by Piper Scott
How could he have missed it?
Alma was standing on the stairs outside the front door, arms crossed on the railing, enjoying the sunrise. She breathed slowly and steadily, almost as if she was meditating. Nathaniel shut the door behind him and gently eased into place beside her, nervous. Paranoia, another sign of heat. Why was it hitting so fast and so hard?
He cleared his throat, but couldn’t bring himself to speak.
“What’s the matter, love?” Alma asked softly. She turned her head in his direction, looking him over. “Is Dylan still going alright? I doubt anyone is going to be able to pry that baby from his arms no matter how hard they try.”
“He’s fine,” Nathaniel said. “It’s actually me who um, who could use your advice.”
“Mm,” Alma paused. “What’s the matter?”
“I think…” Nathaniel swallowed hard, finding the words hard to say. “I think I’m going into heat. I wasn’t supposed to for another month, at least, if not more, but… but it’s hitting hard. I think it’s too late to take my blockers.”
“Oh, love,” Alma said. She reached out and stroked his arm. “I didn’t know.”
“Know what?” Nathaniel squeaked. Her touch felt nice, and he closed his eyes and let it soothe his paranoia. Everything was going to be okay. It was just a heat. It wasn’t like he was on the schedule at Five Pie much, anyway.
“Are you and Harrison involved?”
Nathaniel’s eyes widened. He shook his head. A kiss didn’t equate being involved. It didn’t. No matter what he wanted, he couldn’t delude himself.
“I’m not sure, then,” Alma said. She leaned back on the railing, looking contemplative. “I figured that seeing an alpha you were connected to pay so much attention to another omega triggered your heat. I’ve seen it happen before, but rarely. It’s your body’s way of reminding your alpha who his true mate is.”
“But is there a way to stop it, whether that’s the cause or not?” Nathaniel asked. Arousal continued to swell inside of him, billowing out and filling him. The more it stretched, the more uncomfortable it became. Soon, he knew, it would be unbearable, and he’d need to work it out in whatever way he could. But who was going to help him when he was blind with lust and unable to take care of himself? Going into heat meant he’d lose an entire week. His mind would be exiled to a nebulous, primal place while his body rebelled.
The timing wasn’t right. He was sharing a room with his brother—the same brother who’d just given birth, and who’d need his help through his newborn son’s first days on earth. Nathaniel didn’t have time to go into heat. Alma had to know something.
But Alma frowned.
“No, love,” Alma said apologetically. “If I’d known this would happen, I would have advised you to take blockers, but it’s too late for that now. There are very few times when heat comes on so quickly. In the thirty years I’ve served as a midwife, I’ve only seen it happen one other time before.”
The hairs on Nathaniel’s neck stood on end, and he shivered. Heat flushed down his spine in the wake of his chill, and the space beneath his jaw and down his neck started to grow damp with sweat. He squirmed. The first pangs of instinct started to take hold. He needed it out.
He needed it gone.
“Do you need a safe space?” Alma asked. “There are omega service centers downtown that offer small, private rooms for omegas in desperate situations who need a place to go through their heat safely. I can take you there.”
“No.” The thought of leaving home struck him as wrong. Nathaniel didn’t want to go to some strange place to have his heat out. He didn’t want to be alone. Paranoia swept through him all over again, keeping him rooted to the spot. He glanced at Alma suspiciously, worried she might try to take him away.
He didn’t want to go. All he wanted was to stay there, at home, with Harrison.
Harry.
Nathaniel swallowed hard and backed toward the door. He tried not to look skittish, but he couldn’t tell if he was doing a good job at it or not.
“Thank you for trying to help,” Nathaniel said. He rested his hand on the doorknob. “I need to go inside now and make sure that I have a place to… to rest.”
“I understand, love,” Alma said. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Your brother is in good hands with Harrison.”
Irritation prickled in Nathaniel’s chest. The only person whose Harrison’s hands should be on was himself. Regardless, he said, “Thanks.”
