Chapter Ten
“You work too much,” Brendon whispered against Spencer’s lips, licking passionately into his mouth.
They were stood in the changing rooms before the testing labs with Spencer resting against one of the lockers, Brendon pressing against him in between his legs. Brendon was changed into his casual clothes, ready to leave the building while Spencer was only in his scrubs; gloves, scarf and face mask missing.
Spencer couldn’t help grinning in response to Brendon’s statement, enjoying the breathy noise that escaped from the back of Brendon’s throat when he sucked the beta’s tongue into his mouth before murmuring, “Shh, its okay. You have a meeting and this is going to distract me from the fact that you’re not here with me.”
Brendon smiled against his lips, sighing with contentment into his mouth. Spencer didn’t mention how uncomfortable it made him when he found out that Brendon was a very avid supporter and member of the Beta Omega Rights Foundation – personally, he thought every single member, or at least ninety per cent of the foundation, was an alpha-hating discriminator. Those people didn’t want equality, he thought with an inward scoff, they just wanted control over the alphas. Equality my ass.
“At least go home early,” Brendon said softly, bringing Spencer out of his thoughts, the beta’s body practically melting into Spencer’s, “promise me,” he pleaded breathily.
Spencer shivered a little, fighting every instinct in him that was screaming to bend Brendon over the nearest available surface and just fucking take him, his arms tightening around the beta at the thoughts and he couldn’t help but comply with what his lover wanted.
“Fine, I promise the minute I’m done, I’ll leave.”
“Uh uh,” Brendon chuckled, shaking his head and pulling back to poke him playfully in the nose, “you’re not tricking me. I said go home early not go home when you finish. And when I say I early, I mean early tonight, not early in the morning.”
Spencer laughed and groaned at the same time, burying his face in Brendon’s throat. “Ugh, you’re too smart to be with me.”
Brendon chortled. “Shut up, you cutie.”
“How do you get your hair in all these colours?” Spencer suddenly asked, staring at the long strands of ‘rainbow’ brown hair. Brendon’s hair was long, straight and silky, falling down to his shoulders like rivers of milk and chocolate and honey. And Spencer could swear on his life that the hair had every single shade of brown on the planet and it was just plain incredible.
“You and I both know that its natural,” Brendon replied with a teasing lilt to his voice, nuzzling his face into Spencer’s neck and Spencer couldn’t help but shiver as the scent of jasmine wrapped around his body. He nuzzled right back into the beta and Brendon moaned a little as their scents tangled and blended together. “I should go. You’re deliberately stalling.”
“I don’t want you to go,” Spencer pouted.
Brendon actually giggled. “We’re literally meeting up again in just over twenty four hours. You can wait.”
“But I don’t wanna.”
“You’re such a child,” Brendon laughed, pulling back and smacking a short kiss on his lips, “I’ll text you when my meeting is over. If you’re still in the lab by midnight, I’m hauling my ass over here to get you out, capisce?”
“Sir, yes Sir,” Spencer said with a grin.
Just as Brendon was about to pull away from him, he dragged the beta back into his arms and crushed their lips together, practically bruising his mouth with his kiss, running his hands all over the beta’s body so their scents remained intertwined until the next time they were going to meet. Brendon made a sound in the back of his throat that nearly drove Spencer insane.
When he pulled away, the beta’s eyes were dazed and his lips were wet and swollen. Holy fuck.
“Text me,” Spencer said huskily and Brendon blinked out of his pleasured haze.
“Yeah. Right. Text. Right. See you soon.”
Spencer smiled fondly as Brendon forced himself out of their embrace and made his way to the door, he looked back with a cheesy smile on his face and waved lightly with the tip of his fingers before he was disappearing through the doors.
Spencer sighed and fell against the lockers, smacking the back of his head against them and biting his lower lip. Ugh, he was so thoroughly gone for Brendon it wasn’t even funny. There was a little voice in the back of his head telling him that he was being dishonest but he shoved it right to the recess of his mind. I’ll tell him, he told himself for what felt like the umpteenth time, I promise I’ll tell him before we get serious.
Sighing again, he opened the lockers and removed the scrubs he was wearing, burying the soft material into his face and inhaling deeply. The scent on the material would wear off probably in a couple of hours but the scent of him and Brendon on his skin would last for at least the amount of time they were apart.
Gosh, last night had been amazing. They’d talked about nothing and everything during their date. Spencer frowned a little because when it came to the topic about their families and their past, Brendon had gotten really uncomfortable and changed the topic immediately. Spencer hadn’t wanted to ruin their first date, so he let it slide but that didn’t stop him from talking about his own family – his older brother Brody who worked in a small investigation team in the south and his baby sister Sheila who was probably just finishing primary school and still stayed with their parents in Senjun in the West.
He left some titbits – especially about his gender – out because he wasn’t ready to go down that road just yet. I promise I’ll tell him soon.
After dinner, they’d taken a walk, which was so painfully cheesy, in the moonlight, still talking about nonsense and when Spencer had taken Brendon home, the kiss they’d shared on his doorstep was one of the hottest things Spencer has ever done in his life. Goddess, it had taken every ounce of his self-control, every smidgen of concentration he had to ignore the primal instinct rooted in him to just rip off their clothes and fuck him like an animal.
The fact that him and Brendon had been dancing around each other for months, had been scent marking each other for so long had gone straight to his wolf’s brain, so when he finally had the beta in his arms, all he could think about was just fucking taking and claiming and fuck, bonding.
