CHAPTER 3

TOMMY

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I thought it wasn’t going to happen. But that’s when the horror began. My body stirred anyway, heat pooling low, and my cock hardened. Not for an Omega, but for an Alpha. For Gerard.

Pulling off his gloves, Gerard smeared his palm with gel and clasped his fist over my dick. The contrasting warmth of his palm and the coldness of the gel jolted straight to my head, and my heart thudded so loud it echoed in my skull.

 I told myself it was probably heart disease, or something and not the thrill of being touched by him. Oh, lord let it just be heart disease.

Gerard stroked me slowly at first, a smug expression etched on his face. I should have jumped out of the bed, but answers, not pleasure, pinned me down. Yet, the line between them blurred.

Although he said this was clinical, nothing about the glint in his eyes was professional. Nothing clinical about the way his hand slid up and down my erection, his thumb dragging over my tip enough to cause my breath to stutter.

His face was so close to mine. Ten years, and the change was there. His boyish features had been replaced with a soft ruggish charm. Sharper jaw. Narrower eyes. 

His face shouldn’t have an effect on me. It didn’t, yet my pulse hiked. I preferred the softness that came with omegas—their easy eyes. Not this steady gaze that felt like it wanted to consume.

“I thought you said you weren’t interested in my penis.” I forced the words out of my taut neck. “You look more than interested.” 

Gerard's eyes darted up, darkening with something raw. “It’s work.” 

His slippery fingers circled my tip, slowly and torturously, before gliding down my shaft. 

Helplessly, my hips jerked into his fist. Heat tore down my spine, precum spilling and mixing with lube until the wet and obscene filled the silence.

Fuck. Every stroke felt too familiar. Embarrassment was an understatement, I felt morbid. Yet that only made my body coil tighter with need.

“Aren’t you too comfortable touching a person you haven’t seen in ten years?” I bit my lower lip, refusing him the satisfaction of a sound.

“You’re still thinking of the one you had sex with last night ?” His voice roughened. For a second, his rhythm stuttered. “Seems like he left an impression.”

I chuckled, masking the groan climbing up my throat. “When I find that bastard, I’ll pay him back. An asshole for an asshole.” My jaw locked as his fist sped up, dragging me through a deeper wave of pleasure.

“So you bottomed for another man?” His voice was flat—drastically flat, his jaw ticking.

The squelch of precum and lube filled silence as he pumped me faster.

“Doesn't this remind you of that day?” He asked suddenly, voice dipping low, and for the first time, he didn’t stare at me while he spoke. 

I didn’t want to remember, but my mind flashed there anyway; the janitor’s room, the stench of wet mop, the cloaking darkness. 

“It’s been ten years.” I forced out, my chin unnecessarily high. “There’s no way I’d remember something as trivial as an accidental kiss.”

Gerard didn’t respond, just tightened his grip, pumping harder and faster, dragging out all the groans I tried to bury.

My hips buckled. A long throaty groan tore as I spilled my sperm, hot and messy, across his hand. 

The release should have felt like relief, but pleasure dissolved into something ugly.

Lightening fast, he grabbed a sterile gauze pad and wiped me off.

“We’re done.” Gerard’s voice grew clinical as he nodded towards the door to the left. “That’s a bathroom.”

The heat that had burned sweet minutes ago turned sour in my veins, gnawing like acid.

With my skin tight, I shoved off the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Slamming the door shut behind me, I stared at the mirror.

I barely recognized the man before me. A man who bottomed. A man who let another Alpha touch him. A man who was growing a uterus.

All I could think off was how disappointed my father would be if he knew about this. My insides tucked so hard, I gripped the edge of the sink, knuckles losing their hue.

I stared back at the mirror."You're still an Alpha, still the son of Jack Rivers,” I muttered, turning the tap.

Again and again, I splashed the water on my face, but the heat didn’t go away.

“It was all for the test,” I repeated until the word felt like a tasteless salt on my tongue—useless.

I could still feel his hand on me. Oh brilliant, now I’ll need a therapy session, and an exorcist with the holiest of water to chase out whatever demon made me enjoy that.

I expected an ease to come after, but it didn’t. And like I had turned stone, I stood there until time melted away.

When I finally came out, my eyes fell on Gerard who leaned against the wall, hands crossed.

“I thought you were going to die in there,” he said.

“Just show me the result.” My stomach knotted and my body still throbbed.

Pushing off the wall, he headed to the scan machine and pointed to the image on the monitor. “This is the part of the brain that lights up when an omega releases.” 

I leaned in, but was careful to leave enough space between us, trying to shove the memory of what just happened—like I did when we kissed in the janitor’s room.

He tapped on the other side. “And this is for an Alpha.” He paused. “But yours—”

“Both of them are lit up,” I said, “What does that even mean?”

“Truly,  you have developed omega traits, but you still have your Alpha traits,” Gerard said, “which is weird, because my drugs don’t work this way.” 

Gerard began his medical gibberish about how Alphas and omegas have an extra part of the brain called something that sounded like what could summon a demon, how his drug altered that part and neurotransmitter, breaking genetic sheath—whatever the fuck that meant.

Time, like I said, I never had enough. “Gerard, I don’t ever remember attending your medical classes with you,” I said, “Speak English.”

“It means my drug turns off the Alpha’s switch and turns on the omega switch in the brain,” Gerard said, “so whatever did this, it wasn’t my drug.” 

“Are you saying this is natural?” 

“I don’t know…yet.” His lips pressed together, making me believe he was hiding something.

“…your pheromone result will be out in a few hours. But for this, I might need your blood.”

What else did this man want from me? He had taken my pheromones, fuck, even my sperm. Now he wanted my blood. He might as well take my soul.

Limply, I dropped onto the bed, thrust out my arm. 

I shut my eyes and held my breath until he was done. 

Yanking my sleeve down, I reached for my business card. I tossed it onto the operating bed. “Text me when it’s ready.”

I turned around and stormed out of his office and out of the company, my chest feeling tighter than when I first stepped in. And for a moment, I wished I had gone to another lab. 

****

The next morning came, the sun was back in the sky, I mean everything was back except the dignity and sanity I had lost yesterday.

I sat in the living room, staring at my blank screen, waiting for Gerard’s response.

But then my doorbell chimed erratically. Most people pressed it once, there was only one person who pressed like he was owing time some money.

My father.

But he never visited.

My heart hammered, and my feet moved instinctively. When I reached the door, I took a sharp inhale and opened it.

But it wasn’t my father. It was Liam—my brother.

His sharp blue eyes dripped with concern. “Father sent me, we need to talk.”

And the chill returned, sharper than ever. Because if Father didn’t face me, whatever news Liam brought was worse.