Page 16

Chapter Twelve

Sorcha

S orcha looked down at the tiny pink tablets in his hand. The ones he’d spat out an hour ago. He’d been doing his uncles’ bidding for months, but didn’t think he could anymore.

Everything hurt. His body ached from the inside out. The cramping in his womb at night made him vomit. He had headaches all the time, and he’d lost weight he could ill-afford to lose.

At least most of the work this week was sanding and staining.

Those tasks were easier to endure. He dreaded next week because they had chairs coming in that would need a lot of intense labor to repair.

He didn’t know if he’d be able to do it.

His arms felt heavy. His feet dragged like they were made of bricks.

He’d pretended to take the pills while Dale watched, tricking the stern beta by hiding the tablets under his tongue. Luckily, his uncle hadn’t done a full mouth inspection like he had last time.

Sorcha sighed as he walked through the kitchen into the garage. He put the pills in a little paper cup and placed it on his workbench. The cement walls felt claustrophobic today, hot as a sauna. Sorcha opened the garage door to get some fresh air.

Dale and Abe wanted him to finish staining a large dining table today. He was trying to psych himself up for the task when Teal appeared in the driveway and waved.

Sorcha’s neck heated at the sight of the older omega. He’d been cleaning the bathroom in his uncles’ room early that morning when he'd heard the couple next door making love through the wall. Teal’s moans had been lustful and loud.

Sorcha had gone still, listening like a creeper.

He couldn’t help himself. He could only imagine the heady feeling of getting fucked by a perfect specimen of an alpha like Ronan.

Or running his hands over Teal, the most beautiful omega he’d ever seen.

As Teal had cried out his ecstasy, Sorcha leaned closer to the wall, hypnotized, feeling himself growing horny and wet.

Afterward, he’d had to sneak off to his bedroom to finger himself and jack his cock until an intense orgasm swept over him, the pleasure temporarily easing his body’s debilitating ache.

But shame followed almost immediately. He was coveting another omega’s alpha, and he had an intense attraction to an omega.

Both things were wrong. Yet he couldn’t deny that nothing turned him on like thinking of Ronan and Teal.

And now he and Teal were face-to-face.

“Hello, Sorcha,” Teal greeted him from the garage entrance.

Sorcha pulled a rolling stool out from under his workbench and sat down. He willed himself not to think of the sounds Teal had made that morning. “Um, hey, Teal.”

“I’ve been wanting to come check on you for a while. It seems like you’ve been avoiding me and Ronan.”

Sorcha winced. He had been avoiding them, but he’d hoped it wasn’t obvious. “No. Just busy,” he lied.

“Hmm.” Teal nodded his head. He looked more fatigued than usual.

“Are you okay?” Sorcha asked.

“Yeah. It’s just…” The older omega appeared to search for words. “Have you noticed anything unusual around the neighborhood?”

“Unusual?”

Teal’s posture stiffened. “You know the Bannon case is going to High Court soon?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Well, lots of people, particularly lots of alphas, don’t want it to succeed. I usually get plenty of hate notes, weird texts, things like that. But lately it’s…escalated.”

Sorcha didn’t like the sound of that. “Escalated how?”

“Yesterday, the boys got into some trouble at the pool, and I realized that they’ve become targets, not just me and Ronan.

It’s never been an issue before, but I feel the need to be extra careful.

That’s why I stayed home today, even though it’s a workday.

I want to make sure my family feels secure.

If you haven’t noticed anything unusual, that’s good. ”

Sorcha thought carefully, but the only threatening thing he’d seen lately was Uncle Dale’s face when Sorcha finished a project late.

“I’m sorry your family is going through that,” Sorcha said. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Thank you. Please check in with us or Niall if you notice anything.”

Sorcha again had the distinct impression Niall was more to the couple than their nanny. “Will do.”

Sorcha waited for Teal to leave, but Teal surprised him by taking a step into the garage and leaning against Sorcha’s large toolbox.