Spencer shivered at the memory, shaking his head a little to get out of it. He wore a new pair of scrubs, covering up his hands, hair and face properly, making sure he was fully covered before heading inside the lab.
“Okay, let’s do this,” he said out loud, dramatically pulling the edge of one of the surgical gloves and grinning maniacally at the resounding smack against his wrist.
He and Brendon had already taken a look at the omega, Simon’s dead body and the cause of death was by suffocation. The obvious feral chain found around his neck was the culprit so the alpha had definitely murdered him.
For Setris, they thought that the wide crack in her skull when she fell into the gutter beside the brothel was the cause of her death – obviously, she’d panicked and tried to run away but slipped and fell into the gutter. Spencer at first thought she might’ve killed Simon on purpose, but the fact that she’d left the place barefooted and in only a robe that must’ve been hastily put on said that she’d panicked – which meant she didn’t actually kill the omega on purpose – and tried to run.
So, if the crack in her skull wasn’t the cause of death, what was? There weren’t any other injuries on her body, or a sign of a struggle or fight. She’d been killed and then dumped in the gutter. Spencer bit his lip, glad that he was the only one left in the lab because he was positively brimming with excitement. Could this murder be related to Aide Wellis’ murder as well?
With Aide’s blood tests still in mind, Spencer brought out the tubes holding Setris’s blood.
He poured it into one of the small discs to put under the microscope and his heart was pounding with anticipation when he looked through the lens to check out any activities going on in the blood.
“Oh my god fuck yes,” he hissed through his teeth when he noted that the blood looked exactly the same as Aide’s when they’d run tests on him. It was too light, the red blood cells too far apart.
He bounced a little on his feet, suddenly wishing that Brendon was here so he could share his excitement and then thought, fuck it, under his breath as he hurried out of the lab, going through a cleaning procedure and taking off his scrubs and dumping them in a waste basket before reaching for his phone.
Holy shit this is incredible, Setris was killed the exact same way Aide Wellis was!
It was after sending the message that Spencer felt like a creep and sent another one immediately after.
Sorry if I’m disturbing your meeting thingy. Don’t forget to text me when you’re done.
Shit, now he felt stupid, as usual. He knew he was labelled as ‘a little insane’ by his co-workers because of his reactions to these sorts of things and he really didn’t want it to be a deal breaker when it came to him and Brendon. Because he liked and wanted Brendon. A lot.
He shoved his phone back into his locker, not wanting to see if there was a reply before quickly decking a new pair of scrubs and heading back into the lab. This time, he was going to keep his excitement to himself.
Spencer brought out the file they had on Aide Wellis and began to compare it to his notes on Setris. He hummed a random tune under his breath, tapping his foot against the floor as he compared the images of both blood samples taken under the microscope. They were very nearly identical, the symptoms of the blood cells practically the same. The only difference was after a few days, Aide’s blood had clotted up. He wasn’t exactly sure when the blood had changed but he knew he was going to have to run some tests because he was damn sure that whatever happened to Aide was the exact same thing that happened to Setris.
Now he just needed to figure out how and when the blood had clotted up. He picked up the disc of blood and moved it into a compartment that looked like a tiny microwave. The compartment recorded the changes within any living thing placed inside it and it was scarily accurate, showing the time temperature or mass changed including some other fun stuff.
After Spencer put the disc into the compartment and shut it tightly, he couldn’t help wondering just what on earth murdered these two alphas. It was obviously a virus from the tests, but how the hell had the virus gotten inside them in the first place?
Spencer froze when he suddenly remembered the little bottle of pepper spray. His brain was frowning with doubt but his heart was racing with excitement as he fished for the item through the evidence bags, staring at the plain bottle. If his gut instinct was right, then whatever was inside this unlabelled bottle was the key to the dead alphas.
There was only one way to test it.
Spencer quickly exited the lab and came back in wearing an oxygen suit, the small tanks filled to the brim strapped to his back. He had to be careful not to inhale the substance when he sprayed it. In a small disc was a bit of his blood that he’d extracted. He bit his lip a little as he reached for the spray with his gloved hands, picking up the disc and placing it in a clear plastic bag.
He slipped the hand holding the spray into the plastic bag and then tightened it around his wrist with a rubber band so that the gas wouldn’t escape after he sprayed it. There was nothing wrong with being extra cautious. He made sure the spray was really close to the little disc of blood before exerting pressure on the nozzle.
His eyes grew wide when almost instantly, the blood diluted, spreading across the disc the minute the spray touched it, turning from its rich red to a dark orange.
“Amazing,” Spencer whispered, staring at it in awe and then suddenly, the blood shrank in on itself, clotting up so quickly that it didn’t seem real.
Spencer’s brain was working overdrive. The omega that killed Aide must have had this spray – so did whoever killed Setris. It was amazing. Holy shit.
This – this thing – whatever it was, was what was killing alphas out there. Whoever was making this spray, obviously illegally, must be a scientific genius because how did that even work? Spencer honestly couldn’t contain his excitement, but after his first text to Brendon, he was reluctant to share his findings just yet. Maybe after he calmed down.
He cleaned up the lab and exited it, quickly changing out of the oxygen suit and dumping it in a toxic waste basket for incinerating. His enthusiasm had died down a little now that he didn’t have anyone to share it with and he frowned when he noticed his phone was blinking with a new text. He immediately perked up when he realized it must be Brendon.
When he opened the message, he felt his heart constrict tightly in his chest, expanding with an emotion so hot and so deep that he had to clutch his ribs a little in an attempt to calm it.
