by H Q Kingsley
He shook his head as he rounded the table. “I’m still me, I’m just maybe a little less of my father.”
“However you want to put it, you’re different. And Mishel would come to like you if he could see it instead of just hearing about it from me. And he would love Iosefa.”
Elspeth shrugged. “So bring him to the mansion.”
It was now my turn to blink. “What?” Elspeth had always been very particular about his space, only permitting staff and council members to enter his home.
“You two have been together, what? Ten years? It’s past time your mate sees where you spend so much of your time.”
I blinked at him. “Yeah, okay. I will.” I smiled. “Speaking of mates, where is yours? I’m actually surprised to see you down here without him.” The two of them had been attached at the hip for the last few weeks. Even mentioning Iosefa, Elspeth’s face lit up, a big cheesy grin spreading his lips.
“He’s in the library. You should have seen his face when he saw all the books in there. He was pretty adorable. My sweet wolf likes to read.”
I laughed. “‘Adorable.’ ’Sweet wolf.’ Who the fuck are you?”
Elspeth chuckled but still managed to take his turn. “Fuck you.”
I raised my hands, still laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry your royal Alphaness. Did I offend your delicate sensibilities?”
“Fuck you twice!” He took his last shot and sank the eight ball, winning the game.
“Damn,” I swore as I lost. “I’m a little more rusty at this than I thought.”
Elspeth shook his head. “No, don’t sweat it. You were never good at this, my friend.”
Elspeth laughed at my grimace, but then his face turned serious. “Actually, I really called you down here to ask you for a favor.”
I met his eyes. “Of course.”
“I wanted to set up something special for Iosefa. He’s in heat and we… well, he’s never…” Elspeth rubbed at his neck, his face going a light pink. “I just wanted to make the moment is special, and I have an idea. I just need some set up help.”
I grinned and wiggled my brows. “Of course. Wait...” My forehead creased. “Iosefa’s never”—I waved a hand in the air trying to find the right word—“with anyone? Ever?”
Elspeth’s face grew brighter. “No.”
I let out a breath. “Elspeth, have you ever, you know… with a virgin?”
Elspeth hummed in thought. “No, I don’t think so.”
“You know you can’t just…” I banged my fist into my hand in an aggressive gesture. “You have to be gentle.”
“I know how to fuck my own mate, thank you,” he bit.
I held up hands up in surrender. “Okay. You’re right. My fault. I overstepped.”
Elspeth rounded the pool table, tapping his fingers along the wood before he stopped.
“Um…” He kept his gaze down. “I’m not asking or anything, but, like… if I was,” his head popped up. “Which I’m not,” he said again. “What… what advice would you give?”
I pursed my lips, forcing myself to hold back a smile. Never in a million years would I have pictured myself giving Elspeth sex tips. This was a particular moment of vulnerability for Elspeth, and I didn’t want to do anything to deter him from having more.
“Well, if you were asking—”
“Which I’m not,” Elspeth interjected.
“Right, of course,” I agreed. “But if you were, I’d tell you, you have to go slow.”
Elspeth kicked at the ground. “Right, slow. But...how slow?”
I sighed. “Very. Remember that it’s about him. Everything should feel as good as possible for him. And you might have to hold yourself back the first few times, but most importantly, you need to make sure everything you’re doing is something he wants. He needs to be comfortable.”
Elspeth nodded, his face pulled in utter concentration. “Right. Okay.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Anything else?”
“No, I think… I think that covers it.”
I nodded. “Good.”
Elspeth looked away from me. “I wasn’t asking,” he said again. “But, if I was… You know… thanks… or whatever.”
I let out a long breath as I dropped my things by the door. I loved being Elspeth’s beta, and I loved being his right hand—even more so now that he was putting in the work to be a better man—but there was still nothing like being home after a long day.
I stepped out of the entryway and paused, realizing that I’d forgotten to take off my shoes.
