Page 26 of The Price of Ice

“I want you to use lure,” he spit out, rushing like he thought he’d get interrupted. “I can make it an order, if you—”

“Wait,” Kallen did cut in. Whatever it was that was upsetting Levy, he needed to understand before they got any further into it. “Use what?”

Levy was looking at him like he thought he was about to get punched. “Lure,” he repeated, confirming Kallen had heard correctly.

Kallen took a moment to think about it, in case the head massage had melted his brain. Then he shook his head, meeting his friend’s wary eyes. “Still don’t know what that is.”

“Oh, um,” Levy vacillated, rubbing at his weak elbow. “Omega will? Or magnetism? Wiles?” This last was said with a grimace.

“Omega wiles?” Kallen asked, at least he’d vaguely heard of that. “Like that magic shit people said omegas were doing in, like, the Middle Ages and burned them at the stake for it?”

Levy was frowning now. “Yes, I mean... It’s the same thing, but... You really don’t know what it is? Like, how? You went to private school, didn’t you? And it’s— It’s basic biology.

Kallen snorted. “Gresham’s a privatehockeyschool, not like I was there for academics. And this must be pretty obscure.”

His explanation only seemed to upset his friend more, he was shaking his head, gaze lost in the distance, lips parted. “No, this...” He raised his eyes to Kallen’s. “This is not obscure, this isreal. You... You can do it.” He must have seen the doubt in Kallen’s face. “It’s like alpha will, the other side of alpha will is omega will, or lure. Alphas push, omegas pull, that’s how it all works.”

It sounded poetic and everything, and like absolute bollocks. In his experience, alphas pushed, and omegas fell to their knees or shut the fuck up or whatever else the alpha in question wanted.

"I haveseenyou do it,” Levy insisted, and grabbed onto Kallen’s knee on the sofa as if for emphasis, then pulled his hand back as if he’d been burned. “Sorry. I just...” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, chest expanding under his faded white t-shirt, and this wasnotthe time for Kallen to get distracted by his nipples, but apparently crazy talk did it for him.

“Okay,” he said slowly, playing along seemed like the safer choice here—mostly for Levy’s sanity, once again his friend was getting worked up about Kallen. “When did you see me do this lure thing?”

“You do it when some of the guys are about to fight,” Levy explained at once. “You touch them sometimes, or just say their names, and then you pull and they look at you.”

“Um, I remember the first two. It’s like, part of my job to keep them from fighting each other, so yeah, I do that. But that’s just me getting their attention, anyone could do it. Or, like, I guess it helps I’m an omega because they won’t see me interrupting as an aggression, but that’s not will, will is...” He trailed off, looking away, because alpha will was like someone yanking you by the scruff of the neck. On occasion guys had shoved so hard Kallen had lost time, done things he might have done anyway if asked but couldn’t recall afterwards. Just a few seconds, but the disorientation was awful. The utter helplessness was worse.

It was only the soft touch on his hand that made him realise he’d clenched his fists. Levy wasn’t holding on, just resting his own good hand on top of Kallen’s. “It’s not supposed to be...” he said. “It’s... If it makes you look like that, then it’s fucked up. It’s not the way it should be.”

Kallen shrugged a shoulder, marginally relaxing. He wanted to be back on Levy’s lap, close and safe. Not thinking about shitty alphas who’d taken advantage of him. Of course it wasn’t right, but what was the point of thinking about it if there was nothing you could do to change it? The only way out was through.

And he’d have much preferred not to have a nice night ruined with a reminder of what he worked so hard not to dwell on.

“Would you try?” Levy whispered and he was closer somehow, leaning in like he wanted to be touching Kallen as much as Kallen wanted to be touching him.

He risked a glance up, and when he spoke, it came out a little moody, “How?”

Levy licked his lips, which was something he did when he didn’t know what to say, and not anything else, no matter what it did to Kallen. “We can practise, so you can do it consciously.”

It all seemed a little insane to Kallen, like they were children playing make belief. And if they were going to play, they could have gone for doctors and nurses or something. Except that really had lost its joy after weeks of seeing Levy suffering, so maybe not.

He huffed, leaning back a little so Levy’s warmth wasn’t so temptingly close. There was not much he could do about his scent, the aroma of sandalwood had to be all over his own clothes by now. “So, what do I do?”

“Mmmm... What if you try to get my attention?”

For a moment, Kallen could only look back at him, then he snorted. “Seems like I already have it,” he pointed out, raising his eyebrows and not really biting back a smile. Sue him, helikedhaving Levy’s attention on him.

Levy got up, turning away, and Kallen was pretty sure it was at least in part to hide that he was blushing. He went over to the sideboard, opening the doors and running his fingers through the DVD cases.

“Levy,” Kallen said, and it was tight in his throat. This was ridiculous, there was no way he could make anyone do anything.Pull, Levy had said, but it felt like the opposite, like Levy was pulling at him. Like Kallen was so desperate that— But of course desperation wasn’t pulling, if he thought about getting an alpha’s attention in a tense situation, he knew he had to be calm, calm and easy. An oasis in a storm of chaos.

Even alphas wanted peace, deep down.

He let his shoulders drop and his breath to come out very slowly past his lips. Levy had ignored him, which stung a little, but it didn’t matter. Kallen could calm himself down, he could go into his own centre and become his own oasis.

Of course he wanted Levy, but an oasis wasn’t going to run after a storm. It’d wait, it’d settle and expand and grow, green and fragrant and irresistible. The source of all life, everythingyou could ever want. Easy and safe, and why wouldn’t you come closer, really? He leaned back on the arm of the sofa, that profound calm radiating outwards like a wave he could almost see and watched with complete lack of surprise as Levy’s body slowly turned towards him, eyes wide and full of want.

Kallen didn’t say anything, crowing at his victory would have been absurd, even surprise felt like a lie. He kept his eyes on the alpha’s and found his lips turning upwards, approval and warmth and welcome as Levy crossed the space between them in long purposeful strides and dropped to one knee on the sofa between Kallen’s thighs. The alpha was hovering over him, thrumming with need, but he didn’t move, watching Kallen’s face like hewasthe first water he’d seen after days in the desert, and he was desperate for a sip.

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