You amaze me <3
It was those three words and the little heart that returned Spencer’s excitement with vigour and when he called Brendon that night, nearly screaming excitedly into the phone about his findings, Brendon chuckling fondly at him, the urge to bond with the beta has never been so strong. Brendon was so lucky he was on the other end of the line, if not Spencer wasn’t so sure he’d have been able to control the urges.
*
Dallas was staring again.
Connor seemed to notice and he turned around to look right at Dallas with a smirk that made Dallas blush to the roots of his hair but even then, the omega couldn’t look away, instead smiling and waving shyly. Connor waved right back, one eyebrow pushing up in question, the dimple in his chin made more prominent by his smirk.
“Is there something you’d like to share with the class?” Mrs Marlleni asked suddenly, making Dallas turn even redder, this time with shame as he sank a little in his seat but Connor chuckled, remaining proud and sitting straight in his chair. The sight of the alpha looking so strong and bold made Dallas shiver and a familiar tingle of heat start in the base of his stomach.
When he left the class, Connor walked right up to him, that smirk still plastered to his face, “I’m going to hang out with Craig and Donald, and so I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah. You will. See me later.”
Connor chuckled, “you’re adorable, Darl. See you in a bit!” Dallas blushed brilliantly at the nickname – a mixture of ‘Dal’ in ‘Dallas’ and ‘Darl’ from ‘Darling’. It turned Dallas into the typical doe-eyed omega before their first heat, with all the alpha pheromones swirling in the air. After that, Connor clapped Dallas on the shoulder and then the alpha was disappearing into the midst of students piling out of their classes for school over.
Dallas sighed dreamily, vaguely noticing the presence beside him and turned to face his best friend, Jean Hammond.
“Are you ready to go, bitch?”
Dallas flinched at her tone but before he could retort, she was already stalking away from him, her shoulders tense and steps angry. Dallas honestly didn’t understand why on earth Jean had suddenly become so angry with him recently. She’d expressed her opinion of Dallas fawning over Connor but didn’t she understand?
The thing was Jean used to be okay with Dallas having two best friends. Jean, who was an omega like himself, was his best friend in school. Connor on the other hand, because they lived very close together in their neighbourhood, they ended up spending time together outside of school, playing ball and video games or having sleepovers whenever they had the time. Although, their parents had made the sleepovers stop the minute Dallas got his first heat and Connor popped his knot. Dallas had to start taking suppressants if he still wanted to hang around with Connor and he did it gladly, not wanting their friendship to be tarnished.
But after that, things changed.
Dallas saw the alpha in a new light. It wasn’t rare for an alpha and omega to be close friends, it happened a lot of times especially because most times, an alpha in a family was most likely to have an omega as a sibling than another beta not to mention the fact that the dynamics of alphas and omegas matched more than either with a beta. So Dallas was more than shocked that Jean just didn’t get it.
Dallas couldn’t help the way his body reacted when Connor ordered him around. God, it made him so fucking hot and obviously, Connor must know just how it made him because he kept doing it. It was really untraditional, Dallas knew, because the dutiful ‘barefoot and pregnant omega’ stereotype was busted eons ago when the Beta Omega Rights Foundation was founded before he was even born. Before it was founded, omegas didn’t go to school, didn’t get jobs or do anything that helped society.
They were specifically there to make babies and take care of the house, the end, hence the ‘barefoot and pregnant’ phrase, an insult to omegas today. Alphas were the top of the hierarchy, mostly bonding with omegas to keep the balance while betas stuck with themselves in the middle. It was a really unbalanced society of which the B.O.R.F. was fighting to straighten.
So Dallas knew that if any of his parents found out that he wanted to serve, that he had fantasies of being a dutiful omega to his alpha, of being barefoot and pregnant, they’d probably disown him.
But Jean? Jean was his best friend. She was supposed to understand and support him. And even if she didn’t agree with how he felt, the least she could do was advise him instead of snubbing him, snapping at him and calling him names. It was honestly getting on his nerves. He rolled his eyes as he caught up with her, deciding to ignore her bitchy attitude for now.
They went straight to the library like they always did and Dallas grit his teeth in anger because Jean studiously ignored him. By the time their study time was over, she was immediately returning her books and shoving past him to get home, not even biting out a goodbye.
Dallas growled a little under his breath and let her be. Whatever funk she was in, she’d probably get over it soon.
She didn’t get over it soon though. In fact, it got worse and worse. Dallas was so tired of her attitude that he began to ignore her in return and now, they didn’t even meet up after classes or eat together during lunch. After school, they’d meet at their usual table in the library, study together and then leave without saying goodbye when they were done.
Dallas was so fucking done.
“Dallas, be good and get me a drink would you?” Connor said with a smile and Dallas felt himself shiver all the way inside, his wolf’s tail positively wagging.
Be good. HE was going to be good.
He practically rushed to get the drink, happy that he knew Connor’s favourite and made sure to also grab a bottle of water because the alpha liked to drink water after he’d taken something sweet. When he got back to the table, the way Connor beamed made Dallas feel like dropping to his knees and kissing his feet. He bit his lip hard, his cheeks flushing brilliantly, head bowed and lips split in a grin so wide his cheeks hurt. Gods, he would have gotten on his knees if they weren’t currently in the cafeteria and he wasn’t in the midst of Connor and his friends.
When lunch was over and he left the lunch room, saying bye to Connor, he was instantly cornered by Jean.
