by Noah Harris
The plea was so soft that Dylan shivered, and with that shiver, he turned back into his human form. Blake immediately adjusted, wrapping his arms and legs around Dylan, pulling the naked man to his chest. Dylan moved so he was sitting sideways, his legs thrown over Blake’s thigh as he leaned against the man’s chest. He wrapped his arms around Blake’s middle and buried his face in the curve of his neck. Blake held him tightly.
“Wanna talk about it now?” He asked softly.
Dylan shook his head slightly. “No.” He was surprised by how thick his voice sounded. He sounded so weak and pitiful, and he hated it. And he hated how Blake made him feel so safe and secure. He shouldn’t be allowed to be this weak.
“This has to do with Ben, doesn’t it?” He said after several moments of silence.
Dylan hesitated, but he saw no reason to hide it. “Yes,” He said but didn’t offer any more information. The words were getting caught in his throat.
Blake nodded, resting his cheek atop Dylan’s head. “I thought as much. He was acting strange today before he left. More smug than usual, and specifically toward me. Before he left, I hacked into his phone through my laptop and saw his texts to you.”
Dylan lifted his head, looking up at Blake, surprised. “You can do that?”
A small, smug grin curved his lips. There were a couple of lights at the park, and they cast his face in half shadow, half eerie fluorescent light. “You shouldn’t be surprised. You’ve seen me in action. And that was against people with an actual security system. My brother hasn’t realized that a simple four number passcode isn’t going to keep me out of his phone.”
Dylan’s lips turned down in a small frown. “Why didn’t you follow him? If you knew where he was going?”
Blake shrugged. “There was no guarantee you’d actually go to meet him, though I suspected you would. Especially after you stopped messaging me around that time.”
“You should’ve stopped me,” Dylan said, mildly accusing.
Blake shrugged again. “I could have, but I didn’t want to. This was something that was bound to happen eventually, and it was something that you needed to handle on your own. You wouldn’t fully be over him until you faced it yourself.”
“I wish you had stopped me …” Dylan mumbled, resting his head against Blake’s shoulder again.
“Did he touch you?” Blake asked softly. Dylan didn’t miss the menace in his voice. Those dark undertones of anger that he was trying so hard to conceal.
Dylan nodded. He felt his eyes start to sting. “Blake, I’m so sorry.” He mumbled, voice thick with the effort of holding his tears back.
“Did you like it?” He asked, voice barely audible.
“It felt disgusting.” He answered honestly. It must have been convincing enough, because Blake sighed, relaxing a bit.
“What did he do?”
“He kissed me,” Dylan said, his lip curling at the memory. “He pushed me against the tree and tried to touch me. He didn’t get very far.”
“What did you do?” He asked pointedly.
“I pushed him away. I told him never to touch me again.” Dylan snorted, laughing dryly. “He wasn’t very charming after that.”
Blake chuckled, shaking his head. “Ever the level-headed, calm one, my brother.”
Dylan looked up at Blake, his smile fading. “Can you forgive me?” He asked softly, his stomach twisting in knots. He didn’t know what he’d do if Blake couldn’t forgive him. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt Blake. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the man, and he was constantly twisted up inside over what to do about it, but he didn’t want to hurt him. Blake didn’t deserve that.
Blake smiled down at him, his expression soft. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
Dylan frowned. “I kissed your brother.”
“From the sound of it, he kissed you. I knew he would try. He’s a stupidly possessive alpha, and he still sees you as his. It bothers him to no end that you’d choose me over him. He’s convinced you wouldn’t unless he wasn’t available. So he had to prove it by making himself available.”
Dylan’s brows furrowed. “You should’ve tried to stop him.”
“Trust me. I wanted to.” His arms tightened around Dylan. “The thought of him touching you makes me want to strangle him with my bare hands.” He forced himself to relax, breathing out the sudden spark of anger Dylan had heard in his voice. “But he needed to learn his lesson from you, just like you needed to find out how you felt about him for yourself.”
