“Got it. Did he say…do you…how long am I staying?”
He was very still while Luka looked him up and down, then shrugged. “As long as you want. Doesn’t matter to me, if you’re having a good time—but I’ll come get you for next month’s full moon if you haven’t come back yet.”
Niketas flushed as he tossed a few shirts and pairs of jeans in a bag. “Really? Another woman? Luka, I really don’t—I can’t.”
“You think I didn’t notice?” His smirk widened a little. “Seemed to do alright once Leon got you going, though.” Niketas was less than amused, and he avoided Luka’s gaze with a shrug as he zipped up his jacket and tossed his bag on the back of his motorcycle.
“I guess I’ll see you then, if I’m not back before.” He grinned faintly, then rolled out his bike, swung into the seat and revved the engine.
“Niketas.”
“Yeah?” Something in Luka’s stance as he stood at the entrance to the den, hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders hunched forward, made him sit up and take notice. “What else, Luka?”
“Be careful. Don’t get yourself hurt, yeah?”
“I…” Then Niketas shook his head and grinned. “It’s just sex, Luka, c’mon.”
Luka scowled. “Just sex.”
“I’ll be fine. See ya.”
Niketas raced himself down the mountainside, away from the den and into the city. He could see the way as if it was printed for him with giant arrows on the pavement—and more than that, the closer he got the more the thin thread of Stelios’ scent became a rope dragging him onward.
Impatience crawled up Niketas’ back like some kind of animal, digging in its claws. He wanted Stelios so much it felt like his skin was on fire, like he’d been hard forever, but damn. It had only been three days since he left, the three days of the full moon.
It was just last night that he’d taken Luka’s newest try at a mate with the rest of the pack, but he’d barely been able to do it and he felt…dirty now. Like he’d broken a trust, even though he knew Stelios was aware of why Luka had come for him. Damn again. Why couldn’t he have just not come for him?
With the night over he wished even more that Luka hadn’t picked now to go looking for a mate, that there was a way out for him. If he hadn’t come—if Niketas had just been able to stay with Stelios…
He might never have left. He might just…damn. Those weren’t the thoughts to be thinking. He had no idea what Stelios wanted with him or from him, didn’t know anything except that Stelios enjoyed his body. Which wasn’t bad, but it would be stupid to start thinking that he would get something more than that, stupid to start wanting something more than that.
Luka’s voice echoed in his head, and his own answer. Don’t get hurt. Just sex. Except it was a lie and he knew it, and Goddammit, so did Luka. The question was…did Stelios?
The building he was looking for reared up in front of him, and Niketas slowed as he pulled around to the back and parked his bike in the same spot as last time. He wandered up to the panel and though about just tapping in the code, but that wasn’t really polite. There were a series of buzzers—which was the penthouse? Oh. P. Right. He hit the button, and after a moment a familiar voice came through the speaker.
“Niketas?”
“Yeah, I—”
The speaker clicked off, and there was an abrupt buzz from the door to his right. Niketas yanked it open, strode into the lobby and looked around. After a minute another door buzzed and let him in to the elevator.
Stelios was standing in it, staring at him, and Niketas hurried forward.
He stopped, as if he’d hit a wall. Stelios’ stare was too intense, his aura too powerful. The pressure of it kept him exactly where he was, and the weight of it—suddenly it hurt to have his cock trapped in his jeans, he was so hard. But he couldn’t approach another step, could barely even open his mouth to speak.
Alpha. My other Alpha, my—so much—want.
“Sir…”
He swayed where he was, and then something seemed to shift. Stelios stepped back out of the elevator door and beckoned him forward, and Niketas stepped in and stood next to him without another word.
The only feeling he was getting from Stelios was a burning aggravation, or maybe anger. Niketas had been thinking maybe he’d get a kiss. Not at the door, but then he’d been standing here, so maybe in the elevator? But that obviously wasn’t going to happen and he was barely holding on to the hope that it would once they were in Stelios’ apartment. Almost the last thing Stelios had said to him before he’d left was that Niketas could kiss him whenever he wanted, but now…
Stelios was barely even looking at him, wouldn’t meet his eyes.
