Page 94 of Slow Heat
“Shouldn’t your omegabe watching you woo him?” Mox asked, shooting a sly grin Jason’s way before nodding toward the obviously empty study.
“He’s got other things to do, I guess,” Jason murmured, darting a glance at the house.
“Trouble in paradise already?”
Jason glared at Mox and that shut him up pretty quickly. They’d managed to clear out everything they needed to get rid of and now they just had to trundle off the wheelbarrows and dump them in the truck before they could get to planting the bulbs and bushes Mox had brought.
As they pushed the wheelbarrows through the side yard and into the front, Jason froze. Urho stood on the walk halfway to the house, brows lifted in confusion and surprise. He wore a jaunty bowtie that made Jason think of Xan.
The air between them seemed to crackle and then Urho smiled warmly, like he had a right to greet Jason like a host in Jason’s omega’s front yard.
“Well, this is a surprise!” he called, motioning at Jason’s filthy work clothes and the sweat running down the side of his face. “I didn’t imagine you were the kind of alpha to actuallydothe work for his omega. I figured you’d try to buy his happiness. I’m impressed.”
Jason abandoned his wheelbarrow and ignored the curious glances from Mox and his crew. He tossed aside his work gloves as he advanced toward Urho without a smile. “Is Vale expecting you?” He came to a halt in front of Urho and crossed his arms over his chest.
“No. I thought I’d drop by. I wanted to see how he was holding up after negotiations yesterday.” Urho’s brows lowered as he observed Jason closely. “Should I be worried about him?”
Jason glanced over his shoulder to where the men were dumping the content of the wheelbarrows into the truck and then looked toward the house at the lace curtains waving in an open window upstairs. Was it Vale’s room? He didn’t know. There was a lot he didn’t know about Vale. And maybe Urhowashis rival in one way, but in a much bigger way he wasn’t. He cared about Vale, too, wanted him safe and happy, and he knew Vale better than most anyone. He’d been his lover after all.
Swallowing his pride, Jason met Urho’s gaze. “I don’t know if you should be worried, but I am. I’m worried about everything, actually.”
Urho’s brows creased even more deeply and he gripped Jason’s shoulder, peering at him like he could see right into his mind. He shot a glance toward the beta workers, taking their measure, and then smiled gently down at Jason. “Are you hungry? Lunch time is coming up. I’d planned to ask Vale to join me, but you look like you could use some advice.”
Jason peered toward the house. He’d thought he might get another chance alone with Vale to talk things through, but at this point he didn’t even know what he could say.
Urho followed his gaze. “I was going to ask him to head over to Alamanga Avenue with me to eat at one of the filthy food booths he loves so much. I’m sure he doesn’t have anything decent inside. Or if he does, it’s barely enough for himself. Why don’t we walk over to Alamanga together? We can talk and grab some lunch. Then you can win points with Vale by bringing him a grilled sundried tomato and goat cheese sandwich. That’s a favorite of his.”
A pang of jealousy rang in him that Urho knew Vale’s favorites and he didn’t, but he smiled and nodded his gratitude. “Yeah, that sounds good. Are you sure you want to? Wouldn’t you rather spend the time with Vale?”
“If I know Vale, he won’t let me help him without a fight. You’re his alpha, whether I like it or not, and it’s your responsibility now to handle his moods.” He smiled at Jason. “Believe me, you’ll need all the practice you can get.”
Jason took lunch orders from Mox and his crew, chuckling under his breath at the size of some of their orders. They’d probably been barely satisfied by Vale’s sandwich and pineapple slices the other day, he mused. And he’d been too distracted by Vale’severythingto think about it.
The walk to Alamanga was enjoyable. The weather was brisk but not too cold, and the pale sunlight warmed their shoulders and the tops of their heads. Urho kept the conversation light on the way over, asking Jason about what he and Mox had planned for Vale’s back garden.
