Snowed In: M/M Mpreg Alpha Male Romance

by Aiden Bates

  Cody accepted some bread and cheese. “Have you ever been?”

  “I have, actually. My parents took my brother and I before they sent Adrian off to that prep school. I think it might have been the last really good thing we did together as a family.” He looked down at his food. “I’ve been back to France, before I started this place up. I studied there for a little while, actually. But I haven’t been back since. I love the shop, I do. I’m proud of it, but it’s hard to get away even to go and explore new vineyards.” He shrugged. “You know how it is. You’re running a small business yourself.”

  Cody nodded. “Yeah. Maybe now that you’ve got some new employees you can start to think about taking some wine-buying trips, or even a vacation.” He screwed up his mouth. “Wow, that word just felt so foreign on my tongue.”

  “Right?” Austin laughed. “I don’t think I remember what a vacation felt like.”

  “Maybe we’ll take one sometime.” Cody grabbed his wineglass. “You know. Together.”

  Austin’s cheeks darkened with a blush. “Yeah, maybe.” He chuckled and shook his head. “You’re going to have to give me a little time, though. I mean it’s going to take a little while before I’m comfortable leaving Jamie in charge of the shop for more than a few hours.”

  Cody threw his head back and laughed. “Tell me about it. You’re open to going somewhere with me, though?”

  Austin took his hand. “Yeah. I am. I’m not really into one and done, you know? I’m not into unequal relationships. I’m very into equal and affectionate relationships, where I’m actually friends with the person I’m with and want to spend my time with him.” He ducked his head again, but it was to hide a grin. “I mean if you’re not up for that, you should tell me now.”

  Cody squeezed his mate’s hand. “Babe, I can’t think of a more ideal relationship. I tried to fight it. I did. Apparently I couldn’t.” He licked his lips. “I mean there’s part of us, both of us, that’s driven by instinct. I’m always going to be drawn to you. How we handle it, though, is up to us.”

  “Damn straight.” Austin lifted his glass. “To us, going our own way.”

  “Masters of our own destiny.” Cody clinked his glass against Austin’s and they drank deeply.

  They finished their snack and cleaned up after themselves. Austin found a flashlight for Cody, and they returned to the bedroom for lack of anything better to do. They chatted, and they fooled around, and they went to sleep. The great thing about getting snowed in with the guy he loved was that there were no long, boring silences. The lack of light only gave them a new, fun way to try to map out one another’s bodies, or to try to get to know one another without the benefit of visual cues.

  Cody never wanted the storm to end. His brain rang with the refrain of that old song. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. They woke up the next morning and headed into the bathroom for a shower, where Austin dropped to his knees and wrapped his sweet lips around Cody’s cock for no reason other than the fact that he felt like it.

  The lights came back on at around noon, and Cody couldn’t shake a vague feeling of regret. Their snowy idyll in Austin’s house, which might as well have been some kind of bed and breakfast, was going to end soon. Cody and Austin would have to go back to their regular lives.

  “Looks like the streets should be clear by tonight,” Austin said. He opened up his laptop. “That means my snow removal guy should be able to dig us out of here by morning.” He turned to look at Cody. “I kind of want to tell him not to rush, but I don’t think we can get away with that.”

  Cody sighed and put his hands on Austin’s shoulders. “No. Probably not. I do wish that we could.”

  Austin hung his head for a second. Then he picked it up again, jaw set. “We can enjoy the rest of our winter wonderland here. And we can make sure we don’t get too caught up in stuff to enjoy each other’s company again.”

  Cody kissed his mate’s lips. “It’s a promise.”

  Chapter Nine – Contents

  Austin got the store opened back up. Jamie had spent his day off in a predictable way, but the only outward signs of his activities were an increased tendency to giggle and an inability for even the crankiest customer to give him the slightest bit of anxiety. Dan and Jimmy had made it through with the bread and cheese that Austin had given them, as well as on some canned peas that their landlord Pete had brought over. They seemed a little more comfortable with one another since their enforced stay together, and Austin figured that maybe the snowstorm had been a good thing for more than just him.