Nathaniel slipped through the door and closed it firmly behind him. For a moment, he thought about locking it in order to keep Alma out in order to make sure she didn’t take him away, but he thought better of it and crossed the living room. His cock was already hard, so Nathaniel dodged the bathroom and made his way into his bedroom instead. He sank into bed, hurried to undo his fly, and then slipped his hand under his briefs and pumped his aching length.
The pleasure was immediate, but it wasn’t enough—Nathaniel needed to be filled.
There were a few toys he kept. Uncle Martin, full of embarrassment, had gifted them to Nathaniel during his first heat three years ago. Nathaniel had medicated through every heat following the first, but from time to time, when he was sure he was alone, sometimes he used them on himself. His favorite, a dildo with an inflatable knot, always did a quick job at making him come.
Only this time, Nathaniel didn’t think it was going to be enough. Not when Harrison’s real cock with a real knot was just a few walls away.
Nathaniel rolled over, buried his face into his pillow, and keened in frustration. He bucked his hips downward, burying his cock in his fist. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all.
He needed an alpha—his alpha. He needed Harrison in bed with him, kissing him sweetly all over again, and then taking Nathaniel further. It was fast, and it was too soon, but Nathaniel didn’t care.
He barely heard when the bedroom door cracked open, but he did hear the startled gasp of the man he wanted from the doorway.
“Nathaniel?” Harrison asked. A single utterance of Nathaniel’s name was all he needed to know that Harrison had picked up on his heat. The uncertain way his voice quivered suggested weak self-restraint.
Nathaniel glanced over his shoulder to look at Harrison as he stood in the doorway. Dark hair and kind eyes. Nathaniel moaned. He lifted his hips, knees tucking beneath him to lift his ass and present himself shamelessly to the only alpha he wanted.
“Knot me,” Nathaniel begged. “Knot me, Harry, please.”
Harrison stood, frozen. Nathaniel dropped his head back against the pillow and moaned, lifting his ass a little higher. The fire burned inside, consuming his rational thoughts and leaving him a creature of instinct. All he could do now was pray that Harrison gave in, crossed the room, and took him. Only then would the fire die.
The door closed. The room was silent. Nathaniel looked up.
Harrison was gone.
Nathaniel keened.
9
Harrison
One kiss. It was only one kiss.
Harrison paced outside the bedroom doorway, heart racing. He’d been getting ready to get Dylan to bed so he could rest, not come across the omega he was falling for in the throes of heat. Professionalism, it turned out, had no sway on what Harrison’s cock wanted. One lungful of Nathaniel’s heat was enough to make him forget all about what he was at the O’Toole house to do.
There was a newborn baby and a new father in need of assistance not even three rooms away, and here he was thinking about breeding the omega he’d been pining for over the last month.
He needed to get out.
Harrison abandoned his pacing, realizing he was only doing it to stay close to Nathaniel’s bedroom door. The closer he stayed, the more likely it was he’d succumb to his impulses and fall into bed with Nathaniel. It wasn’t right. Not only was it unethical, but it was unwelcome.
One kiss.
One kiss and Nathaniel had run as fast as he could. There was no way that if N
athaniel were in his right frame of mind, he would have invited Harrison into his bed. No way. Harrison refused to let Nathaniel make a mistake like that. He needed to be the responsible party in his situation, no matter how tempting the smell of Nathaniel’s heat was.
He needed to find Alma.
Mind addled, Harrison returned to the bathroom, hoping to find Alma tending to Dylan. She wasn’t there, nor was Uncle Martin. Dylan reclined in the tub, kept comfortable by pillows, while he held his newborn son. The moment was tender, but it wasn’t enough to distract Harrison from the issue at hand.
Dylan lifted his head and looked directly at Harrison. He frowned. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” Harrison asked, voice a little more strained than he cared for it to be. “I’m only looking for Alma.”
“No, you aren’t.” Carefully, Dylan sat up a little straighter. He didn’t make a move to rise, but it was clear that he was starting to feel more mobile. “Come here.”
