by Aiden Bates
“Did you find anything?” I pushed myself up out of the chair I’d settled into, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
“We thought we’d wake you up first. Didn’t seem right, doing the big reveal without you,” Derek said.
I stretched and nodded, fighting back a yawn. “Well, let’s get on with it then.”
But as Derek and Justin pored over the results that Justin’s machine had spat out, the mood changed completely.
“That’s not right.” Justin furrowed his brow, shaking his head. “These hormone levels are off the charts, and this compound here…”
“Synthetic. Practically military-grade at that,” Derek finished for him. “If this was going out in birth control pills—”
“The Omegas who took them are lucky they didn’t have a stroke.” Justin traced a finger down the paper, which might as well have been written in Ancient Greek for me. “After a fashion, it’s probably safe—”
“Right. The body would become accustomed to it eventually. But if you wanted to send an Omega’s pheromones skyrocketing on that first pill—”
“It was intentional, then?” I felt like half an idiot while Derek and Justin batted their suspicions back and forth—but at least if I asked questions, I could feel like I was contributing.
They both nodded.
“This is no accident,” Derek said.
“Too well-orchestrated,” Justin agreed. “Too clever of a recipe. Too powerful of a concoction.”
“Which means someone somewhere has almost certainly filed a very quiet patent for it.” There was fire in Derek’s eyes. “If not Bicroft, then someone else. A subsidiary, maybe. Either way, it’s our next lead.”
Glancing down at his wristwatch, Justin gave a tentative look toward the doors. “And without a minute to spare, either. We should head out now—the early morning shift is going to start filing in at any minute. Don’t want to meet them in the parking lot.”
Justin darted out ahead of us, waving us out through the back door to make sure the coast was clear. The sun hadn’t even begun to peek over the horizon yet, but the sky was a couple shades lighter than it had been when we first showed up.
“You need a ride home?” I offered, looking over my shoulder to Justin as I opened the passenger side door of my car for Derek. “You’ve been up all night. Don’t want you driving tired.”
Justin waved the offer away. “I’m not far. Don’t want to leave my car in the parking lot, anyway. The town’s still on edge since Josh’s…” His voice trailed off sadly. “I’ll be okay. If someone reports me kidnapped or something, the last thing we need is the Fort Greene PD showing up at my front door looking for me.”
“You have no idea,” I agreed. “Drive safe then. Drop me a message when you get home.”
“Can do.” Justin got in his car and pulled out of the parking lot as I went around to the driver’s side.
“That was really sweet of you,” Derek said softly, buckling himself in. “Offering him a ride home and all.”
“Least I could do.” I buckled my own seatbelt, pausing for a moment before putting the car into gear.
Derek was asleep before we were even halfway back to Harper and Nick’s, his eyelids heavy and thick lashes still.
Home safe, a message from Justin buzzed in on my phone just as I pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. Enjoyed getting to know your new friend tonight. He’s a smart guy. Really sweet.
I chuckled softly as Derek rolled over in my passenger seat, nuzzling his cheek against the headrest.
Yeah, he is, I shot back to Justin.
Way too good for you, Justin added.
That nearly make me laugh loudly enough to wake up Derek.
Yeah. I know, I sent back, pausing for a second and wondering how the hell I could thank Justin for his help. I’m sorry for how things ended between us, Justin. It was shitty of me. Thanks for giving us a hand tonight anyway.
Don’t worry, Detective. I’m not pining over you anymore, Justin replied. Haven’t for a long time. You two get some sleep, okay?
You too. Thanks again. I tucked my phone back into my pocket and gently brushed Derek’s shoulder with my fingertips, trying to wake him up in the softest way possible.
It didn’t work. Derek startled back to life, blinking and looking around frantically until he realized that it was only me in the car with him—and that there were no FBI agents pointing guns at us outside.
“Jesus. Sorry—I’m not usually like this,” he apologized. “This whole Bicroft thing—”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said with a chuckle. “Harper and I wake up in the same way, most of the time. And that was before all of this bullshit conspiracy stuff started happening around us.”