Dylan eyed him suspiciously. “You seem weirdly calm about all this.” He said slowly.
Blake grinned down at him, his eyes glinting dangerously in the odd park lamplight. He flashed his teeth. “Trust me when I say I feel anything but calm. But I also know this was for the best, and I can live with it.”
“So you’re not … mad at me?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. Not at you. You didn’t want it.”
“But I let him do it …”
“And when he didn’t stop after you said no, you gave him what he deserved.”
Dylan gaped up at him. “You know?”
Blake’s grin widened. “He came home not too long ago, sporting a bleeding nose and a black eye. That’s quite the shiner you gave him. He was in a very poor mood and just glared at me. I had to leave the house or risk laughing at him in front of our parents.” He shifted his hold on Dylan, lifting one hand to cup his chin and tilt his head back to look up at him. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s to blame. Not you.” He leaned down to capture Dylan’s lips, and it was soft and sweet. His body instantly relaxed into the kiss, and he found it was infinitely better than the one he had shared with Ben. Blake broke the kiss but kept his face close. Dylan could feel his breath on his lips. He leaned back just far enough to stare into his eyes. “But if he touches you again, I will gut him myself.” A shiver ran down Dylan’s spine at the dangerous, possessive, and threatening tones of Blake’s voice. He was surprised by how much his body reacted to it.
“Not if I get to him first,” Dylan said, recalling the disgusted rage he had felt when Ben had tried to push him. He wasn’t a weak alpha who couldn’t take care of his problems. “I can handle him myself.”
Blake chuckled. “I know you can, but I still want a shot at him.” He pressed a kiss to Dylan’s forehead. “Humor me sometimes and let me have my alpha instincts.”
Dylan pretended to think about that. “Only if you acknowledge that I can kick your ass.”
“Oh, there’s never any doubt,” Blake said, grinning.
Not long after that, they got up to retrieve Dylan’s bag. Blake, however, wouldn’t let him get dressed. Now that Dylan’s distress was over, Blake finally seemed to notice that Dylan was naked, and he was thoroughly distracted by it. Dylan tried to slap at his hands whenever he reached for him, and tried to push him away, but the attempts were only halfhearted, and Blake knew that. After what Ben had put them through, they both wanted the comfort of each other’s bodies.
Blake pulled Dylan away from the playground where the ground was covered in rough bark and dirt. Once they were out in the grass, he didn’t hold back. It was clear he wanted to reassert his claim over Dylan, and he didn’t mind one bit. Blake’s touch was intoxicating, and he found it easier to forget his problems when he let go and let himself enjoy it. His touch was comforting and so much different than his brothers. Dylan let himself get lost in it and let it wipe away the memory of Ben.
Chapter Seven
The tension between Blake and his brother had risen so drastically that it didn’t take long for Blake to make the decision to stay with their grandparents for the duration of his stay. His parents seemed a little disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped, nor did they seem particularly surprised by it. Things like this were fairly common in households with more than one alpha child. When they had been kids, it hadn’t mattered so much. Ben had asserted his dominance fairly early on, and Blake had always been passive. But
not anymore. He refused to submit to his brother’s idiotic and weak-willed tyranny, and Ben was eternally frustrated by that.
While Ben was frustrated in the change in Blake, their parents had pulled him aside while Ben was away to tell him that they were proud of the strong, independent alpha he had become. He appreciated that. He hadn’t realized it was something he’d been wanting and needing to hear. After that, it was easy to make the decision to stay in a different house from Ben. And while his parents were obviously disappointed, he could also tell they were a little relieved.