“You’re disgusting,” she spat at him, “you’re just fucking disgusting. Crawling all over him and desperate to please him like some pathetic little omega. Have you no pride at all? God, you make omegas look like dumb fools! If you’re so desperate for a knot, why don’t you try a knotting institution, bitch?”
Dallas just stared at her in shock before his own fury rose and he clenched his hands into fists, “Of all the people on this fucking planet, Jean, I expected you to fucking understand.”
“Understand?” she scoffed mockingly, “understand? The only thing I understand is the way you’re practically throwing yourself at him! Obeying his every command like a freaking lap dog – I mean, who are you?” This time, she looked positively wrecked, like she’d lost someone special, like Dallas had killed her favourite pet and it made him confused and upset.
“I’m not…I’m not doing it because…” Dallas was unsure how to explain himself. He didn’t know why he did it. He didn’t understand why he wanted to please Connor so badly, why he wanted his approval so desperately. It was just something that came like instinct inside him; how could she expect him to fight what felt so right? What came as second nature to him?
Jean interpreted his silence as something and that something wasn’t good because she was shaking her head, looking disappointed. She turned away and left him standing there, feeling like his heart was breaking to pieces underneath his ribcage because he knew that this was the last time he was ever going to talk to Jean again.
“Great. Didn’t need her anyway,” he told himself, clenching his teeth and stomping his way to class.
After that, Dallas practically threw himself at Connor. He followed him around, hanging out with him and his friends and one time when he was really close to his heat, he refused to take his suppressants, enjoying the way Connor’s eyes would darken when he walked passed. He also started shyly scent marking the alpha, rubbing up against him when they sat beside each other, brushing their fingers together and Connor noticed and didn’t say anything and Dallas got these fantasies in his mind that the alpha was going to lose control and take him soon, was going to just push him against the nearest surface and knot him so hard he’d end up pregnant on the first try.
The fantasy kept him slick all day and his cheeks red and he kept his eyes on the floor, knowing that everyone could scent the arousal on him, could smell how wet he was and were possibly staring at him and judging him. People like Jean were probably turning their noses up in disgust at his behaviour but he just couldn’t help himself.
He didn’t care that his mother practically put him on lock down after that and he suffered the worst heat of his life, even repressants didn’t work to calm the heat down. But seeing the way Connor’s eyes had flashed and darkened the next day after his heat, and the alpha looked like he was struggling not to shift on the spot, god, Dallas was on cloud nine.
Everything came crashing down a few weeks later.
Dallas refused to notice the way Connor had slightly turned into an asshole. He’d started letting his friends order him around, letting the other alphas humiliate him in public and while Dallas was all for serving Connor with his entire being, he didn’t like being humiliated. He didn’t like being shamed, especially when malice was behind the shaming.
It didn’t make him feel good like it was supposed to. He might love to submit to Connor but he did it expecting Connor to love and respect him in return – he deserved that at least.
And now, no matter what he did, Connor wasn’t pleased. He just looked irritated and desperate to get rid of him, which in turn made Dallas more desperate to please him until one night, Dallas used a scent blocker during his heat so that his mother wouldn’t know and he snuck out to Connor’s house.
He shifted into his wolf form so that he could silently jump up onto Connor’s balcony, his ashy fur glittering in the moonlight. When he shifted back to his human form, he was naked and trembling, the scent of his heat almost at its peak and beginning to push through the scent blockers.
He knocked on the balcony door and waited.
The door came open. Connor was shirtless and just waking up from sleep, rubbing at his eyes before his hand suddenly dropped and his eyes shot open, nostrils flaring.
“Dallas, what the fuck?” he growled, taking a step back, ready to slam the door.
“No, wait,” Dallas pleaded, rushing towards the door to keep it from shutting.
“Holy fuck,” Connor groaned, sounding like he was in pain because Dallas was right in his face and he smelled so fucking ripe and sweet. Goddess, he was probably soaked and he was naked, his olive skin slightly glistening with sweat. “Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Connor hissed angrily, his nails extending to dig desperately into the handle of the door and the wall.
“I want you,” Dallas whispered, his thighs beginning to tremble as the first vestiges of his heat began to hit him, “I want you to knot me.”
“Fuck!” Connor whimpered, shoving one hand down to grab himself, squeezing painfully, “Dallas, if you want to do anything to make me happy right now, you’re going to remain absolutely still.”
Dallas nodded frantically, anxious to please his alpha.
Connor licked his lips, trying so hard to think through the scent of omega and lust and heat and fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Uh, look Dallas, I uh…you need to…” he squeezed himself again, clenching his eyes shut, “I can’t fucking think with you stinking up the place! Go home,” he ordered sternly, “do what you can to – to ease your heat and when it’s done, you can come talk to me. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” Dallas replied on a soft moan before he was taking a shaky step back, not noticing the look of disgust that had crossed over Connor’s face at the ‘sir’ that escaped his lips.
He went home and his heat was so fucking blissful because he indulged in thoughts of Connor jerking off right now because of him, of the alpha positively wrecked and desperate because of his scent and it was simultaneously the best and worst heat he’d ever had. It was even worth it when his mum punished him the next day for using the scent blockers and trying to hide it.
When he got to school however, something had changed in the atmosphere.
Each time he’d walk past an alpha, they’d leer at him and grab their crotches, chanting, “Wanna be a good omega and sit on daddy’s knot?”
Dallas felt his eyes smart with tears and he kept his gaze on the floor, wondering what the fuck was going on. During lunch when he made his way to Connor’s table, his sixteen year old life came to an abrupt end.
