by D. J. Heart
“Aiden said you were disrespectful yesterday when you talked to the advisor, what did he mean by that?” he asks, crossing his arms and making his face stern. Evan freezes,a guilty look on his face, confirming Aiden’s accusation.
“I didn’t think he was being very nice, so I… kicked him on the leg and told Ms. Davies to ignore him.”
Peter honestly doesn’t know what to do with this information. Evan kicked an alpha? And told a beta to dismiss him? This is bad. He stalks forward.
“You kicked an alpha?” he asks, Evan hunching in on himself at the menace in his voice.
“He was being really rude to-”
“I don’t give a fuck what he was doing,” Peter barks, grabbing Evan by the back of his shirt and lifting him up. He sits down on the edge of the bed and manhandles Evan over his lap, bringing his palm down on the omega’s upturned ass with a resounding smack.
“Ow! I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Evan cries, writhing at the sting but not trying to get away. Peter wonders if he’s been far too lenient with this new addition to his household. If he’s been too lenient with Chad.
“If you have a problem with Aiden’s behavior,” Peter growls, delivering another stinging swat, “You tell me. Do you understand? You do not act like a spoiled little brat.”
Pulling down Evan’s pants, Peter spanks the boy harder and harder until his cheeks are glowing red and he’s bawling his eyes out. Peter gives him two hard swats to each inner thigh, making him scream, before pushing him off his lap and letting him land on a heap on the floor. He crouches down, grabbing Evan by the back of his hair and angling his face up so that they’re eye to eye.
“If I ever get another report like that you can forget about school, do you understand?” Peter forces himself to be hard, Evan’s teary face and devastated expression melting his anger.
“I do. I’m sorry,” Evan says, his face ugly with snot and tears. Peter sighs and lifts him up, holding him up with a hand under his ass and an arm over his back. He reaches up and pushes Evan’s face into his chest, the omega shuffling his nose past the collar of Peter’s shirt to breathe in the comforting scent of his neck.
“Good. You’ve been punished and that’s the end of it, OK?”
“OK,” Evan repeats, arms lifting from his sides to hug around Peter’s shoulders. After a few seconds of Peter rubbing his back, he asks, “Are you mad?”
“Not any more. I just need to be able to trust that you’ll behave yourself when you’re out in public without me or Chad.”
“I’ll be good,” Evan promises, hugging Peter tighter. Peter carries him to the bedroom and disentangles the boy’s arms from around his neck, laying him face down on the bed and pulling down his pants. He has some cream that will take away the sting on Evan’s ass, seeing no need for Evan to be in actual pain now that the punishment is over.
Evan goes stiff when he pulls his pants down around his thighs, but he relaxes when Peter sits down next to him and starts spreading the soothing balm over his reddened skin.
***
Evan expected the worst when Peter laid him down on the bed and pulled down his pants, but the wet salve Peter rubs into his stinging skin feels wonderful. By the time he’s done, climbing off the bed and rubbing his hands on a small hand towel, the sting is gone - replaced by a dull ache that almost feels good.
“I’m going to call down for breakfast. I want you to shower and meet me in the dining room in fifteen minutes, do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” Evan replies, crawling off the bed as Peter watches him. The alpha nods, turning around and leaving the room.
The shower feels wonderful, though the hot water stings his ass despite the balm Peter had used,. By the time Evan gets out he feels much better.
So he was punished. It’s almost a relief, knowing just what the consequences of bad behavior are. Peter could have done much worse.
Putting on clean clothes, Evan heads to the dining room to meet Peter for breakfast. He wonders where Chad went, and hopes he’ll be back soon. By the sound of it, Peter has done what Evan feared and taken Aiden’s side, possibly driving Chad away for good.
Evan can’t imagine what life will be like if Chad doesn’t come back. What use Peter will have for him. He stumbles, heart lurching with the realization that Peter might get rid of him. Might sell him off to someone far less scrupulous than himself.
He keeps walking, knowing that such thoughts are of no use. Chad will come back, he has to. Even if it’s just for Evan.
He walks into the dining room, Peter already seated, the usual breakfast feast laid out before him.
“Come, sit,” Peter says, serving himself eggs and bacon. Evan obeys. Peter watches him, severe and unsmiling, the weight of his gaze making Evan clumsy as he serves himself from the platter closest to him.
“Do you know when Chad is coming back?” he asks, blurting out the question before he can stop himself. Peter freezes, fork halfway to his mouth, putting the utensil down on his plate before he answers.
“No, but I wouldn’t worry. He just needs some time to calm down. I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Peter says, putting on a fake smile. Evan is not reassured.
“Oh,” Evan says, picking up his fork. He keeps his eyes on his plate as he eats, the faint sting of his ass making him squirm in his seat.
