Page 12 of Slow Heat

“You’re so sure my alpha is a rapist, huh?”

“No. He’s not a rapist,” Urho bit out. “He’s a child. I remember being nineteen. If I’d met Riki then, I’d have filled him up with a baby before he knew what hit him. I’d have been unable to stop myself. The drive at that age is intense—even at later ages it’s more intense betweenÉrosgápethan with a contracted pair. Why else do you think they keep the genders separated until the age of majority? To help keep omegas safe.”

“It’s intense on the omega’s end as well, you know.” Vale flushed.

He didn’t have to remind Urho of the way he begged for babies when they fucked during a heat, how he pleaded for him to take off the condom and give him what they both wanted. And Vale certainly didn’t need to be reminded how steady, honest, old-fashioned Urho would deny him, and deny him, anddenyhim until the heat had passed.

Because they both knew that neither of them really wanted a child together, and they both knew Vale wouldn’t ever bear children. It was just instinct talking.

With Jason, however…

“But you’re right that it would be hard for a boy to resist me in a heat. It’s a fair problem.”

“Oh, yes. You’re quite compelling,” Urho said, eyes lighting with memories. “Some heats I’ve nearly given into you. And I’m not even imprinted on you. Imagine what a young, out of control, imprinted alpha would do? He’d fuck you to death trying to get you with child.”

Vale sighed.

“So you’ll let me help you with the heat?” Urho said, brows low and voice gruff. “Even if you’ve determined to contract and bond with another?”

“You know I can’t. It would be unlawful.”

And immoral. As far as Vale was concerned, that was the deeper problem.

“You’ll suffer if you don’t letsomeonehelp you.”

“I know.”

“You could try another round of heat suppressant.”

Vale shuddered, shooting Urho an angry look. “Because that worked out so well the last time.”

“It’s been many years now, Vale. It’s a different formula. You might not have the same reaction.”

“And if I did?”

Urho groaned and rubbed at his face. “I would help you through it.”

“You and how many other alphas? No. I’ll never try the heat suppressant again.”

He’d only given in to that temptation twice since he’d been weaned from it as a young omega. Both times had resulted in the dreaded rebound heat: longer and more intense than a regular heat.

The second time, he’d lost his mind in the haze of lust, slipped the care of his beta friends, Yosef and Rosen, and ended up the ragdoll fuck toy of a band of alphas in the kind of establishment quality people never visited.

It was a memory he’d worked hard to forget. But now it all came roaring back.

He turned away from Urho, staring into the fire, seeing it all again in his mind’s eye.

He’d been there three full days taking strangers’ cocks, the object of more than one alpha challenge and fight, when his friends had finally found him edging down from the heat. Humiliated, bruised, injured inside, and pregnant with an unknown alpha’s child, he’d never imagined himself capable of such a low place in life.

As soon as possible, he’d endured a painful and highly illegal abortion and sworn off heat suppressants forever. The only good thing to come out of it all was meeting Urho in the midst of it all. They’d agreed to an arrangement, and his heat problems had been settled.

But humiliation and horror stung him anew as the memories played, and he scrubbed his face with his hand, trying to banish them.

Urho knew everything about that incident, but neither of them ever talked about it.

While Vale trusted Urho with his life, the man was conservative in some of his beliefs. He’d been a medic in the military, alongside alphas who fought against omega freedom groups. And his opinions on omegas were shaped by that experience as well as the intense bond he’d shared with Riki, who, from all reports, had been a demure and quiet man.

But Vale’s life was different.