by Nora Phoenix
“Can you detect when his heat is coming?”
Palani nodded. “Yeah. He’s regular as clockwork, but yeah, I can sense it. It helps me when…”
“His pheromones boost your sexual stamina when he needs you,” Enar finished his sentence.
“I’m not enough for him. He needs more.”
The pain in that simple statement was easy enough to detect. “Yes, he does. But that says nothing about you and him. It’s biological, not emotional.”
“Doesn’t change the situation.”
A whimpering cry sounded from the bedroom that shot straight to Enar’s balls. Was he strong enough yet? Had he allowed the suppressant enough time to do its work?
“His name is Vieno Kessler, and he’s twenty-three. He’s had four shots of heat suppressants today already.”
Enar raised his eyebrows. “Where did you get them?” Heat suppressants weren’t illegal, but they were damn expensive on a journalist’s salary. Even if the omega worked—and a lot of them didn’t—it would’ve taken huge chunks out of their budget.
“We make do,” Palani said and Enar had to admire his balls.
“Ok, let me see him. But keep that fucking syringe close, you hear me? And Palani, for the future, don’t ever invite an alpha into your house when he’s this close to his heat. He’s irresistible to us alphas… Fuck, if I hadn’t taken blockers, I would be balls deep inside him by now, do you understand me?”
Palani nodded, his cheeks a tad paler than they’d been before, then led Enar to the bedroom. The omega who restlessly moved around in his sleep was super cute, but Enar focused more on his pale cheeks, the ribs that stuck out, and the dark circles under his eyes. He was in even worse condition than Enar had expected, and his stomach sank.
He lowered himself on the bed next to him, putting his bag on the floor. Vieno’s skin was clammy, the warmth radiating from him indicating a rising fever. Enar took his stethoscope from his bag to listen to Vieno’s heart, which raced as if he’d just sprinted. His breathing was fast, too, a small rattle in his lungs making Enar frown with worry. He was in bad shape, the little omega. If his heat was still a day off, he wouldn’t make it.
Vieno’s eyes flew open, and two gorgeous blue eyes looked at Enar, first cloudy but then focusing.
“Who are you?” he whispered, and then he moaned. The sound shot straight to Enar's balls, which still fought valiantly against the meds he’d shot himself with. “Oh, fuck…you’re an alpha. Palani?” Panic rang in his voice.
“Ssshhh,” Enar consoled him, putting just enough alpha in his voice to make it work. “I’m a doctor. Palani called me to have a look at you because he’s worried about you.”
Vieno licked his lips, his eyes never leaving Enar’s.
“He’s telling the truth,” Palani said. “I’m right here, baby.”
He sat down on the bed on the other side of Vieno and reached for his hand. Vieno clung to it, but his eyes stayed trained on Enar. Another waft of his scent hit Enar, and he swallowed. Despite the shot he’d taken, his cock was still rock-hard, his entire body calling out to the man before him.
He clenched his teeth as he grabbed his thermometer and took Vieno’s temp in his right ear, then his left one to make sure. He ran a fever, just below dangerous levels. It wouldn’t be long before it spiked even further, though, not with how close he was.
“Vieno,” he said kindly. “You’re not doing so well. Your body is fighting the suppressants you’ve been taking. That’s because you’ve been taking them too long and you’ve developed an auto-immune reaction to them. Your body is turning itself against you. I hate to say it, but you need to be knotted. The sooner, the better.”
The brown puppy eyes that stared at his clouded over with tears. “I can’t…I’m…I have the Melloni gene. It almost killed me last time.”
“Did the alpha who knotted you back then use a condom?”
“Alphas. Three of them,” Palani spat out.
Oh, god. Poor kid. “You weren't aware you had the gene?”
“His parents are super conservative, so they never let him near unmated alphas. He didn’t know until he went into his first heat, which wasn’t till he was twenty, and then things got…complicated.” Palani’s voice rang tight with pain and regret, and compassion welled up inside Enar.
“It wasn’t your fault, Pal,” Vieno said, looking away from Enar for the first time to console his friend. Lover. Whatever they were to each other. The look they shot each other warmed Enar’s heart. These two had something special.
