by D. J. Heart
Peter snorted. He was amused that Chad would find the perfectly normal reaction to being in his presence funny. Sometimes he wondered if Chad really understood how intimidating other alphas found him.
They climbed into the car, and much too soon they were pulling into the airport parking garage. Peter wasn’t at all ready to let Chad leave.
“So what do I tell people?” Chad asked, lifting his hand to the bite on his neck. “I mean… do I tell them about us?”
“You’ll be treated differently.” Peter parked the car and turned off the engine, watching Chad’s face to get a sense of what he was thinking. “But I don’t want you to hide it.”
That was an understatement. Peter wanted the whole world to know who Chad belonged to. But if Chad really wanted to keep their relationship on the down low, Peter wouldn’t like it, but he wouldn’t object.
“So you’re okay with me telling people I’m basically married to the boss?”
Peter grinned. “Very okay,” he said. He reached out and pulled Chad in for a kiss, nipping at his lower lip before leaning back.
“Do you want to get married?” Peter asked, curious. Getting married was a small thing compared to being claimed, but a man raised by betas might put more stock in it than Peter would. Plus, he sort of liked the idea of calling Chad his husband.
“Are you proposing?” Chad asked, grinning and bright-eyed. Peter’s lips curved up in a wicked smile.
“I guess I am. What do you say, Chad Brand? Will you marry me?”
Chad laughed and nodded. “Sure, why not?”
Peter growled, pulling Chad in for another kiss. He licked his way down Chad’s neck, clamping his jaws down on the claiming bite and letting his teeth reaffirm his claim. Chad cried out, grabbing Peter’s shoulders and arching his back.
When they finally pulled themselves together, the collar of Chad’s shirt was bloody and he only had half an hour left to check in.
It was much too soon.
***
Chad didn’t know why he was surprised that Peter had upgraded his ticket to first class, but he was. As he took his seat in the luxurious little pod that shielded his seat, he felt like a pampered sugar baby. It was nice, and something told him it wouldn’t be the last time he got the first-class treatment.
He got a few surreptitious looks from the flight attendant as she offered him a glass of champagne, but he didn’t mind. The blood on his collar and the raw bite on his neck were like a beacon, screaming out to the world that he had been claimed, and he didn’t blame her for being curious.
He wondered how the guys he worked with were going to react. He hoped that they wouldn’t be weird about it, but he knew that things might get difficult.
If it got to be too awkward he could always find a new job, but he really hoped it didn’t come to that.
The last time Chad had been sent out on the Desert Energy job, he’d been part of the protection detail of one of their executives. This time he was guarding the oil fields where they extracted the oil, which had the potential of being a much more unpredictable job.
Once his final plane landed, after layovers in both Frankfurt and Dubai, Chad collected his bag and made his way outside into the blistering heat to locate the Tank Security car that should be waiting for him. He threw his bag over his shoulder, but he miscalculated and the heavy strap scraped over his bite and almost made his knees buckle.
Embarrassed, Chad shifted the bag to his other shoulder and moved on, hoping no one had seen his performance. He looked over the rows of cars lining the road outside the arrivals area, searching for his driver.
After just a second, he spotted him. The beta was short and stout, with a thick neck and a bushy mustache, and the sign he held up was painted with the stylized Tank Security logo.
“Hi, I’m Chad Brand, I think you’re here to pick me up?” Chad said, walking up to him and extending his hand.
“Mr. Brand, we are just waiting for your colleague and then we leave, yes?” the beta said, taking Chad’s bag and putting it in the back of his shiny SUV. Before Chad could ask which colleague, Mick ambled up next to him and clapped him on the back.
“Chad, hey! I didn’t know you were going back today. I didn’t see you on the plane, where were you sitting?”
Mick was standing so he didn’t have a clear view of Chad’s neck, and he obviously hadn’t noticed the bite. He looked fresh-faced and eager to get to work, his Tank Security uniform already in place.
Chad had made the trip in casual jeans and a button-down shirt.
“I got upgraded to first class,” Chad said, feeling a little self-conscious. “Aren’t you here a few days early? I thought you left after me last time…”
Mick had ended his rotation five or six days after Chad, and if he was back now it meant that his leave had fallen considerably short of a full four weeks. Chad hoped Tank Security didn’t make a habit of shafting their operatives that way.
“That’s just the way it worked out with the schedule. I’m getting an extra week after my eight weeks are up to make up for it,” Mick explained. Then he punched Chad on the shoulder. “And upgraded to first class... what did you do? Blow the captain?”
Chad punched him back, making him laugh. “Fuck you, Mick,” he said, laughing right with him.
