Taming The Alpha: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance (Savage Love Book 3)

by Preston Walker

  “I didn’t come here to impose on you,” Ulysses grunted. “I didn’t even expect you to say anything to me after I apologized. Would have served me right.”

  “It wouldn’t be imposing.” Robbie felt his heart skip a beat at the truth of the words that were even now rising up his throat, spilling between his lips. “I want you to stay.”

  Neither of them said much more after that. The silence was not quite awkward, though neither was it easy. Eventually, Robbie got up and went to get ready for bed. He found a spare toothbrush and a new tube of travel-sized toothpaste, which he set out on the sink before leaving the bathroom.

  He normally didn’t go around naked, not even in the safety of his own home. It wasn’t that he felt uncomfortable in his bare skin, he just usually chose sweatpants, or some form of pajamas, occasionally snuggled up in a robe on colder nights. There was something freeing about it, feeling the air caress his body in places he normally covered up.

  A strange sound stopped him at the doorway, giving him pause. After a moment, he figured out the origin: snoring.

  Creeping quietly into the room, Robbie discovered Ulysses, sprawled out on his back and completely unconscious.

  Do I wake him or not?

  He hesitated. The proper thing to do would be to wake Ulysses so he could do anything he needed to. Plus, proper oral hygiene was very important.

  Then, Robbie shook his head. He had felt something change between them, change inside him, and he wanted to see where it went. The old Robbie would have stuck to what was proper.

  But right now, he would just let the man sleep.

  As soon as he had made the decision, it was like a heavy weight inside him was lifted. He found himself smiling, even though he didn’t quite know exactly why.

  Sliding into bed, he tucked himself to Ulysses’ side and let sleep overtake him as well.

  8

  Ulysses mused over what had happened that morning with Robbie, as he drove a van back to the shop, where Wheeler was waiting.

  Ulysses often thought about that morning, after they had sex the night before, because he hardly dared dream it was real. Pigs would fly and the moon would turn blue, and he would have sex with Robert Olson. How was that even possible? He had no damn idea.

  He had slept for a solid seven hours, then woke feeling more refreshed than he had in weeks. It seemed like every muscle in his entire body ached, like he had been in another wreck, but the pain was somehow welcome. It made him feel alive.

  The thing that had awoken him was the scent of coffee, dark and rich and bitter. He went in search of the source and found Robbie in the kitchen, wearing nothing but an apron as he prepared enough sausage and eggs to feed an army. They had eaten in companionable silence, their thoughts touching but no words passing between them.

  Only when the last scraps of egg were devoured, the last drops of coffee drained from their mugs, did they finally talk.

  Something had changed between them, they agreed, and it had everything to do with the fact Ulysses had been in that accident. Through random chance, they had been brought together again. Perhaps because they were both older, or because the fabric of the universe folded in exactly the right way this time, their dynamic was different. They could both feel it.

  They both felt… willing.

  Ulysses wanted to make up for all the things wrong he had done, both in their past together and in recent events, but he made sure to emphasize that it was more than just atonement. He wanted to get to know Robbie properly.

  To have a second chance at what he’d fucked up before.

  Robbie felt the same way.

  They both agreed to go at this slow, to take only small steps that felt right. After all, they were both older. They had more responsibilities now. Their relationship, if it could be called as such, would need to encompass all that.

  Then, that had really been the end of their talk. They kissed, and Ulysses tasted sugar and cream on the omega’s lips, because Robbie had no fondness for strong coffee. The kiss went on perhaps a little longer than it should have, and then they jumped in the shower together.

  There had been no sex -Ulysses tried once to fuck in a shower and considered the attempt an utter failure, as water was a terrible lubricant- but the very act of lathering and rinsing and drying each other off had been intimate in its own way. They discovered each other again, taking their time with it.

  And if Ulysses had finished himself off after Robbie got out first, well, that was his little secret. No way would he have been able to function without some sort of release. However, judging from the way Robbie had looked at him later, it wasn’t that much of a secret.

  They shared the bathroom as they got ready for the day, dressing together. Then, Robbie found his keys and he drove Ulysses home.

  They kissed again before parting and it had been different, a promise.

  That was almost two weeks ago now. He and Robbie hadn’t really been in physical contact much during that time, though they spoke on the phone each night. It had become something of a routine, and they unconsciously fell into a pattern of alternating whose night it was to call.

  The more Ulysses learned about what Robbie was doing, the more impressed he was. And he wasn’t a man who impressed easily, which was something he tended to make sure other people knew, whether they asked or not.

  He thought he could understand a little better the way Robbie was so proper, so strictly set in his own patterns of what he considered to be right. He had to be. He was running a business which basically made him responsible for the lives of many small children. Not only did those kids need routines in their day, they also needed to be kept safe from themselves and anything random that might happen.

  There were employees to be paid.

  Bills to be taken care of.

  Programs to complete, meetings to attend.

  Robbie was a busy guy and if he let himself relax in even one aspect, for even a moment, there could be unforeseen consequences.