“As a courting gesture, it’s a nice one, but how long will it take to see the fruits of your labor?” Urho asked as they walked across the Middleton Bridge, passing into the part of town set aside for beta-run businesses. The colorful signs declaring sales on everything from books to wedding suits were their own kind of garden, holding onto brightness even as winter came on quickly.
“This spring and summer the garden might not be as beautiful as it will be, but by next year it should be more mature. I think Vale will enjoy it.” Jason loved working outside even though Father complained that it made his trousers dirty, and he had plenty of ideas for cross-breeding experiments he wanted to do with various flowers of similar species.
“So you’re planning to live in his house then?” Urho asked, obviously surprised. “It seems a step down for a man of your family’s status.”
“If Vale likes his house, I don’t see why we should sell it. I’m only nineteen. I don’t need to start worrying about my place in society yet. We can make our home happily in his house and then, when I’m older, we can move if we want to do that.”
His heart twisted and a dread fell on him like a heavy blanket. It felt like bad luck to speak of his dreams of their life together to Urho when he hadn’t talked to Vale about them yet. Especially when Vale seemed so hostile the last few days.
“Vale is a homebody for the most part. Not that he doesn’t have a wild streak in him, because he definitely does.” Urho’s lips pressed together, and he cleared his throat. “So, what are your family’s plans for the Feast of the Expectant Wolf tonight?”
“Vale was supposed to come, but after negotiations yesterday he bowed out, saying the feast is for close family only and he didn’t know if we’d ever be that.” The pain in his chest made him catch his breath. “What are your plans for the night?”
Urho sent him a sharp, perceptive look, but as he waved at a beta shopkeeper sweeping the sidewalk in front of a store, he let the moment go. “Since I lost Riki, I don’t do too much on this night. But I’ve been invited to Zim’s house for the evening as a thanks for helping with his brother’s heat. It will start next week, and they are all relieved to have an alpha on standby to help. I’ve asked another alpha friend of mine to be on call, as well. If the young man does suffer from nymphomania, his heat will be too much for me to handle alone. It might even be too much for two of us to deal with. So my friend is looking for a third unattached alpha.” Urho shook his head. “Nymphomania is a real shame. Not that it’s the omega’s fault entirely, of course. The gene manipulations of our forefathers have many unforeseeable consequences and sometimes nymphomania is one of them.”
“Interminable heat,” Jason corrected, surprised that Urho spoke so openly about genetic alterations. Religious adherents insisted that wolf-god alone was responsible. “Nymphomania is an old-fashioned term.”
“Now you sound like Vale. The thing is interminable heat only applies to heat. Nymphomania applies to the entire sex drive of the omega and can continue outside of the heat itself. That’s a distinction that the liberals don’t want to acknowledge. Nymphomania is a compassionate term. Otherwise, the omegas are just…” he trailed off, thinking. “What’s the Old World term? Sluts. I believe it was considered a slur even then. Promiscuous and overly invested in sex. That’s a negative trait by our culture’s standards and has apparently been considered so deep into the past. At least the idea of nymphomania allows us some pity, gives some leeway by acknowledging that the omega suffers from an incurable illness and simply can’t help himself.”
Jason didn’t reply. He didn’t understand why there were so many rules around sex. Why couldn’t uncontracted omegas enjoy as much sex as they could physically weather with as many alphas as they wanted? Especially if they weren’t in anÉrosgápepairing? And for that matter, why couldn’t Xan be with other alphas? Who did it hurt?
He knew Pater would say it was about control and paternity. They only had to look at the relaxed rules with betas to understand how much childbearing came into play with the laws around omegas and alphas. And yet, while he didn’t want to see Vale with other alphas if he could satisfy him himself, he didn’t see why contracted matches couldn’t make their own rules. They didn’t have the sameÉrosgápeattachment. They didn’t have to fight their own natures quite so much. They could be more like betas, who were known for non-monogamous matches. Why not? Who did it serve for sex to be so tightly controlled?
