Page 5

Titus carefully tipped the kettle, filling his cup with steaming liquid as he listened to the birds chirping outside from the open window over the kitchen sink.

And the moans and sobs from the attached room.

The door to where they were keeping Calix was closed, but he could still be heard through the wood. His cries had gotten louder the second Titus had turned the sink on, leaving him to wonder if the detective was putting on a show for him.

Aodhan was already such an attention seeker. He didn’t know how he was going to handle it if Calix turned out to be the same.

Not that it came as too much of a surprise. There’d been something there from the moment they’d first met. Titus had seen the plea in the younger man’s gray eyes. It wasn’t just to help get him out of the bind he’d put himself in by hitting a classmate with his hovercar. It ran deeper than that.

From that single look alone, he’d found his imagination getting away from him. Titus had envisioned everything, from his and Calix’s first time to their last, before the hour-long meeting between him and Bruce had even ended.

He’d planned an entire lifetime between them, had prepared for it.

Only for Calix to sneak off planet the second Titus turned his back.

That wouldn’t happen again.

“He’s so loud.” Aodhan padded into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He’d already changed into his work clothes and had brought Titus’s briefcase down for him, which he set on one of the kitchen chairs before heading over to him.

“He’s performative,” Titus corrected, handing Aodhan the steaming cup of black tea he’d just made. The corner of his mouth tipped up when the doctor took a sip and sighed in contentment. Titus hated tea personally, but he loved how much it made his second happy.

Loved that he could be the one to supply that happiness.

Which was why he allowed it, even though he typically preferred them to share things. There was a closeness to be felt through that single act. A control, if he were being honest, but control allowed him to feel closer to a person, so it counted.

“Are you sure he’s going to be all right here alone?” Aodhan tucked himself into the corner between the L-shaped counter spaces and took another sip, peering at him over the porcelain rim of the cup.

“I lowered the hook last night before we went to bed,” he reminded. “He’ll be fine.”

“It’s been a long time.” The doctor glanced over Titus’s shoulder at the closed door. “What if he passes out from overexertion?”

Titus drank from his own cup, this one filled with coffee, and quirked a brow. “Would you like to take his place? Give him a break?”

“I’m thinking logically,” he stated, “not emotionally.”

Even though he knew that was true, Titus mentally pulled on the invisible string that connected them.

The psychic link allowed him to tap into Aodhan’s emotions, but they’d been together long enough they were able to switch it on and off.

In the beginning, the doctor had struggled with it, hadn’t understood when Titus had explained it was a feeling, like flexing a muscle, more than anything physical they could touch.

For the most part, they both left the connection off, only switching it on to check in throughout the day.

Some Connects left the channel open indefinitely, but since Titus didn’t feel all that much, and Aodhan wasn’t much better…

There was only so much rush of random bloodlust either of them could take before it became triggering.

That was another reason Calix would be so good for them. Though Titus had suspicions about his morals and level of empathy, he was positive that the detective had a more typical emotional range than the two of them did.

A pod was all about balance, and he refused to settle for anything less than the best. If he was going to be tied to two people for the rest of his very long life, Titus was going to ensure both were a perfect match.

That meant finding more than just someone with a compatible energy pattern.

He needed someone who wouldn’t break after discovering who he and Aodhan really were.

Someone who wouldn’t shatter or succumb to fear and ruin the whole thing.

Aodhan’s mild annoyance and lingering tiredness from the night before trickled through the connection. It didn’t alter anything that Titus himself was feeling, and he could tell the difference between who was feeling what. It was more an awareness than anything else.

“If you’re so concerned, take him down before we go.” Titus waved at the door and finished his coffee before placing the empty cup in the sink.

“How much longer until he gives in, do you think?” Aodhan ignored his suggestion.

Titus shrugged a single shoulder. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Are you sure? Because this was your plan.”

He grunted. “If you’ll recall, this was not my original plan. We were meant to use Amory to keep him on planet and lure him in slowly. This is my version of improvising. Yours wasn’t much different.”