“It was fun at first,” Connor was saying loudly. The cafeteria was deathly quiet. “I thought you were cute and a really devoted friend but then you started calling me ‘sir’ and it just got plain wrong.
“God, I have honestly never met anyone quite as pathetic and desperate as you. Even when I subtly pushed you away and ignored the stupid pheromone dance you were trying to start, you still wouldn’t take a hint. Can you believe he actually came to my freaking balcony during his heat? How desperate are you to get knotted? IT’s fucking disgusting!
“Let me tell you one thing, Dallas. My omega isn’t going to be a snivelling bitch. My omega is going to stand up for themselves, is going to be on equal grounds with me. My omega wouldn’t need to spread their legs open like a whore in a parlour because I’m going to earn their love and trust before that.
My omega is not going to be you.”
The silence didn’t shatter. It just remained, everyone probably in shock to see Connor saying such things.
Dallas felt hollow. “Oh,” he whispered, taking a shaky step back, “I’m s-sorry.”
And then he turned and fled, his vision blurry with tears. He didn’t even think his heart was breaking underneath his ribcage. No, his heart wasn’t breaking because he didn’t have a heart anymore.
After that, high school became a nightmare. Dallas was cornered and taunted and nearly raped. The gods and goddesses kept saving him because something always happened to prevent any of those things from happening but that didn’t mean that the words didn’t dig deep inside him, didn’t change something in him.
Dallas became ashamed of what made him, him.
*
Markus didn’t even hesitate before he was quickly taking off all his clothes and throwing them in a random locker before stepping out of the locker rooms and into the wide expanse of man-made land, surrounded by large concrete walls that domed up, the edges turning to glass which was the cover of the werewolf sanctuary in the Peace Force’s office.
It was already late in the day, the sun was setting, casting an eerie glow over the closed sanctuary.
He bit his lower lip and leaped into the air, shifting swiftly as he landed on his wolf’s paws which were a brilliant shimmering gold like the tip of its tail, the rest of its fur a vivid black.
The werewolf sniffed a little, shivering from head to toe at the scent of sharp seasonings – of thyme and black peppers with heady spices – the scent that was pure Dallas and it quickly made its way towards the scent without further ado.
Markus blinked when he finally came across Dallas.
My God, he was beautiful even in his wolf form. His wolf’s coat was pure vibrant grey, looking like the ashy colour of the residue of freshly, and properly burnt wood. The pure coloured pelt told Markus that Dallas was a pureblood from the South Pole, Sacharim. Markus tried not to find the fact that Dallas was a pureblood attractive. Fuck, that was not what he was here for.
Dallas’s wolf was the same as his human form; lithe and sinewy with muscles that made the wolf look slender and graceful, his eyes practically blazed in this form, like the embers of a dying flame. When Dallas noticed his presence, the werewolf let out an angry growl and immediately sprinted away from him. Markus didn’t even waste time before he was following.
Dallas! Please talk to me. If I said anything that didn’t sit right with you, please just tell me.
Not everything is about you hot shot, Dallas growled back and Markus didn’t know why but the sound of the omega’s voice in his head felt strangely intimate.
The black and gold wolf licked his snout, pounding its paws harder into the grass and sand beneath it as it picked up the pace, panting and trying to catch up with the grey were in front of it. Markus didn’t shift that often and he knew it was bad for his wolf, but he didn’t really care. Right now, the feel of the wind rushing through his fur and cooling his nose, the exquisite feeling of his senses heightened in his wolf form made him feel like howling.
His moss green eyes sharpened at the figure of Dallas’s wolf sprinting in front of him and instantly, all his instincts shot to life and this wasn’t him trying to reason with the omega anymore – no, this was a chase.
He couldn’t even control himself as the wolf growled low and deadly in the back of its throat. The grey wolf in front of him faltered a little at the sound before it was suddenly sprinting even faster, which only made Markus increase his own speed, his sole focus to catch his prey.
It didn’t take long and Markus was crashing into Dallas, both werewolves sprawling on the grassy floor. Dallas tried to struggle, growling and wigging his hips and fighting frantically and even though Markus’s wolf was as small and lithe as he was in person, it was almost laughingly easy for him to pin Dallas down, clamping his teeth gently around Dallas’s neck.
Dallas stiffened instantly, whimpering and whining a little. The heady scent of arousal wafted up from the omega and into Markus’s nose and for a second, Markus saw red before Dallas was suddenly tearing out from underneath him, nearly ripping his jaw out in the process through the cage of Markus’s teeth and the alpha stumbled a bit on his hind legs before gaining his balance.
He glanced up and Dallas had gained momentum, running like he was being chased by demons. Now that Markus wasn’t chasing him, he took his time to admire the length of Dallas’s wolf’s body and how the wolf ran the way the were walked, with a delicious sway to its slim hips.
Markus gritted his teeth, a low growl rumbling in his chest. The wolf shook off its fur as if to get some invisible debris off and trotted back to the changing rooms, knowing that he wouldn’t get anything out of Dallas right now. He needed to work.
Dallas watched the black and gold wolf make its way back to the opening of the wolf sanctuary, the form changing into a lithe and sexy naked Markus before that body was disappearing through the doors that led into the changing rooms.
Figures that even in his wolf form, Dallas still wanted to roll over and present himself to the alpha. God, Markus’s wolf was small but fucking gorgeous. That raven black hair with his golden paws and golden tipped tail was just – fuck. His wolf whined – in distress or longing, he didn’t dare delve deeper – at the emotions burning through him.
