Alpha Heat

by Leta Blake

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Xan said, answering his question about Caleb. “Something about the time when Caleb was first being sent to Philia soirées. I’m guessing it was the year before Janus got caught mid-coitus with a contracted omega and Father sent him away to ‘start a new satellite office.’” Xan huffed. “Which is code in this family for letting the rumors die down, by the way.”

  Urho couldn’t explain his reaction to Xan’s voice. As far as he could tell Xan didn’t share his longing right now, but he didn’t need him to. He could enjoy this all on his own. He slowly teased himself, dragging out the pleasure, letting Xan’s voice pierce him again and again.

  “Speaking of, there’s a ton to do for the satellite office. I was shocked at the state of the building site and the ineptitude of the contractors. When I seem to know more than they do about their work, it’s a problem.”

  “What did the spy think?” Urho said.

  “Janus? He wasn’t there. I don’t know where he’d gotten off to, but I had to deal with the contractors all on my own.”

  “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

  “Yes, but…there’s a ton to do. An endless list, it seems. I guess I could have used the help.” The sullenness in Xan’s voice at the admission made Urho’s dick throb. Wolf-god he wanted to hear that tone in person, directed at him, his alpha-shaped omega reluctantly admitting to some misdeed, and then Urho could bend him over his knee, like Xan had wanted, and—

  “Urho?” Xan asked. “Are you all right? You’re awfully quiet.”

  “Just thinking of how I wish I could be with you.”

  “Wolf-god, me too.” It was infused with such longing that Urho’s cock released a wet burst of pre-come. He wished Xan was there to lick it up.

  He tried to clear his thoughts and say something wise. “The final product always seems impossible at the beginning of any new endeavor. But with your sharp brain I’m sure you’ll have it up and running before your father expects you to.”

  “My sharp brain? Ha!” Xan’s restless, clacking shoes started up again, beating a rhythm Urho followed by stroking over his trapped cock more rapidly. “I’m of average intelligence at best, and given some of my behavior of late, the argument could be made that ‘average’ is a generous assessment.”

  “You understand people and you have a brave heart.” Urho tried very hard to keep his voice steady. His pulse rushed and his cock ached. “I know you’ll make good of this new assignment your father has placed in your hands.”

  “Do you?” Xan murmured, and Urho could just imagine his wide, blue eyes gazing at him with eager need for reassurance. His balls twitched. “I wish I wasn’t trapped here. I want to see you again.”

  “I want to see you too.” He closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and was just getting ready to tell Xan that he was aroused for him when there was a knocking sound on the other end of the line.

  Xan sighed. “Hold on a minute. Yes, Ren?”

  Urho listened with mounting frustration to indistinct murmuring and then Xan was back, his voice crawling with disappointment. “I’m being summoned to discuss the plans for the house. Caleb has a lot to do to get it up to his standards and settled.”

  “Then I’ll let you go. We’ll talk again soon enough.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Yes. Call me again tomorrow.” Xan’s enthusiasm quickened Urho’s heart. “It’ll be my reward for making it through another day without murdering Janus.”

  They ended the call without any declarations or further promises, but Urho leaned back in his seat, satisfied that an appointment had been set to speak again.

  The ambiguity removed, he pulled his cock out and considered it, admiring his thick length with a nicely shaped, glistening head peeking out of his damp foreskin. Then he rested his head against the back of his chair and closed his eyes.

  Imagining Xan kneeling between his legs, red mouth open, blue eyes hot and eager, he jerked himself off quickly and groaned when he came copiously into his palm.

  There was no doubt of at least one thing when it came to Xan. The young man had fully woken his libido. It remained to be seen if he’d also woken his heart.

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Urho frowned as he pressed the stethoscope against Vale’s chest. His heartbeat was a little rapid, but it could be due to nerves. He knew Vale’s in-laws had been visiting often lately, and Vale was growing tense and weary of their attentions.

  “Everything all right?” Jason asked with his arm around Vale’s shoulder and his eyes glued to where the stethoscope pressed against Vale’s skin. They were seated on the sofa in Vale’s study with Urho kneeling in front of them.

