“Well, you’re lucky he decided to own up to it, or there’d be even more talk.” He frowned at me and waited.
What? Justin had come back? But I didn’t want to mate Justin, I wanted to mate Duke! Oh dammitalltothedeadlands, what was I going to do now? “He did?” The room spun and my heart sank as my future laid itself out before me. No. I couldn’t do this. I’d rather be a scandal here than Justin’s mate in Montana Border. Maybe Abel would let him stay? No, not Abel, Quin. I didn’t know Quin well enough to ask favors of him, but maybe Abel could…
I didn’t realize I’d sat down on the bottom stair until Dad took my hand to pull me to my feet. “Come on. Best get this over with.”
Something in his voice made me realize he wasn’t just angry, he was sad too, and that was my fault. “I’m sorry, Dad. I really didn’t mean it. I didn’t think anyone would come around.”
He sighed, and pulled me into that hug I so desperately needed. “I know. You never mean it, though, Bram. From now on, you’re going to have to think more than ten minutes ahead, and about someone other than yourself. You’re going to be a mated shifter, and a parent, and that carries responsibility with it.”
But I don’t want to mate Justin! That sentence kept circling around in my brain as my Dad led me numbly into the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the table, looking tired and sad.
The other person seated at the table was the last person I’d ever expected to see—Duke.
“Wha—?” I mumbled, and fell into one of the chairs.
Dad looked at me solemnly. “Duke told me what happened last night. It was an accident—he didn’t find you at the park and he worried. And well, things just got a little out of hand.”
I glanced over at Duke, who was red as a beet and staring a hole in the kitchen table. “Duke?” I said, my voice so timid I almost didn’t recognize it. I was never timid—my reactions to things tended to be loud. But today I didn’t feel like myself.
Dad stood and held his hand out to Mom. “Let’s give them a moment?” He led her out of the kitchen while I stared at the man I’d longed for, like a particularly stupid owl. A moment later, I heard the front door close and I realized I was alone with Duke.
He raised his eyes to mine and smiled awkwardly. “Hey,” he said. “It’s okay. Abel told me everything.”
He couldn’t have. He didn’t know how long I’d been stuck on Duke, how badly I wanted him. Or had—with a feeling of impending doom, I realized that the flutters in my stomach and the urge to climb him and rub myself against his body the entire way up had disappeared. Completely.
The omegas were right.
I covered my face with my hands. “I can’t, I can’t,” I told him, my throat so tight my voice almost squeaked. “You don’t understand…”
“I understand that Justin took advantage of your heat and left you to deal with the consequences.” He pulled my hands away from my face and made me look at him. “This is the plan.”
But, did he love me? Did he want me? I opened my mouth to ask, then shut it in fear. What if he didn’t? Oh, dammit, I was eleven years younger than him. Of course he didn’t. Especially after this—I’d just confirmed all the bad things he probably thought about me. “It’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not. But it is what it is. I hope you won’t be unhappy with me. And if you find someone you want later, we can work out a solution. Maybe by then, Bax will have pushed through some changes in how people treat omegas and you can go find someone who suits you.”
Someone who suits me… All the stress of the past day hit me like a sledgehammer and the room spun around me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Duke reached for Bram when the young man swayed in his seat, and caught him before he had any chance of falling. Maybe Bram wouldn’t have fainted—though Duke wouldn’t have blamed him, after everything that had happened—but the impulse to reach out and comfort him overrode all other thoughts. The desperation and fear in the young man’s face wrung his heart, and if he hadn’t already been in love and feeling a guilty conscience because Bram’s downfall was giving him what he’d wanted for two years, that would have done it. He held Bram against his chest and shushed him gently until the other shifter stopped shaking so badly and began to push against Duke’s embrace. Duke reluctantly let him go, and tucked away the memories, knowing he’d likely never have this opportunity again. This was such a stupid idea. It was going to be torture on a daily basis, but he wouldn’t turn back now. Bram needed him, and he would be there.
