Page 47 of His Bonded Omega Mate
Asher: I’ll ask if I can leave early.
Goddess, Asher was exhausting to deal with sometimes. More often than not recently, he was prickly and quick to anger. Sure, we had our sweet moments, ones that made it easier to deal with a testy Asher, but those were becoming fewer and farther between.
We’d all been mated for a month. I couldn’t imagine not being as a group, though it had worked out differently than I’d hoped. If I really thought about the dynamic, I didn’t have two other mates. I just had Hiroshi, but that was fine, because he had Tate who worshiped him. As long as my mate was happy, perfectly content with his life, then I was doing my job as his alpha.
Did I think I was missing out on not having the two other mates? No. I didn’t. That was the honest truth. When we’d gone into this entire thing, I had been aware that it could all fall apart, and quickly, too.
Slowly, over the last few weeks, the bond marks had lightened, and the cracks showed. First, it was Asher being unwilling or unable to be with me. That was fine with me. I cared for the guy, but I had my hands full with Hiroshi. Then I’d noticed that he never instigated affection with Hiro, likely because he didn’t want to have sex with him. Asher hadn’t touched Hiro once after the initial bonding that I could remember.
All Asher did was concentrate on Tate. He was fine when Hiro and Tate were together, and they were. A lot. Honestly, I didn’t mind that either. Seeing Hiroshi truly loved for who he was helped ease any feelings of jealousy. I didn’t think I could handle him on his own. Having Tate there certainly helped.
The mansion was abuzz as it usually was, with people milling about. We still required security as we walked around the mansion. No one was to go anywhere alone inside it with so many places for an attack to take place. I was lucky with my potential guards. Larken escorted me to my desk.
“How you been? Hardly seen you.”
I felt a prickle of guilt. I’d stopped hanging out with my friends so much since I’d mated. “Hey, I asked you to come over.” Larken looked uncomfortable. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just adjusting to you being mated is all. Movie later this week? Maybe off compound?”
“Sure.” I thought about asking if Hiro could come too, but sensed that Larken just wanted to hang out with me. Maybe then he’d say all he needed to. There was a growing distance between us. I just wanted my friend back.
Larken gave me a bro hug and left me with Kade.
“All good?” he asked, scanning my face.
It hurt to lie to him. “Absolutely.”
The house was still when I got in. At first I thought it was empty, but Hiro was in the kitchen stirring something in a pot.
“Hey, you. Asher and Tate have gone out for the night, so it’s just us for dinner.”
Relieved, I joined him at the stove, wrapped my arms around him, and took in his scent. He still had that sharp grapefruit smell that made my mouth water. I bent my head and mouthed along his neck, making him arch.
“After dinner!” he chided.
With a last kiss to his cheek, I let him go and laid the table for him.
“Roan?” he asked cautiously as we finished up with our food.
“Yeah?”
“What happened today? With Tate. Asher seemed pissed.”
Dinner threatened to rise back up. I took a deep breath and explained what happened with Tate as quickly as I could.
Hiroshi slipped from his chair and kneeled at my feet, fingers stroking my leg in comfort. “Hey, it’s okay. You did nothing wrong.”
I met his eyes, seeing only compassion there. “It isn’t working, Hiro.”
The beginnings of tears lined his dark eyes. “I know. I don’t know what to do.”
“Can we not think about this for a little while? Maybe go watch a movie? Just enjoy being together?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
We kept it fairly PG during the first movie. A silly action movie badly taken from a graphic novel. Seriously, the book was always better. I had Hiroshi wrapped up in my arms, sitting between my legs, head resting on my chest.
During the second movie, he wriggled around. Soon he was higher, resting on my thigh and pressing kisses under my jaw.
