by D. J. Heart
After his knot deflated, Chris laid Mason down on the bed and headed into the bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror, his chest bare and his half-hard dick hanging out of his jeans, wondering what the fuck he was supposed to do now.
He had an omega.
Taking a towel, feeling like he was in a dream, he cleaned off his cock and tucked it back into his jeans. He then wetted the thick cotton, waiting until the water was warm, and went back out to clean Mason. Nothing but a shower would really lessen the overwhelming scent of sex clinging to the both of them, but he could at least wash between Mason’s thighs and over his hole before taking him back to his apartment.
“I’m just going to clean you up a little, okay? And then I’ll take you home.” Chris sat down on the edge of the bed and spread Mason’s legs, dragging the hot towel from just over his knee and up the inside of his thigh. Mason moaned, pushing his legs further apart. Drool pooled in Chris’s mouth, and as he cleaned over his new omega’s hole his cock strained against the fly of his jeans.
He couldn’t believe he was already raring for round two.
“Home?” Mason asked, and Chris froze. He couldn’t imagine Mason in the sterile apartment he lived in upstairs. Mason belonged in a nice house in a suburb somewhere, not in a seedy apartment building next to an omega brothel.
And what was he going to do about his mission? He had it all planned out, and postponing it would mean coming up with a whole new plan.
“I’ve got an apartment in the residential part of this building. We’ll head up there now,” he said.
Mason would have to come with him to the cottage. It shouldn’t be too difficult to manage. He could ask Brandon to drive Mason up to the cabin while he was busy grabbing Vincent and Eric. As long as he kept his two hostages in the soundproofed basement, Mason wouldn’t even have to know they were there.
The fact that just the thought of leaving Mason alone with Brandon made his gut clench and his teeth itch was something he’d just have to ignore. Mason probably wouldn’t like it either, but from what Chris knew, alphas were the ones who got the brunt of the possessive and protective instincts.
He could play the whole thing off as a bonding vacation between the two of them. If he was lucky, Vincent and Eric would give him the name of the top man in the whole operation, and then Chris could quit his job and focus on planning out his revenge. Bonding with an omega was actually a better excuse to leave the brothel than anything Chris had considered.
There were a lot of people he wanted to kill, and it would take quite a while to get them all without anyone tying the deaths back to him. He’d have to get a job somewhere else while he carried out his eventual plan, and now that he had an omega, he wanted it to be something respectable—or at least something that didn’t involve trafficked omegas.
“You live in this building?” Mason asked. The look on his face was disappointed, and Chris hid his wince. Of course Mason would want to get as far away as possible. He might have bought the lie that Rover operated under the assumption that he would bond with one of the alphas who bought him, but that wouldn’t negate the way he’d arrived or what he’d been through.
“I do. The basement and first floor belong to the club next door, but everything over that is rented out on the private market. Don’t worry. You won’t have to come back down here.”
Mason bit his cheek, not looking convinced.
“Do you think you can walk or would you like me to carry you?” Chris asked, standing up and shrugging on his jacket. Mason sat up and looked up at him, making Chris feel like he should crouch down. He’d always liked being tall, the feeling that he was looming over everyone else, but right now it just felt awkward.
“I can walk,” Mason said. He stood up, looking down at himself with a frown. The back of his flimsy pants was ripped clean away, and there was a telling wet spot on his crotch. Chris took off his jacket and draped it over his shoulders, the leather swallowing him up and hiding the bedraggled state of his clothing.
“That better?” he asked, feeling incredibly off-kilter. On the one hand, Mason belonged to him now. He could do whatever he wanted with the boy, and no one would even think to intervene. On the other hand, Chris was dealing with a whole host of new feelings that threatened to overwhelm him. The last time he’d felt this protective it had been toward his brother, but now there was guilt and happiness and lust added to the mix, and it was just confusing.
Were he and Mason even compatible in the bedroom? Chris tried to remember what made bonding likely. Did it include sexual compatibility?
It wasn’t like Chris was devious. He didn’t like to cause pain, for example. But he wasn’t entirely vanilla either. There were things he liked that had caused omegas to turn him down flat.
Thinking about the omegas he’d slept with in the past made Chris wonder what it would have been like if he and Mick got together. He couldn’t imagine his friend submitting to him—or the other way around—and Mick certainly would never let Chris tie him up or get kinky with him.
But that was never what Chris had wanted. When he fantasized about Mick, he imagined holding him close, pressing against him and rubbing against his cock until they were both spilling their seed all over each other.
But now he had Mason, and Chris had no idea how that was going to work. He couldn’t imagine that Mason would want to be tied up or dominated after what he’d been through.
