by Nora Phoenix
The omega looked from Lars to Grayson and back. “Is everything okay?” he asked, then bit his lip, undoubtedly picking up the slight tension in the room.
“Yes, pup. Lars just wanted to have a conversation with me. It’s up to you if you want to stay or not, but I promise you we’re not fighting. We need to talk some things through, that’s all.”
Part of Lars really wanted Sven to stay, but when he saw the stress even this slight tension gave Sven, he knew it was better for the omega if he left. “Go make breakfast, baby. I promise you everything is okay. I have some questions only Grayson can answer, but they’re not about you. I don’t want you to get all stressed, okay?”
Sven nodded, relief palpable on his face. Two minutes later, he’d gotten dressed, and after offering them both a quick kiss, he was out the door.
“Thank you for using your safe word, Lars,” Grayson said. “It’s a big relief to me to know that you’re telling me to stop when I’m getting close to your boundaries. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
Lars closed his eyes, trying to translate his jumbled thoughts into sentences that would make sense to Grayson. “I struggle with the concept of spanking,” he said finally, hoping that would be enough to get the conversation started.
Grayson nodded. “Okay. But you liked it when I spanked you before, right?”
“I feel like I shouldn’t.”
“Why not? Are you judging yourself for liking to be spanked?”
They were getting close to his core issue, and as much as Lars wanted to resist Grayson finding out the truth, he wanted answers even more. “I judge myself for everything,” he said, his voice barely audible.
“Mmm, I see. Are you telling me that you judge yourself for appreciating the kind of relationship that we have?”
Grayson was so careful to tread lightly here, Lars thought. “Yeah,” he admitted, and he had to force the word out.
“Why do you think you should not like this kind of relationship?”
It was like a dam broke inside Lars, but this time, the release came without anger. “Because it’s weird to be an adult and want to be treated like a child. Because it’s weird to be twenty-two and want to be spanked. Because it’s weird and sick that my own dad was a massive asshole, and now I am pretending you are my dad or whatever, and it’s all just weird, and I shouldn’t like it this much.”
“But you do. You do like it, don’t you? What we do, what I do with you and Sven, you like it, right?”
It was the moment of truth, and the words fell off his lips by themselves. “I love it. I love everything that you do, even when I hate it.”
“Oh, my sweet boy,” Grayson said, his voice full of emotion.
“I love it when you call me boy,” Lars said, since he was admitting his deepest thoughts anyway.
“I’m struggling not to touch you right now,” Grayson admitted, his voice trembling a little. “There’s so much I want to say to you, but I would love to hold you when I do so. Would that be okay, or do you need some space right now?”
For once, Lars didn’t allow himself the time to think, because he knew he would come up with a thousand reasons why he shouldn’t. He simply got up from his chair and parked himself on Grayson’s lap, snuggling against his broad chest on his own accord. Grayson’s arms came around him, strong and safe, and Lars let out another deep sigh.
Grayson waited to speak, but the silence felt peaceful to Lars. It was incredible how even being this close to Grayson could make such a difference to how he felt.
“Lars, my sweet boy, there’s nothing wrong with you for wanting a relationship like this. Or for loving it. It’s how you’re wired, what you need, and as long as it’s consensual, why should it be wrong? Others may have opinions on it, but why should you care about what others think?”
“Bray disapproves,” Lars said. “Are you telling me that doesn’t do anything to you?”
“Of course it does. He’s my son. But, Lars, at the end of the day, he’s a grown man who doesn’t need me anymore. You and Sven do. If Bray chooses to keep objecting to my relationship with the two of you, he’s gonna find out that he’ll lose me.”
“But he’s your son. Isn’t he supposed to come first? Isn’t that how parenting is supposed to work, that you always put your kids first?”
