Page 30 of Alpha Heat
Jason’s face blanched, and he pushed Urho away hard, darting glances around the empty sidewalk. He peeked at the neighbor’s house whose gate they now stood in front of and lifted his hand, offering a smile and a reassuring, “Good morning, Mr. Ragnak. Everything’s fine here. A friendly tussle, but we’re all right.”
Urho didn’t turn around to see what the neighbor made of Jason’s niceties and his own explosive words, and instead got up in Jason’s face again. “You fucked him.” He shook him hard with each word out of his mouth. “And youfucked him up.”
“Will you keep your voice down?” Jason pushed Urho back, surprisingly strong for his sapling build. He smoothed his hands over his new, fashionable coat—no doubt picked out by Vale—and took a slow breath. “If you give me a chance, we can talk about this. Reasonably. But you have to calm down, Urho. You look like a maniac.”
“You ruined him.”
Jason’s eyes sparked. “Xan isn’t ruined. But if you don’t shut up, he might be.” Jason reached out reassuringly, but Urho ducked his touch. His stomach lurched and his eyes felt gritty with lack of sleep.
“You shouldn’t be driving,” Jason said. “You’re a disaster right now. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but if you’ll calm down, you can come back to the house with me and talk this over…” He trailed off, his gaze swerving back toward the cozy home he shared with Vale. “No, Vale doesn’t need to see you like this. He’ll get upset and it won’t be good for him or the baby.”
Urho clenched his jaw, holding back from taking a swing at Jason, furious that he could be so calm, so smooth. Not at all the gangly baby alpha he’d been four years ago—back when he’d apparently been fuckingXan, as hislover, and then gone on to ruin Vale’s life, too, by imprinting on him. Who gave a good wolf-god damn how happy they were together now? It was clear Jason was a curse.
“Urho,” Jason said softly. “You’re exhausted. Let me drive you home.”
“No.”
“Fine. We can look for a quiet place to talk. This is so unlike you. You’re worrying me.”
Urho swallowed hard.
It was true he wasn’t acting right. Something had happened to him when he’d touched Xan’s body, when he’d slipped his fingers past Xan’s puffy, swollen anus and held his hips steady so he wouldn’t flinch. Something had come unhinged. He didn’t understand and he didn’t think talking to Jason about it was going to fix it at all, but as he rubbed his tired eyes he had to concede that punching him probably wouldn’t help either. What had he been thinking coming here?
“C’mon,” Jason said kindly, urging him into the passenger side of Urho’s own car. “Where are your keys? I’ll drive.”
Urho indicated they were still in the ignition and let Jason take over. Then he leaned back, hand over his face, trying to gain some measure of sanity as Jason buckled in behind the wheel and guided them out onto the road.
After a few minutes of stressful quiet, Jason said, “Here. Vale likes this park. He brings me here to watch the ducks with their ducklings in the spring.”
“Entreo Park,” Urho said, removing his hand from his face to confirm. “He used to bring me here too.”
Jason huffed softly, but made no other remark about Urho daring to bring up his former entanglement with Jason’sErosgapé, despite the obvious provocation of it. “The ducks have probably gone south for the winter, but we can still have a walk around the pond.”
Urho’s footsteps felt wobbly and strange, as though he’d downed a bottle and a half of liquor. His mouth was dry and his hands shook. What devil from wolf’s own hell had come to possess him? Or was Riki punishing him now for the sins of his unwanted thoughts and feelings? Had that moment in the study been only wishful thinking, putting words in his omega’s mouth? And now his beloved’s ghost haunted him from the grave?
“Talk to me,” Jason said finally, guiding Urho to a low wooden bench by the side of the muddy, winter-brown pond. The trees around them released colorful leaves and etched dark lines into the expansive gray sky. Birds going south cried out every few seconds. “What’s going on with you?”
“I don’t know.” Urho’s voice was gruff, like he’d gargled glass. “I don’t recognize myself.”
“I barely recognize you either, so I understand that.” Jason cleared his throat. “I hate to ask given your line of questioning, but is Xan all right?”
“He’s fucked up” Urho bit the words out. “He’s demented.”
“Is he?” Jason asked with a sympathy that Urho wanted to wrap around himself and hide in, like a soft blanket. “I don’t think he is. I think he’s wonderful.”
Urho swallowed hard but said nothing.
“Did he…try something with you?”
“No!” Urho’s insides roared to life, cool rage and hot lust colliding. Xan hadn’t tried anything with him at all! And what was wrong with him that he’d wanted Xan to? If Xan had made a move toward him that morning after his examination, if he’d acted instead of remarking on Urho’s lust, what could have happened between them?
Anything. Anything at all!
“All right,” Jason said. “So what’s going on?”
He choked on his reply. Xan was his patient, wasn’t he? He’d treated him and prescribed him medication, touched him as a doctor—though his resulting arousal hadn’t been doctorlyat all—and, even if Xan wasn’t his patient, guaranteeing him privacy, he’d asked Urho outright not to tell Jason anything. “I can’t say.”
“I see,” Jason said again, oozing calm concern that no longer seemed comforting and instead made Urho want to clock him. “But Xan’s safe?”