Putting his arm over Mason’s shoulder, leading him out of the room, Chris felt guilty for even worrying. Mason had been forced to have sex with him, and now Chris was worrying that the next time they had sex it wouldn’t be kinky enough?
That was fucked up. Chris owed it to Mason to respect any and all sexual boundaries that he wanted to put in place. In fact, if Mason never wanted to get intimate outside of his heats ever again, Chris would accept that as his right.
He’d hate it, being unable to have sex with anyone else ever again, but he’d respect it.
Heading up the elevator, Chris couldn’t help but put his hand on the back of Mason’s neck as they walked to his apartment. It just felt right, and since Mason leaned into the touch rather than away from it, he was pretty sure it wasn’t entirely unwelcome.
“This is me,” he said, walking Mason into his Spartan apartment and closing the door behind them. He turned both locks and bolted the door shut, a knot of tension he hadn’t been aware of loosening in his stomach now that Mason was safely inside his home.
“It’s just temporary,” he said, letting go of Mason’s neck and walking into the room. “Are you hungry? I could make you something to eat while you shower… or we could just go to bed. It’s your choice.”
Mason had his eyes on the floor, and Chris felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t unusual for strangers to bond—so awkwardness was expected—but this didn’t feel like that kind of awkwardness.
The air between him and his new omega was tense with all the things they needed to talk about, and all the things they needed to decide.
“I’m pretty tired. Do you mind if we skip the shower and go right to bed?”
Chris felt his cock throb, pressing against his fly with renewed vigor. Lying in bed with Mason—holding him and smelling his scent all over him—sounded like a fucking dream come true.
“I’d like that.” Chris coughed. The words had come out rougher than he’d intended, and from the way Mason suddenly blushed his arousal was evident.
Balls full and heavy, the need to sink into his omega again and lay claim to every inch of him thrumming in his veins, Chris tried to get control of himself.
Before he went to bed with Mason again, even just to sleep, they needed to talk.
“Come over here for a second,” he said, steering Mason toward the couch. The apartment door opened right into the living room, so it wasn’t far to go. Mason still wore Chris’s leather jacket, and while it was snug on Chris, on Mason it looked huge. He sat down on the armchair across from him.
“We need to talk
.”
A worried frown wrinkled Mason’s brow, and he bit his lip. “Is something wrong?” He looked nervous.
“I just need you to know…” Chris trailed off, not quite sure how to say what he needed to say. He placed his palms flat on his jeans, inadvertently framing his bulge. Mason glanced at him, his pupils darkening at the evidence of Chris’s arousal.
Neither of them were in any condition to have a serious talk of any length at the moment, so Chris decided to keep it short.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, and just because we’re bonded doesn’t mean you have to have sex with me whenever I’m horny.” Chris leaned forward, hoping Mason believed what he was saying despite the skeptical look on his face. “Do you understand?”
Mason licked his lips. “Yes?”
The answer sounded way too much like a question for Chris’s liking. He shook his head.
“I’m leaving it up to you, okay? I don’t want to force you into anything. If you want something to happen between us, you need to take the initiative.”
“But what about if you’re horny?” Mason asked. Chris took a deep breath, the question making his balls pull up tight. He looked Mason right in the eye.
“I’m always going to be horny for you, that’s just the way I’m built. It doesn’t obligate you to do anything about it. I have a perfectly functioning right hand.”
Mason still looked confused. “So you’d rather jerk off than—”
“No,” Chris interrupted. “I’m pretty much going to want you for the rest of my life. I’m just saying I don’t want to take advantage of you. I only want to have sex with you if you want it too.”
“Okay.” Mason didn’t say anything else. He was still chewing on his lip, his eyes at Chris’s feet.
Hoping he’d conveyed the fact that he didn’t expect Mason to be his live-in sex slave, Chris rose from the couch.
“Good, then let’s go to bed. Do you mind sleeping with me?” Chris asked, holding out his hand to help Mason up. “Just sleeping, I mean.”
Mason nodded, blushing furiously as he held out his hand. Chris grinned, pulling his omega off the couch and steering him toward the bedroom.
They both stripped, Chris grabbing a pair of tight boxer-briefs from his dresser and sliding them up over his ragingly hard cock and watching Mason slip under the covers.
“I just have to make a few calls and I’ll be right with you,” Chris said, picking his coat up from the floor where Mason had folded it and taking out his phone. He walked out of the room, coat in hand, dialing Brandon as he hung the coat back in the closet.
“What do you need?” Brandon greeted him after the second ring. He sounded obnoxiously cheerful as ever.
“I need another favor. Are you in California?”
“No, sorry. I’m in Florida. Why, what’s up?”
“I bonded,” Chris said. The words didn’t come out nearly as resigned as he’d thought they would.