Remembering the way the alpha had pinned him down so effortlessly made pure absolute yearning burn through his soul and he honestly felt like crying because of the feeling.
God. I want you.
Ever since Markus’s husky confession yesterday, Dallas has been a wreck. Because god fucking dammit, he wanted him too. He wanted Markus so fucking badly it made him physically and emotionally ache. But what was making him feel like ripping off his skin was the fact that he didn’t want to want him.
He didn’t want to please him and kiss his feet and do his every whim.
God, he didn’t.
He wasn’t pathetic. He wasn’t weak. Fuck, he didn’t need this stupid bullshit. The grey wolf paced back and forth, whining softly in distress, unable to stay still, jittery with nerves.
Goddess, he hated Markus for doing this to him. For evoking feelings in him he’d thought he’d long buried. He felt helpless to his own desires. Markus had fucking taken control of his very being without even trying and he hated it.
*
Markus couldn’t concentrate.
He knew that something was wrong with Dallas. After his confession yesterday, Dallas had been shy and timid around him; blushing if the alpha so much as glanced his way. But today, that all changed and Dallas was colder than the South Pole during the winter. He was nasty to everyone in the office, snapping at everyone and everything, even Tania and he was usually very nice to Tania so Markus knew something was definitely wrong.
Dallas wanted him but he was so obviously scared and Markus didn’t want him to feel like that. It was awakening that primal instinct in him, the one that loved control, to take care of Dallas. To take care of what was his. He wanted desperately to soothe and protect and make Dallas feel loved. It was tearing him apart that Dallas was feeling distressed because of him.
“Fuck,” he whispered to himself on a full-bodied shiver.
Dallas was supposed to be glowing with happiness and contentment – not practically burning with resentment and it was making Markus restless and itchy. The need to put his omega at ease was driving him insane.
“Markus?”
The alpha blinked out of his thoughts to glance at Tania.
She smiled gently at him. “Do you want to give this a try? I’m getting absolutely nowhere with this Jon character – we keep ending up right where we started.”
Dallas turned back to stare at the beta through the one way mirror in front of him. The beta actually looked slightly relaxed and was glancing around the room casually, unlike when he’d been initially brought here.
“If you don’t feel up to it, I could ask Bill?” Tania suggested because Markus was taking too long to respond.
Markus quickly shook his head. “No, I’ll take care of it,” he smiled at her, “you take a break, you’ve been taking the brunt of the work all day.”
She smiled gratefully at him. “See you in a bit then.”
“In a bit.”
Markus inhaled deeply, watching Tania as she exited the room, closing the door gently behind her and then made his way into the interrogation room, gently closing the door behind him. It was late, he was tired and stressed and all he wanted to do was get over with this so he could go home. It was already seven in the evening.
The skinny beta looked up at him, stiffening a little at who he saw and eyes widening a little when he realized that Markus was an alpha. The room had a desk and two chairs on each side with nothing else except for the mirror behind Markus’s head as he took a seat opposite the beta. There were two doors in the room – one behind Markus where he had just entered, and where the other side of the mirror lay where other officers could observe the interrogation if need be and another door opposite that where the prisoner was led in and out of the room.
Markus ignored Jon’s obvious mounting distress practically pouring out of the beta as he smiled a little.
“Hi, I’m Markus Rowan,” he said with a genuine smile. “Would you like something to drink, Jon?”
The beta was visibly relaxing. “Uh, no thanks.”
“A snack? Blanket?”
“No thanks, I’m fine.”
“So sorry we have to keep you here like this,” Markus said apologetically, “can’t be too great, now can it?”
The young boy actually laughed a little. “Yeah, you don’t exactly ‘ave the most comfortable cells.”
Markus grinned a little. “Okay, let’s get down to business. I’m going to record our conversation for use in the court and as evidence. Is that clear?”
Jon nodded. “I’s not like I ‘ave a choice.”
Markus only smiled at that as he pressed the record button located underneath the table.
“So,” he began with a friendly expression, “I heard from Pam that Setris wasn’t exactly the nicest of alphas, was she?”
Jon shook his head frantically, sending his lazy brown hair flying. “No, she wasn’t,” he replied eagerly, “she was selfish an’ mean an’ we would always hear Simon crying each time she came around and they were alone. It was awful.”
“Yeah, Pam told me just as much. I totally understand why you did it.”
“You do?”
Jon suddenly froze and his skin turned alarmingly pale at what he’d just said. His eyes grew wide with frantic panic and began darting around the room. “I-I don’t know w-what you’re talking about. I didn’t –”
“It’s okay, Jon,” Markus said softly, “If one of my friends was being mistreated like that, I wouldn’t stand for it. It’s perfectly understandable why you would do it. You were angry and upset and your friend had just been murdered.”
Jon was nodding eagerly with every word and he inhaled shakily and then stared down at his hands. Markus was only a little bit surprised when the beta burst into furious tears, lifting his hands up to hide his face behind them while he cried like a baby.
“Er’one loved Simon,” he was sobbing, “’e was amazing and all ‘round lovely and that bitch – she just – she killed something in him, sir Markus sir, each time she came over, a bit of Simon died, we could all see it. What would you do?” he asked, dropping his hands and finally meeting Markus in the eyes, his eyes red-rimmed, “what would you do if you found one of your best friends strangled to death while his murderer tried to run free?”
Markus only nodded sympathetically, letting the beta cry his heart out. When it was only sniffles left, the alpha asked, “how did you do it, though? That was an impeccable crime scene.”