The tension between Blake and Ben had increased tenfold since Ben’s misguided attempt to win Blake back. He tried to be non-confrontational and casual about the whole thing. He tried to pretend it hadn’t happened for both their sakes. But he often caught Ben glaring at him, making snide comments, trying to size him up, and trying to put him down. Anything he could think of to get Blake to submit to him once again. Blake didn’t fall for it. He was as pleasant and polite as ever, with a few backhanded compliments thrown in to let Ben know he knew exactly what his brother had done. And that he knew exactly how Dylan had responded.
There were a lot of things Blake was willing to give up and back down from when it came to Ben. It was usually just easier to let the alpha have his way and to walk away from the fight he was itching to have. Blake might have grown up, but he still wasn’t a fighter. The one thing that he wasn’t willing to back down from, however, was the subject of Dylan. Ben knew this, and often tried to use it as an incentive to get Blake to fight him. He made the decision to leave shortly after they nearly came to blows at the dinner table.
Giving his brother space seemed to do the trick. He was a lot more relaxed and back to his cocky, but non-confrontational self whenever they had to get together. Which was more often than Blake would have liked, he was, after all, still one of the groomsmen.
Dylan seemed a lot more responsive to him after that incident. He’d had the suspicion that Dylan was caught up in old feelings for Ben, and he knew they wouldn’t be able to move past it until he had settled them for himself. So although it tore him up inside to let the two of them meet, and as much as his instincts told him to rush to the meeting and tear his brother apart, he didn’t. He waited. And his patience had paid off. Dylan had come back to him. Dylan fully accepted him. He’d settled the nostalgic feelings for his old flame, and now the two of them could move forward properly without anything like that holding them back.
Granted, Dylan was still a little off, but no more so than usual. Blake had come to expect a certain amount of resistance from Dylan. Unlike when they were kids, when he had loved Ben and thrown himself wholeheartedly into their relationship, to the point where he ignored obvious signs that it was going downhill and several instances of Ben cheating on him, Dylan was a lot more guarded now. He didn’t throw himself into their relationship. He never had. Even when he was in his rare affectionate moods, or when they were in the throes of passion, he was holding himself back. Blake didn’t mind the wall that had been built up around him. It was a sign of maturity and growth. And it would make it that much greater when Blake finally got through that wall. Once he got through it, he had no doubt that he’d have Dylan, mind, body, heart, and soul. He was a hacker, a spy, and an undercover operative. He had the patience for the long game, and Dylan was worth every second.
The bachelor party was a week after the incident. By then, everything between Ben and Blake seemed to be back to normal as long as certain subjects were avoided. They had never been particularly close. Ben had always been jealous of Blake’s academic accomplishments, and Blake had always lived in Ben’s shadow. He had a suspicion that Ben had always resented the fact that Blake had ended up being another alpha, and that had driven Ben to prove that he was the more dominate one by keeping his brother down. Still, they were brothers, and they could be civil to each other. They had their moments where Blake didn’t mind Ben’s company, and Ben seemed to forget about his desire to assert himself as alpha. Those moments were rare, but they happened. And they happened more when they spent less time around each other.
From what he had gathered from Dylan, Alex was acting very normal, too. Dylan admitted that he hadn’t told Alex, and he didn’t have the heart to do so. As big of a dick as Ben was to him, he seemed a lot nicer to Alex, and Alex was genuinely happy. Blake had suggested that Dylan should tell him before Ben did, but Dylan had said that if Ben hadn’t said anything by now, he probably wouldn’t. He admitted that he had threatened Ben after punching him that he better not try to turn this around on him to get Alex against him. He said he wasn’t sure how he’d make Ben’s life miserable, but he would if he had to. Blake had laughed and assured him that he could help. He could change any number of Ben’s personal records, sign him up for things, and anything Dylan could imagine. Dylan seemed to appreciate that. Still, it seemed like Ben and Dylan had come to a silent truce about letting the incident pass and fade into nothing without telling Alex about it.