They climbed into the back of the SUV, the driver getting behind the wheel without a word. The engine was already running, and the interior of the SUV was blissfully cool. Chad climbed in first, and when Mick followed he got his first look of Chad’s neck.
“Motherfucker, look at that,” he said, dropping down next to Chad and leaning forward to study his neck. “You never told me mystery man was an alpha—and you let him bite you? What the fuck, man?”
Mick didn’t sound upset. He was smiling, but his humor was clearly at Chad’s expense.
The driver ignored them and pulled away from the curb.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I just… it feels right,” Chad said, shrugging. “If you’d asked me five weeks ago if I’d even consider dating another alpha, I would have said no. But I met him and… well, we matched pretty fucking good.”
Mick nodded, Chad’s sincerity softening the edge of his humor.
“So what’s he like? He must be pretty dominant if you don’t mind submitting to him.”
Chad barked out a laugh at how much of an understatement pretty dominant was when describing Peter.
“He’s pretty much the most dominant guy I’ve ever met,” he said, grinning.
Mick scoffed. “Really, more than Peter Tank or Aiden Halsted? I doubt that.”
Chad made a face and Mick narrowed his eyes.
“It’s not one of them.” The words were disbelieving. Chad shrugged, giving him another look. Mick’s eyes were wide. “Motherfucker, which one?”
“Peter,” Chad said, just the idea of mating with Aiden making him shudder. He hadn’t seen the man since the encounter in the training facility, and he hoped he never had to lay eyes on him again, though he knew that was unrealistic.
Mick’s eyes bulged.
“You mated with Peter Tank? Are you insane?”
“Probably,” Chad said, unable to help the smile on his face.
“How does that even work? He’s so….” Mick looked like he was struggling to find the word.
“Dominant?” Chad offered, but Mick shook his head.
“No, fucking terrifying!”
Chad watched Mick’s face, surprised to see that he wasn’t kidding. He looked almost concerned.
“We match up pretty well in terms of pheromones or whatever. I like the way he makes me feel.”
Mick looked disbelieving again, but he didn’t say anything. He leaned back and stared at the road ahead over the headrest of the seat in front of them. The road cut through a barren desert, with nothing to see for miles on either side of the car.
“Well, congratulations I guess,” he said after a while.
Chad thanked him, feeling awkward, after whic
h they didn’t talk much. They made it to the security checkpoint—a Tank Security employee checking their ID—before they were driven to the separate residences occupied by Tank Security personnel and management.
The walled compound was like a whole other world from the cramped temporary structures where the regular workers lived.
“Welcome to the Tank Zone!” Mick said, jumping out of the SUV. He gestured at the two-story buildings lining the circular fence of the walled-off area and the squat one-story building they all faced. “Let’s head in and register our arrival.”
Chad grabbed his bag from the back of the SUV and thanked their driver before following Mick toward the building occupying the middle of the obnoxiously named Tank Zone. He was relieved that Mick was acting normal.
“So did Tank warn anyone here that he mated you?” Mick asked as they walked into the air-conditioned building. The change from hot to cold to hot to cold was jarring, and Chad wondered if he’d ever get used to it.
“I don’t think so,” he said, answering the question. “He said I could decide if I wanted to tell anyone.”
Mick shook his head, laughing. “Boss man here is going to shit himself when he finds out.”
“Why?” Chad frowned.
“Seriously? What do you think Tank will do to him if anything happens to you? You’ll be lucky if they let you leave the Tank Zone, much less do any actual work.”
“I guess I hadn’t thought of that,” Chad said. He thought about it as they made their way to the administration office and signed in, getting their schedules and instructions to report to the team leader in the morning.
“Mick, you know how all this works. Would you show him around?” the beta secretary asked, handing Chad a slim welcome packet of instructions and rules.
“No problem,” Mick said, taking the envelopes with the keys to his and Chad’s apartments. Opening them up, he looked at the numbers. “Hey, Chad! Look at this. We’re neighbors.”
“Cool.” Chad took his key. “You want to head over and get settled in before you show me around?”
Mick nodded and shifted his bag further up on his shoulder.
“Sounds good.” Mick turned to the secretary. “Thanks Billy, see you around.”
With that he and Chad headed out to find their lodgings.
***
Chapter 28
Peter made his way into the gym with a buzzing irritation under his skin and a need to make someone bleed. He got changed in the locker room, the tension and agitation in his body evident to everyone around him. Slamming his locker shut, he stormed off to meet Aiden on the mat.
Aiden took one look at him and shook his head. “No way, Peter. I’m not fighting you when you’re like this.”
Peter glared at him, but Aiden didn’t budge. Snarling, Peter walked over to one of the punching bags on the other side of the room and attacked it with everything he had.