My face scrunched as I removed them and set them in the shoe case. Where is Mishel? It wasn’t like him to not greet me at the door without at least a verbal warning not to step foot into the house with my shoes on.
“Baby?” I called out as I walked into the living room.
I was surprised not to find him in his usual spot on the couch knitting. It wasn’t that late. After I’d finished the tasks for Elspeth’s big night with Iosefa, I’d come straight home.
I headed for the kitchen, checking to see if maybe the mood had struck him to cook. Once upon a time, it had been something he did almost incessantly. If I didn’t train so hard, I’d have been a thousand pounds. I smiled as I stepped into the empty kitchen, brief memories of him smiling and laughing as he bussed across it flashing through my mind. But he wasn’t in there. He wasn’t even the same man I remembered cooking in there.
He’d been in a slow spiral ever since we’d learned about the trouble we’d have conceiving. Hell, we both had. His had manifested in reclusion and depression, and I’d spent more time at work than ever.
I ran a hand through my hair. I hadn’t realized till that moment, standing in that kitchen and reminiscing that I missed us. I missed what we were before making a baby had taken over our lives, before our fertility—or lack thereof—had crawled into our minds making us both feel inadequate. I missed my Mishel.
I dragged myself away from the kitchen and the ghosts of our past and slowly made my way to our bedroom.
I pushed open the door and it was completely dark inside. I nearly turned around, assuming Mishel wasn’t in there until I heard a sniffle.
I stepped inside and flicked on the light, frowning when I saw him sprawled across the bed with his face in a pillow.
“Mish?” I said, walking toward the bed. “What’s wrong?” I settled onto the edge of the bed and reached out my hand to make small circles on his back.
“Nothing. I’m fine,” he said into the pillow.
I climbed into the bed with him, maneuvering him to make room for myself. “Come on, baby,” I said, pushing back his hair as he turned to look at me with his tear-stained face. “It’s the middle of the day and you’re crying into a pillow in the dark.” Talk to me.
Mishel blinked at me. It had been a long time since we’d been in each other’s heads. After ten years together, there just hadn’t been the need. Everything we wanted to say to each other, we could say out loud, without holding back. But I was feeling nostalgic for the old days.
“Is this about the pregnancy test?” I asked, continuing to stroke his hair. “I told you, baby, don’t even worry about that. We’ll keep trying.”
He pushed my hand away. “No, Dimitri.” He sighed. “What’s the point? We’re never going to get pregnant.”
I frowned. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not?” He sat up. “It’s true.”
I shook my head. “You don’t know that.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, I do.” He lowered his hands to his lap and began fidgeting them as his face flushed with guilt. “I went to see Doctor Kendrick today about more aggressive fertility treatments. And he told me in super fancy doctor language that it’s not going to happen for us.”
“Baby, why didn’t you tell me? I’d have gone with you?”
He shrugged. “And done what? Magically fixed me? You being there wouldn’t have changed anything.” He swiped at a tear as it rolled down his
cheek. “I’m broken, Dimitri. I’m the broken omega.” He let out a manic sort of laugh. “They should write me a TV show.”
I reached out for him. “You are not broken, baby.”
He pulled his knees to his chest, protectively shielding himself. “Yes, I am,” he said shakily, more tears spilling down his face.
I put my fingers to the bridge of my nose and breathed through the burning at the back of my throat. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t let this pull us both down. I was his beta. His mate. It was my job to protect him from the darkness, not wallow in it with him.
I pulled in a deep breath before I opened my eyes. I pulled him into my arms and held him there when he tried to pull away.
“We can’t keep going like this, baby.” I kissed the top of his head. “We’re going to drive ourselves crazy.”
“What else am I supposed to do, Dimitri? Head out to an omega group where everyone looks at me with pity because I’m broken? Or maybe I should join a broken omega group and just embrace it?”
I gripped his shoulders, giving them a squeeze as I sat him up to meet my gaze. “Stop saying that! You’re not broken!” I let out a breath. “We’ll keep trying. We’ll do every treatment, no matter what they say. We’re us, baby. We’ve beat tougher odds, right?”