  “Shh, I’m listening.” Urho moved the stethoscope down to press against Vale’s belly.

  Jason radiated impatience.

  Urho’s own patience had worn thin over the two and a half months since Xan had moved to Virona. Sometimes the sex he’d had with his alpha-shaped omega seemed so distant as to be more like a dream, and other times, especially after a steamy phone call from Xan, or one of his deeply erotic letters, it seemed as though he’d die if he didn’t touch Xan’s skin again or hear the little noises he made when he came.

  Jason huffed. “You’ve been listening a long time. Is there a problem?”

  Urho shushed him. There was a problem, yes, indeed. And that problem was his mind wondered to Xan constantly.

  But he forced himself to fully concentrate, and after counting the baby’s heartbeats again, he lifted his head and nodded once. “The babe is getting along just fine, but Vale’s blood pressure and heart rate are elevated. He’s stressed.”

  “He’s right here,” Vale said testily, shifting on the sofa. His stomach bulged nicely and the movements of the child inside could be detected by touch alone. The babe seemed to be exactly on track for the timeline Vale and Jason had provided regarding conception. “I don’t like being talked about like I’m not present. I’m a grown man, for wolf-god’s own fucking sake.”

  Jason clucked gently, stroking a soothing hand over Vale’s arm. “Don’t get upset. It’s not good for the baby.”

  Vale glared at Jason with more force than Urho had ever seen.

  Jason swallowed hard and looked down, whispering, “But, of course, we’ll stop. Right away. I promise.”

  Vale groaned and rubbed his bulging, shifting stomach. “Is it normal for him to do that?” he asked, referring to the baby. “He head-butts my ribs and then pushes with his feet against the mouth of my womb.”

  “Perfectly normal.”

  “Well, I wish he’d stop!”

  Jason rubbed Vale’s shoulders and hushed him quietly.

  “It’s preparation for the life to come,” Urho said. “Children rarely do what we wish they’d do. And, from what I’ve witnessed, their growth into adulthood is never without pain to the parent.”

  Vale sniffed and closed his eyes. “That’s all fine and well, but I’m tired.”

  “I can prescribe something gentle to help you rest.”

  “Please do,” Jason said, sounding desperate. “He was up walking last night. Nothing soothed him. Not even his usual bedtime tea—the one with the herbs that make him drowsy.”

  “Speaking of,” Vale said, as he buttoned his shirt. “I want some tea. Daytime tea. Something strong and well steeped. Jason will you get it, please?”

  Jason rose, obviously reluctant to leave Vale’s side, but, like any alpha, he was also prepared to do whatever his pregnant omega demanded of him.

  The doorbell rang.

  Vale growled, almost pulling off the final button in his annoyance. “If that’s your pater or father, I will murder them both. Do you hear me? Murder. Them. Both.”

  Jason bent to run his fingers over Vale’s dark beard, whispering, “If it’s them, I’ll tell them to leave. I promise.”

  Urho watched Jason rush off as the doorbell rang a second time, and then he began to gather
his things. “I’ll get out of your hair too.”

  “You never come over anymore, except to examine me,” Vale complained. His moss green eyes raked over Urho irritably.

  “I come here every day.” Urho buckled his bag and sat on the sofa next to Vale. “But I can stay awhile if you want.”

  Vale rose and began to pace. His stomach bulged, and Urho could see the baby rolling and kicking, even beneath Vale’s loose shirt. “He moves around so much,” Vale said, rubbing a hand over his stomach. “Is that normal?”

  “Better than normal. It’s a good sign.”

  “I can’t stop eating. Sometimes I eat so much, I can’t put anymore in, but I’m still hungry.”

  “Another excellent sign.”

  “And everyone just pisses me the wolf-hell off.”

  “Normal enough,” Urho said. “You’re uncomfortable and the weight of the baby is putting a strain on the scar tissue now. That’s enough to make anyone cranky.”

  With no segue, Vale said, “Jason is adorable.”

  Urho refrained from rolling his eyes. “I’ve heard that from you before, yes.”

