by Kelex
“Do you forgive me, Tulla?” he murmured deeply before he lifted his head to gaze down into Tulla’s eyes.
“Do you want that forgiveness simply because some ancient instinct makes you want me?”
Beckett half-smiled, glancing over Tulla’s head a moment before looking back down. “You feel it, too, then?”
Tulla drew in a breath, trying to calm his raging body. As close as they danced, the hot breath whispering over his earlobe… the alpha’s scent… it was all doing damage to his self-control. “I do. You know I do… but that doesn’t answer my question, Beckett.”
Beckett closed his eyes. “Say it again.”
Tulla frowned. “What?”
“My name. Say it again,” Beckett whispered huskily against his ear.
Tulla turned and lifted his lips to Beckett’s ear again, more of the alpha’s musky scent filling his nose. “Beckett… now answer my question.”
Beckett chuckled, his body bouncing against him. He lowered his lips to Tulla’s ear and barely grazed them over the shell. “I would hope I’m mature enough that I would’ve asked for that forgiveness regardless of what you are to me.”
What you are to me… Tulla closed his eyes, the room spinning slightly. He clutched ahold of Beckett a little tighter… and felt the man’s arms slipping around him more.
He melted into Beckett, lost within the man’s stare.
The alpha lowered his head again, whispering against Tulla’s ear. The fine hairs on the back of Tulla’s neck rose, and beads of sweat formed there.
“So… am I forgiven?”
Tulla pulled back slightly in Beckett’s arms. He looked up into the alpha’s earnest eyes and saw how much the man wanted that forgiveness. Though, there was really nothing to forgive. Beckett had been a silly boy and it was now apparent he was a much different man.
“Yes,” he mouthed.
Without another word, Beckett’s head swept down and the alpha captured his mouth in a ravenous kiss. Beckett hungrily lapped at Tulla’s lips, making him shake even more. The instinct fully kicked in, and all Tulla could see was himself prone and naked on the floor, begging Beckett to take him then and there. He didn’t care if the whole room watched them… he simply… wanted.
A moan escaped his lips seconds before he felt himself being pushed through the crowd. His back hit the wall behind him, Beckett’s big, muscled body pressing close.
He rolled his hips, and Tulla could feel the thick imprint of the alpha’s cock pressed against him. “Yesss,” he hissed, hungry to feel that shaft filling him deep. “I want you, alpha. Take me.” He swallowed another moan. “Please.”
“Do you want me to fill you with my seed, my omega?” Beckett asked lowly, his voice changed… almost animal in nature. “Do you want my child growing inside you?”
In the back of his mind, Tulla knew it was only the instinct speaking. When alphas and omegas were in the throes of passion, they spoke these words to goad the other’s desire—or so he’d been told. He’d struggled to understand how it could happen, how words could flow freely without conscious thought. How these words could enflame another, especially when he didn’t want an alpha. Now he felt the impact and fully comprehended it. Tulla had found his alpha and had gone into heat… and now his alpha was in going into rut.
He should’ve been afraid.
He wasn’t.
He wanted just as much. He needed to feel Beckett inside him. He needed to be bound and locked to his alpha…
“Yesss,” Tulla hissed again, and he yielded to the alpha’s strength.
Suddenly, hands reached in and pulled them apart. Three betas pulled Beckett off him while two others held him back against the wall. As soon as they were parted, he was quickly ushered out of the ballroom, several alphas attending the ball beginning to advance on him.
More betas put themselves between the alphas and him until he was led to another room. Sat in a chair in a room that was brightly lit, Tulla narrowed his eyes as they adjusted to the intense illumination. He felt chilled, the fire that had burned when Beckett was with him, now gone. The room spun a little, and he had to lower his upper body just to get the world to right itself again.
When he lifted his head, he saw he wasn’t alone. A man he’d seen at the registration table was there.
“Who’s your escort for the night?”
