Alpha Principal

by Preston Walker

  Nathan came charging back down the hallway, holding his cock with one hand to keep it from bouncing around uncomfortably while he ran. Tossing himself onto the bed, he tore the cap off the lube and slathered the length of his member with the gel. The sound of wet friction sent another spasm through Simon’s body.

  “Nathan! Share some!”

  “Trust me, baby,” Nathan growled. “I’ve got enough for you.”

  Simon was about to ask what that meant when he suddenly felt something very hard and very wet press against his sensitive, pulsing opening. A short, sharp cry of delight pulled from his lungs, his ass thrusting back on its own. He felt the tip of Nathan’s cock slip inside him and then back out as the alpha behind him teased him.

  “Want more? Need more?”

  Simon wiggled his ass around, trying to entice Nathan back to him. “More,” he agreed. “All. All of it!”

  He felt Nathan’s tip slip just an inch inside him again, and that was about the time when both of them lost control. They stopped being men and became wolves in spirit. Nathan sank deeper and deeper inside Simon, rocking back and forth until he was completely embedded.

  Simon followed the lead of his alpha, urging him on faster and faster until they were no longer two entities but one. They were at rhythm, thrusting and bucking back and forth, following and leading in turn. In those few minutes, neither of them was dominant and neither was submissive. They were as one, equals in the act of love.

  Simon felt Nathan’s thrusts grow more and more frantic, ramming hard against that most intimate place deepest inside his ass. It was as if the alpha was having to fight against some sort of resistance. His rough fucking stilled, and then they were grinding together, locked together, incapable of separating.

  Pushing his head against the covers, Simon cried out. Every muscle in his entire body clamped down as his orgasm stole through his body like a blaze unleashed. He could feel Nathan’s every ridge, every texture, every vein.

  “Simon!”

  Nathan’s satisfied grunts burst up into a sudden howl of release. Their minds joined, two wolves feeling the other’s pleasure, a reverberation back and forth between them. They were part of a separate world which no one else would ever know.

  Simon had no idea how long it took for both of them to come down from their orgasms, though he did know that it took him longer. When he managed to open his eyes again, his body was tucked back against the curve of Nathan’s firm, muscular stomach. Nathan had one arm and one leg wrapped around him, enveloping him securely.

  And the hand from Nathan’s arm was on Simon’s stomach, gently stroking him.

  Simon placed his hand over Nathan’s. “Hey, you,” he whispered.

  Nathan gently kissed the back of his neck. The wolf inside Simon was very aware of the fact that he hadn’t yet been claimed in the way he wanted. It was an impatient animal, knowing that its goal was still just within reach.

  But Simon was content just to be as he was.

  “Hey,” Nathan murmured. “Did you like it?”

  Simon laughed softly, then winced. He would probably have some bruises on his ass for the next few days. He’d wear them proudly, too. “I want it like that every day.”

  “Come live with me, and I can promise you that.”

  “I’ll live with you if you mark me.”

  I probably shouldn’t have just jumped into saying that so suddenly. We haven’t even really discussed any of this beyond agreeing that it’s going to happen.

  He was surprised and delighted to feel Nathan kissing the back of his neck again. “How can a wolf be such a goddamn vixen?”

  “It’s easy when it’s you,” Simon said. He meant that from the bottom of his heart.

  “It’s hard to control myself when it’s you, so I guess it works out.” Nathan chuckled deep in the back of his throat. Tilting his head back to look up at the alpha, Simon saw a few strands of Nathan’s perfect hair had slipped away from the rest of the formation. For some reason, that filled him with a sense of deep satisfaction. The unruffled, calm principal had finally been ruffled.

  “I want to mark you. I will. Soon. I don’t think right now is the best time.”

  The human-Simon agreed. Wolf-Simon was incredibly disappointed and made him let out a whine.

  “Shhh,” Nathan murmured. “I said soon. I just want it to be perfect, when we’ve got everything figured out. I don’t want any uncertainty to mar our future together.”

  Our future together.

  That was the goal he was working forward to, now. The future with Nathan. Everything would come together eventually if only he kept working, never looking back at what he had been or what he once wanted. He had to adapt, to keep looking forward.

  “I understand,” Simon said. He closed his eyes with what he said next, meaning every syllable so intensely that nothing else mattered. “You’re the only wolf I’ve ever met that’s been worth waiting for.”

  “I feel the same way about you.”

  Simon shivered a little. He was very aware that the darkness of doubt would haunt him for a long while yet, but in this moment he felt like he could overcome anything. “I think there’s something that I need to tell you, but I’m not sure yet how I should tell you.”

  “Is it life-threatening?”

  “No, but it’s important.”

  You deserve to know that this was meant to happen. It means we’re doing the right thing.

  He felt Nathan nod behind him. “Then, there’s no rush, is there? I’m curious, but I’ll wait. You can take your time figuring it out, and I’ll always be ready to hear about it when you’re ready.”

