“What’s going on here?” the alpha asked again, stalking forward, eyes cutting between Braden and Ezer.
“He wanted me to,” Braden said quickly. “He begged me for it, sir.”
Ezer shook wordlessly, a cold rage racing through him. He felt helpless, like when he was trying to read and the letters wouldn’t stop swimming, only now it was language that wouldn’t come to him.
“Is he yours to fuck?”
“Yes!”
Ezer shook his head.
The alpha’s eyes grew blacker. “He says he’s not.”
“Well, no, but…but!” Braden sounded confused, but when he spoke again, he was more confident. “Sir, he begged me to fuck him. Pleaded for my semen. He said he needed it. Couldn’t live without it. I mean, he’s pregnant and in need of alpha semen. His alpha neglects him, so I was doing him a favor.”
The alpha took an inventory of Ezer and glared at Braden again. His omega whispered something, and the alpha nodded. Braden kept babbling, zipping his cock away, now sounding completely at ease and nonchalant. “Anyway, as I said, he wanted me to do it. C’mon, he bent over the table and exposed himself to me. I’m only nineteen and an alpha. All those hormones, you know? What else was I supposed to do?”
“You’re Tenmeter’s son,” the alpha said.
“I am,” Braden said, imperious, as if the reminder he was a Tenmeter gave him the assurance that he would definitely get away with this.
Ezer wanted to vomit because he suspected that he would. Even if Ned believed Ezer, no one else would, and what could Ned do against the Tenmeter family?
“And who are you?” Braden asked, running his fingers through his hair, and straightening his blazer.
“Heath Clearwater.”
The name rang in the air and Braden seemed to lose some of his pomp, but he maintained his air of coolness, sticking out his hand. “Good to meet you, sir. I hear you have many business deals with my father.”
“Is that what you hear?” Heath said, darkly. “Perhaps that won’t be true for long.”
Braden sniffed. “Who else would you do business with, sir, if not my father? There’s no one at his level.”
“I could put someone at his level,” Heath said, but at another whisper from his omega, he changed the topic. “What do you think your father will say when you’re arrested this afternoon for the attempted rape of a pregnant omega?”
Braden scoffed. Then, as Heath’s gaze didn’t waver, and the omega typed something into his cell phone with one thumb, while juggling the infant in the other arm, Braden paled. “You don’t need to do that, sir. Like I said, he wanted it.”
“I don’t think he did,” Heath said. “I heard ‘no’ very distinctly, and you had him restrained.”
“It was a game,” Braden said. “You know how some omegas are, they want to cry and scream no while you take them. It gets them hot.”
“Have a seat until the police arrive.”
Braden’s face turned from white to purple then. “Sir, you will not involve the police in this,” he commanded.
Heath strode toward Braden, all muscle and much taller, a fully grown alpha. He took him by the shoulders, steering him onto the chaise lounge. As he did, his omega—Adrien, Ezer thought he was called—came rushing over with the baby and knelt at Ezer’s side.
“Are you all right?” he whispered, and when Ezer nodded—though he doubted his own answer was true, because he was far from all right—Adrien asked, “The baby? It’s all right, too?”
“They’re fine.”
“Heath,” Adrien said, taking hold of Ezer’s arm and helping him to his feet. “I’m taking him inside. Surely, he won’t need to talk with the police? Lidell will be upset enough that you saw his pregnant omega, and even more upset if police do.”
“He isn’t Lidell’s,” Heath said.
Adrien blinked, confused. “Then whose…oh.”
“Ned’s,” Heath said, not taking his eyes off Braden where he sat in the chair, looking perplexed and scared. It was an expression Ezer had never seen on Braden’s face before, and he wished he could see it for longer, but Adrien was leading him away. The baby in Adrien’s arms fussed and whined, and the sound made Ezer’s heart pound even more.