Breathing hard, the bag taunting him with how utterly unaffected it was by his attack, Peter gave it a final punch and turned to Aiden.
He never should have let Chad go. So what if Chad liked his job? Peter liked having Chad where he wanted him more. And Chad was his. It wasn’t right that he should go off to work when Peter could support him many times over.
“So do you want to talk about it?” Aiden asked. He had taken the bag next to Peter, though he wasn’t going at it nearly as hard.
“I claimed Chad,” Peter said. The words came out savage and proud. His cock jerked at just the thought of the mark he had put on Chad’s neck.
“You what?” Aiden asked.
“I claimed him. He’s mine now.” Peter liked the way the words tasted in his mouth. Liked the way mine and Chad went together.
“So what’s the problem?” Aiden crossed his arms. “Is he misbehaving already?”
Peter shook his head. “He’s out on the Desert Energy job for the next eight weeks.”
“So you claimed him and then let him travel halfway around the world to do grunt security work? What’s the point of that?” Aiden scoffed.
Peter shook his head. Aiden was not the person to talk to about this. He didn’t seem to get the relationship he and Chad had.
“The point was that I didn’t want him going back to work without my mark on him.”
“But why did you let him go at all? Why not just tell him to stay?”
“Because that’s not the kind of relationship I want. He’s an alpha too. I don’t want to make him feel like I’m coming in and taking control of every aspect of his life.”
Aiden gave him a droll look that let Peter know just what he thought about that. “You, Peter Tank, don’t want to control every aspect of his life? Since when?”
Peter shrugged. Aiden was right; it was out of character for him, but even though he’d only known Chad a month, he knew how Chad would react if he tried to take over that way. Chad needed his independence, and for some reason Peter wanted to give it to him.
He would just have to deal with Chad’s absence. They could video chat, talk on the phone, and if Peter got really crazy, he could take a trip to inspect the operation and see Chad in person.
“Since now,” Peter said. “But let’s talk about something else. What’s new with you? Take anyone home lately?”
Aiden shrugged, but there was a gleam in his eye that told Peter that he had. He hoped Aiden found someone soon. It would make things much less awkward.
***
Chad stripped down and hopped in the shower, wondering how he’d managed to get sand in his underwear when he’d barely even left the jeep. As the water pressed down on him, washing away the sweat and grime of being outside in the desert heat, the phone rang and jerked Chad out of his blissful hot-water haze.
Scrambling out of the shower, Chad left a trail of water on the floor as he sprinted to answer.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Chad. Is this a bad time?” Peter asked, and Chad’s belly clenched with warm happiness at the sound of Peter’s deep baritone. It was hard being away from his new mate, but he was dealing better than he’d thought he would.
“Not at all, I was just going to shower. How are you?”
Peter chuckled. “Better now that I’m talking to you. I wish you were here.”
“Well, I’ll be back before you know it.”
Peter didn’t say anything to that. He asked Chad what he thought of his new assignment, and Chad answered that things were pretty much what he’d expected. Barring an attack, either by terrorists or saboteurs, all they did was patrol the perimeter of the camp and keep the peace among the workers.
“So have you told anyone that we mated?” Peter asked after a while.
“Just Mick. It hasn’t really come up. People see the mark, but they don’t ask about it.”
Chad was a little surprised by that, actually. He’d expected people to be more judgmental and more curious, but it seemed that as long as he did his job, no one cared.
“As long as no one is giving you shit about it I guess that’s fine. But if someone asks you who claimed you, I expect you to tell the truth.”
“I will,” Chad promised.
There was a crackling sound in the corner and Chad jumped. His walkie-talkie blared to life, his commander’s voice coming through loud and clear, ordering him to report to the southwestern corner of the camp as fast as possible.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Peter said, having heard the order. Chad said a quick goodbye and hung up. He rushed to get dressed in the uniform he’d discarded on the floor by the door.
There was still sand rubbing him everywhere, but Chad ignored it. He strapped on his vest and grabbed his gun and made his way outside. Mick was ahead of him, and Chad ran to catch up.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Chad asked, falling into step next to his friend at a jog. They climbed into a jeep, Mick behind the wheel, and drove out toward the southwest corner of the field.
“Probably just some of the workers making a fuss,” Mick a
nswered. “If it were an attack the alarms would have sounded. Just follow my lead and you’ll be fine.”
They were almost there when the sound of shots rang out, and Chad’s heart started racing. Adrenaline coursed through his body, his grip on his gun tight, but Mick was relaxed as ever.
“Probably just warning shots,” Mick told him.
They turned the corner around a row of barracks set up for the workers, and saw a large crowd surrounded by maybe fifteen Tank Security soldiers. Mick parked the car and jumped out. Chad followed him and they made their way to their commander for instructions.