What was it? Had he changed his mind, did he not like him anymore? Was Niketas not good enough? Then why was he even here? Stelios had called for him, had told Luka to send him. Hell, the Alpha could’ve turned him away at the door if he’d changed his mind so fast, so why?
Why?
~ ~ * * ~ ~
The minute Stelios had Niketas inside his apartment, he slammed the door shut and caged his omega against it. His omega, his brother’s too Goddammit but his. “You smell like a whore!”
“What—what the hell—”
Niketas’ eyes had gone wide, and he stared with so much confusion that it made Stelios even angrier.
“You made such a fuss about me touching no one else. I canceled all my other arrangements because of you, for you. But you—you come back to me with the smell of some other man all over you, in you, the smell of some woman sticking to you.”
“But you knew I was… I had to, that’s why I left in the first place, because Luka’s looking for a mate! That’s why he came back for me, because he needed me to—fuck, I’m only the omega but I’m still part of his pack, damn it!”
Stelios sucked in a breath, pressed his knuckles against the door and leaned in close to Niketas’ ear.
“That explains the woman. Not the rest!” He slid his mouth down from Niketas’ ear to his throat, felt his pulse pounding there, then bit him once, hard, but not hard enough to break the skin. Niketas lifted his hips and moaned, but his arousal wasn’t what Stelios had intended.
“Who did you let fuck you, Niketas? It wasn’t Luka, he wouldn’t. He knows better than to bring you to me and then—no, it was his woman anyway. Which one, Niketas? Which one!”
Niketas stared at him, wide-eyed, as if suddenly aware that Stelios was serious, that he was angry.
“Yes I’m angry. If you weren’t so—I’d—” And then he stopped, backed off but kept his grip on the omega’s shirt.
He jerked Niketas with him down the hall, and he stumbled along behind him, but Stelios didn’t care. He was going to make the omega understand exactly what he’d done, what kind of feeling he’d caused.
Stelios had known when he’d left what he was leaving for, what he was going to do, and that had been bad enough. He’d kept himself from speaking out because he had no suggestion, no alternative. Niketas belonged more to Luka than to him, even if Stelios was the one who had taken Niketas for his lover. Niketas was part of Luka’s pack, and he had to be there, had to take that woman with the rest.
But he’d dealt with it because it was only going to be a woman. A woman Niketas didn’t even want.
Instead he’d come back smelling like that—like that fucking blond. That was it. That was it. Of course it had been that one. Leon, his name was. Now that Stelios had got the scent and a name for it, he could see the bastard smirking in his head. And he’d had Niketas under him, coming for him, crying out for him?
Goddammit! God. Damn. It.
He slammed open the door to the room he’d given Niketas last time and dragged him in, tossed him on the bed and watched him get on his knees, confused but almost hopeful.
“Sir? What…should I—”
“I don’t care, go to sleep if you want. You probably need it. Just stay here until I come back for you.”
“Sir—”
He slammed the door shut and left Niketas alone. God damn it! Fucking Luka, fucking pack of—this was why he lived alone! This was why he’d stayed away from acting like an Alpha even though he was one.
Pack bonds had no place in a human existence. Everything got complicated once the wolf part of his life was involved. Wolf instincts, wolf desires…wolf needs.
Would he even be in this situation if he wasn’t just like his brother, wasn’t Alpha himself, irresistible to an omega like Niketas? The moment he’d showed up Stelios had seen it on his face, the urge rising in him. Go to his knees. Bare his throat.
Well, it wasn’t Niketas’ fault that Stelios had never been satisfied with a human man. Despite himself he’d gone on being tempted with other wolves. Other omegas. But even the last one…even Mikhail hadn’t been anything like Niketas.
If Niketas had been a woman—well, and Stelios wanted women—he’d have mated the bastard already. He knew it, could taste it every time Niketas moaned for him, said Sir in that questioning, begging tone. God damn it!