“Now, tell me what happened with Aiden that made you kick him,” Peter says, surprising Evan. He’d thought the matter was closed, but Peter doesn’t seem mad. Just curious.
“It was like what you did, when you came into my room today,” Evan says, trying to make Peter understand, “You know, like when you push all the dominance you have to the surface? He was doing that with my advisor, only he was doing it for fun. Like he was bored and he liked making her nervous. It just made me mad.”
Peter stares at him, eyebrows scrunched together and mouth pulled tight, “So he was bullying her? Did he do anything to you?”
Evan shakes his head. “No. He just joked about how you had to bribe the school to let me in, but Ms. Davies said that wasn’t true…” Evan looks up, wanting to know if she was speaking the truth, or if Aiden had it right all along. Peter just looks surprised.
“He said what?”
“He said that you must have donated money to the school so that they would take me,” Evan says, holding his breath as he waits for Peter’s answer.
Peter laughs. “I didn’t have to bribe them. They were thrilled when I contacted them about you. I think they would have let you go for free, if that was the only way they could get you. I wonder why Aiden thinks that I had to bribe them…”
Evan fights down a grin, pouring himself a glass of juice as he answers. “When he was here he made that joke… when he asked how much it set you back that I was starting early and you said a lot. Were you just talking about tuition?”
Peter looks startled. Then he asks, “Did you think I had to bribe them to let you in?”
Evan nods, not meeting Peter’s eyes.
“Well I didn’t. I’m sorry I made you think that. Though I’m sure that’s not what Aiden meant-”
“It was,” Evan interrupts. Peter looks startled. “He thinks that you’re being ridiculous, letting me go to school, and he thinks the only way they’d let me go there was if you paid them.”
Evan doesn’t want there to be any misunderstandings here. Aiden meant exactly what Evan thought he meant.
“Evan, I think you misunderstood.”
Evan’s looks up, Peter’s expression patronizing and willfully ignorant. “No, I didn’t.”
Peter’s eyes narrow. Evan can feel his resolve crumbling, but he doesn’t want to give in and let Aiden off the hook. Not when he’s caused so much trouble.
“Aiden is my friend, Evan. Watch the way you talk about him.”
Resentment fills Evan’s body, and he drops his head to stare at his plate. He’s not hungry, and he knows that Peter is wrong. It galls him that he can’t stand up for himself without the risk of punishment.
Evan nods, Peter giving his hair a playful yank before he’s off to work. Evan listens to the door closing, breathing out a sigh when he’s alone.
He goes to find his paper and pencils, sitting down in the outer hallway so that he can draw the morning sun rising over the city landscape.
***
Chad regrets his decision to leave before he’s even gotten off the plane, but he’s told his parents that he’s coming home for a week, so that’s how long he’ll stay. He needs to show Peter that he’s serious, and coming back less than a day after leaving would show Peter that he was anything but.
“Baby!” his mom calls the minute he steps through security, running at him and tackling him in a hug that nearly knocks the wind out of him. His dad stands back, smiling.
“Hey, son. This was an unexpected surprise,” he says, coming in for a much more subdued hug once his mom lets go, “Is everything all right?”
Chad’s parents are both betas, and they’re still mystified by all things alpha. To say that his teen years had been difficult for all of them would be an understatement.
“Peter and I had a fight, and I just needed some time for myself,” Chad explains, giving his mom another hug. She squeals with happiness.
“What about this omega I’ve been hearing about?” his dad asks, “He OK by himself with Peter?”
Chad nods. Whatever is going on between him and Peter, he knows the alpha will take good care of their omega while he’s gone. “Evan is fine. He and Peter could probably use some time together without me hogging all the attention, anyway.”
“I’m just happy to have you home for a while, you never visit,” his mom chides him, taking his arm and hugging it as they walk. He’s only got his gym bag with him, so they can head straight to the car and drive home without delay.
***
Chad hasn’t been in his childhood home since before he went to work for Peter. Stepping into his bedroom, it’s exactly as he left it, like a shrine to his younger self. He cringes when he sees the posters on the wall, all of them of omegas, and though they’re all covered, it’s clear every single one of them is in heat.
He spends a minute taking down the posters and rolling them up, the bare walls a great improvement.
“Not your thing any more?” his dad asks, clapping him on the back and coming to stand next to him.
“No. You were right,” he says, smiling ruefully down at his dad, “It’s terrible the way omegas are treated. I was just stupid.”
His dad nods. “So you like him, this Evan?”
Chad grins, knot tingling at just the thought of his omega. He doesn’t know how he’s going to last a whole week without sinking his knot into his delicious, tight little hole. “He’s great. The thought of him in one of those places… It hurts just thinking about it.”
“Well, I can’t say I’m not happy you’ve come to your senses on that issue,” His dad says, making Chad groan when he remembers how obnoxious he’d been as a teenager. He’d saved up to go to an omega house with his friends, determined that it was his right to wet his knot in some omega slut’s hole, and no matter what his dad said he refused to budge. They were omegas, he’d said. It was what they were for.
