by Aiden Bates
The woman laughed outright. “I see. Well, that’s not something we usually do. Many of our omegas have experienced intense trauma. That said, I can understand where you’re coming from and since you’re an omega yourself, I think we can make an exception—assuming that you don’t mind if I come with them.”
Austin threw his pen in the air. “The more the merrier, I say.” The pen clattered to the ground. “Does ten o’clock work for you? We don’t get a lot of customers on Monday mornings.”
“Sounds good to me.”
They hung up, and Austin put the date in his calendar.
He went back out into the showroom to explain what was going on to Jamie. He didn’t want the poor guy to think he was dissatisfied with his performance. “I just think that it would be nice to be able to take a few days off here and there. You’ll get a promotion, and a raise, and all that. You’ve got seniority, you’ve been with me for years and you’re only going somewhere if you come to me and say ‘I quit.’ Okay?”
Jamie nodded, and then he scratched at his beard. “Only one thing, man. Do I have to be the supervisor? I’m not sure that I’d be so good with the responsibility, you know?”
Austin put his head back and laughed.
About an hour later, when the place was full of customers, an omega walked through the front door. Austin had just finished working with a customer to recommend a wine for their Thanksgiving celebration, so he had the time to think beyond “omega,” and he didn’t know him. The guy was a little on the short side, although not terribly so, and slender. He smelled like a damn rose garden, and he played with a ring on a chain around his lightly tanned neck.
Austin narrowed his eyes. This new, unknown omega didn’t just smell like roses. There was another, overlying scent. This omega was a claimed omega, and Austin recognized the scent linked to roses right away.
The omega caught sight of Austin and made a beeline for him, confirming Austin’s suspicions. He shifted his weight back on his heels and crossed his arms over his chest. “You must be Paul,” he said, when the stranger was close enough.
Paul hesitated. He didn’t look like he’d expected Austin to confront him so directly. Well, that was foolish of him. The guy had been claimed by a Baines, after all. He knew what they were like. He recovered quickly enough, though. “I am,” he said, with a shy little smile that was probably an act. He held out a hand. “Paul Baines.”
Austin rolled his eyes, but shook his hand anyway. He hadn’t been raised in a barn. “You already know who I am.” He pressed his lips together. “I suppose your alpha sent you in.”
Paul looked down and blushed, very prettily. “He did. Is there someplace we can go to talk privately?” He glanced around the store. “I’m a little uncomfortable being around all of these people without my alpha here.”
Oh, for the love of—Austin cut himself off. Paul couldn’t help how he’d been raised, and the same kind of shyness had been demanded of Austin. “We can go into my office,” he said after a moment, “but I’m warning you right now. There are security cameras everywhere. In there too. I will not hesitate to call someone to have you thrown out.”
Paul’s mouth opened into a perfectly round “o”, which he covered with his hand. It looked like shock, but his hazel eyes didn’t change. “It’s important. We should really talk, Austin.”
Austin rolled his eyes again—he was going to pull an ocular muscle at the rate he was going, and that was going to get unpleasant—but yelled out to Jamie. “You got things for a hot minute?”
“I’m good, boss!” Jamie waved a black-clad arm.
Austin led Paul back to his office. He could have used one of the tasting rooms, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want it to be a public matter. Once they were in the office, he turned to his brother-in-law. “All right. Make your pitch.”
Paul’s lip curled. “You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”
“Time is money. You showed up here on a very busy day. Now how about you stop wasting my time, say whatever nonsense you were going to speak to try to get me to bow down to your alpha, I’ll tell you no, and you go away again?” Austin kept his tone even and his face calm, but his insides quaked. Were Adrian and Kirby outside, waiting? They couldn’t do anything much with his place full of customers, but they could certainly make some kind of a scene and embarrass him.
Paul sank gracefully into the chair across from Austin. “Adrian wasn’t kidding when he said you were intransigent. I’m your brother’s omega. Until you’re mated, that gives me authority over you.”