Grayson let out a soft sigh. “You know, that sounds perfect in theory, so sacrificial and altruistic. The reality is that kids don’t always come first and they shouldn’t. Yes, when your kids are young, they need to come first because their very survival depends on it, as well as their well-being. But my kids are adults, especially the oldest two, and it’s time for them to realize I’m not just a father, Lars. I’m a man as well, and an alpha, someone with relational and sexual needs. I’ve put my kids first long enough, and now it’s time for me. If they can’t understand that, if they can’t accept that, then I haven’t done a very good job raising them.”
Lars let that sink in. It was hard for him to rationalize the difference between what his own father had done with putting their needs last and what Grayson was saying here, but intuitively, he grasped it. Grayson had taken care of his kids to the best of his abilities, and they were adults. Hell, Bray ran his own company. Grayson had a point that if they couldn’t let go of him now, they would need to learn. But what did that say about him that he, only a few years younger than Bray, still needed to be taken care of?
“But, Lars, I also want to say this. A Daddy-boy relationship isn’t about parenting. You called it pretending I’m your father, but that’s not what this is, honey. Forget about your actual dad. You want to be taken care of, you want someone looking out for you and making decisions for you so you don’t have to think about it or stress over it, you want to be nurtured, and you want to spanked, and you want to submit to all those things because you also want to please your Daddy, who is your dominant. And all that is okay. It’s safe for you to surrender to that need because I’m here to take care of you. You should never feel guilty about that. Do you get what I’m saying?”
Lars let it sink in, and it did change his perspective. He hadn’t fully grasped that a Daddy was still a Dom and that it was a different aspect of the D/s dynamic. In these terms, how Grayson had explained it, it made much more sense to him.
“I think I do. Much better, at least. Will it go away over time, this need Sven and I have for you?” he asked.
“It might. I’ve known couples who stayed in a Daddy-boy relationship for many years, but others slowly transitioned into something else. Only time will tell. Does that worry you?”
Lars pushed out a short laugh. “Everything worries me. Haven’t you realized by now?”
His honesty was rewarded with a soft kiss pressed into his hair. “I know. I wish I could take all your worries off your shoulders.”
“This helps,” Lars admitted. “The cuddling and the talking and the spanking, it helps. You taking care of me helps.”
“Lars,” Grayson said, and Lars heard he was searching for words. “I know it must be hard for you to accept this need, what with the horrible experiences with your own father. I get that. I’m not saying the two aren’t related, because on some level, they probably are. From what I understand, you’ve missed out on a lot of love and care and attention over the years. You’ve done a remarkable job taking care of Sven, but it’s come at a price. You’ve been an adult for most of your life, even when you shouldn’t have been. So maybe it’s okay to allow yourself to be taken care of, maybe even for the first time, since you haven’t had much of that in life. I would love to give you that, for you to experience what it’s like to be safe, loved, and cared for. And I know that others may have their opinions, but I really don’t care. This is between you, me, and Sven, and I think what we have works, don’t you?”
Lars wasn’t sure when the tears had started falling from his eyes, and he didn’t care. Every word out of Grayson’s mouth stabbed him right in the heart, but in the best way. It was like the man had
peered into his very soul, and he still wanted him. He understood on a level that Lars had never even been able to put into words to himself. How could he reject this when it was everything he wanted?
“I know we are fated mates, in all likelihood,” he said, not wanting to keep that bit to himself. If he and Grayson wanted to move past the obstacles in his brain, he had to be completely honest.
“I know. I heard most of your conversation with Enar.”
“You were listening that whole time?”
Lars should be surprised, but he really wasn’t. He wasn’t angry either. Somehow, it felt good that Grayson had observed him trying to mend fences with Enar.
“I was worried about you, worried that the conversation would derail and knock you out emotionally.”
It rushed through Lars, the knowledge that Grayson had wanted to take care of him, even when Lars hadn’t even been aware. “How does that fit into this, the whole fated mates thing?”
“All I can say is that I think fate made a perfect choice when she put the three of us together, don’t you think?”