Tulla shook his head. “My brother was supposed to accompany me, but I was late and I think he left.”
The beta tsked loudly. “Arrangements will need to be made. I need a contact number for those responsible for you.”
Tulla spat his papa’s name and phone number robotically, the shift from the need he’d just been immersed in to the cold-water sensation making him numb. He rubbed his arms, seeking warmth.
“I’ll be right back,” the beta said as he left the room, pressing numbers on his phone screen.
The door closed with a click, and he jumped slightly from the hollow sound of it. He then heard a lock engaged. Again, he was locked away, imprisoned for his own protection.
The room was quiet. Too quiet. All he could hear was the hum from the bulbs above him… and the beating of his own heart in his ears.
And then he heard a deep murmur through the wall.
It was Beckett. He knew it was. He rose on shaking legs and moved closer. More of the deep baritone sounded, and he pressed a hand to the wall, longing to be back with his alpha. An ache formed in his chest, the need making it hard to breathe.
“Beckett,” he cried at the wall.
Silence. Maybe he’d been wrong.
“Tulla?” came Beckett’s voice, nearer now.
“I’m afraid,” Tulla said. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Beckett said, and Tulla imagined him placing his hand on the wall. Near where his own was. “Soon, Tulla. Soon you’ll be mine.”
Mine. Tulla shivered all over at that declaration, knowing he wanted nothing more than to be Beckett’s. To be in his arms. Bonded by flesh.
Filled with his child.
Tulla frowned. Earlier, he’d rebelled at that thought. Had since he was young, if he was honest. Now, the instinct had claimed him… and how his papa had been right. He hated admitting it… but Papa had known.
His heart ached with a longing for his alpha… and damned if it didn’t feel a little like love.
Chemistry, he chided himself, trying to force some logic into his heart and mind. A chemical reaction.
But damn if chemistry hadn’t shattered him, mind, body, and soul.
* * * *
“Get away from the wall,” Titian spat.
Beckett scrubbed a hand over his face. His body still rocked with need. He struggled to come down off his high—especially knowing one thin wall was the only thing separating him and his omega. One fist. One well-placed fist, and he’d have Tulla in his arms.
He wasn’t a violent man. Never had been, he avoided fights, but right now he wanted to smash the godsdamned wall down and take his omega back into his arms. Beckett paced along the wall, trying to calm himself.
“Beckett! You’re making a fool of yourself.”
He whipped his head to the side and glared at his younger brother. “When I got here, all you wanted was for me to find my omega. Now I have, and you’re angry.”
“Why did it have to be Amantulla Berringer?”
“I know the two of you always seemed to be in some competition of sorts, but that was years ago. You’re no longer children. Act like it.”
Titian glared. “He’s not from a good family.”
“If I recall correctly, his parents are at our own parent’s home tonight, a member of their party.”
“Tulla’s father works for our father. It’s a pity invitation, at best.”
“You’re as bad as those other omegas… only caring about money and prestige. Unlike you, I don’t give a damn about good breeding and wealth,” Beckett snapped. “Fate doesn’t either. We don’t choose who we’re m
ated to… but if I’d had a choice, I think I would definitely pick a man like Tulla.”
“Of course you would,” Titian argued back.
“What in the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” Titian snapped before crossing his arms over his chest. It was glaringly obvious Titian wasn’t happy with fate’s choice.
What had caused the hatred between the two? Beckett paused a moment, thinking back to his own childish dislike for Tulla. How small and silly he’d been back then, but he’d not been like the other alphas. He’d wanted so much to fit in, only to eventually realize he needed to stand out and be his own man.
It had taken a long time for him to come to terms with who he was and accept himself. Now he could only hope to be a good enough man for his omega and right the wrong of their past by showing Tulla who he really was.
“What did Tulla ever do that was so wrong? Besides not being as rich as you thought he should be?”