Harrison hesitated. It was hard to remember that he was on the job when half of his mind begged him to drop everything to go tend to his omega.
His omega.
Harrison bit down on his jaw.
“Come here,” Dylan repeated, a little sterner this time.
Harrison obeyed.
He sank down to sit on the edge of the tub while Dylan looked him over, then shook his head. “I need to talk to you alone.”
“About what?” Harrison asked, staunchly refusing to acknowledge the situation.
“You’ve been seeing my little brother, haven’t you?”
It wasn’t right the way Harrison’s cheeks burned. He shook his head, by Dylan held up a finger in warning. Harrison stopped.
“No, I know it’s you. There was one day I remember when he came home laughing and smiling, and he smelled of you. I only remember because of how afraid I was in your office on that first day we met, but then I read it in his journal, and that cleared it all up.” Dylan breathed in deep as Harrison despaired. “And now he’s in heat, isn’t he? I smell it on your clothes, just faintly.”
Harrison had no clue what to say. He made a move to get up, but Dylan grabbed him by the wrist and held him down. With the baby still so delicate, Harrison didn’t dare try to yank his arm away. He stayed in place.
“Did you do this to my brother?” Dylan asked. “Did you tell him not to take his blockers so he’d go into heat?”
“We’re not together,” Harrison said. “We’re really not, I promise.”
“I wasn’t together with Sean’s father, either,” Dylan argued. His eyes sharpened, defensive. “It didn’t stop him from knocking me up. You don’t need to be together to make a baby. Nathaniel is crazy for you, and I know if you asked, he’d probably do it.”
Harrison’s mouth was dry. He sucked on his tongue, trying to work his saliva back into circulation. “I don’t think so. All we ever shared was a single kiss.”
“No.” Dylan pursed his lips. “It wasn’t just a kiss to Nate. He’s been writing about you nonstop in his journal, fantasizing about what life would be like if you kept him.”
Harrison had no clue what to say, but that didn’t stop his cock from twitching at the thought. Did Nathaniel really feel that way?
“He won’t talk about it because he thinks I’m damaged, and yeah, I am, but I know. I was a glorified sex slave for five years, but I still know the look an omega gets when he finds the alpha he wants to be kept by. I saw it on the faces of the newer omegas who thought the first handsome john they slept with would come back for them. But I don’t think Nathaniel’s situation needs to be so hopeless. I don’t think he needs to be heartbroken.”
While Dylan spoke, he kept his grip firmly on Harrison’s wrist. Harrison didn’t dare pull away. Not only was Dylan opening up to him in a way he never had before, but he was trying to make things right between Harrison and Nathaniel.
“When I was in labor, I saw how you talked to each other. How you touched each other. I saw how he followed your direction, and how you smiled at him every time he fulfilled your requests—and how he smiled back. You’re in love.”
“No,” Harrison argued, but his tone of voice was meek. “It’s not like that.”
“It is, whether you want to acknowledge it or not,” Dylan said. “The only way I was able to survive in that place was by learning how to read people, and I got damn good at it. I know what your body language was saying, and I know what his is saying, too. The last time I saw my brother, he was a fourteen year old kid who knew nothing about the world. Now he’s an adult, and he has his own hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes, and the capability to love someone. And he’s in love with you.”
“That doesn’t change anything,” Harrison said, keeping his voice low. “It doesn’t matter if I love him, or if he loves me.”
“Why not?” Dylan asked.
“Because…” Tension squeezed Harrison’s shoulder blades together. He looked down at the white, glossy porcelain he sat on and tried to remember that he was a professional. “Because I’m here to do a job and look after you. Your uncle wouldn’t have invited me into his home to work his nephew through his heat.”
“Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.” Dylan frowned. “He loves you. When an omega loves an alpha, that’s it. He’s not going to be satisfied playing with a toy, especially if he knows that you’re here, and that you abandoned him. It’s going to tear his heart in two.”