Glancing down the street, Derek spotted one of Ernesto’s men in his car—perpetual guard duty. “Should we go check with our specially assigned watcher before we head inside?”
“I’ll do it.” I patted his knee twice, then shrugged off my seatbelt. “You go on in. Get yourself to bed. I’ll follow in a bit.”
As Derek stumbled inside the house, I jogged over to the KPS surveillance car, finding one of Ernesto’s boys inside it. We called him Big Man because, well, it was obvious. Six-foot-six, former linebacker for the Jaguars, Alpha through and through. Hunched over in the little Kia Picanto that had replaced yesterday’s special watch vehicle, with Big Man’s broad shoulders and burly arms, it almost seemed cruel to keep him outside Harper and Nick’s place all night.
“Hey, man. Everything good?” I asked as he caught sight of me and rolled his window down.
Shooting me an all-too-big grin for his current predicament, Big Man nodded, wiping a tear away from his eye while Celine Dion flooded out from the Kia’s speakers. “Peachy, Kaleb. Don’t mind me—Celine and I are just havin’ a moment. Gets me every time.”
I chuckled. There was something about a guy as big as Big Man having a little cry to Celine Dion that would’ve been funny to me even if I wasn’t beat. As it was, I was tired enough I had to bite down on my own knuckle to keep from waking up half the street with my laughter. “You need anything? Coffee, a bite to eat? Stretch your legs for a little bit?”
“Nah. Got myself a whole set-up here.” Awkwardly, Big Man reached over to pat a Thermos of coffee in his cupholder and an entire pile of Big Macs sitting on the passenger seat next to him. “Besides, I’ve only got a couple hours left on my shift. Thanks, though. Means a lot.”
“Any time. And hey—tell Ernesto to give you the BMW next time, will you? You look a little…cramped.”
Big Man only grinned even bigger. “I don’t mind so much. Makes me feel cozy. But I’ll see what I can do.”
Inside the house, for a moment I looked around and panicked. No Derek to be found—and the mattresses that had been in the living room earlier had been moved too.
Luckily, I spotted the note on the coffee table before I could start worrying too much. Moved the beds to the baby’s room. Thought you might like the privacy, it read in Harper’s sloppy hand. Beneath the note was the book that Derek had been telling me about earlier. Wild and Free. Josh had obviously beaten it up a fair bit, but it was still in readable condition. I tucked Harper’s note between its pages and the book beneath my arm before I headed down the hall to our new accommodations.
“Privacy, he called it,” Derek said with a little laugh, glancing up at me as I entered. He was lit by the soft glow of the lamp by the crib. His shirt was half undone, each side parted to show off a generous glimpse of a well-muscled chest. “Somehow, I think that might be more for Harper and Nick’s sake than ours.”
“At least we probably won’t hear them banging one out in the morning if we stick around in here until breakfast,” I said, echoing his laugh. I slipped the book out from under my arm and held it up for him to see. “Thanks for this, by the way. Looking forward to getting started on it.”
“Not tonight, I hope. But in the morning—Josh left a bunch of annotations in it. Mig
ht be an even more interesting read than we thought.”
“In the morning,” I agreed. “You ready to hit the hay?”
“You have no idea,” Derek groaned, unbuttoning the rest of his shirt.
“Some idea. It’s been a long night.”
“Even with your nap?”
I cracked a grin. “I wasn’t napping.”
We both laughed then—as far as lies went, that one was completely transparent.
Feeling the ache in my eyes that only a good night’s sleep could fix, I set about stripping down out of my own clothes as well. An Alpha and an Omega taking their clothes off in the same room together hardly conjured the locker room experiences of my youth—Alphas and Omegas had changed for gym in separate rooms at Fort Greene High, which meant I was accustomed to a lot more towel snapping and dick measuring than the current situation promised.