“Really doesn’t, Paul.” Austin gave him a nasty smirk. “We’re not a tribe of Neanderthals, living in caves and hoping we don’t get stepped on by a wooly mammoth. We’re humans, living our lives and running businesses. I don’t ‘report’ to anyone. Now while I’d like to get to know my brother-in-law under less hostile circumstances, I’m not very interested in getting browbeaten about submitting to someone else.” He gestured to the door. “You can see yourself out.”
Paul just smiled and shook his head. “You don’t really believe that it works like that. How could you? You know better. You were raised right, by good people who knew what was best for you. They taught you your place. You’re not happy, Austin. You have a job, sure, but you know what it is that you really need. You need an alpha, keeping you safe from yourself and all of the bad decisions you’d make on your own. Kirby is that alpha. He’s your alpha.”
“He’s got all of the personality of wet papier-mâché, and he turns me on about as much. I’d kill him if he so much as touched me, Paul, and that’s a fact. It’s not going to happen.” Austin shook his head. “I don’t know what I have to do to drive that through your thick skulls.”
“That’s just how you feel right now, Austin.” Paul stood up and paced around the office. “It’ll be different once you’re claimed, once his mark is on you. Do you think that I wanted your brother before he claimed me? No.” He chuckled. “I fought tooth and nail. I cried all the way to my claiming, and all while he was getting me ready. I begged him not to do it. But this is what I was meant for, Austin. I serve Alpha. This is what I was born to do, and I’m content in my life. I have two beautiful children that I adore. You’ll feel the same way once it’s over.”
Austin had to fight to keep from throwing up. “I would have thought better of my brother than to think he’d force himself on a man who was telling him no.” He stood up now. “I’m sorry that he did that to you. But you’re not really selling me on your cause here. Look. You need to leave. I’m not going.”
“Do you think I can’t smell him around you? The alpha you rutted with last night?” Paul stepped forward and grabbed Austin’s wrist. “You’re trying to fill the void inside you with meaningless sex. It won’t work. The only thing that can fill you up is your alpha.”
Austin broke Paul’s grip with enough force to knock the smaller man down. “Get out, or I will throw you out.”
***
Cody headed home after leaving Austin’s house and got changed. He’d had a great night, but now in the cold light of morning he had to admit that he didn’t think that he’d made the right choice. He’d justified his own loss of control by figuring that he would get it out of his system, but that hadn’t been right at all. One night with Austin and all he could think about was the next. He wanted more and more after that.
He wanted everything.
He’d never given much thought to claiming an omega before. It just hadn’t been an issue for him. He’d figured that if it came up that would be great, and if it didn’t, he’d also be fine with it. When he’d met Austin, he’d thought, “Maybe.” Now that he’d spent an entire night with him, he knew what it meant to need someone that badly.
Maybe he could reach out to his recalcitrant omega. He could make a case. He could lay it out for him. He didn’t want to control his Austin, but to wrap himself around him and keep him safe from all of those people in his past who wanted to hurt him. He wanted to
see that wine shop flourish, even more than it had. He wanted to see that smile on Austin’s face, and he wanted to hold his hand as they both got old together. He wanted to be the one that Austin looked forward to coming home to at night, not the one who kept him at home against his will.
None of that was anything that Austin wanted. Austin wanted to be alone, apart from alphas.
Cody grieved, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He had a business of his own to run. He headed into the office and looked at his calendar. He had meetings early on, followed by a little bit of free time, and then the Clayton-Jennings nuptials. And that free time needed to be used for planning, and paying bills, and all of the little things that tended to get pushed to the side when he had the meatier part of his business breathing down his neck.
Honestly, he should have been delegating a lot of those things to Kristi. That was what she was for, for crying out loud. She was an office manager. She should be managing. But he knew he couldn’t give up control like that, not entirely. Sure, she could prepare the bills for payment, but he’d never be able to give her signatory power on the bank account. He was always going to want to be able to look things over, and he wanted to be the only one getting into the funds. The consulting firm he’d worked for had gotten into trouble that way, and Cody was nothing if not smart. He learned from other people’s mistakes.
