe, somewhere he couldn’t run off and…
He shook his head hard, trying to get his thoughts in order. He felt in his pocket for more alpha quell and took one.
“Caleb?”
Caleb stopped pacing and leaned against the opposite wall, his eyes sliding shut as he shuddered and shook. The scent of slick grew stronger, and his face twisted restlessly as he scratched at his arms. Urho knew the heat had to be pricking under his skin cruelly by the way he moved. It was coming on fast.
“Is it early?” Urho asked gruffly, crossing the room carefully so that he didn’t frighten him.
“No,” Caleb whispered, straining and rubbing against the wall. “It’s right on time.” Then he moaned and slipped to the floor. “It’ll be here soon. I need… Oh no, I need an alpha to help me. Xan’s not here.” He gritted his teeth and met Urho’s eyes with despair. “Can you…? You promised.”
Urho moaned, his cock responding to the pheromones pouring off Caleb in abundance
now that Urho had drawn close, the omega body’s physiological attempt to seal the deal. “Darling, Xan’s going to be here very soon. Try to wait for him.”
Caleb snorted. “You know better than that,” he said, quivering and digging his fingers into his skin. “There’s no holding it back. And he’s not here. I need him and he’s gone.”
“Shh,” Urho said. “Let’s get you in bed. You can nap and—”
“No!” Caleb wrenched away from him. “Xan should be here,” he shouted. “But he’s not and you promised.”
Urho groaned. Taking Caleb without Xan here with him, without even his permission over the phone would feel wrong. Like a violation of his commitment to Xan. At the same time, if he didn’t take Caleb then he’d feel like he was violating his commitment to Xan in allowing his omega to suffer.
“There are other options. The village…there’s probably an alpha—”
“You promised!” Caleb shouted, his body going rigid. “I hate this. I hate it. I hate it so much and I don’t want a stranger touching me. I don’t want it!” His body shook again as though in a small seizure. His eyes rolled up. He groaned and rolled away from Urho, slithering on the carpet, rubbing it against his pale skin. “Make it stop. Make it go away.”
“Darling, I can’t. You know I can’t.” Urho rubbed at his face. He needed help. He needed Xan. “Wolf-god! I need some assistance in here!” he shouted, hoping for a beta servant, hopefully Ren, to hear.
“You’re going to lock me in,” Caleb yelled, panic threading his voice. “You’re going to leave me here.” He started to sob, rubbing himself on the carpet. “No, no. I won’t. I won’t!”
“Caleb, please, listen to me.”
“No, I need to get back to Janus. He’ll wonder where I’ve gone. He needs me.”
“Janus is unconscious and your scent will only tax his system more. As an alpha, he’ll respond to you even in his illness. He needs his strength to fight. Come on now. Let me get your clothes off, get you into bed. You’ll be more comfortable.”