Page 30 of Slow Heat

Vale didn’t mean to sound so blasé about the possibility of his alpha finding anything about him displeasing. He’d tried hard not to let it show when Jason had been standing outside his window lit by the sunlight like a glorious angel from the old times, but he wasn’t untouched by the primal need to please his alpha. It just manifested itself differently—in a need to provide him with pleasure.

And unfortunately, a clean house was many a man’s pleasure.

“Always too lost in your mind to care about things like taking out the trash,” Rosen said, running cool water over the fish. “He’ll appreciate your poetry, though. No doubt about that.”

“Wolf-god, I hope not.”

Yosef darted a glance over Vale’s head toward Rosen. Vale didn’t need to turn his head to know that Rosen was shooting a disapproving look his way, too.

“I’m not going to endure the opinion of an uneducated child on my life’s work.”

“So he’s really that young, then?”

“Nineteen.”

Rosen’s whistle echoed in the room as they all let the reality of the situation sink in.

“Dear wolf-in-heaven. That’s—” Yosef took a final bite of the toast Vale had shared with him.

“Awful?”

“I was going to say unusual.”

“It’s not unheard of,” Rosen offered. He cut the sweet potatoes into pieces and lined a cooking sheet that he’d brought to Vale’s house years ago and left in a concession that Vale was never going to buy one for himself.

“He’s handsome.” Vale hoped he didn’t allow the true longing he felt to infuse his voice. Jason was young, but his jaw was cut, his chin dimpled, and his blue eyes were warm like the sea on a midsummer day. The swath of golden blond hair across his forehead was careless in the way of youth, and his smile, rare though it had been during their conversation, had stopped Vale’s heart with its shine.

“Looks aren’t everything,” Yosef said wisely.

“That’s easy for you to say when Rosen looks like he could be a star of stage and screen.”

“But he’s also an exquisite artist and can dissect the philosophical works of Jeveris like he teaches the stuff. Oh, wait, he does teach the stuff.” He winked at his lover and then leaned back in his chair, sighing softly. “How could this have happened, Vale? You, of all people, deserved better than this. You’ve suffered too much already, what with your parents’ death and then…”

It was the closest Yosef would come to mentioning the second horrible rebound heat and the illegal abortion.

Yosef went on. “And now this? Omegas have it hard, but you’ve had it harder than most.”

Vale always knew Yosef pitied him his lot in life, but it still hurt to hear.

“We don’t know yet if it’s as bad as all that,” Vale said carefully. “He seems kind enough.”

“Kind? Stalking you at your home, making you feel unsafe, and—”

“He didn’t mean to scare me. He’s not in control of himself right now. He brought alpha quell with him and he took it. He didn’t intend any harm.”

“Hmm.”

“Yosef, he’s my alpha. Even if I never contract with him, that won’t change. You’ll have to get used to it.”

“And Urho?”

“He’s…” Vale trailed off, not sure how to discuss it.

“Heartbroken,” Rosen said.

“He does love you,” Yosef added.

“And I love him, too, but we’ve never loved each other as life partners. Just as friends. It’s not like the two of you. And it’s nothing like this beginning bond I feel growing now.” He frowned.