Page 49 of His Master

“Unbelievable.” Victor shook his head, but I could feel the streak of ironic humor within him.

“You can ask him about it yourself, if you want,” I added as I pointed out the right house, even though Victor already knew. “We’re here.”

The safest place I’d been able to think of for us to go, the place where we were guaranteed to find shelter and help, was Hayden and Mason’s house. Victor had been there once before, and he’d agreed it was the best option we had available. I’d called Hayden as soon as the decision was made, and luckily, Hayden had still been up with Junior.

“You made it in one piece,” he greeted us, a sleepy Junior in his arms, Mason standing right behind him, before Victor and I could even knock on the door.

“Come inside, quickly, and tell us the full story of what’s going on,” Mason said, glancing from me to Victor.

He did a double-take at me, but it wasn’t until I’d stepped fully into my brother’s beautiful, well-decorated, slightly messy house that I realized my slave collar was visible over the collar of my shirt.

“Remember how I told you a few months ago I was making changes at Victory Holdings?” Victor asked as Mason led us to the kitchen.

“I remember,” Mason said, gesturing for us to have a seat at the kitchen table.

“Well, it turns out my uncle is vehemently opposed to change of any kind, and he’s determined to stop it at all costs.”

“Do I want to know what ‘all costs’ means?” Mason asked.

I only vaguely heard his question. As Victor and Mason took seats at the table and Hayden moved to the counter with Junior, who was fussing, I was struck hard with a battle between appearance and instinct.

Everything within me wanted to kneel on the floor by my master’s chair. It felt like the right thing to do, the respectful thing to do. But this was my brother’s house. My brother and his alpha were right there, and they would see my submission.

Right from the start, one of my biggest worries about indulging in this fantasy and being the omega I knew that I was at heart was that Hayden would judge me. If I knelt by Victor’s side, I would be doing right by my alpha, but I would completely change the way my brother, one of the people who I cared about more than anyone in the world, saw me.

Hayden must have sensed something.

“Hey, I need to put Junior to bed,” he said. “Simon, you wanna help?”

The way he looked at me asked something more like, “You wanna talk?”

I was still a teeny bit conflicted. I glanced to Victor, straight-up asking for permission.

“You go ahead,” he told me with a tired smile. “I’ll fill Mason in on everything with Victory Holdings.”

“Thank you, M—” I clamped my lips together, going hot and cold all over as I glanced from Victor to Hayden.

Hayden had given his attention to a slightly fussy Junior. If he caught my slip, he wasn’t letting on. “Let’s go, baby,” he said, smiling at his son, then winking at Mason, then gesturing with his head for me to follow him out of the kitchen and down the hall to the nursery.

“Nice collar,” he said with a smirk as we entered Junior’s room.

I heated even more and lowered my head. “You must be so ashamed of me,” I said quietly.

“What? No!” Hayden exclaimed loud enough to startle Junior. “No,” he repeated, quieter, then shifted to sit in the rocking chair in the corner of the room. “Sorry, I’m just going to feed Junior here so he’ll be all full and sleepy and ready to conk out for a long time.”

“Okay,” I said, moving to lean against the changing table.

Even though I wasn’t in Victor’s presence, I still felt like I should sit or kneel on the floor as I watched Hayden lift the side of his shirt and position Junior for chestfeeding. I wasn’t entirely certain it was right to show deference when I wasn’t in my alpha’s presence. Already, I felt a nagging, itching pull on our new bond that had me unable to stand still.

At least I could still hear Victor’s voice as he filled Mason in on the situation. I wasn’t sure I could have been this far apart from him otherwise.

“So,” Hayden said once we were both settled and Junior was sucking away. “That’s one heck of a bond you and Victor Woodbury have going on there.”

I winced. I’d forgotten that Hayden would be able to see my bond with Victor because of his with Mason.

“Yeah, that kind of happened by accident,” I said, moving my hand to rub my neck and hitting my collar.

“Looks like a lot of things have happened.” Hayden grinned and nodded to my collar. “I think I can guess what your fantasy is.” He winked.

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