Mishel smiled a little.
“And in the meantime,” I said. “You’ll come work at the mansion.”
“The mansion? With Elspeth?” He drug out his name and rolled his eyes.
I chuckled. “Yes, with Elspeth. It’ll be good for you. For us. Making a baby can’t be our whole lives.”
Mishel pursed his lips in thought. “And Elspeth is on board with letting me work in his ivory tower?”
“It was his idea!”
Mishel narrowed his eyes on me.
“Okay, so maybe he was thinking more like a one-time visit, but he’ll agree to this. I have an inkling he’s going to be in pretty good spirits.”
“Elspeth? In good spirits? Since when?”
I laughed. “Since Iosefa came to stay at the mansion.”
Mishel held up a finger. “Was forced to stay at the mansion.”
I shrugged. “Tomato, tomato.”
Mishel scowled. “Goddess, he’s such a bad influence on you.” He sighed. “I don’t know, Dimitri. What would I even do?”
I hummed in thought. “You could cook,” I finally offered.
“Elspeth has a cook.”
“So, then he’ll have two. Or we’ll fire the other one,” I said as I shrugged a shoulder.
Mishel shook his head. “Such a bad influence,” he grumbled.
I took his face in my hands. “Mishel, this will be good. I know it. And Elspeth is too self-involved to every look at you with pity.”
Mishel laughed at it filled me with warmth.
“And Iosefa doesn’t know anything about us, so it’ll be a clean slate,” I finished.
Mishel looked at me for a long moment. “Promise me you won’t fire anyone, and I’ll do it.”
13
Elspeth Callum
“Will you please just tell me where we’re going?” Iosefa whined as he leaned into me in the backseat of the limo.
Keeping Iosefa in the dark had been more difficult than I’d thought. I was a master at planning war and sneak attacks, but surprising my mate had proved to be quite the challenge.
He was such a curious little mind, and he’d become more and more adept at reading me and knowing when I wasn’t being entirely truthful.
I smiled, seeing the eager grin on his face. “Don’t you know it’s better to keep surprises than spoil them?”
He pursed his lips in a pout, and I chuckled at his furrowed nose.
“Well, I don’t know what it is, so I’m just anxious because I don’t like being kept in the dark.” He straightened to fold his arms over his chest. “We’ll see how you like it when I surprise you then, Mr. Control Freak.”
I grinned and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh,” I said, leaning over to kiss the side of his neck. He moaned as I slipped a hand beneath his shirt to rest against his bare stomach. “I think I could get any kind of secret out of you, Sefa,” I breathed against his neck.
“Mmm,” he hummed as I pulled at his shirt to continue my kisses down his neck to his shoulder. “T-That’s not fair.” He moaned and tried to scoot away from me, only making me pull him closer to me.
He blinked for a moment. “Wait, what did you just call me?”
I pulled away from him, furrowing my brows in confusion. I hadn’t realized that I had called him something different.
“You called me Sefa. You’ve never called me that before,” Iosefa said.
“Oh.” I swallowed. “Is that not okay?”
He bobbed his head up and down. “No, No, it’s okay. I like it. It sounds nice coming from you, and when you say it with that accent…” He dropped his gaze. “It’s kind of hot.”
I grinned. “So, you think my accent is hot, do you?” I asked, pulling him back into me.
Iosefa bit his lip and shyly looked away. “Um… maybe.” He let out a soft sigh as my hand found its way back under his shirt. “But I’m also going into heat, so I think everything is hot.”
I arched a brow. “Everything, huh?” I pulled him into my lap, stroking along his leg, going just a little bit higher than what was appropriate for the limo with the divider down. “Like what?”
Iosefa grinned. “Like, your hair,” he said, touching at the bright red bun at the back of my head.
I unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and leaned to place a kiss on the little bit of exposed chest. “Yeah? What else?” I asked softly.