Due to there being two grooms who shared a decent amount of friends, they decided to have a joint bachelor party. But they agreed to keep the grooms separate. They rented out a whole bar for the occasion and invited all of their friends and some family. Mostly the younger generations. They had rigged up a black curtain to go across the entire bar, and had covered it with black and yellow caution tape, and neither groom was allowed to pass over the line. This way they could each have their own section for their own party, they couldn’t see the other side, and guests were able to go back and forth between them to spend time with each groom. It was a genius set up that Blake was pretty sure hadn’t been his brother’s idea. He wasn’t that smart when it came to thinking outside the box.
Blake spent most of the evening on his brother’s side, just as Dylan spent most of the evening on Alex’s side. They both agreed to try to keep things subtle between them, as to not piss off Ben. So Blake snuck over to Alex’s side several times throughout the evening to have a drink with Dylan and to share a few kisses. He found the difference between the two sides to be striking.
Although they shared most of the same friends, and although there was a fair amount of traffic between the two sides, in general, Blake found that the alphas stuck to Ben’s side and the omega’s stuck to Alex’s side. Whenever he went to Alex’s side, he heard giggles in his wake as he moved to Dylan’s side. When looking at the group objectively, the stereotypes were very apparent. Dylan would blend in more with the alphas than he did with their pack's omegas. But he was obviously more comfortable here. The omegas giggled and whispered as Blake wrapped his arms around Dylan’s waist and kissed his neck. He found it amusing, and Dylan found it embarrassing. Which, of course, only encouraged Blake to do it more. They were obviously gossiping about their relationship, but it didn’t seem to be in any sort of negative light when he was on Alex’s side of the bar.
It changed drastically when he went to his brother’s side.
His job made him very skilled in the art of reading a room and reading the subtext of an atmosphere. He had to if he wanted to learn how to adapt on the fly. So, being very sensitive to what was going on around him, he noticed the second the atmosphere changed when walking past the curtain to the other side of the bar.
He always tried to be subtle when he went to Alex’s side, only doing so when he was certain his brother wasn’t watching. But Ben always seemed to know when he’d been gone, because whenever he entered the alpha’s side and found his brother, he was glaring at him. Blake tried to pass it off as coincidence, but after the third time, he knew it wasn’t. His brother knew what he was doing, and hated him for it. There was also a fair amount of gossip on the alpha side about him and Dylan, but it was different. The looks he got from his fellow alphas ranged from surprised approval and acknowledgment to sneers and disgust. He ignored them all and stuck with the few people he could call friends. Or at least, the people he could stand to be around who weren’t too hard to make conversation with.
/> There were a lot of drinking games on both sides of the bar, and nearly everyone was participating. The music was loud, and the more people drank, the more they moved to it. And when their voices grew louder, and the games grew more hectic, the omegas and alphas started drifting to the different sides, flirting and exchanging whispered words. Blake was mildly surprised that his brother’s side didn’t have any strippers. When he mentioned this jokingly to one of his cousins, he laughed and said he had heard that Alex had forbidden Ben from having strippers.
Blake participated in plenty of the drinking games, but he didn’t drink nearly as much as the others. He wasn’t too fond of drinking. It messed with his head and kept him less sharp than his mind would be otherwise. He didn’t like losing that control. He did drink, of course. Otherwise, he would never be able to fit in. Drinking was an accepted and necessary social activity around the globe. He just understood his tolerance well enough and had practiced that art of taking small, frequent sips to keep up the illusion that he was drinking as much as the others. He also knew how to easily and effortlessly change the subject whenever someone questioned it.
Dylan, he found, was a lot like him in that regard. He didn’t like to drink because he hated the lack of control. He seemed a little embarrassed to tell Blake that, like he expected Blake to find it odd that he wasn’t drinking. Blake could see that he was already getting defensive, apparently waiting for Blake’s onslaught of questions. But Blake just smiled and winked, clinking his glass against Dylan’s, saying that he understood, and he wouldn’t tell a soul. As far as he could tell, Dylan was just drinking coke without the rum, though he was apparently keeping that detail to himself.