“He’ll understand,” Harrison said weakly. “We’re not really together, and—”
“Not really doesn’t cut it,” Dylan interrupted. “Not really isn’t going to change the fact that he’s all about you, and that he needs you there with him, right now, to work him through his heat.”
“It’s your uncle’s apartment,” Harrison protested.
“And he’s gone out to pick up some supplies Alma told him to get,” Dylan said. “You’re either going to help my brother when he needs it the most, or you’re going to get the fuck out of this house and never show your face here again. Nate’s going to be heartbroken if you leave him, and I’ve caused him enough heartbreak on my own. I refuse to let anyone hurt him. You will not string him along.”
Dylan’s eyes were coals, and his expression had darkened. Harrison knew that he meant what he said.
“Go to him and help him when he needs you,” Dylan ordered. “Or leave and forget all about him. The choice is yours.”
It wasn’t much of a choice at all. Harrison nodded, and when Dylan released his wrist, he stood and left the apartment.
Nathaniel would understand in time, he was sure, but Harrison respected him too much to drive a stake between him and his family.
10
Nathaniel
The door opened. Nathaniel still his bucking hips long enough to check to see who it was, and when he recognized the dark hair and hesitant expression, he smiled. Harrison. His alpha. Everything was going to be okay.
Harrison let himself into the room and closed the door behind himself, and Nathaniel presented himself all over. His pants were still on, but those could be taken care of easily enough. But to his dismay, Harrison didn’t cross the room and disrobe him aggressively. Instead, he sat on the side of Nathaniel’s bed, keeping as much distance as he could.
“Your brother wants me to mate with you,” Harrison said. “But I can’t.”
“You can,” Nathaniel argued. “Please. Please, do it. Want you, Harry. Want you.”
Harrison shivered. Nathaniel dropped down onto the bed and rolled over. He took his hand from his pants but left his fly open, crawling over to sit closer. Slick soaked his briefs and wetted his thighs, and he knew it had to be seeping through his jeans. It was messy, but it was cool, and he wanted more of it.
Most of all, he wanted Harrison to breed him.
“You don’t actually want me,” Harrison argued. “You’re out of your mind with heat right now. You can’t consent.”
“No.” Nathan
iel shook his head adamantly. “No, that’s not true. Wanted you before, too. Please, please breed me.”
“No,” Harrison said forcefully. “I need you to know that I like you, Nate, and I want for there to be something between us, but I’m not going to work you through a heat when you don’t know what you’re asking me to do. When you come out of it, you’re going to regret it, and I don’t want you to regret anything that has to do with us.”
Nathaniel shook his head, tears starting to well up. They clenched his throat tight, and he tugged at Harrison’s wrist in a vain attempt to draw him back into bed. It would be so easy. Harrison’s cock was right there, separated from him by cotton and distance—two easily surmountable obstacles. Harrison could be inside of him, thrusting, pushing the cool into Nathaniel’s body, working out his heat as he worked in a baby.
A pretty baby cousin for Sean. A baby Nathaniel could love as much as Dylan loved Sean. That was what he wanted. That was all he wanted. It wasn’t that difficult, was it? All Harrison needed to do was give in to instinct and their bodies would do the rest. Nathaniel craved it.
“M’in heat because of you,” Nathaniel mumbled. “Alma said. She said my body wanted to remind you who your true omega was, since you were paying so much attention to Dylan for so long.”
“That’s not true,” Harrison said softly.
“It is,” Nathaniel urged. “I wasn’t supposed to go into heat for another month or two, but my body wants you. It was jealous you were caring so well for Dylan, and now it wants you. I want you, too. Please, believe me. I’m not saying this just because I’m in heat.”
He didn’t think Harrison would understand, but Nathaniel didn’t know what he’d do if Harrison turned him down. No matter how much he play-knotted himself, it wasn’t going to cut it. He needed a real knot inside of him, and a real alpha’s come seeding his womb. Harrison was the only alpha he wanted to take that role.