by D. J. Heart
Mason’s mother came back a few minutes later, carrying a tray laden with coffee, mugs, sugar and milk. She poured four cups, taking one and adding milk and sugar before handing it to Mason.
“Thanks mom,” Mason said.
“How do you take your coffee?” she asked Mick and Chris. After telling her that they drank it black, she poured them both a cup and handed it to them.
“So where are you going now?” Mason’s mother asked, taking a careful sip of her own cup.
Mason looked at Mick, and then answered. “Mick has a house, and we’re going to stay there until the fall. Then I’m going back to school.”
Mason’s mother breathed a visible sigh of relief.
“You’re going back? And everything is in order?”
Mason nodded. “Yeah. I registered for classes and paid the deposit on my tuition. Mick and Chris are helping me out with the money.”
Mick felt a warm tingle at the thought that he could provide for his omega, even though he knew Mason would rather have paid himself. It felt good to be able to give Mason things that he needed.
“That’s wonderful, Mason. You’ve worked so hard for this.”
Mason grinned, looking into his cup and taking a sip.
Mick caught Chris’s eye, and he looked just as proud as he felt.
They stayed at Mason’s mother’s house for about two hours, but when she offered for them to stay the night, Mason declined.
Mick was relieved. He knew that both he and Chris would have accepted the offer if Mason wanted them to, but he was eager to get back to his own house.
“I’ll see you soon, mom,” Mason promised as they said goodbye. When Mason stepped back, both Chris and Mick got a pair of hugs that were just as tight as the ones she had given her son.
“Take care of him, okay? Don’t let anything bad happen to him again.”
“We won’t,” Chris promised.
They walked back to the car and got in, Mick taking the wheel while Chris and Mason got comfortable in the back.
All in all, it had been a good visit.
***
Chapter 34
Over the course of the next few days, as they all settled into Mick’s house, Chris got a text message from everyone on the team letting him know that their part of the list was taken care of.
But it didn’t end there. The Dogwood and Pico cartels were at full war, killing each other off in scores, and in the chaos Social Services had managed to rescue nearly all the omegas Chris had told them about.
With everything on that end going so well, Chris had completely forgotten that Mick and the rest of the team were still on active duty, and that they could be called in for a mission at any time.
“It’s just a quick snatch and grab,” Mick told him, getting ready.
“I’ll come with you,” Chris said, getting off the bed. The call had just come in ten minutes ago, and Mick was being picked up in five. Chris had forgotten how fast things happened where the team was concerned.
“And what about Mason?” Mick asked, lacing up his boots. He gave Chris a pained look, like he hated to bring it up.
Chris snapped his jaw shut. He hadn’t thought of that. He didn’t want to leave Mason by himself, but realistically, Mick was the one who needed someone at his back. Mason was spending his days with his nose in his books, studying to get ready for the fall semester.
“He’ll be fine by himself for a few days.” Chris made himself sound more sure than he was.
“And if he goes into heat again?” Mick asked, pulling on his coat and throwing his bag over his shoulder.
Chris slumped. Mick had him there. Mason hadn’t gone into heat again since Mick knotted him that first time, but then again, they had been fucking him pretty much every day since then. There hadn’t been any time for a heat to build.
“When things have settled down, I’m sure we can both go back on the team. But now we need one of us here,” Mick said. He pulled Chris in and pressed their foreheads together. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Chris said. They kissed, pulling away when a car started honking outside on the curb,
“I’ve got to go,” Mick said, heading for the door. Chris followed him, watching as he jumped into the SUV with Brandon at the wheel and took off. Closing the door, he went and poured himself a drink.
He needed to get drunk.
***
Mason’s wristwatch started vibrating at seven p.m. He looked up, rubbing his eyes, and closed his books. He’d made a deal with Chris and Mick that he would come home at seven pm every day, and in return they wouldn’t bug him about how much time he was spending there.
He’d also agreed to work out with Mick three times a week, though from the way Mick’s eyes gleamed when he brought it up he wondered if maybe he was biting off more than he could chew there.
It wasn’t that Mick and Chris had given him any trouble about needing to study, Mason thought. It was just that when he came home late they looked at him like a pair of puppies that had been abandoned by their owner all day.
Riding his bike the short trip from the library back to the house, Mason parked his bike behind the house and headed in through the back door.
“Hello?” he called out, frowning when he wasn’t immediately greeted by a pair of giant alphas scooping him up and squeezing the life out of him. “Mick? Chris?”
He walked into the living room, where Chris was lying on the sofa. He was sprawled out inelegantly, his head tilted back and his mouth wide open.
There was a bottle of vodka toppled over on the floor next to the couch.
