Page 134 of Alpha Heat

Caleb nodded and shuddered. “He was going to help, but the baby came.”

“I know.”

“I made him promise. No strangers.”

Xan’s throat went tight. “But you suffered.”

Caleb’s mouth worked, and he spit out words like gravel under a tire. “I’d rather suffer than take another stranger. I hate the way I feel after.” He snuffled and held tighter to Xan. “I tried to run,” he whispered, as though ashamed.

“It’s instinct,” Xan reassured him.

“I know, but I wasn’t running to an alpha.”

Xan rubbed Caleb’s back and held him tight. Xan’s clothes were dirty after driving half the night in an adrenaline-fueled daze, and he felt covered with filth and ripe with stress sweat, but all of that would have to wait. “You weren’t?”

“It’s stupid. I wanted to outrunthis. The heat. I wanted to run away from it, away from me.”

Xan squeezed his eyes closed and held tighter to Caleb. The scent of rising slick and the hint of a fresh wave on the way rose to his nostrils. He knew how his sweet omega had felt. He’d wanted to run away from himself too. That’s what he’d been doing every time he went to Monhundy. But he wasn’t running anymore.

“We can’t run from it, but we can face it together.”

Xan shucked his clothes while whispering soothing words to Caleb, and then he took up the alpha dildo. Once he had it in hand, rifled through the bedside table drawer in search of the tablets Urho had given him all those weeks ago now. The pills for stamina.

He took two.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Several hours later,with Caleb finally resting, Xan cleaned up and put on his robe. Thanks to the pills, he’d managed the knot and eased Caleb’s suffering, and he couldn’t help but feel proud. He’d forever wish he was an omega and could experience heat for himself, but he wasn’t, and he couldn’t. But at least he had satisfied Caleb and now he could find Urho, and be his alpha-shaped omega.

But first he went to his office and called his parents’ house. Joon answered, sounding tired, but evidently still employed. Xan got the information he needed to set aside some of his worries: Pater and Ray were both much improved and had continued to get better with the medication Xan had left behind.

“And my father?” he asked.

“Very angry.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” Joon said quietly. “Your pater is very angry, too, from what I’ve heard echoing in the hallways upstairs. I suspect your father will be on the phone to you with apologies before long.”

Xan didn’t bother to tell the old servant that he doubted that very much, and doubted even more that he could ever deign to accept them. Instead, he asked Joon to keep him informed about Ray and his pater’s health before saying goodbye.

In the kitchen, the cook seemed startled to see Xan in nothing but his robe and slippers. “Sir, you should be in bed with Mr. Riggs!”

Xan smiled tiredly. “The wave has passed and he’s hungry.”

The part about Caleb’s hunger wasn’t true, but Xan was starving after his crazy night in the city, driving six hours in the small hours, eager to get home to the comforting arms of his lover, only to arrive to utter chaos. Andthenhe’d held Caleb’s heat at bay all on his own. He needed replenishment to carry on.

“How is the baby?” he asked. He’d noticed the door to Vale’s room was closed when he’d passed through that hallway to offer his congratulations. He’d heard happy sounds from within, though only in Jason and Vale’s tones, and he’d decided not to disturb them. As for Urho, he didn’t know where he was, and he ached to see him.

“He’s a howler! Strong lungs! Healthy!”

“Good news, then.” Xan smiled.

He was about to ask the cook about Urho’s whereabouts and the health of his cousin when Ren appeared from the door leading out to the detached wing where Janus was still staying. Carrying a tray with a full bowl of broth on it, Ren looked haggard and pale, but when he caught Xan’s eye, he obviously tried to buck up.

“Sir, when I heard you’d arrived, I couldn’t believe our luck. I’d started to despair.”

“Itwasluck,” Xan agreed. He almost began to explain that he had fled the city in the night, but then realized that would require explainingwhy, and the fight with his father and then Monhundy was absolutely not the servants’ business. He finished lamely, “I’d have been here earlier if I’d known.”