He was supposed to be cooling off, not working himself up even more. What was he going to do about it, that was the question. He paused in his pacing, and jerked his gaze up to the telephone. Mikhail… Now there was a thought.
Stelios had told him not to come back, that he’d found a partner he was going to keep to. But…Mikhail would still come if he was called. He was an omega, too, and not the defiant type. He’d probably be pleased to be called, even if the reason for it wasn’t really what he wanted.
“I’d have to make it clear to him. The real reason. It wouldn’t be fair to use him…but Goddammit, I’ve got to make Niketas understand what he’s doing to me!”
He went to the phone and looked up Mikhail’s number, then dialed with no hesitation. If the other omega was home, Stelios was going to get this mess cleared up without waiting. If not…well, he’d think of something.
Something that involved ropes and a riding crop and—but no. Niketas wasn’t ready for that.
Not yet.
Chapter Two
Alone in the room where he’d been left, Niketas sat in the middle of the bed, staring at the door. He wondered if he dared defy Stelios and leave. Go find him and ask him what, exactly, he was supposed to have done instead of obey his Alpha. He wasn’t sure if it would have been better if he’d come back and hadn’t had any trouble with the woman, but Stelios hadn’t even let him explain.
Did he think that he’d wanted Leon? That there was even a molecule of his body that wanted someone other than Stelios touching him?
“Cause there’s not, there’s fuckin’ not.”
But he stared at the doorknob, and decided that he didn’t dare. Now wasn’t the time for defiance, now wasn’t the time for anything that might urge Stelios to send him home. It was almost ironic. The first and last time he’d been here, he’d spent his first day demanding to go back to the mountain.
Now that was the last thing he wanted.
Perhaps an hour passed while he sat there, thinking and then over thinking every word, every nuance of Stelios’ aggravation, until he heard the outer door click open and shut. At first he thought Stelios had just left him there, but then he heard voices. Stelios was speaking low and quickly, too much so for Niketas to understand what he was saying. There was laughter, male and carefree in a stranger’s tones, and then the sound of a smack and a startled moan.
Before he knew what he was doing Niketas was off the bed and standing with his hand on the doorknob. Who was that? What was Stelios doing? Niketas scented the stranger and the stranger’s arousal, swallowed thickly and found his chest suddenly tight. Footsteps passed by outside, and he counted them as they went by, two pairs of feet that took ten steps, then stopped.
He swallowed again, past a lump in his throat. Playroom. That was the—Stelios had brought someone else, some other man. Was he just supposed to sit here smelling that bastard wanting Stelios? Listening to him moaning, crying out for his Alpha, his Alpha?
But then he heard another door open and shut, and there was complete silence. The soundproofing on the playroom was too complete. Even wolf senses couldn’t pick up what was going on inside, and Niketas paced back and forth, growling to himself, whining and shoving his hands back through his hair.
What was he gonna do? What was he supposed to do, why did Stelios even want him here if he was just going to take someone else?
The door swung open in front of him, and Niketas jerked his gaze up. His nostrils flared, dissecting scents that managed to both disturb and reassure him. Someone’s arousal. That same someone who’d showed up earlier. A wolf. An omega, like him…but nothing in the air had the scent of an Alpha.
Stelios wasn’t…whoever he’d brought, whatever he’d been doing, Stelios wasn’t lusting after whoever it was. But that someone was still there, and Niketas didn’t like it at all. Was this supposed to be his punishment? Because he had to do what Luka said, had to obey pack law and help him find a mate.
Was he going to be held responsible for that? Was he going to have to watch Stelios touch someone else, payback for what he hadn’t even wanted?
His heart pounded hard in his chest. He didn’t know how long he stood there, staring into Stelios’ eyes, trying to say no every way he could without words, before Stelios turned and gestured for him to follow.
“Come with me. Now.”
There was nothing in the world he wanted to do less than what Stelios had told him. He already knew what he was going to find, but what he wanted didn’t matter now and he knew it.
One step after another, he walked behind Stelios down the hall, biting his lip.
