Page 41 of Bitter Heat
In your letters to me, you didn’t directly identify the young, pregnant omega living in the boarding house with you. However, I was startled to realize that I know just the man you’re describing. Not intimately, but in passing. His first initial, along with the description of his chest gave him away. It isn’t your fault. You did well in trying to obscure his identity, but his contracted alpha moved in the same social circles as Xan for quite some time, and I was still attending Philia soirees when unmatched omegas of his year of wolf began.
Therefore, know that I’m not sure if what I’m about to propose is even appropriate to offer, but wolf-god must damn propriety in this case! If you see fit, or you think it might help, please tell Kerry that he has friends in Virona. To be explicit: Xan and I would be happy to help him in any way we can. Urho too, of course.
We are all far too familiar with the brutality Kerry may have experienced in the past from his contracted alpha, and which he may be facing in some ongoing way. Especially if he is indeed with child from his alpha as you say. We’ll happily assist with legal aid, monetary help, or the provision of suitable healthcare for him or the child should he require it. I know that his alpha’s family has plenty of money, but we would never trust them to use it fairly. Lastly, don’t hesitate to ask for help on his behalf if you think he’s too prideful to ask for it on his own. We desire to make sure he is safe.
As for all your concerns and your moral compunctions, my friend, that is the way of life. Take a deep breath and follow your gut. Be true to your heart. Choose to act with love. Those are the only guidelines I can give you.
And dear Janus, if I detected a note of interest in Kerry that goes beyond that of pure friendship, please do understand that he may have been exposed to abuses of a horrific nature. I can’t reveal more regarding how or what I know about all that, but I can’t emphasize it enough. Be gentle with him. Give him nothing but kindness. I trust that you will.
Wolf-god be with you,
Caleb
Janus stared at the signature for a long moment. Then he moved from the windowsill to his writing desk to pen a letter in reply. With dinner still hours away, he took his time, first addressing the subject of his initial shock upon arriving in Hud’s Basin, and how that had, over the prior two weeks, transformed into an urgent desire to help.
There are alphas, omegas, betas, and children here who require more of a life than they are currently able to eke out. Our patients rarely pay us at all, and when they do, it is often by barter. I don’t know where Dr. Crescent gets his funds to live on, frankly. Perhaps hisÉrosgápehas family money that came into the good doctor’s hands when they contracted? I would ask because I admit to a great curiosity on the subject, but the man is gruff and sometimes rude, and his omega frightens me, if I’m honest. I know they never go hungry and yet the money clients give us is not enough to buy what they need to live.
Alas, my portion of our shared wages will not be enough to cover my room and board here at Monk’s House once my pre-paid year runs out. I’ve sent word to my man Warren to begin selling my things. But don’t worry about me. I don’t need the clothing or the collectibles up this way, and should I ever decide to return and practice in the city, it will all be sorely out of fashion by then. I’d rather have the money now to help here as I see fit.
He sat back and chewed on the end of the pen and then started writing again. After a few more sentences, assuring Caleb that he would be all right and find a way to make ends meet, his eyes slid back over to the window and the view there. He wondered what Kerry was doing on this warm weekend. The sun had finally started heating Hud’s Basin enough during the day that Janus no longer wore a jacket or coat when he left the house. Like the other men on the mountain, he went around in his shirtsleeves or even a T-shirt, sweating through the material during the midday.
At night, the water in the lake had grown warm enough to swim quite comfortably. He’d noticed that since the water had warmed, there wasn’t as much shrinkage down below. There had been a few occasions when the effect of Kerry’s pheromones floating around the house had inflamed him so much that he’d hoped Kerry might come down to join him so that he might see Janus’s true size for himself.
Janus sat back and thought about the last time he’d seen Kerry.
Kerry’s stomach had grown much larger over the last few weeks, the child inside entering the most rapid growth of its development. In fact, the skin over Kerry’s stomach looked stretched and taut now. At least it had the one time theyhadpassed each other at the lake—Janus still clothed and on his way in, and Kerry, entirely naked, coming out. They never seemed to go for a swim at the same time, and Janus was starting to take it personally.
Around the house, Janus had noticed Kerry moved more slowly now, too, but not with the waddle of an omega close to birth. He had weeks to go yet before he reached that state. Instead, he moved with more care, like his balance had been affected by the sudden change in his core, and therefore, his surety of movement had lessened. He also groused a lot about intense growth pains as his ligaments and bones adjusted to make space for the baby. He didn’t complain to Janus directly, of course, but the house was small, and his grumbles to his pater carried up the stairs quite often.
