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Arthur smiled.“It’s okay, man. Relax. You don’t need to pretend around me,remember?”

Istraightenedmy cuffs and took a moment to recover myself. “Not a word to Mother and Father,” Isaid.

His smile turned to a laugh,and he clapped me on the shoulder. “I’ve got your back. But, Christophe, don’t let it cloud yourjudgement.”

“It’s not,”I said, though now I wasn’t entirely sure. The way I was feeling about him, the breakneck intensity of it, was like nothing I’d experienced before. What if I had misjudged him? What if I just wanted to trusthim?

No.

Icouldn’t doubt myself.And more importantly, I wasn’t going to doubthim.

Arthur’s phone chimed,and he feigned an exaggerated sigh and continued on down the hallway. “These girls won’t leave mealone…”

As I walked along,I realized that I was smiling. I couldn’t believe how good it made me feel to know that Arthur supported me. Having to hold in my feelings, to keep them hidden from everyone… it took a toll on me. It’d been that way my entire life. I was never allowed to be myself, to fully express myself. I was the first alpha, and I always had to act as such. Just having this piece of my own feelings out in the world, finally, it felt so freeing. I walked faster. I wanted to get back downstairs, to check on Mason. I wanted to seehim.

Iturnedthe corner out of the hallway and made my way out to the spot overlooking the coat room, and peereddown.

My stomach flipped in shock.

Mason was gone.

“Oh, shit,”I said under my breath as I hurried downstairs. The broken coat room door had been taken off of the frame, and I quickly peered inside to see if he was there. Hewasn’t.

The tools were still scatteredon the floor. Stephen. Where wasStephen?

It wasn’t so muchthat I was worried about Mason stealing anything or running away. I knew where he lived. I was worried about being wrong. I was worried that he wasn’t the person I sensed he was. That would be worse than anythingelse.

Itookout my phone and dialed Stephen’s number. The front door opened and he walked in pushing a cart full of wiring. His phone started to ring in his pocket and he pulled it out, looked at it, and then looked at me. “Sir?”

“Stephen,”I said, hanging up. “Where’s Mason?” I realized my heart was pounding.Calm down,Christophe.

“He’s outside,sir. Making adjustments to the door. I provided him with more tools, I hope that’s fine. Shall I retrievehim?”

“No,no, that’s fine. Thankyou.”

Iwentoutside and received the second biggest shock of that day. There he was, Mason Arkentooth, omega, working at a table saw—with no shirt on. The saw whined and kicked up sawdust from the wood panels he was pushing through it. Sweat glistened on the curves of his muscles. I felt my cock pulse to life, and without thinking, I started waving my arms in theair.

“Hey! Hey!”Ishouted.

Mason shutthe saw off and stared at me from behind a pair of safetygoggles.

“What?”he said, irritated. “What do youwant?”

“What are you doing?”

“Fixing the fucking door,what does it looklike?”

“But why are youshirtless?”

He continuedto stare at me like I was anidiot.

“Igot hot,”he said, flatly. “You’ve got the damn heating blasting insidethere.”

“Yes, well…”Now I felt like an idiot, like seeing him shirtless had caused my brain to temporarily malfunction. “It’s winter. You… this is… there’s a certain standard of dress expected from people employed here…” I was justblabbing.

“Ican putmy shirt back on,” hesaid.

“No,”I replied, quickly. “Don’t worry about it.” I pointed to his bandaged hand. “Will you beokay?”