by Nora Phoenix
“Legal repercussions, you mean?”
“Amongst others.”
The big body under him stilled even more. “What other possibilities are we talking about?”
Vieno bit his lip, regretting speaking at all. Not that Lidon couldn’t have made him, what with his alpha abilities and all, but the man hadn’t used them even once so far. “He received nasty letters, had his car spray painted and his tires slashed. Someone tried to break in while I was home. Shit like that.”
“He should have filed a complaint with the cops,” Lidon said, tension radiating from his body.
“Lidon, I hate to break it to you, but it was cops who did this to him. We have a security system around the apartment that caught them red-handed, as well as footage from the cams in the parking lot. But there’s little sense in reporting it, since you guys all cover for each other. He’s even been pulled over a few times since for bullshit reasons.”
Lidon muttered a few strong curse words. “I’ll talk to him. If what you say is true, this is shameful for the department.”
Vieno sighed. “He’s not gonna be happy with me that I told you.”
“I don’t think he’s happy with you right now in general.”
Lidon’s voice was kinder than his words, but the man had a point. “I hurt him, even though it was never my intention.”
“You can’t help who you are,” Lidon said dismissively.
“True, but neither can he. I don’t like being an omega, and you may not always appreciate being an alpha, but sometimes I think betas have it worse. They’re always the in-between, never good enough for either role. Biology sucks, but maybe it sucks the worst for them.”
They were quiet after that, until Lidon’s knot finally went down and he slipped out of Vieno, leaving him truly sated and fulfilled.
“Do you mind if I take a shower?” Lidon asked. “I called into work to take the day off, but it’s about time I head back.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Vieno pointed him toward the bathroom and put a fresh towel out for him, then put on a bathrobe and made his way to the living room. Enar was working on his laptop when he walked in, but there was no sign of Palani. Come to think of it, Vieno hadn’t seen him since he’d walked in with breakfast and that was almost twenty-four hours ago.
“You look much better,” Enar said.
“I feel good. Where’s Palani?”
Enar’s face was blank. “He left for work again this morning.”
“Oh.” Vieno swallowed, his shoulders dropping. “He promised me he’d stay.”
“He did, until he saw you were no longer in any danger. Plus, I promised him I wouldn’t leave.”
Vieno tried to push down his sadness. “I guess it was a little too much to ask.”
“You could visit him at work?”
Vieno shook his head. “I don’t go outside much. It’s too dangerous, with how strong my scent is, apparently.”
“You should be fine. You smell enough like alpha no one will bother you. I can’t even detect your own odor over Lidon’s.”
He could lie, but Enar would know, probably. Plus, what was the point? The man already knew more about him than anyone else but Palani. He might as well come clean. “I haven’t set foot outside this apartment since the day I moved in almost three years ago.”
7
It was amazing what fucking an omega through his heat could do for your energy. Lidon hated to admit it but Enar had been right. He had needed to blow off steam and release hormones. In that case, needy Vieno had been perfect for him, ‘cause the little omega had sucked every last drop from his body.
Lidon had been hungry for days afterward, but he’d felt better than he had in months. Even his partner had commented on it, noting Lidon’s changed energy level and, as he worded it, lack of crabbiness. Apparently, he’d been somewhat of an ass. He’d laughed it off, but it had been embarrassing as fuck. His stubborn refusal to fuck hadn’t been the best idea, in hindsight.
Two weeks later, he hadn't heard a peep from Vieno or Palani. Not that he’d expected flowers or a fucking gift basket, but a short acknowledgment of some sort would have been nice. Especially since he wouldn’t mind a repeat when Vieno’s next heat arrived.
He hesitated to approach them himself. First, because of the power differential and a double one in his case, being both an alpha and a cop. He didn’t want them to feel beholden or obligated. The relationship between Palani and Vieno made him reluctant to interfere as well. No matter what they called it, they loved each other, and Lidon had no intention of breaking couples up.
He thought about Vieno often, though. The sex had been…amazing, but it had been more than that. Lidon genuinely liked him and that formed a complication he had no easy answer to. He’d connected with Vieno on a deeper level than mere sex, but it felt inappropriate considering his relationship with Palani. As an alpha, he outranked him, so unless they were married—and they weren’t, he’d checked in the public records—Palani stood no chance against an alpha if Lidon pursued Vieno. Not that he had any intention of doing so. He loathed home wreckers and had zero desire to become one. His weird fascination with Vieno and Palani would fade over time.
He could ask Enar to reach out to them. They’d spoken to each other since but not about this. It would be as good a reason as any to call his friend and hang out, maybe help Enar out while they were at it. The last time they'd met like that was, what, two months ago? The man must be aching by now.
He also wanted to talk to Palani about the threats against him. If what Vieno said was true—and the little omega couldn’t lie worth shit, if Lidon had to appraise his skills at deception—he’d have to find out who was behind it. Palani’s exposé had been brutal, though thoroughly fact-checked, and Lidon hadn’t doubted the truth about the four specific officers he had named.