That was a way of looking at it Lars hadn’t considered. He’d gotten stuck in his own line of reasoning about fate versus free choice and how that had affected their relationship. In the end, did it really matter? He was happy, wasn’t he? Happier than he’d ever been, even with Sven.
He connected with himself the way he sat on Grayson’s lap, completely safe and surrounded by the alpha’s care. Yes, it was all fast, but Grayson hadn’t given him any indication he couldn’t be trusted. Everything the alpha had said and done had pointed toward his care for Lars and Sven. Sven felt it too. Otherwise he would’ve never surrendered so easily. His own beta was at peace, quiet and content inside him.
“Yes, I think fate made the perfect choice. Daddy.”
28
Grayson woke up with his arms wrapped around his two boys. Sven was snuggled against him on his left, using Grayson’s biceps as a pillow. On his right side, Lars had found a spot for his head on Grayson’s chest, his messy hair grazing the alpha’s skin. Grayson inhaled their smell, Sven’s sweet omega scent mixed in with the earthier tones of Lars. It was a fragrance he wished he could bottle, if only to capture this moment.
There had been more of these moments lately. Every morning, watching Sven sink to his knees for him in the shower, the joy of pleasing his alpha radiating from his entire body. The expression on Lars’s face as he relaxed after a minute or two of cuddling. He still needed a little time to sink into it, but once he let go, his face transformed into that of an angel. A naughty angel, for sure, but so much softer than his usual expression.
Sven, slowly drifting into something close to subspace at his feet every night. The idea had been to try it for a few days, but Sven had completely taken to it, and they had never gone back. All Grayson needed to do to calm him down was put his hand on Sven’s neck. The omega would lean into his touch, and then Grayson would feel the muscles underneath his hand relax until Sven was like jelly in his hands.
All these were moments he would treasure forever, but nothing topped that moment when Lars had uttered that precious word voluntarily for the first time. Daddy. A switch had been flipped in the beta, causing him to embrace their relationship. His obedience was still different from Sven’s, and it always would be, considering how much their personalities differed, but it was obedience nonetheless.
Lars didn’t sink into the same bliss as Sven did, but Grayson wasn’t worried about that. It wasn’t what Lars needed. For Sven, those moments of letting go completely were restorative to his mental well-being, but Lars needed something else. He needed words, more than Sven did, but he also needed touch.
Grayson realized more and more how much the beta thrived on the right touch. Take their daily spanking, which they had made a habit of. It was a short ritual, just ten quick slaps every morning after Grayson had showered with Sven, but it meant a lot to Lars. Grayson figured it helped the beta realize he was being seen, that someone was paying enough attention to him to touch him. Lars never failed to grow hard during their spanking, but Grayson didn’t allow him to make it sexual. It wasn’t, not that daily moment. That was about so much more than sex.
Not that the sex wasn’t good, because it was. Grayson surprised himself every day with his sexual appetite. Enar had casually remarked a few days ago that he suspected an alpha’s libido was influenced by his mates. Case in point was Lidon, who was pretty much insatiable, as far as Grayson could tell. He’d grown used to hearing noises from the foursome’s bedroom, and they’d all come to accept that sometimes, those four didn’t actually make it to the bedroom.
He’d felt bad for Sando, who apparently had walked in on a rather vigorous encounter between Lidon and Enar and had been shocked to his core. Grayson had taken it upon himself to help the shy and sheltered omega process what he had observed because Sando had been stunned by Enar bottoming for the pack alpha. It had been a rather uncomfortable, if enlightening, conversation for Sando.
Along the same lines, he’d caught the whispers of a conversation between Lucan and Palani, with his son admitting he’d caught his father in a rather compromising position with Sven. From the short description he’d overheard, Grayson knew exactly what his son had watched, a rather hasty blow job simply because he’d been horny and Sven had been willing.
He’d felt bad and embarrassed at first but then had shrugged it off. It was kind of par for the course when you had so many people living under the same roof, including family members. From his research, he knew that this was the way a pack functioned, so if they wanted to move back to the old ways, they’d have to get used to being a hell of a lot less prudish about sex.