  Austin had a lot of work to do to catch up with missed messages from his forced time off. He knew that Cody was going to have a lot more of them. His vendors would have supply issues that he would need to coordinate, site managers would have issues with parking or even with their buildings because of the storm, and the couples themselves would have problems and anxieties as a result of the storm. They communicated by text for the first few days, giving time for things to calm down until they tried anything more intense like phone calls or in-person meetings.

  One personal activity that Austin needed to handle, which the storm didn’t get him out of, was a court date on the harassment charges against Adrian and Kirby.

  The trial took place on Tuesday. Austin had to change schedules around and leave Jamie in charge of the shop for the day, but Jamie was more than willing to do that on a slow day as long as he could get Sunday off. Austin had to wear a suit, which made him less happy, but he’d do what he had to do.

  He met with Larry at the courthouse. Larry wasn’t the prosecutor, but he was acting as a party to the case because of the nature of the charges. Austin hadn’t seen Cody in almost a week, and he longed to throw his arms around his alpha, but it wasn’t the kind of occasion that would allow for that kind of display. They both had to be content with sitting in the gallery and squeezing one another’s hands in the space between their bodies and underneath their coats.

  Austin hadn’t thought that there was a way under the law for Adrian to contest the charge of violating his order of protection. After all, he’d known about the terms of the order, and an entire tasting room full of people had seen him there threatening Austin, so there didn’t seem to be a lot of room for movement there.

  Adrian’s lawyer—an alpha, by the scent of him—however, had insisted that the protection order in and of itself had no standing because Austin’s status as an omega made him a dependent of Adrian under long-standing tradition within their community. Laws could no more circumvent those traditions than they could interfere with sincerely held religious beliefs in beta religious communities.

  That meant that the court, and the jury, had to listen to the lawyer state his case, and then they all had to sit through the rebuttal. The prosecutor, assisted by Larry, pointed out that even if that were true, Austin had left the family and the community covered by the traditions described by Adrian and his lawyer. Traditions governing family relations no longer applied to an omega who had been estranged from his family, with no attempt at contact, for a decade.

  Arguments went back and forth for about half an hour, when the judge apparently became bored and demanded proof. Larry was able to prove that Adrian hadn’t initiated contact with Austin until the most recent fracas, and the judge demanded that they move on to the additional charge of harassment.

  Again, the charges seemed fairly cut and dry to Austin, but he wasn’t a lawyer. He tried not to squirm in his seat as the prosecutor laid out the law. Adrian sending in his omega to continue his campaign to compel Austin to bow down to Kirby was a pretty clear-cut case of harassment, since the authority he exerted over his omega was so strict that Paul would not have been willing to act on his own. It was a clear-cut attempt to circumvent the restraining order.

  Larry continued the argument. He called Austin to the stand. “Austin, it’s been a while since Adrian has shown much of an interest in your whereabouts, isn’t that right?”

  Austin gave a little ch
uckle. “Yes. I haven’t seen or heard from him since I left Texas ten years ago.”

  “Did you hear from any of your family members?”

  “No.” Austin shook his head. “I didn’t. I received an inheritance from a single omega uncle that allowed me to pursue my education. That was the last time that I heard from any family, until now.” He sought out Cody with his eyes, who gave him a little smile and nod of encouragement.

  “Now, Adrian had promised Kirby that he could claim you long before you left, correct?” Larry paced in front of the witness stand.

  “Yes. And I consistently told both of them no.” Austin glared at his brother, who yawned and drummed his fingertips on the table in front of him.

  “He seemed to be content to leave you alone for ten years. Do you think that something changed to suddenly bring him back around?”

  “Objection!” Adrian’s alpha lawyer stood up at the defense table. “Speculation!”