Jon actually blushed despite himself and then hesitated. He suddenly began to shake violently and there was fear creeping into his gaze as he turned to glance around the tiny interrogation room like there was someone hiding in the shadows, waiting to pounce on him.
“I-I pushed her in the gutter,” he said quickly.
Markus frowned because when he’d spoken to Spencer, the Chief Medical Examiner, the beta had said that the fall in the gutter wasn’t the cause of death. He was still waiting on the results of other testing from him, so he didn’t know the cause of death yet.
And now, he couldn’t use his technique on Jon anymore because the beta had his shoulders squared up in defence and looked ready to lie through his teeth.
Why though? He’d already confessed to the murder – what else did he have to lose?
Markus suddenly thought about the small bottle of ‘pepper spray’ he’d collected from the gutter and his brain sharpened. Jon used whatever was in that bottle to kill Setris, Markus was sure of it, and whoever might have given him that bottle must’ve threatened Jon in some way or another.
“Thank you, Jon. I’m sure the court will go lenient on you for confessing.”
Jon only nodded and Markus’s eyebrows furrowed at the obvious relief in the beta’s shoulders when he realized that Markus wasn’t going to question him anymore. Markus pushed a button and instantly, two officers were walking into the room to escort Jon back to his cell. Markus would question him again later.
He made his way back into the other side of the examination room and everything in him froze when he saw Dallas standing in the middle of the room. He looked positively wrecked – his short silver hair was a mess and his eyes were wild.
“That was brilliant!” Tania gushed, nearly making Markus jump out of his skin because he hadn’t noticed her presence. “You got him to confess in less than a minute, holy hell, no wonder you had a reputation back in Serai.”
Markus wasn’t really listening. His gaze was locked with Dallas’s and the omega’s eyes were burning with pure unfiltered lust.
Holy fucking shit.
Tania seemed to notice the tension in the room and she coughed delicately. “Right guys, I’m gonna go head home now. We’re the only ones left except for the big guys watching the place, so…feel free to talk or whatever and see you tomorrow!”
And then she was gone.
Dallas was actually shaking. All day he’d been denying himself and fighting with his desires and his urges but now – seeing the way Markus had effortlessly handled Jon in the interrogation room had made something in him just snap.
“Goddess. Markus, I want you too,” Dallas admitted on a shaky exhale, his voice hoarse and gritty.
Markus has never seen anyone look so painfully small and completely vulnerable and he was instantly walking up to Dallas, reaching up to grab the hair on the nape of his neck because he knew how much the omega had enjoyed it in the past.
Dallas actually keened in the back of his throat when Markus crushed their lips together, sucking and biting his lips furiously. He was shoved unceremoniously against the wall and the alpha’s thigh was pressing unforgivingly against the bulge in his neon blue pants. Dallas whimpered and bucked his hips forward, grinding his thickening cock desperately against the pressure.
Markus was completely thorough, grabbing Dallas’s wrists and pinning them against the wall beside his hips, the omega helplessly powerless, pressed against the wall with the alpha’s smaller frame.
Dallas squirmed and when he realized he was perfectly immobilised – he couldn’t even so much as shift his hips – he nearly fucking came on the spot.
A muffled sob left his lips and his eyes burned with tears. Those plump lips left his and trailed down to his neck and when Markus bit into the muscle that joined his neck and shoulder – hard – before harshly sucking, Dallas lost control. His hands scrabbled desperately and fuck, fuck, he tried so fucking hard to hold it but holy shit it was too late and he was coming in his pants, shaking and trying to rock his hips against Markus’s unyielding hold.
He threw his head back against the wall with a soundless moan, nearly collapsing when he was done trembling.
When the scent of Dallas’s release wafted up into Markus’s nostrils, it took everything in the alpha to keep his own cock from erupting. Fuck fuck. He inhaled deeply, clenching his eyes shut against the primal lust burning in his system and trying to calm himself down. He trailed his lips up Dallas’s neck, stopping at the shell of his ear and blowing out hot air against the organ, the action making Dallas shiver uncontrollably.
“Did I say you could come?” he asked, his voice husky and deep and filled with unyielding command.
Dallas felt his cock fucking jerk in his pants and he sobbed, “N-No.”
Markus pressed his thigh harder against Dallas’s sensitive shaft and the omega hissed through his teeth.
“No sir,” he amended, sobbed.
Markus pulled back to look Dallas in the eye, biting his lip to control himself at the sight of Dallas looking so fucking debauched. His lips were flushed and swollen, a dark red in some areas from where Dallas had bit him, his hair a mess and his cognac eyes glistening with unshed tears and a burning desperation that called out to Markus like a flame calling to a moth.
Markus brushed their lips together teasingly as he whispered, “I’m going to bend you over that desk and spank that disobedience out of you. Is that understood, Dallas?”
Dallas moaned, the sound positively sinful and nodded frantically, his throat too clogged to answer.
Markus shook his head disapprovingly. “Out loud, Dallas.”
The omega had to swallow a few times to get the words out. “Yes, Sir.”
Markus immediately led him over to the desk, getting his pants down to his knees without preamble and bending Dallas over the desk. Just the sight of the healthy olive skin of the plump flesh of his round buttocks and Markus had to silently press a hand against his zipper, his hips working furiously.
Don’t come. Don’t come. This is for Dallas. Not for you, for Dallas.
“Hold onto the desk,” Markus commanded roughly and Dallas immediately obeyed, clutching at the sides of the desk for dear life, lifting his hips a little in offering. Holy fuck.
