Page 16 of Devil May Hunt (The Devils of Vitality #8)

“What are they feeding you at the Academy? You look awful,” his mother’s voice came through the holopad set on the wide desk in her office on the forty-seventh floor of Cree Cosmetics' main building.

She’d stepped out by the time Brennon had arrived and had video called him to walk him through what needed to be done.

At least she hadn’t left it up to her secretary.

“I’ve come down with something,” Brennon said, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from grimacing. He didn’t want her to see and fret over him. Or, more accurately, his appearance.

It wasn’t that his parents didn’t care for him, he knew they did.

They were just the type of people who would have been better off without having children.

As an only child, he got the sense they’d figured that out all on their own shortly after his birth.

He’d spent more time with his retired grandmother than he had his actual mother, growing up in the Cree mansion, getting anything and everything he ever wanted.

Because of that, he couldn’t really complain. He didn’t feel wronged because he had absentee parents. It just was what it was.

It didn’t mean he was unlovable.

No matter how many times that dark thought lurked in the back of his mind.

“This is it?” He’d been asked to sign his name to a document that included the signatures of the rest of the major shareholders. “I could have done this through email.”

“I wanted you to be here to meet the new CEO,” his mother explained. “Since you’re keeping your shares, it’s only polite for a member of our family to be present during the exchange. Your father had to meet with his department to go through the handover process, and I’m needed elsewhere.”

She wanted him to stick around and meet the new owner?

“Mom, I really don’t feel up to this.” He was starting to think he needed to go to the hospital.

The cramping was worse, and he was sweating through his uniform shirt.

His breathing had grown labored, and his concentration was shot.

Honestly, she was lucky he’d been able to maintain any sort of composure this long, but he was at his limits. “I think I have the flu.”

That was the most logical explanation. His muscles ached, and he felt weak. There was a foreign sensation, like a tingling in his lower region, and he was hyper aware of his dick in a way he’d never been before.

If he hadn’t spent the day with Rin and only Rin, Brennon might have even questioned whether or not he’d been drugged.

Through the holo-pad, he saw his mother lift her multi-slate. “He’s already there. Sit up straight. Contact me when you’re done. And, Brennon? Get checked out afterward. It wouldn’t due to have you pass out in the lobby in front of all our employees.”

He rolled his eyes and dropped back in the plush leather chair. “Fine, Mother.”

She gave him a smile, the same one she gave her subordinates when they followed an order, and then ended the video chat. Not three seconds after the screen had gone dark, there came a knock on the door.

Brennon straightened and cleared his throat before hitting the button to his left that would automatically open the door and allow whoever was there to enter.

He’d been so caught up in how he felt, he hadn’t bothered to ask about the new CEO, or how they’d convinced his family to sell, so he didn’t really know what he’d been expecting.

But it certainly wasn’t Gunho Idris.

“What are you doing here?” he blurted, even though it was fairly obvious. He doubted the alpha had followed him, since he’d had plenty of chances to approach Brennon on the Academy campus. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“That would be a lie,” Gunho drawled, ambling into the room with a cocky half smirk painted across his face.

His mother’s office was the largest in the whole building, complete with a sitting area and a meeting area.

The sitting area was made up of two full-sized cream-colored couches and a leather armchair.

The meeting table could seat twelve. Her desk and shelving took up one full end of the room, furthest from the door, which meant Brennon got a great look at the vast space.

So why did it suddenly feel claustrophobic?

There wasn’t enough air in the room, and that too-tight feeling of his skin seemed to grow worse, air catching in his lungs when Gunho made it halfway to him.

And what was that smell?

“Wait.” Brennon held up a hand and gave in to the urge to squeeze his eyes shut against a wave of dizziness.

“It’s already been eight days since the last time,” the alpha said. “If I wait any longer, you’ll suffer for it.”

“Huh?” What was he talking about? “I just need a minute.”

“That’s not what you need, actually.” When Brennon reopened his eyes and frowned at him, Gunho grinned and grabbed himself pointedly at the apex of his thighs. “This, this is what you need, pretty lover.”

Brennon’s gaze instantly dropped to where his hand was cupping himself through his pants, the growing bulge there rivaling the one starting to tent his own pants. He sucked in a sharp breath. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t be afraid. You’re entering a heat cycle.”