“We disagree on that, baby. But it’s not important right now. Yes, they used condoms. At every turn.”
Enar got the picture with no need for more details. The mutative gene some omegas had made them extra fertile but also extra desperate during their heat. They were almost impossible to satisfy, and Enar had heard some heartbreaking stories. Omegas who’d let themselves be fucked by anyone in a desperate attempt to fill the need inside them. More than a few had gotten hurt as a result, some with permanent injuries that had made them infertile. The fact that Vieno had survived three years of his tri-monthly heat without being knotted again constituted a miracle, but combined with the too high dose of suppressants, it was taking a toll on his body, and he wouldn’t hold out for long any more.
“There’s still a lot we haven't determined about the gene, but what we have learned is that knotting helps best. And the alpha should not be wearing a condom. The hormones and proteins in the sperm help lessen the sexual cravings.”
“But I’d get pregnant,” Vieno said, still clinging to Palani’s hand as a lifeline.
“Normally yes, but I can help you with that. I can administer meds that will prevent a pregnancy. They’re illegal, so you can’t tell anyone you’re taking them.”
Vieno and Palani shared a look, and for the first time, Enar saw a spark of hope on both their faces.
“But the alpha-whore…I mean, the caretaker who’ll fuck him, he’ll ask about the pregnancy. He’ll know something is up when he’s asked not to wear a condom and Vieno still doesn’t get pregnant,” Palani said. “He’ll want to see the meds, to make sure he can’t get sued for paternity payments.”
Enar rubbed his temples. “Yeah. That’s why you can’t use a caretaker. You’ll need to ask an alpha you can trust.”
Despair filled Vieno’s eyes all over again.
“Don’t you think we would’ve done that years ago if we’d known someone?” Palani snapped.
He had a point there. Enar hated telling omegas to use caretakers, or alpha-whores as people rightfully labeled them. Most of them were first class assholes, in it for the chance to fuck indiscriminately and get paid for it as a bonus. Alphas willing to help out omegas for more altruistic reasons were rare. Unless…
Lidon would fucking kill him for this, but he’d be perfect. Fuck knew Lidon needed to have sex, and for Vieno it would be the best option. Lidon’s hormone and pheromone levels were sky high, so it should tide the little omega over for a while and give a powerful boost to his body to recover. There was no one he trusted more than Lidon, and the man possessed an iron self-control and was honorable to a fault. God, it was a strange concept, almost like whoring his friend out, but it was all Enar could come up with.
“I have an alpha friend,” Enar said. “If I explained the situation to him, I think he’d be willing to help.”
“Why don’t you do it?” Vieno asked, surprising Enar. That was quite the direct question from an omega.
Then he took in Vieno’s dilated pupils and the twitching movements he made with his legs every now and then, and he understood. Despite the suppressants they had both used, Vieno was as much influenced by Enar as the other way around. Vieno’s reaction, Enar could understand since heat suppressants grew less effective over time, but Enar had trouble reasoning why Vieno’s pheromones affected him to this degree. His blockers were so strong that it shouldn’t affect him this much. Were they not effective against the gene? That was
the only reason he could think of.
“You getting horny for me, little one?” he asked, his voice kind. “It’s okay. I’m feeling it, too.”
“So why don’t you?” Palani asked. “At least we know you a little.”
“I can’t fuck a patient, not even if it would help him. It goes against everything I stand for. Besides, I take suppressants daily. My hormone levels would be too low to be effective, even when knotting.”
Vieno let out a soft sigh, then licked his lips again. The poor kid was fighting it with all he had, but his body craved an alpha. What a shitty situation for these two.
“Your friend, he’s a good man?” Palani asked. “Can we trust him?”
Yeah, now came the hard part. “Yes. He’s been my best friend since Kindergarten. But…he’s a cop.”
“Are you insane?” Palani exploded.
“Not all cops are dirty,” Enar said.
Palani and Vieno shared a look he couldn’t decipher.
“We can’t trust a cop, not after what happened,” Palani said, still heated.
