Slow Heat

by Leta Blake

  Vale woke from his nap with an ominous prickling feeling under his skin. He recognized it immediately. No amount of denial would put a stop to what was coming. He was probably, at most, four days away from the beginning of his heat.

  Juice cooled him down, and he drank the rest of the bottle Rosen had left in his fridge several days before. He sat at the kitchen table and stared at Zephyr’s tail as it swished, swished, swished while she glared out the side window at several puddle-bathing robins.

  What was he going to do?

  He couldn’t contract immediately with Jason just to have him around for the heat, and he couldn’t ask Urho to help him when he was already feeling a growing bond with Jason. Wolf-god, was this going to be the rest of his life? If he didn’t sign a contract dooming Jason to a childless future and tying himself to a morally dubious family that could be taken down with one indiscretion, would he spend the rest of his life torn about how to deal with his heats?

  What about regular, day-to-day sex? Was this desire for Jason going to interfere with obtaining that, too?

  He rubbed his eyes. The fact that he was thinking about sex instead of whether or not signing a contract with Jason was the right thing to do in general said everything he needed to know about just how close he was to the heat itself. He was always motivated by sex, but when a heat was coming, it was nearly all he could think about. He needed to stay away from Jason so he could think clearly about the negotiations and not fall prey to any more inappropriate sexual activity between them.

  A knock came at the back door and he cursed softly. That would be the workers, or possibly Jason, expecting some kind of lunch. And he was fresh out of food options. Again. Zephyr meowed and scampered out of the room, skidding as she hit the smooth hallway, and then slamming into a wall. Zephyr picked herself up and continued on her path with a dignity Vale imagined only Old World royalty could muster.

  “Coming,” he called, when the knock rang out again, and glanced down at his loose pajama bottoms and equally loose t-shirt. He hadn’t worn real clothes since the negotiations. Not having a job had some benefits, he supposed, like catching up on his sleep, but he wasn’t sure that wearing pajamas constantly was really one of them.

  “I brought you lunch,” Jason said, as soon as the door opened. “And the crew, too. You don’t have to worry about feeding them today.” He thrust out a paper bag, and Vale’s mouth watered as the familiar scent hit.

  “Grilled sundried tomato and goat cheese sandwich? How did you know?”

  Jason shrugged. “I’m your alpha. It’s my job to know.”

  Vale blamed the coming heat on the fact that his knees went weak. “Thank you.” He took the bag and nearly invited Jason in before remembering he needed to keep his distance.

  “I’ll get back to work now,” Jason said, smiling.

  “Did you eat?”

  “At the food booths, yeah.” Jason licked his lips and said, “You didn’t watch us working this morning.”

  “I took a nap.” He left off the fact that he’d done so in part because he felt so safe with Jason outside. “I needed the sleep.”

  Because his heat was coming on and his body was storing up strength while simultaneously shutting down his digestive system and thickening his colon to make way for the stress of knotting.

  “Watch us this afternoon,” Jason said commandingly. “Be in your study. I want you there.”

  Vale’s asshole went wet and quivery, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from issuing the invitation inside.

  Jason smiled, the light of the early afternoon sun glinting on his teeth. “Say you will.”

  “I will.” Vale’s voice was rough.

  He shouldn’t. But he would. What harm did it do?

  Vale shut the door on Jason’s retreating back and then sat down at the kitchen table. The delicious sandwich tasted sufficiently good to overcome his reluctance to eat. He managed half of it before he couldn’t stuff in another bite.

  Four days.

  If he was lucky.

  He left the bag and the half-eaten sandwich on the kitchen table and trailed into the library. Tired again already, he flopped down on the sofa with a book, warm blanket, and a cat, angling his head so he could see out the open window. A chilly breeze blew in—the weather called for a fire, truly—but it calmed Vale’s prickling heat and he stretched a bare foot out to feel it more fully.

  Jason lifted a hand toward him but didn’t approach, instead going back to planting and tilling, digging and smoothing, and generally getting dirty all over. His cheeks glowed and his hair shone in the sun. Vale’s balls drew up and his cock grew thick just watching the way he moved so effortlessly. His alpha would be big and strong one day.