“Now that we’ve settled that,” Teal said, crossing his arms, “why don’t you tell me how you’ve really been since we took you to the hospital? I’m particularly interested in why you look like death’s fond companion today, and why you’ve been pale for months.”

“I’ve been feeling under the weather—”

Teal hmphed. “It’s a testament to your strength of mind that you can even pick up a paintbrush these days, let alone a hammer.” He unfolded his arms and used a softer voice. “You can talk to me, little omega. Please tell me what’s going on.”

Sorcha felt the warm tendrils of their omega bond in Teal’s soft tone. More than anything, he wanted to surrender to that comfort. He looked down, brushing his toe along the cement floor. “I think you know,” he mumbled.

“I have a suspicion. But I don’t want to assume. It’s better if you tell me.”

Raising his eyes to Teal’s, Sorcha pointed to the small cup perched on the workbench.

Teal peered into it and nodded, as though confirming what he’d already suspected. “How long have you been taking the suppressants?”

“For a while,” Sorcha hedged.

“How long?” Teal’s voice had an edge to it.

“Sixteen months.”

“Sixteen months?!” Teal clasped a hand over his mouth, looking at the door connecting the garage to the kitchen.

“Don’t worry,” Sorcha said. “My uncles are gone for the day.”

Teal pulled out a folding chair he saw propped against a wall and sat down next to Sorcha.

After blowing out a long breath, he said, “Sixteen months is too long. You must know that. Suppressants are for short-term heat blockage, only to be used when you have a very specific reason for needing to delay a heat for a few weeks or months, maybe. Not more than a year.”

“I know.”

“Then why?” Teal’s voice pitched higher. “Long-term usage has been linked to illness, fertility problems, even early death. This is dangerous.”

Sorcha fisted his hands on top of his thighs. “My uncles. They insist on it.”

“Don’t they know what could happen?”

Sorcha considered the question. He didn’t believe his uncles wanted him dead. But he’d been surprised when Dale gave him the tablets this morning, given how rough he’d looked lately.

“I think they know, but they just…think I’ll be okay,” Sorcha replied lamely.

Teal shook his head. “That’s crazy. They’re your legal guardians. That means they’re responsible for your health! Tell me, when was the last time you had an actual heat?”

“When I was eighteen, my first and only.”

“And how old are you now?”

“Twenty-one.”

“You’re twenty-one and you’ve only had one heat?!” Teal’s jaw dropped.

“Yes.”

“And how did you…handle it?” A stern expression settled on the older omega’s face. “Was it a terrible heat service? An uncaring alpha? Is that why you keep taking the suppressants? Because you think being sick and weak is better than…whatever happened to you?”

Sorcha knew enough about the Bannon case to surmise that Teal had probably been reading nothing but heat service horror stories for the past year.

“No, it wasn’t anything like that. I told you the truth. I take the suppressants because Dale and Abe want me to.”

“Then I still have the same question. What did you do for your first heat?”

“Not a service. My uncles didn’t want to pay for it.” Sorcha frowned, remembering. “And they don’t know any alphas well enough to ask.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Teal prodded gently, “So…”

“They gave me toys and bought some alpha semen on the Internet. I’d just graduated high school and had a few omega friends at the time. This was back when we lived on the other side of the state. One of them helped me use the toys and the…seed.”

Teal stared at him, open-mouthed. “Let me get this straight. You’ve only had one heat, and you got through it using toys and donated semen with only an omega friend to support you?”

“Yes.”

“Did your friend at least fuck you? Fill your hole?” Sorcha’s cheeks burned at the blunt question, but the older omega gave no quarter.

Sorcha understood why Teal was so revered in the courtroom.

He was an excellent interrogator. “My apologies for being so bold, little omega, but I am genuinely worried about you. I’m not trying to embarrass you. I’m just trying to get the facts.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to help you.”

“But why? What can you do?”

“I’m not sure. But I need to do something. And that means I need to understand. Please, Sorcha. It was your uncles’ job to take care of you, and it sounds like they failed miserably. I would be so grateful if you answered me.”