“Chris?” Mason asked, worried. He looked around for Mick but didn’t see him. “Chris?” he tried again, nudging Chris’s arm.
Chris startled, and before Mason knew what had happened he was on his back on the floor, Chris crouching over him and pinning his wrists above his head. Chris blinked, looking down at him, dropping his wrists and sitting down on his chest.
Mason struggled to draw breath, Chris crushing his lungs.
“It’s you,” Chris said, a smile on his face. “You startled me.”
Chris was drunk off his ass.
“Get off me!” Mason wheezed, pushing at Chris’s meaty thighs. Chris licked his lips, and then jumped to his feet when he realized what Mason wanted.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to sit on you,” he said, reaching down and pulling Mason up. He didn’t stop when Mason was on his feet, but pulled him down on the couch with him and settled him in his lap.
Thick arms wrapped around his waist, Mason wondered what was going on.
“Where’s Mick?” he asked, trying to get comfortable. Chris’s breath reeked of vodka, but his lap was comfortable.
“On a mission. He’s coming back in a few days,” Chris said. He sounded morose.
“A mission? Like for the CIA?”
“Yeah,” Chris mumbled. “Without me.”
Mason understood. Chris was upset Mick was off without him. He could understand that.
“Is it safe?” he asked, worried for his alpha. Chris shrugged.
“They’re the best,” he said, like that was an answer. Leaning back against Chris’s chest, Mason decided he did not like this at all. Not knowing where his alpha was, what he was doing or if he was okay… he could see why Chris wanted to get drunk.
Reaching down, Mick held Chris’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. Chris relaxed, and after a while he shifted his body so that he was lying down. He moved Mason into the space between his body and the back of the couch, an arm around his waist keeping him in place.
The position was tight and hot, and Mason felt like he was practically smothered, but it was nice. And it was what Chris needed.
Closing his eyes, Mason put his arm around Chris’s chest and hugged him back, trying to go to sleep.
***
The next morning Mason woke up with Chris pretty much on top of him, his stomach grumbling and his bladder full to bursting. Squirming out from un
derneath the huge alpha, Mason got up and took a quick shower.
When he got done Chris was still sleeping, so Mason decided to go get them both some breakfast. In his own experience, the best thing for a hangover was greasy breakfast food and lots of coffee. He scribbled a quick note to Chris telling him where he was going and went to put on his shoes.
Grabbing his coat, Mason started walking down the street toward the little diner that was just a fifteen-minute walk away. He could have taken Chris’s car, but it was a nice day and he felt like walking.
When a black van came driving down the street, he didn’t think anything of it. At least not until it stopped next to him and two alphas jumped out and came at him from each side. Having no idea who the alphas were or what they wanted, Mason turned around and tried to run away.
The alpha to his right caught him, clobbered him over the head, and the next thing Mason knew the world went dark.
***
Mason woke up in a cage. He sat up and looked around, his head bent low by the bars over his head, wondering where the fuck he was. It seemed to be some kind of office, with a worn desk facing the wall and ugly maroon curtains hanging over the windows.
“Ah, there you are,” a voice said, and Mason twisted his neck. Standing behind him in the door was an alpha, and as he walked closer Mason frowned.
It was Jaxton: the loan shark that Mason in his stupidity had gone to for money back when he couldn’t pay his mother’s hospital bills.
“What am I doing here?” Mason asked. Did Jaxton know what had happened with Rover and the role Mason had played with its downfall? Was this some kind of revenge?
“Imagine my surprise when I saw the little omega I sold walking home from the library last night. I think the better question, Mason, is what are you doing here? I sold you.”
Mason blinked. This was a coincidence? What was Jaxton even doing here? This wasn’t even where he had his base of operations.
“I bonded with an alpha,” Mason said. Hopefully Jaxton would let him go once he realized that he wasn’t unattached.
“You did? Really?” Jaxton’s tone was mocking.
“Yeah, two of them. They’re in the CIA.”
Mason regretted the words the minute they were out of his mouth. It didn’t sound very probable. No one went from bondage in an omega brothel to being mated to a pair of special ops alphas. It just didn’t happen.
“I think that a whole bunch of omegas have escaped recently, and you’re one of them,” Jaxton said. He crouched down and looked at Mason in his cage. “Don’t worry, though. We’ll get you back where you belong in no time.”
“No, you don’t understand! Call my alpha, he’ll tell you,” Mason pleaded, but Jaxton ignored him. He rose from his crouch and walked out the door, leaving Mason alone in his cage feeling helpless and stupid.
Looking around for some way to get out of the cage, he tried not to panic.