  Drowsily, he marinated in low-grade lust, pretending to read while desperately searching his mind for a solution to the heat problem. Finally, unable to come to any reliable conclusion, he put the book aside and napped again. His dream was sweetly sexual: Jason by the seaside sporting a tan. He stood naked where the tide raced in, his cock in his hand, jerking himself off slowly while Vale knelt at his feet, waves rushing over his thighs, mouth open, straining to capture another burst of that delicious flavor on his tongue.

  He woke with a start as the word “Goodbye” drifted into his study. Zephyr meeped and jumped from her perch on his thighs, crawling beneath the sofa. The afternoon light shifted gracing the room with a golden sheen. Vale stretched, his cock was still half-hard and his asshole was as wet as the waves in his dream.

  “Thanks for your help,” Jason’s voice said, and Vale spotted him alone in the garden, shading the sun from his eyes with his hand. “Send the bill and I’ll take care of it. And don’t forget the extra you spent on the bulbs from Calitan.”

  “It’s been a pleasure working with you,” Mox’s voice called from what sounded like the side of the house. “Too bad your pater would probably frown on you helping us out in his gardens this spring.”

  Jason smiled. “It’s unlikely he’d allow it, but if I’m still living there by the time you start, I might sneak out and try.”

  “Good luck to you with everything, especially that omega,” Mox said with a tone that somehow implied he thought Jason would need it. Vale couldn’t argue with that opinion, though. They both needed luck and Vale needed some kind of clarity. Urgently.

  Then there was silence. Jason stood in the garden, looking around proudly. Vale didn’t know what all they’d planted but he had to admit that even from his position on the sofa the place appeared neat and held an air of promise it’d been lacking for years.

  Jason’s gaze fell toward the open window of the study and directly to Vale. He walked through the newly cleared paths and came to stand right outside just as he had that first morning.

  “You smell amazing. Like slick and sweat.” Jason’s voice was husky. “What were you dreaming about in there, Sleeping Beauty?”

  “Of the shore. I haven’t been in too long. I miss the ocean.”

  Jason’s grin was thrilled. “We’ll go for our first heat together, then. My parents have a cottage there. We’ll head over in the days leading up, when you know it’s coming, and enjoy the water before we lock ourselves up in the bedroom for the duration.”

  Vale swallowed. “That sounds nice.”

  Jason leaned against the windowsill and glanced back over his shoulder like he was making sure the men really were gone. “Come here.”

  Vale rose from the sofa like a hypnotist’s thrall, aware that he should resist, but powerless to disobey. His feet propelled him to the window. The smell of Jason’s sweat drifting in on the chilly breeze made Vale want to lick him.

  “Get on your knees.” Jason’s blue irises shone with purpose.

  “Jason…”

  “Do it.”

  Vale swallowed hard and submitted. The polished brick floor was tough on his knees, but it was a solid presence in the ocean of desire that claimed him. He stared down at the bricks, taking deep breaths and trying to fi
nd his sanity, but Jason’s clean sweat filled his nose, and he trembled with need. His skin prickled and burned, a harbinger of the heat to come.

  “Show me your dick,” Jason said thickly, as though in a trance.

  Vale’s shaking fingers got his pajama pants loose, and he pushed them down around his thighs, baring his cock to the cold air from the window. It didn’t calm his ardor at all. In fact, the breeze’s touch made his cock flex and a bead of pre-come oozed from the slit.

  “Oh, wolf-god,” Jason gasped.

  “It’s cut.” Vale stared down at his arrow-shaped flesh, a worry creeping into his lustful haze that it was strange. That Jason wouldn’t like it. Another mark against him. Along with so many others.

  “I love it. It’s beautiful. Like a flesh mushroom.” Jason’s cheeks flushed deeper. “Your pre-come smells so good. Let me taste it.”

  Vale shivered, nipples aching.

  “Catch it on your finger. Hold it out to me.”

  Vale flicked a glance up, and when he saw Jason’s wide, lust-blow pupils, a whimper wrenched from his throat. He ran his index finger over the tip of his cock, gathering the drop of pre-come, and lifted his shaking hand toward the window.

  Jason moaned, taking Vale’s fingers, smelling them first. Then, staring into Vale’s eyes, he sucked his forefinger into his mouth. Vale convulsed all over at the delicious, hot suction and cried out softly. His balls drew up hard and he nearly came on the spot.