Janus found Kerry’s presence, whenever he managed to be in it, heady. He sampled Kerry’s scent as often as possible, loving most the evenings when Kerry succumbed to his pater’s insistence that they all sit and read together in the living room after dinner.
Janus would close his eyes, pretend to drowse over his book, and instead wallow in the delicious scent. He’d often tried to decide whether it was the musk or the berries that was Kerry’s alone, and which belonged to the child. But Janus couldn’t tease it out. He just knew that he reveled in it all.
Two nights before, he’d opened his eyes to find Kerry watching him with a measuring expression as if trying to determine something about Janus’s soul by the way his body rested in the chair. When their eyes met, Kerry had jerked his gaze away and pretended to be fascinated by the page he held open in his book of patterns for baby clothes. Janus didn’t look away, though, watching as Kerry sat in his armchair, flipping through the pages. Kerry kept his expression impassive as he folded over the edges of patterns he planned to try.
Constant curiosity had long burned in Janus about Kerry’s contracted alpha. From the beginning, he’d wanted to know why he was absent from Kerry’s life, and then, when Fan had disclosed that he was in prison, Janus had wanted to know what, exactly, had put him there. Caleb’s letter only made his curiosity burn hotter. For Caleb to write about Kerry’s alpha in such a harsh manner, and with such empathy for Kerry, left Janus certain that his least desirable guess had been right: Kerry’s alpha must be very violent, or cruel.
But if that was the case, how had Kerry ever contracted with him? While Kerry was a bitter man, he wasn’t a hateful one. Any alpha who was wouldn’t have drawn him either. So, how had he ended up in a cruel man’s clutches? That was a story no one seemed interested in telling him.
Janus had hinted at some questions regarding Kerry’s situation to Dr. Crescent, but the man ignored him. Gossip wasn’t one of Dr. Crescent’s pastimes. And Janus hadn’t spoken one-on-one with Fan since the feisty omega had told him off for daring to question Kerry’s choice. And Zeke, when prodded, maintained that he couldn’t say much more than he already had, because it was Kerry’s story to share.
And Kerry…
Well, Kerry grew daily in so many ways. He grew stronger, more handsome, rounder, and even more distant. Ever since the morning Janus had called him out on singing in the attic, Kerry had seemed to slip deeper into himself, an inward turn that many pregnant omegas took as their pregnancy progressed. And yet Janus wanted to know more about him by the day. It was an itch that he couldn’t reach, and Janus’s chances of getting Kerry to share anything about himself seemed slimmer and slimmer.
Pulling himself from those thoughts, Janus returned to penning his letter to Caleb:
There’s a boy in the mountains who has lost his foot due to a crushing accident. When helping Dr. Crescent treat him, I was put in mind of the new prosthetics available for such injuries in the city. But there’s no way this young man’s family could afford to buy one for him now, much less replace it as he grows. It struck me as the sort of issue that, while endemic in this area, you might find especially compelling. It’s overstepping, I know, (but when haven’t I overstepped with you?) but I must ask anyway. For this boy’s sake, not my own. Would you consider holding a charity auction for this young one, so that he and his family might come to the city to see what his options are at this time? I know that as Xan’s omega you’re expected to do charitable things such as this from time to time, and I can personally vouch as to the value and need. Please consider it. He’s an omega as well if that makes any difference to you.
He finished up his letter by describing some more details of his day-to-day life, and what he was learning about medicine. Then he wrapped it up quickly by thanking Caleb and Xan for their willingness to help Kerry should there ever be a need. And then he went on:
As for the alpha in question, I’ve heard little to nothing of him except that he was a bad match. Kerry and his pater are both reluctant to describe more. I don’t ask you to illuminate the situation, because I know you are, for the most part, above gossip and tale-telling. But if there is more you think I should know, as the young man’s cohabitant and sometimes medical care provider, I will be ever so grateful. He keeps his business to himself, and I have yet to break through his reserve.
He considered telling Caleb how distracting he found Kerry’s scent, and asking Caleb if he’d had any trouble while pregnant with some alphas being more than usually attracted to him but decided that would be outside the bounds of their current relationship. Bounds he’d already pushed quite far enough with his last letters and with his requests in this one. So, he wrapped everything up with compliments on Caleb’s healthy sons, wishes for Caleb’s happiness, and a renewed plea for his safe delivery.
Then he put the letter in an envelope, sealed and stamped it, and dropped it into the bag he’d take with him when he left to work with Dr. Crescent again.
Stretching, he gazed out his window at the blue, glistening water, and he made up his mind to go for a swim. There were still several hours before dinner, and he was eager to work out some of his worries with physical activity.
