Page 19 of The Omega's Alpha
Quin sighed, and Holland glanced up at him in sympathy.
No point in putting anything off.“All right. Let’s get started.” When had being Alpha turned into this paperfest? It had looked a hell of a lot more romantic when he was eighteen and debating which branch of the military to sign up for.
The funding forms turned out to be the easiest part of the morning. It seemed that Abel had started a trend when he took his software out into the human world. Now they had the solar panel business, the brewery, and this—cooking sauces. Old pack recipes, tweaked and standardized so they could be sold to the humans outside walls. They had a small kitchen, built to human manufacturing standards, but needed a new, bigger one. Quin approved, because now the small kitchen could be used for other pack members to test out their own ideas for products, with the added benefit that it could hopefully all fit in under the banner of the sauce business. He signed his name on the line at the bottom with a flourish and set it triumphantly in the outbox for Holland to pick up.
The light coming through the window dimmed, then brightened again as the clouds drifted over the sun. He stopped for a moment to glance out over the enclave. From this high up, he could clearly see the walls and their angry thread of silver holding his people back. He wanted to see those walls come down in his lifetime. But how to do it?
That was a question for another time. First, he had to approve applications to move into the new houses. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to that and just given them to the people on the list for mated housing, but it didn’t seem fair. One thing he’d decided, when the second wave of building started, he wanted something like what he’d seen online that humans did for their seniors. A courtyard with small, single story houses, like the townhouses that had been built in the last round of new construction, before his time and Abel’s. It wasn’t an efficient use of space, but he’d talked to some of the pack members that took an interest in house planning and they’d come up with something didn’t waste too much ground. He leaned against the glass and peered toward the new space. The sunlight, as muted as it was, made his eyes burn and he turned regretfully back toward his desk.
It was Holland who brought in the applications for the housing. Quin took one look at the pile awaiting him and wished he’d never left the navy. “Stay?” he asked Holland on impulse.
“I can’t answer your phones from in here?”
“Why not?”
Holland looked momentarily baffled. “I don’t know. I can find out.”
“Do that. But later?” He needed someone to keep him from becoming maudlin. It had to be the lack of sleep. And Holland had kissed him last night.
“All right,” Holland said and leaned back out the door. “I’m going to help read through the applications and see if I can eliminate any right off the top.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Louise said, and Quin glimpsed a small, satisfied smile on Bax’s face before Holland closed the door.I’m being manipulated.But was it manipulation if you were being herded in the direction you wanted to go anyway?
Holland laid the stack of paper on the desk in front of Quin, leaned against it, and regarded Quin with a meditative smile.
“What?” Quin asked him.
Holland shrugged. “Just wondering if it was still okay to do this?” He thrust himself away from the desk and straddled Quin’s lap in one smooth arc of leg and torso. His mouth covered Quin’s and then Quin was lost in the warmth and taste of the man in his arms. Holland moaned and spread his hands wide over Quin’s chest, his fingers digging into the flesh beneath them.
After his first frozen moment of shock and delight, Quin put his arms around Holland, running his hands up and down the other shifter’s back. His jeans were uncomfortable, pressing awkwardly against his rising erection, though he knew if he could get out of them, he’d like to put his cock under an entirely different kind of pressure.
It didn’t make any sense why people said omegas had to be controlled and kept in their place, that their hormones made them incapable of carrying out complex or important tasks. Holland had run his office before, while Bax was recovering from birth, and he’d kept everything rolling so smooth Quin hadn’t noticed the changeover. He knew Holland was capable.
And sexy. Holy shit, can’t forget sexy. Not with sexy all pressed up against him.
“I told Louise not to let anyone disturb us,” Holland whispered against Quin’s cheek.
“Are the applications this time-sensitive?” He thought they had a month still.
“Not the applications.” Holland moved on from Quin’s cheek to his neck, his breath feathering hot and exciting over Quin’s skin. “But this is.” Holland stood up and pulled Quin to his feet, leading him toward the door between his office and his apartment. “Unless you want to play bad secretary?” He turned around and grinned and all Quin’s blood went to his cock.
“Maybe later,” he choked out. “Holland, are you sure—”
Holland put a finger against his lips, stopping whatever stupidity he was going to say, then replaced them with his mouth. “Come fuck me, Quin,” he said huskily. Holland shivered, though the office wasn’t cold. His eyes were glazed, his face flushed, and he looked at Quin like Quin was the answer to all his dreams. “Let’s play hooky for an hour.” He smiled and flirted with his eyelashes, and the next thing Quin knew, he was following him through the door and into Quin’s apartment.
Chapter Seventeen
So maybe thiswas a little fast, but I didn’t care. My former mate had enjoyed sex, and I’d taken to it like—well, like an omega. I loved sex, and Quin… oh, my lady, Quin. Maybe he would take me up against the wall, fast and furious and… I shuddered and turned around to find him watching me like I was the best dish on the table. I let go of his hand and stripped off my t-shirt and he pulled his off and I got to watch all that gorgeous muscle work as he lifted his arms above his head.
He was absolutely touchable, so I did, splaying my hands over his chest to feel the muscle bulge beneath them. The mating flush had started and he was almost burning beneath my palms. He’d feel so good on top of me and I slipped my arms up around his neck so I had an excuse to go chest to chest with him.
Quin grabbed me, all alpha-like, and crushed me against him. We kissed, the bristles on his chin rubbing painfully over my skin, but it was just another burn like the one threatening to consume me from within. Bare skin against my arms, my chest, my belly. And then we were falling and somehow we’d made it to his bedroom except I didn’t remember moving, just touch and mouths and his legs moving against mine. The mattress was cool against my back, and then the air cool against my legs as my jeans disappeared. I reached for him as he stepped out of his own jeans and pulled him down to me to drive the flame higher.
My former mate had never made me feel like this, even when I’d been in the middle of my pitiful heats. I wrapped my legs around Quin’s waist while I ravaged the side of his neck and humped him like a madman. My hips rocked to a rhythm of their own, chasing the feel of his body against me, but it wasn’t enough. His hands roamed my body and I shifted and twisted beneath him, offering myself up to his touch as if that was somehow sufficient recompense for how alive he made me feel. I heard him groan through the pounding of the blood in my ears and I bit at his jaw and murmured stupid things, crazy things, begging him to touch me here, kiss me there. He moved about my body like a hunter, finding places I’d never realized could make me cry out in desire. I wanted him so badly.
He slid down toward my hips, his shoulder pushing my legs apart.Yes.I thought he was going to arrange me how he wanted and make me his but he didn’t. Instead, he used his mouth to suck on my cock, a sensation so deliriously shocking that I yelled something obscene and stared down at him. He smiled and kissed his way along the side of it, his eyes glinting mischievously as I gaped at him and tried to remember how to breathe. There was definitely something to be said for soldier boys. And it felt kinky, dirty, looking down my body, my legs splayed as wide as I could force them while he played with me, his dark hair brilliant against the flushed rose of my skin.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, which made it all more real and overwhelming. Somewhere, a part of me was aware of the noises I was making, appallingly wild sounds that a well-bred omega shouldn’t make, but I didn’t care.