  And now Ulysses had a new mission, which was too teach Robbie how to relax when he wasn’t working. He was making plans, hoping he would have time to carry them out soon.

  Even in his daydream schemes, he was careful with his thoughts, trying not to let them stray too far ahead. Things seemed different this time, but they could crash again just as easily. Best to hold off on feeling some of those deeper things until he knew they were at a point of return. He hadn’t been brokenhearted before because he wasn’t invested in the relationship.

  He was invested now. He didn’t want to know what it would be like to crash and burn for real.

  Meanwhile, Ulysses continued to man the front desk at Wheeler’s Repairs.

  “I should give you that position full time,” Wheeler had joked. “Our ratings on Google and Yelp have both gone up since you came back.”

  High praise, but Ulysses had no desire to stay where he was. He was trying to slowly transition back into regular work, and so far had managed to have his weight restrictions lifted. He was more or less back in shape, it was just a matter of getting things to happen.

  Yesterday, he had done five oil changes. And the day before that, he helped Clark do some heavy modification on a sports cruiser. The work felt good and his hands remembered exactly what they were supposed to do.

  And then there was today. He was an errand boy today.

  Repair shops had to get their parts from somewhere. The process usually involved placing an order through the computer, then waiting for the part to arrive. The item in question might be newly manufactured, or used to a varying degree, depending on the quality and price.

  Usually, these decisions were made by the client. Someone with a 10-year-old Mustang might pay more for a shiny new link kit, or they could nab a cheap one, depending upon their intent. Purity, for the sake of pride, or did they just want to keep the damn thing running?

  Junkyards often sold such used parts, or individuals would sell vehicles they no longer wanted, to be disasse
mbled, stripped of anything usable.

  Wheeler had many, many suppliers of various natures. He hated to keep a customer waiting for anything they might need, just because it had to be bought from a certain place.

  Ulysses had been sent to fetch this van from where it had been dropped. He and Brody were usually the ones who went on these errands, though for what reason he wasn’t quite sure.

  Occasionally, a client wouldn’t want to be seen making the exchange. Whatever the reason for this, Ulysses also had no idea. It wasn’t his place to know. He just went to pick up the vehicle from where it had been left, usually with the keys hidden in some pre-arranged spot. Once he brought the van, or car, or bike, back to the shop, it would be inspected thoroughly to make sure everything was as it should be. The process usually took several hours.

  Once that was done, the inspector would pass the news on to Wheeler, who then presumably gave payment to the client.

  These deals weren’t made often. Usually only a few times per year. Most of the time, the shop stuck to more conventional methods of obtaining parts.

  Ulysses supposed that this van must have just been too good to pass on. Spare parts just in case never hurt. Or maybe Wheeler was going to pass the parts off to someone else after hiking up the price to include disassembly fees, thereby turning a profit. Otherwise, he couldn’t really see a reason why this piece of junk was going to the shop. The body was fine, from what he’d been able to see, but what he could feel was a different story.

  The brakes felt slippery and loose, which meant the pad was wearing down. The steering was abominable, even for a van, and the ride in general was rough. Several issues with the frame and shock absorption.

  Must be someone who needed fast money, he thought. Some people dug through their jewelry box drawers to pawn off handfuls of gold to a resale shop. Others got rid of their vans, he supposed.

  His ass was aching from the bumpy ride by the time he finally arrived back at the shop, parking the van in one of the open stalls in the garage. He thought of Robbie as he climbed out of the driver’s seat gingerly, rubbing his rear, and grinned.

  “What are you so happy about? Boss told you to get a car, not a boat.”

  Even though Brody couldn’t read his mind, Ulysses nevertheless felt a little defensive as he turned to face the man who had one been his closest friend.

  I guess we weren’t really as close as I thought, if all it took was one bad comment to cause this.

  Though the two of them continued to work the same shifts, things between them had been awkward. They didn’t talk quite as much, and the conversations they did have were strained. It was almost more of a hassle to pretend everything was okay, than to give in to their newfound wariness for each other.

  Shutting the van door behind him, Ulysses said, “Damn thing steers like a boat for sure.”

  Brody gave an uneasy grin. “You going to do the inspection, find out why?”

  “Yeah. Just need to get the sheet from Wheeler’s office.”

  In answer to this statement, Brody reached for his back pocket and brought forward a rolled-up and slightly crumpled set of four stapled papers. “Already got it. Figured you could do half and I could do half, cut the time down.”

  Ulysses accepted the papers given to him, though he only held them and didn’t do anything with them just yet. Curiously, he studied the other man, trying to figure out his intentions. Brody was not the kind of guy who would just randomly do something nice, even if it was something so simple as fetching a couple sheets of paper. He clearly had some kind of ulterior motive here.

  Did he want to deal with that, today?

  Suddenly, Ulysses made up his mind. He shook his head at Brody. “No, thanks. I think I’ve got this.”