Feeling a little self-conscious suddenly, I turned away from Derek as I pulled my shirt up over my head and loosened my belt. Derek’s Omeganess added a certain level of sensuality to the room that I hadn’t exactly been prepared for—and it wasn’t at all helped by the fact that he was so damn good-looking.
Or, for that matter, by the fact that, when I glanced over my shoulder, I caught him staring.
“Sorry!” he yelped as our eyes met.
A smile curled on my lips as I watched his skin turn a deep, dusky pink. In better lighting, he was probably burning beet red.
“Like what you see, huh?”
Derek smiled as well, looking coy as he focused intently on the wallpaper and rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, I’d be crazy not to. But no—sorry. I was just looking at…”
I touched the back of my shoulder, where three pale, knotted scars marred the skin. There were three more of the same on my front. Smaller, though. Entry wounds. The ones on the back were the exits.
“Drug bust gone bad,” I explained. Fuck—now I was the one who was embarrassed. “It was my first week on the force. Fuckers had a sniper in an upstairs window. Damn good one too. Military-grade bullets and everything. My bulletproof vest stopped the first one, but after that, it was spent. The next three tore clear through.”
“I’m sorry,” Derek said softly. “That’s…you’re a very brave man, Kaleb King.”
“Brave?” I chuckled, shaking my head. “I was scared shitless.”
“Still,” Derek said. His gaze lingered for a moment, then he flopped down onto his mattress and pulled the blankets up over him to his bare, hairless chest. “Anyway. Thanks.”
“For my service?” My cock twitched as my eyes grazed over the place where Derek’s sheet cut across his own chest—smooth, lightly tanned and completely unmarred. It wasn’t a fantasy of mine or anything, being lauded as a hero by an Omega who looked like…well, like him. But it wasn’t exactly something that I was going to say no to either. And, after all…we were both already here…
Derek smiled dopily as he closed his eyes—horny fantasies obviously the furthest thing from his mind. “Yes. For your service, you big…big stupid idiot. And for your help today. Couldn’t have done it without…without…”
Nodding off before he’d even finished his sentence. Hell—that was just about the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
After flipping off the light, I settled down on my own mattress and nestled into the pillow to try and close my eyes as well. But through the curtains, I could see the morning sun already beginning to break through—just enough that Derek Stillwell’s serene, handsome face was still visible even with the lights off.
I watched him sleep peacefully until I felt my own eyelids grow heavy as well. My last thought as I drifted off was a happy one for once, though.
Maybe he could sleep so easy here in Fort Greene because I was here to watch over him. Protect him. Keep him safe.
And I would.
9
Derek
I woke up sweating, my dreams interrupted by the humidity of the sheets around me. Breathing heavy, I brushed the back of my hand across my forehead, then my fingers through the damp waves of my hair.
Soaked through.
As I shifted into an upright position and glanced down at the tent my cock was making in the blanket over my lap, I realized that my hair and pillow were far from the only things that were soaked. The curves of my ass were slick with lubrication, and my dick was as rock hard as it had ever been.
Bad birth control pills were far from the only things that could send an Omega spinning through the throes of heat, I supposed.
A quick look at the heat-tracking app I had on my phone almost left me swearing. I wasn’t supposed to start for another three days yet—but a glance in Kaleb’s direction gave me a good idea of why I was going into heat now.
It had been years since I’d slept in the same room as an Alpha. Even longer since I’d slept in the same bed as one. But looking like Kaleb did, all muscles and jawline, there must have been enough testosterone flowing through his veins for my own hormones to react in accord.
As much as I’d reassured Justin Carlisle that there was nothing between Kaleb and I, my body obviously didn’t seem to agree. The heady rush of hormones rushing through my own head at the moment made it almost impossible to tear my gaze away from him. He slept with a furrow in his brow. One fist clenched around the edge of his pillow, the other tangled up in his sheets. And a little lower…
Christ. This was exactly what I didn’t need right now. It was one thing to have to share a room with Kaleb. Another thing entirely to have every cell of my body urging me to pull those sheets back from him so I could sink his morning wood into my ass. Kaleb’s cock was hard and thick. Even beneath his blankets and boxers, I could tell that he was packing the kind of dick that would make most Omegas blush just for knowing how big he was.
