"Don't worry," I said with a smirk. "I don't get wolves too often through here to begin with."
The rest of the day passed without much of note happening. Though I had hoped I could tempt fate to will Jonny-boy into appearing, our only customers were regulars. Michael returned by 4:00, still playing that Gameboy, and Scott didn't ask me too much about Tommy. I didn't have to guess why-- considering what went on in his life, he already knew how these things played out.
At about 10 PM, Semisonic's "Closing Time" started up right on time. By that point, Jasper had already picked up Michael and we had sold our last Everything Bagel. It was tradition. As the red neon light flickered "Closed" on the window outside and I wiped down the tables and washed the dishes, I unblocked my mind and immediately felt a wave of concern and desire for Tommy.
That was one of our unicorns' special skills-- mental self-blocking, for whenever we need to focus on another task and especially if thinking of someone we're interested in (or more!) could potentially bring them to harm. That way, I'd be able to work through the day without looking distracted or being too jumpy, and if Jonathan did come by, I wouldn't be betrayed by my body language or desire to pay him back for what he did to such a beautiful Omega.
Lifting it brought on all those negative emotions, and in a manner having those feelings could be constructive. I started working faster all in the hope that I'd be able to get back to Tommy sooner. And even though I knew he was still there, I didn't want to be separated from him for too long.
Finally, Scott left. He shifted into a shining unicorn, letting his horn light the way through the woods out back, and galloped home towards the subdivision. I walked upstairs, which didn't require such a transformation.
Still in that scent-protected room was Tommy, sleeping on a beanbag chair.
And damn, he looked beautiful. If I had the chance some day in the future, I told myself, I hoped we’d mate. And I mean ‘mate’ on a spiritual level, not just the carnal stuff. It felt too natural, as if this was meant to happen and we were meant to meet. I didn't know why or how fate worked like that or how we had that tingling sensation that that was how it worked. Just that I wasn't complaining and I deeply hoped he wouldn't either.
Tommy
When I woke up, it was past midnight. I panicked because I was all alone and the door was open, and immediately my mind went to the worst: Jonathan came, killed Neil, and was mocking me. Why would Neil leave the door open? Or maybe I had actually woken up from a dream and was back in that damn tower with the door still open for me. It was the same thing, except now I felt a greater despair because I thought I had someone else.
I jumped when I saw a man turn the corner, and it took many seconds for my heart to slow down.
"Whoa, sorry!" Neil said. "I didn't mean to scare you like that. I didn't think you were going to wake up so soon."
Panting, I said, "Where were you?" Then I looked at my hands. "Is this a dream?"
He grabbed those hands. "Not at all. Are you okay?"
I looked away. "Please don't do that again."
He frowned. "I'm sorry," and let go of me. Then I reached out for him again.
"No, I mean leave that door open while I sleep. I thought Jonathan got here somehow."
He looked so relieved by my explanation, and said, "Ah, sorry about that. I stepped out for a second is all, which is why I thought something happened."
Looking back at it, I didn't have a nightmare of Jonathan. But then again, I didn't have a dream either. And something about that upset me more than a nightmare ever could. I'd always had dreams, or at least I could easily remember them once I woke up. So why couldn't I this time?
Neil said, "It's not good for you to be so jumpy even when you're asleep." He helped me to my feet, and I was still a little dazed.
We went down into the lobby and he brewed me a cappuccino. Though I didn't want to be up all night, I realized that I'd been asleep for almost twelve hours and knew I wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep even if I wanted to.
We sat in a dim light by a window. Outside, the world looked so different. This sleepy street looked like something out of a fantasy novel, with the soft glow of porch lights fading into evergreens, and the weird curving road changing how many trees there were from one street to the next and causing all the town's lights from beyond to look like twinkling stars. Further down the street, there were only more trees and no signs of civilization beyond road signs and a single traffic light.
The dreary clouds from earlier had cleared, so now I could see all the way into galaxies far, far away. And even though we sat indoors, we could still just barely hear the night's instruments play, whether it was crickets or the last cicadas of the season. And that reminded me that we were in the thick of autumn. The first day had just come.
And if I wasn't careful, something else could come as well. My heat was already started to fluster me, meaning that the full brunt of it was on its way.
Neil broke the ice. "You said you were in college, right?"
"Yeah." I suffered through the first hot sip and let the cup cool a bit more. "I wanted to become a doctor and figured now was as good of a time to start."
"Wanted? So you're not doing it anymore?"
I pulled my cup in and mumbled. When he pressed further, I said, "I don't have much of a choice but to drop out. Jonathan kicked me out."
"And why did he kick you out?"
"He thinks infidelity. All because I took too long to come home after school. So he kept me in that room while he started throwing everything away, but the door was open and I… I ran out while he was gone…" I couldn't keep my eyes from flooding with tears, and I decided to not hold them back any longer. "I just had to study longer, was all! My god, why did I decide to stay at the lab for a few more minutes? I should've just come home..."
He grabbed me and pulled me in and rocked me. "Hey, listen. Hey... it's not your fault. And you've gotta know that it will never be your fault. If your Alpha is too insecure to let you study, that's on him, not you."