All that thinking about sex had gotten his morning wood even harder than usual. It was Sunday, so they were in no hurry to get up. Palani had insisted on Sundays as a day of rest for the whole pack, with the exception of Bray and his men, who worked in rotating shifts anyway. They couldn’t work seven days straight, Palani had explained, and since Lidon and he wanted the pack to grow closer bonds, they had insisted everyone take Sundays off.
As if he had unconsciously woken them up, both boys stirred, Sven opening his eyes first. It took him two seconds to focus, but when he saw Grayson was awake, his face split into a big smile. What a joy it was to wake up like this, Grayson thought all over again, before bringing Sven in for a soft kiss.
That move made Lars stir again, and he lifted his head from Grayson’s chest to see what was happening. Grayson’s other hand found his neck, and he dragged him close and switched from one mouth to the other. They were wet, sloppy kisses without much elegance, but he loved the intimacy and spontaneity.
Sven opened his mouth to talk, but Grayson put a finger on his lips. “Sshh, no talking for either of you.”
That woke them up entirely, and two pairs of eyes looked at him with curiosity, awaiting his next order. He wanted to push them just a little further today.
Without words, he pushed Sven’s head down toward his cock, and the omega picked up on his intentions quickly. Seconds later, his hard dick was engulfed in that sweet mouth, slurping sounds filling the room.
“Mmm, so good,” he hummed in appreciation, ruffling the boy’s hair, then pushing his head down a little harder.
Whereas Lars loved to be fucked rough but didn’t really like giving head, Sven appreciated a little more finesse as Grayson took him, but loved being skull fucked. The two were a perfect combination.
“I’m going to come down your throat, pup, but you can’t swallow. I want you to hold it in your mouth.”
Satisfied with the tiny nod Sven gave him to signal his understanding, Grayson dragged Lars down for another, much deeper kiss. Lars opened instantly, allowing Grayson complete access to his mouth, just the way he liked it. He barely let the boy come up for air, aggressively thrusting his tongue in and out of his mouth, claiming every inch of him.
Once Lars was pliant and boneless in his arms, Grayson broke o
ff the kiss, panting. “I want you to open the top drawer of the nightstand on your side,” Grayson said against the boy’s lips. “We’re going to try something new today.”
Curiosity sparked in Lars’s eyes, but he obeyed after only the slightest of hesitations. He rolled off Grayson and sat up, then opened the drawer. Damn, he couldn’t see his expression because Lars had his back turned toward him.
“Show me what you found.”
Lars turned around slowly, holding up the item Grayson had placed in that drawer the day before. His eyes were widened, but not with fear, Grayson noted. He was interested, aroused, the beta’s cock jerking up in attention.
“I think you know what that is, don’t you, boy?” He gestured him forward, even as Lars nodded. “Not only is it going to look really pretty around your cock, but it’s gonna make Daddy very happy. You know how much I love edging you, and this is gonna allow me to make you suffer even more.”
It was becoming hard to concentrate, his body slowly drifting toward the edge. The benefit of having an increased libido was not only a faster recovery rate but also more endurance before he had to come. He could totally get used to this.
“Put it on the bed for now and come sit on your knees next to me. Watch our boy swallow my cock. God, he’s good at this, isn’t he?”
He grabbed Sven’s head with both his hands and thrust into his mouth. The boy’s eyes watered, and he gagged a little, so Grayson kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn’t push him too far. Sven’s eyes locked with his, and even full of tears, with drool on his chin, the bliss on the boy’s face was hard to miss.
“Oh, my sweet pup, I wish I could stay in your mouth much longer, but I’m about to come. Remember what I told you. No swallowing.”
His balls pulled up, and with a satisfying grunt, he came, pulling back ever so slightly so he wasn’t too deep into Sven’s mouth. His load was too much for the boy to hold in his mouth, so a little dripped down his chin, which looked hot as fuck.