Titian lifted his chin arrogantly, but said nothing for a moment. “He’s a wet blanket. Whenever we wanted to have fun, he’d go into some rambling diatribe and ruin our excitement.”
“And just what would these rambling diatribes be about?”
“How we were repressed… that we were sheep to the slaughter, doing what was expected of us. That we should rebel and do the unexpected, as if that would do us any good. He was a spoilsport, constantly ruining the day. And when we told him to stop bothering, he ignored us.”
As he should’ve. “Omegas are repressed in our society. He wasn’t lying.” He saw it every day and did his little part to ease some of the suffering. He wanted to do more—but he was only one man.
Titian scowled. “It is the way it is. Either you remain optimistic and accept your lot in life or you’re forever unhappy—and who wants to live a sad, miserable life?” Titian lifted one brow. “And I didn’t see Tulla fighting the oppression when you had him pinned to the wall out there.”
Heat filled Beckett’s face… partially in shame.
Partially with the fact that that need he felt wasn’t gone from his system. He eyed the wall again, and clenched his fist.
“Either Father or Papa will be here soon enough.” Titian paused. “Father, I’m sure. Papa won’t want to leave the party. He is hosting, after all.”
His father would likely be happy for an excuse to leave.
“Exactly what I need. More people to gang up on me and tell me my omega is less than worthy.”
Titian glared. “Your disdain for our family is duly noted.”
“What?” Beckett asked, turning to his brother.
“We realize how you look down your nose at us.”
“I don’t look down my nose at y—”
“You do!” Titian scowled, interrupting. “You do and you damned well know it.”
Beckett eyed his younger brother, knowing there might be a seed of truth in the statement. “I only believe there should be more equality in this province. With the wealth we have, no one should suffer. Is that so wrong of me to think?”
“There will always be the haves and the have nots. Always. It does not make us terrible people to be born with means.”
“No, we’re terrible people when we don’t use those means to help others!” Beckett glared at his brother. “That’s what I can’t abide. We would let omegas and their children live in poverty when we could stop it? That’s evil. Pure and utter evil, brother.”
Titian looked away. He said nothing, as there was no real argument he could make.
“I know I’m not the brother you wish I was. I’m not like other men and I won’t sit idly by when there’s suffering in this province.”
“I never said you weren’t the brother I wished for,” Titian whispered. He lifted his gaze. “But do not stand in judgment against me for not thinking exactly as you do.”
“I stand in judgment of you because you choose to be blind, when I know full well you can see,” Beckett murmured.
Titian tilted his head, tossing his long braided hair over one shoulder. “I see a world were I have little to no power… other than what little I can wield over my alpha. Do not stand there for one minute and think to proselytize to me. Alphas have everything and we have nothing. We’re less educated. We’re imprisoned behind a wall, coddled little omegas, ripe for birthing. We have little chance to have a job, or find some meaning outside of birthing and raising our children. The one thing I can enjoy is the security of wealth. Living a life of luxury… it’s all I have. It’s the only power I have. So go ahead and judge me, my alpha brother. You will never understand what it’s like to be an omega.”
Beckett eyed his brother, realizing there was some truth in what the man said. He hadn’t walked in Titian, or any other omega’s, shoes. It was wrong for him to judge without that knowledge. “You have a point. I’ve not seen the world through your eyes. But I have one question.”
Titian raised one brow.
“What of the other omegas… the ones who aren’t as lucky as you? The ones society disposes off once they’re no longer able to breed and their alphas are long gone?”
Titian looked away, a hint of sadness in his eyes. “We don’t have the power to fix all of society’s ills, so what’s the point in trying?”
“I feel pity for you, Titian. To think yourself so powerless when you’re not.”
Titian eyed him. “I am. Now your ignorance is showing.”
Beckett sighed, realizing then and there he’d never get through to his brother. “Fine. We will have to agree to disagree on this topic… but the other… Tulla… there is no argument to be had. He is my omega. Fact is fact and it can’t be denied. Deal with it.”
