Page 134 of The Price of Ice

Levy had got an elbow under him, though his groin and chest were still covered in semen. His eyes were lost somewhere in the distance, calculating. But they came back to Kallen’s with renewed steadiness. He looked wrecked, his curls in disarray, his mouth red where he’d bitten at it, and his voice was raspy when he spoke, but it brooked no questions, “I’ll book a ticket for the 16th.”

And it wasn’t necessary, or at least very unlikely to be. But Kallen could hear what he was being told: I’ll be there for you. And to that, he couldn’t say no.

Chapter 43

Wording the consent forms for their volunteers without telling them what they were volunteering for was a headache and a half, but even so they had to put some volunteers on a waiting list. One of the omegas attending the classes, Tami, was majoring in maths and had already created surveys to measure their performances. Now they’d added some extra sections for the volunteers to tell them about their experience with alpha will, plus another one for after the experience that included previous exposure to lure.

“It shouldn’t matter much,” Analisa said while they waited for the practical to start. She’d come up with the name for it, and it’d stuck. It felt oddly official to Kallen, but he was trying not to argue about things that didn’t matter. Feeling a little uncomfortable about being treated with respect was to beexpected. But at least intellectually he knew he deserved it. Anyone would have. Taylor hadn’t had a degree when he’d started running the group, he’d learned on the go, put his heart into it and hoped for the best, and only then gone back to school. Kallen didn’t have anyone to teach him lure, but he could follow his lead in that much. And if he had to remind himself ten times a day that he was helping and they were grateful, and it was fair, he would. After all, if he had a superpower, it was his ability to do something again and again until it stuck.

They could stop showing up any time, but no one had missed a single lesson so far. Leo had even come the day after badly twisting his ankle, all bandaged up, shrugging when Kallen hadasked, “Not like I need to walk to do lure, right? Besides, what if I need my little sister to get me ice-cream from the freezer?”

Kallen had rolled his eyes at him, trusting he was joking since they’d all talked forever about consent and how lure should and shouldn’t be used. Leo was young, but he wasthere, wasn’t he? He knew how terrible it was to be compelled and limited. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t fuck up, there was no earthly warranty for that for any of them. But he knew better, so Kallen had to trust he would do his best todobetter.

They got more betas than either alphas or omegas volunteering, which reflected the general population. But the age range was quite varied. Amongst the sixteen volunteers, two for each of the omegas in the class including Kallen himself, there were a lot of parents and siblings—only the ones who didn’t know about the class to satisfy Tami’s scientific rigour. In Leo’s case, he’d got his grandparents to attend, an alpha-omega couple who’d been together for over half a century and still kept turning towards one another to offer a smile or a glance, just checking in.

Kallen’s throat felt a little tight watching them. He couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but Taylor and he had decided ahead of time Kallen should try with them first since he had the best control.

It didn’t look like he had anything to worry about with these two, really, their hair had gone grey and in the case of the alpha there was little of it left, but they moved easily and comfortably, nothing like Kallen’s one remaining grandfather.

Taylor thanked everyone for coming and instructed them to stay seated and silent for the fifteen minutes their timer was active. If they managed, they’d ‘win’ the round and get a biscuit, he added, which got him more than one smile for its absurdity.

Technically, he was only meant to work with one of them at once, but when they both sat in front of him, Kallen was toocurious to resist. He smiled and asked, “Ready?” and waited for their nods to set the timer.

Closing his eyes in front of a strange alpha was slightly uncomfortable, but he did it anyway. Breathing slow and even, he felt the oasis approaching, and then he was there, hewasit. He opened his eyes and met the omega’s curious green eyes.

It should have been strange to offer a hug to someone he’d just met, but it didn’t. He let the oasis roll over him, already feeling the warmth of the other man’s body, his scent, crisp and clear and with a hint of sunscreen over it growing more intense as Kallen’s nose got close to his neck.

The older man’s face softened into a smile, eyes shining and Kallen wasn’t surprised to see him put a hand down on the arm of his chair to shove himself upright and take a step closer.

“I...” He turned in surprise towards his alpha, who’d also stood but looked tense, like he was resisting.

“It’s okay,” Kallen told him at once. Damn, this had been a mistake. “It’s okay, I invited you.” He offered one of his hands to each of them. His right was trembling a little when the alpha’s closed over it, but that was okay. They were both afraid of crossing a line and hurting each other, but they weren’t going to. They were going to be careful and make sure they didn’t do anything the other person didn’t want.

He’d thanked them both, telling them to take a break and promising to explain in a moment. Then he had to stop the class and get all his students to give verbal consent to have their hands held during the experiment.

When he got back to the older couple with biscuits and tea, Richard raised an eyebrow. “I thought we had to earn those.”

“You did,” Kallen told the alpha. He didn’t know if it was the knowledge that he could manage to get this particular alpha to back off, or simply the fact that this particular alpha hadwantedto back off.

Anthony spoke up then, “You are quite powerful for someone so young.”

Kallen shrugged. “I’m... I think I’m naturally good?”

The other omega nodded. “I had a cousin like that, my uncle had a difficult time with her. At fifteen, she could get her teachers to do what she wanted quite easily. It wasn’t... Well, it wasn’t fair, for one. And he tried to suppress it, used will to try to forbid her using it.”

“Did that work?” It hadn’t occurred to him either will or lure could be used for long-term constraints where the person giving the order wasn’t present.

Anthony shook his head. “Not for long.”

Kallen exhaled. “Thank god,” he said, unthinking. “I mean, it sounds like it was difficult for them, but...”

“No, no,” Anthony waved it all away with a long-fingered hand. “It was ill-done, she left the family when she married. None of us have seen her in... Well, must be sixty years now!” He looked regretful for a moment, and then met Kallen’s eyes again. “So is this why Leo has been so keen to come to these meetings of yours?”

“Um, I’m not really supposed to tell you much about it.”

Anthony laughed. “I see. Anything for science, right, Dick?”

The alpha was already half smiling, and if he’d been twenty years younger Kallen would have bet good money an eyeroll was about to follow. He nodded and they got back to work.

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