“He’d be stuffed full of one of our cocks instead if we’d done it my way,” Aodhan reminded. “That sounds better for all of us. We’d be forming a bond, in any case. Why are we wasting time getting him used to that metal hook up his ass when we could be getting him addicted to us instead?”

Calix was a sex starved creature. If they got him used to being sexually stimulated, got him addicted to orgasming several times a day, and taught him he could only obtain pleasure through them, he’d be much easier to control.

They needed his submission. Needed him to crave being theirs as badly as they craved having him. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be attached to Cal for twenty-four hours, day after day. If the process had been a fast and easy one, sure, maybe Aodhan’s preferred method would have worked. As it were…

“Because he wouldn’t take kindly to us ,” Titus said.

“Not yet. You haven’t seemed to realize, but he’s the most stubborn one here.

Yes,” he drawled when Aodhan opened his mouth, “even more stubborn than you are. You’ve lived a life of uncaring.

There’s never been a time when you weren’t comfortable in your own skin, being your whole authentic self. ”

Aodhan snorted. “Tell that to the hospital staff who think of me as the friendliest, kindest person any of them have ever met.”

“You enjoy slipping into that role. The mask thrills you.” Titus took a step closer, boxing Aodhan in with an arm on either side of his hips on the counter. “It’s arguably your favorite game. ‘How many can I trick today?’ You laugh at them, at how na?ve they are. It’s fun for you.”

Aodhan Solace had been born with a golden spoon that he’d never lost the taste for.

Hell, he hadn’t even bothered to try. He’d been cocky and arrogant when the two of them had met.

Titus had reined him in a little, taught him control.

But he’d never tried to change him. He didn’t put himself to impossible tasks.

“You grew up with a family that let you get away with anything, even to the point they’d needed to adopt another son just to continue the family business since you’d made your stance on taking over it clear.

On Vitality, the Solace name alone ensured you were never scolded at school.

No one has ever dared tell you no, little killer. ”

Aodhan tipped his chin up, somewhat defiantly, though the flirty glint in his pink gaze gave away how into being cornered he actually was. “Pretty sure you say no to me all the time, Mercy.”

“I don’t count.”

“That so?”

“Are you implying I’m like everyone else?” he teased.

Aodhan shook his head and shifted the cup to one hand so he could grab a fistful of Titus’s shirt in the other. “You're my First.”

Titus smiled softly and planted a rewarding kiss on Aodan’s temple. It’d taken a lot to get them here, to a place where the doctor willingly set aside his pride and submitted. His earlier thoughts needed correcting. There was one thing about Aodhan that Titus had demanded be changed.

The doctor had lived his entire life up to meeting him as a top, but Titus had fixed that for both of them. Had overpowered and shown him how good it could be underneath him.

The main reason Aodhan had eventually given in and agreed to bond with him had been simple. Titus could give him things no one else could. Could make him experience things no one else was able to.

Could be willing to accept and nurture parts of Aodhan that no one else would be willing to.

He’d made himself the perfect partner for his little killer.

He’d do the same for his little monster.

“You’re so full of yourself.” Aodhan chuckled and used that hand in his shirt to push him away.

Titus had been feeling smug, and that emotion must have slipped through their connection.

“Bet you called us both ‘little’ in your head.” Aodhan straightened and smirked. “There’s nothing little about me, babe.” He moved in, stepping into Titus’s space before twisting on his heels so he could trap him against the sink.

Titus allowed it. He liked when the doctor was like this, playful and bold, with all of his attention directed at him.

Aodhan set his hands on the edge of the sink, caging Titus in the same way he’d done to him earlier. “You were going somewhere with that little speech of yours,” he teased. “Well? Go on, Director. Don’t let me stop you.”

“As if you wield that kind of power.”

“I’m the only one who does.”

“Now who’s the one full of himself?” Titus crossed his arms, needing some semblance of distance between them so he really could continue the conversation.

Between the other man’s flirting and the sounds still pouring from the locked room nearby, it was a wonder he could focus on anything but the thought of tossing Aodhan onto the kitchen table and having his filthy way with him for breakfast.