by Aiden Bates
***
Ben slid into his supervisor's office. Bob was a great guy. He might have been the single best supervisor Ben had ever had. Yet, there was still no good way to get called into your supervisor's office. "You wanted to see me, Bob?"
Bob gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Have a seat, Ben. Don't worry about punching out; you're still on the clock for this." He winked. "I wouldn't dream of trying to skimp on overtime for you. Not when you've been the top performer in the maintenance department, even with all of the interruptions you've had."
Ben's mouth went dry. "Look, Bob, I'm sorry about that. I'm just not sure what I can do, you know?"
Bob held up a hand. "Son, don't worry. You're not in trouble. Didn't I just tell you that you're the top performer? You've been here all of what, a month?"
"Maybe four weeks, sir. Maybe a little shy of that." Ben tried to keep his foot from tapping.
"And you're doing great work. You're not letting that distraction affect your work, which as far as I'm concerned is superhuman. But son, you shouldn't have to worry about that Hartmann guy. I know you're not interested in him. I've seen the way you look when you come in after seeing him."
"No." Ben stilled. "I'm not interested in him at all. I'm sure he's an okay guy and all that, but he's not… you know. Plus, I've kind of got a guy."
"Kind of got a guy?" Bob grinned and scratched at his belly. "How do you kind of have a guy? I'm no alpha, but I didn't think that alphas did kind of."
Ben's face got hot. "It's kind of complicated. I like him. I love him. I just… things are kind of weird, we knew each other when we were kids." He licked his lips, which felt weirdly dry. How much did Bob need to know? "Our parents tried to arrange something between us, but he was too young so it didn't work out. It's different now though."
"And you don't want to pressure him, is that it?" Bob gave him a penetrating stare and then laughed. "Well, that makes sense. And it doesn't make a difference when it comes to how Hartmann should be treating you. Or, more to the point, shouldn't be treating you. No is a complete sentence, Ben. You told him no. You've been refusing delivery of his little gifts."
Ben rolled his eyes and sighed. "I have when I get a chance to. The girls at the front desk, though, they're not on board. They think me and Hartmann were made for each other."
Bob froze. "I see." His eyes narrowed. "Well now. That's a problem."
Ben winced. "Bob, I don't want them to get in trouble or anything. I mean they're just getting over-involved, you know? Nosy. They're bored."
"Well, I'll definitely take that boredom up with their supervisor, but that's not your problem. You're being sexually harassed, Ben. It's not okay for them to abet your harasser just because they're bored."
The words chilled Ben's flesh. "Can alphas even be sexually harassed?" He scratched at the back of his head. "I mean I've never heard of such a thing."
"Buddy, anyone can be sexually harassed. Hartmann is in a position of power and authority, because he holds contracts with our firm. He thinks that this gives him license to pursue you, even though you've told him that you're not interested. There's an implicit threat there, that if you don't give in to him, there could be consequences to this firm. That's the definition of sexual harassment right there." Bob leaned forward. "The fact that he's an omega has nothing to do with it. That's why this firm, and our union, have very strict policies against any kind of goings-on between colleagues. It's to stop anyone from saying that they thought they could get away with something like this." He caught Ben's eye and held it. "You aren't going to be hung out to dry here, Ben. I've already talked with our union rep, without naming names of course. And I've spoken with human resources, not that I needed to name names there."
Ben covered his face with his hands. "You didn't?"
"No. Bridget's a smart cookie and she's got eyes in her head. She said, 'I thought that Hartmann had been visiting a lot more often since that handsome mechanic you hired started work.' You will be protected. No one's going to fire you because of Hartmann's behavior." Bob chuckled. "For starters, our lawyers are the best out there. There's no way Hartmann can get out of a contract because he got busted for harassment. So it's not even going to cost the firm anything."
"Maybe not, but he's going after my omega now." The words came out of Ben in a rush, and he wasn't sure he meant to say them. He thought he did, but he wasn't positive, and he didn't normally speak so fast. "I mean he’s always had a grudge against the place where Ty works, but he actually left dead rats on their doorstep last week."
"Dead rats?" Bob drew back in revulsion. "Who does that? And how do you know it's him?"
"He calls Ty 'street rat.'" Ben looked away. "I have no idea what to do here."
Bob heaved a mighty sigh, looking down at his desk. "Well, that's certainly a little farther than a typical harassment case goes. At least farther than most cases that I've dealt with, and no, you're not the first case I've dealt with. But listen, Ben, you're not the first guy here who's had an issue. And you won't be the last. The firm is going to back you, all the way to court if we have to."
"Thank you." Ben's knees went to jelly for a moment as he processed what his boss was saying. "Seriously, thank you."
He still felt uncomfortable with the discussion by the time Ty got home, even though Bob had done his best to soothe his fears. Ben was about to vent to Ty, telling him all about his conversation with his boss, when he noticed just how wiped out his omega looked. "Are you feeling okay, man?"