  There really wasn’t much more to say after that, so Simon stayed silent. He closed his eyes and relaxed into the feeling of being held and cherished. His body was moved gently every time Nathan breathed, almost like being rocked. Gradually, Nathan’s breathing slowed to the point where it was clear he was asleep.

  Very gently, Simon slid forward off the edge of the bed. He landed quietly on his feet and went into the living room. The papers he had left on the couch were still there and he picked them up, gathering them against his chest. He took them back to the bed and crawled up with them, cuddling against Nathan while he read. He turned each page as quietly as he could, focusing intently on each and every word. He absorbed the words, committing them to memory until he felt himself starting to drift off to sleep. Closing his eyes, he let himself drift away.

  14

  July became August. The start of August turned into the middle of August, and the summer ended. Portsmouth settled down from its state of frantic festivity as college students said farewell to their vacations and returned pursuing their goals, albeit with a sense of loss and regret. Everyone over the age of 18 asked themselves at least once, if it was worth it all to have grown up; the answers that they came up with were so widely varied that it would have been impossible to categorize them or do any sort of census.

  As the students went back to the places where they belonged, the older generation breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be. They had worked long and hard for years and years to be able to have a steady life with no uncertainties, so the wild partying and celebrations of those younger than them tended to make them feel odd and unsettled. Some of them might even feel the distant call from their own youth, trying to bring them back to those thrilling days. Most resisted.

  The younger students, those who were still part of the rigorous school systems with very little freedom to choose what courses they took, lamented the loss of their summer even more than their elders. They hadn’t even begun to learn the value of striving towards their goals because many of them didn’t have any yet. All they could do was look at the endless years ahead of them, the loss of their fun. For the next few weeks, school parking lots, buses, and the fronts of yards would echo with daily complaints and years, depending on the age and mental stability of the person doing the grumbling.
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br />   Parents breathed sighs of relief as they had less time with their kids to worry about, and other relatives did the same at no longer having to host the rowdier crowd.

  For someone like Nathan, he was audience to all of this. He was part of all of it, the joy and fear and trepidation that came with the beginning of another year. This was one of the busiest times for him, starting with open house and all the beginning assemblies in the gym where he had to give speeches about what he expected from the rest of the year.

  His schedule was jam-packed every single day, from start to end. He got up and came in earlier, stayed later just so he would have enough time to meet with everyone who wanted to see him. There was no end to the paperwork. Just when he finished one stack and had finally worked the cramps out of his hand, Elaine stopped by with another three. She, too, was overworked, but thriving.

  Nathan was thriving, too. It was an interesting mix of complaining and doubt each time he got up in the morning, melting into contented satisfaction as the day went along and he accomplished most of the things that he’d set out to do. It was so incredibly difficult to keep track of everything, to remember everyone’s names or even where he had to be at what particular time—he actually had to refer back to the schedules Elaine printed out for him, instead of just glancing at them once and being done with it.

  As difficult as it all was, he wouldn’t have traded this for anything. It was what he was meant to do, leading everyone to the places they needed to be. Even when he accomplished something, his work was never done. It was stages upon stages upon stages of growth and development, sometimes just to figure out something very small and relatively insignificant. That was important. Everything was important to him, because he would be handing these kids off to another school in time, letting them take another step in their lives, and he wanted them to be as prepared as they possibly could be.

  The only thing he really didn’t like was that all this work meant he had a lot less time to spend with Simon.

  He could tell that many of the teachers were curious about what had happened to their peer. No one ever mentioned him to his face, but he could see it in their eyes that they assumed there had been some sort of scandal or other difficulty. They might not have any idea that their principal had been sleeping with the new teacher. They didn’t need to. You didn’t just hire someone, get them deep in the process of becoming part of the school, and then just never see them again. There had to be a reason for that kind of thing.

  The only one who actually approached him about Simon’s absence was Elaine. There was always a sort of separation between teachers and non-teachers, and again between the various types of instructors; Nathan puzzled over this problem since long before he’d become a principal, and he had done the best he could throughout the years to minimize that gap. He hadn’t been entirely successful at it, though he did think that his school had one of the tightest-knit faculties he’d ever seen.

  All the same, it didn’t surprise him that Elaine was the one to ask. She was a non-teacher, and he was a not-quite-teacher in the eyes of many. They had a kinship between the two of them.

  Elaine approached him in his office one day about a week after the start of school. He was slaving over a stack of papers, signing and signing.

  As soon as he heard her distinctive footsteps coming up to his door, he gratefully dropped his pen and looked up.

  She didn’t knock, which told him before she even actually entered that something was wrong. “Do you have a moment?”

  Nathan stretched out his hand, grimacing as his joints popped loudly. “I’d be glad to take a break from all of this. What’s up?”

  She didn’t wait to be invited in, didn’t wait for him to ask her to take a seat. She always did, despite their long years of working together. That, on top of everything else, made him worry.

  She came in and sat down across from him, on the other side of the desk. She placed her hands on top of the desk, covering some of the papers he’d been signing. Some of the ink smudged underneath her skin, but Nathan didn’t really care. Signed was signed. It didn’t matter if he got coffee on these damn things, or blood, or if the ink was smudged.