  Larry turned to the judge, a perfectly calm and borderline smarmy smile on his face. “Your honor, anything that my client says will be something that the defendant will have the opportunity to rebut when he is on the stand. Everything was mentioned during discovery; there will be no surprises. This line of questioning exists not only for the facts as my client will present them, but to illustrate the state of the relationship between the twins and is therefore extremely relevant to the harassment claim.”

  The judge sighed. “I’ll allow it.”

  The defense lawyer sat down, pouting.

  Austin continued. “I did wonder why Adrian would suddenly take an interest in me again, so I did a basic public records search on the Internet. It wasn’t hard. It looks like Adrian is the target of several lawsuits as a result of some real estate investments that went poorly. I don’t pretend to understand the merit of those lawsuits, but the amounts involved are substantial. He’s also taken over payments on his father-in-law’s medical expenses, which aren’t small either.”

  Larry nodded once. “And how is this relevant?”

  “He’s stated that he intends to sell off my business once I’ve been claimed by his friend. Skaneateles Vine and Rind is valued at enough to pay off those creditors, as well as to go some way toward getting him enough breathing room to build up some savings while he pays for his father-in-law’s medical care.” Austin cleared his throat. “It’s got nothing to do with me, or with wanting to enforce a proper relationship between another alpha and an omega relative. It’s got everything to do with money.”

  “Are you attracted to Mr. Lloyd?”

  “Not even a little bit.” Austin curled his lip, not hiding his disgust. “I never was. It became disgust when I realized that he was willing to force himself on me. My consent meant nothing.”

  “Objection!” The defense lawyer stood again. “That’s speculation.”

  The judge turned to Austin. “Mr. Baines, do you have some valid source for that statement?”

  “He said it, out loud, to me.”

  “It stays.” The judge glared at Kirby, who wilted.

  “No further questions, your honor.” Larry sat down.

  The alpha defense lawyer approached. Austin didn’t know him. His accent suggested that he wasn’t local. Was he part of the organization that Adrian supported? “Omega—”

  “Objection.” The prosecutor stood up. “Counsel is using prejudicial terminology to address the witness.”

  “The term is entirely appropriate.” The lawyer sniffed.

  The judge pointed her gavel at him. “Would you address me as ‘woman’? Or your clients as ‘Alpha’? Then you’ll address the witness by name. Whatever your traditions outside this courtroom, you will treat everyone before this court with equal respect. That includes omegas.”

  The lawyer’s whole face screwed up, like he’d just caught a bad smell, but he didn’t say a word of complaint. “You know your place in your family.”

  Austin cleared his throat. “My family adopted different ideals after my brother was sent to prep school. Those ideals are not my ideals, and I reject them fully.”

  “An omega isn’t allowed to reject the will of his family. These are the rules you were taught, and you know this to be a fact.”

  “Those are my brother’s rules. I reject them. They have no basis in law.”

  “It’s his faith, and it’s the faith you were expected to accept.”

  Austin straightened his back. “And yet, I don’t accept it. I’m a free and independent individual.”

  “You are aware that under the traditions of your family, your assets belong to your brother.” The lawyer turned his back to Austin.

  “Under the law, they belong to me.” Austin shrugged. “He can covet them all he wants.”

  “They belong to him, and you belong to him. Adrian Baines is a good brother. He has found you an excellent, and wealthy, alpha who will maintain you well. And you repay him by defying him at every turn. How did you get the money to start your business?”

  Austin kept his back straight. “My uncle Colton left it to me in his will.”

  “Another useless, unmated omega. He had no moral right to leave money to an unclaimed omega. That money by right belonged to Adrian in the first place. So everything that you’ve supposedly achieved was done with stolen money to begin with, wasn’t it?”

  “Objection on point of law.” Larry stood up. “Defense counsel is confused about inheritance law. Colton Baines had the legal right to dispose of his estate as he saw fit.”