Ty yawned. "I'm fine. I'm just tired. I wonder if I didn't spread myself a little thin during the semester." He ducked his head and blushed, a habit that got Ben fired up like nothing else. Still, he didn't want to push things, not with Ty looking like he could fall asleep at any second. "Would you mind if we just got takeout tonight? I'm not sure that I'm up to cooking."
"It's Friday, babe. We usually just get tacos anyway. We can stay in and grab Thai, if you want." He ushered his omega into his apartment, not wanting him to feel like he needed to entertain, and settled him onto the sofa.
They ordered in, and after Ben had disposed of the wreckage of their food he turned to Ty. "Hey, you know what might help you?"
Ty rested his head on Ben's shoulder. "A blanket and not moving for the next three hundred and sixty-five years?"
Ben pretended to consider that. "Not exactly what I had in mind. Maybe a back rub, though."
Ty picked up his head and blinked at Ben. "I guess I can try, but I'll probably be better at it tomorrow. I'm seriously beat."
Ben laughed, although he couldn't help but beam a little. Ty really did just want to make him happy. "No, silly. Other way around. I think you might not be getting as much rest as you need because you're keyed up about Hartmann. Who, I want to point out, I will never want. Even if you pick up and run off to Bolivia tomorrow, I'm never going to want Hartmann, okay?"
Ty's smile, while tired, was broad and genuine. "I… yeah. Okay." He let Ben help him off with his shirts, a sight Ben didn't think he'd ever get tired of seeing, and followed Ben to the bedroom.
Ben got him situated on the bed, face down with his head toward the pillows. He took off Ty's jeans and shoes, and then he grabbed a container of massage oil from the nightstand. It had been a while since he'd used it, but he'd always liked the way it smelled and felt. He straddled Ty's cotton-clad ass and aimed his hands at Ty's tense shoulders.
Ty was so responsive and so vocal with everything else they did, it was no surprise to Ben that he let out a loud and appreciative groan not long after Ben started in on his shoulders. It had probably been a while since anyone had done this for him. Ben had trained as a massage therapist for a while, done some work as a part-time job until he started making serious money as a mechanic. He could feel everyplace that was being damaged by years of sleeping on cheap mattresses and then sitting hunched over a desk for far too long. If he pressed here, and stretched there, he could help to prevent a problem maybe twenty years down the
road. He'd have to check back, of course, look in on that stress on the spine every now and again, but that wouldn't be a problem.
Of course, this was about relaxation, not necessarily therapy. He moved his hands all over his omega's beautiful body and could feel the long, lean muscles all but melting under his touch. He couldn't pretend that being like this, on top of the man he loved, with Ty's strawberry scent playing around his brain, didn't turn him on harder than anything before he moved to San Diego.
The great thing about being an alpha, with an omega, was that he knew without a doubt that he was having the same effect on Ty. There was a weird note to Ty's scent, probably due to the exhaustion, but underneath it he was just as aroused and excited as Ben. That didn't mean that he was in a position to do anything about it, of course. The last thing that he wanted to do was upset his lover, or push him farther than he could go right now. Maybe he could convince him to stay in tomorrow instead of running.
"How you doing, Ty?" he asked, leaning down to murmur into his omega's ear.
Ty groaned. "I'm stiff as a board down here, man." He huffed out a little laugh. "Sorry, that was kind of vulgar of me."
Ben snickered. "Like I've never gotten vulgar with you. Are you sure you want anything right now? I know how tired you are. I can practically smell it."
Ty sniffed. "I want you. I always want you. I'll be fine if you don't expect any feats of Olympic type athleticism."
Ben was already pulling Ty's briefs away. "Don't you worry. I'll take good care of you, baby."
He stripped himself down and rummaged for the condoms and lube. Then he caught Ty's mouth in a kiss, sweet and gentle but full of passion, and rolled Ty onto his side. Ty caught on to what he wanted immediately and arranged his legs to give Ben access to anything he wanted. His hands ran up Ben's torso and thigh, whatever they could reach, and even if his energy level was a little lower than usual he still couldn't seem to get enough of Ben under his hands or against his skin.
Ben stretched him open with his usual care, and then he sank into him with one slow careful thrust that had Ty sighing and fisting the sheets. Ben loved this moment, the part when he was fully engulfed for the first time that day in his mate's tight, hot body and everything seemed to want to pull him further in and hold him tight. He loved everything else, too, but that moment of initial penetration had always been his favorite.
Ty reached up to stroke his side, staring at him with those electric blue eyes of his. "Move," he said.
Ben did. He took things slow today, a careful and sensuous attempt to bring them both pleasure. They both liked hard and fast sometimes, but Ben could do this too. He could give his love slow and careful, aim better with his thrusts and hit that spot deep inside of Ty more often. He knew he was doing it right as Ty cried out over and over, eyes rolling back into his head, and he reached over Ty's thigh to grab onto his cock. It only took a few strokes to bring him over the edge.
Ben followed soon after, spilling into the condom as he felt Ty clench around him. He tried to hold back a shout, but it was a little bit like trying to hold back the tide. Everything in this moment seemed too perfect. He had the feeling of his love around him, Ty's scent blocking out everything else in the apartment. Nothing else in the world mattered. Even Hartmann, wherever he was right now, was a distant threat, like nuclear war or rising sea levels.