  After what Brody had said recently, and the way in which he had said it, Ulysses felt as if his time would be wasted on this man. He should have figured it out sooner, based on the way Brody was always so paranoid about touching or doing anything else he could even remotely consider gay, but Ulysses was beginning to realize he needed to be hit over the head by things if he wanted to understand them clearly.

  He didn’t need someone who had such a negative opinion of a lifestyle Ulysses hadn’t chosen to have. Hell, it wasn’t even a lifestyle. It was only one part of his entire being, a single facet of his existence.

  Brody would never understand that.

  Ulysses turned away.

  And there was a hand on his shoulder, fingers squeezing down to hold him in place. “Wait,” Brody said, sounding almost as if he was pleading.

  The garage was composed of alternate areas of clutter and empty space, and it was also well-lit because no one could expect a man working with machinery to operate in darkness. All of this combined to mean that the two of them were on display for any of the other mechanics who might be interested in watching.

  Which means that he’s willingly touching me where other people would see.

  The question was, was this action deliberately planned, or had it been performed out of actual need?

  By now, Ulysses just wanted to get to work but he turned to face Brody again anyway. Wheeler was very interested in the dynamic between his employees; he hadn’t as of yet noticed anything different between Ulysses and Brody, but he would soon if things got worse.

  Shunning Brody in front of everyone would definitely make things worse.

  Brody dropped his hand, a sheepish look crossing his face. He shuffled his feet and sighed, then looked all around as if he wasn’t quite sure of what he was doing anymore. “Look, I’m sorry.”

  Ulysses blinked, surprise thrilling gently through him before he could harden himself against it. “For what, man?”

  “Look, that comment I made about that guy being your boyfriend.” Brody paused, looking as if he wanted to leave this fragment hanging in the air. He clearly and visibly gathered his strength, then pushed on. “That was fucking rude of me, man. And stupid. I know you aren’t like that.”

  And now things were out of hand again. Frustrated, Ulysses shook his head and growled low in his chest. The sound was inaudible but something primal inside Brody must have registered it, because the man looked frightened as well as uncomfortable.

  “What if I am like that?” he growled.

  Brody immediately looked away. It was easy to see that he had had his suspicions about this and was hoping they would be unfounded. “That guy, you’re fucking him?”

  Ulysses went to say that yes, of course he was, and bit his tongue on the statement. Robbie wouldn’t want their private business put out in the open air just to prove a point. So, he said, “We’re seeing each other.”

  “Okay.” About a minute passed this time as Brody paused. “I guess that’s okay. As long as you don’t try to hit on me, I guess I can be okay with you fucking some dude.”

  There was everything wrong with that sentiment. Not only was Brody assuming that his opinion on someone else’s life mattered, he was also taking for granted that a gay man would want to try to bed him just because of his sex.

  Wrong. All wrong.

  And Ulysses let it go, though he knew he wouldn’t forget it. There was no point in having this conversation with someone who would never change their mind.

  Maybe Brody couldn’t change his mind, though. He hadn’t been hit over the head with a realization like Ulysses had.

  Smiling a little at the thought, Ulysses gripped the inspection papers he held and ripped two pages off the top. “Here,” he grunted, and pushed them at Brody. “Might as well make yourself useful.”

  They set to work together on the van, and if the rapport between them wasn’t entirely back to normal, it was at least on the mend. It would probably never be the way it used to, but that was just the way of things.

  In the end, everything changed.

  After Ulysses performed a general check of the exterior of the van, he went around to the front to check out how things were doing under the hood. As he did so, light from the ce
iling glanced strangely across something in the corner. He turned his head, wondering what could be so shiny over there that he hadn’t noticed before when he knew this garage like the back of his hand.

  The thing which had caught his attention was an angular black mirror, the kind which would normally belong on the front of a car. It was tilted as if to catch the light, hurting his eyes when he looked at it. Then, his pupils adjusted, and he saw the mirror wasn’t alone. There were other interesting pieces of material shoved in the corner, all of them looked as if they had come from a slender black vehicle. A front fender, a door handle, a scrap of siding, and a few more he couldn’t see clearly to name.

  Weird, he thought.

  He felt like this pile of odd black car parts should have meant something to him, though he couldn’t figure out why. Some fragment of knowledge was escaping him, leaving him floundering in the dark. And really, it wasn’t the nature of the parts that bothered him. This was, after all, a repair shop.

  The positioning was what bothered him. Parts of bikes and various vehicles could always be found scattered around, usually near someone who was working and would be needing them sooner or later. Occasionally, someone absentminded would put a part somewhere odd and then everyone would engage in a company-wide search for the missing object.

  There had been a hubcap in the fridge once.

  But, as weird as things could get around here, Ulysses had never once seen a pile of parts just shoved off to the side like this.

  “What’s that?” Ulysses asked aloud, trying to get Brody’s attention.

  Brody was busy investigating the van’s tailpipe, which had a suspicious and unexplained bulge in the middle. He poked his head up over the back of the van, looking vaguely annoyed at having been interrupted. “What’s what?”