  “Sustained.” The judge looked down her nose at the defense attorney. “Watch yourself, Counselor. You’re walking a very fine line.”

  The attorney turned around and nodded to the judge, once. “You owe your brother everything, Omega. You owe him your obedience, your very life. If he chooses to dispose of you to his friend, he has that right. My clients could not have harassed the omega, because under the culture to which all of the parties involved subscribe, they had every right to be there.” He sneered at Austin. “No further questions.”

  “Counselor, I’m finding you in contempt of court for addressing the witness as ‘Omega’ despite direct instructions to do so. That will be a ten-thousand-dollar fine. Mr. Baines, you’re free to sit down.”

  Cody was the next witness. He described Kirby’s visit to him, and the absolute possessiveness that Kirby had displayed. He also described Kirby’s obsessive feelings about dominance, and Kirby’s insistence that Austin’s feelings about their union just didn’t matter.

  Austin wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Kirby had come across less like a malevolent ally of Adrian’s than as a truly ignorant alpha who had never given the slightest thought to omegas besides their proper place. The idea that an omega could make a proper decision for himself had shocked and appalled him. Austin didn’t know how to respond to that.

  Cross-examination of Cody went very differently from cross-examination of Austin, but Austin should have expected that. Cody was an alpha, and he wasn’t the one being harassed. They didn’t need to attack Cody’s credibility. Instead, they pressured him about little things. Hadn’t he let Kirby in of his own free will? Hadn’t he said that he had no intention of claiming Austin? How could he in good conscience as an alpha sit there and try to block Austin’s proper alpha from claiming him, if Cody wouldn’t do the job himself?

  Austin cringed while he waited for the answer, but he shouldn’t have. Cody just smiled and shook his head. “I respect Austin’s right to choose for himself. Everyone’s job, as a citizen of this country, is to support free choice for one another, right? Another alpha forcing himself on a man is hardly something that any of us should ever be proud of. It makes all of us look bad.

  “As I’ve gotten to work with Austin, I’ve gotten to know him better and I’m proud to call him my friend. I trust his judgment, not only because his business is more successful than mine.” The people in court chuckled. “I’m enough of a man, and enough of an alpha, to keep control over my
self. An alpha who can’t do that probably isn’t going to be able to control much else in life, now is he?”

  Adrian snarled at Cody, and Austin had to fight back the urge to defend his alpha from his brother. The defense lawyer, too, bit back a snarl and just shook his head. “No further questions.”

  Kirby took the stand. He admitted to having said everything that he’d said, but denied having gone to Cody’s office to do anything but talk. “I only wanted to get him to help get Austin to see reason. I thought that as an alpha his natural inclinations would be on the side of his own kind. I learned pretty quickly that this was not the case.” He laughed, maybe with some bitterness.

  “Do you intend to force yourself on the omega in question?”

  “Austin Baines is mine. There’s no forcing. He’ll submit when it’s all said and done.” Kirby shrugged. “It might be a little unpleasant for him at first, if he keeps fighting it, but it’s going to happen. He might as well accept it and enjoy it. I’m going to be the best alpha in the world once it’s done. He’ll have more babies than he can count.”

  Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose. The defense lawyer turned to the judge. “Motion to have my client’s testimony stricken from the record.”

  “Denied.” The judge gave the defense attorney a tight little smile. The prosecutors declined to cross-examine. Austin could see why.

  Adrian took the stand in his own defense. He denied that his financial difficulties had spurred his attempts to recover control over Austin, insisting that their decade of estrangement had been his attempt at tough love. “I figured that omegas need the comfort of family life. By denying him the presence of his family, I was showing him just how cold and cruel the world could be. Unfortunately, that backfired on me, and so I had to come up here to New York to collect him and bring him back into the fold. He’s an omega, your honor. Everyone knows that omegas can’t survive on their own. They don’t know their own best interests.”