The suggestion that these four weren't isolated incidents but pointed toward a much bigger problem, one deeply ingrained in the system and culture of the force, had gotten his back up. He’d been on the force for ten years now, and while he knew bad apples still sat amongst many good officers, he refused to believe the problem was as widespread as Palani suggested.
That being said, if fellow boys in blue resorted to intimidation and threats, even vandalism to scare Palani into shutting up, Lidon would not stand for it. He had to find out if it was true, and if so, who was behind it. Most likely, the cops involved were related to the four cops named in the article who all had been suspended first, then fired. Did they have family on the force? Or partners?
It was on his mental to-do list to perform a little discreet digging with Palani, which also happened to be a great excuse to see if Vieno would be open for a repeat. His alpha approved of that plan, humming his pleasure inside him.
First, he wanted to do a follow up on the Excellon case. He’d dropped it with white-collar but received nothing but deafening silence as a response. Time for a friendly visit, so he headed over to the desk of Charlene, one of the few females on that team. She wasn’t an actual detective—as a female omega that was impossible—but she possessed strong analytic skills, excelled at collecting and organizing information, and Lidon liked her instincts in reading people. She’d proven to be rarely wrong when assessing motives.
“Hi Charlene,” he greeted her, folding himself in the desk chair of her absent co-worker. “How are the girls doing?”
She had three daughters, and she had not let up until she’d married all three of them off to officers. Granted, they were pretty girls, but since Lidon didn’t lean that way, he’d escaped her matchmaking efforts.
“All three are pregnant,” Charlene said, her face beaming. “There must have been something in the air.”
“Congratulations,” Lidon said. “Well done, Mama.”
“That’s Gramma now but thank you. What can I do for you, sexy?”
The woman could have been his mother, but she still flirted with him and he loved her for it. As a long-time
married woman—and married to one of the highest-ranking officers on the force—she got away with it.
“Have you heard anything from Ryland about an investigation into bribery around birth control meds?” he asked lowering his voice. Little in this division got past Charlene.
Her playful expression morphed into a serious one. “No. Should I have?”
He sighed. He’d known it had been a long shot. “I alerted him to a possible case a week or three ago, after an arrest I made.”
“He hasn’t asked me to research anything and I’m the first step in any investigative process here. Who are the key players?”
“There’s a medicine called Excellon, a new birth control method for male omegas that, according to my sources, is far more effective than the three existing ones. My suspect was arrested for illegal distribution of said meds, but he claims insurance companies are putting pressure on doctors to not prescribe it, since it’s expensive. He suggested bribes may be involved as well.”
She tapped her front teeth with her pencil. “If that’s the case, I would expect competitors to be a part of it, since they stand to lose a lot of money if they lose their market share.”
“Yeah, that's what I figured, and I told Ryland as much.”
Something flashed over her face. “Ryland has…other priorities at the moment,” she then said.
Lidon pursed his lips. “Whose attention do I need to bring it to so it gets priority?”
“You just did.”
They shared a look that spoke volumes.
“But Lidon, you’ll want to be extremely careful around Ryland. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
His stomach swirled uneasy. Charlene was not a gossiper, so this gave her words a ton of meaning. “Loud and clear,” he said. “Thank you.”
“I’ll find you,” Charlene said. “Now shoo, sexy. I have work to do.”
Lidon thought it over as he headed back to his own desk. What was Ryland involved in that made Charlene so worried? His first thought was Palani's article. The four cops he’d exposed were from a different division, but white collar would offer a prime investment for certain companies, wouldn’t it? If you bought a cop or two there, you’d either not get investigated for shit you pulled, or get a timely heads up.
That line of thinking made his stomach roll even more. It was a sad day when you couldn’t trust your brothers in blue anymore. It kept simmering in the back of his head till the end of his shift when he got a call on his personal cell from Enar. Few people possessed that number, so he always had it turned on to be reachable by the people that mattered most to him.
“What’s up?” he greeted his friend.
It took a little while before Enar spoke, but that silence alerted Lidon already to what followed. “Yellow.”
His voice sounded muffled, emotional. “Okay,” Lidon said. “I got you. My shift ends in an hour. Wanna meet at my house?”
“Yeah. I’ll wait for you.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a bit.”
He’d known this was coming, he mused as he drove home after finishing up paperwork from an arrest he’d made earlier that day. It had been a while since they’d met like this. He tried to pinpoint the date. Two months? Maybe even be closer to three.
The last time had been a middle of the night call after Enar performed an emergency surgery on the victim of a brutal rape. Cases like that always hit him hard, and he’d needed the release. Lidon suspected something similar had triggered tonight’s code yellow. Enar would stubbornly hang on until something tipped the balance, and he’d call Lidon.
Lidon’s house—if you could even still call it that, considering it was more of a mansion—sat on a hill, overlooking a hundred acres of land surrounding the house and the various other buildings. The property was fenced off with the white fence common to the area, but the house itself was protected by a much larger closed fence with a main gate that required a code to get in.
It had been the Hayes family estate for generations, Lidon’s father had explained to him when he turned eighteen. Lidon wasn’t sure what his family had done in the past to be able to afford it and he’d never gotten the chance to ask his fathers. Lidon had still been in college when a drunk driver hit his parents’ car head on as they were on their way back from a concert. As an only child, he’d inherited everything from them, including this estate. He still missed them but was happy to live in a home that held many warm, loving memories for him.