Enar frowned. It almost sounded like they had bad personal experience with cops. What had happened? Maybe as a consequence of the articles Palani had written?
“Lidon is different,” he said. “I know that sounds like a cliché, but it’s the truth. He’s a good guy. Do you think I’d be friends with him otherwise, considering what I do? He knows. Not all of it, but enough to fuck me over if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. He understands and he’s helped me implicitly on more than one occasion.”
“With fucking your patients?” Palani asked, his face still angry.
“No. I’ve never asked that of him before. I’ve never been in a situation where I had to. But he knows I do perform certain procedures that are frowned upon, to put it mildly, and he’s never breathed a word to anyone.”
“How do we know we can trust him?” Vieno asked. “I’ll be out of my mind, unable to defend myself.”
The fear was thick in his voice, but Enar also heard the craving underneath. His nose detected it as well. An alpha’s presence was triggering all kinds of reactions in Vieno’s body. That meant he might not even have a day. Not when he’d denied himself for so long.
“I’ll be here the whole time, monitoring. I promise I will step in if you’re unwell or unsafe, okay?”
“Vieno, baby, he’s a cop. A cop! He could get us arrested, thrown in jail,” Palani said. “Especially once he discovers my identity.”
Vieno let go of Palani’s hand, shifted again on the bed, restlessly. “I know, but…god, I’m so…I need it. I need him.”
He turned on his side, crawling close to Enar. His head bumped against Enar’s leg, then inched further until he put his cheek right on Enar’s lap, on his rock-hard cock. He nuzzled it through the fabric of the jeans and let out a soft sigh.
“Vieno…” Palani said.
Enar’s hand found Vieno’s head and gently caressed his damp, dark blond hair. His body was screaming with want, but his head was at a strange peace now that the omega was at least touching him. It made no sense, but Vieno’s touch calmed him somehow.
“It’s okay, Palani. My presence is speeding up his heat. He needs to be close to an alpha right now. His body is getting ready. It won’t be long now.”
“Oh, god…We have no time left, do we?”
“No. You need to either let me call Lidon or arrange for an alpha caretaker. Right fucking now.”
4
Enar was out of his fucking mind. Lidon could draw no other conclusion after the phone call he’d received from his friend. How the hell else could he explain this request? It was insane. Dammit, he was a cop, not some money-grabbing alpha-whore.
And yet he found himself driving to the address Enar had given him. As an alpha and a cop, being able to say no constituted one of his key strengths, yet one that seemed to fail him with his best friend. Enar had an uncanny way of making him do things he was determined not to—not that he’d ever outright regretted them afterward. Somehow, Enar managed to change Lidon’s mind, even his views. It was a talent as much as an annoyance.
“Just come see him,” Enar had said. “He needs you. And dammit, Lidon, you need him, too, even if you’re too fucking stubborn to admit it.”
The latter was absurd, of course. He needed no one, let alone some sex-starved omega who probably wanted to get pregnant and then sue him for paternity payments. Well, that would only work if he gave birth to an alpha, but the alpha gene ran strong in Lidon’s family. Unlike Enar, who had been an aberration in his family of predominantly betas and omegas, Lidon’s family boasted a fifty percent alpha rate. If he fucked this omega during his heat, he had a high chance of impregnating him with an alpha. Another reason he was so not doing this.
Sure, Enar had a point it had been a while since Lidon had had sex. Not for a lack of willing partners, but because he didn’t want to. And no matter what Enar claimed, Lidon was fine.
He checked the address again. Damn south side of town. Most of it consisted of high rises thirty floors tall, buildings once occupied by working class families but now many of them had left, searching for more family friendly neighborhoods. Lidon couldn’t blame them. Half the drug dealers he arrested resided here, if not more, and this neighborhood was a hot bed of criminal activities. For fuck’s sake, Enar had no business being in this neighborhood at three in the morning. It looked like he needed another stern reprimand. Not that it would help, but at least Lidon could console himself he’d tried.