~ ~ * * ~ ~
Stelios listened to the padding of Niketas’ footsteps behind him, hesitant and far too much knowledge in them. His senses had informed him well. The omega knew what to expect, just as Stelios had known he would.
When the Alpha opened the playroom door and stepped out of Niketas’ line of sight, he only stared, eyes wide, fists clenched, and didn’t move. He didn’t say anything—Stelios wondered if he was even breathing.
Blond and beautiful and blindfolded, Mikhail was twisting in his ropes, white diamonds of silk that tied him to the pillar in the center of the room. He was naked, his cock dripping, and little moans slipped out of him even though he had to know that someone else besides Stelios had come in the room.
Stelios had known this would be a slap in the face for Niketas, to see someone else tied up like he had been the first time Stelios had taken him. He’d done up the ropes exactly the same. The only difference was the blindfold, because he had no reason to let Mikhail see who Niketas was.
He wasn’t going to give Niketas up, and he wasn’t going to break the promise he’d made not to take another lover. That wouldn’t even make him feel better, never mind what watching it would do to Niketas. Still, Stelios thought this was enough to make him understand.
“Don’t like what you see?”
“No.”
“No? Maybe you’re right, Mikhail’s paler than you are. I should have trussed him up in black. Do you think I should put the egg inside him too?”
Niketas swayed in place, then dropped to his knees. “No. Sir. Please—”
“I don’t even know if I should let you call me that. I have a blond of my own, you see?”
“Sir. Please. I get it.”
“Do you. Do you really? I thought you were just as much mine as Luka’s, but you couldn’t even keep from—”
“I didn’t have a choice! I couldn’t—don’t you get it? Fuck, I couldn’t even get it up for her, that woman. Not after you. Not even with Luka inside her, not even watching him when I used to want him so much. Not after you!”
Stelios blinked, processing that, then reached down and turned up Niketas’ face. Flushed, embarrassed, intent…and telling the truth. Stelios ran a thumb over his lips and studied him. “Continue.”
“Luka, he told them. The rest of the pack. About…me
.”
“He outed you to your pack? I didn’t think Luka was that stupid.”
“No, it’s not—it’s not like that, they don’t care who I wanna fuck even if they don’t understand it, but he…” Niketas dropped his gaze and hunched up his shoulders. “When I couldn’t even get hard enough to take her Luka asked them which one would help me.”
“Help you.”
“So I could fuck her. The woman. And Leon, he said he’d…he…fucked me. But he wasn’t you. Sir. I’m sorry. What was I supposed to do? Luka’s still my Alpha, they’re still my pack, I can’t just—”
“Disobey? But you’re so good at it the rest of the time. Goddammit, Niketas! What do you want me to say? I will not share you. That was never part of the deal—Luka didn’t want you, remember? Luka brought you to me, said I was your other Alpha. And you. You wanted to be my lover, not just my submissive, my omega.”
“Yes, I—that’s what I want! That’s what I—”
“No. Not when you come back here, acting like it doesn’t matter that you let that son of a bitch put his hands all over you, his cock in you. Come back here smelling like a fucking—”
“Sir!”
“Didn’t I say I wasn’t sure if you should be calling me that?”
Stelios turned his back, and walked over to the blond still hanging against the pillar, but his lack of desire bothered him. Fuck, he wasn’t even hard, even though Mikhail was handsome enough, had always pleased Stelios before.
He was hot for the touch Stelios was denying him, begging for it with his body and straining against his restraints. Mikhail’s cock was pearling wetness at its tip, but Stelios had no desire to tease him or touch him, never mind take him. Damn.
“Sir. S— Stelios.” He whipped his gaze around and stared at Niketas as his name slipped past the omega’s lips. He supposed he’d asked for that, but he didn’t like it. He did not like it.
“If you don’t want me and you’re gonna touch him then just. Let me go. I don’t wanna watch this, I can’t. I get it, alright? I’m sorry, I fucked up and I should’ve—I don’t know, been better or something, but I—”
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