“Bullshit!” If he wasn’t fully erect now, he would have stood in outrage, but he remained seated in the hopes of helping keep his arousal hidden. “I’m Vital. We don’t have heats!”

“It’s a synthetically induced one,” Gunho explained, “but it’s a heat nonetheless. The concoction works like that. This is your first, so it’s probably confusing and a bit scary. You’ll adjust, and the second one will be better.”

Brennon had to be mishearing him. “What the hell did you do to me?” He tried to think back on that day at the alpha’s house. “Was it the shot from the doctor, or the drink?”

“Both.” Gunho started forward once more, emitting a low, rumbly sound from the center of his chest when Brennon noticeably grew anxious.

“The shot held the drug to begin alterations; the contents of the drink contained my specific genetic material to ensure your body would recognize me as its alpha.”

“…Alterations?” Brennon shoved the chair away, banging against the shelf behind him. It only managed to put an extra two feet between them when Gunho stepped up to the other side and leaned over the desk.

The nearness brought with it a waft of something spicy, and Brennon sniffed at the air before he could help it.

Like a damn dog.

He growled and gripped the armrests tightly, hating the smug look on the other man’s face as he watched his reaction play out.

“Whatever you did, undo it,” he demanded.

“I can’t.” He held his gaze steadily. “You asked for this when you refused to accept me. We could have done this the easy way, mate, but you chose to resist. Don’t misunderstand.

” He straightened, hands dropping to the top of his pants.

“My predatory instincts get off on your fight, but we don’t have an infinite amount of time to waste. We’ll complete the bond.”

He slipped the button free and then pulled his zipper down, exposing the fact he wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath when his large cock sprang free. He was swollen and bright red, his flushed crown glistening in the sunlight pooling in from the large floor-to-ceiling window to the left.

They were high enough, only a hovercar deviating from one of the sky lanes would get close enough to see in, and that was if the windows weren’t treated one-way glass. Brennon couldn’t recall.

“Put that away!” he hissed, tipping his head back to stare sightless at the ceiling. “This is my mother’s office!”

“This is my office,” Gunho corrected. “And this will hardly be the first time I fuck you in it. We’ll mate often from here on out. Your new altered biology will demand it.”

Brennon’s dick twitched and grew even larger, pressing uncomfortably against the seam of his pants. He dug his nails against the plastic armrests, but no matter how hard he willed himself to calm down, he couldn’t shake the rush of arousal pulsating through his entire being.

It was like being yanked from a deep sleep, discombobulating and somewhat frightening. He didn’t understand what was going on, couldn’t recognize his own body or the reactions he was undergoing.

The alpha must be telling the truth about drugging him, but…

“Permanent alterations to one’s anatomy is illegal without written and verbal consent,” Brennon spouted, regurgitating a paragraph he’d read from a textbook. “I’ll report you to the I.P.F.”

“Mating claims made by any being signifying a second sex alpha or omega will be dismissed from regulations F3-K7,” Gunho replied breezily. “That’s E98, in case you don’t recall.”

He didn’t, because Brennon had only just started learning about overarching Intergalactic laws set by the Intergalactic Conference.

“You’re lying.” Why would they excuse an entire species from rights laws?

“Many of my kind are dying off. Planets that house us, such as Synastry, suffer from low birth rates. Because of this, the I.P.F. was petitioned for lax rulings. It was approved.”

Brennon felt another surge of fear and gave in, meeting Gunho’s piercing gaze again. It was a mistake, because he was flooded with lust, an intoxicating wave of it shooting pings of fire straight to his groin that had him gushing and staining his pants.

From both sides.

He froze, realizing he was wet in…other places, and not just the tip of his dick.

“You’re leaking slick,” Gunho groaned, sniffing the air between them. “I can see why other alphas go crazy from the smell of it.”

“Other alphas?”

“I’ve never been able to scent omega slick before either,” Gunho divulged. “My only experiences have been with scented lubes. They didn’t smell as divine as this though. As you. It’s like candied hawthorns and honey. Add that to your cherry bourbon smell and…I could eat you.”

Heats and now slick…

“I’m not an omega,” he whispered, fear palpable, enough so to cut through some of the arousal.