He pulled out and got rid of the condom. When he got back, he cleaned them both up. He didn't even ask Ty if he would stay the night, he just tucked him into the bed and folded himself around him. "Have I told you lately how amazing you are?" he asked, wrapping his arms around Ty's sweaty body.
"I feel like I could stand to hear it another thirty times or so." Ty grinned, and then he yawned. "I'm sorry. It's not the company." He rolled over a little and pillowed his head on Ben's arm. His beard tickled a little, but only in the best ways.
"You're amazing." Ben took a deep breath. "I've never looked forward to coming home from work like I do now. I mean I used to look forward to the end of the work day, but it wasn't so I could come home. It was so I could stop working and go do something else. Now it's just so I can be with you." He blushed. "That's weird. Is that weird? It's weird."
Ty looked up at him, eyes huge and shining. "I — really?"
"I love you, Ty. I know it's soon and everything, but I thought you should know." Ben's chest hurt, like his heart was stopping.
"I love you too." Ty's voice was barely audible, but Ben could feel his breath on his skin. "You've made me so happy over the past month, I can hardly believe it. Whatever comes, I just want you to know that. I love you."
Ben turned off the bedside lamp and held the man he loved, and who loved him, until they both fell asleep.
Chapter Six
Ty worked a half day the Friday before Memorial Day. Gray House didn't have a lot of money to pay its staff, but they could and did give their workers time off. Ty didn't complain. He could barely keep his eyes open and all of the kids knew it. Some of them had even taken to ragging on him for it, but that wasn't the worst part of it.
No, the worst part of it was Stuart, a rail-thin omega of about fifteen, who had been brought in by police from the hospital about six months ago. Stuart just shook his head and tried to get the others to back off. Sometimes he tried to sneak Ty saltines. Stuart knew, and he probably knew a whole lot better than any test that Ty could take from a drugstore.
But Ty wasn't going to rely on a teenager's olfactory nerve for a diagnosis. This was too big a deal. When he was dismissed from Gray House, he didn't drive home. He didn't drive straight home, anyway. He drove half an hour up I-15 to Escondido, for no reason other than the fact that he didn't know very many people in Escondido and not very many people in Escondido knew him.
He wasn't ashamed to be buying a pregnancy test. Of course he wasn't. He was a twenty-four-year-old man, and an omega. By omega standards, he was well past due for his first child. Of course, he was also unclaimed, no matter what professions of love Ben had made last weekend. That made a difference. Maybe it shouldn't, but it did.
Okay, maybe he felt a little bit of shame buying the pregnancy test, but it was a ridiculous kind of shame, which made him feel worse. His body was his own, what he chose to do with it was his own. If he chose to get a tattoo or piercing, those weren't things that made him feel shame. Why should an open admission that he was sexually active give him the slightest reason to blush?
He was sweating through his shirt by the time he got back to his car.
The ride home took an hour, thanks to traffic, but he still had plenty of time thanks to Ben's firm's insistence on working a full day today. He was able to slip into his apartment undetected, calm his half-panicked breathing down, and do what he had to do.
The thing with omegas was that the home pregnancy tests still had to be done the old-fashioned way, using a cup. He went ahead and filled the cup, and then he set the timer on his watch to go off in five minutes. Women's tests had gotten more accurate and faster over the past forty or so years, but not tests for omegas. There weren't enough omegas, and the hormones weren't quite the same, to warrant the same degree of research and development. Right now, today, there might be a hundred other men in the country going through exactly what Ty was going through, but not more than that at any given time.
He stared at the cup, with the little stick standing in it. He glared at it.
He wasn't going to think about this. He wasn't going to think about what the result could mean, not in either direction. He wasn't going to think about how sure, Stuart was rail thin now, but when they'd brought him in from the hospital he'd had a little roll of something around his belly, and sometimes he still cried at night when he thought no one could hear him.
He paced around the bathroom. He cleaned the toilet. He cleaned the sink. He thought about taking out the trash, but who was he kidding — he was going to want to get rid of the test he wasn't thinking about, no matter what the results were.
The
trouble with this kind of test was that he didn't know what would constitute a failure and what would constitute passing. Certainly life would be easier if the test returned a negative result. No baby, no complications. He and Ben could just go about their lives, together for as long as Ben wanted or separately, and everything would just go back to normal. His body would fight off whatever infection was causing his downright crippling fatigue, and the soreness in his breasts, and his sudden aversion to anything with spinach.
The thought gave him a little hollow feeling in his chest, one he kind of hated. He'd never given much thought to having a child of his own one way or another, not once Ben's initial rejection meant he'd spend his life alone. He knew he wasn't emotionally cut out to raise a child alone, and of course there was the financial aspect. But he wasn't necessarily opposed to the idea of children. He was around kids all day, older kids at least, and liked them. If he let himself think about it, if he let his mind go there, he could see himself holding a little bundle of something, or teaching a toddler to read.