  Jason closed his eyes, greedy, slurping, and making Vale’s entire finger wet.

  “Please,” Vale whispered.

  Jason peeled his eyes open and released Vale’s hand. “Finger yourself.”

  “I…we…” Vale’s brain scrambled. There was a reason they shouldn’t, a reason why he should make Jason go home—but he couldn’t think of what that was now. He wanted him so badly. The growing bond between them wrapped Vale in weaving threads of pleasure, undeniable and needy.

  “Touch your hole. Do it.”

  Vale shivered as he pressed his wet finger between his ass cheeks and slid it against the place where he craved Jason’s dick. He moaned as he traced his clenching, wet anus, and more slick rushed out, slipping down his thighs and wetting his hand.

  Outside the window, Jason worked open his pants, taking out his beautiful cock to tease the foreskin back and forth over the bulbous head before stroking it slowly. He gazed at Vale, as he jacked himself, his dick sticking in through the open pane.

  Instinctively, Vale leaned forward, mouth open, lust consuming him. Jason studied Vale’s needy urgency with hooded eyes as he jerked himself slowly and kept his cock just out of reach of Vale’s seeking mouth. “Get yourself off,” he grunted. “Show me.”

  Heat flooded Vale’s neck, face, and ears, and coursed down into his body, making his cock ache and his thighs sweat. His asshole gushed and Jason moaned, leaning his shoulder against the windowsill as he beat himself harder and faster.

  “Come for me,” Jason ordered through gritted teeth. “I will see your face again.”

  Vale shoved his loose pajama pants down to his knees, his dick slapping up against his stomach. He jerked his t-shirt off over his head, tossing it back into the study. Shivering in the cold air, he shoved two fingers into his asshole as he worked frantically at his cock.

  “Fuck,” Jason gasped, eyes roaming over Vale’s body “You’re gorgeous. Perfect. Those tattoos! When did you…oh, god, you’re so hot. Fuck.” He bent at the waist, gripping the windowsill with one hand as he jerked off.

  Vale’s biceps were covered in tattoos he’d had inked on during several post-heat rebellions in his late twenties, along with a line of his poetry across his ribs. He’d almost forgotten Jason might have an opinion about them. Pleasure in Jason’s praise surged with the lust in his veins, romping through his body and making him shake.

  Jason babbled on, stroking himself. “So hot. Perfect nipples. That fucking treasure trail. Gonna make it all mine. Gonna cover you with my jizz.”

  Vale’s pushed his chest forward, dying for Jason’s come, wanting it anxiously. He released his cock to play with his nipples, trailing his slick-wet fingers around the aching nubs. “Do it.”

  “Look at me,” Jason commanded. “Show me what my omega looks like when he wants me.”

  Vale gazed up at Jason, his heart clenching and flipping wildly, like a skydiving bird.

  Jason was gorgeous, flushed cheeks, dirty shirt, and wet mouth working. His pants gathered around his trim, flexing hips. His strong fingers gripped his massive cock with assurance and power.

  Vale’s balls clenched hard. “Yes,” he whimpered. “Please, oh, please.” He arched forward begging for the come with his body. “Jason, please.”

  Jason growled. “I see you. Showing off for me. Making me so hard.”

  His baby alpha had a filthy mouth and it made Vale lightheaded with lust. He swayed on his knees, jerking his cock again. His ass clenched with every thrust into his grip, and his anus quivered hungrily.

  Pre-come leaked from the end of Jason’s dick, dripping onto the ground below. Vale whimpered at the loss. That cock and all its juices should be inside him, deep inside him, filling him, and making him come.

  “Wolf-god, I want you.” Vale worked his own cock viciously, shoving through the tunnel of his fist again and again. With his other hand, he reached toward Jason’s fingers gripping the windowsill and clasped them. “Need you. Inside me. Now. Please, Jason. Fuck me now. Fuck me hard.”

  Jason growled and turned his hand around to grip Vale’s fingers. They stared into each other’s eyes as they held hands and beat their cocks roughly. Groans, growls, whimpers, and cries volleyed into the space between them. Slick slipped down Vale’s thighs and dripped onto the floor.

  Jason’s eyes glinted. “Stop jerking off. Finger yourself again. Get them wet with your slick. Don’t touch your dick.”