"But I can't go back anyway. I can't afford it."
"Who says you can't? I'll bring you myself. Tomorrow. Okay? How about tomorrow."
I stopped crying for just a moment and chuckled through the tears. "Tomorrow actually won't work."
"Hmm?"
"It's Friday, so I don't have classes."
He chuckled with me. "Well that makes it better. You said you wanted a job, right? Why not practice tomorrow? And we'll work things out from there."
The radio was on, and it seemed odd for it to be on at night when we were the only two people in there. But when I listened closer, I heard that Neil had Yo La Tengo playing and immediately knew I couldn't question his choices.
"You can stay here with me. I live upstairs too-- I built this place and figured I'd turn the ground floor into a coffeeshop. And if that doesn't work out, it can become something else. Either way, I'd have a home and the shortest commute to work. So it would be lovely to have company to share this with."
"But it's so sudden. We only met today!" I said.
He rubbed my hair, and that sent electricity down my spine. The more we talked, the less fearful and stressed I felt. And once he started petting me, a new feeling planted itself.
Have you ever had a cat or a dog and hugged it hard? You pulled it closer to yourself. What you're really trying to do, the elders say, is trying to meld your hearts together in love because your heart is trying to get as close to its heart as possible. Spiritual bonds formed to make this feeling possible without having to always embrace, thanks to the way Alpha and Omega dynamics used to work. The same went for Alphas and Omegas. And only when you were truly in love and destined to be mated would you experience that same feeling.
That's what I wanted. In that moment, I fully understood. My heart wanted to rub up against Neil's heart. Of course, that would have been very gory if it actually happened, but the more spiritual means of doing it-- that is, doing it-- was suddenly
on my mind.
"Don't you worry too much longer about Jonathan," he said. "Sever your ties to him. Do that official ritual and begin your life again."
Though it made me seem so willowy, the tears started again. This time it was actually Neil's fault.
"Why do I have to do some stupid ritual? If I want to move on, can't I just--"
He pressed his finger against my nose. "I can't say I know how you feel, but I can tell you're angry. However, you're still spiritually tied to Jonathan. If you fall in love with anyone else, that tie will essentially go three ways, and if you were to have any special abilities-- a vision for your child, perhaps-- then he'll also be able to see it."
I gasped and ran my fingers through my hair. Why did the gods make things so complicated?
"How do I undo this?"
"I'll show you. I know a woman named Artemis who's done this before."
"Can she help?"
"Absolutely. You're in very good hands, Tommy. It's my duty as an Alpha. And…" He clasped my hands and looked down on me. “I want to help you.”
I looked down, my eyes accidentally lingering on his package for a few seconds. He wanted to help me? I thought of a few ways that was possible beyond just letting me sleep at his home and giving me a job. But maybe that was the pre-estrous talking.
I backed up and turned away into the darkness. Then I turned around and I extended my hand. "Tommy."
He looked at me for a second, then shook my hand. "Neil."
Even though we had finally agreed to act, it was still well past midnight. And I was starting to feel really horny. If Neil was a unicorn, then I knew he understood that feeling well enough. However, I could see it in his eyes that he wasn't interested in laying me the same day he met me, and that made sense. When I came back to my senses, I also realized that I was being a little too aggressive in mindset, but that just made me feel bad again because I had felt so good talking to Neil. For the first time in a long time, I felt good, but it was too socially awkward to simply seek such pleasure so soon after laying out my heart and my problems in such a way. And I hated that society made such rules, no matter how much sense they made. Why couldn't I just be happy in that moment? Why couldn't I just go down on Neil? I dealt with things my own way and having to follow in the footsteps of others-- well that's really how I got myself in that situation in the first place.
Still, Neil was the Alpha and even though I couldn't read his mind, I could still tell that he wasn't down for laying me down when I was like this. Maybe after a few more days. Then he'd be comfortable. But I really would've loved to see how good he was and if he was a solid knotter like unicorns were rumored to be. After all, if I was staying in his house, eating his food, and earning money out of his pocket, then it would've made sense to at least get a feel for how bulbous and huge that dick of his had to be.
But, as the clock struck 1 AM, I felt my head hit the table. He didn't try to stop me from resting, and I didn't feel awkward. He stood up and walked back to the kitchen.
"I thought you weren't sleepy. I gave you an extra strength espresso."
"Espresso?" I bolted up. "I thought that was a cappuccino."
"Eh? Cappuccinos are espressos. I hoped that it would help you stay awake for a little while longer, but I guess it might be working too well. Ha! You look like you're a fly right now."
I tried to slow down my movements, but the way I kept looking at everything definitely made me feel like I was on something. That was an unnatural speed I kept forcing my neck to make. But maybe that wasn't just the espresso at work. Maybe I was growing so excited that I couldn't control myself.
He smiled, and god that smile tasted better than every pastry in the shop looked. He had to have been doing it on purpose, making me love him. Everything he did was like magic, and I'd never felt so attracted to someone before. Even those early days with Jonathan, before he devolved into something uglier, he wasn't anywhere near as charming as Neil was being.