Sorcha wasn’t entirely sure he understood Teal’s question. He man must be asking if his friend had filled him with the toys, because omegas didn’t… top ? Sorcha had dreamed about getting fucked, but he’d never once fantasized about doing the fucking.

“He just sort of, um, squirted the stuff in me, and used the toys.”

“I’m sorry,” Teal said, taking Sorcha’s hands in his. “That sounds terrible.”

“It was awful.” Sorcha closed his eyes. He hated remembering it. “I think that’s part of the reason I’ve been okay taking the suppressants. Because I’m scared to have a heat.”

“Am I correct in assuming you’re a virgin?”

Sorcha felt his face flame again as he nodded.

Teal placed a hand on Sorcha’s cheek, turning it until their noses nearly touched.

“Sorcha, you are not to blame for any of this,” he said softly.

“Dale and Abe are the villains here. But the bottom line is you need to stop taking the pills. I’ll have Ronan talk to your uncles.

We can recommend a reputable heat service, if that’s what you want.

But you can’t keep making yourself sick because your uncles are cheap or don’t want to be inconvenienced. ”

“You’ll make Ronan talk to them?”

“Yes. And he’ll remind them who we are, not just their landlords, but also that we’re connected to people who would be happy to prosecute negligent betas for not taking care of their ward.”

Sorcha made a derisive sound. “Extended suppressant use isn’t technically illegal. It’s just not recommended. I doubt you’d be able to prove negligence since I’ve taken the pills willingly.”

“Don’t underestimate my skills in the courtroom,” Teal said. “Besides, if we can’t scare them by threatening them with a tribunal, then Ronan will just have to convince them the old-fashioned way.”

Sorcha laughed. “I can guess.”

“I’ll bet you could.” Teal smiled, continuing to run his thumb over Sorcha’s jaw.

“Truly, I don’t want you to be afraid of your heats.

With the right circumstances, perhaps even the right alpha, it can be a wonderful and beautiful experience.

Our bodies were built for the pleasure of heat.

It’s not wrong for you to want that. Your body craves it.

Just because your uncles refuse to understand doesn’t change that fact. ”

Rising to his feet, Sorcha took the paper cup with the pills and threw it in the garbage, putting a few nasty paper towels on top. “Please have Ronan talk to my uncles soon.”

“Happy to. Since you’re coming off sixteen months of suppressants, your heat probably won’t come for at least a month, but you should start to feel less sick and tired right away.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Sorcha felt hopeful for the first time since his hospital visit and the night he’d spent at the couple’s house.

“Indeed.”

Teal stood and pulled Sorcha into his arms. Sorcha went rigid before leaning into the embrace. He’d been held so little in his life. His parents and brothers had shown him almost no affection before they died, and his uncles certainly never hugged him.

Teal rubbed his palms up and down Sorcha’s back, and the hug began to feel more than friendly, more than the kinship of the omega bond.

The smell of honey and lavender invaded Sorcha’s nostrils, and he inhaled deeply.

Was that…Teal’s scent? He didn’t think he’d ever smelled another omega before.

Other alphas, sure, especially his senior year of high school when everyone had started blooming, but never an omega.

His brain recalled Teal’s cries of ecstasy that morning. To his horror, Sorcha’s cock thickened.

Teal didn’t pretend not to notice. “It’s okay, my darling.” Teal leaned back, his arms still locked around Sorcha’s waist. “It’s natural. You’re young and your body is yearning.”

“But…we’re both omegas.”

“Yes,” Teal agreed. “But we are also both men.” With that, he pulled away. “I’ll speak with Ronan tonight when he gets home. Don’t forget to tell us if you see any suspicious characters around the neighborhood.”

Sorcha nodded, mesmerized. He could see why Teal had captivated an alpha like Ronan, why he’d captured the imagination of the entire public. Sorcha felt compelled to give the magnetic omega whatever he wanted.

Including something he’d never given anyone.

His trust.