He might be willing to loosen up the purse strings if Austin’s name were the other name on the account. Maybe.
He shook his head to clear it. Austin’s name was not going to be the other name on the account, and he needed to get over it and move on.
He worked for about an hour before someone knocked at the door to his office. He closed his eyes and groaned softly to himself. The last thing he wanted was to deal with people right then, especially right before he had to go and deal with a wedding. Still, people meant potential new clients, and that could only be to Cody’s benefit.
He answered the door, and his hackles immediately rose at the scent of alpha. This one smelled like fresh-mowed grass and barely contained aggression. He stood about as tall as Cody, with deeply tanned skin and straight brown hair cut in a professional, stylish way. His clothes practically dripped money. “Mr. Howell, I suppose?”
It didn’t take Cody more than half a second to put the pieces together. There were two alphas making pests of themselves in Austin’s life. One of them was Austin’s identical twin, and the guy looked nothing like Austin. “Let me guess. Kirby Lloyd.” It might not be the most polite way to greet a guy, and Cody technically didn’t have a beef with him personally, but he couldn’t help the way he saw red every time he thought about the threat the man posed to Austin. “I’m guessing that your middle name isn’t really ‘Freaking.’”
To his credit, Kirby huffed out a little laugh. “Apparently Austin isn’t taking my reappearance in his life as well as I’d hoped. I was kind of hoping that you and I could maybe have a little chat. I think we’ve got some things to discuss.”
Cody glanced back at his desk. He’d gotten through his bills. All that remained was planning, and he could do that from his cold and lonely bed after the wedding just as easily as he could do it at the office. “Are you sure that’s a great idea?”
“I do think it’ll clear the air a bit.”
Cody sighed and let Kirby in. He knew it was a bad idea, but sometimes his curiosity got the better of him. He was kind of impressed by Kirby’s courage in seeking him out, though. “I’ve got to leave in forty-five minutes,” he warned. “I’ve got to go get ready for a wedding.”
“I understand. The wedding planner does have to be there on time, after all.” Kirby sat down in one of the client chairs across from Cody’s desk, sprawling out. He certainly looked comfortable there. “So, wedding planning. Is that profitable?”
The rudeness of the question shocked Cody, and for a second he considered breaking the Texan’s nose. Then he remembered the guy’s profession. He was an investment banker. All he thought about was probably profit. “I do okay. Came up here about three years ago with a pretty tidy savings from a previous life in consulting and haven’t had to dip into it yet, so I’m not worried. People will always be getting married.”
“I suppose they will.” Kirby glanced around the office. “Does it make enough to maintain Austin in his accustomed lifestyle, though?”
Cody chuckled and picked up a pen to play with. “Austin makes enough to maintain Austin in his accustomed lifestyle, buddy. He doesn’t need help from anyone. Believe me on that.”
“What, on that wine shack?” Kirby waved a hand. “Forget about that.”
Cody paused, the pen frozen between his fingers. “You’re kidding, right? That ‘wine shack’ is raking it in. He doesn’t just have the retail outlet. He’s wholesaling to restaurants, caterers, and bars all over Onondaga County. He’s got connections with distributors and producers. They love him, and he loves them. They’re his friends. Even his competition sends people to him, if they can’t get what a customer wants. He’s top of the food chain.”
“Okay. That’s… well, that’s unexpected.” Kirby pulled his legs in and sat up a little straighter, hazel eyes narrowing in thought. “I mean he’s still going to lose that all once he’s claimed.”
“No reason for that.” Cody shrugged. “First of all, he doesn’t want to be claimed. He’s so turned off by the idea that he won’t even take a coat check claim, okay? Second, a claimed omega can still work, still manage a business. I’ve known omega lawyers who would shred you in court, just shred you. I’ve known omega CEOs, for crying out loud.”