Bram sat back on his chair and propped his elbow on the table, hiding his eyes with that hand. “No, Duke. It’s not fair. I’ll figure out something. Abel will figure out something. Quin, Bax…” His voice trailed off.
Rejection hurt, and this one was like a punch in the gut. But Duke had taken punches before. He could handle it. “Your dad already believes it was me. Would it really be that bad? I’ll put in for mated quarters, you’d have your own place. I won’t bother you if you want me to leave you alone.” That made his chest ache, but he forged on regardless. “It’s not all bad. And if you decide you don’t want the pup, we’ll find a family for it. It’s easier, I think, if you’re mated. To give one away, I mean.” He could feel the heat in his cheeks again. “And after that, well, who knows, right? One day at a time?”
Bram lifted his head and stared into Duke’s eyes as if he was searching for truth there. Duke did his best to remain impassive, serene, despite his heart racing like he was on a hunt.
Though he supposed he was, in a way.
Finally, Bram closed his eyes, moistened his lips, then opened his eyes again. “You’re sure?”
“Of course. Pack sticks together.”
Bram gave him a weak smile. “Yeah, it does.” He looked down at his lap, then looked back up at Duke with an expression so earnest it nearly broke his heart. “I swear, I won’t be a bad mate. I mean, I’ve been training for it all my life. And you won’t have to worry about the pup, I’ll look after it, and you can just go on with your life—” A sob escaped him and Duke felt a moment of pride as Bram caught it and regained control again. “I won’t interfere with your life,” Bram continued. “And if I do, tell me and I won’t do it again.” He pulled himself up straight, though Duke could see the effort it cost him. “I guess, then—how do we do this?”
“I’ll have Garrick draw up the contract. You pick out something nice to wear and maybe invite a few friends?” Here was ground he had to tread lightly over. “The story is, it was always going to be, but things happen, and we’re happy, okay? That’ll settle the old bitches and their wagging tongues.” He loved his pack, but with this many people crammed into such a small space, gossip was one of the main entertainments. And now that Bram was his, the fiercely protective instincts of an alpha came rushing to the fore. He couldn’t fight gossip with tooth and claw, but he could fight it with intelligence, and that was what Bram needed right now. “I’ll go get your parents?”
Bram took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah.”
Duke could almost hear the let’s get that over with that went unsaid. He gave Bram’s hand a quick pat and headed for the front door, looking for his soon-to-be inlaws.
He found them where he thought they’d gone, the end of the row of houses, far enough that he’d lost track of their footsteps when they’d first left, even though he’d borrowed from his wolf. It was a good thing, because if they’d been the kind to eavesdrop, this whole conversation would have been a lot harder to have.
“Sir. Ma’am,” he said in greeting. “I’ll get Garrick to work on the papers. It might be a day or two before I can find quarters, but I’ll get something sorted out. I think he’d like to see you again, now that it’s all out in the open. And I’m sorry again that it all went the way it did. I’d wanted him to be older before things got serious, you know? Have a bit of a life before settling down.”
Bram’s dad put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m just glad it was you and not that idiot Montana Border
alpha that he’s been mooning over. I’ll admit, I knew he was sweet on you a while ago, but then that rascal moved into the enclave, and it was all up in the air. But I’m glad he has the sense to know a good thing when he sees it too.”
Bram was sweet on him? A tiny flame of hope, like a sickly firefly, lit itself in his chest. “He’s a smart man. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves sometimes.”
“Well,” Bram’s mom said. “He doesn’t do anything to earn it either. He’s a sweet boy, but as silly as the day is long. I hope he won’t be a trial to you.”
And if he’d ever needed it, he’d have had the proof of how they’d caused all their own problems, because this was absolutely not the way to handle Bram. He needed work, and responsibility, and a life.
And someone who saw the man he could be.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine, ma’am. I’m going to head out now, get some sleep so I can set things in motion tomorrow. Good night to you both.”