“Holy shit, no way!” Brandon laughed. “Congrats, man. That’s awesome!”
Chris smiled. He’d almost forgotten that to the rest of the world, bonding was a joyous event.
“Thanks, man. But it leaves me in a little bit of a bind with this job I’m doing…”
“You need someone to take over?” Brandon asked. “I could be there in a few days... next week, at the latest.”
Chris almost considered it, but he couldn’t foist the job Marlow had given him over on someone else without Marlow getting suspicious. He needed to do this himself.
“Thanks for offering, but no. I just need someone to drive my omega up to the cabin while I do a couple of extractions.”
Brandon was quiet, and Chris wondered what the drawn-out pause was all about.
“You just bonded, and you want to leave your new omega with another alpha?” Brandon sounded incredulous.
“Just for a few days. This job is important.”
“Mick is in California,” Brandon said after another pause. His voice was cautious, like he wasn’t sure he should be saying it at all.
“Mick?” Chris dismissed the idea right away. “I don’t want to bother him.”
There were other people Chris could ask. Devon and Sanders lived in California. One of them could probably help.
“You don’t trust him?” Brandon didn’t sound judgmental, but Chris felt judged anyway.
“Of course I do.”
“Well, I think you should ask him. He’s been really fucked up over whatever went down with you two, and I think you should work it out. Besides, is there anyone you’d rather leave your new omega with?”
Chris closed his eyes and sighed. Brandon was right. The thought of leaving Mason with Devon, Sanders, or even their team leader made him feel horrible. But leaving him with Mick? Not even a twinge of unease.
“I’ll call him,” he promised. If nothing else, the fact that he had an omega now should show Mick that he didn’t have to worry about Chris making a move on him again. That had to count for something.
“Great. Call me if you need any more help,” Brandon sounded relieved. They said goodbye and hung up, and Chris spent a full minute just staring at his phone.
Dialing Mick’s old number, hoping it was still active, he lifted the phone to his ear and listened to it ring.
“Hello?”
Mick’s voice was like a punch to the gut.
“Mick, hey. It’s Chris.”
Chris didn’t know what to say after that. He could hear Mick breathing, but his friend didn’t say anything.
“Sorry for disappearing.” Chris said, cringing at how inadequate the words were.
“You okay?” Mick asked, like Chris wouldn’t call him unless he was in trouble and needed help.
“I’m fine,” Chris said. It had never been difficult to talk to Mick, but now he didn’t have a clue what to say. “Brandon said you’re in California?”
“You’re talking to Brandon?” Mick sounded angry.
“I needed his help on something. It’s actually why I called you.”
“I’m in Oakland. What do you need?” Mick’s voice was tight, and Chris knew he’d hurt his feelings.
Chris licked his lips, not sure where to start. In the end, he decided to just tell Mick everything, from James being taken to his efforts to infiltrate and take down the people responsible.
“So why do you need me?” Mick asked. Chris winced.
“I bonded with an omega last night. I need someone to drive him up to the cabin while I grab the guys.”
“An omega?” Mick sounded almost confused.
“It’s complicated,” Chris said. The idea of telling Mick that he’d fucked one of the omegas being held captive in the brothel made him burn with shame. “Can you do it?”
“You want me to play chauffeur for your omega?”
“I trust you,” Chris said, telling him like it was.
“Where are you?” Mick asked, and Chris gave him his address.
“I can be there in the morning. I’ll talk to you then.” Mick hung up, and Chris was left staring at his phone with his heart beating against his chest like he’d just run a marathon.
Mick was obviously angry and hurt, but Chris was going to see him soon. He couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about that.
After he’d calmed down, Chris had just one more call to make before he could go to bed.
Marlow.
“Chris, how’s it going?” Marlow sounded cautious.
“I bonded with one of your fucking omegas, Marlow. That’s how I am. I’ll do the job on Eric, but after that I quit. I got an offer from a private contractor and I’m taking it.”
Marlow was silent, digesting Chris’s words, and when he spoke he sounded almost relieved.
“That’s good, but are you sure you’re up for work right now?”
“Yeah. I’ve got a friend who can look after the omega while I’m gone, and then I’ll take him with me when I head out east.”
Marlow didn’
t have much more to say, and after assuring each other that there were no hard feelings on either side, they hung up.
Plugging his phone into the charger in the kitchen, Chris could hardly believe that he was quitting Rover and was back in contact with Mick. He’d spent a year and a half getting inside and gaining access to the organization, and now that he was on the verge of having everything he needed it felt almost unreal.
He hoped Mick wasn’t disappointed in him.
Walking back to the bedroom, he stopped in the doorway at the sight of Mason fast asleep in his bed. The sheets over his chest rose and fell with each even breath, and Chris was transfixed.