Kirby looked like he’d just bitten into a moldy lemon. “That’s just… that’s just not right. I mean their whole job is to please their alpha and give them children. You can’t tell me that you’d be content with an omega who spent all his time managing some wine empire instead of on his knees for you.”
Cody was glad he was sitting down, behind a desk. The image that sprang to his mind was powerful, beautiful. Austin, on his knees, looking up at Cody with adoring eyes as he took Cody into his mouth, belly swollen with Cody’s child. He wouldn’t have been able to hide his reaction if it weren’t for his desk. “I’m not necessarily in the market to claim someone,” he told his erstwhile rival. “If I were, I would want my omega to be happy. I tend to think that makes for a better home life, don’t you?”
Kirby frowned, brow furrowing. “Omegas are always happy, once they’re claimed. They can’t help it. It’s hormonal.”
“They don’t actually give fact-based alpha and omega education in Texas, do they?” Cody winced. “The only thing that changes during a claim is that the omega gets tied to the alpha. It doesn’t mean that they love him, or even like him. It just means that leaving will kill the omega, buddy.” He put the pen down and folded his fingers, leaning over the desk. “I’m not willing to claim someone who’s not willing, and honestly I’m a little suspicious of any alpha who is.”
Kirby drew back, face cold. “Austin belongs to me. He’s known that I was going to claim him for years. Over a decade. He’s had time to wrap his head around the idea. It’s not like I’m just some creep from the streets trying to force a claim on a stranger.”
“It’s no different, Kirby. That’s a fact. He’s said no, he’s been saying no for all these years, he doesn’t want you.” Cody shook his head.
“He’s going against his family!” Kirby thumped his hand on the desk. “Everyone who’s ever cared for him wants this! He doesn’t get to just flip them all the bird and say ‘no, I’m just going to go over here and get claimed by some no-name upstart New Yorker!’ He just can’t! I am his only option.”
Cody snorted. “First of all, you get that he actually can. He’s got an order of protection against you.”
“That’s just paper. He’ll get over himself and have it lifted. Adrian’s omega, Paul, is over there talking some sense into him right now.” Kirby waved a hand.
“Oh, okay, so a complete stran
ger has shown up to try to convince him of something that he knows is wrong for him. That’ll be effective.” Cody blew a raspberry. “Secondly, that whole, ‘I don’t want a claim’ thing applies to me too. He wouldn’t accept me if I offered a claim, which I haven’t, and which I won’t.”
Kirby perked up. “You’re not claiming him?”
“What part of ‘he doesn’t want a claim’ is failing to get through to you?”
“Every omega wants a claim.” Kirby shook his head. “It’s in their nature. They can’t help it.”
“I thought that too, before I met Austin.” Cody unfolded his hands and leaned back in his seat. “He explained it to me once. He said that there just isn’t anything in a claim that benefits him as an omega. And after listening to him go through and number every way in which he would lose, by accepting you, I had to agree.”
Kirby’s face turned bright red. “Now see here! I make four hundred grand a year, I’m close with his birth family and I’d even let him go see them whenever he wanted.”
“Oh, you’d ‘let’ him go see his family, would you?” Cody snorted. “That’s generous. The guy is somehow supposed to go from building up a multi-million-dollar business for himself, by himself, to spending all of his time on his knees until his oh-so-generous alpha graciously allows him out of the house to see his family. Yeah, he stands to gain a lot from that.”
“That’s just the way it is for omegas.” Kirby scowled at Cody as he stood up. “I don’t know what they’ve been filling your head with up here in the wilds of the Rust Belt, but back in Texas everyone knows their place and we get along just fine, thank you very much. And you want to know what he gets out of it? He gets children. He gets to bear his alpha’s children. That’s what fulfills every omega. Every last one.”
That powerful image of a pregnancy-swollen Austin sprang to Cody’s mind again. “Austin doesn’t even like kids, man. Can’t stand to look at them, hear about them, think about them. There’s nothing child-proof about his house, nothing about it that even could be child-proofed.”