Beckett had no reason to deny the bonds he felt with Tulla. They were a mated pair, plain and simple, regardless if his little brother liked the man or not.
“I suppose I’ll have to,” Titian snapped.
A few minutes passed in silence. Beckett’s mind went to his father… and the pre-nuptial contract the man would likely demand before they mated. “How long was it between you finding your alpha and the agreement? I can’t remember.”
“It’ll depend on what Tulla’s parents demand for him and what Father’s willing to allow,” Titian said. “It took two weeks of negotiations for everything to be ironed out for us.”
Two weeks? He’d die by then.
“I’ll give them whatever they want,” Beckett said.
“It’s not up to you. Fortunately.”
Beckett turned to gaze at his brother. “It is. I have money in my savings and a trust coming. I’ll pay them whatever they want.”
“Shhh,” Titian said. “Tulla might hear you. That’s all you need. To hand him a blank check.”
“Trust me, brother. I sense my omega is nothing like you think he is.”
* * * *
Tulla’s father came barreling into the room, his face a mix of emotions. It was the first time he’d seen his father in several years—as alphas weren’t allowed into the OQ—and this wasn’t exactly the way he’d envisioned them meeting again.
His father stood there awkwardly, not speaking. Eight years spanned between them. Age had worn him down. His hair was now completely gray and his skin wrinkled.
And somehow, he seemed smaller.
“Hello, Father.”
His father nodded, tears coming to his pale eyes. “I’ve missed you, Amantulla.”
Tulla bit back his own tears. “From what I’ve heard, you’ve not been happy with me for some time.”
His father took a step closer. “Things have been difficult these last years, yes. But we found a way. Haven’t we?”
“Papa says you’ve dipped into your retirement for me.”
His father cringed, taking another step. “He shouldn’t have told you that.”
“So… you weren’t about to cut me off?” Tulla asked him.
His father shook his head, looking confused. “No. I would never.”
Tulla cursed under hi
s breath. “Why would papa tell me that?”
His father sighed. “Your papa worries about me. I’m not getting any younger. My health… it hasn’t been wonderful the last two years.”
Tulla stepped closer this time, closing the gap. “Why didn’t papa tell me you weren’t well?” Tears formed in Tulla’s eyes. “I should’ve known.”
His father drew him close, in a tight hug. He pressed a kiss to Tulla’s temple. “I told him not to. I didn’t want it to worry you. You there, stuck in the OQ, unable to help.”
“But… maybe I could’ve done more. I could’ve made more of an effort at the balls. Gotten out of there and helped you. If only I knew!”
“You do now.”
“But papa sh—”
Father pressed a finger to Tulla’s lips. “Your papa is afraid. Of losing me. I can’t answer for him, son… but I’m quite sure he was searching for a way to not break his promise to me and urge you into finally getting out of the OQ. Don’t be angry at him. Please.”
Tulla wanted to argue, but he was simply happy to see his father again. He could argue later. Wrapping his arms about his father, he hugged the man tight. Under his arms, he felt how lean Father was and he closed his eyes, fear creeping in. What have I done to him? In my selfish desire to maintain my autonomy… have I made him sick?
His father leaned back, a watery smile on his lips. “From what I just heard at the front desk, this was Beckett Montgomery’s first time. Even if you had tried to find him sooner, he wouldn’t have been here to be found.” He smiled. “You came when you needed to.”
A small smile spread on Tulla’s lips. “I suppose I did.”
“And boy, you’ve found yourself a good one. I’d say Beckett Montgomery is likely the perfect alpha for you.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve watched that boy grow up. Heard the stories his father has told at work. They don’t understand him. Beckett’s as unpredictable as you are,” his father said with a smile growing on his face. “His ideas are ahead of their time. And he’s kind. One of the kindest alphas I know.”
Tulla smiled, hearing those words. He hugged his father again, happy in the knowledge he’d be able to see the man more often once mated.