  “But he’s making me crazy!” Vale gestured wildly as he spoke. “Eat this. Drink that. Sleep more. Let me rub your feet. Don’t tax yourself. Let’s read together.” Vale snorted. “Read together. Read together!”

  “Did Jason not read before?” Urho raised a brow.

  “No! He has a photographic memory and so he just skims books. No, he doesn’t read. Unless I read to him.”

  “I see.”

  Vale seemed to interpret some kind of judgment in Urho’s voice because he added defensively, “He tinkers. Out in the garden, mostly. Or with his microscope.” He groaned. “But now he’s glued to my side. Plus, he smells amazing to me. Like my alpha, yes, but I scent him even more strongly.”

  “This is normal.”

  “This leaves me aroused all the time. All the time, Urho!”

  “I know but—”

  “No but! Being aroused all the time is exhausting. Let me tell you this now. Are you listening?”

  “Yes.”

  “I am getting ridiculously tired of being fisted every day.”

  Urho’s lips quivered. Vale was lovely when he was angry—cheeks flushed above his beard, eyes bright, and his breath coming quick bursts. Urho almost remembered why he’d been in love with him once. But he wasn’t half as gorgeous as Xan in the throes of ecstasy. “I told him to do that.”

  “I know. Tell him to stop.”

  Urho sighed. “Love, it’s important that you keep stretching that scar tissue. It’s going to be a tough few months, but, in the end, you’ll have a beautiful baby and it will be worth it.”

  “I know all that!” Vale exclaimed, his pacing stopped. He turned to Urho speculatively. “Wait, though. Should you still call me that?”

  “What?”

  “Love? Should you call me a pet name like that?” Vale tilted his head.

  “If it bothers you, I can st—”

  “No. I don’t care, but does Xan mind, do you think?”

  Urho frowned. “I’ve called you ‘love’ for years—”

  “Not when Jason’s around.”

  Urho scoffed. “Because I don’t have a death wish.”

  “So what you have with Xan, it’s not…” Vale rolled his hand.

  “Nickname material?” Urho hazarded.

  “No! Is it not serious, you fool? What you have isn’t serious?”

  “I have no idea what it is.” Urho wiped a hand over his face. “I haven’t seen him since he left for Virona. Between the twins, you, and this wretched flu season, I’ve barely had a moment, much less a day, away from the clinic or work. And he can’t come here. He’s ‘banished’ from the city, according to him. At least the work on his new office seems to satisfy him, because otherwise I’d worry.”

  “Jason talks to him.”

  “I talk to him too,” Urho said defensively.

  Vale’s brows lifted, and his voice dropped conspiratorially. “How often?”

  “Daily,” Urho admitted. His cheeks felt warm.

  “I see. So it’s not serious, but you talk every day, and you miss him. I can tell.”

  “I didn’t say it wasn’t serious. I said it’s complicated.”

  “You said you didn’t know what it was.”

  “You’re so exasperating today!” Urho started to stand, but Vale took hold of his shoulders and pressed him back down to the sofa.

  “You have to tell me everything. Now.”

  “It’s a long story and it’s been a long day.”

  Vale rolled his eyes. “I’m a miserably pregnant omega who is essentially trapped in this house by the flu epidemic and tortured daily by the attentions of my loving in-laws. Please talk to me.”

  Urho gave a quick half-smile and then eyed the liquor cabinet across the room. The truth would come out more smoothly with a bit of bourbon.

  “I’ll pour you a drink if you tell me how it all began.” Vale crossed the room and lifted the bottle temptingly.

  “I found out that he was involved…” Urho trailed off. That wasn’t his information to share. “He was in a dangerous situation. So I offered to fuck him, like a surrogate for an omega.”

  Vale blinked rapidly and then choked on a laugh. After pouring a generous glass, he collapsed beside Urho on the sofa and passed the bourbon over with a grin spreading his lips. “I see.”

  Urho wet his throat with the bourbon before going on. “I didn’t anticipate how that turned out.”

  “Oh, I imagine you didn’t.” Vale sounded utterly delighted.