“My gods, Dallas, you look fantastic. Absolutely beautiful,” Markus whispered, using both hands to cup the fleshy globes and squeezing, enjoying the way Dallas’s breath punched out of him in a shaky exhale. He used one hand to hold onto Dallas’s crisp, white shirt for balance before lifting his hand and sending it down with alarming force.
“Fuck!” Dallas screamed, his entire body slamming forward into the desk from the intensity of the smack. Before he could catch his breath, Markus’s hand was slamming down over and over, again and again, the sound of his palm hitting flesh loud in the small room. “Oh my god, oh my god, don’t – don’t stop – please – please –”
“You’re not supposed to be enjoying this, Dallas,” Markus teased huskily and Dallas would have laughed if he wasn’t busy panting and moaning.
After about the twentieth smack, Dallas finally broke, his entire body loosened and relaxed against the desk and he was crying, his breath coming out in frantic hitches. His entire face was wet with tears and snot as he sobbed with pain and relief and happiness, his entire body completely limp and boneless.
Markus immediately pulled Dallas up into his arms, resting the omega’s face against his chest and holding him tightly, so tight that Dallas almost couldn’t breathe but it was so fucking perfect that Dallas couldn’t help but sob even harder, his chest swelling hot and tight with an emotion he couldn’t yet decipher.
“Thank you. Goddess, Sir, thank you. Thank you.”
“You were so good,” Markus whispered, “Goddess, Dallas, you are so fucking good. So perfect and beautiful and lovely. You took it so well. I’m so proud of you.”
Dallas’s entire body began to tremble violently, his sobs deepening at the praise and that hot feeling in his chest just expanded and he was suddenly trying to pull away, mumbling, “Please – please Sir – please, let me –”
Markus bit his lower lip hard, his hips desperately pumping into the air a little at what Dallas was insinuating but he only held the omega tighter in his arms, preventing him from moving or touching him.
“Shh, Dallas, sweetheart, this was for you,” Markus said softly, ignoring his own need, “you needed this so badly, didn’t you?”
Dallas sobbed again, the pet name and the fact that the alpha just knew what he needed making that hot feeling in his chest practically swell to bursting as he nodded. “Yes, Sir.” Gods, he’d been wound up for so long. He’d needed this so fucking badly.
Markus held him like that for a long time, arms wrapped tightly around the omega. One hand stroked through Dallas’s silver hair while the other hand gently palmed the burning flesh of his backside, softly stroking the heated skin in a soothing manner.
Dallas’s sobs soon reduced to soft hiccups and without even looking, Markus knew that the omega was so deep in subspace he had no hope of returning anytime soon.
It made Markus grin proudly to himself, his entire body getting hot. He did this. Dallas was pliant and calm in his arms, his body warm and completely trusting and Markus felt like his chest was aching, he felt like he was going to burst.
Dallas finally came back to earth with a soft shiver, moaning softly in the back of his throat.
“You okay?” Markus asked softly, still carding his fingers through his hair.
“Mhm,” Dallas replied, sounding completely dreamy.
Markus chuckled. “Shall I drive you home?”
“Yes, please, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
Markus smiled, tilting Dallas’s face up to plant a gentle kiss on his lips, gently licking into his mouth before pulling away. He helped to adjust the omega’s clothes and held his hand in a tight grip as he led him outside to Markus’s rented car. The sun had completely set and it was as completely dark outside, some clouds covering the moon in the sky.
Throughout the ride, they didn’t stop holding hands until they got to Dallas’s house.
Markus walked him to his front door and Dallas was still looking so serene, it made Markus preen on the inside. He took the omega’s phone and saved his number in it before handing it back to Dallas.
“When you go inside, take a nice hot shower, okay? Have something light for dinner and then call me when you’re all snuggled in bed.”
“Yes Sir,” Dallas whispered back with a smile, sighing with pleasure when Markus leaned up to kiss him gently on his mouth.
“Goodnight Dallas.”
“Goodnight Sir.”
Markus waited until he heard the click of the lock before turning and heading back to his car. As he drove back to his apartment, he was on cloud nine. It was only when he finally reached his room that the arousal of earlier hit him like a freight train and he was hissing through his teeth and falling against his front door, fumbling frantically to get his pants off because holy shit he was going to come on the fucking spot.
“Fuck, fuck!”
He threw his head back against the door, biting his lower lip to muffle his howl of pleasure because the minute he had his pants opened and wrapped a hand around himself, he was coming for all he was worth, his hips shooting into the air, thighs shaking.
His vision actually whitened and he collapsed to the floor, dizzy from how intense his orgasm was.
Gods. Fucking hell.
He got up on shaky legs and had just cleaned up and taken a shower when his phone began to ring. He practically ran to get his phone from his pants pocket, answering quickly.
“Sweetheart?”
“Oh,” Dallas moaned happily into the phone, “hi.”
Markus felt his entire face heat because it was the second time he was using the pet name and it had just come out without permission. He cleared his throat, “in bed?”
“Mhm.”
“That’s good. Very good. You’re still good, right? You don’t need me to come over?”
Dallas laughed. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself when you’re not here, sweetheart.”
Markus couldn’t help laughing as well. “There’s the Dallas I know and love.”
“Shut up.” Markus knew the omega was blushing without even having to see him.
“Goodnight, Dallas.”
“’Night Markus. Sleep tight and see you tomorrow.”
Markus hugged the phone to his chest and resisted the urge to squeal like a teenage girl. This was officially the best night of his entire life.
He just hoped that Dallas wouldn’t regress to his old snarky self tomorrow.