He’d been an asshole.
“Yeah… well, it shouldn’t have taken getting to know Evan to make me realize that the way we treat them is wrong,” Chad admits, having no problem admitting that he was wrong to believe as he did.
His dad leaves to go help his mom with dinner, leaving Chad to explore his old room uninterrupted. He finds his old pornos hidden under the bed, but he leaves them where they are. After examining all his old trophies, displayed on top of his bookshelf with enormous pride by his younger self, he heads back downstairs to have dinner with his parents.
Though he misses Peter and Evan, it’s nice to be home.
***
Except for a voicemail left on Peter’s phone to let him know he’s all right, Peter hasn’t heard from Chad in six days. It’s the longest he’s gone without contact since he and Chad met, and it’s making him more and more frazzled.
“I’m sorry, Scott. You did what?”
Peter looks over his desk, Scott McCorkle sitting across from him with a smug smile on his face. Peter wants to strangle him, he’s so mad.
“Don’t worry, we did it right. There’s no tying it back to us,” Scott says, misconstruing Peter’s angry silence for worry. Peter snorts. Of course they can’t tie it back to them. He trained Dawn and her team himself. They’re very good at what they do.
Scott, acting as head of the Cruz account, has apparently taken it upon himself to deal with Richard Cruz’s omega rights activist problem the old fashioned way. By taking them out. While the Peter that had started Tank Security would have had no problem with Scott’s actions, older Peter is not so morally bankrupt.
“I specifically told Mr. Cruz that we would not be offering him our services in that regard,” he says, voice hard as he lets his inner alpha shine through his eyes. Doing that thing, as Evan would say.
McCorkle’s smug grin falls away, replaced by a nervous look. “I thought that was just… you know, something you had to say.”
Peter leans back in his chair, not sure how he should move forward. The damage already done, is it really worth sacrificing the account? Besides, Richard owes him now.
“No loose ends?” he asks, Scott’s nerves calming at the question. He shakes his head.
“No, Sir. They were on a boat, a fundraiser of some kind, and they all went down in the explosion. It’s already been ruled an accident.”
Peter nods, one more thing to add to his conscience. Chad can never know about this.
“Don’t take steps like this without my approval again, do you understand?” he warns, Scott nodding. The alpha seems to understand that he’s escaped a very unpleasant fate, and he looks appropriately relieved.
“I won’t, Sir.”
Peter closes the file Scott had handed him, feeding it into the shredder by his desk, “Good. Keep up the good work and send Mr. Cruz my regards. You can go.”
Scott gets up, much less cocky than when he’d entered, and hurries out of the room. Peter is glad to see him go.
***
Evan is slouched on the couch, watching the evening news as he waits for Peter to come home. He’s spent the day, like he has the past six days, drawing, eating and hoping for Chad to come home. Or at the very least call. Peter hasn’t said anything, but it’s clear that he’s distressed by Chad’s absence.
On top of missing Chad, Evan has spent the day feeling off. It’s like his skin is suddenly too tight, clammy and hot to the touch. He feels itchy and uncomfortable, and to top it all off, he’s got a hard-on that just won’t quit.
Shifting, cock raw from jerking himself off, Evan freezes at the feeling of something wet leaking out of his hole.
Slick.
He jumps up, the realization hitting him like a sledge hammer. He’s in heat. It makes sense. With Chad gone he’s been stressed and lonely, and Peter hasn’t touched him sexually or knotted him once since they were left alone together. Of course his body is going to try to fix things by sending him into heat.
Whining, need suddenly acute now that it’s been recognized, Evan pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials Peter. He would call Chad, but the alpha has had his phone turned off since he left.
“Hello?” Peter answers the phone, sounding distracted. Evan can tell that he’s in his car on the hands free, and he breathes out a sigh of relief. Peter will be home soon.
“Peter? It’s Evan… I think I’m going into heat.”
Peter is quiet for a second, then he curses. Evan feels struck by the harsh words,
heat addling his brain, and starts crying.
“Hey, no Evan. I’m not mad. You’re a good boy. Go take a cold shower and wait for me in the bedroom, I’ll be home soon. Can you do that?”
Evan nods, then realizes that Peter can’t see him. “I can do that,” he says, dropping the phone without hanging up, rushing to obey his alpha. He gets into the shower, the ice cold water making him shiver as it crashes down on his head. It’s so cold, but Evan makes sure to get clean before he steps out from the punishing spray.
The shower works, and though his heat is still building, he feels better. Naked, skin still damp, he crawls up on the bed and burrows in under the sheets. They smell like alpha, and Evan’s hole gushes slick as he pushes his nose into the soft fabric and breathes in the musky scent.