  Urho rolled his shoulders and took another drink. “I hadn’t realized that it would become something so…”

  “Different?”

  “More.”

  Vale’s grin sliced across his face again, and he leaned back on the sofa, his hand on his bulging stomach. “Ah, then you’re still the idiot I’ve always known and loved.”

  Urho tried to explain it so that it made sense to them both. “I wanted to believe that what I was offering was no different than helping an omega in heat, but, in reality, it was nothing like that at all.”

  “It was forbidden,” Vale supplied. “Which is definitely different.”

  “Yes, but—” He’d apparently developed feelings for the little brat somehow. What he wanted from Xan wasn’t sex and sex alone, like with a typical surrogacy. He didn’t want to fulfill his animal lusts and then walk away. He wanted to build something real.

  “But?” Vale prompted.

  “He reminds me of Riki.”

  “I thought Riki was a paragon of gentleness and obedience. Something Xan is decidedly not.”

  “Riki was. No, Xan isn’t like him in that way at all.” Urho scrubbed a hand over his head and tried to put the words into the right shape. “I meant the way I feel about him reminds me of Riki. The way I react to his scent and the way I want to…”

  Vale sat up again. “Yes?”

  “The way I want to own him.”

  “Oh, dear friend,” Vale whispered, a hand on Urho’s shoulder. “I suppose that must have shocked your old-fashioned, traditional soul nearly to death.”

  “I keep telling you. I’m not old-fashioned. If anything should prove it and put a nail in that coffin, I’d think it would be this situation.” Urho smiled wryly. The illegal abortion he’d performed on Vale years before and the untraditional relationship they’d shared should have ended the rumors of his old-fashioned sensibilities well before. “I admit I did lose my mind at first.”

  “After you’d…” Vale made a lewd gesture.

  “No. Before I made the offer to him. I was in a state—overwrought, afraid, and angry. I wanted to protect him and shake him. I wanted to…” Urho trailed off. “Once I settled on the idea of acting as a surrogate for him, everything seemed to click into place. I was able to make a peace with it.”

  “Well, you always did have a hero kink,” Vale said, the knowing smile
on his face almost annoying. “I think that was half your attraction for me.”

  “No.” He’d cared about Vale for reasons that went beyond that.

  “Oh, maybe our relationship eventually became more than heroism to you, but at first you were my surrogate during heats because you wanted to save me from ever being in a dangerous position again. And then we became lovers outside the heats…and, yes, I’ll concede that was based more in friendship and fun than in heroism gone awry. But that was where it had started.”

  And based in a now-faded love.

  But Urho wouldn’t bring that up. Instead, he ventured toward the subject that had been pricking at him between bouts of dreaminess, longing, and intense phone calls with Xan. “It’s wrong, though. Two alphas. It’s against the Holy Book and the law.” He took Vale’s hand in his. “How do I reconcile that it feels so right?”

  “I think you’re smart enough to know the answer to that.” Vale flicked him a harsh glance. “The laws and Holy Books are all about control. But hearts are wild things. They can’t be controlled no matter how much those in power wish it.”

  “It’s an obstacle,” Urho mused. “We can never truly be together.”

  “Plus there’s Caleb.”

  Urho chuckled. “Yes, Caleb. Who is strangely accepting of all this.”

  Vale nodded. “Contracted relationships aren’t like Erosgapé. I’m sure he has his reasons for being content with the arrangement.”

  Urho tilted his head. “You know.”

  “I know what?”

  Urho said nothing and Vale looked at him innocently. Clearly Xan had shared something with Jason—perhaps the failed heat—and Jason had shared that information with Vale. “Caleb is special.”

  “I think he’s a wonderful man and Xan is lucky to have him,” Vale said, shifting back uncomfortably and rubbing his stomach. “Good wolf-god above, this child! He never rests.”

  “When he’s bigger, he’ll have less room to move around. So he’ll slow down.”

  Vale frowned at his stomach. “Then I’ll panic and rejoice every time he makes himself known. I’ve heard as much from Miner.”

  Grateful for the change of topic, Urho asked, “Miner’s driving you up a wall, is he?”