“Good night,” they said in unison, then turned back toward their door.
Duke walked up the street, headed for the bachelor quarters, and prayed he was right.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Word spread like wildfire. Even before Duke had tracked Garrick down to put together the mating contract, he’d been congratulated by two of the Security team, which meant that they’d heard it from someone else, because as far as he knew, they weren’t particular friends of Bram’s family. His suspicion was proved true, and by the time his next shift started two days later, he was convinced that half the pack had already been told.
So much for a small, quiet mating.
He checked in with Edmund, who was sitting glum-faced in front of the monitors. “Hey, all quiet?”
“Yeah.” Edmund stared at the monitors that kept track of which sensors were working, which weren’t, and sent out the alarm when something set them off. On the other screen, two cameras pointed at the gate showed all was calm. Not that they were expecting much in the way of traffic. The cameras were more for their own protection—if someone coming or going from the pack was given an exceptionally hard time, the pack wanted video evidence, since the human assumption always seemed to be that the shifter involved had started something.
There was tension in the air. Duke could smell it. “Something wrong, Edmund?”
“Nope.”
Dammit. Edmund had been part of Bram’s harem. “This about Bram?”
No answer. Well, Duke could recognize a clue when it smacked him between the eyes.
“I’m sorry you’re upset, but these things happen. And I wasn’t going to not ask him just because you were interested.”
“He’s not even eighteen,” Edmund gritted out between clenched teeth.
“I’m aware of that.” Duke watched him for a moment, then sighed and turned toward the door. “I know it doesn’t make any difference, but it wasn’t on purpose. My plan was to wait until he was eighteen too, but I fucked up, and now I’m trying to do right by him.” He started down the hallway, not ready to get into it with Edmund.
About halfway to the door, he heard Edmund behind him. “If you hurt him, you’ll have me to answer to.”
Duke turned to see Edmund hanging out the door of the office. “I don’t have any plans to hurt him, so you don’t have to worry.”
Edmund snarled at him and slammed back into the office. Duke suspected there would have been a fight if he hadn’t been older, more established, and a hell of a lot more alpha than Edmund. Mac would be pissed if it happened, so Duke resolved to avoid Edmund until things had calmed down.
His route today took him past the park, which presented him with a problem of epic proportions. Bram might be working. Was probably working. Or maybe not. Duke hadn’t realized until just now how much attention he’d paid to Bram’s schedule. He’d been missing for most of November last year, for his heat… Duke’s brain sidestepped the thought of Bram’s heats, but his body wasn’t going to ignore it. His chest tightened and a heavy warmth settled in his groin—not exactly arousal, but if Bram had been around right then, it would have gotten uncomfortable pretty fast. It pissed him off that Justin had gotten that first time with Bram, and he added it to the list of crimes he wanted to make the man pay for.
He skipped the daycare, and kept going, making the loop down through the Winston houses, the first ones that had been built after the Enclosure. They were old, small single story houses crammed cheek-by-jowl, but had been a godsend in a pack suffering from the after-effects of being rounded up and shipped to a shitty collection of warehouses, forcefully separated from family, and in daily fear of violence by their human jailers. Winston had won out as Alpha at the time, and it had been his tireless efforts that had kept the pack from imploding. Even now, despite the houses being in serious need of renovation—or destruction—they were still highly coveted because of their history.
As he walked, he nodded to neighbors and tossed balls to pups, joked with the teenagers and ignored the angry and disappointed looks from the teenaged girls who used to come out to flirt with him. He guessed news of his imminent mating had made it to this neighborhood too.
From Winston, he turned up the road that ran along the edge of the settled area of the enclave. Houses lined the side away from the wall, but the wall side was all grass and a veil of trees filling the rest of the space—someone’s attempt to pretend that the wall didn’t exist. The wall itself stood tall and unmissable, cold and gray, with that dangerous sparkle of silver along the top. He’d never touched silver in his life, though he’d heard Jason describing the sensation. Even before, the silver had always given him a shiver down his spine. He was glad to turn back down the road, through the central part of town.