  Vale kept his eyes locked on Jason’s as he reached around and shoved three fingers into his own ass. The squelching heat sucked them in, and Vale’s eyelids fluttered as he jammed against his own prostate and tender omega glands.

  “Harder,” Jason ordered. “Let me hear how wet you are.”

  Vale fucked himself roughly while Jason’s eyes burned into his, and their joined hands clenched tightly. The squishing sound of his wetness was raw and wild, and the scent of his slick and their pre-come swirled intoxicatingly around them. Jason’s nostrils flared.

  “Stop. Hold your hand out.” Jason’s cock flexed and leaked another gob of pre-come. “Let me see it.”

  Vale lifted his hand toward the window, the slick shining and thick on his fingers. Jason jerked him forward, rubbing Vale’s fingers all over his face. Then Jason took all three fingers into his mouth, groaning and sucking on them passionately. Vale’s balls drew up tight, and he ached soul-deep for Jason’s cock. His asshole squeezed and his nipples burned.

  Gripping both Vale’s hands, Jason’s jaw clenched as he stared down at him. Vale arched toward him, needing more, needing Jason’s touch, his kiss, his command.

  Jason’s words hit Vale like slugs from a gun. “Come. Now.”

  Vale cried out. His orgasm pumped through his body, vicious, blinding, and unbidden, called out of him by his alpha’s order. Hole spasming, his cock spurted and his limbs convulsed urgently. Jason let go of Vale’s hands, aimed his cock, and cried out as his own climax hit.

  Come spurted in copious, thick ropes, coating Vale’s chest hair, his beard, his thighs, and spattering onto the floor of the study. Vale gathered what he could onto his fingers and shoved it into his mouth, quivering with the flavor orgasm he’d been felled by the day before. He shuddered and shook, his body craving more, his skin tingling, and the thunder of oncoming heat rising hard in him.

  Jason hitched his pants up and climbed in the window. Vale’s heart knocked against his breastbone and his muscles turned to jelly as Jason knelt, took him in his arms, and kissed him until they both couldn’t breathe.

 
; Jason didn’t know when he’d slipped his fingers into Vale’s hole—sometime during the endless kiss they were engaged in, probably—but he was having a hard time convincing himself to pull them out again. Vale was so tight inside, hot and velvety with a grip different from Xan’s or any beta’s asshole. Vale would feel amazing on Jason’s cock, and he wanted to flip him around and fuck him hard. Vale’s urgent little noises seemed to encourage him to do just that.

  But not today.

  He had to stay in control. Stay in charge. Prove this was something he could handle and not lose his mind. Urho had told him to make Vale be his omega, and so far, the experiment was working. He couldn’t blow it now.

  Slowly, he slid his fingers free, and Vale’s whimper of distress was the reward he needed for making the right choice. “Shh, baby. It’s okay. We need to calm down now before we take it too far.”

  Vale’s eyes were glazed and lust-filled, a promise of things to come, and he stared up at Jason in confusion. “What?”

  “Let’s get cleaned up.”

  Vale’s entire body trembled. His come-splashed stomach quivered beneath Jason’s touch as he dragged his fingers through the mess, proud of having marked his omega so beautifully. His beard was full of it, too, and his chest hair. He was covered with Jason’s seed and scent. It was perfect.

  “I…” Vale trailed off, confusion still warring with need on his face.

  “We can’t. Remember? Protocols.” Jason felt a little evil that his heart swelled at the miserable frustration that swirled in Vale’s sweet eyes. “We have to meet tomorrow with the lawyers and then we can finish this up.”

  “You…you’re…” Vale’s tongue sounded heavy. “You’re an asshole.”

  Jason slipped his hand back around to toy with Vale’s delicious, open, and ready hole. “No, you are.”

  Vale’s thighs shook and he spread his legs, offering himself. Jason took his time, playing with the sweet wetness that clung and worked around his fingers.

  Closing his eyes, he breathed in Vale’s scent. He couldn’t help but catalogue the ways Vale was different from Xan. Older, taller, and hairier for starters. But inside he felt different, too—stronger, more gripping, though the texture was similar, quite nearly the same. His wetness was intoxicating, another thing he’d never had with Xan. And the sensation around his fingers—Vale opening, loosening—was mind-numbingly sexy. He breathed in Vale’s concentrated scent and come-covered skin.