Page 44 of Slow Heat
“Oh!” Pater smiled, his hazel eyes crinkling around the edges. “I thought they were quite good. Beautiful work. He has a nice way with language and description. He’s rarely rococo. He’s honest.” Pater’s eyes went distant, obviously remembering something he’d read. “When you’re older, there are some poems of his that you really ought to see. But not now. Not at this juncture.”
“Miner!” his father’s voice called from the study. “Join me, please.”
Pater called over his shoulder. “Of course, Yule. I’m on my way.”
“Do you think new information came in? About Vale?” Jason asked, torn between following his pater to see what was going on and rushing up to his room to read what Vale had crafted.
“If it did, you can wait until morning,” Pater said. “But I think this is about the squabble he had to settle today at the shipping yard. He likes to relive his heroics for me, you know. So I can be impressed by him all over again.” His eyes gleamed, and Jason laughed. “Go on now. Up to your room. Be enthralled by your Vale’s words.”
Jason dashed up the stairs, locking his bedroom door behind him. He paced for a few seconds, trying to get the energy out of his legs. The room still smelled of Xan, despite having changed the sheets and leaving the window open.
He picked up the bookmark he’d gotten from Vale and pressed it to his nose. He could still smell Vale’s house and even the sharper note of mint from the garden, but the musk of Vale’s slick and the perfume of his skin was gone now, stamped over by the heavy scent of the sex he and Xan’d had earlier that day.
Frustrated, he tucked the bookmark into his pocket. He shouldn’t have fucked Xan. Or maybe he should have. He didn’t know. It was all so confusing. He didn’t owe Xan anything, but in that moment, buzzing with alpha expression, he hadn’t been able to tease out what he wanted from what hewanted. And Xan was so desperate, and, if he was honest, so in love. It’d been a heady mixture, and he’d given in. He couldn’t really regret it…though he did.
He sat down at his desk, but the microscope and slides were still out. He didn’t want to take the time to put them away before reading. The scent of Xan’s jizz floated by him again, and he stood up, gripping the sheaf of papers tightly. The window opposite opened onto the sloped roof below.
Jason stepped over to it, climbed out, and settled on the slates. The night breeze flowed over him, chilling his bones. His nipples ached from the cold and his nose burned, but it was better than reading Vale’s poems in a room reeking of his mistakes. Was being an adult alpha always going to be so confusing and so hard? He hoped not. What had been fun and games in the dorm now seemed like so much more with so many more potential consequences.
He hoped Xan was okay tonight. He hoped he wasn’t alone.
A layer of clouds obscured the stars, but the moon, determined as always, broke through, pale and judgmental. Jason shuddered at the scarred, all-seeing, all-knowing eye of the wolf-god.
Two alphas weren’t supposed to lie together. Not even as a favor to a best friend. Not even as alpha expression. Not unless you meant to leave the other unmanned.
To kiss and caress, tocare? That wasn’t the way of wolf.
According to the Holy Book of Wolf, omegas had been created to prevent unnatural acts like that. And they’d been created for breeding, of course. To carry on the race. And because reproduction was the most sacred duty to wolf-god and to the world, spending seed in another alpha wasn’t something that could be borne by religious or secular law.
Under the cold, watchful eye of the moon, Jason wondered if he’d been grievously wrong to have thought it so silly a rule before. Now he’d hurt his best friend, broken his heart, and disappointed his pater. And if Vale found out, he’d beunhappy.
A strange swell of emotion pummeled Jason—joy and grief combined. He didn’t ever want to make Vale unhappy, it hurt him to the quick even imagining it, but the idea that hecouldhurt Vale? That his actions with Xan might provoke feelings in his smug, older omega, feelings that cracked his cool, mature exterior? That made him nearly giddy.
Not that he deserved strong feelings from Vale. Not after what he’d done today.
But he would deserve them one day soon! He’d be a better man, a better alpha, and he’d earn Vale’s devotion, love, and submission.
Just as soon as he was allowed to do so, as soon as they’d settled all the frustrating preliminary issues in the presence of attorneys.
Jason sighed, closed his eyes, and let go. He allowed the night breeze to carry off the events with Xan, the awkward conversation with Pater, and the jealousy and fear that Vale might be spending time with another alpha while everyone else forced Jason to follow ‘protocol’. He released the impatience burbling inside and waited for calm, drifting with the alpha quell.
When he lifted his eyes the clouds had parted and the stars shone down. He shifted his attention to the papers in his hand, the sheaf of them ruffling with each sigh of wind.
The opening lines of Vale’s first poem cut into him like glass, beautiful and shiny. He pressed a hand to his throbbing heart as he read the next line, and the next, and the next.
Every word chosen by Vale.
Every word a prism through which to know him.
Every word perfect.
Just like his omega.
He memorized them all with ease and then lay back in the darkness, staring up at the sky, pondering the meanings for hours.
CHAPTER NINE
“Do you thinkbringing Urho was a good idea?” Rosen whispered into Vale’s ear as they waited on the sidewalk for Yosef and Urho to climb out of the backseat of the car the Sabels had sent to collect him.