He met Abel and Bax coming out of the restaurant, surrounded by their swarm of pups, only two of whom were in human form. Taden, of course, couldn’t change yet, and Teca was wearing a dress that looked like it had been made entirely of sparkles. The rest jumped around in wolf form and—oh, there was an extra. Duke sniffed, trying to place the other pup’s scent.
“Tobin,” Bax said with a grin. “He’s spending the day with us and we’re having a sleepover tonight for Fan’s birthday.”
“Sounds like fun,” Duke said to the pups now running around his legs.
Abel was quiet and when Duke looked up at him, he couldn’t help a sigh. Abel knew, and he obviously thought Duke was being an idiot. “Abel—,” Duke began.
“Duke, why don’t you come for supper tonight?” Bax broke in brightly. “Fan wants pizza, and it won’t be hard to make extra. What time are you off?” Abel opened his mouth again, but shut it when his mate elbowed him.
“I, uh,” Duke stammered. He didn’t want a lecture, just wanted to get through this awkward period. He glanced between his two friends, watching him expectantly. Aw, fuck it. “I’m off at three. What time should I be there?”
“Oh, anytime after that is fine. We usually eat around five-thirty, but there’ll be snacks if you’re really hungry.” Bax smiled charmingly and looped his hand through Abel’s arm. “See you then!” And he led his mate and his busy little family away in the direction of the van.
Well fuck. Duke figured he was going to be in for a lecture. He didn’t care. He’d offered for Bram and had been accepted, and that was that.
At the end of his shift, Duke went back to his bachelor’s apartment—another holdover from the overcrowded days. The young ones, just learning to be independent, got single rooms in a dormitory. Older bachelors were moved to apartments shared with other bachelors. He grabbed a quick shower and changed, then trudged off to Abel’s, wondering why he felt like he was ‘waiting for your father to get home’.
He walked up onto the wide porch of Abel’s house and knocked. A roar and rumble filled the air, and then the door opened, spilling what looked like a couple of dozen pups onto Duke’s feet, but which eventually turned out to be five little boys in party mode.
“Duke!” Fan yelled and grabbed his hand.
“Come see the Legos! We’re building a castle!” He turned to drag Duke through the house, his body at a forty-five degree angle to the floor as he tried to make Duke move faster.
Bax appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, wiping his hands on a cloth. “Fan! Leave the man alone. You boys go outside and play. Your pizza will be ready in half an hour.” He shooed the boys outside, making short work of shoes and jackets, then turned to Duke. “They were so excited when they heard you were coming over.”
“I’ll have to play with them a bit before I go,” he said. “Promise we’ll stay farther from the house this time.”
Bax laughed. “Yeah, we had a chat with Fan after about picking better places to play ball. Abel’s in his office with Taden, if you want to go sit. We’re just finishing little pizzas for the boys, but I can get you beer, or a coffee or tea, whatever you want.” His manner was easy, and if Duke hadn’t been alert, he might have missed the slight tension in the way Bax held himself.
“Tea’s fine, thank you.” He followed Bax back toward the kitchen, but took a left instead at the door and walked down the hallway to Abel’s tiny home office.
The former Alpha was ensconced in a ragged old armchair, keyboard in his lap, one foot keeping the cradle in front of him in constant motion. He looked up from the computer screen. “Hey, come in, grab a chair. Just let me save this and shut it down.”
Unlike Bax, Abel wasn’t doing a particularly good job of hiding his mood. Duke was careful with his body language, keeping his shoulders relaxed, his expression pleasant. “I don’t mind. You working on Alpha Hunt?”
“Yeah.” Abel pressed a couple of keys, closed the window, and leaned forward to set the keyboard on the banged-up wooden table he used as a desk at home. “Hoping to push out another couple of levels soon, buy me some time to work on the inventory software again. We need more pups interested in programming.”
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 8