***
Chapter 35
When Chris woke up he felt grungy and gross, and his head was pounding. He lumbered up to the bathroom and took a couple of painkillers, swallowing them dry in front of the mirror.
He looked awful. His hair was a mess, and he had dark circles under his eyes.
“Mason?” he called out, running his hand through his hair and sticking his head out of the bathroom. “Are you there?”
Chris remembered hugging Mason on the couch, pressing his erection into the back of his thighs while the omega slept, but he wasn’t quite sure when that had been. Checking his watch, he realized that Mason was probably at the library.
Peeling off his clothes, wincing a little at how awful he smelled, Chris stepped into the shower. He stood under the steamy spray for well over twenty minutes, until his muscles relaxed from spending all night on the couch and his head started feeling better.
Whatever he did tonight, he decided, it would not involve drinking.
Fresh and clean, though still not feeling one hundred percent, Chris made his way down to the kitchen. There was a note on the fridge, big boxy letters printed on a yellow post-it note.
Getting breakfast. Be back soon!
Mason
Chris stared at the note, and then back at his watch. It was well past noon, and there was no Mason or breakfast to be seen. He opened the fridge and looked inside to see if Mason had put the food away before he left, but there was nothing.
Closing the fridge, Chris frowned. He went and found his cell phone and tried calling the omega, but as it started to ring he heard the tell tale ringing of Mason’s phone coming from the hallway.
Mason always brought his phone when he went to the library.
Worried, Chris got in his car and drove the short ride to the local library, parking on the curb and jogging up the stairs to the main entrance. He rushed inside, heading to the table where Mason had planted himself the last couple of days.
There was no Mason.
Checking the rest of the library and asking the librarian if she had seen Mason, Chris was left without any idea of where his mate was. With Mick and his team off on a mission, he didn’t have anyone he could call for help, either.
He had no idea what to do.
***
Mason’s hands were cuffed behind his back and there was a spreader gag keeping his mouth open. The collar around his neck bit into his throat, and it felt nothing at all like what Mason had imagined wearing a collar would feel like.
“He’s handsome, but a little old,” the alpha inspecting him said. “And he already ran away, once?”
Mason glared at the alpha, hating everything about him from his slicked back hair to his fancy suit. He reeked of money and privilege, and Mason wanted nothing more than to lock him in a room with his alphas and watch as they tore him apart.
“Which is why I’m only asking twenty thousand,” Jaxton said. He grabbed Mason by the back of his hair and tilted his head back, exposing his throat to the alpha. “It’s a good bargain.”
The alpha’s eyes were dark and aroused, and even though he was trying to act uninterested, he wasn’t fooling anyone. Shifting his gaze from Mason to Jaxton, he narrowed his eyes.
“What are you doing selling omegas, by the way? I thought you said it was too much trouble dealing with the brothels.”
Jaxton shrugged. “I’m out for the most part, but I can’t have this guy running around free. He knows who I am. It’s either sell him to someone I know can handle him or off him.” Mason shuddered. He hoped Jaxton wasn’t serious.
“And you think I can handle him?” the slick alpha asked. He smirked, like he knew that he was being flattered and manipulated and saw right through it.
“I’ve never had a problem from you before,” Jaxton countered. The alpha inclined his head as though to accede the point.
Wondering just what the strange alpha did with the omegas he bought, Mason tried to swallow the drool building up in his mouth. With his jaw held open by the spreader gag, it was difficult to swallow.
“Well, let me take a look at him,” the alpha said. He stepped back and crossed his arms.
Mason cried out as Jaxton yanked down his pants and unbuttoned his pants, pulling his shirt down to his wrists. Jaxton used his grip on Mason’s shirt to lift his arms away from his back, forcing him to bend forward or dislocate his shoulders.
“See, he may be a little older than you’d like, but he’s a prime specimen.”
Mason seethed at being spoken about like this. He’d graduated Magna Cum Laude from an ivy league college, and he’d completed two years of medical school. He was so much more than a piece of meat.
The alpha looking to buy him crouched down and gestured for Jaxton to spin him around, which he did. Mason’s face burned with humiliation as the alpha grabbed the cheeks of his ass and spread them apart.
“Not exactly a virgin, is he?” the alpha said, his voice disdainful.
“Were you expecting him to be?” Jaxton scoffed, making Mason feel horrible. Then he got angry.
> He liked getting fucked, and other than getting a little sore, there was no harm in it. He wasn’t embarrassed that his alphas liked having sex with him.
He growled, the sound coming from deep in his chest and making both alphas freeze.
“He’s aggressive?” the alpha asked. He made it sound like Mason was defective.