  “What happened to Simon?”

  He looked at her, not answering, not shrugging. She had her suspicions about him and Simon, suspicions which were correct. Anything he said to her would have to be considered very carefully. He trusted her, but sometimes people could give away information without meaning to, and he just didn’t want to have to deal with that right now.

  Elaine knew he liked to consider everything and normally had all the patience in the world for him. Today, she put her foot down. Or rather, her hand. She slapped the top of the stack of papers, offering a brief glimpse of her ink-smudged palm. “Nathan, I swear to God, I don’t have patience for this. I have so many things to do today.”

  I’ve never seen you so frazzled. Sometimes I don’t value your help like I should. I’ll change that.

  Which was just another thing that he had to make time for.

  “I apologize, Elaine,” Nathan said. “I didn’t mean to frustrate you.”

  She snorted, a sound that was very much unlike her. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at him. “I want to know what happened to Simon. I’ve been silent as long as I could, even when you hired that other man who isn’t half the teacher Simon is.”

  He agreed with her on that. The guy was fine, just completely out of Simon’s league.

  “I’ve been here with you longest. I know that you trust me the most. You know I wouldn’t tell anyone anything that you don’t want to be common knowledge. So, I deserve to know what happened. Not as principal and front desk lady. As colleagues. As two adults talking to each other. What happened to Simon?”

  Nathan considered what she’d said, and then he nodded. “You’re right. Of course you’re right. You always are.”

  “So tell me. Then we’ll both know, and I can stop wondering about it.”

  “Simon is still in the system. We just decided that it would be best for him to take a temporary leave of absence.”

  “Why was that necessary? Everything was going fine. You saw all the work that he did on the gym. It’s never looked so good.”

  And it had never acted so good either. Nathan hadn’t even known the faulty bleachers could be fixed. He just assumed that you had to keep pulling them out and pushing them back in until you got lucky and they went up okay. Simon had actually taught him they could be fixed from beneath, and now the damn things worked like a charm.

  “You’re right.”

  “Then, answer the question.”

  “All right.” Nathan held up his hands, then immediately put them back down. “Sorry. Force of habit. Anyway, Simon and I are in a relationship.”

  Elaine actually rolled her eyes at him. “No shit. I like to think that I’m a very positive person. A little naïve in the grand scheme of things, like an old woman should be. However, I’m smart enough to have figured out how you broke the door.”

  Nathan blushed a little, which made her make a small sound of satisfaction. “Well, it needed to be replaced anyway. It was getting old.”

  “Is that your strategy now? Go around and break everything that needs replaced?”

  “It wouldn’t be that bad of an idea, actually.”

  Elaine gave him a little smile, but he knew that she wasn’t done with him yet. “There’s nothing in Churchland’s employee handbook about relationships between anyone. Parents, teachers. Teachers, principals. Anything goes. Simon didn’t have to leave just because of that.”

  “You’re right. It’s more of a personal decision. You see, we’re going to have a baby.”

  Elaine opened her mouth and then closed it. She frowned, her eyebrows furrowing. “That’s a very serious step to take after knowing each other for just a few months.”

  “You’re right about that, too. Simon and I both believe in sort of an old-school version of courtship.”

 
“His parents gave you a goat and two cows for him?”

  “Not quite. We just don’t think that there has to be a specific sort of time limit on anything. What happens, happens the way it’s meant to. We’re both adults. We’re in charge of our own lives.”

  “So, are you going to get married? Are you already living together?”

  “No and no, but those things are being planned in the future. The baby comes first. It’s the most important part.”

  Nathan wanted to stop there, to leave her with that amount of information and call it even. He knew that wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to be satisfied until she understood absolutely everything.

  Which meant that he was going to have to tell her their secret. If anyone would understand, it would have to be Elaine.

  “Are you adopting, then? Or is there a surrogate involved? And I still don’t see how that would require Simon to leave the school.”

  “Neither,” Nathan said, his voice heavy. He swallowed hard, letting the word hang in the air for a moment. “Simon is…having the baby himself.”

  Elaine’s eyes sharpened suddenly, the blue as intense as ice. She seemed to have come to some sort of understanding, though Nathan wasn’t sure how that could be. “I didn’t know that Simon is transgender.”

  Ah.

  “He isn’t.”

  “Then, I don’t understand?”

  “Can you keep a secret?”

  “Nathan!”

  He held up his hands, this time leaving them up between the both of them. He pulled in a very deep breath. “You might want to brace yourself for this. And try to keep an open mind.”

  Much to his surprise, Elaine took the news that shapeshifters existed quite well. She didn’t ask any questions while Nathan explained the basics of things to her, though she nodded a lot and often made soft sounds as connections formed in her mind.

  “That explains some things,” she said. “He’s going to start to show. He won’t be able to keep up with his job as a PE teacher. And he’s having the baby. And all that difficulty with Derrick Keene in the past. My goodness. You should have told me sooner!”