He parked his car in the lot surrounding the apartment complex next to Enar’s and stalked inside. Luckily, the elevator button was sturdy enough to withstand his rather strong punch to make it come down. He’d do the polite thing out of respect for the lifelong friendship with Enar and spend the five minutes inside this omega’s place to convince Enar he refused the offer, and then he was out of there. This time, Enar would not convince him to change his mind with whatever sneaky tactics he usually employed.
The scent hit him even before he rang the bell.
Oh, god.
It sucker-punched his stomach. His balls and dick, more accurately. They filled instantly, swelling and throbbing, demanding release. Why the hell did this omega possess such a unique aroma?
A beta opened the door, a fit-looking young guy with short cropped, dark hair and piercing brown eyes. He looked familiar. “Who are you?” Lidon asked.
The beta hesitated for only a second before answering, but long enough to trigger Lidon’s suspicions he had met him before. He just didn’t know from what. Had he ever arrested him?
“Palani.”
It took Lidon less than a second to place him with that uncommon first name. “Palani Hightower. You’re the reporter.”
“Yes.”
“The one who won a prize for his exposé on dirty cops.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t back down and Lidon had to respect that. “You wanna let me in?”
Another slight hesitation. “Yeah.”
He opened the door and more of that delicious scent assaulted Lidon’s senses. Fucking hell, if he set foot inside there, he’d never make it out again. Before he could make the rational decision to walk away, his instincts took over and he stepped inside.
“They’re in the bedroom,” Palani said quietly.
That made sense, considering why they'd invited Lidon over. Sweat broke out on Lidon’s forehead as he followed the smell, straight into a bedroom where a pale, cute-as-fuck omega lay rubbing his cheek against Enar’s rock-hard cock. Enar still wore pants, but not for long if that little omega had his way.
“He’s getting desperate,” Enar said by way of greeting, his eyes unapologetic.
No shit, the pheromones coming off of him would attract every alpha in a ten-mile radius. Hot damn, what was with this kid that he was this high? Had he taken something? If so, Lidon wanted no part of it. Looking the other way while Enar did what he did to help those who needed him was one thing,
but Lidon wouldn't risk his career over some druggie.
“What the fuck is he on?” he asked.
“Nothing!” the beta reacted before Enar could say anything.
“Impossible. I’ve never detected anything like him.”
Palani’s eyes narrowed. “Vieno is not a thing.”
“That’s not what I meant. How the fuck can he smell like this unless he took something?”
“Lidon,” Enar said, his voice calm and reasonable as always. “Palani is right. He’s clean, just in terrible shape.”
The omega—Vieno, the beta-reporter had called him—turned to watch him with glazed eyes, still rubbing his cheek against Enar’s cock. His friend looked about ready to blow his load. Even with the constant dose of suppressants he was taking, a direct stimulation from an omega who smelled like that was impossible to resist. Fuck, Lidon’s own body was tight as a drum, every nerve screaming to throw everyone out and take that little omega until they both screamed with pleasure.
“Start talking and make it fast,” Lidon snapped at Enar.
“He has the Melloni gene. Hasn’t been knotted in three years. He’s in bad shape and he needs you, Lidon. You need to fuck the shit out of him or he may die from complications of suppressed heat.”
As usual, Enar was blunt, something Lidon appreciated under the circumstances. His raging erection made it hard to think, even more with that scent assaulting his every nerve. The Melloni gene…what was that again? Oh, right, that mutation that affected some omegas and made them sex-crazy.
“He needs your knot, Lidon. And you, my friend, need to fuck testosterone out of your system before it drives you mad.”
“Bullshit.” Lidon’s reaction came automatically, his temper flaring.
“Really, Lidon? You need me to point it out to you? You’ve had trouble sleeping ‘cause you’re too jacked up. You’re tense, stressed, prickly as fuck, and you blow up every time someone so much as looks at you the wrong way. And dammit, you walk around with a permanent boner.”
Lidon wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t. Enar was a doctor and he’d spotted the signs weeks ago, probably. Lidon should be thankful the man hadn’t called him out on it sooner. But here in this room, he couldn't contradict it, no matter how much he wanted to. The need to fuck thundered through his veins, threatening to overtake him.