That being said, the house was ridiculously big for him. He’d closed off a good portion of the main house, only using the few rooms he needed. Once upon a time, he had hoped to fill the house with his kids, but first Matteo’s death and then Rodrick’s betrayal had ended that dream. He’d considered selling it, but the thought had left such a bad taste in his mouth he had pushed it aside.
When he turned his car into the driveway to the main house, the lights inside were already on. Good. That meant Enar had let himself in with his key, which was exactly what the purpose of having a key was. Enar loved coming here because of the privacy Lidon’s house provided compared to Enar’s own modest townhouse. Lidon had offered his friend to move in on more than one occasion, but Enar had always refused without giving a clear reason, so Lidon had let it go.
When he walked in from the garage, he heard Enar moving around in the kitchen. “Beer?” his friend called out.
“Coke,” he shouted back. He dumped his bag in the hallway and kicked off his shoes. He put his gun in the gun safe in his office before walking into the kitchen, unbuttoning his uniform shirt. “And you’d better not be drinking either. You know I don’t want to mix alcohol with this.”
Enar held up his can of Selzer. “I know, sorry.”
Damn, he looked like death warmed over. He always had a tan, but his skin was pale and dark circles betrayed his exhaustion. Lidon took a few appreciative gulps of his Coke before he spoke. “What happened?”
Enar shook his head. “I can’t. Maybe later. After.”
“Okay. You on call?”
His friend shook his head. “No. My phone is off. You?”
“Nope. Just came off my sixth consecutive day. I’m off for two now.”
Enar looked around the kitchen, then smiled a little. “About time. This place is a pigsty, man.”
Dirty dishes were stacked high on the counter next to foil wrappers from microwave meals, and a ton of empty cans. Lidon was well aware his fridge stocked a few questionable food items and his freezer was almost entirely covered in frost. “Yeah.”
“You need a housekeeper.”
“You know why I don’t have one.”
“Is your privacy worth that much?”
Lidon lifted an eyebrow. “You wanna ask me that again when you sneak out tomorrow morning?”
“Touché,” Enar admitted.
Lidon took the last few gulps of his Coke. “Let’s shower.”
“I haven’t finished my drink yet,” Enar protested, as he always did. It was like he needed this reminder, this bit of force to be able to let go.
“I wasn’t asking, Enar,” Lidon said, his voice deceptively friendly. Then he allowed his alpha to come through full force. “Shower. Now.”
Lidon’s alpha power rolled through him, making it impossible to resist. It was ten kinds of fucked up, but Enar let go. He needed this, craved it to find some semblance of peace in his head.
He followed Lidon into his bedroom where he stripped without saying another word and then turned on the shower. He waited till it reached the right temperature, then stood patiently till Lidon had stepped under the double shower head and indicated he could come in. This was all part of the ritual he needed, and he could already feel his anxiety retreat.
They washed themselves, Lidon studying him with those assessing brown eyes. Eyes that could be as warm and kind as a Labrador dog, but also as cold and calculating as a hawk. He missed little, and his brain always tried to find patterns, reasons, explanations. Those analytical skills m
ade him such an excellent cop.
“You done?” Lidon asked after a few minutes. His long, dark hair stuck against his head, curling in his neck. He needed a haircut, Enar thought. It was way past the norm for cops—not that Lidon worried about sticking to those norms.
“Yeah. I’m ready.”
They both knew what his words meant beyond the fact he was done showering. He wanted this, but as always, Lidon would give him several opportunities to change his mind. In all those years, he never had, but that didn’t stop his best friend from checking.
They both toweled off, Enar taking a moment to admire Lidon’s body. He possessed an innate grace to his movements, every motion fluid and controlled. Broad shoulders connected to strong arms, a well-developed chest. His legs stood long, his hips lean and his ass firm and tight. It was hard to say what his best feature was, because he had many. That aristocratic face, maybe, that hinted of Slavic forefathers, at some point? Personally, Enar was partial to his cock, which stood thick and long and split him open in the best way.
“Come,” Lidon said and the simple word caused Enar to shiver and break out in goosebumps.
He hung up his towel and walked into the bedroom, to the unmade king size bed. Housekeeping was not Lidon’s forte. Not that Enar cared, not even in the least. He loved smelling his strong alpha scent in the sheets as Lidon fucked him till he had nothing left to give. The thought alone made him tremble.
This part was a ritual, too. Him planting himself face down on the mattress, burying his head in Lidon’s pillow so he wouldn’t have to see, to talk. They included no kissing, nothing romantic. He needed a hard fuck, and he was damn lucky he had a trustworthy friend willing to provide it. If anyone found out what they did, his career would be over.
It was one thing for Lidon to fuck another alpha. As an alpha, you could get away with that because you were supposed to be the dominating partner. No, it would be Enar who would be vilified for letting another alpha take him. For an alpha, it was about the worst thing that could be said about you. It was unnatural, people said, against the very core of who he was supposed to be.