I saw him wash his hands and wondered about this. Why was he washing his hands? He hadn't done anything to dirty them. So, I asked and he replied:
"I'm trying to get my scent off you. Your tears, remember? Whenever an Omega shifter cries, their tears are absolutely explosive with their scent. And needless to say, I don't have a good feeling about your old mate."
My heart sunk because I immediately knew what he meant. It was the thing I'd been freaking out about before I fell asleep, and Neil had managed to understand it perfectly.
"If-- when-- Jonathan discovers you left, I can only imagine the rage he'll be in."
Hearing it said out loud made me start yawning, even though I was not tired one bit. It was those anxiety yawns, unstoppable and making my eyes water. I got to the point where I put my head down and tried forcing myself asleep.
But on the cold and hard table, the only thing I accomplished was annoying myself. "Hey, I think I'm gonna try to go back to sleep. Is that alright?"
"Perfectly fine by me, darling. If you need it, I have a much comfier comforter."
"That's lovely."
I loved the way he didn't even question my choice. After so long of having every little thing I did scrutinized, simply being allowed to do something, anything, by my own free will made me feel free as a bird.
And once I was upstairs and, in that bed, I pulled over Neil's dark blue comforter and rolled my head onto the pillow. He turned down the light and closed the door, and I had to force myself to go to sleep. It wasn't easy.
After half an hour of keeping my eyes closed without ever feeling even close to dreamland, I called out Neil's name. Quickly, he came.
"Yes?"
"This is gonna sound real strange, but... Can I sleep with you?"
I couldn't hear him smile nor could I see his face with the lights off, but I knew that he was smiling. "Sleep anywhere you want."
Be still my heart!
Neil
The whole night, I wanted to ask him why he was so eager to go back to sleep, even though I knew I probably wouldn't like the answer. Everything he did made me feel like he was about to fall apart, and I thought I could hear his heart beat like a pager buzzing. My plan was to keep watch to make sure Steamy Cups wasn't ambushed by Jonathan or his Grover wolf cohorts in the middle of the night, but I didn't want to let him down. If he needed me, I had to oblige. And I was going to do it unconditionally because anything less would be too hard on him. In his darkest hour, he needed someone. And though he would eventually need to grow stronger and out of his current fears, that wasn't the time to push him.
Sometimes, everyone needs a moment to rest and collect their minds. And I convinced myself that the wolves wouldn't approach. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that they genuinely couldn't come after us so soon. I didn't know who Jonathan was specifically, but I could imagine him coming home and finding his abused mate escaped and subsequently tearing up his home in a blind rage. He'd be on the prowl, but he would have little idea that Tommy was here unless his panic from earlier allowed him to leave a scent outside. Hence why I had to clean his scent from the shop, just in case.
The next morning was initially the same as ever-- rainy and cool-- but the sun started breaking through sooner than expected. Tommy couldn't stay asleep the whole night and had woken up at three different times, but by 6 AM he stopped bothering. I joked to him that he could probably stay awake for 48 hours with no adverse effects by that point, and he chuckled nervously, which didn't bode well in my mind.
I also decided to go easy on him, showing him how my machines worked, the ingredients for all the brews, and how the register worked, but with absolutely no intention of actually starting him off. Rather, I wanted to allow him some time to learn the ropes without being too stressed, because lord knows he needed any more of that.
To my shock and surprise, he got a grip on what I was teaching him quickly, and when we got our first customer of the morning, he was the one who rang them up and got their coffee and croissan
t.
Every boss dreams of someone like him, someone so diligent and eager. Yet ironically, I felt uneasy. I didn't want him getting so into this so soon, especially when I was still waiting for Jonathan to show up. It was inevitable and going to happen by some point. Even my own heart started thumping, and I had a small jump when I saw a car pull in only to recognize that giant yellow H2 Hummer as belonging to Scott.
I still didn't fully understand why bro needed a Hummer when he could shift and have infinite running stamina, but I didn't question him about it and had no plans to.
Michael found his usual seat and went back to playing more Pokémon in silence, though with his usual-- a Sprite and twisted glazed donut. He was undoubtedly the luckiest kid in school to have a breakfast so awesome.
I flipped the radio on, and the first song playing was Free Radical's "You Get What You Give."
Michael kept looking over at Tommy and finally asked, "Who's he?"
Scott said, "Your uncle's new boyfriend."
I snickered. "He's not my boyfriend or anything... yet. He still has yet to do the Bond Severing to break him from Jonathan."
Scott shrugged. "I'm just shocked that you hired him. Really, he randomly pops in once, and the very next day he's working here? You've got some strange ideas on the hiring process."
"Man, there's so much going on with him that there's no way I could've pulled him in the normal way."
After Michael left and the morning rush quieted, Scott and I finally got to talking without being distracted.
"Man, that's rough," he said. Tommy swept the floor and didn't say anything to him. "But don't you think that's dangerous? What if they decide to get a big band of wolves over here and try gangbanging us?"
I rubbed my face and said, "I've already prepared for that possibility. And actually, I planned on heading out to Artemis later today so we can get an Bond Severing scroll just so that the wolves can't easily take him back."
The Unicorn's Dearest Omega Page 3