Which meant that I needed to be out of this room immediately. Before my heat took over and left me begging him to fuck me—and more importantly, before he woke up and caught the scent of my arousal on the air.
We had enough problems to tangle with already. Adding in a sudden need to fight our more basic urges wouldn’t help either of us right now.
Carefully, I pulled back my blankets and reached down to tuck my erection into the waistband of my pajama pants. As I tiptoed around Kaleb’s mattress, I did my best to hold my breath.
It had never been my strong suit.
Still several feet away from the door, I couldn’t help but inhale—and with Kaleb’s own scent in my nose, dark and woodsy and alluring, my cock twitched so hard that the elastic of my pants almost gave out in response.
“Fuck,” I swore beneath my breath.
That single word was all it took to startle Kaleb awake. His eyes snapped open, his gaze landing on mine immediately. And as he drew in a breath of his own, that gaze only dropped lower.
“Good morning to you too, then.” Kaleb blinked, staring unwaveringly at the bulge in my pants as my dick slipped out from under the waistband and stood at attention, straining at the fabric. Then, very slowly, he raised his eyes up to meet mine. “So. You’re, ah…”
“In heat,” I said, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks. Surprisingly, this didn’t seem to hinder the blood supply currently keeping my cock hard enough to hang Kaleb’s gun belt off of. “I’m really sorry—I wasn’t expecting it, and—”
“Nah. Just biology, right?” Kaleb chuckled as he finally tore his gaze away, staring at the sunshine flooding in through the gap in the curtains like it was suddenly of great interest. But even as he looked away, I could still see a tension in his shoulders. A clench in his jaw. And if I wasn’t mistaken, he was taking some very measured breaths while I lingered in the room. “I still remember back when I was just a horny teenager. Used to get a stiffy in math class, every day at two in the afternoon without fail.”
“This is, ah…a little stronger than a math class erection,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck and trying to pick out a way across the rest of the floor that wouldn’t bring me even clos
er to the handsome police officer whose bed I was currently looming over. “And not to be a dick or anything—”
“Interesting word choice,” Kaleb said with a tense chuckle.
“But, ah, I’m not the only one with a hard-on right now.”
Kaleb followed my gaze down to his own lap, then groaned and placed his hand over the rise his dick was leaving beneath the sheets, trying to press it down—and failing. “Right. Well… Huh. Okay. Don’t suppose there’s anything you can take to keep this heat down a few notches, is there? Not that I’m complaining—frankly, you smell fucking incredible—but if we’re sleeping in the same room and all—”
“Birth control normally helps,” I admitted. “But given everything Bicroft has been doing lately…for obvious reasons, I’ve been a little hesitant about staying on my pills.”
“Right. Well…” Kaleb’s lips twitched, then a laugh exploded from behind them. “We’re a fucking sight then, aren’t we? Tell you what—I’ll sleep on the couch tomorrow night. And any nights after, too. Just until your heat is over. I know we’re both men and all…”
“But we’re also an Alpha and an Omega. With, ah…very active endocrine systems, apparently.” My lips curved into a half smile. With anyone else, this would have been three times as awkward—but luckily, Kaleb seemed to be taking it all in stride. “That being said…do you think you could stand maybe…staying in here?”
Kaleb quirked an eyebrow. “Dangerous proposition, Mr. Stillwell.”
“We’re in a dangerous situation,” I reminded him. “I just…it’s stupid, but I feel safer with you in the room.”
“If you could read my mind right now and hear half the thoughts running through my head, you wouldn’t stay feeling that way for long,” Kaleb said, looking away again, his voice a low growl.
I swallowed. Hard. If Kaleb thought he was having dirty thoughts presently, he didn’t even know the half of what was going through my heat-addled brain. The things I wanted to do to Kaleb with my mouth…the things I wanted him to do with his mouth…