He shivered as I undid two more buttons, licking a path down his chest with each one.
“Um,” he said shakily. “T-that. The tongue thing. Yeah, that’s super hot,” he said, moaning as I popped another button and opened his shirt enough to expose his nipple.
I stroked over it with my thumb and Iosefa vibrated on top of me.
“Fuck,” he said. “And your touch.”
I kept grazing my thumb over his pebbled nipple. “What else?”
Iosefa licked his lips, and I leaned up to taste them in a quick kiss.
“Your lips,” he said breathlessly. “I could kiss them; look at them; bite them all day.” He gave me the sexiest, most seductive grin, and I nearly ripped his clothes off right there. Fuck the plan. I had to have him.
“Sir, we’re here,” the driver said from the front of the car, snapping me back into focus.
“It seems we have reached our destination,” I said, refastening Iosefa’s buttons. “We’ll pick this up at another time. I promise.”
I kissed his nose and slid him out of my lap. “Okay. Close your eyes,” I said. “Please,” I added when he rolled them in annoyance instead.
He let out a breath and closed his eyes.
I’ll know if you peek, I taunted, poking around in his head.
He chuckled and shut his eyes tighter. “They’re closed. All the way. I swear.”
I smiled and opened the door, helping to guide him out behind me.
He clung to me, blindly following my lead as I led him across the grass. I resisted the urge to just pick him up and carry him there. I’d kept the secret this long, I could wait a few more minutes as we made the slow walk.
“How much further?” Iosefa whined about forty-five seconds in.
“Just keep walking, I’ll tell you when we’re there.”
I chuckled as he pouted, but kept walking.
He turned his nose up and sniffed the air. “Are we at the beach? I smell the ocean.”
I softly smacked one of his hands. “Stop cheating. You’ll find out where we are once we get there.”
We continued on for another minute.
“Okay, step up. There’s stairs,” I said as we reached the front of the building.
“Stairs?” he complained. “I’m supposed to walk up stairs with my eyes closed?”
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I gave his hands a squeeze. “Do you trust me?” I asked before I realized I didn’t actually know the answer to that.
Iosefa let out a slow breath and took his first step up.
“Okay, and another,” I said, repeating myself for each step. It was a slow climb and by the time we made it to the top, a light sheen of sweat formed on my forehead.
“Okay. We’re here.” I fished in my pocket for the velvet box I’d had engraved with his name.
I extended it to him. “Open your eyes.”
Iosefa slowly opened his eyes and blinked down at the box and back up at me. “It’s… a box,” he said, his voice as confused as it was excited. “With my name.” His face scrunched, his nose crinkling in classic adorable-Iosefa fashion. “I don’t get it.”
I chuckled. “You have to open the box,” I said. “They don’t give gifts in Maehelio?”
Iosefa flicked his hair back over his shoulder “Uh, no, not really. Not like this, anyways. It’s mostly handmade stuff that we pass on, not necessarily grand gesture gifts.”
I smiled. “Well, I’m happy to be your first. Grand gesture gift-giver, I mean.”
I pushed the box into his hands and he looked up at me skeptically before he opened it.
He sucked in a breath and then let it out, his face scrunching again. “I still don’t get it,” he said as he examined the tiny golden key attached to a matching gold necklace.
I stepped to the side and gestured at the big, ancient stone doors behind me. “The key is yours,” I said with a grin. “You can come and go as you please.”
Iosefa gave me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Great!” He pressed his lips together as he looked back down at the key and then up at the doors. “Um… but where are we?”
Shit. I wanted to kick myself as I suddenly realized Iosefa wasn’t from Capri. He had no idea the significance of this building.
I ran a hand over my neck. “I’m just realizing I didn’t think this all the way through.” I pulled him toward the doors. “This is Capri’s Coupole d’Antiquitiés.”
“Okay,” Iosefa said, still a hint of confusion in his tone.
